Chakra

“ When the resolute Chakra said this, the gods in heaven, being pleased, rained flowers and thus addressed him: " Bravo ! Bravo ! man of noble spirit, this compassion has cancelled thy sin, go; thou shalt possess inexhaustible wealth." When the gods said this, that iron wheel fell from the head of Chakra, and disappeared somewhere. Then a Vidyádhara youth descended from heaven, and gave him a valuable treasure of jewels, sent by Indra pleased with his self-abnegation, and taking Chakra in his arms, carried him to his city named Dhavala, and departed as he had come. ”

“ Rāmēsvaram.
are always presumed to be standing on a chakra imbedded in the earth and hence the worship is offered at the feet of the goddesses. In exceptional cases, however, as in the Kāmākshi-amman temple at Conjeeveram, the chakra is placed in front of the goddess. Bālā-Sakti, holding a book, rosary, goad and noose, is the presiding goddess of the six chakras as stated in the Silpasāra. ”

“ When we forget that science is spreading the domain of Vishnu’s chakra, those who have honoured the Discus-Bearer to better purpose will spread their dominion over us. If we are wilfully blind to the grand vision of whirling forces, which science has revealed, the charka will cease to have any message for us. ”

“ A New Job for Chakra.
Chakra, on reaching the crest of the cliff, found Jacob Jessuron in a state of impatience bordering upon torment. The Jew was striding back and forth among the trees, at intervals striking the ground with his umbrella, and giving utterance to his favourite exclamatory phrases—“Blesh my soul!” and “Blesh me!”—with unusual volubility.
Now and then also could be heard the Teutonic ejaculation, “Ach!” proving that his soul was under the influence of some unpleasant passion, that was vexing him even to torture.
“Wha’s de trouble, Massr Jake?” ”

“ These eat and drink alternately with gesticulations and mantras—and when the religious part of the business is over, the males and females rush together and indulge in a wild orgy. This ceremony is entitled the Sri Chakra or Purnabhisheka, the Ring or Full Initiation."
In a note apparently by the editor, Dr. Rost, a full account is given in Sanscrit of the Sakti Sodhana, as they are prescribed in the Devi Rahasya, a section of the Rudra Yâmala, so as to prove to his readers that the Sri Chakra is performed under a religious prescription. ”

“ The disciples of the three other mutts are generally branded with the chakra on the right upper arm, and chank on the left. As the branding is supposed to remove sins committed during the interval, they get it done every time they see their guru. There is with Mādhvas no restriction as to the age at which the ceremony should be performed. Even a newborn babe, after the pollution period of ten days, must receive the mark of the chakra, if the guru should turn up. Boys before the upanayanam, and girls before marriage, are branded with the chakra on the abdomen just above the navel. ”

“ The pineal gland is, like the thymus, one of the most important glands. That is why they called it the ajña chakra. If it is activated in a natural way it will take over and give directions to the functioning of this body without thought interfering all the time.
When I use the term natural state it is not a synonym for enlightenment, freedom or God-realization and so forth, not at all. When the totality of mankind's knowledge and experience loses its stranglehold on the body, the physical organism, then the body is allowed to function in its own harmonious way. ”

“ The state of ecstacy is realized when consciousness is centred in the germ of pragna, which is placed in this chakra, and hence Benares is an Anandavan, which literally means a pleasure garden. When this centralization of consciousness in the germ of pragna is secured, the objective consciousness realized in the physical body and in the astral body entirely ceases ”

“ This Ajna Chakra plays a major role in the functioning of the body. The yogis call it the Ajna Chakra, but I say it is the pineal gland. That gland which is beyond the forehead between the eyebrows becomes very active in the Natural State. It controls all the functions that the body performs. ”

“ Maybe because the movement of energy also took the form of circles, the Yogis talked about chakras. The energy of consciousness coils around like a snake, rises upward swiftly and goes out of the head. But the experience is never one of it descending; but always of spiraling upwards. All these are experienced only when I listen to the Vedic mantras, not when I listen to music or some other sound. ”

