Chakras and the nerve plexii
Chakras are intimately involved with the spine. The late Dr Swami Gitananda said at a talk he gave over 40 years ago, that he had dissected cadavers and found that at each plexus on the spine, when they were cut horizontally, or across, the nerves looked like the petals of the corresponding chakra.
A plexus is a branching network of intersecting nerves. Each chakra relates to one of these plexus networks. The spinal plexus carry sensory and motor (movement) information. They are:
- sacral (base, mooladhara)
- lumbar (2nd chakra, swadhisthana)
- brachial (heart chakra, anahata),
- cervical (throat chakra, vishuddhi)
- the solar plexus, however, is located in the abdomen, and is related to manipura chakra.
Physical yoga, pranayama (breathing practices), bandhas (energy locks) are used in yoga to improve the health of the plexuses. This in turn has an effect on the chakras.
Chakras and the glands
Each chakra also corresponds to a gland:
Each chakra also corresponds to a gland:
- mooladhara, in the base of the torso, the g-spot for women, and in the perenium, inside the anus for men
- swadhisthana/lumbar: ovaries and testes
- manipura/navel chakra: adrenals
- anahata/heart: thymus
- vishuddhi/throat chakra: thyroid.
- ajna/3rd eye: pineal.
- sahasrara/crown: pituitary.
Again, physical yoga is the yogic means to improve the health of these glands, they are endocrine glands, which means that they secrete hormones directly into the blood stream. It is these hormones which help keep the body and the person, young, in yoga. Not the actual performance of complicated poses, no, it's the effects of the poses on the glands, and there is also an effect on the chakras. Not an awakening but a strong effect which influences both the trigger points and awakening of the chakras proper.
How our glands get affected by the poses
At the talk that I attended, 40 odd years ago, he also said that minutes minutes in the half shoulderstand gives maximum physical effect, so I would deduce from that, that it would apply to any pose. When we do a pose, for example, the bow/dhanurasana, as we go up and down in the pose, we get a squirt from the relevant gland, of hormones, into the blood stream, which is why just simply doing the poses regularly, without holding them, has such a profound effect physically.
At the talk that I attended, 40 odd years ago, he also said that minutes minutes in the half shoulderstand gives maximum physical effect, so I would deduce from that, that it would apply to any pose. When we do a pose, for example, the bow/dhanurasana, as we go up and down in the pose, we get a squirt from the relevant gland, of hormones, into the blood stream, which is why just simply doing the poses regularly, without holding them, has such a profound effect physically.
The spiritual spine
Dr Swami Gitananda also said that the inner spine, the central nervous system (CNS), can calcify, as he observed when dissecting cadavers. The CNS receives information & co-ordinates activity to the whole body. The CNS is related, esoterically, to the spiritual spine, known as sushumna. Sushumna actually starts in mooladhara, so it doesn't start at the bottom of the spine. It hooks into the tailbone and goes up the spinal cavity, ending quite high inside the head, in a direct line in from the eyebrow centre. The eyebrow centre is between the eyebrows.
Sushumna awakens in steps
Sushumna, of course, needs to awaken, for prana, then later, kundalini, to travel up from mooladhara. When it awakens, it looks like a "tunnel" of white light tinged with yellow. This is not the kundalini awakening, it is the sushumna awakening.
There are two other main energy pathways, which are the next most important energy pathways (nadis). So next we will look at the three main nadis, and others.
Dr Swami Gitananda also said that the inner spine, the central nervous system (CNS), can calcify, as he observed when dissecting cadavers. The CNS receives information & co-ordinates activity to the whole body. The CNS is related, esoterically, to the spiritual spine, known as sushumna. Sushumna actually starts in mooladhara, so it doesn't start at the bottom of the spine. It hooks into the tailbone and goes up the spinal cavity, ending quite high inside the head, in a direct line in from the eyebrow centre. The eyebrow centre is between the eyebrows.
Sushumna awakens in steps
Sushumna, of course, needs to awaken, for prana, then later, kundalini, to travel up from mooladhara. When it awakens, it looks like a "tunnel" of white light tinged with yellow. This is not the kundalini awakening, it is the sushumna awakening.
Start at the beginning
So firstly, in yoga we improve the health of the spine, and get the spine able to move.
So firstly, in yoga we improve the health of the spine, and get the spine able to move.
And the necessary techniques
The purification of sushumna comes from:
- the physical poses, they are important
- the cleansing practices (shat karmas)
- spinal column meditation techniques
- bandhas, movements which block then release energy
- ujjayi pranayama. Ujjayi is the pranayama, breathing technique, which purifies the energy pathways, nadis, of which sushumna is the main one.
There are two other main energy pathways, which are the next most important energy pathways (nadis). So next we will look at the three main nadis, and others.
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