Kundalini is one of the most frequently mentioned concepts in yoga and one of those whose meaning varies the most depending on the text describing it. Tantric texts present it as a power associated with the divine feminine, hatha yoga texts as a personal energy that can be worked with through certain practices, while a contemporary school adopted the word as its proper name. Following this progression helps us understand what each source actually says.

The name refers to something coiled. Kundala means circular or ring-shaped, and kundalini, in the feminine form, is understood as "the coiled one". The accompanying image is that of a sleeping serpent at the base of the body, and in the texts it also appears as one of the forms of Shakti, the creative force associated with the divine feminine.

The concept develops within tantra. Between the 7th and 12th centuries, tantric texts gradually developed the idea of a latent power within the body, particularly in Shakta traditions such as Kaula. In this context, it is not a technique but a cosmic reality: the Shakti that sustains the universe and is also present within every person.

In hatha yoga, it becomes a personal energy. In texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, from the 15th century, and the Yoga Upanishads, the term is used as a technical concept: kundalini is the energy within each person, which can be directed through specific practices. It shifts from being a cosmic force to something that can be worked with through the body.

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika describes a model of ascent. Kundalini appears as a coiled serpent at the base of the central channel, the sushumna; when the mudras clear this channel, it rises toward Sahasrara, at the crown of the head. It is a path from bottom to top along the axis of the body. The tools proposed by the text for this path are mudras, bandhas and pranayama; postures play a preparatory role.

Descriptions vary from one source to another. Each tradition explains it using its own vocabulary: as Shakti in tantra, as coiled energy in hatha yoga, or as part of a process of absorption in texts associated with laya yoga, the yoga of dissolution into the cosmic. There is no single version, and the texts do not agree on every detail.

The texts present these practices as teachings passed from master to disciple. Hatha yoga sources describe them as knowledge transmitted directly, and this approach is repeated throughout classical yoga literature. It is the same principle we encountered when discussing cleansing techniques: practices involving breath and energy are learned from someone who knows the path.

Kundalini Yoga, as a school, is a 20th-century synthesis. Introduced in the West from the late 1960s onward, it adopts the concept as its name and brings together kriyas, breathing techniques and mantras from the Sikh tradition, as we saw in previous articles. Historical studies describe it as a combination of yoga techniques with elements from other traditions, while the concept of kundalini itself dates back centuries earlier. Distinguishing between the idea and the school prevents attributing to one what belongs to the other.

It is best understood as a map. Each tradition proposes its own map for a particular type of practice, and the way to read them is to attribute each description to its source. Kundalini belongs to this broader framework: a concept with its own history, described in different ways, best learned under the guidance of someone familiar with the tradition from which it comes.