Can Kundalini energy get "stuck"?

[sunyata07]

Namaste fellow HDF members,

Forgive the following post of my ignorance of Kundalini. I wish I could say I had greater knowledge of its nature and workings, but as it is, I still have only a very rudimentary grasp of what this spiritual energy does and where it uncoils along the chakras. I think my topic title might sound a little odd, but I'm not really sure how else to phrase my problem.

Can Kundalini become wound too tightly around a particular nerve centre or chakra? I realise I may be oversimplfying things here when I say that the chakras have been known to correspond to particular feelings, emotions, physical manifestations in the body, but would it be possible for Kundalini in its unfolding along the spine become fixated on a certain place and not budge for a while? I don't want to get too personal here, but I've been experiencing certain things that to my eyes seem a little uncharacteristic of my nature. Not that I've never experienced these mental and emotional pangs (I guess you could call them "urges", but that might be going a bit overboard), but never to this extent and I've been feeling it more intensely now over the last two months? It feels like "trapped energy" somewhere, and I was sincerely hoping there is someway I can direct that more efficiently than I have been doing in my regular japa and meditation. Most of the energy here that I am talking about is of the rajasic kind. It's not bad, but it's become something of a nuisance. I have tried reading about it, but I'm not sure if I've been looking in the right areas, or if I'm even just imagining it all. Could it be energy from the lower chakras (from the muladhara downward towards the feet?) Nothing major has really happened in my life that might lead to an explanation for this change. I'm just a bit confused right now. Could anyone please give me their thoughts on this?

Om namah Shivaya

[NayaSurya]

I have experienced something like this once and for me it really helped that while doing meditation and japa to visualize the energy gently, wonderfully rising out of that stuck area. Up my spine with a wondrous intensity.

I have a crushed disc in the very lowest portion of my spine, it is crushing the sciatic nerve there.

During this time where I felt especially "fixed" upon certain emotion/inclinations it was extremely painful and I could hardly sit down, or lay down...I was just miserable. The doctor ordered very high level pain meds, but I refused these and began to read about other alternatives.

I began to do this visualization and after a week or so, I felt this amazing feeling one day during this exercise. It was as if I was on an elevator going very fast upward and my whole body became corrected in posture. I felt this wonderful feeling rise out of my back bone and thrust up into the back of my head and out the top. Any time I felt odd in that previous way, I began this visualization and to this day I have not had another problem.

It's not much, but I am deeply sorry you are suffering and you are always in my heart and thoughts.<3

[Mana]

Namaste sunyata07,

I can only really speak from my experience and not from learned knowledge. I do however highly recommend "Kundalini Yoga" by Sri Swami Sivananda.

To my eyes the feelings you are experiencing are directly related to circumstance in your dahrama both inner and outer, the kundalini clears all chackras whilst balancing her environment.

She pierces chakras to clear the way for energy flow. That you are aware of this is a great sign above all have no fear but be sure to listen to her as this is usually an indication of change or movement in our path through our dharama, from which we can learn by emergence.

Yes she can get stuck, although it is probably better said that she is blocked!

I think that the visualisation technique is a great advice of NayaSurya's!

Brahmacharya will heighten your awareness of this energy system it will increase your sensitivity.

Om Shakti

[rkpande]

dear s-07,

namaste,


Kundalani is concentrated pranic energy, which is used by yogies to untie the three granthies in the susmana, so to say to remove obstructions, for prana to flow unhindered in the royal road.

if our chakra right from muladhara upwards are not cleansed, and we are not properly established in yama and niyamas,

kundalini if awakened accidentally, may heighten the feelings associated with lower chakras. it is naturally different for different people.

[anirvan]

if our chakra right from muladhara upwards are not cleansed, and we are not properly established in yama and niyamas,

kundalini if awakened accidentally, may heighten the feelings associated with lower chakras. it is naturally different for different people.

[/QUOTE]

I think above is the correct perspective to look at your problem.to clean or unblock a particular chakra is not in our hand.kundalini shakti is self sufficient to find its own path to move up to sahasrara(siva).

What is in our hand is to keep our mind,chitta in sattika state.then how much kundalini or where ever it is stuck will not deviate/harm to us.thats why its essential to do chitta-sudhi...self cleansing to make us sattva dominant before trying to do energy sadhna like meditation and japa etc.though practically it shall go by hand in hand.

My personal suggestion will be that SURRENDERING (saranagati) is the best and only way to overcome such obstacle.and this surrendering is nothing but praying intensely and with utmost devotion and offering whatever sadhna you are doing at same time.


ananyaascintayanto maam ye janaa paryupaasate

teshaam nityaabhiyuktaanaam yogakshemam vahamyaham!

Bhagbatgita.

[sunyata07]

Namaste,

Thank you for your responses and suggestions, everyone. I will take these into consideration as I try to understand further what I am going through.

