by Sravana Borkataky-Varma (Author), Anya Foxen (Author)
I wrote this 5 star Amazon review for Anya Foxen and Sravana Borkataky-Varma‘s book “The Serpent’s Tale: Kundalini, Yoga, and the History of an Experience”, Columbia University Press, September 30, 2025:
“For purposes of clarity, I will share that I was with the Kundalini Research Foundation of Darien Connecticut for over ten years (founded by Gopi Krishna) and per that school I was informed that I had been ‘born with an active Kundalini).
Of course I’m just a Minnesota farm boy, and I butcher the pronunciation of Sanskrit worse than anyone.
Of course Kundalini doesn’t care.
So where to begin?
This book is not intended to give precise ‘raising instructions’ like so many books do, though there is a bit of that from a couple traditions.
I would hope that one would not purchase this book for that purpose (that they had an existing support system).
The reason that I find this book so compelling is not that it gives an excel spreadsheet of ‘steps’ for hurried Westerners who want a ‘quick happy meal’ (I do have such a spreadsheet quite humorously, but I no longer need it).
What this book does so well is to introduce the topic from the very beginnings of ancient India, through many (but not all of its many, many gyrations) through history and gurus, practitioners and scholar, from the East, the West and elsewhere, and shares an overview big picture of what uniformity, or lack thereof could be ascertain between the many traditions, to find the ‘true Kundalini’.
I’m sure you know what happens with this, as “Kundalini” is too majestic and multifaceted to be caught, standardized and promoted as just one thing (though so many have tried).
But you get to see the journey from the ancient path, through intermediate stages, to modern day, and even learn what Internet Marketing, Social Media and the capitalist forces have done to package, distribute and profit from this, the ‘soul of matter’ one
might call it.
Then when you think you will be stranded in postmodern malaise, Sravana-Borkataky-Varma’s Diary is the last section, and you hear the ‘initiate only’ story of two ladies of later age, who had been initiated into physical practices for young children, that we in the West have trouble accepting, but which was appropriate for that culture, at that time.
Most amazingly, my body remembers most of the substance of the later-aged ladies ‘female practices’ and in fact when Kundalini and I got further acquainted (so that I could document it for others), my body did a version of the three Bandha locks and ‘stove pipe breathing’ it is sometimes called.
I share this not out of ego, to say “look at me! look at me!” but merely to demonstrate that the material in the book is quite accurate, and of superior quality than that in nearly all other (non-academic press books).
So this book is a treasure, as a big picture view.
Amazingly well done.
But it can’t, won’t and should not be your ‘guru’.”