FAQ
How can I use numbers?
This is what we normally ask when we learn something new – what can I do with it? Actually, Karam kriya involves the humbling and ultimately healing recognition that it is in fact that numbers are doing us – the whole time.
Having said that, learning the language of numbers is a study of language itself and the voices that make it up. So Karam Kriya and knowing numbers and their natural sequences finds a natural expression in the field of counseling or therapy – listening and speaking with clarity and consciousness because of this awareness of numbers.
Knowing numbers gives you x-ray vision. It allows you to see into the heart and even skeleton of any system or collection of ideas at all. You are then able to identify what´s missing or where perhaps a system whose integrity and truth was originally there has been coloured or distorted over time.
In the field of yoga teaching numbers show you a deeper level to all the processes and a more transparent and coherent understanding of eg. subtle yogic physiology. Let the language of the elements flow into your language and guide your students through natural sequences to truly complete something.
The applications are as limitless as you are. It is not static knowledge from a book. In line with the idea of self-initiation – know numbers and then apply your consciousness of them to your life.
Isn´t learning numbers very dry and intellectal?
Learning numbers does require you to apply your intelligence and discriminating mind, but Karam Kriya is far from intellectual and is only as dry as life is in any given moment. It is actually about recognizing the limitations of the intellect and sacrificing it to surrender to a greater, active and conscious participation in the interconnectedness that we are. About x-ray visioning the games of the mind to move through to greater transparency, a state where the intellect serves the heart and soul and lets the light shine through.
You don´t have to be good at maths either! Karam Kriya is not maths, though if you choose to look into this area you will find crystal clear examples of the poetry of number in eg. Sacred geometry, the golden mean, Pythagorus etc.
You also don´t have to be somehow technically-minded. Numbers are the language of magic, medicine, science, art and also language itself. All of it. Otherwise it wouldn´t be a totality.
What is the connection between Karam Kriya and Kundalini Yoga?
Scottish-born Shiv Charan Singh was a student of Yogi Bhajan´s. Looking at Yogi Bhajan´s tantric numerology, Shiv was provoked to look deeper, right down to the essence of the numbers themselves. He discovered in them the basic building blocks of all life. In 1996 he went back to his teacher and, on telling Yogi Bhajan a bizt about his date of birth, was told he was doing Karam Kriya. From that time on, Shiv has been travelling and teaching Karam Kriya and the the art and science of numerology. Today Karam Kriya is taught and learnt in England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Russia, Finland, South America, Sri Lanka and other countries… and now in Australia. Shiv Charan also gives workshops at the European Yoga Festival each year. Now there are training courses in Karam Kriya being taught by senior students in several countries, with Shiv´s participation and support.
How are Beant Singh and Kaur connected to Karam Kriya and Shiv Charan Singh?
Both have been students of Shiv and of the numbers for many years and have been applying the precise knowledge of numbers to their lives for that time. Beant Singh’s enthusiasm and commitment brought Shiv to regular workshop visits to his homeland Germany over a few years, serving his teacher and the teachings in this way, and building up to a 30 plus strong training group in 2002. This 45 day training and their own self-initiating willingness certified them as Karam Kriya trainers.
For both the Beants, Karam Kriya, numbers and Shiv Charan Singh are intimate parts of their lives and souls. On leaving Germany to come to live in Australia in 2009, they committed to bring Karam Kriya, the teaching of their hearts, down under. This they are doing.
What chances will I have to continue learning and practicing Karam Kriya in the future?
Beant Kaur and Singh offer regular workshops around Australia as well as there being workshops with Shiv Charan Singh and other senior students, now teachers, internationally. There is also the possibility of attending a full training programme, the same one Beant Singh and Kaur themselves did and which is followed in all training programmes – 45 day natural learning sequence, 5 days for each number (30 days foundation, 15 extension). There is the possibility of this training being offered in Australia in the future, with Shiv Charan Singh teaching part of this.
Do you work with letters of the name in this system of numerology?
No we don´t. This is a Kabbalistic practice, seeing each letter as resonating to a particular number. We go to the numbers themselves as the source and look at the imprint of the numbers of the date of birth as essential. We also consider the place and culture and prevalent calendar there as being part of this imprint.
Also, system is a misleading word. Karam Kriya is in fact about making all systems, attempts to explain, which are always bound to be limited, transparent. Even applying this to itself. Numbers are about the God-given magic and recognizing the significance and limits of man-made systems within that totality.