The holy Himalaya, from wherest daughter Ganges has its source, in the mountains where Shiva Mahadeva, the snowy king was born. The peaks rising high above humanity are his Earthly abode, and the place his wife, Parvati, considers Her home.
The holiest spot (kshetra), the Pilgrims have traveled there since the beginning of time to meet and circumambulate (parikrama) Mount Kailasha (Kang Rinpoche), where Lord Shiva lives. The holy Mansarovar Lake is to the north-west of this noble mountain (Mapham Yum-tso). Shiva's paradise has been characterized as a land "resplendent with females, with lasting fragrances of all season's flowers, fanned by cool breezes, shadowed by the still shade of stately trees,... where troops of apsaras sing with madden passion."
It is said that whoever contemplates Shiva's abode in the Himalaya is better than whoever worships Shiva in Kashi. This is the pilgrimage's destination, as well as the scene and location of the discovery of several holy scriptures known as Tantras, in which Parvati normally asks Shiva questions regarding the purpose and road to salvation.
However, there are various types of divine force and directions to sacred action and revelation in Hindu thought. As a result, the Tantric revelation holds that paying obeisance to Shiva and his consort does not require a trip to the actual peaks of the Himalaya or to Kailasha. All Tantras, whether Shaiva or Shakta, insist that a trip to Mount Kailasha is unnecessary, if not useless, since his mystic and symbolic abode is to be found in the thousand-petalled lotus, the Sahasrara-chakra, in the seeker's subtle or divine form. This abode is known as the shivasthana, the location where Shiva resides eternally and where all Yoga and meditation seekers are welcomed.
Tantra practitioners take a daily path as part of their devotion. An inner journey into the still-yet-vibrating center of cosmic consciousness in the subtle body is imperative and mandatory for the Tantric path seeker, even though an external journey to a pilgrimage center is taken. Although all schools of Indie religion talk of the divinity of the body, the Tantras articulate it in its most complete and structured form. A devotee who abandons the divinity that resides inside his body to worship that which resides beyond his body is likened to a person who abandons his home's riches and wanders as a beggar asking for alms.
The Cosmos of the Body
Immutability is a Hindu concept, whereas the celestial divine body is a Buddhist concept. Tantras have a physical form. They thought they were wonderful and had attained enlightenment. They say there is a "etheric double" in addition to the gross or material body, which is subject to degradation and death. The subtle body (sukshama-sharira), also known as a sacred body (divya-deha), or a pure body (siddha-deha), is unveiled, tamed, energised, and sublimated during an arduous Tantra-yoga process for the attainment of consciousness unity. The subtle body is free of defilement and exists independently of the cosmos' spatio-temporal matrix. The pure category of the universe is inextricably bound to this subtle entity. It is associated with the union of the male and female principles, Shiva and Shakti, and serves as a purified dynamic powerhouse for the evolution of the universe across ever subtler planes of universal consciousness. According to the Tantras, awakening the sacred potency of the subtle body does not simply result in the possession of spiritual strength (siddhi). It has the ability to change the body's very substance over time.
Human ascension to a superconscious state of consciousness, according to the Tantras, entails embodying the whole universe. A state of enlightenment, a shift in influence from the human world to the realm of cosmic consciousness. The body is seen as condensing the whole universe through this comocization. The citadel of the heart has been thought to be the sacred center among us since ancient times. The Chandogya Upanisad is where the concept of divinity-in-the-heart first appeared (VII, 1,1-3)
The heart is located within the city of Brahman, which is the flesh, and within the heart is a small dwelling. This house is shaped like a lotus, and it contains all that should be searched for, enquired about, and realized.
So, what is this lotus of the heart that resides within this house?
The cosmos within the lotus of the heart is as vast as the universe beyond. Heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, lightning, and all the stars are all included within it. Anything that exists in the macrocosm exists in this microcosm.
The lotus of the heart does not age, despite the fact that the body does. It does not perish as the body perishes. The true city of Brahman is the lotus of the heart, where Brahman resides in all his glory, not the body.
