Think of Kundalini, and you may automatically think of the
name Gopi Krishna. In the twentieth century, only a handful
of teachers have come to the West and popularized the teachings
of Kundalini. For Gopi Krishna, Kundalini was the mechanism
of evolution in humans. He passionately set out to prove what
he had experienced early in his life. He began to research the
biological factors of evolution in relation to the Kundalini
experience.
In 1970 Gopi Krishna and Gene Kieffer founded the Kundalini
Research Foundation. Its purpose was and is to conduct documentary
research into the ancient texts dealing with Kundalini and lay
the groundwork for a scientific research project to verify the
physical and psychological existence of Kundalini.
Gopi Krishna is the author of many books on the subject of
Kundalini, including The Awakening of Kundalini and Kundalini:
The Evolutionary Energy in Man. Over the past thirty years,
Gene Kieffer has interviewed and counseled more than a thousand
individuals who believed they had awakened Kundalini. In virtually
every instance, these people lacked even the basic knowledge
of Kundalini. Mr. Kieffer has just completed a book entitled
The Secret Teachings, and it is meant to complement those written
by Gopi Krishna. Publication is scheduled for September 2000.
ASCENT Tell us a bit about Gopi Krishnas life. Gene Kieffer
Gopi Krishna was born in Kashmir in 1903. The Vale of Kashmir
is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world,
but it is also quite primitive by our standards. Gopi Krishna
had none of the advantages we have in the West. He had very
little education. He failed the examination to get into college,
and that was such a disappointment, to him and his mother, that
he decided to discipline his mind. At the age of seventeen,
he started a practice of getting up every morning at 3:00 a.m.,
going to the temple to bathe, and then coming home to concentrate
his mind. He didnt even call it meditation, he just concentrated
on an object, a lotus flower, for three hours. He did it every
day. Even on his wedding day, he never missed his practice.
He became a minor government clerk, and many people approached
him with their needs. He resolved to always put another persons
consideration above his own, to think of things from their perspective.
He said that this was as important as his early morning concentration,
that he believed it had a greater effect on his spiritual advancement
than any other form of mental orphysical discipline. He was
very grounded. He was a very strong person both physically and
mentally.
ASCENT How did he come to know Kundalini?
GK After seventeen years of his concentration practice,
his Kundalini exploded. It sent him off into a completely
different dimension. But after a few days he became very
listless. He began to burn up. He got so hot that his daughter
told me his cheeks glowed like charcoal and his lips
flaked off like burnt wood. He was in agony. He suffered
for so long that any deceit was burned out of him.
He didnt know what was happening to him, but somebody
it was probably his brother-in-lawtold him that
he had probably awakened Kundalini, but only opened
the pingala, the solar nerve on the right side of the spine.
At that point, he was in so much pain that he was praying
to die. He then began to concentrate on the Ida
the lunar nadis, or left nerve. When he succeeded in
awakening the Ida, it was like the snap of a broken bone,
and he experienced a cooling sensation and immediately
felt better.
ASCENT How did Gopi Krishnas Kundalini experience
change him?
GK Once it stabilized, he lived in bliss. One day he
was crossing a bridge into the city and he said that words
began to flow into his mind just like falling snowflakes.
He had never written verse previously, but from that
time on all of his inspired writings have taken the form
of poetry or verse. He kept his job as a government clerk
and became very active in social causes, especially for
widows. In Kashmir, widows were treated worse than
slaves.
They were practically made outcasts. For years,
he would organize groups to help these women.
Kundalini parts the veil and shows us the reality behind
the physical universe. After he had the experience that
he had, Gopi Krishna knew what he had to do to sur-vive
in the world, because he was walking a razors
edge at all times. His diet, especially, had to be carefully
controlled.
ASCENT How did you meet Gopi Krishna?
GK He first came to me in a dream on New Years Eve,
1969. I was walking down the bank of a river, and there
was a man on the other side motioning me to come
over. I looked to my left, and there was a post with two
steel cables intertwined, like two serpents. I used them
to pull myself across the river, and then I stood in front
of the man. A loud voice boomed out: This is Mr.
Krishna. Mr. Krishna turned, and I followed him as he
walked along the bank of the river, wading into the water
up to his waist. Then he turned around and kissed me.
I didnt know anything about Krishna except for the Krishna
of Hindu mythology. Swami Radha sent me his autobiography six
months after the dream. She said, If you want to know what its
like to be illuminated, Im going to send you a book by a man
who is illuminated but who suffered a lot. It was the only copy
in North America. I immediately wrote to Gopi Krishna and told
him that I wanted to help him get his books published. We met
later that year in Zurich. That was November 5, 1970, my birthday.
ASCENT What was it that attracted you to Kundalini and
Gopi Krishna?
GK I had been a newspaper man, and I always wanted
to write a big story. When I saw his book, I said to myself,
this is the biggest story of the century! I didnt team
up with Gopi Krishna for some sort of spiritual mission
that was the furthest thing from my mind at the
time. What I wanted was the biggest scoop in the world.
