Page 418 - Complete Works of Dr. KCV Volume 1

prana is identified with the reflex centre found at the bottom of the junction of prana and apana impulses as well as of udana and samana. Apanaprana is the subsidiary nerve centre in the lumbar region and apana vayu is the afferent nerve impulse along the autonomic nerves.
Prana according to him is a centre in spinal region: apana and Udana are afferent nerve impulses: samana vayu is efferent nerve impulse along the cerebro-spinal nerves. "Vyana is the reflex movement of the prana and apana, as well as udana and samana". Here we have a theory which even goes to the extent of tracing the entire nadis along the paths described by the tantra and hatha yoga. Not only this, Akasa is identified with the sub- arachnoid space which surrounds the brain and spinal cord. The mention of the Akas-chakra would certainly, on this interpretation, mean the plexus at the point.
Criticism of this theory:
1. The theory holds that the Vagus is the Kundalini. Kundalini is according to the tantra sastra placed within the spinal cord, the 'tube' of the embryologists. The Kundalini is contained by the Sushumna which is said to be in the spinal cord. The plexuses are strung like lotuses in the Sushumna. "It is said for instance" says Woodroffe, "that the Adhara Chakra is the sacrococcygeal plexus and that the Svadhisthana is the sacral plexus and so forth". *This work (Shatchakra Nirupana) not to mention others, makes it plain that the chakras are in the Sushumna. Verse I speaks of the lotuses inside the Meru (spinal column); and as the Sushumna supports these (that is the lotuses) she must be within the Meru".
2. The identification of the Vagus with the Kundalini is defective because the authors of the upanishads as also the tantra claim that they are so subtle as to be unseen by the eye and that only a yogi can see them.
3. Dr. Rele by identifying the Sushumna with the spinal cord and by identifying the Kundalini with the Vagus commits two mistakes. Firstly, the Sushumna is within the spinal cord and the Kundalini is in the Sushumna. Dr. Rele takes Vajranadi which is not mentioned by the Upanishads but which is mentioned in the Shatchakra Nirupana as being within the spinal cord as the Fibre of Reissner.