The heart of the Supreme Principle, symbolized by the lotus, is the true city of the Supreme Principle, untainted by the mundane realities of everyday life. Later on, this idea was massively extended and developed.
Tantras and medieval Yoga-Upanisads include a formal paradigm of the microcosm, with lotuses serving as psychic centers of consciousness and self-realization. The micro-macro hypothesis of body universe is the scientific term for this. The divine or subtle body may be visualized in a variety of ways. The holy geography of India's terrain inspired one of the most convincing pictures to explain the correspondence and equivalence between the macrocosm and the microcosm. The Shiva Samhita paints a vivid picture of the divine self's sacred geography, in which the body reflects the sacred land's landscape:
Mount Meru is encircled by the seven continents in your body; rivers, seas, mountains, plains, and gods of the fields are also present. It contains priests, nuns, pilgrimage sites, and the deities that preside over them.
There are stars, planets, and the sun and moon; there are also the two celestial forces; that which kills, and that which creates; and all of the elements; ether, air, and fire, water, and earth. Yes, all that exists in the three realms is contained within your body.
All of the Yogis are doing their specified tasks around Mount Meru, but only the one who understands this is considered a real Yogi. In a related vein, the Shaktananda Tarangini (Chapter l,39ff) depicts the nine planets, twelve zodiac signs, fourteen cosmos planes, seven mountains, seven oceans, and seven islands circling Mount Meru, the Universe's central axis, as forming the framework of the body cosmos. There is a subtle body or celestial body within this outer shell that represents all the stars, planets, astral planes, and elements like a mirror reflects the natural universe. Whatever powers rule the external universe, the inner cosmos is governed by the same rules.
These are basically poetic representations of God's flesh. The Tantras vividly depict alternative maps of the subtle body that embodies the universe. According to the Tantrikas, we do not perceive our mind as anything apart from our body, like an outer garment, since it corresponds to and is the most personal extension of the Universe. 6 Since the subtle body is regarded as a miniature universe, its arrangement presupposes an inextricable connection with Tantra's ontology and worldview.
The Supreme Truth, according to Tantric philosophy, is self-luminous— pure consciousness, absolute, and all-pervasive. In its descent to manifestation, this consciousness polarizes as fire. In a religious level, Shiva, the static male principle, represents this consciousness. Shakti, his power, is associated with the feminine principle.
Shiva and Shakti are also at the heart of life. Shakti is a complex and active form of consciousness. During evolution, the Shakti philosophy completes itself and produces the realm of materiality, which is manifested in a variety of universe categories, including cognitive faculties, senses, their things, and the five elements. The map of the delicate body represents both of these types. Any form in the universe is a manifestation of consciousness (ctl).
The person loses sight of the unity of cosmic consciousness and lives with a false sense of self as a result of the veiling of shakti. Devi Kundalini, or the Coiled One, is the Shakti philosophy of the universe in the delicate body, conceived as an eternal pool of electricity (Shakti). Kundalini is depicted as a sleeping snake in her unmanifest, latent form. Muladhara, the 'root reinforcement' chakra, is found between the anus and the genitals, and is coiled in three-and-a-half circles along the central axis at the base of the spine. The act of resting
Kundalini Shakti is as subtle as a perfect lotus-stalk fibre and as vivid as a bolt of lightning. The microcosm is akin to an electric battery in which this cosmic force is stored in a dormant state. When this force is not channeled in a systematic manner, it either withers away or manifests in a small way.
Kundalini is the spirit that lies at the heart of all life in its broadest sense. It is the source of all forces, qualities, and life forms that this world will take. The energy in the gross form of a normal human is inert, since it does not vibrate or revolve. That it "knots" together our differentiated and dualising mind, which empowers us with a distorted sense of egohood, it lays inert in tangles. These knots are shown in three planes around the body's central axis. They are the results of our previous deeds (samskaras), dooming us to a life of deception.
They block Kundalini Shakti's complete and unrestricted movement. The ultimate aim of the cosmic awareness inner quest is to rediscover one's veiled cosmic existence. To get the goddess Kundalini up to the highest level of consciousness. This is thought to be the home of the para-bindu, the ultimate locus of the universe's seed.
