The Seven Chakras And Their Significance

Sadhguru tells us about the chakras or junction points of nadis, and explains the significance of the fundamental seven chakras.

Sadhguru: There is too much of chakra talk going on everywhere. Especially in the West, wherever you go, there are “wheel alignment centers” where they “align” your chakras and this and that. From yoga studios to chiropractics, everybody is talking about it these days. That has become the fashion.

There are 114 chakras in the body. There are many more, these are the major ones. You can see them as 114 junction boxes or confluence of nadis. These junctions are always in the form of triangles. Because it embodies movement from one dimension to another, it is referred to as a “chakra,” which means “wheel” or “circle,” but it is actually a triangle. Out of these 114, two are outside the physical body. Of the remaining 112, only 108 can actually be worked upon, the remaining four just flower as a consequence.

The number 108 has manifested in the human system because it is a significant number in the making of the solar system. The diameter of the sun and the distance between the earth and the sun is 108 times. The diameter of the moon and the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times. The diameter of the earth and the diameter of the sun is 108 times. And hence, 108 is significant in various spiritual practices.

The seven fundamental chakras

The seven fundamental chakras are known as muladhara, which is located at the perineum, the space between the anal outlet and the genital organ; swadhisthana, which is just above the genital organ; manipuraka, which is just below the navel; anahata, which is just beneath where the rib cage meets; vishuddhi, which is at the pit of the throat; ajna, which is between the eyebrows; and sahasrara, also known as brahmarandra, which is at the top of the head, where when a child is born, there is a soft spot.

We can speak in terms of lower and higher energy centers, but such language is often and too easily misunderstood. It is like comparing the foundation of a building to the roof. The roof is not superior to the foundation. The foundation of the building is more basic to the building than the roof. The quality, life span, stability and security of the building depends to a large extent on the foundation rather than the roof. But in terms of language, the roof is higher, and the foundation is lower.

If your energies are dominant in muladhara, then food and sleep will be the most dominant factors in your life. Chakras have more than one dimension to them. One dimension is their physical existence, but they also have a spiritual dimension. This means that they can be completely transformed. For example, if you bring the right kind of awareness, the same muladhara that craves food and sleep, can become absolutely free from the process of food and sleep.

The kshetras

These chakras have a manifestation in the body and they also have a subtler manifestation. These manifestations are called kshetras. Kshetra means a place where someone resides. You may be here, but your residence is somewhere else. Just like that, there are kshetras that are external ones, called bahya kshetras, and there are internal ones calledantar kshetras. There is a home and a holiday home!

These chakras have a manifestation in the body and they also have a subtler manifestation.

When you are at home, you will be one way. Generally, the mundane occupies your time and life – cooking, cleaning, fixing – most of your time goes in this. When you go to your holiday home, even though there is cooking, cleaning and all the other things, the mundane does not occupy the whole of you. It is a more exuberant existence. A home in the mountain is supposed to be more exuberant existence, though it may be physically more taxing than being at home. Being at home is easier. Many people have given up and just stay at home because it’s easier. The reason why you went to another home away from home is you still want to know the coziness of a home, you don’t want to stay in a hotel, but you want a more exuberant existence. The Creator provided for all that. You can be in the antar kshetra, not so vibrant and just sleeping, or you can be in the bahya kshetra. Any time you want to go back home, it’s not a problem, you can always step back.

The second chakra is swadhisthana. If your energies are dominant in swadhisthana, pleasures will be most dominant in your life – you seek pleasures, you enjoy the physical reality in so many ways. If your energies are dominant in manipuraka, you are a doer; you can do many things in the world. If your energies are dominant in anahata, you are a very creative person. If your energies are dominant in vishuddhi, you become very powerful. If your energies are dominant in agna or if you attain to ajna, then intellectually, you are realized. Intellectual realization gives you peace. Experientially it has not happened yet but intellectual realization has come to you, which brings you to a certain state of peace and stability within yourself irrespective of what is happening outside of you. Once your energies hit sahasrara, simply like crazy you are ecstatic. There is no external stimulant, there is simply no reason, but you are ecstatic simply because energies have touched a certain peak.

Falling upwards

Fundamentally, any spiritual path can be described as a journey from the muladhara to the sahasrar. This journey is an evolution from one dimension to another; these are just seven different levels of intensity.

Fundamentally, any spiritual path can be described as a journey from the muladhara to the sahasrara

To move your energies from muladhara to ajna, there are many spiritual processes and several ways, but to move from ajna to sahasrara, there is no path. There is no particular way. One has to either jump or fall into a bottomless pit. This is called “falling upward.” In yoga, they say unless you are willing to fall upward, you won’t get there.

