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Yoga in the deeper sense requires awakening the kundalini or serpent
power. Kundalini is the higher evolutionary force hidden within us
that has the ability to unfold our spiritual potential. In its
unawakened state, a mere fraction of its energy serves to uphold our
normal psychophysical functioning. In its awakened state it reveals
our capacity for cosmic consciousness, taking us beyond even what we
could imagine.
These evolutionary potentials exist as latent energy centers in the
subtle body, the seven chakras, which kundalini activates. Chakra
refers to a wheel or a moving circle of energies. The chakras are
also important in ayurvedic healing, particularly relative to the
prana and mind, which works through them. The chakras direct and
guide the physical body from behind the nervous system.
The seven chakras comprise three primary regions. The three lower
chakras are located close together from the base of the spine to the
navel, a region of about six or eight inches. Together they are
called the kanda or bulb and constitute the region of fire. The
awakening kundalini lights up these three chakras together like a
fire in a cauldron. The closeness of these chakras explains why in
some texts the kundalini is said to rise from the root chakra, in
others from the sex chakra, and yet others from the navel.
Similarly the three higher chakras — the throat, third eye and
crown — are closely related and form the region of the head,
governing the
higher brain centers. They share many common qualities and powers of
higher expression and perception. It is said to be the region of the
moon, or soma, reflective and contemplative qualities.
In between stands the heart as the central chakra mediating between
these two groups of three chakras, connecting both to the navel
below and to the throat above. Sometimes the heart is included along
with the three higher chakras. Other times it is placed along with
the three lower. It is the region of the sun, which expands the
light of fire and reflects its luminosity to the moon. It connects
to the solar plexus between the heart and the navel.
The Threefold Head Chakra — Seat of the Moon
Sahasrara — Crown or Consciousness Chakra /the Moon
Ajna — Third Eye or Mind Chakra /Orb of the Moon
Visshuddha— Throat or Ether Chakra /Reflection of the Moon
The Central Heart — Seat of the Sun
Anahata — Heart or Air Chakra
The Threefold Kanda or Bulb — Seat of Fire
Manipura — Navel or Fire Chakra
Svadhishtana — Sex or Water Chakra
Muladhara — Root or Earth Chakra
The lower set of three chakras reflects more physical and vital
functions, including most health issues, through the doshas. Vata
has a special relationship with the root or earth chakra, which
serves to stabilize it. Kapha connects with the water chakra. Pitta
relates to fire. The heart chakra reflects emotional issues. The
head chakras reflect spiritual issues. Similarly, there are three
levels of working on the chakras relative to physical disease,
psychological disease and spiritual growth.
1. Physical diseases relate to imbalances in outer chakra
functioning through the various nerve plexus and endocrine organs
with which the chakras correspond and to the three doshas of vata,
pitta and kapha.
2. Psychological diseases involve imbalances in inner chakra
functioning, particularly relative to prana, tejas and ojas, which
are the energies of the subtle body, the mind and its field of
impressions.
3. Spiritual or yogic development aims at opening the chakras. This
requires transcending their ordinary functions in our personal
nature to the level of the cosmic. Yogis merge the chakras of the
astral body into the causal body, reversing the entire process of
creation. They merge earth into water, water into fire, fire into
air, air into ether, ether into mind, mind into intelligence, and
intelligence into the Supreme Self.
Most chakra healing today emphasizes external measures of gems,
herbs, body work, sound, color therapy, and vibrational healing. In
addition, psychic healers can work on the chakras through their own
prana or chi, which they direct as a healing force. Ayurveda employs
such modalities for treating disease and promoting health and
vitality. These approaches are very important for chronic
conditions, weak immunity, and deep-seated diseases of the nervous
system.
Most books on chakras today describe the chakras as force centers
within the physical body, with the sushumna or central channel
identified with the spine. They relate the chakras to the various
spinal centers and the physiological processes these govern like
digestion, respiration or reproduction. Yet while the chakras do
impact the physical body, which they form and energize, they are not
themselves physical.