Kundalini Shakti is as subtle as a perfect lotus-stalk fibre and as vivid as a bolt of lightning. The microcosm is akin to an electric battery in which this cosmic force is stored in a dormant state. When this force is not channeled in a systematic manner, it either withers away or manifests in a small way.
Kundalini is the spirit that lies at the heart of all life in its broadest sense. It is the source of all forces, qualities, and life forms that this world will take.
The energy in the gross form of a normal human is inert, since it does not vibrate or revolve. That it "knots" together our differentiated and dualising mind, which empowers us with a distorted sense of egohood, it lays inert in tangles. These knots are shown in three planes around the body's central axis. They are the results of our previous deeds (samskaras), dooming us to a life of deception.
They block Kundalini Shakti's complete and unrestricted movement. The ultimate aim of the cosmic awareness inner quest is to rediscover one's veiled cosmic existence. To get the goddess Kundalini up to the highest level of consciousness. This is thought to be the home of the para-bindu, the ultimate locus of the universe's seed.
Kundalini, in a microcosmic context, is the root of the two most vital currents that control life. The first is Prana, or essential energy, which is present in all of us as air, life, or a source of energy.
The second is virya or ojas1, a virile vitality that encourages all forms of artistic expression and mystic unfoldment. The awakened Kundalini is felt as a current, kinetic, and effulgent rising up the subtle channel, the Sushumna-nadi, at the crown of the head, the abode of Shiva, the Absolute as Pure Consciousness, in its manifest state (rif).
Shiva and Shakti are thus found at diametrically opposed points that are linked by the body-cosmos' central axis.
Numerous etheric pathways and vortices make up the subtle body (chakras). While the details of their arrangement and symbolism may differ from one school to the next, there is a universal model. 8 In the microcosm, there are three key subtle pathways. The most notable, the Sushumna-nadi, the body-cosmos' central axis, is flanked on the right by a lunar line, Ida, which represents the female principle, and on the left by the solar channel, Pingala, which represents the male principle. From the base of the spine, two waves of energy flow from Ida and Pingala, spiraling in opposing directions around the Sushumna, which reaches them between the eyebrows. They then split up into two groups.
Both the left and right nostrils are involved. Yoga entails bringing these two slight currents together in the Sushumna, the median tube.
The subtle body simply maps one's divine path from the stage of material life to the final state of beatitude.
Each of the psychic vortices refers to one of the stages of this yogic path. The microcosm's inner map is made up of seven psychic vortices depicted as circuits (chakras) or lotuses. They are spaced around the Sushumna, the subtle body's vertical axis, which corresponds to the spinal column's line from the base to the crown of the head. In Kundalini yoga, the seven main points of influence in the subtle body (according to Hindu tradition) serve as yantras for inner meditative experience. Geometrical figures, such as wheels (chakras) or lotuses, are used to represent them. They are arranged on the Sushumna, the subtle body's vertical axis, which approximately corresponds to the spinal column and cortex. Each chakra is identified with a sound sensation, aspect, color, deity, animal image, and category of the universe, since these chakras encompass the whole psycho-cosmos.
The Muladhara (root) Chakra is located at the base of the spine and is the first chakra. It serves as a focal point for the psychic body's powers. A square with an inverted triangle is one of its symbols. The snake-symbol of the latent microcosmic form of energy, Devi Kundalini, is coiled around a linga icon in the center of this yantra. It is governed by the element earth, and its seed motto is Lam.
Svadishthana Chakra is located behind the genitals. It's a vermilion color. It takes the shape of a circle with six petals and a white crescent moon in the middle. The mantra of the water factor Vam is inscribed in the middle.
The navel center, Manipura Chakra, is ruled by the element fire. It is pictured as a ten-petal lotus. A red triangle with three swastika symbols appears inside the lotus (T-shaped). Am is the seed mantra.
The fourth, Anahata Chakra, is found in the heart level and is shaped like a lotus with twelve petals and a hexagon in the middle. The Anahata Chakra is the seat of the air elements, and it is a key revealer of celestial sound in meditation. Yam is the seed mantra.
