Re-Awaken: To Expanded Consciousness. Our whole social set-up, our entire system is anti-God. And that is why the thirst for God is so difficult to arise. And even when it arises, the person concerned appears to us to be crazy; he is immediately thought to be a mental case. It is so because he is now so different from the rest of us.
God cannot be seen unless Kundalini is awakened.
So far as God is concerned, He is a very very distant experience who transcends all senses, who is beyond all senses. He is the ultimate experience; there is nothing beyond Him. That is why very few become awakened, though the potentiality to be awakened lies within everybody and it comes to him with birth. But whenever a person in our midst is awakened, his awakening, too, becomes a factor for stirring the latent thirst for God in many people.
Whenever a man like Krishna rises in our midst, his very sight, his very presence begins to awaken in us what has been asleep so long. The thirst, the hunger for God is with each one of us, and it comes with our birth. But it is not allowed to awaken, it is suppressed. And there are many reasons for it.
The most important among them is that the huge crowds that surround us, the vast masses of people among whom we live are completely devoid of that thirst. That is why when this thirst begins to rise in someone, he immediately suppresses it, because it seems to be a kind of madness to him. In a world where people all around you are filled with the hunger for money and the hunger for fame, the hunger for religion looks like madness.
And it makes people all around suspicious about the man hungering for religion, they think he is going out of his mind. So man suppresses himself. This hunger is not allowed to rise, it is suppressed from all sides. The world we have created has no place for God, and we are responsible for it. Because, as I said, it is dangerous to allow God to have a place, so we don’t give Him any quarter.
The substitute God would be nowhere. That is why we have allowed no room for God in the world we have made, because God would be a disturbing factor here. If He comes, he will disturb, He is bound to disturb something or the other; He will upset many things. Here sleep will be gone; there something else will happen, and elsewhere certain things will have to be changed. We will cease to be what we are. That is why we have kept God out of our world.
But just in case the thirst for God arises by chance—to ward off that danger—we have created false gods, stone idols, in our houses, and we worship them, so that the thirst is not directed toward the real God. We have substitute gods all over.
This represents man’s worst cunning and his greatest conspiracy against God ever. These man-made gods symbolize the most formidable conspiracy against religion and God that was ever hatched. And it is on account of this that man’s thirst for God is not allowed to be turned into a quest for God.
He begins to live in a different way; even his way of breathing changes, his whole lifestyle changes. It is a sea change. He ceases to be one of us; he becomes a stranger to us. The world we have built is anti-God. And it is a solid conspiracy against God. And we have succeeded so far, and continue to succeed to this day.
We have thrown out God, we have ousted Him completely. And the irony is that we have ousted Him from His own world. And we have raised a barricade which has no opening from which God can re-enter our world. So how can the thirst arise? Though the thirst does not arise, though it is not even known, yet a kind of inner restlessness, an undercurrent of agony pursues us throughout our lives. One achieves fame, and yet he feels an emptiness inside. One amasses wealth, and yet he is missing something, something still remains unattained. One finds love, and yet it seems that something remains to be found, he remains unfulfilled. What is that something which seems to be missing every time one attains success in life? That is an inner thirst which we have suppressed, which we have not allowed to rise, to grow and to be sated.
That thirst raises its head every now and then; it turns into a question mark on every path we tread. And it says to us, “You achieved so much fame, and yet you achieved nothing; you achieved everything and yet you are empty.” That thirst aches and hurts us, that thirst disturbs and torments us from every vantage point in our lives. But we deny it and busy ourselves in our work with greater vigour so that its still small voice is not heard.
That is why one who is engaged in making money goes headlong into it, and one running after fame begins to run at a gallop. They plug their ears so that they don’t have to hear that they have found nothing in the pursuit of their ambitions. We do everything in our power to prevent the thirst from arising.
Otherwise a day will come when children in this world will be born with the thirst for God as they are born with hunger, thirst and sex. Such a world can be created, and it is worth creating. But who is going to do it? It is only a number of people seeking God who can create such a world. But to do so it is necessary that all the conspiracy against God, as is evident up to now, is foiled and defeated.
