In mystic cosmology, the seven lokas, or upper worlds, correspond to the seven higher chakras. The seven talas, or lower worlds, correspond to the chakras below the base of the spine. Man is thus a microcosm of the universe, or macrocosm. The spine is the axis of his being, as Mount Meru is the axis of the world, and the fourteen chakras are portals into the fourteen worlds, or regions of consciousness. The actinodic life force within the sushumṇā current runs up and down the spine and becomes very powerful when the iḍā and piṅgalā, or the odic forces, are balanced. Then man becomes completely actinodic. He doesn’t feel, in a sense, that he has a body at that particular time. He feels he is just a being suspended in space, and during those times his anāhata and viśuddha chakras are spinning and vibrating. When, through the practice of very intense, sustained states of contemplation, he merges into pure states of superconsciousness, the iḍā and the piṅgalā form a circle. They meet, and the pituitary and the pineal glands at the top of the head also merge their energies. This produces deep samādhi. The pituitary gland awakens first and through its action stimulates the pineal. The pineal shoots a spark into the pituitary, and the door of Brahman, the Brahmarandhra, is opened, never to close. I once saw the sahasrāra on a long stem above my head when I was in New York in 1953 or ’54. ¶The sushumṇā force also merges, and the kuṇḍalinī, which is at this time playing up and down the spine like a thermometer, as the fire-heat body of man, rises to the top of the head, and man then goes beyond consciousness and becomes the Self and has his total Self Realization, nirvikalpa samādhi. ¶The iḍā nāḍī is pink in color. It flows down, is predominantly on the left side of the body and is feminine-passive in nature. The piṅgalā nāḍī is blue in color. It flows up, is predominantly on the right side of the body and is masculine-aggressive in nature. These nerve currents are psychic tubes, shall we say, through which prāṇa flows from the central source, Śiva. The prāṇa is flowing down through the iḍā and up through the piṅgalā, but in a figure eight. The sushumṇā nāḍī is in a straight line from the base of the spine to the top of the head. The iḍā and piṅgalā spiral around the sushumṇā and cross at the third chakra, the maṇipūra, and at the fifth chakra, the viśuddha, and meet at the sahasrāra. This means that there is a greater balance of the iḍā and the piṅgalā in man’s will center, the maṇipūra chakra, and in his universal love center, the viśuddha chakra, and of course at the great saṅga center, the meeting place of the three rivers, the sahasrāra chakra. ¶The sushumṇā nāḍī, flowing upward, is the channel for the kuṇḍalinī śakti, which is white. It is the cool energy, as white contains all colors. When the kuṇḍalinī rises, which happens almost imperceptibly under the guru’s watchful eye, consciousness slowly expands. The novice only knows of the subtle yet powerful spiritual unfoldment when looking back to the time the practices were begun. Now he sees how life was then and how now his soul’s humility has overtaken the external ego. ¶Through breathing exercises, meditation and the practice of haṭha yoga, the iḍā and the piṅgalā, the aggressive and passive odic forces, are balanced. When they are balanced, the chakras spin all at the same velocity. When the chakras spin at the same velocity, they no longer bind awareness to the odic world; man’s awareness then is automatically released, and he becomes conscious of the actinodic and actinic worlds. ¶Those chakras at the crossing of the iḍā and piṅgalā are the more physical of the chakras, whereas those it skips are energized by the sushumṇā itself. When the yogī is really centered within, the iḍā and piṅgalā then blend together in a straight line and merge into the sushumṇā, energizing all seven chakras, and in the older soul slowly, very slowly, slowly begin to energize the seven chakras above the sahasrāra. When this happens, he no longer thinks but sees and observes from the ājñā chakra between the eyes. He is totally consciously alive, or superconscious. It is only when his iḍā and piṅgalā begin functioning normally again that he then begins to think about what he saw. §
There are three channels through which the spiritual energies of the kuṇḍalinī can rise. The one recommended is the sushumṇā. The other two are to be avoided. When the kuṇḍalinī śakti flows outside of the sushumṇā nāḍī into and through the iḍā nāḍī on the left side of the spine, which corresponds to the left sympathetic nerve system, it is fragmented into other smaller and more sensitive nerve currents connected to the organs of the physical body. It produces heat within this formerly cool nāḍī network. The person becomes overly emotional, feminine in nature, talks a lot, often has hurt feelings, cries at the least provocation and engages in other emotional behavior patterns that center around the personal I-ness. Such persons always want to help others, but rarely actually do. This heat, though astral, is felt in the physical body in the solar plexus. When provoked, the person angers and is always quick to defend the personal ego in saving face. Similarly, when the serpent power flows up through the piṅgalā nāḍī and into the sympathetic nerve network on the right side of the body, the person becomes overly intellectual, very masculine