The Vishuddhi Chakra is located at the level of the throat and is the fifth chakra. It has a smoky purple color to it. A sixteen-petaled lotus with a downward-pointing triangle is the symbol. The symbol of the ether element, represented by a circle, is in the middle. Ham is the seed mantra.
Ajna, the sixth chakra, is situated between the brows and is in charge of different stages of meditation. A shell with two petals and an inverted triangle bearing a linga emblem is the symbol. Om, the primordial vibration, is the seed mantra.
The pinnacle of yogic practice, the seat of the Absolute, is represented by the seventh chakra, Sahasrara Chakra (Shiva-Shakti). Four fingers' width above the top of the head is how it's visualized. It is symbolized by a thousand-petalled inverted lotus, which symbolically rains divine radiance on the subtle body. The Sahasrara is colorless since it neutralizes all colors and sounds.
There are 50 lotus petals from the root center to the center of the brows, corresponding to the letters of the alphabet (matrika) inscribed on the petals. These are the divisions that make up the universe and reflect Vaikhari vak's gross state. Each chakra has its own distinct image, which is associated with a god, animal symbol, mantra, color, rank, and universe plane (see Figure 1). This intricate symbolism depicts the Goddess Kundalini as the microcosm and forms the inner map of the body universe. 9
The five psychic sheaths of the human body are all attached to these chakras: the Muladhara, Svadhishthana, and Manipura are associated with the visible or corporeal sheath, the Annamaya-kosha. The Pranamaya-kosha, or essential energy sheath, is connected to the Anahata and Vishuddhi-chakras, which manifest in air and ether. The Ajna-chakra represents the third sheath, Manomaya, the emotional sheath, and Vijnanamaya, the intelligence sheath. Finally, the Anandamaya kosa, or happiness body, is connected to pure consciousness, which is housed in the Sahasrara-chakra.
Awareness and meditation (jnanadhyanaprakasah) expose these internal chakras, which mark the stages of the Kundalini Shakti's spiritual journey. They embody the seven ascension planes and provide the internal structure by which the adorer works out his universe unification. The subtle body scheme also acts as a framework for reciprocal correspondences between the body universes' internal layers and the cosmos' exterior planes.
In the Subtle Body, the Path and Goal of Cosmic Consciousness
Internal waystation markers and mirrored yogic mark symbolically unique journey phases as subtle-channels in the to evolution wholeness and lotus of consciousness. The body currents of crucial breath serve as the vehicle for the yogic journey. They quickly pass through the Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna delicate pathways of the body universe to join with Shiva at the crown of the head.
These psychic sources have been likened to the Ganga, Yamuna, and Sarasvati rivers. And their meeting (triveni) in Prayag, Uttar Pradesh, is symbolically depicted in the Ajna Chakra, in the center between the eye brows, to signify that the worshipper's delicate body contains the greatest holy center. The Ajna Chakra is where certain yoga schools start the meditative path. They conclude that the adept must purify his cognitions and the dross of the dualising mind at the confluence of the three channels before beginning the awakening of the energy. It is the confluence of the three holy rivers, symbolically, and it is here that the original purification takes place before the journey.
In the same way as a pilgrim is guided by the holy scenery, an inward psychic path is guided by the psychic centers symbolized by the lotuses.
The Kundalini Shakti ascends like a blazing snake on her way, bursting through vortices and untying psychic blockages that lie in the direction of the Sushumna, the subtle body's central axis. Ascension (aroha) and regression (pranayama) are the two distinct stages of the yogic path (avaroha).
"She shines brightly in her ascent; she looks like nectar in her descent," the Devigita (Chapt 10.3) says. First and foremost, the yogi, when roused by contemplative methods, leads the cosmic force.
In the shape of a tapering blaze of light, this force rests in the breath alongside the true self (jivatma). It is brought to the root-centre at the base of the spine by the Yogi. The inner quest then continues. The five gross elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether, as well as their respective cognition organs, are found in the five psychic centers, starting with Muladhara (=earth element), Svadhisthana (=water element), Manipura (=fire element), Anahata (=air element), and Vishuddhi (=ether element). Symbols of god and action.
