Shridevi who Resides in all of us as the Supreme Mother Devi Kundalini (Source: Google)
Folks,
Hari Om! Namaste!!
Kundalini Yoga is one of the most esoteric and easiest yoga paths available to us to achieve oneness with the Universal Self. As we know, the divine mother Kundalini is generally in a deep sleep in muladhara chakra until She is awakened by a realized master by shaktipat.
The awakened Mother Kundalini goes and merges with Lord Shiva at Sahasrara chakra. The union of Shiva and Shakti bestows an infinitely blissful samadhi state to the practitioner and thus helps him to realize the real goal of yoga. This is the entire process of Kundalini Yoga in a nutshell. Now, we have a question:
What is the secret meaning of sleeping and awakened states of Mother Kundalini ?
Good question indeed! Mother Kundalini is nothing but Shridevi, consort of Lord Shiva. She exists in two states to always help us. Let us see how.
Sleeping Kundalini: Devi Mahamaya, the Goddess of Great Illusion
When our body is created, Divine Mother Shridevi gets separated from Lord Shiva at sahasrara. She creates the physical body with psychic centers and nadis and distributes our karma along sushumna and Once she finishes her work of creation and fills the body with consciousness via nadis, She has nothing left to do. So, She goes and sleeps at the last center created, i.e. muladhara chakra.
From this chakra, She controls each and everything inside the body and outside. Sleeping means that she is not active from spiritual perspective. That is to say, She is not aware that She is separated from Lord Shiva. She cannot go back and merge with her Lord, unless the path of sushumna is clean, i.e. without the karma garbage.
When Kundalini is in deep sleep in muladhara chakra, She works as Mahamaya(Great illusion). What is the great illusion? Feeling of difference or two-ness or duality, i.e. false belief- “we are different from Universal Self(a.k.a God)”. As Mahamaya, Shridevi helps us to burn our past karmas to cleanse ourselves. Mahamaya is responsible for material actions and enjoyment(bhoga).
Our Karmas and Mahamaya
If we follow Karma Yoga, i.e. offering the results of all our work to the divine, we won’t accumulate new karma. Once we burn all our past karmas, we are qualified to unite with the Universal Self. But, it may take many births before we destroy all karmas to merge with God. On the positive side, the feeling of – “We are different from God”- can be helpful to cultivate devotion towards God. Because, it is not very easy to think ourselves as God and worship!
In practice, we always do our work expecting some result. Consequently, we accumulate more karma! We get bound by the strings of good deeds(punya) and bad deeds(paapa) of these results. This is called karma bandhana(bondage of karmas). Every time we take birth to burn our earlier karma, we commit more new karma!This happens endlessly to put us in a miserable birth and death cycle.
How can we escape from this vicious circle? By surrendering to a realized master(Sadguru) to get his Grace. The Grace of Sadguru awakens the Mother Kundalini to help us realize our true nature of God.
Awakened Kundalini: Mahadevi, the Supreme Goddess
The moment Kundalini gets awakened by the gentle touch of the spiritual power of Sadguru, She realizes that she is separated from her beloved Lord Shiva at Sahasrara chakra. Now, She becomes Mahadevi (Supreme Goddess). Her only goal is to merge with Lord Shiva. Since She is the mother of all powers, no other force can encounter and prevent her from accomplishing her mission.
She starts ascending in Sushumna destroying all the past karmas posing as obstacles in her path and cleanses all psychic chakras. This is the stage when the practitioner is subjected to extreme physical and emotional stress. During these hard times, devotion to Shridevi and Sadguru‘s Grace together protect the practitioner of Kundalini Yoga.
Finally, Devi Kundalini merges with Lord Shiva at Sahasrara bringing the complete enlightenment to the practitioner. Thus, the awakened Kundalini is nothing but Mahadevi who brings us liberation(moksha). She is our kamadhenu(wish-fulfilling cow)!
In summary, Shridevi Kundalini, in her sleeping state as Mahamaya, helps us to burn our karma in this world. She also facilitates liberation(moksha) from the world by her awakened Mahamaya form.
Now, our eternal (more business like) question 
How can I benefit from both forms of Shridevi?
Very simple. Surrender to Mother Shridevi! Worship her with great devotion and faith. Unfortunately, there is no short-cut. By definition of the word Shridevi, she will surely grant you both material enjoyment(bhoga) and liberation(moksha). Got it?
Om Namah Shivaya ||
- Kalidas
