changes of time Shiv Charan Singh is an unassuming and authentic teacher as well as an outstanding spiritual counsellor who has worked globally with groups and individuals for over 30 years. He is the founding director of the International Kriya School, which trains students and teachers in Kundalini Yoga, Spiritual Consultancy and Applied Numerology all over the world. He was recently in Dubai to conduct UAEs first ever Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training and gave an exclusive interview to YogaLifes Kish and Jaya Goyal Kumar
hiv charan Singh is the founding director of the Karam
Kriya School and Kriya centre for Kundalini Yoga in North London. Scottish by birth, he is an outstanding and authentic spiritual teacher. Karam Kriya means action in spiritual awareness. Shiv charan is deeply committed to guiding students in their spiritual growth so they can bring spiritual awareness into their everyday lives and develop their full potential as human beings. He is a skilled counsellor, author of several books on human communication, the mystery of numbers and poetry. He runs training programmes throughout europe, russia and the Lebanon. Over the last ten years he has run the vibrant and cosmopolitan Karam Kriya School, which offers a number of courses including an accredited teacher training in Kundalini Yoga, a form of yoga specifically practiced to develop spiritual awareness.
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Why do you think thats not the case now?
Several things have changed one is just that Yogi Bhajan took a risk, and he even indicated how his life was in danger because of that. People threatened him; people said that he wouldnt be alive after one year of teaching Kundalini Yoga to the public. He would describe to us also how at the change of the age from Piscean to Aquarian people would experience a lot of problems, and he foresaw how Kundalini Yoga would benefit everyone. To experience the full benefits of Hatha Yoga usually takes a long time, and most of us only have limited time to practice, given our daily lifestyles. He knew Kundalini Yoga works quickly and effectively as it stimulates the mind, body and spirit simultaneously.
What are the differences between Kundalini Yoga
and other traditional forms of yoga? Kundalini Yoga is a comprehensive form of yoga and its not different, rather it embraces and includes asanas, pranayamas, lifestyle and diet. The purpose of all yoga anyway is to raise the Kundalini, so it embraces all of that. You could even say Kundalini Yoga is the real traditional yoga because it was there prior to a lot of the current branches of yoga. This was an esoteric, hidden practice until Yogi Bhajan brought it to the world. Could you explain why it was a secret practice? As I understand, there are several reasons why Kundalini Yoga was not so commonly known. Its a powerful practice with powerful consequences and benefits. As in many religious traditions, anything which is empowering the people, seems to be unwanted by the priestly classes. So thats definitely one reason why it got pushed into the hills. The other reason could be that its easy to follow a powerful practice but lose the integrity of purpose as to why youre doing it.
When we have an emotional or mental
issue, problem, argument or discussion it enters into the physical realm and gets embedded at the cellular level. By working on the physical level, you are clearing the history of emotional and mental stories of your past 42
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The basic flowing movements in Kundalini Yoga are
known as kriyas. What are the real benefits of kriyas? The word kriya means total and complete action. This can be practiced as an exercise, which needs to be done whole-heartedly; otherwise its not a kriya. Also, any sequence that has a particular purpose and every stage within that sequence serves to complete the purpose, works on all levels. At the physical level, it works primarily on the nervous and glandular systems. These are very sophisticated parts of the human anatomy, and are affected by pollutants in the atmosphere and the stresses of modern living. So working on harmonising, balancing and strengthening these systems is a big part of Kundalini Yoga. It also works on the levels of meridiens, chakras, nadis and on what we call in Kundalini Yoga, the 10 spiritual bodies. Additionally, the Kriyas also work on releasing all kinds of emotional stress? Yes, some more than others, as they work on many levels. When we have an emotional or mental issue, problem, argument or discussion within ourselves or with somebody, it enters into the physical realm and gets embedded at the cellular level. By working on the physical level, you are clearing the history of emotional and mental stories of your past. So definitely it is poking, provoking and confronting to elevate.
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Its the understood sequence that Kundalini Yoga
achieves and it brings a lot to the surface, which means that when sometimes people start practicing, its not always comfortable because there are things that you have not faced in your life. These issues come into your consciousness and you need a certain amount of perseverance to keep up and go through that process to be released to the other side. What impact does Kundalini have on the chakras and also what exactly is Kundalini Awakening? The word Kundalini means coil of hair, and that has a double meaning. One is simply that one of the methods people found for raising Kundalini was to actually keep their hair on top of the head in a coiled form. As thats linked to the crown chakra, the highest chakra, you are creating a kind of a magnetic pull up the spine. So the coil of hair is almost symbolic also for the dormant energy at the base of the spine, which is referred to as the first chakra and the coiled serpent. You are capable of so much more than you are achieving today and theres this latent capacity in you waiting to be stimulated and harnessed into your life. So when we talk about direction, were talking about bringing it up the central channel of your spine. If your spine is strong, you feel strong and can fully face life.
