Common sense understanding of Energy centers or chakras!

The purpose of this note here is to bring about an understanding of the

fundamentals of spiritual existence of a human being, brought about through
conversations between seekers and their knowledgeable friend Neel!

This is about Neel and his circle of friends and their interactions on various
topics, during their good old college days!

Neel was the 'go-to'guy during the college days. However, that was only for people
who were the seekers, who wished to understand life at a layer deeper than what
others strived to understand it or cared to understand!

Issues related to comprehension of topics of the academics, extra curricular

activities, mind and its vagaries, dynamics of human body, complications with life
and relationships, rulers of the land and the ideal world scenario, astrology
numerology, mind reading, body language..et all, were the subject of intense
discussions. Neel was there for all, and others contributed too, but Neel
invariably provided a new dimension to most matters at hand, with a generous
sprinkling of metaphysical or spiritual implications if any.

Neels ability to do that stemmed from the fact that, he was an avid reader with an
inquisitive mind and an unparalled thrust to know more in life. His pursuit of
knowledge was amply aided by his frequent paatha ( study) with his venerable Guru!

Neel Som, Meeta & Shilpa formed a close circle of friends, they bonded during the
time they climbed the college stairs for the first time and from then onwards their
bonding was'unbreakable'.

Today, the 24th of November, 2007, was another day at the college! They had a
computer lab, where they usually enjoyed themselves a lot, especially over
programming of small codes in "C" language, that resulted in small useful
applications!

Som was working on a small payroll application, that had to deduct a percentage of
tax, applicable as per the prevailing rates of the Income tax slabs. After working
intently for 2 hours and after a couple of erratic outputs, a logical loop was
programmed in and voila, the tax deduction was perfect!

"Got it!" Som punched his first in the air and looked around happily. Neel, Meeta
and Shilpa had finished their apps and were chatting away waiting for Som, just
outside the lab. Som signed off on the register and made his way out to where his
friends stood.

As was customary amongst this circle, Som went for a 'fist bump' gesture with Neel.
"EOWW " shouted Neel shaking his hand just as he touched his fist with Som's, as
there was an electrical spark emanating from Soms hand!

"Oh, am sorry Neel" said Som. "what happened"? shouted Meeta and Shilpa in unision.

"Hey,that was a 'static', No worries Somy! It came from your long hours of work on
a computer"

"How did that happen and it keeps happening with me" complained Som.

"Som, you have more power on your finger tips, that we imagined" said Meeta
pretending to look at Som with an awe and the winked at others, everyone laughing
out.
"Meetu, stop kidding me. Neel, any idea why that happened?"

"Static electricity builds when electrons leap between two objects that have
opposing electrical charges. A stunning handshake occurs when one person has a
negative charge, and the other doesn't. The static builds up also because of the
floor material and the personnel footwear" said Neel pointing to Som's sports
shoes.

"Neel, I was thinking Som has stored excess energy owing to his pranayama and yoga
sessions you know?" said Shilpa again with a laugh.

"Shilp, jokes apart, is there a connection between the two? After all, they both
are energies one way or the other" said Som.

" Connections between Static and our bio energy? hmmm...food for thought" chirped
Meeta. Som smiled at Meeta with the satisfaction that he was instrumental in
bringing out the topic of discussion.

"It is scientifically proved* that our cells have electric system in them. The
electricity in cells is because of the charged atoms or ions and that in electronic
devices are charged electrons. The movement of charged electrons or charged ions in
our cell in a particular flow, creates electromagnetic energy. Praana in our body
also moves around in the form of electromagnetic energy" said Neel.

" Praana? Hmmm.... Now is there a link between Praana and the energy centers,
called Chakraas?" sought Shilpa.

" yes, Neel. Wanted to check on the Chakras for a long time now, as there is so
much being said about Chakras and balancing of the Chakras and the stuff like that"
said Som.

"Sure, why not? Lets go to the cafeteria and go discuss there" said Neel.

