They are not the same thing, but they are not separate either. There is, strictly speaking, no such thing as “Kundalini awakening”. What people call Kundalini awakening is just physical sensations in the body accompanying the dissolution of the ego. They can be very extreme, they can come in waves, they can be experienced over a long period of time, but it’s just sensations. You can think of them as your body’s neural system rewiring itself into its natural state.

Awakening happens in the mind, it’s a realization. The realization is basically that of a completely imaginary nature of your character, your persona. When this realization is made, one can expect a huge wave of “Kundalini awakening”, waves of blissful bodily energy that can come and go for months. This “persona” (ego) is a psychic entity which is very complex, and it doesn’t dissolve completely in an instant. It can take a long time. As it crumbles away, new waves of “Kundalini awakening” come.

What people usually call “Kundalini awakening” are much more modest experiences way before self-realization. A long meditation, a psychedelic experience, or even an unprovoked crumbling away of some small part of their identity gives rise to some bodily sensation and they say “oh, my Kundalini is awakening”. Usually at that stage they don’t yet realize what’s going on.