Guruvir

Imagine you go into a yoga class and you are told to pretend you are a fish caught in a fry pan of hot oil. You begin wriggling around on the ground with your arms and legs flailing, and then you stop to ask, “Is this a yoga class?” Yes, but it’s Kundalini yoga.

Private Classes

I teach Kundalini Yoga and Meditation. All classes are deeply relaxing and healing. Classes can be tailored towards work on a particular area of your physical, emotional or spiritual life. For example, we can focus on increasing cardiovascular health, moving through detoxification, processing grief, finding emotional stability or cultivating happiness.  I am a KRI certified instructor, live in Brooklyn and am available for private classes in Park Slope and the surrounding the area. Classes are in your home, an hour and a half and are $150 per session. Please email me for more information.

What is Kundalini yoga?

Kundalini yoga is a comprehensive technology that involves breath, mantra, movement, and asana. It works on all your charkas, your immune system, your nervous system, your brain, and your aura. This work quickly brings you to the point where you can deeply meditate. Other yogas can have this affect, but they take much longer. Kundalini Yoga is potent – it is about finding your destiny in this lifetime and it is about doing it while you continue to live your daily life. There is no need to retreat to the caves to know your truth; you only need to be committed for an hour or so every day.

Where did it come from?

In 1968 Yogi Bhajan came to the United States and began teaching Kundalini yoga and meditation. It was the first time in the history of this practice that it was taught openly. Until then it was taught one and one, from master to student, and those who knew it were warned that if they taught it openly they would die within the year. Within a year Yogi Bhajan did not die and he continued to teach until his death in 2004.

Why does Kundalini Yoga work so well?

Kundalini yoga directly activates the power of the Kundalini energy in turn causing major shifts in individual consciousness. There is already Kundalini energy circulating in all of our bodies and this energy feeds our nervous system. In most of us though there is a dormant untapped source of Kundalini energy that sits below the fourth vertebra in the spinal column. Kundalini Yoga stimulates this reserve and allows the Kundalini to rise up the spine. As it passes to the brain it activates the pineal gland, and in activating that gland you activate your potential. Yogi Bhajan explains what happens when the Kundalini is activated:
“[Man] becomes totally, wholesomely aware. That is why it is called the Yoga of Awareness. As all rivers end up in the same ocean, all yoga ends up by raising the Kundalini in the man. What is the Kundalini? The creative potential of the man.”

It sounds powerful, is it dangerous?

Yogi Bhajan answers:
“Is money dangerous? It is just an energy. Kundalini is a latent energy that can be used for total consciousness. The only dangerous thing is the person whose Kundalini is raised properly. That person is totally conscious. He cannot be lied to or cheated or politically swayed. The Kundalini is essential. As long as you practice a total discipline or a complete and balanced kriya, there is no difficulty. In Kundalini Yoga, you will notice that every meditation and kriya has some form of mantra in it. This ensures the channelization of energy.”

Okay, but I still don’t know what a class will be like?

Every Kundalini Yoga class begins by tuning in with the mantra ong namo gurudev namo. As you say this mantra the sounds create an energetic connection between your inner teacher and your conscious self. After tuning in we begin the yoga set or what we call a kriya.

There are hundreds of sets taught by Yogi Bhajan that include hundreds of different things, and so Kundalini Yoga classes are almost never the same. You may find yourself jumping like a frog; chanting sat nam as you move your arms over head; doing breath of fire as you lift your legs; twisting from left to right with your hands on your shoulders; rotating your torso around your hips; beating the ground as you lie on your back; clapping as you hands touch overhead; dancing with your soul or just doing down-dog.

Sets are composed of different movements because they do different things. Some sets are specifically for your brain, liver, pineal gland, or your magnetic field. Sometimes they seem easy and sometimes they don’t – but no matter the difficulty there is always some way of participating. There is always breath, and if the breath is the only part you can manage then you are still doing it.

At the end of the class there is always a meditation and as with the sets these vary. Meditations include a mudra (hand position), pranayam (a form of breath), an eye position, and a mantra. Together they form a unique combination that aligns the body in a specific way in order to access very specific forms of energy. The body position is like a key and time in that position, meditation, is the only way to turn it.

What does it open?

You.