Krishnamacharya on Kundalini; The Origins and Coherence of his Position; Atkinson

Simon Atkinson [+–]

scholar-practitioner

Simon Atkinson has been practising and studying yoga in the broad tradition following Krishnamacharya since the 1990s and has been learning Sanskrit since 2001. He teaches academic English and academic skills at the University of Cambridge.

Krishnamacharya on Kuṇḍalinī explores a distinctive teaching of ‘the father of modern yoga’, T. Krishnamacharya. Whereas most yoga traditions teach that kuṇḍalinī is a serpentine energy that rises, Krishnamacharya defined it as a serpentine blockage that represents avidyā (spiritual ignorance) and prevents prāṇa (breath or life-force) from rising.

In this book, Simon Atkinson draws on over 20 years of study and practice under teachers following Krishnamacharya, and combines the analysis of quotations from yoga workshops with a detailed study of traditional Sanskrit texts. He traces the textual origins of Krishnamacharya’s position to two sects of Viṣṇu-worshiping temple priests, and shows how it is compatible with a stream of South Asian thought where snakes represent something to be overcome.

Atkinson challenges claims that Krishnamacharya’s position can be found in his religious tradition of Śrīvaiṣṇavism. He questions the tradition’s reliance on textual sources, showing how the coherence of Krishnamacharya’s position can only be maintained by employing elaborate arguments and rejecting texts that teach otherwise. He also explores how Krishnamacharya’s teaching on kuṇḍalinī influences how yoga is practised. He argues that Krishnamacharya’s position is best viewed as a model for experience that guides practice.

Prelims

List of Tables, Figures and Plates viii

Acknowledgements ix

Preface x-xiii

Chapter 1

Introduction [+–] 1-9

Chapter 1 introduces the South Indian yoga teacher Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888- 1989) and the concept of kuṇḍalinī. Most yoga traditions describe kuṇḍalinī as a serpentine energy that rises, granting liberation. Krishnamacharya, however, taught that prāṇa (breath / vital energy) rises, not kuṇḍalinī. To him, kuṇḍalinī is a blockage that prevents prāṇa from rising. Kuṇḍalinī is not something to be raised: it is something to be destroyed. This is a unique perspective among modern teachers of yoga.

Chapter 2

The Yogayājñavalkya – Krishnamacharya’s Main Source on Kuṇḍalinī [+–] 10-30

The Yogayājñavalkya was Krishnamacharya’s source text on kuṇḍalinī. This chapter contains the first detailed critical analysis of translations of the Yogayājñavalkya by two of Krishnamacharya’s long-term students: T.K.V. Desikachar (Krishnamacharya’s son) and A.G. Mohan. It argues that these translators misrepresent the Yogayājñavalkya in different ways. Desikachar mistranslated the Yogayājñavalkya by introducing concepts not in the original Sanskrit text, thereby relocating kuṇḍalinī from the navel to the perineum. Mohan changed the original Sanskrit of one verse without informing his readers, conveniently avoiding content that contradicts Krishnamacharya’s position.

Chapter 3

Kuṇḍalinī in Other Vaiṣṇava Texts [+–] 31-57

Chapter 3 builds upon the work of academics including James Mallinson, Lidia Schwartz-Linder and Dominic Wujastyk and greatly expands upon their contributions to trace the textual origins of Krishnamacharya’s teachings on kuṇḍalinī. It shows how verses from the Yogayājñavalkya came from the Vasiṣṭhasaṁhitā, which in turn took some of those verses from the Pādmasaṁhitā – a text of the Vaiṣṇava (Viṣṇu- worshiping) sect of temple priests known as Pāñcarātra. The chapter traces similar teachings to another Pāñcarātra text, the Ahirbudhnyasaṁhitā. It presents lengthy translations from previously untranslated sections of the Ahirbudhnyasaṁhitā, together with original observations about the inconsistency of that text in relation to kuṇḍalinī. The chapter also identifies similar teachings in the rival Vaiṣṇava sect of Vaikhānasa.

Chapter 4

A Union of Yoga-s – Linking Haṭhayoga and Patañjali via Kuṇḍalinī [+–] 58-83

This is the most practical chapter of the book. It gives a fresh and original perspective on how yoga is actually practised by followers of Krishnamacharya and how his conception of kuṇḍalinī has influenced that. The chapter will be the first published study exploring how Krishnamacharya and his students used his position on kuṇḍalinī to connect teachings from two separate textual traditions: haṭhayoga and the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali. It shows how Krishnamacharya’s conception of kuṇḍalinī and his overall approach to haṭhayoga were subsumed within the overarching framework of Patañjali.

Chapter 5

The Symbolism of Serpents [+–] 84-128

Chapter 5 critically analyses and evaluates claims from two prominent teachers in the tradition, A.G. Mohan and Kausthub Desikachar (Krishnamacharya’s grandson), who both attempted to validate Krishnamacharya’s teachings about the serpent of kuṇḍalinī by putting it into a wider cultural context. Building upon the theoretical framework of Laurie Cozad (2004), this chapter will be the first published work showing how snakes are used in South Asian texts to represent something to be overcome: māyā (illusion / magic), avidyā (nescience / spiritual ignorance), ajñāna (nescience / spiritual ignorance), ahaṁkāra (ego), ahaṁmāna (egotism), abhimāna (erroneous self- conception), māna (pride), and moha (delusion) – the deadly poison of saṁsāra (rebirth). The chapter shows that this stream of South Asian thought, in which snakes represent something to be overcome, is consistent with Krishnamacharya’s use of the term kuṇḍalinī to represent a blockage to prāṇa. However, even when writers use snakes to represent something to be overcome in some contexts, it does not necessarily follow that they use kuṇḍalinī in the same way.

