By Yogeshwari Fountain

“Your spine is the main energy channel (nadi) of the 72,000,000 nadis that make up your body.”  — Swamiji & Vidyadevi

As I read this quote to my students, their eyes grew wider in amazement. They were seated in Sukhasana, having just finished Seated Side Stretch. It was the perfect moment to check in with them about what they were experiencing. “I feel bigger, front to back and side to side,” said Nancyjo. Hadley added, “My breathing has opened up. I feel lifted and centered in myself.” My students’ descriptions also come from their pose practice, which had balanced their ida and pingala nadis (left and right energy channels).

The deep inner explorations of yoga’s ancient sages revealed the cosmic internal mapping of our body’s subtle energetic template. When I turn inward to perceive this inner Reality, I see that it is larger than I yet fathom. I can get caught up in the world, looking for balance and stability on the outside, yet I feel the truth that Shiva has designed it all for the inner unfoldment of Consciousness.

From teaching Svaroopa^® yoga and my own experiences, I know that every time you lengthen your tailbone, you are opening up the energetic pathways of the nadis. I also experience this opening in Ujjayi Pranayama and more directly when I meditate. Meditation is the most powerful practice for Kundalini, who arises freely when ida and pingala are balanced or when you use the mantra of our lineage.

I was a seeker from early on. I’d heard about “chakra balancing.” I saw the pretty, artistic t-shirts with (inaccurate) renderings of the inner chakra colors. Yet they didn’t really resonate with me. Then I met Swami Nirmalananda, and knew I’d found the “real deal.” She had something I wanted. I felt grounded and embodied from my first taste of Svaroopa^® yoga. As soon as I let my tailbone muscles soften, a corresponding release would climb my spine, and I felt a blissful realignment that was both physical and spiritual.

When I first discovered yoga, my primary drive was improvements in my life and relationships. If I felt more manageable on the inside, then who I was on the outside would be happier. And I could make others happy as well. Fortunately, Svaroopa^® yoga and meditation has changed all of that for me. This yoga points me inward. As Swamiji and Vidyadevi explain, “The chakras are about your inner work, a map of the mystical process of spiritual growth that reliably unfolds when Kundalini is awakened.”

All along, that’s what I had wanted. Kundalini is the energy of the universe, embodying you! Opening your tailbone moves the energy through your nadis, but it is Shaktipat initiation from Swami Nirmalananda that has taken me from half-baked (in Consciousness) to fully baked. Because of this, I am no longer satisfied by Svaroopa^® yoga’s physical benefits alone. They serve as a launching pad for the blast-off into Consciousness. Swamiji’s Grace provides the jet fuel.

When you receive Shaktipat, you don’t become Divine, since you already are Divine. Instead, the Grace she injects clears away the obstacles that prevent you from knowing your Divinity. Your inner Radiance is lit from within.