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This paper examines the centrality of Kuṇḍalinī among the early modern globalizers of yoga, especially Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda, as well as several more minor figures. While neither man referred to his system as “haṭha yoga”—of which Vivekananda is famously quoted as being dismissive at best—both put forth frameworks that are perfect examples of what James Mallinson has termed “classical haṭha yoga,” employing originally ascetic physical techniques such as bandhas and mudrās to achieve tantric goals, namely raising Kuṇḍalinī. However, both men are also, in their own ways, deeply invested in modernizing the concept, articulating it through the lenses of contemporary science, medicine, and yoking both together into a theory of spiritual evolution. The paper also places the frameworks of Vivekananda (as represented in his Raja Yoga) and Yogananda (as presented in Autobiography of a Yogi and his mailorder lessons) in the context of other contemporary modernizers such as Kuvalayananda, Sivananda, and teachers in the Krishnamacharya lineage.
