Untying the Three Granthis: How Kaula Tantra and Sri Vidya Dissolve Kundalini Blockages Without Force

Where I started

Ten years ago I was stuck in a body I could not get out of. Pain everywhere. Panic attacks. I could not catch my breath. One day I sat with my eyes and ears closed and put my attention on the breath. I heard my heartbeat clearly. Under it there was a sound like a volcano erupting in my chest, and a wheel turning at the heart centre. I had no name for it.

A friend told me it was kundalini jagarana and pointed me to Devipuram. That is how I ended up studying Sri Vidya. I am still learning. I tell you this because the first thing I want to say is simple. What I felt was not a battle. And the people I meet often talk about kundalini as one.

They talk about breaking through a block along the spine. They hold the breath hard and push with willpower. In my understanding, this tends to backfire. It tightens the ego, because now "I" am the one doing the breaking. It can also unsettle the nervous system. If you are dealing with panic, please see a doctor before any breath practice.

What Guruji said instead

Guruji, Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswati, was a nuclear physicist before he became a Kaula Sri Vidya master and founded Devipuram. His way of putting it was plain. The body is a living temple. Kundalini is coherent awareness, not something dangerous you have to fight. The knots loosen through recognition, love and surrender. Not through violence against the body.

What are the three granthis?

A granthi is a knot. Not a lump in the spine. It is a deep habit of the mind, a false idea about who we are, that keeps awareness stuck on appearances. I am giving you the grouping the way I learned it in this line. Other schools place the knots a little differently.

Clearing the path is not the same as untying the knot

There are two jobs here, and they get mixed up.

Clearing the path is like sweeping the road before you walk it. You do it before a sitting, to calm what is in the way right now: restlessness, heaviness, fear, cravings. It is temporary, and you repeat it.

Untying a granthi is a change in how you see yourself. In this line it comes over time, through steady japa of the Panchadashi and Shodashi, through inner worship, and through fearless surrender. You do not do it in a weekend.

The six helpers before japa

In the Devipuram line, six obstacle-removing mantras are said once before japa. Each belongs to a chakra and a helping deity, as in the study of the Parashurama Kalpasutra that I have read. They clear the impurities one centre at a time, from the root upward. Guruji published these mantras, so I share them here. They are said once, in this order, before japa. Please learn the sounds from a teacher in the lineage and do not guess the pronunciation.

• Root (Muladhara), with Iravati: wakes the energy and lifts three kinds of impurity: feeling small and limited (anava), feeling separate (mayika), and the weight of past action (karmika). It uses awareness and will, the power called Iccha Shakti.
  iri mili kiri kili parimirom
• Sacral (Svadhishthana), with Tripura Bhairavi: asks Tripura Bhairavi to protect the three bodies, the gross, the subtle and the causal. Creative energy is turned toward the path.
  oṁ hrīṁ namo bhagavati mahā tripura bhairavi mama traipura-rakṣāṁ kuru kuru
• Solar plexus (Manipura), with Samhara Bhairava: uses the digestive fire to burn off dullness, laziness and the heaviness left by food that was not offered with care.
  saṁhara saṁhara vighna-rakṣovibhīṣakān kālaya huṁ phaṭ svāhā
• Heart (Anahata), with Raktayogini Vallabha: the seed sound Blum draws things toward you. Here it wins over fear and the strong forces around the heart, instead of fighting them.
  blūṁ raktābhyo yoginībhyo namaḥ
• Throat (Vishuddha), with Sarasa: clears the greed for sensations, so you take only the essence (sarasa) of an experience and let the rest go.
  sāṁ sārasāya bahvāśanāya namaḥ
• Third eye (Ajna), with Chamunda: dissolves pride of the body and pride of the mind, and brings complete surrender.
  dumulupumulupu hrīṁ cāmuṇḍāyai namaḥ

I checked the six mantras against the printed Sanskrit text, the Parashurama Kalpasutra, 10.51, with Rameshwara's commentary and a Hindi commentary by Dr Paramahamsa Mishra (Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi, 2000). The sutra says these six are said once before the Lalita mantra, to clear the obstacles that come up in japa. The helper names for the root, solar plexus, heart and throat centres come from Guruji's reading. I could not match them in the printed pages I looked at, so please check them with your own teacher. The next two sutras give one more obstacle-remover each for Syama and for Varahi.

Guruji's chakra affirmations

Guruji also left a guided meditation, Healing Chakras Through Affirmations. In it he pairs a calm attention on each centre with a plain prayer. Here are the four prayers for the lower knots, as he gave them. They work best when you pause on each centre and say the words slowly, in your own mind or out loud.

Listen to Guruji

Devipuram keeps Guruji's audio on its own pages. These are the ones I know of that fit this post. Start with the first.

• Guruji's audios on devipuram.org, the full list.
• On the priority of mantras, if strapped for time, useful if you cannot do everything.
• On the importance of Diksa and the Guru.

The guided meditation Healing Chakras Through Affirmations is on Guruji's forum too. I could not find its direct link, so search for the title there.

How to practise, gently

Put your attention lightly on one centre. Breathe in an easy, smooth way. Do not hold the breath hard. Ask the Goddess to lift the tightness, instead of fighting the feeling. That is all.

If something moves

People sometimes feel heat, tingling or small movements as things loosen. Guruji's advice was to drop the fear, watch without resisting, and let the energy settle. I would add this. If anything feels worrying, or does not settle, stop and speak to a doctor. Do not push through it.

For deeper work, find a teacher. Devipuram runs Sri Vidya courses online, and I learned from them. Guruji's own writing is on his blog, linked below.

What I take from all this

Kundalini does not need to be forced open, because Shakti is already your own deepest nature. When fear gives way to devotion and kindness toward yourself, the knots loosen. That is the teaching I try to live, one small step at a time.