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Editor's
Introduction
BOOKSTORES
ARE FILLED today with paperbacks that describe the chakras,
the energy centers through which Tantric yogis guide
the Kundalini to attain realization.
The
book you are about to read is one of the earliest in
that genre. It was written more than five hundred years
ago in Sanskrit by a Bengali yogi named Purnananda.
We know this book was highly esteemed through the centuries
because it was the subject of numerous commentaries.
In
the early 1900s, a manuscript of this text was obtained
by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe). He translated
it into English and included it as part of his famous
book The Serpent Power which was first published
in 1919.
Avalon's
translation is reproduced here exactly as it appeared
in The Serpent Power. However, we have omitted
or changed some of his footnotes and added a few of
our own.
We
have retained Avalon's spelling cakra even though
chakra is more usual today.
The
copyright on this translation has expired.
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