The Awakening of Kundalini

by Gopi Krishna

In this book Gopi Krishna deals specifically with the subject of meditation and with the question, what should everyone know about higher consciousness? He shows that the science of Yoga is far more complex, comprehensive and profound than is generally supposed. The book also deals with many commonly-asked questions about meditation, mysticism, drug experiences and the phenomenon of partial awareness. With the exception of his autobiography, The Awakening of Kundalini is perhaps the best of all his books to serve as an introduction to the subject.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction

132 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Gopi Krishna (30 May 1903 – 31 July 1984) was a yogi; mystic; teacher; social reformer; and writer. He was born in a small village outside Srinagar, in the Jammu and Kashmir State in northern India. He spent his early years there, and later lived in Lahore, in the Punjab of British India.

He was one of the first to popularise the concept of Kundalini among Western readers. His autobiography Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man, which presented his personal account of the phenomenon of his awakening of Kundalini, (later renamed to Living with Kundalini),was published in Great Britain and the United States and has since appeared in eleven major languages. According to June McDaniel, his writings have influenced Western interest in kundalini yoga.

Reviews

[Bon Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's all theoretical and not a word about how actually do you awaken the serpent power, but it's still interesting reading.

[Nikolas Alixopulos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, a disappointing read. I feel as if Gopi Krishna's conservatism comes across as close minded and ignorant. He seems too often to have an agenda to prove that alternate tools used by various cultures for spiritual practices whether they be trance states, entheogens, or modern tools such as biofeedback are seen as as degraded spirituality. He echoes people of his era such as Mircea Eliade in this view and it seems to be more important to him to discredit other practices than to actually speak solely upon kundalini and his own personal experience. His hypocrisy shows in that he will in one sentence talk down about Aldous Huxley but has no problem quoting Alan Watts- whose very existence and methods of his own spiritual awakening seem to be at odds with Krishna's standards of "proper" spirituality. He says he is not a guru, so then he should avoid putting his opinions as facts and focus on what he does know which is his own experience.

[Baroness · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting but oh my goth it just went on and on and on.
I kept waiting for the real deal to unfold and show me how to awaken the serpent but the only thing that was awakened was my need to stop listening.
DNF!

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

honestamente bem cu sabe parece que é uma introdução o livro todo nao sei de nada pra lugar nenhum e discordo MUUUUITO de varias coisas escritas q sao ditas como uma verdade inquestionável quando na real não é

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was recently gifted a booklet titled “Evolution Through Chi”, Justin Stone’s address to the 1990 T’ai Chi Chih Conference. (Justin Stone originated T'ai Chi Chih in 1974).

In it, Justin Stone reflects on Gopi Krishna, the Indian yogi and mystic he calls “one of the most important people of our time.” He urges us to read Krishna’s “Higher Consciousness”, a book Stone describes as “the most important book I’ve ever read”. Stone says “It’s the first time I’ve ever read anything that corresponded to my own experience.”

So of course, if Justin says it is the most important book he has ever read I had to go out and purchase a copy! I just finished reading it.

Gopi Krishna says “The human brain can rise to higher states of consciousness by certain biological readjustments in which the cerebral-spinal system plays a part”. This concept is aligned with bioenergy (Justin’s word in his 1990 address) at work when doing our T’ai Chi Chih.

Perhaps the most moving idea in Krishna’s work, echoed by Justin, is the concept of the “evolution of consciousness”. Justin reminds us that “we are evolving to something very wonderful.” This evolution is not just a physical transformation of our species over millennia but also a deep, spiritual unfolding toward higher states of awareness.

Gopi Krishna and Justin speak of evolution, for each of us as individuals (deepening our practice) and for our human species. Just as our species has physically evolved for 200,000 years, our species also has the inherent potential to evolve toward a higher consciousness. And this kind of evolution comes from good behaviors and spiritual practices. Both Gopi Krishna and Justin emphasize that this evolution of consciousness can be accelerated by motivating the bioenergy (Chi for Justin, Kundalini for Gopi Krishna), and that this motivation happens by moving our physical bodies in certain ways, and with a focused awareness.

In “Spiritual Odyssey”, Justin says “T’ai Chi Chih makes permanent changes to our metabolism and our thinking processes”. And in other writings, Justin frequently remarks on the reciprocal nature of Chi. For example “just as thought conditions the Vital Force, so does the flow of this Chi, this Intrinsic Energy, condition the way of thinking.”

We move our physical bodies to embrace and welcome the metaphysical Chi. We know the intrinsic energy is real—not because we think it but because we feel it. With regular practice we foster the “Evolution of Chi”.

Another quote from Gopi Krishna:

"…I mean that state of awareness in which consciousness can turn back upon itself and contemplate the Cosmic Realty, apprehended by introspection, just as the external world is cognized with the senses and the mind. One of the most distinctive characteristics of this state is that when the individual possessing it turns his attention upon his being, it spreads out and extends in all directions like a drop of oil on a placid sheet of water. There is no limit to this spreading out, and the deeper the contemplation the more extended becomes the area of conscious perception.

