Kundalini.Tantra.by.Satyananda.Saraswati

Yogis also tell us that when we practise yoga, purify our nadis and become stronger
and more aware, siddhis, powers, must manifest as part of our spiritual development,
though these are only side-effects and not the main aim of our practice of yoga. This, it
seems, is because we develop a more synchronized functioning of all the components of
our body and mind and awaken areas which have been dormant.
The need for balance
Though ida and pingala and their modes of activity are opposite, they are
complementary and must be balanced for total health and peace of mind. More than this
though, balance can open the door to the transcendental and to a new mode of
functioning.
Most of us spend our lives in an unbalanced state. We tend to increasingly longer
periods of the active mode as we grow out of our childhood and find it difficult to relax
into the receptive state. This is probably a major factor in the spiralling incidence of
psychosomatic disease today. Deikman's research emphasizes the fact that our imbalance
is reflected in every activity as well as in our social, cultural and political organization.
He stresses that the often devalued ida, receptive, feeling, intuitive mode is far from
inferior or regressive and is in fact an essential component in our highest abilities.
Such research suggests that there is a very deep and urgent need for the reintroduction
of concepts such as ida and pingala at the grassroots level of society and that the recent
explosion of interest into yoga, meditation and esoteric philosophy is the result of deeprooted
pain and tension resulting from imbalance in the nadis. It points to the fact that our
whole approach to ourselves, our science, society and culture will require complete
review and revision from the more total yogic perspective.
It is time we realized that the subtle and intangible aspects of human existence are as
important as the tangible, solid and easily measurable materialistic side. It is because of
our reliance purely on technology, the solid facts, and the external, pingala side of our
universe that we have not found happiness, real and lasting security or peace of mind,
because these things lie within us and are of the mind - ida, and are subtle. Yoga offers
the techniques to bring about balance in our lives, to not only realize the subtle, but,
through a science of enhanced intelligence, intuition and creativity, to make the subtle
side of life a practical reality and experience, a valid and important part of our lives as
individuals and within society.
1. Jung, G. G., "Mysterium Coniunctionis", Collected Works, Bollingen Series,
Princeton University Press, 14: xvi- xvii.
2. Deikman, A.J., "Bimodal Consciousness", Archives of Gen. Psychiat., 25 : 481-9,
Dec. 1971.