Muladhara, the Realm of Memory

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Muladhara, the Realm of Memory

 

The chakras do not awaken. They are already awakened in everyone. It

only seems as if they awaken as we become aware of flowing our energy

through them, because energy, willpower and awareness are one and the

same thing. To become conscious of the core of energy itself, all we

have to do is detach awareness from the realms of reason, memory and

aggressive, intellectual will. Then, turning inward, we move from one

chakra to another. The physical body changes as these more refined

energies flow through it and the inner nerve system, called nadis,

inwardly becomes stronger and stronger. The muladhara chakra is the

memory center, located at the base of the spine, and is physically

associated with the sacral or pelvic nerve plexus. Mula means " root "

and adhara means " support, " so this is called the root chakra. Its

color is red. It governs the realms of time and memory, creating a

consciousness of time through the powers of memory. Whenever we go

back in our memory patterns, we are using the forces of the muladhara.

 

This chakra is associated also with human qualities of individuality,

egoism, materialism and dominance. Man lives mostly in this chakra

during the first seven years of life. This center has four " petals " or

aspects, one of which governs memories of past lives. The other three

contain the compiled memory patterns and interrelated karmas of this

life. When this chakra is developed, people are able to travel on the

astral plane. It is complete within itself, but when the first two

chakras are charged with gross, instinctive impulses and developed

through Western education, with its values and foibles which

contradict Hindu dharma, they can create together a very strong odic

force which, when propelled by the worldly will of the third chakra

toward outer success and power, can dominate the mind and make it

nearly impossible for awareness to function in the higher force

centers, so great is the material magnetism. Men living fully in these

lower three chakras therefore say that God is above them, not knowing

that " above " is their own head and they are living " below, " near the

base of the spine.

 

You have seen many people living totally in the past -- it's their

only reality. They are always reminiscing: " When I was a boy, we used

to... Why, I remember when... It wasn't like this a few years ago... "

On and on they go, living a recollected personal history and usually

unaware that they have a present to be enjoyed and a future to be

created. On and on they go, giving their life force energies to the

task of perpetuating the past. The muladhara forces are not negative

forces. Used and governed positively by the higher centers, the powers

of time, memory and sex are transmuted into the very fuel that propels

awareness along the spinal climb and into the head. Similarly, the

mature lotus blossom cannot in wisdom criticize the muddy roots far

below which, after all, sustain its very life.

 

The center of man's reasoning faculties lies in the second, or

hypogastric, plexus, below the navel. It is termed svadhishthana,

which in Sanskrit means " one's own place. " Its color is reddish

orange. Once the ability to remember has been established, the natural

consequence is reason, and from reason evolves the intellect. Reason

and intellect work through this chakra. We open naturally into this

chakra between the ages of seven and thirteen, when we want to know

why the sky is blue and the " whys " of everything. If very little

memory exists, very little intellect is present. In other words,

reason is the manipulation of memorized information. We categorize it,

edit it, rearrange it and store the results. That is the essence of

the limited capacity of reason. Therefore, this center controls the

muladhara, and in fact, each progressively " higher " center controls

all preceding centers. That is the law. In thinking, solving problems,

analyzing people or situations, we are functioning in the domain of

svadhishthana.

 

This center has six " petals " or aspects and can therefore express

itself in six distinct ways: diplomacy, sensitivity, cleverness,

doubt, anxiety and procrastination. These aspects or personae would

seem very real to people living predominantly in this chakra. They

would research, explore and wonder, " Why? Why? Why? " They would

propose theories and then formulate reasonable explanations. They

would form a rigid intellectual mind based on opinionated knowledge

and accumulated memory, reinforced by habit patterns of the

instinctive mind.