About Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan
“The Kundalini is known as the nerve of the soul. This is to be awakened. Your soul is to be awakened. When soul gets awakened, there remains nothing….If your soul is awakened, what else do you need?” ~ Yogi Bhajan
What is Kundalini Yoga?
Known for its transformative benefits, the practice of Kundalini Yoga builds physical strength and stamina and enhances cognitive function, emotional fitness, and spiritual connection. Many people describe the experience as exhilarating, euphoric, and powerful.
Who is it for? Kundalini Yoga offers a holistic technology that can be used by people of any belief and from all walks of life. Unlike renunciate yoga traditions, Kundalini Yoga provides a path for householders: people with families, social roles, and worldly concerns.
“The beauty of Kundalini Yoga is that if you can just physically sit there, fix the automatic rhythm of your pranayam (breath control), and add a creative naad (inner sound), your mind becomes focused and balanced. In one kriya you can immediately achieve a complete physical, mental, and spiritual balance. It works so effectively and quickly because of this completeness, balance, and energy.” ~Yogi Bhajan
The Practice
In Kundalini Yoga the focus is on mantra, movement and the transformation of energy in your nervous and glandular systems. We practice kriyas – specific sequences of yoga postures, breath techniques, and meditations – to produce specific results. This could be something concrete, like vitality or better digestion, or something etheric like intuition or an open heart. Each kriya comes with precise instructions and includes the following components:
- Asana: yoga postures
- Mudras: hand positions
- Pranayama: breathwork
- Mantras: intentional, repeated sounds
- Bandhas: constriction of a particular area of the body
- Drishti: directing the gaze of the eyes
- Shivasana: deep relaxation at the end of practice
Each Kundalini Yoga kriya is designed to be practiced as a complete yoga set for relaxation and rejuvenation of body, mind, and spirit. Learn more about Kundalini Yoga kriyas.
As shared by Yogi Bhajan in the Aquarian Teacher KRI Training Manual Level One Textbook:
“I felt that people in the West needed the type of [yoga] system which could give them a positive realization and awareness in a short time. That system had to be strong enough and practical enough that any householder could practice it. There is no better system known to me than Kundalini Yoga.
The Technology
Kundalini Yoga is known to assist change and self-limiting habits.
- It is a transformational system designed to release blocks to the reservoirs of untapped energy within us.
- It is designed to balance the glandular system and revitalize the nervous systems.
- It works to build, clear, and balance the subtle systems of the nadis (energy channels) and the chakras.
- It includes hydrotherapy, breathing techniques (pranayama), and other practices for optimal health.
- It is an art and a science.
When energy moves freely through the chakras, it stimulates the mental, physical, and spiritual health of the being. There is a clarity that arises that combines perception, thought, and intuition.