As Easter approaches, I would like to share how my journey through a spontaneous Kundalini awakening has reshaped my understanding of Jesus.

I was raised in an Irish Catholic household, where, thankfully, the emphasis was more on being a good person than it was on being put into any particular theological position.

But, theologically, here’s the gist of Catholicism: Jesus performed a bunch of miracles, talked about the forgiveness of sins, and garnished a following. Then, he performed a ceremony, known as the Last Supper. In this Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples that he was going to be killed, but that they shouldn’t worry because he would rise again on the third day. He passed around bread, said that it represented his body, and that it should be eaten in memory of him. He claimed that he was the Bread of Life.

Jesus was crucified on a Friday—known as Good Friday. That was the first day. Then Saturday passed, which was the second day. Jesus appeared to his disciples on Sunday, which was the third day, also known as Easter. 

When he appeared, Jesus’ disciples were basically like: “Holy sh*t, you are the Bread of Life!” 

And Christianity was born.

After Jesus appeared in the flesh, he told his disciples that he would come back one day. He then ascended into heaven where, according to Catholics, he sits at the right hand of God.

On Sundays, Catholics around the world gather to take part in the ceremony that Jesus started, and to wait in joyful hope for the coming of the Lord.

Personally, I don’t go to church much. Mostly because of the abuse and the gay bashing and the no women priests. But that’s a different article.

Anyway, those inclined to try to figure out when Jesus might be coming back often look to the Bible’s final book. Approximately a century after ascending into heaven, Jesus came back to Earth one more time, appearing to John, and revealing the prophecy known as the Book of Revelation.

Frankly, the Book of Revelation is a mess. Most people don’t even bother trying to decipher it.

But, most people don’t have mysterious yogic awakenings that flip their lives upside down either.

Over the past two decades, depending on how you look at it, I have been either, one, developing a theory as to how yoga’s seven energy centers relate to the seven seals in the Book of Revelation, or, two, listening to the Kundalini tell me the most amazing story ever about love.

Now, before I go any further, let me just do a mic check.

Prior to my awakening, if anyone brought up God around me and we weren’t at a funeral, it was a red flag. Furthermore, common sense dictates that at any point in time, if anyone references the Book of Revelation in any serious fashion, that person is suspect and not to be entertained.

But, I would like to say that this theory/story is all about the cohesion within faiths and paths, as opposed to the division. It also points to a future human enlightenment wherein religions, at least the three Abrahamic ones, have come to fruition and are essentially lessons learned.

Getting back to it, the seven energy centers, or chakras, run from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. The key to unlocking the seven seals is realizing that the greatest story ever told parallels the journey of the Kundalini up the human spine. 

In other words, God’s revelation to mankind has seven chapters, and each chapter corresponds to an energy center in the human body. The chapters can be summarized as follows.

1. Nobody knows where we came from or what we are doing here. So, civilizations all around the world have told creation myths. The creation myth in the Bible involves the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve are told by God that they can eat of any fruit in the garden except for the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, the serpent comes and leads them astray. They eat of the forbidden fruit, and therefore fall from God’s grace. From there, the ascension toward redemption begins. In yoga, the coiled serpent is asleep at the base of the spine. When it awakens, the ascension up the spine begins.

2. An argument I hear a lot these days is that today’s deities will eventually be viewed in the same way that we now view Zeus. Where that argument falls apart, in my opinion, is in the covenant that this particular deity made with Abraham. God grounded his story in one man. Furthermore, God wasn’t playing around in terms of how that covenant was to be affirmed. 

In terms of ascension, this is where the root of creation that can be explained only through myth, transcends into a real story about real people and their family trees. 

3. The third chakra is centered in the gut. Frankly, I know all about the gut. I was a somewhat unusual kid in that I was athletic and coordinated. I played center midfield in soccer and point guard in basketball, but I straight rocked a gut. You know how adults say things about how they can’t get away with eating like they did when they were younger? I don’t know what they’re talking about. 

The first river of Abraham, Judaism, does the heavy lifting in carrying humanity up the gut. There’s the Exodus out of Egypt. There’s the royal line of David. And, there is much ado about food. Eat this food. Don’t eat that food. Eat this food, but only in this way. Put these specific foods together on the same plate. In my mind, the Jewish people’s longing for the Messiah can also be seen as the longing for food that feeds not the flesh, but the spirit.

