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What is Shaktipat? Part 1of 3
Shaktipat is the Holy Spirit
3 Jun 2003
“ WHAT IS SHAKTIPAT? ”
‘When the Kundalini Shakti ( Holy Spirit) is awakened, those devotees should not be considered ordinary. They comprehend unseen things, their bodies throb and tremble, their voices choke with tears of love, and they are filled with bliss. When fire enters iron, it does not remain just iron. Similarly, when the Shakti enters human beings, they do not remain mere human beings. They become filled with divine love, divine virtues, and divine powers.”
- Vayaviya Samhita 2:11, 35-39
PART 1 of 3
Shakti Kundalini is the Holy Spirit
In our previous article, “What is a Worthy Student, a Good Disciple?”, we explored the characteristics, qualities and the ‘preparations’ of sincere spiritual seekers and mystics. What is it that a human being prepares for their entire lives and does not even necessarily know about or receive? What is that most sacred, precious and holy event a Soul prepares for through countless thousands of lifetimes of searching, life-experiences and devotional austerities, (spiritual disciplines)?
“ It is difficult to describe in words the experience I had when His Grace flowed
into my heart, into my mind, and into my eyes. My frame swelled to immense
proportions. He broke the cage that had imprisoned my Soul, and released
me from the numerous principles ( ‘tattvas’ in Sanskrit) of creation.
My eyes drank His Light in full and I lived in His Grace.”
~ Tirumular
This most holiest of holy mystical events is called ‘Shaktipat’ in Sanskrit, or the ‘Shaktipata Diksha‘, (Shaktipat Initiation); the awakening of the Shakti Kundalini in a human being. In Christian terms, it is called true Baptism; the descent and awakening of the Holy Spirit. In the Islamic faith, it is akin to ‘Rohaniat Wahdatulwajud’, and in the Judaic faith, it is referred to as ‘Birkat Kohanim’, where the proper, full pronounciation of the word G-d brings both material and spiritual blessing, and fulfillment of the divine promise.
One does not receive this supreme initiation without requisite cumulative merit, however. For example, in Rabbanic literature, the blessing comes only from approaching G-d in the proper performance of G-d's commandments, which is akin to mastery over the 10 commandments and 7 deadly sins in Christian terms. In Hinduism and its largest denomination, Kashmir Shaivism, as well as in Buddhism, we have the ‘Yamas’ and ‘Niyamas’. These are essentially sins to be mastered and virtues to be embodied. As with the other traditions, only when the seeker is ‘pure’ enough to be able to receive the descent of Shakti Kundalini, does it indeed manifest, leading up to ‘Shaktipat Initiation’ and consequent ‘Chakra Ascension’ to permanent realization of one’s divine nature as bliss, existence and consciousness, ‘Sacchidananda’.
In truth, no matter what culture or tradition, this mystical initiation of the Grace-bestowing power of God marks the true beginning of a spiritual seekers’ pathwork. It is the beginning of the ultimate completion, the ‘Journey of Recognition’, the ‘Resurrection & Ascension’ of the limited, individual Soul,( Jivan), back home into Source: God, the OverSoul, (Paramatman).
Just what is this supreme creative power of the universe? What evidence is there in the cultures and wisdom traditions of mankind about its existence, nature and activity? What is it’s purpose and significance? In Part 1 of this three part series, we shall briefly explore these foundational questions and offer for consideration that this phenomenon is not some new-age novelty, or interesting myth from antiquity that is irrelevant to the modern secular world. Indeed, it is a universal, inevitable, unstoppable evolutionary force which envelops all of creation, including all the cultures and ages of mankinds’ existence on earth.
Kundalini, (def.): serpent; life force; a type of yoga; coiled; winding; spiraled, “coiled one” (from the root kund = “to burn”). Kundalini is the ‘female’ primal power of the universe. She is also considered to be a Goddess, the inner power that lifts a person from the darkness of ignorance to the blazing light of supreme wisdom. This ‘ageless wisdom’, grants one a permanent experience of one’s own true divine nature. Almost all religious or ancient wisdom traditions speak of it, the inner spiritual power, in one form or another. The poet-saints amd mystics of all traditions and historical periods have written and sung of classical Kundalini experiences, veiling the truth behind poetic metaphor and symbolic prose.
One such poet-saint was Kabir, who wrote: “ Only a knower understands what our supreme home is like. Lightening flashes without any clouds. There is no sun, yet there is brilliance. The pearl in that realm appears without a shell. There is no sound and yet the Word reverberates. All other forms of light are humbled by the Lord’s effulgence. The Indestructible, Unfathomable lies beyond. Kabir says, That is my home, Which only disciples of the Guru can perceive”. The modern French novelist and dramatist Romain Rolland once wrote, “ I have discovered the key to the lost staircase - the staircase in the wall that spirals like coils of a serpent, that winds from the subterranean depths of the ego, up to the high terraces crowned by the stars.”