The sense of smell and the theory of smell (tanmatra) are related to the earth factor at the base of the spine, as well as the feet as the motion organ. Similarly, other chakras have specific associations.
The Kundalini Shakti ascends like a blazing snake on her way, bursting through vortices and untying psychic blockages that lie in the direction of the Sushumna, the subtle body's central axis. Ascension (aroha) and regression (pranayama) are the two distinct stages of the yogic path (avaroha).
"She shines brightly in her ascent; she looks like nectar in her descent," the Devigita (Chapt 10.3) says. First and foremost, the yogi, when roused by contemplative methods, leads the cosmic force.
In the shape of a tapering blaze of light, this force rests in the breath alongside the true self (jivatma). It is brought to the root-centre at the base of the spine by the Yogi. The inner quest then continues. The five gross elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether, as well as their respective cognition organs, are found in the five psychic centres, starting with Muladhara (=earth element), Svadhisthana (=water element), Manipura (=fire element), Anahata (=air element), and Vishuddhi (=ether element). Symbols of god and action.
The sense of smell and the theory of smell (tanmatra) are related to the earth factor at the base of the spine, as well as the feet as the motion organ. Other chakras, too, have specific associations with elements and celestial categories (see figure 1.) They make up the twenty-five categories of formation when taken together (tattvasrishti).
The celestial energy's primary goal in the body is to remove and consume (layakrama) all five elements, their properties, and the associated consciousness and action organs at each psychic base.
The method of dissolving these elements into pure celestial awareness starts with each of the five elements consuming and dissolving into the next in their respective psychic centres, together with their mantras, deity reflection, and animal icons. Thus, at the Muladhara Chakra, the earth-element is incorporated into the subtle concept of scent (gandha-tanmatra), contemplating the diety with his animal symbol. The world is melted into water in the next step when meditating on Vishnu and his consort; the subtle concept of scent can be transformed into taste. The true self (jivatma), Kundalini Shakti, and the water aspect should then flow into the navel center's fire field. The yogi should think of Rudra and his Shakti, as well as the lustrous sense of vision, and absorb all of this, as well as the principle of taste (rasa-tattva), into the principle of sight/form (rupa-tattva). The yogi can then move on into the area of air at the centre of the throat. He meditates here on Isha, the air divinity and his Shakti, and absorbs the principle of seeing into the principle of touch (sparsha). And, while discussing Shiva and his consort, he meditates on the area of ether, where he absorbs the previous principle of touch into the principle of expression (vak) and the sense of hearing. The theory of expression (shabda-tattva) is then absorbed into egosense (ahamkara), egosense into mind (mahat-tattva), and mind into subtle Prakriti at the Ajna Chakra. And Prakriti into the ultimate bindu, which represents the Shiva philosophy, residing in Shiva's abode, the thousand-petalled lotus. 10
Spiritual enlightenment is commonly thought of as a journey from the gross to the subtle, but this movement is just half of the journey's total cycle. The descent of the subtle knowledge of cosmic consciousness is the other part of the inner path. The nectarine bliss of harmony at the Shivasthana, in the highest chakra, is visualised as a spray of nectar flowing down to the lower chakras from the cold rays of the moon of consciousness (citcandrika). The cyclic transition from the essence of consciousness to the mind and intellect, to the sensory organs, the earth aspect, and finally to the outside world of the senses comes to an end here.
The twin poles through which the whole period of involution and evolution of celestial energy takes place are the earth sphere, the lowest concept in the order of creation and the highest pinnacle of cosmic consciousness. The climb is called samhara-krama, and it is the first half of the path to completeness.
The Kundalini Shakti is taken back to its original resting ground at the base of the spine on the reverse journey. In the course of her descent, the current divine body is recreated.
