What is a Kundalini and Kundalini Awakening?

By: Dr. Denise Renye

You may be someone who has heard the word “kundalini” and doesn’t know what it is. Kundalini or kuńd́alinii is a Sanskrit word and literally translates into “coiled snake” that is said to reside at the base of the spine. Does that mean you have a snake in your body?!? No, it doesn’t. Instead, think of the kundalini as a metaphor, as the sleeping divinity within you that is within everyone. According to Eastern spiritual traditions originating out of India (the various branches of Tantra and Hinduism, for instance), the kundalini resides in the last bone of the vertebral column.

When you have a deep longing for the divine, when you want to feel a sense of union with something greater than yourself, that’s when it’s said your kundalini has awakened. That can happen from walking in nature, reading a book, attending a lecture, learning meditation, having a dream – the list goes on. However, the kundalini doesn’t have to stay at the base of the spine – it can travel up your spine to pierce seven energy centers or chakras. At each chakra, the spiritual feeling is different and graduates from, “One day I will be one with Source energy,” to “I already am one. There is no difference between me and the creative energy that powers the universe.”

When the kundalini has pierced the last chakra, a person enters into a state of bliss, also known as samadhi. It’s indescribable, beyond words, but Rumi hints at it often in his poems, for instance in “Intoxicated by Love” when he writes:

Because of your love
I have lost my sobriety
I am intoxicated
by the madness of love

In this fog
I have become a stranger to myself
I'm so drunk
I've lost the way to my house

In the garden
I see only your face
From trees and blossoms
I inhale only your fragrance

Drunk with the ecstasy of love
I can no longer tell the difference
between drunkard and drink
Between Lover and Beloved

That state of pure union is what the mystics of every spiritual path reference, albeit it by different names. It’s what Buddhists refer to as Enlightenment, what others call a Spiritual Awakening, or what Teresa of Ávila, the Spanish Carmelite nun, refers to in her text on the seven mansions. As evidenced by its appearance across spiritual disciplines, a kundalini awakening can happen to anybody at any time on any spiritual path. You don’t have to practice Kundalini Yoga, for instance, or recite a particular mantra to have your kundalini rise. The only commonality among kundalini experiences is the feeling of intense devotion or love for a Higher Power.

Signs of a kundalini awakening are a feeling of freedom from your ego and communing with everyone and everything around you. There’s a sense of resounding peace and transcendence as you recognize there’s more to you and to life than the material plane. You might also feel love and compassion for yourself and others and have more distance from things that used to trouble you. You may also have a newfound strength and clarity as you recognize you’re not alone, that there is a loving, benevolent force that is with you, guiding you.

On a physical level, during a kundalini awakening/rising, your body may shake, especially if your chakras haven’t been purified through practices like healthy eating and yoga. You could also feel heat or energy in your spine, like a pulsing in your back.

As a note here, kundalini awakenings happen or they don’t. Some people have meditated for years on end without experiencing their spine shaking, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less spiritual than someone else. Nor should a physical experience be the goal of any spiritual practice. In other words, don’t go chasing a kundalini experience because you could spend your whole life doing that. Instead, focus on connecting with a power greater than yourself in whatever way that means: prayer, meditation, freewriting, walking a labyrinth, or other methods to access the unconscious.

A kundalini awakening is great, but so is integrating your whole person to become a more authentic version of yourself.

To set up an appointment with me (Marin County Sexologist), click here.