The word Kundalini is a familiar one to all students of Yoga, as it is well known as the power, in the form of a coiled serpent, residing in Muladhara Chakra, the first of the seven Chakras, the other six being Svadhishthana, Manipuraka, A nahata, Visuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara, in order.
Less is historically known of the Agamas
than the Vedas, because the latter provide descriptive poem-pictures of Vedic
life. The original Agamas are twenty-eight in number. They are called Saiva
Agamas as they focus on establishing a relationship with and ultimately
realizing the Supreme Being Siva. They carry names like Vira, Hero. Siddha,
Perfected and Swayambhuva, naturally revealed.
The Agamas are divided into four parts
called padas, lessons. The first two padas - Chariya good conduct, and Kriya,
external worship,- include all the details of personal home life, house
planning, town planning, personal worship in temples, the architectural plans
for temples and sculpture as well as the intricacies of temple puja. The final
two padas - Yoga, internalized worship and union, and Jnana, enlightened
wisdom, – vividly describe the processes and stages of kundalini yoga, and the
Cod-like plateaus of consciousness reached when Sivahood is attained. In the
actual texts, the padas are ordered with jnana first, yoga second, then kriya
and chariya - unfurling from a God-state to a human state.
The
Agamas contain tens of thousands of verses, much more prolific than the Vedas.
Though the Vedas stayed strictly in Sanskrit, the Agamas proliferated across India
and oilier countries through many languages. But they fared poorly over the
millennia, particularly the Yoga and Jnana Padas - so high and powerful. The
custodian Saiva priests neglected them. Many padas of entire Agamas were lost
or destroyed.
No comments:
Post a Comment