Sleep Energy Energization and Lift
Of the five mento-emotional natural operations listed by Patanjali, the sleep energy is the most difficult to identify, energize and utilize for higher meditation. If you read book after book about the Yoga Sutras, you can comb through and find very little about the sleep vritti. Some writers mention yoga nidra which is a yogic sleep but that has nothing to do with the sleep energy which is one of the vritti. Some yogis confuse the two.
The person to blame for this lack of clarity may be Sri Patanjali himself because he did not explain the sleep vritti, as to what it is and as to how to eliminate its influence during meditation.
I will clarify some of the secrets about it, doing so on the basis of some information and kriya techniques which Srila Yogeshwarananda shared with me.
The first thing is the sleep energy is stationed at the muladhar base chakra. Targeting this chakra is a major task for any yogi. Most ascetics cannot get access to it, and cannot reform it or bring astral light to it.
Conventional kundalini yoga targets not the base chakra but the sex chakra which is above the base. This means that even if someone masters kundalini yoga in terms of energy moving up the spine into the brain, he or she may have little or no control over the base chakra.
The sleep energy resides at the base chakra, where it accumulates itself and then cast its energy over the buddhi intellect orb in the head. This causes this orb to go into a stupor or sleep during meditation. It causes drowsiness, lack of focus, diminishing focus and many other ailments which affect the ascetic who tries to focus on a desired objective.
Yogesh gave the method of pranayama breath infusion as the means to energize the sleep energy. First, it must be identified. That is done after one motivated the energy at the second chakra to move up the spine. This movement causes light to be profusely above the base chakra but not in the chakra itself. Once the yogi has flushed out the subhuman nadi central passion, on ever and over again he or she will begin to perceive the base chakra as having heavy astral energy.
At this time he can infuse breath energy mixed with hormonal energy into the base area. When this is done repeatedly, the sleep energy capsule is affected, so that it became infused and diffuses itself out so that the heavy astral energy is converted into a flashing light.
This in turn causes the entire lumbar area to be illuminated. During meditation after breath-infusion practice, the yogi finds that drowsiness, stupor and sleep vanished from the subtle body. At first this is an abstract observation. In time it becomes distinct and the yogi feels as if the neck energies under the head became firm and pushed through the neck into the head carrying crystal light into the head.
This energy routes itself forward as soon as it enters the head, it moves under the buddhi intellect and then curls itself around the orb but instead of causing stupor or drowsiness and a lack of attention, it causes clarity and heightened awareness.
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Conventional kundalini yoga practice does include the muladhar base chakra but only the top part of it which is involved in channeling energy from the sex organ reproductive chakra up the spine. Hence once this is mastered the yogi has the task to drive breath-infusion energy through the base chakra itself and into the entire lumbar bony region.
When the sleep energy is energized sufficiently, it will explode down in the lumbar region. When this happens again and again, over time, that energy will be lifted up by the willpower of the yogi. This lift will cause it flourish through the trunk of the subtle body, through the neck, where eventually it will flash over into the subtle head. When this occurs the yogi will experience what it is like to be in meditation without the sleep energy influence.
