When I first discovered Kundalini yoga, I was living in Hollywood working as an assistant agent for a well known modeling agency. I drank and smoked every day. I was living the way so many young artists and performers in their early twenties do: late rent checks, late-night joy-rides, dealers, dramas and dreams of my big 'break.' I was twenty-four years old, and had moved out to LA the previous year after graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in musical theatre performance.
Throughout my acting training, I never thought I would stray from that path. It was all I had ever wanted to do, and I was determined to succeed. Numerous teachers over the years had assured me that I had that special 'magic,' and that I was destined to go all the way. Yet after finishing school, I performed in only one off-Broadway play that opened the day after the twin towers fell. Until now, that has been the extent of my career as a professional actress. All the student loans, all the family support, all the training, all my plans had led me to Los Angeles and yet when I arrived there, I promptly walked away. What I came to understand later was that I had a path of destiny that was calling to me and that until I grew into my identity as a spiritual teacher; my artistic pursuits were meant to remain on hold.
Kundalini yoga is a practice that is completely unique, as it allows one to transform and heal with such grace and speed that at times one cannot believe that what is happening is real. I have joyfully explored various forms of yoga, and do believe that all spiritual paths lead to the same universal truth. Kundalini was a fit for me because of my extreme personality and hard-core approach to life. I have spent a large portion of my lifetime exploring 'the edge,' and have taken many dangerous risks along the way. It was with this mentality that I entered my first Kundalini yoga class, and what I found there was more intriguing to me than anything I had yet experienced. What I found was an almost instantaneous connection with the deepest parts of myself. It was as though through these postures, this breath, this mantra and the sacred gong, I was meeting myself for the first time. Teaching Kundalini yoga is the greatest honor. The experience is like entering into a field of pure light energy and allowing it to channel through me into the perceptual realities of my students. I have been a teacher for the past three years, first in Los Angeles through the Golden Bridge Spiritual Village, and now in Boulder, where I am working with another teacher to develop a vital new community. I have learned to trust myself and my innate wisdom. I have overcome my neurosis and fears from childhood; I have grown less attached to the external circumstances in my life. I have come to cherish my inner growth above all else. It is not an easy path at first, as one is faced with the reality of all the aspects of self that are clearing and changing. It can be overwhelming at times, but what one must always remember is that all discomfort is temporary. It is on its way out. If one can commit to a daily practice, whether it is doing a three minute meditation before bed or getting up at 3:30am to prepare for early morning sadhana, as I have done faithfully for the past two years, the changes will occur and after a period of time life will become blissful, beautiful and balanced.
Do not seek approval from others, seek approval from yourself. Yogi Bhajan, Master of Kundalini Yoga
The Basics of Kundalini Yoga - Where to Start
Kundalini yoga is a dynamic blend of postures, pranayam (breathing), mantra (sound), music and meditation, which teaches the art of relaxation, selfhealing and elevation. Through this unique practice, the glandular and nervous systems are stimulated, and one's capacity for creative potential is heightened. By balancing the body and mind, one gains inner vitality and clarity to compensate for the adverse effects of stress, and to clear space for rapid progress within all aspects of life. There are thousands of sets and meditations that were laid out very clearly by Yogi Bhajan, the Master of Kundalini Yoga. All postures within a set are timed and practiced in a specific order, as this is an advanced and powerful technology. Both the sets and meditations have a focus, such as 'Awakening the Ten Bodies,' 'Set for Disease Resistance,' or 'Meditation for Prosperity, Fulfillment and Success.' While the exercises can be rigorous, Kundalini is less focused upon the specifics of the postures and more upon awakening the spine, opening and balancing the chakras and expanding the energy field. It is common to hold postures for long periods of time in order to work through the mind's natural resistance. The Kundalini energy is coiled at the base of the spine, therefore much of the work we do is designed to open up this channel and allow for the energy to move from the lower chakras into the higher centers. Much of our old patterning and past traumas are stuck in the lower triangle (1st, 2nd, 3rd chakras anus, sexual organs and navel). Being that our society's outward interest lives in this triangle, it is not uncommon to neglect the higher centers. When we are able to transform stagnant energy trapped in the lower chakras into a fluid force of life that can then rise to awaken our higher chakras (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th heart center, throat, third eye point, tenth gate at the top of the head, and the auric field surrounding the head), the experience of a 'Kundalini rising' ensues.
The best way to begin this practice is to find a certified teacher in your area. If this is not an option, please refer to the links and information section of this article in order to purchase videos and mantra CDs. In our tradition, it is encouraged to practice the teachings of Kundalini yoga under the protection and guidance of Yogi Bhajan, and it is asked that one wait until completing a KRI (Kundalini Research Institute) certified teacher's training course before teaching this yoga.
