Kundalini Shakti and Yoga Styles

 

As I see it, it's a total confusion about yoga styles going on. Yoga is an ancient tradition, with endless valuble knowledge. No need for new inventions before you learn the basics of the advanced system that is yoga. It will reach your organs and body aswell as your mind and spirit, inside out, from inner consciousness to universial counsciousness. It's so much to learn in this really interesting tradition. Sometimes the internet is not the right place to learn, beware that informations are sometimes getting lost on the way to the web. Back in the days this knowledge was given from master to student only by mouth.

The Kundalini Shakti can be seen as a divine female energy lying dormant in the base of your spine. You can start this limited within your own body, or you can draw your energies all the way from inside mother Earth all up to the Universe. This you can get to after doing different types of preparation like pranayama (breathing), meditation, and working with your body in asana. I mean, you don’t start any kind of this craftwork in your first yogaclass. Both Yoga and Kundalini Shakti are so huge subjects, and misunderstandigs occour. In the internet it is a lot of wrong information about this Kundalini Craft. Articles about kundalini sickness and all kinds of crazy stuff you can find.
I would really want to clear up some things about the Kundalini Yoga. First of all, Kundalini sickness, I've never witnessed, but did actually meet one that thoight she had it. High up in the Himalayas, back in the days, visiting my teacher (Guru Ji Swami Dayanand). This girl had been shaking and swinging like a pendant all through class. She could explain to us, that it was the 'kundalini power' after class. My teacher said nothing. When she left, he just rolled his eyes. It was a classic exsample of a 'kundalini' experience totaly taken out of the internet or a book maybe. I do anyhow get some kind of 'swinging' or pendant kinda feeling sometimes when I meditate. Then again i focus on my breath and try to sit still, as I am supposed to.

Another really big misunderstanding going on about Kundalini Yoga, is about this one, Yogi Bhajan.
Usually when meeting other western yogis in India, many of them think I follow him. I'm like, wait, what, nooo. It seems like many people think he like invented the Kundalini Yoga or something. This is of course not true.
Kundalini Shakti have been here for centuries. I don’t have anything against this guy, but for me he is just a Indian baba who made it to America, and I guess like that he made many followers.
Carl Jung was actually a big fan og the Kundalini Yoga. He's a more traditional and devoted practitioner of the art than this american one, I'll say. Would be more sutible to follow if you need to follow someone doing Kundalini. But why not just do the Kundalini and follow noone? Ah, devotion to your precious guru ji? It's all well and cool if you want to follow someone, or if you have a Guru, but please, GURU DEV, your Guru inside, is first of all.

All this talk about yogastyles I find a little frustrating sometimes. I think the Kundalini Shakti is important in all kinds of yoga. Just like vinyasa (flow) also is important in evey class. And the asthanga, the 8 limbs, and so on. I really think many times that ‘yoga IS yoga’, when people ask about my style. I feel it’s more about the tradition you want to follow. There are some things that have to be there to even call it yoga, your style is less important.

Always in yoga we work on the body/mind aspect and inner/outer consiousness. In all my classes I have asana, pranayama and nidra. I think without these components, it would not be yoga. However I don’t teach about Kundalini to new students or people at the gym, I teach them simply YOGA.

This amazing Aghori tradition and the left hand path is my personal passion in yoga and life.
Doing Kundalini yoga is like playing with energies. You would like to have free flow, right? This energy you raise through your spine and your chackras. This is very logical since we have the nervoussystem running the same way also and giving signals to your brain. So it kinda all makes sense in the end.

So, Shakti is the female energi, and Shiva is the maskulin energi. Just like the Moon symbolises the left side and the woman, and the Sun the right side and the man. It's all connected, as usual.




Sa Ta Na Ma

Meditating with burning bodies

When going to Smashan (place of the burning bodies), or the 'ceremony place' as we also call it, we put ashes on our forehead from the fire. This picture is from the holy town of Varanasi.

Aghoris are well known to meditate at the burning ghats. In India it is a normal sight to see bodies getting burned by the ghats or other ceremoney places. I don't really think you have to be a genious to understand that the energy in these places are very strong. 

Real Sadhus lives by the burning ghats in Vananasi for years, doing their Sadhana and rituals. My own teacher did this for years. This is mayby not just a happy life, but a deep spiritualy practice combined of course with a great deal of poverty, which is a good reason to live outside. However, the Sadhus does this by choise, and many of them have powerful Ashrams they can go to for food, shelter, and even money. 

If you want to do some spiritual practice at the Smashan, I recomend you do this with a trusted teacher with you. My first time I did with two of my friends who are Sadhus in the Nath tradition. It is important, if you want to put ashes, that someone can check the heart of the burning body. Only take ashes if heart is good. 

Aadesh!

