The Path of Kundalini

The following excerpt is from Kundalini Yoga: The Mother Power, by Sri Chinmoy.

There are various paths that lead to the Goal. Kundalini is one path that offers special power, but there are other paths which also offer similar powers. Let us say there are three roads leading toward the same destination. One road has quite a few trees and flowers, the second has a few trees and flowers and the third one does not have any at all. While walking the kundalini path, you see some power, but this power is definitely not the ultimate power. For those who have no spiritual or occult power, kundalini power seems very vast. But in comparison to the power of the Goal, kundalini power is nothing.

On some paths, this kind of occult power is not there. The road is clear and you just go forward and reach the Goal. Then, once you reach the Goal, you get the omnipotent power, spiritual power. But the follower of kundalini often just stays with his limited power. On very rare occasions seekers have fallen from the spiritual path because they have achieved spiritual power. Kundalini power, occult power, has taken many, many sincere seekers away from the Truth.

Most of the time, kundalini power is a curse and not a blessing. If you misuse kundalini power, then you are ruined. You destroy all your possibilities to realise the Highest and God knows how many incarnations it will take you to come back to the right path again. Ninety-nine percent of the time the kundalini power is misused. But if you properly use it, then you get inspiration to do something good for the world.

There are many spiritual Masters of the highest order who do not have kundalini power because they have not followed that path, but they have spiritual power, which is much stronger. The real power, spiritual power, comes to the seeker in the process of his inner growth.

Again, if God is pleased with a seeker who is following a different path, He can give the seeker a little bit of kundalini power. If He feels that the seeker may need kundalini power in the future in order to manifest Him in a specific way, then God sends some messenger who is working in kundalini to give that person power. All the different spiritual qualities are in God’s room. If you enter into God’s room, here you will see one box marked Peace, and other boxes marked Light, Love, Delight and Power. Now you are only caring for Peace, but God feels that you may also need a little bit of Power. The world is such that if you don’t show a little bit of power, people don’t believe. So if God feels the necessity for Power in your life, even though you don’t want kundalini power, God will give it. But if God does not feel any necessity, then even if you cry for kundalini power, He will not give it to you.

People start their spiritual journey with a good attitude: they care only for God, Truth, Light. But after walking for two or three or six months, they find that the path is very dry. They see that they are not getting name and fame or that they are not getting any miraculous power; so they give up and follow another path like kundalini. On that path, as soon as you get something, you can show all your miraculous power to the world and feel that you are something. But this power will never give you even an iota of peace of mind.

The use of occult power in no way elevates anybody’s consciousness. Like a magician, you are showing something and it creates a kind of excitement that lasts for a few minutes or an hour. But then you and those who have become excited feel miserable. You know that this is not going to last forever, that there are higher truths and higher realities. You say, ‘I came into the world for peace, for love, for joy, for happiness, for satisfaction. Now is this the satisfaction that I want?’ So you enter into the real spiritual life, where kundalini is not required. Here what is required is only an inner cry for Truth, Light and Bliss. Once you get Truth, Light and Bliss you won’t care for kundalini power.

It is just like a child who has five cents. He knows that he will be able to distribute those five cents to five children of his age. But when the child knows that his father has thousands of dollars, then he will not be interested in the five cents. So here, the thousands of dollars is the real spiritual power.

If you want to be satisfied with a little bit of kundalini power, meditate for a few hours daily for six or seven years, which is nothing. In order to realise God it takes quite a few incarnations, unless you have a good spiritual Master. If you only concentrate on the chakras and meditate for kundalini, then as you complete your school course in fourteen or fifteen years, so also you will easily get kundalini power. And, if you are a very good student, you can skip a few grades and get kundalini power in just four or five or six years.

– Writings on Kundalini