Layayoga: The Definitive Guide to the Chakras and Kundalini (7 page)

Introduction

It is the discovery made by yoga that mind is the repository of prodigious power—mental dynamism—which manifests itself when mental consciousness is transmuted into a concentric form. It is the process of centralization of consciousness when it is reduced to a ‘point’. This means that consciousness enters the bindu state. Bindu is a state in which power is at maximum concentrauon. When mental consciousness is in the bindu state, diversified mental powers are collected and highly concentrated as mental dynamism. The greater the concentration of power, the less are the dimensions, but the more increased the potency. Bindu—the power point—is a natural and indispensable condition associated with power in its operation. Bindu occurs both in the mental and material fields. The atom is the bindu of matter; the nucleus the bindu of a protoplasmic cell; and samadhi consciousness the bindu of the mind.

The reduction of the diversification of mental consciousness is the process of concentration leading to the bindu stage. The inner nature of the mind is to tend towards bindu, though it is rather unobservable when mind exhibits its multiform functions. At this state, the higher mental-energy system remains almost dormant; but it is fully activated in concentration. Even in diversified mental states, towards-the-bindu-motion operates fragmentarily. An example is the function of attention in relation to physical sensory perception and intellection. Physical sensory perception and associated intellection are due to the limiting influence on the mind. Pragmatically, it is important and indispensable for determining the individual’s position in the world around him and to see the world in a practical manner. But it is not the whole picture of the mind, it is only a fragment. It is a great mistake to think that the whole mind is what is represented by perception, intellection and will at the physical sensory level. One may even go so far as to assume that the mind is identical with the brain. The brain is important when, and as long as, mind exhibits physical consciousness. But when mind in its supramental aspect functions as superconsciousness the brain is not important to it; the brain then, practically remains a passive non-mental apparatus.

Principles of Chakra

The ancient yogic interpretation of mind and concentration is fundamentally based on the chakra organization and its function. Kundalini is indispensably connected with it. Kundalini is vitally connected with the chakra system and the whole body system as their static background. Kundalini also plays a most important role in the spiritualization of mind and the development of absorptive concentration. The chakras indicate the levels of spiritual consciousness and of absorptive concentration. The chakra system is actually a system of subtle power operations around some centralized force. The chakra is a natural dynamic graph, exposing the exact picture of the constituent powers operating in it.

Chakras as Myth

There is a viewpoint according to which the chakras are not real but imaginary. It is essentially based on the evidence that the chakras are seen neither when dissecting the body nor on its microscopic examination. This indicates that the chakras are beyond the range of both normal sight and extended sight. In other words, they are beyond our physical senses both normal and instrumentalized. But this does not prove their nonexistence.

Sensory perception is a sense-section by which only a segment of the whole is mentalized. Physical sense has four fundamental limitations, namely, size, obscurity, distance and time. This limited sensory power can be enhanced to a certain extent by the use of sensitive instruments. First of all, what we see with our eyes in the body are bones, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, organs, etc., which form the gross aspect of the body. When a bone is covered by muscles, or an organ is enclosed in its cavity, we do not see them, we only see the outer covering. This is the limitation by obscurity. So the gross structure of the body can be partially seen by the sense of sight. It is a very superficial observation of the body, a larger part of which remains hidden. For the observation of the minute structure of the body, it is absolutely necessary to magnify the small objects. For this purpose a powerful microscope is used. It is now possible to study the ultrastructure of the cells through the electron microscope. This has disclosed the molecular constituents of the living organisms. At the molecular level, the chakras are not seen.

Does the molecular study of the living organisms reveal its whole organization? Is that all, what we see by means of the microscope? The molecular structure is based on atoms, and the atoms are built up of what are known as elementary particles. So we find that there are two levels above the molecular level: atomic and subatomic. We have also been able to see atoms, but not elementary particles. They are so minute that they are not observable even with the most powerful instrument. They are inferred. However, the chakras are not seen at the atomic and subatomic levels. Are they inferred? Before an answer is given, we want to discuss another viewpoint about the chakras.

