The Chakras

Gurusakásha: gur + un + sa + kash + ghaiṋ (1)

Gurusakásha means:

• “near the Guru”
• “under the Guru’s umbrella”
• “under the Guru’s wings”
• “under the Guru’s shelter”

It has 2 other yoga-related meanings:

• Guru dhyána [meditation on the Guru] in Guru cakra
• a particular kind of Gurusmarańa [Guru’s remembrance] or Gurusharańa [Guru’s shelter] after sleep.

There are 9 cakras [plexi] in humans

1. muladhara
2. svadhisthana
3. manipura
4. anahata
5. vishuddha
6. lalana [roof of mouth]
7. ajiṋa
8. Guru
9. sahasrara

From the point of view of action, 3 are most important:

1. Agni cakra

This surrounds the navel region in the mańipura cakra. It is situated in the gland of thunder-like hardness, Rudra Granthi

2. Anahata cakra

This is in the swaying of the solar plexus, or Viśńu Granthi

3. Ajina cakra

This is located in the upheavals of imagination in Brahma Granthi.

The vishuddha cakra, situated in the kúrma nadii [sinusoid nerve] of the throat, is the centre of speech.

This is a very important plexus.

It is helpful to the enlightening of intellect, and is also called the Brhaspati Granthi.

In its neighbourhood exist the:

• thyroid (Brhaspati Granthi) gland
• parathyroid (Brhaspati Upagranthi) gland

There are, in human physiology, countless glands and sub-glands.

Different and variegated are the causes of their actions.

By their manifold interrelations with and interactions upon the lymph or shukra [which has three stages: lymph (práńarasa), spermatozoa and seminal fluid], they produce a variety of granthirasas (hormones).

The multifarious hormones go into the important plexi and are consumed.

• Only a small amount of the hormones can reach the glands and sub-glands below them.

Most of the hormones of the upper portion are consumed by the solar plexus, which is contiguous with the anahata cakra.

Sádhaná [spiritual practices] makes the glands and sub-glands situated above the ájiṋá cakra emit surasa [bliss-causing hormones].

• These are consumed in the ájiṋá cakra which then affects it.
• Consequently, the irises of the eyes move upwards and a state of trance ensues.

A pleasant drowsiness of tandrá [somnolence] mixed with nidrá [sleepiness] overcomes the eyes, and the person is immersed in a type of slumber of a subtle loka [realm]

This kind of yoga nidrá, bháva nidrá, adhyátma nidrá is known as hypnosis in English.

This has no connection with hypnotism or mesmerism.

• Hypnotism or mesmerism is outer-suggestion
• Hypnosis is auto-suggestion

The vishuddha cakra is bounded by the kúrma nád́ii [sinusoid nerve].

• Some call it the Brhaspati cakra.

Many of the hormones secreted by the upper glands are metabolized in it and absorbed here, and very little of these hormones descend down.

If one’s sádhaná is perfect then:

• the sound of the voice becomes sonorous and pleasant for some time
• a state of intoxication ensues
• the sinusoid nerve throbs a little
• the body turns motionless and stonelike
• the skin becomes thin and light to some degree.

Because of the type of environment existing in the solar plexus, or the anáhata cakra, the hormones of the upper region are almost entirely absorbed there.

• Very little of them remains.

The entrancing action of the bliss-causing hormone of the upper region, called sudhárasa in Sanskrit, creates the greatest sensation upon reaching the anahata chakra.

• The mind gets lost in the higher realm.

The developed sádhaka [spiritual aspirant] remains submerged in this beatific condition of intoxication.

It is said that Shiva remains overwhelmed under the spell of this very type of intoxication, with His eyes fixed upwards.

This is not the intoxication produced by bhang [Indian hemp], ganja [marijuana], opium, nor wine.

• It is a sort of beatific intoxication brought about by sudhárasa.