To Kundalini
Network & Information
Sweden 26 September 2002
Dear Mr. Chopra!
My
name is Marja S and I am the owner of the web site Kundalini
Network & Information in Sweden where I offer information about the
dangers of artificial spiritual exercises.
I have read your answer in "Meditation and Kundalini" to people who
are worried about the dangers of meditation on
your message board, because I have received mails from people who themselves
have read your answer and who are kundalini damaged by meditation.
I have received over three hundred mails from people around the world who have
been kundalini damaged by erroneous meditation, especially transcendental meditation
and chakra meditation, yoga, rebirthing, pranayama, holotropic breathing etc.
I have myself had bad experiences of rebirthing and you can read my story here.
I
can't say that I am surprised by your answer, because I have been reading, fulltime,
eastern philosophy about spiritual exercises and kundalini since my visit to
India in 1993, and I know very well your and other eastern gurus' opinion in
this matter.
But I have a wish that you and the other gurus and teachers would take some
responsibility in what you are teaching people. Those who have been damaged
by these dangerous artificial exercises have no one to turn to when they have
been struck by the tremendous kundalini energy. When they have gone psychotic
or physically ill, the gurus turn their back on them and say that it is this
person's karma. For me it is a very uncharitable attitude. It is my definite
opinion that it is the dangerous artificial exercises that causes the psychosis
and the mental and bodily illnesses.
During my ten years of fulltime kundalini research I have found that there were
two paths to enlightenment, according to the Tibetans.
One was a peaceful life in the monastery where one obeyed moral commands and
monastery rules, i.e. behaving impeccably, doing good deeds, disregarding material
interests and striving for peace of mind. In this way one could eventually reach
salvation.
The
other path was called the "direct way" and was a purely intellectual
method, which freed the one who followed it from all kinds of laws. One could
reach this freedom through artificial spiritual exercises, like breathing-exercises,
yoga and meditation. But that path was considered to be highly dangerous. It
was like, instead of following the path which slowly winds its way up towards
the top of the mountain, trying to climb vertically up the cliffs and cross
abysses with help only of a thin rope. Even the best suited for it could be
hit by a sudden attack of dizziness and fall like a presumptuous alpinist and
break his back. By this the Tibetans mean a terrible spiritual fall which leads
to the worst kind of perversities and the greatest confusion. One landed in
the end on a "demonic" level. Instead of reaching "the total
liberation" they became mad. They had knocked on doors, which they should
not have done.
Not even in the old occult Tibetan literature can one find the perfect doctrine
about these exercises, they were given only verbally from master to disciple,
and the interpretations varied not only from sect to sect, but also from master
to master. In the "Tibetan Book of the Dead", which can be read as
a "process of initiation", the aspirant is warned against "following
the dim lights" in the kingdom of the dead, on the spiritual path. The
dim lights come from the World of the Unhappy Spirits and one does not succeed
in reaching Liberation if one gets stuck there. My complete article "POSSESSION
- Superstition or Reality?" you can find here:
So,
in my opinion artificial spiritual exercises such as yoga and meditation are
dangerous.
I have also studied cosmology, books about a new world picture, written by a
Danish man, Martinus, who got cosmic consciousness naturally in 1921, without
any kind of artificial exercises. He warns against these kinds of artificial
methods, because the risks of short circuits in the brain and the nervous system
is too great. He is writing about trying to reach higher states of consciousness:
"...it is a state of 'high voltage', and if the right human qualifications
are not present in the consciousness, it can cause the most dreadful forms of
'short-circuit' and 'fire' in the consciousness. The great birth (=initiation,
my note; M.S.) is not something you can seek, as you would seek an office or
the award of an order." (From the book: Cosmic glimpses, chap. 5).
More about Martinus here.
Your own fellow countryman Gopi Krishna has described his hell and experiences
of the "fire" in his book "Living with Kundalini" which,
according to him, was caused by meditation and yoga exercises.
Wouldn't
it be fairer to tell people that there are dangers and let them make their own
decision if they want to take the risks in trying to reach higher levels of
consciousness?
Can you really say with good conscience that meditation and yoga are free from
risks?
I
hope we can have an open dialogue on this matter and that you will have the
courage to publish my whole letter to you on your message board, since people
are writing to me when they can't get satisfying answers from you or other gurus.
Many of them are suffering badly and their lives have been ruined by artificial
spiritual exercises.
This letter to you will be openly published on my site Kundalini Network &
Information under the "Personal
Stories" button.
