White.
White turban. White pants. White shirt.
What is it with these Kundalini yogis and their white clothes?
Don’t their clothes get dirty easily? Why do the Kundalini yoga teachers wear all white all the time (when they are teaching classes at least)?
Wearing white in Kundalini Yoga is not just a way to make the Kundalini yogis stand out from the rest of the yogic world and beyond. White is worn for very particular reasons just like wearing a turban is.
The colours you wear and surround yourself with have an effect on the subconscious mind. It is usually very subtle but is definitely still there. In the Western New Age movement colour therapy has become a common and easy way to instigate changes in the subconscious mind, and decorators will talk about painting in warm or cold colours that have an effect on how we feel.
According to Yogi Bhajan, all pieces of clothing add an extra foot to an extra foot and a half onto the persons auric field. This is a powerful addition! And the colour of the clothing dictates what that extra foot of aura does for the person.
White creates a stronger auric field that protects the person. It does this for three reasons:
1. White differentiates something from something else. It is a colour often used in clothing to denote something special like when a bride gets married. We are subconsciously programmed to view white clothes as “special”. People who wear all white are often automatically viewed as different and that there is a reason they are wearing it.
2. White reflects the inner state of the person wearing it to the outer and vice versa. It helps remind the person wearing it to go inside and to be present – wearing white can be a challenge to keep clean you know! But it also creates a stronger reflection for the people who interact with a person wearing white.
By reflection I refer to the way that people perceive you often being a reflection of some part of themselves that is desiring attention good or bad.
3. White also aids in allowing our inner radiance to be fully shown. It amplifies your radiance and creates a forcefield of protection around your auric field. This by itself automatically asks others to step up and dealing with you on a higher level of consciousness because you are emitting more of your authentic self which is where your radiance comes from.
Wearing white is a technique that is used to help aid and fast track the evolutionary path of the Kundalini Yogi.
It is used to enhance the power of the teachings that come through the teachers, and to create a specific experience for students to allow them to receive those teachings.
When a student comes to class and their teacher is formally dressed in attire very different than every day life psychologically the student has entered a place that is “outside the norm” of life and the mindset changes from life to “sacred space and time”.
This subtle mind shift allows the student to fully accept the teachings that come through the teacher.
For the teacher it is a reminder of the sacredness of the work that they are there to do – to guide and allow the teachings to teach the student. Kundalini Yoga teachers guide students to open to the teachings of yoga.
“A Teacher wears white cotton clothing while teaching.
White clothing makes you as a teacher look divine and represent light.
The colour white represents the seven colors. Cotton is the flower of
the Earth. It is good for your psyche, for your energy, and for your
nervous system. Your way of dressing should be saintly and make you
glow with grace. You should look like a sage and a price or princess
of peace and divinity. A Teacher is a Ph.D.- Prince or Princess of
High Divinity.”
– From the Master’s Touch, page 27, the Master of Kundalini Yoga, Yogi
Bhajan
Personal Experience
Wearing white shifts something. The day that I wore all white people all over the place, not just the yoga studio, told me that I was radiant. And I felt like I was beaming!
I also noticed that due to the fact that white is a challenge to keep clean I was much more conscious and present in my day to day interactions because I wanted to keep clean.
I am collecting white clothes right now. I have to build up at least enough of a wardrobe so that when I am teaching I am able to wear white.
Do you have any recommendations for white yoga pants that are not see through?
Further Words from Yogi Bhajan on Wearing White
White fisherman pants or ‘happy’ pants should do the trick. I’ve done kundalini in them and they work a treat!
I had to google those, and they do look great. Very comfy.