NayaSurya, I will try utilising your visualisation technique the next time I sit down to meditation. Thank you for your kind words. It sounds like a good practice, whether or not it will help me with this problem. I guess I will have to do more reading up on kundalini shakti, and in the meantime, keep my habits, environment, frame of mind and diet sattvic.

Mana, thank you for the recommended text. I have bought a similar book called Kundalini Tantra by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. I haven't been able to read it just yet, but I'm hoping it will provide some insight to kundalini's workings in the body. I have prayed to Shakti Herself as Devi that this energy might channelled in something productive and beneficial and not devouring and demanding. It is something of a challenge right now, though, to speak honestly. Sometimes I get the feeling if I did not have spiritual practices to give myself some time to connect with the Divine, kundalini energy would rage its way down into the lower chakras. God knows where I might be now were it not for japa, prayer and meditation. I have much to be thankful for with regards to this forum, too. Here I can find many sympathetic ears and helpful advice from friends. Thank you for your time.

Om namah Shivaya

[sunyata07]

Namaste,

Just some added thoughts of mine. Actually, what I really wanted to do was to vent some frustration here. I have been surfing through the net these last few nights, trying to find out more about Kundalini energy becoming blocked. I was also reading a little bit about Brahmacharya observance and trying to redirect energies that would normally incite sexual desire, but I find it maddening that so many articles and advice columns found on the internet and in books that speak of Brahmacharya practice come from the point of view of men. While I can understand that most things are written with the perspective of men in view as the default sex (for convenience more than anything else), it seems naive and very primitive to hold the view that it is primarily males who suffer from temptations of the flesh. Now I realise this may be true to some extent, but on the other hand, it is an entirely inaccurate viewpoint. As one member on this forum once pointed out - Nayasurya I think, unless I am wrong - females succumb just as easily to sexual desire as men, it's just that they are much better at hiding it!

Such advice given to aspiring Brahmacharyis include asking celibates to remember that the body is a material vessel for the soul, subject to age and decay. I think this only works to some extent because it requires the person to reason with himself on something that while can be acknowledged to be a truth, is never quite clearly understood until it is experienced for himself. Also, celibates are often asked to imagine, whenever they feel the stirrings of desire in seeing a pretty female, that they are seeing the Divine Mother Herself and asking with Her grace to help them see Her presence in them thereby lessening kama. Should females do the same thing, but (assuming they are heterosexual) imagine Lord Shiva instead? I'd say a cold shower would work just as well, but that probably isn't always feasible on a day-to-day basis.

Om namah Shivaya

[NayaSurya]

I knew what you were speaking of and tried my best to insinuate this without being gauche. (I didn't want to just assume it was this same so I began to speak about my injury which began a great issue with it.) But, I have experienced this since my birth. As a very young child I prayed so very hard to Beloved wondering my purpose here almost immediately...

When I was very tiny, I was sexually abused. From this moment on I began to have an overwhelming urge. It occured 24/7, relentlessly. Only from that exercise above was I finally relieved of this. I visualized that lower chakra and felt the energy rise higher and higher up my spine, into the back of skull and out the top.

It is a tremendous amount of energy...and even to this time I use it during my relations with my husband to not get overtly carried away.

Imagining Beloved Shiva was no help to me, as I see Him in even that state and am compelled to give him this special gift.

For my Beloved Husband, it has been a great gift because I see him as truly the Portion of Shiva I am to serve and I want to do this so perfectly wonderful.

But, to move on past this moment I know I will one day completely become celebate with him as our age rises and our vessels fail.


We are sisters, cut from Beloved Shakti's Beautiful Cosmic Cloth...and from this place we are all Radha, the Lover of Beloved.

I send my heart to you, overflowing with such Love. I know this difficult situation well and just that you are here to work upon it proves Your Beautiful Portion has risen above the animal to work it through.

And...since we are not these animals we inhabit...it means you will supremely succeed in this effort, of this I have no doubt.

At your Feet<3

[Arjuni]

Namast�, all,

Sunyata, other commenters have already written some great insight into your original question, and given powerful examples of its occurrence. I agree with Mana that a better term is "blocked," but I think the answer to your question is an overwhelming "yes"!

Both you and NayaSurya raise some fantastic points later, regarding brahmacharya, desire (and indirectly, kundalini), so hopefully I won't derail the thread too much by addressing each in turn:

...females succumb just as easily to sexual desire as men, it's just that they are much better at hiding it!
Hiding it from others, or even from themselves, for women are often taught by culture - everything from family pressure to bodily shame to gender conditioning - that it's wrong for them to desire. Many ladies grow up despising or ignoring their bodies, and this has negative consequences for mental, physical, and sexual health. (A fascinating book on this subject is Caroline Knapp's Appetites: Why Women Want).
I've read, regarding brahmacharya, that second chakra (Svādhiṣṭhāna) in particular can become a difficult point when spiritual sādhanā is done. And this is one reason why women specifically are enjoined not to do certain works (like chant Vedas): because it's believed that women's reproductive systems can be harmed by second chakra going out of control, and also that living a chaste life will become much more difficult (which traditionally has more disastrous social consequences for women than men).

