Abstract
Various Śaiva Tantric elements have been identified in the Yogavāsiṣṭha, but little has been written about the role of kuṇḍalinī rising in relation to this text’s notion of living liberation (jīvanmukti). The story of Cūḍālā and Śikhidhvaja is relevant to examine in Tantric studies not only because it includes one of the few descriptions within Sanskrit literature of a kuṇḍalinī experience as explicitly pertaining to a woman, but also because it offers key elements of comparison between experiences of enlightenment: one including kuṇḍalinī rising (Cūḍālā) and another one without it (Śikhidhvaja). This paper compares Cūḍālā’s experience of enlightenment with that of Śikhidhvaja’s in order to understand what role kuṇḍalinī rising plays in the pursuit for liberation.
Highlights
Introduction to the StoryŚikhidhvaja, a very handsome and virtuous prince, assumed the rule of the kingdom at the age of 16 years old when his father died (YV VIa.77)
In contrast to the more popular view that depicts kun.d.alinıonly as a dormant energy localized in the bottom of the spine spiraling up to the top of the head when it is awakened, we find that in
While Śikhidhvaja’s process of liberation does not explicitly mention the rising of the kun.d.alinı, one could see in Cūd.ālā’s journeys from the kingdom to the mountain forest where he is meditating a symbol of his own kun.d.alinırising, “flying out” to meet the top of the cool head
Summary
Śikhidhvaja, a very handsome and virtuous prince, assumed the rule of the kingdom at the age of 16 years old when his father died (YV VIa.). It seems that in order to learn how to fly or acquire any other yogic power (siddhi), one must know the ways in which the life force flows within one’s own body, and how it is affected by the intentions or creative volitions that arise in that seed-consciousness that directly touches the body with its vibration. This intermediary dialogue between Vasis.t.ha and Rāma serves as the philosophical background to understanding Cūd.ālā’s experience of enlightenment and the paradoxical state of wanting to do something even though one is supposed to be desireless. Cūd.ālā’s impulse of wanting to learn how to fly should not be read in the light of a “desire to do or accomplish” something, but as a natural, embodied process of the inner, enlightened state that “rises above” all desires
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