What is Kundalini Yoga

Kundalini Yoga, the Yoga of Awareness, was brought to the West by Yogi Bhajan in 1968. Yogi Bhajan taught that, through the practice of Kundalini Yoga and meditation, your glandular and nervous systems are stimulated, and your capacity for creative potential is heightened. You gain inner vitality to compensate for the adverse effects of stress so you can excel in life.

"Kundalini yoga classes are a dynamic blend of postures, pranayama, mantra, music and meditation, which teach you the art of relaxation, self-healing and elevation. Balancing body and mind enables you to experience the clarity and beauty of your soul. No previous experience in yoga is required for you to achieve results with your very first class.

Men of great knowledge actually found out about the chakras – their workings, their petals, their sounds, their infinity, their co-relationship, their powers. They found that the life of a human is totally based on these chakras. This total science gave birth to Kundalini Yoga."

Yogi Bhajan, The Aquarian Teacher
"The Power of Kundalini Yoga lies in the actual experience. It goes right into your heart and extends your consciousness so you may have a wider horizon of grace and knowing the truth." ~ Yogi Bhajan

Kundalini Yoga: The Yoga of Awareness

Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan® is designed to give you “hands on” experience of your highest consciousness. It teaches a method by which you can achieve the sacred purpose of your life. It is universal and nondenominational.

Kundalini Yoga is not a religion. Kundalini Yoga is a Sacred Science. It is sacred because it deals with G.O.D.: G = that which Generates, O = that which Organizes, D = that which Delivers or Destroys. It is scientific because it provides a technology, a method by which anyone who practices it can experience that process of G.O.D., that divine identity within. The way you choose – and if you choose – to worship is your religion.

Kundalini Yoga is much more than just a system of physical exercises. It is a dynamic, powerful tool for expanding awareness.

History of Kundalini Yoga

Virtually every aspect of human existence has an enlightened, efficient, and effective way to do it. Yogis have been custodians of the detailed information on the care and feeding, maintenance, and preservation of a human being.

For thousands of years yogic knowledge was carefully handed down by oral tradition from Master to disciple. The Master spoke, the student memorized and practiced. Yogi Bhajan spent many years in India learning, mastering, and perfecting the habits and practices of Kundalini Yoga.

Kundalini Yoga was always kept very secret until 1969 when Yogi Bhajan challenged the ages-old tradition of secrecy. His motive? Compassion. He saw the reality of our inner beauty, power, and potential and he wanted us to discover it for ourselves. The legacy of technical and spiritual knowledge that Yogi Bhajan studied and mastered in India is the gift he brought to the West.

To fully appreciate the value of this great gift, we need to understand why, for thousands of years, the Yogis kept it secret. They were selective and guarded because knowledge gives power, and power can corrupt. Traditionally, only after the student demonstrated humility, self-discipline, and obedience would the Teacher reveal the secret kriyas. Yet Yogi Bhajan shared this knowledge openly with everyone in order to prepare humanity for the major changes that this planet is going through as we cross from the Piscean to the Aquarian Age. The ancient technology of Kundalini Yoga can give us the awareness and the strength to make our transition smoother.

Benefits of Kundalini Yoga

"In Kundalini Yoga the most important thing is your experience. It goes right to your heart. No words can replace your experience. Your mind may accept the words or it may not, but your consciousness will not accept just words." ~ Yogi Bhajan

The practice of Kundalini Yoga balances the glandular system, strengthens the nervous system, and enables us to harness the energy of the mind and the emotions, so we can be in control of ourselves, rather than being controlled by our thoughts and feelings. This technology combines breath, mudra, eye-focus, mantra, body locks, and postures in a precise, conscious manner to affect body, mind, and soul.

Kundalini Yoga is a yoga for householders, for people who have to cope with the daily challenges and stresses of holding jobs, raising families, and managing businesses. Kundalini Yoga is for everyone who wants the skills to cope successfully with the challenges of living in this day and age.

The list of very real benefits from regularly practicing Kundalini Yoga is very long. But, really, what matters most to you is your experience. Look to this webpage and other resources for contextual information and practical suggestions - to acquire a real understanding of Kundalini Yoga, do it!

* Summarized from Khalsa, Shakti Parwha Kaur. Kundalini Yoga: The Flow of Eternal Power. New York: Berkeley Publishing Group, 1996.

And, oddly enough, this definition from the Wikipedia is pretty good:

The term "Kundalini" is based on several words and has several meanings. The word ending with "i" indicates that it relates to the feminine principle and deals with a form of SHAKTI (energy) and PRAKRITI (nature)

KUNDA is a hole or well into which all debris and rubbish is thrown. In time the rubbish loses its original form and disintegrates into a formless mesh in which the individual components are no longer recognizable. In the similar way, our impression from earlier lives lie like an amorphous substance deep in the unconscious.

KUNDALA means the ring (generally earing). A ring or a circle has neither beginning nor an end. It is infinite and that is why it is a symbol of creation. Cosmic energy is circling constantly; we do not know when the Universe began and how long will it last.

The other roots of "KUNDALINI" are KUNDALIN, serpent, and KALA, time or death. The symbol of the snake has many meanings: ignorance, energy, unhappiness or happiness, death, time and change.

The symbol of snake also refers to the poison and danger that lies in ignorance. Ignorance is as poisonous and deadly as a cobra. But poison can also heal and even have a life saving influence. Knowledge about its correct application and dosage is an important thing. Just as the power to heal is contained in poison, supreme knowledge lies dormant in the "ignorance" of the unconsciousness. Just as a snakebite can suddenly change our life, when the Kundalini awakens our consciousness changes fundamentally and we reach another dimension of time and space.