4. Jesus was the first to realize that God’s revelation to mankind travels up the human spine. The first to understand the “Body of Christ,” as God calls it. 

While it took me a long time to understand the mathematics underlying Jesus’ third day parable, now that I do, I can say that it is not all that complicated. God explained to Jesus that the temple couldn’t be rebuilt until the globe was fully populated, and that it would take roughly 2,000 more years. That is to say, it would take roughly 1,000 years to travel from the heart to the throat and neck area, and then another 1,000 years to travel from the throat and neck to the forehead.

Furthermore, whereas Jesus was to be the lamb of the heart, there would also be a lion of the head. God’s court of Judgment requires a lamb at the right hand and a lion at the left hand. And this leads to the whole Father and Son parable, symbolized by the sign of the cross.

Anyway, when Jesus said that he would rise again on the third day, it had a short meaning and a long meaning. The short meaning was that he would be crucified on a Friday and rise again on a Sunday. The long meaning was that, after his ascension to the right hand of God, it would be roughly 2,000 years, or “two days,” before the ascension of the lion to the left hand of God. 

Not until the court of Judgment had a quorum could Jesus come again and bring his followers unto himself. Not until the third day.

5. The first time I went to mosque with my father-in-law, I was pretty nervous. While doing the prayers, all of the stereotypes that are portrayed on TV and in the movies, that Muslims are terrorists, started to rush into my mind. By the second or third time, however, I calmed down enough to listen to the imam tell the parable of the need to plant your seeds in fertile soil. It was the same parable I had heard dozens of times in church growing up. At that point, I realized in my heart what I already knew in my head: Muslims and Christians both worship the God of Abraham. 

Mankind was able to transcend the fifth chakra because of the five pillars of Islam. As Muhammad is the last prophet before Judgment, the five pillars provide a straight and narrow path for how not to be forgotten by the Almighty.

6. My grandfather fought in World War II. For most of my days, he didn’t talk about the war. But that changed when death was approaching. Separately, he began to talk to my older brother and me. After those talks, I remember thinking, one, that’s some heavy stuff to be carrying around all those years, and two, it was as though his memories of the war were not his to bring with him. It’s as though the war belonged to the earth, and, now that he was passing on, it was no longer his burden.

I am not the first person to suggest that the Book of Revelation was a prophecy about World War II. However, I might be the first to suggest looking at World War II from a coaching perspective. Imagine that the war was a sporting event. And then ask these questions: who was playing who? What was the game about? And, importantly, who were the team captains? 

As for who was playing who, we’ve got to go all the way back to the beginning. It was good versus evil. 

As for what the game was about, in short, it was about tribalism. Since the beginning, human beings have tended to like people that look and sound like them, and dislike those that don’t. This ubiquitous tribalism all came to a head in World War II. 

In today’s vernacular, tribalism equates to race, which makes sense when looking at the doctrine of the evil team’s captain. Hitler claimed that white folks were the master race. 

But, who was the captain of the good team? That’s a real key to deciphering the Book of Revelation.

Fortunately, a group of poor black people in the Caribbean figured this out. And they sang about it. Upon his death, the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah took his rightful seat at the left hand of God. 

7. The seventh chakra concerns the crown.

Truth be told, I would not wish a spontaneous Kundalini awakening on my worst enemy. In my experience, it’s a f*cking horrible thing to endure.

Having said that, it does have its perks. For instance, 10 years ago, I met Jesus. I guess you could say that he “came down from heaven,” but that would just be a way of pointing to something that I don’t understand. I don’t know where he came from, and I don’t know exactly what was in the bread that he placed in me. 

But, I do know that because of the meeting, I got to square off against the Conquering Lion. Oh yeah, I got to see what I was made of! My wife often jokes with me that I’m an Aries and therefore led by my head. Well, my ram horns were no match for the Conquering Lion. I was facing annihilation. Fortunately, the being seated at his right hand put in a good word for me, and I lived to tell this tale. 

I realize that, by psychiatric standards, holding the belief that I actually met Jesus, and that he has brought me unto himself in communion, makes me a crazy person. But, to be fair, that is what he said he was going to do. Furthermore, we are living in the third day.

This Easter season, I bring a reminder that he can do the same to anyone. No Kundalini awakening necessary.

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Author: Tom Bayly
Image: yim778.com
Editor: Travis May
Copy & Social Editor: Nicole Cameron