The seven chakras

Within your physical body, there are seven basic centers representing seven dimensions of life or seven dimensions of experiencing life.

These seven chakras are: the Muladhara, which is located at the perineum, the space between the anal outlet and the genital organ; Svadhishthana, which is just above the genital organ; Manipuraka, which is just below the navel; Anahata, which is just beneath where the rib cage meets; Vishuddhi, which is at the pit of the throat; Agna, which is between the eyebrows; and Sahasrar also known as Brahmarandra, which is at the top of the head, where when a child is born, there is a soft spot.

If your energies are dominant in Muladhara, then food and sleep will be the most dominant factors in your life. If your energies are dominant in Svadhishthana, pleasures will be most dominant in your life – you seek pleasures, you enjoy the physical reality in so many ways.

If your energies are dominant in Manipuraka, you are a doer; you can do many things in the world. If your energies are dominant in Anahata, you are a very creative person. If your energies are dominant in Vishuddhi, you become very powerful. If your energies are dominant in Agna or if you attain to Agna, then intellectually you are realized. Intellectual realization gives you peace.

Experientially it has not happened yet but intellectual realization has come to you, which brings you to a certain state of peace and stability within yourself irrespective of what is happening outside of you.
These are just seven different levels of intensity.

A pleasure seeker has more intensity to his life than someone whose life is just food and sleep. And the man who goes out to do work, who wants to create something in the world, he has much more intensity than a pleasure seeker. An artist or a creative person lives his life more intensely compared to these three people. If you move into Vishuddhi, it is a completely different dimension of intensity.

If you move to Agna, much higher. If you hit your Sahasrar, you will explode into unexplained ecstasies. Once your energies hit the Sahasrar, simply like crazy you are ecstatic. There is no external stimulant, there is simply no reason, but you are simply ecstatic because energies have touched a certain peak.

Any experience that happens within you is just a certain expression of your life energies. Anger, misery, peace, joy and ecstasy are different levels of expression for the same energy. So, the chakras are the seven different dimensions through which one can find expression.

(Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic and visionary, and a prominent spiritual leader. www.ishafoundation.org)