Dear Tony,

Greetings. Thank you for the wonderful and highly educative post. There
was a lot to learn from it.

I came to know of the dangers of full fledged pranayama from the
book "Raja Yoga" by Swami Vivekananda. He very clearly states that full
fledged pranayama can be practised only if all the rules and
regulations prescribed in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras can be met. He also
says that in the Kali Yuga with the polluted environment it is best not
to attempt Raja Yoga practices.

This book prompted me to study books by Pandit Gopi Krishna. He had an
unwitting Kundalini Awakening experience which, as evident from his own
description, was particularly horrifying. The kundalini energy had
risen through the wrong channel in his case. Another book which
interviews Pandit Gopi Krishna also describes the experiences of J
Krishnamurthy. Sri Krishnamurthy also had an unwitting arousal but was
under the personal supervision of Annie Besant.

In our scriptures too we find that kundalini yoga is a merciless force
if one does not have the protective umbrella of a trained teacher. We
have read of the tremendous experiences of Sri Krishna Chaitanya and
Sri Ramakrishna, which cannot be borne by ordinary individuals. It may
take many lifetimes of practice before one becomes an adept in
kundalini yoga. In case of Sri Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahashaya we see
that he had practised in his earlier birth also and his Guru was
waiting for him to be reborn so that he could complete the process.

In many forums I read of people who claim that they practice kundalini
yoga on their own after receiving Shaktipat from some Indian Guru. I
prefer to keep quiet knowing that such people will learn only after
going through some horrific experience.

In the Ramakrishna Mission centre which I frequent many young lads turn
up yearning to learn pranayama and kundalini yoga. The monks do their
best to dissuade them but we have seen three cases where very bright
young students have suffered irreversible damage after doing pranayama
on their own for long hours hoping to attain spiritual powers. One of
them still visits the ashrama but is a ghost of his former self.

I do four basic pranayama exercises for 10 minutes each (OM,
kapalbhati, anulom bilom and bhramari). I do it very slowly, without
any kind of haste and doing shavasana after each. I do not retain the
breath either during inhaling or exhaling. Like you said my own
teacher here also warns against overdoing kapalbhati. It can make the
body hot he says and says it must be restricted during summer months
when it should be replaced with sheetali.

I fully agree with you that pranayama is best done under supervision.
Regarding kundalini yoga I only study it out of interest and not with
the intention of practicing.

Thank you again.

Regards,
Jagannath.

--- In ayurvedaonline@yahoogroups.com, "mantra_media"
<mantra_media@y...> wrote:
>
> Dear Friends,
>
>
> that practicing pranayama can be dangerous if one does not know the
proper procedure
> has inspired me to write this post.