Sincerely Yours
Marja S
KUNDALINI NETWORK & INFORMATION
IN SWEDEN
E-mail
Answer from Deepak Chopra:
Answer:
Dear Marja,
I'm sure you are very sincere in your concern about kundalini experiences, but
the meditation practices I encourage people to practice are not only safe, but
also promote mind/body integration, balance and mental health. The number of
people who have contacted your site with their kundalini experiences does not
indicate any causal connection between any of the practices you mention and
their experiences.
Kundalini is not something we should be afraid of. We wouldn't be physically
alive or cognizant without it. It is what allows our eyes to see, our mind to
think, our cells to metabolize. It is the natural force of evolution through
which higher states of consciousness unfold. As such it is certainly something
to be respected and not trifled of, and so, as I said before, I don't recommend
those practices that specifically aim to forcefully awaken the kundalini without
proper guidance. However, any meditation or spiritual practice that is based
on the experience of peace and self-awareness from silence is not forcing the
kundalini to rise. By removing the conditioning and limitations in the mind
and the body, these meditations allow for an awakening when the person is naturally
ready for it and so the experience will be more smooth and easy.
That's not to say that once you start meditating that the rest of your journey
to enlightenment will be easy in every respect. We all have our unique past
histories, and unraveling that conditioning will be a different experience for
every person. It's typical to go through a few bumps in the road, that's part
of human development. Even the physical process of growing up can sometimes
be temporarily painful for children. That doesn't mean we should be afraid of
the force that is causing that growth.
Kundalini is just life energy. Incidentally, Martinus's spontaneous awakening
that you referred to fits all the classic characteristics of a kundalini experience-the
heat, the tingling, and immobility. Every spiritual tradition around the world
has understood and respected and used the kundalini energy, not just India:
the Native Americans, Celts, Egyptians, Mayans, Kabbalists, Gnostics, Sufis,
Taoist, Buddhists, they all have safely guided the kundalini energy for centuries
or even thousands of years. The dangerous Tibetan practices you spoke of are
too arcane to be considered a problem because no one even knows about them in
the West. Your understanding of Tibetan knowledge is certainly unusual if not
altogether unique. The Tibetan monks did extensive meditation in the monasteries,
they weren't just practicing being nice people. My understanding is that Mahayana
Buddhism of Tibet has a very similar knowledge of kundalini that is found in
the Vedic tradition from which it was derived.
Love,
Deepak
My response:
Dear Mr. Chopra!
Thank
you for publishing my letter and your answer on your page.
I have some comments to your answers.
You
wrote:
"The number of people who have contacted your site
with their kundalini experiences does not indicate any causal connection between
any of the practices you mention and their experiences."
Yes they do. I have just published a few of all the hundreds of stories
I have got. They have many - if not all - of the symptoms described on our page
Kundalini Network & Information,
under the "Kundalini Symptoms"- button. Many of them have been suffering
from these awful symptoms, or short circuits, for 20 - 30 years and there are
also many who have committed suicide, because the "heat" was impossible
to live with, or the inner "voices" too terrifying to listen to. They
became mad. I can't call their dreadful experiences as "a few bumps in
the road". All the kundalini symptoms listed on our page have their source
in Indian books as Kundalini complications, and they are nothing we here in
west have invented. No one has found a cure for these symptoms.
"Kundalini is not something we should be afraid of."
In
my opinion Martinus gives the best and logical answers to the "mysterious
kundalini".
You call kundalini "just a life-energy". But it is also called sex-energy
in India.
Martinus writes that we are all electrical beings and all levels of consciousness
are electrical. Life-energy, according to Martinus, is electrical energy. Everyone
who has undergone a kundalini process can confirm this. Their experience is
that they have had thousands of volts passing through their bodies. It is electrical
short circuits in the brain and the nervous system that cause the uncontrollable
"heat" and "burning sensations" in the body.
The injuries are, according to Martinus, inner damage of the senses and mind
that can take many lives to repair. He strongly warns us against spiritual exercises
and recommends only the safe way: to practice the art of being a good human
being, who is a joy and blessing for his/her surroundings and the whole. This
behaviour will lead us safely and calmly to moral maturity to get cosmic consciousness.
This way will of course take many lives and sounds not so interesting for people
of today because many want to find shortcuts - even if they know the risks.
The risk of seeing the light too early, before our brain and nervous system
is sufficiently developed, is great. We are playing with high voltages, and
we must be able to get used to the light first before we can bear it. The only
way to reach Cosmic Consciousness is to completely conquer one's own lower dark
nature.
