The
Chakras
A MONOGRAPH
BY
C. W.
Leadbeater
with ten
colour illustrations
THE
THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE
Adyar,
Madras 600 020, India
Wheaton,
Ill., USA; London, England
First
Edition 1927
PUBLISHER’S
NOTE
IN preparing
this edition for publication, a few explanatory footnotes have been added and a
few sentences have been omitted which were relevant only at the time of the
original publication. Except for minor editorial corrections, the book appears
in the same form as when it was first published in 1927.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
WHEN a man
begins to develop his senses, so that he may see a little more than everybody
sees, a new and most fascinating world opens before him, and the chakras are
among the first objects in that world to attract his attention. His fellow-men
present themselves under a fresh aspect; he perceives much with regard to them
which was previously hidden from his eyes, and he is therefore able to
understand, to appreciate and (when necessary) to help them much better than he
could before. Their thoughts and feelings are expressed clearly before his eyes
in colour and form; the stage of their development, the condition of their
health become obvious facts instead of mere matters of inference. The brilliant
colouring and the rapid and incessant movement of the chakras bring them
immediately under his observation, and he naturally wants to know what they are
and what they mean. It is the object of this book to provide an answer to those
questions and to give to those who have not yet made any attempt to unfold their
dormant faculties some idea of at least this one small section of what is seen
by their more fortunate brethren.
In order to
clear away inevitable preliminary misconceptions, let it be definitely
understood that there is nothing fanciful or unnatural about the sight which
enables some men to perceive more than others. It is simply an extension of
faculties with which we are all familiar, and to acquire it is to make oneself
sensitive to vibrations more rapid than those to which our physical senses are
normally trained to respond. These faculties will come to everyone in due course
of evolution, but some of us have taken special trouble to develop them now in
advance of the rest, at the cost of many years of harder work than most people
would care to undertake.
I know that
there are still many men in the world who are so far behind the times as to deny
the existence of such powers, just as there are still villagers who have never
seen a railway train. I have neither time nor space to argue with such
invincible ignorance; I can only refer enquirers to my book on Clairvoyance,
or to scores of books by other authors on the same subject. The whole case has
been proved hundreds of times, and no one who is capable of weighing the value
of evidence can any longer be in doubt.
Much has
been written about the chakras, but it is chiefly in Sanskrit or in some of the
Indian vernaculars. It is only quite recently that any account of them has
appeared in English. I mentioned them myself in The Inner Life
about 1910, and since then Sir John Woodroffe’s magnificent work The Serpent
Power
has been issued, and some of the other Indian books have been translated. The
symbolical drawings of them which are used by the Indian yogis were reproduced
in The Serpent Power, but so far as I am aware the illustrations
which I give in this book are the first attempt to represent them as they
actually appear to those who can see them. Indeed, it is chiefly in order to put
before the public this fine series of drawings by my friend the Rev. Edward
Warner that I write this book, and I wish to express my deep indebtedness to him
for all the time and trouble that he has devoted to them. I have also to thank
my indefatigable collaborator, Professor Ernest Wood, for the collection and
collation of all the valuable information as to the Indian views on our subject
which is contained in Chapter V.
Being much
occupied with other work, it was my intention merely to collect and reprint as
accompanying letterpress to the illustrations the various articles which I had
long ago written on the subject; but as I looked over them certain questions
suggested themselves and a little investigation put me in possession of
additional facts, which I have duly incorporated. An interesting point is that
both the vitality-globule and the kundalini-ring were observed by Dr. Annie
Besant and catalogued as hyper-meta-proto elements as long ago as 1895, though
we did not then follow them far enough to discover their relation to one
another and the important part that they play in the economy of human life.
C. W. L.
CONTENTS |
PREFACE |
CHAPTER I |
THE
FORCE-CENTRES |
The
Meaning of the Word. Preliminary Explanations. The Etheric Double.
The Centres. The Forms of the Vortices. The Illustrations. The Root
Chakra. The Spleen Chakra. The Navel Chakra. The Heart Chakra. The
Throat Chakra. The Brow Chakra. The Crown Chakra. Other Accounts of
the Centres. |
CHAPTER
II |
THE
FORCES |
The
Primary or Life Force. The Serpent-Fire. The Three Spinal Channels.
The Marriage of the Forces. The Sympathetic System. The Centres in
the Spine. Vitality. The Vitality Globule. The Supply of Globules.
Psychic Forces. |
CHAPTER
III |
THE
ABSORPTION OF VITALITY |
The
Globule. The Violet-Blue Ray. The Yellow Ray: The Green Ray. The
Rose Ray. The Orange-Red Ray. The Five Prana Vayus. Vitality and
Health. The Fate of the Empty Atoms. Vitality and Magnetism. |
CHAPTER
IV |
THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHAKRAS |
The
Functions of the Awakened Centres. The Astral Centres. Astral
Senses. The Arousing of Kundalini. The Awakening of the Etheric
Chakras. Casual Clairvoyance. The Danger of Premature Awakening.
The Spontaneous Awakening of Kundalini. Personal Experience. The
Etheric Web. The Effects of Alcohol and Drugs. The Effect of
Tobacco. The Opening of the Doors. |
CHAPTER
V |
THE
LAYA YOGA |
The
Hindu Books. The Indian List of Chakras. The Figures of the Chakras.
The Heart Chakra. The Petals and Letters. The Mandalas. The Yantras.
The Animals. The Divinities. The Body Meditation. The Knots. The
Secondary Heart Lotus. Effects of Meditation in the Heart.
Kundalini. The Awakening of Kundalini. The Ascent of Kundalini. The
Goal of Kundalini. Conclusion. |
|
|
|
Frontispiece
The Crown Chakra |
Plate I
The Root Chakra |
Plate II
The Spleen Chakra |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Plate III
The Navel Chakra
|
Plate IV
The Heart Chakra |
Plate V
The Throat Chakra |
|
|
|
Plate VI
The Brow Chakra |
Plate VII
The Chakras
according to Gichtel |
Plate VIII
The Streams of
Vitality |
|
Plate IX
The Chakras and the
Nervous System |
|
|
|
|
Figure 1
The Chakras |
Figure 2
Representations of the Crown Chakra |
Figure 3
The Three Outpourings |
|
|
|
|
|
Figure 4
The Spinal Channels |
Figure 5
The Forms of the Forces |
|
|
|
Figure 6
The Combined Form of the Forces |
Figure 7
The Ultimate Physical Atom |
Figure 8
The Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland |
|
|
Figure 9
Hindu Diagram of the Chakras |
Table VI
The Sanskrit Alphabet |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES |
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX. |
The Crown Chakra.
The
Root Chakra.
The Spleen Chakra.
The Navel Chakra.
The Heart Chakra.
The
Throat Chakra.
The Brow Chakra.
The Chakras according to Gichtel
The Streams of Vitality
The Chakras and the Nervous System |
FIGURES |
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. |
The Chakras
Representations of the Crown Chakra
The Three Outpourings
The Spinal Channels
The Forms of the Forces
The Combined Form of the Forces
The Ultimate Physical Atom
The Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland
Hindu Diagram of the Heart Chakra |
TABLES |
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII. |
The Chakras
The Chakras and the Plexuses
Prana and the Principles
The Five Prana Vayus
Colours of Lotus Petals
The Sanskrit Alphabet
The Symbolic Forms of the Elements |
CHAPTER I
THE FORCE -
CENTRES
THE MEANING
OF THE WORD
1.
THE word Chakra is Sanskrit, and signifies a wheel. It is also used in
various subsidiary, derivative and symbolical senses, just as is its English
equivalent; as we might speak of the wheel of fate, so does the Buddhist speak
of the wheel of life and death; and he describes that first great sermon in
which the Lord Buddha propounded his doctrine as the Dhammachakkappavattana
Sutta (chakka being the Pali equivalent for the Sanskrit chakra)
which Professor Rhys Davids poetically renders as “to set rolling the royal
chariot-wheel of a universal empire of truth and righteousness”. That is exactly
the spirit of the meaning which the expression conveys to the Buddhist devotee,
though the literal translation of the bare words is “the turning of the wheel of
the Law”. The special use of the word chakra with which we are at the moment
concerned is its application to a series of wheel-like vortices which exist in
the surface of the etheric double of man.
2.
PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS
3.
As this hook may probably fall into the hands of some who are not
familiar with Theosophical terminology it may be well to insert here a few words
of preliminary explanation.
4.
In ordinary superficial conversation a man sometimes mentions his soul -
implying that the body through which he speaks is the real man, and that this
thing called the soul is a possession or appanage of that body - a sort of
captive balloon floating over him, and in some vague sort of way attached to
him. This is a loose, inaccurate and misleading statement; the exact opposite is
the truth. Man is a soul and owns a body - several bodies in fact; for
besides the visible vehicle by means of which he transacts his business with his
lower world, he has others which are not visible to ordinary sight, by means of
which he deals with the emotional and mental worlds. With those, however, we are
not for the moment concerned.
5.
In the course of the last century enormous advances have been made in our
knowledge of the minute details of the physical body; students of medicine are
now familiar with its bewildering complexities, and have at least a general idea
of the way in which its amazingly intricate machinery works.
6.
THE ETHERIC DOUBLE
7.
Naturally, however, they have had to confine their attention to that part
of the body which is dense enough to be visible to the eye, and most of them are
probably unaware of the existence of that type of matter, still physical though
invisible, to which in Theosophy we give the name of etheric.
This invisible part of the physical body is of great importance to us, for it is
the vehicle through which flow the streams of vitality which keep the body
alive, and without it as a bridge to convey undulations of thought and feeling
from the astral to the visible denser physical matter, the ego-
could make no use of the cells of his brain. It is clearly visible to the
clairvoyant as a mass of faintly-luminous violet-grey mist, interpenetrating the
denser part of the body, and extending very slightly beyond it.
8.
The life of the physical body is one of perpetual change, and in order
that it shall live it needs constantly to be supplied from three distinct
sources. It must have food for its digestion, air for its breathing, and
vitality in three forms for its absorption. This vitality is essentially a
force, but when clothed with matter it appears to us as though it were a highly
refined chemical element. It exists upon all planes, but our business for the
moment is to consider its manifestation in the physical world.
9.
In order to understand that, we must know something of the constitution
and arrangement of this etheric part of our bodies. I have written on this
subject many years ago in various volumes, and Colonel A. E. Powell has recently
gathered together all the information heretofore published
and issued it in a convenient form in a book called The Etheric Double.
10.
THE CENTRES
11.
The chakras or force-centres are points of connection at which energy
flows from one vehicle or body of a man to another. Anyone who possesses a
slight degree of clairvoyance may easily see them in the etheric double, where
they show themselves as saucer-like depressions or vortices in its surface. When
quite undeveloped they appear as small circles about two inches in diameter,
glowing dully in the ordinary man; but when awakened and vivified they are seen
as blazing, coruscating whirlpools, much increased in size, and resembling
miniature suns. We sometimes speak of them as roughly corresponding to certain
physical organs; in reality they show themselves at the surface of the etheric
double, which projects slightly beyond the outline of the dense body. If we
imagine ourselves to be looking straight down into the bell of a flower of the
convolvulus type, we shall get some idea of the general appearance of a chakra.
The stalk of the flower in each springs from a point in the spine, so another
view might show the spine as a central stem (see Plate VIII), from which flowers
shoot forth at intervals, showing the opening of their bells at the surface of
the etheric body.
12.
The seven centres with which we are at present concerned are indicated in
the accompanying illustration (Fig. 1). Table I gives their English and
Sanskrit names.
13.
All these wheels are perpetually rotating, and into the hub or open mouth
of each a force from the higher world is always flowing- a manifestation of the
life-stream issuing from the Second Aspect of the Solar Logos - which we call
the primary force. That force is sevenfold in its nature, and all its forms
operate in each of these centres, although one of them in each case usually
predominates over the others. Without this inrush of energy the physical body
could not exist. Therefore the centres are in operation in every one, although
in the undeveloped person they are usually in comparatively sluggish motion,
just forming the necessary vortex for the force, and no more. In a more evolved
man they may be glowing and pulsating with living light, so that an enormously
greater amount of energy passes through them, with the result that there are
additional faculties and possibilities open to the man.
15.
THE FORM OF THE VORTICES
16.
This divine energy which pours into each centre from without sets up at
right angles to itself (that is to say, in the surface of the etheric double)
secondary forces in undulatory circular motion, just as bar-magnet thrust into
an induction coil produces a current of electricity which flows round the coil
at right angles to the axis or direction of the magnet. The primary force
itself, having entered the vortex, radiates from it again at right angles, but
in straight lines, as though the centre of the vortex were the hub of a wheel,
and the radiations of the primary force its spokes. By means of these spokes the
force seems to bind the astral and etheric bodies together as though with
grappling-hooks. The number of these spokes differs in the different
force-centres, and determines the number of waves or petals which each of them
exhibits. Because of this these centres have often been poetically described in
Oriental books as resembling flowers.
English Name |
Sanskrit Name |
Situation |
Root or Basic Chakra |
Muladhara |
At the base of the spine |
Spleen or Splenic Chakra |
|
Over the spleen |
Navel or Umbilical Chakra |
Manipura |
At the navel, over the solar plexus |
Heart or Cardiac Chakra |
Anahata |
Over the heart |
Throat or Laryngeal Chakra |
Vishuddha |
At the front of the throat |
Brow or frontal Chakra |
Ajna |
In the space between the eye brows |
Crown or Coronal Chakra |
Sahasrara |
On the top of the head |
17.
TABLE 1
18.
Each of the secondary forces which sweep round the saucer-like depression
has its own characteristic wave-length, just as has light of a certain colour;
but instead of moving in a straight line as light does, it moves along
relatively large undulations of various sizes, each of which is some multiple of
the smaller wave-lengths within it. The number of undulations is determined by
the number of spokes in the wheel, and the secondary force weaves itself under
and over the radiating currents of the primary force, just as basket-work might
be woven round the spokes of a carriage-wheel. The wave-lengths are
infinitesimal, and probably thousands of them are included within one of the
undulations. As the forces rush round in the vortex, these oscillations of
different sizes, crossing one another in this basket-work fashion, produce the
flower-like form to which I have referred. It is, perhaps, still more like the
appearance of certain saucers or shallow vases of wavy iridescent glass, such as
are made in Venice. All of these undulations or petals have that shimmering
pavonine effect, like mother-of-pearl, yet each of them has usually its own
predominant colour, as will be seen from our illustrations. This nacreous
silvery aspect is likened in Sanskrit works to the gleam of moonlight on water.
19.
THE ILLUSTRATIONS
20.
These illustrations of ours show the
chakras as seen by clairvoyant sight in a fairly evolved and intelligent
person, who has already brought them to some extent into working order. Of
course our colours are not sufficiently luminous - no earthly colours could be;
but at least the drawings will give some idea of the actual appearance of these
wheels of light. It will be understood from what has already been said that the
centres vary in size and in brightness in different people, and that even in the
same person some of them may be much more developed than the rest. They are
drawn about life-size, except for the Sahasrara or crown chakra, which we have
found it necessary to magnify in order to show its amazing wealth of detail. In
the case of a man who excels greatly in the qualities which express themselves
through a certain centre, that centre will be not only much enlarged but also
especially radiant, throwing out brilliant golden rays. An example of that may
be seen in Madame Blavatsky’s precipitation of the aura of Mr. Stainton Moses,
which is now kept in a cabinet in the archives of the Society at Adyar. It is
reproduced, though very imperfectly, on page 364 of Volume I of Colonel Olcott’s
Old Diary Leaves.
21.
These chakras naturally divide into three groups, the lower, the middle
and the higher; they might be called respectively the physiological, the
personal and the spiritual.
22.
The first and second chakras, having but few spokes or petals, are
principally concerned with receiving into the body two forces which come into
it at that physical level - one being the serpent-fire from the earth and the
other the vitality from the sun. The centres of the middle group, numbered 3, 4
and 5, are engaged with the forces which reach man through his personality -
through the lower astral in the case of centre 3, the higher astral in centre 4,
and from the lower mind in centre 5. All these centres seem to feed certain
ganglia in the body. Centres 6 and 7 stand apart from the rest, being connected
with the pituitary body and the pineal gland respectively, and coming into
action only when a certain amount of spiritual development has taken place.
23.
I have heard it suggested that each of the
different petals of these force-centres represents a moral quality, and that the
development of that quality brings the centre into activity. For example, in
The Dhyana-bindu Upanishad the petals of the heart chakra are associated
with devotion, laziness, anger, charity and similar qualities. I have not yet
met with any facts which definitely confirm this, and it is not easy to see
exactly how it can be, because the appearance is produced by certain readily
recognizable forces, and the petals in any particular centre are either active
or not active according as these forces have or have not been aroused, and their
unfoldment seems to have no more direct connection with morality than has the
enlargement of the biceps. I have certainly met with persons in whom some of the
centres were in full activity, though the moral advancement was by no means
exceptionally high, whereas in other persons of high spirituality and the
noblest possible morality the centres were scarcely yet vitalized at all; so
that there does not seem to be any necessary connection between the two
developments.
24.
There are, however, certain facts observable which may be the basis of
this rather curious idea. Although the likeness to petals is caused by the same
forces flowing round and round the centre, alternately over and under the
various spokes, those spokes differ in character, because the inrushing force is
subdivided into its component parts or qualities, and therefore each spoke
radiates a specialized influence of its own, even though the variations be
slight. The secondary force, in passing each spoke, is to some extent modified
by its influence, and therefore changes a little in its hue. Some of these
shades of colour may indicate a form of the force which is helpful to the growth
of some moral quality, and when that quality is strengthened its corresponding
vibration will be more pronounced. Thus the deepening or weakening of the tint
might be taken to betoken the possession of more or less of that attribute.
