HISTORY OF THE CHAKRA SYSTEM
Now that the chakras have become New Age parlance, there are many interpretations of their meaning and function being branded about. While this popularity is making the chakras a household word, it is also spreading a lot of confusing, confliction, and often erroneous information. It is important to realize the chakras come from an ancient tradition, which many New Age teachers have barely explored. Here is a brief summary of the development of the chakras historically.
The Vedas are the oldest written tradition in India, (1,500 – 500 B.C.) recorded from oral tradition by upper caste Brahmins, who may have been descended from the Aryan stock which entered India from the north. The original meaning of the word chakra as “wheel” refers to the chariot wheels of the rulers, called cakravartins. (The correct spelling is cakra, though pronounced with a ch as in church.) The word was also a metaphor for the sun, which “traverses the world like the triumphant chariot of a cakravartin and denotes the eternal wheel of time called the kalacakra which represents celestial order and balance.
The birth of a cakravartin was said to herald a New Age, and they were described as preceded by a golden disk of light, much like the halo of Christ, only this spinning disk was seen in front of them (perhaps their powerful third chakras). It is also said that the god Vishnu descended to Earth, having in his four arms a cakra, a lotus flower, a club, and a conch shell. (This may have referred to a cakra as a discus-like weapon.)
There is some mention of the chakras as psychic centers of consciousness in the Yoga Upanishads (circa 600B.C.) and later in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (circa 200 B.C.). Most interpretations of Patanjali read a dualism between purusha (pure consciousness) and prakriti (the prima materia of the world), implying that the goal of yoga was to rise above nature for the realization of pure consciousness, free of the fluctuations of the mind and emotions. Yet the word yoga means union or yoke, so this realization of consciousness must ultimately reintegrate with nature for a higher synthesis.
The Chakra System and Kundalini yoga arose within the Tantric tradition, during the second half of the first millennium, common era. The word Tantra means tool (tra) for stretching (tan) and can be thought of as a loom in which the fabric of nature is woven from the union of opposites. In the West, Tantra is thought of primarily as a sexual tradition, yet sacred sexuality is only a small part of a broad weaving of philosophy which includes many practices of yoga, worship of deities, especially the Hindu goddesses, and integration of the many polaric forces in the universe.
The main text about Chakras that has come to us in the West, is a translation by the Englishman, Arthur Avalon, in his book The Serpent Power published in 1919. These texts: the Sat-Cakra-Nirupana, written by an Indian pundit in 1577, and the Padaka-Pancaka, written in the 10th century, contain descriptions of the centers and related practices. There is also another 10th century text, called the Gorakshashatakam, which gives instructions for meditating on the Chakras. These texts form the basis of our understanding of Chakra theory and Kundalini yoga today.
In these traditions, there are seven basic chakras, and they all exist within the subtle body, overlaying the physical body. Through modern physiology we can see that these seven Chakras correspond exactly to the seven main nerve ganglia which emanate from the spinal column. There are minor Chakras mentioned in the ancient texts, the Soma Chakra, located just above the third eye, and the Anandakanda lotus, which contains the Celestial Wishing Tree (Kalpataru) of the Heart Chakra, and other texts mention minor sub-levels to the major Chakras.
THE TREE OF LIFE
Leaves and branches Inside the human body are millions and millions of tiny whirling vital life forces concentrated into centres called Chakras. Chakra means wheel in Sanskrit because these energies spin at these points rotating clockwise at a certain frequency. The Chakra is a subtle energy centre that normally cannot be perceived. The activity resembles a galaxy of planets, each spinning on its axis at points along the spinal cord. Each Chakra is designed to supervise and maintain the perfect operation of the bodily systems under its control. This purification is done by spinning in pure or positive vibrations and spinning out impure or negative ones.
An understanding of what each Chakra attracts and what can disturb it is important for our wellbeing. Each thought and action influence the sensitiveness and performance of these centres. Immediately after Self-Realization these Chakras are activated and initially begin the slow process of clearing the gross negativity accumulated by years of neglect or self-destructive activities like drugs, drinking, violence, anger, hatred, fanaticism, sexual deviation and so on. The benefits are almost immediate; small anxieties decrease and some joy and objectivity begins to manifest, and the blocked Chakras begin to rotate properly again.
