- françaisConference held by Jaya Yogācārya on September 27th, 2019 during meditation class
In the last conference, we discussed the subject of Kuṇḍalinī कुण्डलिनी through the symbolism of the cosmic dancer Naṭarāja नटराज. see "Spanda स्पन्द".
Starting with a simple and descriptive analysis of his iconography, we then moved on to trickier metaphysical concepts in order to explain several aspects of this energy with which he forms an indivisible whole during his ecstatic dance.
We have seen that Naṭarāja, Śivā शिवा himself, representing the absolute consciousness, in his twofold role of creator and destructor, remains impassive on an immobile axis while whirling, thus unfolding the fundamental movements of the universe thanks to the fundamental energy, Śakti शक्ति, indivisible from him.
Together with his Śakti, he becomes the fire, both able to create or destroy the world and recovers the double state, illumination and disintegration, revelation and concealment.
We also mentioned the mystery of this energy, which finds itself in a retracted and dormant state in the human body, even though it is considered as unlimited and cosmic.
Yogis say this happens through the process of progressive concealment during manifestation. This energy descends from a "spatialized" and omniscient state to a curled-up and underground state. In the latter state, it resides in the depths of man, both in the physical body and in the unconscious and obscure psychological dimensions.
In other words, the energy that resides at the bottom of the spine in a dormant state and is symbolized by a female snake, coiled three times and a half, and the energy that unites with the cosmic dancer, propagating the consciousness of manifestation to the confines of the universe through its vibrations, are only one.
Unlimited and infinite source of all powers, for the human being chained to temporality, it represents the promise that it may be possible to transcend his visceral state and limited consciousness into an ecstatic and liberated state.
That is why it represents the royal path for spiritual seekers who have chosen the work of yoga. They try to make it move back up to its initial state.
Because it is above all a fire energy, we often associate this transcendental experience with an experience of intense and pulverizing electrical activation.
Its activation is certainly as luminous as lightning.
However, wise men invite you to understand that it is not the Big Bang explosion that interests the yogi, but the supraconscious, still state combined with the potential, initial pulsation preceding the Big Bang. The object of the quest is spanda, the initial vibration, the initial state.
To attain the spanda is to attain the efficience of the absolute, that is the desire to manifest or not.
This is the difference between Samādhi समाधि from which one comes back and Mahā Samādhi महा समाधि from which one doesn’t.
In the explosion of the manifest, during Samādhi, it will be necessary to come back down with new powers, but also to come back in the torment of "egotistical" manifestation.
Of course, the trained yogi will become far less subject to the illusion of the world.
The goal of true transcendence is the absolute state, unmanifested yet potential, where balance is achieved between undifferentiated, expanded consciousness and the initial energy.
The ascension of Kuṇḍalinī, after having been carefully awakened in the spinal cord, is the gradual reintegration of the various levels, which withdraw into one another.
At every stage, one per cakra चक्र, everything is reduced to their Bindu बिन्दु, that is their center, ultimate point of transcendence of the physical, energetic and mental planes of their respective level. It is from there that ever greater realities radiate, as Kuṇḍalinī rises through the median axis of the spine, Suṣumṇā nāḍi सुषुम्णा नाडि.
Yoga is a unifying work, but before the practitioner can unite his individual soul with the universe, he first has to reunite himself in his own planes. Due to his nature bound to mundane life (Paśū पशू ) and illusions, the practitioner holds discordant, physical and mental rhythms in him. The awakening of primordial energy in him allows to confer to each of these rhythms, the power and clarity of its action.
For each cakra, there is a specific plane of consciousness and the associated physical and mental rhythms.
The efficiency of consciousness through energy is Vīrya वीर्य, this power to act.
It can reveal or not. It can resorb or manifest. It can rise or come back down. The yogi’s work consists in discovering the junction point between these two extremes and in becoming firmly established there, while perceiving the potential and subtle pulsations.
Going back from two to One, or being established in the One while being aware of the
unfolding of the two or the multiple, must be done both on the mental and energetic planes.