The Chinese call it ‘qi’ and the Japanese call it ‘ki’. In Latin, the original meaning of ‘nostrum’ pertained to a secret elixir known only to the ‘preparer’, a medicinal panacea or cure-all cloaked in mystery and beyond explanation or proof. Various secret societies of Europe emerged as ‘brotherhoods’, such as the Masonics and the Rosecrucians, passing on the knowledge of Kundalini. Secrecy is also prevalent in the Kabbalistic tradition of Judaism. As with the Native American Indians of North America, this holy power is so sacred, that the name and source are forbidden to even be pronounced.
The symbols of coils, spirals or a serpent with divine healing powers is often used to explain it. A great modern example is the cadacus, a staff with wings and two coiled serpants spiraling up around it. It is the symbol of the medical profession in the western world. On the original altar of the Church of Saint Ambrose in Milan, dating from the fourth century, is a stone carving of a serpent coiled three and a half times. In the healing art of Reiki, the first secret symbol, called ‘cho-ko-ray’, is also a three and a half coil, the same form in which we find the sleeping Kundalini in the Hindu and Kashmir Shaiva tradition.
In Mexico, the ancient and secret mystical tradition of the Toltecs and Aztecs once worshiped it as the serpent-god, ‘Quetzalcoatl’. This feathery serpent-diety was regarded as the divine force of transformation and regeneration. The Mayans called it ‘kukulkan’, and the Kung people of Africa called this same power ‘n/um’ . Even in the wisdom teaching of native Australian Aborigines, there is the story of divine substance, called ‘ibasi’, droplets of which fell from the firmaments of a ‘cave’ and caused, through immaculate conception of a goddess, the birth of their race. The Australian Aborigines say, “the medicine man receives his power from a rainbow serpent or a water snake which can be seen in the sky. It is this snake that makes a man a medicine man…. The medicine man is trained to receive and use that awesome power that governs time, space, matter and death. He receives it in the eternal dreamtime, through an unbroken channel, a long line of medicine men…He learns to see and understand things. He will be able to see before his inner eye past and future events and happenings in other worlds. He learns to read other peoples thoughts and recognize their secret worries, and to cure illnesses…”
In Kashmir Shaivism, devotional hymns chant, “The water of the Guru’s feet has the power to dry up the mire of one’s sins, to ignite the light of knowledge, and to take one smoothly across the ocean of this world. To obtain knowledge and detachment, sip the water of the Guru’s feet, which destroys ignorance and ends karmas, the cause of rebirth…It delivers one from fear of time and death. It puts and end to all misfortunes. It removes the fear of spirits, demons, ghosts, thieves and tigers…. It increases longevity, health and affluence…It removes all miseries, fears and obstacles, and delivers one from curses.. It puts an end to bad dreams, and makes good dreams come true….It eradicates all major diseases…It is the physician for the disease of worldly suffering”.
Traditionally, knowledge of Kundalini and Shaktipat and the stages of god-consciousness evolution have been kept a closely guarded secret, revealed only by a lineage Master and only to a few worthy and select Disciples after many years of spiritual discipline and demonstrated devotion and loyalty. Similarly, this secrecy of mystical teachings and initiations are also apparent in all cultures that have the traditional Master-Disciple relationship. Examples include Chinese Martial Arts, the Papal system of the Roman Church, and in the mystery religions of the Gnostic and Neoplatonic traditions, as well as the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. It is spoken of in the testaments of great Christain mystics such as Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Teresa of Avila.
In the historical writings of Saint Teresa she says that the soul is transformed by the inner fire that consumes all the soul’s faults and miseries, and makes it pure. She describes her many Kundalini experiences, such as inner sounds: “ My head sounds just as if it were full of brimming rivers, and then as if all the water in those rivers came suddenly rushing downward; and a host of little birds seem to be whistling, not in the ears, but in the upper part of the head, where the higher part of the soul is said to be. I have held this view for a long time, for the spirit seems to move upward with great velocity”.
The Masons speak of the energy, or ‘Spirit Fire’, that rises through the spinal column. The experience of Fire and an upward movement of this divine power within the body is often used to describe it. A well known prayer in the Catholic tradition “Come, Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful. Kindle in them the fire of your divine love”, is very similar to a Kashmir Shaiva hymn entitled, “Kindle My Heart’s Flame With Thy Flame”. In the New Testament, the descent of the Holy Spirit occurs at Pentecost, when the Spirit is said to have rested on the heads of the disciples in the form of tongues of fire. Baptism in the Holy Spirit was originally intended to awaken Kundalini, and is sometimes accomplished by the laying on of hands.
