Manipuraka Chakra🔗

The Manipuraka chakra is located in the navel region. In Sanskrit, Manipuraka means 'The City of Jewels'.

This chakra is locked when you constantly worry and it flowers when you stop worrying about your worries!

We all have so many worries all the time. And if we can't find any worries, we will start worrying about not having any worries! We start feeling insecure and so we start thinking about what we can worry about! I tell you, it is a fact!

Some elderly retired people don't know what to do because they don't have any worries! They try their best to think of something that might keep their minds occupied, but there's nothing coming up to keep it occupied! And this is new to them because they have all along been occupied with some worry or the other, with some thought or the other.

Before defining worry, I just want you to understand that whatever may be our culture, financial status, age or anything else, we all have one thing in common - and that is worry!

If I ask you why you worry, you will list out so many reasons. You always think that worry is caused by external matters. You always blame the outside world, the people around you, accusing them of causing worry in you.

Just think: If the cause for worry was external, there should be at least one person who has beaten all these causes and free from worries? But everyone seems to have worries. This is because, although we think that the cause for worry is external, actually, the cause for worry lies deep within ourselves. This is the truth. This is the reason why everyone has some worry or the other all the time.

If you look deep inside, you will find that worry is nothing but our response to an event. Whether a situation makes us worry or not, depends entirely on how you choose to react to that situation. And worry has become a constant inner chatter within you, all the time causing uneasiness in you.

For example, suppose your friend gets a new job and comes and tells you about the perks and benefits of the new job and talks about it enthusiastically, how will you react? Unconsciously, you will start thinking, Oh, he's got a new job. What about me? What will my wife say if she hears these perks and benefits? I will get into trouble. …..

Without a reason to worry, your ego loses its reason for existence! That's why you choose to remain in the dimension of misery. You feel you are a solid entity because you are solving worries and thinking about them all the time.

Whereas, when you are free from this constant worrying, you are in bliss, but in this dimension you are nobody! You feel insecure, like a non-entity. To enjoy a worry-less state, you need to first drop your ego about wanting to be a solid entity.

Each person thinks that only he has got a lot of worries and that only he is unhappy, and everyone else is very happy!

Just do this small test: Whenever you feel negative thoughts coming up, look into them and see where they are rising from. You will find that they always rise up from the navel. Whenever you feel worried, whenever a situation arises that you simply can't handle, the first thing to get affected is also your navel region, your stomach. You can physically feel depression as a weight in your stomach. That is why we always say, "I can't stomach it; I can't digest it." This expression is there in all the languages. It is universal. Constant worrying locks the Manipuraka chakra. How do we get over this?

Worry is caused by negativity; by expecting that whatever happens will be bad; this is what is the root of worry. The thing about our worry is, 99% of our worries are never true. 99% of our worries are totally unreasonable.

Gradually, this negative attitude, this negative chatter solidifies in your Being permanently, and becomes a negative influence in everything that you do. The clinical name for this negative attitude is Depression. Some people are less depressed, some people are more depressed, that's all. The more you allow this chatter to consume you, the more depressed you become.

So depression or negativity is nothing but a collection of negative thoughts, which you speak to yourself. And once you allow such thoughts to enter into your mind, they will keep reinforcing this attitude, and become a habit.

The mind is an excellent recording system. It stores your negative thought patterns, your complexes, your worries. Whatever you teach the mind, it learns and repeats faithfully. This is how you create a solid mental makeup with all your negativities. So be very careful what you tell your mind. We always take so much care in how we speak to others, but we never pay enough attention to how we speak to ourselves.

How do we go beyond depression or negativity?

Just be aware and alert. Whenever you become aware of a negative thought surfacing, just visually scatter the negative words and see them disperse. If you go beyond inner chatter even for a few moments, you will become more aware, more alive. Just understand and accept that worry is unreal, unnecessary.

When you accept your worries, when you enter deeply into them, you will come to a tremendous understanding that all your worries are just your own creations. You will be able to see how your mind plays and causes tension in you.

