Ajna (Agnya) Chakra - 2

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Here you have three orthodox yoga meditations on the ajna chakra, as taught already in old times. 1. A golden flame between the eyebrows. 2. Create the imagination (visualization) of a golden sun between the eyebrows. 3. Imagine the symbol of OM (the cosmic sound) formed of golden light, shining between your eyebrows. Additional feel at the same position the vibrating sound of OM (AUM - as one special sound).

"The third eye." Located between the eyebrows, this chakra is the seat of intuition and awareness. Blockage manifests as sinus or eye problems.

Identity and Effects of Meditation

One who meditates on this chakra and stops the downward flow of this amrita, or nectar--by performing khechari mudra (*khe*, the ether; *chari*, "moving")--becomes immortal in this physical body. He is able to stop the process of aging, and thus he remains ever young and full of vitality and stamina. He obtains victory over disease, decay, and death, and enjoys eternal bliss through the union of Shiva and Shakti--the ultimate goal of Kundalini yoga.

Khechari mudra enhances the upward flow of energy, and the yogi is able to stay in Gagana Mandala, or Shunya Mandala, "the void", that is the hollow space between the twin hemispheres, which is known as the tenth gate of the body. It is located within Sahasrara, the seventh chakra. Soma Chakra is located in alignment with the middle of the forehead and is the seat of soma (the moon), amrita (nectar), and Kamadhenu. The color of Kamadhenu is white; her face is of a crow; her forehead is ahamkara (ego); and her eyes are human, of Brahmic nature. She has the horns of a cow, the neck of a horse, the tail of a peacock, and the wings of a white swan (hamsa).

"Soma", represented by the face with a chakra on the forehead, is sometimes considered a separate chakra, associated with the mental clarity to achieve enlightenment. It is located between the Ajna and Sahasrara chakras.

Located above the third eye in the center of the forehead, the soma chakra refers to the "nectar", *amrita*, of the lotus of twelve petals in the center of which rests the crescent moon, the source of nectar.

Light, Archetypal identity, oriented to self-reflection. This chakra is known as the brow chakra or third eye center. It is related to the act of seeing, both physically and intuitively. As such it opens our psychic faculties and our understanding of archetypal levels. When healthy it allows us to see clearly, in effect, letting us "see the big picture." Intuitive.

Governs intuition, thought ,inner and outer sight, visions ,dreams.

Known as: Brow Chakra, Ajna,

Ajna = knowing. Austerity.

Location: Between Eyebrows.

Color: Indigo

Beyond Element: Beyond. Spiritual vision, archangels

Attributes: Transcending Senses, Experiencing God-In-Self or Atman.

Desire: Becoming Non-Acquisitive, a neutral observer.

Activity: Mercy, Honesty and Forgiveness.

Sense: Telepathy

Deities: Each Chakra has a Manifestation of the Shiva and Shakti Deities. Ardhanarlshvara - Half-Male, Half-Female, Shiva-Shakti, No longer Separate. Hakini Shakti - Imparts Awareness of Non-Duality.

Symbol: White Circle, 2 Luminous Petals in which all the Elements are combined.

Mantra: Repetition of the powerful Bijan Mantra-Om. Elevates the speaker form everyday reality, through concentration, to the meditative state. Each Petal has a Sanskrit letter (Ham and Ksham).

The Brow Chakra is associated with the color indigo. It is also often referred to as the "third eye" or the "mind center." It is our avenue to wisdom - learning from our experiences and putting them in perspective. Our ability to separate reality from fantasy or delusions is in connection with the healthfulness of this chakra. Achieving the art of detachment beyond "small mindedness" is accomplished through developing impersonal intuitive reasoning. It is through an open brow chakra that visual images are received.Chakra Six - Associations

 

 

Color - indigo

 

Physical Location - center of the forehead

 

Purposes - action of ideas, insight, mind development

 

Spiritual Lesson - understanding, reality check point, detachment, open mind

 

