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KUNDALINI
CHAKRAS
- THE ENERGY CENTRES |
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IS THE INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ON CHAKRAS, AS DERIVED FROM VEDIC SCRIPTURES
AND OTHER OLD SCRIPTURES. A MORE ELABORATIVE AND SCIENTIFIC EXCPLANATION
WILL BE GIVEN IN FOLLOWING
CHAPTERS |
The
kundalini is like a Lotus. The increasing number of lotus
petals, in ascending order, may be taken to indicate the
rising energy or vibration frequencies of the respective
chakras, each functioning as a ‘transformer of energies
from one potency to another. The Sanskrit letters usually
inscribed on the petals indicate sound-vibrations, and
also represent the varying intensities of the energies
working in the different chakras reflects is consonant
with its vibration-frequency. Each chakra has its approprite
number or petals and corresponding colour: |
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Muladhara
is represented as a red lotus of four petals; Svadhisthana
as a vermilion lotus of six petals; Manipura as a blue
lotus of ten petals; Anahata as a lotus of twelve petals
of deep red colour ; Visuddha as a lotus of sixteen petals
of smoky purple; Ajna as a lotus of two white petals;
and lastly, Sahasrara is the thousand-petalled lotus of
the light of a thousand suns. |
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Muladhara,
the root centre of physical experience at the base of
the spine, the sacral plexus, carries on each of its four
red petals a letter of the Sanskrit alphabet inscribe
in shining yellow or gold : va, sa, sa, sa. These letters
are contained within a yellow square representing the
earth element, together with the seed mantra Lam. The
four letters represent the root vibration, and are related
to the vital breath known as Apana. |
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An inverted
triangle in the centre of the square encloses the unmanifest Kundalini
in three and a half coils around the black or red svayambhu-linga.
In the pericarp is found the presiding deity Brahma in deep red,
four-faced three eyed, four-armed, holding a trident, a libation
jar, a rosary, and in Abhaya mudra, the gesture of dispelling fear.
The deity is the lord of the gross physical or material world.
This chakra is associated with the qualities of resistance and solidity
representing the earth element. |
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2.
Svadhisthana, the centre of whatever constitutes the individual’s
personality, situated in the spine in the region above
the gentails, carries on its six vermilion petal the six
Sanskrit letters ba, bha, ma, ya, ra, la. In the pericarp,
the water element is represented by a half-moon with the
seed mantra Vam. The energy is Rakini or Chakini Sakti,
in dark blue, three-eyed, four-armed holding a trident,
a lotus, a drum and a chisel, seated on a red lotus. |
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The chakra’s
associated animal is the light grey or green makara (a sea-monster
similar to the crocodile), an emblem of the waters and the vehicle
of the god Varuna, lord of the sea. The chakra governs the principle
of taste, and the vital breath prana. |
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3.
Manipura, the ‘gem-centre’ at the level of the solar plexus,
has on its ten blue petals the ten letters da, dha, na,
ta, tha, da, dha, radiant like the rising sun’, is related
to the element fire. The deity represents the world of
mind. The energy generated by him is LakiniSakti, in dark
blue, three-faced three-eyed in each face, four-armed,
holding fire, vajra (thunderbolt), and making the gestures
of graning boons and dispelling fear. |
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Patanjali
in his yoga sutra (III, 29) says that contemplation of this chakra
leads to knowledge of the physical organism and its functions, because
this is the chakra of the life-force. The chakra is related
to the principle of sight, and also to light, the upward expansiveness
of the fiery quality. |
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4.
Anahata, meaning ‘unstruck’located at the spinal centre
of the region of the heart, has the twelve letters ka,
kha, ga, gha, na, ca, ccha, ja, jna, ta, tha, inscribed
on its twelve vermilion or deep red petals. The deity
represents the whole world system in which the diversities
of phenomenal realities of space and time are gradually
revealed. His energy is called the Kakini Sakti in shining
yellow, single-faced, three-eyed, four-armed, holding
a noose and a skull, and making the gestures of granting
boons and dispelling fear. The chakra is associated with
the element air and the principle of touch. |
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5.
Visuddha, meaning ‘pure’ is located at the juncture of
the spinal column and medula oblongata behind the throat
(laryngeal plexus). Its sixteen smoky-purple petals bear
the sixteen vowels a, a, i, i, u, u, r, r, l, l, e, ai,
o, au, am, ah. Within its percarp is a white circle and
a triangle inscribed with the seed mantra Ham. The presiding
deity is Sadasiva as Ardhvanarisvara (his androgynous
aspect); the right half of the body is white representing
Siva and the left half is golden representing Sakti. |
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The deity
is five-faced, three-eyed, holding a trident, an axe, a sword, a
vajra (thunderbolt), fire Ananta Serpent, a bell a goad and a noose,
and is making the gestures of dispelling fear. The energy is Sakini,
in shining white five-faced, three-eyed, four-armed holding a noose,
a goad a bow and arrow. The chakra is associated with the element
ether (akasa) and controls the principle of sound related to the
sense of hearing. |
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6.
Ajna, meaning ‘command’, situated between the eyebrows,
controls the various states of concentration realized
through meditation, and commands one’s whole personality.
Its two white petals bear the letters ha and ksa. At the
centre is an inverted moon-white triangle, and within
it the Itara-linga with the seed mantra Om. |
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Its deity
is Paramasiva, as in the Sahasrara; he is represented in this chakra
in the form of a bindu, symbolizing the inseparable Siva-Sakti the
cosmic unity whose self-luminous consciousness is all-pervading,
all-transcending and all-unifying. His energy is called Hakini or
siddhakali, and is moon-white, six-faced, three-eyed, six-armed,
holding a book, a skull, a drum, a rosary, and making the gestures
of granting boons and dispelling fear, seated on a white lotus.
This chakra
is associated with various cognitive faculties of the mind. Both
mental images and abstract ideas are experienced at this level.
Here for the first time undivided, indivisible existence manifests
for the sake of creation as two. Though Ida and pingala nadis separate
from the Sushumna channel at the Muladhara chakra they meet the
sushumna in the region of Ajna chakra and then again they separate,
running into the left and right nostrils. |
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Sahasrara, meaning ‘thousand’ is the lotus of the thousand
petals’ located four finger-breadths above the crown of the head.
Also called Brahma-randhra, it is the meeting place of Kundalini
Sakti and Siva. The petals bear the total sound-potential represented
by all the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, fifty in each layer.
The chakra
synchronizes all colours, encompasses all senses and all functions,
and is all-pervading in its power. The form is the circle transcending
various planes in ascending order, and finally,the ultimate state
of Mahabindu, the suprecosmic and metacosmic transcendental void.
The inverted lotus symbolizes the showering of the subtle body with
cosmic radiations. The sahasrara is the centre of quintessential
consciousness, where integration of all polarities is experienced,
and the paradoxical act of transcendence is accomplished in passing
beyoun ever-changing samsara and ‘emerging from time and space’. |
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