If your spine is weak, again, its like a metaphor for not
feeling that you can withstand what life demands of you. So traditionally we understand that there are three major nadis Ida (left), Pingala (right) and the central Shushumana Nadi. The practice of Kundalini Yoga is set to collect your Prana and Apana (charging and eliminating forces in you), bring them to the navel area, bring it down then to the base of the spine, which is where the first chakra is. Then move it up through the chakras, clearing, opening, balancing and harmonising them. The objective is not only to raise the Kundalini through the chakras, but also to open them up so they are receptive to an energy charge that can then occur. So the end is not to just to raise the Kundalini. In a way thats just the beginning. By opening you become receptive to receiving through your pranic body, from your subtle body into your aura, a flow of wisdom from your higher self, a flow of energy and a flow of light, and, you could say it awakens in us the higher emotions of compassion, forgiveness and kindness. Why is there so much emphasis on mantras? There are many reasons, in religious terms, you would say. In the beginning the word was divine, which connects you with your divine nature. So word, vibration and sound current is the way to do that.
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When the Kundalini has awakened the brain becomes
fully charged/activated and turns into a superconductor. Your attention will be like a laser beam, cognitive functions are enhanced and become more efficient Sound is yoga in itself. Its a quality, a vibration, a cause and effect. It has impact upon us, so thats another part of it. Besides this technology of sound, there is also the devotional element of sound. By that I dont mean religious, but just a sense of heart and surrender. And that means everything we do in the practice, because it is very powerful and awakens a greater potentiality in you. It is done with an attitude of gratitude and is always heart orientated with compassion. The mantras are practiced both for their energetic and vibrational effect, and also as an awakening of the heart consciousness. The traditional forms of meditation tend to be silent and very calm. How do they fit in with the Kundalini meditations, which are very active? Kundalini Yoga as were teaching has a wide variety of meditations. Each meditation has a particular application. Its working on certain hemispheres of the brain and its working on glandular stimulation to balance certain glands and hormones. Its working on sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, so its almost a medical approach in terms of its vastness and application.
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There are practices within meditation, which are
simply to reach a state of intuitive presence and awareness. We recognise silence as very important, but almost as an outcome of vibration to work with a vibration to then reach deeper levels. We dont overemphasise silence because for a lot of people its not true silence. They are sitting there quietly, but their mind is busy. The meaning of mantra is to vibrate the mind and make it an instrument. So its a much more rapid way of actually controlling the mind, harnessing its force and making it serve your higher consciousness, instead of being controlled by it. You dont have to sit in silence and battle with the mind. We dont even consider it enough of an end game to just observe the thoughts of the mind. Let them come and go. We are saying heres the charge, heres the energy. The mind needs direction, it needs training, and mantra is a very powerful way to cut to the mind and train it, so that it can be at your beck and call, and serve you.
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Does Kundalini Yoga follow the spiritual aspects as
elaborated in Patanjalis 8 limbs of yoga? Yes, when I say Kundalini Yoga is comprehensive, it definitely implies the integration of the Ashtanga of Patanjali. The accelerated nature of it again reflects the change of the age. As we are living in the age of acceleration, our practices also have to be compatible to that. We need a practice that has a bigger effect in a shorter amount of time and Kundalini Yoga certainly does that. Is there any advise or guidance you would like to share with our readers? I would say, to recognise that the times we live in is generating an increased sensitivity on multiple levels, along with increased isolation or alienation. For us, the practice of Kundalini Yoga is not just about the practice; it is also about building community. Practice of Kundalini Yoga builds in you stamina and inner strength, so that you are not so affected and reactive to the environment whether its physical or social. With so many rapid changes, we need a stronger sense of our nucleus Who am I beyond all the changes? Our identity shifts rapidly nowadays. We need to establish a core identity in us and certainly Kundalini Yoga is serving to do that to withstand the changes of the time. Whats your view on karma? Is it a matter of freewill or destiny? In reality, we have very limited freewill. In terms of the way we live, very little of what we do is a true free choice. Its governed and influenced by so many forces that we cannot even measure them all. We have latent freewill and we are pretending to be choosers. We are lying to ourselves I chose this, I chose that but we dont know really what made us back those choices. So in pretending, we are cultivating the aspect in us, that can actually be the real free chooser. We are cultivating that. We are bringing it into being. Currently, if you say we choose,
it is pretty much a lie. Its an illusion that the ego
likes to live on, but that doesnt mean theres no freewill at all. We are not looking at it as an either-or. Only, we dont understand the proportion of things. So we can become a chooser, but youve got a lot to go through first, which includes dissolving a lot of illusions of the ego (like when you think you are in control when actually you are not). Thats in a lot of ways what karma is. Destiny is not about where you arrive but what you become. You are always in the journey of becoming, and what are you becoming? Thats destiny. To the extent you can have consciousness, you can have choice. If I dont know something is the case, what choice can I make? So within Kundalini Yoga, we put a lot of emphasis on consciousness because only if you are aware, you can begin to bring some influence into the situation whether to your life or sharing something with others. The consciousness is a pre-requisite to that. Consciousness is different from soul, it is always conscious of something. If your consciousness gets fascinated, then youre absorbed into hypnosis, and one way of coming out of that is by mantra. Consciousness then just remains free around the mantra, until ultimately, consciousness will become conscious of consciousness itself, and thats self-realisation or liberation. At this stage there is no karmic force obliging you to come back.