Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

41

The Kundalini

The Cosmologist was also a Cosmographer.

Not only did Sri Aurobindo say that there were no gaps between the planes but he also explained that each plane is "in communication with various worlds that belong to it."

He gave a graphic description of how the being is organized. "There are in fact two systems simultaneously active in the organisation of the being and its parts: one is concentric, a series of rings or sheaths with the psychic¹ at the centre; another is vertical, an ascension and descent, like a flight of steps, a series of superimposed planes with the supermind over mind as the crucial nodus of the transition beyond the human into the Divine."

These heavenly worlds are above the body. Below the body are the subconscient worlds. Pātāla, a place without light of consciousness is universal, therefore without bounds or end. It is "the dark unconscious infinite out of which this material universe has arisen—it is walled with darkness on all sides, it

' "The psychic heing is the soul evolving in course of birth and rebirth." In other words, "The psychic is the support of the individual evolution; it is connected with the universal both by direct contact and through the mind, vital and body."

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seems also to have no bottom." In the Veda it is symbolized by the cave of the Panis, Sri Aurobindo clarified.

You do remember, don't you, how Mother could go from sheath¹ to sheath till she arrived at the threshold of the Formless? She had learned to do that from the Théons in Algeria.

The sheath next to the body is called the subtle physical sheath. Is that what the Theosophists call the 'aura' ? It is a sort of consciousness surrounding the body, but individual, through which we are in contact with the cosmic forces and with other beings. In spite of the closeness to the physical and resembling it somewhat, there are marked differences between the two. "For instance," Sri Aurobindo spelled out, "the subtle physical has a freedom, plasticity, intensity, power, colour, wide and manifold play (there are thousands of things there that are not here) of which, as yet, we have no possibility on earth." But earth has other qualities.

Although the knowledge contained in the Vedas and Upanishads faded with time—especially because we almost forgot the language used and the real meaning of the words—later on other Indian Yoga systems continued their inner explorations. The Tantra in particular made a thorough study of the subtle body. It also defined the worlds from which we get our emotions and feelings and sensations: our higher and lower moral qualities (vritti)—courage, selflessness, generosity, hope endeavour, and so on, or anger, cruelty, arrogance, jealousy, fear, greed, etc.—come to us from different planes. Tanta's emphasis is on

¹ "Sheaths is a term for bodies, because each is superimposed on the other and acts as a covering and can be cast off. Thus the physical body itself is called the food sheath and its throwing off is what is called death."

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Shakti. Its Kundalini Yoga deals with the latent power asleep in the chakras and the processes of awakening it. Naturally, when we speak of the chakras it is only in reference to Yoga.

Kundalini, or the Serpent Fire, is the Shakti lying coiled three and a half times round the Linga of the Muladhara. She is then at rest or asleep. Muladhara, at the base of the spine, is the physical centre. In our subtle body we have centres of consciousness which are normally quiescent. Through certain yogic processes formulated in the Tantra, the sleeping Kundalini¹ can be awakened. Then she rises up and carries the consciousness upward, opening and purifying all the chakras up to the Brahmarandhra.'² There she meets the Brahman. Then she descends. Her upward movement from centre to centre is spiraline or serpentine.

"Do you know," Mother asked Satprem (4 Feb. 1961), "that the serpent is the evolutionary power? It is Shiva's creature. He always puts snakes on his head and around his neck, because it is the power of evolution, of transformation."

The chakras are the centres of inner consciousness located in the middle of the subtle body and are attached to the spinal cord. The chakras are normally knotted, it is the awakened Kundalini that unknots each of them as she rises from centre to centre. Kundalini ascends through the spinal column. A chakra is also called lotus (padma). "But as the subtle body penetrates and is interfused with the gross body, there is a certain

¹The Serpent Power, by Sir John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), deals exhaustively with the Kundalini Yoga of Tantra. Here is a genuine friend of India, with his profound understanding of Indian culture.

²Brahmarandhra, the crown of head. Literally, the hole of Brahma!

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correspondence between these chakras and certain centres in the physical proper." Normally quiescent, as we said, when the chakras are active we have the feeling that it is happening in our own body. I remember once during a meditation I felt as though my head were knocking at the ceiling quite some five metres above my head! It was only later that I learned it was the Kundalini. Others feel the action of the Force in different ways.

In the Tantra each lotus or chakra is depicted in a particular colour. The number of petals of each one is fixed. On each petal a letter from the Sanskrit alphabet is inscribed, that too in a certain colour. The description of a lotus includes its bija or seed-mantra mounted on an animal; also the presiding deity of the chakra, more often than not seated on his mount. Each lotus has its Shakti. The chakras¹ are sort of doors opening a communication to a certain type of world.

"I think the Tan tries acknowledge seven chakras," Mother said to Satprem (11 Oct. 1960). "Theon however used to say that he knew more, notably two below the body and three above. That's my experience too; I know twelve."

