Yoga and chakras

In my yoga school we would start the class with a puja. Sitting cross legged and with our hands together in front of the heart chakra we would send the teacher loving energy to give us a wonderful class. Any new teacher said that they were amazed how real the puja was. In my perfect world we would all greet each other with a loving puja. Many of the Yoga asanas are just as much about activating the chakras as they are about muscle strength and flexibility. This is because they link to the spine where the chakra has its roots. The Yogis call the active energy in the chakra ‘prana’.

The yogic traditions came from peaceful and highly developed matriarchal societies and date back 10 and more thousand years. Sanskrit is one of the oldest written languages and has passed on many words to English and other languages. It has links to the yogic traditional practices that observed and tried to explain the energetic body giving names to the centres and sacred sounds. The Sanskrit name is difficult to read and pronounce and most people know the chakras by the common names which are easier to relate to.

Of the sacred sounds, Om is the most well known, which is said to vibrate to the sound of the universe or ‘god’. ‘Amen’ is said to have come from this word. Om is like the lower string on a piano, which when plucked will set the strings of other higher octaves buzzing in harmony. Om will work on each chakra as if it were one of the harmonic strings. If the sacred sound is vocalised individually and with focus directed to the chakra the body will vibrate like an instruments and this awakens activity and cleanses the channels.

Chakras are directly linked to our emotions and respond to the subtle vibration of crystals, your breath, spinal movements (and manipulations), touch and natural perfumes (that is why essential oils can be helpful on chakra points)

Colour and chakras

Being of an energetic nature, each chakra glows with its own colour. Clairvoyants, crystal healers and other healers need to clean their chakras via visualising and chanting every day. They imagine the chakra centre opening up like a flower unfolding or like the aperture of a camera opening to let in light. They then visualise passing the pure chakra colour through it. They start from the base chakra and move upwards bringing a string of colour with them up, up to the crown chakra and beyond into the higher angelic and budda realms so that they can see clearly and be guided. Although there is nothing lovelier than having the chakras open and in connection with the higher realms they cannot be left open. The energy of the chakras of angry or troubled people can seek out unwanted connections with other people and the chakras, once opened and refreshed should be consciously closed for protection against these unwanted currents and negative energies. To stay grounded they must send the red energy of the base chakra down the legs and deep into the earth before beginning work on the other chakras.

The same thing goes for everyone doing chakra work. I swim everyday and meditate on my chakras throughout the various laps. At the beginning of the swim I ground myself. At the end of my swim I always go into a relaxed state and close the chakras down to a small light. My yoga teacher was insistent that you should only meditate in lotus position. It was a form of protection, to make sure that you created a closed circuit of energy moving from the crown chakra back into the body via the base chakra. However, my knees are not so keen on cross legged positions and I have chosen to disregard this council. I enjoy the mental focus and flexibility the chakra work gives to my exercise regime and understand that the endorphins I am producing during the practice enrich the sense of connection and peace I receive.

other

I think that our chakras have quite a mind of their own that we can never be fully conscious of. In his 'Dark Materials' series, Philip Pulman wrote about people with daemons which were visible and attached to the person by a chord of energy. It may be that we really do have something very similar. Consider that we have a friend with us all the time. One that moves ahead of us and communicates or not with other peoples friends without us knowing about it. They get an alternative sense of the person that is not the same as the one the person presents in the real world. This is communicated back to us via sensations in the emotional centres.