Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

from the etherial to the solid. Thus Prithiv? or earth is any matter in the Prithivi state; that is which may be sensed by the Indriya of smell. Mind and matter pervade the whole body. But there are centres therein in which they are predominant. Thus Ajna isa centre of mind and the five lower Chakras are centres of the five Bhfitas ; Vishuddha of AkAsha, Anahata of VAyu, Manipfira of Agni, Svadhishthana of Apas, and Mfiladh4ra of Prithivi.

In short man as a microcosm is the all-pervading Spirit (which most purely manifests in the Sahasrfra) vehicled by Shakti in the form of Mind and Matter the centres of which are the sixth and following five Chakras respectively.

The six Chakras have been identified with the following plexuses commencing from the lowest the MflAdhara :—The Sacrococeygeal plexus, the Sacral plexus the Solar plexus (which forms the great junction of the right and left sympathetic chains Id& and Pingala) with the cerebro-spinal axis, Connected with this is the Lumbar plexus. Then follows the Cardiac plexus (An&hata) Laryngeal plexus and lastly the Ajna or cerebellum with its two lebes and above this the Manas Chakra or sensorium with its six lobes, the Soma chakra or middle Cerebrum and lastly the Sahasrara or upper Cerebrum. To some extent these localizations are yet tentative. This statement may involve an erroneous view of what the Chakras really are and is likely to produce wrong notions concerning them in others. The six Chakras themselves are vital centres within the spinal column in the white and grey matter there. They may however, and probably do, influence and govern the gross tract outside the spine in the bodily region lateral to, and co-extensive with, that section of the spinal column in which a particular centre is situated. The Chakras are centres of Shakti as vital force. In other words they are centres of Pranashakti manifested by Pranav&yu in the living body, the presiding Devatas of which are names for the Universal Consciousness as It manifests in the form of those centres. The Chakras are not

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