25.
THE ROOT CHAKRA
26.
The first centre, the basic (Plate I), at the base of the spine, has a
primary force which radiates out in four spokes, and therefore arranges its
undulations so as to give the effect of its being divided into quadrants,
alternately red and orange in hue, with hollows between them. This makes it seem
as though marked with the sign of the cross, and for that reason the cross is
often used to symbolize this centre, and sometimes a flaming cross is taken to
indicate the serpent-fire which resides in it. When acting with any vigour this
chakra is fiery orange-red in colour, corresponding closely with the type of
vitality which is sent down to it from the splenic centre. Indeed, it will be
noticed that in the case of every one of the chakras a similar correspondence
with the colour of its vitality may be seen.
27.
THE SPLEEN CHAKRA
28.
The second centre, the splenic (Plate II), at the spleen, is devoted to
the specialization, subdivision and dispersion of the vitality which comes to us
from the sun. That vitality is poured out again from it in six horizontal
streams, the seventh variety being drawn into the hub of the wheel. This centre
therefore has six petals or undulations, all of different colours, and is
specially radiant, glowing and sunlike. Each of the six divisions of the wheel
shows predominantly the colour of one of the forms of the vital force -red,
orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.
29.
THE NAVEL CHAKRA
30.
The third centre, the umbilical (Plate IV), at the navel or solar plexus,
receives a primary force with ten radiations, so it vibrates in such a manner as
to divide itself into ten undulations or petals. It is very closely associated
with feelings and emotions of various kinds. Its predominant colour is a curious
blending of several shades of red, though there is also a great deal of green in
it. The divisions are alternately chiefly red and chiefly green.
31.
THE HEART CHAKRA
32.
The fourth centre, the cardiac (Plate V), at the heart, is of a glowing
golden colour, and each of its quadrants is divided into three parts, which
gives it twelve undulations, because its primary force makes for it twelve
spokes.
33.
THE THROAT CHAKRA
34.
The fifth centre, the laryngeal (Plate VII), at the throat, has sixteen
spokes, and therefore sixteen apparent divisions. There is a good deal of blue
in it, but its general effect is silvery and gleaming, with a kind of suggestion
as of moonlight upon rippling water. Blue and green predominate alternately in
its sections.
35.
THE BROW CHAKRA
36.
The sixth centre, the frontal (Plate IX), between the eyebrows, has the
appearance of being divided into halves, one chiefly rose-coloured, though with
a great deal of yellow about it, and the other predominantly a kind of
purplish-blue, again closely agreeing with the colours of the special types of
vitality that vivify it. Perhaps it is for this reason that this centre is
mentioned in Indian books as having only two petals, though if we are to count
undulations of the same character as those of the previous centres we shall find
that each half is subdivided into forty-eight of these, making ninety-six in
all, because its primary force has that number of radiations.
37.
This sudden leap form 16 to 96 spokes, and again the even more startling
variation from 96 to 972 between this and the next chakra, show us that we are
now dealing with centres of an altogether different order from those which we
have hitherto been considering. We do not yet know all the factors which
determine the number of spokes in a chakra, but it is already evident that they
represent shades of variation in the primary force. Before we can say much more
than this, hundreds of observations and comparisons must be made - made,
repeated and verified over and over again. But meantime this much is clear -
that while the need of the personality can be satisfied by a limited number of
types of force, when we come to the higher and more permanent principles of man
we encounter a complexity, a multiplicity, which demands for its expression a
vastly greater selection of modifications of the energy.
38.
THE CROWN CHAKRA
39.
The seventh centre, the coronal (see frontispiece), at the top of
the head, is when stirred into full activity the most resplendent of all, full
of indescribable chromatic, effects and vibrating with almost inconceivable
rapidity. It seems to contain all sorts of prismatic hues, but is on the whole
predominantly violet. It is described in Indian books as thousand-petalled, and
really this is not very far from the truth, the number of the radiations of its
primary force in the outer circle being nine hundred and sixty. Every line of
this will be seen faithfully reproduced in our frontispiece, though it is hardly
possible to give the effect of the separate petals. In addition to this it has a
feature which is possessed by none of the other chakras - a sort of subsidiary
central whirlpool of gleaming white flushed with gold in its heart - a minor
activity which has twelve undulations of its own.
40.
This chakra is usually the last to be awakened. In the beginning it is
the same size as the others, but as the man progresses on the Path of spiritual
advancement it increases steadily until it covers almost the whole top of the
head. Another peculiarity attends its development. It is at first a depression
in the etheric body, as are all the other, because through it, as through them,
the divine force flows in from without; but when the man realizes his position
as a king of the divine light, dispensing largesse to all around him, this
chakra reverses itself, turning as it were inside out; it is no longer a channel
of reception but of radiation, no longer a depression but a prominence,
standing out from the head as a dome, a veritable crown of glory.
41.
In Oriental pictures and statues of the deities or great men this
prominence is often shown. In Fig. 2 it appears on the head of a statue of the
Lord Buddha at Borobudur in Java. This is the conventional method of
representing it, and in this form it is to be found upon the heads of thousands
of images of the Lord Buddha all over the Eastern world. In many cases it will
be seen that the two tiers of the Sahasrara chakra are copied - the larger dome
of 960 petals first, and then the smaller dome of 12 rising out of that in turn.
The head on the right is that of Brahma from the Hokke-do of Todai-ji, at Nara
in Japan (dating from A.D. 749); and it will be seen that the statue is wearing
a head-dress fashioned to represent this chakra, though in a form somewhat
different from the last, showing the coronet of flames shooting up from it.
42.
43.
It appears also in the Christian symbology, in the crowns worn by the
four-and-twenty elders who are for ever casting them down before the throne of
God. In the highly developed man this coronal chakra pours out splendour and
glory which makes for him a veritable crown; and the meaning of that passage of
Scripture is that all that he has gained, all the magnificent karma that he
makes, all the wondrous spiritual force that he generates - all that he
casts perpetually at the feet of the Locos to be used in his work. So, over and
over again, can he continue to cast down his golden crown, because it
continually re-forms as the force wells up from within him.
44.
OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE CENTRES
45.
These seven force-centres are frequently described in Sanskrit
literature, in some of the minor Upanishads, in the Puranas and in Tantric
works. They are used today by many Indian yogis. A friend acquainted with the
inner life of India assures me that he knows of one school in that country which
makes free use of the chakras - a school which numbers as its pupils about
sixteen thousand people scattered over a large area. There is much interesting
information available on the subject from Hindu sources, which we will try to
summarize with comments in a later chapter.
46.
It appears also that certain European mystics were acquainted with the
chakras. Evidence of this occurs in a book entitled Theosophia Practica
by the well-known German mystic Johann Georg Gichtel, a pupil of Jacob Boehme,
who probably belonged to the secret society of the Rosicrucians. It is from this
work of Gichtel’s that our Plate III is reproduced by the kind permission of the
publishers. This book was originally issued in the year 1696, though in the
edition of 1736 it is said that the pictures, of which the volume is mainly a
description, were printed only some ten years after the death of the author,
which took place in 1710. The book must be distinguished from a collection of
Gichtel’s correspondence put forth under the same title Theosophia Practica;
the present volume is not in the form of letters, but consists of six chapters
dealing with the subject of that mystic regeneration which was such an important
tenet of the Rosicrucians.
47.
The illustration which we give here has been photographed from the French
translation of the Theosophia Practica, published in 1897 in the
Bibliotheque Rosicrucienne (No. 4) by the Bibliotheque Chacornac, Paris.
48.
Gichtel, who was born in 1638, at Ratisbon in Bavaria, studied theology
and law and practised as an advocate; but afterwards, becoming conscious of a
spiritual world within, gave up all worldly interests and became the founder of
a mystical Christian movement. Being opposed to the ignorant orthodoxy of his
time, he drew down upon himself the hatred of those whom he had attacked, and
about 1670 he was consequently banished, and his property confiscated. He
finally found refuge in Holland, where he lived for the remaining forty years of
his life.
49.
He evidently considered the figures printed in his Theosophia Practica
as being of a secret nature; apparently they were kept within the small
circle of his disciples for quite a number of years. They were, he says, the
result of an inner illumination - presumably of what in our modern times we
should call clairvoyant faculties. On the title-page of his book he says that it
is, “A short exposition of the three principles of the three worlds in man,
represented in clear pictures, showing how and where they have their respective
Centres in the inner man; according to what the author has found in himself in
divine contemplation, and what he has felt, tasted and perceived”.
50.
Like most mystics of his day, however, Gichtel lacks the exactitude which
should characterize true occultism and mysticism; in his description of the
figures he allows himself lengthy, though oftentimes quite interesting
digressions on the difficulties and problems of the spiritual life. As an
exposition of his illustrations, however, his book is not a success. Perhaps he
did not dare to say too much; or he may have wished to induce his readers to
learn to see for themselves that of which he was writing. It seems likely that
by the truly spiritual life which he led he had developed sufficient
clairvoyance to see these chakras, but that he was unaware of their true
character and use, so that in his attempts to explain their meaning, he attached
to them the current symbolism of the mystic school to which lie belonged.
51.
He is here dealing, as will be seen, with the natural earthly man in a
state of darkness, so he has perhaps some excuse for being a little pessimistic
about his chakras. He lets the first and second pass without comment (possibly
knowing that they are chiefly concerned with physiological processes), but
labels the solar plexus as the home of anger - as indeed it is. He sees the
heart-centre as filled with self-love, the throat with envy and avarice; and the
higher centres of the head radiate nothing better than pride.
52.
He also assigns planets to the chakras, giving the Moon to the basic,
Mercury to the splenic, Venus to the umbilical, the Sun to the heart (though it
will be noted that a snake is coiled round it), Mars to the laryngeal, Jupiter
to the frontal, and Saturn to the coronal. He informs us further that fire
resides in the heart, water in the liver, earth in the lungs, and air in the
bladder.
53.
It is noteworthy that he draws a spiral, starting from the snake round
the heart and passing through all the centres in turn; but there seems no very
definite reason for the order in which this line touches them. The symbolism of
the running dog is not explained, so we are left at liberty to interpret it as
we will.
70.
The author gives us later an illustration of the man regenerated by the
Christ, who has entirely crushed the serpent, but has replaced the Sun by the
Sacred Heart, dripping gore most gruesomely.
71.
The interest of the picture to us, however, is not in the author’s
interpretations, but in the fact that it shows beyond the possibility of mistake
that at least some of the mystics of the seventeenth century knew of the
existence and position of the seven centres in the human body.
72.
Further evidence of early knowledge about these force-centres exists in
the rituals of Freemasonry, the salient points of which come down to us from
time immemorial; the monuments show that these points were known and practised
in ancient Egypt, and they have been handed down faithfully to the present day.
Masons find them among their secrets, and by utilizing them actually stimulate
certain of these centres for the occasion and the purpose of their work, though
they generally know little or nothing of what is happening beyond the range of
normal sight. Obviously explanations are impossible here, but I have mentioned
as much of the matter as is permissible in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry.
73.
CHAPTER II
74.
THE FORCES
75.
THE PRIMARY OR LIFE FORCE
76.
THE Deity sends forth from Himself various forms of energy; there may
well be hundreds of which we know nothing; but some few of them have been
observed. Each of those seen has its appropriate manifestation at every level
which our students have yet reached; but for the moment let us think of them as
they show themselves in the physical world. One of them exhibits itself as
electricity, another as the serpent-fire, another as vitality, and yet another
as the life-force, which is quite a different thing from vitality, as will
presently be seen.
77.
Patient and long-continued effort is needed by the student who would
trace these forces to their origin and relate them to one another. At the time
when I collected into the book The Hidden Side of Things the answers to
questions which had been asked during previous years at the roof meetings at
Adyar, I knew of the manifestation on the physical plane of the life-force, of
kundalini and of vitality, but not yet of their relation to the Three
Outpourings, so that I described them as entirely different and separate from
them. Further research has enabled me to fill the gap, and I am glad now to have
the opportunity of correcting the mis-statement which I then made.
78.
There are three principal forces flowing through the chakras, and we may
consider them as representative of the three aspects of the Logos. The energy
which we find rushing into the bell-like mouth of the chakra, and setting up in
relation to itself a secondary circular force, is one of the expressions of the
Second Outpouring, from the Second Aspect of the Logos - that stream of life
which is sent out by him into the matter already vitalized by the action of the
Third Aspect of the Logos in the First Outpouring. It is this which is
symbolized when it is said in Christian teaching that the Christ is incarnate of
(that is, takes form from) the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary.
79.
That Second Outpouring has long ago subdivided itself to an almost
infinite degree; not only has it subdivided itself, but it has also
differentiated itself - that is to say, it seems to have done so. In reality
this is almost certainly only the maya or illusion through which we see
it in action. It comes through countless millions of channels, showing itself on
every plane and sub-plane of our system, and yet fundamentally it is one and the
same force, in no way for a moment to be confused with that First Outpouring
which long ago manufactured the chemical elements from which this Second
Outpouring takes the material of which its vehicles at all levels are built. It
appears as though some of its manifestations were lower or denser, because it is
employing lower and denser matter; on the buddhic level we see it displaying
itself as the Christ-principle, gradually expanding and unfolding itself
imperceptibly within the soul of the man; in the astral and mental bodies we
perceive that various layers of matter are vivified by it, so that we note
different exhibitions of it appearing in the higher part of the astral in the
guise of a noble emotion, and in the lower part of the very same vehicle as a
mere rush of life-force energizing the matter of that body.
80.
We find it in its lowest embodiment drawing round itself a veil of
etheric matter, and rushing from the astral body into the flower-like bells of
these chakras on the surface of the etheric part of the physical body. Here it
meets another force welling up from the interior of the human body-the
mysterious power called kundalini or the serpent-fire.
81.
THE SERPENT-FIRE
82.
This force is the physical-plane manifestation of another of the manifold
aspects of the power of the Logos, belonging to the First Outpouring, which
comes from the Third Aspect. It exists on all planes of which we know anything;
but it is the expression of it in etheric matter with which we have to do at
present. It is not convertible into either the primary force already mentioned
or the force of vitality which comes from the sun, and it does not seem to be
affected in any way by any other forms of physical energy. I have seen as much
as a million and a quarter volts of electricity put into a human body, so that
when the man held out his arm towards the wall, huge flames rushed out from his
fingers, yet he felt nothing unusual, nor would he be in the least burnt under
these circumstances unless he actually touched some external object; but even
this enormous display of power had no effect whatever upon the serpent-fire.
83.
We have known for many years that there is deep down in the earth what
may be described as a laboratory of the Third Logos. On attempting to
investigate the conditions at the centre of the earth we find there a vast globe
of such tremendous force that we cannot approach it. We can touch only its outer
layers; but in doing even that it becomes evident that they are, in sympathetic
relation with the layers of kundalini in the human body. Into that centre the
force of the Third Logos must have poured ages ago, but it is working there
still. There He is engaged in the gradual development of new chemical elements,
which show increasing complexity of form, and more and more energetic internal
life or activity.
84.
Students of chemistry are familiar with the Periodic Table originated by
the Russian chemist Mendeleff in the latter part of the last century, in which
the known chemical elements are arranged in the order of their atomic weights,
beginning with the lightest, hydrogen, which has an atomic weight 1, and ending
with the heaviest at present known, uranium, which has a relative weight of
238.5. In our own investigations into these matters we found that these atomic
weights were almost exactly proportional to the number of ultimate atoms in each
element; we have recorded these numbers in Occult Chemistry, and also the
form and composition of each element.
85.
In most cases the forms which we found when the elements were examined
with etheric sight indicate - as does the Periodic Table also - that the
elements have been developed in cyclic order, that they do not lie on a straight
line, but on an ascending spiral. We have been told that the elements hydrogen,
oxygen and nitrogen (which constitute approximately half the crust of our globe
and nearly all its atmosphere) belong at the same time to another and greater
solar system, but we understand that the rest of the elements have been
developed by the Logos of our system. He is carrying on his spiral beyond
uranium, under conditions of temperature and pressure which are quite
inconceivable to us. And gradually, as new elements are formed, they are pushed
outwards and upwards towards the surface of the earth.
86.
The force of kundalini in our bodies comes from that laboratory of the
Holy Ghost deep down in the earth. It belongs to that terrific glowing fire of
the underworld. That fire is in striking contrast to the fire of vitality which
comes from the sun, which will presently be explained. The latter belongs to air
and light and the great open spaces; but the fire which comes from below is much
more material, like the fire of red-hot iron, of glowing metal. There is a
rather terrible side to this tremendous force; it gives the impression of
descending deeper and deeper into matter, of moving slowly but irresistibly
onwards, with relentless certainty.
87.
The serpent-fire is not that portion of the energy of the Third Logos
with which He is engaged in building denser and denser chemical elements. It is
more of the nature of a further development of that force which is in the living
centre of such elements as radium. It is part of the action of the life of the
Third Logos after it has reached its lowest immersion and is once more ascending
towards the heights from which it came. We have long understood that the second
life-wave, from the Second Logos, descends into matter through the first, second
and third elemental kingdoms, down to the mineral, and then ascends again
through the vegetable and animal to the human kingdom, where it meets the
downward-reaching power of the First Logos. This is suggested in Fig. 3, in
which the oval indicating that Second Outpouring comes down on the left side,
reaches its densest point at the bottom of the diagram, and then rises again in
the curve on the right-hand side of the figure.
89.
