Defining the Nadis

Yoga and tantra lay down one of the most complete systems for a practical understanding of the human condition. Tantra supplies the philosophy, the theoretical approach. Yoga supplies the techniques by which we can validate this philosophy through our own personal experience and thus attain higher knowledge. Tantra is therefore a living philosophy and not just a system of endless intellectual speculation unable to deliver the truth and leaving more questions unanswered than answered. It is also a very potent method by which we can realize ourselves in totality, and attain union, ultimate freedom and fulfillment.

Perhaps the greatest contribution of tantra to the modern world will be its ability not just to define the mind and put it into perspective, but to deliver techniques by which we can experience the mind itself and eventually transcend it through the awakening of kundalini. Modern medicine and psychology, for example, will greatly benefit from tantra’s systematic and succinct approach to man’s fundamental, basic components of body, mind and spirit - pingala, ida and sushumna. These flows of energy make up our total human personality and are derived from the ultimate polarity of our macro-cosmic universe into Shiva and Shakti, consciousness and energy.

In trying to understand the manifestations of these forces in our body, and for research purposes, in trying to prove the reality of the existence of the nadis, we have to understand that they are not physical, measurable, dissectable structures within our physical body, but are the basic energies which underlie and motivate life and consciousness.

It is important to understand exactly what nadis are before we either try to prove their existence or disprove it. When we achieve certain states of consciousness we can see that nadis are, as yogis described them, flows of energy which we can visualize at the psychic level as having distinct channels, light, color, sound and other characteristics. At the same time, however, these nadis underlie and can be seen mirrored in all bodily functions and processes. There is no separation between the nadis, the body and the mind; they are one and the same thing.

The duality of life

In many of the oriental philosophies, the entire universe is seen as a separation into two great, polarized forces, Shiva and Shakti, which are interdependent and opposite, but complementary. The universe hangs as a kind of web of interacting energies, suspended and functioning within the framework of tensions developed by the fundamental polarity. Carl Jung stated, ‘‘Natural processes are phenomena of energy constantly arising out of a ’less probable’ state." (1) This apparent dualism is actually a unified, holistic process from another level of consciousness, but at our own level we see it from a fragmented, limited and partial perspective.

We see polarity everywhere we look, in nature, within ourselves and within our mind. Moving from macrocosmic to microcosmic to atomic, at every level, two great principles or forces can be seen at work motivating our universe; light and dark, positive and negative, male and female. All other forces are seen to be an outcome of these two main forces. It seems amazing to us that things can be so simple and yet so profound, however, to the enlightened mind, the universe and man is just so. All of life, therefore, has two main aspects upon which all of our perception, activity and experience are based. Our mind and body are the outcome of two main forms or modes of energy interacting and creating endless manifestations in the universe of our body. For example, we have a right and left brain, a parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, an anabolic and catabolic metabolism, a conscious and unconscious mind. We are poised between life and death and our whole existence is a struggle to retain balance between these two forces.

Ida and pingala

Yogis realized the existence of these forces and understood their relationship. They said that man has three main flows of energy, which they called the nadis, ida, pingala and sushumna, and which have been roughly translated as body, mind and spirit. The third flow is the result of the balanced interaction of the first two. They also said that man functions mainly in the first two areas of body and mind, pingala and ida, the third aspect being dormant until it is stimulated by yoga or some other discipline. Ida and pingala are roughly translated as mind and body. Though this is true at one level, when we are discussing the polarization of the total individual, the body and rnind are themselves each polarized. We have to understand, however, that the nadis are not structures but are functional relationships and are really different sides of the same coin. Yogis did not describe the nadis in terms of structures, though structure exists to handle them. They described them in terms of energy, prana., vital and life-giving for pingala, and chitta, conscious and knowing for ida. The attributes of the nadis are summarized below: Pingala can be denned as the dynamic, active, masculine, positive, yang energy within our personality. It has a physical and mental side. Its material qualities are light, heat, solar, energy accumulating, creative, organizing, focused (centripetal) and contractive. The positive, dynamic mental side within Freud’s system is Eros, the pleasure principle, and in Jung’s system is the conscious personality, the rational, discriminating side. We can say that pingala is psychosomatic energy, outwardly directed, mind acting on body to motivate the organs of action, the karmendriyas. It is the basic energy of life. Ida is the energy within the personality which is passive, receptive, feminine, negative, yin. At the physical level it is dark, cold, lunar, energy dissipating, disorganizing, entropic, expansive (centrifugal) and relaxing. At the mental plane Freud called it Thanatos, the death instinct, and Jung called it anima, the unconscious, female within, emotional, feeling, intuitive and non-discriminating, the background on which the differences can be seen and which unifies. This is the somopsychic aspect of man, where energy is inwardly directed, and body acts on the mind. Ida controls the sense organs or gyanendriyas and therefore gives us knowledge and awareness of the world we live in.

The third force

Another force exists in nature which is little understood or even appreciated, but which is of vital importance to man. It is a fact that when two opposing forces are equal and balanced a third force arises. Strike a match on a matchbox and you create fire, bring positive and negative currents together and you can work machinery, unite body and mind and a third force called sushumna, spiritual energy, arises. This is one of the aims of yoga, because only when sushumna awakens can the super power of kundalini, this maximum force, ascend safely to fuel, power and create cosmic consciousness. Sushumna is a high tension power line and ida and pingala carry the domestic lines to power the basic necessities.

