Kundalini Experience as a Process…

We talked about the Process-orientation in the second half of the last blurb also, but this is such a significant narrative in yogic thought that it is worth highlighting.  Process orientation in a nutshell shifts the emphasis onto Experience, from measurement, assessment and judgement.  Why did Krishna say “even gods aspire to see this universal form (devā apy asya rūpasya nityaṁ darśhana-kāṅkṣhiṇaḥ)?”

The main point there is that “godhood” is not a permanent state, like a CPA or any other Certified Practitioner, nor is it an appointed, tenured position.  So, it’s not like someone in “god” state can do anything, and still remain there.  That is no entity that can undertake an action within brahman, without getting entangled, period – that is, there is nothing outside the scope of karma. It is a part of a dynamic process, like any point on a street that we walk.  Moreover, that process is accessible to everyone to travel, and attain those states of “godhood”.  And all processes, when done in the spirit of yajña, will lead to these states.  This is a critical hypothesis that is worth our contemplation.

The key difference is the “judging” aspect, which lies in the realm of our satwic neutral mind – constantly looking in every direction to asses the relative status.  In State-orientation, as opposed to Process-orientation , we come out of the flow and judge, to make that measurement, in order to judge whether that state is desirable, good, pleasant, or not.  It is that measurement process that colors everything.  As we are learning from modern physics also, that measurement-making aspect is not as reliable as we once thought.  Chapter 2 of Gita (sāṃkhya yoga) is all about this process-focus; measurement leads to knowledge, which requires an additional effort to get rid of it!

In this approach of process orientation, it is all about immersion into the flow, and experiencing every bit, with no measurement or judgement involved.  It’s like learning how to play baseball in bits (hitting the ball, stopping the ball, catching ball, etc.) versus putting all that together to actually play…  They are not separate but the flow is what counts.  There are a lot of modern theories, including depth psychology, that try to bring forth this approach.

Hence, “godhood” in yogic theory is not a state, but a part of the process.  So there is absolutely no entitlement.  Even in the blurb where we discussed “yogic theory of Gods” from vedas – all thirty three of them are forces, and not entities stuck in a state …  When a “god” wants to do something, s/he/it accesses that process and moves into that state.  Knowing that process, which is what we call yoga, is what Gods know very well. Anything other than that requires someone to actually give that power to that entity (or it involves power grabbing, and competition).  Means that there is a higher, more powerful entity than the god-entity receiving the power, and this loop perpetuates going nowhere.  Rishis use the term “swayambhu” or “self-generated” to describe this process – has to come from within.   We are all made of the same stuff (aham brahmasmi – I am brahman; Tat Twam asi).  The bestower and the bestowed are the same; it’s the process through which the subject and the object merge, where the desirer and the desired merge, where the parallel lines meet, polarities come together…  Godhood emerges on this path towards that.

The state-process relationship is best described in yoga theory by an ancient couplet called Nara-Narayana.  Nara is human, and Nara-yana is the path of human.  This word-root “yana” keeps showing up in a lot of there places, such as Rama- Ramayana,

May we all be blessed with the attitude of Process-orientation _/\_/\_/\_