In the esoterics of unfoldment on the path of enlightenment, there are some mechanics about what happens inside of the human body, its nerve system, that you should know about. There are two basic forces working within the body, as I have explained, the instinctive area of the mind and the intellectual area of the mind. Within these are two forces working that flow out from the central source of energy through their respective currents. They are called the iḍā and the piṅgalā forces. ¶The iḍā current is pink in color. It is the vibration of the physical body. It is the Earth current. When the energy is flowing through that current, or nāḍī, we are more conscious of the physical body, or more in physical consciousness. We are not in the world of thought but in the world of feeling. We feel very strongly and experience very strong emotions when the energy is flowing through the iḍā current. ¶In some people the energy flows through the iḍā current constantly. They have very strong emotions and deep sentiments. They live in their emotion most of the time, emoting over one thing or another. They emotionally and deeply feel through this iḍā current how other people feel. They take other people’s feeling onto themselves and have a preoccupation with their physical bodies. This is the current that can produce another human being in a woman, or develop athletic abilities in a man. ¶When the vibratory force of energy flows through the iḍā current, the entire physical body responds. It is physically active. We like to work. We like to move. We like to exercise. We like to do things. We enjoy equally the base emotions and the movements of the physical body. ¶When the energy flows through iḍā in some people, they actually enjoy suffering. There are people deep in this current who if they did not have something to suffer over would not feel whole. They would feel they were not living fully enough on this planet. They would not feel human, for the iḍā current is the current of being human. It is very base. It is very earthy. Still, those living in this current are intuitive. They do have intuition, but their intuition conflicts with their heavy emotion, so intuition comes through periodically, in intuitive flashes. They may even become superstitious because of this. The iḍā current flows most strongly through the left side of the physical body. ¶The piṅgalā current is quite different. Blue in color, it is the current of the intellect, flowing mostly through the right side of the body. When the pure life energy is flowing through the piṅgalā current, we are not as conscious that we have a physical body. We are aware in the mind. We are inquisitive. We like to talk a lot. We like to argue. We like to reason. We enjoy discussion. It is the intellectual current. We like to read. We like to memorize the opinions of other people. We like to memorize our own opinions and tell them to other people. We like to do business. When the energy is flowing through the piṅgalā, we do not emote much. We think over our emotions. We analyze our feelings and thoughts. This is the aggressive human current. ¶People living in this current do not pay much attention to the physical body. They let it take care of itself. They also are inclined to let other people do the emoting. They become powerfully strong in that aggressive type of intellectual force. When we are in the piṅgalā current, we are headstrong, somewhat pushy, pushing ideas across to other people, and inclined to be argumentative. We have a strong facility of reasoning. It is a very positive and powerful current. §
Once in either current for a long time, it is difficult to flow awareness out of it. There are some people who are predominantly piṅgalā, aggressive in nature and strong in their human elements in that area. There are some people who are predominantly iḍā: human, physical and earthy, and full of feeling. And there are some who switch from one to the other. These are the more rounded and well-adjusted type of people, who can move awareness through the piṅgalā current and through the iḍā current and adjust the energies almost at will. ¶We have still another basic strong current that you should know about. It is called sushumṇā. It is one of fourteen currents within the spine which govern the instinctive, intellectual, conscious, subconscious, sub of the subconscious, subsuperconscious and superconscious areas of the mind. The iḍā and the piṅgalā are two of these fourteen, so this leaves eleven more within the spine. ¶When we begin a religious pilgrimage or retreat into sādhana and we want awareness to dive deep within, we have to withdraw the energy of the vibrating iḍā and the vibrating piṅgalā current into sushumṇā. This is quite a chore, because these currents have had energy flowing in them for a number of years. So, to rechannel that energy is to rechannel the entire circumference of awareness into the sushumṇā current. This takes a lot of practice. ¶Breathing, of course, is a major function of control here. Haṭha yoga is a major function, too. Sitting in the lotus position conquers a great deal of the iḍā current. The practices of concentration and observation conquer a great deal of the piṅgalā current. Some good, solid study that disciplines awareness, such as the study of math, music or a skill, moves awareness into the piṅgalā and helps balance these two currents. ¶Then the next step is to bring awareness into sushumṇā. This is the path. However, if