We’re calling this episode “The Kitchen Table.”  Everybody gravitates to our kitchen table.  We’ve had the most amazing conversations there.  It’s a portal, it is.  So we figured let’s test it out with an episode of The One Flow.  In this episode Jamila asks Jai Gopal questions about Kundalini Yoga mantras and other things.  We plan to have more roundtable conversations with other Yogi’s and interesting humans around the Kitchen Table in the future.  

SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

• What’s a good protective mantra and how does it work?

• What can you do if you feel you’re possessed by a dark force?

• What is the difference between Karma and Dharma

When you do kundalini yoga, you directly stimulate your glandular system.  This is done by holding certain postures or mudras (hand positions,) regulating the breath and vibrating the body with very specific primal sounds (Mantras.) 

The glands are stimulated and secrete hormones into the blood stream.  Hormones are the body’s self made chemicals.  This changes the blood and brain chemistry.  The result is that your electromagnetic field, or aura expands.  How does this happen?  The neurons in your brain start to move faster.  Your neuron voltage increases— in other words the computer clock speed of your brain gets upgraded to a faster processor.  This increase in neuron voltage is an increase in frequency, the frequency of your electromagnetic field – aka your aura. 

It doesn’t matter what others think of you.  It only matters what you do.  We have to obliterate this idea of “what do they think of me?”  It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of you.  It only matters what is actually done.  The rest is a lot of talk and mental masturbation. What’s worse is that almost every time, when one thinks about what others think of them, it stops them creatively.

There’s a great teaching from The Master, Yogi Bhajan. He called it The Three C’s: “When you compare and compete you become confused.” And this is at the heart of “what do they think of me?”

The idea of selfishness, like so many things in our world today is really skewed. There’s this idea that taking care of yourself first is bad, selfish. If you’re selfish out of fear and you’re not connected to others in a positive way, then being selfish is a negative thing. If, however, you are conscious and recognize that the other person is really connected to you in some human way, then you will know that the only way to benefit others is for you to be secure in yourself. It means taking care of yourself first because its with that connection to the self that you really and truly energetically connect with others. Selfishness is really self awareness. It’s really just a matter of orientation– are you navigating from your inner self awareness, or are you looking to others for how you should look, act and feel?

Consciousness is always creating.  It doesn’t stop.  It never sleeps.  God never stops creating.  So if you stop creating, then you get bored.  Yogi Bhajan has a saying: “after achievement comes boredom.”  It took me a minute to understand that.  To me, that means that you get excited about a project and you put all your creativity into a focus in order to achieve something.  Once you achieve it, it’s done.  Then we get bored.  It’s a polarity. The opposite of achievement is boredom. Often we think with achievement, the finish line means it’ll stop and then you can rest on your laurels.  But you can’t. It doesn’t work that way.  

There’s a thing going on. It’s commonplace. People count all the negatives in their lives and can’t see clearly the positive, amazing things that are in their lives. As children we’re filled with wonder. The world is new and exciting. We absorb new experiences like sponges. Then things happen. We get imprinted with the do’s and dont’s of society. School does a good job of saying, you have to do this. This is the way we do it. That’s not the way we do it. Over time many lose touch with the things that light them up.

What is kundalini yoga?
A:  Kundalini Yoga is like magic. It’s unlocks your superhero powers. Funny thing is everyone reads all these self help books— the big secret, we’re all one, the law of attraction, source this and source that… but nobody believes it and that’s because reading is thinking and it’s not the experience. You have to have the experience of energy, the experience of prosperity showing up, the experience of we are all one, love and compassion, the experience of the law of attraction by being. Kundalini Yoga is the science of the infinite human, just being his or her best.

Remember that the universe is always expanding, it’s infinite. You are part and parcel of the universe and vice versa. You are infinite. Therefore you too are always expanding. The only problem is that you get in your own way. Your mind, entertaining limiting thoughts, fears and doubts blocks the flow of that infinite nature. Then there’s all the drama and conflict you allow to waste your energy. When we take care of ourselves and discipline our minds to eliminate the garbage that gets in our way, we can truly prosper and succeed.

