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Once you understand how the chakra system and nadis work, you can maximise them in your regular practises. Yoga, meditation, and daily living. When our chakras and nadis are flowing, we can open ourselves to our psychic skills and esoteric potential.
ANCIENT
INTUITIVE
AUTHENTIC
LIFE-CHANGING
Traditional, energetic practises, for anyone, anywhere.
Chakras, Nadi’s and Psychic Passages
This is one of my favourite topics to talk about because once you have an understanding of how the chakra system and the nadis work, you can begin to maximise them in your daily practises. Not just in yoga but meditation and everyday life. You can begin to recognise areas that are out of alignment and consider ways to bring them back into functioning. When our chakras and nadis are in flow we can begin to open up ourselves to our psychic gifts and increase our potential for this side of the esoteric.
Now, most people can't see the psychic realm of existence, let alone contemplate or describe it. Many people in the regular world consider it “woo woo” or “witchy” or simply nonsense made up to “scam people”. This makes it a very confusing topic for the average person. Happily, though, scientists around the world, are making constant progress in their research on the subtle realms, and as a result, in the not too distant future, psychic matters will be an important part of everyone’s knowledge.
One of the main ideas behind the yoga system is that the universe exists on many different levels at the same time. Every object or being on the physical plane has a counterpart on the more subtle planes, and life and activity there are very similar to what happens in the "solid" physical world.
It’s believed that psychic matter is made up of particles that are smaller than protons, electrons, and neutrons and that it moves at a rate faster than the speed of light. You can also believe that there are planes that are more subtle than the psychic, but they can't be described using the language of physics right now. The mental and causal planes are the most well-known of these higher planes. A person can only experience these planes while meditating, before he or she goes beyond all existence and enters samadhi or enlightenment.
The psychic realm of existence is the level of existence right above the physical level. It has a lot in common with the physical world we know, and most people naturally experience things that happen on the psychic plane from time to time. This happens most often when a person is asleep, passes out, or gets a very strong physical or emotional shock. This spontaneous viewing of psychic events can also happen when people take drugs. Intuition, "spiritual experiences," and visions all come from spontaneous psychic awakening.
Kundalini yoga is based on the teachings of ancient tantric scriptures and is made up of many techniques that are meant to help the practitioner awaken their psychic abilities in a controlled way. Serious yoga practitioners don't think of psychic awakening as a goal of their regular practise, as it is more of an added bonus. However, it is an important level that most aspirants experience.
Many kundalini yoga practises require the aspirant to see things happening on the psychic plane. Most of the time, to do these kriyas, or sequence practises, you have to see your own chakras and the flow of subtle energy through the nadis that connect them. Now, not everyone can see these psychic things when they want to, so the practises of kundalini yoga allow the practitioner's awareness to follow (or imagine) a group of specific physical centres and passages that are linked to the real psychic centres and can set them off.
There are a lot of psychic centres, or chakras, for our purpose we will discuss the most common chakras. The first 8 are the major chakras along the sushumna nadi, and the last 3 are trigger points that are used to stimulate the chakras. 11 total. In the descriptions that follow, we mention how the chakras show up in the psychic body, along with the mantras, animals, and feelings that are connected to them. As well as the places on the body that act as "trigger points" for these chakras and where your attention needs to be to activate them.
So, let’s go through the different psychic centres in a person's psychic body and the energy passages in the physical body that are used to awaken the psychic centres themselves.
Mooladhara: The Mooladhara chakra is the lowest of the main chakras. It is also called the "root centre." It is related to the earth element in nature and is where kundalini shakti, or sexual/spiritual energy, is stored in people. Mooladhara is thought of as a deep red lotus flower with four petals. On the petals are written in black the Sanskrit letters Vam, Sham, Sham, and Sam. In the middle of the lotus is a triangle with three equal sides that points down. Inside the triangle is a smoky-colored shivalingam that is surrounded by a golden snake with three and a half coils.
The god Brahma, who made the world, and the goddess Dakini, who is in charge of the skin element in the body, are in charge of the Mooladhara chakra. The chakra's beeja (seed) mantra is "Lam," and its animal or vehicle is an elephant, which represents the unity of the earth. The most important thing about the mooladhara chakra is that it is where the primal energy is stored. This is represented by a coiled serpent that, at the time of spiritual awakening, unwinds and moves up through all the chakras via the sushumna nadi.
The physical location that activates the mooladhara chakra in men and women is different. This point is at the perineum in men, which is right between the genitalia and the anus. Mooladhara is in the back of a woman's cervix, where the uterus and vagina meet.
Swadhisthana: The word swadhisthana means "one's own home" in English. It is the second chakra and is connected to the unconscious mind, the storehouse of the collective consciousness. It is where all samskaras (scars both physical and mental) and distant genetic memories are stored. It is the centre of our most basic and deeply rooted instincts, the animal drives that cause us so much pain and confusion in the modern world. Swadhisthana chakra is seen as a red lotus with six petals that have the Sanskrit words Bam, Bham, Mam, Yam, Ram, and Lam written on them. In the middle of the lotus is a white crescent moon and the beeja mantra Vam for the chakra, which is written in black.