Some healers claim that working on the chakras with such outer
methods can open or awaken the chakras. These statements must be
taken with caution. According to yoga, in the ordinary human state,
which it is extremely difficult to transcend except by sustained
spiritual practice, the chakras remain closed; that is, they do not
directly function at all. The result of this is not necessarily
disease but spiritual ignorance. This consists of regarding the
external world as the true reality and living unaware of one's true
Self, which is neither body nor mind but thought-free awareness.
One's chakras can be closed on a spiritual level and yet one can be
healthy, emotionally balanced, mentally creative, and successful in
life. This depends upon outer, not inner chakra functioning. Opening
the chakras is not a process for improving one's capacity in the
regular domains of human life, though it may offer this as a
sidelight, but for going beyond the ordinary human condition to a
higher evolutionary state. The chakras can only be truly opened
through inner practices of pranayama, mantra and meditation. Outer
aids, from diet to gems, can be helpful but must remain subordinate
to these higher modalities for optimal application.
Much of our thinking today, even in spiritual and New Age fields, is
still cast in a materialistic paradigm in which we try to reduce
everything to specific time-space coordinates. This mentality is
used to approach subtle phenomena like the chakras, pranas or
doshas. However, it is wrong to think that the chakras are like the
limbs and organs of the physical body that can have little
variability in their form, function or appearance. The chakras are
energetic and functional centers, not physical positions. We
experience them at certain points in the physical body more so than
others but their action impacts the entire physical body, the mind
and what is beyond as well. The result is that the chakras work in
different ways at different times and for different people. They can
be correlated with various phenomena on different levels relative to
how the energy is working through them. For this reason all books on
the chakras, including yogic accounts, may not agree in every
detail. Such views may represent different insights or different
methods of working with the chakras. They are not necessarily wrong,
but traditional yoga teachings on the chakras should be given
priority, given the long experiential tradition behind them.
The subtle body is the body of our impressions and our pranas. Can
one put an impression in a box? Like the wind, prana has its
movement, but it cannot be limited to a particular organ. Can one
say where the wind is located or where it goes when it ceases to
blow? Correlations are means of drawing connections and, as
connections are ultimately universal in the spiritual realm, such
correlations must have variability. We must learn to look at the
subtle body according to its own reality that encompasses and
interpenetrates physical reality on many levels, not which is simply
parallel to physical functioning. The subtle body creates its own
time and space, like a dream or a vision. It is not limited by
external factors and forms. Moreover, the opened chakras are not
part of the ordinary functioning of the astral body either. They
relate to its heightened or spiritually awakened role. They
represent the absorption of the astral body back into the causal
body and pure consciousness beyond. As the chakras are opened, the
astral body is gradually dissolved. While we can correlate physical
and subtle body components and functions, we should realize that the
two are not the same, and the spiritually opened astral body is yet
something more, resembling more a mist of energies spreading beyond
the galaxies than something we can define in bodily terms.
Kundalini and the Chakras
The chakras are part of a much higher energy system than the
physical body. To make a helpful analogy: activating each chakra
requires doubling the amount of energy required for sustaining all
ordinary body and brain functions. It requires about twice the
energy to activate the first, the root or earth chakra, than the
energy required for sustaining our ordinary psychophysical
functions, twice that amount to activate the next chakra, and so on
up to the top of the head. So there is a greater change of
consciousness between chakras than from the ordinary human
consciousness to the first awakened chakra.
For the chakras to come into function depends upon a higher source
of energy than the physical body can provide. This is the role of
the kundalini shakti. Kundalini is not a physical force, nor
something that the ordinary mind or ego can control. It is the
concentrated energy of awareness or attention. Only if a person has
one-pointedness of mind can kundalini come into function in an
harmonious manner. Kundalini is not an energy apart from
consciousness, but the energy of awareness that manifests when the
mind becomes free from the fragmentation of thought and emotion
based on the ego.
The awakening of kundalini requires that the prana or life-force
enters into the sushumna or central channel. This occurs when the
prana is withdrawn from its fixation on the external world and
removed from our sensory involvement. As long as our life-energy is
identified with the physical body and its functions, it cannot come
into the central channel. For this reason, the arousing of the
kundalini involves a state of samadhi in which we leave ordinary
consciousness. In the beginning this is experienced in a condition
of trance in which we become unconscious of the physical body. Later
it can occur in the waking state, without an impairment of physical
action, but the physical body is no longer experienced as one's true
identity.
