Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic

by Darren Main

  As we talked, she told me that she had just had an abortion and felt very guilty about it. She was raised in a very religious home, and she knew her parents would never forgive her. In fact, her parents’ beliefs about abortion were so influential that she had considered having the baby. Her friends, however, had some very different beliefs. They felt she was too young and too immature and pressured her to abort the pregnancy. This created a great conflict in the tribal aspect of her first chakra. Because she had so many radically different beliefs held in this center, either decision would have lead to a deep split in that part of her mind.

  Her second chakra was also in conflict. She told me she had been afraid to tell her boyfriend that she was pregnant, because she didn’t know if he would want her to keep the child or abort. She wasn’t even sure if he would stay with her. In addition, her feelings about parenting came into play. On the one hand she was unprepared to raise a child, but on the other hand she felt like abortion was murder. This of course left her with even more conflict.

  Her ultimate decision to abort hit her much harder than she had expected, and she had decided to end her life. Unfortunately, the most I could offer her that night was a sympathetic ear. She declined all my offers to call for help, and eventually went unconscious while we were on the phone.

  This is, of course, an extreme case. Most of us don’t experience that degree of conflict within our chakras, but for most of us there can be a considerable amount. Look, for example, at how easy it is to confuse the roles of the second chakra’s sexual needs and desires with the heart’s need for love and intimacy.

  In theory, the chakras should all work together, but when we fill them with conflicting beliefs, judgments and unprocessed emotions, disease and imbalance occur at all levels of the body, heart and mind.

  Kundalini

  Kindle the fire of kundalini deep in meditation. Bring your mind and breath under control. Drink deep of divine love, and you will attain the unitive state.

  —Shvetashvatara Upanishad

  Understanding each of the seven chakras as individual energy centers is quite helpful in allowing us to balance the various aspects of our health and humanity. But their place in our spiritual evolution is also important. In order to understand this, we need to explore the concept of kundalini-shakti.

  In Chapter 2 we discussed the idea of lila. This Divine Play is acted out by Shiva and his lover Shakti. Within our bodies, this happens through the kundalini experience. Shiva and Shakti are the divine lovers that act out their romance on the cosmic stage. Within our bodies this cosmic dance is happening all the time. Shiva exists in his formless state at the crown of the head in sahasrara. Shakti, his consort, exists as a large coil of energy called kundalini-shakti situated at the base of the spine wrapped around muladhara. Like two lovers filled with passion for each other, Shiva and Shakti yearn to unite and become one. Therefore, over and over again, Shakti seeks to reach her lover and experience union with him by traveling up the sushumna.

  This kundalini-shakti energy is often depicted as a snake, and much of the time it lies fairly dormant. On occasion, this energy will stir and begin its journey up the spine, rising as high as we are capable of letting Her. In order for Her to ascend, each chakra needs to be free of blockages. Consequently, in our journey to Self-realization, it is essential that we open up each of these energy centers so that Shiva and Shakti can be united within us.

  Because She begins her journey at the root chakra and moves up the spine along a vertical axis, She must move up the spine through each chakra in succession. For example, if you have a very open third chakra, but your first and second chakras are blocked, the energy will only be able to flow as high as the lowest chakra that is open. It is for this reason that it is wise to clear out the lower chakras before attempting to work on the upper chakras. A lot of well-meaning spiritual seekers want to go for the gusto and experience Spirit directly in their first few yoga classes.

  I had a student, Scott, who came to me a few years back and asked me to recommend a book that would help him understand the spiritual part of yoga. I recommended Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. In this book Yogananda recounts his life in great detail. He speaks of the great yogis he has met who have special powers, such as the ability to levitate or the ability to appear in two places at once.

  At first glance, the book might seem to be a work of fiction, but there is good documentation of great yogis doing seemingly impossible things. In any case, Scott was quite impressed and asked me to help him learn to levitate. I had to laugh when he asked. Not only do I not know how to levitate myself, but it takes a very advanced yogi even to consider such things.

  He seemed a bit disappointed, so I had him re-read the first few chapters of Yogananda's book. In the early years of his life, Yogananda wanted nothing more than to run off and find his guru, live in a hermitage and meditate for hours each day. His father wouldn’t hear of it, so Yogananda ran away several times. Ultimately, he agreed to finish his schooling before formally renouncing the world to live as a monk.

  Yogananda is one of the great yogis to come to this country from India, and he has had a great impact on yoga in the West. But even he needed to deal with the lower chakras before he could devote his life to the higher ones. As urban mystics, we need to be really clear about our relationship to our lower chakras, because we don’t have the convenience of being able to let go of our worldly responsibilities.