The human being has seven major Chakras and these correspond to the autonomic nerve plexuses. Thus:
The Mooladhara Chakra corresponds to the pelvic plexus. The Swadhisthan Chakra corresponds to the aortic plexus. The Nabhi Chakra corresponds to the coeliac plexus. The Anahath Chakra corresponds to the cardiac plexus. The Vishuddhi Chakra corresponds to the cervical plexus. The Agnya Chakra corresponds to the optic chiasma. The Sahasrara Chakra expresses at the limbic area.
Furthermore, the petals of each Chakra correspond to the sub plexuses of the autonomic system. For example the classically described six petals of the Swadhisthan Chakra corresponds to the spermatic, left colic, sigmoid, superior haemorrhoidal, inferior mesenteric and hypogastric sub plexuses of the aortic plexus. The Chakra directs the particular type of energy controlling the autonomic nerve plexus and also adjacent endocrine and other organs.
By a series of subtle connections called ‘Nadis‘ in Yogic terminology each Chakra is connected to and brings its influence to bear on the whole body. For example the Nabhi Chakra controls the entire lymphatic system. In classical texts there are said to be three hundred and fifty millions of these Nadis. Very importantly, each Chakra is connected to a part of the hand as indicated in the subtle system diagram. Once the state of Yoga is achieved, the hands become sensitive to the state of the Chakras, and with practice this is easily interpreted.
The Chakras also influence and reflect our mental and emotional life. For example, the Swadhisthan Chakra controls a person’s creativity and those who work hard — artists and other creative people — it may become weak. The right Anahath Chakra (there are three parts of the Anahath Chakra: right, center and left) reflects the relationship of fatherhood, either with the person’s own father or his own children. Sufferers from anorexia nervosa, for example, invariably have a problem with this centre. There are more complex scenarios for serious problems where two or more Chakras are inter-related and affected, but we need not worry for eventually the Kundalini is able to set the entire subtle system working at optimum levels.
Thus the state of the Chakras at a subtle level reflects and influences a person’s physical, mental and emotional welfare. This is a dynamic relationship and so action at a subtle level on the Chakra can improve and (very importantly) integrate all these aspects. This is why, in a nutshell, people who achieve and consolidate their Yoga invariably find that their physical, emotional and other problems improve.
According to Hinduism Today the chakras system (portals of perception) is “not a topic you will ever learn in school, nor is it likely to be part of a soul-searching confabulation around the office coffee machine. Yet the chakras are of profound importance to those seriously exploring the nature of consciousness — their own spiritual quest, a friend’s uncommon perceptions or the expanding mind of an entire human race. To make up for the deficit, and to make this highly esoteric subject approachable for those not having the time to learn Sanskrit or trek to a lofty Himalayan cave, the Hinduism Today staff has assembled in the next four pages the simplified essentials of these mysterious centers within you.
The modern Hindu renaissance figure Swami Vivekananda was also a great yogi. One day at 1,000 Island Park, USA, outside a summer cottage, buttoned up in a quaint trench coat, he shared some of India’s deepest mysticism with a small group of Western ladies: “The sun and moon currents [the pingala and ida] bring energy to all parts of the body. While meditating at the Baranagore Math, I saw the nerves, ida and pingala. The surplus energy is stored at certain points, plexuses, along the spinal column commonly known as nerve centers. A third, the sushumna, is a very fine, very brilliant thread, a living passage through the spinal cord, through which we have to make the kundalini rise. The yogi is able not only to feel them but actually see them.”
Chakras, or “plexuses of consciousness,” form the major nerve ganglia of an extraordinary circuitry of nadis, energy channels that link together our animal body with our subtler bodies and their higher functions such as intelligence and love. It is because of these chakras and nadis that our five koshas,” sheaths”— function so smoothly and integrally as a one organism and awareness can move through all bodies, transiting from physical to emotional, to intuition to spiritual, instantaneously. In computer language, these chakras could be considered cosmic network hubs and the nadis as multi-gigabyte-per-second optical fibre wiring. Except, this wiring extends inside and outside the computer.
Our five “sheaths,” koshas -physical, vital/pranic, emotional/mental, intuitive/ cognitive and superconscious-are not disjointed, but beautifully and inextricably interlocked like layers of an onion. Each one is encased by the next subtler as they function together in daily consciousness. For example, when we feel the embarrassing hot flush of anger or riveting cool current of the intellect, we are aware in the astral body, not the physical body. When a wave of boundless love surges from within, we are accessing the intuitive and soul sheaths.