My conference "The Inner Adjustment" illustrates well this work in the mental planes you are supposed to have started.
You also have to do this on the physical and energetic planes.
This equilibrium point can either lift us up to subtle planes or retract us into gross manifested action.
The most explicit example of this equilibrium point is the one we very often maintain between life and death, without us knowing it.
This equilibrium point can maintain us in a very subtle state between silent and conscious resorption and the noise of manifestation.
That is what we are working on during meditation practice Dhyāna ध्यान.
Vīrya, which draws its potency from the vibration of energy, very often lies at the junction between pure and impure, or also between excitation and relaxation.
This constant equilibrium position also reveals itself in the delicate work of prāṇāyāma प्राणायाम, where the inspiring and expiring breaths play together.
The equilibrium point allows to unite opposites.
Whatever the practices, the yogi always faces one and the same vibration. Spanda स्पन्द is this primordial vibration pervading all that is manifested, from our body to the stars. It is spanda which animates the highest mystical power or the most ordinary human urges.
It is what is unified from the very beginning.
In the process of life, at many levels, any balance obtained between two opposite movements of particular rhythms harmonizes their corresponding energies which become one and the same vibrant energy.
This is the principle of love, fusion, creation.
For example, regarding sacred language and sound combined with breath, in Sanskrit, we have two specific vowels, anusvāra अनुस्वार aṃ (अं) and Visarga विसर्ग aḥ ( अः).
Visarga means "that that fades away, that that flows". We find this word in the expression "Bindu Visarga" (falling of the amṛtā अमृता). The two dots of the sacred phoneme अः express a movement of separation, a duality toward manifestation associated with the expiring breath (which could also be a resorption).
In anusvāra, the bindu, the only dot of the phoneme aṃ (अं) represents the
single point from which duality or multiplicity emerge and into which they return. Here, it is a point of transcendence associated with the inspiring breath.
The equilibrium point exists inside the phoneme itself as well as between the two pronounced phonemes.
Working on awakening Kuṇḍalinī through yogic practices is harmonizing multiple energies so that they return to their primordial and unified nature in us.
This passage from two to One, from duality to unity, is realized through the rising fire of the primordial energy awakened in the spinal cord.
During this rise, the yogi should ensure that there is no break in this ascension by remaining vigilant and centered on the equilibrium point of each stage kundalini goes through. In fact, when rising, it gains power while maintaining its process of emission and resorption. This is how it transcends duality at each stage in order to unite a bit more, electrically, physically and consciously.
This is a dangerous and delicate work which cannot be undertaken without preparation or guidance, as there is a risk of breakdown, failure, disintegration at any moment if the fire gets out of control.
But if the ascension is mastered, Kuṇḍalinī returns to spanda, carrying the yogi in its transcendence.
The ancients symbolized this primordial energy as the female snake, curled up on itself–a snake because it symbolizes transmutation and female because it is an energy.
But just as the snake, its poison makes it an object of dread.
Dormant, it represents our unconscious and obscure principles, both poisoned and poisonous.
The transmutation of these toxic energies through awakening requires a purification process of body and mind.
Awakened and under control, these uncontrollable, underground–animal even–energies become divine and effective. When Kuṇḍalinī straightens up, going through this long path of a purified body and mind, which will be able to face it, it loses its toxic power and reveals its priceless value.
Its poison is transmuted into nectar and becomes all-pervasive in the body of the yogi who can then hold in store what has been transmuted.
He can pour it forth by drawing from this ambrosia which will never increase nor decrease in him.
Hari Om Tat Sat
Jaya Yogācārya
Translated by Stéphanie BOSCO
Bibliography:
– "Kuṇḍalinī, le yoga du Feu" by M. Coquet, Alphée Editions J.-P. Bertrand
– "La Kuṇḍalinī" by Lilian Silburn, Les Deux Océans Editions
– "La puissance du serpent" ("The Serpent Power") by Arthur Avalon, Dervy Editions
– Adaptation and comment by Jaya Yogācārya
©Centre Jaya de Yoga Vednata La Réunion