If you do not have a mastery of your mind, you cannot know the mystery of existence. -Yogi Bhajan
Yogi Bhajan - The Master of Kundalini Yoga
Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji, otherwise known as Yogi Bhajan was the son of a doctor and at the age of sixteen, mastered Kundalini yoga, a highly powerful technology that until that time was kept secret, and practiced only by advanced yogis. When India was partitioned in 1947, he took charge of leading a thousand people out of his village to safety in New Delhi. During his youth he studied with many teachers. He married, and was a commanding officer in the Indian Army and served in the Indian Government for eighteen years before he moved to America in 1969 and introduced Kundalini yoga to the West, at which time he established the 3HO organization (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization). Today, 3HO promotes healthy, conscious lifestyles in over 38 countries and is recognized as a NonGovernment Organization which has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Upon arriving in America, without money or contacts, he used his intuition to develop a growing community of students which was eventually rooted in Los Angeles. (Los Angeles is to this day the global power center for the practice of Kundalini yoga). While it had been his original intention to teach Hatha yoga, he quickly determined that he needed a tool that would work faster within this new setting of wide-spread drug use, sexual promiscuity and cultural anarchy. (Kundalini yoga awakens the consciousness 22 times faster than Hatha yoga, and thus his destiny was set). In 1952, Yogi Bhajan earned his Masters Degree in Economics and in 1980 his doctorate in the Psychology of Communication. He was the author of over 30 books, and his teachings are available in over 200 other books and videos. He was the co-president of the Human Unity Conference and Founder of the annual interfaith celebration, International Peace Prayer Day. He was also a recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Consciousness Award. Before his death on October 7, 2004, Yogi Bhajan spent much of his time counseling people from all walks of life, teaching Kundalini yoga, facilitating White Tantric yoga, and lecturing world-wide. He also created and managed over 14 successful businesses that provide a wide range of products and services dedicated to health and well-being.
The strength of a man does not lie in what he has. The strength of a man lies only in what he can give. -Yogi Bhajan
Your Life Transformation
If you decide to begin on the path of Kundalini yoga, you can expect dynamic life transformation. Whether you are focusing upon healing a physical illness, overcoming an addiction to drugs or alcohol, or re-creating your professional life, the effects of this yoga will far surpass anything you can imagine prior to the experience. There is no area of human life that is not touched by a commitment to a daily spiritual practice, and once you have found the specific practice that works for you, there is a good chance that your 'life before yoga' will feel increasingly like a dream or past life-time. The important thing to remember is to use your third-eye point (located between the eyebrows), to focus your work. Without a focus the healing will ensue, but with one you become a co-creator of your daily experience on this planet. There is no longer a need to 'chase your dreams.' Just stay grounded, meditate, and before you know it your dreams will be chasing you.
Vibrate on the cosmos, and the cosmos will clear your path. -Yogi Bhajan
Kundalini and the Arts
Yogi Bhajan
It is my personal passion and life's work to unify the practice of Kundalini yoga with various forms of creative expression. I am a performer and a visionary by nature. I write. I sing. I dance. I paint. I act. When I began studying Kundalini, I put my creative life on hold for over four years in order to fully immerse myself in the teachings. I am now learning how to utilize my practice to enhance my creative life, and have never experienced more joy than in the throes of this new marriage. When I was training to become a Broadway performer, fear was a prominent element of my daily existence. Performing has always been a competitive and at times brutal undertaking. I remember as a child one of my teachers saying to us, “if you don't HAVE TO become an actor, don't.” I have always HAD TO, and yet am unwilling to accept the aspects of this industry that do not serve my highest purpose. When I walked away from acting after graduating from NYU, I knew that I would return to it at some point, but by my own rules. Since my re-location to Boulder in August of 2007, I have been dancing every day far better than I ever did during my formal and very rigorous years of training. My mind has been cleared of that old relentless fear of failure, and a new freedom of pure expression has taken its place. We are creators by nature. This yoga will align you with your inner artist in a way you might not be able to imagine at this moment, but will experience in depth once you are 'vibrating the cosmos.' I have always rejected the notion that great actors, writers, musicians and artists must be in pain in order to serve their art. Throughout the history of the arts, darkness has proved a valid subject, but we have only begun to see the exploration of light through creative expression. We are coming into a new age, and it is time to embrace our own healing process so that we can become Aquarian artists, Aquarian leaders, the very voice of light. Light is not weak, flowery and muted. Light is a solar eclipse. The solar eclipse is an image that always comes to mind when I think about the real experience of spiritual awakening. I intend to use this image as my logo when I launch my production company. The real experience of 'waking up' is intense, painful at times. It is the moment where the darkest dark meets the brightest light. This is the point that fascinates me.