“ To the statement above made—that on every large plantation there was an obeah-man—the estate of Mount Welcome was no exception. It, too, was blessed, or rather cursed, by a follower of the art, an old Coromantee negro—Chakra by name—a man whose fell and ferocious aspect could not have failed to make him one of the most popular of its practitioners. ”

“ The principal part of the rite called the Chakra is Shakti Sádhaná or the purification of the female representing the Shakti. In the ceremony termed mantra Sádhaná, we have already noticed the introduction of a female, the devotee always making his wife or mistress partner in his devotion. This cannot be done in a mixed society. For although the Vámis are so far degenerated as to perform rites such as human nature, corrupt as it is, revolts from with detestation, yet they have not sunk to that depth of depravity as to give up their wives to the licentiousness of men of beastly conduct. ”

“ After a while, the married pair wished again for privacy and withdrew into the forest, desiring Vishnu to amuse himself by doing what was fit and proper; which, after some consideration, he judged to be a supply of water for the irrigation of the trees, and with his chakra, or discus, he dug a hole, which he filled with the ambrosial perspiration from his body, induced by his hard work; and the pool so dug and filled, has remained 51a spot of peculiar sanctity, termed, from the chakra, or discus, chakra kunda, or chakra puskkarnī, discus-pond. ”

“ Dem same old bones—de ’kull, de ribs, de jeints, drumticks, an’ all. Golly, gal Cynthy! dat ere ’pears ’stonish you. Wha fo’? Nuffin in daat. You sabbey ole Chakra? You know he myal-man? Doan care who know now—so long dey b’lieve um dead. Wha for myal-man, ef he no bring de dead to life ’gain? Be shoo Chakra no die hisseff, so long he knows how bring dead body to de life. Ole Chakra know all dat. Dey no kill him, nebber! Neider de white folk nor de brack folk. ”

“ I can't say about the universe, the whole universe, but in your field of consciousness, in the limited field in which you are operating at that particular moment, you are responding — not that you are responding.
And all the other glands also here.... There are so many glands here; for example, the pituitary — 'third eye', ajña chakra, they call it. When once the interference of thought is finished, it is taken over by this gland: it is this gland that gives the instructions or orders to the body; not thought any more; thought cannot interfere. ”

“ The ruling idea is that the teachings of the Vedas and the Smritis are conveyed in articulate expressions and are adapted to planes corresponding to articulation. But articulation is the last and grossest expression of Divine Sound energy. In man the highest manifestation of sound energy, the primal voice, the divine voice, the first Logos, is Para. It is the Light which manifests the whole Universe. In that highest plane of manifestation there is no difference between Light and Sound. The seat of this Light is Mûla-Âdhâra Chakra. ”

“ Buddhist priests, in their yellow robes, may be seen worshipping. In front two supple women, such as so frequently occur in these sculptures, bend in attitudes of adoration, and on the left a chief in the ordinary Hindu costume—surrounded by the women of his family—presents his little son to the Buddha-emblem.
In the lower circle the same structural arrangements occur up to the Trisul (or emblem) , but the whole is surmounted by the Chakra, or Wheel, which we know to be the symbol of Dharma or the Law. Here all the worshippers are men ”

“ If, then, the man does not establish, in the building of his body of sensation, certain centres or, as [154] they are called, chakras—that drawing into centres which is the work of the upward arc, as giving qualities is the work of the downward arc—if he does not draw the powers of sensation into definite centres in the sheath of his astral body, he will not have the links which he requires to receive impacts from the astral plane, and through which he can send out thrills of consciousness in order to impress it, rule it and guide it. ”

“ Chakras: The nerve plexuses or centers along the spine and in the head through which the Kundalini (see below) energy is led.
Guru: A teacher, particularly of the spiritual kind.
Japa: Lit. Muttering or whispering. A muttered prayer consisting of reciting (and repeating) passages from scriptures, spells or names of a deity.
Jivanmukti: Liberation during one's lifetime.
Karma: The effects of a person's past actions on his or her present and future state.
Kundalini: A form of yoga practiced in India, primarily in the school of Tantra. ”