When I tell you, you can understand it only intellectually. When it becomes your own experience, when you have that clarity, you will go beyond worries. Then depression cannot touch you. You will go beyond misery*.*

All your worries are nothing but a collection of words in the languages that you know. And they cause so much of confusion and misinterpretation in you. Words are the root cause of all misconceptions. But what to do - words are the only form of communication we are familiar with.

I always tell people: When I say something, you understand it as something else. And that is where the problem starts. Each one carries their own dictionary and interprets the words in their own way.

Your awareness will slowly grow and make you centered in yourself and increase the silence in you. When I say increase the silence, I mean, your inner chatter will reduce and you will be more of a watcher. With that increased silence, there will be more awareness in you and this will become a cyclic process in you.

With this awareness, you will be able to enjoy the beauty that surrounds you. It is not that the beauty came in suddenly; it was always there! But you were not aware of it. You were too busy within yourself and so you failed to see it. Now with your awareness, you will be able to celebrate it! Suddenly, Nature will start revealing itself to you in its entire splendor. Your inner self will transform, and when this happens, the outer world transforms automatically!

When you learn to be in awareness, you can use your mind at your discretion. It becomes a vital tool at your disposal. You can use it just when you want to. From being a dangerous enemy, it becomes a reliable friend.

When your inner chatter comes down, when your TPS or Thoughts per Second comes down for even a split second, for that split second you are totally in the present and for that split second, you have the ability to access your past and future like an open book. When your inner chatter is high, your TPS is high and you are all the time either in the past or in the future; never in the present.

You are never consciously in the present. You are always in the past or future. You move from past to future without touching the present. This is the truth. But accidentally your thoughts per second come down for a moment and you are jolted into the present.

When you are completely in the present for even a second, your past and future become transparent to you. That is why you see intuitive things like déjà vu happening to you.

Masters live always in the present. That is why they have access to the vast ocean that is the past and the future. For you, it is an accident. It is a split second when this happens to you. You even feel scared when this happens! You are so used to living unconsciously, that when you are jolted into consciousness, it is too much. Reality becomes too much!

Your TPS plays a major role in determining how far you are from reality or the present. You live unconsciously when your TPS is high. You are so far flung from reality.

Simply bring in awareness and automatically you will stop speaking unnecessarily.

We carry our worries with us everywhere we go and feel comfortable nurturing them. But we also complain that we are so worried all the time! We want to be free from something but we are not willing to transform and be free from it. This is how self-contradictory we are.

How to be free and what should be your attitude – both questions have only one answer: Whatever you do, you should be able to do with a feeling of bliss, that's all. You see, the space inside you, or your consciousness, decides the quality of your life. This space should be pure and blissful always.

If you are really interested in dropping your inner chatter and worries, you could try a small exercise:

Think of all the things that give you joy. Make up your mind that you will allow your mind to linger on only these things and nothing else. Anything else, you will give it just enough energy to get it done and then forget about it.

Try this exercise and you will see that you conserve a lot of energy.

See, understand, that you have given a lot of power to your worries by simply talking about them more and more. For example, when a housewife picks up the telephone, she will start by telling her friend that the house maid did not turn up for the day. That is her depression for the day. If you are really depressed about the maid not coming and you are really interested in coming out of it, then you should simply drop it and finish doing the work yourself! Doesn't this sound more logical?

But what do you do? You keep on talking about it and expect your friend to feed your depression as well. If she doesn't sympathize with you or if she tells you that is how life is and you have to move on, you will make a call to another friend and tell that friend about how inconsiderate this friend was! Just think: If you really wanted to move on with your life, you would appreciate the words of the friend, is it not?

If you really wanted to come out of the depression and move on with life, you would definitely spend your intelligence on doing that. But why are you reacting differently? The reason is, you are so comfortable just talking about your worries and not finding a way out of it.

Again I tell you: I am not asking you to run away from your worries. I am saying, don't magnify them by talking about them. Don't expend your energy on them. Instead, address them for what needs to be done so that they stop worrying you. Address them without loss of time, that's all.

