Guru Rattana - Transitions to a Heart-Centered World: with the Kundalini Yoga and Meditations of Yogi Bhajan

Transitions to a Heart-Centered World

with the Kundalini Yoga and Meditations of Yogi Bhajan

Second Edition

by

Guru Rattana, Ph.D.

and Ann Marie Maxwell

Open Your Heart

Heal Yourself and Others

Experience Inner Peace and Joy

Relax and Attract Opportunities

Live in Abundance and Prosperity

Strengthen Your Nervous and Immune Systems

Raise Your Energy to Synchronize with the Frequency of Love

Published by Yoga Technology, LLC

PO Box 443, Sunbury, PA 17801

Phone: 570 988 4680, Fax: 570 988-4640

Art by Ann Marie Maxwell

Cover by Chris Stell

Editing by Chris Zook

eBook Conversion by Gordon T. Lamb

Second Edition

ISBN: 978-1-888029-12-3

Copyright 1988 and 2014 by Guru Rattana, Ph.D.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Nothing in this book should be construed as medical advice. Always consult your medical doctor or licensed healthcare practitioner to ensure that the lifestyle changes and exercises are appropriate for your personal health condition.

Dedication

With love and gratitude

to my Beloved Teacher Yogi Bhajan

and his wife Bibiji Inderjit Kaur

By spreading his teachings

may we emulate and share their spirit of

selfless giving, love, and grace.

Kundalini Yoga

Kundalini Yoga is the uncoiling of the being.

It is the potential of creativity of the Infinite in the finite.

It is the widening of the behavior, and it is ultimate happiness in life. It is super-humanly human.

It is intelligence.

It is grace.

It is utmost compassionate being.

It is classic Truth which radiates in every facet of life.

It is a scientific technology which can be learned and taught.

It is taught; it is not a momentary diversion to look unusual or feel unusual.

It is the central nerve system we are talking about which extends the grasp of the brain to imagine Infinity in its totality, and then it is a gradual process to work for that experience.

It is a scientific technology for happiness.

Yogi Bhajan

Table of Contents

Love to all

Light to all

Peace to all

Introduction to Second Edition

Over a quarter of a century after the first publication of Transitions to a Heart-Centered World, I am delighted to offer this revised and updated edition. Transitions was the very first Kundalini Yoga manual I wrote and has remained the most popular throughout the years. The theme of moving into heart-centered consciousness is not only still relevant, it is essential for making a successful transition into the Aquarian Age, for the survival of the planet and for world peace.

The original manual was produced on a typewriter purchased in a used office equipment store! It is a relief to be able to correct the typographical errors of that original version and present this material in an updated format.

Ive enjoyed the process of revisiting the major themes in this book with a deeper understanding and witnessing how they have served as the foundation for all my subsequent Kundalini Yoga books and courses that I have developed. The worldview-shifting ideas as first written down in this manual offered us prophetic guidelines for an awakening into heart-centered consciousness. The original concepts and technology shared by Yogi Bhajan remain revolutionary, valid, and vital in our current times.

Kundalini Yoga and Meditation

The sacred technology of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation has been practiced in the monasteries of India, Tibet, and Nepal for thousands of years. For millennia the teachings were imparted only to a select few and passed down by word of mouth from guru to student. This knowledge was a guarded secret until Yogi Bhajan, a master who was able to receive and transmit this information, brought it to the West in 1969.

Yogi Bhajan taught thousands of kriyas and meditations, a treasure chest of spiritual practices that attests to his tireless dedication to making this transformational technology available to the public. He operated from the belief that this knowledge belongs to everyone!

In this manual, we share many kriyas and meditations that have been preserved from student notes of Yogi Bhajans earliest classes. Back then, there was no organized system to record these teachings. A few students took notes, but there were no audio recordings or videos, and Yogi Bhajan did not allow the publication of any of the kriyas for the first few years.

Our Contribution and Mission

When I met Yogi Bhajan and began practicing Kundalini Yoga in early 1977, there were only a few available published materials, which were very precious to us. At that time, I was living on the East Coast, including four years in the Millis (Boston) ashram. In 1985 I moved to San Diego, where I advertised my yoga classes in a local newspaper. A woman named Ann Marie Maxwell responded with interest, but did not show up for classes. I called her back several times (no Internet in those days!) and finally found out that she couldnt pay for the classes. She had just quit her job as a professional night club dancer because she could not tolerate the cigarette smoke.

I suggested a trade, and she offered to teach me belly dancing. I wasnt interested at the time and invited her to come anyway. Operating from trust and generosity opened the space for the Universe to send me an unexpected gift: Ann Marie would become an invaluable collaborator in the creation of my first four Kundalini Yoga manuals.

After attending classes for several months, Ann Marie showed up with some rather rudimentary little booklets she created with kriyas she had practiced in my classes, which she illustrated with her delightful drawings of the poses. It didnt take long for us to figure out that we were being directed to create manuals ourselves. I collected my notes, the few existing published materials, and a big compendium of unpublished student notes from Yogi Bhajans early classes. We went to work sorting, writing up, and illustrating (all art work was done by Ann Marie) as many kriyas and meditations as we could decipher from the stick figure drawings and sketchy notes.

I had always been intrigued by Yogi Bhajans message that in order to get to and stay in our heart, we had to first cultivate a powerful and stable base in our lower chakras. We felt directed (undoubtedly by Yogi Bhajan) to make this the topic of our first manual. Accordingly, we selected all the kriyas and meditations related to strengthening the navel center and the lower chakras and relevant to opening the heart center. When Ann Marie asked me what the title should be, the words Transitions to a Heart-Centered World immediately flowed from my mouth.

In retrospect, it is obvious to me that Yogi Bhajan was (and still is) working with me to make his teachings available to the world. When I presented this first manual to him, he looked at it, or, more accurately, he looked through it with his masterful perception. He then gave me his nod of approval and said, Keep these manuals coming! As so we did, writing in two years (1988 and 1989) three more books: Relax and Renew , Sexuality and Spirituality , and Introduction to Kundalini Yoga. We were honored to be able to assemble this information according to these topics for the very first time.