Jessica S White s4291268 3/06/2016

BA Honours: Independent Study RELN6001

From liberation to self-realisation: the evolution of the

subtle body in modern meditational yoga.

Introduction

In marked contrast with medieval Tantra and Haṭhayoga, notions of the subtle body in modern

yoga1 are almost completely subordinated to physical postural practices (āsanas), or meditation

practices, which are framed as ‘system[s] of health, fitness, and well-being’ (Singleton 2010, 29-

33). Where the subtle body is encountered in modern yoga texts and classes, it is generally

conflated with the three principle internal channels (nāḍīs) and conceptions of vital breath (prāṇa)

and subtle force in the base of the spine (kuṇḍalinī), now associated with healing, and self-

realisation2 (Albanese 2007, 356; Singleton 2010, 29-33). Given the almost total absence of āsanas

in medieval Tantric and Haṭhayoga texts, it is curious indeed that modern yoga has come to focus

on the physical bodily practice and meditation almost exclusively (Albanese 2007, 358; Singleton

2010, 29-33). The development of postural practice has been addressed in detail by Singleton 3;

thus this essay will examine some of the major influential figures who contributed to the

understanding of the subtle body in modern Meditational4 schools of yoga. I begin by exploring the

characteristics of the pre-modern subtle body followed by an exploration of subtle body notions

within two medieval traditions, Kashmir Śaivism and early Haṭhayoga. Next I investigate the

1
According to De Michelis, modern yoga refers to ‘those disciplines and schools that are to a greater or lesser extent, rooted in
South Asian cultural contexts and more specifically draw inspiration from certain philosophies, teachings, and practices of Hinduism
(2008, 19).’ These forms of yoga are often highly concerned with postural practice and an unfocussed and syncretic presentation of
‘religio-philosophical’ teachings (2008, 22).
2
A neo-Vedantic concept whereby the self is associated with a higher power, originally inspired by the Upaniṣadic term ātmajñāna,
and eventually adopted by New Age religion (De Michelis 2004, 14).
3
In Yoga Body 2010
4
De Michelis identifies ‘Meditational Yoga’ as those modern yoga schools with a focus on their own style of meditation within a
Neo-Hindu framework. These schools are often headed by a charismatic teacher who encourages a specific interpretation of
practice. These schools might in some cases be classified as ‘Denominational’ when they propagate a distinctive world view (De
Michelis 2008, 22)

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conception of the subtle body in the work of early American promoters of metaphysics, including

Helena Blavatsky and Yogi Ramacharika. I then undertake a detailed analysis of the work of two

major proponents of modern Meditational yoga, Swami Vivekananda and Swami Muktananada.

Finally, I argue that these two highly influential modern yoga figures presented a notion of the

subtle body that was adapted, re-interpreted, and expressed in thoroughly modern language, and

in so doing catalysed a lasting influence on subtle body discourses in modern yoga (De Michelis

2005, 91).

What is the Subtle Body?

The term ‘subtle body’ has been in English usage since it first appeared during the late 1800s in the

writings of prominent Theosophical Society figures Helena Blavatsky, Charles W. Leadbeater, and

Annie Besant (Samuel & Johnston 2013, 2; Johnston 2013, 188). The term first occurred in

Blavatsky’s hefty treatise The Secret Doctrine, which synthesises scientific discourses of the time,

‘Eastern’5 philosophies, and metaphysical ideas of magic and astrology, as she conceived and

reconceived of them (Samuel & Johnston 2013, 2; Johnston 2013, 187). ‘Subtle body’ was initially

used as a translation for the Vedantic concept sūkṣmaśarīra which, according to the Vedantic

philosopher Śaṇkara, described a series of three bodies, the material or physical, the subtle, and

the causal (Samuel & Johnston 2013, 2). According to Samuel & Johnston, in later Theosophical

texts this ‘three bodies’ framework was further elaborated ‘on the basis of psychic and clairvoyant

insights’ (2013, 2). For this reason, scholars have questioned the use of the term ‘subtle body’

(Samuel & Johnston 2013, 2). Recognising the problematic history of its development, in this study

I will nonetheless adopt the term ‘subtle body’ as a useful and commonly recognised generic

marker for a variety of medieval Indian and modern American concepts, practices, and

phenomena.

5
Blavatsky appears to refer to certain South Asian philosophies as ‘Eastern’ in her work.

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Samuel and Johnston assert that within the subtle body frameworks of many cultures, including

South Asian conceptions, consciousness had a material aspect, although one that was more subtle

than ordinary matter (2013, 1). The subtle body was conceived of as an intermediate level that

mediated between consciousness and the physical body and enabled the manipulation of both the

physical body and consciousness (Samuel & Johnston, 2013, 1). In the South Asian context, the

subtle body refers to a complex ‘subtle physiology’ of the body and mind that developed during

the Indian medieval period within the Tantric and Haṭhayogic traditions (Samuel 2008, 271, White

2000, 14). Regarded by scholars as a novel innovation, this ‘subtle physiology’ was manipulated for

the achievement of liberation (mukti) and supernatural powers (siddhis) (Goudriaan 1979, 47;

Samuel 2008, 271; Singleton 2010, 29; White 2000, 9, 14-15).

Underpinning the theory and practices of the Tantric and Haṭhayogic subtle body is a type of

homological thinking that recalls late Vedic conceptions of the universal macrocosm and the bodily

microcosm (White 2012, 14; Goudriaan 1979, 57). White suggests ‘the practitioner’s body became

identified with the entire universe, such that all of the processes and transformations occurring to

his body in the world were now described as occurring to a world inside his body’ (2012, 14). The

manipulation of the microcosm, in the form of the subtle body, through Tantric or Haṭhayogic

practice (sādhanā), then, has the ability to identify the practitioner with the all-embracing cosmos

or godhead, the source of power and ultimate liberation (White 2012, 8-9; White 2000, 9, 14-15;

Gupta 1979, 170).