awareness is flowing through the piṅgalā current already and is extremely aggressive, that means the entire nature of the individual is extremely aggressive, intellectual, and it is extremely difficult for him to withdraw those energies into the sushumṇā current. Why? Because he will argue within himself mentally and reason himself out of it. He will simply go to another book, or have a different intellectual look at it, or go to another teacher, or watch television instead, or go to another lecture. He will never quite get around to bringing in this aggressive piṅgalā energy from the intellect back to its source, sushumṇā, so that he can go within and experience superconscious realms of the inner mind consciously. ¶These two forces, the iḍā and the piṅgalā, are the big challenges. They are what makes a person “human” in the popular sense of the word. It is the degree of energy that flows through the areas of the iḍā and piṅgalā that forms one’s nature, his actions, reactions and responses. The areas of his external personality are governed by these two currents. ¶How do you bring about a balance? It is done by regular practice of the five steps. Choose a time to withdraw deliberately the energies from both the iḍā and piṅgalā currents and to move awareness into sushumṇā in a very positive way. In the morning when you awaken and at night before you sleep are the best times. Breathe regularly, the same number of counts in and out. Sit in the lotus posture. When you sit in the lotus posture, you are actually short-circuiting the iḍā current to a certain extent. When you are breathing regularly, through the control of the breath, you are short-circuiting the piṅgalā current to a certain extent. Then, when awareness flows into the core of energy within the spine, you soon become consciously conscious of the sushumṇā current. At that point, awareness is within and begins immediately to draw upon all the externalized energies of the body, and these two psychic currents are drawn within to their source. §
When we chant the mantra Aum, and do it correctly, we pronounce the AA so that it vibrates the physical body. The OO has to vibrate through the throat area, and the MM, the head. In doing this, we are deliberately moving awareness out of the mūlādhāra and svādhishṭhāna chakras, deliberately harmonizing all the forces of the instinct and physical body, and of the iḍā and the piṅgalā currents. Chanting the AA and the OO and the MM brings the sushumṇā into power. We are transmuting and changing the flows of all the energies through the physical and astral body and blending them as much as possible into the body of the soul. ¶The mantra Aum can be chanted at any time. It can be chanted silently and cause the same vibration through the body. When you chant Aum, the iḍā and the piṅgalā blend back into the sushumṇā. ¶You will actually see this happening. You will see the pink iḍā current begin to blend back into the golden center of the spine. At other times it is seen winding through the body. The same happens with the piṅgalā force. It, too, moves back into the spine, until you are all spine when you are centered in the sushumṇā. This is how it feels, like being all spine. This beautiful, pure energy flows out through the sushumṇā and the iḍā and the piṅgalā and then on out through the body. This energy becomes changed as it flows through the first three or four chakras. It makes what is called prāṇa. This energy runs in and through the body. It is a great mind energy which is in the world of thought. All the stratums of thought are prāṇa. The human aura is prāṇa. ¶Prāṇa, or odic force, is transferred from one person to another through touch, as in a handshake, or through a look. It is the basic force of the universe, and the most predominant force found within the body. You have to really study prāṇa to get a good understanding of what it is. It runs in and through the skin, through the bone structure, through the physical body and around the body. ¶Breath controls prāṇa. This practice is called prāṇāyāma. It is the control of prāṇa, the regulation of prāṇa, or the withdrawal of prāṇa from the external world back to its primal source. That is why prāṇāyāma is so important to practice systematically, regularly, day after day, so we get all the prāṇa into a rhythm. In this way we get a rhythm of the pure life force flowing through iḍā, piṅgalā and sushumṇā and out through the aura. We gain a rhythm of awareness soaring inward, into refined states of the ājñā chakra and sahasrāra chakra, the perspective areas from which we are looking out at life as if we were the center of the universe. This is how we feel when we are in these chakras. ¶Diaphragmatic breathing is breathing according to nature. When man becomes confused, nervous, tense, fearful, he breathes out of tune with nature—out of tune with himself. Then his breathing is spasmodic, labored, shallow, and he has to expand his chest to get enough breath to keep going on. That’s right: breathing by expanding the chest is incorrect, unnatural, and conducive to nothing but ill health unless you are practicing an advanced breathing exercise, and then the chest is only expanded after the area beneath the chest is filled. And unless you are doing physically strenuous work, you will be able to bring more than sufficient air into your lungs by the simple, natural contraction and relaxation of the diaphragmatic muscle. The diaphragm you can feel