The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)
This Jagadānanda assumed the name of Pūrnānanda when he obtained his Dīkshā (Initiation) from Brahmānanda and went to Kāmarūpa (Assam), in which province he is believed to have obtained his “Siddhi” or state of spiritual perfection in the Ashrama, which still goes by the name of Vashishthāshrama, situated at a distance of about seven miles from the town of Gauhati (Assam). Pūrnānanda never returned home, but led the life of a Paramahangsa and compiled several Tāntrika works, of which the Shrī- tattvachintāmani, composed in the Shāka year 1499-A.D. 1577, Shyāmārahasya, Shāktakrama, Tattvānandataranginī, and Yogasāra are known. His commentary on the Kālī- kakārakūta hymn is well known. The Shatchakranirūpana, here translated, is not, however an independent work, but a part of the sixth Patala of the Shrītattvachintāmanī. According to a genealogical table of the family of this Tāntrika Āchārya and Vīrāchāra Sādhaka, given by one of his descendants, Pūrnānanda is removed from his present descendants by about ten generations.
This work has been on hand some five years, but both the difficulties of the subject and those created by the war have delayed its publication. I had hoped to include some other plates of original paintings and drawings in my possession bearing on the subject, but present conditions do not allow of this, and I have therefore thought it better to publish the book as it stands rather than risk further delay.
ARTHUR AVALON
RANCHI
September 20, 1918
NOTE TO SECOND EDITION
CONSIDERING the recondite nature of the subject, the first edition published by Messrs. Luzac & Co., London, has had a more rapid sale than was expected and a call for a second edition has enabled me to revise the whole work and to make several corrections and additions both in the Introduction and Text. To this second edition has been added the Sanskrit Text of the works here translated which formerly appeared as Vol. 2 of the Tantrik Texts and which has since gone out of print. This edition also contains in addition to the original coloured plates of the Chakras, a number of half-tone plates taken from Life, showing some positions in Kundalinī Yoga.
The Introduction deals in a general way with the subject-matter of the Texts translated. I take however this opportunity to say again that it has not been possible to give here a full explanation of such matters and refer my reader to my other works dealing with the Tantras and their Ritual, namely, Principles of Tantra, a work of peculiar value in that it is a translation of the work of a Bengali Pandit himself a Shākta unacquainted with the English language but an inheritor of the old traditions; as also the second edition of my Shakti and Shākta dealing with ritual, published since the date of my first Preface. The “Studies in Mantra Shastra” referred to therein has also recently been published under the title of “Garland of Letters”. All such technical terms as Bindu, Nāda and the like used in the works translated have been fully explained therein as also the general principles of Mantra. It is necessary also to know with accuracy the exact meaning of the terms Consciousness, Mind, Life, Matter and so forth as used in Vedānta and these have been given in the series of little works under the general caption “The World as Power”. It is not possible to understand the rationale of Yoga without an accurate understanding of these fundamental terms. It has been rightly said that “the practical portion of all Yoga, specially of Rāja Yoga, is concerned with mental practices. It is therefore absolutely necessary that the student of Yoga should know what his mind is and how it works” (Rāja Yoga, by Swāmī Dayānand, p. 9). I have given a short account of Sarvānanda and his life in the Hindusthan Review. Other works by me on the Shāstra are noted in the advertisement sheet at the end of the book.
A. AVALON
LES ANDELYS, EURE
October, 1922
“We pray to the Paradevatā united with Shiva, whose substance is the pure nectar of bliss, red like unto vermilion, the young flower of the hibiscus, and the sunset sky; who, having cleft Her way through the mass of sound issuing from the clashing and the dashing of the two winds in the midst of Sushumnā, rises to that brilliant Energy which glitters with the lustre of ten million lightnings. May She, Kundalinī, who quickly goes to and returns from Shiva, grant us the fruit of Yoga! She being awakened is the Cow of Plenty to Kaulas, and the Kalpa Creeper of all things desired for those who worship Her.”—Shāradā Tilaka, xxv, 70.
CONTENTS
PAGES
INTRODUCTION
1—320
I.
Introductory
p. 1
II.
Consciousness and Its Power
p. 24
III.
Embodied Consciousness
p. 49
IV.