I thought it would lead to change.
Kundalini changes everything, not only within the individual
in whom She awakens, but within society as well.
If as many as ten men or women become enlightened in
the twenty-first century, the world would be changed
completely. That is what makes it the biggest news story
of the century. If you awaken Kundalini fully, and if the
transformative process proceeds in a healthy way to its
ultimate conclusion, you will become a spiritual genius
and a world teacher. You will be compelled to action.
ASCENT Gopi Krishna wrote many books on the philosophy
of Kundalini, but he never wrote about his own experience
of Kundalini or his awakened state. Why was this?
GK This is the one thing that everyone wanted him to
write about. But he would say, I cant. It is so extraordinary
that I would lose all credibility. It is very doubtful
that any yogi who believes himself to be superconscious
would be able to write anything that could stand up to
scrutiny. Gopi Krishna could have written about his experience
and his books would have become best-sellers,
but he knew that this would make him lose his credibility
in the eyes of science.
The last letter I received from him was dated July 19,
1984. In it he stated that he had decided to write a book
about his inner life in the super-conscious state. He said
it would be a sensational book. I got the letter ten days
after he sent it and had it just long enough to whet my
appetite. I practically jumped up and down with anticipation.
Then, a day or two later, the phone rang, and I
was told he had died. When a person is in that state of
consciousness, there are no accidents. To me, it meant
that the all-powerful Lord said, No, youre not going to
write that book.
ASCENT Gopi Krishnas teachings stressed the evolutionary
power of Kundalini, and it became an important part of
his work. How is Kundalini an evolutionary force?
GK In zoology, anthropology and biology, they know
that it takes thousands of years for a species to take the
leap, an evolutionary leap. The idea that a human being
could make that same leap in one lifetime is so preposterous
that no professional would give it any credence.
Yet it really is possible, through the practice of yoga, to
achieve in one lifetime what would normally take a thousand
lifetimes. The yogis and the evolutionary biologists
are miles apart in what they know about human
evolution.
Gopi Krishna wanted to zero in on the
skeptical biologists, because he believed that nature has
a specific biological mechanism that is responsible for
human evolution. It resides at the base of the spine.
Kundalini energy, which is prana and intelligence, works
on a very subtle level, transforming the body, the brain,
the nervous system and consciousness, to bring about
genius and illumination. When you change your nervous
system and purify it, you can tap into a more pure
form of prana and higher consciousness.
It is already
there, but the body chemistry and the nervous system
cannot perceive it unless Kundalini is awakened, and
the transformative process proceeds in a healthy way.
By the time a person is illuminated, the brain structure
is radically changed at the subtle levels. So it now can
receive beauty, language, compassion, honesty, and most
importantly, revelation. The persons genes are also transformed,
which means ones progeny inherits the changes
wrought by Kundalini. This is really what human evolution
is all about.
ASCENT Are there misunderstandings about Kundalini
today?
GK A large percentage of the people who think they
have active Kundalini would have been diagnosed as
mentally unstable years ago. Now some psychologists
are spreading the word that these people really have
awakened Kundalini. This makes those individuals feel good about themselves, because they go from a feeling
of inadequacy to one of pride for having awakened the
evolutionary mechanism. I have interviewed hundreds
of such individuals who talk like that. I dont want to
prick their balloon, because they are often unstable, and
they need all the help they can get. I dont lie to them,
either. Of course, there are exceptions, people who really
are experiencing a healthy awakening.
Some of these people do have active Kundalini, but too
often it is nothing to be happy about, because they have
no foundation for it, either mentally or physically. Therefore,
it becomes a mechanism gone wrong. Its like somebody
saying, I have a wonderful appetite and relish
everything, but theyre 600 pounds. Yes, they have a
great appetite but it has gone bad. Its the same with
many of these Kundalini cases. Most of them cant hold
a job.
They cant function in the world. Im sure there
are some who are mentally stable with Kundalini, and
they can function fairly well, but many of those who
come to me are often so desperate that its almost too
late to help them. What was at first just toxic prana in
their systems has been active long enough that the brain
has become rewired with distorted circuits. Once that
happens, theyre not going to change, even with the best
of psychological counseling. If an awakening is caught
early, then the person can be helped by teaching him or
her how to control thoughts, to eat right and to practise
the right disciplines. Without that knowledge, they just
flake out. The brain is a very delicate instrument.
ASCENT How can we use Kundalini to understand our
lives? Do we have to awaken it for it to be helpful to us?
GK Kundalini is a force for liberation. It is not even
necessary to experience an awakening yourself; just
knowing about it is sufficient to transform your thinking.
But the knowledge must be correct, not just hearsay
and superstitious beliefs. If every high school student
were to read the right books on Kundalini, the results
would astonish their teachers, parents and the community.
The students would change the way they think about themselves,
and the world, in time, would dramatically change. Knowledge
of Kundalini bestows the supreme power, not in the sense of
being able to control others but as a means to gain access to
the minds greatest treasures.