right below your solar plexus, in the area where the floating ribs separate. Place your finger tips on top of the diaphragm and cough. If your fingers are directly on top of the diaphragm, you will feel them jump out away from you as you cough. ¶The quickest way to teach yourself natural breathing (the way you breathed until about the age of seven) is to lie on the floor with your spine absolutely straight. Place a book or some light object on top of your diaphragm. When you breathe in, the diaphragm will extend itself downward in the body and you will feel it push out and up away from the floor; watch the book rise. Breathing out is as important as breathing in, for without expelling all the waste matter and carbon dioxide from the lungs, they are not free to take in more fresh oxygen. As you exhale, the diaphragm relaxes slowly, smoothly and completely. The book, which previously was lifted away from the floor by the pressure of your expanding diaphragm, now returns back to its starting position. You will find that squeezing or contracting the abdominal muscles slightly will aid you in making a complete exhalation, allowing most of the air to leave the lungs. At the end of your exhaled breath, your stomach should be flat, and the diaphragm relaxed, ready for the next inhalation. You are now on your way to perfect breath and mind control. §
Control of the prāṇa is also guided through nutrition. Food and air contain a great deal of prāṇa. Prāṇa is transferred from one person to another, from a person to a plant, from a plant to a person. It is the life of the world of form. We should eat types of food that contain a great deal of prāṇa so that we are making prāṇa ourselves. Consider the physical body as a temple, with plumbing and electricity. To maintain this temple, watch what you eat and be conscious of the areas where you flow awareness in the world of thought. The vibration of certain thoughts upsets the nerve system of this physical-body temple. Also, be careful of the people that you mix with, so that their awareness and vibrations do not pull your awareness into unwholesome areas and the vibrations of their aura do not affect your temple. This is extremely important to observe, especially during the first few years of unfoldment. ¶When we are in ideal surroundings, in the shrine room of our own home, we can balance the passive and active currents of the body—the iḍā and piṅgalā forces. First, do this simple prāṇāyāma. Breathe easily, in and out, in an even rhythm, say, four heartbeats to the inhalation and four heartbeats to the exhalation. This steady rhythm will soon begin to balance the iḍā and piṅgalā. ¶As the piṅgalā force becomes quieted and regulated, you will hear a ringing about an inch above the right ear. This is the sound of the nerve current of the piṅgalā nāḍī. And as the iḍā force becomes quieted and regulated, you will hear a ringing about an inch above the left ear. This is the nerve sound of the iḍā nāḍī, slightly different from the tone of the piṅgalā nāḍī. The direction of energy flow in the piṅgalā nāḍī is up, whereas the iḍā nāḍī flows downward. When the energy in the two nāḍīs is balanced, a circle is formed, creating a force field in which the sushumṇā nāḍī is regulated. ¶Now, to bring the sushumṇā force into power, listen to both tones simultaneously. It may take you about five minutes to hear both tones at the same time. Next, follow both tonal vibrations from the ears into the center of the cranium, where they will meet and blend into a slightly different sound, as two notes, say, a “C” and an “E,” blend into a chord. The energy of the nāḍīs is then flowing in a circle, and you will enter the golden yellow light of the sushumṇā current. Play with this light and bask in its radiance, for in it is your bloom. The unfoldment progresses from a golden yellow to a clear white light. Should you see a blue light, know that you are in the piṅgalā current. If you see a pink light, that is the color of the iḍā. Just disregard them and seek for the white light in the tone of the combined currents until finally you do not hear the tone anymore and you burst into the clear white light. Thus you enter savikalpa samādhi—samādhi with seed, or consciousness, which is the culmination of this particular practice of contemplation. ¶After doing this for a period of time, you will find that you lose interest in the exterior world. It will seem transparent and unreal to you. When this happens, you have to learn to bring your consciousness back through meditation, deliberately into the processes of inner knowing and thought, and back into the exterior world through concentration. It requires a deliberate concentration then to make the exterior world seem real again to you. ¶Now is the time for devotees who have worked diligently in concentration and meditation and in clearing up personal problems to enjoy their yoga and be happy in their attainments, to enjoy the bliss that is their heritage on Earth.§
