Q - During a pranayama class, a lady started shaking, shivering and this last for hours. She was totally upset, she couldn't stop it: what can we do in such a case?
YH - This is the effect of wrong practice, it shows this person hasn't gone step by step. She still has a lot of impurities in the body and her nadis are not purified. So she needs to go back to more basic practices. People like that shouldn't be encouraged to go on, they should be advised to seek proper guidance!
There are some schools of yoga where they teach you long series of kapalabhati & bhastrika without any preparation. Then people experience all kinds of dizziness, nervousness in their body, they start shaking, and they don't know what to do with it. Certain teachers encourage this, because it is very easy for people to get into that hypnotic state which they mistake for a spiritual experience. When people around see this, they want to get this experience as well, they think it is a mark of big spiritual progress, or the awakening of Kundalini Shakti.
Q - A lot of yoga students want to learn Kundalini Yoga...;
YH - People want to learn Kundalini Yoga, but actually all Hatha Yoga practices are Kundalini Yoga. If you understand this, then you are not getting confused with all these labels.
Hatha Yoga is a path that leads to the awakening of Kundalini Shakti through a step by step process, and under the supervision of a qualified teacher. But if Kundalini awakens when you are not ready for it, you can burn yourself up.
The danger is when a teacher start students from a point that they are not ready for. If a student doesn't know abdominal breathing, that is where he will have to start from, he is not going to do bhastrika! Then he will have to learn about diet, about asanas and the process will go on. If somebody wants to become a doctor, he will have to start with the foundations, learning biology and so on. He will not be right away going in the operation theater, cutting people up. Somebody wants to be a symphony conductor, where do start from: learning about the notes, isnt'it?
In everything you do there are foundation and precautions that you have to take. If you don't, then don't blame the practice if you get into trouble. Nadis need to be purified before the awakening of Kundalini. Breathing exercises, asanas, proper diet, good company are purifiers. Chanting, bakti yoga are also very nice, very helpful, because it helps to create a kind of subtle buffer that prevent all these problems.
If you want to awaken Kundalini Shakti, you have also to examine your mode of living. If you are still involved in the world, if you still have to work and provide for your family, it might become conflicting, because once Kundalini awakens, you don't have desire for these things anymore. Then you want people to bring food to you instead...;!
Anybody who phantasizes or is fooled by the idea of a week-end for kundalini awakening is paying money to get burnt. In this culture, you want everything instant, you don't want to wait, you don't have patience, perseverance, you want instant samadhi, week-end to enlightenment...; you want a pill for everything, but it doesn't work not like that!
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Q – Can yoga be practiced by anybody, or are there restrictions?
A – Anybody, whether you are healthy or sick, young or old, man or woman etc, can practice Yoga. Even if you are in a wheel chair, you can still practice Yoga. Whatever you do to improve yourself is Yoga. To restore and maintain good health, physically, emotionally and mentally, you need to exercise the body and Yoga exercise is most beneficial. The Sampoorna approach is so versatile that it can be adopted to suit any condition. You also need to learn how to breathe properly in order to increase the intake of oxygen and prana and to eliminate toxins from the body. You learn how to relax so that you can conserve your energy and not dissipate it needlessly. Study and observing proper diet is a major factor in maintaining proper health. Finally positive thinking is very important.
What are you concerned about? Seek proper guidance and get right knowledge of this Divine Science and you will approach it with reverence and gratitude, not superstition and fear.
Yoga is a step-by-step process and only a qualified teacher with experience can guide you properly. This is true with everything in life.
Extract from Yogi Hari's book "Sampoorna Yoga"
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