Anatomical Interpretation of Chakras and Nadis

There are viewpoints according to which the chakras are nerve plexuses, and the nadis are nerves or blood vessels. Dr Bamandas Basu
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has expressed the opinion that a more accurate description of the nervous system has been given in the Tantras than in the medical works of the ancient Hindus. The Tantrika nomenclature has been regarded as anatomical terms, and an attempt has been made to explain them accordingly.

According to Professor Brajendranath Seal,
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the adhara (muladhara) chakra is the sacrococcygeal plexus; the swadhishthana chakra is the sacral plexus; the manipuraka (manipura chakra) is the lumbar plexus; the anahata chakra is the cardiac plexus; the bharatisthana (wishuddha chakra) is the junction of the spinal cord with the medulla oblongata; the lalana chakra lies opposite to the uvula, and is supposed to be concerned with the production of ego-altruistic sentiments and affections; the ajña chakra belongs to the sensory-motor tract, and the afferent nerves to the periphery rise from this chakra; the manas chakra is the sensorium, and receives the afferent nerves of the special senses; the soma (indu) chakra is a sixteen-lobed ganglion in the cerebrum above the sensorium; it is the seat of the altruistic sentiments and volitional control; and the sahasrara chakra is the upper cerebrum with its lobes and convolutions.

The anatomical interpretation of the chakras is basically wrong. First of all, an accurate knowledge of both the chakra system and Western anatomy is required to correlate them. Usually, even a good Sanskrit scholar does not possess all the necessary information on the chakras, and so he is not in a position to make a comparison between the two systems. On the other hand, a Tantrika yogi is generally not well versed in modern anatomy and physiology, and is therefore unable to correlate them. (The form ‘yogi’ has been preferred to ‘yogin’, and is used throughout in this book.) The yogi utilizes the knowledge of the chakras in his yoga practices; and to do this no anatomical knowledge of the chakras is really necessary. But a person who has a knowledge of anatomy and physiology as well as a correct understanding of the chakras and utilizes his knowledge of the chakras in his yoga practice, finds that there cannot be any real identification of the chakras with the nerve plexuses. But this lack of identification does not interfere with his yoga practice. The yogis have been continuing their practices in this way from time immemorial, the teaching being imparted by the gurus to their disciples, who also become proficient in time. The yogis, in absorptive concentration, when the outer world and along with it their own bodies are completely forgotten, experience a new inner world in each chakra. To them the chakras are inner power phenomena; they are vivid and ‘seen’. It will not serve any purpose of theirs to identify the chakra with the nerve plexuses.

This study has been undertaken not so much to understand this yoga better, but to find out whether the Tantrika terms can be used to name some physical organs or structures having no clear-cut names in the ancient Indian books on anatomy. Firstly, the main reason for this shortcoming is not due to a lack of knowledge, because even in what we have, wc find that they had great anatomical and physiological knowledge, but because most of the works on the subject have been lost. Secondly, if we think that the Tantrika terms are merely anatomical terms, then they lose their essential character and specificality. But, first, we have to see whether or not this identity is possible.

Professor Seal has identified the muladhara, swadhishthana, manipura and anahata chakras with the coccygeal, sacral, lumbar and cardiac plexuses respectively. This identification is based on a lack of the right knowledge of the real locations of these chakras. The chakras are in the sushumna, and the sushumna is inside the vertebral column. These nerve plexuses are situated outside the vertebral column. So there cannot be any identification. Professor Seal says that the bharatisthana (wishuddha chakra) is the junction of the spinal cord with the medulla oblongata. The upper end of the spinal cord is continuous with the medulla oblongata. The upper border of the spinal cord is at the level of the foramen magnum. It is the upper border of the atlas vertebra. He appears to indicate that the point where the upper end of the spinal cord and the lower end of the medulla oblongata meet is the bharatisthana, that is, the wishuddha chakra. Actually, this description does not name the chakra, but merely gives its location. He has also stated that ‘This also comprises the laryngeal and pharyngeal plexus’. If he means that these two plexuses are included in the wishuddha chakra, then it must be pointed out that these two are the nerve plexuses; the laryngeal plexus is situated on the external surface of the inferior constrictor muscle of the pharynx, and the pharyngeal plexus, called plexus pharyngeus ascendens, lies on the ascending pharyngeal artery in the wall of the pharynx. In that case, the wishuddha chakra would have to extend to the outside of the vertebral column. If the chakra were stripped of the plexuses and pushed upward into the medulla oblongata, it could be made a nerve centre there. The medulla oblongata has a number of centres which include the respiratory and the vasomotor centres. However, in that case the functional identification should be made.