  Ultimately, it was Yogananda's ability to live and work in the world that enabled him to take his great spiritual insights and offer them to thousands of people everywhere. This is why the first job of a good yoga teacher is to get a new student back in touch with his or her body. Until we really ground ourselves in the root chakra, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to excel as modern yogis. Once we clear out the root chakra, we are able to look more closely at the second chakra, and then the third, and so on. This is not to say that we shouldn’t work on all the chakras all the time. Indeed, a well-balanced yoga practice should work to open all the energy centers. But the general focus of our spiritual evolution should be to start working through the bottom chakras first, working our way up the spine. In other words, today we balance the checkbook, tomorrow we levitate.

  The Gift of the Guru

  He runs without feet and holds without hands. He sees without eyes and hears without ears. He knows everyone, but no one knows him. He is called the First, the Great, the Supreme.

  —Shvetashvatara Upanishad 3:19

  This slow ascent up the sushumna may seem a work that will take lifetimes, and by all conventional measures it will. But when we find the willingness to grow faster, Spirit has a way of putting us on the fast track. While yoga is one of the fastest ways I have found to Self-realization, it is still a lot of work. The pile of baggage we become aware of when we come to the yoga mat can seem so large that it may appear there’s no point in even trying.

  This is where the guru comes in. Gurus have been given a bum rap over the past twenty or so years, and much of this criticism is justified. When I first started looking for my guru, I was convinced that tax evasion, expensive cars and inappropriate sexual contact with followers were part of the job. This, of course, is not the case, but with all the scandal over the past few years, one can see where people might be a little hesitant to trust someone who is called a guru.

  The word guru means “darkness to light.” Therefore, a true guru seeks to lead his or her student to light. Gurus can be very different in personality and approach, but before we can talk about gurus it is important to know where the legitimate ones get their authority. The Sadguru, or great teacher, is the universal teacher that is within all beings. This Sadguru is not unique to yoga. It has been called by many names, in many cultures. It is always present if we are able to listen. It is that small voice within you that knows exactly what you need in any moment. When we listen to this voice, blocks in our consciousness get removed. Sometimes gently, sometime
forcefully, but always for our greater good.

  When we really surrender to this universal teacher, we can have moments of great revelation which change us forever. Oftentimes this revelation involves an awakening of the kundalini energy, which rushes up the spine and burns away impurities in all of the chakras, impurities that could have taken lifetimes to work through. This experience is known as a kundalini awakening.

  When we have a sexual orgasm, we generally feel it in the second chakra. If we are in a love-based, fourth chakra relationship, we can feel the orgasm as high up as the heart. When we have a kundalini experience, we have something like an orgasm but much more intense because it travels through all of our chakras. In fact, sexual arousal is the beginning of a kundalini experience—the only difference is that most often we only let the energy rise to the second chakra before we ‘climax’, so to speak. Most often, people having this kundalini experience will be moved to tears, or even to a seizure-like experience where they fall to the floor and shake violently. (I suspect that Christian “holy rollers” have something like a kundalini awakening, though I doubt most of them would agree with me.)

  Because this universal teacher is not physical, most of us are unable to surrender to her fully on a regular basis. She can easily seem quite removed from the trials of our day-to-day life. Therefore, it is unlikely that we will be able to trust her enough to allow our chakras to open and the kundalini to flow freely. It is for this reason that she sometimes works through human gurus. A guru is more than just a teacher. He or she helps us to open up our chakras and nadis so that we can allow kundalini-shakti to move up our spine.

  Generally, the guru has achieved a certain degree of spiritual mastery, but this is not always the case. Like the rest of us, gurus often wrestle with their human natures. Even the greatest gurus, from Buddha to Jesus, struggled with life; they fell from time to time and often experienced fear, grief and anger. Yet in spite of that, something came through them with which people were able to connect. It was through their humanity that the Sadguru was made so accessible to so many.

  A guru’s job is to bring the student from darkness to light. There are three main ways a guru can do this. Some gurus will do all three, while others will do just one or two. The first is called darshan. In darshan, the guru speaks or writes to his or her shishya or student and reveals truth through his or her words. If a guru is still in a body, this will frequently take the form of a sermon-like talk or discourse. If the guru has left his or her body, darshan is most often received by studying the teachings of that guru. A Western form of this idea can be seen when devout Christians study the Gospel or Jews study the Torah (Books of Moses).

  A second way the guru can speed a student along the path is through sadhana. Sadhana means spiritual practice. Certainly you can develop your own spiritual practice by listening to the Sadguru within, but when working with a physical guru, spiritual practice is often given you like a prescription. The guru may have a standard set of techniques that he or she gives to all students or may customize the sadhana for each individual. In the case of Hatha yoga certain poses may be given, or in the case of traditions such as Ashtanga Vinyasa, and Bikram, the founders offer a standard sequence of poses that are given to everyone. [Ashtanga Vinyasa is a form of hatha yoga developed by Patabi Joise of Mysor, India. It is often referred to as “Ashtanga Yoga” or “Power Yoga,” and has become very popular here in the West.]

