Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Tract on Kundalini

Kundalini is the creative freedom of unity consciousness -- consisting of the union of the three levels of existence viz., unity consciousness, unity in diversity and diversity, i.e. advaita, dvait-advaita, and dvaita.

She being the supreme consort of Consciousness emits the entire universe out of her womb, beginning with the power of the Will right up to the gross object of perception. As the goddess presiding over those subjects to the incessant round of transmigration, she creates for the ignorant a world of diversity and illusion, while on the other hand is the bestower of unity-consciousness to those who have overcome ignorance.

This vitality which is the inner urge of Consciousness emanates all things that constantly pours out from the heart of Consciousness and resounds within It as the highest form of speech -- paravak.

In her supreme form, kundalini is known as para kundalini -- one with integral consciousness as its innate bliss. She is the heart of Consciousness that contains the entire universe within itself as the pure awareness which encompasses and transcends subject, object and means of knowledge. It is this bliss of cosmic Consciousness – jagadananda -- which the yogin experiences when he attains liberation. As such, she is the universal vibration through which the universe is created and destroyed.

She is a great ocean endowed with countless attributes. Spanda, pulse or throb of Consciousness being her nature, she empowers the senses and mantras with consciousness.

As the dynamics of Consciousness, she empowers mantra. From her all mantras are created and to her they return. This mantric energy gives life to all living beings, and is the essence of all consciousness which is increasingly, manifestly apparent to the degree which it perceives itself in the pure awareness.

Basically mantra denotes vacaka and manifests initially as diverse and once it has performed its function it becomes one with its denoted object which is the pulsing radiance of the reflective awareness of unity consciousness.

In this process, first, the bindu which is the energy of the supreme speech, paravak, unfolds as the pasyanti, which is free of the sequence and distinction that obtains between words and their denoted meaning.

This happens when the light of consciousness, replete with the supreme resonance, paranada comes to prominence after the bindu; unfolding power of the action penetrates and assumes the nature of the subtle inner being of the vital breath. The vital breath or prana is the first transformation of consciousness.

The second stage is the madhyama – the inner speech of thought. The basis of which is the intellect and the other faculties of the manas. It is called madhyama because in this state the succession of words and meanings are indistinct and are not articulate speech but are clearly apparent as thought-constructs.

Finally, vaikhari develops with the organ of speech as its basis and consists of words articulated in a clear sequence. It is through this process that all speech and thought are vitally linked with absolute Consciousness as well as mantras.

This development finds a parallel in the progressive rise of kundalini -- the supreme power that lies dormant in the conditioned or partial veiled consciousness.

In her creative aspect, she veils the integral Consciousness and manifests as the absolute while in her destructive aspect she reveals the nature of integral Consciousness. This destructive power of para kundalini withdraws diversity into the unity consciousness and thereby creates a universe at one with consciousness.

Carries out this function in her aspect as Malini -- the highest state of which is the experience of the undivided light of consciousness present in all the letters and phases of cosmic process they represent.

Creative form of her is matrika which is full of the supreme effulgence of consciousness that pervades the entire universe of letters.

As the supreme emissive power, visarga sakti of consciousness that arouses integral Consciousness from the rest it enjoys in Its own nature and unites with it to give rise to the body of letters. At this stage, kundalini is described as the supreme resonance of reflective awareness eternally manifest as the single phonemic power, varna which is the undivided essence of the energies of all letters. This is the unstruck sound of anahata and the supreme hamsa -- the source and resting place of the life of every living being. She is known as hamsa on account of her intimate association with vitality and breathing.

As the supreme form of speech and the source of all lower orders of speech, she is also the supreme form of breath, the vehicle through which speech is generated.

It is in this form, she rests in a potential state in the body and sleeps at the muladhara which is situated at the base of the genital organs, coiled like a snake around sivabindu. This is the form in which cosmic energy resides in the body.

When she awakens, the individual consciousness unites with universal consciousness and man discovers his cosmic nature.

The world of diversity is withdrawn and a new world of uninterrupted blissful experience is emitted, thus, she is the vital link that unites the microcosm with the macrocosm. Permeating at both the levels, she makes the transition from individual to universal consciousness possible. She is the creator of all gods, worlds, mantras and categories of existence.

The unconscious rise of kundalini from muladhara where she rests as the supreme form of speech is actually a movement from the supramental state to that of articulate speech. This process is constantly repeated whenever one speaks; only the yogin is consciously aware of it. This movement kundalini, in all its phases is spontaneous and universal deployment of emanation for an ordinary person while for the yogin it occurs through the agency of his will.

Unconscious rise of kundalini thus marks the emanation of the energy of the letters as the forces which bind individual consciousness. While the conscious rise of her, marks the dissolution of these binding forces and the creation.

Kundalini is beyond the bounds of scriptural injunction, -- wrapping herself inwardly around the bindu and slumbers there in the form of a sleeping serpent and is aware of nothing at all. She can only be awakened by the resonance of supreme awareness. Pierced in this way, the subtle power of kundalini is aroused. When aroused in such a manner, she is accompanied by brilliant sparks of light and sound like black bee.

The immortal kundalini now straightened and further agitated by rising is called rekhini that absorbs both points of subjectivity and objectivity, converting them into their true nature.

The rising of the kundalini is the awakening of the wheel of matrika because which was earlier unconscious movement of the wheel now becomes conscious process of creation and withdrawal.

The yogin whose kundalini has arisen, all that he thinks, utters, hears, speaks or reads is experienced as a liberating mantra. Thus this matrka sakti is the power of action of Consciousness which liberates the yogin while bounds the ignorant in the ocean of the constant fluctuating world.

Kundalini is known throughout the ages by different names, namely, She is Aditi, Usas, Vac of the Vedas, Uma Haimavati of the Upanishads, Para Prakrti of the Bhagavadgita, Shakti, Uma, Bhairavi, Tara, Kali, Tripursundari, Bagalamukhi of the Tantras, Lakshmi of Vaisnavas , Maya of Sankara, nitya-vibhuti of Ramanuja,.

Indrani, Rudrani, Parvati, Saraswati, Radha, cidrupini, Vimarsa, manomana, pratibha, svatantrya, aisvarya, sphuratta, amrta, sara, hrdaya, spanda unmani, citi-sakti etc. are Her synonymns.

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