Hi Savannah,
First I want to say there is nothing wrong with awakening kundalini and if done correctly under the guidance of a competent teacher who is there to guide you and most importantly at the correct time during your evolution it can be liberating, propelling you into new understanding etc. Kundalini awakening can even be beneficial for some physical and emotional ailments in a person, if that person are ready under the laws of karma and reincarnation to receive release through kundalini from those ailments.
Most of the Kundalini awakening practices described in the yoga books today are fairly safe to do on a limited scale and [B][I]if you are ready[/I][/B]. My own teacher, Sri Durga Devi always told me that a certain level of physical (you cannot consume alcohol, smoke and eat meat), emotional and most important spiritual purification is necessary and must be attained before you can even consider kundalini awakening. As she always said man cannot tame the force of a volcano in nature, so much more the kundalini volcano if they are not ready. Fortunately the more advanced practices are not described in books to my knowledge and is handed from guru to initiate verbally.
There are a number of issues surrounding premature kundalini awakening through asanas and other related practices. One of the big issues is usually that people are not emotionally and spiritually ready to receive the huge spiritual impetus created by kundalini awakening. Especially emotionally, what people don’t realise is that with kundalini awakening also comes glimpses of past lives and some may be pleasant others may not be so pleasant, certain issues relating to past karmas arise that shouldn’t be arising yet for the person. This usually results in various problems such as depression, anxiety and other emotional related disorders. And with this I don’t say every person who suffers from these have tried kundalini awakening, but only that a person who does attempt kundalini awakening premature and on her/his own may experience some of these problems and most likely they are usually not ready nor equiped to handle these problems.
On a more mundane and physical level the body of such a person may not be purified enough through yoga practices to handle the energies physically. If they still consume meat and other tamasic substances such as alcohol and tabacco, it will aggrevate the negative effects even further. This will usually result in uncontrolable high blood pressure, hot flushes, violent cramps and aches throughout the body, in severe cases lost of eye sight, headaches out of the blue etc. Some people may prematurely develop certain siddhas (powers such as clairvoyance etc) which may cause their ego to become inflated and then the whole awakening will come to nothing, most of the time they can’t handle the responsibility that come with such a siddha, again leading to anxiety and other related problems.
I trust this shed some light on this subject for you. Swami Muktananda who was a great siddha and whom I view to be one of the finest authoroties on kundalini awakening and its results, wrote a wonderful book called: [B]Secret of the Siddhas [/B]- ISBN: 0914602527, I recommend that every person who feel she/he is ready for kundalini awakening first read this book, the knowledge he impart to you in this book will assist you greatly during the process of awakening.