Such advice given to aspiring Brahmacharis include asking celibates to remember that the body is a material vessel for the soul, subject to age and decay.
I loathe this advice, which I too have read. Do we not have enough disregard for the elderly and infirm in the world; do we not fear aging enough? I know that teachers are trying to induce vairāgya by getting students to see past external beauty, but to me, this tactic is associated with a certain negative, self-flagellating approach to sexuality that seems to me very sex-obsessed in its own way. (If I read a 200-page book about brahmacharya that describes various manifestations of desire, how to control them, the types of thoughts that might arise, etc., have I not just read a 200-page book about sex - except with the words "DO NOT" prefaced before everything? :P )

I'd say a cold shower would work just as well, but that probably isn't always feasible on a day-to-day basis.
Cold showers suck. I tried it once just to see what the hoop-la was about, and it just made me a shivering and grumpy version of myself. :P

But seriously, panicking enough to jump into cold water seems more of the same over-pressured approach I described above. Putting too much pressure on oneself to perfectly succeed in anything, and ripping oneself apart for the tiniest slip, seems to me very egotistical and almost a certain guarantee of failure. For example, if I focus on a chakra that feels "stuck," then I fall into an annoyed-at-self mental loop instead of focusing on the meditation I'm trying to do. (And for the record, my own second chakra has been a mess for years.) If I respond to feelings of lust and desire, by looking at myself with anger, disappointment, and impatience, then I tend to crave the comfort of touch more, and that certainly doesn't help.

Regarding the chakras, instead of focusing on second when it feels stuck, I simplify, by focusing only on mūlādhāra/anāhata/sahasrāra. Or, more specifically, I focus on what those chakras mean to me, and pray very simply. Let me be rooted in faith and devotion. Let me love You. Let me reach to You. Some systems do recognise only three chakras as opposed to seven, or far more than seven, so it seems a decent approach.

...celibates are often asked to imagine, whenever they feel the stirrings of desire in seeing a pretty female, that they are seeing the Divine Mother Herself and asking with Her grace to help them see Her presence in them thereby lessening kama. Should females do the same thing, but (assuming they are heterosexual) imagine Lord Shiva instead?
There's merit in that approach; there are many ways that seeing the Divine can help! Occasionally I do see an attractive person and think of my Beloved manifesting Himself in different forms. More often, though, I see a person and mentally thank them for the reminder, also praying to myself in quiet wonder. If you are so beautiful to my eyes, how much more wonderful must He be! Thank you, Lovely One, for showing me beauty and reminding me of Beauty...and help me become wiser so that I may see You always, in all things and beings, not just the attractive ones!

For my Beloved Husband, it has been a great gift because I see him as truly the Portion of Shiva I am to serve and I want to do this so perfectly wonderful.
This is beautiful, and yet another way that seeing the Divine in others transforms simple lust into true brahmacharya.

There are two quotations that altered my entire attitude towards brahmacharya (and life and faith and everything), that I remember often.

NayaSurya wrote this:
Imagining Beloved Shiva was no help to me, as I see Him in even that state and am compelled to give him this special gift.

And this reminded me the first quote I love, which is from Sri Ramakrishna, who said: "Direct the six passions to God. The impulse of lust should be turned into the desire to have intercourse with Atman. Feel angry at those who stand in your way to God. Feel greedy for Him. If you must have the feeling of I and mine, then associate it with God. Say, for instance, 'My Rama, my Krishna.' If you must have pride, then feel like Bibhishana, who said, 'I have touched the feet of Rama with my head; I will not bow this head before anyone else.'"

The other is Swami Chinmayananda: "The noble and ignoble, the fallen and the sublime are all in Him."

I truly agree with this, and since all of my feelings and silly worries are His, I hope He doesn't mind that I try to offer it all back: joy, sadness, desire, all like flower petals from my hands. Anirvan's advice here, to surrender, I think applies to "chakra difficulties," "brahmacharya difficulties," and "all difficulties."

Indraneela
===
Oṁ Indrāya Namaḥ.
Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya.

[Mana]

Namast&#233;

Sunyata you have some beautiful responses already I tend to be a little scientific in my reasoning I hope that this also helps in some way.

Both the male and female subtil body's are the same, the Atman has no gender!
Gender manifests in our biological body's and our egos alone, to allow for reproduction. that said it is an important part of our humanity and spirituality, pulling us up ever closer to Ishvara.

Know that Women make a substance very similar to seminal fluid.

The relationship between man and Woman is a microcosm of the macrocosm that is the love between man or woman and God. When Shiva is Joined with Shakti in a couple a new life may be formed, truly an act of God. When Shiva is Joined with Shakti in universal selfless love, God may be expressed in many other ways.

I find that sexual urges can be defused by paying attention to the Gunas, a sexual urge in a Rajasic state will become the energy to do good work in a Satvic state. If Shakti is willing then this energy is dispersed via Shiva through universal love in the world.

Through Karma.

Om Shakti.