Podcast Summary:

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Anya Foxen, "The Serpent’s Tale: Kundalini, Yoga, and the History of an Experience"
Date: December 4, 2025
Host: Dr. Raj Balkaran
Guests: Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Dr. Anya Foxen

Overview

In this engaging episode, Dr. Raj Balkaran hosts Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Dr. Anya Foxen to discuss their upcoming co-authored book, The Serpent’s Tale: Kundalini, Yoga, and the History of an Experience (Columbia UP, 2025). The conversation explores the complex historical, cultural, and experiential threads surrounding the concept of Kundalini—its roots, transformations, transmissions, and ongoing relevance. The authors stress the diversity and fluidity of what is called “Kundalini,” emphasizing it as both a lived and evolving category of spiritual experience, rather than a fixed phenomenon.

Origins & Authorship

Genesis of the Book (01:33–06:19)

• Sravana’s Perspective:

  • Her doctoral work focused on Kundalini in women’s bodies, revealing lack of attention to female/third-gender experiences in traditional texts.
  • Frustrated by male-centric narratives, she sought to reframe Kundalini discourse.
  • The project grew from dissertation to article to book through discussions with Anya at the American Academy of Religion.
  • “It all kind of starts there... Some magic happens there too. Over a glass of wine, Anya and I, we started talking…before we knew it, it became a book.” (04:24, Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma)

• Anya’s Perspective:

  • Her background is in the history of modern yoga.
  • Although Kundalini was familiar, she had never foregrounded it in her scholarly narrative until collaborating with Sravana.
  • “It sort of occurred to me that Kundalini really was something that had been at the center … that I had never really sort of put at the center within the narrative as I'd been seeing it.” (05:06, Dr. Anya Foxen)

Audience & Approach

For Whom Is the Book? (06:29–13:19)

• The book is aimed at both scholars and practitioners—written in accessible language but maintains academic rigor.

• Authors prioritized affordability and readability, wanting their work to be widely approachable and useful.

• They note, with some humor, that Dr. Balkaran’s own success with popular scholarship (“34,000 copies”) was an inspiration for targeting a wider audience.

  • “We all know some of our books were priced at God knows what price and how many people can afford it. So even when it came to finding a publisher, that was a very important criteria.” (07:58, Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma)

• On Public Scholarship:

  • Raj emphasizes the vital role of public scholarship, likening the scholar’s task to creating a user-friendly app interface for powerful academic circuitry.
  • “It's all of the rigor and thought…and then it's having a user-friendly interface so people can make use of the power.” (10:34, Dr. Raj Balkaran)

Main Themes

History vs. Experience (13:19–19:08)

• The book is framed as a “history of an experience,” tracing the transmission of Kundalini concepts across two millennia.

• Rather than asserting a single, linear history, the authors map out the diversity and braiding of experiential and historical threads.

• They intentionally design the book to “confuse” readers—to challenge simplistic definitions and encourage openness to multiple forms of Kundalini experience.

  • “There is not one single Kundalini experience…So that is one very important factor for us.” (16:45, Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma)

• The book also probes narratives around orientalism and cultural transmission, arguing against simplistic views that Kundalini is merely “Western appropriation.”

  • “It's very inaccurate to just say theosophist or the Westerners…borrowed it and ran with it. That is not how the experience is to be seen.” (18:46, Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma)

Deep Dives: Chapters & Key Insights

South Asian Roots & Western Exchanges (19:09–33:16)

• Traces the earliest mentions of Kundalini (ca. 7th–8th centuries CE Tantric texts) while noting antecedents in earlier Upanishadic and cultural themes (serpents, fire, ascent).

• “If we really wanted to look at some of the earliest antecedents…we might want to talk about the Upanishadic body…the way that serpents show up in South Asian culture.” (19:17, Dr. Anya Foxen)

• The Kundalini serpent image gains prominence through a fusion of South Asian and Western (Christian, Gnostic, Hermetic) traditions. Western transformations often reframe the serpent as a symbol of both danger and salvific wisdom.

  • “Especially when it comes to…kundalini as something so powerful that it might be dangerous…the serpent becomes this kind of central…linchpin of the wisdom…This is something we really do see rising out of the Western sources…” (27:55, Dr. Anya Foxen)

• Key historical figures and texts, such as Jnanadev’s Gyaneshwari (13th c.), are highlighted as shaping conceptions of Kundalini practice, shifting toward step-by-step methods and broader inclusion.

  • “Now, for the first time, we have a Vaishnava integrating Shaiva and Tantra…and now for the first time, we are getting a text which is going to give us a very step by step…practice of raising the Kundalini.” (30:43, Dr. Sravana Borkotaki-Varma)

Defining Kundalini: The Challenge (33:16–37:13)

• The book fundamentally resists narrowing Kundalini to one “true” or universal experience.

• Experience and language are messy; every attempt to standardize fails to accommodate the breadth of accounts.

  • “Every time you try to sort of say, well, okay, Kundalini is these five checkboxes, there's going to be some number of people out there that are experiencing something completely different and yet still wanting to call it Kundalini.” (34:10, Dr. Anya Foxen)

• The authors accept this multiplicity as a strength, not a flaw.