Check yourself to find out if you are starting to feel comfortable with your worries. This is the scale to see if worries are controlling you or you are controlling your worries. If you are feeling comfortable talking about them repeatedly without taking any action, then worries are controlling you. If you don't linger on them and address them correctly, then you are controlling them!

Muladhara Chakra

Muladhara chakra is located at the base of the spine. In Sanskrit, Muladhara means 'the root and basis of Existence'. Mula means root and adhara means basis.

This chakra is locked by fantasy and imagination and it flowers when you drop your fantasies and welcome reality! The Muladhara chakra is concerned with sex, fantasy and imagination.

The most talked about, thought about and written about subject is sex. The most misunderstood, misinterpreted and confusing subject is also sex! We either try to avoid the subject, or we try to indulge in it. Sex is deeply buried in our unconscious minds. Right from the start, we find no one to enlighten us on the truth about sex.

Sex, more than any other subject, needs to be illumined. It needs to be illumined with the light of Consciousness!

Our condition right now is like that of a man walking in a forest on a pitch-dark night. Somewhere there is a big pit that has been dug and kept.

The man who tries to avoid the subject is in total unawareness; he doesn't even know where the pit lies – then how can he avoid it?

The man who indulges in the subject is aware of the pit, but can't see any other way than to jump straight into it.

Can either of these be the solution? What to do?

One should know where the pit lies, and then take the right steps to move around it.

The topic of sex is always swept under the carpet. It is a taboo topic. Parents do not come out and discuss it with children. First of all, the parents themselves don't know the underlying facts of the subject! On any subject, you need to ask an authority, else you will miss the right understanding and when you miss the right understanding, you misunderstand.

Sex is a tremendous creative Energy. It is a meditative energy. The whole world has arisen out of sex energy.

Our ancient enlightened Masters, the Rishis, have given us great clarity on this subject. Do you know that Vatsyayana - the man who wrote the Kama Sutra, the book on the science of sex – was a sannyasi? He was a celibate!

In fact, he delivered the Kama Sutra to his own mother.

After his enlightenment, he came back to his mother one day.

She told him that if he was enlightened, then he should have insight into any subject on planet Earth.

He agreed and asked what she might like to hear from him.

She told him, "As your mother, I know that you are celibate since birth. There is no chance that you would know anything about the subject of sex. Can you tell me something about it?"

Vatsyayana smiled and delivered the Kama Sutra – the science of sex!

Vatsyayana was questioned once, "What authority do you have to speak on this subject?" A natural question! I think many of you might be silently putting this question to me also! The answer that Vatsyayana gave, I am translating into modern language for you, using a modern analogy:

An electrician who visits your home, knows exactly what happens when each electric switch in each room is put on and off.

He knows the entire circuitry hidden beneath the wall.

If there is a problem, he can gauge the possible problem and give a solution for it, is it not?

He understands the science of electricity.

On the other hand, you, who puts these switches on and off fifty times a day, have absolutely no idea what is actually going on behind them! Am I right?

Many of us know nothing more than how to put on and off the switches. That's why we sometimes get an electric shock! So, understand: We may be fathers, mothers, grandparents – but still, we may know nothing about sex.

Only an enlightened person, can give you the science of sex.

Biologically no man is 100% man, and no woman is 100% woman. A man is 51% man and 49% woman. Likewise, a woman is 51% woman, and 49% man; just a difference of 1 or 2%.

You have taken birth from the Muladhara of your father and the Muladhara of your mother. Then, how can you be only male or only female? The qualities of both are bound to be there in you! Is it not?

This is the basis behind our symbolic representation of Lord Siva as Ardhanareeshwar the figure that is half male and half female. Whether we accept it or not, we are an embodiment of both male and female energies. We are whole, not divided.

In order to be complete, to be whole, it is essential that we are able to accept and express both the masculine and feminine aspects of our nature.

But does it really happen? Are we allowed to express?