In order to control the vital processes of the subtle body, the practitioner must gain control of the

mind (Gupta 1979, 167; Mallinson 2012, 258). The mind is arrested through constant and

progressive sādhanā which, according to Mallinson and Gupta, begins with control of the breath

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(prāṇayāma) (2012, 258; 1997, 167). Within the Tantric subtle physiology, the vital breaths or

bodily winds (prāṇas) are held to be responsible for regulating the functions of the body (gross and

subtle) (Gupta 1979, 168). The subtle body contains a number of vessels or channels (nāḍīs)

through which the prāṇas flow and it is the passage of prāṇa which either activates or suppresses

the functions of the senses (Gupta 1979, 168-169). Although the Tantrarājatantra records fifty

thousand nāḍīs, fourteen are more widely referred to within Tantric literature, with the central

channel (suṣumṇā) and those to the left (iḍā), and right (piṅgalā), constituting the most important

(Gupta 1979, 168-169). Prāṇayāma aims to direct prāṇa into the central channel, thereby

suppressing the function of the senses and preventing the mind from being diverted by them,

leaving the mind free to focus on liberation (Gupta 1979, 169).

An additional layer of complexity subsequently added to the conception of the Tantric and

Haṭhayogic subtle body is the kuṇḍalinī yoga system (Gupta 1979, 170; White 2012, 14). Although

various systems involving kuṇḍalinī developed during the Indian medieval period (at their peak

circa 10th century CE), the so called ‘classical’ system will be described here (White 2012, 14- 15).

Lying along the central channel is a hierarchy of seven centres or ‘wheels’ (cakras) which are

thought to contain ‘the constituents of both physical and sonic creation’ (Gupta 1979, 171). Coiled

at the base of the spine, within the primary cakra (mūlādhāra), an infinitesimal part of the ‘cosmic

energy’ (śakti) named kuṇḍalinī, lies sleeping (Gupta 1979, 171; White 2012, 15). By awakening

kuṇḍalinī and bringing her up the central channel, through the cakras, to the cranial vault

containing the topmost cakra (sahasrāra), kuṇḍalinī is united with the cosmic energy, and in turn

united with the ultimate Godhead (Śiva or Brahman). In this act the practitioner has enacted a

reversal of the process of creation6 and in so doing attained liberation from the bondage of this

6
This process refers to the emanation doctrine found within many Tantric texts. These texts describe a process of self-manifestation
of the Absolute (Goudriaan 1979, 51).

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world7 (Gupta 1979, 171).

The premodern conception of the subtle body can thus be described as a subtle physiology

characterised by a network of interrelated vessels (nāḍīs and cakras), through which flow subtle

substances (prāṇa and kuṇḍalinī), when manipulated by practices (sādhanā, prāṇayāma), for the

goal of liberation (mukti) and supernatural powers (siddhis).

The subtle body exemplified in Tantra and Haṭhayoga

Scholars describe notions of the subtle body as novel innovations best exemplified by the esoteric

doctrines and practices of Tantra and Haṭhayoga (Samuel 2008, 271, White 2000, 14). However, as

both Padoux and White remark, the category ‘Tantra’ is itself a problematic one (Padoux 2002, 17;

White 2000, 4). Padoux describes Tantra as a term conceived by Western Indologists in the late

nineteenth century, which has come to denote a field that is ‘vast, diffuse, diverse and very difficult

to define satisfactorily’ (2002, 17). He additionally notes that the Indian actors whom we might

classify as practitioners of Tantra (tāntrikas) would not necessarily relate to this term and Tantric

texts were generally not called ‘Tantras’ by their authors (Padoux 2002, 17). Padoux adds that the

material included in the study of Tantra is vast and encompasses practices from many distinct

traditions, including Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava, Śākta, and various forms of Buddhism (Padoux 2002, 19;

White 2000, 4-7).

A provisional definition of Tantra, according to Padoux could then include a ‘cosmos as permeated

by power (or powers), a vision wherein energy (śakti) is both cosmic and human and where

microcosm and macrocosm correspond and interact’ (2002, 19). White adds to this definition by
7
According to the Tantric texts, the individual soul cannot perceive its true cosmic nature and is trapped in the illusion (māyā) of
ignorance. Therefore, the goal of many Tantric practices is liberation from the bondage of this ignorant earthly existence. This is
accomplished when the internal śakti unites with Supreme Śiva, thus restoring the primal union and identifying the practitioner
with the ultimate Godhead (and ultimately destroying the subject-object relation). Some forms of Tantra and Haṭhayoga additionally
aim to achieve an immortalisation of the body along with supernatural powers (Goudriaan 1979 53-60).

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suggesting that the Tantric practitioner ‘seeks to ritually appropriate and channel that energy,

within the human microcosm, in creative and emancipatory ways’ (2000, 9). These parameters

correspond with what has already been described in relation to the subtle body and possibly

suggest philosophical coherence with the broader currents of Tantric thought. Even with such a

provisional definition, the vastness of the field referred to as ‘Tantra’ necessitates the selection of

limited exemplars of the Tantric and Haṭhayogic subtle body. To this end I will examine the notion

of the subtle body in Kashmir Śaivism, principally in the work of Abhinavagupta, and in the

Haṭhayoga text, the Gorakṣaśataka. These exemplars will illustrate the complexity of ideas

associated with the subtle body and foreground their successive developments in modern yoga.

Kashmir Śaivism generally refers to the non-dual Śaiva traditions of Kashmir, often associated with

the prominent proponent Abhinavagupta, who promoted ‘a blissful, transindividual consciousness

which, being the cause and substance of all phenomena, could be seen as freely assuming the

appearance of his limitation by an “outside world” and its values, as though it were an actor

playing a role’ (Sanderson 1987, 8048). The goal of this tradition, as promoted by Abhinavagupta,

was then the spontaneous expansion of consciousness and the practice of ‘identification with Śiva

through the realization that everything is one’s reflection’ (pratibimba) (Lawrence 2016, np; Flood

2006, 146-147). These practices have been described by scholars as a tradition which takes a

transgressive or antinomian approach to Tantric philosophy and especially to sādhanā (Flood 2006,

146; Sanderson 1987, 8048). Although maintaining some fidelity to the dualistic and more

orthodox philosophy of Śaiva Siddhānta, this type of ‘ecstatic tantra’ added new layers of

complexity onto already complex ritual practices and adopted the transgressive practices of the

kāpālikas8, such as consumption of taboo substances and sexual rituals (Lawrence 2016, np; Flood

8
Considered one of the earliest Tantric ascetic practitioners, the kāpālikas were worshippers of Śiva (Śaivite) and subsidiary gods
like Bhairava (2008, 240). Their god Bhairava, like his followers, were depicted ‘smeared in ashes, living in cremation-grounds,
accompanied by dogs, carrying a skull (kapāla)…’ in an explicitly transgressive and fierce ideology whereby social norms are
deliberately rejected (Samuel 2008, 243-246).