There is still another difficulty. The wishuddha at the medullary level may clash with the lalana (talu) chakra. He has not identified the lalana with any specific anatomical structure, but only says that it is ‘supposed to be the tract affected in the production of ego-altruistic sentiments and affections’. According to him the lalana lies opposite the uvula. This means that the lalana is situated in the palatine region, above which is the ajña and below which is the wishuddha. The palatine region roughly corresponds to the medulla oblongata. It has been clearly stated that the wishuddha is situated in the neck region which corresponds approximately to the middle of the cervical vertebrae.

Professor Seal says that the sensory-motor tract comprises the ajña and manas chakras. This statement is not clear. Moreover, he says that the manas chakra is the sensorium. Seal also asserts that it is the sensory tract at the base of the brain. According to him the manas chakra receives the sensory nerves of the special senses, coming from the periphery. The sensorium generally is any nerve centrum; broadly speaking, it is the sensory apparatus of the body as a whole. It is the seat of sensation. More clearly, it can be said that the manas chakra is the seat of perception. But in what part of the brain is it actually situated? Seal has, of course, roughly indicated that it is at the base of the brain.

There are a number of events that take place during the centripetal passage of nervous impulses from the periphery to the brain, namely, stimulation of the receptors, transmutation of the stimuli into nerve impulses, conduction of sensory impulses to the neurons in the brain, and neuronal transmission and projection on the sensory areas of the cerebral cortex. The whole chain of events is physicochemical, not psychical, in character. Recently, it has been postulated that the cerebral cortex is a way station from which sensory impulses are finally relayed to what has been termed centrencephalic system consisting of the mesencephalon, diencephalon and part of telencephalon. It has no clear-cut anatomical boundary, but, functionally, forms an integrated unit. It appears that both the cerebral cortex and the higher brain stem serve as the neuronal background for sense consciousness. However, it is here that a superphysicochemical event occurs, following or accompanying the nervous events. We can place the manas chakra somewhere in the higher brain stem.

If the manas chakra is identified with a particular area or centre of the higher brain stem, then the chakra itself cannot be regarded as the seat of consciousness. There is no possibility of finding consciousness in the brain substance. We cannot detect the mentative energy factor in the chemical and electrical energy systems of the brain. We cannot say that the neural activity itself produces consciousness, as it is not known how the change occurs. The findings that lesions in the higher brain stem cause the loss of consciousness do not indicate that consciousness permeates through the brain. The brain stimulation activates the subconscious mechanism which relays impulses to the mind, and as a result consciousness is evoked. Consciousness, which is nonspatial in character, cannot be located in the three-dimensional brain.

It has also been postulated that an intense dynamic neuronal activity, different from the low level activity of sleep, elicits an interaction between brain and mind, and under this condition perception occurs. How is this dynamic brain activity caused? The sensory impulses are not the cause, because they also come into the brain during sleep when no consciousness is evoked. The cause appears to be intrinsic. The specific dynamic brain activity can be explained as the neural counterpart of subconscious activity, roused subconsciously to receive sensory messages. The unconscious neural mechanism is, so to speak, bridged by the subconscious mechanism to consciousness. The brain-mind interaction indicates that mind is an entity lying extraencephalically, but when a relation between it and the brain is established, the brain exhibits specific dynamic activity, and is evoked subconsciously. Consequently, it is a mistake to regard a chakra as a nerve plexus or a brain centre or substance. If it is possible to demonstrate that the chakras are the different levels of consciousness and the subtle dynamic graphs, then, it will at once be clear that the brain is only a gross outline of the inner power operation.