in nature, talks little, has steel nerves and patterns centering around the conquest of others through intellectual debate. He is prone to long silences, holding in emotions, and to secret patterns of behavior to stimulate or satisfy base desires. In other words, he is not open, smiling, friendly, companionable. In either case, the kuṇḍalinī śakti rising through the iḍā or piṅgalā can move upward only to the viśuddha chakra and no farther. This is the impasse. ¶The misdirection of the kuṇḍalinī happens most often to the less disciplined, those more eager for attainments on the fast track, those not under the watchful eye of the satguru. Nevertheless, the novice feels a dynamic awakening of power. This heat, produced by the kuṇḍalinī śakti flowing through either of these two nāḍīs of the sympathetic nerve system, can and often does produce jerking in the body, spine and neck. ¶More often than not, the jerking body, twisting neck and the “I now know it all” attitude are taken for a highly spiritual experience and even validated as such by certain teachers. But it is as if we were driving on a rocky road, thinking it to be a smooth highway. It is an unusual experience, to be sure, building the personal ego into something it was never intended to be. When this happens to a devotee, the wise guru or swāmī recommends that all spiritual practices be immediately stopped. Japa should be stopped. All prāṇāyāma except the simplest regulation of the breath should be stopped. Reading scripture should be stopped, worship of all kinds should be stopped. Anything other than wholesome, humbling karma yoga, such as cleaning bathrooms, should be stopped. Growing food should be encouraged. Bare feet on the ground and at the same time hands in the dirt is the best way to bring the rampant kuṇḍalinī down to the mūlādhāra chakra. Once it is down, it can be directed up through the right current, but only when the devotee does not have conflicting patterns in his life. ¶Unlike the subtle movement of the divine serpent power through its proper channel, the sushumṇā nāḍī within the spine, its misdirection may reflect a dramatic change in the nature, turning the once humble student into an ego giant, either overly emotional and self-centered or intellectually argumentative; both types are not self-reflective in any way. From a perhaps once shy person, we now have a “Come to me, I will fix you, repair you, inspire you, for I am aware,” or worse, “I am enlightened.” Once the spiritual ego has taken over, some even claim to have attained more than their teacher. They don’t need a teacher anymore. For them, the guru is on the inside, and their heated discussions, emotional outbursts and challenging positions eventually take their toll on their own being. §
As it is said, “What goes up must come down.” This is especially true with the kuṇḍalinī śakti moving through either of the other of the two wrong channels, where it can produce “dis-ease”—discomfort, physically, emotionally, intellectually and astrally—that no doctor’s effort can fathom the cause of or effect a cure. At various junctures, as it rises, the kuṇḍalinī śakti, or serpent power, attacks the organs in the vicinity of the chakra it is passing through, biting and poisoning them on the astral level. As it climbs, each one of the astral organs is hurt and felt as a physical ailment. This often reflects as a symptomatic problem in the kidneys, then stomach problems and later heart problems and thyroid difficulties. At each juncture, the doctor would be perplexed by the ailment, unable to find a medical cause, then doubly perplexed when that problem leaves and the next one arises. Though treatments and multiple tests are more than often given, the source of the problems is usually undetected. ¶A devotee going through this experience often challenges the will of his satguru, whereupon he is left to his own devices, as it lies beyond even the guru’s ability to help or guide him further. For the rule is: the guru takes nine steps toward the seeker for each humble, cooperative, eager step the devotee takes toward him. When the devotee balks, begins to argue and challenge the guru’s will, this is the guru’s signal to withdraw, a mystical sign that his ninth step had been taken. Should he take the tenth, he enters without a welcome, and tangles when steps eleven and twelve are taken. To withdraw then would cause an unwanted karma of hurt, pain and anguish. So, the wisdom of the ancients is “For every one step taken toward the guru, the guru takes nine toward the devotee.” ¶Then Śrī Śrī Śrī Viśvaguru Mahā-Mahārāj-ji steps in and takes over, and the failed aspirant either is corrected by the forces of circumstance to give up spiritual pursuits for financial or other reasons, or he spins off the spiritual path into Viśvaguru’s āśrama, called Bhogabhūmi, place of pleasure (another name for Earth). It is the biggest āśrama of all. Here followers learn by their own mistakes and make fresh new karmas to be experienced in yet another life. ¶To avoid these problems, and worse, the kuṇḍalinī śakti has to be brought down all the way—slowly, not abruptly, lest the person become suicidal—all the way to the base, to the mūlādhāra chakra, and then redirected up the proper channel. As pride comes before a fall, the fall of the spiritual pride is again another hurt, a final bite from the serpent, and as the poison flows through all organs, temporary physical, mental and emotional suffering is the consequence. §