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2006, 146-147). The Kashmir Śaivite conception of the subtle body is best illustrated by its system

of cakras and kuṇḍalinī (Flood 2006, 147).

Abhinavagupta’s system of subtle physiology seems to be a synthesis of a number of earlier textual

traditions of which there are many, each describing a slightly different assortment and number of

nāḍīs, and cakras, with different conceptions of kuṇḍalinī (Flood 2006, 159). By Abhinavagupta’s

time, cakras refer to points or lotuses (padma) that are associated with varying numbers of petals,

specific Sanskrit sounds (mantras), colours, and deities, located along the central axis of the body

(Flood 2006, 159). The subtle structures of the three major nāḍīs and the six cakras closely model

the classical system noted above, yet Abhinavagupta’s conception of kuṇḍalinī was highly complex

(Flood 2006, 161). In his system, kuṇḍalinī takes on two main forms: ‘upward’ (ūrdhva) kuṇḍalinī

linked with expansion, and ‘downward’ (adha) kuṇḍalinī linked with contraction; these aspects of

kuṇḍalinī are further associated with cosmic expansion and contraction (Flood 2006, 161). In

addition, Abhinavagupta associates kuṇḍalinī with kaulikī śakti, a name for the highest form of

energy. Kaulikī śakti is here regarded as a goddess who brings into manifestation the body, breath,

and the energy of a pantheon of lesser deities said to reside in the heart.9 Abhinavagupta’s

elaborate system describes a cosmos manifested by consciousness with kuṇḍalinī, an aspect of

consciousness, animating the body and bringing liberation by her upward movement through the

central channel (Flood 2006, 161).

Significantly, Flood emphasises that the Tantric texts do not intend to reify the subtle body, instead

the notion of subtle physiology and energetic movement are intended for visualisation (2006, 162).

Furthermore, Flood asserts that ‘the centres of the subtle body are given meaning and form [as] a

part of the practice only in the context of ritual and meditative visualisation grounded in text’

9
Another aspect of Abhinavagupta’s subtle body system are the deities Ᾱnandabhairava and Ᾱnandabharivī who are the god and
goddess of the senses and represent the union of the absolute (Śiva) with Śakti, seated at the heart (Flood 154)

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(2006, 162). Accepting Flood’s argument, the medieval Tantric subtle body should be interpreted,

within the context of the tradition, as being created by the combination of the text and the

practice, and not as a perceivable pre-existing system of structures. Understood in these terms, the

subtle body cannot be directly equated with the modern understanding of physical physiology.

Haṭhayoga inherited many aspects of philosophy and practice, including notions of the subtle body,

from Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava Tantra (Mallinson 2012, 327; Birch 2001, 529). According to Mallinson,

Haṭhayoga incorporated the Tantric subtle physiology as a template for the manipulation of the

human body and the achievement of liberation (mukti) and supernatural powers (siddhis), yet saw

little need for elaborate initiations, rituals, secret mantras, or use of prohibited substances (2001,

327; 2012, 257). Haṭhayoga then can be seen as a more physically oriented practice which aims to

manipulate the subtle body via techniques like breath control (prāṇayāma), used in combination

with energetic seals or locks (bandhas), and bodily positions (mudrās), all employed to stimulate

and raise kuṇḍalinī (Mallinson 2012, 257).

The Gorakṣaśataka or ‘Hundred Verses of Goraksa’ contains some of the earliest teachings on

Haṭhayoga and clearly illustrates the complexity and ascetic commitment required of the

practitioner (Mallinson 2012, 257). Within the text, the practitioner is instructed to control the

mind by mastering the breath, eating a controlled diet, assuming postures, and stimulating

kuṇḍalinī (Mallinson 2012, 257). Instructions on diet and posture are simple, if austere, with the

majority of the text giving attention to the practice of sarasvatīcālana for stimulating the goddess

channel (sarasvatī, otherwise known as suṣumṇā), and prāṇarodha or restraining the breath

(Mallinson 2012, 258). For the practice of sarasvatīcālana, the Gorakṣaśataka states that the

practitioner should:

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‘… sit steadily in padmāsana, spread out a cloth twelve fingers long and four fingers broad,

wrap it around [Sarasvatī’s] nāḍī and hold it firmly with the thumbs and index fingers of

both hands. For two muhūrtas (one hour and thirty-six minutes) he should fearlessly move

it left and right over and over again as much as he can.’ (Mallinson 2012, 267-8).

The passages on restraining the breath are more substantial, more complex, and these together

with the sarasvatīcālana exemplify both the physically oriented and austere character of these

ascetic Haṭhayoga teachings.

The conception of the subtle body in Kashmir Śaivism and Haṭhayoga exemplify complex subtle

structures (nāḍīs, cakras), with associated correspondences (mantras, deities), that may be

manipulated via progressive and constant sādhanā. Within these systems kuṇḍalinī is associated

with consciousness, and a number of goddesses, and she is encouraged through rigorous practices

(visualisation, prāṇayāma, in some cases consummation of taboo substances and/or sexual rituals)

to rise upward through the central channel of the subtle body catalysing mukti and siddhis for the

practitioner. Importantly, the medieval conceptions of subtle physiology were not reified and were

considered a result of the textual tradition and practice.

Tantric and Haṭhayogic practices in modern yoga

Recent scholarship on modern yoga has suggested a gradual process of cultural exchange,

beginning in the late nineteenth century, whereby both American and Indian practitioners of yoga

began to adapt premodern notions of the subtle body to suit the mores of the time (Albanese

2007, 343- 357; De Michelis 2005, 3). A reciprocal relationship developed between a number of

American10 and Indian centres of religious thought11, marked by travel back and forth, by

10
Also Britain, but this present study will focus on America.
11
In particular Bengal, India and Chicago, America.

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prominent figures with fervent desires to spread their ideas for a variety of motives (Albanese

2007, 343- 357). Beginning with the Theosophists and a number of adherents of Theosophist

ideas, continuing with Swami Vivekananda, and later Swami Muktananda, various aspects of the

subtle body were highlighted and practices for its manipulation emphasised. Gradually the

understanding of the subtle body, how to manipulate it, and to what ends, transformed. A newly

simplified and reified subtle physiology could be manipulated to foster a healthy body and ‘self-

realisation’12.