This is why so many so-called spiritual people have come to the conclusion that peace is the highest possibility – because they got stuck in agna. Peace is not the highest possibility. You can become ecstatic, so ecstatic that the whole world becomes a big joke in your understanding and experience. Everything that is dead serious for everybody is just a joke for you.

People come and stop there for a long time, just to make up their mind to jump. This is why in the spiritual traditions, so much stress was always laid on the Guru-shishya relationship – the master-disciple relationship – is simply because if you have to take this jump you need deep trust in the Guru. 99.9% of the people need trust, otherwise they cannot jump. This is the reason why so much stress is laid on this relationship, because without trust, one will never take that jump.

Editor’s note: This article has been excerpted from the book, “Body, the Greatest Gadget,” available as an ebook and print book.

http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/the-seven-chakras-and-their-significance/

Idols in the Hindu Way of Life

http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/hindu-idols-gods-worship/

Idols in the Hindu Way of Life – Why Are They Worshipped?DEMYSTIFYING YOGA   

Sadhguru looks at the worship of idols in the Hindu way of life, and explains that they are not merely depictions of gods, but are scientifically created as powerful energy centers. 

Sadhguru: India is one place where they went into elaborate systems of idol-making. This has been misunderstood by other cultures as worshiping some doll as a god. No. Here, people are very much aware that it is we who create the shapes and forms. If you look at it from the standpoint of modern science, we know today that everything is the same energy, but everything is not the same in the world. This energy can be like an animal or this energy can function like the Divine. When I say “the Divine,” I am not talking about you as a being. I am talking about the body itself. The physical body itself can be transformed into a Divine entity if we just reorganize our systems in a particular way.

Hindu is a cultural identity, not a religious identity. In the Hindu way of life, the only important thing in human life is his liberation.

For example, between the full moon day and the new moon day, each of the fourteen nights are so different. Today, we live with so much electric light, so you don’t know the difference. Suppose you lived on a farm or in a forest where there was no electricity, then every night would be very different because the moon comes up at different times and it has different shapes and forms. But it is the same moon. It is not a different entity. The same moon has different impacts at different times. Just a little rearrangement, see what a difference it has made.

Similarly, if you re-arrange the energy system in the body, this body which is just a mass of flesh right now, can become a divine entity. The whole system of yoga is oriented towards this. Gradually, if you give it sufficient attention and practice, you will see that this body is no longer just craving for self-preservation and procreation, it has become something else altogether. It is no longer just a physical entity. Though it is physical, though it is biology, it need not be limited to the physical. It can function and operate in a completely different dimension. Its very presence can become different. It is from this context that many yogis who made their bodies in a certain way, allowed people to worship their bodies. They themselves would not be there in the body, but they let people worship their body because it has become like a divine entity. It is a reorganized energy – completely engineered.

The Hindu Way of Life

One fundamental thing that I would like to clear up about the Hindu way of life is, with the Hindu, there is no “ism” because it is a geographical and cultural identity. Anyone born in the land of Indus is a Hindu. There is no particular belief system, god or ideology which you can call as the Hindu way of life. Whatever you do in this culture is Hindu. You can worship a man-god and be a Hindu. You can worship a woman-god and be a Hindu. You can worship a cow and be a Hindu. You can worship a tree and be a Hindu. Or you don’t worship anything and you can be a Hindu. Hindu is a cultural identity, not a religious identity. In the Hindu way of life, the only important thing in human life is his liberation. Mukti is the only goal.

The Science of Idol-Making

There is a whole science of idol-making where a certain form is created with a particular material and energized in a certain way. Different idols are made in different ways where they relocate or rearrange the chakras in certain places to make them into completely different possibilities. Idol-making is that science through which you manifest the energy in a particular way so that your quality of life can be enhanced.

The temple was not created as a place of God or a place of prayer. It was created as a place of energy where everyone could go and make use of it.

Temples in India, were built as a very deep science. They were not created for worship. When I say temple, I am referring to the ancient temples. Most modern temples are built just the way you build shopping complexes. Temple building is a very deep science. If the basic aspects of the temple – the size and shape of the idol, the mudra that the idol holds, theparikrama, the garbha griha, and the mantras used to consecrate the idol are properly matched, a powerful energy system is created.

In Indian tradition, no one told you that if you go to a temple, you must worship and give money and ask for something. This is something that people have started now. Traditionally, they told you, if you go to the temple, you must sit for a while and come. But today you just touch your bottom to the floor and run away. This is not the way. You are required to sit there because there is a field of energy that has been created. In the morning, before you go out into the world, the first thing you do is you go sit in the temple for a while. This is a way of recharging yourself with very positive vibrations of life so that you go into the world with a different perspective. The temple was not created as a place of God or a place of prayer. No one was ever allowed to lead a prayer. It was created as a place of energy where everyone could go and make use of it.

