In advanced yoga instruction, reference is often made to three main subtle energy channels; the Ida & Pingala & Sushumna nadi. The Ida & Pingala nadi are usually described and pictured as two serpentine channels of energy that intertwine up and down the body around the chakras, on one side is the Ida; yellow – orange in colour and on the other side is the Pingala which is bluish purple. The Sushumna nadi apparently travels vertically up through each of the chakras.

I can see and feel my circulating I & P energy channels.  Whenever I meditate and even sometimes when I don’t, I experience them. I am very familiar with the principles and reality of the human subtle anatomy; having studied and engaged with it for a very long time. I have never perceived the Sushumna energy channel and doubt it exists.

It was some 33 years ago that I first experienced an energy channel on my left side. It was like a ‘rippling sensation’ with what appeared to be an energy channel just on / in front of my chest. It had pulses of light travelling upwards through it. Initially when I first experienced it – it was colourless. It was curved, as though turning around my heart chakra and moving under my chin around my throat chakra. At that time, I couldn’t find any information that could explain it. Eventually my perception of it reduced and I forgot about it.

About 7 years ago, while meditating, I began to experience the same rippling/pulsing energy channel over my chest again. However, now I was seeing it in colour. It was bluish purple and always flowed like a current travelling upwards to under my chin. It appeared to have a ‘pulse’ inside it that kept a fixed sequence/rhythm. There seemed to be light coloured or white ‘rings’ of light travelling along the inside of the channel in an upwards motion. I have experienced this same phenomenon ever since.

In 2019 I attended the Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute and had the free opportunity to wander its beautiful botanical gardens and meditate. While I did so; I experienced for the first time, perception of the downward energy channel too; yellowish orange in colour. Therefore I confirmed my rising Pingala was blue/purple and the descending Ida was yellow/orange. I see various images online depicting the nadi; some showing the correct (in my own experience) colours but most don’t. I know they have nothing to do with chakras.

My experience thus far has led me to conclude that there is definitely misunderstanding with Kundalini and the I&P nadi throughout students and teachers of the subtle knowledge in this respect. I don’t mean this to come across in a condescending manner – it’s just that I find contradictions with what I experience and see and what I read from others throughout the globe. I am quite convinced that most people who discuss the I&P – cannot themselves see it.

In a perhaps controversial move, I suggest that everyone has Kundalini and they use it every moment of their lives, that it is not ‘dormant’ in or around their base chakra; it is in fact the energy in their I&P nadi. Further – that the I&P are not actually two channels (often referred to as the Sun and Moon or positive and negative, male and female) – no – instead they are one and the same energy channel which goes up and then goes down and continues perpetually. The difference of their colour is simple to explain, the Kundalini is charging in upward travel and it is discharging in downward travel. The colour change is present because of the function of what the Kundalini is doing going up versus going down. In the ‘loops’ that the I&P create there are special energy centres (not chakras) and the Kundalini passes its charge to these centres whilst descending downwards.

When people talk about ‘Kundalini Rising’ or ‘Awakening’ – I believe misinterpretation is at play. The problem is that names and words become fixed to beliefs like labels. It isn’t that the person going through a profound spiritual experience or illuminating one has their Kundalini rising – no – it is actually that their Soul is at a level that permits or accepts the experience as a stage of evolved spiritual growth. It has no direct connection with Kundalini – they are having the experience anyway – it isn’t because their Kundalini is rising. Their Kundalini is present before, throughout and after the experience exactly the same; it doesn’t go anywhere; it is in its normal movement around their I&P. The experience they have is one of a change of conscious awareness. Their perception may shift up a gear, they experience profound transformation indeed – but it has nothing to do with the state of their Kundalini energy.