The subtle body and theosophy in late nineteenth century America

During the late nineteenth century in America, on the fringes of mainstream religion, new

metaphysical discourses brought together a fascination with the East, new scientific ideas, and

reconstructed Hermeticism (Albanese 2007, 330). Both Americans and eventually Indians

participated in a process of reimaging the philosophical traditions of Asia and in so doing making

them more culturally available to western audiences (Albanese 2007, 330). The first major figure to

publish works, which as Catherine Albanese puts it ‘”creolized” Asian cultural worlds with already

combinative American discourses’, was Helena Blavatsky (2007, 335; Samuel & Johnston 2013, 2).

Her most ambitious work, The Secret Doctrine, published in the late 1800s, is unlikely to have been

based on a previously unheard of Tibetan text, from an unknown Tibetan language, as she claimed;

rather, the overall story of human origins put forward by Blavatsky resembles Gnostic and

Kabbalistic lore from the Middle Ages (Albanese 2007, 336). Despite this, Blavatsky’s major work

was one of the first of its kind to synthesise concepts like karma, reincarnation, and subtle bodies,

12
The term ‘self-realisation’ itself has a specific history of usage that is relevant to this discussion (De Michelis 2004, 127). One of
the most common concepts adopted by modern yoga proponents like Vivekananda and Muktananda was the theme of direct
‘realisation’ (De Michelis 2004, 128). Initially employed as a translation of the Upaniṣadic concepts brahmajñāna (knowledge of
brahma the absolute) and ātmajñāna (knowledge of the self), ‘self-realisation’ eventually became a buzzword within modern yoga
(De Michelis 2004, 130). The Neo-Vedantists of the Bengali intelligentsia, promoted a simplified version of Vedānta, that fused
earlier Upaniṣadic and Vedantic concepts with modern Western metaphysical ideas, Christian influences, and notions of science and
alternative healing (De Michelis 2004, 130-138). Shaped by these discourses, brahma became a type of universalised ‘God’, ātma
became the personal ‘self’, and knowledge of these was developed by an ‘inner feeling’ or ‘direct perception’, eventually
synonymous with ‘self-realisation’ (De Michelis 2004, 130-138).

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and provide ‘the vocabulary and grammar for a generic metaphysical discourse’ in America

(Albanese 2007, 336; Samuel & Johnston 2013, 2; Johnston 2013, 187). The text effaced the

cultural and historic context for many of the South Asian concepts so that Blavatsky could reframe

them as universal and thus insert them into her own complex cosmology (Albanese 2007, 336).

One of the concepts that Blavatsky elucidated in detail in The Secret Doctrine was a metaphysical

anatomy of the body (Albanese 2007, 343; Samuel & Johnston, 2013, 2). Building on an earlier

notion of three bodies, the physical, astral, and spiritual (published in Isis Unveiled), Blavatsky now

laid out an ambitious schema of seven bodies with South Asian sounding names, claiming a Vedic

origin for them (Albanese 2007, 343). Blavatsky may indeed have been initially referring to the

Upaniṣadic concept sūkṣmaśarīra, yet the world view she situated her subtle bodies framework in

was not one of pre-modern cosmology. Rather, The Secret Doctrine described a mythical story of

human evolution where human agency produced spiritual evolution (Albanese 2007, 341-343). In

this new schema, the highest body was the ‘atma’ (universal spirit), followed by the ‘Prana’ (breath

or vital phenomena), the Linga-Sarira (astral body), the ‘Kama-rupa’ (animal soul), the ‘Manas’

(mind or human soul), the ‘Buddhi’ (spiritual soul), and the ‘Gross Matter’ (physical body)

(Albanese 2007, 343). The subtle matter of each body was described in the language of modern

physics with term like ‘energy’ and ‘vibration’ (Johnston 2013, 188). The highest two bodies within

the schema were together named ‘Monad’ or ‘Higher Self’ which could undergo a spiritual

evolution through various states of ‘self-consciousness and self-perception’ until it became divine

(Albanese 2007, 344). To Blavatsky the goal was this divine self-knowledge and the method

Blavatsky recommended was ‘mystic meditation’ rather than extreme physical asceticism

(Albanese 2007, 351). In fact, she seems to have considered Haṭhayoga as a distasteful ‘lower’

practice (Albanese 2007, 351). Blavatsky’s work is one of the first major attempts to re-situate and

re-interpret notions of the subtle body. The medieval Tantric goal of liberation from the binds of

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worldly existence is re-interpreted as the application of human agency, in the form of meditation,

to catalyse an evolutionary development of the subtle body (discussion of Tantric ‘subtle

physiology’ of nāḍīs and cakras is markedly absent) resulting in self-knowledge, which is

synonymous with god-knowledge.

Early American promoters of Tantra

Albanese identifies a number of early twentieth century figures who adapted premodern Tantric

subtle body notions to include the new metaphysical content promoted by Blavatsky (Albanese

2007, 358). Yogic practitioner-authors, such as Sir John Woodroffe and his Serpent Power (1918),

and Theos Bernard and his Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience (1050), describe the

subtle body and practices for its manipulation with some fidelity to pre-modern ideas (Albanese

2007, 364). Even so, the ultimate aim of yogic practice was defined by them in terms of ‘bliss-

inducing ecstasy of the self contemplating its Self’ (Albanese 2007, 364).