We now find that the force of the Third Logos also rises again after
touching its lowest point, so we must imagine that the vertical line in the
centre of the figure returns upon its path. Kundalini is the power of that
Outpouring on its path of return, and it works in the bodies of evolving
creatures in intimate contact with the primary force already mentioned, the two
acting together to bring the creature to the point where it can receive the
Outpouring of the First Logos, and become an ego, a human being, and still carry
on the vehicles even after that. We thus draw God’s mighty power from the earth
beneath as well as from heaven above; we are children of the earth as well as of
the sun. These two meet in us, and work together for our evolution. We cannot
have one without the other, but if one is greatly in excess there are serious
dangers. Hence the risk of any development of the deeper layers of the
serpent-fire before the life in the man is pure and refined.
90.
We hear much of this strange fire and of the danger of prematurely
arousing it; and much of what we hear is undoubtedly true. There is indeed most
serious peril in awakening the higher aspects of this furious energy in a man
before he has gained the strength to control it, before he has acquired the
purity of life and thought which alone can make it safe for him to unleash
potency so tremendous. But kundalini plays a much larger part in daily life than
most of us have hitherto supposed; there is a far lower and gentler
manifestations of it which is already awake within us all, which is not only
innocuous but beneficent, which is doing its appointed work day and night while
we are entirely unconscious of its presence and activity. We have of course
previously noticed this force as it flows along the nerves, calling it simply
nerve-fluid, and not recognizing it for what it really is. The endeavour to
analyse it and to trace it back to his source shows us that it enters the human
body at the root chakra.
91.
Like all other forces, kundalini is itself invisible; but in the human
body it clothes itself in a curious nest of hollow concentric spheres of astral
and etheric matter, one within another, like the balls in a Chinese puzzle.
There appear to be seven such concentric spheres resting within the root chakra,
in and around the last real cell or hollow of the spine close to the coccyx; but
only in the outermost of these spheres is the force active in the ordinary man.
In the others it is “sleeping”, as is said in some of the Oriental books; and it
is only when the man attempts to arouse the energy latent in those inner layers
that the dangerous phenomena of the fire begin to show themselves. The harmless
fire of the outer skin of the ball flows up the spinal column, using (so far as
investigations have gone up to the present) the three lines of Sushumna, Ida and
Pingala simultaneously.
92.
THE THREE SPINAL CHANNELS
93.
Of these three currents which flow in and
around the spinal cord of every human being Madame Blavatsky writes as follows
in The Secret Doctrine:
94.
The Trans-Himalayan school … locates Sushumna, the chief seat of
these three Nadis, in the central tube of the spinal cord. … Ida
and Pingala are simply the sharps and flats of that Fa of human
nature, … which, when struck in a proper way, awakens the sentries on either
side, the spiritual Manas and the physical Kama, and subdues the lower through
the higher.
95.
It is the pure Akasha that passes up Sushumna; its two
aspects flow in Ida and Pingala. These are three vital airs, and
are symbolized by the Brahmanical thread. They are ruled by the Will. Will and
Desire are the higher and lower aspects of one and the same thing. Hence the
importance of the purity of the canals … From these three a circulation is set
up, and from the central canal passes into the whole body.
96.
Ida and
Pingala play along the curved wall of the cord in which is Sushumna.
They are semi-material, positive and negative, sun and moon, and start into
action the free and spiritual current of Sushumna. They have distinct
paths of their own, otherwise they would radiate all over the body.
97.
In The Hidden Life in Freemasonry I referred to a certain Masonic
use of these forces as follows:
98.
It is part of the plan of Freemasonry to
stimulate the activity of these forces in the human body, in order that
evolution may be quickened. The stimulation is applied at the moment when R. W.
M. creates, receives and constitutes; in the First Degree it affects the Ida
or feminine aspect of the force, thus making it easier for the candidate to
control passion and emotion; in the Second Degree it is the Pingala or
masculine aspect which is strengthened, in order to facilitate the control of
mind; but in the Third Degree, it is the central energy itself, the Sushumna,
which is aroused, thereby opening the way for the influence of the pure spirit
from on high. It is by passing up through this channel of the Sushumna
that a yogi leaves his physical body at will in such a manner that he can retain
full consciousness on higher planes, and bring back into his physical brain a
clear memory of his experiences. The little figures below give a rough
indication of the way in which these forces flow through the human body; in a
man the Ida starts from the base of the spine just on the left of the
Sushumna and the Pingala on the right (be it understood that I mean
the right and left of the man, not the spectator); but in a woman these
positions are reversed. The lines end in the medulla oblongata.
99.
The spine is called in India the Brahmadanda, the stick of Brahma;
and the drawing given in Fig. 4(d) shows that it is also the original of the
caduceus of Mercury, the two snakes of which symbolize the kundalini or
serpent-fire which is presently to be set in motion along those channels, while
the wings typify the power of conscious flight through higher planes which the
development of that fire confers. Fig. 4(a) shows the stimulated Ida
after the initiation into the First Degree; this line is crimson in colour. To
it is added at the Passing the yellow line of the Pingala, depicted in
Fig. 4(b); while at the Raising the series is completed by the deep blue stream
of the Sushumna, illustrated by Fig. 4(c).
101.
The kundalini which normally flows up these is specialized during this
upward passage, and that in two ways. There is in it a curious mingling of
positive and negative qualities which might almost be described as male and
female. On the whole there is a great preponderance of the feminine aspect,
which is perhaps the reason why in the Indian books this force is always spoken
of as “she”, also perhaps why a certain “chamber in the heart” where kundalini
is centred in some forms of yoga is described in The Voice of the Silence
as the home of the World’s Mother. But when this serpent-fire issues from its
home in the root chakra and rises up the three channels which we have mentioned
it is noteworthy that the section rising through the channel Pingala is almost
wholly masculine, whereas that rising through the channel Ida is almost wholly
feminine. The large stream passing up the Sushumna seems to retain its original
proportions.
102.
The second differentiation which takes place during the passage of this
force up the spine is that it becomes intensely impregnated with the personality
of the man. It seems to enter at the bottom as a very general force and to issue
forth at the top as definitely this particular man’s nerve-fluid carrying with
it the impress of his special qualities and idiosyncrasies, which manifest
themselves in the vibrations of those spine-centres which may be considered as
the roots from which spring the stems of the surface chakras.
103.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE FORCES
104.
Though the mouth of the flower-like bell of the chakra is on the surface
of the etheric body, the stem of the trumpet-like blossom always springs from a
centre in the spinal cord. It is almost always to these centres in the spine,
and not to the superficial manifestations of them, that the Hindu hooks refer
when they speak of the chakras. In each case an etheric stem, usually curving
downwards, connects this root in the spine with the external chakra. (See Plate
VI.) As the stems of all the chakras thus start from the spinal cord, this force
naturally flows down those stems into the flower-bells; where it meets the
incoming stream of the divine life, and the pressure set up by that encounter
causes the radiation of the mingled forces horizontally along the spokes of the
chakra.
105.
The surfaces of the streams of the primary force and the kundalini grind
together at this point, as they revolve in opposite directions and considerable
pressure is caused. This has been symbolized as the “marriage” of the divine
life, which is vividly male, to the kundalini, which is always considered as
distinctively feminine, and the compound energy which results is what is
commonly called the personal magnetism of the man; it then vivifies the plexuses
which are seen in the neighbourhood of several of the chakras; it flows along
all the nerves of the body, and is principally responsible for keeping up its
temperature. It sweeps along with it the vitality which has been absorbed and
specialized by the spleen chakra.
106.
When the two forces combine as mentioned above there is a certain
interlocking of some of the respective molecules. The primary force seems
capable of occupying several different kinds of etheric form; that which it most
commonly adopts is an octahedron, made of four atoms
arranged in a square, with one central atom constantly vibrating up and down
through the middle of the quadrilateral and at right angles to it. It also
sometimes uses an exceedingly active little molecule consisting of three atoms.
The kundalini usually clothes itself in a flat ring of seven atoms, while the
vitality globule, which also consists of seven atoms, arranges them on a plan
not unlike that of the primary force, except that it forms a hexagon instead of
a square. Fig. 5 may help the reader to image these arrangements.
108.
A and B are forms adopted by the primary force, C is that taken by the
vitality globule, and D that of the kundalini. E shows the effect of the
combination of A and D; F that of B and D. In A, B and C the central atom is all
the time in rapid vibration at right angles to the surface of the paper,
springing up from it to a height greater than the diameter of the disc, and then
sinking below the paper to an equal distance, but repeating this shuttle-like
motion several times in a second. (Of course it will be understood that I speak
relatively and not literally; in reality the sphere which cur disc represents is
so tiny as to be invisible to the most powerful microscope; but in proportion
to that size its vibration is as I describe.) In D the only motion is a
steady procession round and round the circle, but there is an immense amount of
latent energy there which manifests itself as soon as the combinations take
place which we have endeavoured to illustrate in E and F. The two positive atoms
in A and B continue when thus combined their previous violent activities - in
fact, their vigour is greatly intensified; while the atoms in D, though they
still move along the same circular pathway, accelerate their speed so enormously
that they cease to be visible as separate atoms and appear as a glowing ring.
109.
The first four molecules depicted above belong to the type to which in
Occult Chemistry Dr. Besant gives the name of Hyper-meta-proto-elemental
matter.
Indeed, they may be identical with some of those which she drew for that book.
But E and F, being compounds, must be taken as working upon the next sub-plane,
which she calls the super-etheric, and so would be classified as meta-proto
matter. Type B is far commoner than type A, and it naturally follows that in
the nerve-fluid which is the final result of the confluence we find many more
examples of F and E. This nerve-fluid is therefore a stream of various
elements, containing specimens of each one of the types shown in Fig. 4 -
simple and compound, married and single, bachelors, old maids and conjugal
couples, all rushing onward together.
110.
The marvellously energetic upward and downward movement of the central
atom in the combinations E and F gives them a quite unusual shape within their
magnetic fields as shown in Fig. 6.
111.
The upper half of this seems to me to bear a remarkable resemblance to
the linga which is frequently to be seen in front of the temples of Shiva in
India. I am told that the linga is an emblem of creative power, and that Indian
devotees regard it as extending downwards into the earth to just the same
extent as it rises above it. I have wondered whether the ancient Hindus knew of
this especially active molecule, and of the immense importance of the part it
plays in the support of human and animal life; and whether they carved their
symbol in stone as a record of their occult knowledge.
113.
THE SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM
114.
Anatomists describe two nervous systems in the human body - the
cerebro-spinal and the sympathetic. The cerebro-spinal begins with the brain,
continues down the spinal cord, and ramifies to all parts of the body through
the ganglia from which nerves issue between every two successive vertebrae. The
sympathetic system consists of two cords which run almost the whole length of
the spine, situated a little forward of its axis, and to the right and left
respectively. From the ganglia of these two cords, which are not quite as
numerous as those of the spinal cord, sympathetic nerves proceed to form the
network systems called the plexuses, from which in turn, as from relay stations,
emerge smaller terminal ganglia and nerves. These two systems are, however,
interrelated in a great variety of ways by so many connecting nerves that one
must not think of them as two distinct neural organizations. In addition we have
a third group called the vagus nerves, which arise in the medulla oblongata, and
descend independently far into the body, mingling constantly with the nerves and
plexuses of the other systems.
115.
The spinal cord, the left sympathetic cord, and the left vagus nerve are
all shown in Plate VI. It exhibits the nervous connections between the spinal
and sympathetic ganglia, and the channels by which the latter give forth nerves
to form the principal plexuses of the sympathetic system. It will be noted that
there is a tendency for the plexuses to droop from the ganglia in which they
have their origin, so that, for example, the coeliac or solar plexus depends
largely upon the great splanchnic nerve, shown in our plate as rising from the
fifth thoracic sympathetic ganglion, which in turn is connected with the fourth
thoracic spinal ganglion. This is almost on a level with the heart horizontally,
but the nerve descends and joins the smaller and the smallest splanchnic nerves,
which merge from lower thoracic ganglia, and these pass through the diaphragm
and go to the solar plexus. There are also other connections between that plexus
and the cords, shown in the Plate to some extent, but too complicated to
describe. The principal nerves leading to the cardiac plexus bend downwards in a
similar manner. In the case of the pharyngeal plexus there is but a slight
droop, and the carotid plexus even rises upward from the internal carotid nerve,
coming from the superior cervical sympathetic ganglion.
116.
THE CENTRES IN THE SPINE
117.
There is a somewhat similar droop in the etheric stem which connects the
flowers or chakras on the surface of the etheric double with their corresponding
centres in the spine, which are situated approximately in the positions shown in
red on Plate VI, and detailed in Table II. The radiating spokes of the chakras
supply force to these sympathetic plexuses to assist them in their relay work;
in the present state of our knowledge it seems to me rash to identify, the
chakras with the plexuses, as some writers appear to have done.
119.
The hypogastric or pelvic plexuses are no doubt connected in some way
with the Svadhisthana chakra situated near the generative organs, which is
mentioned in Indian books but not used in our scheme of development. The
plexuses grouped together in this region are probably largely subordinate to the
solar plexus in all matters of conscious activity, as both they and the splenic
plexus are connected very closely with it by numerous nerves.
NAME OF CHAKRA |
POSITION ON SURFACE |
APPROXIMATE POSITION OF SPINAL CHAKRA |
SYPHATETIC PLEXUS |
CHIEF SUBSIDIARY PLEXUSES |
Root |
Base of spine |
4th Sacral |
Coccygeal |
… |
Spleen |
Over the spleen |
1st Lumbar |
Splenic |
… |
Navel |
Over the navel |
8th Thoracic |
Coeliac or Solar |
Hepatic, pyloric, gastric, mesenteric, etc. |
Heart |
Over the heart |
8th Cervical |
Cardiac |
Pulmonary, coronary, etc. |
Throat |
At the throat |
3rd Cervical |
Pharyngeal |
… |
Brow |
On the brow |
1st Cervical |
Carotid |
Cavernous, and cephalic ganglia generally |
120.
TABLE II
121.
The crown chakra is not connected with any of the sympathetic plexuses of
the physical body, but is associated with the pineal gland and the pituitary
body, as we shall see in Chapter IV. It is related also to the development of
the brae and spinal system of nerves.
122.
On the origin and relations of the
sympathetic and cerebro-spinal systems Dr. Annie Besant writes as follows in
A Study in Consciousness:
123.
Let us see how the building of the nervous system, by vibratory impulses
from the astral, begins and is carried on. We find a minute group of nerve cells
and tiny processes connecting them. This is formed by the action of a centre
which has previously appeared in the astral body - an aggregation of astral
matter arranged to form a centre for receiving and responding to impulses from
outside. From that astral centre vibrations pass into the etheric body, causing
little etheric whirlpools which draw into themselves particles of denser
physical matter, forming at last a nerve cell, and groups of nerve cells. These
physical centres, receiving vibrations from the outer world, send impulses back
to the astral centres, increasing their vibrations; thus the physical and the
astral centres act and re-act on each other, and each becomes more complicated
and more effective. As we pass up the animal kingdom, we find the physical
nervous system constantly improving, and becoming a more and more dominant actor
in the body, and this first-formed system becomes, in the vertebrates, the
sympathetic system, controlling and energising the vital organs - the heart,
the lungs, the digestive tract; beside it slowly develops the cerebrospinal
system, closely connected in its lower workings with the sympathetic, and
becoming gradually more and more dominant, while it also becomes in its most
important development the normal organ for the expression of the
“waking-consciousness”. This cerebro-spinal system is built up by impulses
originating in the mental, not in the astral plane, and is only indirectly
related to the astral through the sympathetic system, built up from the astral.
124.
VITALITY
125.
We all know the feeling of cheerfulness and well-being which sunlight
brings to us, but only students of occultism are fully aware of the reasons for
that sensation. Just as the sun floods his system with light and heat, so does
he perpetually pour out into it another force as yet unsuspected by modern
science - a force to which has been given the name “vitality”. This is radiated
on all levels, and manifests itself in each realm - physical, emotional, mental
and the rest - but we are specially concerned for the moment with its appearance
in the lowest, where it enters some of the physical atoms, immensely increases
their activity, and makes them animated and glowing.
126.
We must not confuse this force with electricity, though it in some ways
resembles it, for its action differs in many ways from that of either
electricity, light or heat. Any of the variants of this latter force cause
oscillation of the atom as a whole - an oscillation the size of which is
enormous as compared with that of the atom; but this other force which we call
vitality comes to the atom not from without, but from within.
127.
THE VITALITY GLOBULE
128.
The atom is itself nothing but the manifestation of a force; the Solar
Deity wills a certain shape which we call an ultimate physical atom (Fig. 7),
and by that effort of His will some fourteen thousand million “bubbles in
Koilon” are held in that particular form. It is necessary to emphasize the fact
that the cohesion of the bubbles in that form is entirely dependent upon that
effort of will, so that if that were for a single instant withdrawn, the bubbles
must fall apart again, and the whole physical realm would simply cease to exist
in far less than the period of a flash of lightning. So true is it that the
world is nothing but illusion, even from this point of view, to say nothing of
the fact that the bubbles of which the atom is built are themselves only holes
in Koilon, the true aether of space.
130.
So it is the will-force of the Solar Deity continually exercised which
holds the atom together as such; and when we try to examine the action of that
force we see that it does not come into the atom from outside, but wells up
within it - which means that it enters it from higher dimensions. The same is
true with regard to this other force which we call vitality; it enters the atom
from within along with the force that holds that atom together, instead of
acting upon it entirely from without, as do those other varieties of force which
we call light, heat or electricity.
131.