Many seekers want a future of wealth, family and friends and they want the very highest spiritual illumination, too. This is their spiritual pride setting an unrealistic pattern. We must remember that after one renounces the world, with his entering the higher chakras—viśuddha, ājñā and sahasrāra—the world renounces the individual. If married, he no longer can fulfill his purusha dharma, his family duties. He can no longer hold employment that offers benefits for longevity. His perspective of the world and advancement in it has been changed forever. As a ship floats aimlessly on the ocean without a rudder, so does the unprepared soul meander who has forced his way, uninvited through initiation, into the realm of the saints and sages of Sanātana Dharma. This is why householders and all who have not properly prepared themselves, been well schooled and tested by a competent preceptor, should not go too deeply into rāja or kuṇḍalinī yoga practices. ¶If they are prone to anger, jealousy, contempt and retaliation, they should abstain from any of the yogas of japa or exploratory meditation. These will only intensify and prāṇanize the lower chakras that give rise to demonic forces. Rather, they should perform the always healing vāsanā daha tantra and confine themselves to karma yoga, such as cleaning in and around the temple and picking flowers for the pūjās. These simple acts of charyā are recommended, but should be not extended to intense worship. ¶Then, and only then, their life will be in perspective with the philosophy of Sanātana Dharma and begin to become one with Śiva’s perfect universe. Brahmadvara, the door to the seven chakras below the mūlādhāra, will then be sealed off as their experiential patterns settle into the traditional perspective of how life should be and each individual should behave within it. ¶The use of drugs is another foreboding danger, for certain stimulants set in motion the kuṇḍalinī simultaneously into higher and lower regions. For instance, when the user of drugs, like an intruder, forces his way into the experience of the oneness of the universe, the totality of now-ness and all-being, by touching into the fourth chakra, anāhata, simultaneously every other center below the anāhata is stimulated, meaning svādhishṭhāna and the first, third, fifth and seventh below the base of the spine—the centers of reason, fear, jealousy, selfishness and malice. Noticeable mood swings of those who rely on drugs hamper the person throughout life. Only severe prāyaśchitta, penance, can set the course toward spiritual healing. §
The seven chakras, or talas, below the spine down to the feet are all seats of instinctive consciousness, the origin of fear, anger, jealousy, confusion, selfishness, absence of conscience and malice. ¶The first chakra below the mūlādhāra, called atala and located in the hips, governs the state of mind called fear. When someone is in this consciousness, he fears God as well as other people—even himself at times. In the chakra below that, called vitala and located in the thighs, anger predominates. Anger comes from despair or the threatening of one’s self-will. When people are in the consciousness of this chakra, they are even angry at God. With their wrath, they often strike out at those around them, leaving a trail of hurt feelings behind them. From sustained anger arises a persistent, even burning, sense of resentment. ¶The third chakra below the mūlādhāra, called sutala and located in the knees, governs jealousy. Jealousy is actually a feeling of inadequacy, inferiority and helplessness. When mixed with anger it causes terrible reactions within the nerve system of the astral body. When people are in the consciousness of this chakra, they often deny the existence of God and are contentiously combative with one another. ¶The fourth chakra below the mūlādhāra, called talātala and located in the calves, governs instinctive willfulness, the desire to get rather than give, to push others no matter what the reactions may be, all to benefit oneself. When people are in the consciousness of this chakra they proclaim the existence of materialistic advancement over everything else. Greed, deceit, coercion and bribery prevail. This is truly a “dog-eat-dog” state of mind. ¶The fifth chakra below the mūlādhāra, called rasātala and located in the ankles, is the true home of the instinctive mind. When people are in the consciousness of this chakra they see to the well-being of “number one” first, “me, myself and I.” Memory, reason, willfulness; thoughts, feelings and actions without conscience are all motivating factors here, governed by anger and fear. To this state of mind, jealousy, anger and fear are experienced as intense, even high, states of consciousness. There are even philosophies that have been conceived based on the states of consciousness experienced in these five chakras below the mūlādhāra. One of these is existentialism. Many true atheists reside in the fifth chakra below the mūlādhāra, and it is in this chakra that a great part of the mass consciousness resides at this time in the Kali Yuga. ¶There are still two more chakras below this one. The sixth chakra below the mūlādhāra, called mahātala and located in the feet, is “theft without conscience.” Persons living here feel that “the world owes them a living.” They simply take what they