One figure of note, William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932), an American New Thought 13 author,

began to write under the South Asian sounding pseudonym Yogi Ramacharaka from 1902

(Albanese 2007, 359). In books with illustrative titles, such as The Yoga Philosophy of Physical Well-

Being and Hatha Yoga, Ramacharaka described the human being as being composed of a series of

five hierarchical planes from the lowest vegetative to the highest plane of Cosmic Knowing

(Albanese 2007, 359). To Ramacharaka all these planes were a manifestation of the mind, and

could thus be controlled by the ‘Will’ in order to influence the ‘Kingdom of the Self’ and awaken

the consciousness of the ‘Real Self’ (Albanese 2007, 359- 360). Here Ramacharaka synthesised

Blavatsky’s notion of hierarchical subtle bodies, with the New Thought idea of ‘will power’, and the
13
According to Dechant, The New Thought movement is ‘a diverse and loosely affiliated collection of religious communities that
share an idealistic theology, an optimistic worldview, and an emphasis on religious rituals that focus on personal well-being, health,
and material success’ (2005, 6583). New Thought's essential philosophy holds that ‘the ultimate basis of existence is mental (God as
Mind) and all material/physical conditions are secondary to and products of human mental states and conditions.’ (Dechant 2005,
6583)

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goal of knowing the ‘Real Self’ (recalling Blavatsky’s ‘Higher Self’), by manipulating the physical

body (‘Kingdom of the Self’). To this end his books describe, if sparingly, adaptations of pre-

modern āsanas and prāṇayāmas that in his view led to a healthy and conditioned physical ‘Temple

of the Spirit’ (Albanese 2007, 360). Ramacharaka’s work is thus one of the first to suggest that the

manipulation of the subtle body, via the application of the ‘Will’, would provide healing to the

physical body. Ramacharaka thus retains the Haṭhayogic approach of physical sādhanā, yet the

goal seems less about liberation, and more to do with achieving a healthful physical body in this

temporal existence. Additionally, this is perhaps one of the first instances where the physical body

is considered the ‘Kingdom of the Self’, or the vehicle that must be kept healthy in order to do the

practices required for self-realisation, a concept that was by this time already articulated by Swami

Vivekanada and would become central to modern postural yoga in subsequent decades (De

Michelis 2004, 137).

Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) is perhaps best known as the founder of the Ramakrishna Math

and Mission, yet his role in the development of modern yoga has also been considerable (De

Michelis 2005, 91; Albanese 2007, 355; Singleton 2010,4). Vivekananda, born Narendranath Dutt,

began his life in Calcutta, Bengal (Killingley 2015, np). As a young man he attended the

Metropolitan Institution and Calcutta University, and later joined the Brāhmo Samāj 14, where he

began to apply his interest in European philosophy to religious questions although, according to

scholars, perhaps not systematically (Killingley 2015, np; De Michelis 2004, 99). After the death of

his father in 1881, Vivekananda became dissatisfied with the Brāhmo Samāj and turned to the

spiritual teacher Ramakrishna (Killingley 2015, np; De Michelis 2004, 100). Ramakrishna was a

Hindu figure who practised mixed forms of worship, including Vedānta and Tantra (De Michelis
14
The Brāhmo Samāj was a religious and social movement of elite Bengalis during the early 1800s. Influenced by western contacts,
the Brāhmos attempted to reform what they regarded as ‘Hinduism’ by fusing Neo-Vedānta, western metaphysics and scientific
notions of the time (Albanese 2007, 355).

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2005, 105-108; Sen 2016, np). Following Ramakrishna's death, Vivekananda claimed that he had

been initiated by Ramakrishna into his sannyāsī (renunciate) order; indeed Vivekananda lived the

rest of his life as such (De Michelis 2005, 105-108). From around 1892 Vivekananda became

motivated by a sense of social justice and a desire to ‘raise the masses’ from the material poverty

he saw around him (De Michelis 2004, 108). In a curiously simplistic manner, he saw India as

materially poor but spiritually rich, and the West as the inverse (De Michelis 2004, 108-109;

Killingley 2015, np). As a result, seeing an opportunity to fulfil his new aims, Vivekananda decided

to attend the Parliament of Religions in Chicago where he delivered a series of lectures promoting

what he regarded as the spiritual essence of India (Killingley 2015, np). Following the Parliament of

Religions Vivekananda stayed on in America to tour and lecture and eventually established the

Vedānta Society in New York in 1895 (Albanese 2007, 354).

Vivekananda’s best known work, Rāja-Yoga, was first published in 1896 and reflected his blended

message of Neo-Vedānta and American metaphysical concepts. He delivered his message in the

language of his American audience who were already familiar with a variety of metaphysical

notions, including those promoted by the Theosophists, Christian Scientists, and Mesmerists 15

(Albanese 2007, 354-355). Thus Vivekananda’s language, even when referring to pre-modern yogic

concepts, which he draw mainly from the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali (made familiar to his audience

previously by Blavatsky) and his interpretation of the Sāṃkhya philosophy which underpins it, was

thoroughly modern (Albanese 2007, 355). To Vivekananda, yoga was a ‘science of the soul’ which

taught the use of ‘mental effort’ (reminiscent of the New Though notion of ‘will power’) to keep

the body strong so that the practitioner could achieve ‘self-realization’ (Albanese 2007, 356).

In Rāja-Yoga Vivekananda describes a cosmos based on the interplay of prāṇa (vital breath) and
15
Mesmerism was a system of healing, founded by Franz Anton Mesmer, who expounded the main principle of his discovery as
animal magnetism. The system was initially employed to use Mesmer’s concept of ‘magnetic fluid’ to heal various conditions, but
later developed into hypnotism (Melton 2001, 1026-1028).

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ākāśa (space) in a creative interpretation of the emanation doctrine of Sāṃkhya (De Michelis 2004,

155). Prāṇa and ākāśa are postulated to ‘produce the whole of the manifested universe by way of

their interaction’ (De Michelis 2004, 156). These notions combined with a kind of pseudo-scientific

language of ‘energy’, ‘vibration’, and ‘mechanical causality’ form a syncretic epistemology that

diverges considerably from the microcosm-macrocosm framework of earlier Tantra (De Michelis

2004, 160; CWSV, Raja Yoga).

