From: Yogani
Date: Mon Mar 1, 2004 3:07pm

Q: I have been practising asanas (postures) for a long time. When I finish my asanas and do the shavasana (corpse pose) I sometimes feel a strange vibration or more of a palpitation in the region below my genitals. Most of the times I am able to stop it by will, other times I can’t. I also feel this vibration sometimes at work. Then it gets very annoying. It almost becomes uncontrollable and I just can’t seem to stop it. Is this some kind of cleansing process or is there something wrong with me? I just do regular asanas which I had learnt during a hathayoga course. I also do asvini mudra and nauli. Would appreciate your comments.

A: Yes, it is purification/cleansing. This is an early kundalini symptom. There is nothing wrong with you. Good things are happening. But maybe a bit in the wrong order.

A few aches, pains and vibrations can happen during purification of the nervous system. It is common in the perineum/root area as kundalini begins to stir. The symptoms should pass. If they do not, then the standard formula is to back off practices a bit until they do. It is called self-pacing in the lessons.

Mulabandha/asvini (anal sphincter contraction) and nauli are strong for stimulating energy in the area you mention, and are the likely culprits, so easing off these will probably bring some relief. It is not surprising you have this experience doing these particular hatha practices without prerequisite “global” practices.

Doing global practices of deep meditation and spinal breathing before going to raise kundalini is the best way to keep purification in balance and avoid unpleasant kundalini symptoms.

Perhaps it is time for you to consider getting into deep meditation. Then add spinal breathing once you have gotten a good routine of meditation going. The lessons go through it all, step-by-step. I think you will have no more difficulty with a bottleneck at the root if you do. As a matter of fact, you will be catching the difficulty early, before it happens further up in the body. The lessons go through all the reasons for doing global purification practices first, and more targeted (hatha-style) practices once global practices are well established. It is very important to do things in the right order, as it can save a lot of difficulties and bogging down with kundalini energy, and bring lots of ecstasy and rapid progress instead.

Asanas/postures are good for most people at any level, and make a great warm-up for pranayama and meditation too. Once you start with practices like mulabandha/asvini and nauli, then prerequisite practices of meditation and spinal breathing are needed to absorb and balance the energies that are stimulated at the root and then naturally move up through the nervous system.

The guru is in you.