Kundalini and the Brain
The awakening of Kundalini and its union with Shiva is immediately and intimately connected with the whole brain.To explain it simply, we can say the brain has ten compartments, and of these, nine are dormant and one is
active. Whatever you know, whatever you think or do is coming from one-tenth of the brain. The other nine-tenths, which are in the frontal portion of the brain, are known as the inactive or sleeping brain.
Why are these compartments inactive? Because there is no energy. The active portion of the brain functions on the energies of ida and pingala, but the other nine-tenths have only pingala. Pingala is life and ida is consciousness. If a man is living but is unable to think we say he has prana shakti but not manas shakti. Similarly, the silent parts of the brain have prana, not consciousness.
So a very difficult question arises: how to awaken the sleeping compartments of the brain? We know how to awaken fear, anxiety and passion, but most of us do not know how to awaken these dormant areas of the brain. In order to arouse the silent areas, we must charge the frontal brain with sufficient prana, with sufficient vital energy and consciousness, and so we must awaken sushumna nadi. For both these purposes we must
practice pranayama regularly and consistently over a long period of time.
Lighting up the brain
In Kundalini yoga it was discovered that the different parts of the brain are connected with the chakras. Certain areas are connected with mooladhara chakra, others with swadhisthana, manipura, and so on. When you want to turn on a electric lamp, you don't have to touch the lamp itself, you operate it by means of the switch on the wall. Likewise, when you want to awaken the brain, you can't deal with it directly, you have to flick the switches which are located in the chakras.
Modern science divides the dormant area of the brain into ten parts, whereas in kundalini yoga we divide it into six. The qualities or
manifestations of the brain are also six fold, e.g. the psychic powers, These manifest in different individuals according to the degree of awakening in the corresponding areas of the brain. Everybody is not clairvoyant or telepathic; some people are talented musicians. Anybody can sing, but there is a center in the brain where transcendental music expresses itself.
Total and partial awakening :
A genius is one who has awakened one or more of the dormant areas of the brain. People who have flashes of genius are those who have had a momentary awakening in certain circuits of the brain. It is not total awakening. When the total brain wakes up, you become a junior god, an incarnation or embodiment of divinity. There are various types of geniuses; child prodigies, inspired poets, musicians,
inventors, prophets etc. In these people a partial awakening has occurred.
Sahasrara is the actual seat of Kundalini.
Although the classical descriptions place heavy emphasis on the awakening of kundalini in mooladhara chakra, there is widespread misconception that kundalini must be awakened there and made to travel through and awaken all the chakras in turn. In fact, the seat of Kundalini is actually sahasrara. Mooladhara is only a manipulation center or switch, like the other chakras, but it happens to be easier for most people to operate this switch.
Each of the chakras is independent; they are not connected with each other. This means, if kundalini shakti awakens in mooladhara, it goes directly to sahasrara, to a particular center in the brain. Similarly, from swadhisthana the shakti passes directly to sahasrara, from manipura it goes straight to sahasrara and so on. Kundalini can be awakened in an individual chakra or it can awaken throughout the whole network of chakras collectively. From each chakra, the awakening shock moves up to the top of sahasrara. However, the awakening is not sustained and those centers in the brain return to dormancy. This is what is meant by the return of kundalini to mooladhara.
If kundalini awakens in an individual chakra, the experiences which are characteristic of that chakra will be brought into conciousness. This may also occur when one does the practices for an individual chakra. For example, swadhisthana practices will raise
joy; manipura practices will increase the self-assertion; anahata stimulation will expand the
love; the vishuddi practices will awaken discrimination and wisdom, and ajna practices will increase the flow of
intuition, knowledge and perhaps extrasensory abilities and so on.
If the nervous
system is highly aroused, we may have other faculties opening because of the general arousal of the brain. This probably results from stimulation of an area in the lower end of the brain called the reticular formation. The function of this areas is to rouse the whole brain or to relax it, as in sleep.
The reticular formation and related areas have an inherent rhythm
which is responsible for our sleeping/waking cycles. but it is also largely activated by sensations from outside-by light ,sound, touch, etc., and from inside via the autonomic nervous system. It is the latter which seems to account for the more general arousal caused by the kundalini practices and other powerful yoga practices such as
kumbhaka or breath retention.
--- Swami Satyananda Saraswati
.....to be continued