Lord Vishnu, who keeps the whole universe going, and the goddess Rakini, who is in charge of the blood element, watch over Swadhisthana. This chakra makes you feel sleepy, and it is connected to the body's organs of reproduction and waste removal.
The pubic bone, also called the coccyx, is where the swadhisthana point is. Most of the time, it is thought of as being in a column, but in some practises, it can also be felt at the pubic bone in front of the body.
Manipura means "city of jewels" in Sanskrit, and this chakra is the centre of heat, or the fire pit. It has to do with vitality and energy, and the ram, a fierce and aggressive animal, is a symbol of it. Rudra, the god of manipura, is the destroyer or eater of the universe. Lakini, the goddess of manipura, is in charge of the element of flesh. The Manipura chakra is pictured as a bright yellow lotus with ten petals that have the Sanskrit words Dam, Dham, Nam, Tam, Tham, Dam, Dham, Nam, Pam, Pham, and Tham written on them. Inside the lotus is an upside-down red triangle with the word "Ram" written on it. The physical point used for manipura meditation is at the level of the belly button. Most of the time, it feels like it's in the middle of the spine, but in rare cases, it can also be felt in the front of the body at the navel.
Anahata: The word anahata means "not struck" in English. This chakra is where psychic sounds that you hear when you meditate come from. These sounds are called "unstruck" because they don't come from physical friction. Anahata is the centre of the heart, the source of all feelings, and the place where love for God and for people can become divine. The Anahata chakra is seen as a blue lotus with the Sanskrit words Kam, Kham, Cam, Cham, Nam, Cham, Chham, Jam, Jham, Nam, Tam, and Tham written on each petal. In the middle of the lotus are two intertwined triangles that form a Star of David. Inside the Star of David is the beeja mantra Yam. Anahata is represented by a swift black antelope, and Isha, the Lord in an all-encompassing form, and Kakini, the goddess in charge of the fat element of the body, are the gods who rule over it.
People believe that the anahata chakra is at the level of the heart, just behind the breast bone. It can be thought of as being in the spine and in the front of the chest.
Vishuddhi. The centre of purification is the Vishuddhi chakra, which is also known as the nectar and poison centre. It is seen as a violet lotus with sixteen petals that have the mantras Am, Am, Im, Im, Um, Um, Rim, Rim, Lrim, Lrim, Lrim, Em, Aim, Om, Aum, Am, anef, Ah written on them. In the middle of the lotus is a white circle on which is written the beeja mantra Ham. The elephant, which stands for ether, is the animal of this chakra, and Ardhanarishwara, which is Lord Shiva and Parvati in one body, is the god who rules over it. Sakini is the goddess, who rules over the bones.
Vishuddhi is thought of as being in the throat, near the Adam's apple, and centred on the spinal cord. This chakra feels like cold, sweet drops of nectar are falling into it from above, making the person feel like they are drunk on happiness.
Ajna: This chakra is called the command centre or the third eye. It is the place in the psychic body where information from the outside world comes in. During advanced practises, the guru guides the aspirant by giving him instructions through this centre. It is the well-known "eye of intuition," through which a psychically awakened person can see everything happening on both the physical and the spiritual planes. The 1st chakra is shown as a silver-blue lotus with two petals that have the words "Ham" and "Ksham" written on them. In the middle of the lotus is a bright yellow beeja mantra Om with three red lines going from top to bottom and a white crescent moon near the top. Paramshiva, who is the formless consciousness, is the god of ajna. Hakini, who controls the subtle mind, is the goddess of ajna.
Ajna can be seen in the physical body right behind the middle of the eyebrows, at the top of the spinal column. It makes you feel like you're just floating around without any sense of time or space.
Bindu is the moon chakra, which is where psychic sounds can be heard by those who are ready to hear them. It looks like a small crescent moon on a night with a full moon. It is thought to be the most important place for kundalini yoga practises. Bindu chakra has a physical trigger point at the back top corner of the head, where Brahmins usually let a long tuft of hair grow.
Sahasrara is the highest of the psychic centres, and it represents the place where the psychic and spiritual worlds meet. As Sahasrara has an infinite number of dimensions, it is said to have all of the other chakras inside of it. It's like a big dome of light where all psychic forms live. Sahasrara is seen as a bright red lotus with a thousand (or infinite) petals that have all the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet written on them twenty times each. In the middle, there is a bright shivalingam. In the physical body, it starts at the top of the head and can be seen to go out in all directions as far as the inner eye can see.
Lalana: The Lalana chakra isn't one of the main chakras, but it's very important to kundalini yoga practitioners because it's where amrit, or nectar, comes from and falls into the vishuddhi chakra. Its physical centre of gravity is in the top of the mouth, right where the tonsils start.
