World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 568

ŚAKTI-PĀTA, A PRACTICAL YOGIC PROCESS
Prof. (Dr.) Narayan Manilal Kansara The ultimate goal of human life, according to Hindu religious philosophy is the final liberation (rnoksa) from the infinite cycle of rebirths (punar-janma). That is why the most respected Sri Ādi Samkarācārya prayed to Lord Krsna: "O Murāri ! (One has) to be born and to die again and again, has to sleep in the womb of a mother again and again, in this unfathomable (ocean of) transmigration. O Murāri! Kindly save me from this endless cycle of births and deaths).'
The forces governing the cosmos on the macro-level govern the individual in the micro-level. According to Tantra, the individual being and universal being are one. All that exists in the universe must also exist in the individual body. One of our major limitation in discovering the essential unity between the microcosm and the macrocosm is that we are accustomed to analyze the world into separate parts, with the result that we lose sight of the inter-relationship of these parts, and their underlying unity. The way to fulfillment is recognition of the wholeness linking man and the universe. In recognizing this unity, on the one hand, this "norm extends our ego-boundaries and liberates us from a limited attitude towards the external world. As this feeling develops, the external and internal are no longer polarized: they do not exclude one another nor are they actually separate, but are integrated into a cohesive whole.
The Kundalini Sakti, the coiled and dormant cosmic power, is at the same time the supreme force in the human body. It remains unmanifest within us and is a latent reservoir of psychic power as a central pivot upon which our psychophysical apparatus is based. The transformation and reorientation of this dormant energy is only possible through what is called the arousing of the Kundalini, activating its ascent through the psychic centers (ca/cras) in the central channel, called the Susumna-nādi, of the spinal cord of the human body. While the Kundalini remains sleeping, man is aware of his immediate earthly circumstances only. But, when she awakes and rises to the higher spiritual planes, the individual is no longer limited to his own perception, but instead participates in the source of light. Thus, in her ascent, the Kundalini absorbs within herself all the kinetic energy with which the different psychic centers are charged. By awakening the Kundalinis dormant force, otherwise absorbed in the unconscious and purely bodily functions, and directing it to the higher centers, the energy thus released is transformed and sublimated until its perfect unfolding and conscious realization is
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