When vitality wells up thus within an atom it endows it with an
additional life, and gives it a power of attraction so that it immediately draws
round it six other atoms which it arranges in a definite form, thus making a
sub-atomic or hyper-meta-proto-element, as I have already explained. But this
element differs from all others which have so far been observed, in that the
force which creates it and holds it together comes from the First Aspect of the
Solar Deity instead of from the Third.
132.
These globules are conspicuous above all others which may be seen
floating in the atmosphere, on account of their brilliance and extreme activity
- the intensely vivid life which they show. These are probably the fiery lives
so often mentioned by Madame Blavatsky, as, for example, in The Secret
Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 306, where she writes:
133.
... We are taught that every physiological change, … nay, life itself, or
rather the objective phenomena of life, produced by certain conditions and
changes in the tissues of the body, which allow and force life to act in that
body - that all this is due to those unseen “Creators” and “Destroyers”, which
are called, in such a loose and general way, microbes. It might be supposed that
these Fiery Lives and the microbes of Science are identical. This is not true.
The Fiery Lives are the seventh and highest sub-division of the plane of matter,
and correspond in the individual with the One Life of the Universe, though only
on that plane of matter.
134.
While the force that vivifies these globules is quite different from
light, it nevertheless seems to depend upon light for its power of
manifestation. In brilliant sunshine this vitality is constantly welling up
afresh, and the globules are generated with great rapidity and in incredible
numbers, but in cloudy weather there is a great diminution in the number of
globules formed, and during the night, so far as we have been able to see, the
operation is entirely suspended. In the night, therefore, we may be said to be
living upon the stock manufactured in the course of previous days, and though it
appears practically impossible that it should ever be entirely exhausted, that
stock evidently does run low when there is a long succession of cloudy days. The
globule, once charged, remains as a sub-atomic element, and is not subject to
any change or loss of force unless and until it is absorbed by some living
creature.
135.
THE SUPPLY OF GLOBULES
136.
Vitality, like light and heat, is pouring forth from the sun continually,
but obstacles frequently arise to prevent the full supply from reaching the
earth. In the wintry and melancholy climes miscalled the temperate, it too often
happens that for days together the sky is covered by a funeral pall of heavy
cloud, and this affects vitality just as it does light; it does not altogether
hinder its passage, but sensibly diminishes its amount. Therefore in dull and
dark weather vitality runs low, and over all living creatures there comes an
instinctive yearning for sunlight.
137.
When vitalized atoms are thus more sparsely scattered, the man in rude
health increases his power of absorption, depletes a larger area, and so keeps
his strength at the normal level; but invalids and men of small nerve-force, who
cannot do this, often suffer severely, and find themselves growing weaker and
more irritable without knowing why. For similar reasons vitality is at a lower
ebb in the winter than in the summer, for even if the short winter day be sunny,
which is rare, we have still to face the long and dreary winter night, during
which we must exist upon such vitality as the day has stored in our atmosphere.
On the other hand the long summer day, when bright and cloudless, charges the
atmosphere so thoroughly with vitality that its short night makes but little
difference.
138.
From the study of this question of vitality, the occultist cannot fail to
recognize that, quite apart from temperature, sunlight is one of the most
important factors in the attainment and preservation of perfect health - a
factor for the absence of which nothing else can entirely compensate. Since this
vitality is poured forth not only upon the physical world but upon all others as
well, it is evident that, when in other respects satisfactory conditions are
present, emotion, intellect and spirituality will be at their best under clear
skies and with the inestimable aid of the sunlight.
139.
PSYCHIC FORCES
140.
The three forces already mentioned - the primary, the vitality and the
Kundalini - are not directly connected with man’s mental and emotional life,
but only with his bodily well-being. But there are also forces entering the
chakras which may be described as psychic and spiritual. The first two centres
exhibit none of these, but the navel chakra and the others higher in the body
are ports of entry for forces which affect human consciousness.
141.
In an article on Thought-Centres in the book The Inner Life, I
explained that masses of thought are very definite things, occupying a place in
space. Thoughts on the same subject and of the same character tend to aggregate;
therefore for many subjects there is a thought-centre, a definite space in the
atmosphere, and other thoughts about the same matter are attracted to such a
centre, and go to increase its size and influence. A thinker may in this way
contribute to a centre, but he in turn may be influenced by it; and this is one
of the reasons why people think in droves, like sheep. It is much easier for a
man of lazy mentality to accept a ready-made thought from someone else than to
go through the mental labour of considering the various aspects of a subject and
arriving at a decision for himself.
142.
This is true on the mental plane with regard to thought; and, with
appropriate modifications, it is true on the astral plane with regard to
feeling. Thought flies like lightning through the subtle matter of the mental
plane, so the thought of the whole world on a certain subject may easily gather
together in one spot, and yet be accessible and attractive to every thinker on
that subject. Astral matter, though so far finer than physical, is yet denser
than that of the mental plane; the great clouds of “emotion-forms” which are
generated in the astral world by strong feelings do not all fly to one
world-centre, but they do coalesce with other forms of the same nature in their
own neighbourhood, so that enormous and very powerful “blocks” of feeling are
floating about almost everywhere, and a man may readily come into contact with
them and be influenced by them.
143.
The connection of this matter with our present subject lies in the fact
that when such influence is exercised it is through the medium of one or other
of the chakras. To illustrate what I mean, let me take the example of a man who
is filled with fear. Those who have read the book Man Visible and Invisible
will remember that the condition of the astral body of such a man is shown
in Plate XIV. The vibrations radiated by an astral body in that state will at
once attract any fear-clouds that happen to be in the vicinity; if the man can
quickly recover himself and master his fear, the clouds will roll back sullenly,
but if the fear remains or increases they will discharge their accumulated
energy through his umbilical chakra, and his fear may become mad panic in which
he altogether loses control of himself, and may rush blindly into any kind of
danger. In the same way one who loses his temper attracts clouds of anger, and
renders himself liable to an inrush of feeling which will change his indignation
into maniacal fury - a condition in which he might commit murder by an
irresistible impulse, almost without knowing it. Similarly a man who yields to
depression may be swept into a terrible state of permanent melancholia; or one
who allows himself to be obsessed by animal desires may become for the time a
monster of lust and sensuality, and may under that influence commit crimes the
thought of which will horrify him when he recovers his reason.
144.
All such undesirable currents reach the man through the navel chakra.
Fortunately there are other and higher possibilities; for example there are
clouds of affection and of devotion, and he who feels these noble emotions may
receive through his heart chakra a wonderful enhancement of them, such as is
depicted in Man Visible and Invisible in Plates XI and XII.
145.
The kind of emotion which affects the navel chakra in the manner
before-mentioned is indicated in Dr. Besant’s A Study in Consciousness,
where she divides the emotions into two classes, those of love and those of
hate. All those on the side of hate work in the navel chakra but those on the
side of love operate in the heart. She writes:
146.
We have seen that desire has two main expressions: desire to attract, in
order to possess, or again to come into contact with, any object which has
previously afforded pleasure; desire to repel, in order to drive far away, or to
avoid contact with, any object which has previously inflicted pain. We have seen
that attraction and repulsion are the two forms of desire, swaying the Self.
147.
Emotion, being desire infused with intellect, inevitably shows the same
division into two. The emotion which is of the nature of attraction, attracting
objects to each other by pleasure, the integrating energy in the universe, is
called love. The emotion which is of the nature of repulsion, driving objects
apart from each other by pain, the disintegrating energy in the universe, is
called hate. These are the two stems from the root of desire, and all the
branches of the emotions may be traced back to one of these twain.
148.
Hence the identity of the characteristics of desire and emotions; love
seeks to draw to itself the attractive object, or to go after it, in order to
unite with it, to possess, or to be possessed by it. It binds by pleasure, by
happiness, as desire binds. Its ties are indeed more lasting, more complicated,
are composed of more numerous and more delicate threads interwoven into greater
complexity, but the essence of desire-attraction, the binding of two objects
together, is the essence of emotion-attraction, of love. And so also does hate
seek to drive from itself the repellent object or to flee from it, in order to
be apart from it, to repulse, or be repulsed by it. It separates by pain, by
unhappiness. And thus the essence of desire-repulsion, the driving apart of two
objects, is the essence of emotion-repulsion, of hate. Love and hate are the
elaborated and thought-infused forms of the simple desires to possess and to
shun.
149.
Later on, Dr. Besant explains that each of thee two great emotions
subdivides into three parts, according as the man who has it feels strong or
weak.
150.
Love looking downwards is benevolence; love looking upwards is reverence;
and these are the several common characteristics of love from superiors to
inferiors, and from inferiors to superiors universally. The normal relations
between husband and wife, and those between brothers and sisters, afford us the
field for studying the manifestation of love between equals. We see love showing
itself as mutual tenderness and mutual trustfulness, as consideration, respect,
and desire to please, as quick insight into and endeavour to fulfil the wishes
of the other, as magnanimity, forbearance. The elements present in the
love-emotions of superior to inferior are found here, but mutuality is impressed
on all of them. So we may say that the common characteristics of love between
equals is desire for mutual help.
151.
Thus we have benevolence, desire for mutual help, and reverence as the
three main divisions of the love-emotion, and under these all love emotions may
be classified. For all human relations are summed up under the three classes:
the relations of superiors to inferiors, of equals to equals, of inferiors to
superiors.
152.
She then explains the hate-emotions in the same way:
153.
Hate looking downwards is scorn, and looking upwards is fear. Similarly,
hate between equals will show itself in anger, combativeness, disrespect,
violence, aggressiveness, jealousy, insolence, etc. - all the emotions which
repel man from man when they stand as rivals, face to face, not hand in hand.
The common characteristic of hate between equals will thus be mutual injury. And
three main characteristics of the hate-emotion are scorn, desire for mutual
injury, and fear.
154.
Love is characterised in all its manifestations by sympathy,
self-sacrifice, the desire to give; these are its essential factors, whether as
benevolence, as desire for mutual help, as reverence. For all these directly
serve attraction, bring about union, are of the very nature of love. Hence love
is of the spirit; for sympathy is the feeling for another as one would feel for
oneself; self-sacrifice is the recognition of the claim of the other, as
oneself; giving is the condition of spiritual life. Thus love is seen to belong
to spirit, to the life-side of the universe.
155.
Hate, on the other hand, is characterised in all its manifestations by
antipathy, self-aggrandisement, the desire to take; these are its essential
factors, whether as scorn, desire for mutual injury, or fear. All these directly
serve repulsion, driving one apart from another. Hence, hate is of matter,
emphasises manifoldness and differences, is essentially separateness, belongs
to the form-side of the universe.
156.
CHAPTER III
157.
THE ABSORPTION OF VITALITY
158.
THE GLOBULE
159.
THE vitality globule though inconceivably minute, is so brilliant that it
is often seen even by those who are not in the ordinary sense clairvoyant. Many
a man, looking out towards the distant horizon, especially over the sea, will
notice against the sky a number of the tiniest possible points of light dashing
about in all directions with amazing rapidity. These are the vitality globules,
each consisting of seven physical atoms, as shown in Fig. 5C - the Fiery Lives,
specks charged with that force which the Hindus call prana. It is often
exceedingly difficult to be certain of the exact shade of meaning attached to
these Sanskrit terms, because the Indian method of approaching these studies is
so different from our own; but I think we may safely take prana as the
equivalent to our vitality.
160.
When this globule is flashing about in the atmosphere, brilliant as it
is, it is almost colourless, and shines with a white or slightly golden light.
But as soon as it is drawn into the vortex of the force-centre at the spleen it
is decomposed and breaks up into streams of different colours, though it does
not follow exactly our division of the spectrum. As its component atoms are
whirled round the vortex, each of the six spokes seizes upon one of them, so
that all the atoms charged with yellow flow along one, and all those charged
with green along another, and so on, while the seventh disappears through the
centre of the vortex - through the hub of the wheel, as it were. These rays
then pass off in different directions, each to do its special work in the
vitalization of the body. Plate VIII gives a diagrammatic representation of
these paths of the dispersed prana.
161.
As I have said, the colours of the divisions of prana are not exactly
those which we ordinarily use in the solar spectrum, but rather resemble the
arrangement of colours which we see on higher levels in the causal, mental and
astral bodies. What we call indigo is divided between the violet ray and the
blue ray, so that we find only two divisions there instead of three; but on the
other hand what we usually call red is divided into two - rose-red and dark red.
The six radiants are therefore violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and dark
red; while the seventh or rose-red atom (more properly the first, since this is
the original atom in which the force first appeared) passes down through the
centre of the vortex. Vitality is thus clearly sevenfold in its constitution,
but it flows through the body in five main streams, as has been stated in some
of the Indian book, for after issuing from the splenic centre the blue and the
violet join into one ray, and so do the orange and the dark red (Plate VIII).
162.
THE VIOLET-BLUE RAY
(1)
The violet-blue ray flashes upwards to the throat, where it seems to
divide itself, the light blue remaining to course through and quicken the
throat-centre, while the dark blue and violet pass on into the brain. The dark
blue expends itself in the lower and central parts of the brain, while the
violet floods the upper part, and appears to give special vigour to the
force-centre at the top of the head, diffusing itself chiefly through the nine
hundred and sixty petals of the outer part of that centre.
163.
THE YELLOW RAY
164.
(2) The yellow ray is directed to the heart, but after doing its work
there part of it also passes on to the brain and permeates it, directing itself
principaly to the twelve-petalled flower in the midst of the highest
force-centre.
165.
THE GREEN RAY
166.
(3) The green ray floods the abdomen, and whale centring especially in
the solar plexus, evidently vivifies the liver, kidneys and intestines, and the
digestive apparatus generally.
167.
THE ROSE RAY
168.
(4) The rose-coloured ray runs all over the body along the nerves, and is
clearly the life of the nervous system. This is the specialized vitality which
one man may readily pour into another in whom it is deficient. If the nerves are
not fully supplied with this rosy light they become sensitive and intensely
irritable, so that the patient finds it almost impossible to remain in one
position, and yet gains but little ease when he moves to another. The least
noise or touch is agony to him, and he is in a condition of acute misery. The
flooding of his nerves with specialized prana by some healthy person brings
instant relief, and a feeling of healing and peace descends upon him. A man in
robust health usually absorbs and specializes so much more of this vitality than
is actually needed by his own body that he is constantly radiating a torrent of
rose-coloured atoms, and so unconsciously pours strength upon his weaker fellows
without losing anything himself; or by an effort of his will he can gather
together this superfluous energy and aim it intentionally at one whom he wishes
to help.
169.
The physical body has a certain blind instinctive consciousness of its
own, which we sometimes call the physical elemental. It corresponds in the
physical world to the desire-elemental of the astral body; and this
consciousness seeks always to protect its body from danger, or to procure for it
whatever may be necessary. This is entirely apart from the consciousness of the
man himself, and it works equally well during the absence of the ego from the
physical body during sleep. All our instinctive movements are due to it, and it
is through its activity that the working of the sympathetic system is carried on
ceaselessly without any thought or knowledge on our part.
170.
While we are what we call awake, this physical elemental is perpetually
occupied in self-defence; he is in a condition of constant vigilance, and he
keeps the nerves and muscles always tense. During the night or at any time when
we sleep he lets the nerves and muscles relax, and devotes himself specially to
the assimilation of vitality and the recuperation of the physical body. He works
at this most successfully during the early part of the night, because then
there is plenty of vitality, whereas immediately before the dawn the vitality
which has been left behind by the sunlight is almost completely exhausted. This
is the reason for the feeling of limpness and deadness associated with the small
hours of the morning; this is also the reason why sick men so frequently die at
that particular time. The same idea is embodied in the old proverb which says
that an hour’s sleep before midnight is worth two after it. The work of this
physical elemental accounts for the strong recuperative influence of sleep,
which is often observable even when it is a mere momentary nap.
171.
This vitality is indeed the food of the etheric double, and is just as
necessary to it as is material sustenance to the grosser part of the physical
body. Hence when the splenic centre is unable for any reason (as through
sickness, fatigue or extreme old age) to prepare vitality for the nourishment of
the cells of the body, this physical elemental endeavours to draw in for his own
use vitality which has already been prepared in the bodies of others; and thus
it happens that we often find ourselves weak and exhausted after sitting for a
while with a person who is depleted of vitality, because he has drawn the
rose-coloured atoms away from us by suction before we were able to extract their
energy.
172.
The vegetable kingdom also absorbs this vitality, but seems in most cases
to use only a small part of it. Many trees draw from it almost exactly the same
constituents as does the higher part of man’s etheric body, the result being
that when they have used what they require, the atoms which they reject are
precisely those charged with the rose-coloured light which is needed for the
cells of man's physical body. This is specially the case with such trees as the
pine and the eucalyptus; and consequently the very neighbourhood of these trees
gives health and strength to those who are suffering from lack of this part of
the vital principle - those whom we call nervous people. They are nervous
because the cells of their bodies are hungry, and the nervousness can only be
allayed by feeding them; and often the readiest way to do that is thus to supply
them from without with the special kind of vitality which they need.
173.
THE ORANGE-RED RAY
174.
(5) The orange-red ray flows to the base of the spine and thence to the
generative organs, with which one part of its functions is closely connected.
This ray appears to include not only the orange and the darker reds, but also a
certain amount of dark purple, as though the spectrum bent round in a circle and
the colours began over again at a lower octave.
COLOURS OF PRANAS |
CHAKRAS ENTERED |
COLOURS GIVEN IN S.D. |
PRINCIPLES REPRESENTED |
Light blue |
Throat |
Blue |
Atma (auric envelope) |
Yellow |
Heart |
Yellow |
Buddhi |
Dark blue |
Brow |
Indigo or dark blue |
Higher manas |
Green |
Navel |
Green |
Kama manas – lower mind |
Rose |
Spleen |
Red |
Kama rupa |
Violet |
Crown |
Violet |
Etheric double |
Orange-red (with another violet) |
Root (afterwards crown) |
… |
… |
175.
