One who begins to know his body from within… Firstly, the body and the soul in their very depth are not separate; the difference between them is very superficial. When the whole truth of it is known, we no longer see the body and the soul as two separate entities; we really see them as one and the same. It is ironical that in general we all believe that the body and soul are one and the same thing. But this general belief is illusory, because we really don’t know what the soul is. Rather we take the body for the soul. But even this illusory and popular belief stems from the same basic truth – behind it lies the same knowledge of this unity; in some invisible recess of our being we do know that the body and soul are one. We know our bodies only from without. Even our own bodies are known to us only from the outside. If I know my left hand, I know it through my eyes which have actually seen them. So my knowledge about my left hand is really the physiologist’s knowledge. But if I close my eyes and feel my left hand, this inner feeling of it, will be my own. So if someone goes to know his body from within, he will soon reach the kunda, the reservoir, which is the source of all our bodily energy.
The energy that lies asleep at this kunda, this pool, is called the kundalini. And then he will know for himself that everything emanates from there and pervades the whole body. Life energy has to have a center; no energy can be without a source. your body is a bundle of energy is self-evident; it needs no proof. It is a pile of energy that rises up and sits down, moves and halts and goes into sleep. And it is not that its energy always functions uniformly; sometimes it is active and vigorous and at other times it is in a lethargic, low and dull state. When you are angry you hurl a big rock at someone which you can hardly move in your normal state. When you are in great fear you run at a speed which would be envied by a runner in an Olympic race. So your energy is not always in the same state; it fluctuates according to conditions in and around you. It is therefore evident that you have a kind of reservoir, a fountain, from which energy goes into action or does not go. It goes into action whenever necessary; otherwise it lies dormant at the source. From this source you draw energy in both your normal and abnormal conditions – in your day to day needs and also in your emergencies. Yet this reservoir is never empty, it is always full; you cannot exhaust it. It is inexhaustible. There is a center in each one of us where this whole energy dwells – hidden and asleep. One should say that it lies there in seed form – enclosed and latent; but it can become manifest. And it is called kunda, the pool, or the reservoir. The word ”KUNDA” is very significant; it has many meanings. One meaning is that it is a still and tranquil pool without a single ripple. If even a single ripple is there it will mean that the energy has become active. Kunda means that its content, its energy, is without any movement; it is perfectly passive, calm and resting. And another meaning is that though it is passive and asleep, it can any moment become alert, active, and moving. It is not a dry and dead pool; it is full to the brim. And any moment it can become active, dynamic; although right now it is in a passive, sleeping state. That may be, why we don’t know what it is that lies asleep inside us. We can know only that much as becomes awake and active, only the active part of the energy will enter your consciousness, and its passive part will lie asleep in your unconscious. That is why even the greatest of men, unless they attain to greatness, remain unaware of this energy. Mahavira, Buddha, Krishna and Jesus, none of them were aware of their potential until they had actualized it, until they had attained to the height of their greatness Similarly, we don’t know the real source of our energy. And unless it is awakened, there is no way to know it. And we are not aware if it can be available to us, and in what measure it can be available. The awakened part of this sleeping energy, the kunda, is called the kundalini. The kunda itself is unconscious, it is asleep; but the kundalini is conscious and awake. Only that part of the energy which wakes up and comes out of the kunda is known as kundalini. Kundalini is not the whole of it; This journey is a two-fold exploration. The kundalini, the awakened energy, brings you the news that there is a very great source hidden within you which has immense possibilities. A single ray of light from the sun opens the possibility of an infinite number of rays coming in its wake. Awakening the kundalini will make you fully aware of the power of your body. And through the awakening of this energy you will arrive at those centers, those doors of your body, from where passage to the invisible end of the body, which we call the soul, becomes easy. So when the kundalini begins to wake up and rise, it knocks at such new doors of your body that are not at all ordinary. Through these extraordinary senses – after they are stimulated by the energy of the kundalini – you begin to know things which you cannot know through your ordinary senses. Correctly speaking, the kundalini begins to hit and awaken your internal sense organs. Even now it is through the energy of the kundalini that your ordinary eyes and ears and other sense organs function. But these are external organs which need a very small amount of kundalini energy to get going. A small increase in this amount, and you will have extra energy at your disposal to activate other centers as well. In a deeper physical sense, the awakening of the kundalini means that you have so much energy with you that your old channels are not able to contain it, and so it irresistibly seeks new avenues and new doors. As a result, many new and subtle senses within you will become awake and active. These extrasensory centers will make you telepathic and clairvoyant; you will begin to see and hear things which are beyond the reach of your ordinary eyes and ears. You will experience certain things your normal senses have nothing to do with. Altogether new sense organs will become active within you. And the most profound result of the intensification of the new senses will be that you will begin to know the invisible world which lies hidden in your body, which is the most subtle and imperceptible part of your body, and which we call the Atman or the soul. So with the awakening of the kundalini the possibilities of your growth will be much enhanced. But the work has to begin with the body. There is another way which I have left out so far. I have so far explained to you what has been done generally to awaken the kundalini; but the kundalini is not the whole of the kunda or the pool. Very few persons in the world have taken this way. It is not one of awakening the kundalini, with which we are familiar, but of getting immersed in the kunda itself. It is not like awakening a small part of the energy and using it for growth; it is a matter of merging our entire consciousness in the kunda or the pool of primeval energy. In that event no new senses will be awakened; in that case no extrasensory experiences will be availed, and even the experience of the soul will be missed completely. In that event, one will directly encounter and experience God, the Supreme. People who have immersed themselves directly in the kunda say that there is no soul, only God is; there is nothing but God. They say there is only one, not many.