Calm down with Eka Pada Pranamasana - Treepose

One legged prayer pose - Treepose, here outside my hut in Palolem, Goa

This asana sooths the nervous symstem and gives balance. Keep your Drishti (where you se) on one point or gaze in front of you. Even if you can't get your foot all the way up, it doesn't matter, just to stand on one leg in any kind of way, gives you benefits for balance and focus. 

Like most other asanas this is also a strengthening asana. You gain balance, foucus, consentration and calmes the mind, but also you stand on your one foot with all your weight, making you strengthen the leg, ankle and foot muscles. Gip and grion operner are added when you can get your fot all the way up.

You can also use this asana while you feeling totally pissed of. To calm down, go to a quite place and practice this asana. To practice this, you have to calm your mind. If not, you are simply not able to stand on one leg. 

Breath; normal yoga breathing troughout the practice. 

Hare om tat sat. 

Your 10 kg Travel Bag for India

Traveling in India with hand luggage. Here I'm getting ready to leave Palolem Beach. The yoga mats I'm sending home before I leave Goa. I don't wanna be carrying that in the Kumbh Mela. 

I've been to India 6 times now, and I'm learning a lot on my way, also about packing. You don't really 

need a lot of stuff, especially if you're in for a beach holiday. Also if you are a blond girl traveling alone, you don't get any positive vibes from dressing up. In fact you should be dressing down. This is in deed to protect yourself for even more unwanted attension than you've already got. 

There are so many reasons to pack light. You save time at the airport, you have control over your things at all times, and you don't have to much to carry. If you are traveling around it's even more important to have a light bag. Usually I have a bike or a friend with a bike, and with my 10 kg hand luggage it's easy to get around. Also in overfilled trains and busses you got a huge benefit with your small bag. I also have to mention that people keep on loosing their bag in the planes, which is a huge factor to why I'm not checking in anymore. Usually you get your stuff back after a few weeks, but anyway.

So, you're thinking you need a lot of stuff. Remember in India it is a lot of poor people, and you don't wanna be flashing around all your stuff from your amazingly rich country. Be modest. It's normal in India to use the same clothes every dag. Your clothes you can handwash on your way, or get them washed by local people or hotels for a small amount.

And what about your yoga gear? Well, I buy my mats and yoga gear in India. I guess you also will be shopping a lot when you get there. Don't worry, now that you have your 10 kg hand luggage, you can buy a bag to fill with mats and yogapants and check it in when you go home. It's also possible to send things home while you are moving around. Usually I send things before I change places. I like to manage my own bag at all times, and when being a solo female traveler, it's good to get your bag as light as possible while moving.

WHAT YOU NEED IN YOUR BAG WHILE LEAVING YOUR COUNTRY

-solo female traveler-

Clothes: 5 underwear, 2 socks, 2 thights, 2 singlets, 2 loose pants/ali baba pants, 1 long dress, 1 long skirt, 1 scarf (over head or chest while needed), 2 shirts covering shoulders and albowes, 1 sarong (also to be used as towel, scarf and skirt), one blanket.

You will also be wearing when leaving home; underwear, socks, thights, big yogapants, singlet, shirt, hoodie, jacket with hoodie, shoes, 2 scarfs (to combine as needed). 

All this THINGS, is of course to be combined in every kind of way. I always wear stuff I can use in India in the airport. To travel light, you have to think like that. Scarfs are important. Always have a scarf with you. I also wear rudras, tulsi mala and silver ancklets while traveling. Both for my belives, and for indians to see I'm not new in the country. Whatever you do when arriving; do not look confused, they will imidiatly try to sell you something. 

Beauty: 1 toothbrush, 1 small conditoner, 1 mascara, 1 eyeliner, vaseline, tea tree stick.

Stuff: set of earplugs, bandage, phone, camera, tread and needle, probiotics.

Always bring some stuff to give away, like headsets, old phones, and loads of pens. Children are crazy for pens only like 20 km outside the touristarea.

Remember 1 small book with information, phone no, and notes, and more pens for yourself.

Now you are thinking you don't have enough stuff, well when arriving India you will buy; shampoo, toothpaste, sunscreen, 2 blankets, a new yogamat, beautiful clothes, also warm clothing is avalible for buying if you are going north. 

Don't forget your tickets and passport with visa! 

-have a nice trip-

Gorak Nath

Gorak Nath Yogi. Followd by a huge and powerful tribe of Naths within the Aghori tradition.
 




One Gorak Nath Mantra;
'Om Shiv Gorak Yogi'










Blessed be all. Adesh!

'Theese things you can never learn in books!'

The Guru Ji I did my teacher training (and more) with, is an Aghori Sadhu. He told me one time to buy 'Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha' by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Also just called 'the orange book', in Goan beaches. This is a good and simple book, that shows the asanas with pros and cons, and some other useful information about body and mind.

