Mooladhara & Swadhisthana Chakras
Table of Contents
Can you discuss the nerve complexes associated with mooladhara and swadhisthana chakras?
Swami Vivekananda: Well, for all of these segments there are somatic nerves, which deal with the sensory input and the voluntary motor output, and also there are the autonomic nerves, divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic. And usually there is an appropriate endocrine gland for each segment, like the pineal, pituitary and thyroid. The exception is muladhara, and to date, medical science has not found an endocrine gland associated with it. This of course does not mean that one will not be discovered in the future.
Let us try to work out the psychophysiological aspects of mooladhara. In the male it is actually associated with the base of the penis and with the female, the cervix. So it has a very deep-rooted sexual link.
If you repeat a mooladhara chakra mantra and you concentrate in that area somewhere, you will feel a certain vibration occurring. Now what is the mantra doing? Is it stimulating some physiological organ, or is it some sort of occult stimulation? Is it stimulating a physical organ or is it activating a lot of energy which seems to appear in a certain place which we call a chakra? I think it is perhaps the last one of these.
The mooladhara trigger point and the place of actual experience may be different, but the general location of mooladhara chakra is certainly in the perineum; it is clearly felt in that area. If it is felt higher, then it is not mooladhara chakra it is swadhisthana. Either the mantra is wrong or the vibration is stimulating something else which is more receptive and reactive.
Swami Vivekananda: Is there a physiological basis for this? It is quite possible that the repetition of a mantra is stimulating the spinal cord. You can certainly feel it in the area being stimulated and it is not only there, because all the fibers that are coming out from the body are stimulated. So no matter at what level you stimulate your spiral cord, no matter what chakra is stimulated, you are going to collect the fibers from so-called mooladhara chakra. At swadhisthana you will also get the mooladhara chakra fibers; at manipura you get the mooladhara fibers back to swadhisthana and manipura as well - and all the way up. Mooladhara chakra is always there in the act because its fibers come from the lowest part.
Swami Shankardevananda: Gould we consider the sexual energy of mooladhara and its possible transmutation?
Swami Vivekananda: This basic sexual energy that Gopi Krishna has written about is actually the sattvic or subtle essence which can be perceived when the consciousness becomes very sensitive. This is the essence of the kundalini experience, the sublimation of sexual energy, the basic life force which is the source of all generation, regeneration and reproduction. Gopi Krishna felt that what he was seeing was semen being converted into energy and distributing itself throughout the body. I feel that what he was perceiving was a clairvoyant view of energy given off by the simple nerve fibers in those organs he was talking about. But he identified it as semen because that is what is written in the scriptures. I do not know what women are supposed to have, he did not mention that and I do not think the scriptures do either. I sometimes have a funny feeling that women did not exist until about 20 years ago. Swami Nischalananda: The Hatha Toga Pradipika and certain tantric texts do talk about women, however, generally that side has been neglected. According to yoga the sexual energy in men and women is sublimated and transmuted into the ascent of the kundalini. The starting point, the trigger, is mooladhara. For some reason, the Buddhists say that the ascent commences at manipura, not mooladhara. How is it that the enlightened Buddha completely bypassed the two lower chakras? Actually the whole concept of where kundalini lies is a matter of experience. I don’t think that Buddha actually said that kundalini starts in manipura; more likely he stated that real spiritual evolution starts from manipura. Swamiji has said many times that only when the kundalini reaches manipura is it stabilized. It starts in mooladhara but stabilizes in manipura.
I think this apparent discrepancy comes because of the philosophy of Buddha who was a gyani, and he didn’t get much into kundalini yoga. Vajrayana, on the other hand, which was an offshoot of Buddhism at a later date, is very much concerned with mooladhara. But let us get back to the functioning of mooladhara. Swami Shankardevananda: Mooladhara chakra has two basic modes of function, one is energy depleted and the other is energy activated. Within that system there is a sick and a healthy mooladhara. What are the symptoms of these different states of mooladhara chakra? It is simple - you are either sick or healthy, balanced or unbalanced. If you are unbalanced you are going to have ida over or under active or pingala over or under active. You are going to have physical and mental symptoms, fear, insecurity and all those things. Freud said that everyone who denies mooladhara becomes constipated and hoards money. Every miser is constipated. These symptoms may be mild or very extreme. In the fully awakened state they are either going to rip you to pieces or take you to a higher awareness. So what is the basic quality of a well functioning mooladhara chakra?
Swami Vivekananda: Renunciation.
Swami Shankardevananda: We can say that security and renunciation are interchangeable in the mooladhara system. We can say that in this chakra basic security is the key. Renunciation obviously implies security and if you are secure within yourself you don’t need any external security.
Swami Satyadharma: When awakening of mooladhara takes place then there is no such problem as insecurity.
Swami Vivekananda: Of course this is the state of consciousness of an awakened mooladhara. A low energized mooladhara chakra generally means low vitality, emotional insecurity, fear of the future. I also think low self-esteem is involved in this. It almost forms the syndrome of depression, although you don’t necessarily have to get the joylessness of the low energized swadhisthana chakra. If there is low evolution and high drive in mooladhara, then you get the ambitious person out to collect as much as he can. He can be a multimillionaire and still accumulate stuff because he still feels insecure. The security is a state of consciousness, not a physical reality. As mooladhara chakra starts to evolve the person attains security, which is totally unrelated to circumstances. You can see varying degrees of renunciation not only between sannyasins and the community, but within the community of sannyasins as well.
Swami Satyadharma: When energies pool at mooladhara, do they stimulate or aggravate the chakras? What is the difference between stagnation of energy and activation of the chakra?
Swami Vivekananda: Well, I just see that the mooladhara circuit in some people is sometimes poorly energized; the whole circuit itself has low energization. This varies between people and varies within people, depending upon cosmic events, the position of planets, the weather and all sorts of things, including psychological factors such as disappointments, hurts and threats to one’s security. It varies with each of us. Some people are very much in mooladbara; hooked on the basic sexual aspect of mooladhara in which case they are very much involved in money and possessions. If they are low energized, they will still think about these things but they will not do anything about it. I think you need a certain amount of energization to produce the drive that is inherent in each chakra; the basic sexual hunting drive in swadhisthana chakra, the territorial and dominance drive in manipura and the nurturing drive in anahata chakra. Remember, there are two parameters, the amount of energization of each chakra and the degree of evolution.
It seems that yoga practices balance the energy inherent within each of the chakra circuits, and by virtue of eliminating the blockages (samskaras), evolve the quality of the chakras at the same time. And of course, if you have the grace of the guru you are on the express line.