Right from the moment of birth, society labels you as either male or female. And it expects you to start behaving accordingly. Society simply does not allow boys to express their feminine side, or girls to express their masculine side. Right from a very young age, one half of our Being is suppressed.

Till the age of seven, till the social conditioning has not taken a deep root inside, the child is not conscious of being male or female. That is why a very young child has a sense of completeness. He is centered and secure. He is so beautiful and joyful to look at! By around seven, the child comes under society's control.

A male child is not encouraged to play with dolls and kitchen sets. A female child is looked upon disapprovingly when she wants to play with racecars and rockets. Even when it comes to colors of their clothes and other belongings, there is discrimination. You choose blue for boys and pink for girls. Am I right?

In earlier days, the responsibility of parents was only to give birth to the child. At the age of four, they left the child in the Gurukul with the Master. In the Gurukul, the children were taught the Gayatri mantra – an initiation chant to kindle the intelligence - at the age of 7. If by 14 they had a spiritual experience of some kind, they were taught the Brahma Sutra – the greatest book on world philosophies, else, they were taught the Kama Sutra – the science of sex, so that they learnt the art of family life. If before the age of 21 they were enlightened, they were initiated into Sannyas. If not, they were taught the Yoga Sastras. This is how a child was allowed to evolve in its own way under the guidance and love of the Master.

But now, such strong conditioning goes into the child, which is so damaging for it. The child begins to suppress that part of himself which is not approved by society. We don't realize it, but this period is traumatic for the child. He suddenly feels uprooted, cut off from one half of his Being. He starts searching for this suppressed half outside.

You see: Man's inherent nature is fulfillment. He came from fulfillment and looks to attain it as well. So he begins, unconsciously, to search for the lost half, the suppressed half. He starts looking to the outside world for a substitute for his own lost half. The male child starts searching for a female presence, and the female child for a male presence.

This is where the whole idea of sex starts. This is how the idea of sex takes root.

In the period from 7 to 14 years, the child is closest to its parents. From them, the child collects images about how the ideal woman or ideal man should be. For the male child, the suppressed half of his own personality is replaced with his mother's image and for a girl child, the suppressed part of her personality is replaced with her father's image.

That is why every boy's first heroine is his mother, and every girl's first hero is her father. This is the unwritten law! This deep-rooted search is what lies behind the so-called Oedipus and Ophelia complexes of Freudian psychology. A boy expects care from his wife like the care he received from his mother and a girl expects the security and assurance from her husband that she enjoyed with her father.

In broken homes, where the child has been deprived of the mother's or father's presence due to death or divorce, the child carries a sense of incompleteness, because the imprint of the parents is the first, and the deepest. Even long after you are an adult, no matter how many differences of opinion you have with your mother or father, you can never remove their imprint from your Being.

At fourteen, the child attains physical maturity. Naturally, social laws don't allow them to have the same intimacy as earlier with the parent of the opposite sex and also, their activities become diversified and they don't spend as much time with their parents.

So at 14, the search continues, but this time in the outer world. These days it is happening much earlier than 14. These days, children are exposed to the television and internet from a very young age. That's why they grow up faster mentally. It's not a healthy sign. Anyhow, at about 14 years of age, the search begins in the outside world.

The child now begins to collect images from outsiders and media. The media is perfectly aware of this. That is why you will see that all advertisements always have sexual undertones – an attractive woman or man will be modeling for the product, even if the product has nothing to do with them.

Almost all motorbike ads show women – and how many women ride motorbikes?! Whatever the product may be, you will find a smiling woman recommending it. And when you go to the market, you promptly pick up that product – forgetting that the woman does not come with it! Even a simple 'Pure Magic cookies' advertisement shows only women! This is the media's way of cashing in on your suppressed desires.

All forms of media are nothing but dream sellers. We collect all these dreams and keep running through them in our minds hoping to quench our thirst. Is it possible? Can your thirst for water be quenched by consuming salt? No! If you do this, your thirst will only increase, is it not?

If you are alert and aware, advertisement hoardings can never fool you. Of course, by seeing them, you can always be aware of the latest things in the market, no doubt, but they will not deceive you.

