1.
“…kundalini yoga as taught by the Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan”
Most practitioners I have come across respect the diversity of the tradition enough to make this disclaimer when talking about their yoga practice. This specificity pleases me, because I realize it must be an insatiable drive to want to consume the entire history of kundalini yoga, in all its complexity, and represent it back to the public as a singularity conveniently encompassed by their specific teacher. Anyone who’s studied Islam for five minutes can attest to the many “One True Islam”s that are really store-fronts for a specific teacher, lineage, and ideology. The same goes for all the great traditions. Behind EVERY pamphlet is an organization. Behind every “Pure Religion” is a guy writing books cutting down someone else to build himself up. And behind every translation is a fund.
Yogi Bhajan’s take on the practices of kundalini rising are very specific to YB, and yet in essence his methods are all based on the traditional sources. I know this because I have made it an almost part-time job “checking up” on YB. All the great traditions demand that you see for yourself the validity of the teachings. I appreciate this and take advantage of the request at every turn. Truly nothing is sacred until it is sacred. This is important, since there have been many times where I have been in a yoga class singing “Happy am I. Healthy am I. Holy am I.” while thinking to myself: this CAN’T be right!!! So, I look around. I check up on YB to make sure I’m not being taken. I can honestly say that what I have found has pleased me.
2.
YB’s lineage is a Sikh one (I believe he was actually raised Christian and converted at a young age, I THINK), which differs in some ways from the Hindu tradition. Admittedly, kundalini yoga as it comes from the Hindu tradition does not seem to incorporate “happy songs” (at least not in the books I have read), and these traditions also seem very skeptical, almost paranoid, about facilitating these practices in group form. For example, the Sivanada/Satyananda tradition doesn’t even allow people to engage the kriyas (complete “sets” of practice including mantra, pranayam, and movement simultaneously. For example, sitting in rock pose with hands on shoulders turning left to right, while breathing in to the left and out to the right silently chanting Sat Nam [True Name, or “Truth is your identity” as the teachers translate]) before years of traditional hatha yoga, dietary changes, stints of celibacy, retreats, courses, seminars, which add up to roughly five years or more of study (at least according to one woman I spoke to on the phone recently). YB’s approach is much different.
KY as per the SSS is a system that puts the practitioner directly in the center of the practices. While there are a few levels of in-depth study (where you become a teacher, YB is quoted as saying he was not teaching students but future teachers) on the whole the classes are for all levels of experience, since in the end KY is about you versus you. KY as per the SSS is a system that immediately works the body over. And by that I mean completely changes the physicality of your body. It tones it. It stretches it. It shapes it. It cleans out the cobwebs and dissolves the knots in the different spots. After all, it’s yoga. My understanding is that through this freeing up of the body through the body itself, one makes room for the kundalini, the latent clarity or potential in all people, to move up the spine through the shushumna (central nadi). (You know that feeling of “I feel more whole and complete. I can take on the world.” when your body is “in shape?” That’s in a way the latent potential, only slightly different in make-up). So in a way this is no different from the Satyananda tradition where the body is “prepped” for kundalini practice. However, my understanding is that YB felt that regardless of where you were at emotionally, physically, spiritually, the practices he gave (and there are literally thousands) would have a positive effect on you because the practices themselves had an effect on you. Kind of like the way you’re going to get some what of a better vocabulary if you read a lot, even if your hearts not in it. And similar to Chogyam Trungpa’s take on Ati Yoga, or Maha Ati/Dzogchen, if you aren’t ready, you won’t hurt yourself since the important stuff will simply float by. One cannot see what one has no reference to see.
