Ajna Chakra
Swami Nityabodhananda
Swami Nityabodhananda Saraswati
disciple os Swami Satyananda Saraswati
The
Bihar School of Yoga, 1973.
also see: The
Anatomy of the Third Eye
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.
See Laughing Man Magazine
article on Cakras
Awakening
to the Self
More on
Introduction/chapter
1 |
Chapter
2 |
Chapter
3 |
Chapter
4 |
Chapter
5
The Anatomy of the Third
Eye
Adi Da Samraj - The Enlightenment of
the Whole Body
In the fifth stage of life, the
sensorium, or the brain core, wherein the senses and all
mind forms originate and are controlled, is inspected and
transcended. The traditional descriptions and conceptions of
the ascent to the brain core tend not only to be
metaphorically religious and cosmological, but they tend
also to be related to the primary organ or function of
sight. Thus, the mysticism of the fifth stage of life is
most often communicated in terms of vision, visions, lights,
and the Ultimate Light above all lights. Likewise, the
position of contemplation in this stage is most commonly
referred to as the "third eye," or the pineal gland.
However, all of this represents a simplistic and exclusive
or cultic point of view.
Truly, the higher phase of mystical
ascent, or the fifth stage of life, is a matter of
concentration of attention in the brain, or the roots of all
the sensory and mental functions of the body-mind. Thus, the
mechanisms of the brain core, including the cerebellum, the
fourth ventricle, the cerebral aqueduct (which is the
"narrow gate" of religion and the "brahmarandhra" or "hole
of Brahman" of yogis), the brain stem (beginning at the
medulla), the corpus quadrigemina, and the diencephalon
(including the pituitary body, the hypothalamus, the
thalamus, and the pineal body, as well as the third
ventricle), are all part of the field of ascended mystical
experience in the fifth stage of life.
Certain parts of the brain core are
indeed associated with the internal mechanism of vision.
Thus, an important aspect of practice in the fifth stage is
inspection of the various levels of the phenomena of vision
in the brain core. These areas of inspection of internal
vision are especially associated with the mechanisms of the
optic chiasma, the pineal body, and the visual cortex at the
upper rear of the brain.
However, other dimensions of
mystical ascent are equally as important as those of vision.
Indeed, in the literature of mysticism, the second most
prominent mystical phenomenon is that of internal sound or
audition. The "Word" is in the same primal position as the
"Light." Thus, another important aspect of practice in the
fifth stage is inspection of the various levels of audition
in the brain core. The primary areas of inspection of
internal audition are in an ascending line, beginning at the
medulla (or the "Mouth of God"), and extending into the
auditory area of the brain, in the temporal lobe.
Although the internal senses of
vision and audition are the primary mystical functions, the
mysticism of the fifth stage of life also includes
inspection of the internal mechanisms of the senses of taste
and smell and touch. Thus, mystical ascent is associated
with a total heavenly or supersensual experience, even of a
dreamlike or psychedelic variety. But in the Way of Divine
Ignorance the significance of practice in the fifth stage of
life is not supersensual experience itself or belief in an
ascended cosmology wherein the soul journeys to God. Rather,
practice in this Way is engaged for the sake of direct
inspection of mystical phenomena, re-cognition of them as
merely conditions of one's own body-mind, and thus the
transcendence of mysticism itself.
The mystical tour of our esoteric
anatomy may be summarized as contemplation of the
Life-Current via the roots of the senses and the brain-mind
in the brain core. The route of that tour of inspection
begins at the junction of the medulla, the cerebellum, and
the fourth ventricle of the brain-even though concentration
is simply directed into the basic brain core, immediately
above and between the eyes and ears. The progress of
inspection is upwards from the medulla, the pons, and the
midbrain, in association with the cerebral aqueduct. From
thence the circuit may appear to go up and then down and up
again, as the course moves forward to the region of the
pituitary body, then up and back to the thalamus (which is
divided into two parts). Then the course may appear to go
further back and somewhat down toward the pineal body,
before continuing up and back to the visual
cortex.
The entire brain core, and not
merely the pineal body, is the true ajna chakra, the
mystical third eye, or the "seat of the soul" (as presumed
by the ancients). And by surrendering into the Life-Current
via the roots of the senses in the brain core we may
tran-scend all limiting associations with the phenomena of
body and mind, and so regain our intuitive identification
with the Radiant Life-Current or Transcendental
Consciousness Itself. However, this Ultimate Event may not
be Realized through upward concentration of attention in the
brain core. First there must be the dissolution of attention
in the Transcendental Consciousness, via penetration of the
bodily root of self-consciousness in the region of the
heart. Such is the Realization in the sixth stage of life.
Then the Transcendental Consciousness resumes its Identity
with the Radiant Life-Current, prior to all confusion by the
phenomena of psycho-physical experience. The mind, or
attention, is Translated into the Transcendental
Consciousness, and the body is Translated into the Radiant
Current of Life. Such is the Realization in the seventh
stage of life.
When the Transcendental
Consciousness and the Radiant Life-Current are Realized to
be One and Free, the anatomical corre-spondences to that
Realization are found in the heart and the upper brain. The
anatomical reference of the Intuition of the Tran-scendental
Consciousness is in the region of the heart, on the right
side. And the anatomical reference of the Realization of the
Radi-ant Life-Current, prior to the body-mind, is the crown
of the brain, or the upper region of the corpus callosum,
the upper ex-tremities of the lateral ventricles, and the
corona radiata (the true sahasrar or, metaphorically, the
Highest Heaven of God).
Between the heart on the right and
the corona radiata above, the Current of Life is felt to
stand like a pillar (or a "lingam"). Its Circuit appears
like an S-curve, moving up and forward from the right side
of the heart, including the total heart in the process, and
then passing back and up through the base of the throat to
the fourth ventricle, then up into the brain core and the
third ventricle, and thence to the lateral ventricles and
the corona radiata, or the Infinite Radiance of
Bliss.
The Current of Life between the
heart and the crown is Full of Transcendental Radiance, or
Infinite Love. And by its Power the whole body becomes
Radiant. In the seventh stage of life, or the Way of Radical
Intuition, the Process is one of tacit surrender of the
body-mind into the Living Radiance of the Transcendental
Consciousness. Thus, even the body becomes a Sacrifice in
that Bright Bliss. The body is at last given up in the
joyful Freedom of Transcendental Love.
The Enlightenment of the Whole Body
- Adi Da Samraj
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