You will not be vulnerable to them. You will be able to see them objectively and leave it at that. You will not feel an instant and unconscious pull towards them. It is only when you allow your 'reactive' mind to be your deciding authority, you are in trouble. You need to dissolve the reactive mind and function with your intelligence so that you are with awareness all the time. Of course, meditation will help a lot in achieving this.

Try your best not to allow children to watch the duets on television. If they simply enjoy the music and dance along with it, it's alright; but what they do is, they internalize all that they see - the duets, the emotions and what not. This is where the problem starts. Everything will get stored in the Muladhara chakra, the sex chakra. Then a mere suggestion is enough and the Muladhara will be ready.

By the age of 21 the identification with media wears off – but the ideas are already deep-rooted in our minds. Then a fresh search begins – to find that ideal person in our real life. This is the search with the idea of how our 'would-be' 'should-be'. This is where the expectations start.

For the next 7 years, this search continues. Person after person we try out, and get disappointed. A few intelligent people figure out after a while that dreams cannot become reality. Only because dreams cannot become a reality, they are called dreams! But most of the people keep searching.

But after a long search, we suddenly find a person who seems to match our mental image – from a distance. The picture in our mind is green – and the person, the image that we see also seems to be green – and then, all is green! A match seems to be found!

What happens at this point is what is called 'falling in love'. This is the science behind falling in love. Note that it is always 'falling' in love, never 'raising' in love! It is nothing more than the mischief of the hormones, masquerading as love. Because what actually happens is, because of our own strong needs and expectations, we see things as we want to see them. We project our mental image upon the other.

So anyway, the world becomes filled with greenery and music. Life becomes poetry. At last, our search is over! This is the stage at which we begin to write poetry, make paintings of each other and what not.

As long as this distance is maintained, things go on smoothly. We continue to project our imagination upon each other. But slowly, the person comes closer and then we feel that what we saw as green is not so green but only a pale green. But it is alright; you move on. After a while, you come still closer and feel that it is not even pale green but actually a sort of yellow.

But, at this stage, we don't want to accept that our imagination has turned out to be a lie, so we start making excuses for the situation. We say to ourselves, "This is life! Everything can't be perfect!" and so on. It requires tremendous courage, tremendous intelligence to live with reality. So we use these excuses instead, as a buffer system, to shield ourselves from reality. Finally, when we get close enough, we find that it is not even yellow, it is just white! What is inside us is green and what is outside is white. Fantasy and Reality are totally different.

The beautiful thing about this Muladhara chakra is, if this one chakra is opened, you will find that 50% of your problems have disappeared! This one chakra manages more than 50% of your life. In whatever you do, you will find a trace of this chakra! Even in your signature, you'll find a trace of this chakra! When the Muladhara chakra is activated, even your signature will look different. If you pluck a flower, the way you do it will be different.

Sex is carbon, love is diamond. Sex is mud, love is the lotus that blooms in the mud. It is the same substance – the only thing is, you should know how to process it. Just drop your expectations, and you will find a tremendous upsurge of energy. Then you will start accepting reality as it is.

Swadhistana Chakra

Swadhishtana chakra is located 2 inches below the navel. Swadhishtana means 'Where your Being is established' – from swa which means 'Self' and adhishtana which means 'established'.

This chakra is locked by fear, especially the fear of death and it can be made to flower by acceptance of fear; acceptance of Death itself.

Every single fear of ours is related to the fear of death, but in a convoluted way. Because it is convoluted, we don't see it as fear of death. Without fear, the word death itself loses the meaning that we have been associating with it.

So what is death?

Death is not something that happens at the end of our lives. It is something which is happening every moment of our lives. Every act of ours is unconsciously related to our death, the fear of dying. Death changes the very quality of our life. It is not the end; it is the climax of our lives – towards which our whole life has been oriented.

Why do I say that?

Because our whole life is controlled by our concept of death. Even our social structure is dictated by our concept of death.

All great religions and world philosophies have arisen out of trying to answer one question: What happens after death?