Physical Dysfunctions- brain tumors, strokes, blindness, deafness, seizures, learning disabilities, spinal dysfunctions, panic, depression

 

Mental and Emotional Issues - fear of truth, discipline, judgement, evaluation, emotional intelligence, concept of reality, confusion

 

Information Stored Inside Sacral Chakra - seeing clear picture (symbolic or literal), wisdom, intuition, mental facilities, intellect

 

Area of Body Governed - brain, neurological system, eyes, ears, nose, pituitary, pineal glands

The Ajana or Third Eye Chakra, is located between the brows in the inward, center of the forehead. Its name means command, perception, knowledge, authority.

It is associated, in the body with the pituitary gland, eyes, brain, with the element light and also beyond the elements, and with the colors purple and indigo.

Human Challenge and Gift - to move from dualistic mind to intuitive neutral mind.

Soul Desire - to focus the mind, where one-pointed clarity and peace automatically occur.

Primal Relationship - with inner and cosmic knowledge.

Ajna , the sanskrit word for the 6th chakra, means to know, to percieve, to command. It is located in the head at or just above the 3rd eye level. The element associated with ajna is light. It's function is seeing and "intuiting". The verb that corresponds with this chakra is "I see".

The body parts affected by the 6th chakra are the pineal glad and the eyes. Malfunction of the 6th chakra can manifest in blindness, headaches, nightmares, eyestrain, and blurred vision.

The colors associated with the 6th chakra are indigo or royal purple (different sources say different things). Gemstones are lapis lazuli, quartz, florite, and amethyst. A metal for the 6th chakra is Silver.

For chanting, the seed sound is Om.

Herbs for incense are mugwort, star anise, acacia, and saffron. Food for ajna are "mind-altering substances". Jupiter is it's planet. The animal is the Owl.

This posture is one for both the 6th and 7th chakra.

SEATED YOGA MUDRA

The 6th chakra is the 3rd eye center at your forehead between your eyebrows. The 7th chakra is the crown of your head (or just above it). This posture draws attention to both chakra centers.

Begin by sitting on your heels. Bring your hands behind you to your sacrum. Interlace your hands and stretch your arms down. Stretch upward with your chest. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and open your chest.

Now, bend from your hips forward until you can go no farther before your back starts to round. Allow your back to round and bring your forehead down to the floor. Your forehead, the area of the third eye, is resting on the floor.

Raise your arms up behind you. Relax into this posture and breathe.

Now lift your buttocks off your heels and find yourself on your knees. Roll your head forward from the focus point being at the forehead to the crown of your head. This is the 7th chakra portion of the posture.

Continue to keep your arms engaged overhead and continue to breathe. Focus on the crown point.

To release from the posture, roll back to the forehead and come back to sitting on your heels. Let your arms come down and rest. Slowly, raise yourself up, with your head coming up slowly. It has been down for a while and you don't want to bring it up too quickly. Allow yourself to come back to balance.

Sit comfortably. Breathe effortlessly. Close your eyes. Allow your hands to rest on your knees or in your lap. Let the tension leave your body. Feel the peacefulness. In time, you will want to get up and go back to your daily activities.

Another yoga posture for the 6th chakra is palming your eyes, when you warm the palms of your hands by rubbing them together and then letting the hands rests on your eyes.

 

Color is very much associated with this chakra and you might try a color meditation to enhance the 6th chakra abilities. Visualization would also be good 6th chakra work.

This chakra is actually in the brain so it's nature is very mental. One finds inner vision as part of this chakra as well as actual seeing and outer vision. That is why the mystic and clairvoyant abilities are also associated with the 6th chakra.

This is a book about ajna chakra, the chakra of Tapa Loka. By doing tapas, by dint of austerity and hard work this chakra can be awakened so that new planes and dimer sions of consciousness are opened up. The ajna chakra is spiritually, psychically and practically the most important chakra because of its overall effects on the psychic personality of man.

