Kundalini Awakening
Excerpts from The Second Coming of Christ by Paramahansa Yogananda
Benefits of Awakening of Kundalini
"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves" (Matthew10:16).
Parallel reference:
"Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves" (Luke 10:3).
"Wherever you go, my consciousness must be manifest in you; keep yourselves always humble, inoffensive, unrevengeful, like meek lambs, even when you are surrounded by ravenous wolves of ruthless, conscienceless people and predacious satanic sense temptations that are everywhere present in worldly environments. Abide at all times in great wisdom and calmness born of the divine realization you have received by awakening your serpent force (the coiled divine energy that rises up in the spine and opens the astral cerebrospinal centers of spiritual perception) and in the peace you have acquired by concentrating your consciousness in the peace-producing, dovelike spiritual eye."
It is not generally understood what Jesus meant when he spoke of being wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Ordinary serpents have no wisdom, are quick to anger, and are stupid enough to court their own death by biting people. Doves are not altogether harmless, for they can spread mites and disease. Even though the dove might be traditionally a symbol of peace for its peaceful looks and behavior, the serpent certainly does not look wise or inspiring. Since Jesus was addressing his advanced disciples, he used these words metaphorically, in an esoteric sense.
The Oriental scriptures employ the simile of a serpent to illustrate the kundalini or astral life force in the body, which, when awakened with the help of an advanced technique of Self-realization, passes through a serpentine coiled passage at the base of the spine upward to the highest spiritual centers in the brain, bestowing divine consciousness. The dove symbolizes the tricolored spiritual eye—the mouth of the dove representing the white star in the middle of the spiritual eye; the blue and gold spherical rings surrounding the star symbolizing the wings of the dove.
A person in ordinary consciousness, identified with the minutiae of his little ego's senses, reason, and feeling, perceives himself circumscribed by his body, family, society, country, world, and a certain portion of space. But when by scientific meditation he awakens his serpent force, he reverses the searchlight of his awareness from physical sense consciousness to divine consciousness. Taking his kundalini force upward through the cerebrospinal centers and penetrating his life and consciousness through the spiritual eye, he beholds himself as omnipresent. His perception is restricted no longer to a limited sphere of matter and the sensations in one body, but expands into perception of the infinite reaches of space and awareness of the sensations of all beings.
The devotee who perceives through his spiritual eye his omnipresent existence, who feels an ineffable peace and attunement with every thing and every living creature, and who beholds all selves as manifestations of his own being, becomes harmless to all, equally loving the different parts of his own cosmic body. Awakened in eternal wisdom, the realization of his true Self, he cannot in any way be inwardly disturbed or incited to evil actions no matter how provoked by trials and temptations.
Jesus knew that his advanced disciples had awakened their higher consciousness by rousing the kundalini divine life energy through practice of the methods of meditation he had taught them. Therefore he reminded them to retain the deep wisdom and calmness bestowed by kundalini awakening when confronted with opposition and persecution. Anyone who has lifted up this coiled life energy and thereby elevated his human consciousness into Christ Consciousness by penetrating through the spiritual eye has acquired tremendous miraculous power; such a one could destroy by divine will force his would-be enemies, as well as satanic temptations. That is why Jesus warned his disciples not to use their powerful awakened energy in vengeful retaliation when confronted by the wickedness of erring children of God; but rather to overcome enemies with the celestial power of God's infinite peace and love, with which they were blessed in the baptism of their consciousness by the spiritual eye, the dove of light. (Discourse 41; p. 779-781)
