Observations placeholder

The Serpent power – Arthur Avalon [Sir John Woodroffe]

Kundalini-Yoga or, as some works call  it, Bhuta-Suddhi and Kundalini Sakti,  is the … Supreme Power in the human body by the arousal of which the Yoga is achieved, and to the purification of the Elements of the body (Bhuta-Suddhi) which takes place upon that event.

This Yoga is effected by a process technically known as Sat-cakra-bheda, or piercing of the Six Centres or Regions (Chakra) or Lotuses (Padma) of the body…. by the agency of Kundalini-Sakti, which, in order to give it an English name, I have here called the Serpent Power.  Kundalini means coiled.  The power Goddess (Devi) Kundalini, or that which is coiled; for Her Form is that of a coiled and sleeping serpent in the bodily centre, at the base of the spinal column, until by the means described She is aroused in that Yoga which is named after Her.   One of the names of this Devi is Bhujarigi, or the Serpent...........

The treatises on Hatha yoga also deal with the subject. We find even similar notions in systems other than the Indian, from which possibly in some cases they have been borrowed.

Thus, in the Risala-i-haq-numa, by Prince Mahomed Dara Shikoh, [The Compass of Truth ]  a description is given of the three centres " Mother of Brain," or " Spherical heart " (Dil-i-muddawar); the “Cedar heart” (Dil-i-sanowbari); and the Dil-i-nilofari, or  “Lily heart”.

Other references may be found in the works of the Mahomedan Sufis. So some of the Sufi fraternities (as the Naqsh-bandi) are said  to have devised, or rather borrowed, from the Indian Yogis – Al-Biruni is said to have translated Patanjali’s works into Arabic at the beginning of the 11th century - as also  the Kundalini method as a means to realization.

I am told that correspondences are discoverable between the Indian (Asiatic) Sastra and the American-Indian Maya Scripture of the Zunis called the Popul Vuh.

My informant tells me that their " air-tube " is the Susumna; their " twofold air-tube " the Nadis Ida and Pingala. " Hurakan," or lightning, is Kundalini, and the centres are depicted by animal glyphs. Similar notions have been reported to me as being held in the secret teaching of other communities.

That the doctrine and practice should be widespread, we might expect, if it has a foundation on fact. This form of Yoga is, however, in particular associated with the Tantras or Agamas, firstly, because these Scriptures are largely concerned therewith. In fact, such orderly descriptions in practical full detail as have been written are to be found chiefly in the Hatha yoga works and Tantras which are the manuals, not only of Hindu worship, but of its occultism. Next, Yoga through action on the lowest centre seems characteristic of the Tantrik system, the adepts of which are the custodians of the practical knowledge whereby the general directions in the books may be practically applied.