NDM: Can you please tell me about your Kundalini yoga teacher (s)?

Maria Kalinina:  Yogi Bhajan, a Master of Kundalini Yoga by the age of 16 – itself a rare feat –gave his first lecture at a Los Angeles high school gym on January 5, 1969. Then a 39-year-old recent émigré from India, he left behind a government career in order to realize the vision of bringing Kundalini Yoga to the West. No matter that not a single person was present that evening; he came to teach and he proceeded to speak to the empty hall.

 In the turbulent, drug culture of the 60s, Yogi Bhajan first reached out to the youth. He recognized their experimentation with drugs and “altered states of consciousness” expressed a deeper desire to experience a holistic, liberating sense of awareness and a longing for family, for connection with themselves and one another. Soon realizing that pharmaceuticals provided, at best, a cheap imitation to the peaceful, inner euphoria they could get naturally from Kundalini Yoga, and at worst, had debilitating physical and mental side effects, young people began flocking to his classes, arriving by the busloads. He created a family, known as 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization) and soon 3HO teaching centers began springing up across the United States and throughout the world.

He sparked a movement whose many tendrils have wound their way into our culture. Yogi Bhajan blazed a trail, which today, after more than 30 years of determined effort on the part of 3HO and the Kundalini Research Institute, yoga and meditation have gained widespread acceptance in the West. This popular attention speaks not only to the proven benefits of yoga and meditation, but to the increasing public interest in spirituality and a healthy lifestyle. 

Born Harbhajan Singh in what is now Pakistan to a family of healers and community leaders, Yogi Bhajan studied comparative religion and Vedic philosophy in his undergraduate years, going on to receive his Masters in Economics with honors from Punjab University. Years later, he earned his Ph.D. in communications psychology from the University of Humanistic Studies in San Francisco.

He emerged as a religious, community and business leader with a distinguished reputation as a man of peace, world-vision, wisdom, and compassion. He has authored and published more than 30 books on topics ranging from spirituality and consciousness to communication and psychology. He has founded several foods companies that manufacture and distribute natural products based on these teachings. He has fostered economic development in every community in which he participates, annually conducts business seminars, and has authored several books that provide guidance to both the aspiring entrepreneur and seasoned business executive alike. As the Siri Singh Sahib, or the Sikh leader in the Western Hemisphere, he has met with Pope John Paul II to discuss inter-religious dialogue and worked side-by-side with the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop of Canterbury to foster world peace.

Yogi Bhajan

NDM: How and why did you first become interested in kundalini yoga?

Maria Kalinina: Started 40 day meditation at Golden Bridge yoga center in LA five years ago, because the friend suggested. I liked it and started to go to kundalini yoga lessons at the center. Did teacher training the same year and started teaching the year after.

NDM: What kind of meditation was that exactly?

Maria Kalinina:  It was tershula kriya.  _{http://sbss.it/pdf/med_tershulakriya.pdf}
 

Tershula is the thunderbolt of regeneration. This powerful 62 minute kriya will balance the gunas (3 qualities that permeate all creation: rajas, tamas, and sattva).

We will bring our nervous systems into balance and harmony. This kriya will enhance your ability to heal at a distance through projection or through touch. Many imbalances in the personality can be repaired with this kriya. It is also helpful in getting rid of stress caused by phobias and stagnation.

NDM: What kind of impact did this have on you at the time?

Maria Kalinina: Effect: Started to sleep better, sensory system woke up.

NDM:  What about the diet for the gunas? Did he suggest anything to you about food and what you should eat while you are doing this practice?

Maria Kalinina: Vegetarian food, vegan, sattva guna food.

NDM: Would you also use this meditation for samskaras or negative vasanas?

Maria Kalinina: Yep!!!

NDM:  What would you say "enlightenment" is ?

Maria Kalinina: I personally think enlightenment is clarity of mind & balanced/ harmonious state of consciousness.

NDM:  The mantra Om is used in prayer or during meditation.  I noticed that you don't use Om but Ong. Can you please tell me the reason for this?

Maria Kalinina: Ong is the creative energy of the total cosmos and consciousness of the creator as experienced in this creation; it has the connotation of energy and activity, it creates involvement without attachment, it generates shakti, the generative force of life. Note that the sound is not Om, that sound is for withdrawal and relaxation.  This mantra (Om) is considered by some to be the most basic sound of the universe. It is composed of the three sounds, ah, oh, and m, and refers, in the Hindu tradition, to the trinity of creation, preservation and destruction. Both Om and Ong have strong vibratory effects. While Om refers to the force of all creation, Ong refers to the Creator, who is the Doer of all action.

Ong is "Infinite Creative energy in manifestation and activity". ("Om" or Aum is God absolute and unmanifested)

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For more info visit www.kundaliniyogausa.com