justify to be theirs anyway. The seventh chakra below the mūlādhāra, called pātāla and located in the soles of the feet, governs revenge, murder for the sake of murder, malice expressed through the destruction of others’ goods, properties, minds, emotions and physical bodies. Hatred abides here. Malice reigns supreme. This is the consciousness of terrorists and those who support terrorists with vigor and enjoy from afar their every killing, rape and torturous act. Reason seldom influences those who live in this state of mind. ¶From here, at the bottom, there is no other way to go. The only way is up. Evolution takes its toll in bringing the consciousness of these wanton souls up and up into personal ego and some semblance of self-esteem, and then up into the ability of being jealous, then up into conquest of their fears and memory of their past actions, fearful that these horrific events might be repeated, then finally ascending into memory and reason, then into willpower in the maṇipūra chakra. Here they may become religious, repentant, resistant to ever, ever wanting again to face the experiences they look back at constantly and cry about in their remorse. Yes, there is only one path. It goes up or it goes down. ¶Here, in the maṇipūra chakra, which coordinates with the chakra of memory, they are ready to practice prāyaśchitta, penance—whatever it takes to extract the emotion from the memories which are tangled together deep in the subconscious. This is a painful process. But evolution makes it necessary to be lived through. Once accomplished—and practically speaking it is not easily or always accomplished—this changes for the better the course of the prāṇas that flow through the subconscious, the sub of the subconscious and subsuperconscious mind for themselves, their family, ancestors and progeny several generations back and many generations into the future. ¶To further explain, those who are well settled in consciousness within these seven chakras below the mūlādhāra are not interested in religion. They are irreverent and deny the existence of God. It is here that superstitious fears often prevail. There are no rules. There is no conscience. The various interrelated states of consciousness found within these seven chakras foster chaos, confusion, feelings of hopelessness, despair—all adharmic states of mind. These are the rates of vibration of the instinctive mind below the mūlādhāra, where Lord Gaṇeśa sits in all His majesty.§
Gaining stability in any of the chakras above the mūlādhāra avails a certain control over the related chakras below the mūlādhāra. For example, the mūlādhāra has power over the second, fourth and sixth chakras below the base of the spine, the centers of anger, confusion and absence of conscience. Maṇipūra, the third chakra, has power over the mūlādhāra and the same Narakaloka centers in an even more expansive way. The reason center, svādhishṭhāna, chakra two, controls the centers of fear, jealousy and so on. The cognition, seeing-through-worldliness chakra—anāhata—the fourth center above the mūlādhāra, controls the reason chakra and the centers of fear, jealousy, egotistic self-preservation and so on. ¶All the chakras, indeed, are functioning in everyone, as everyone has willpower, memory, reason and so on. But each soul has a home base. The ahiṁsā person whose home base is anāhata chakra would not harm others, because he perceives the unity of all. The person living in the ājñā chakra above could never harm others, because he is immersed in divine love. The home base of the terrorist who takes pleasure, joy and pride and receives medals of honor for his disdain of human rights is the pātāla chakra, at the bottom. The average person, and this is what makes him average, functions predominantly in about six chakras. These would be six below the mūlādhāra for someone for whom fear is the high point. Three within that six are the sustaining elements. ¶The upper seven chakras spin clockwise, and this spinning creates the śānti, or ever-growing peace, within an individual dominated by them. The lower seven spin counterclockwise, and this produces an ever-growing turmoil within one so affected. The vulnerable part of spiritual unfoldment is when someone is in the higher chakras—for example will and reason—and has one or more lower chakras open as well. This means one set of chakras is spinning clockwise and the other set is spinning counterclockwise, which accounts for great mood swings, elation, depression, self adulation, self condemnation. So, Brahmadvara, the doorway to the Narakaloka just below the mūlādhāra, has to be sealed off so that it becomes impossible for fears, hatreds, angers and jealousies to arise. Once this begins to happen, the mūlādhāra chakra is stabilized and the renegade becomes a devotee of Lord Gaṇeśa. You cannot come to Gaṇeśa in love and respect if you are an angry or jealous person. That is our religion. ¶As awareness flows through the first three higher chakras, we are in memory and reason patterns. We see the past and the future vividly and reside strongly in the conscious and subconscious areas of the mind. When awareness flows through the anāhata and viśuddha chakras, our point of view changes. We begin to see ourselves as the center of the universe, for now we are looking out and seeing through the external world from within ourselves. We look into the primal force within ourselves and