I just love 'The Butterfly Bookstore' in Palolem. I go there all the time to look at the books. Ever since I was like 13 years old, I went to the library in Norway and read everything I could find about Witchcraft. In 2009 when I met an Aghori Sadhu that theaches Kundalini Yoga, I was amazed with the similarities. So I wanted to read all about it, even though my teacher supplied me with good information and showed me a lot of things.


When I was about to finish my teacher training in 2010, I asked him if I should buy any more books. This Guru is a really strickt man some times, intimidating to many, very tall and white sadhu clothing. He was thundering out loud; 'DON'T READ TOO MANY BOOKS, THEESE THINGS YOU CAN NEVER LEARN IN BOOKS!'

Well, sometimes he's right, and sometimes he's wrong. I guess he's right about this really. This acient knowlege is being handed down from human to human. I really think it's quite amazing, and I hope it gets to stay that way. Even though I still find some really cool books sometimes of course, and send them home to keep and enjoy.

My Own Masala Chai Recipe

 

'Chai, chai, chaiiiiiiiiiii'. You know, in India on the trains, the boys comming screaming 'chai, chai, chai'. The train is overful, and still thery're comming to sell chai. Total caos. -and it's not like one time an hour, it's like all the time someone's screaming 'chaaai!'.

 

One thing I love about India, is to sit at some small chai place and drink 5 rupi chai. In this places you get the best chai! When I come home I always miss the chai so much, so after some time and advices, I make my own chai at home, which I think is pretty good. Messurement is kind of on feeling, and of course you have to adapt it according to your own taste. Masala, by the way, means seasoning/spice, and the masala mixes you can buy, is just mixed spices. Garam means hot.

 

Masala Chai

Boil water with black tea, hole cinnamon, black cardemoms, pinch black pepper, pinch garam masala, and a hole lot of fresh ginger that u smash with a hammer or a stone or something. Make it all boil for like 15 minutes or more. The longer time you take to make the chai, the better. Turn down the heat and put a little under half the amount of water with milk. Add sugar and/or vanilla. Make it boil again and turn down one more time. Let it stand like 15 minutes more.

 

Enjoy your chai. I'm drinking it right now. I like it spicy, so I put a lot of ginger!

 

Namaste'.

Kumbh Mela in Allahabad 2013

Finally, in early february, I decided to leave my easy life on the beach in Goa for the Kumbh Mela. With 50 million people comming for taking holy baths in Ganga I didn't really know what to expect, and I wasn't sure if I would be able to find anyone there.

I took the plain from Goa to Delhi, back to the streets in the Pahar Ganj. Before I hated Delhi, now I kinda like it. Everything has it's charm in the end. For a couple of days that is anyway. I was real lucky to get the last ticked on the train. Everything was overbooked due to the festival. I got on an overnight train, and the journey was not bad actually.

First thing that happends in Allahabad, babas are taking me in to their place so I get to relax for an hour or so sitting by his dunhi (fire), doing stuff that babas do. The Baba Ji of this place was a nagar baba. As many of you know, they go naked a lot. Of course he had to do the trick with rolling his 'thing' around a stick and make friends stand on it. I really don't get very impressed. I don't know why he want to destroy his genitals like this, but what do I know. He's in celibat anyway.

Then I was all about finding this Rainbow camp who is for foringers. Maybe after waking like 6 hours, I don't know, I finally find it. The big happy Rainbow family took me in and gave me shelter.

So then I'm all fine and safe in the Kumbh Mela, thinking wow, how in the world am I gonna find my Nath friends here. Well, I got lucky again. Some days after I'm walking with the crowd from the Rainbow camp, and there they are! Not my friends, but som other Nath babas. It's a good thing they have this big rings in their ears, so easy to spot! So I say 'Adesh!', and they are looking at me in shock but smiling. Probably thinking how this blond girl knows this greeting. I'm saying I wanna find my friends, and of course they know, they make a call, and 10 minutes later I'm with my friend on the picture.

Magical things happends in the Kumbh.

And right then I took my first bath in the Ganga.

Om Gange Mata Ji


Khumb at Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJikI8YXZVQ

Taking holy baths in Varanasi

This is before my second bath in the Ganga. One I had in the Khumb Mela in Allahabad. The last and third bath I did in Varanasi at the new moon. It was truly a wonderful experience.

After some beautiful months in the sounth of Goa, it was time to head for the Khumb in Allahabad. The largest gathering of people on earth. That was not why I was going there anyway. It's a wondeful spiritual experience, and chance to meet up with some friends to. I was also lucky to get to know the Rainbow Family who had a Gathering in the Khumb Mela for foringers.
Due to extreme big amount of people, I must say myself I think I did a nice trick. The day before the big newmoon bath I escaped the Khumb and headed for Varanasi. This lead to this wonderful experience of having a new moon bath in the Ganga in Varanasi without the crowds.