DEIVATHIN KURAL # 114 (Vol # 6) Dated 15 Jan 2013

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 114 (Vol # 6) Dated 15 Jan 2013

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by PeriyavaaL of Kanchi Kaamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are going ahead from page No 779 of Volume 6 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein ‘man/he’ includes ‘woman/she’ too mostly. These e-mails are all available at   http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated consonantly)

குண்டலிநீ யோகம்: அதி ஜக்கிரதை தேவை!

The Need for Extreme Caution in Practicing Kundalinee Yoga!

306.  Another important item to be diligently taken care of without opting for too much publicity.  Just to take its name is tantamount to propagandise it and so, for so long I was debating in my mind that I should leave it untouched or not, that I am now touching it.  So as to warn you not to touch that subject, I am touching it!  (PeriyavãL smiles slightly abashedly and self- deprecatingly while saying this.)  Because, even if do not talk about it, it is the most talked about subject in many circles of the so-called intelligentsia!  That subject is 'Kundalinee' only.  It is one subject that is most bandied about in hush-hush circles as well as in quite an open way, that the chakras related to the subject are in the know of even such persons who have no reason to be knowledgeable about it!  In Soundarya Lahari also this matter occurs and even if do not touch the subject, I am sure that you will be referring to other books on it and so I thought, 'As to why should I by-pass the subject and why not talk about it myself?'  That is how I am now talking about it!

307.  As you are aware as to how there is enormous power inside a small atom, in each one of us also, there is this Brhma Shakti as a power known as Kundalinee.  In us it is in a state of dormancy as though it is in deep sleep.  If we do the necessary Yoga Sãdhana meant for awakening it, – underline the words 'if you do the necessary Yoga Sãdhana meant for awakening it' – it will slowly get awakened and start moving upwards, and at the end wake up as Parãsakti and merge into Parãsivã and Jiva-Brhma Aikyam would take place – and that is the important part of the information.  If we know this, it is enough and knowing this much is sufficient!

308.  We should know at least the basic minimum information, as to what sort of Sãstrãs are there and what Upãsana Marga-s are there, in our country in Sanãtana Dharma, isn't it?  Only then can we avoid looking like an idiot and hold our head high, especially in front of people from other countries.  That is why, I told you that there is something known as Kundalinee Yoga, about which you should know to the extent that I told you just now!  More than that is not required and is unnecessary!  Because, amongst us one in a thousand, no, one in a million or even ten million will not be able to, do the systematic Sãdhana for that.  Even if they do, rarely one or two amongst them may reach the destination of Siddhi!  As Sri Krishna Bhagawan says in the Bhagawat Gita (VII.3) –"यततामपि कस्चिन" – meaning only very few amongst the triers, will be successful!  That is why, I asked you to underline those words in the above paragraph – 'if you do the necessary Yoga Sãdhana meant for awakening it'!  That is a very true statement.  But doing it is well neigh impossible.  This small iota of existence of infinitesimal power to merge in that omnipotence or for this to bloom into that, may happen but not knowingly for either to even notice it!  This last statement is very true as it is not going to happen till this speck of existence is going to retain its separate identity.  You do merge when you drop your separateness! More than integration in absolute peace, integration in power has been kept as an extremely impossible happening by that Maha Shakti – Parãsakti AmbãL with absolute logic I suppose.

309.  Keeping the devotee on the Bhakti Marga and even the aspirant in the Gnãna Marga besides her, she demonstrates to them the play of her powers!  Through them she channelizes some of that power for the benefit of the world at large.  But this Bhakta and Gnãni were not aspiring for their own attainment of power.  The devotee aspires for only divine Prema and Anugraha while the one in the Gnãna Marga has stopped aspiring and has let himself flow with the current!  So to demonstrate her power and effectiveness to them as a bonus issue and through them to benefit the common man is quite on the cards.  (KTSV adds:  In fact, we often observe that the one in Gnãna Marga is unaware of the powers that have accumulated, in him or around him.  When approached by the general public with some request, he simply wishes them well and miracles happen!  Maha PeriyavãL of Kanchi was himself a proof of this above statement!)  But this Yogi is practicing the Kundalinee Yoga for the siddhi of Shakti.  With him she, making it rather difficult, after much hassle and bargaining, reveals her powers in flashes like through the cracks in the rock face or like the light at the end of a tunnel!