  The third way the guru can assist a student along the path is by shaktipat. When a guru gives shaktipat, the kundalini is awakened in the student. This can be done with a look or a touch, or even with a prayer. Sometimes the guru needs to be present in the room; at other times the guru can be in a distant location, or even deceased.

  The gift of shaktipat can only be given to a student who is ready. It cannot be forced on anyone. It is a powerful and deeply moving experience that often leaves the recipient feeling spiritually renewed and uplifted. It can, however, be a bit unsettling if one is not expecting it.

  The first time I went to hear Yogi Amrit Desai speak, I had no idea what shaktipat was. I was on retreat at the Kripalu Center, doing a work exchange. One of the guys in my group was from the South. His name was Jackson, and he spoke with a deep southern accent. He had a gruff, lumberjack-like appearance, with large hands and a little stubble on his face. In spite of his very masculine appearance and demeanor, he was a very openhearted and sensitive person.

  We had become good friends, and decided to go hear the guru speak together. Neither of us had any idea what to expect. Everyone else seemed to be making a big deal out of it, so we decided to venture into this unknown together. When we got to the large room where the event was to take place, we immediately noticed that we were not appropriately dressed for the occasion. Everyone else was dressed in white. Some kirtan chanting had already begun, and people were dancing and moving wildly. [Kirtan is a style of chanting which starts off slow and builds to a faster and faster tempo. It is usually done in a traditional Indian call-and-response fashion.] Jackson and I sat down near the back of the room and felt awkward as we watched this spectacle. When the energy in the room had reached its pinnacle, a man at the front of the room blew into a conch shell. All at once everyone dropped to the floor with his or her head down. In walked the guru.

  Both Jackson and I were sufficiently freaked out. I had visions of Jonestown dance through my head; I was just waiting for them to serve Kool-Aid! Yogi Desai took his seat at the front of the room and began to play his harmonium. He started to chant, and people chanted back in traditional Indian call and response. He didn’t have the best voice, but there was something hollow and mystical about his tone—it was very hypnotic.

  After a while he began chanting the sound of Om and people joined him in a beautiful and continuous chant. The whole room was alive and full of energy. Then I noticed that he was not chanting with the rest of us. He was making some slight jerking motions that resembled a hiccup. No sooner did I see this than people started to cry and shake. Some people were rocking violently as if in a rocking chair. Others were on the floor shaking. Still others were crying quietly.

  I was in awe. I turned to look at Jackson in order to share this surreal moment with someone who was on the same page as myself, only to find he was on the floor sobbing, and in what appeared to be a mild seizure. Part of me wanted to call an ambulance, but he didn’t seem to be in any danger. In fact he seemed quite peaceful.

  Eventually, things wound down. I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say to Jackson. I wanted to know what it was like, and I wanted to know if he was okay. I could tell he felt awkward about having such an emotional episode so I let him calm down before giving him the twenty questions. Later that night we sat in the dining hall and chatted over tea. He recounted his experience in this way:

  I really thought the whole thing was weird at first. You know, everyone dressed in white and dancing like drunken fools. We just don’t do stuff like that back on the farm. I really didn’t see what the big deal was until we started to chant Om. Then I could feel something stirring. Sorta like I was getting sexually aroused, but it wasn’t sexual. It was like my whole body was tingling. Then I felt this weird sensation in my spine. It felt like a whole bunch of those big red fire ants crawling up the inside of my spine.

  At first I was sort of scared, but then I relaxed, because it felt a lot like sex. You know—like you are getting really hot with someone, and the energy keeps building. I was starting to get into it, and then it really hit. It felt like I pissed on a spark plug or something. This bolt of energy that felt like electricity shot up my spine and my whole body fell to the floor.

  I was so jolted that I had to cry. It was not a bad thing, and I wasn’t sad. Actually I was more okay than I had ever been – it was awesome. I have never been one to get into God and all that kinda stuff, but this made me feel so small and larger than life all at the same time.”

  His words made me feel jealous. I wanted some of that experience fo
r myself, but the timing was not right. As of this writing I have not had such an experience, and who knows? I may never. I have had the opportunity to study a bit more, however. I have read accounts in other traditions that reflect this experience as well. For instance, the Bible is filled with examples of people being hurled to the Earth by the hand of God and having their lives changed in powerful ways.

  The important thing to remember is that the gift comes from the Sadguru, not the guru. Finding a guru is not a prerequisite for spiritual growth, or even for a kundalini experience. Most gurus will tell you flat out that it is the Sadguru, not the guru him or herself, that graces us with an accelerated spiritual experience. Since that night with Jackson, I have had the opportunity to speak with Yogi Desai. He insists that this shaktipat is not from him, but comes through him. Over and over again, he and other gurus (at least the legitimate ones) point to the inner Sadguru. They can only offer guidance and inspiration until we are ready to access that Sadguru directly. A real guru seeks to work him or herself out of a job by bringing the student to the light.

  Under the illumined teacher’s guidance they become united with the Lord of Love.

  — The Tejabindu Upanishad 1:4