Carl Jung outlined the tantric view when he described the driving force of self- realization., which he called “individuation”, as a dialectical interaction between the opposites, beginning with conflict and culminating in synthesis and integration. When perfect balance is achieved, stabilized and perfectedj a state of dynamic peace is achieved, which is a paradox,a union of opposites, the synthesis of doing and not doing, a totally new way of perceiving and experiencing life. Few of us realise this third, spiritualized state and most of us oscillate from one state to another. Every 90 to 180 minutes ida and pingala alternate their dominance and only for a few seconds or minutes does sushumna come into potential being. It is the goal of all yogic techniques to balance and harmonize ida and pingala, life force and conscious awareness, so that they join at ajna chakra to create the inner light of knowledge and bliss and reveal the truth. In order to balance the flows of energy, yoga prescribes various techniques, asana, pranayama, shatkarma and meditation, which activate either ida, pingala or sushumna. This does not mean we are activating one structure but are, via yoga, able to manipulate the energies underlying the three possible modes of existence.

The functional modes

Nadis are flows of energy which move through each and every part of our body, the subtle counterpart of the physical flows such as nervous energy and blood. All of the thousands of nadis in the body are based on ida and pingala which spiral around the spinal cord. These are the basic two modes of function on which all of our bodily and mental processes work. Sushumna is the royal road which takes us to higher awareness and transforms the function of ida and pingala.

Each and every cell of our body, every organ, the brain and mind, everything is polarized and interconnected at both the physical and subtle levels, and this allows us to think, speak and act in a concerted, balanced, synchronous manner, every part working to help every other part. There are two basic systems in the body that control this, ida and pingala, and if we stimulate any component of one system we turn on the whole system. This is how asana, pranayama, meditation, and the whole armamentum of yogic techniques work, and this is what is meant when we say that yoga affects the nadis. Arthur Deikman of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Medical Center, USA, describes the two main modes of man’s being from the perspective of modern psychology. At the same time he describes the nadis ida and pingala using modern psycho-physiological jargon. He states,“Let us begin by considering the human being to be an organization of components having biological and psychological dimensions of organization : an ‘action’ mode and a ‘receptive’ mode.

“The action mode is a state organized to manipulate the environment.The striated muscle system and the sympathetic nervous system are the dominant physiological agencies. The EEG shows beta waves and baseline muscle tension is increased. The main psychological manifestations of this state are focal attention, object-based logic, heightened boundary perception, and the dominance of formal characteristics over the sensory; shapes and meanings have a preference over colors and textures. The action mode is a state of striving, oriented toward achieving personal goals that range from nutrition to defense to obtaining social rewards, plus a variety of symbolic and sensual pleasures, as well as the avoidance of a comparable variety of pain.” (2) Deikman describes ida, the receptive mode as organized around intake of environment rather than its manipulation. The sensory-perceptual system is dominant and parasympathetic function predominates. The EEG tends to alpha waves, muscle tension decreases, attention is diffuse,boundaries become hazy, and so on. It is a state of not doing.

The epitome of the active mode is the state of body and mind a taxi driver would be in while driving through peak hour traffic. The epitome of the receptive mode is the deep relaxation of yoga nidra, or the introverted state of formal meditation. The true meditative state, which few scientific researchers really appreciate but which is the main aim of yoga, is an example of the third mode, or sushumna functioning, in which active and passive are fully balanced. Someone in this state is simultaneously externally and internally focused. For example, we should be driving a taxi and at the same time be in a state of total relaxation or “not doing”. Or we would be sitting absolutely still and be filled with the dynamic energy of shakti so that we are fully awake and active internally.

This is avery difficult state to describe.

We know that our active mode is designed to ensure survival and the passive mode is designed to ensure rest and recuperation of energy in the endless struggle for life and existence. Telepathy and psychic phenomena in general fit into this picture and we can hypothesize that telepathy is also designed to ensure survival. For example, we know that under conditions of extreme stress and in emergencies, people have sent psychic calls for help to close friends or relations; the emergency somehow powering this previously latent faculty. Many “primitive” peoples also utilize these powers and take them for granted wondering why it is that “civilized” man makes such a fuss about them. Yogis also tell us that when we practise yoga, purify our nadis and become stronger and more aware, siddhis, powers, must manifest as part of our spiritual development, though these are only side-effects and not the main aim of our practice of yoga. This, it seems, is because we develop a more synchronized functioning of all the components of our body and mind and awaken areas which have been dormant.

The need for balance

Though ida and pingala and their modes of activity are opposite, they are complementary and must be balanced for total health and peace of mind. More than this though, balance can open the door to the transcendental and to a new mode of functioning.

Most of us spend our lives in an unbalanced state. We tend to increasingly longer periods of the active mode as we grow out of our childhood and find it difficult to relax into the receptive state. This is probably a major factor in the spiralling incidence of psychosomatic disease today. Deikman’s research emphasizes the fact that our imbalance is reflected in every activity as well as in our social, cultural and political organization. He stresses that the often devalued ida, receptive, feeling, intuitive mode is far from inferior or regressive and is in fact an essential component in our highest abilities. Such research suggests that there is a very deep and urgent need for the reintroduction of concepts such as ida and pingala at the grassroots level of society and that the recent explosion of interest into yoga, meditation and esoteric philosophy is the result of deep- rooted pain and tension resulting from imbalance in the nadis. It points to the fact that our whole approach to ourselves, our science, society and culture will require complete review and revision from the more total yogic perspective.

It is time we realized that the subtle and intangible aspects of human existence are as important as the tangible, solid and easily measurable materialistic side. It is because of our reliance purely on technology, the solid facts, and the external, pingala side of our universe that we have not found happiness, real and lasting security or peace of mind, because these things lie within us and are of the mind - ida, and are subtle. Yoga offers the techniques to bring about balance in our lives, to not only realize the subtle, but, through a science of enhanced intelligence, intuition and creativity, to make the subtle side of life a practical reality and experience, a valid and important part of our lives as individuals and within society.