Ajna Chakra
Swami Nityabodhananda
Swami Nityabodhananda Saraswati
disciple os Swami Satyananda Saraswati
The
Bihar School of Yoga, 1973.
INTRODUCTION
I CAN REMEMBER an old man from
Austria who lost his father during early childhood. He
attended the funeral ceremony which was a most solemn
occasion, and he was so pained by the sadness of the
occasion that he never visited his father's grave again. The
old man had fought in the Austrian army in the first world
war and stayed in his mother country until Hitler's army
forced him out in 1939 when he Went to England. He fought
with the British army and at the end of the second world war
migrated to Australia where he finally settled down to
become firmly established in that country. In 1965, 60 years
after the death of his father, he made the pilgrimage back
to his motherland. The pangs of his conscience were strongly
telling him to visit his father's grave so that he could pay
his respects to the memory of his dead father.
After some enquiries with relatives
he found the cemetery, but alas, the records were incomplete
and no trace of the whereabouts of his father's grave could
be found in the files. His country had been ravaged by two
world wars and little indeed was left from the pre-first
world war era. So he set out with strong determination to
systematically examine each gravestone of the huge cemetery.
He started his quest in the morning and by late afternoon,
in spite of his persistent efforts, he had had no success.
Dejected, fatigued and exhausted he sat down, and his body
fell so that it was supported by his arms with his hands
covering his face.
In a flash he was not an old man
anymore but a young boy walking behind his father's coffin.
He could see his brothers, the inscription on the coffin,
the coffin bearers and all the other mourners which made up
the procession. This young boy followed in the procession
until it came to a hole in the ground. Then, as if coming
out of a dream, he returned to waking consciousness and
there he was, looking down at the gravestone which bore th
inscription of his father. We can understand that this
experienc had exploded from the unconscious mind, but the
eye which ha witnessed the experience and coordinated all
the movements the physical body was his third eye or ajna
chakra (agya cakra).
This is a book about ajna chakra,
the chakra of Tapa Loka. By doing tapas, by dint of
austerity and hard work this chakra can be awakened so that
new planes and dimer sions of consciousness are opened up.
The ajna chakra is spiritually, psychically and practically
the most important chakra because of its overall effects on
the psychic personality of man.
When you hold your hands over your
eyes or simply cbs your eyes and become aware of the area
around the eyebrow centre, you see sparks of light, like the
twinkling of stars; maybe large pulsating white light or a
circle of coloured light. In sleep yo can see your dreams;
in meditation your visions. Sometimes, th most wonderful
poetry seems to pour through the mind or, when you are
working and working on a problem until completely fatigued,
you resign; then in a flash, with the power of the sun, th
solution strikes you. All these phenomena involve the
function of subtle states of mind beyond the level of
everyday waking consciousness. The link between conscious
man and these types of phenomena is through the ajna
chakra.
Man is more than just nerves, flesh,
muscles, bones an blood. Throughout the body there are
subtle centres and nadi, psychic nerves, which are described
as having variou colours, as seen by clairvoyants. There are
72,000 nadis in th body, of which 14 are principal nadis.
Out of these the three mos important are named ida, pingala
and sushunim. All psychic systems have their physical
aspects in th body. The ida nadi functions through the
sympathetic nervou system. The pingala nadi functions
through the parasympathetic nervous system. These three
important nadis are linked with the breath in the
nostrils.
When the left nostril is flowing
freely, ida is functioning. h this state the man is ready
for mental and imaginary work. This is: the moon or female
aspect in man. When the right nostril is flowin1 pingala is
functioning; the man is full of physical vitality and he is
ready for action and physical work. This is the sun or male
aspec in man. Ida has a cooling effect, whereas pingala has
a heating effect.
These three nadis run from the
perenium at the base of the spine to the medulla oblongatta.
Sushumna goes directly up through the centre of the spinal
cord. Ida and pingala interweave crossing from opposite
directions up to the top of the spinal column.
At the points where ida and pingala
cross are the psychic centres, called chakras. In the
perenium is muladhar; at the base of the spine is swadhistan
(swadh~sthAn); behind the navel is manipur; in the area of
the heart is anahat; in the neck is vishuddhi; and a little
above it is ajna. At the back of the top of the head is
bindu chakra, and in the crown of the head is sahasrar. Each
of these chakras have their physical aspects in the glands
and plexuses.
The physical aspects of ama chakra
are the pharyngeal plexus and the pineal gland. Ajna means
command. It is variously named trikuti, jnana netra,
brumadhya, triveni, mukta triveni, siva netra, bramiriha. It
is through this centre that the guru may be communicated
with, and is hence often called the guru chakra.
Similarly, "extra sensory
perception" phenomena are also perceived through the guru
chakra.
It is during deep meditation on this
chakra that it can be actually perceived in a form which
various yogis have described similarly. During the practice
of kundalini yoga, the awakening of man's latent psychic
energy occurs and the full glory of the colours, forms,
structures, and functions of the chakras is
experienced.
Introduction
| Chapter
1 |
Chapter
2 |
Chapter
3 |
Chapter
4 | Chapter 5 |
Appendix
|
