The Serpent Power. Arthur Avalon

AVALON.

      RANCHI,

      September 20, 1918.

      “We pray to the Paradevatā united with Shiva, whose substance is the unmixed nectar of bliss, red like unto vermilion, the young flower of the hibiscus, and the sunset sky; who, having cleft Her way through the mass of sound issuing from the clashing and the dashing of the two winds in the midst of Sushumnā, rises to that brilliant Energy which glitters with the luster of ten million lightnings. May She, Kundalinī, who quickly goes to and returns from Shiva, grant us the fruit of Yoga! She being awakened is the Cow of Plenty to Kaulas, and the Kalpa Creeper of all things desired for those who worship Her.”—Shāradā Tilaka, xxv. 70.

      The Six Centers and the Serpent Power

      I. INTRODUCTION

      The present works, Shatchakranirūpana (“Description of the Six Centers, or Chakras”) and Pādukā Panchaka (“Fivefold Footstool”), deal with a particular form of Tāntrik Yoga named Kundalī Yoga, or, as some works call it, Bhūtashuddhi. These names refer to the Kundalinī Shakti, or Static Power in the human body by the arousing of which the Yoga is achieved, and to the purification of the elements of the body (Bhūtashuddhi) which takes place upon that event. This Yoga is effected by a process technically known as Shatchakrabheda, or piercing of the six Centers or Regions (Chakra) or Lotuses (Padma) of the body (which the work describes) by the agency of Kundalinī Shakti, which in order to give it an English name I have here called the Serpent Power.{1} Kundala means coiled. This Power is the Goddess (Devī) Kundalinī, or that which is coiled; for Her form is that of a coiled and sleeping serpent in the lowest bodily center, at the base of the spinal column, until by the means described She is aroused in that Yoga which is named after Her. Kundalinī is the Shabdabrahman—that is, Divine Cosmic Energy—in bodies (v. post). The Saptabhūmi, or seven regions (Loka),{2} are, as popularly understood, an exoteric presentment of the inner Tāntrik teaching regarding the seven centers.{3}

      The Yoga is called Tāntrik for a twofold reason. It will be found mentioned in the Yoga Upanishads which refer to the Centers, or Chakras, and in some of the Purānas. The treatises on Hathayoga 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,{4} a description is given of the three centers “Mother of Brain,” or “Spherical heart” (Dil-i-muddawar); the “Cedar heart” (Dil-i-sanowbari); and the Dil-i-nilofari, or “Lily heart.”{5} Other references may be found in the works of the Mahomedan Sufis. So some of the Sufi fraternities (as the Naqshbandi) are said{6} to have devised, or rather borrowed, from the Indian Yogis{7} the Kundalinī method as a means to realization.{8} I am told that correspondences are discoverable between the Indian (Asiatic) Shāstra and the American-Indian Māyā scripture of the Zunis called the Popul Vuh.{9} My informant tells me that their “air-tube” is the Sushumnā; their “twofold air-tube” the Nādīs Idā and Pinggalā. “Hurakan,” or lightning, is Kundalinī, and the centers 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 Āgamas, 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 Hathayoga works and Tantras which are the manuals, not only of Hindu worship, but of its occultism. Next, Yoga through action on the lower static center seems characteristic of the Tāntrik system, the adepts of which are the custodians of the practical knowledge whereby the general directions in the books may be practically applied. The system is of a Tāntrik character also in respect of its selection of the chief center of consciousness. Various people have in antiquity assigned to various parts of the body the seat of the “soul” or life, such as the blood,{10} the heart, and the breath. Generally the brain was not so regarded. The Vaidik system posits the heart as the chief center of Consciousness—a relic of which notion we also still preserve in such phrases as “take it to heart” and to “learn by heart.” Sādhaka, which is one of the five functions of Pitta,{11} and which is situated in the heart, indirectly assists in the performance of cognitive functions by keeping up the rhythmic cardiac contractions, and it has been suggested{12} that it was perhaps this view of the heart’s construction which predisposed Indian physiologists to hold it to be the seat of cognition. According to the Tantras, however, the chief centers of consciousness are to be found in the Chakras of the cerebro-spinal system and in the upper brain (Sahasrāra), which they describe, though the heart is also recognized as a seat of the Jīvātmā, or embodied spirit, in its aspect as Prāna.{13} It is for the reasons mentioned that the first verse of the Shatchakranirūpana here translated speaks of the Yoga which is to be achieved “according to the Tantras” (Tantrānusārena)—that is, as Kālīcharana its Commentator says, “following the authority of the Tantras.”

      This Yoga has been widely affirmed. The following review does not profess to be exhaustive, for the literature relating to Kundalī and Layayoga is very great, but includes merely a short reference to some of the Upanishads and Purānas which have come under my notice, and of which I kept a note, whilst engaged in this work.{14} It will, however, clearly establish that this doctrine concerning the Chakras, or portions of it, is to be found in other Shāstras than the Tantras, though the references in some cases are so curt that it is not always possible to say whether they are dealing with the matter in the same Yoga-sense as the work here translated or as forms of worship (Upāsanā). It is to be noted in this connection that Bhūtashuddhi is a rite which is considered as a necessary preliminary to the worship of a Deva.{15} It is obvious that if we understand the Bhūtashuddhi to here mean the Yoga practice described, then, with the exception of the Yogī expert in this Yoga, no one would be competent for worship at all. For it is only the accomplished (Siddha) Yogī who can really take Kundalinī to the Sahasrāra. In the ordinary daily Bhūtashuddhi, therefore, the process is purely a mental or imaginary one, and therefore forms part of Upāsanā, and not Yoga. Further, as a form of worship the Sādhaka may, and does, adore his Ishtadevatā in various parts of his body. This, again, is a part of Upāsanā. Some of the Shāstras however, next mentioned, clearly refer to the Yoga process, and others appear to do so.

      In what are called the earliest Upanishads,{16} mention is made of certain matters which are more explicitly described in such as are said by Western orientalists to be of later date. Thus, we find reference to the four states of consciousness, waking, and so forth; the four sheaths; and to the cavity of the heart as a “soul” center.

      As already stated, in the Indian schools the heart was considered to be the seat of the waking consciousness. The heart expands during waking, and contracts in sleep. Into it during dreaming sleep (Svapna) the external senses are withdrawn, though the representative faculty is awake; until in dreamless sleep (Sushupti) it also is withdrawn. Reference is also made to the 72,000 Nādīs; the entry and exit of the Prāna through the Brahmarandhra (above the foramen of Monro and the middle commissure); and “up-breathing” through one of these Nādīs. These to some extent probably involve the acceptance of other elements of doctrine not expressly stated. Thus, the reference to the Brahmarandhra and the “one nerve” imply the cerebro-spinal axis with its Sushumnā, through which alone the Prāna passes to the Brahmarandhra; for which reason, apparently, the Sushumnā itself is referred to in the Shivasanghitā as the Brahmarandhra. Liberation is finally affected by “knowledge,” which, as the ancient Aitareya Āranyaka says,{17} “is Brahman.” “He, Vāmadeva, by his knowing self having left the world and having attained all delights in the world of heaven, became immortal.”

      The Hangsa Upanishad{18} opens with the statement that the knowledge therein contained should be communicated only to the Brahmachārī of peaceful mind (Shānta), self-controlled (Dānta), and devoted to the Guru (Gurubhakta). Nārāyana the Commentator, who cites amongst other works the Tantrik Compendium the Shāradā Tilaka, describes himself as “one whose