Chapter 6

Kuṇḍalinī in Śrīvaiṣṇavism [+–] 129-181

Chapter 6 will be the first published exploration of teachings about kuṇḍalinī in Krishnamacharya’s religious tradition of Śrīvaiṣṇavism. It examines quotations that T.K.V. Desikachar attributed to the Śrīvaiṣṇava polymath Vedāntadeśika, showing how those quotations misrepresent Vedāntadeśika. The chapter’s conclusions are based on a survey of over 90 texts and confirmed by an interview with the pontiff of a leading Śrīvaiṣṇava organization, who described Krishnamacharya’s position as “unacceptable”. Śrīvaiṣṇavism uses the term kuṇḍalinī as a synonym for the suṣumnā nāḍī (a type of conduit, nerve or artery), not to mean a blockage to it, as Krishnamacharya taught.

Chapter 7

Discussion and Conclusion [+–] 182-198

The Discussion and Conclusion draws together the findings of the previous chapters and evaluates Krishnamacharya’s position. Krishnamacharya’s teaching on kuṇḍalinī has a valid textual basis but the number of supporting texts is limited. The chapter challenges a claim that all texts support Krishnamacharya’s view, arguing that his conception of kuṇḍalinī is one of several textually-valid conceptions. Those arguing for Krishnamacharya’s position need to be very selective in which texts they cite and which manuscripts they use for particular verses. They also need to employ complex exegesis to paper over the cracks in some texts and they need to critically reject other parts of the same texts that describe kuṇḍalinī differently. The book ends by challenging the tradition’s emphasis on traditional texts and its presentation of Krishnamacharya’s conception of kuṇḍalinī as an accurate realist account of something that has objective existence. Instead, it argues that his conception is best regarded as an idealized and simplified model for one’s subjective experience. Krishnamacharya’s teaching on kuṇḍalinī should be judged primarily by how useful it is in describing experience and guiding practice, not by how well it is supported by texts.

Appendix

Dating the Yogayājñavalkya and Related Texts 199-202

End Matter

Glossary 203-213

Bibliography 214-236

Index 237-248

Reviews

Utilising considerable experience as both a student and practitioner of yoga, Simon Atkinson takes a deep dive into some of the more esoteric aspects of Krishnamacharya’s teachings. Using primary sources, interviews and original research, his explorations reveal some fascinating inconsistencies, and he shines a light on both where and why these inconsistencies appear. Important reading for scholars and practitioners alike, this book is a major contribution to our understanding of kuṇḍalinī from both textual and personal perspectives.
Ranju Roy, yoga teacher in the tradition of Krishnamacharya and co author of Embodying the Yoga Sutra: Support, Direction and Space

Drawing on meticulous philological and ethnographic research, this study identifies and analyses the distinctive role of kuṇḍalinī in the Krishnamacharya yoga tradition, situating it in its complex historical and contemporary contexts. Essential reading for scholars and dedicated practitioners of yoga alike.
Dr James Mallinson, Reader in Indology and Yoga Studies, SOAS, University of London

This scholarly text by Simon (SA) takes an exemplary approach, combining Western critical thinking with an Indian respect for traditional sources. It is good to see an approach that is, on the one hand, respectful and sympathetic yet, on the other, exhaustive and unsparing. SA’s work is supported by many years of painstaking personal research at home and in India and shows an adherence, while looking from inside our tradition, to strict neutrality as regards to which authorities are most sound and credible.
This book holds many revelations.
Who should be reading this book? Certainly, anyone who wants to take a broad and well-informed view of the subject of kuṇḍalinī from the perspective of their own practice and definitely anyone who presumes to teach about it from a non-Shaiva standpoint. It isn’t, however, just about kuṇḍalinī. An appreciation of the way K was able to unite Haṭha and Rāja Yoga, which SA describes in Chapter 4, should be in the mind of everyone who teaches in this tradition. This understanding is really part of our foundations and something that makes us a unique force within the world of Yoga.
The Society of Yoga Practitioners

The book is scholarly, but accessibly written and helpfully structured – the introduction and conclusion are clear and insightful, with supporting evidence presented logically throughout other chapters.
Spectrum, the British Wheel of Yoga magazine

As Atkinson notes, there are few scholarly studies on kuṇḍalinī, and for that reason, this carefully executed study is a valuable contribution to the field. The book will be useful for practitioners of yoga because of its detailed discussion of kuṇḍalinī and the textual foundation that it provides for their practise. A glossary is provided to assist a non-scholarly readership with the many Sanskrit terms that are used throughout the discussion. This book will be of interest to scholars of yoga studies, as well as scholars of South Asian studies because of the careful philological study of Vedic texts.
International Journal for the Study of New Religions

Religion and Ethics; Yoga Studies

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Krishnamacharya on Kundalini

The Origins and Coherence of his Position

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