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The Kundalini Research Institute

About KRI

The Kundalini Research Institute

KRI’s mission is to uphold and preserve the authenticity, integrity, and accuracy of the Teachings of Yogi Bhajan through trainings, research, publishing and resources.

KRI supports the dissemination of a comprehensive system of kundalini yoga, making it accessible to everyone through classes and content, and trains teachers that help students find peace, health, and prosperity in today’s modern age.

Established on February 1, 1972, the Kundalini Research Institute is a group of dedicated yogis working to help people bridge this ancient practice with modern living, allowing people to experience the empowering practical benefits. KRI, a non-profit corporation, supports the integrity of the practice and teaching by:

  • Developing 3 levels of International Yoga Teacher Certification
  • Offering free access to the teachings via the online Library of the Teachings
  • Awarding the KRI Seal of Approval to products that successfully meet the standards of KRI Review
  • Providing online services and physical resources for Kundalini Yoga students and teachers

Kundalini Yoga, the Yoga of Awareness, was brought to the West in 1968. Through the practice of Kundalini Yoga and meditation, your glandular and nervous systems are stimulated, and your capacity for creative potential is heightened. You gain inner vitality to compensate for the adverse effects of stress so you can excel in life..

Kundalini yoga classes are a dynamic blend of postures, pranayam, mantra, music and meditation, which teach you the art of relaxation, self-healing and elevation. Balancing body and mind enables you to experience the clarity and beauty of your soul. No previous experience in yoga is required for you to achieve results with your very first class.

Here at KRI we:

  • Believe that Kundalini Yoga is a poweful and transformative practice that helps us become healthier, happier, and more spiritually connected. It enhances emotional fitness, cognitive function, spiritual vitality, and longevity.
  • We want to make the system of kundalini yoga accessible to all. We also strive to provide more than just yoga classes, but also a welcoming community open to all belief systems and life paths..
  • We want to support research to study and document the benefits of Kundalini Yoga. 
  • We view Kundalini Yoga as an adaptable practice for the most pressing needs of modern life and enhancing the human condition for future generations. 

You can download and read KRI’s Annual Report for the fiscal year from July 2019 – June 2020 here.

About Kundalini Yoga

Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan® is a comprehensive yoga tradition, combining meditation, mantra, physical exercises and breathing techniques; it is a Raj Yog, encompassing the eight limbs of yoga into a singular practice of excellence and ecstasy. “Kundalini” literally means “the curl of the lock of hair of the beloved.” This poetic metaphor alludes to the flow of energy and consciousness that exists within each of us, and enables us to merge with – or “yoke” – the universal Self. Fusing individual and universal consciousness creates a divine union, called “yoga.” The Upanishads, dating back to the fifth century B.C., describe the kundalini, although the oral tradition reaches back even further into history. For thousands of years, this sacred science and technology was veiled in secrecy, passed along verbally from master to chosen disciple.

Click on the QUESTIONS below to view the answers

Kundalini Yoga as we practice and teach it, is also known as the Yoga of Awareness; its focus is on self-awareness and delivering an experience of your highest consciousness. The technology of Kundalini Yoga is a science of the mind and body, to elevate the spirit, which has no boundaries, no discrimination. Therefore it is for everyone, universal and nondenominational.

Kundalini Yoga is a householder path; that is, it has always been practiced by those with families and jobs as opposed to a renunciate’s path of celibacy and removal from society, which was the usual path of a yogi.

The primary objective is to awaken the full potential of human awareness in each individual; that is, recognize our awareness, refine that awareness, and expand that awareness to our unlimited Self. Clear any inner duality, create the power to deeply listen, cultivate inner stillness, and prosper and deliver excellence in all that we do.

The focus is on one’s personal experience and awareness through the practice of kriya (an exercise or sequence of exercises that form an orchestrated pattern of movements, sound, pranayam, mudras, concentration and meditation that automatically guide the energies of the body and the mind to a specific result or change of consciousness) and naad (sound current that connects our individual consciousness with the universal consciousness). We awaken the kundalini in order to be able to call upon the full potential of the nervous and glandular systems and to balance the subtle system of chakras and meridians within the body.