Dorin • a year ago

I was wondering... why the Indian yogis, sages and all those wise people with such a deep understanding of the laws that governs us all, could still not be able to preserve the culture as it was once. There's a leak on the vessel. I see so many indians falling for the western education, most of them don't even know today the real value and richness of their culture. But now I know why... actually the yogis were wiser than I thought ( :-) logically). They intentionally did let the leak on the vessel, so that the seed will spread all over the world. A compassionate curse of a broken vessel, as a gift for the entire world. I'm very happy to see many Indians coming on the streets of Romania today. I can see they are western educated, but I know they have only one foot on the west, the other is still in Bharat. And now, someone like Sadhguru, my wholeheartedly Pranam to him, is coming at the right time to establish the balance between their feet :-). So that undercover yogis will blossom all over the world, and the whole world will blossom as one :-). Now, western people, please don't feel offended in whatever way about what I said, the west has it's own beauty and meanings (I'm from the west also in this lifetime :-) ). And indian people please don't get too proud :-). We are just upon Earth, but it looks like our Mother sometimes likes to make huge dancing waves from right to left, from east to west and so on, until the waves settle down again as one big ocean. It's just a beautiful dance :-). I love you all!

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  Ceekaykay  Dorin • a year ago

  This land Bharat has faced cultural invasion of every sort for centuries where every effort was made to stamp out the original and do a copy paste job of the intruders. However, the lamps are still burning despite the tornadoes, typhoons and will do so in future as this is a soil of "acceptance". Every belief system is represented and respected here. Here life is seen as just a another stop-over in the journey of several life times to attain mukthi or dissolution or merging into the divine source of creation. We are immensely fortunate to live in the times of Sadhguru..

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    Dorin  Ceekaykay • a year ago

    Yes, it's true I know... unfortunately from a certain angle, the situation doesn't look very bright; but from the right angle as I started to understand, all these things have a huge role to play in the way existence is made on this Planet. It was like a little shake you know... so that a few drops from the vessel will spread in other places also. The lamp was too full and content by itself, while the other lamps were starving... (unconciously, or indirectly, hence the invasion). 
    So... since India was not interested in conquering other nations, because it was too mature to fight like children for little toys, actually for toys that cannot even offer her any kind of entertainment :-)), how to motivate her to loosen a little bit? What to do? she was drunk in bliss like Adi yogi and she won't move an inch. So what to do? Let's see... let India be invaded a little bit, bring some tornadoes, a few typhoons, some copy-paste here and there... :-). And look at them, look how they are running to the west, they are spreaded aaallllll over the world. What a fantastic strategy, and actually they are seeds... seeds of very beautiful flowers. And now Sadhguru is pouring water all over the field :-). We will see the garden of Eden blossom soon upon this entire Planet. 
    I bow down to Sadhguru for what he is, and also I bow down to India for what it is, or rather she is as a mother of this Planet. I really wanted to come and move there if possible, but unfortunately I'm still stuck in society's structure and limitations. I hope I'll have the opportunity to come at least for a visit before I leave my body.
    So... yes Ceekaykay, we are immensely fortunate to live in the times of someone with such proportions like Sadhguru, but you there, especially Isha people and Tamil Nadu are the most fortunate and blessed of all, keep that in mind and don't let this huge opportunity slip through your fingers :-). Love to all, Pranam.

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      Ceekaykay  Dorin • a year ago

      I do not consider myself or people of Tamilnadu more fortunate being closer to Isha centre as latitudes and longitudes do not matter when it comes to spirituality. What matters most is receptivity and that also means an unprejudiced mind set. Sadhguru (Whom I consider no less than Shiva Himself) is too infinite in His grace and wisdom too be contained geographically. He is now here, there have been many like Him and even in future many more of the like Him will walk this sacred soil. He can handle the intellectuals and the ones on the path of devotion (devoid of questions) with ease. From being a I-know-everything to I-do-not-know has been a beautiful journey for me with His grace and blessings.
      Love and pranams

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      kskumaran  Dorin • a year ago

      Well said Mr.Dorin, true that certain bunch of Indians will rather listen to west than sadhguru (They are proud if they get a visa, earn in foreign currency, I can understand being happy for earning being proud..????, bewildering), but as you have mentioned the larger population won't even move and inch from here, if we move we move with certain purpose and not for invading...thanks for your words...