[Advaita-l] cakra-s in patanjali yoga

[Venkata sriram P]

Namaste Shrinivasji,
 
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In keeping with the tradition of vedas, patanjali is, on
purpose, concealing the kuNDalinI yoga within his
yoga sutra-s. I suspect, the topic of kuNDalinI was 
strictly reserved for oral transmission in vedic times.
 
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Yes, unlike today's gurus who claim to give instant
shaktipAta dIkshAs, this system is highly esoteric
in nature.  
 
While tantra has it's origin from shruti, spread it's 
tentacles far and wide.  Because, the devatas 
like the indirect method (parOkSha priyAya hi dEvAH),
the AlaMbana in the form of tantra was adopted.  
Basically, it's root is "tan" which denotes expansion 
"tanu - vistArE".  Just as a cloth is woven with the 
help of threads, the concepts and thought process
got inter-woven itself to evolve for upAsana.  
There are different categories of tantras based on
geographical locations ie., gauDa, kAShmIra & kErala.  
Also there are shAkta tantras, shaiva tantras, 
vaiShNava tantras etc.  
 
Now, coming to the point of kuNDalini swarupa, 
some of the shAkta upanishads are taken pramANAs for this
viz., bhAvana, tripura, tripuratApini, aruNa etc.  
Sage Yajnavalkya is believed to be an highly accomplished
yOgi who learnt all the secret science from Bhagavan Surya. 
The veda he propagated is sukla yajurveda.  One of the great 
esoteric upanishad forms a part of this veda called
maNDala brAhmaNa upanishad. 
 
This upanishad gives out secrets of kuNDalini yOga 
and says that "mUlAdhAra AdhArabhya brahmarandhra
paryantaM suShumnA sUryabhA mruNAlatantu sUkShmA
kuNDalini".  
 
Bhagavan Surya while imparting this vidya to Sage Yajnavalkya says
that this kuNDalini vidya is highly esoteric in nature "sarva tantrEShu
gOpyA mahAvidyA bhavati".  
 
For the matter of fact, the principles of srividya has been introduced
by Sage Nandikeshwara and Sage Upamanyu.  For maheshwara sutras, 
Nandi wrote "kAsika" and for kAsika, upamanyu wrote "tattva darshini".
The 1st sUtra of "ach" expands itself into siva & sakti as "a" & visarga (ah).
Both become "ahaM" which is the antaHsphuraNa of all the jivas.  
All the mAtrikAs (16 vowels & 34 consonants) fall under the superset of ahaM
that are called "ach" & "hal".  This "ahaM" is the great throb in Siva.  
 
The tantra codifies this ahaM as the kAmakala.  The geometrical representation of
this kAmakala represents the great triangle as a,ha, ahaM that are nothing
but tripuTi - the triad (jnAtru-jnAna-jnEya).  This jnAna is bahushObhamAna 
and hence kEnOpaniShad proclaims as umAM haimavateem bahuShObhamAnAM...
Such a jnAna is called "tripuTa(ra)-sundari".  "ra" & "Ta" as abhEdatattvas.  The jnAna which in tripuTi is called "tripura(Ta)-Sundari".  Sundara & Sundari are also another attributes for Jnana (hanuman is called Sundara and His feats are called Sundarakanda). 
 
So, shAkta vidya is verily an upanishad pratipAdya vidya.  
 
regs,
sriram