With ambrosial nectar extracted from Shiva and Shakti's union, the energy now reverses her movement and empowers the vortices that lie in her way. This energy must be returned in the same way that she was directed upwards. She returns with a trickle of nectar that she sprinkles on each of the chakras. In other words, she infuses and inundates each psychic vortex with rasa, bursting with Shiva and Shakti's ultimate bliss of unification of consciousness. This union resurrects them and sets the stage for the flood of nectar that results from their joy. The Kundalini Shakti is referred to as the "universal vessel bearing the stream of celestial nectar (brahmandabhanda)" in this act.
In strictly psychic terminology, the journey can be translated as the unfolding of consciousness from its incipient state to the outpetalling of the soul flower. C.J. Jung has beautifully represented a visual philosophy of consciousness through the animal symbols of the psychic vortices through his long years of study into the mechanisms of the psyche. These are sometimes defined as "vehicles of consciousness."
Symbols of Animals
The fundamental elephant force that drives our atus facilitates the reconstruction of root consciousness, our chakra, aware of the Muladhara, which represents the cosmos. The earth aspect represents the earth's sustaining powers.
Kundalini energy ascends to the plane of Svadhisthana Chakra, where it meets the Makara, or Leviathan, propelled by the energy of the root support. If the elephant is the driving force, the Leviathan is the "engine that keeps you alive in the conscious world," according to Jung.
Waters, too, are essential for life to exist. Yet, as Jung points out, there is a power it obstructs that for what it is: "the greatest blessing in the waking world is the greatest curse in the unconscious." As a result, the Makara is optimistic, almost like a "dragon that devours." The aquatic energy of Makara turns into a Ram, the holy beast of Agni, or God of fire, in the next chakra, the Manipura Chakra. Ram is associated with Mars, the fiery world, which "represents impulses, impulsiveness, rashness, aggression, and all such things." It symbolises the ultimate act of love. To become mindful of one's passion on a subconscious basis is to seek its sublimation. The robust Ram is replaced in the next Anahata Chakra by a light-footed gazelle, which is also a sacrificial cow. The gazelle is portrayed as a majestic animal that is elusive, quick on its feet, light as air, and "gravity defying," rising high and resembling an eagle. From the Manipura to the Anahata, one experiences "the crossing over" to the sphere of self-recognition, a sign of "lightness of mind and emotion," the ego on its ascent. Here, one travels onto a plane where one recognises one's cosmic ability, leaving behind the mundane social and egoistic personality. This crossing over is very difficult to accept because it entails giving up one's self to the "consciousness that is at the limit." The elephant's symbol reappears in the Vishuddhi Chakra as the milky white Airavata, Indra's bearer. According to Jung, the elephant undergoes a transition, which initially took us closer to our psychic unfoldment. The elephant's blackness has transubstantiated into the purity of white, and the element earth has become ether, the psyche's explosive material. There is no animal sign at the Ajna Chakra. Instead, the chakra's corolla resembles a "winged seed," a full blinding white light perfectly aware of its celestial dimensions. The Sahasrara Chakra, the final summit, is an etheric void that is symbolless since it is "one" with cosmic consciousness.
When the channel awakens and harmonises, she pierces the twin forces. Sheasunders purifies and empowers the six Kundalini chakras by increasing the knots chakras, sharpening and empowering them with divine strength. When the Kundalini cleanses the Muladhara-chakra, which is aligned with the earth philosophy and springs from the delicate nature of smell, the aspirant is able to taste divine fragrances that are not available in everyday life. The Kundalini expands and saturates the entire body in the form of ultra-subtle pranic energy as the related centres awaken. The dreaming mind is fully overtaken by a vibratory stirring. Involuntary body motions, such as arm and leg trembling, may occur, and one may recoil into a waking state of trance sleep (yoganidra) or dive into a state of divine whirling ghurni, or be overcome by a torrent of compassion. One may adopt a variety of postures and movements on the spur of the moment (mudras and asanas). The unfolding of Kundalini Shakti is marked by many lakshanas13. Someone can be moved to write beautiful poems, sing devotional songs, or gain random awareness of some thing, person, or place. In this state, the adept loses awareness of his detachment from the celestial body, which is his own reflection, and breaks his earthly bonds in an instant.