TABLE III
176.
In the normal man this ray energizes the desires of the flesh, and also
seems to enter the blood and help to keep up the heat of the body; but if a man
persistently refuses to yield to his lower nature, this ray can by long and
determined effort be deflected upwards to the brain, where all three of its
constituents undergo a remarkable modification. The orange is raised into pure
yellow, and produces a decided intensification of the powers of the intellect;
the dark red becomes crimson, and greatly increases the quality of unselfish
affection; while the dark purple is transmuted into a lovely pale violet, and
quickens the spiritual part of man’s nature. The man who achieves this
transmutation will find that sensual desires no longer trouble him, and when it
becomes necessary for him to arouse the higher layers of the serpent-fire he
will be free from the most serious of the dangers of that process. When a man
has finally completed this change, this orange-red ray passes straight into the
centre at the base of the spine, and from that runs upwards along the hollow of
the vertebral column, and so to the brain.
177.
There seems to be a certain correspondence (Table III) between the
colours of the streams of prana flow to the several chakras and the colours
assigned by Madame Blavatsky to the principles of man in her diagram in The
Secret Doctrine, Vol. V, p. 454, Fifth (Adyar) Edition.
178.
THE FIVE PRANA VAYUS
179.
In the Hindu books there is frequent reference to the five principal
Vayus or pranas. The Gheranda Samhita gives their positions briefly
as follows:
180.
The prana moves always in the heart; the apana in the sphere of the anus;
the samana in the region of the navel; the udana in the throat; and the vyana
pervades the whole body.
181.
Numerous other books give the same description, and say no more about
their functions, but some add a little more information, as follows:
182.
The air called vyana carries the essential part in all the nerves. Food,
as soon as it is eaten, is split into two by that air. Having entered near the
anus it separates the solid and liquid portions; having placed the water over
the fire, and the solid over the water, the prana itself, standing under the
fire, inflames it slowly. The fire, inflamed by the air, separates substance
from the waste. The vyana air makes the essence go all over, and the waste,
forced through the twelve gateways, is ejected from the body.
183.
The five airs as thus described seem to agree fairly well with the five
divisions of vitality which we have observed, as shown in Table IV.
PRANA VAYU AND REGION AFFECTED |
RAY OF VITALITY |
CHAKRA CHIEFLY AFFECTED |
Prana; heart |
Yellow |
Cardiac |
Apana; anus |
Orange-red |
Basic |
Samana; navel |
Green |
Umbilical |
Udana; throat |
Violet-blue |
Laryngeal |
Vyana; the entire body |
Rose |
Splenic |
184.
TABLE IV
185.
VITALITY AND HEALTH
186.
The flow of vitality in these various currents regulates the health of
the parts of the body with which they are concerned. If a person is suffering
from a weak digestion, it manifests itself at once to any person possessing
etheric sight, because either the flow and action of the green stream is
sluggish or its amount is smaller in proportion than it should be. Where the
yellow current is full and strong, it indicates, or more properly produces,
strength and regularity in the action of the heart. Flowing round that centre,
it also interpenetrates the blood which is driven through it, and is sent along
with it all over the body. Yet there is enough of it left to extend into the
brain also, and the power of high philosophical and metaphysical thought appears
to depend to a great extent upon the volume and activity of this yellow stream,
and the corresponding awakening of the twelve-petalled flower in the middle of
the force-centre at the top of the head.
187.
Thought and emotion of a high spiritual type seem to depend largely upon
the violet ray, whereas the power of ordinary thought is stimulated by the
action of the blue mingled with part of the yellow. In some forms of idiocy the
flow of vitality to the brain, both yellow and blue-violet, is almost entirely
inhibited. Unusual activity or volume in the light blue which is apportioned to
the throat-centre is accompanied by the health and strength of the physical
organs in that part of the body. It gives strength and elasticity to the vocal
cords, so that special brilliance and activity are noticeable in the case of a
public speaker or a great singer. Weakness or disease in any part of the body is
accompanied by a deficiency in the flow of vitality to that part.
188.
THE FATE OF THE EMPTY ATOMS
189.
As the different streams of atoms do their work, the charge of vitality
is withdrawn from them, precisely as an electrical charge might be. The atoms
bearing the rose-coloured ray grow gradually paler as they are swept along the
nerves, and are eventually thrown out from the body through the pores - making
thus what was called in Man Visible and Invisible the health-aura. By
the time that they leave the body most of them have lost the rose-coloured
light, so that the general appearance of the emanation is bluish-white. That
part of the yellow ray which is absorbed into the blood and carried round with
it loses its distinctive colour in just the same way.
190.
The atoms, when thus emptied of their charge of vitality, either enter
into some of the combinations which are constantly being made in the body, or
pass out of it through the pores, or through the ordinary channels. The emptied
atoms of the green ray, which is connected chiefly with digestive processes,
seem to form part of the ordinary waste material of the body, and to pass out
along with it, and that is also the fate of the atoms of the red-orange ray in
the case of the ordinary man. The atoms belonging to the blue rays, which are
used in connection with the throat-centre, generally leave the body in the
exhalations of the breath; and those which compose the dark blue and violet rays
usually pass out from the centre at the top of the head.
191.
When the student has learnt to deflect the orange-red rays so that they
also move up through the spine, the empty atoms of both these and the
violet-blue rays pour out from the top of the head in a fiery cascade which, as
we have already seen in Fig. 2, is frequently imaged as a flame in ancient
statues of the Lord Buddha and other great saints. These atoms are thus used
again as physical vehicles for some of the glorious and beneficent forces which
highly evolved men radiate from that crown chakra.
192.
When empty of the vital force the atoms are once more precisely like any
other atoms, except that they have evolved somewhat through the use that has
been made of them. The body absorbs such of them as it needs, so that they form
part of the various combinations which are constantly being made, while others
which are not required for such purposes are cast out through any channel that
happens to be convenient.
193.
The flow of vitality into or through any centre, or even its
intensification, must not be confused with the entirely different development of
the centre which is brought about by the awakening of the higher levels of the
serpent-fire at a later stage in man’s evolution, with which we shall deal in
the next chapter. We all draw in vitality and specialize it, but many of us do
not utilize it to the full, because in various ways our lives are not as pure
and healthy and reasonable as they should be. One who coarsens his body by the
use of meat, alcohol or tobacco can never employ his vitality to the full in the
same way as can a man of purer living. A particular individual of impure life
may be, and often is, stronger in the physical body than certain other men who
are purer; that is a matter of their respective karma; but other things being
equal, the man of pure life has an immense advantage.
194.
All the colours of this order of vitality are etheric, yet it will be
seen that their action presents certain correspondences with the signification
attached to similar hues in the astral body. Clearly, right thought and right
feeling react upon the physical body and increase its power to assimilate the
vitality which is necessary for its well-being. It is reported that the Lord
Buddha once said that the first step on the road to Nirvana is perfect physical
health; and assuredly the way to attain that is to follow the Noble Eightfold
Path which he has indicated. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” - yes, even
physical health as well.
195.
VITALITY AND MAGNETISM
196.
The vitality coursing along the nerves must not be confused with what we
usually call the magnetism of the man - his own nerve-fluid, specialized within
the spine, and composed of the primary life-force intermingled with the
kundalini. It is this fluid which keeps up the constant circulation of etheric
matter along the nerves, corresponding to the circulation of blood through the
arteries and veins; and as oxygen is conveyed by the blood to all parts of the
body, so vitality is conveyed along the nerves by this etheric current. The
particles of the etheric part of man’s body are constantly changing, just as are
those of the denser part; along with the food which we eat and the air which we
breathe we take in etheric matter, and this is assimilated by the etheric part
of the body. Etheric matter is constantly being thrown off from the pores, just
as is gaseous matter, so that when two persons are close together each
necessarily absorbs much of the physical emanations of the other.
197.
When one person mesmerizes another, the operator by an effort of will
gathers together a great deal of this magnetism and throws it into the subject,
pushing back his victim’s nerve-fluid, and filling its place with his own. As
the brain is the centre of this nervous circulation, this brings that part of
the subject’s body which is affected under the control of the manipulator’s
brain instead of the victim’s and so the latter feels what the mesmerist wishes
him to feel. If the recipient’s brain be emptied of his own magnetism and
filled with that of the performer, the former can think and act only as the
latter wills that he should think and act; he is for the time entirely
dominated.
198.
Even when the magnetizer is trying to cure, and is pouring strength into
the man, he inevitably gives along with the vitality much of his own emanations.
It is obvious that any disease which the mesmerizer happens to have may readily
be conveyed to the subject in this way; and another even more important
consideration is that, though his health may be perfect from the medical point
of view, there are mental and moral diseases as well as physical, and that, as
astral and mental matter are thrown into the subject by the mesmerist along with
the physical current, these also are frequently transferred.
199.
Nevertheless, a man who is pure in thought and filled with the earnest
desire to help his fellows may often do much by mesmerism to relieve suffering,
if he will take the trouble to study this subject of the currents which enter
the body through the chakras and flow along the nerves. What is it that the
mesmerist pours into his subject? It may be either the nerve-ether or the
vitality, or both. Supposing a patient to be seriously weakened or exhausted, so
that he has lost the power to specialize the life-fluid for himself, the
mesmerist may renew his stock by pouring some of his own upon the quivering
nerves, and so produce a rapid recovery. The process is analogous to what is
often done in the case of food. When a person reaches a certain stage of
weakness the stomach loses the power to digest, and so the body is not properly
nourished, and the feebleness is thereby increased. The remedy adopted in that
case is to present to the stomach food already partially digested by means of
pepsin or other similar preparations; this can probably be assimilated, and thus
strength is gained. Just so, a man who is unable to specialize for himself may
still absorb what has been already prepared by another, and so gain strength to
make an effort to resume the normal action of the etheric organs. In many cases
of debility that is all that is needed.
200.
There are other instances in which congestion of some kind has taken
place, the vital fluid has not circulated properly, and the nerve-aura is
sluggish and unhealthy. Then the obvious course of proceeding is to replace it
by healthy nerve-ether from without; but there are several ways in which this
may be done. Some magnetizers simply employ brute force, and steadily pour in
resistless floods of their own ether in the hope of washing away that which
needs removal. Success may be attained along these lines, though with the
expenditure of a good deal more energy than is necessary. A more scientific
method is that which goes to work somewhat more quietly, and first withdraws
the congested or diseased matter, and then replaces it by healthier nerve-ether,
thus gradually stimulating the sluggish current into activity. If the patient
has a headache, for example, there will almost certainly be a congestion of
noxious ether about some part of his brain, and the first step is to draw that
away.
201.
How is this to be managed? Just in the same way as the out-pouring of
strength is managed – by an exercise of the will. We must not forget that these
finer subdivisions of matter are readily moulded or affected by the action of
the human will. The mesmerist may make passes, but they are at the most nothing
but the pointing of his gun in a certain direction, while his will is the powder
that moves the ball and produces the result, the fluid being the shot sent out.
A mesmerizer who understands his business can manage as well without passes if
he wishes; I have known one who never employed them, but simply looked at his
subject. The only use of the hand is to concentrate the fluid, and perhaps to
help the imagination of the operator; for to will strongly he must believe
firmly, and the action no doubt makes it easier for him to realize what he is
doing.
202.
Just as a man may pour out magnetism by an effort of will, so may he draw
it away by an effort of will; and in this case also he may often use a gesture
of the hands to help him. In dealing with the headache, he would probably lay
his hands upon the forehead of the patient, and think of them as sponges
steadily drawing out the deleterious magnetism from the brain. That he is
actually producing the result of which he thinks, he will be very likely soon
to discover, for unless he takes precautions to cast off the bad magnetism
which he is absorbing, he will either himself feel the headache or begin to
suffer from a pain in the arm and hand with which the operation is being
performed. He is actually drawing into himself diseased matter, and it is
necessary for his comfort and well-being that he should dispose of it before it
obtains a permanent lodgment in his body.
203.
He should therefore adopt some definite plan to get rid of it, and the
simplest is just to throw it away, to shake it from the hands as one would shake
water. Although he does not see it, the matter which he has withdrawn is
physical, and we can deal with it by physical means. It is therefore necessary
that he should not neglect these precautions, and that he should not forget to
wash his hands carefully after curing a headache or any malady of that nature.
Then, after he has removed the cause of the evil, he proceeds to pour in good
strong healthy magnetism to take its place, and to protect the patient against
the return of the disease. One can see that in the case of any nervous affection
this method would have manifold advantages. In most of such cases what is wrong
is an irregularity of the fluids which course along the nerves; either they are
congested, or they are sluggish in their flow, or on the other hand they may be
too rapid; they may be deficient in quantity, or poor in quality. If we
administer drugs of any sort, at the best we can act only upon the physical
nerve, and through it to some limited extent upon the fluids surrounding it;
whereas mesmerism acts directly upon the fluids themselves, and so goes straight
to the root of the evil.
204.
CHAPTER IV
205.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHAKRAS
206.
THE FUNCTIONS OF THE AWAKENED CENTRES
207.
BESIDES keeping alive the physical vehicle, the force-centres have
another function, which comes into play only when they are awakened into full
activity. Each of the etheric centres corresponds to an astral centre, though as
the astral centre is a vortex in four dimensions it has an extension in a
direction quite different from the etheric, and consequently is by no means
always co-terminous with it, though some part is always coincident. The etheric
vortex is always on the surface of the etheric body, but the astral centre is
frequently quite in the interior of that vehicle.
208.
The function of each of the etheric centres when fully aroused is to
bring down into physical consciousness whatever may be the quality inherent in
the astral centre which corresponds to it; so, before cataloguing the results to
be obtained by arousing the etheric centres into activity, it may be well to
consider what is done by each of the astral centres, although these latter are
already in full activity in all cultured people of later races. What effect,
then, has the quickening of each of these astral centres produced in the astral
body?
209.
THE ASTRAL CENTRES
210.
The first of these centres, as has already been explained, is the home of
the serpent-fire. This force exists on all planes and by its activity the rest
of the centres are aroused. We must think of the astral body as having been
originally an almost inert mass, with nothing but the vaguest consciousness,
with no definite power of doing anything, and no clear knowledge of the world
which surrounded it. The first thing that happened, then, was the awakening of
that force in the man at the astral level. When awakened it moved on to the
second centre, corresponding to the physical spleen, and through it vitalized
the whole astral body enabling the person to travel consciously, though with
only a vague conception as yet of what lie encountered on his journeys.
211.
Then it moved on to the third, that corresponding to the navel, and
vivified it, thereby awakening in the astral body the power of feeling-a
sensitiveness to all sorts of influences, though without as yet anything like
the definite comprehension that comes from seeing or hearing.
212.
The fourth centre, when awakened, endowed the man with the power to
comprehend and sympathize with the vibrations of other astral entities, so that
he could instinctively understand something of their feelings.
213.
The awakening of the fifth, that corresponding to the throat, gave him
the power of hearing on the astral plane; that is to say, it caused the
development of that sense which in the astral world produces on our
consciousness the effect which on the physical plane we call hearing.
214.
The development of the sixth, that corresponding to the centre between
the eyebrows, in a similar manner produced astral sight - the power to perceive
definitely the shape and nature of astral objects, instead of vaguely sensing
their presence.
215.
The arousing of the seventh, that corresponding to the top of the head,
rounded off and completed for him the astral life, and endowed him with the
perfection of its faculties.
217.
With regard to this centre a certain difference seems to exist, according
to the type to which men belong. For many of us the astral vortices
corresponding to the sixth and seventh of these centres both converge upon the
pituitary body, and for those people the pituitary body (Fig. 8) is practically
the only direct link between the physical and the higher planes. Another type
of people, however, while still attaching the sixth centre to the pituitary
body, bend or slant the seventh until its vortex coincides with the atrophied
organ called the pineal gland (Fig. 8), which is by people of that type vivified
and made into a line of communication directly with the lower mental, without
apparently passing through the intermediate astral plane in the ordinary way. It
was for this type that Madame Blavatsky was writing when she laid such emphasis
upon the awakening of that organ. Dr. Besant also mentions this fact that the
starting-point of development begins at different levels with different persons,
in the following passage from A Study in Consciousness:
218.
The building of the centres and the gradual organization of them into
wheels, can be begun from any vehicle, and will be begun in any individual from
that vehicle which represents the special type of temperament to which he
belongs. According as a man belongs to one typical temperament or another, so
will be the place of the greatest activity in the building up of all the
vehicles, in the gradual making of them into effective instruments of
consciousness to be expressed on the physical plane. This centre of activity
may be in the physical, astral, lower, or higher mental body. In any of these,
or even higher still, according to the temperamental type, this centre will be
found in the principle which marks out the temperamental type, and from that it
works “upwards” or “downwards”, shaping the vehicles so as to make them suitable
for the expression of that temperament.
219.
ASTRAL SENSES
220.
Thus these centres to some extent take the place of sense-organs for the
astral body; yet without proper qualification that expression would be
decidedly misleading, for it must never be forgotten that though, in order to
make ourselves intelligible, we constantly have to speak of astral seeing or
astral hearing, all that we really mean by those expressions is the faculty of
responding to such vibrations as convey to the man’s consciousness, when he is
functioning in his astral body, information of the same character as that
conveyed to him by his eyes and ears while he is in the physical body.
221.