The subtle body to Vivekananda was primarily associated with the control of prāṇa, yet the

traditionally ‘subtle’ prāṇa of Tantra was re-interpreted and equated with the concept of ‘vital

fluid’ or ‘vital force’, a notion already common in the discourses of American metaphysical healing

movements like mesmerism (De Michelis 2004, 161; Albanese 2007, 356- 357). Vivekananda

writes: ‘This Prāṇa is the vital force in every being… ‘ (CWSV, Raja Yoga, 33). Also akin to

mesmerism, Vivekananda’s exposition of prāṇa additionally emphasises health and healing (De

Michelis 2004, 161; Albanese 2007, 356- 357). Vivekananda states:

‘Every part of the body can be filled with Prāṇa, this vital force, and when you are able to

do that, you can control the whole body. All the sickness and misery felt in the body will be

perfectly controlled…’ (CWSV, Raja Yoga, 38)

Vivekananda privileged a meditative practice, and in fact seemed to distance his own teachings

from any strenuous style of Haṭhayoga, saying ‘We have nothing to do with it here’ and that those

practices ‘… do not lead to much spiritual growth’ (CWSV, Raja Yoga; Albanese 2007, 357). This

rejection of Haṭhayoga might be seen in connection with his desire to present a particular type of

‘reformed’ Hinduism to his Western audience16. Nonetheless, in Raja-Yoga he did briefly describe a

16
It is beyond the scope of this essay to go into the Indian response to British colonial and missionary influences, the Brāhmo Samāj,
and development of Neo-Vedānta/ Neo-Hinduism, yet this is the context the word ‘Western’ refers to here.

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set of structures indicative of the Tantric subtle body:

‘According to the Yogīs there are two nerve currents in the spinal column, called Pingalā

and Iḍā, and there is a hollow canal called Suśuṃnā running through the spinal cord. At the

lower end of the hollow canal is what the Yogīs call the “Lotus of the Kuṇḍalinī.”… When

that Kuṇḍalinī awakes it tries to force a passage through this hollow canal…’ (CWSV, Raja

Yoga, 47)

Further on in the text, Vivekananda describes a series of ‘plexuses’ (cakras), which he then

proceeds to equate directly with the gross physiological structures of the nervous system and also

modern electricity (CW, 48). When kuṇḍalinī awakens and rises to the brain, ‘Divine Wisdom, and

super-conscious perception, and realisation of the spirit’17 is attained (CWSV, Raja Yoga, 53). The

methods given by Vivekananda for this achievement are love for God, the ‘mercy’ of a guru, and

‘the analytic will of the philosopher’ (CWSV, Raja Yoga, 53). Furthermore, Vivekananda adopts an

empirical approach to feeling the workings of prāṇa as though it were a physical structure that

might be measured by individual attention:

‘We do not know anything about our own bodies… our attention is not discriminating

enough to catch the very fine movements that are going on within. We can know of them

only when the mind becomes more subtle and enters, as it were, deeper into the body…

We have to get hold of that which is setting the whole engine in motion. That is the Prana,

the most obvious manifestation of which is the breath. Then… we shall… find out about the

subtle forces, the nerve currents that are moving all over the body.’ (CWSV, Raja Yoga, 38)

17
Spirit was often used by Vivekananda synonymously with self.

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This quote demonstrates that Vivekananda made an attempt to connect modern anatomical

knowledge of the nervous system with the Tantric subtle body concept of nadīs (although he does

not use the term nadī in Raja-Yoga). In fact he argues that modern science is discovering what the

yogis already knew, which seems to imply the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system (De

Michelis 2004, 167). Vivekananda’s Rāja-Yoga thus illustrates an epistemological understanding

and language which diverges considerably from premodern Tantric subtle body notions. The nadīs

have become ‘nerve currents’ which correspond to the physiological nervous system, prāṇa has

become ‘vital force’ which enables the physical body to achieve health, and kuṇḍalinī is lifted to

the brain via ‘the analytic will of the philosopher’ whereby self-realisation is achieved.

Given Vivekananda’s distaste for traditional Haṭhayoga practices it is difficult to postulate the

origins of his conception of the subtle body. His guru Ramakrishna is known to have been a

worshipper of the Tantric goddess Kālī and a practitioner of Tantra who was at one time

apprenticed to the female tantric guru, Bhairavi Yogeshwari (Sen 2016, np). Jeffrey Kripal suggests

that Ramakrishna often spoke of the subtle body (citing the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga and

Sri Sri Ramakrishna-kathamrita), yet the young Vivekananda rejected many aspects of

Ramakrishna’s Tantric practices, adopting instead more orthodox texts and the life style of a

renunciate (1995, 44, 26-27). It is of course possible that Tantric philosophies were a topic of

debate among the members of the Brāhmo Samāj with whom Vivekananda had spent considerable

time. Alternatively, in a manner similar to Gandhi’s discovery of the Bhagavadgita, Vivekananda

could have encountered ideas about the subtle body from the American metaphysical milieu itself.

In any case, Vivekananda made a significant contribution to the developing discourses of the subtle

body in modern yoga. Speaking to his audience in the metaphysical language of the time, he

promoted an adapted subtle body that was grounded in the physiological nervous system, within

which ‘nerve currents’ flowed, and kuṇḍalinī was awakened via meditation, leading to self-

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realisation (CWSV, Raja Yoga). Vivekananda’s discourse seems to have been consequently taken up

and reframed in more openly Tantric terms by Swami Muktananda.

Swami Muktananda

Swami Muktananda was another influential modern yoga figure who is primarily known for

establishing the hugely popular Siddha Yoga School (Healy 2016, np; Jain 2013, 190; Healy 2016,

np; Caldwell 2001, 9). First established in the 1970s, Siddha yoga soon became one of the biggest

American Meditational yoga schools and today the SYDA Foundation maintains retreat centres

around the world (Siddha Yoga Path 2016, np). Muktananda was born Krishna in 1908 in a small

town in the state of Karnataka, India (Jain 2013, 193; Healy 2016, np). Most of what is known of his

early life is hagiographic in nature and thus the factual details are difficult to ascertain (Jain 2013,

193). However, from this information, scholars recognise an early desire in Muktananda to enter

into religious vocation (Jain 2013, 193; Healy 2016, np). As a young boy he left his family home and

took initiation into the Sarasvati Order of Daśanāmīs at Siddharudha’s āśram (monastery) in Hubli

(Jain 2013, 193; Healy 2016, np). It was here he was given his name, Muktananda, meaning “bliss

of liberation”, and was taught a variation of Advaita Vedānta (Jain 2013, 193). Eventually he left the

āśram and embarked on a period of wandering, during which he travelled to many famous

pilgrimage sites, learning eclectically as he went (Jain 2013, 193; Healy 2016, np). Finally he settled

at the āśram of the man who was to become his self-professed major guru, Swami Nityananda,

who gave him kuṇḍalinī awakening initiation (śaktipāta), a practice which would later become

central to the Siddha Yoga tradition (Healy 2016, np). Following Nityananda’s death, Muktananda

laid the foundations for the Shree Gurudev Ashram (later renamed Gurudev Siddha Peeth) in

Ganeshpuri, the first headquarters of Siddha Yoga (Jain 2013, 193; Healy 2016, np). During the

early 1970s Muktananda established his first American yoga centre and began to preach his

‘meditation revolution’ (Albanese 2007, 371).