“ Then come the chakras already spoken of as the centres for the working of consciousness in the astral body. A similar process goes on in the mental body under the action of thought-impulses, and there we have also an organised body able to respond to different kinds of thought, and thus to serve consciousness as its organ for expression in the mental world. As we grow mentally we build our organs for consciousness. ”

“ Has it really the divinity which may enable it to appropriate the single-minded devotion of all the millions of India, despite their diversity of temperament and talent? Repeated efforts, even unto violence and bloodshed, have been made, all the world over, to bring mankind together on the basis of the common worship of a common Deity, but even these have not been successful. Neither has a common God been found, nor, a common form of worship. Can it then be expected that, in the shrine of Swaraj, the charka goddess will attract to herself alone the offerings of every devotee? ”

“ The Hindu calls the soul the "seer" or the "knower," and thinks of it as a great eye in the centre of his being, which, if he concentrates his attention upon it, is able to look outwards and to gaze upon Reality. The soul is capable of this because in essence it is one with Brahman, the universal soul. The apparent separation is an illusion wrought by matter. Hence, to the Hindu, matter is an obstruction and a deception, and the Eastern mystic despises and rejects and subdues all that is material, and bends all his faculties on realising his spiritual consciousness, and dwelling in that. ”

“ The consciousness dwelling in the cavity of the heart, is the true body of the everlasting spirit; and the outward form of Vishnu, holding the conchshell, cudgel, lotus and the discus, is but a false representation of it. ”

“ Lastly, the supreme Self has to be seen as the supreme Purusha governing this Prakriti, of whom the soul in Nature is a partial manifestation, by whom all works are directed, in a perfect transcendence, through Nature. To him love and adoration and the sacrifice of works have to be offered; the whole being has to be surrendered to Him and the whole consciousness raised up to dwell in this divine consciousness so that the human soul may share in His divine transcendence of Nature and of His works and act in a perfect spiritual liberty. ”

“ The illustrious Bhrigu came out, ripping open the breast of Brahman. The learned Sukra is Bhrigu's son. And the learned Sukra becoming a planet and engaged according to the command of the Self-existent in pouring and withholding rain, and in dispensing and remitting calamities, traverses, for sustaining the lives of all the creatures in the three worlds, through the skies. And the learned Sukra, of great intelligence and wisdom, of rigid vows, leading the life of a Brahmacharin, divided himself in twain by power of asceticism, and became the spiritual guide of both the Daityas and the gods. ”

“ The consciousness aspect of the ray unfolds the blunt inanimate sense into the most highly developed mind. It gives the wisdom side of man's evolution, which leads to the path of Jnâna.
Then there is the Bliss aspect of the ray, which directly leads to the union of the human soul with the Over-soul, of Jiva with Íshvara, and it leads to the path of Bhakti. It is the sensation of pleasure that makes the lowest organic form, the primordial cell, break through the inertia of Tamas. ”

“ It is fanned and roused by the enkindling animal spirit, which blows over it as with the breath of the wind; it pervades the whole body without burning it, and shines as brightly as the sun in the form of our consciousness. ”

“ The soul (âtman or purusha) uses the mind and senses: they are its instruments rather than parts of it. Sight, for instance, serves as the spectacles of the soul, and the other senses and even the mind (manas) which is an intellectual organ are also instruments. If we talk of a soul passing from death to another birth, this according to most Hindus is a soul accompanied by its baggage of mind and senses, a subtle body indeed, but still gaseous not spiritual. But what is the soul by itself? ”

“ Footsteps are heard from below, rising higher and higher. Shukra rubs his eyes to make sure that he has really seen something that is not an illusion. He goes forward a few steps. The head of an old man rises into view, Shukra is stupefied; walks backwards until his back touches the Sacred plant. He stands still. The old man at last climbs the last step. He has not noticed Shukra. He looks at the Himalayas in the rear. Then his eyes travel over the monastery walls—Now suddenly they catch sight of Shukra. ”