The fourth chakra, of love

It is a lovely chakra, poised between the animal and the divine. If flowing well, and with balance, it makes you love the world, love yourself sensibly, it has pure relationships, sex is sublimated (and is not just a roll in the hay:), it extends your self in several directions making you do several things from various fields without tiring you out, it responds to the sense of the divine in simple things and particularly in the unstuck sound. Sound leads it  It is the fount of pure joy (ananda kanda)

Here is where you begin to toy with the idea of renunciation, even if remaining within the world. Here, once the flow becomes balanced,  you begin to inspire others towards your way of living and thinking. Here the sense of detachment becomes absolute, and complete. People feel at peace in your presence. It encourages telepathy, so that u if you think of someone or have a certain thing u wish to communicate, you can do that without thinking. There is a lot of action, but it is all centered and focused and is creative and flowing. The sense organs are under control. Communication becomes fine and physical strength is attained.

Here, the kundalini shakti, whose normal movement is often downward(she moves up and sinks back down in all of use), begins to rise up. If the balance of the chakra is maintained, her upward path becomes smooth and certain.

Awareness of breath is keen here. Sounds reach one into a state of complete surrender and devotion.  U hear the white noise:)

None of this is my own, let me make it very clear at the onset. It is how lyrically Harish Johari, whom I believe is the most intuitive of chakra masters, describes this delicately poised chakra. The sense of the sacred is reached:) (Symbols associated with this chakra are air, deer, the self as guru, Shiva as guru and is the eternal one (sada shiva) and the hexagram.

When flowing, it makes you charitable, do holy deeds, inspires playfulness and joy...

When it is out of balance, you feel cruelty, jealously irritation, lethargy, sleep, makes you plot to do silly and cruel thing...lack of strength, diseases from childhood experiences, problems of the heart, circulation, lungs and respiration.

(From Sanatan Society site, of Harish Johari)

Here, it is very crucial to point to some of these chakra `masters' who all promise to make your chakra flow... the damnedest thing is, sometimes it may be overflowing... then think of the damage... u don't have quick-fixes in this .. it calls for life-style overhaul, revamp of the attitude... and dedicated practice. It cannot be done over a two-hour workshop for which some fancy money is charged:)

Sometimes I see my students do a yo-yo in practice and I have agonised about that.. But the kundalini shakti does not like to show herself to everybody. I realise the drop in performance, the arrogance on the mat, the ego, the inability to sustain, even disease, is her way of blocking the path of someone.Something precious cannot be reached or attained too cheaply.

So I have stopped despairing. Niyati means the grace which chooses to reveal itself.

So, the yo-yo goes on and on and on, and I just watch... and do not even wait:)