"Yes, lets do that".

As that was a saturday, the lab session was their last period. They had enough time
to relax and talk about this topic. They quickly walked to their cafeteria, which
had seats in a nice lawn. A massive Almond tree stood in the lawn overseeing a
four-seater round table, which Neel and his friends often frequented.

"Wow, not much of rush today, we can spend good time as this place!" blurted out a
happy Shilpa.

They ordered for fruit cocktails and quickly made way to their seats.

"There is a lot of talk, especially in the west, on Kundalini yoga and chakra
therapy and stuff like that. Why, there are Chakra alignment and balancing centers
out there in US too" said Meeta as she sat down along with the other three.

" Yes, its been a kind of craze for these kind of stuffs, off late" said Neel and
continued " As I earlier mentioned, Praana is a kind of electromagnetic energy,
which moves around in the body, along a distinct path, called as Naadis.In fact the
movement of Praanic ions creates these paths. Like a consistent flow of water
creates rivers or nadi-s, so would a consistent flow of Praana create Naadi-s.
However, these Naadi-s are very subtle and can't be seen by bare eyes and can be
seen by a yogic vision. I know you'd want to know about Yogic vision, but let me
take that up later, as we are talking about Chakra-s now".
"Sure" they all echoed.

"Chakra's are nothing but energy flow junctions. When Praana in its movement
through various naadi-s meet at a point, that is a Chakra. They are naadi
junctions. They appear like a chakra or a wheel or a circle, as they have spokes of
naadis criss crossing through these junctions. Imagine a group of people standing
in a circle flashing their torch lights in various directions. Where a few beams
meet, the same would appear as a bright spot and would appear circular in dimension
and brightness. Could you imagine that?"

"Yes, I can imagine that it appears so" quipped Meeta.

As they spoke the Cafetaria waiter brought in various fruit juices, in various
mouthwatering flavors, and left them at their table! They each had a sip and then
continued their conversation, in between tasty sips of fresh fruit juices!

"Right. Chakra also means 'host'. They host the vital Praana and are virtual energy
store houses! They are called as Chakra also because they embody movement from one
dimension to the other, a fact you'd understand when I explain each major chakra in
detail. There are thousands of Chakra-s, prominent among them being 108 that yogis
work upon. Out of those, 6-7 chakra-s are most prominent and are fixed at points
along the spine, though subtly and not physically.

"What is their function? Why should we know about them?" queried Som.

"The major function of a Chakra is to function akin to how an electrical switch

functions at home.When you keep a switch on, the electrical equipments start
functioning. Similarly, these chakra-s are switches and the organs in our body are
the equipments. Unfortunately, we are aware of only the organs, but don't quite
understand the switches at all. When any organ in our body fails, we repair or
replace it. But did you know, if we work on the switches, the organs would not
fail?"

"Oh wow. So is that how yogis are know to live hundred of years and still look
young?" asked Shilpa.

" How do you know that Shilpa?" asked Meeta.

"I had read it a few magazines and had seen a book 'Living with Himalayan masters'
by Swami Rama, that talked about Yogis, living for hundred of years. Its not only
that. Swami Rama claims that his Guru had indicated when he would die and when
Swami Rama pleaded to him to live a few more years to guide him on the path of
Saadhana, his Guru agreed and asked him how many years he would require guidance to
which Swami Rama said 10 years. His Guru agreed and told him a date exactly after
10 years that he would relinquish this body. And lo and behold, he left his body
exactly on the given date after 10 years. I read just a few chapters when I was at
my Uncles house in Bangalore" said Shilpa excitedly.

" Oh great Shilpa, very nice incident you brought out from that famous book by
Swami Rama. I too had the fortune of reading that classic. Yes, Yogis take control
of the chakras thereby controlling their physical organs and live a very long life
of intense sadhana" said Neel.

" Oh my God! Thats suuper to know!! Neel, how do we get to see the chakra-s?" asked
Som excited akin to a man who has been given a map to some hidden treasure!