Within the quantum level of consciousness there originates a vibration, a steady vibration, that can be heard with the inner ear as a high-pitched “eeeee,” as if a thousand vīṇās were playing, as if all the nerve currents in the astral body, physical body and the body of the soul were singing in harmony. It is a divine combination of the iḍā and piṅgalā tones blended together in the sushumṇā. Each lineage of gurus has embedded within the psyche of tradition a certain combination of sounds, and listening to this mystic sound holds all devotees close to their satguru and all those who preceded him. It is also said that when one is in another birth, the sound is the same, and this will eventually lead the aspirant back to his spiritual lineage. Listening to the nāda, as it is called in Sanskrit, or nāda-nāḍī śakti, brings the threshold of bliss and shows that the balance of all karmas has been attained. Listening to the nāda and tracing it into its source carries the seeker’s awareness to the brink of the Absolute. There are today mystical orders that do nothing but listen to the nāda while looking at and enjoying the darshan of their guru’s picture. ¶Many sincere seekers wonder why they cannot hear “eeeeee,” the nāda, during their meditation, whereas others not only hear it during meditation but during the day when talking, shopping or just meandering through the garden. This is to say, it is there when awareness enters that area of the mind. The mind has to be made empty. That means resolving all unresolved conflicts within the subconscious. The striving to hear the nāda will bring up unresolved issues. They may plague the conscious mind until resolved. At first you might disregard them and feel they will go away as abruptly as they came. But later, when they persist, and the major one is deception—yes, we can even deceive ourselves—we are inwardly forced to face up to, admit our secrets and make amends. When deception goes, the nāda comes. When the subconscious is heavy, the nāda and the brilliant colors it radiates fade. Failure on the path puts the nāda out of range of the inner ear of the soul. ¶The mystical nāda, it’s a medley of sounds, and each sound which is there has a color, but may be covered, as is the light of the mind of the soul, the clear white light. It is covered, but not permanently. Admittance of the mistakes, the experience of repentance and the performance of penance, called prāyaśchitta, lay the foundation for a reconciliation that will release the force of lower nature into the higher and uncloud the veil that hid the inner light, that hid the nāda—that incomprehensible high-pitched “eee,” sounding within the head, that incomparable source of inner security, contentment and outpouring of love. When you hear the nāda, endeavor to project it in love’s outpouring to all those who are in your orbit of communication. They will feel the blessings when your divine love is projected through your nāda into their nāda. This is the height of selfless consciousness, universal love, a constant, mystical outpouring and experience of oneness. The sushumṇā is nāda and more. Nāda śakti is. It just is. §
Haṭha yoga (ha-piṅgalā and ṭha-iḍā) balances the two forces, the iḍā and the piṅgalā. The straight, erect spine releases the actinodic flow of the sushumṇā current. The mind centered in the contemplative atmosphere, cognizing timelessness, causelessness, spacelessness while sitting in the lotus position, awakens the pineal and pituitary centers, and the door of Brahman at the top of the head. ¶The force of the actinodic causal body, the sheath of cognition, vijñānamaya kośa, a pure actinic force running through the sushumṇā current, is called the kuṇḍalinī. As this kuṇḍalinī force becomes activated, the sushumṇā power begins to grow, or the actinodic causal body begins to grow, and the higher chakras of cognition and universal love begin to spin faster. Once kuṇḍalinī power has been activated, its force expands or contracts consciousness. As man’s consciousness expands into actinic spheres, more kuṇḍalinī power is used. This power is lessened as his consciousness emerges into the limited fields of the odic world. ¶Often known as the serpent power, the kuṇḍalinī is coiled at the base of the spine in the instinctive man who resides mostly in the force fields of memory and fear. When this power becomes uncoiled, the serpent, or kuṇḍalinī, luminously raises its head, and finally, after nirvikalpa samādhi, it lifts its power to the top of the head. ¶When nirvikalpa samādhi has been practiced daily for many, many years—according to the classical yoga teachings, for twelve years—and the golden body has been built, the kuṇḍalinī force coils itself in the sahasrāra chakra of the yogī, at the top of the head. This is known as the manas chakra, located about where the hairline begins at the forehead. This chakra eventually becomes the mūlādhāra chakra, or the memory-pattern chakra, of the golden body. The manas chakra is fully activated when the golden body is fully unfolded. This is known in Hindu and Egyptian mystic schools as the golden body of light, for it registers in the minds of those who look upon it, to their soul body, as a golden ball of light or a golden body. ¶When the kuṇḍalinī rises into the realms of pure actinicity, the pineal gland and pituitary center are activated. When these two centers are activated simultaneously, the forces of both of them merge, bringing man into nirvikalpa samādhi. Therefore, the aggressive odic force merges with the passive odic force, in perfect balance, and the actinodic power of the sushumṇā current comes into perfect balance, poised with the kuṇḍalinī force. The yoga adept finds himself on the brink of the Absolute, cognizing That which he cannot explain, knowing there is something beyond which the mind does not know, conceiving That which cannot be conceived, because form, which is mind, cannot conceive formlessness. Then the yogī touches into the Self and becomes a knower of the Self, merges with Śiva. ¶When the iḍā, piṅgalā and sushumṇā forces merge and reside in perfect balance, the third eye awakens. When the pituitary, pineal glands and the sushumṇā source are in perfect balance, man is able to perceive consciously into other worlds of the mind. The golden body, as it begins to grow after the renunciate, or sannyāsin, attains nirvikalpa samādhi, is built by man’s service to his fellow man.§
