Sri Aurobindo also describes chakras(centres) and their functioning. (CWSA:28:229-230). Where are these chakras and the solar plexus situated in our body (sthool, sukshma & karana sharira)?
The Mother also spoke about 12 chakras.
“The tantrics recognize seven chakras,’ I believe. Theon said he knew of more, specifically two below the body and three above. That is my experience as well – I know of twelve chakras. And really, the contact with the Divine Consciousness is there (Mother motions above the head), not here (at the top of the head). One must surge up above.” (Agenda, Vol.1, October 11, 1960)
What are these 12 chakras and where are they situated?
The solar plexus is the Manipura Chakra, the city of jewels. It is the nerve centre in the subtle body, an electrically neutral point. It is the meeting point between the lower and the higher, the midpoint in the human body, or the Psychological centre where, deep within, the psychic being resides. Though The Mother does speak a couple of times about the solar plexus, their writings, in general, advise concentrating anywhere in the centre of the chest for finding the psychic being and the Divine Presence within man. However, it is not in the solar plexus but deeper down there.
The chakras are in the subtle body, sookshma sarira, which connects with the gross body, sthool sarira, through a complex system of nerves, nadis, that link up with the nervous system in the gross body. This nadi gyan, used in acupressure, acupuncture as well as marma sthala in ancient Science is largely lost now. Actually, these centres are knot-like funnels that limit the play of universal energies into the individual. Opening them opens us to the influx of the Universal currents of corresponding energies.
In traditional yogas, these knots or energy vortex are forced open from below by certain specific practices such as concentration on the specific centre with corresponding beej mantras and their deities. Quite naturally, this is a dangerous process. In Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga, these centres open from above downwards, naturally, by the pressure of the Divine Mother’s Force which reigns above all.
The twelve centres are the 7 traditional ones from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. The three additional lower chakras are the knee, the soles of the feet and below the feet, the Inconscient. The two higher chakras are above the crown or outside the head and beyond it, the Superconscient.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
