Surrender to the Light

Anyone on an authentic spiritual path has had an initial fire lit with them, by God, as Consciousness, or Śiva, and by God, as energy, or Śakti. This is the descent of Grace, which affords spiritual sight. We begin our sādhana to know the highest truth – that we are that Consciousness and energy. In the sixteenth century, the great Kashmiri saint Mirabai expressed her spiritual journey in this way, “I traveled a long way seeking God, but when I finally gave up and turned back, there He was, within me.”

The practice of Kuṇḍalinī Sādhana is the awakening and the liberation of Śakti within us, which means the rising of Kuṇḍalinī back to its source, which is Consciousness. All the practices, techniques, and meditations we do are in service of stoking the fire. There is no separation between God and Goddess—and any discussion of male/female or God/Goddess is embedded in duality. There is no separation between us, the individuated expression of divine Consciousness as Kuṇḍalinī Śakti, and the source from which we were created.

This is what we seek to experience, and we must keep seeking until we do experience this higher reality. We must see our life, and what we think is happening, not from our own perspective but from God’s perspective. The fire that was lit is none other than kundalini awakening in us, and that energy, that flow, is the dynamic aspect of Consciousness Itself on the move. Understand that Kuṇḍalinī itself is awakening; we are not awakening it. The issue is whether we’re going to take a bottle of sleeping pills or do the inner work to uncover the full possibility of that awakening.

The Levels of Kuṇḍalinī

There are three levels of Kuṇḍalinī that create us and continue to function throughout our lives. Prāṇa Kuṇḍalinī is that which gives life to our physical body, Chit Kuṇḍalinī gives life to our mind and emotions. Parā Kuṇḍalinī is our spiritual self—that Śakti that’s us manifested from God’s own Consciousness, not impeded or constrained by the body. These energies all function at once, but the statement “Kuṇḍalinī is dormant in the base of the spine” refers to the fact that we are not aware of that third dimension of Parā Kuṇḍalinī.

When we discuss the arising of Kuṇḍalinī, we’re really talking about the allowing of that level of Consciousness to rise through the suṣumṇa. This opens up every level of existence within us, revealing and making available to us the complete range of consciousness. In the process of doing that it will burn through any obstacle within us—all the tensions, patterns, and karma that have left an impression in our psychic body. In nondual tantric practices this is understood to be the essence of how we attain liberation.

We’re not talking about freeing ourselves from the particulars of our individuated life, but paradoxically, in freeing ourselves from limited consciousness, we do free ourselves from the particulars of our individuated life! We start off thinking that our experience is dependent on specific conditions, and in fact, that is usually the result of how we engage our lives. However, when we know that we are simply an individuated expression of the Divine, we are truly free from all conditions. God’s Consciousness is never limited. Only ours is limited, and that’s why we seek to transform our own experience.

The Spirit is Problem-Free

This does not mean we ignore how we deal with any aspect of our life, including the physical and mental/emotion aspects of Kuṇḍalinī. Yet we do not focus on any one dimension because, for example, it’s not by freeing the body that we free our consciousness. Any physical distress is like the aftershock of an earthquake. There’s never a separation between body, mind, and spirit, but the problem is that people get caught trying to heal the spirit through the body or through the mind. The spirit has no problem; it doesn’t need to be fixed.

Certainly, taking care of our body is a conscious thing to do. We’re asking for trouble by denying the very gift of life that’s been given to us. But be very thoughtful about holding the idea that physical healing is a necessary condition or outcome of spiritual growth. If we think we’ll be completely fulfilled by having the optimum body, then we may end up being a perfect specimen but won’t necessarily be fulfilled. 

The ravaging of our life is not generally the result of some physical pain but is due to the fact that we allow ourselves to get caught in chit-consciousness, the level of awareness that gives life to our mind and emotions. So even when we’re completely healthy, we’re wrapped up in our mental and emotional turmoil and that’s what dominates our experience.

Our deepest pain has nothing to do with the body, mind, or emotions. It doesn’t even have to do with being trapped in the body. The ultimate pain is our experience of living in separation from God.

Although every dimension of awareness is real, sādhakas who want to know God focus on revealing the simple joy of existence. As soon as we can gain that perspective we just stop struggling. We still make an effort, we do our spiritual work and even burn a little bit, but we don’t struggle with the struggle. We are crystal clear about why we are walking into the fire of consciousness, and why we don’t try to get out of it.

True spiritual changes require that we surrender, and that means the conscious letting go into an experience that’s trying to reveal itself to us in this lifetime. Identity always attempts to sustain itself, yet spiritual freedom is the dissolution of our separated identity. Understanding that, our only response should be profound gratitude. This is why we become willing to surrender to the light and trust that it will reveal to us the highest possible level of consciousness and experience that’s available.