Chakras Guidebook

The chakra system

From a health and healer’s perspective, chakras are the barometer of our health. In different healing modalities or spiritual practices there could be a variation in the numbers and location of the chakras; however, they may all be correct from their understanding of major and minor chakras. According to kundalini tantra there are seven major chakras located on our torsos and heads representing the activity of vital organs and glands. These seven major chakras are the focal point of this book. The activity and balance of our chakras reflect the health of our organs and glands. While in modern medicine cadavers are studied in order to understand health and disease, in chakra healing we need to study living beings: their physical, nutritional, mental and emotional life styles.

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

To understand chakras, we need to understand human life and its evolution. Evolution is a universal process; all life is evolving and humankind is no exception. Life, creation and evolution are the stages in the unfolding of consciousness. We as human beings are evolving, not only as individuals but also as a race. The muladhara or base root chakra is our most fundamental chakra; from here our process of evolution in this lifetime begins, culminating at sahasrara — the crown chakra.

When the chakras get activated through our spiritual practices our values and perception of life also change, resulting in the improvement of the quality of love, relationships and compassion. For a yogi, the world remains the same but the perception of the world changes, resulting in sat-chit-anand, a state of eternal peace and bliss within.

The lymphatic system

As mentioned earlier, vital energy or pranas circulate in the body through the nervous system, the circulatory system and the nadis. The circulatory system has two aspects: the blood circulatory system and the lymphatic system. Blood moves through the body in closed vessels, arteries and veins, while lymph moves via lymphatic vessels, which are like open channels in the body. While the movement of blood is regulated by the pumping of the heart, lymph movement is mainly due to muscle activity. A sedentary lifestyle adversely affects our lymphatic flow and makes it sluggish. However, other factors that affect our lymphatic system adversely are emotional blockages and stress. We have observed this over a period of time while working with clients with lymph-related issues. We could establish an interesting correlation between emotional blockages, lymphatic blockages and chakra health.