see that this same energy is in and through everything. ¶The chakras also relate to our immediate universe. Put the sun in the center, representing the golden light of sushumṇā. The Earth is the conscious mind; the moon is the subconscious mind. The vibratory rates of the planets are then related to the seven chakras: the first chakra, mūlādhāra, to Mercury; the second chakra, svādhishṭhāna, to Venus; the third chakra, maṇipūra, to Mars; and so forth. In this way, if you know something of Vedic astrology, you can understand the relationship of the influence of the planets as to the formation of the individual nature, and how these various chakras come into power, some stronger than others, depending upon the astrological signs, for they have the same rate of vibration as the planets. Now you can see how it all ties together. ¶Through the knowledge of the chakras you can watch people and see what state of consciousness they are functioning in. It is helpful to know that all souls are inwardly perfect, but they are functioning through one force center or another most of the time, and these force centers determine their attitudes, their experiences, how they react to them and more.§
When at the moment of death you enter the astral plane, you only are in the consciousness of the chakras that were most active within you during the later part of your lifetime and, accordingly, you function in one of the astral lokas until the impetus of these chakras is expended. It is the chakras that manufacture the bodies. It is not the body that manufactures the chakras. Since you have fourteen chakras, at least three are the most powerful in any one individual—for example, memory, will and cognition. Each chakra is a vast area of the mind, or a vast collective area of many, many different thought strata. Generally, most people who gather together socially, intellectually or spiritually are flowing through the same predominant chakra, or several of them collectively. Therefore, they are thinking alike and share the same perspective in looking at life. ¶The chakras exist as nerve ganglia that have a direct impact on organs in the physical body, as psychic nerve ganglia in the astral body and as spinning disks of consciousness in the body of the soul, ānandamaya kośa. The power to close off the lower chakras—to seal off the doorway at the lower end of the sushumṇā—exists only when the soul is presently incarnated in a physical body. All fourteen chakras, plus seven more above and within the sahasrāra, are always there. It is up to the individual to lift consciousness from one to another through right thought, right speech, right action, showing remorse for errors committed, performing regular sādhana, worship, pilgrimage and heeding other instructions the satguru or swāmī might offer for personal guidance. All this and more teaches the prāṇas of consciousness, and most importantly, individual awareness, the art of flowing up through the higher centers through the process of closing off the lower ones. ¶Spiritual unfoldment is not a process of awakening the higher chakras, but of closing the chakras below the mūlādhāra. Once this happens, the aspirant’s consciousness slowly expands into the higher chakras, which are always there. The only thing that keeps the lower chakras closed is regular sādhana, japa, worship and working within oneself. This is demonstrated by the fact that even great yogīs and ṛishis who have awakened into the higher chakras continue to do more and more sādhana. They are constantly working to keep the forces flowing through the higher centers so that the lower ones do not claim their awareness. ¶Now, all of this perhaps seems very complex and esoteric. But these are aspects of our nature that we use every day. We use our arms and hands every day without thinking. If we study the physiology of the hands, we encounter layer after layer of intricate interrelationships of tissues, cells, plasma. We examine the engineering of the structural system of bones and joints, the energy transmission of the muscular system, the biochemistry of growth and healing, the biophysics of nerve action and reaction. Suddenly a simple and natural part of human life, the function of the hands, seems complex. Similarly, we use the various functions of consciousness, the chakras, every day without even thinking about them. But now we are studying them in their depths to gain a more mature understanding of their nature. ¶Actually, there are more chakras above and within the sahasrāra. Buddhist literature cites thirty-two chakras above. Āgamic Hindu tradition cites seven levels of the rarefied dimensions of Paranāda, the first tattva, as chanted daily by hundreds of thousands of priests during pūjā in temples all over the world. Their names are: vyāpinī, vyomāṅga, anantā, anāthā, anāśṛitā, samanā and unmanā. I have experienced these higher chakras or nāḍīs, as they are in this subtle region, as conglomerates of nāḍīs. These force centers are not exactly chakras, as they are not connected to any organ or part of the physical body. They are chakras or nāḍīs of the body of the soul, which when developed as a result of many, many, many Paraśiva experiences, slowly descend into the mental and astral bodies. The mental body becomes permanently different in its philosophical outlook, and the astral body begins to absorb and be transformed by the golden body, or svarṇaśarīra.§