I have been meditating for the last 10 years consistently.
Qn 1: What are the satvic food practices to get a healthy body without digestive problems for going deeper in meditation ?
Qn 2: I am doing yoga postures spontaneously while in meditation and the kundalini energy starts raising from the muladhara chakra. I am realizing the light in ajna and then my whole head. Please guide me about moving kundalini energy towards the sahaskaras from the muladhara smoothly & some grounding activities.
—Chandrasekaran K, India
Dear Chandrasekaran,
Regarding satvic food practices, I suggest you read this nice summary of Yogananda’s teachings on diet on our website. Yogananda recommended avoiding dietary extremes, including very limited food choices and excessive fasting which are unbalancing to the nervous system. If you are having digestive problems you might want to consult an Ayurveda practitioner who could recommend a satvic diet for your constitution. Certainly eating a satvic diet helps us raise our energy and tune into higher consciousness which leads to your next question.
Your second question is about the experience of kundalini energy during meditation. Swami Kriyananda wrote that “Kundalini represents the entrenched vitality of our mortal delusion. But kundalini is also man’s greatest single key to enlightenment. Only by arousing this force from its ancient resistance to divine truth can the soul hope to reunite itself with the Spirit.”
Unawakened kundalini energy resides at the base of the spine in unenlightened souls. Yogic spiritual practices, including hatha yoga and meditation, are meant to draw kundalini upward. Kundalini energy must eventually be raised from the base of the spine to the spiritual eye, also called the ajna chakra or seat of enlightenment. Yogananda emphasized that Kundalini must be magnetized upward safely with techniques that increase attention and energy at the spiritual eye and warned against techniques that push the energy upward from below. These techniques can force Kundalini to rise when our consciousness is not properly prepared and cause imbalances including ungroundedness.
When Kundalini energy starts to rise to the ajna chakra we may experience the Inner Light, one of the eight aspects of God. This light is not perceived by our visual system but is seen because our consciousness is attuned to God in the form of Light. Such an experience is uplifting and can be profound.
Yogananda did not put any emphasis on spontaneous physical movement while meditating. As the Kundalini energy rises we may have some body movement such as gentle swaying but the meditator is encouraged to sustain attention at the spiritual eye to keep the energy moving upward. The meditator is also advised to not become attached to movement in meditation, expect it or treat it as a sign of spiritual progress. Many deep meditators have no movement. There are some spiritual traditions that do have an emphasis on spontaneous movement in meditation, and I expect followers of these paths will have more of this experience.
Many Blessings,
Nayaswami Mukti
