NSS Kriya YogaOm Siddhivinayak Machindra Dutt Mandir · Katraj, Pune
The fire at full height during the havan ceremony

A practice

Kundalini

The coiled energy at the base of the spine, and what it means for it to rise. The emblem of this mandir depicts exactly this.

कुण्डलिनी

This practice is given at diksha. What follows describes what it is and what it does. The technique itself is shown in person by the Guru, never written down — that is how it has been kept for as long as it has existed.

Kundalini is described in the tradition as an energy lying coiled and dormant at the base of the spine, capable of rising through the central channel to the crown. The emblem of NSS — a serpent winding up a staff to a flame — is a picture of nothing else.

Why it is not taught casually

Kundalini has become a marketing word. It is worth saying plainly what the tradition holds: this energy is real, its awakening is not uniformly pleasant, and an awakening that occurs without preparation or supervision can be genuinely destabilising — physically as well as mentally.

That is why this is listed here as an advanced practice and why nothing on this page is a technique. The preparation is the meditation and the conduct; the awakening follows the preparation, under a teacher, or it should not be sought.

What preparation looks like

  • A settled daily meditation, months old rather than weeks.
  • A body that can sit upright without distress for the length of a practice.
  • A life ordered enough that a disturbance would not capsize it.
  • A teacher who has seen your practice and agrees you are ready.

What it brings

  • The awakening the whole tradition is oriented towards
  • Practised under guidance, a transformation of perception itself

All the practices