The seven Mother referred to are the main chakras. In Sri Aurobindo's Yoga each has a fixed psychological use and

¹ In the Tantra tradition, apart from its other attributes, a chakra is said to represent a certain substance, dhātu.

Muladhara: bone (asthi-dfiātu)

Swādhishthāna: fat (rneda-dhātu)

Manipura: flesh (mamsa-dhātu)

Anāhata: blood (rakta-dhātu)

Vishuddha: skin (tvak-dhātu)

Apiā: marrow (rnajjā-dliātu)

Sahasrāra: contains all the dhatus, beginning with semen.

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general function, not necessarily reproducing details laid down in the Tantric books. Some slight variations there are in the description of the lotuses, but they are so minor as to make not much of a difference. Here I have based myself on Sri Aurobindo's texts.

Starting from the bottom as we go upward are:

1.MULĀDHĀRA: located at the base of the spine. The lotus is red and has four petals. It is the Earth-centre in the body. "This centre commands the physical consciousness and the subconscient t." It is the main and immobile support of all bodily operations, "of the material parts of nature."

2.SWĀDHISHTHĀNA: located below the navel. The lotus is deep purple-red and has six petals. This lower abdomen centre's element is Water-water-centre in the body. This centre commands "the small vital movements, the little greeds, lusts, desires, the small sense-movements," in other words, the lower vital world.

3.MANIPURA (or NĀBHIPADMA): the navel lotus, violet and with ten petals. Its element is Fire. It governs what Sri Aurobindo terms as the larger vital , in other words, "the larger life forces and the passions and larger desire-movements."

4.ANAHATA (or HRITPADMA): located in the heart. The lotus is golden pink and has twelve petals. The element here is Air. It is the seat of two powers, "commanding the higher emotional being with the psychic deep behind it." Elsewhere he elaborated: "The heart spoken of by the Upanishads corresponds with the physical cardiac centre; it is the hrtpadma of the Tantras. As a subtle centre, cakra, it is supposed to have its apex on the spine and broaden out in front."

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Yogically, stomach, heart and intestine lodge the vital movements: "It is there that anger, fear, love, hate and all other psychological privileges of the animal tumble about and upset physical and moral digestion."

5.VlSHUDDHA: the throat centre. The lotus is grey and has sixteen petals. Its element is Ether. This centre of speech commands "expression and all externalisation of the mind movements and mental forces."

6.ĀJNĀCHAKRA :located on the forehead between but a little above the eyebrows. The lotus is white and has two petals. It "governs the dynamic mind, will, vision, mental formation." In a word all mental faculties . When the third eye opens, it is here; then we get the occult vision.

All these six lotuses are upward turned. So Mother was quite surprised one day. It was August 1966. After the interview, having done his pranam, Satprem left the room. The exit door was to the right of Mother seated in her chair, and a little behind. Her eyes followed Satprem till he went out. For a long time she remained pensive. Finally, Mother said to me, "Strange, very strange. I have never seen a lotus bud turned downwards." To my look of incomprehension Mother elucidated, "The heart lotus is always turned upwards; it's the aspiration. But here, in him, it is turned downwards, towards the earth."

The seventh Chakra is above the head, in the apparent void. It is the thousand-petalled lotus; it is the residence of Bhagavati, the Mother of all the three worlds.

7.SAHASRĀRA1: This full-bloomed lotus is "blue with gold

¹ The Serpent Power- says that this lotus "has its head turned downward."

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light around." This centre, said Sri Aurobindo, commands "the higher thinking mind and the illumined mind" and opens "upwards to the intuition and over mind." He clarified that some identify it "with the brain, but that is an error—the brain is only a channel of communication situated between the thousand-petalled and the forehead centre."

Those then are the seven main chakras. Tantra however recognizes several other sub-chakras. Such as, LALANĀ at the base of the tongue, just above Vishuddha; or SOMA chakra located above Ajiia. But more important, and better known are the seven sub-Muladhara chakras. They are, in descending order, ATAlA, VITAlA, SUTAlA, TALATAlA, RASATAlA, MAHATAlA, and PATAlA. They are different regions of the underworld leading to hell.

It will be remiss of me if I don't speak of NĀDIS, nerves. "The physical nerves" to quote Sri Aurobindo, "are part of the material body but they are extended into the subtle body and there is a connection between the two."

We, of course, have thousands of nerves (72,000 says Tantra). But in the Kundalini yoga three play a decisive role. SUSHUMNA, fiery red, is inside the spinal column. On both sides of the spine are the feminine IDA, pale, likened to the moon, and the male PINCAlA, red, likened to the Sun. They alternate from right to left and left to right as they go round the chakras. Reaching the Ajiia chakra they proceed to the nostrils. Inside Sushumna is a subtler nerve Vajrini, and within it is the subtlest one, Chitrini. As she travels from lotus to lotus. the awakened Kundalini takes the channel of Chitrini. It is not without interest to note that both Ida and Pingala denote Time, while Sushumna devours time.

