The latent energy in mooladhara chakra is known as kundalini. You will have to remember this word very well because kundalini is the energy of the future humanity. Awakening of kundalini develops what we call the super mind. The mind we have now is a lower mind. This mind is dependent on the senses and on so many factors. Our little mind is restricted by so many conditions. This mind is not a complete mind. It is nothing but an understanding of the objects that are outside. The mind is limited and incapable. It is not competent because it does not know itself; it does not know the inner being. However, there is a more competent mind, a more capable mental condition. That is going to be the basis for the future culture of humanity. Therefore, man will have to explode his kundalini. You cannot understand the truth by this mind. With this mind you can only think. With this speech you can only talk, but you can never experience atma, the soul or divinity. This mind can never reach that substance.
In order to understand that experience you will have to transform the quality of the mind. You cannot see radioactive waves with the naked eyes; a more sensitive instrument is required. In the same way, the truth has to be experienced by a transcendental instrument. Whether it is for the awakening of the higher mind or for realization of the higher truth, the quality of consciousness has to be transformed. A blind person can talk about the sun, or beautiful flowers, but he can never see them. We may talk and read a lot about higher things. You may even fight about it, as people have been doing for centuries, but the experience is not possible unless the super mind or higher mind intervenes.
Therefore, this problem has to be tackled. What is the problem? How to transform the quality of consciousness? How to develop the quality of mind? How to explode the intelligence? This brings us to the awakening of kundalini. Kundalini represents the latent universal consciousness in man. With the awakening of kundalini, expansion of consciousness takes place.
If you want to transform the quality of mind, you will have to expand the consciousness. Ordinarily the mind functions within certain limited areas. If there is a flower in the garden, you can see it and if there is no flower you can’t see it. If there is the moon, you can see it and if there is no moon, you can’t.
If there is a sweet dish, you experience it as sweet and if it is sour you experience it as sour. This means that your ordinary perception is dependent on the sensory capacities. But there is a question. Is experience a completely sensory outcome? Another way of putting the question is: can we experience only through the medium of the senses? Can we see without the eyes, hear without the ears, taste without the tongue? We can, provided we are able to expand the mind.
What is expansion? There is a flower in the garden and you can see it. However, even when you close your eyes you continue to see the flower, just the same. That is expansion. There is no sound in this room; nobody is playing music or singing kirtan, but still you can hear music. That is called expansion of experience. When you sit down quietly in your room and are able to visualize your guru or master, face to face, not merely feeling his presence, but seeing him in the total dimension, that is called expansion of consciousness.
The entire system of tantra is intended to expand the mind and liberate the energy. There are different practices to help you expand the mind and liberate the Shakti. Yoga helps to expand the mind and tantra helps to explode the Shakti. Yoga and tantra should not be understood as separate sciences. You should never say, “I practise yoga, not tantra.” In fact, all the practices of yoga are a part of tantra. However, people are frightened and feel ashamed to say that they practise tantra because they want to pose as puritans and cannot face their own guilt.
Not only in the West, but all over the world people are still afraid to say that they practise tantra, so instead they say, “I practise yoga.” All the practices of hatha yoga and raja yoga are a part of tantra. Therefore, everyone who teaches yoga in the world actually teaches tantra. However, there are certain practices which are exclusively tantric. They are known as yantra, mantra and mandala.
April 1981, Milano