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Swami Muktananda, according to the accounts of close devotees, appears to have been a

practitioner of a type of Kashmir Śaivism inspired by Abhinavagupta (Caldwell 2001, 14). For most

of his teaching life he gave instruction on Vedantic and Tantric practices characterised by a level of

adaption to the moral attitudes of his audience (Albanese 2007, 371). Muktananda’s public

teachings appear to have been a ‘rationalized and domesticated, form of Tantric yoga situated

within a broader discourse of good health, bliss, and the divinity of the “Self”’ (Albanese 2007,

371). However, in his private life, which eventually became public, Muktananda seems to have

maintained Tantric practices, including those of a sexual nature, which might be considered similar

to medieval antinomian and secretive Śaivite Tantra (Caldwell 2001, 14).

Those who spent time at the Siddha Yoga ashram were offered a program of sādhanā which

combined elements of Vedānta and Tantric Saivism under the name kuṇḍalinīyoga. (Jain 2013,

194). Devotees were encouraged to undertake practices of meditation, prāṇayāma, devotional

service (sevā), chanting, and nightly audiences with Muktananda, referred to by devotees as ‘Baba’

or ‘father,’ to receive śaktipāta (Jain 2013, 195). Sarah Caldwell, a long term devotee of Siddha

Yoga and scholar of South Asian religion, describes a tiered sādhanā system given to devotees by

Muktananda over the years, which she relates to a similar system outlined by Abhinavagupta

(2001, 14). Within Abhinavagupta’s system, different practices were given to devotees according to

their ‘nature’; for Muktananda the levels of sādhanā represented a gradual disclosure of practices

from the more Vedantic to the Śaivite Tantric (Caldwell 2001, 14). The practice emphasised by

Muktananda above all others was meditation. In his Play of Consciousness he suggests fulfilment

and peace, no matter the practitioner’s position, vocation, or desires, come through meditation

(Muktananda 2000, 11). He insists: ‘Meditate, all of you, whether you are a defendant or a lawyer,

whether you are a beggar or rich merchant…You will find the peace of your Self.’ (2000, 11).

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During the early to mid-1970s Muktananda promoted a program of ‘self-discipline, celibacy,

vegetarianism, daily chanting, hard physical labor, service, and meditation’ (Caldwell 2001, 14).

Then, during the 1970s to 1980, Muktananda began to introduce practices and philosophy

described by Caldwell as Kashmir Śaivite (Caldwell 2001, 14). At this time Muktananda encouraged

his students to read Tantric Śaivite texts like the Shiva Sutras, Vijnanabhairava, and

Pratyabhinahridayam (Caldwell 2001, 14). Finally, in his last days, Muktananda appears to have

revealed additional practices to a select group of Siddha Yoga initiates involving the worship of

Tantric goddesses (devī) and more controversial sexual rituals (Caldwell 2001, 14). In recounting

Muktananda’s gradual Tantric revelation, Caldwell suggests that he had on one level made an

attempt to model himself after Abhinavagupta as a teacher, and on another level had in fact always

been a Śaivite tantrika in secret (Caldwell 2001, 14). Seen from another perspective, Jain views

Muktantanda as a modern ‘godman’18 who responded to the predominant spiritual marketplace of

his time, both in India and America, with a program packaged to address the wealthy middle class’s

desire for meaning and identity ‘in the face of globalization and other modern social processes’

(2013, 196). Seen in this way, Muktananda’s late transgressive Tantric revelation might simply have

been a response to the increasingly sexually open counter-culture climate of 1970s- 1980s America

(Albanese 2007, 371).

Muktananda’s teachings with regard to the subtle body illustrate a number of these personal and

professional contradictions. Muktananda spoke and wrote on aspects of the subtle body often,

especially on kuṇḍalinī and the role of śaktipāta in awakening her (Brooks & Bailly 1997, 445).

Describing the subtle physiology of the body and kuṇḍalinī’s function within in it, Muktananda

writes:
18
‘Godmen (and godwomen), defined by C. J. Fuller (2004, 177–81) as contemporary ascetic figures who find fame within and
sometimes beyond India and are revered and worshiped as divine, were in particularly high demand in the global spiritual market’
(Jain 2003, 196).

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‘… She purifies the nadis, She purifies one of latent diseases as well as of such feelings as

aversion, hatred, and greed. When the nadis are purified, the mind becomes still, and one

begins to enter the state of samadhi. Rising through sushumna nadi, the central channel

within the spinal column, the Shakti pierces and purifies the six chakras…’ (Brooks & Bailly

1997, 459).

Here there is evidence of pre-modern Tantra and Haṭhyoga subtle physiology and the goal of

controlling the mind, yet there is also evidence of a more modern discourse of physical and

psychological health and wellbeing, revealing a level of adaptation to Muktananda’s modern

audience.

To Muktananda, the practice of central importance in the Siddha Yoga tradition was the awakening

of kuṇḍalinī through the guru’s ‘grace-bestowing power’, which did not require the more

mechanical Haṭhayoga practices, rather devotion to the guru and to kuṇḍalinī herself were

elevated as the most efficacious methods. Muktananda writes:

‘The speed of one’s progress on the spiritual path in direct proportion to one’s faith, love,

and devotion for Kundalini. She is the form of God, the universal Mother… She is awakened

through the grace of the Guru, who is himself Kundalini.’ (Brooks & Bailly 1997, 449)

This deification of kuṇḍalinī evident in this quote recalls Abhinavagupta’s complex kuṇḍalinī

system; however, the elaborate visualisation practice, larger cosmological framework, and

liberation discourse have been replaced by devotion to the guru and the ‘universal Mother’.