But in the entirely different astral conditions specialized organs are
not necessary for the attainment of this result. There is matter in every part
of the astral body which is capable of such response, and consequently the man
functioning in that vehicle sees equally well the objects behind him, above him,
and beneath him, without needing to turn his head. The centres, therefore,
cannot be described as organs in the ordinary sense of the word, since it is not
through them that the man sees or hears, as he does here through the eyes and
ears. Yet it is upon their vivification that the power of exercising these
astral senses depends, each of them as it is developed giving to the whole
astral body the power of response to a new set of vibrations.
222.
As all the particles of the astral body are constantly flowing and
swirling about like those of boiling water, all of them in turn pass through
each of the centres or vortices, so that each centre in its turn evokes in all
the particles of the body the power of receptivity to a certain set of
vibrations, and so all the astral senses are equally active in all parts of the
body. But even when these astral senses are fully awakened it by no means
follows that the man will be able to bring through into his physical body any
consciousness of their action.
223.
THE AROUSING OF KUNDALINI
224.
While all this astral awakening was taking place, then, the man in his
physical consciousness knew nothing whatever of it. The only way in which the
dense body can be brought to share all these advantages is by repeating that
process of awakening with the etheric centres. That may be achieved in various
ways, according to the school of yoga which the student is practising.
225.
Seven schools of yoga are recognized in India: 1. Raja Yoga; 2. Karma
Yoga; 3. Jnana Yoga; 4. Hatha Yoga; 5. Laya Yoga; 6. Bhakti Yoga; 7. Mantra
Yoga. I have given some account of them in the second edition of The Masters
and the Path, and Professor Wood has described them fully in his book
Raja Yoga; the Occult Training of the Hindus. They all recognize the
existence and the importance of the chakras, and each has its own method of
developing them. The plan of the Raja Yogi is to meditate upon each in turn and
bring them into activity by sheer force of will - a scheme which has much to
recommend it. The school which pays most attention to them is that of Laya Yoga,
and its system is to arouse the higher potentialities of the serpent-fire, and
force it through the centres one by one.
226.
That arousing needs a determined and a long continued effort of the will,
for to bring that first chakra into full activity is precisely to awaken the
inner layers of the serpent-fire. When once that is aroused, it is by its
tremendous force that the other centres are vivified. Its effect on the other
etheric wheels is to bring into the physical consciousness the powers which were
aroused by the development of their corresponding astral chakras.
227.
THE AWAKENING OF THE ETHERIC CHAKRAS
228.
When the second of the etheric centres, that at the spleen, is awakened,
the man is enabled to remember his vague astral journeys, though sometimes only
very partially. The effect of a slight and accidental stimulation of this centre
is often to produce half-remembrance of a blissful sensation of flying through
the air.
229.
When the third centre, that at the navel, comes into activity, the man
begins in the physical body to be conscious of all kinds of astral influences,
vaguely feeling that some of them are friendly and others hostile, or that some
places are pleasant and others unpleasant, without in the least knowing why.
230.
Stimulation of the fourth, that at the heart, makes the man instinctively
aware of the joys and sorrows of others, and sometimes even causes him to
reproduce in himself by sympathy their physical aches and pains.
231.
The arousing of the fifth, that at the throat, enables him to hear
voices, which sometimes make all kinds of suggestions to him. Also sometimes he
hears music, or other less pleasant sounds. When it is fully working it makes
the man clairaudient as far as the etheric and astral planes are concerned.
232.
When the sixth, between the eyebrows, becomes vivified, the man begins to
see things, to have various sorts of waking visions, sometimes of places,
sometimes of people. In its earlier development, when it is only just beginning
to be awakened, it often means nothing more than half-seeing landscapes and
clouds of colour. The full arousing of this brings about clairvoyance.
233.
The centre between the eyebrows is connected with sight in yet another
way. It is through it that the power of magnification of minute physical objects
is exercised. A tiny flexible tube of etheric matter is projected from the
centre of it, resembling a microscopic snake with something like an eye at the
end of it. This is the special organ used in that form of clairvoyance, and the
eye at the end of it can be expanded or contracted, the effect being to change
the power of magnification according to the size of the object which is being
examined. This is what is meant in ancient books when mention is made of the
capacity to make oneself large or small at will. To examine an atom one develops
an organ of vision commensurate in size with the atom. This little snake
projecting from the centre of the forehead was symbolized upon the head-dress
of the Pharaoh of Egypt, who as the chief priest of his country was supposed to
possess this among many other occult powers.
234.
When the seventh centre is quickened, the man is able by passing through
it to leave his body in full consciousness, and also to return to it without the
usual break, so that his consciousness will be continuous through night and day.
When the fire has been passed through all these centres in a certain order
(which varies for different types of people) the consciousness becomes
continuous up to the entry into the heaven-world at the end of the life on the
astral plane, no difference being made by either the temporary separation from
the physical body during sleep or the permanent division at death.
235.
CASUAL CLAIRVOYANCE
236.
Before this is done, however, the man may have many glimpses of the
astral world, for specially strong vibrations may at any time galvanize one or
other of the chakras into temporary activity, without arousing the serpent-fire
at all; or it may happen that the fire may be partially roused, and in this way
also spasmodic clairvoyance may be produced for the time. For this fire exists,
as we have said, in seven layers or seven degrees of force, and it often happens
that a man who exerts his will in the effort to arouse it may succeed in
affecting one layer only, and so when he thinks that he has done the work he may
find it ineffective, and may have to do it all over again many times, digging
gradually deeper and deeper, until not only the surface is stirred but the very
heart of the fire is in full activity.
237.
THE DANGER OF PREMATURE AWAKENING
238.
This fiery power, as it is called in The Voice of the Silence, is
in very truth like liquid fire as it rushes through the body when it has been
aroused by the will; and the course through which it ought to move is spiral
like the coils of a serpent. In its awakened state it may be called the World’s
Mother in another sense than that already mentioned, because through it our
various vehicles may be vivified, so that the higher worlds may open before us
in succession.
239.
For the ordinary person it lies at the base of the spine un-awakened, and
its very presence unsuspected, during the whole of his life; and it is indeed
far better to allow it thus to remain dormant until the man has made definite
moral development, until his will is strong enough to control it and his
thoughts pure enough to enable him to face its awakening without injury. No one
should experiment with it without definite instruction from a teacher who
thoroughly understands the subject, for the dangers connected with it are very
real and terribly serious. Some of them are purely physical. Its uncontrolled
movement often produces intense physical pain, and it may readily tear tissues
and even destroy physical life. This, however, is the least of the evils of
which it is capable, for it may do permanent injury to vehicles higher than the
physical.
240.
One very common effect of rousing it prematurely is that it rushes
downwards in the body instead of upwards, and thus excites the most undesirable
passions - excites them and intensifies their effects to such a degree that it
becomes impossible for the man to resist them, because a force has been brought
into play in whose presence he is as helpless as a swimmer before the jaws of a
shark. Such men become satyrs, monsters of depravity, because they are in the
grasp of a force which is out of all proportion to the ordinary human power of
resistance. They may probably gain certain supernormal powers, but these will be
such as will bring them into touch with a lower order of evolution with which
humanity is intended to hold no commerce, and to escape from its awful thraldom
may take them more than one incarnation.
241.
I am not in any way exaggerating the horror of this thing, as a person to
whom it was all a matter of hearsay might unwittingly do. I have myself been
consulted by people upon whom this awful fate has already come, and I have seen
with my own eyes what happened to them. There is a school of black magic which
purposely utilizes this power for such purposes, in order that through it may
be vivified a certain lower force-centre which is never used in that way by the
followers of the Good Law. Some writers deny the existence of such a centre; but
Brahmanas of Southern India assure me that there are certain yogis who teach
their pupils to use it - though of course not necessarily with evil intent.
Still, the risk is too great to be worth taking when one can achieve the same
results in a safer way.
242.
Even apart from this greatest of its dangers, the premature unfoldment of
the higher aspects of kundalini has many other unpleasant possibilities. It
intensifies everything in the man’s nature, and it reaches the lower and evil
qualities more readily than the good. In the mental body, for example, ambition
is very quickly aroused, and soon swells to an incredibly inordinate degree. It
would be likely to bring with it a great intensification of the power of
intellect, but at the same time it would produce abnormal and satanic pride,
such as is quite inconceivable to the ordinary man. It is not wise for a man to
think that he is prepared to cope with any force that may arise within his body;
this is no ordinary energy, but something resistless. Assuredly no uninstructed
man should ever try to awaken it, and if such an one finds that it has been
aroused by accident he should at once consult some one who fully understands
these matters.
243.
I am specially refraining from any
explanation as to how this arousing is to be done, nor do I mention the order in
which the force (when aroused) should be passed through these various centres,
for that should by no means be attempted except at the express suggestion of
a Master, who will watch over His pupils during the various stages of the
experiment.
244.
I should like most solemnly to warn all students against making any
effort whatever in the direction of awakening these tremendous forces, except
under such qualified tuition, for I have myself seen many cases of the terrible
effects which follow from ignorant and ill-advised meddling with these very
serious matters. The force is a tremendous reality, one of the great basic facts
of nature, and most emphatically it is not a thing with which to play, not a
matter to be lightly taken in hand, for to experiment with it without
understanding it is far more dangerous than it would be for a child to play with
nitroglycerine. As is very truly said in The Hathayoga Pradipika: “It
gives liberation to yogis and bondage to fools” (III, 107.).
245.
In matters such as these, students so often seem to think that some
special exception to the laws of nature will be made in their case, that some
special intervention of providence will save them from the consequences of their
folly. Assuredly nothing of that sort will happen, and the man who wantonly
provokes an explosion is quite likely to become its first victim. It would save
much trouble and disappointment if students could be induced to understand that
in all matters connected with occultism we mean just exactly and literally what
we say, and that it is applicable in every case without exception. For there is
no such thing as favouritism in the working of the great laws of the universe.
246.
Everybody wants to try all possible experiments; everybody is convinced
that he is quite ready for the highest possible teaching and for any sort of
development, and no one is willing to work patiently along at the improvement
of character, and to devote his time and his energies to doing something useful
for the work of The Society, waiting for all these other things until a Master
shall announce that he is ready for them. As I have already said in the previous
chapter in another connection, the old aphorism still remains true: “Seek ye
first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you.”
247.
THE SPONTANEOUS AWAKENING OF KUNDALINI
248.
There are some cases in which the inner layers of this fire awaken
spontaneously, so that a dull glow is felt; it may even begin to move of itself,
though this is rare. When this happens, it may cause great pain, as, since the
passages are not prepared for it, it would have to clear its way by actually
burning up a great deal of etheric dross - a process that cannot but engender
suffering. When it thus awakes of itself or is accidentally aroused, it usually
tries to pass up the interior of the spine, following the course already taken
by its lowest and gentlest manifestation. If it be possible, the will should be
set in motion to arrest its upward movement, but if that proves to be
impossible (as is most likely) no alarm need be felt. It will probably flash
out through the head and escape into the surrounding atmosphere, and it is
likely that no harm will result beyond a slight weakening. Nothing worse than a
temporary loss of consciousness need be apprehended. The really appalling
dangers are connected not with its upward rush, but with the possibility of its
turning downwards and inwards.
249.
Its principal function in connection with occult development is that, by
being sent through the force-centres in the etheric body, as above described,
it quickens these chakras and makes them more fully available as gates of
connection between the physical and astral bodies. It is said in The Voice of
the Silence that when the serpent-fire reaches the centre between the
eyebrows and fully vivifies it, it confers the power of hearing the voice of the
Master - which means in this case the voice of the ego or higher self. The
reason for this statement is that when the pituitary body is brought into
working order it forms a perfect link with the astral vehicle, so that through
it all communications from within can be received.
250.
It is not only this chakra; all the higher force-centres have presently
to be awakened, and each must be made responsive to all kinds of influences from
the various astral sub-planes. This development will come to all in due course,
but most people cannot gain it during the present incarnation, if it is the
first in which they have begun to take these matters seriously in hand. Some
Indians might succeed in doing so, as their bodies are by heredity more
adaptable than most others; but it is really for the majority the work of a
later Round altogether. The conquest of the serpent-fire has to be repeated in
each incarnation, since the vehicles are new each time, but after it has been
once thoroughly achieved these repetitions will be an easy matter. It must be
remembered that its action varies with different types of people; some, for
example, would see the higher self rather than hear its voice. Again, this
connection with the higher has many stages; for the personality it means the
influence of the ego, but for the ego himself it means the power of the Monad,
and for the Monad in turn it means to become a conscious expression of the
Logos.
251.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
252.
It may be of use if I mention my own experience in this matter. In the
earlier part of my residence in India forty-two years ago I made no effort to
rouse the fire - not indeed knowing very much about it, and having the opinion
that, in order to do anything with it, it was necessary to be born with a
specially psychic body, which I did not possess. But one day one of the Masters
made a suggestion to me with regard to a certain kind of meditation which would
evoke this force. Naturally I at once put the suggestion into practice, and in
course of time was successful. I have no doubt, however, that He watched the
experiment, and would have checked me if it had become dangerous. I am told that
there are Indian ascetics who teach this to their pupils, of course keeping them
under careful supervision during the process. But I do not myself know of any
such, nor should I have confidence in them unless they were specially
recommended by some one whom I knew to be possessed of real knowledge.
253.
People often ask me what I advise them to do with regard to the arousing
of this force. I advise them to do exactly what I myself did. I recommend them
to throw themselves into Theosophical work and wait until they receive a
definite command from some Master who will undertake to superintend their
psychic development, continuing in the meantime all the ordinary exercises of
meditation that are known to them. They should not care in the least whether
such development comes in this incarnation or in the next, but should regard the
matter from the point of view of the ego and not of the personality, feeling
absolutely certain that the Masters are always watching for those whom They can
help, that it is entirely impossible for anyone to be overlooked, and that They
will unquestionably give Their directions when They think that the right time
has come.
254.
I have never heard that there is any sort of age limit with regard to the
development, and I do not see that age should make any difference, so long as
one has perfect health; but the health is a necessity, for only a strong body
can endure the strain, which is much more serious than anyone who has not made
the attempt can possibly imagine.
255.
The force when aroused must be very strictly controlled, and it must be
moved through the centres in an order which differs for people of different
types. The movement also, to be effective, must be made in a particular way,
which the Master will explain when the time comes.
256.
THE ETHERIC WEB
257.
I have said that the astral and etheric centres are in very close
correspondence; but between them, and interpenetrating them in a manner not
readily describable, is a sheath or web of closely woven texture, a sheath
composed of a single layer of physical atoms much compressed and permeated by a
special form of vital force. The divine life which normally descends from the
astral body to the physical is so attuned as to pass through this with perfect
ease, but it is an absolute barrier to all other forces - all which cannot use
the atomic matter of both the planes. This web is the protection provided by
nature to prevent a premature opening up of communication between the planes - a
development which could lead to nothing but injury.
258.
It is this which under normal conditions prevents clear recollection of
what has happened during sleep, and it is this also which causes the momentary
unconsciousness which always occurs at death. But for this merciful provision
the ordinary man, who knows nothing about all these things and is entirely
unprepared to meet them, could at any moment be brought by any astral entity
under the influence of forces to cope with which would be entirely beyond his
strength. He would be liable to constant obsession by any being on the astral
plane who desired to seize upon his vehicles.
259.
It will therefore be readily understood that any injury to this web is a
serious disaster. There are several ways in which injury may come, and it
behoves us to use our best endeavours to guard against it. It may come either by
accident or by continued malpractice. Any great shock to the astral body, such
for example as a sudden terrible fright, may rend apart this delicate organism
and, as it is commonly expressed, drive the man mad. (Of course there are other
ways in which fear may cause insanity, but this is one.) A tremendous outburst
of anger may also produce the same effect. Indeed it may follow upon any
exceedingly strong emotion of an evil character which produces a kind of
explosion in the astral body.
260.
THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL AND DRUGS
261.
The malpractices which may more gradually injure this protective web are
of two classes - use of alcohol or narcotic drugs, and the deliberate endeavour
to throw open the doors which nature has kept closed, by means of such a process
as is described in spiritualistic parlance as sitting for development. Certain
drugs and drinks - notably alcohol and all the narcotics, including tobacco -
contain matter which on breaking up volatilizes, and some of it passes from the
physical plane to the astral. (Even tea and coffee contain this matter, but in
quantities so infinitesimal that it is usually only after long-continued abuse
of them that the effect manifests itself.)
262.
When this takes place in the body of man these constituents rush out
through the chakras in the opposite direction to that for which they are
intended, and in doing this repeatedly they seriously injure and finally destroy
the delicate web. This deterioration or destruction may be brought about in two
different ways, according to the type of the person concerned and to the
proportion of the constituents in his etheric and astral bodies. First, the rush
of volatilizing matter actually burns away the web, and therefore leaves the
door open to all sorts of irregular forces and evil influences.
263.
The second result is that these volatile constituents, in flowing
through, somehow harden the atom, so that its pulsation is to a large extent
checked and crippled, and it is no longer capable of being vitalized by the
particular type of force which welds it into a web. The result of this is a kind
of ossification of the web, so that instead of having too much coming through
from one plane to the other, we have very little of any kind coming through.
264.
We may see the effects of both these types of deterioration in the case
of men who yield themselves to drunkenness. Some of those who are affected in
the former way fall into delirium tremens, obsession or insanity; but those are
after all comparatively rare. Far more common is the second type of
deterioration the case in which we have a kind of general deadening down of the
man’s qualities, resulting in gross materialism, brutality and animalism, in
the loss of all finer feelings and of the power to control himself. He no longer
feels any sense of responsibility; he may love his wife and children when sober,
but when the fit of drunkenness comes upon him he will use the money which
should have brought bread for them to satisfy his own bestial cravings, the
affection and the responsibility having apparently entirely disappeared.
