by SS Dr. Japa Kaur Khalsa, Espanola NM
Spring 2016
As a child learning my numbers from 1 to 10, I remember that each number had a frequency or vibration to it and I assigned a personality to each one. The number 9, which I now know as the Subtle Body, was the most noble number. All the other numbers looked up to 9 as the friend who could promote them to being a “teen” number (9 + x = 1(x-1)). I would make up elaborate stories to help me understand these abstract math concepts of my childhood. As an adult studying the Ten Light Bodies, I see that the personalities I assigned to numbers were the same frequency as the Ten Light Bodies. Now I use the system of numerology in my Ministry. When people come to me for help and advice, I ask for their birth date so that I can quickly understand what they need. I use my own Subtle Body (and simple math skills) to give them immediate support.
Over the last five years I had a huge service project that I relied heavily on my Subtle Body to complete. My writing partner Nirmal Kaur Lumpkin and I wrote an Anatomy and Physiology book for the Kundalini Research Institute. The book was developed so that yoga teachers and teacher trainers could understand the human body in an enlightened and holistic way. The project took a tremendous amount of work, and I would scrabble to find time to write amidst the pressure of family, private practice, and teaching. I had to ask God to give me deliveries of what He wanted me to write. I would set aside time to write and wait for the delivery from the ethers.
The concepts would come to me in a heavenly way. I would have a dream that was outside of language, or a feeling without words of an aspect of Yogi Bhajan’s Teachings that would help people understand yoga and the body’s anatomy. This was a delivery to the earthly plane from the Subtle Body, which is more vast than my individual earthly experience as a physical body.
Throughout the five years, Nirmal Kaur and I would “link” our Subtle Bodies with daily repetitions of the same mantras, so that we could unite our writing more easily into one voice. This was not always easy, because we are polar opposites in many ways, but this Subtle Body support kept our communication elevated so that we could collaborate over a long period of time. When the Subtle Body is strong, you don’t have to say a lot because your presence conveys all.
Ministering and the Light Bodies
As Ministers and teachers, I encourage you to study the Ten Light Bodies as a way of understanding humanity’s greatest gifts of consciousness. Every person to whom we Minister has within his/her own psyche and physiology the ability to be a master and a great person. It’s our duty to continually expand our knowledge of the Ten Gurus so that when we meet people, we see their highest selves and can support them to be their best.
Our book has a section in each chapter about one of the Ten Light Bodies, to help inform and teach. The mandala illustration shows the blessings of this path and how the ten bodies play out as archetypes present in all of humanity. When I sign copies of the book for yoga teachers, students and my fellow Ministers and trainees, I always ask them for their birth date so that I can tune into the frequency of who they are and write something inspiring as a blessing for them. It’s in this spirit that I want to share with my fellow ministers the following short excerpt from the book Enlightened Bodies: Exploring Physical and Subtle Human Anatomy.
The Reproductive System and the Subtle Body
Excerpt from Enlightened Bodies: Exploring Physical and Subtle Human Anatomy© 2015, reprinted with permission by SS Dr. Japa Kaur Khalsa, DOM and Nirmal Lumpkin, LMT (KRI 2015)
As human beings we yearn to leave a legacy and expand beyond time and space. This desire is a central motivating force behind an optimally functioning reproductive system. The complex relationships between sex organs, energy centers, and hormones mimic the cycles of creation. Producing children is only one way the consciousness of reproduction manifests itself. Every creative or expansive act in life, whether it is starting a foundation, inventing something new, crafting a beautiful piece of art, or having a child is born out of the foundation of the physical and subtle aspects of the reproductive system.
The Subtle Body is the Light Body connected to the reproductive system because of its capacity to exist beyond space and time, and to leave a legacy. The Subtle Body carries the soul to the heavens at the time of death. While alive, it allows for the experience of mastery and calmness when nurtured with a steady spiritual discipline. The Subtle Body shows its power in silence and the ability to communicate without speaking. When a married couple have been together for many years, sometimes just a look or a nod can be all the communication that’s needed to tell the other person what is happening.
About the Mandala: The Ten Light Bodies
The authors’ symbolic representation of the Ten Light Bodies as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Distinct from the chakra system, the Ten Light Bodies adds subtlety and nuance on the Kundalini yoga path. The First Body—the Soul Body—is represented by the pearl in the center of the drawing; the Tenth Body—the Radiant Body—is represented by the Golden Circle. The other Light Bodies are represented by the mudras and their energies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SS Japa K. Khalsa, DOM, is a Kundalini Yoga teacher and Associate Trainer in the KRI Aquarian Trainer Academy. She is co-author of Enlightened Bodies; Exploring Physical and Subtle Human Anatomy (www.enlightenedbodies.com, www.drjapa.com).
She earned a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University and completed her Master of Oriental Medicine degree at the Midwest College of Oriental Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Japa is a gifted integrative Doctor, combining traditional acupuncture with herbal and nutritional medicine, injection therapy, and energy healing. Her work with patients and students emphasizes optimal health and personal transformation through self-care and awareness of the interconnectedness of all life. She is a Minister of Sikh Dharma and lives in New Mexico with her husband and son.
