Gopi Krishna (1903–1984)

Coiled like a snake at the base of the spine, kundalini is the spiritual force that lies dormant in every human being. Once awakened, often through meditation and yoga practices, it rises up the spine and finds expression in the form of spiritual knowledge, mystical vision, psychic powers, and ultimately, enlightenment. The author gives a first-person account of his experience of this awakening and how he found balance with the many psychic and physiological changes the experience fostered.

With a psycological commentary by James Hillman
Foreword by Gene Kieffer"

Gopi Krishna never felt that what took place was personally his. From the beginning he was a mere instrument; therefore, at the end, he is merely a mouthpiece of a vaster truth."-James Hillman, author of The Soul's Cafe

Coiled like a snake at the base of the spine, kundalini is the spritual force that lies dormant in every human being. Once awakened, often through meditation and yoga practices, it rises up the spine and show more finds expression in the form of spiritual knowledge, mystical vision, psychic powers, and ultimately, enlightenment.

This is the classic first-person account of Gopi Krishna, an ordinary Indian householder who, at the age of thirty-four, after years of unsupervised meditation, suddenly experienced the awakening of kundalini during his morning practice. The story of this transformative experience, and the author's struggle to find balance amid a variety of powerful physiological and psychic side effects, forms the core of the book. His detailed descriptions of his dramatic inner experiences and symptoms such as mood swings, eating disorders, and agonizing sensations of heat-and of how, with the help of his wife, he finally stabilized at a higher level of consciousness-make this ne of the most valuable classics of spiritual awakening available.

Gopi Krishina (1903-1984) was born in Kashmir and later lived in the Punjab region of India. He is the author of numerous books on yoga and kundalini. show less

According to Gopi Krishna, planted in every human being is a powerful reservoir of psychic energy which, when roused to activity, can lead to transcendental states of consiousness, genius, and supernormal psychic powers, including Revelation. This extraordinary but little-known activity follows the awakening of Kundalini, which he termed the psycho-physiological mechanism responsible for human evolution. Once this dormant mechanism becomes active, the reproductive system reverses itself and show more transfers energy or prana to the brain. Gopi Krishna, who wrote from his own direct experience of Illumination or Enlightenment, said that we are presently in the midst of a world-wide, though often misunderstood, process of evolution to a higher state of consciousness. In this book, he describes how Kundalini works and how it can be activated through meditation and by living a regulated life.

Contents

Introduction
I What everyone should know about higher consciousness
II The ancient concept of kundalini
III Is meditation always beneficial?
IV The goal of meditation
V The true aim of yoga
VI The dangers of partial awareness: Comments on Alan Watts' Autobiography
VII An interview with Gopi Krishna: On mystical experience, drugs, and the evolutionary processes
About the author show less

In his unusual text, the Master stresses the need for meditation and service on the path to spiritual growth, and refers to the fight against social and economic injustice as the prelude to a New Age of peace and harmony.

"[This book] is come to herald the New Age,
For which some people fondness show.
Like parrots talking in a cage,
What 'New Age' means they do not know.

This book is aimed to make it clear
That the existing two pursuits
Of wealth and power we must foreswear,
As both are hence show more forbidden fruits."
(p.16) show less