The Fire of Kundalini

I have given many practices on the website for both the chakras and awakening Kundalini. You can easily find them using the site search. This practice continues that important theme and direction in Yoga. Just as the other practices approach the chakras and Kundalini for different levels of consciousness and different people, this one offers another, perhaps unfamiliar way to improve the functioning of your chakras and activate Kundalini energy. Everyone is different and at a different level, so I cannot give one universal practice for awakening Kundalini and the chakras. I offer many practices for you to try until you find your own: the perfect little key that opens your particular treasure chest.

This practice uses the principle of visual identification, which is very powerful. You all know how difficult it is to stop salivating when you see someone eating a lemon. Whether you want it or not, what you see is projected onto you personally.

The practice goes further: it is a programme you place within your consciousness, where it begins working. The programme itself works with your Kundalini and chakras, quietly doing what is needed for Kundalini to rise along sushumna and activate the seven main chakras on its way. It also works with the energy channels, or nadis, near sushumna, cleansing them with Kundalini's light. As I have said in other practices, do not confuse the three aspects of Kundalini's activity: awakening Kundalini; the light or fire from Kundalini travelling upwards along the spine's energy channel; and, most importantly, the actual ascent of Kundalini itself. These stages follow one another, sometimes separated by years or even decades.

Again, you will need nothing complicated. As always, I use the simplest things you can find at home right now. This time, you need only matches, which we have used repeatedly in other practices (here, here and so on)

Description of the Practice

First comes the preparation, which is itself part of the practice. You cannot do it beforehand or think of it as separate from the main practice. It belongs to the practice and deserves the same attention.

Take seven matches and a thread about 30–40 cm long. Lay one match over another as shown in the photograph below. With your left hand, hold the lower match near its end and the upper one by its head, also holding the end of the thread against them. With your right hand, wrap the thread around the matches a few times to bind them together. Wrap clockwise as you look at the matches. A few turns, for example 3–5, are enough. Then pass the thread beneath the head of the upper match, away from you and forwards, as shown in the enlarged diagram below. Do not tie any knots. Simply passing the thread between the matches secures the construction very well.

Do not cut the thread. Draw it along the upper match, place another match on top, and secure it to the one below using the same method. Continue until all seven matches are joined.

The photograph above clearly shows how this is done. Look carefully at my example and do exactly the same. I do not recommend other methods, such as tying knots around each match or using glue. This binding is directly related to the practice and to creating the particular programme that activates the chakras and Kundalini, so it must not be done differently. It is also very simple: it took me no more than two minutes.

As you have understood, the match heads represent the chakras. The joined matches represent the spine, or more precisely sushumna, the channel through which Kundalini energy rises. The thread represents the strands or rays of light emitted by Kundalini as it awakens. While making this construction, think about your chakras, Kundalini and your spine. When binding the anahata chakra, for example, think of anahata in the centre of your chest; when binding sahasrara, think of that chakra.

Main Part of the Practice

1. The "bridge" is ready. Feel clearly that this bridge is your spine, connecting Kundalini Shakti, sleeping at the base of your torso, with the Creator of the Universe dancing at your crown in the divine lotus of sahasrara, with its infinite petals.
2. The best time to practise is before bed. The programme can then easily enter your subconscious and work well during sleep and after waking.
3. Light a candle and place it on the floor before you. Sit with a straight back in the lotus position or cross-legged. If you cannot sit this way, use a chair and put the candle on a table in front of you.
4. Take the match "bridge" in your right hand, holding the last match between thumb and index finger. Wrap your left hand around your right, or reverse the hands if you wish. Hold your hands and the bridge roughly at chest level.
5. Sit like this for a minute or longer, looking at the candle flame. Think of it as Kundalini while concentrating on the base of your torso, below the coccyx. Think of the bridge as your spine and the matches as your chakras. You are preparing for Kundalini to awaken within you; you deeply desire and welcome this. Think of Kundalini as a Goddess, something superconscious and divine, with individuality and the ability to communicate with you and hear your prayers, requests and appeals. Mentally invite her to make the illuminating ascent along the great path of Enlightenment, your spine or sushumna. Be open with her and wish for her to reunite with the Creator of the Universe, granting you the incomparable ecstasy of self-knowledge.
6. After this short meditation, focus on the head of the first match and simultaneously on your muladhara chakra near the coccyx. Slowly bring the first match head towards the candle flame, towards Kundalini. This corresponds to reality: Kundalini lies directly below muladhara, and as it rises, muladhara is the first chakra to awaken.
7. Watch the flame travel up the "bridge" and think of your spine, with Kundalini rising along it now.
8. When the flame reaches the second match, focus on svadhisthana. As that match head flares, feel your own svadhisthana becoming active at that moment. Continue in this way throughout the fire's, Kundalini's, ascent along the bridge.
9. After the final match burns, meditate briefly again. With your eyes closed, recreate the passage of Kundalini's fire up your spine, identifying it with the fire travelling along the match bridge.

You can watch a video of the practice below:

Notes

• While binding the matches, it is advisable to repeat the Kundalini mantra: "Om Kundalini Namah", silently or in a whisper. You may also simply say "OM".
• Place something such as foil underneath, as burnt matches may fall and remain quite hot.
• Do not tilt the bridge too steeply downwards. Adjust its angle so that the flame travels slowly enough for you to concentrate thoughtfully on what you see, and on your chakras, spine and Kundalini.
• It does not matter if the flame goes out at a particular match. This is rare, but can happen. Simply relight that match from the candle and continue. It is not a bad omen or sign, so do not think in those terms. In an actual Kundalini ascent, it may also pause; this practice is a practical representation of that process.
• You may repeat the practice any number of times. An optimal approach is to do it daily, for example before bed, for 7 days.

© Author: Sergey Veretennikov (Om Shanti)
Practice given on 14 April 2011