Developing the awakened prana or kundalini energy greatly enhances
one's skill and power as a healer. Kundalini is the very healing
power of the Divine Mother that connects with cosmic life and love
and its curative power. Such a healer can heal by mere touch, by
their voice or by their presence. For this reason we should be
careful not to try to manipulate this subtle pranic force but let
the divine direct it for us. It is best to meditate upon the Divine
Mother as wielding the pranic healing force, not
ourselves personally. Power is always a temptation for the ego and,
as
kundalini is perhaps the greatest power, the ego may wish to catch
it. But it is like seeking to catch lightning. One may only end up
struck down.
Cosmic Aspects of Chakras
The opened chakras afford access to the cosmic functions of their
respective elements and faculties. They give knowledge of the unity
of the objective constituents of the universe (elements), the
instruments of cognition (sense organs), and the instruments of
action (organs of action), which are the subjective constituents of
the universe. When the chakras are opened we experience the cosmic
nature of these factors as part of our own deeper awareness. We
learn the secrets of creation and merge the universe into our own
minds.
As we awaken our subtle energies and faculties, we may experience
subtle sounds, lights, or visions of deities in the region of the
third eye. But such experiences may come long before any particular
chakra is opened. To bring the subtle centers into function, the
gross or physical centers must be put in state of rest or
equilibrium. That is why the practices of yoga develop stillness of
body, breath, senses and mind, particularly through pratyahara as
the basis for working with the chakras. Kundalini is a force of
withdrawal, reversing the process of creation so that we can return
to the One. Therefore it cannot function unless we reduce external
involvement and attachments.
To properly develop the earth chakra requires detachment from the
earth element. One no longer seeks to accumulate matter outwardly
but learns to appreciate it inwardly as a form of perception. One
learns to enjoy the colors, textures, and shadows of the earth
element like a display of magnificent mountains within the mind, but
one has no desire to possess or hold them.
To properly open the water chakra is different than having a
heightened sexual drive or even great sexual potency. It requires
that the physical sexual organ goes into a state of latency and the
sexual drive is sublimated into a force of awareness. One learns to
enjoy the flow and flavor of the water element as a movement of
delight, riding on the waves of perception in the cosmic sea.
To properly open the fire chakra does not involve increasing one's
personal will or determination. It requires awakening the cosmic
energy of fire (tejas) and letting it blaze forth. One must oneself
become a fire and burn all the impurities within the body and mind.
It is like experiencing the fire that destroys the universe at the
end of the cycle of the yugas, in which our personal motivations are
effaced.
To open the heart or air chakra is quite different than to be in a
heightened, vulnerable or open emotional state. To awaken the heart
chakra we must go beyond personal emotions and understand the cosmic
energy of love behind all emotional fluctuations. This requires an
opening to the universal feelings of compassion and devotion, and
contact with the universal life-force. It is an experience of pure
devotion, becoming love itself.
To open the throat or ether chakra is not a matter of heightened
speech or expression but of being silent in the expanse of cosmic
space, in which our personal voice is lost in the divine Word. It is
merging into the cosmic ether in which the essence of sound abides
as eternal knowledge.
Opening the third eye requires learning to live as pure insight, not
requiring a body or even senses. Opening the crown chakra means
becoming one with the infinite, eternal nature of pure Existence in
which separate self disappears.
The awakening of the consciousness behind the subtle body involves
being able to take off the gross body and its functions like a heavy
overcoat which is no longer necessary on a warm summer day. This can
be frightening to those attached to the body, but it is delightful
to those who do not perceive life in limited terms.
Chakras, Experiences and Powers
Each chakra provides an awareness of corresponding levels of the
universe or different worlds (lokas) beyond the physical. We gain
insights into the subtle workings of nature (Prakriti), the senses
and their subtle essences (tanmatras), the life-force (pranas), and
the process of cosmic creation.
