Book Review: Kundalini by Gopi Krishna
“Kundalini” by Gopi Krishna

Expectation. With every turn of page it rose, I was convinced that the author Gopi Krishna would illuminate my mind with tales of metaphysical feats far beyond the mundane, brought about by the awakening of this eponymous “Kundalini”. However, I was to be disappointed, as in this personal account of the awakening of Kundalini, the evolutionary energy of mankind, one’s impression of what spirituality can achieve will be severely altered, leaving a shattered but, importantly, corrected expectation. This being all important in this age of many self-proclaimed magical gurus, who claim all manner of psychic abilities, in an effort to attract followers, and, of course, money, to their cause.

For Gopi Krishna, this prana or life-force lies within us all and he believes that it is possible for each one of us to awaken it in ourselves. In fact, it is humankind’s destiny to do so. Thus, in this book, he describes his own experience of the awakening itself and the impact that it had on his life. Being unprepared for what happened to him, he earnestly describes all the problems and pitfalls (of which there are many; in fact the descriptions nearly put me off wanting to attain this state! Think of your body continuously burning internally with no means of respite and also being unable to eat even the smallest morsel of food without provoking a paroxysm of total bodily pain to get an idea.). However, with the aid of his wife- a women who is so selfless as to appear saintly-he realizes that the energy he has awoken has actually being awoken in the wrong channel (The pingala channel as opposed to the preferred ida. These channels are said to exist between the sexual organs and the top of the cranium and it is through the process of raising the Kundalini energy from the base of the body to the apex of the head that the experience of awakening occurs, physiologically speaking) and,then, making amends, soon enters the path to recovery and then advancement.

With each chapter or so, there is a “psychological commentary” by a James Hillman. However, from my impression this amounts to nought but the creation of a Jungian analysis for nearly everything Krishna experiences or, failing that, mentioning some obscure analogy to the experience according to alchemy or early-Greek thought. This entire process of contrived analogies get extremely tiresome and often, rather ludicrous. In my opinion, this exercise in itself is doomed to failure as one will find that most Western psychology and other similar disciplines are based exclusively upon a basis of rational analysis. Whereas Kundalini and other meditation techniques are based, not on logic or even intuition, but on direct experience of phenomena as they are, leading to firm experiences beyond the realm of the intellect. An effort to reconcile both without considering this is, to me, doomed from its very inception.

As the book progresses, we begin to see how Krishna’s life is altered and how both his consciousness and entire being radically alters in many unexpected ways. However, Krishna continuously stresses that that all of his experiences are in no way “magical” but, rather, nothing but the expected results of Kundalini energy working within , moulding his nervous system so as to evolutionarily advance. Throughout Krishna’s scientific approach accompanied with his honestly, integrity and almost total lack of ego are continuously inspiring. This is not his experience in so far as it is something all can achieve. Never does a sense of superiority creep in , nor does he even contemplate using his experiences to advance himself monetarily , even though he had many a chance to do so coupled with the fact that he was living in penury for quite a long time.

Gradually his life begins to stabilise at the level of advanced consciousness, whereupon Krishna gives his hope for mankind that all may awaken this fantastic energy, this: “ immortal light, held aloft by nature from time immemorial to guide the faltering footsteps of erring humanity across the turns and twists, ups and downs, of the winding path of evolution, the light which shone in the prophets and sages of antiquity, which continues to shine in the men of genius and seers of today, and will continue to shine for all eternity, illuminating the vast amphitheatre of the universe for the marvellous, unending play of the eternal, almighty, queen of creation, life”.

So poetic, so mysterious; Krishna’s book should be an inspiration to us all, and also a wake-up to those of us entrapped within the saddening emptiness of material based modern existence so that we can learn to look beyond the veal of this world so and thus , live. It is a well-written personal account of a supra-mundane accomplishment, and although it isn’t, to be truthful, the best book that I have ever read of this genre, I can ultimately say that it is a very worthwhile and insightful book. It deserves a wide readership.