Now seekers who work through awakening the kundalini have extrasensory experiences, which are really extraordinary and unique psychic experiences. They are really psychedelic. And these people come to realize the soul which is only a part of God, or the supreme. So the experience of the soul is like touching the ocean from a particular corner of it. And this can come about by awakening only a little bit of the vast energy. Therefore it becomes necessary for a seeker who has attained on this path to be prepared to lose the soul, too, to transcend it and go beyond. Otherwise the journey will be impeded, because it is yet incomplete. Realization of the soul is not the whole of it; he will have to lose the soul as well, and take a plunge into the kunda. The attainment of the soul is just a stage in the preparation for losing the soul. We gain it only to lose it ultimately. But it is easier, too. Because if you directly ask a person whose desires are still alive to sink himself in the kunda, to lose himself completely, he cannot do so; he will say it is just impossible. He will say that since he has many important things to do, he cannot afford to lose himself. Why are we so afraid of losing ourselves? We are afraid because there is always so much to be done that if we lose ourselves, everything will remain undone, incomplete. For instance, if you ask someone whose miseries are still alive to part with his bliss, he will say you are simply crazy. But if his miseries leave him and he is left with bliss alone, then he can prepare himself to part with bliss as well. With desires gone, what will he do with bliss? And the great event happens only when one is ready to give up bliss, too. Anybody can be ready to give up sorrow; but a time does come in our lives when we get prepared to part willingly with bliss itself. And that is what leads to one’s dissolution in and unity with the Supreme Being. When desiring disappears, when mind ceases, when doing comes to an end, when all your props with which you live fall away, then in the end only you remain without any basis, without any support. It is then that you say to yourself, ”It is now no use salvaging this self; now I can let go of it too.” Then you drown yourself in the kunda and merge with it. This merger with the kunda is called nirvana, or freedom.
About kundalini I said that it is a preparation of the body; it is really a preparation to enter the bodiless, to enter the spirit, the soul. And you cannot enter the soul with the amount of energy that is currently available to you, because it is just enough to take you through the day to day chores of life. In fact it is not sufficient for this either; it is so meager that at the end of every day you feel nearly exhausted. The available energy is not sufficient even for our day to day needs; its supply is so poor The little energy that we spend in our day to day life is not worth saving, because we will have to spend as much energy in saving it. Even to save energy, one is required to spend energy. For me it is not a question of saving energy; it is a question of awakening the great energy that is lying asleep within you. And this energy is incalculably infinite, it is simply inexhaustible. And once it begins to awaken, the more it awakens the more is the possibility of its further awakening; it goes on opening. Once started, this stream of energy is so vast and endless that you can never exhaust it. In other words, there is never a moment in your life when you can say that now there is nothing more to be awakened. The possibility of awakening is infinite; you can draw any amount of energy from this limitless reservoir. And the more you draw from it, the stronger you become, to awaken more and more of this great energy. And when you have abundance of this inner energy at your disposal only then, can you use it in the quest of the unknown. And then only can you venture to tread on the paths that are unknown and uncharted. Do you understand what I am saying? And remember, when you have abundant energy, you suddenly find that all the old channels of energy are completely choked up; for they are now incapable of taking so much, they are not meant for it. It is like an ocean has fallen into a small river, wiping the river out of existence all at once. The river will never know where it has disappeared and how. The old channels of your anger, your sex and the rest of it will suddenly choke and disappear. The day the flood of energy will rise, it will crush and destroy all its old wharves and banks. You will suddenly find that something altogether new and different has come into being. And you will wonder what happened to all your petty savings and your miserly and stingy living. Your puny efforts – like practicing celibacy and suppressing anger and doing this and that – will disappear into thin air, because the old canals and rivers have disappeared and a whole ocean has appeared on the scene from nowhere. And when you have no other way to spend this immense energy, you suddenly find that this energy has set out on an altogether different journey. Because the journey has ceaselessly to go on and on; it can never come to a stop. The energy will keep moving; it cannot stop. This pilgrimage is everlasting. It is just a matter of awakening the energy for once. Then your old ways of life become meaningless, and many unknown and unfamiliar doors, lying closed for ages, begin to give way to this onrushing energy. And it is there that you begin to have extrasensory experiences.
OSHO
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