The false sense of identification with the body vanishes and the aspirant is free of dualising thinking until the two discordant currents of the lunar (Ida) and solar (Pingala) channels become firmly harmonised in the median channel, Sushumna. He then reaches a state of samadhi, or undifferentiated immersion, on his own. The condition is a striking characteristic of the Shaiva and Shakta traditions.
Awakened Kundalini
When the channel awakens and harmonises, she pierces the twin forces. She asunders purifies the six Kundalini chakras, increasing the knots chakras, across and the median. She sharpens and instils supernatural influence in them. When the Kundalini cleanses the Muladhara-chakra, which is aligned with the earth philosophy and springs from the delicate nature of smell, the aspirant is able to taste divine fragrances that are not available in everyday life. The Kundalini expands and saturates the entire body in the form of ultra-subtle pranic energy as the related centres awaken. The dreaming mind is fully overtaken by a vibratory stirring. Involuntary body motions, such as arm and leg trembling, may occur, and one may recoil into a waking state of trance sleep (yoganidra) or dive into a state of divine whirling ghurni, or be overcome by a torrent of compassion. One may adopt a variety of postures and movements on the spur of the moment (mudras and asanas). The unfolding of Kundalini Shakti is marked by many lakshanas13. Someone can be moved to write beautiful poems, sing devotional songs, or gain random awareness of some thing, person, or place. In this state, the adept loses awareness of his detachment from the celestial body, which is his own reflection, and breaks his earthly bonds in an instant.
The false sense of identification with the body vanishes and the aspirant is free of dualizing thinking until the two discordant currents of the lunar (Ida) and solar (Pingala) channels become firmly harmonised in the median channel, Sushumna. He then enters a state of samadhi, or undifferentiated absorption, on his own. The state of samadhi is viewed as a state of active consciousness, conscious and absolute, in which the immanent and transcendent are woven into a continuous spectrum in the Shaiva and Shakta traditions.
The yogi is supposed to undergo both internal and external extension of consciousness. In the ascending and descent of the Kundalini Shakti, he internalizes the world in the subtle body in the first step. His beatific vision of oneness openly manifests in the external universe, mediated by the senses, in the next phase. Unmilana samadhi, or feeling the joy of consciousness with open eyes14, is the term for this. The blissful and holy body is where Shiva and Shakti's artistic union is felt. The planet is not negated or abolished; rather, every atom of the universe is infused with the all-pervasive force of blissful consciousness. The cosmic play of Kundalini Shakti is maintained by the exteriorization of the referential universe into harmony and the exteriorization of bliss into the outer world.
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6. Siva Sutras: The Yoga of Supreme Identity. Trans with Notes, Jaidev Singh. Delh
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7. Silburu, Lilian. Kundalini: The Energy of the Depths. Albany: State University o
New York, 1988, pp. 3,161.
8. There are different models of the subtle body schema. For the model of the
body cosmos with thirteen psychic centres see: Khanna Madhu, The Subtle Body—
A Tantric Scroll, with translation, commentary and notes, Ahmedabad: Calico
Museum, 2004.
9. Khanna, Madhu. Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity. London: Thames
and Hudson, 1997 (reprint), pp.121-122.
10. Sritattvacintamani, Chap. VI, 53-54, pp. 224-227. The Serpent Power, pp. 446-47
Op. cit.
11. Sritattvacintamani Chap. VI, 54, p.226. Op.cit
12. Jung, C.G., Psychological Commentary on Kundalini Yoga, Lectures One, Two,
Three and Four, 1932 (from the Notes of Mary Foote), published in Spring, New
York, 1975-76.
13. Nigamananda, Tantrikaguru (in Hindi). Halisar: Assam Bangiya Sarasvata Matha,
1988, pp.206.ff, see also Mookerjee, Ajit. Kundalini The Arousal of the Inner En
ergy. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982, p.71 ff, has documented the process
and effects of the Kundalini experience.
14. Pratyabhijnahrdayam, The Secret of Self-Recognition. Text with English transla
tion and notes by Jaidev Singh. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass, 1963, p 103 ff; c.f.,
Siva Sutras, sutra 45, pp 231-232. Op.cit.
