Inside all of us lies a beautiful system of energy channels and centres, that have been known for thousands of years.
In Sanskrit the energy centres are called “chakras”, meaning “wheels” as their activity is described as a clockwise spinning motion.
Our chakras
First - Mooladhara
Our root chakra sustains the entire building of the inner subtle system. It is the ultimate guardian of its health and balance. It also sustains the ascent of our Kundalini in the process of Self Realization.
Second - Swadisthana
It is the chakra of pure knowledge (on the left side) and creativity (on the right side). It revolves around Nabhi Chakra and helps cleanse the Void area. It also keeps the health of many of our abdominal organs.
Third - Nabhi
Our Nabhi handles the rest of our abdominal organs and creates a pure energy storage in our body. At a subtler level it gives us the power to deal with the day to day life in a virtuous and satisfied way.
Fifth - Vishuddhi
A most complex chakra where all the aspects of our communications are governed from. It is also where we find the power of pure relationships (left) and of pure diplomacy (right). It gives us the power to witness the play of life and looks after most of our head and neck.
Void
A special area where our attention can get lost with either left or right sided attachments. This is where we manifest our mastery of ourselves by keeping always in balance, in the centre. It is closely connected to the Nabhi and Swadisthana and influences the health of our abdominal organs.
Fourth - Heart
This is called as “anahata” in Sanskrit and is the seat of the Self / Spirit on the left. In the centre it gives us self-belief as well as confidence in the Divine Power. On the right it gives us the power of ideal fulfillment of our roles in life and society. It controls the organs in our chest.
Seventh -Sahastrara
The crown chakra is the integrated centre of command of our subtle system. It is the multicoloured lotus spoken by many realized souls and seers. It gives us the transcending, thoughtless awareness and the bliss of true meditation. It controls our mental, physical and psychological processes through the projection areas of the chakras in the brain.
Sixth -Agnya
This is where our awareness gets stuck into thoughts coming from either the past (our left side) or aiming at the future (our right side). We can go beyond them with the weapon of forgiveness and practicing detachment. This is usually the narrowest point the Kundalini has to pass through in her upwards path. This chakra also governs many of our eyes and brain functions.
OUR ENERGY CHANNELS
LEFT CHANNEL
The left channel, known in Sanskrit as Ida (lunar) Nadi (channel) and in the Chinese texts as the Yin channel, houses the energy of our desire and emotion and is naturally past-oriented. It manifests in our body through our left sympathetic chain. The residues of its activity build the balloon on the left side of our Agnya chakra (which is on the right side of the brain due to the crossing of the channels) where we store our conditionings.
When all is well with it, we have positive emotions and concern for everyone without being too attached to anyone. We desire things that have aesthetic and spiritual value and we like to share them with others. Above all we experience a quiet sense of joy as a constant undercurrent of our life.
When there is imbalance and impurity in our left channel we can experience troubles with low mood / depression, anxiety, different kind of dependencies and bad habits, psychological and psychosomatic conditions, some infections, etc. Those can be very much helped and many times completely overcome with the awareness of Self Realization and different techniques of clearing and strengthening the left side.
RIGHT CHANNEL
The right channel, known in Sanskrit as Pingala (solar) Nadi and in the Chinese texts as Yang, houses the energy of our mental and physical activity and is naturally future-oriented. It manifests in our body through our right sympathetic chain. The residues of its activity fill the balloon on the right side of our Agnya chakra (which is on the left side of the brain due to the channel crossing) - our ego. .
When in a clear and balanced state it helps us act for the good of everyone, with pure creativity and a clean focused attention. We can thus fulfil our roles in this world efficiently but sweetly without becoming angry and/or trying to dominate others. This avoids us building too much ego.
Imbalances manifest as different kinds of physical trouble with liver, kidneys, lungs, conditions like adult diabetes, Alzheimers, hypertension, stroke and myocardial infarction, etc. It also makes us hot tempered and harsh and eventually this spoils all our relationships. The attention can become either weak or unstable. All of this can be prevented or improved with balancing and cooling the right side through meditation and specific techniques.
CENTRAL CHANNEL
The central channel is called Shushumna Nadi in Sanskrit and houses the energy of our evolution. It is more or less a virtual space before our Kundalini rises through it. It manifests through our parasympathetic system with its healing and balancing effects on all our organ functions. At a higher level it gives us a spiritual disposition and a combination of witness power, forgiveness and compassion that automatically brings the best in ourselves and others.