Hindu, Chinese Taoist and Tibetan Buddhist scriptures refer to an electrical human infrastructure of 72,000 sukshma prana nadis or “subtle channels of vital force.” The Shiva Samhita lists fourteen major currents. Of these, three are the super information highways-ida, pingala and sushumna — running interwoven around and within, respectively, the spinal cord. Where the nadis most intensely converge, yogis have pinpointed the chakras — 88,000 according to the most extensive yogic explorations.
The most important are the seven above the base of the spine-muladhara, svadishthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddha, ajna and sahasrara-and seven below that come into power in the Kali Yuga-atala, vitala, sutala, talatala, rasatala, mahatala and patala. As giant electrical transformers govern and regulate the flow and dispersion of power through a community, so do these whirlpools of light receive, filter, focus and funnel the vital life force, prana, that flows through us from the Source of Life.
Though of gross form, the body maintains a connection to each of the chakras through nerve ganglia along the spinal cord and in the cranium. But unlike these physical nerves, which are measured in millimeters, the subtle nerve and the chakras are measured by vibration, similar to AM, FM, and short-wave radio frequencies. Although regionalized to various parts of each sheath, or body, the chakras are more accurately regions of mind power-vast fields of collective, related, and interrelated thought realms, like vast cities, or energy fields, or like portals of consciousness… .
Knowledge of the chakras so exhaustively recorded by India’s yogis, permeates Hindu culture, its dance tradition and its sacred architecture. The Hindu temple is segmented to mirror the human body’s seven chakra design. Beyond India, this knowledge was inspirational to the flowering of tantric Tibetan Buddhism. In Tibet, Mani Padma “jewelled lotus,” is the name of the Manipura chakra enshrined in the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum. Buddha called his first sermon Dhammachakkappavattana Sutta. Chakka is the Pali word for chakra. “Turning the Wheel of Truth” can also be interpreted as spinning the higher chakras.
Chakra/nadi knowledge has surfaced in every society that nurtured a mystical tradition. “The chakra unmistakably appears in the religious art of the three Americas,” notes metaphysical scholar Manley P. Hall. The Mayan God Quetzalcoatl is often portrayed with a plumage around his head to represent the emanating rays of the sahasrara. In Polynesia, the Hawaiians constructed seven temples on the island of Kauai representing each of the chakras along a trail called Ku-a-moo,” spine of the dragon,” (sushumna nadi) from the ocean to a central volcanic peak. Mystical Sikh, Sufi and Christian sects each possess chakra-nadi teachings. The Chinese acupuncture system is completely based on this knowledge. By releasing obstructions in the flow of chi, or vital prana, that runs through the nadis, illness conditions are treated and averted.
Literature on chakras, our inner bodies and their make-up continues to proliferate in a Hindu context and in other cultural and ideological frameworks. The self-healing movement has logged onto chakra knowledge, and more and more mainstream allopathic medical practitioners are finding themselves referring to “that other nervous system.” As cognizance of the chakras grows, not only will people better comprehend their own mental/emotional orientation and be inspired by higher portals of perception, but also finally fathom how someone could kill another, or how a soul could forgive and still love a murderer.
Before exploring the intricacies of the chakras in our colour poster of the month, we offer this engaging observation by the German linguist and Indologist Max Muller [1823-1900]: “But if it seems strange to you that the old Indian philosophers should have known more about the soul than Greeks or medieval or modern philosophers, let us remember that however much the telescopes for observing the stars of heaven have been improved, the observatories of the soul have remained much the same. These days the focus is often on the more down-to-earth benefits of Yoga, including improved physical fitness, stress control, mental clarity, greater self-understanding and general well-being. Not many yoga practitioners are aware that there is a substantial difference between Yoga (Union with the Divine) and the many schools that teach watered down versions, especially in the West.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this bit of history. If you have followed my blogs, you will have guessed by now, Chakras are my passion. Since I was 12-15 years old, I have had a fascination with them, particularly as a child I could see them. I actually thought, everybody could see them …. like others can see Auras. I am still studying them. Always finding more ancient mind blowing information sometimes. Whenever I have clients for Energy Healing or Massage Therapies, I always access their Chakras. This helps me “diagnose” what is “wrong” with this person on my couch.
Warm Wishes, I remain until my next blog,
Yours Truly, Catherine