The corresponding subplanes of the astral universe, which are quite
marvelous beyond anything in the physical world, may become
available to the third eye. Beautiful astral mountains may be seen,
vast expanses of translucent astral oceans, scintillating astral
suns and pulsating astral stars. One may ride the astral winds
through various worlds, or expand one's mind through endless astral
spaces and their many universes of beauty and delight. One can meet
with sages and deities or with friends from former lives, renewing
soul connections. In the higher chakras one can gain access to
causal realms of pure insight, ideal perception, and endless
awareness beyond personal limitation. One can visit the workshop of
creation and see how the universes are made out of mind and thought
alone.
Yet not all yogis choose to explore the worlds or the faculties that
relate to the chakras. Many great jnanis, or yogis of the path of
knowledge, strive to merge directly into pure unity or the Absolute,
which is beyond both subtle and causal bodies. In their awakening
they may hardly note the distinctions of the chakras and their
functions. From their experience — such as that of Ramana Maharshi,
who perhaps most typifies this view — there is only one chakra or
center which is that of the Self in the heart, from which all the
phenomenon of the gross and subtle worlds and bodies appear like
images seen in a mirror or bubbles on the waves of the sea.
Similarly many great devotees simply seek to merge in God or
Bhagavan in the heart and are not concerned with the various
experiences of the chakras, even when these are known to them. These
are very high states that few can approach, but we must recognize
that the chakras are a series of stages rather than an end in
themselves, and can become a side track if we are not careful.
Yogic literature speaks of various siddhis or psychic powers. These
relate primarily to the subtle body and its pranas, as subtle matter
is totally malleable. The subtle udana or upward-moving air allows
one to become as light as one likes, including the ability to
levitate (laghima). The subtle apana or downward-moving air enables
us to become as heavy or as stable as we wish (garima). The subtle
vyana or expansive air allows us to become as large as we like, to
expand endlessly (mahima). The subtle samana or contracting air
allows us to become as small as we like, to be perfectly
concentrated (anima). The primary prana itself allows us to gain
whatever we wish (prapti). As the chakras open, these corresponding
powers in the subtle body may be experienced. Sometimes their
effects extend into the physical body as well.
In addition we should not forget that many subtle states exist
between ordinary physical consciousness and the true awakening of
the kundalini and the chakras. We should not regard any
extraordinary experience as enlightenment or as a kundalini
experience. Visions,out-<WBR>of-body experiences, trances, channeling,
mystical dreams, genius, inspiration of various sorts and other such
states, even if legitimate, may still fall short of the real
awakening of the kundalini and certainly should not be confused with
Self-realization, which requires the full development of our
awareness rather than giving ourselves over to some entity or
experience outside ourselves.
To properly open the chakras requires divine grace. It cannot be
done willfully or forcefully arrived at from a state of emotional
disturbance. Attempts to awaken kundalini without having first
purified the body and mind lead to side effects in which the mind or
the life-force become disturbed and various illusory experiences
arise. For this reason, traditional yogic literature has always
stressed right living factors and right attitudes (yamas and
niyamas), as well as appropriate ayurvedic lifestyle regimens, as
the basis for kundalini practices.
While it is possible to have aberrant kundalini or chakra
experiences, most of these are pranic or mental disturbances. If the
mind is not purified there can be a heightened activity of the lower
chakras, along with an increase in their corresponding physical and
emotional urges. For this reason we should seek to work on the lower
chakras from the standpoint of the higher, mainly either the heart
or the third eye.
In addition to the seven higher chakras, there are seven lower
chakras beneath the muladhara which relate to the underworld, the
lower astral or realm of the asuras (anti-Gods), the powers that
work to keep us in ignorance and illusion. It is possible to fall
into these lower chakras and their negative experiences of wrath,
pride and power if one is not careful.
If we approach the chakras carefully and with the right guidance, we
have nothing to fear, but it is better to be overly cautious rather
than too daring while working with these lightning-like forces.
Above all we should understand that opening the chakras is not an
end itself, but part of the process of Self-realization. The chakras
only show the road; they also indicate the side paths where one can
go astray. While we need to understand them, we must do so in terms
of their cosmic connections.
http://www.vedanet.<WBR>com/
Let us not look back in anger, or forward in fear, but around us in
awareness.
~ James Thurber
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