Yogis did not invent chakras, they merely discovered and realized them!

The meaning of the word chakra is: circular, disc like, wheel like patterns of energy. Our entire body is an energy field of the mind. But where does this energy come from?

From Yogic perspective, this energy is kundalini energy. This energy is the small part of the great mind, great energy, called mahad. Mahad carries within it the collective intelligence which sustains everything and everyone in the cosmos. One of its grids is in the subtle body/ the energetic body in latent form. At a physical/ gross level this energy allows us to live, breathe, act, think, reflect, emote and progress. However, it is the awakened form of this kundalini energy that the Yogis/Yoginis were more interested in.

In the pursuit to understand and awaken this kundalini energy (that sustains all and everything, knowing that a tiny spark of it sustains this physical, mental and emotional body), the Yogis took the pilgrimage in their own bodies and minds. This pilgrimage took them to the land of subtle body - the land of chakras, nadis, granthis and marmani.

This terrain of the subtle body is the grid of kundalini energy where the energy moves in circles, swirls and pools of energy. Certain areas in this terrain are the micro and others the macros hubs of the mahad energy. The mahad here manifests as aham (the individuated mind or individuated intelligence). This aham as macro hubs of the energy vibrates at varied rhythms forming chakras. There you go! Chakras are nothing but the mini minds in our subtle body.

By the process of concentration (dharana) on these chakras we practice chakra sadhana. By mastering the concentration on chakras, we reach to a point to elevate the practice. The chakra sadhana of laya yoga works with the sahasrara (crown chakra) at the top of the body and flows down through the lower chakras to awaken kundalini, the primal life force energy at the base of the spine. Kundalini then moves through the body, unblocking each chakra to awaken energy for the realization of the state of Yoga.

The scattered sensory mind becomes the ek-agra chitta (one pointed mind), this process is called mano laya. This mano laya then keeps dissolving one mind field into another and finally all possible vibrations of the mind dissolve into the mahad. The individuated mind thus becomes collective. This collective dissolution is called chakra laya.

In order for our mind field to attune with the chakra mind field, it is important to choose the subtlest aspect of chakra which is nada/beeja mantra/sound. Every sound when it reaches a certain octave becomes syllable form, the geometric pattern and the color of that field of energy.

Chakra dharana is not done by merely choosing a chakra, it is also important to understand the pathways in which the energy flows - nadis. Every chakras has a specific river of energy that takes us to heart of the swirling energy.

Each chakra has at least 12 layers of energy around it from gross to subtle. Let's look at Muladhara chakra:

1. Motor organ: excretory organ / anus

2. Function of motor organ: to excrete

3. Intelligence of motor organ: apana vayu

4. Sensory organ: Nostrils

5. Function of sensory organ: to smell

6. Intelligence of sensory organ: udana vayu

7. The sound of the chakra: LUNG / LUM

8. The form of the sound: लं LAM

9. Mandala of the chakra: square

10.The color of the mandala: Yellow

11. Yantra of the chakra: triangle

12. Color of the yantra: red

+1: Nadi of the chakra: alambusha

Understand and experience this flow. This experiential flow is laya.

Listen and practice the guided meditation on mooladhara chakra here