The Hopi Indians of North America have always known about Kundalini. They teach that in mankind, there are numerous vibratory centers that run along an axis of the spinal column. “The first peole knew no sickness. Not until evil entered the world did persons get sick in the body or head. It was then that a medicine man, knowing how man was contructed, could tell what was wrong with a person by examining these centers. First he laid his hands on them: the top of the head, above the eyes, the throat, the chest and the belly. The hands of the medicine man were seer instruments; they could feel the vibrations from each center and tell him in which one life ran strongest or weakest.” The Hopis believe, as does Kashmir Shaivism, that each human being is created in the image of God, but then the door at the top of the head closes and man falls from grace into the uninhibited expression of his own human will. Now he must begin the slow climb back upward through each of the these vibrational centers, until finally the door at the crown of the head reopens, and he merges back into the wholeness of all creation.
This intense upward activity of Kundalini fire even mystified the most eminent psychologists of our times. In 1932, Carl Jung gave a talk on Kundalini, saying that the rising of this force had rarely if ever, been noted in the West and that, “ When you succeed in the awakening of Kundalini, so that she starts to move out of her mere potentiality, you necessarily step into a world which is totally different from our world: it is a world of eternity.” In Kashmir Shaivism, these vibrational centers are called ‘chakras’, and in the Kabbalic tradition, they are called ‘sephiroth’ . Indeed, the migration of Kundalini upward through these vibratory centers along the spine are experienced as profound paradigm shifts or stages of expanded God-Consciousness that change a seekers self-identity and worldview forever. The culminating experience of Kundalini raising through the crown chakra or the sephira called ‘kether’ in Kabbalism, is the mystics attainment of an ecstatic vision of God, and permanent realization of ones own divine nature, (aka Self-Realization, Enlightenment, Nirvana etc…).
In Christianity, the great mystic Saint Teresa of Avila of sixteen-century Spain, describes her exploration of the seven inner mansions of the soul, and explains how the soul finally reaches the spiritual marriage with God, which in Kashmir Shaiva terms, is likened to the marriage of the female Shakti Kundalini and her husband, Shiva at the Crown Chakra and beyond.
“In the seventh mansion is the King of Glory, in the greatest spleandor, illuminating and beautifying all the others. Here at last, the soul reaches the spiritual marriage with God. It is like rain falling from the heavens into a river; it is impossible to divine or separate the water belonging to the river from the water which fell from the heavens. Or it is as if a tiny stream enters the sea, from which it will find no way of separating itself. This is the mansion which the Lord reserves as His own and which you will never leave.”
There is a story in Kashmir Shaivism that also speaks to the worthiness of a seeker to receive this divine power, likening the seekers ability and level of purity to hold this divine light to those who approach the ocean with containers. Some may be able to carry a large pool of water, while others can only carry a cup, or thimble full, or perhaps, only a tiny drop. The ocean is always there, but it is the ‘worthiness’ or ‘merit’; the level of purity of the soul due to the cumulative actions and thoughts of its many incarnations that dictates how much of the living light of God, Shakti Kundalini, that a human can receive at any time.
Even among the Iglulik Eskimos, a series of initiations culminates with the ‘lightening’ or ‘illumination’ after which the shaman sees inside his head a luminous fire, which enables him to penetrate the darkness even with his eyes closed. The Egyptian mystery schools , as does Kashmir Shaiva, also taught about the incarnation of the divine principle of light, (also known as the Guru-Principle in Kashmir Shaiva tradition). First this light descends into darkness, an involution into a world of separation, differences and limitation; ( referred to as ‘maya’ or illusion in Sanskrit, the reflection of Shiva as the manifest universe). Then, for the ascension, or evolution, it enters the vertebral column (the ’shushumna’ in Sanskrit), of a serpent’s tail, and exits through its mouth. This represents the triumphant journey of light over darkness and the transformation of the human being into a divine being; from the densest matter into pure light of Consciousness.
A Hindu yogi writes, “This transformation from matter, or darkness, to light and spirit, is the task of Kundalini, the divine conscious power that resides within us. This is why it is essential to awaken Her.” Shaktipat is the sacred initation of the awakening or our own sleeping divinity. The great Kashmir Saint Baba Muktananda says, “When one acquires the strength of Kundalini, one expands infinitely, and then one assimilates this whole universe. One is able to see the whole universe within one’s own Self. One no longer remains a limited, bound creature. One achieves total union with God.”
In Part 2 of “What is Shaktipat?” we will briefly explore the cosmology of the creation of the universe by God, the Absolute, according to Kashmir Shaivism, as well as the preparation for, and the process and experiences of the rare and precious event of Shaktipat Initiation, commonly called the ‘Awakening’. The ‘Awakening’ of Shakti Kundalini is the start of the journey back home, the evolution or dissolution back into Self, the Absolute, where we came from.
Devi ma
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