Kundalini Yoga does not rely on any one techniques per se, although we use many. Instead, it is the unique and tested syntax, within the structure of each kriya, which provides steady, predictable progress and which leverages these basic functions of the body and the mind to create rapid, sustainable, personal growth and healing. In this tradition, meditation is not considered separate from asana or yoga; it is integral to the practice. The exercises in the kriya bring the body and mind to a state where deep meditation is easily achieved.

Our fundamental objective is to awaken the power of the individual to excel—to experience their Infinity and fulfill their personal destiny.

Yogi Bhajan (aka Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji) came to the United States in 1969 and founded a non-profit organization called 3HO that same year. In 1970 he completed his first teacher’s training and the Kundalini Research Institute was formed in 1971 and went on to formalize the certification and training of teachers internationally.

in any Kundalini Yoga class, anywhere in the world, you can expect to find six major components:

  1. Tuning-in with the Adi Mantra,
  2. Pranayam or warm-up,
  3. Kriya,
  4. Relaxation,
  5. Meditation and
  6. Closing with the blessing song, “May the Long Time Sun Shine Upon You”.

Kriyas are complete sets of exercises that are performed as they were taught. They can be simple short sequences or they may involve vigorous, even strenuous exercises, and strong breath techniques such as Breath of Fire, which challenge and strengthen the nervous and endocrine systems and test the will of the practitioner beyond the limitations of their ego.

The typical class is 60-90 minutes: 5-10 minute warm-up, 30-45 minute kriya, 5-15 minute layout, 11-31 minutes of meditation.

Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan® typically includes pranayam and meditation. Pranayam practices range from One Minute Breath, Breath of Fire, alternate nostril breathing, Dog Breath, Sitali Pranayam, and suspended breath techniques, to name a few. Meditations often involve movement or mantra, and generally have an eye focus (drishti) in addition to mudra (hand position) and asana (body posture). Many Kundalini Yoga kriyas and meditations include mantra and chanting. One of the first signs of the awakening of the kundalini is a new awareness of the power of our words. You begin to meditate on and develop inner sounds using mantra and naad. The use of mantra throughout our practice is very effective in attaining two particular goals of the practice—expansion of the Self and elevation of the spirit. Mantra also supports those new to meditation, who find silence and absolutely stillness very challenging. In this way it is a ‘beginner’s practice’ and can be used by anyone to attain clarity, balance and equanimity. In addition, there are many meditations that are silent, practiced in a profoundly transformative stillness called shuniya.

KRI-trained teachers are sharing these Teachings all over the world in many amazing and unique ways! The Teacher Training school that KRI oversees has many highly experienced trainers who run KRI certification programs, each with their own unique flair and style while still delivering a globally consistent curriculum and certification standards. You can find a full directory of international trainers here. See also the International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association for more information about local instructors in your area.

The Kundalini Research Institute licenses international training programs around the world and certifies Level One, Two and Three Kundalini Yoga Instructors, Practitioners and Teachers, respectively—this program is called the Aquarian Teacher and is affiliated with Yoga Alliance in the United States. We also have a training program for trainers known as the Aquarian Training Academy, which licenses Lead, Professional, Associate and Intern Level Trainers.

Certification as a Level One Instructor is a 220-hour program which includes

  • Postures, Kriyas & Meditation.
  • Role of a Kundalini Yoga Teacher.
  • Yogic Philosophy & the Origin of Kundalini Yoga.
  • Yogic & Western Anatomy.
  • Humanology & Yogic Lifestyle.

Certification as a Level Two Practitioner is a 300-hour program which includes five separate modules:

  • Conscious Communication
  • Authentic Relationships
  • Lifestyles & Lifecycles
  • Mind & Meditation
  • Vitality & Stress

In the journey to become a Level Three Teacher, we refine our authentic identity as a Teacher and deepen our unique relationship to the Sacred. The KRI Level Three program is a personal journey to self-realization. It completes the Aquarian Teacher Training by cultivating our true identity as teachers through meditative experience, spiritual maturity and serving others..

Kundalini Yoga tends to use rhythmic motions, linked with conscious breathing, and chanting more than other popular forms of yoga today. It has an enormous variety of techniques and meditations, allowing the instructor to tailor programs that support the individual and her goals. It’s a safe way to stimulate the body’s natural resources and become healthy, happy, and holy—in body, mind and spirit. It’s a proven path to the Self and the Soul—to an experience of your highest destiny.