I have read Martinus' Livets Bog, "The Book of Life", and there I
found the answers to our development.
We are on our way to being "beings of light" and the animal sexuality
is going to degenerate to take a new shape. We will not always remain males
and females. Transformation is in progress, and we are undergoing a pole-change
to be sexual beings with both poles-the male and female- in balance i.e., a
third sex. But we can't force it with any kinds of artificial spiritual methods
because it is an organic spiritual process.
In eastern kundalini practices one is trying to unite Shakti and Shiva, but
very few people of today understand what the purpose of it is and what it means.
One is trying to force the primary pole - "the white cobra", white
electric light tubes in the spine - to reach its secondary pole with violence
in the brain by practising yoga, meditation and breathing exercises.
Martinus explains it in his books:
We will not always remain males and females, as I wrote. Transformation is in
progress.
The masculine pole in the male, and the feminine pole in the female, has its
"release-centre" in the sexual organs, while the opposite pole has
its "release-centre" in the brain-organs. These are still strongly
separated in the earthly human being. Through long development, a connection
line grows between these two centres. This cannot be rushed by any "exercises",
because it is an organic, spiritual process, which progresses through our humane
sympathies and actions towards our neighbour. With "spiritual eyes",
these can be seen as shimmering offshoots, thin "fluorescent tubes",
from both centres, and when they reach each other in the heart-region, through
the spinal cord, an immediate contact is established. This means "that
the most beautiful of the female's feminine- and the male's masculine mental
natures, and physical outlines has been united to a divine constitution, as
one being." (Livets Bog II, paragraph 361)
Man has then become one with her highest self, God, and gets Cosmic Consciousness
permanently. She is a "being of Love", who loves everything and everyone,
without exceptions. This shall not be confused with what we call "falling
in love", but is a higher form of love.
"Everything is now incorporated in the sympathetic talents, everything
is flames from the very highest fire. And not until now, the earthly human being
has become the true human being. " (Livets Bog V, paragraph 1935)
She can move in and out of the spiritual world, as she likes and desires, and
needs no longer to be born of women. This development shall take place peacefully,
and unnoticed over many lives.
To get into contact with the highest form of spiritual energy of the Universe,
"the energy of Love" one must vibrate on this high frequency oneself.
It is not until then that "Love" or God recognises himself! There
are no shortcuts.
"Every
spiritual tradition around the world has understood and respected and used the
kundalini energy, not just India: the Native Americans, Celts, Egyptians, Mayans,
Kabbalists, Gnostics, Sufis, Taoist, Buddhists, they all have safely guided
the kundalini energy for centuries or even thousands of years."
Yes,
many have tried to find shortcuts, but where are the results? If man has been
striving and doing artificial exercises for thousands of years all over the
world, why hasn't the world advanced and developed to be a better place to live
in? Where are all the enlightened people? The supreme purpose and goal of all
spiritual disciplines, including meditation, is enlightenment on which level
man is "loving one's neighbour as oneself"; a "man in God's image".
The
simple answer is that not many have succeeded in gaining enlightenment, and
not many will either. Moral maturity can not be reached through meditation or
yoga, but demands daily training in everyday life.
It is not difficult to see that there are many more wrecks left on the path
of spiritual yoga and meditation, than there are enlightened people.
I don't agree with all of Gopi Krishnas' writings, but I will end my letter
with a good quotation from his book "The Awakening of Kundalini":
"Let
us examine this difficult "union" (of the individual soul with the
universal spirit or consciousness, or God, my note M.S.) more closely. Out of
the millions who have been practicing meditative techniques of Yoga, how many
have attained to enlarged consciousness in the West? How many have gained that
state of beatitude and spontaneous flow of higher wisdom which from immemorial
times has been associated with the success of this holy enterprise? How many
have published their spiritual experiences to afford a glimpse of the transcendental
to other seekers in order to inspire them and to provide guidance on the path?
In India, the number of enlightened during the last one hundred years can be
counted on the fingers of one hand."
The only safe way to cosmic consciousness is the unselfish way, or as it also
is recommended in Bhagavad Gita, Nishkama Karma, selfless action as service
to God.
One can't jump from childhood to adulthood on the physical plane, and one can't
become a "being of love and light" if one has selfishness, darkness,
left in one's thoughts.
Sincerely Yours
Marja S
Waiting for an answer...................