Under the serpent's hood

The story of Kundalini Yoga’s remarkable rise from an obscure tradition to a global phenomenon reads like a pioneer’s tale.

- ARUNDHUTI DASGUPTA

First mentioned in the Indian tantra traditions, Kundalini was once seen as the preserve of an exclusive club of practitioners, but today, with millions of followers worldwide and a hugely valuable spiritual industry that has mushroomed around the experience, its success story is one for the marketing textbooks.

In its original avatar, Kundalini was a mind-and-body experience that could be achieved under the trained guidance of an expert. It was conceived as a transformative process for the learners and the guru. Today, the term has acquired a near generic status and means anything from eastern exotica to spiritual bliss. The book examines the idea of Kundalini as it emerged in the East, where it originated, and as it developed and morphed in the West, where it began life as a micro narrative of the yoga practice.

In India Kundalini was a “vidya” under the Tantra traditions. Sravana Borkataky-Varma, who is a practitioner of Shakta Tantra and has coauthored the book with Anya Foxen, writes, "To be perfectly honest, this was rather perplexing (the association of Kundalini and Yoga in the West) as the tradition of which I am a practitioner seldom used the term Kundalini and there are zero 'Kundalini Yoga' practices."