Sadhguru’s Guide To Human Energy System
If something more of what the human system is capable of needs to happen, it needs an activation. Hatha Yoga is that discipline which activates the whole system. Unfortunately, people think Hatha Yoga is an exercise or some kind of health regimen. Yoga never focuses on curing something. We only look at how this physical system can be made full-fledged. If it is full-fledged, everything will be fine. It will activate something that will lead to a curative process by itself anyway.
Mystical Dimensions of the Body’s Chakras
You can see them as 114 junctions or confluences of nadis. The nadis are the channels of prana in the energy body. These junctions are always in the form of triangles. They are called chakras because they embody movement from one dimension to another, and the word “chakra” means “wheel” or “circle.” But they are actually triangles.
Out of these 114 chakras, two are outside the physical body. Of the remaining 112, only 108 can actually be worked upon, the remaining four just flower as a consequence. The number 108 has manifested in the human system because it is a significant number in the making of the solar system. The distance between the earth and the sun is 108 times the diameter of the sun. The distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the diameter of the moon. The diameter of the sun is 108 times the diameter of the earth. And hence, 108 is significant in various spiritual practices. WATCH VIDEO BELOW TO LEARN MORE 👇
The Importance of Keeping the Chakras Mobile
The way the chakras move depends on what you do with yourself. If you want to empower yourself to do different types of activities and to adjust to different type of situations, the pranic physiology or the chakra physiology of the body needs to be able to adjust accordingly. Doing the necessary work to keep the chakras mobile is important because the mobility of the chakras determines how flexible and effective you are in different types of situations, in order to meet different types of requirements. The problem with most human beings is in one situation, they function well. In another situation, they are a total mess. This is because they can only think, feel and act in a particular way.
You should be able to do everything well, with a little practice. But this will not work if your energy system is rigid. So, keeping your system mobile is important, not just because we want to do different kinds of activities in the world. It also gives you a certain flexibility of experience, that you are comfortable in any kind of situation. To be at ease, your energies must be flexible. These hundred and twelve chakras can be used as hundred and twelve doorways to your ultimate nature. That is why Adiyogi gave one hundred and twelve ways to attain to the ultimate.
To be able to move this complex triangular structure of your physiology the way you want it requires a different level of sadhana. But the most fundamental thing is that these two triangles should intersect. Normally, the upward-pointing triangle is below and the downward-pointing triangle is above. If you bring the two equilateral triangles to a point where they intersect in such a way that they form a star with six equilateral triangles, the system is in balance and becomes very receptive. My work is about presence and transmitting something, for which you need receptivity. My words are not going to enlighten you. I only say things to confuse you, because you cannot enlighten anyone by talking. It is the presence that has the power to transform.
The Three Fundamental Nadis - Ida, Pingala and Sushumna
In the Pranamayakosha or the energy body, there are 72,000 nadis. The 72,000 nadis spring from three basic nadis – the left, the right and the central – the Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna. The word “nadi” does not mean nerve. Nadis are pathways or channels of prana in the system. These 72,000 nadis don’t have a physical manifestation. In the sense, if you cut the body and look in, you will not find them. But as you become more aware, you will notice the energy is not moving at random, it is moving in established pathways. There are 72,000 different ways in which the energy or prana moves. WATCH VIDEO BELOW TO LEARN MORE 👇
Hatha Yoga: Directing Your Energies
To lead you towards the experience of Yoga – of union and boundlessness – we manipulate the energy and move the system in a certain way. Physical postures are one aspect of this. Understanding the mechanics of the body, creating a certain atmosphere, and then using the body or body postures to drive your energy in specific directions is what Hatha Yoga or yogasanas are about. Hatha Yoga is not exercise. Asana means a posture. If I sit in one way, it is one asana. If I sit in another way, it is another asana. So innumerable asanas are possible. Out of these innumerable postures that the body can take, eighty-four fundamental postures have been identified as yogasanas.
What is Hatha Yoga?
Hatha Yoga is a preparatory process of Yoga. The word “ha” means sun, “ta” means moon. “Hatha” means the Yoga to bring balance between the sun and the moon in you, or the Pingala and Ida in you. You can explore Hatha Yoga in ways that take you beyond certain limitations, but fundamentally, it is a physical preparation – preparing the body for a higher possibility. There are other dimensions to this, but to put it simply, just by observing the way somebody is sitting, you almost know what is happening with them. If you have observed yourself, if you are angry, you will sit one way; if you are happy, you sit another way; if you are depressed, you sit yet another way. For every different level of consciousness or mental and emotional situation that you go through, your body naturally tends to take certain postures. The converse of this is the science of asanas. If you consciously get your body into different postures, you can also elevate your consciousness.
The practice as you see it currently in most places – the mechanics of it – is simply of the body.
Classical Hatha Yoga
After twenty years of Yoga entering the West and becoming popular, despite it being taught sometimes in ways that leave much to be desired, still, the health benefits of it are undeniable, wherever you live and whatever you do. Right now the number of people practicing Yoga is growing in a big way. This could be simply because the scientific community is slowly beginning to recognize the depth and dimension of what this is. But if improper, distorted kind of Yoga spreads, in fifteen years’ time, scientific studies will clearly come out and tell you in how many ways it is harmful to human beings, and that will be the downfall.
So it is important that we bring back classical Yoga as it was. If it is taught in a proper atmosphere with a certain sense of humility and inclusiveness about the whole process, it is a really fantastic process of shaping your system into a fantastic vessel, a fabulous device to receive the Divine.
Kriya Yoga – A Powerful Way To Walk The Spiritual Path
Fundamentally, kriya means internal action. When you do inner action, it does not involve the body and the mind because both the body and the mind are still external to you. When you have a certain mastery to do action with your energy, then it is a kriya.
If you do external activity we call it karma. If you do internal activity we call it kriya. In a way, both are certain kind of karmas or both are certain kind of kriyas. But traditionally, or in the general sense of the term it is understood like this: karmas are those which bind you, kriyas are those which release you.
Whatever we do with your body, your attitudes and your thought, for example today your thoughts may go in one direction. Tomorrow if another person comes and influences you, they will go another way. Similarly, whatever we do with your body, your body is well today so it likes asanas. Tomorrow morning if your body is stiff, you will hate asanas. Your emotions are not at all reliable. At any moment they can shift from this to that. But your energies are different. Once we start working with the energy in a certain way, it has a different kind of depth to life. Suddenly, there is a different dimension to every aspect of your life because your energies have been touched and activated in a completely different way.
