Kundalini Tantra

I've been a Kundalini Yoga practitioner for over 30 years. This year, I undertook the journey of reading (or rereading) the most recommended Kundalini books available on the market.This book was written by a popular (now deceased) guru, and it has its fors and againsts. I got the book in kindle and paperback formats (the latter has some missing pages and issues, as some other reviewers pointed out). Satyananda Saraswati knows his esoteric science well, and although that may be one of his strengths, it's also one of his weaknesses. His teachings in this book have plenty of dogma, imperious assertions, and hypothetical tales about the supernatural, among some applicable instructions. This kindle book does not lay an appropriate path to allow those who follow its teachings to reach the longed-for enlightenment.It is evident that Satyananda Saraswati was overcome by an evangelical impulse to guide others towards Self-Realization or Samadhi. But this ebook doesn't provide a way to reach that divine state. It promises a lot but delivers little if scrutinized for depth. The instructions in this book don't even transcend mental practices based on dualism. It shockingly lacks the deepest and most important dimension of spirituality: nonduality. Except for a very brief mention, it's absent from this book. The practical viewpoint here comes from the mind and body instead of using them as homework for awareness-based sadhanas with an awakened kundalini.Some points from this book:- The author believes that an orgasm is another name for spiritual awakening."That experience is known as orgasm in ordinary language, but in the language of tantra it is called an awakening"- The author proposes that married women should drink their urine as a form of therapy to be disease-free, destroy the ova, and prevent conception."The practice of amaroli [the therapy of drinking one's own urine] is also very important for married women. (...) by this practice one is freed of many diseases. The practice of amaroli over a prolonged period also produces an important hormone known as prostaglandin which destroys the ova and prevents conception. "- Satyananda Saraswati has some insane prerequisites for some spiritual practices:"The first preparation, therefore, with regards to awakening anahata [heart chakra] is to change your entire way of thinking. You must become extremely optimistic and positive, always full of hope. You must never dwell in the negativity of the mind."I'd think that I'd first need to perform spiritual practice to develop these qualities instead of them being requirements to perform spiritual practice. Nobody can just decide to "change their entire way of thinking" like that. This is nonsensical.But the author doesn't stop here. He has some bizarre requests regarding how the kundalini practitioner should do, behave, or think:"Even if you meet a murderer, hopeless gambler or a debaucher, to you he is a good man."No, I don't have to like or pretend to respect Hitler, Mussolini, or a predator. The author is confusing and jumbling different things:On the top of a substratum of pure awareness lies our individual consciousness that operates on the realm of duality. The personality and actions of a mass murderer (and of all people) are an imaginary construct. I don't have to like them or respect them. Spiritually, we gain nothing from incorporating such beliefs and attitudes. Our essence as pure awareness is the same (unified), but a mass murderer hasn't recognized it, let alone realized it. Those on the sacred path of Spirit-discovery tend to exhibit and manifest more pure qualities (called sattvic in Sanskrit by the ancient rishis), such as balance, harmony, goodness, purity, constructive, creativity, luminous, serenity, being-ness, peace, joy, and virtuosity. Those far removed from their essence exhibit the opposite: toxic narcissism, hatred, soul dead, etc. Am I supposed to consider such people "a good man"?This lack of discernment will prove to be fatal for Satyananda Saraswati, his teachings, and his organization, as you'll see near the end of my review.- Satyananda Saraswati also says that before commencing the techniques given in this book, you must have practiced hatha and raja yoga for a few years, and you must purify your body through shatkarmas "to balance the acid, wind and mucus in the body". E.g., purifying the colon by sucking water into the anus through a pipe. Really?!- This author makes various authoritarian assertions that are completely wrong and scientifically illiterate. He seems to think that his beliefs are a fact and often claims that modern science backs up his claims. He dismisses all forms of criticism and ignores his own contradictory beliefs. There's no coherence.- This book is full of unrealistic claims of supernatural and psychic powers, such as mentioning that, often, when the kundalini awakens, "aspirants can materialize things, see clairvoyantly, hear clairaudiently or read the minds of others". This is just misleading and extravagant ego talk. Siddhis are not fundamentally related to the spiritual path of liberation or the end of suffering.- I want to emphasize how Satyananda Saraswati, his books, and his yoga organization are always about complete and unquestioning trust, devotion, and service to guru. There's always the mantra of "what a guru does is done for the good of the disciple, regardless of what it is". I tend to stay clear of this dogmatic, church-like view. This is not a spiritual perspective but religious persuasion. It's dangerous. The doctrine and path offered by this author and his organization are based on achieving enlightenment through devotion and service to the guru, even though many preliminary and rudimentary kundalini practices are taught in the book.- There are many victims of abuse on this author's ashrams. Just run a google search on this. As far as I can tell, they were not done by him but by his appointed teachers and successors. One was even in jail. I find the author's lack of discernment quite disturbing, to be honest. If he can't correctly assess his own teachers, how can he assess anything spiritual? A spiritual guru is supposed to be good at reading people and evaluating their spiritual level, or even capable of profoundly sensing the energy of the people around him/her beyond the surface.I could go on and on, but this review would become too long. There are much better books (available in the kindle format) with contemporary approaches, without dogma, and with more detailed and powerful practices.I suggest reading "Kundalini Exposed" by SantataGamana for a fantastic and potent yogic approach, and "The Bliss of Inner Fire" by Lama Thubten Yeshe to get a beautifully mystic Tibetan Buddhism perspective.