But remember that this is the statement of the blessed ones, the enlightened ones. If the unenlightened, the initiates cling to it they will be misled for ever. Efforts are essential; one must make efforts.
The happening of meditation or enlightenment or whatsoever you call it is like opening the doors of a house in darkness to let in the sun. Although the sun has risen in the east, if we keep the doors of our house shut we will always be in the dark. And if we open the doors and wait, the sun will come in on his own. No other effort is needed to bring the sun in; we cannot put him or his light in a container and take it to our house. He comes on his own accord.
The irony is that while our efforts cannot bring him, they can certainly keep him out, prevent him from coming. If we shut the doors or close our eyes, even the sun will be powerless to do anything. We can keep the sun out of our houses, we are capable of stopping the sun; but we are not capable of ushering him in. Only let the door open, and he will come in.
And when the sun is in, we cannot say that we brought him in, we cannot take that credit. We can only say that it was his kindness that he came into our house. And we can only say that we were merciful to ourselves that we did not shut our doors. Man can only be an opening, a door for God to come in.
Our efforts only open the door; his coming depends on him; on his compassion. And his compassion is infinite, it is forever present at every doorstep. But what can he do if he finds many doors closed to him? God knocks at every door and goes back when he finds the doors shut. And we have closed our doors so firmly. So whenever he comes and knocks, we rationalise it, we explain it away in so many ways, and we remain content with it.
Nietzsche wrote a maxim of great insight. He said that if one wants to reach the heights of heaven he will have to touch the very depths of hell. It is really a statement of great insight. If a man wants to reach the heights of heaven he will have to go to the depths of hell. That is why mediocre people are never able to reach the height of religion, while sinners often do. Because one who goes deep into sin can rise to the height of righteousness.
Knowledge is within, but we have never invoked it, we have never provoked it, awakened it. It is ever prepared to wake up.
Our difficulty is that either we do a thing or we resist it; we don’t allow anything to happen on its own. We are ready to do anything; we will either dance or prevent it. But we will not let go of anything, we will not allow it to happen spontaneously. Man’s whole civilisation is suppressive. We have suppressed many things within us, and we are afraid of opening the Pandora’s box. We are really frightened; we seem to be sitting on a volcano. We are ridden with many many fears; it is not just a question of dancing. The fears are deep-rooted. We have repressed ourselves tremendously, and we also know what is likely to come out of the basements of our minds.
The masks that we wear are not our real faces; that is why we are so fear stricken. Now a person has heavily made up his face with cream, greasepaint and powder; he will be very afraid to drop his make-up. If he does so his real face, which is ugly and hideous, will show itself. And he is afraid that others will see his real face. He has taken great pains, standing before a big mirror, to give himself a face-lift.
So he is frightened that if he gives it up his face may become so horrible that no further make-up will help him. He will say he can give up anything but not his facade, his makeup. He will try to save it at any cost. All our faces are made-up and false; they are not real. And don’t think that people who don’t use cosmetics don’t make up their faces.
There are all kinds of make-up, and some make-up is so subtle that it does not need cosmetics. It is for this reason that you fear, that if you let go of yourself during meditation your mask may fall down exposing your real face, and that someone might see it. But these fears are dangerous, and they will not allow you to go within. So they have to be dropped.
Shaktipat means that God’s energy has descended on you. It can be possible in two ways. Either it arises from you and joins God’s energy or it flows from Gad and joins you. It is the same thing viewed from two sides; or these are two ways of seeing the same thing. For example, there is a tumbler half filled with water. Someone can say that it is half filled and another can say that it is half empty. And if they are philosophers they can argue it endlessly and come to no conclusion, because both statements are correct. Energy descends from above and it can ascend from below, too. And when the two energies meet, when your latent energy meets with the energy of infinity—the explosion happens. This explosion is unpredictable; nor can it be said what this explosion does. And what happens after this explosion, this too cannot be said.