When a yoga guru brings others from darkness into light and from light into Self Realization, he is also strengthening his own golden body. When a satguru makes it easy for his sannyāsins to remain in the practice of Self Realization, encouraging them and demanding of them the practice of nirvikalpa samādhi, he helps them hold their forces in check through the power of his golden body. ¶After nirvikalpa samādhi, the sannyāsin has a choice to serve mankind or to wait for mankind to unfold into the consciousness that he has attained. This is called being a bodhisattva or upadeśī, one who serves, or an arahat or nirvāṇī, one who waits. The golden body begins to grow through service and by bringing others into enlightenment as a bodhisattva, or through the constant practice of nirvikalpa samādhi while living a strictly secluded life as an arahat, only mixing with those of his own level of realization. ¶The sahasrāra chakra at the top of the head and the ājñā chakra at the brow, or the third eye, are the two controlling force centers of the soul body. These force centers become the two lowest chakras of the yoga master’s new golden body, svarṇaśarīra, as this body begins to build after his first nirvikalpa samādhi. ¶The usual experience before nirvikalpa samādhi is for the aspirant to become a knower of the Self. This could occur at any time during his training. In order to attain this experience of “touching into the Self,” he must have a complete balance of all odic and actinic forces within him. A noted change in his life pattern often occurs after he becomes a knower of the Self, for the soul body has become released into orbit, and he has then a subsuperconscious control of this body. In other words, the odic-force tie has been released. This body has quickly matured. Then, if practicing contemplation as prescribed by his satguru and finally working out the various karmic binds or holds in the lower odic force field with the help of the guru, he attains complete Self Realization, or nirvikalpa samādhi. Then the golden body, svarṇaśarīra, is born through the merging of the forces of the pituitary and the pineal gland, setting the sahasrāra into a constant spinning motion. This constant spinning motion generates the force which propels the yoga adept back into nirvikalpa samādhi. Each time he goes into nirvikalpa samādhi he intensifies a little the spinning movement of this chakra, unfolding it a little more, and as this occurs, the golden body begins to build. ¶When the yoga adept touches into the Self and becomes a knower of the Self, attains nirvikalpa samādhi, becomes Self Realized, yoga powers come to him. These yoga powers are often renounced, depending upon the rule of the order to which he belongs, whether it be a teaching order or an order of hermits. According to the need, a power is developed. The powers that a yogī can use are as many as the petals within the sahasrāra chakra. They are 1,008. These powers are conceived through the nāḍīs—small, elastic-like psychic nerve currents extending out into and through the aura of the body. The nāḍīs work in conjunction with the chakras, and with the major currents of the body, iḍā, piṅgalā and sushumṇā. ¶Realizing Paraśiva gives you great power, but to use that power very sparingly or not at all is the greater thing to do, because the power itself works of its own accord. If you have powers, siddhis that are unfolded, it is best not to consciously use them. You can demonstrate to yourself to be sure you have them, but these siddhis are all connected with devonic forces that will work totally for righteousness without your demonstrating them. That is why no one wants to come up against a ṛishi. Similarly, a good king does not use his power. He makes everything flourish without appearing to be powerful. His greater power happens in unseen ways. ¶Remember, when the kuṇḍalinī force becomes strong within you during a meditation, just sit and be aware that you are aware—a blissful state called kaīf in Shūm, the language of meditation. You will feel very positive and experience yourself as a great big ball of energy. When the energy begins to wane, try to absorb it into every cell of your external body, then continue your meditation exactly where you left off. In this way you will build a strong, disciplined nerve system and subconscious mind. This will lead you naturally onto the next inner plateau, then to the next and the next. ¶Never allow yourself to be complacent in your spiritual attainments. Always continue to strive. Even ṛishis, swāmīs and yogīs who have totally realized Paraśiva continue to work on themselves from within themselves. They don’t let down, because if they did it would be many years before they had the next experience of the timelessness, formlessness, spacelessness of the unspeakable Paraśiva experience. The message, therefore, is, at the beginning of meditation and at the end, keep striving. Don’t turn back, but proceed with confidence.§