When a normal person turns his mind upon himself he finds only the limited periphery of his ego-bound and sense-conditioned awareness. The awakened man perceives his ego and sense impressions reflected in a vast world of consciousness surrounding him on every side. To put it briefly, Cosmic Consciousness signifies an extended state of awareness in which a new area of perception opens within, and consciousness becomes perceptive of itself."

[Victoria Maxwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't usually post reviews if I think a book wasn't that great, but as a Kundalini yoga teacher I felt it was important to share my thoughts on this one.

This book was incredibly dogmatic and fear-based. Repeated over and over again was the message that if you're not already at a certain state of enlightenment practicing Kundalini yoga will make you go insane.

This has not been my experience at all, in fact, the way in which we practice KY here in the west these days, it is actually a fantastic tool to support with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.

Of course, I still do not personally recommend KY for people who are dealing with serious mental illness, but for most people, these practices will get you closer to the truth of who you really are, open your connection to the divine, increase your health and vitality and are not to be feared.

And yes, we should be awake and aware enough when going into KY practices that "stuff" may come to the surface in the process, and we need to have the tools and support to be able to work with that, but in nearly 10 years of practicing and teaching I have never seen anyone "go insane" from doing Kundalini yoga. I'm not saying it's never happened or couldn't ever happen, but I think it would be incredibly rare and likely the result of something else going on for an individual than just that they did a Kundalini yoga class.

This book feels very much of a certain time and place and while there are some really interesting things in here, in my humble opinion, the tone and fear-based messages are not useful for modern-day practitioners or those who are interested in learning more about Kundalini energy.

[Fed · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s not what I’ve expected.
Here the author is trying to convince scientists that kundalini existed 😅. Where I wanted to know what kundalini is!
But he did answer some of my questions
How important solitude is, the direction of sex energy after activation (upward), the sexual intercourse afterwards.
It’s not a fixed energy. It evolves over time, but the person have to lead a healthy lifestyle.
It takes the person above envy, pride, …
It connects the person to information and genius
Practice silencing the mind.

[Joseph Knecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains several essays regarding Meditation, Kundalini, and aspects of higher consciousness. There are several hidden insights within the book that can help guide anyone who is experiencing the rise of energies within the body.

This book was published many years after the Kundalini experience of the author, so it illustrates many of his struggles and blissful experiences. It also talks about many mystics and their experience of enlightenment which is always ineffable. Alan Watts is also one of the Western mystics to whom there is dedicated a whole essay.

[Savan Vyas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good for beginners

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the anecdote about Alan Watts' life.

[Yanko Yankov · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very different take on Kundalini vs other Kundalini books I've read. Looking forward to his autobiography book next.

[Amber Middlebrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Appreciated the wisdom!

[Henrik Jespersen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hold kæft noget 💩

[Zach Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gopi Krishna predicts an evolution in mankind that will allow us all to reach a higher consciousness that we were all born to reach, one that can not be found through preaching dogmas or reciting mantras. I greatly enjoyed Krishna's takes on religion and society throughout ("The constant state of crisis and desperation, with diplomats running here and there frantically to extinguish nascent fires, is a strongly marked feature of the world today. Such unavoidable tense anxiety states are fatal for the evolutionary growth of the human brain. In such an atmosphere, with the transformative processes resistlessly working in the human body, the result can only be escapism or perversion and distortion of the growing mind.").

His writing, though, as you can see above, is dense as all get out and sometimes gets annoying to read. This is also not the book to choose if you are looking at a beginner's definition of what kundalini is and how to reach it, as that is a subject he basically never breaches throughout.

STANDOUT QUOTES:
Instead of treating this as a complete union with the Ultimate and hence ascension to state of sovereignty, one should strive for a higher and still higher experience, for in actual fact there’s no limit to the wonders of the beatific state.

“We have enough of religion to hate each other but not enough to love one another” - Jonathan Swift 

Every existing religion, faith, or spiritual discipline acts, to a greater or lesser extent, as a bulwark against the advancing tired of rank materialism unleashed by skeptical intellect.

The one important lesson of the experience of the last few decades imparts is that, whatever the political order and however rich a country might become because of it, there occurs no diminution in the fires of lust, passion, hate and envy smoldering in the human heart.

“When you took birth, oh Kabira, the world made merry and you cried. Act now in a manner that you are jubilant when you pass away while the whole world grieves."

It is still an inexplicable paradox why people are more ready to accept false and sometimes even downright harmful views and doctrines and to adopt the superficial or foolish customs and habits of others than to assimilate true teachings and emulate noble traits of character in their search for reality and true happiness.

According to the Indian tradition, it is only after millions of births (8,400,000 to be exact) that the ascending soul attains the form of a human being and there after striving incessantly, again through innumerable births, eventually can win to a stature were union with Aishwarya or Brahmin becomes possible.

[Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired writing

Gives a glimpse into the wonderous possibilities of what human beings can achieve and become if only we could understand what Gopi Krishna is wanting to convey.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating subject, but not the best writing.