Bhrumadhya: By itself, Bhrumadhya is not a chakra. It is just a place where the ajna chakra can be activated. This point is at the eyebrow centre, which is what the word bhrumadhya means.
Unknown point: Again, this is not a chakra, but just a trigger point. It is in the middle of the head, right between the ears.
Chidakasha means "the space of knowledge" in Sanskrit. It is a place where psychic events can be seen. Chidakasha is seen as a completely dark room right behind the forehead. At the back of the room, in the middle of the bottom edge, there is a small hole through which the sushumna nadi flows down.
Hridayaskasha is the space of the heart, which you can imagine and feel in the middle of your chest.
Now we move on to the psychic pathways of the spirit and nadis
The word nadi literally means flow or current. In ancient texts, it says that a person's psychic body has 72,000 nadis, which can be seen as light currents by someone who has developed psychic vision. These nadis link the subtle body's chakras and psychic centres together. Few of them are important for a yoga practitioner because. In some forms of kundalini yoga, the awareness is seen moving through these passages, often in the shape of a snake, nectar, an arrow, a trident, or a lotus bud that is opening. From a physical sense, the nadis can be likened to nerve endings in the body. Here’s and overview of the main nadis and psychic passages
The three principal nadis of the energetic body are the ida, pingala and sushumna. These nadis originate in the muladhara (root) chakra and travel up the spine. Ida and pingala are mirror images of each other. The ida nadi is known as the left channel because it flows to the left as it leaves the root chakra and runs to the left nostril. Pingala flows to the right, from chakra to nostril. Sushumna is the center channel and it travels straight up the spine through the center of all the chakras.
Sushumna Nadi: This is the most important nadi in the psychic body and the most important psychic passage that can be seen in the physical body of a person. It starts at the mooladhara chakra, which is felt between the genital root and the anus in men and the cervix or base of the uterus in women. From mooladhara, the sushumna moves slightly backwards and up to swadhisthana chakra. This is where the sushumna enters the spinal column, just in front of the coccyx. From there, it goes up through the manipura, anahata, and vishuddhi chakras, which are all in the spinal column. From the end of the spinal column in the lower brain, where sushumna starts, it goes straight up through ajna and bindu until it reaches the centre of sahasrara.
Pingala nadi: Pingala nadi is used as a psychic passage and begins at mooladhara and goes on the right side of the body in a half-circle. It crosses the sushumna nadi at the swadhisthana chakra and then follows a similar curve on the left side until it meets up with the sushumna nadi again at the manipura chakra. In this way, it goes up, first to the right to anahata, then to the left to vishuddhi, and finally to the right to ajna, where pingala nadi ends. Pingala has rational, analytical, objective and sometimes aggressive tendencies. In Indian medicine and philosophy, pingala is thought to be the masculine, firey or solar energy channel. It’s known as surya or “sun” Nadi.
Ida Nadi: On the flip side, The ida nadi, which represents mental energy, travels the length of the spinal cord, weaving in and out of the chakras. It is also called the chandra, or "moon," nadi because it is connected to lunar energy.
Ida nadi controls all mental processes as it transports prana to the nervous system, which calms the mind and relaxes the body. It is associated with introversion, feminine energy, the right (creative) side of the brain, and the left side of the body. Ida nadi energy must be balanced by the pingala energy, which is linear and logical.
Frontal passage: This is thought of as going up the front of the body from the belly button to the middle of the throat.
Windpipe passage: This is the next part of the frontal passage, which starts in the middle of the throat, near the Adam's apple, and goes to the unknown point in the centre of the head, just above the ajna chakra, at the level of the temples.
Arohan and awarohan passages: When there is a lot of pressure on the sides, these make an irregular circle in the body that looks a bit like an egg. The path of awarohan, or descent, begins at the bindu chakra and goes down the sushumna nadi until it ends at the mooladhara. The passage of arohan, or ascent, on the other hand, starts at mooladhara, moves forwards to the pubic bone, and then follows the curve of the lower belly to the navel. From there, it joins the frontal passage and follows it until it ends in the middle of the throat. From there, it goes straight through the skull to the bindu chakra.
Ajna's tube is the psychic channel that goes straight from the centre of the eyebrows through the ajna chakra to the back of the head.
Conical passages are the only ones that actually go outside of the body. They both start at the same point just behind the middle of the eyebrow and go in different directions down and out. Each goes through one nostril and ends a short distance away from the body. How far these two passages go past the tip of the nose depends on the strength and volume of a person breath.
And finally, nectar passage which starts at the vishuddhi chakra and goes straight up until it reaches the lalana chakra at the root of the palate, near the tonsils.
I know that sounds like a lot, but once you start to use and identify these chakras, nadis and passages, you will be able to experience the psychic benefits that come along with them.
The journey is only just beginning