I’ve been practicing meditation and activations of the chakras for over 10 years but this book really filled in the blanks of all the connections and the associations with the lines of prana and integrated it with the Accu puncture points in the entire system that relates to the nervous system and connections to the brain and all the organs.This has given me profound insights to go deeper into the activations of the chakras and my intrigue of awakening kundalini.

I was very inspired by Swami Satyananda Saraswati and I even met him in real life many years back. This book inspired me a lot during a time in my life. I learned Kriya yoga from Swami Janakananda in the Scandinavian School of Yoga and this book was a complement to the teaching I got there.I undertook my yoga teacher training in Rikhiapeeth Ashram and one day Swami Satyananda Saraswati gave satsang to us. For me the visit to the ashram was a very profound experience and I met some amazing people there. Unfortunately they only had shorter courses in Kriya yoga there. Kriya yoga is very much what this book is about. I suggest that you first take a course with a living master before reading this book.As a religious/spiritual book it is very interesting as there are parts of life which are very hard to explain with science.This book has not aged very well in certain parts."Whatever you know, whatever you think or do is coming from one-tenth of the brain. The other nine-tenths, which are in the frontal portion of the brain, are known as the inactive or sleeping brain."Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Kundalini Tantra (p. 31). Yoga Publications Trust. Kindle Edition.Neuroscience have debunked this many years ago. The book was first printed 1984 and there does not seem to have been any major revision of facts after that.I would give a higher score if they revised the content as some of the content is based on old research

If you want to learn about Kundalini in any kind of organized way, your choices are limited. This is one of the only two books I could find which offer any kind of useful information. Besides this, the other is The Serpent Power by Arthur Avalon, which is incredibly dense, uses pretty esoteric Sanskrit words very liberally and without much explanation, but is nonetheless fairly well organized, detailed and fascinating. However, if you want to learn how to integrate Kundalini practice into your life, I'd probably start here.The problem with this volume is that it is written in the sort of meandering and poorly structured style that is typical for topics such as this. It's not a difficult read, and the material within is detailed and organized well enough, but you couldn't say it's really well written either.Having said that, this is a nice book written by someone with a seemingly extensive knowledge of the risks and benefits of different yoga approaches, and I would recommend it to someone wanting to expand their knowledge of yoga.

I have started around 20% of the book and it tells much explaining the phenomena that I experienced. Very good book for a chakra energy practitioner.

if you are interested in kundalini yoga. too descriptive. I would liked it if they have avoided some of the it and came straight to the point.

One of the best books out there on Kundalini. A must read fo yogis who want to understand and demystify the energy aspect of Yoga.

A well written Yogic text with instruction and explanation about chakra activation and Kundalini rising. Everything you need to know to start a serious practice.

The mid chapters describing the chakras and nadis, and pranayama and asana associated with them was mainly reasonable. However all of the other ad libbed digressions are shockingly ill informed. The excursions into medical maladies and so-called scientific validation of nadis and ckakras is exactly the sort of rubbish that gives tantra a bad kooky name. I am yet to read anything from the Bihar Satyananda school that wasn't spoiled by this sort of charletan nonsense. Avoid!!

One of the best book for Kundalini. It has all the practical guidance needed for Kundalini Awakening - yoga, aasana, bandh. Author has given a schedule to follow.

A useful guide for practitioners interested in affronting more complex and spiritual aspects of yogaThe pages of exercoses extremely helpful.

This is not a book but a journey by itself. Everyone should read this book to get an insight of our spiritual journey.

I have read only a few chapters. It looks good at the outset.