Swadhisthana and purgatory

When kundalini is residing in swadhisthana chakra, the last vestige of karma is being thrown out and all the negative samskaras express themselves and are expelled. At this time you may be angry, afraid or full of sexual fantasies and passion. You may also experience lethargy, indolence, depression and all kinds of tamasic characteristics. The tendency to procrastinate is very strong and you just want to sleep and sleep. This stage of evolution is known as purgatory, and if you read the lives of many of the great saints, you will find that most of them encountered great turmoil and temptations when they were passing through this stage.

When Lord Buddha was sitting beneath the bodhi tree waiting for enlightenment, he was visited by Mara. Mara is a demonical mythological force, the same force which the Bible refers to as Satan. Just as Satan is a tempter, so Mara is a temptress. This demonical force is not external; it is an internal force which can be found in everybody. It is situated at a very great depth of our personality and is capable of creating illusion. In the Buddhist tradition Mara is represented by a big snake, a grotesque looking person with big teeth and a horrible face, or as beautiful naked women hovering around waiting to embrace an aspirant who is involved in his sadhana. These are all mythological symbols no doubt, but they are realities.

Only those who are fearless and of strong willpower can survive through the temptation. Every great man and every saint has had to undergo this peculiar experience, which is like the ultimate explosion of the seed of life. It seems that the seed of man’s cycle of birth and rebirth is situated in swadhisthana chakra. And although most people confront difficulties when they’re moving through the terrain of swadhisthana, if one has the grace of guru and indomitable and invincible willpower, and if he has been sincere and not hypocritical in his spiritual pursuits, if he’s very clear about his goal and he understands what these purgatory experiences are, he can face the difficulties properly and overcome them.

If one fluctuates even slightly, kundalini will return to mooladhara and the real awakening will be more difficult. Therefore, in the first stages of sadhana and awakening, one must have a supreme kind of vairagya (detachment). It should not be intellectual vairagya, but the outcome of a thorough analysis of the situations of life. Where is the end to the pleasures of life ? Can you ever satisfy your desires ? Even when you reach the age of 80 or 90 and your body can no longer enjoy pleasures, the mind still dwells on them constantly. You can leave all the sensual pleasures, but the taste will remain in the mind.

If the sadhaka understands this truth, that desires can never be satisfied in one lifetime, or even in thousands of lifetimes, then kundalini can pass through swadhisthana safely and relatively fast, and make its way to manipura chakra. Without this understanding, swadhisthana becomes like an impenetrable iron curtain and perhaps only one in thousands can transcend it. Many people awaken kundalini quite easily, but passing the swadhisthana border is another thing; you can’t get through without a visa.

The sexual crisis

I remember reading a book written by a wellknown swami who had difficulties getting through swadhisthana. He wrote: “I was sitting all night and nothing but sex and sensual thoughts came to my mind. And I dreamed of many women presenting themselves in their naked form, and my whole body was becoming hot and cold, hot and cold. Ultimately I got a headache, and at one point, I thought my heart would collapse. “Throughout the crisis, my guru’s face used to come like a glimpse. His face was stern and expressionless, and that used to bring my temperature back to normal. However, this confrontation I was having with a powerful side of my mind continued until morning. At last, when morning came I breathed a sigh of relief. But then, when I sat for meditation in the evening, I had mixed feelings. I had fear in my mind and confidence as well.

“Day in and day out the mind played its tricks on me. Then one night Parvati came to me. Parvati is the shakti of Lord Shiva, and she is the divine mother. I knew she was Parvati, but because she looked so beautiful and she was wearing almost transparent clothing, I began to desire her. Rather than remembering that she was the divine mother, my mind was more aware of the form behind the transparent apparel. “Like a flash of lightning my guru showed his face and I regained my senses and prayed, ‘Mother, withdraw your maya. I can’t face these experiences. You are the giver of liberation and you are the creator of illusion. You have the power to cast me back into the cycle of birth and rebirth and you have the power to lift me from this quagmire of ignorance.’

“As I prayed, tears rolled down my face and I felt a cool breeze passing through the interior of my body. The whole panorama vanished and I understood that kundalini had passed through swadhisthana and was now heading towards manipura.”

Transforming the primal energy

When no sexual desires of any kind manifest in an aspirant any more, and when there is no more personal attraction, that means kundalini has passed beyond swadhisthana chakra. However, when dealing with the subject of sex, your understanding must be very thorough. Although you may not be having any sexual awareness at the moment, that doesn’t mean your desires have been exterminated. They might be in a suppressed state. There is an automatic process of suppression in the human constitution, and that is inherent in our own mental being.

Hindu rishis have stated that sexual awareness and desires can manifest at any stage of evolution. They are very acute and clearly expressed when one is in swadhisthana and having continual fantasies, but sexual awareness never really dies because it is fueled by the primal energy which is present all throughout. Sex is only an expression of that, and therefore it can manifest at any stage, and one should never think that he has transcended it. It is even present when one is in the highest state of consciousness. The only difference is that in swadhisthana it is in a very disturbed state, whereas in the higher centers of evolution it is in a seed form. After all, what is bhakti or devotion; what is union? They are the sublimated pure form of sexual energy.

Energy at different levels is known by different names. At the highest level it is called spiritual experience. On the emotional level it is known as love. On the physical level it is known as sex, and at the lowest level it is known as avidya or ignorance. So therefore, when you talk about sex, you must understand that it is only a particular formation of energy. Just as curd, butter and cheese are different formations of the one thing - milk, energy has different manifestations. Matter is the grossest manifestation of energy; in the ultimate state, matter is energy. Therefore, energy and matter are intraconvertible. A thought is an object and an object is a thought. This body is consciousness and consciousness has become this body. In the same way that you understand this, you have to reanalyze and redefine sexual awareness. The rishis say that the same energy which flows through passion, when channelized, manifests as devotion. Channelize this same energy again and it manifests as spiritual experience. That is why spiritual aspirants love God in various manifestations. Some picture him as a father, a mother, a child, a friend, husband or lover. In this way, they can sublimate the form of their emotional energy and even transform the primal energy into a divine experience.

Psychic propensities of swadhisthana

At a higher level, swadhisthana acts as the switch for bindu. This is the point where primal sound originates. Any awakening in swadhisthana is simultaneously carried up to bindu, where it is experienced in the form of the sound body, which is an important psychic attribute of this chakra. According to the tantric texts, there are many other psychic propensities gained through the awakening of swadhisthana chakra. These include: loss of fear of water, dawning of intuitive knowledge, awareness of astral entities, and the ability to taste anything desired for oneself or others.

Up to swadhisthana, the consciousness is not yet purified. Due to ignorance and confusion, the psychic powers awakened at this level are often accompanied by maleficent mental attributes. What happens here when the aspirant tries to manifest or express himself through the psychic medium is that more often than not it becomes a vehicle for personal and lower tendencies rather than for the divine. The sum and substance is this - awakening of kundalini is not a difficult task, but to get beyond swadhisthana is. For that you must improve the general background of your psycho-emotional life. Once you pass swadhisthana you will not have to face any explosive traumas again, but there will be other difficulties further on. Kundalini is unlikely to descend again as it is destined to move on, but the problems you will confront will be concerned with siddhis, and they are more difficult to subdue.