When you hold your hands over your eyes or simply cbs your eyes and become aware of the area around the eyebrow centre, you see sparks of light, like the twinkling of stars; maybe large pulsating white light or a circle of coloured light. In sleep yo can see your dreams; in meditation your visions. Sometimes, th most wonderful poetry seems to pour through the mind or, when you are working and working on a problem until completely fatigued, you resign; then in a flash, with the power of the sun, th solution strikes you. All these phenomena involve the function of subtle states of mind beyond the level of everyday waking consciousness. The link between conscious man and these types of phenomena is through the ajna chakra.

Man is more than just nerves, flesh, muscles, bones an blood. Throughout the body there are subtle centres and nadi, psychic nerves, which are described as having variou colours, as seen by clairvoyants. There are 72,000 nadis in th body, of which 14 are principal nadis. Out of these the three mos important are named ida, pingala and sushunim. All psychic systems have their physical aspects in th body. The ida nadi functions through the sympathetic nervou system. The pingala nadi functions through the parasympathetic nervous system. These three important nadis are linked with the breath in the nostrils.

When the left nostril is flowing freely, ida is functioning. h this state the man is ready for mental and imaginary work. This is: the moon or female aspect in man. When the right nostril is flowin1 pingala is functioning; the man is full of physical vitality and he is ready for action and physical work. This is the sun or male aspec in man. Ida has a cooling effect, whereas pingala has a heating effect.

These three nadis run from the perenium at the base of the spine to the medulla oblongatta. Sushumna goes directly up through the centre of the spinal cord. Ida and pingala interweave crossing from opposite directions up to the top of the spinal column.

At the points where ida and pingala cross are the psychic centres, called chakras. In the perenium is muladhar; at the base of the spine is swadhistan (swadh~sthAn); behind the navel is manipur; in the area of the heart is anahat; in the neck is vishuddhi; and a little above it is ajna. At the back of the top of the head is bindu chakra, and in the crown of the head is sahasrar. Each of these chakras have their physical aspects in the glands and plexuses.

The physical aspects of ama chakra are the pharyngeal plexus and the pineal gland. Ajna means command. It is variously named trikuti, jnana netra, brumadhya, triveni, mukta triveni, siva netra, bramiriha. It is through this centre that the guru may be communicated with, and is hence often called the guru chakra.

Similarly, "extra sensory perception" phenomena are also perceived through the guru chakra.

It is during deep meditation on this chakra that it can be actually perceived in a form which various yogis have described similarly. During the practice of kundalini yoga, the awakening of man's latent psychic energy occurs and the full glory of the colours, forms, structures, and functions of the chakras is experienced.

 

 

This form opens the inner eye, the 6th Chakra: Ajna.

Mind as an element is held within the energy field of this chakra. Its nature is truly magnetic. Even in the fifth chakra where I called the power electromagnetic, the controlling factor of such energy is the magnetic line of force; its like the guide line.

For this reason, and others, the sixth chakra is called the command Center. In the energies that's what it is; likewise in our physiology, the brain is the basic command Center for the whole nervous system, and that in turn is the command Center for the rest of the body. This is where all of the inputs for the senses of the body come for processing. This is where our perceptions are focused into the image we perceive.

Each of the other senses has an influence on each of the chakras, but here at level 6 all those influences come together to form our view of reality. In the Yogic view there are 18 senses to be considered and understood. Eleven of those are windows out into the world through which we see conventional reality that most people agree on. Then there are 7 senses of inner perception that are psychic in nature; with these we view the mental world of our civilization. From clairvoyance to telepathy and empathy, these subtle inner senses allow us to see the unconscious world. Here we can put together the inner and outer worlds, the dream world and the "real" world.

This chakra is divided into two, Like the left and right hemispheres of the brain. What are being described by this is our own masculine and feminine functions of mind. The masculine is the more active side which decides and directs action whether they be mental or physical. The feminine is the more passive perception which observes what is going on. Obviously they both need to work together so that we are aware of what we are doing. However, it seems to be very few who have them working in balance.

