24-Jan-2010

Why Do Yoga

And What is Kundalini, Anyway?

People are often afraid to try yoga, and no wonder. Yoga magazines and books are filled with images of rubber-bodied yogis in acrobatic twists, or muscular body-builders in perfect handstands. Unfortunately, this portrayal of yoga can be intimidating and it doesn’t reflect the reality of what yoga was developed to do.

Yoga meets you where you are and takes you to your potential. In fact, I always say that if you can breathe and move your body, you can do yoga. Strong, rhythmic breathing coupled with fluid movements is one of the foundations of yoga.

People who do yoga, or who have some understanding of yoga, are curious about kundalini. In the past, the kundalini energy has been referred to as the “serpent power,” and other exotic sounding terms, but my teacher, Yogi Bhajan, taught Kundalini Yoga in a way that makes this powerful energy much more simple and its impact much closer to home than you might think.

Kundalini comes from the root word kundal from Sanskrit, meaning “the lock of the hair from the beloved.” As with the image of the serpent, the emphasis is on the process of uncoiling this “hair,” which is the awakening of the kundalini, the unlimited potential that exists in every human.

The easiest way to understand kundalini is to acknowledge the universal spirit, sometimes referred to as God. God uncoils him/her/itself within you. This uncoiling process, as well as the energy derived from the process, is called kundalini. What is uncoiling and awakening is you, nothing more and nothing less. It is a normal capacity within each of us that most people are not utilizing. Yoga is the science of the self, and kundalini is the awakening of the self. It is that simple.

It is natural, once you become curious about kundalini to want to explore this for yourself. So go take a Kundalini Yoga class near you. Who knows what your kundalini has in store for you?

Shakta Kaur Khalsa
Women's yoga, health, and beauty
Children’s Yoga
Author, KISS Guide to Yoga