Learning Kundalini Yoga / Bhastrika System
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 5 years before Jan 20, 2018
MiBeloved 5 years ago
A third of the way through breath infusion this morning, Swami Muktananda was astrally present. Then later in the session Yogi Bhajan was astrally present with a bright smiling face. Both of these teachers are deceased.
Swami Muktananda was praising bhastrika as the ideal way for dealing with kundalini. He said that even though he practiced bhastrika when he used his last body, he finds that I am using it for certain kriyas which he used other pranayamas to accomplish. He thought it interesting that bhastrika is such a versatile form of breath infusion. Yogi Bhajan was smiling as he accepted what Muktananda said as being a positive appraisal of the system of asana and pranayama combinations which he taught.
The secret is to mix the asanas in as one does the bhastrika. One does during the practice sit in one posture like the lotus posture but many other postures are mixed in by the method of Yogi Bhajan. The effects are wonderful if the student adheres to the practice at least once per day, if not twice per day.
The student must also faithfully remain under the influence of the yoga guru and not go off doing some easier religious or yoga system. The student should also not go off on the basis of needing to have sexual intercourse. Otherwise these influences will cause the practice to stagnate or to cease altogether. Even though the teacher might not be physically present, the student should still adhere to the principles and influence of the guru at least in terms of the practice instructions.
You can imagine that I did this practice in the presence of Yogi Bhajan about four times for the most. I did not even learn it directly from him but from his student who was named Prem Kaur. Yogi never physically instructed me personally. I did it as he or his student directed it in a group sessions.
In Denver when I lived in the ashram, Prem Kaur would sit on a mat at about 4.30am in the morning, and he would just bark out what posture to assume and then give a call to begin the rapid breathing, then he would say hold and we would hold our breath in that posture and then he would say release. Then he would bark out another instruction for another posture. That is how I learnt this in Denver in 1972. It is not that I got direct tailored instructions from Yogi Bhajan. The point is that the student has to be sincere and determined and must continue the practice for many years. Then success is assured even if the teacher is not physically present.
Currently I do not teach this system in classes with many students. I do not have the authority to do that. I teach it one-on-one and only with a limited number of individual students. But when I learnt it I did not have that one-on-one tailored teaching. And yet, because of persistence I reached an advanced level of this practice.