In the glandular system it happens to be the pituitary gland that has the direct link to this magnetic energy. This is the grand master of the endocrine system. It puts out the hormones that influence hormonal production of all the other endocrine glands. This gland is also situated in the middle of your head, in the middle of all your thoughts. It has only been in very recent years that Western science discovered the relation between mind and body, yet in Yoga this has been understood for millennium.

Violet is the color associated with Ajna, and this color is made from the union of two others. The harmonious blending of colors is much like the essential function of this chakra; seeking to blend and unify, bringing pieces of the puzzle together to create a more complete picture. In this way we come to understand. Knowing may belong to the fifth chakra, but understanding what we know happens at the level of the sixth.

Ajna Chakra and Meditation

 

TheAjna Center

The sixth chakra is called Ajna which in Sanskrit means it is located between the eyebrows and is commonly known as the third eye. Within the symbolic representation of the Ajna center is the syllable Ohm which represents the beginning and end of all things. It is from this center that a person harmonizes the forces within him/herself and achieves a balance between Yin and Yang.

The third eye radiates a deep blue which in the developed personality borders on violet. It functions as the central point where different flows of Prana meet and are distributed. (Sushunma branches through it, and the Ida and Pingala go right through it after they branch off to the nostrils.) The chakra has control over seeing, not only in the physical sense but in the mystical sense of seeing into the higher planes; intuitive seeing, clairvoyance and the other paranormal forms of knowing. And when active, the seat of Divine Intelligence. The Ajna center controls all higher mental activities. This includes intuitive thought, rational thought and memory. Intuitive thought includes all forms of paranormal activity.

When the sixth chakra is active, consciousness and unconsciousness merge and whatever gulf there was beforehand is permanently abolished. Integration becomes complete and a person sees himself as the union of selves, the I AM. A person in this condition remembers and experiences himself at every stage of his life from the cradle upwards, and he remembers all those individual energy fields that combined to create his particular energy field, including those two most important fields "mother and father. Because his remembrance is complete, he can go beyond the point of terror, beyond the moment he first experienced separation from the universal field to a time when there was only union and unconditional love.

Ajna Meditation

In the Ajna meditation, you will get in touch with the quality which harmonizes everything within you. To begin the Ajna meditation, find a comfortable position with your back straight. Close your eyes and begin breathing deeply through your nose without separation between inhalation and exhalation, and feel yourself relaxing. Take your time and become conscious of your body by following your breath for about five minutes. After five minutes, bring your attention to your sixth chakra, between your eyebrows. Then bring your breath to your sixth chakra. On each inhalation feel the energy centered in your third eye grow stronger. You will feel it as a heat and intensity which will grow stronger on each inhalation.

As it grows more powerful, visualize the energy there as a ball of indigo light. Experience and visualize it growing stronger and brighter for about two or three minutes. Then feel your consciousness move upward until it reaches a point between your eyebrows and feel your consciousness centered in the ball of energy. Then become the ball of energy and feel yourself radiating from that center through your body and into the outer environment.

Feel yourself as the union of selves. Feel your mind radiate in all directions simultaneously and feel yourself fill the room with your consciousness. Pay attention to how you feel physically, emotionally and mentally. The more you are centered in the third eye, the more complete will be the union between consciousness and unconsciousness. In this condition you will feel what seems like an electrical current running through your physical body, and your entire head will begin to glow with the center of this fire being the third eye.

Take at least ten minutes for this part of the meditation. After ten minutes, or when you are satisfied, take a deep breath through your nose and as you exhale mentally repeat, "Every time I come to this level of consciousness, I learn to use more of my mind in more creative ways." Then let your breathing return to normal, release the ball of energy by your sixth chakra and the imagery associated with it and mentally return to the room and relax. After a few moments begin to count mentally from one to five and when you reach the number five, open your eyes. You will feel wide awake, perfectly relaxed and better than you did before.