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Such is the ascent of the Kundalini Shakti. Sri Aurobindo sums it all up in a few lines. "There is a force which accompanies the growth of the new consciousness and at once grows with it and helps it to come about and to perfect itself. This force is the Yoga-Shakti. It is here coiled up and asleep in all the centres of our inner being (chakras) and is at the base what is called in the Tantras the Kundalini Shakti. But it is also above us, above our head, as the Divine Force—not there coiled up, involved, asleep, but awake, scient, potent, extended and wide; it is there waiting for manifestation and to this force we have to open ourselves—to the power of the Mother."

In the Tantra the emphasis is on the ascent of the Kundalini. In Sri Aurobindo's Yoga the descent plays a crucial role. He conceived it as the 'Seven Suns of the Supermind.'' "The sun in the yoga is the symbol of the supermind and the supermind is the first power of the Supreme which one meets across the border where the experience of the spiritualised mind ceases...."

Let us note that there is no separate centre for the Supra-mental as it is not organized in the body.

The Seven Suns of the Supermind :

1.The Sun of Supramental Truth,—Knowledge-Power originating the supramental creation.

Descent into the Sahasradala (the full bloomed thousand petaled lotus above the head).

2.The Sun of Supramental Light and Will-Power, transmitting the Knowledge-Power as dynamic vision and command to create, found and organise the supramental creation. Descent into the Ajna Chakra, the centre between the eyes.

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3.The Sun of Supramental Word, embodying the Knowledge-Power, empowered to express and arrange the supra-mental creation.

Descent into the Throat Centre.

4.The Sun of Supramental Love, Beauty, and Bliss, releasing the Soul of the Knowledge-Power to vivify and harmonize the supramental creation.

Descent into the Heart-Lotus.

5.The Sun of Supramental Force dynamited as a power and source of life to support the supramental creation. Descent into the Navel Centre.

6.The Sun of Life-Radiances (Power-Rays) distributing the dynamis and pouring it into concrete formations. Descent into the Penultimate Centre (Swadhishthana, below the navel).

7.The Sun of Supramental Substance-Energy and Form-Energy empowered to embody the supramental life and stabilise the creation.

Descent into the Muladhara.

My father was initiated to the traditional yoga before I was born. Apart from hearing subtle sounds—as of bells and conches, etc.—and seeing lights and forms, he became familiar with the Kundalini. He frequently experienced his backbone becoming full of light as she ascended, and a white light rising straight well beyond his head and becoming stationary in the sky.

Personally, I never practised any traditional Yoga system, let alone Tantra. I only followed Sri Aurobindo and Mother. So what happened?

"In our yoga" said Sri Aurobindo, "there is no willed

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opening of the chakras, they open of themselves by the descent of the Force. In the Tantric discipline they open from down upwards, the Muladhara first; in our yoga, they open from up downward. But the ascent of the force from the Muladhara does take place."

For the pleasure of the readers let me quote a few lines from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri describing the ascent and the descent of Kundalini.

Out of the Inconscient's soulless mindless night

A flaming Serpent rose released from sleep.

It rose billowing its coils and stood erect

And climbing mightily, stormily on its way

It touched her centres with its flaming mouth ;

As if a fiery kiss had broken their sleep,

They bloomed and laughed surcharged with light and bliss.

Then at the crown it joined the Eternal's space.

In the flower of the head, in the flower of Matter's base,

In each divine stronghold and Nature-knot

It held together the mystic stream which joins

The viewless summits with the unseen depths,

The string of forts that make the frail defence

Safeguarding us against the enormous world,

Our lines of self-expression in its Vast.

An image sat of the original Power

Wearing the mighty Mother's form and face.

Armed, bearer of the weapon and the sign

Whose occult might no magic can imitate,

Manifold yet one she sat, a guardian force :

A saviour gesture stretched her lifted arm,

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And symbol of some native cosmic strength,

A sacred beast lay prone below her feet,

A silent flame-eyed mass of living force.

............

In the country of the lotus of the head

Which thinking mind has made its busy space,

In the castle of the lotus twixt the brows

Whence it shoots the arrows of its sight and will,

In the passage of the lotus of the throat

Where speech must rise and the expressing mind

And the heart's impulse run towards word and fact,

A glad uplift and a new working came.

............

In the kingdom of the lotus of the heart

Love chanting its pure hymeneal hymn

Made life and body mirrors of sacred joy

And all the emotions gave themselves to God.

In the navel lotus' broad imperial range

Its proud ambitions and its master lusts

Were tamed into instruments of a great calm sway

To do a work of God on earthly soil.

In the narrow nether center's petty parts

Its childish game of daily dwarf desires

Was changed into a sweet and boisterous play,

A romp of little gods with life in Time.

In the deep place where once the Serpent slept,

There came a grip on Matter's giant powers

For large utilities in life's little space ;

A firm ground was made for Heaven's descending might.

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