310.  Today, all talks of Kundalinee Deeksha as given and obtained by many an aspirant, when they say that the sleeping Kundalinee has woken up and such things are all like these flashes of brilliance seen through the cracks only!  Nobody sees the Sun as at dawn at the horizon, in its effulgent best, as if not Kundalinee at least the gentleman id very much asleep at sunrise mostly!  If Parãsakti is in deep sleep in us all as PrãNa Shakti and if they claim that she has woken up after Kundalinee Deeksha in some, she may be ever so slightly awake, that is all!  In that slight awakening from the base to the top of the head there may be a vibration or one may experience a bit of a concentration once in a while between the eye brows known as Ãgnyã Chakra.  That is often mistaken for the ascendance of Kundalinee to the peak of the head.  In fact what happens is a slight awakening, followed by subsidence.  While the Kundalinee is on the ascendance some miracles do happen.  It is here that the Yogi instead of getting carried away as though one has become perfectly accomplished, one has to apply more self-control and take the miracles not as one's achievements but as the play of the power!  Avoiding these distractions the traveller on the path has to continue his progress, as there is a constant danger of going astray, that can lead to many physical diseases as well as insanity!

311.  We may better be informed of the fact that this Maha Shakti we are dealing with is the self-same Maha Maya!  Amongst such wonderful captivating powers to control one's own mind without wavering, is no mean achievement!  In this world of Maya, she has spread a whole lot of distractions and also many methods of Sãdhana for pulling one's mind away from those distractions.  In them, if she has kept this method of practice known as Kundalinee Yoga, in it, she has also mixed a whole series of Maya.  If you ask as to why it is so, what can be the answer?  There is one crop, a particular cereal or pulse, easy to sow, takes care of itself in terms of irrigation and is ready for harvest in quick time.  Then there is another supposedly a cash crop, costly in terms of the seed price and manure requirements, finicky about the weather conditions and so on.  What are we to say as to why it is so?  Her Leela play has many sides to it and this is one of them.  Thus she has kept this Kundalinee Yoga Sãdhana as an extremely difficult process in which, you slip a foot and go down thousands!

312.  You would be justified in asking a naturally genuine question at this point as to, "Do you mean to say that those on the Bhakti or Gnãna Marga are finding it easy to get Bhagawat Darsan or Ãtma Sãkshãtkãrã and only those on Kundalinee Yoga are finding it too difficult?"  But, whatever Sãdhana they do are not so very intricate and complicated, as in Kundalinee Yoga.  Then the errors in order or procedure are not so very deleterious either in Bhakti or Gnãna Marga-s.  What Bhagawan Sri Krishna says about Karma Yoga in Bhagawat Gita (II.40), is more applicable for Bhakti and Gnãna Yoga-s and not to what is the only thing thought to be apt for the epithet Yoga – the Kundalinee Yoga!  What he says is,

 "नेहाभिक्रमनाश: अस्ति प्रत्यवायो न विद्यते |

 स्वल्पमप्यस्य धर्मस्य त्रायते महतो भयात् ||".  What he means is that, "In this there is no loss of effort, nor is there any harm (production of contrary results or transgression).  Even a little of this knowledge (or even a little practice of this Yoga) protects one from great fear."

313.  Even a little bit of practice / Sãdhana will save us from the great fear as to, 'Is there no saving of us from this endless cycle of birth and death'?  But if you progress on the 'razors edge' of Kundalinee Yoga, as in the game of 'Snakes and Ladders', even after crossing the end stages, from the penultimate step, you could fall back to Zero or even lower!  We notice that many travellers on this path, giving up their efforts at various stages of progress, disappointed and disgusted that 'nobody can win in this'!  Many have come and told me personally as to how appropriate are these words, 'अभिक्रमनाश:' and 'प्रत्यवायं' meaning 'wasted efforts' and 'contrary results', as used by Bhagawan in that sloka quoted above!  The latter is the main reason for giving up their efforts midway!  Till the end there is no certainty that we will get to the destination since there is the constant fear that we may get distracted due to some miraculous powers that we may stumble upon!  Even a little bit of practice will make us fearless is not applicable to this route. 

314.  Then there is another thing not mentioned by Sri Krishna Bhagawan.  Will we be successful in our efforts, is a doubt that remains along with the likelihood of getting a mistaken notion after some limited success assuming it to be the 'be all and end all'!  This is not likely in the other approaches.  Those in the Paths of Bhakti or Gnãna are not likely to imagine that they have already become successful whether it is getting the Vision of God or Ãtma Sãkshãtkãrã.  But those in the Kundalinee path easily get the mistaken notion that they have arrived, after some vibrations in the Chakras; like looking at the spire of the Gopuram from miles away and imagining that you are in the centre of the Sanctum Sanctorum!

315.  I hope you do not misunderstand me thinking that, I am saying that Kundalinee Yoga is a wrong path!  I am not saying so.  Of course it is an approach which can take the aspirant to the pinnacle of Adwaita Samãdhi!  Otherwise, would great saints recommended, worked out and delineated such a path with supporting Sãstrãs?  More than anything else, would our ÃchãryãL given those details without knowing?  The path is all right!  We the general public are not strong, fearless and matured enough for that path, but as a path it is very much a workable approach.  It is a path to be tried relentlessly under the constant guidance of a Guru who has been through that way before and not to be taken up as means of entertainment or a side issue!

(To be continued.)

Smbhomahadeva