265.
THE EFFECT OF TOBACCO
266.
The second type of effect is very commonly to be seen among those who are
slaves of the tobacco habit. Its effects are obvious in the physical, astral and
mental bodies.
267.
It permeates the man physically with exceedingly impure particles,
causing emanations so grossly material that they are frequently perceptible to
the sense of smell. Astrally it not only introduces inpurity but it also tends
to deaden many of the vibrations, and it is for this reason that it is found to
“soothe the nerves”, as it is called. But of course for occult progress we do
not want the vibrations deadened, nor the astral body weighed down with
poisonous particles. We need the capacity of answering instantly to all possible
wave-lengths, and yet at the same time we must have perfect control, so that our
desires shall be as horses guided by the intelligent mind to draw us where we
will, not to run away with us wildly, as does the tobacco habit, and carry us
into situations where our higher nature knows that it ought never to be found.
Its results after death are also of the most distressing character; it causes a
sort of ossification and paralysis of the astral body, so that for a long time
(extending to weeks and months) the man remains helpless, supine, scarcely
conscious, shut up as though in a prison, unable to communicate with his
friends, dead for the time to all higher influences. Is it worth while incurring
all these penalties for the sake of a petty indulgence? For any person who
really means to develop his vehicles, to awaken his chakras, to make progress
along the path of holiness, tobacco is undoubtedly to be sedulously avoided.
268.
All impressions which pass from one plane to the other are intended to
come only through the atomic sub-planes, as I have said; but when this
deadening process sets in, it presently infects not only other atomic matter,
but matter of even the second and third sub-planes, so that the only
communication between the astral and the etheric is when some force acting on
the lower sub-planes (upon which only unpleasant and evil influences are to be
found) happens to be strong enough to compel a response by the violence of its
vibration.
269.
THE OPENING OF THE DOORS
270.
Nevertheless, though nature takes such precautions to guard these
centres, she by no means intends that they shall always be kept rigidly closed.
There is a proper way in which they may be opened. Perhaps it would be more
correct to say that the intention is not that the doors should be opened any
wider than their present position, but that the man should so develop himself
that he can bring a great deal more through the recognized channel.
271.
The consciousness of the ordinary man cannot yet use pure atomic matter
either in the physical body or in the astral, and therefore there is normally no
possibility for him of conscious communication at will between the two planes.
The proper way to obtain that is to purify both the vehicles until the atomic
matter in both is fully vitalized, so that all communications between the two
may be able to pass by that road. In that case the web retains to the fullest
degree its position and activity, and yet is no longer a barrier to the perfect
communication, while it still continues to fulfil its purpose of preventing the
close contact between lower sub-planes which would permit all sorts of
undesirable influences to pass through.
272.
That is why we are always adjured to wait for the unfolding of psychic
powers until they come in the natural course of events as a consequence of the
development of character, as we see from the study of these force-centres that
they surely will. That is the natural evolution; that is the only really safe
way, for by it the student obtains all the benefits and avoids all the dangers.
That is the Path which our Masters have trodden in the past; that therefore is
the Path for us today.
273.
CHAPTER V
274.
THE LAYA YOGA
275.
THE HINDU BOOKS
276.
IT is nearly twenty years since I wrote the major part of the information
about the chakras which appears in the preceding pages, and I had at that time
but a very slight acquaintance with the extensive literature which exists on the
subject in the Sanskrit language. Since then, however, several important works
on the chakras have become available in English, among which are The Serpent
Power (which is a translation by Arthur Avalon of The Shatchakara
Nirupana), Thirty Minor Upanishads, translated by K. Narayanaswami
Aiyar, and The Shiva Samhita, translated by Sris Chandra Vidyarnava.
These works deal extensively with the special subject of chakras, but there are
many others which touch upon the centres in a more casual way. Avalon’s book
gives us an excellent series of coloured illustrations of all the chakras, in
the symbolical form in which they are always drawn by the Hindu yogis. This
department of Hindu science is gradually becoming known in the West; for the
benefit of my readers I will attempt to give a very brief outline of it here.
277.
THE INDIAN LIST OF CHAKRAS
278.
The chakras mentioned in these Sanskrit books are the same as those which
we see today, except that as I have already said, they always substitute their
Svadhishthana centre for that at the spleen. They differ slightly among
themselves as to the number of petals, but on the whole they agree with us,
though for some reason they do not include the centre at the top of head,
confining themselves to six chakras only, and calling the centre the Sahasrara
Padma - the lotus of a thousand petals. The smaller chakra of twelve petals
within this crown centre was observed by them, and is duly noted. They speak of
two petals instead of ninety-six in the sixth chakra, but they refer no doubt to
the two divisions of the disc of that centre, mentioned in Chapter I.
279.
The discrepancies as to the number of petals are not important; for
example, The Yoga Kundalini Upanishad speaks of sixteen petals in the
heart chakra instead of twelve, and The Dhyanabindu Upanishad and The
Shandilya Upanishad both mention twelve spokes instead of ten in the navel
chakra. A number of works also refer to another chakra that is below the heart,
and to several centres between the brow chakra and the crown lotus, all as being
of great importance. The Dhyanabindu Upanishad says that the lotus of the
heart has eight petals, but its description of the use of that chakra in
meditation indicates (as we shall see later) that it is probably referring to
the secondary heart chakra to which I have just referred. In the matter of the
colours of the petals there are also some disagreements, as will be seen from
table V, comparing some of the principal works with our own list.
280.
It is not surprising that such differences as these should be on record,
for there are unquestionably variants in the chakras of different people and
races, as well as in the faculties of observers. What we have recorded in
Chapter I is the result of careful observation on the part of a number of
Western students, who have taken every precaution to compare notes and to verify
what they have seen.
COLOURS OF LOTUS PETALS |
CHAKRA |
OUR OBSERVATIONS |
SHATCHAKRA NIRUPANA |
SHIVA SAMHITA |
GARUDA PURANA |
1 |
Fiery orange-red |
Red |
Red |
… |
2 |
Glowing, sunlike |
Vermilion |
Vermilion |
Sunlike |
3 |
Various reds and greens |
Blue |
Golden |
Red |
4 |
Golden |
Vermilion |
Deep red |
Golden |
5 |
Blue, silvery, gleaming |
Smoky purple |
Brilliant gold |
Moonlike |
6 |
Yellow and purple |
White |
White |
Red |
281.
TABLE V
282.
The drawings of the chakras made by the Hindu yogis for the use of their
pupils are always symbolical, and bear no relation to the actual appearance of
the chakra, except that an attempt is usually made to indicate the colour and
the number of petals. In the centre of each such drawing we shall find a
geometrical form, a letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, an animal, and two
deities, one male and the other female. We give in Fig. 9 a reproduction of the
drawing of the heart chakra, borrowed from Arthur Avalon’s The Serpent Power.
We shall endeavour to explain what is understood by the various symbols.
283.
THE FIGURES OF THE CHAKRAS
284.
The object of Laya or Kundalini Yoga is the same as that of every other
form of Indian yoga, to unite the soul with God; and for this purpose it is
always necessary to make three kinds of efforts - those of love, of thought and
of action. Though in a particular school of yoga the will must be especially
used (as is the case in the teaching of The Yoga Sutras), and in another
great love is chiefly prescribed (as in the instruction given by Shri Krishna
to Arjuna in The Bhagavad Gita), still it is always proclaimed that
attainments must be made in all three directions. Thus Patanjali propounds for
the candidate at the beginning a course of tapas or purificatory effort,
svadhyaya or study of spiritual things, and Ishvara pranidhana, or
devotion to God at all times. Shri Krishna, similarly, after explaining to His
pupil that wisdom is the most valuable instrument of service, the greatest
offering that one can make, adds that it may be learnt only by devotion, enquiry
and service, concluding His statement with the significant words: “The Wise
Ones, Seers of the Truth, will teach you the wisdom.” In At the Feet of the
Master, which is the most modern rendering of the Eastern teaching, the same
triplicity appears, for the qualifications include discrimination, the practice
of good conduct, and the development of love towards God, Guru or Teacher, and
man.
285.
To understand these diagrams of the chakras which are used by Indian
yogis, it must be borne in mind that they are intended to assist the aspirant in
all these three lines of progress. It is necessary that he should acquire
knowledge about the constitution of the world and of man (that which we now call
Theosophy), and that he should develop deep and strong devotion through worship
of the Divine, while he is striving to awaken the inner layers of Kundalini and
conduct her (for this force is always spoken of as a goddess) in a tour through
the chakras.
287.
Because all these three objects are in view, we find in each chakra some
symbols which are concerned with teaching and devotion and need not necessarily
be regarded as constituting any essential or working part of the chakra. In the
services - or collective yoga practices - of the Liberal Catholic Church we have
a Western example of the same thing. There also we strive at the same time to
stimulate devotion and to convey spiritual knowledge, while practising the magic
involved in the rites. We must remember also that in old days the yogis who
wandered about or dwelt in the forests had little recourse even to the written
palm-leaf books of those times, and therefore required mnemonic aids, such as
many of these symbols give. They sat at times at the feet of their gurus; and
they could afterwards remember and recapitulate the Theosophy which they learnt
on those occasions, with the aid of such notes as are conveyed by these
drawings.
288.
THE HEART CHAKRA
289.
It is hardly possible here to attempt a complete explanation of the
symbology of all these chakras; it will be sufficient to give an indication of
what is probably meant in the case of the heart or Anahata chakra, of which our
figure is an illustration. One of the greatest difficulties in our way is that
there are several interpretations of most of these symbols, and that the yogis
of India present a front of impenetrable reticence to the inquirer, a stone-wall
unwillingness to impart their knowledge or thoughts to any but the student who
puts himself in statu pupillari with the set purpose of giving himself
utterly to the work of Laya Yoga, determined if necessary to spend his whole
life at the task in order to achieve success.
290.
This chakra is described in vv. 22-27 of The Shatchakra Nirupana,
of which the following is Avalon’s summarized translation:
291.
The Heart Lotus is of the colour of the Bandhuka flower [red], and on its
twelve petals are the letters Ka to Tha, with the Bindu above
them, of the colour of vermilion. In its pericarp is the hexagonal Vayu-Mandala,
of a smoky colour, and above it Surya-Mandala, with the Trikona lustrous as ten
million flashes of lightning within it. Above it the Vayu Bija, of a smoky hue,
is seated on a black antelope, four-armed and carrying the goad (ankusha). In
his (Vayu-Bija’s) lap is three-eyed Isha. Like Hamsa (Hamsabha), His two arms
are extended in the gestures of granting boons and dispelling fear. In the
pericarp of this Lotus, seated on a red lotus, is the Shakti Kakini. She is
fourarmed, and carries the noose (Pasha), the skull (Kapala) and makes the boon
(Vara) and fear-dispelling (Abhaya) signs. She is of a golden hue, is dressed in
yellow raiment, and wears every variety of jewel, and a garland of bones. Her
heart is softened by nectar. In the middle of the Trikona is Shiva in the form
of a Vana-Linga, with the crescent moon and Bindu on his head. He is of a golden
colour. He looks joyous with a rush of desire. Below him is the Jivatma like
Hamsa. It is like the steady tapering flame of a lamp.
292.
Below the pericarp of this Lotus is the red lotus of eight petals, with
its head upturned. It is in this (red) lotus that there are the Kalpa Tree, the
jewelled altar surmounted by an awning and decorated by flags and the like,
which is the place of mental worship.
293.
THE PETALS AND LETTERS
294.
The petals of any one of these lotuses, as we have seen, are made by the
primary forces, which radiate out into the body along the spokes of the wheel.
The number of spokes is determined by the number of powers belonging to the
force which comes through a particular chakra. In this case we have twelve
petals, and the letters given to these evidently symbolize a certain section of
the total creative power or life-force coming into the body. The letters
mentioned here are from Ka to Tha, taken in the regular order of
the Sanskrit alphabet. This alphabet is extraordinarily scientific - apparently
we have nothing like it in Western languages - and its 49 letters are usually
arranged in the following tabular form, to which ksha is added in order
to supply enough letters for the fifty petals of the six chakras.
296.
This alphabet is considered for yoga purposes to include the sum-total of
human sounds, to be from the point of view of speech a materially
extended expression of the one creative sound or word. Like the sacred word Aum
(the sound of which begins in the back of the mouth with a, traverses the centre
with u, and ends upon the lips in m) it represents all
creative speech, and therefore a set of powers. These are assigned as follows:
the sixteen vowels to the throat chakra, Ka to Tha to the heart,
Da to Pha to the navel, Ba to La to the second, and
Va to Sa to the first. Ha and Ksha are given to the
Ajna chakra, and the Sahasrara Lotus or crown chakra is considered to include
the alphabet taken twenty times over.
297.
There is no apparent reason why the letters should have been assigned to
the particular chakras mentioned, but there is an increasing number of powers as
we ascend the chakras. It is possible that the founders of the Laya system may
have had a detailed knowledge of these powers, and may have used the letters to
name them much as we use letters in referring to angles in geometry, or to the
emanations from radium.
298.
The practice of meditation on these letters has evidently something to do
with reaching “the inner sound which kills the outer”, to use a phrase from
The Voice of the Silence. The scientific meditation of the Hindus begins
with concentration upon a pictured object or a sound, and only when the mind has
been fixed steadily upon that does the yogi try to pass on to realize its higher
significance. Thus in meditating upon a Master he first pictures the physical
form, and afterwards tries to feel the emotions of the Master, to understand His
thoughts, and so on.
299.
In this matter of sounds the yogi tries to pass inward from the sound as
known to us and uttered by us, to the inner quality and power of that sound, and
thus it is an aid to the passage of his consciousness from plane to plane. It
may be thought that God created the planes by reciting the alphabet and that our
spoken word is its lowest spiral. In this form of yoga the aspirant strives by
inner absorption or laya to return upon that path and so draw nearer to the
Divine. In Light on the Path we are exhorted to listen to the song of
life, and to try to catch its hidden or higher tones.
300.
THE MANDALAS
301.
The hexagonal mandala or “circle” which occupies the pericarp of the
heart lotus is taken as a symbol of the element air. Each chakra is considered
to be especially connected with one of the elements earth, water, fire, air,
ether and mind. These elements are to be regarded as states of matter, not
elements as we understand them in modern chemistry. They are thus equivalent to
the terms solid, liquid, fiery or gaseous, airy and etheric, and are somewhat
analogous to our sub-planes and planes-physical, astral, mental, etc. These
elements are represented by certain yantras or diagrams of a symbolic
character, which are given as follows in The Shatchakra
Nirupana, and are shown within the pericarps of the pictured lotuses.
302.
Sometimes in the following list orange-red is given instead of yellow,
blue instead of smoky, and black instead of white in the fifth chakra, though it
is explained that black stands for indigo or dark blue.
CHAKRA |
ELEMENT |
FORM |
COLOUR |
1
2
3
4
5
6 |
Earth
Water
Fire
Air
Ether
Min |
A square
A crescent moon
A triangle
Two interlaced triangles (a hexagonal figure)
A circle
… |
Yellow
White
Bright red
Smoky
White
white |
303.
TABLE VII
304.
It may seem curious to the Western reader that the mind should be put
among the elements, but that does not appear so to the Hindu, for the mind is
regarded by him as but an instrument of consciousness. The Hindu has a way of
looking at things from a very high point of view, often apparently from the
standpoint of the Monad. For example, in the seventh chapter of the Gita,
Shri Krishna says: “Earth, water, fire, air, ether, manas, buddhi and ahamkara -
these are the eightfold divisions of my manifestation (prakriti).” A little
later on He speaks of these eight as, “my lower manifestation”.
305.
These elements are associated with the idea of the planes, as before
explained, but it does not seem that the chakras are especially connected with
them. But certainly as the yogi meditates upon these elements and their
associated symbols in each chakra he reminds himself of the scheme of the
planes. He may also find this form of meditation a means for raising his centre
of consciousness, through the levels of the plane in which it is at the time
functioning, to the seventh or highest, and through that to something higher
still.
306.
Quite apart from the possibility of going out into a higher plane in full
consciousness, we have here a means of raising the consciousness so that it may
feel the influences of a superior world and receive impressions from above. The
force or influence so received and felt is no doubt the “nectar” of which the
books speak, of which we will say more in connection with the raising of the
awakened kundalini to the highest centre.
307.
THE YANTRAS
308.
In Nature’s Finer Forces
Pandit Rama Prasad presents us with a thoughtful study of the reasons for the
geometrical forms of these yantras. His explanations are too lengthy for
reproduction here, but we may very briefly summarize some of his main ideas. He
argues that just as there exists a luminiferous ether, which is the bearer of
light to our eyes, so there is a special form of ether for each of the other
forms of sensation - smell, taste, touch and hearing. These senses are
correlated with the elements represented by the yantras - smell with the solid
(square), taste with liquid (crescent), sight with the gaseous (triangle), touch
with the airy (hexagon), and hearing with the etheric (circle). The propagation
of sound, the Pandit argues, is in the form of a circle, that is of a radiation
all around; hence the circle in the fifth chakra. The propagation of light, he
says, is in the form of a triangle, for a given point in the light-wave moves a
little forwards and also at right angles to the line of progress, so that when
it has completed its movement it has performed a triangle; hence the triangle in
the third chakra. He argues that there is a movement in the ether also in the
cases of touch, taste and smell, and gives reasons for the forms which we find
associated with these in their respective chakras.
309.
THE ANIMALS
310.
