Georg Feuerstein Quotes

Quotes from Georg Feuerstein, founder of the Yoga Research and Education Center (YREC)

(article links at the end of the quotes)

From YREC article "New Light on the Yoga Tradition"

Traditionally, Hatha-Yoga was put forward as a way of steeling the body, preparing it for the onslaught of full spiritual awakening. A complete arousal of the serpent power can cause havoc in the unprepared body. Therefore the masters of Hatha-Yoga developed a whole range of purification practices, which not only purify the physical body (notably the digestive system) but also the subtle body. The Hatha-Yoga initiates speak of subtle elements (called tattva), subtle pathways (called nadi), and psychoenergetic centers (called chakras). They all must be readied for the visit of Queen Kundalini, the Goddess of energy. Otherwise, she gets angry and ruins your nervous system and organs like the heart. All this is well known in the Yoga tradition, but many Western practitioners dabble with it, unaware of the dangers of Kundalini-Yoga. (from Georg Feuerstein –  New Light on the Yoga Tradition)

From YREC article "Kundalini - Awakening the Serpent Power"

Without prior cleansing of the nâdî system, it is not only impossible to raise the serpent power (kundalinî-shakti) along the axial pathway but also very dangerous to attempt to do so. For, instead of entering the central channel (sushumnâ-nâdî), it is likely to force itself into the idâ- or the pingalâ-nâdî on either side of the central channel, causing immense havoc in the body and mind. This is what happened to Gopi Krishna during his spontaneous kundalinî awakening, and his gripping account of the physical pain and mental anguish resulting from it stands as a timeless warning to all neophytes dabbling with the serpent power, or Goddess energy. He wrote:

My face became extremely pale and my body thin and weak. I felt a distaste for food and found fear clutching my heart the moment I swallowed anything . . . My restlessness had assumed such a state that I could not sit quietly for even half an hour. When I did so, my attention was drawn irresistibly towards the strange behaviour of my mind. Immediately the ever-present sense of fear was intensified, and my heart thumped violently.1

He further described how the kundalinî caused tremendous heat in his body “causing such unbearable pain that I writhed and twisted from side to side while streams of cold perspiration poured down my face and limbs.”2 He continued:

There were dreadful disturbances in all the organs, each so alarming and painful that I wonder how I managed to retain my self-possession under the onslaught. The whole delicate organism was burning, withering away completely under the fiery blast racing through its interior.

I knew I was dying and that my heart could not stand the tremendous strain for long. My throat was scorched and every part of my body flaming and burning, but I could do nothing to alleviate the dreadful suffering. If a well or river had been near I would have jumped into its cold depths, preferring death to what I was undergoing . . . I racked my distracted brain for a way of escape, only to meet blank despair on every side. The effort exhausted me and I felt myself sinking, fully conscious of the scalding sea of pain in which I was drowning.  (from YREC – Kundalini: The Awakening of the Serpent Power)

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