[INDOLOGY] chakras and vedic meditation

[Matthew Kapstein]

Hi Patrick,

The goddess is Gaja-lakshmī and you're right that this is
a new age soup. 'Veda' has of course long been used in India to
refer to 'sacred knowledge' in a much broader sense than what
we think of as the Vedic corpus, but I have the impression
that the secondary use has absolutely proliferated in Indian
popular culture in recent years, and now with the encouragements
of those in power.

The historical unpacking of the subtle body systems one finds in
Hathayoga and later Buddhist tantra has not so far, to the best of
my knowledge, been done. But I think it's safe to say that the
frameworks invoked by groups like those you are studying are not
fully in evidence before the last half of the second millennium, though
some elements (e.g. the 'winds') do have very early antecedants.

good luck,
Matthew

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études,
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago

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