[Advaita-l] cakra-s in patanjali yoga

[ShankaraBharadwaj Khandavalli]

Regarding yoga and kundalini, all the forms of yoga deal with the sUkshma sareera, and therefore there is good overlap between the various forms. If one is well versed with one form, he would have mastered the subtle body dynamics and obviously be aware of nadi-s, cakra-s, mukhya prANa, mano-nigraha etc. However nAda, kundalini etc are diverse approaches, which is the point I was trying to make. In fact the bottom to top itself is a kundalini approach - in mantra one tries to realize parA vAk in the muladhara which emanates as vaikhari in vAgbhava. So as such I am not disputing the awareness of kundalini in vaidika. 

What kundalini yoga aims to unite is the individual consciousness (by separation of individual nature/prakriti from one's absolute nature, or discrimination between subtle senses, mind, ego and intellect) with cosmic. brahma randhra/sahasrAra is the opening into the cosmic. It does not try to unite prakriti and purusha - you are absolutely right in saying that the goal is to separate them. Its probably a terminology problem - the kundalini terminology calls kundalini (sakti) reaching sahasrAra as sakti-siva union. This sakti is not sAnkhya's prakriti. 


Shankar


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Vidyasankar Sundaresan svidyasankar at hotmail.com 
Mon Sep 19 12:35:59 CDT 2011 
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>>Then, one might suspect, that hidden under the hood of yoga >sUtra-s, lies the kuNDalinI yoga. > One should also note the upanishadic references to the nADI-s and
their being centered in the hRdaya in this context.  However, what many find problematic is that all yoga is a means to
unite prakRti with purusha and that it is accomplished through raising
the kuNDalinI from the mUlAdhAra to sahasrAra. In all the centuries
of yoga and sAMkhya tradition, the emphasis has been that purusha 
and prakRti are two irreducible and separate principles. Liberation is
in the purusha realizing this fact and standing separate from being 
mixed up with prakRti (kaivalya). As such, it is completely novel, to 
say that yoga attempts to unite the two!  Regards,
Vidyasankar