Hindu Medicine c8.139

c8.139

In a special practice of Haṭha-yoga, the “ Arousing of the Coiled Snake ” (śakti-cālana or kuṇḍalinī-yoga), the adept tries to fill the two channels with the concentrated force of the breath. Through its pressure the slumbering life-force residing at the bottom of the abdomen is to be awakened. This life-force of the microcosm is visualized in the form of a snake, coiled up in the slumber of unconsciousness. The aim of Kuṇḍalinī-yoga is to stir up the serpent of animal life-force (śakti) residing in the depths of the organism. This female principle supporting the microcosm at its bottom, this divine “She” should be forced, by the pneumatic pressure of breath, to make her way upward, to ascend along the innermost channel of the spinal cord to the top of the cranial cavity where she reaches her spiritual counterpart, the transcendental Self of the microcosm and of the universe, Śiva, the eternal Male. Thus is achieved the union of both principles, the transcendental divine Being and its equally divine life-energy which unfolds, enlivens and supports at its base the microcosm, and, correspondingly, the organism of the universe: the union of Śiva and Śakti, the divine pair. This union is believed to bring about final release from the bondage of individual existence in the round-of-rebirths, and attainment of supreme bliss.