Once we awaken our consciousness as artists, our art will awaken the consciousness of our audiences, and our audiences will awaken to the reality of peace on earth. -Alexandra Kulwant Kaur, Kundalini and the Arts, Founder
Money and Manifestation
I have spent most of my adult life surviving well on nothing. Until my recent move to Boulder, that was my personal money matrix. I have been the penniless princess without a cent to her name with a solid gold education who has taken multiple extended trips throughout Europe, eats all organic vegan food and has had many East and West Village NYC and Hollywood Hills apartments to call her own. As I move into a new matrix now, I am beginning to understand why I stayed in that polarized position for the first 28 years of my life. There is a deeply ingrained subconscious rejection of money within many spiritual beings. We have seen what money can do on a global scale when it is infused with darkness. We have felt the fear that lack of money creates in us. It is through my practice of Kundalini yoga balanced with a new- found grounding that is beginning to heal my relationship with money. I am of the firm standing that it is our responsibility as conscious people to re-direct the flow of energy on this planet in all forms, money holding a prominent position. If you feel trapped in a destructive cycle with money, there are specific meditations designed to attract abundance into your life. Please remember however, that this is not enough. Through experience I have learned how essential it is to stay grounded in my practice. It is useful to recognize that just as the aura can extend out 9 feet in all directions; it can also extend deeply down into the earth. In our quest for etheric freedom and intuitive connection, let us not forget to nourish our roots. For without them, we cannot make the changes upon this planet that we wish to see.
You cannot give to anybody if you do not have it. First create the capacity to take, then take. And the law of capacity to take is: first give. Because the world is governed by the law of vacuum, which is that there can be no vacuum. When you create the vacuum, things will Come in…. -Yogi Bhajan
An Experience
If you would like to have a simple experience of Kundalini yoga, take a moment now to sit in easy pose (legs are crossed), and sit on the edge of the pillow to keep the spine straight. Feel your core planted firmly into the earth as the top of your head extends up and out. Close your eyes. Take your thumb and press it into the third eye point between the eyebrows. Roll the eyes up to focus at this point. Now take your hand and place it at your lower navel. Deeply inhale and exhale into this area, allowing the navel to expand on the inhalation and contract on the exhalation. Breathe through the nose, and allow each breath to go deeper than the last. Make sure you can hear your own breath. As you inhale, begin to mentally chant the word 'Sat,' and as you exhale, 'Nam.' Continue to go deeper, keeping the eyes closed and focused at the third eye. Inhale 'Sat,' Exhale 'Nam.' Continue.
'Sat Nam' I am Truth.
This is your life. This moment. This breath. This truth.
Teacher's Training
There are now more than three hundred centers teaching Kundalini in over thirty-five countries around the world, and the numbers continue to grow each year. One of the best-known Kundalini centers is Golden Bridge Spiritual Village located in Hollywood, owned by Gurmukh and Gurushabd Khalsa and featuring classes taught by senior teachers Harijiwan and Tej Khalsa. These four highly renowned teachers studied directly with Yogi Bhajan for over thirty years.
Yogi Bhajan did not come to the United States to collect students, he came to create teachers. If you are interested in learning more about teacher's training options, attending Kundalini events or buying products please follow the links above, or email me at:
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Alexandra Kulwant Kaur (known to her students as Kulwant Kaur) has been practicing and teaching Kundalini yoga for the past four years, primarily in Hollywood at Golden Bridge Spiritual Village. She has recently re-located to Boulder, where she is writing a screenplay and working on various ways to connect Kundalini yoga with the arts.
Article kindly posted by permission from Your Spiritual Revolution e-magazine www.yourspiritualrevolution.org - March Issue 2008.
When I first discovered Kundalini yoga, I was living in Hollywood working as an assistant agent for a well known modeling agency. I drank and smoked every day. I was living the way so many young artists and performers in their early twenties do: late rent checks, late-night joy-rides, dealers, dramas and dreams of my big 'break.' I was twenty-four years old, and had moved out to LA the previous year after graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in musical theatre performance.
Alexandra Kulwant Kaur (known to her students as Kulwant Kaur) has been practicing and teaching Kundalini yoga for the past four years, primarily in Hollywood at Golden Bridge Spiritual Village. She has recently re-located to Boulder, where she is writing a screenplay and working on various ways to connect Kundalini yoga with the arts.