Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

column from one side to the other, making at the Ajna with the Sushumn4 a three-fold knot called Trivenf; which is said to be the spot in the Medulla where the sympathetic cords join together and whence they take their origin. These Nadis together with the two-lobed Ajna and the Sushumna forming the figure of the Caduceus of the God Mercury which is said by some to represent them.

How then does this Yoga compare with others ?

It will now be asked what are the general principles which underlie the Yoga practice above described. How is it that the rousing of Kundalini Shakti and her Union with Shiva effects the state of ecstatic union (SamAdhi) and spiritual experience which is alleged. The reader who has understood the general principles recorded in the previous essays should, if he has not already divined it, readily appreciate the answer here given.

In the first place there are two main lines of Yoga, namely Dhyana or Bhaévané Yoga and Kundali Yoga the subject of this work; and there is a marked difference between the two. The first class of Yoga is that in which ecstasy (Samadhi) is attained by intellective processes (Kriya-jnana) of meditation and the like with the aid, it may be, of auxiliary processes of Mantra or Hatha Yoga (other than the rousing of Kundali Shakti) and by detachment from the world; the second stands apart as that portion of Hatha Yoga in which, though intellective processes are not neglected, the creative and sustaining Shakti of the whole body is actually and truly united with the Lord Consciousness. The Yogi makes Her introduce him to Her Lord and enjoys the bliss of union through Her. Though it is he who arouses Her, it is She who gives Jnana for She is Herself that. The Dhyana-Yogf gains what acquaintance with the supreme state his own meditative powers can give him and knows not the enjoyment of union with Shiva in and through his fundamental Body-Power. The two forms of Yoga differ both as to method and result. The Hatha-

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