Hello. I have two questions.
1. Can meditation happen before kundalini awakening?
2. When i try to meditate, i feel something pulsating at the tail of my spine. And if i loosen my body it starts shaking vigorously. What to do?
—Sameer, India
Dear Friend,
You have asked if meditation can happen BEFORE Kundalini is awakened! Indeed, for many, perhaps even most, this IS the case.
However, kundalini, as the “entrenched vitality of our mortal delusion” (Swami Kriyananda, “Art and Science of Raja Yoga”) can awaken at any time and under any circumstances.
As Jesus Christ put it: “He comes like a thief in the night”
Much ado is made in the literature on kundalini awakening that either frightens or thrills students of yoga and metaphysics.
But spiritual awakening is “not a circus,” as our guru, Paramhansa Yogananda put it. The history of yoga is filled with warnings against seeking astral or pyschic “thrills”…indeed, from no less one who knew them all as Patanjali in the third book (Vibhuti Pada) of his now famous YOGA SUTRAS!
Let devotion be your guide. The feeling you are experiencing at the base of the spine: is it uncomfortable? I gather it is not!
When the vigorous shaking takes place I would encourage you to open your eyes, and stop your meditation. Stand up and tense the whole body with a strong inhalation and exhalation. Next: offer a prayer to Divine Mother (God or guru) for guidance to understand or at least re-direct this energy upward first to the heart to awaken pure devotion, and secondly, to the spiritual eye in self-offering.
If you can gently calm this energy at the base of spine and senstively coax it upward through the heart and to the spiritual eye, this would be good.
Otherwise in its vigorous and uncontrollable form, the first thing to do is to calm it down. And if the gentler, more devotional approach is not sufficient (at first), then, as I said, stand up and shake it off with a silent prayer.
Probably it is nothing to fear and I would discourage you from making too much of it. Of course I do not know your history of physical and mental health; diet and exercise and so on.
Sometimes these phenomenon occur in the lives of those who have a tendency toward extremes or simply have brought such habits from a past life.
Thus it is in 9 out 10 cases the general advice is for calmness and moderation, and devotion, in all things!
Blessings and light to you!
Nayaswami Hriman