In trying to answer this one question, different life solutions have taken root.

The cultures, which believe in a single life, with no concept of reincarnation, have poured all their energies into excelling in life. They have achieved the peak in terms of assimilation of information, gaining of knowledge and material comforts.

These cultures have given rise to Science. Science helps us live life at its optimum. Science helps us get the maximum out of this life.

The cultures, which believe in reincarnation, have turned the focus of their life inwards. Their search is different. They are not motivated to live life in a hurry, because Eternity is granted to them.

You can see the play of this concept clearly in the behavior of the people. In Bharat, if a program is scheduled to start at 6 o'clock, you can be sure that it won't start before 7.30! Because they have eternity before them!

Our whole mental set-up, the course of our lives, our society, our culture, our religion – everything is based on nothing but our idea of death. We try our best not to think about death – but death pervades every moment of our life!

When we understand the depths, the secrets and mystery of death, we understand the secrets of life. We need to solve death and see it as a mere continuity in a different form. Else, we will miss life itself.

If we understand that death is nothing but continuity in another form, we will not fear death. And when we stop fearing death, we will know to what extent we have been missing life.

We take life for granted, we live so superficially, we miss many aspects of life. Death will simply teach us to look into life with more awareness. Death is the greatest Guru ever. ```

We can categorize all our fears into five major categories: The first is fear of losing our wealth, our comfort, name and fame, prestige, and other outer world things. The second is the fear of losing our health, parts of our body through some accident or disease - the fears concerned with our physical health. The third is the fear of losing our mental health, our mental stability. The fourth is the fear of losing our loved ones, their love. The fifth is the fear of the unknown – fear of God, fear of ghosts and fear of Death itself.

Actually, if you deeply analyze our fears, all the five categories of fear are fear of death only. They manifest themselves in different ways, that's all.

The main reason why people fear death is, they have not lived their lives totally.

What do we mean by living totally? Try to live with more clarity, that's all. Make the other people see sense in whatever they try to impose upon you. With clarity, you will be able to clearly identify what your own desires are, what others have imposed on you and what desires you have borrowed from others. The first set of desires alone need to be fulfilled without any harm to any person or property. The other two need to be dropped with the help of clarity.

If you live this way, you will no more be fulfilling others' desires and you will be no more living others' lives. You will live your own life, and experience fulfillment, and you will be ready to die when the time comes. You will have no lurking confusion and fear of death. I am not asking you to be selfish. I am only asking you to bring clarity into the whole thing.

Fear strokes are short spikes of fear. They just come and go in a few seconds' time. For example, you may be walking on the road. Suddenly you see a rope and think it is a snake. You experience a sudden rise of fear, which subsides in just a few seconds because by that time, you realize it is only a rope. This is a fear stroke.

You see: It is like this: There is always a current of fear in us. At times, it rises to a peak, that's all. These fear strokes can happen with great intensity although they are for a short duration of time. Fear strokes weaken the immune system. They release depressioninducing chemicals and even accelerate our ageing process. They can even cause a heart attack or make our hair turn white.

On an average, every one has about 6 fear strokes a day consciously or unconsciously. Conscious fear strokes are to do with things like - just the telephone ringing well past midnight, or just while in the car and a motorist suddenly swerves to your side or when you are watching a horror movie someone taps you on your shoulder; so many things like these.

You get fear strokes in your dreams also, but you forget them when you wake up. Fear strokes are like shaking the roots of the rose plant. It is very dangerous for the system.

As you said, at the time of the fear stroke, you will not have any time to go into awareness; you don't have time to chant any God's name and go through the stroke because it is just a spike. But after the fear stroke, you can very well analyze the stroke and get a deeper imprint of the understanding of your fears. This will help in dissolving the whole idea of fear.

The intensity and frequency of fear strokes can be greatly reduced by reducing the intensity and the depth of the regular fear that is in us. Only from this regular fear, the fear strokes arise. If deeper understanding and clarity can reduce the regular fear, the fear strokes will also reduce.