I’ve been coming across the Law of The Vacuum in Yogi Bhajan lectures alot recently so I taught a couple of classes on it.  I really enjoy going into the teachings like this because once you discover something and then you search deeper, it reveals itself to you and the result is this glorious feeling of accomplishment.  It’s an ah-ha moment.

So what is the law of the vacuum?  One phrase The Master used repeatedly was:  “The Law of The Vacuum, is that there is no vacuum.”  Kind of a riddle in a way.  In fact it’s kind of like that scene in The Matrix where Neo comes across the kid bending spoons in The Oracles’ waiting room.

Sat Kriya’s benefits are countless.  After doing this kriya for quite some time, it’s amazing how you intuitively learn little things from the meditation and the changes that you go through.  It’s almost as thought the kriya actually speaks to you.

When I first started, my right arm would fall asleep and I’d sweat like hell.  When I got up to 31 minutes my legs would fall asleep pretty bad, even with a big pillow between my legs, but eventually the legs got stronger and even if they fell asleep a little it wasn’t so bad.  They always got back to normal and it actually greatly improved the circulation in my legs.  After some time in the practice though I began to notice  Sat Kriya’s benefits. My navel was getting much stronger and my hips were opening up. My lung capacity has increased. Now that the energy was getting into the upper centers my meditations, particularly while chanting in the morning began to go much, much deeper.

Here are some tips and pointers from my experience…

These are the most frequently used mantras in the practice. People new to the practice quickly learn that chanting mantra is not singing, it’s vibrating sound to create a quantum resonance. In Kundalini Yoga we use mantra to open our higher awareness. Think of it as dialing a security code… you punch in a code and the door opens. Energy vibrates so when you vibrate mantra, you open flows of energy through the mind.

When Yogi Bhajan was a military commander in India there was an epidemic among the troops. He ordered all of his men to fill their canteens with yogi tea and drink nothing else, not even water. His Battalion was the only unit that didn’t get sick! Yogi tea purifies the blood, lungs and circulatory system. It cleans the liver and has many more unseen benefits. It’s good to drink this tea every day.

Ganpati Kriya, or Gunpati Kriya is known as the kriya to make the impossible, possible.  In the video below Yogi Bhajan gives the kriya for the first time to a class and explains it’s origins and effects in detail.  Ganpati is another name for Ganesha, the Hindu Demi-God who embodies the energies of breaking through obstacles.  Hence, the name impossible possible kriya.

I recently sat down with Gunnar Peterson, personal trainer and Head Strength Coach of The Los Angeles Lakers. We talk about the basics of Kundalini Yoga and a little bit about my experience with the practice.  The podcast is sponsored by Hugo Boss and it’s called Essentials by Boss Bottled.  Have a listen below and or find it on all major podcast and streaming platforms.  Also be sure to check out the other episodes where Gunnar talks with other mind body professionals about a wide range of health and wellness topics. The objective is to be the best version of yourself.Aside from laughing a lot, we talk a bit about how I got into Kundalini Yoga, how Kundalini yoga got here and into our world culture.  Also how practicing Kundalini Yoga can help you be more relaxed and less stressed.

By expressing yourself fully and completely, you end up being a benefit to someone, somewhere. If you are truly radiating your soul and your actions are coming from the elementary flow of your self, then whatever you create will have resonance.

n my travels I’ve found a few things Yogi Bhajan said over and over again. It’s also repeated in the writings of the masters wherever you look. These are universal rules for living an energetic, yogic life.

1) Eat Little and Sleep Little.

First you should eat light of healthy food. When you eat lightly then your energy isn’t going to digestion and then your capacity to function energetically is boosted. If you eat heavy rich food full of sugar and processed heavy stuff then your body has to burn it up and that takes energy. Your sensitivity becomes dulled and so do you. Heavy food slows down the processes, including the neuron voltage, which Yogi Bhajan says is the basis for all higher functioning. The higher the neuron voltage the more capacity you have to live intuitively and flow with the infinite capacity of your nature.

This video is a couple of clips which illustrate how energy flows between human beings, the earth, and even throughout our entire galaxy and beyond.

“The heart has the power of one hundred and eight suns.”  –Yogi Bhajan