The Ajna chakra is located in the region centred between the eyebrows.

Originally derived from sanskrit roots meaning 'to know' or 'to follow', ajna means 'to command'. It is here the three major nadi, the sushumna, ida and pingala merge into a single channel that continues up to the sahasrara chakra. Meditating on this chakra brings one into contact with the forces mediated by the 3 main nadi.

The inverted triangle (matching the one in the muladhara chakra, with which the ajna chakra is strongly associated) symbolises the creative, manifesting, 'mother'-force. Within the triangle, behind the OM, is the phallic linga, here symbolising the second form of perception of the astral body as a black form. The circle symbolises the void or no-thing, one of the attributes of Samhadi. The OM represents the higher consciousness. The two letters Ham and Ksham in the petals are the seed mantra of Shiva and Shakti respectively, thus representing Pure Consciousness and its Power of Action respectively (Shiva is also another form of the female life force, mother of the universe). Shiva is understood as residing in the Sahasrara chakra, while Shakti resodes in the Muladhara, again stressing the ling between the two.

Sixth Chakra - Brow Chakra - Purple

The sixth chakra is the brow chakra, also called the chakra of the third eye. The color assigned to this chakra is indigo, or purple. This is the chakra of intuition, of thought and of spirituality.If you have a healthy sixth chakra, you are at peace with yourself, and are able to study and investigate issues of spirituality. You will also be able to develop your psychic awareness.If, on the other hand, your sixth chakra is unhealthy or closed, it could cause you to jump from idea to idea with little focus. It could also cause you to cling to a single idea without any ability to even consider or discuss any other idea- hence 'close minded'.If your aim is to open and clear your sixth chakra, try working with amethyst or lapis lazuli. Focus on the spot just above and between your two physical eyes. You may get a glimpse of your third eye, usually very beautiful, looking right back at you. Even if you don't see it you may become aware of it. You may imagine a deep blue flower gently opening its petals wide.If the issue is that you that you are overwhelmed with psychic information and it is interfering in your everyday life you may ask the chakra to gently close. Either visualise the third eyelid closing or petals of a blue flower folding softly inwards.

The Sixth Chakra

Within each of us lies the capacity to be a finely tuned receptor for psychic signals and clairvoyant sight. The sixth chakra is the source of internal visions, telepathy, and intuition. Located at the level of the forehead, this chakra, known also as the third eye, or Anja, is the energy center from which we draw our dreams, memories, and visions. From the sixth chakra, we gain the ability to discern the truth and see the past, present, and future in detail. The blessings that come into our lives are often the result of the images we are able to perceive via the sixth chakra. In Sanskrit, Anja means both "to perceive" and "to command," because when this chakra is strong, visualization is the first step in manifesting your desires. Associated with the imagination and big picture thinking, the sixth chakra can be visualized as a deep indigo lotus with only two petals. Like its element, light, it is the source of all seeing. Weakness or imbalance of the Anja chakra can lead to oversensitivity, lack of discipline, and a strong fear of success. An overabundance of sixth chakra energy often results in spiritual arrogance, unhealthy pride, and an inability to see what is in front of oneself. A balanced third eye is open to guidance from all the other chakras. The visualization capacity of this chakra can be nurtured and honed by focusing on the body's other chakra centers and filling that body part with the appropriate color of light. Balancing your Anja chakra can have a positive effect on many vision and sinus ailments, headaches, and learning disabilities. It is possible to stimulate the sixth chakra directly by listening to energetic, dynamic music, playing drums, practicing hand mudras, or exposing the chakra to mugwort, lapis lazuli, sapphire, or quartz. Doing so can help you get in touch with your innate psychic abilities, access buried memories, and improve your intuitive senses. It can also give you an increased sense of confidence and power, because it is the third eye that makes your dreams yours to imagine and then create.