How can you tell the difference between a sore throat that signals an infection and one that indicates an energetic block? Sham Rang Singh Khalsa and Jai Dev Singh explain how to identify and treat physical, mental, and spiritual symptoms by combining the sciences of Ayurveda and Kundalini Yoga.
Throughout the world, there are many teachers of Ayurveda and just as many teachers of Kundalini Yoga. However, while these two sciences stem from the same roots, they have yet to been taught together as a complete system, until very recently.
Not only are Kundalini Yoga and Ayurveda compatible sciences, they are one and the same. The teachings of Ayurveda act as a guide map to explain the complex and profound science of Kundalini Yoga. Likewise, the practice of Kundalini Yoga transforms the intellectual knowledge of Ayurveda into a living experience. The result is a comprehensive system for identifying and treating physical, mental, and spiritual symptoms.
The Origins of Ayurveda
When the rishis, the enlightened beings of ancient India, first elucidated the medical system Ayurveda, they were describing how to physically support the ultimate goal in life: union with the divine. From their clear and energized state of consciousness, they understood just how the body comes to manifest imbalance and illness. They knew that this special relationship with the inner Self was fostered by a body free of pain and distraction.
Ayurveda teaches the link between mind and body, but goes beyond to spirit-mind-body medicine. It integrates all of medical knowledge, from herbs to surgery and from health promotion to disease alleviation.
About Kundalini Yoga
The practices of Kundalini Yoga are designed to transform the tissue layers of the body so they can hold a higher frequency of energy.
When the body is heavy with low vibrational mass, it is very difficult to make positive progress in any area of life. When dull energy sets in, the flow of prosperity is stifled and happiness seems like a nonreality.
The body is the substratum for the mind. Dynamic Kundalini Yoga exercises can change the chemistry of the blood and circulate the cerebrospinal fluid. The powerful and penetrating breathing practices purify the tissues, generate the pranic life force, and clarify the mind. The all-powerful meditations transport practitioners to magnificent spaces of bliss. What was just recently heavy and sluggish, becomes light and energized. What was depressed becomes elevated. Kundalini Yoga is that simple and effective.
Anna Chants to Soothe Sore Throat
In combining the wisdom of Ayurveda and Kundalini Yoga, we see the body as a map, a mandala rich with symbology. Chest pain might relate to the heart as an organ or an energy center, or to indigestion with pitta (dosha, or bioenergy, of fire) in the seat of kapha (dosha of water and earth). Each person and each event is unique, but we can infer clues based on the characteristics, timing, and location of the problem. From the seat of Ayurvedic understanding, Kundalini Yoga practices can unleash the physical or emotional block and convert it back into pure energy.
For example, Anna went to see Dr. Sham Rang Singh Khalsa with a sore throat. First, he ruled out worst-case scenarios. This addresses the element of fear, the dosha of vata (dosha of air and space), which is always the first dosha to treat in an illness. If your mind keeps thinking of bad things, it will keep sending energy to the illness.
Then he asked, “Does it hurt more to swallow or speak?”
Anna said there was a hoarseness and pain on speaking.
He asked her, “What in your life is so hard to say? What’s the situation that has you in pain about speaking your truth?”
Anna realized the pain in her throat reminded her of the sensation she felt when trying to speak in settings of confrontation, and specifically when talking to her boss about a problem she was having at work.
Dr. Khalsa suggested a chanting exercise to help Anna release this pain. He asked her to create the sound called for in the kriya (practice) with intensity of emotion but without overexerting the throat to create excess pain. The sharp pain was the vata/fear physically felt in her throat and her frustration about the situation was the element of pitta, or fire.
The kriya encouraged the intensity of the pain to shift from the throat into a more malleable state of emotion. Anna chanted for 11 minutes. The chanting of the mantra transformed the stuck doshas into spiritual energy and all remnants of Anna’s sore throat quickly disappeared.
Jillian Lifts Her Depression With Kundalini Yoga & Ayurveda
When Jillian walked into Jai Dev Singh’s class for the first time, it was obvious to him that she was carrying a profound heaviness. Although physically attractive, her aura was dark, her eyes lacked any sense of luster, and her face looked as if it had been permanently saddened.
He soon discovered that over the last couple of years, Jillian had been through a life experience that most of us can only imagine. At the age of 22, her father, with whom she was dearly close, passed away. Just a few months later, her childhood best friend was in a terrible accident and died. This unusual sequence of events would probably be enough to send any of us into a dark space of depression, and it certainly did so for Jillian. She had spent the last months of her life living in what she described as “a hopeless agony.” She said she felt constantly sad, angry, depressed, and scared.
However, Jillian was eager for help and showed a willingness to do whatever might alleviate the “unbearable pain” she was enduring. She started coming to yoga class twice a week and Jai Dev Singh gave her a simple Kundalini Yoga meditation to do every day from home. She also began using special Ayurvedic herbs and made a couple of small adjustments to her daily routine.
Four months later, Jillian approached Jai Dev Singh after class, smiling. There was a glow to her presence, a light in her eyes.
"I don't know what happened," she said. "I feel great. I feel great, and yet, I shouldn't.”
"I don't know what you mean, why shouldn't you?" Jai Dev Singh asked.
Smiling again, she replied, "I feel happy. I feel happy all over and I just didn't expect it, I can't even control it. I even find myself trying to feel the depression again, and I just can't seem to go back!"
In a few short months, through Kundalini Yoga and Ayurveda, Jillian effectively transported her body and mind into a heightened energetic space where the lower frequencies of depression, anger, and fear could no longer hold their grasp over her life. Her aura was bright and strong, her mind clear, and her body animated by pranic intelligence. Jillian made the leap that every human being is designed to do. She generated the physiological and energetic frequency that produces authentic and long-lasting happiness and health.
Today, Jillian is a bright, beautiful, and strong woman. She is a teacher of Kundalini Yoga and is in the process of becoming an Ayurvedic practitioner.
