Editor
When the Kundalini energy reaches the seventh subtle centre in the body, at the crown of the head, the yogi realises the single Self, and knows that individual selves are an illusion. This chakra is the Sahasrara – the Lotus of a Thousand Petals. The medieval Italian poet, Dante, saw it in mystic vision as the Sempiternal Rose; “its petals rising in more than a thousand tiers are the thrones of the blessed.”
The Kundalini emerges through a subtle opening known as the Brahmarandhra – the Aperture of Brahma. The word comes from the Sanskrit word, ‘randhra’, which means a slit, split, opening, aperture, hole, chasm, fissure or cavity. It is probably related to the English word, ‘rend’, meaning to split.
This subtle opening also manifests on the physical level. In infants the bones forming the skull are not completely fused and there is an opening called the fontanelle, a word suggestive of the emergence of the fountain-like, upward-springing Kundalini from the top of the head.
Jeronimus
(Illustration from sahajayogacroatia.org)
For previous articles on other chakras:
“…very small and humble, and yet encompassing the world with divinity, was the quiet figure of the great mother.” (p. 91)
“…the hall was suddenly abolished, its walls rendered invisible, and the new space was radiant with the appearance of a summoned being, the tender presence of the great mother, protectress of the island and its secret ways. The swirling energies of this being were everywhere, making the spaces alive with something akin to the electrification of the spirit, and a mighty collective hum of praise now seemed to have lifted off into the air, and the city seemed in flight. Such a splendid weightlessness pervaded everything, and all those in the great hall seemed to be afloat on a silver cloud, spiralling into the sublimity of the great mother. It wasn’t long before he felt that something about him had changed forever in that celestial mood.” (p. 142)
Ben Okri, Astonishing the Gods
Ben Okri won the Booker prize for The Famished Road. Astonishing the Gods is a fable exploring deep metaphysical ideas.
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi founded Sahaja Yoga in 1970. Since that time She has given hundreds, maybe thousands, of public lectures all over the world during which she has spoken about the evolution of human beings into what she calls “super-human beings”.
Shri Mataji describes the last breakthrough of evolution as the attainment of Self-realisation. Self-realisation is the process by which the residual life-force in every human being (called the Kundalini) which resides in the sacrum bone, the triangular bone at the base of the spine, rises up the spinal column and up through the limbic area (the “old” brain) and out of the fontanelle bone area to unite with the All-pervading Power of the universe.
When this happens, we become connected to the power that created us. We become more knowledgeable about ourselves. We become collectively conscious, as Carl Jung has described. We are more connected to, more knowledgeable about and more compassionate towards others. We feel peaceful and joyful, and we feel loved and more loving towards others.
As we begin to meditate and to strengthen this connection after attaining our Self-realisation we become “thoughtlessly aware”, we become better people, we automatically act in more selfless and constructive ways and all our bad habits drop out. We gain the benefits of better health, good self-esteem and improved relationships with others. We receive inspiration to help us in our endeavours and experience being “in the flow”, where everything happens effortlessly and spontaneously, more often. In this way we become, as Shri Mataji says, “super-human beings”.
Shri Mataji describes this new state as the last step in our evolution and says that it is our birthright as human beings to receive it. It is very helpful on the microcosmic level, the personal level, to achieve this new state of being, through our Self-realisation, but even greater benefits accrue when this breakthrough is achieved on the macrocosmic level, the collective level.
Just as Self-realisation integrates all the best qualities of the human being in each individual, when many human beings have their Self-realisation then integration can take place on a global level. People of all cultures and backgrounds can then transcend their differences, live in peace and work co-operatively towards a new era of harmony and prosperity in a truly multi-cultural world.
Kay Alford
These are the futile moments
Where the peace that You have granted
Flies away into temptations;
In unwisdom it gets planted.
For such fickle things as these
I tear myself from You.
With burnt-out histories and crazy ideas,
You disappear from view.
You graced me with the right
To choose what is wrong,
But now I see the light
And I know where I belong.
It seems a gentle balance
That a Yogi has to find,
To keep You always close at heart,
In thought and word and mind.
I look to Your eternal eyes,
Am faced with my mistakes.
To clear the aching false desires,
The ego here must break.
I wish today to turn back time,
And choose a wiser path,
To catch myself the instant that
My blindness turned to wrath.
I wish that I could see myself
When I’m thinking as a fool,
Pull myself back into line,
To Your auspicious rule.
I now must take tapasya
To strengthen what is weak,
To find instead the innocence
And purity that I seek.
Forgive me, Mother, for the times today
I forgot to see what’s true,
For ignorance in thoughts and words
I wish I could undo.
I’m tired of having days like this;
Please give me pure desire,
To stop my mind from wandering
and indulging in the Maya.
Melissa Richard
(Photograph: National Parks and Wildlife, Australia)