From: Yogani
Date: Wed May 5, 2004 11:33am

Q: I have recently joined your yahoo group. In Sept 2003, the root knot of Kundalini opened. I was practising Kriya yoga since 1 year before. Since then any spiritual gathering or intense worship my heart chakra opens and I feel the spinal flow upwards coming out thru the top of the head, fontanel. I believe that is Satya Sai Baba, as I am his devotee. Still, full enlightenment is eluding me. Can you help?

A: Thank you for writing and sharing.

Your experiences of opening are very beautiful, but probably do not represent the end of your journey to enlightenment – more like the beginning of a new and wonderful stage.

There is the idea out there that kundalini energy moving to the crown is the end of the enlightenment process. It rarely is. In fact, if it is premature, before adequate preparation is done, it can signal a long and difficult ordeal (see Gopi Krishna in the links section on this). If you are consistently using spinal breathing between third eye and root, you will likely be spared the greatest difficulties of kundalini imbalance that can happen due to premature focus on the crown (sahasrar). We will be covering more on opening the crown in future lessons.

More importantly, it is essential to be cultivating inner silence (pure bliss consciousness) through deep meditation to round out the neuro-biological transformation going on inside. If you read through all the lessons, you will see the importance of this discussed from many angles. Enlightenment is a union of divine polarities within us, and kundalini/shakti is only one half of that equation. Inner silence/shiva is the other half.

As for having the blessing (and shaktipat) of a great one such as Sai Baba, it certainly can’t hurt. Even so, the obstructions in your nervous system will have to come out to reveal your enlightenment, and no one can hasten that process beyond the physical limits you can tolerate. In other words, for most it is a long and gradual journey of unfoldment. It can be done in a lifetime, but not likely in a few years, unless you are of avatar stature (a savior born nearly enlightened), which we would all welcome, of course.

It is more likely that you have more work left to do. The good news is that there are plenty of good integrated yoga tools available, and you have the blessing of a great one besides. It is just a matter of bringing your expectations in line with your actual time line, and proceed with gusto from there.

It is suggested you settle in for the long haul and focus on doing a routine of good integrated spiritual practices every day. Then you have the best opportunity for rapid progress. You may wish to review the lessons from the beginning and check for elements of practice you may not be using yet that can help accelerate your progress.

It is wonderful to have the blessings of saints and sages, but in the end it is we who must follow through on our spiritual transformation with the daily use of advanced yoga practices.

I wish you all joy and success on your chosen spiritual path.

The guru is in you.