  • “It's so hard to really pin down the term that we've learned to be comfortable, I think, with just letting the complexity be.” (36:49, Dr. Anya Foxen)

Commercialization & Experience in the Marketplace (37:13–42:06)

• Kundalini enters the “marketplace” as both a product and an experience to be collected, paralleling consumer shifts from collecting objects to collecting experiences.

  • “What happens when the serpent slithers into the marketplace?…It becomes a product…there is competition, market share, profit sharing.” (37:13, Dr. Sravana Borkotaki-Varma)

• The rise of “experience-seeking” aligns with broader trends (psychedelics, entheogens, etc.), making Kundalini a major player in the global market of spiritual experiences.

Kundalini on the Internet and Social Media (42:06–48:49)

• Chapter 8, “Serpent in the Web,” surveys contemporary digital expressions—TikTok, Facebook, Instagram—where ancient themes re-emerge and new forms (and dangers) proliferate.

  • “All of these things that have kind of existed historically we can still find today…whether that is this sort of media engagement with Kundalini…all those themes are still there on TikTok, on Instagram and these Facebook groups.” (42:22, Dr. Anya Foxen)

• Social media anonymity and lack of “container” (trusted teacher, lineage, or framework) present unique risks.

  • “It was so dark and so scary that both Anya and I, we had to consciously exit some of these groups because even if somebody said…‘I think I may have had a Kundalini experience’…you had suddenly people giving advice from good to very, like ultra scary advice, and you don't know who these people are anymore.” (48:00, Dr. Sravana Borkotaki-Varma)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Multiplicity:
  “The thing about human experience is it’s really, really messy. And…the second you try to rein it in, it kind of bursts out in five other directions.” (36:49, Dr. Anya Foxen)

• On Experience Seeking & Modernity:
  “Today we collect experience. And when we collect experience, when we look at this period in history…Kundalini is like a perfect player in the marketplace.” (40:25, Dr. Sravana Borkotaki-Varma)

• On Internet Risks:
  “The web makes the serpent possibly even more ferocious and scary and wary.” (48:00, Dr. Shravana Borkotaki-Varma)

• On Stories vs. Encyclopedias:
  “It’s a story, not an encyclopedia. And that’s okay.” (62:40, Dr. Anya Foxen)

Major Takeaways (57:16–63:55)

1. Appreciate Historical Complexity:

   • Origins matter, but there is no single narrative—multiple histories and experiences flow together.
   • Readers are equipped to contextualize and “containerize” their own experiences.
   • “There is not a single model of Kundalini…it’s always been variable, it’s always been multiple.” (58:19, Dr. Anya Foxen)

2. Framework for Meaning Making:

   • The book provides various historical and experiential frameworks for readers/practitioners to find resonance with, encouraging a personalized approach.
   • “There are so many different paths right? … Once you resonate, you know, okay, fine, I can go on.” (59:45, Dr. Shravana Borkotaki-Varma)

3. Hope for Greater Discourse:

   • Sravana’s “public secret” wish is for more practitioners to discuss experiences of Kundalini as boundless compassion and heart energy, not only as a “scary, fiery serpent.”
   • “I really hope that Anya and I are flooded with experiences who have the courage to come and say, you know what? I experienced Kundalini … as an explosion of boundless love.” (60:15, Dr. Shravana Borkotaki-Varma)

4. Embrace the Story, Not the Final Word:

   • The book invites readers to view Kundalini as part of an ongoing story, not a closed canon.
   • “It is a story. And even though we’ve tried to emphasize the kind of multiple nature of what this thing is…it’s still just one story.” (62:40, Dr. Anya Foxen)

Concluding Thoughts

The episode highlights Kundalini as a chimerical, evolving experience—one whose meaning is shaped by time, culture, context, and personal resonance. While historical threads—both eastern and western—matter, the authors urge us not to reduce Kundalini to any single definition or narrative. Instead, The Serpent’s Tale encourages openness to complexity, attentive historical literacy, and the nurturing of diverse, embodied spiritual trajectories.

Selected Key Timestamps:

• [01:33] Meet the Guests & Book Origins
• [06:29] Who Is This Book For?
• [13:19] History, Experience, and the Book’s Method
• [19:09] South Asian and Western Antecedents
• [33:16] Resisting “One True Kundalini”
• [37:13] Kundalini Enters the Marketplace
• [42:22] Kundalini on Social Media and the Web
• [48:00] Dangers & Anonymity in Online Communities
• [57:16] What Should Readers Take Away?
• [62:31] Final Thoughts: Story, Not Encyclopedia

Host Final Reflection:
“The best books are the beginnings, and this is a prime example of potentially the beginning of a certain strand of scholarship on the serpent's tail… The image of the serpent and the shedding of the skin is apropos both for the experiences that are being alluded to and also the various narratives, east and west, that surround these experiences.” (64:04, Dr. Raj Balkaran)

If you are interested in the complex, evolving journey of Kundalini and what it means to seek experience in a globalized, digitized, and pluralistic world, this episode—and the forthcoming book—will offer rich context, insight, and inspiration.