Snatam Kaur - Original Light: The Morning Practice of Kundalini Yoga

To access the audio files that accompany this book, visit SoundsTrue.com/OriginalLight and choose to either download the tracks to your computer or stream them on your reading device.

This book is dedicated to my spiritual teacher, the Siri Singh Sahib,
also lovingly known as Yogi Bhajan.

Who else would have inspired such a journey?

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

We live by the beat of the heart. When a baby cries, the mother places the baby on her chest, and the baby is comforted by her heartbeat. The mother, in turn, tunes in to this rhythm and determines what the baby needs. A steady rhythm not only comforts us, but also brings us to our own sense of inner knowing and truth. It is through a daily spiritual practice that is consistent, like the heartbeat, that we change the psyche to knowon an elemental, psychic, physical, chemical, and spiritual levelthat we are in fact putting the soul first.

One name for any spiritual practice done with dedication is Sdhan. I have practiced Sdhan in one shape or form for most of my life. Now at forty-two years of age, am I an enlightened being? Well, hardly. However, I remember my spiritual teacher, Yogi Bhajan, saying, If you want to be enlightened, be a light! And while I cant read Auras, or read your mind, or know what will happen to me tomorrow, or even why it happened to me yesterday, I do have a light to tap into, every day. This light permeates my life and guides it, without question, with love. This light brings me tremendous joy and peace, and is without a doubt my saving grace. It gives me a way to shift my inner paradigm toward my Dharma: to live in service to all through my life, my work, and my being.

What I offer to you in these pages is my daily practicethe Aquarian Sdhana householders way to experience that original and most beautiful light every day. It takes about two and a half hours to complete, or about one-tenth of a day. I remember Yogi Bhajan saying that if we give one-tenth of our day to God, God gives Himself or Herself totally to us for the rest of the day. The Sdhan includes a wake-up routine, a recitation, yoga, chanting, prayer, and finally a conscious act of surrendering to the Divine. There is also a component of community included that is crucial; the Sdhan is more potent in the company of others and also supports the growth of spiritual community.

The Aquarian Sdhan is for people of all walks of life. It is not based on religious beliefs; it is based on a yogic science of life. Where there are Sikh practices offered, we learn through the sacred tradition and the universal essence within these teachings that can nourish and heal us all. In fact, whatever your walk of life may be, I believe that this practice can enhance and support the essence of your self, of who you are and what you believe in.

The Aquarian Sdhan was given to us by Yogi Bhajan. Born in Pakistan, he became a master of Kundalini Yoga at the age of sixteen. When he was eighteen, Yogi Bhajan and his family made the journey to Delhi after the Partition of India. After raising three children with his wife, Bibiji Inderjit Kaur, and having a successful career in the military, Yogi Bhajan was drawn to the West in 1969 to share his yogic knowledge as a way to dedicate his life to service. With Kundalini Yoga, he steered thousands of young people away from drugs by helping them achieve genuine connection and healthy daily lives.

Today, there are thousands of teachers in almost every country, sharing incredible healing experiences that Yogi Bhajan first seeded in his Kundalini Yoga classes. Although he offered this technology to people of all walks of life, Yogi Bhajan was a notably devoted Sikh. Many of the Mantras held within the Sikh tradition are also experienced within this Kundalini Yoga tradition. What I share with you here is specifically what I learned from my teacher Yogi Bhajan (and is referred to as Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan).

Yogi Bhajan

He also taught the Sikh lifestlye in such a way that many became Sikhs, and an entire spiritual movement was awakened in the West. Yogi Bhajans work was recognized by the ruling religious Sikh organization called the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. In recognition and support of his service to Sikhs in the West, they gave him the title of Siri Singh Sahib. It was clear that the Universe wanted him to serve Sikhs and people of all walks of life.

My parents began to study with Yogi Bhajan right around the time I was born in 1972 (he gave me the name Snatam, which means universal friend to all). My mother tells me that when I was a baby, in the middle of one of Yogi Bhajans classes, I began babbling away in a flow of excited yet unintelligible words. My mother, worried that it would disturb the class, began frantically walking with me in the back of the room, trying to quiet me down.

Youll get your turn to teach soon! Yogi Bhajan chided me from the stage. Everyone laughed. My mother relaxed and let me be. And so my relationship with my spiritual teacher began in this lifetime.

In 1992, Yogi Bhajan offered the Aquarian Sdhan to help us householders thrive and remain balanced in a world with ever-increasing information, technology, and sources of stress and pressure. He knew that we would need a sense of connection and love not only within ourselves, but also within our larger communities.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The intention of this book is to give you everything you need to engage in the Aquarian Sdhan, either alone or with your family, friends, or community. In , we finally explore how you can do the Aquarian Sdhan with your family and how doing so can support and nourish communities.

We have made a deliberate choice to include the Jap J text in gives you a daily prayer called Ards. You will also find two CDs I created with my band called Light of the Naam with Long Ek Ong Kar and Jap J Meditation. The first includes all of the chants for the morning practice; the second is my recitation of Jap J for your reference.

One way to use this book and accompanying CDs is to dive deeply into some areas right away and just soak your toes in the shallow end of other areas for a while. I suggest putting the music and recitation on in your home right away to let the positive energy begin flowing. Please take your time with this book and allow for reflection as needed.

As you begin with the stages of the practice and encounter something that would be a lifestyle change for you, I invite you to try it out and see how it feels. It is possible to experience major inner shifts by making just a few modifications to your daily life. Perhaps you could read this book with a partner or friend and try the practice out together so that when the major shifts occur, you can share your experiences with each other.

As I mentioned, there are nine different Kundalini Yoga sets offered here, all with different energies and purposes. I invite you to sit in the center of your being, feel which set draws you in on a particular day, and engage with that one. Our internal wisdom meter is actually quite accurate when we listen to it. I love these sets, and they are an active part of my week. Depending on the day, there is a good chance that I am practicing one of them.

As you read about the chants and come to understand their meanings as they apply both to your life and to your soul space, focus on those you feel most drawn to. Like water, these chants will only flow into spaces where there is an opening.