The antelope, on account of its fleetness of foot, is a suitable symbol
for the element air, and the bija or seed-mantra (that is, the sound in which
the power governing this element manifests itself) is given as Yam. This
word is sounded as the letter y, followed by the neutral vowel n, (which
is like the a in “India”), and a nasal after-sound similar to that which
frequently occurs in the French language. It is the dot over the letter which
represents this sound, and in that dot is the divinity to be worshipped in this
centre - the three-eyed Isha. Other animals are the elephant, associated with
earth on account of its solidity and with ether because of its supporting power;
the makara or crocodile in the water of Chakra 2; and the ram (evidently
regarded as a fiery or aggressive animal) in Chakra 3. For certain purposes the
yogi may imagine himself as seated on these animals and exercising the power
which their qualities represent.
311.
THE DIVINITIES
312.
There is a beautiful idea in some of these mantras, which we may
illustrate by reference to the well-known sacred word Om. It is said to consist
of four parts - a, u, m, and ardhamatra. There is a reference to this in The
Voice of the Silence, as follows:
313.
And then thou canst repose between the wings of the Great Bird. Aye,
sweet is rest between the wings of that which is not born, nor dies, but is Aum
throughout eternal ages.
314.
And Madame Blavatsky in a footnote to this speaks of the Great Bird as:
315.
Kala Hamsa, the bird or swan. Says the
Nadavindu-upanishat (Rig-veda) translated by the Kumbakonam Theosophical
Society – “The syllable A is considered to be the bird Hamsa’s right wing, U
its left, M its tail, and the Ardhamatra (half metre) is said to be its head.”
316.
The yogi after reaching the third syllable in his meditation, passes on
to the fourth, which is the silence which follows. He thinks of the divinity in
that silence.
317.
In the different books the deities assigned to the chakras vary. For
example The Shatchakra Nirupana places Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in the
first, second and third chakras respectively, and different forms of Shiva
beyond them, but The Shiva Samhita and some other works mention Ganesha
(the elephant-headed son of Shiva) in the first, Brahma in the second and
Vishnu in the third. Apparently differences are made according to the sect of
the worshipper.
318.
Along with Isha in the present instance we have as feminine divinity the
Shakti Kakini. Shakti means power or force. Thought-power is described as a
shakti of the mind. In each of the six chakras there is one of these feminine
divinities-Dakini, Rakini, Lakini, Kakini, Shakini and Hakini - which are by
some identified with the powers governing the various dhatus or bodily
substances. In this chakra Kakini is seated on a red lotus. She is spoken of as
having four arms (four powers or functions). With two of her hands she makes the
same signs of granting boons and dispelling fears as are shown by Isha; the
other two hold a noose (a symbol which is another form of the ankh cross) and a
skull (as symbol, no doubt, of the slain lower nature).
319.
THE BODY MEDITATION
320.
Sometimes the meditations usually
prescribed for these chakras are assigned to the body as a whole, as in the
following extract from The Yogatattva Upanishad:
321.
There are five elements, earth, water, fire, air, and ether. For the body
of the five elements, there is a fivefold concentration. From the feet to the
knees is said to be the region of earth; it is four-sided in shape, yellow in
colour and has the letter La. Carrying the breath with the letter
La along the region of earth
(from the feet to the knees) and contemplating Brahma with four faces and of a
golden colour, one should perform meditation there. …
322.
The region of water is declared to extend from the knees to the anus. The
water is semi-lunar in shape and white in colour, and has Va for its bija
(seed). Carrying up the breath with the letter Va along the region of
water, he should meditate upon the god Narayana, having four arms and a crowned
head, as being of the colour of pure crystal, as dressed in orange cloths and as
decayless. …
323.
From the anus to the heart is said to be the region of fire. Fire is
triangular in shape, of red colour, and has the letter Ra, for its bija
or seed. Raising the breath, made resplendent through the letter Ra,
along the region of fire, he should meditate upon Rudra, who has three eyes, who
grants all wishes, who is of the colour of the midday sun, who is smeared all
over with holy ashes, and who is of a pleased countenance. …
324.
From the heart to the middle of the eyebrows is said to be the region of
air. Air is hexangular in shape, black in colour, and shines with the letter
Ya. Carrying the breath along the region of air, he should meditate upon
Ishvara, the omniscient, as possessing faces on all sides. …
325.
From the centre of the eyebrows to the top of the head is declared to be
the region of ether; it is circular in shape, smoky in colour, and shining with
the letter Ha. Raising the breath along the region of ether, he should
meditate upon Sadashiva in the following manner - as producing happiness, as of
the shape of bindu (a drop), as the Great Deva, as having the shape of ether, as
shining like pure crystal, as wearing the rising crescent moon on his head, as
having five faces, ten hands and three eyes, as being of a pleasing countenance,
as armed with all weapons, as adorned with all ornaments, as having the goddess
Uma in one-half of his body, as ready to grant favours, and as the cause of all
the causes.
326.
This, to some extent, confirms our suggestion that in some cases the
principles upon which we are asked to meditate are applied to parts of the body
for purely mnemonic purposes, not with the direct intention of affecting those
parts.
327.
THE KNOTS
328.
In the centre of the heart lotus a trikona or inverted triangle is
figured. This is not a feature of all the centres, but only of the root, heart
and brow chakras. There are in these three special granthis or knots,
through which kundalini has to break in the course of her journey. The first is
sometimes called the knot of Brahma; the second that of Vishnu; the third that
of Shiva. The idea which this symbolism seems to imply is that the piercing of
these chakras in some way involves a special change of state, possibly from the
personality to the higher self and thence to the Monad - the regions over which
these Aspects may be said to rule. It can, however, be only in a subordinate or
secondary manner that this is true, for we have observed that the heart chakra
receives impressions from the higher astral, the throat centre from the mental,
and so forth. In each triangle the deity is represented as a linga, or
instrument of union. The Jivatma (literally “living self”) pointing upwards
“like the flame of a lamp” is the ego, represented as a steady flame probably
because he is not distressed by the accidents of material life, as is the
personality.
329.
THE SECONDARY HEART LOTUS
330.
The second small lotus represented as just beneath the heart chakra is
also a special feature of this centre. It is used as a place for meditation upon
the form of the guru or the Aspect of the Deity which especially appeals or is
assigned to the worshipper. Here the devotee imagines an island of gems,
containing beautiful trees, and an altar for worship, which is described as
follows in The Gheranda Samhita:
331.
Let him contemplate that there is a sea of nectar in his heart; that in
the midst of that sea there is an island of precious stones, the very sand of
which is pulverized diamonds and rubies. That on all sides of it there are
Kadamba trees, laden with sweet flowers; that, next to these trees, like a
rampart, there is a row of flowering trees, such as malati, mallika, jati,
kesara, champaka, parijata, and padma, and that the fragrance of these flowers
is spread all round, in every quarter. In the middle of this garden, let the
yogi imagine that there stands a beautiful Kalpa tree, having four branches,
representing the four Vedas, and that it is full of flowers and fruits. Insects
are humming there and cuckoos singing. Beneath that tree, let him imagine a rich
platform of precious gems, and on that a costly throne inlaid with jewels, and
that on that throne sits his particular Deity, as taught to him by his Guru. Let
him contemplate on the appropriate form, ornaments and vehicle of that Deity.
332.
The worshipper uses his imagination in creating this beautiful scene so
vividly as to become enwrapped in his thought and to forget the outer world
entirely for the time being. The process is not, however, entirely imaginative,
for this is a means to obtain constant contact with the Master. Just as the
images of persons made by one who is in the heaven-world after death are filled
with life by the egos of those persons, so the Master fills with his real
presence the thought-form produced by his pupil. Through that form real
inspiration and sometimes instruction may be given. An interesting example of
this was presented by an old Hindu gentleman who was living as a yogi in a
village in the Madras Presidency, who claimed to be a pupil of the Master Morya.
When that Master was travelling in Southern India years ago he visited the
village where this man lived. The latter became his pupil, and declared that he
did not lose his Master after he went away, for he used frequently to appear to
him and instruct him through a centre within himself.
333.
The Hindus lay much stress upon the necessity for a Guru or Master, and
they reverence him greatly when he is found. They constantly reiterate the
statement that he must be treated as divine; The Tejobindu Upanishad
says: “The furthest limit of all thoughts is the guru.” They maintain that were
one to think of the glorious qualities of the Divine Being, one’s imagination
would still fall below the perfections of the Master. We who know the Masters
well realize the truth of that; their pupils find in them heights of
consciousness splendid and glorious beyond all expectation. It is not that they
consider the Master equal to God; but that that portion of the Divine which the
Master has attained outshines their previous conceptions of it.
334.
EFFECT OF MEDITATION IN THE HEART
335.
The Shiva Samhita
thus describes the benefits which are said to accrue to the
yogi from meditation upon the heart centre:
336.
He gets immeasurable knowledge, knows the past, present and future; has
clairaudience, clairvoyance and can walk in the air, whenever he likes.
337.
He sees the adepts, and the goddesses known as Yoginis; obtains the power
known as Khechari, and conquers the creatures which move in the air.
338.
He who contemplates daily on the hidden Banalinga undoubtedly
obtains the psychic powers called Khechari (moving in the
air) and Bhuchari (going at will all over the world).
339.
It is not necessary to comment upon these poetic descriptions of the
various powers; the student will read between the lines. Still, there may also
be something in the literal meaning of such statements as these; for there are
many wonders in India - the mysterious powers of the fire-walkers, and the
perfectly marvellous hypnotic ability shown by some conjurers who perform the
famous rope trick and similar feats.
340.
KUNDALINI
341.
The Hindu Yogis, for whom the books which have come down to us were
written, were not particularly interested in the physiological and anatomical
features of the body, but were engaged in practising meditation and arousing
kundalini for the purpose of elevating their consciousness or rising to higher
planes. This may be the reason why in the Sanskrit works little or nothing is
said about the surface chakras, but much about the centres in the spine and the
transit of kundalini through these.
342.
Kundalini is described as a devi or goddess luminous as lightning, who
lies asleep in the root chakra, coiled like a serpent three and a half times
round the svayambhu linga which is there, and closing the entrance to the
sushumna with her head. Nothing is said as to the outer layer of the force being
active in all persons, but this fact is indicated in the statement that even as
she sleeps she “maintains all breathing creatures”.
And she is spoken of as the Shabda Brahman in human bodies. Shabda
means word or sound; we have here, therefore, a reference to the Third Aspect of
the Logos. In the process of creation of the world this sound is said to have
issued in four stages; probably we should not be far wrong in associating these
with our Western conceptions of the three states of body, soul and spirit, and a
fourth which is union with the Divine or All-spirit.
343.
THE AWAKENING OF KUNDALINI
344.
The object of the yogis is to arouse the sleeping part of the kundalini,
and then cause her to rise gradually up the sushumna canal. Various methods are
prescribed for this purpose, including the use of the will, peculiar modes of
breathing, mantras, and various postures and movements. The Shiva Samhita
describes ten mudras which it declares to be the best for this purpose,
most of which involve all these efforts at the same time. In writing of the
effect of one of these methods, Avalon describes the awakening of the inner
layers of kundalini as follows:
345.
The heat in the body then becomes very powerful, and kundalini, feeling
it, awakens from her sleep, just as a serpent struck by a stick hisses and
straightens itself. Then it enters the Sushumna.
346.
It is said that in some cases kundalini has been awakened not only by the
will, but also by an accident - by a blow or by physical pressure. I heard an
example of the kind in Canada. A lady, who knew nothing at all of these matters,
fell down the cellar steps in her house. She lay for some time unconscious, and
when she awoke she found herself clairvoyant, able to read the thoughts passing
in other people’s minds, and to see what was going on in every room in the
house; and this clairvoyance has remained a permanent possession. One assumes
that in this case in falling the lady must have received a blow at the base of
the spine exactly in such a position and of such a nature as to shock the
kundalini into partial activity; or of course it may have been some other centre
that was thus artificially stimulated.
347.
Sometimes the books recommend meditation
upon the chakras without the prior awakening of kundalini. This appears to be
the case in the following verses from The Garuda Purana:
348.
Muladhara, Svadhishthana, Manipuraka, Anahatam, Vishuddhi and also Ajna
are spoken of as the six chakras.
349.
One should meditate, in order, in the chakras, on Ganesha, on Vidhi
(Brahma), on Vishnu, on Shiva, on Jiva, on Guru, and on Parabrahman,
all-pervading.
350.
Having worshipped mentally in all the chakras, with unwavering mind, he
should repeat the Ajapa-gayatri according to the instructions of the Teacher.
351.
He should meditate in the Randhra, with the thousand-petalled lotus
inverted, upon the blessed Teacher within the Hamsa, whose lotus-hand frees from
fear.
352.
He should regard his body as being washed in the flow of nectar from His
feet. Having worshipped in the fivefold way he should prostrate, signing His
praise.
353.
Then he should meditate on the kundalini as moving upwards and
downwards, as making a tour of the six chakras, placed in three and a half
coils.
354.
Then he should meditate on the place called sushumna, which goes out of
the Randhra; thereby he goes to the highest state of Vishnu.
355.
THE ASCENT OF KUNDALINI
356.
The books hint at, rather than explain, what happens when kundalini rises
up the channel through the sushumna. They refer to the spine as Merudanda, the
rod of Meru, “the central axis of creation”, presumably of the body. In that,
they say, there is the channel called sushumna, within that another, called
Vajrini, and within that again a third called Chitrini, which is “as fine as a
spider’s thread”. Upon that are threaded the chakras, “like knots on a bamboo
rod”.
357.
Kundalini rises up Chitrini little by little as the yogi uses his will in
meditation. In one effort she may not go very far, but in the next she will go a
little farther, and so on. When she comes to one of the chakras or lotuses she
pierces it, and the flower, which was turned downwards, now turns upwards. When
the meditation is over, the candidate leads Kundalini back again by the same
path into the Muladhara; but in some cases she is brought back only as far as
the heart chakra, and there she enters what is called her chamber.
Several of the books say that kundalini resides in the navel chakra; we have
never seen it there in ordinary people, but this statement may refer to those
who have roused it before, and so have a sort of deposit of the serpent-fire in
the centre.
358.
It is explained that as kundalini enters and leaves each chakra in the
course of her ascent in the abovementioned variety of meditations she withdraws
into latency (hence the term laya) the psychological functions of that
centre. In each chakra which she enters there is a great enhancement of life,
but as her object is to reach the highest she proceeds upwards, until she
reaches the topmost centre, the Sahasrara lotus. Here, as the symbology has it,
she enjoys the bliss of union with her lord, Paramashiva; and as she returns on
her path she gives back to each chakra its specific faculties, but much
enhanced.
359.
All this describes a process of partial trance into which one who
meditates deeply necessarily passes, for in concentrating all our attention upon
some lofty subject we cease for the time being to pay heed to the various sounds
and sights which surround and play upon us. Avalon mentions that it generally
takes years from the commencement of the practice to lead the kundalini into the
Sahasrara, though in exceptional cases it can be done in a short time. With
practice comes facility, so that an expert, it is said, can raise and lower the
Shakti within an hour, though he is of course perfectly at liberty to stay as
long as he will in the crown centre.
360.
Some writers say that as kundalini rises in the body, the portion beyond
which she goes grows cold. No doubt this is the case in those special practices
in which a yogi goes into trance for a long period, but not in the usual
employment of this power. In The Secret Doctrine Madame Blavatsky cites
the case of a yogi, who was found on an island near Calcutta, round whose limbs
the roots of trees had grown. She adds that he was cut out, and in the endeavour
to awaken him so many outrages were inflicted on his body that he died. She
mentions also a yogi near Allahabad who - for purposes no doubt well understood
by himself - remained sitting upon a stone for fifty-three years. His chelas or
disciples washed him in the river every night and then lifted him back, and
during the day his consciousness sometimes returned to the physical world, and
he would then talk and teach.
361.
THE GOAL OF KUNDALINI
362.
The concluding verses of the Shatchakra Nirupana beautifully
describe the conclusion of the tour of kundalini, as follows:
363.
The Devi who is Shuddha-sattva pierces the three Lingas, and, having
reached all the lotuses which are known as the Brahmanadi lotuses, shines there
in the fullness of her lustre. Thereafter, in her subtle state, lustrous like
lightning and fine like the lotus fibre. She goes to the gleaming flame-like
Shiva, the supreme Bliss, and of a sudden produces the bliss of Liberation.
364.
The beautiful Kundali drinks the excellent red nectar issuing from Para
Shiva, and returns from there, where shines Eternal and Transcendent Bliss in
all its glory, along the path of Kula, and enters the Muladhara. The yogi who
has gained steadiness of mind makes offering (Tarpana) to the Ishta-devata and
the Devatas in the six chakras, Dakini and others, with that stream of celestial
nectar which is in the vessel of Brahmanda, the knowledge whereof he has gained
through the tradition of the Gurus.
365.
If the yogi who is devoted to the Lotus Feet of his Guru, with heart
unperturbed and concentrated mind, reads this work, which is the supreme source
of the knowledge of Liberation and is faultless, pure and most secret, then of a
surety his mind dances at the Feet of his Ishta-devata.
366.
CONCLUSION
367.
Like ourselves, the Hindus hold that the results of Laya Yoga can be
attained by the methods of all the systems of yoga. In the seven schools of
India, and among the students in the West, all who understand aright are aiming
at the highest goal of human endeavour, at that liberty which is higher than
liberation, because it includes not only union with God in high realms, beyond
earthly manifestation, but also those powers on each plane which make the man an
Adhikari Purusha, an office-bearer or worker in the service of the Divine; in
the work of lifting the toiling millions of humanity towards the glory and
happiness which awaits us all.
OM, AIM,
KLIM, STRIM
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