The Garland of Letters
p. 84
This Jagadānanda assumed the name of Pūrnānanda when he obtained his Dīkshā (Initiation) from Brahmānanda and went to Kāmarūpa (Assam), in which province he is believed to have obtained his “Siddhi” or state of spiritual perfection in the Ashrama, which still goes by the name of Vashishthāshrama, situated at a distance of about seven miles from the town of Gauhati (Assam). Pūrnānanda never returned home, but led the life of a Paramahangsa and compiled several Tāntrika works, of which the Shrī- tattvachintāmani, composed in the Shāka year 1499-A.D. 1577, Shyāmārahasya, Shāktakrama, Tattvānandataranginī, and Yogasāra are known. His commentary on the Kālī- kakārakūta hymn is well known. The Shatchakranirūpana, here translated, is not, however an independent work, but a part of the sixth Patala of the Shrītattvachintāmanī. According to a genealogical table of the family of this Tāntrika Āchārya and Vīrāchāra Sādhaka, given by one of his descendants, Pūrnānanda is removed from his present descendants by about ten generations.
This work has been on hand some five years, but both the difficulties of the subject and those created by the war have delayed its publication. I had hoped to include some other plates of original paintings and drawings in my possession bearing on the subject, but present conditions do not allow of this, and I have therefore thought it better to publish the book as it stands rather than risk further delay.
ARTHUR AVALON
RANCHI
September 20, 1918
NOTE TO SECOND EDITION
CONSIDERING the recondite nature of the subject, the first edition published by Messrs. Luzac & Co., London, has had a more rapid sale than was expected and a call for a second edition has enabled me to revise the whole work and to make several corrections and additions both in the Introduction and Text. To this second edition has been added the Sanskrit Text of the works here translated which formerly appeared as Vol. 2 of the Tantrik Texts and which has since gone out of print. This edition also contains in addition to the original coloured plates of the Chakras, a number of half-tone plates taken from Life, showing some positions in Kundalinī Yoga.
The Introduction deals in a general way with the subject-matter of the Texts translated. I take however this opportunity to say again that it has not been possible to give here a full explanation of such matters and refer my reader to my other works dealing with the Tantras and their Ritual, namely, Principles of Tantra, a work of peculiar value in that it is a translation of the work of a Bengali Pandit himself a Shākta unacquainted with the English language but an inheritor of the old traditions; as also the second edition of my Shakti and Shākta dealing with ritual, published since the date of my first Preface. The “Studies in Mantra Shastra” referred to therein has also recently been published under the title of “Garland of Letters”. All such technical terms as Bindu, Nāda and the like used in the works translated have been fully explained therein as also the general principles of Mantra. It is necessary also to know with accuracy the exact meaning of the terms Consciousness, Mind, Life, Matter and so forth as used in Vedānta and these have been given in the series of little works under the general caption “The World as Power”. It is not possible to understand the rationale of Yoga without an accurate understanding of these fundamental terms. It has been rightly said that “the practical portion of all Yoga, specially of Rāja Yoga, is concerned with mental practices. It is therefore absolutely necessary that the student of Yoga should know what his mind is and how it works” (Rāja Yoga, by Swāmī Dayānand, p. 9). I have given a short account of Sarvānanda and his life in the Hindusthan Review. Other works by me on the Shāstra are noted in the advertisement sheet at the end of the book.
A. AVALON
LES ANDELYS, EURE
October, 1922
“We pray to the Paradevatā united with Shiva, whose substance is the pure nectar of bliss, red like unto vermilion, the young flower of the hibiscus, and the sunset sky; who, having cleft Her way through the mass of sound issuing from the clashing and the dashing of the two winds in the midst of Sushumnā, rises to that brilliant Energy which glitters with the lustre of ten million lightnings. May She, Kundalinī, who quickly goes to and returns from Shiva, grant us the fruit of Yoga! She being awakened is the Cow of Plenty to Kaulas, and the Kalpa Creeper of all things desired for those who worship Her.”—Shāradā Tilaka, xxv, 70.
CONTENTS
PAGES
INTRODUCTION
1—320
I.
Introductory
p. 1
II.
Consciousness and Its Power
p. 24
III.
Embodied Consciousness
p. 49
IV.
The Garland of Letters
p. 84
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