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(20992-X, 20993-8) Two-volume set $10.00 The Book of Tea, Kakuzo Okakura. (20070-1) $1.95 Buddhist Logic, Theodore Stcherbatsky. (20955-5, 20956-3) Two-volume set $12.00 Alchemy, Medicine, Religion in the China of A.D. 320, James R . Ware (tr.). (24088-6) $6.00 (continued on back flap) Plate I] The Centres or Lotuses [Frontispiece THE SERPENT POWER BEING THE SAT-CAKRA-NIRtJPAtfA AND PADUKA-PAftCAKA TWO WORKS ON LAYA-YOGA, TRANSLATED FROM THE SANSKRIT, WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY BY ARTHUR AVALON (SIR JOHN WOODROFFE) DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC. NEW YORK This Dover edition, first published in 1974, is a republication of the seventh edition of the work as published by Ganesh & Co. (Madras) Private Ltd., Madras, India, in 1964 (the first edition was pub­ lished by Luzac 8c Co., London, in 1919). In the present edition, which is published by special arrangement with Ganesh & Co., the Sanskrit text that was included with the seventh edition has been omitted, and Plates I through VIII, originally in color, appear in black and white. International Standard Book Number: 0-486-23058-9 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-75259 Manufactured in the United States of America Dover Publications, Inc. 180 Varick Street New York, N.Y. 10014 PUBLISHERS’ NOTE TO SIXTH EDITION The growing interest evinced by the public to understand rightly the literature of Tantra Sastra and more especially the Yoga of Kundalini Sakti has encouraged us to bring out this new edition of the almost unique original work on the subject. The opportunity has been availed of to add a translitera­ tion of all the Sanskrit verses and provide indexes in English for half-verses, authors, citations, words, etc. June 1958 PUBLISHERS’ NOTE TO FIFTH EDITION W ithin the last three years most of the Works of Sir John WoodrofFe have been published by us after they had been out of print for nearly twenty years. It is gratifying to note that the public have appreciated the valuable nature of these books and their new, uniform get-up. The last Edition of Serpent Power was exactly the same as its predecessor but in the present one, to make reference to the Sanskrit portion easier and more convenient to critical students, indexes have been included for the verses, authors, citations, bibliography and important words at the end of the book. It is hoped that these additions would prove useful to at least some of the readers. November 1953 PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION This edition to which some additions have been made and in which some errors have been corrected has been revised throughout. Since the issue of the second edition several new volumes have appeared in the series of “ Tantrik Texts ”. In connection with this book the reader is specially referred to the Kamakaldvilasa, one of such Texts, as also to the essay on “ Creation in the Tantras 55 which with other new material is printed in Sakti and $akta. The publishers have pub­ lished a volume called Mahamaya by Professor Pramatha Natha Mukhyopadhyaya and myself in which comparison is made of the concept of Maya as held by the Saktas and Maya- vadins respectively. I repeat that it is not possible to under­ stand this Yoga without having been first well grounded in its philosophy. I say ‘ understand 5 only because the question of the reality and value of this form of Yoga is not one with which this book is concerned. Since the publication of the second edition, there has been issued a monograph on the Cakras by the well-known Theosophist, the Right Reverend C. W. Leadbeater, which includes matter published by him in 1910. The volume contains plates of the Cakras as said to have been seen clair- voyantly as also a plate of the Cakras according to Johann Georg Gichtel, a pupil of Jakob Boehme taken from his Theosophia Practica originally issued in 1696 and reprinted in 1897 (Chacornac, Paris. See also Plates at the end of Dr. Law’s edition of the translation into English of Behmen). viii THE SIX CENTRES AND THE SERPENT TOWER Dr. Rele has also published a book entitled The Mysterious Kundalim (Taraporewalla, Bombay) to which I have written an Introduction. Oxford A. A. September 11, 1928 PREFACE 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 Cakras, a number of half-tone plates taken from Life, showing some positions in Kundalinl- Yoga. The Introduction deals in a general way with the subject- matter of the Texts translated. I take however this opportun­ ity 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 o f Tantra, a work of peculiar value in that it is a translation of the work of a Bengali Pandit, himself a Sakta unacquainted with the English language but an inheri­ tor of the old traditions; as also my Sakti and Sdkta dealing with ritual, published since the date of my first Preface. The Studies in Mantra-Sastra referred to therein has also recently been published under the title of Garland of Letters. All such technical terms as Bindu, Nada 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 X THE SIX CENTRES AND THE SERPENT POWER with accuracy the exact meaning of the terms Consciousness, Mind, Life, Matter and so forth as used in Vedanta and these have been given in the series of little works under the general caption The World as Power.1 It is not possible to understand the rationale of Yoga without an accurate under­ standing of these fundamental terms. It has been rightly said that “ the practical portion of all Yoga, specially of Raja 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 ” (Raja Toga, by SwamI Dayanand, p. 9). I have given a short account of Sarva- nanda and his life in the Hindusthan Review. Other works by me on the Sastra are noted in the advertisement sheet at the end of the book. Les Andelys Eure A. Avalon October, 1922 1 Since republished in one volume (1957). PREFACE “ We pray to the Paradevata united with Siva, 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 a f Susumna, rises to that brilliant Energy which glitters with the lustre of ten million lightnings.