Kuṇḍalinī in Śrīvaiṣṇavism
Krishnamacharya on Kundalini - The Origins and Coherence of his Position - Simon 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.
Description
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.