We have no idea what the psychologists now say, even the physiologists say, about anger. When one is angry, they say, a particular kind of poison is released in the body. But up to now they have not been able to know what it is that happens in the case of love. As in anger, a special kind of poison is released, so in love a special kind of nectar is released in the body. But because love is a rare phenomenon in our world, a loving man
has yet to visit a scientist’s lab. That is why he has not been able to detect it. If meditation has its full impact, the body begins to secrete nectar or ambrosia which symbolises immortality. Meditation has really deep chemical effects on the body. Those who go deep into meditation begin to see extraordinary colours, smell uncommon perfumes and hear unheard of sounds. Extraordinary waves of light and sound begin to flow through them. These are all chemical effects of meditation. You will see such fantastic colours as you have never seen. In fact, the whole chemistry of the body undergoes a sea-change. The body begins to perceive, think and understand things in a different way altogether. All the electric circuits of the body change.
Kundalini awakening therefore requires surrender; it is not an energy which can be manipulated by the ego. The most common report of awakening Kundalini experience is said to be a feeling of electric current running up the spine.
Kundalini Energy Kundalini is the dormant potential force in the human body that is situated at the root of the spinal column. In the masculine body it is in the perineum, and in the female body it is located at the root of the uterus, in the cervix. This area is known as the Muladhara chakra.
In Sanskrit, Kundalini means “coiled snake”, so Kundalini is mostly referred to as a dormant snake at the base of our body, but is also often called the “sleeping goddess”. In Hinduism, Kundalini is a form of divine feminine energy — a force or power associated with the divine feminine. This energy, when cultivated and awakened through Tantric practice, is believed to lead to spiritual liberation. The serpent power does not belong to the physical body or the mental body; it is in fact in the causal body (one of the three layers of the soul: physical, astral and causal). The causal body is the most subtle of the three and is contained within the other two: it lies beyond the concept of matter, time and space.
When Kundalini awakens, whether consciously or by accident, it rises from the lower chakra and travels up the spinal column (Sushumna nadi), piercing each of the chakras and giving each one an energetic boost. The rising of Kundalini starts from Muladhara and ends in Sahasrara. With the awakening of Kundalini there is a dawning of creative intelligence and an awakening of supramental faculties. By activating Kundalini you may become anything in life.
This potential force, which is a small part of divine cosmic Kundalini energy, enters the embryo along with the soul soon after conception.
After completing the assigned task of creating the body of the baby in the womb, it lies dormant in the coiled shape in Muladhara. When we awaken this potential energy we are able to work toward the light of knowledge and enlightenment.
Kundalini is known as the most dangerous type of yoga because Kundalini yoga deals with this powerful cosmic energy and, once it’s awakened, you open yourself up to a real and ultimate spiritual experience. When Kundalini rises up through the chakras you are opening the channels to bring light from the cosmos down through the crown and into the chakras, and you open up to higher guidance to allow freshness and insight to come in. A vision of God may take place, and the awakening of superpower faculties. To activate Kundalini you must prepare physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually to be able to support and hold this energy within your body.
Kundalini awakening can happened either consciously or spontaneously. There are many people who have awoken their Kundalini, but most people are not completely prepared for this experience. The awakening of Kundalini represents the communion between Shiva and Shakti – two great forces within you – and the understanding of truth behind the appearance.
The chakras are located up the main line of the body starting at the root and making their way up to the top of the head. When all of these chakras are open and the energy is flowing, that state is called Kundalini Shakti. Within each chakra there are a specific number of petals of the lotus flower. When the kundalini is awakened, the petals turn upward. When the petals are hanging downward, it means that the kundalini has not opened beyond the base chakra.
No teacher can teach how to awaken the kundalini. It will open when the person has a pure heart, proper mental control, healthy physical practices (like yoga and breathing), and a positive approach to receiving the guidance of God. It will rise from the bottom to the top of each chakra, cleansing and awakening from foot to crown.
People have different experiences when the kundalini awakens for the first time — mystical sounds, sweating, body heat, electrical currents, or something slower, like fish swimming up the body stream. What people tell me, though, is that something profound happens and is deeply cherished. Kundalini awakening is, however, not the point of the chakras — just a wonderful way to learn more about them, how to open them, and how to purify them.
