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Muladhara Chakra - 5
In the last article, we touched briefly upon kundalini Shakti. Some cosmological background is required here for a deeper understanding.
The story goes that Lord Shiva wanted to create the universe but he didn’t do it himself. Instead, he created Shakti and gave her the task of creating the worlds. Shakti involved from her very subtle state to the grossest state to create the world of forms. In this involution of Shakti, she took fifty-one turns around the backbone of the forms. These fifty-one turns expressed themselves as the Sanskrit alphabet. After taking fifty-one turns, she still had energy for three and a half more turns, which coil around the shivalinga in the Muladhara chakra.
So, within this energy of creation, we see that there are left over three and a half turns. These three and a half turns are the Shesha. Shesha means the remainder. Shesha is the cause of all karma.
We don’t live life totally. In every event we live, something remains unfulfilled, something is left behind. That which is left behind, that which is unfulfilled becomes the seed or sanskar or memory pattern for future repetition. So we keep repeating the same mechanical patterns, this goes on and on. Later, we will see that all these patterns are expressed as the Kula kundalini.
As we begin to live more consciously and totally nothing remains unfulfilled in each moment of life. There is no Shesha and the three and a half coils or kundalini begins to awaken. This is the beginning of the rise of kundalini. In our last write up, we said that the dormant kundalini is breathing. She has an inspiration and expiration. This is the cosmic breath. Three Step Rhythmic Breathing synchronizes our breath with the cosmic breath of the sleeping kundalini. Awakening the kundalini then becomes so much easier.
Let us see how.
Mr. Tavaria says that the basic movement of the Muladhara chakra is anticlockwise. Apart from the anticlockwise movement the chakra is not in rhythm and balance and this balance is brought about by breathing in rhythm and working against negative emotions.
We have seen that the kundalini is presently lying dormant, closing the door of the Sushumna which moves from down to up. This door is the gateway to the divine and is called the Brahmadvara.
The dormant sleeping kundalini extends from the kanda in the muladhara chakra to the doorway to the divine center in the brain. As we rise in consciousness, the sleeping kundalini awakens and rises up through the chakras, entering the central brain cavity called the Brahmarandhra. That is, the upper and lower gateways of Brahma or consciousness. The awakened kundalini rises up, step-by-step, till it reaches the Bindu chakra in the brain allowing for the joining or yoga of the soul and spirit.
From this topmost point of the sleeping kundalini there extends a thin fibre that descends from up to down. When it comes down to the Muladhara chakra, it shines, as if there are many lights shining. This fibre is called the Kula Kundalini. This Kula Kundalini is the path of involution of spirit into matter. Mr. Tavaria has written how the divine fragment involves (as opposed to evolve) to a point of very gross matter called ‘nadir’. The path it follows is the Kula kundalini.
In essence, the kundalini is divided into two parts — one part is dormant and is awakened by the purification of the lower psychic nature and the rise in consciousness. This is traced from down to up. The other part is active and is the pathway of residual patterns or karma which hold man in sleep or do not allow consciousness to rise.
My teacher Mr. Tavaria called Kundalini the resultant intensity and he called Kula Kundalini the resultant pattern. I must add here that I have read many books on Kundalini, but NO writer has been able to see the Kula Kundalini, except my teacher, Mr. Tavaria.
Now let us try to understand this in simple terms. Every moment in life, we have a choice to either rise in consciousness or fall further into the mechanicalness or sleep of life. To put it in another way, each moment, we have a choice to follow the path of the ego or the path of the spirit.
Presently, we mechanically react to life every moment, in every event. Let us take one reaction — anger or irritation. Every time we get irritated, we repeat the pattern of irritation, making it stronger and accumulating the negative force of irritation in our unconscious minds. With every repetition, we become more mechanical. These patterns that govern our life form the Kula Kundalini. ‘Kula’ is the repository where all our memory patterns lie. It is the library of samskaras from which all karma arises.
Thus, in the moment that you are identified or hypnotized by a wave of anger, if you repeat the anger and get angry, the Kula kundalini becomes powerful. Mr. Tavaria calls this the resultant pattern. Our action in the moment has resulted in making an old pattern more powerful. But if you pause the anger and become conscious of it - you do not allow it to lead you - then you rise in consciousness. The pattern dies or is dissolved and the matter or force of anger locked in the pattern becomes free. This force is intensity and this resultant intensity awakens the kundalini. This is nothing but the ending of the Kula Kundalini.
Previously, we had said that the word ‘mula’ in muladhara means root i.e. where the roots are stored. It refers to the residual patterns, which become the cause for mechanical action or karma, that are concentrated in the Muladhara. Unconscious man never awakens the kundalini, his Kula kundalini just keeps becoming more powerful.
There are some distinct characteristics of one whose Muladhara chakra is coming into balance and rhythm. The most important is speech. With the rising above negative emotions, the tone and resonance of the voice changes. The voice becomes mesmerizing. Even just a small murmur has a humming resonance to it. The speech becomes melodious, poetic and rhythmic verse comes naturally.
We saw that the innermost part of the Muladhara chakra is the inverted shivalinga around which is wrapped the Kundalini. Within the core of this linga, lies the seed of the not-manifest sound or Sabda. This is the highest unexpressed Word of God. It is called Para Nada (the beyond or unexpressed sound or word). As the kundalini awakens, this Para Nada manifests as the energy rises through the chakras. From Muladhara, it goes to Swadhishthana and Manipura. Here the Para Nada or unexpressed sound expresses itself as Pasyanti. The sound that can be seen. From here it rises to the anahata chakra where it becomes Madhyama or the middling sound. Then it rises to the Vishuddhi chakra where it manifests as spoken words or Vaikhari sound. As we go higher, it again disappears into the ultimate Omkar or Para Nada again.
The Rigveda says First was the Creator. With Him was the Sabda or word. But the word was the creator. The creator then had consummation with his Sabda and the Universe with all its beings and myriad forms was created.
The bible of John begins with: In the beginning was the word (Para Nada). And the word was with God. And the word was God. And God said let there be light. (Pasyanti - the seen sound). The word is nothing but the kundalini as she stirs and awakens, and as we rise on the ladder of consciousness, she moves up to the celestial home from whence she came.
--- Rajen Vakil