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Muktananda discouraged the use of Haṭhayoga without the guidance of the guru, suggesting that

it may ‘prove to be harmful’ (Brooks & Bailly 1997, 465). Furthermore, Brooks and Bailly (who it

should be noted are both Siddha Yoga devotees) suggest that although the Siddha Yoga teachings

take many aspects of the pre-modern Haṭhayoga traditions, Siddha Yoga does not promote

extreme ascetic bodily practices or inner alchemy for the purpose of embodied liberation

(jivanmukti) or ‘bodily immortality’ (1997, 466-467). Rather, Muktananda describes a process of

subtle body purification where the body ‘becomes strong and firm, with all the suppleness of a

child’ (Brooks & Bailly 1997, 469). This quote reveals an acceptance of the pre-modern Tantric

process of purification, yet the goal of embodied liberation has been abandoned in favour of a

more modern concept of healthy physical body.

Muktananda makes another notable adaptation in his subtle body discourse when he claims ‘The

unfolding of the central nāḍī is the pilgrimage to liberation, the path of Self-realization’ and ‘This

manifestation of the Kundalini … culminates in the ultimate realization of God within oneself’

(Brooks & Bailly 1997, 476). Once again, in language that conforms to Vivekananda’s before him,

Muktananda’s liberation is equated with ‘Self-realization’ and the direct perception of ‘God’ within

the self.

Like Vivekananda, Muktananda often referred to his own guru Nityananda as his source of know-

ledge and as the transmitter of the power of his lineage in the form of śaktipāta and it is reason-

able to assume that much of Muktananda’s conception of the subtle body came from Nityananda

(Durgananda 1997, 10). Little reliable information regarding Swami Nityananda’s early life and spir-

itual training is known (Johnson 2009, np). Some uncertain details of his early life are given in

Swami Durgananda’s uncritical history of the Siddha Yoga tradition, yet details of his spiritual train-

ing are avoided by the claim that Nityananda was of ‘the class of accomplished yogis referred to in

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Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka as saṃsiddhika-gurus or janma (“born”) siddhas’ (Durgananda 1997,

10). Regardless of the truth of these claims, this story does immediately link Nityananda with Kash-

mir Śaivism’s prominent exponent Abhinavagupta in what seems to be a deliberate attempt to

make a connection between the two and Muktananda. Caldwell has suggested that Muktananda

had been an initiated Śaivite tantrika in secret, only gradually revealing the core of his practice in

his final years, but this is also conjecture (Caldwell 2001, 14). What does appear likely is that Muk-

tananda studied the works of Abhinavagupta, taking some aspects of his subtle body framework

and practice and adapting both language and practices to suit his modern American audience. His

private practices seem to have embraced the transgressive aspects of medieval Tantra and

Haṭhayoga and imply a more traditional conception of the subtle body. Whether or not Muk-

tananda meant for his private life to become public, there is some indication in his teaching that he

understood the American spiritual marketplace had become more liberal since Blavatsky and

Vivekananda’s time.

Conclusion

The premodern conception of the subtle body, best exemplified in Tantra and Haṭhayoga was

characterised by a subtle physiology which included a complex network of interrelated vessels

(nāḍīs and cakras), through which flow subtle substances (prāṇa and kuṇḍalinī), when manipulated

by practices (sādhanā, prāṇayāma), for the goal of liberation (mukti) from the bondage of earthly

existence and the attainment of supernatural powers (siddhis). Framed within a cosmology of

microcosm and macrocosm, and emanation doctrine, the subtle physiology was not reified and

was considered a manifestation of Tantric and Haṭhayogic sādhanā.

Via a gradual process of cultural exchange, beginning in the late nineteenth century, both

American and Indian practitioners of yoga began to adapt premodern notions of the subtle body to

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suit the mores of the time. Beginning with the Theosophist Helena Blavatsky, the subtle body

became an elaborate series of ‘energetic’ bodies and was associated with the personal self. Within

this schema, meditation was promoted as the ideal sādhanā and the physical austerities of pre-

modern Haṭhayoga were considered distasteful. Yogi Ramacharaka synthesised Blavatsky’s notion

of hierarchical subtle bodies, with the New Thought idea of ‘will power’, and the goal of knowing

the ‘Real Self’, by manipulating the physical body (‘Kingdom of the Self’). Ramacharaka’s work is

then an early example of the identification of the subtle body with the physical body.

In Vivekananda’s writing there is a return to the pre-modern subtle physiology of nāḍīs and

kuṇḍalinī, yet the framework has shifted from the Tantric cosmology to a fusion of Neo-Vedantic

and American metaphysical philosophy. Vivekananda promoted an adapted subtle body that was

grounded in the physiological nervous system, within which ‘nerve currents’ flowed, and kuṇḍalinī

was awakened by meditation and led to a healthy physical body and self-realisation. Vivekananda

was careful to distance his conception of the subtle body from ideas and practices that might be

considered transgressive in an attempt to promote what he saw as an idealised conception of

Hinduism. The work of Muktananda maintained more fidelity to medieval notions of the subtle

body. Modelling himself on the Kashmir Śaivite Abhinavagupta, Muktananda promoted the ‘grace-

bestowing power’ of the guru (śaktipāta) and a deified kuṇḍalinī who would bring health and self-

realisation. Muktananda’s teachings seem to have become progressively more transgressive over

the years suggesting that he judged the American spiritual marketplace to have become more

liberal.

The notion that the subtle body and its subtle physiology of nāḍīs, cakras and kuṇḍalinī may be

manipulation for the achievement of health and self-realisation remains popular in modern

meditational yoga today. This modern conception of the subtle body associates the subtle

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physiology with the physiological structures of the body giving them a solidity which falls outside

the framework of medieval Tantra and Haṭhayoga. Now divorced from the pre-modern cosmology

which promoted liberation from the bondage of earthly existence, modern yoga seeks to

manipulate the subtle body in order to experience the personal self as ‘God’. Although the major

structures were retained, if simplified, the methods used to manipulate the subtle body shifted

from complex ritual practice involving visualisation, prāṇayāma, and other physical austerities, to

devotion to the guru, the application of ‘will’, and meditation. These ideas, presented in the work

of highly influential figures like Blavatsky, Ramacharaka, Vivekananda, and Muktananda promoted

a notion of the subtle body that was adapted, re-interpreted, and expressed in thoroughly modern

language, and in so doing catalysed a lasting influence on subtle body discourses in modern

meditational yoga.

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