"As I said the yogic vision would do that.Yogic vision, in simple, is seeing things
with the svarupa (original body) eye. It's a vision that one develops, where they
render the external organs redundant through eight fold yoga (called Ashtaanga
yoga) and then build their internal vision, which sees a simlar universe as
outside, but totally inside and much more beautiful than what you see outside. You
have scriptures which says 'Yatha brahmaande, tathaa pindande' as in whats in
brahmaanda (egg shaped universe) similarly you can see in pindanda ( egg shaped
body having soul inside)"

"Oh. I know its something very difficult to achieve. Is there no short method to do
that?" Som interjected.

"No Somy. However, some people do get to see it very quickly. If you have read
'Aghora' a classic written by Robert Svoboda, you'd know that Swami Vimalananda
achieved that very fast"

"So, how was that?" chipped in Meeta.

"Well, to understand that you need to understand that these achievements are
destinations in your path of saadhana. And Saadhana is not a thing of one life. It
gets carried over to various lives and a person who has completed most of his
saadhana but had to leave his body owing to the need of the destiny, might be able
to achieve it in a faster time in his new life, as he has just to connect to his
inner minds and he would quickly achieve by doing what little is left over"

"Somy should try doing that, as it appears his excess energy is but a store from
his past life and is overflowing now" said Shilpa winking and everyone burst out
laughing.

" Jokes apart guys, anything is possible. So the first thing you can try out Somy
is, to take your mind inwards. Try focussing on your Praana-breath here as there is
a strong connection between Praana and mind. Once you are able to calm your mind by
observing your Praana, then imagine golden circular rings along your spine which
are slowly moving up in concentric circles from the bottom of the spine upwards.
Practice this for some time and when you actually start seeing some movement
upwards, let go and then your mind would show you phenomenal lights of various
colors. With this incentive, you could go in deeper and see the flow of Praana akin
to thin flash lights inside. I am practicing this myself now, as advised by my
revered Guru" said Neel with a glow of happiness of thinking about his own
meditative experience!

"Suuper Neel, I would do that today and this very evening. Thanks a ton Neel. It
was a great evening for us today. You took us to a different world today. Don't
feel like coming out of it. But cant help right now. Will try to get inside the
real internal world today" Som said, not feeling great about getting out of the
great vision Neel showed today.

"You are right Som. It was an amazing experience today! Feel like listening more,
but as you said, we would try the meditation out ourselves and try and experience
it ourselves" said Shilpa.

"very true" echoed Meeta.

"Guys, I have just covered the tip of the iceberg, that is our energy centers. The
next time we squat for a discussion, I would explain to you the physical and
spiritual dimensions of each Chakra and what that means to us and our well being"

"Sure Neel, we would look forward to our next meet then!" echoed all.

With this ecstatic experience, the friends walked out of the cafeteria and then to
their respective homes, eager to contemplate on what Neel shared today and to top
it up with their sojourn into the beautiful individual inner experiences! They were
however unaware of further beautiful and amazing revealations on our energy
centers, that Neel would cover next!

Their conversations would continue bringing us more insights into matters that are
in the realms of yogis!

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* Mr. Robert Charman in his paper on electrical properties of cells and tissues
detailed the cell as an electric system. The main difference between electricity in
biological systems and electricity in electronic devices is that cells and tissues
are charged atoms or ions, while electronic devices are based on electrons. Mr. Von
Braun at the institute of Neotic Sciences said that: We know that the human eye
functions a bit like television camera as it sends electrical pulses to the brain.
Our ear is a sort of microphone which converts the incoming sound into equivalent
electrical signal which is routed to the brain. The body produces many electrical
signals, which can be measured with the help of ECG, EEG and EMG etc. Our brain
contains neurons which uses electrical pulses. Cell voltage is influenced by
external electromagnetic fields and have effect based on its polarity and strength