Kundalini Shakti is balance in mind and action. (CWBSSB, p. 169)
(Kundalini chakra diagram)
Regarding the idea of how the snake of Kundalini awakens at the base of the spine and activates each chakra as it rises up, Bhagavan said ‘That energy is prana’. It is imagined as rising up the spine by the practice of Pranayama. The practice of Pranayama is dangerous unless all circumstances are exactly correct. It is not necessary, and Swami advised against it. The area between the 9th and 12th vertebrae is especially sensitive. An injury there can result in paralysis.
Meditation as described by Swami is the royal road, the easy path. Why bother with other practices? For meditation to be effective, there must be steady practice with no hurry no worry. With steady practice, the person will become quiet and the state of meditation will naturally come about. To think otherwise, is weakness. Success is assured. (CWBSSB, p. 176)
In the science of Kundalini Yoga, the vital energy of man lying dormant like a coiled snake, at the bottom of this column in the lowest muladhara chakra, the Basic Wheel, is awakened and aroused, so that it courses up through six more wheels (centres of superior consciousness) until it reaches the Sahasrara or thousand-petalled lotus wheel at the very top of the skull. The passage for the Kundalini is through the sushumna nerve in the centre of the spinal column. The worship of the snake, ridiculed as superstition, is the symbolic counterpart of this great yogic sadhana which confers vigour and vitality.
Lord Venkateswara, is called the Lord of the Seven Hills, for Seven Hills have to be climbed before the temple is reached. Obviously, the six chakras and the Sahasrara are indicated here, for in Raja yoga, the Supreme is revealed only when the individual raises the vital energy – the Kundalini Shakti – up to the Seventh stage. One of the hills is named Seshagiri, meaning, Snake Hill. From the plains, the range gives the appearance of a snake with a raised hood. (SSS Vol.9, p. 33)