The Chakras and the Senses

Correspondences Between the Seven Chakras and the Senses

Mooladhara (Root Support) – Smell

The Mother Earth expresses Herself in the fragrance of flowers growing from the earth element. Studies have shown that mothers and their babies can recognise one another through the sense of smell. The Mooladhara is associated with fragrance, innocence and the simple purity of childhood. Smell is our most primal sense, linked to memory, instinct and survival, reflecting the grounding and protective qualities of this centre.

Swadisthana (Sacral) – Taste

The Swadisthana is governed by the goddess Shri Saraswati, the Goddess of eloquence and creativity, who also rules the tongue, the organ of taste. She bestows art, music and aesthetic refinement, and we often speak of aesthetic "taste". Taste involves discernment and enjoyment, transforming nourishment into experience, just as this chakra transforms inspiration into creative expression.

Nabhi (Manipura) – Sight

The Nabhi is the abode of the goddess Shri Lakshmi, celebrated during Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Light is required for seeing. Sight allows us to perceive form, direction and possibility, qualities that resonate with the Nabhi's associations with purpose, balance and sustaining wellbeing. Fire, the traditional element of this centre in many systems, illuminates and reveals. The element for the Nabhi, and he Void (Ocean of Illusion) surrounding it, is water; however, it is orbited by the Swadisthana chakra, which is the fire element.

Anahata (Heart) – Touch

Something is described as "touching" when it opens the heart to feeling and compassion. Physical touch conveys affection, comfort and reassurance. The element of the heart centre is air: the breeze felt upon the skin, gentle yet impossible to grasp. Touch reminds us of our interconnectedness and our capacity for empathy, love and human closeness.

Vishuddhi (Throat) – Hearing

The Vishuddhi governs communication, and speech is inseparable from hearing. This centre is associated with ether or space, the subtle element through which sound travels. Shri Krishna, the aspect of the Divine ruling the Vishuddhi, is sometimes depicted blowing a conch, whose call carries across great distances. Hearing requires receptivity: before we speak truthfully, we must learn to listen deeply.

Agnya (Brow) – Insight

Beyond the five physical senses lies the faculty of inner vision: imagination, intuition and insight. The Agnya chakra is associated with witnessing, perception and the ability to discern what lies beneath appearances. Through this inner seeing, we recognise patterns, meanings and possibilities that cannot be apprehended by the ordinary senses alone.

Sahasrara (Crown) – The Sense of Truth

The opening of the Sahasrara chakra brings awareness of the Divine and of the Self as absolute truth. From this centre arises a subtle sense of truth that may be felt through all the senses and beyond them. The Goddess, abiding at the Sahasrara, unites and enlightens them all. Here, the diversity of perception resolves into a direct experience of unity, wisdom and pure consciousness.

The Queen and Governess of the World

A few quotes from the 17th century English Puritan preacher and author Thomas Watson:

"The providence of God is 'the queen and governess of the world.' It is the eye which sees, and the hand which turns all the wheels in the universe."

"Meditation is the saints’ perspective glass, by which they see “things invisible.” It is the golden ladder by which they ascend in holy imagination to heaven. It is the dove sent out, and which brings back the olive-branch of peace."

"The wheels of a chariot are an emblem of contentment: the wheels move, the axle stirs not. When change and motion are around us, a contented spirit remains firm in its centre."

The Wheel of Fortune, from John Lydgate’s Troy Book and Siege of Thebes

 

The Lady Truth

Petrarch and Laura de Noves, Ashmolean Museum

“Often have I wondered with much curiosity as to our coming into this world and what will follow our departure. When I was ruminating lately on this matter, not in any dream as one in sickness and slumber, but wide awake and with all my wits about me, I was greatly astonished to behold a very beautiful Lady, shining with an indescribable light about her. She seemed as one whose beauty is not known, as it might be, to mankind. I could not tell how she came there, but from her raiment and appearance I judged her a fair Virgin, and her eyes, like the sun, seemed to send forth rays of such light that they made me lower my own before her, so that I was afraid to look up.”

“it occurred to me this could be none other than Truth herself.”

-Petrarch, Secretus

Shri Nanakiji

 

Nanaka and Nanaki, digital edit, by Jeronimus, of Indian calendar art

Shri Nanakiji (Bibi Nanaki ji) was the older sister of Shri Guru Nanakaji, the founder of the Sikh religion.

She recognised her brother's holiness, from his infancy, and became a protective mother figure to him. She encouraged her brother's spiritual life, and was his first follower (the first Sikh). She suggested that he use music as a vehicle for spreading his teaching.

Shri Mataji has identified Nanaki as an incarnation of the Goddess, Devi. Shri Devi is the fiercely protective warrior aspect of the Goddess, but sometimes she takes birth as a close relative of great spiritual masters, to give them support in a quieter role.

Devi Mahatmyam Audio Book

 

The Divine Feminine as Wisdom in the Bible

Despite the devotion expressed towards Her in the Bible, the Feminine aspect of God has been neglected in the Christian churches (particularly the Protestant churches), some would say, to their detriment. This is no doubt due to the bias of an all male priesthood.

She is personified as Wisdom in The Book of Proverbs, in the Old Testament, and invoked in The Book of Wisdom, which is considered canonical, and part of the Old Testament, by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, though not by all Protestants.

She is described as having existed before the Creation (perhaps always) and as the agent through which it was achieved. She is considered to be the Breath of God, and the manifestation of His power. Like the Holy Spirit (who some believe is the same being, and therefore a feminine, motherly aspect of the Holy Trinity) She is present in those who have the pure desire for God.

For She is the breath of the power of God,
and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty:
therefore no defiled thing can fall into Her.
For She is the brightness of the everlasting light,
the unspotted mirror of the power of God,
and the image of His goodness.
And being but one, She can do all things:
and remaining in Herself, She makes all things new:
and in all ages entering into holy souls,
She makes them friends of God, and prophets.

-The Book of Wisdom 7:25-27





Luca Giordano, Allegory of Divine Wisdom, National Gallery, London (detail)

Shri Durga

Goddess Durga, 19th century lithograph from Bengal.

The Hindu goddess, Shri Durga, is worshipped at this time of year, especially in Bengal, to celebrate Her victory over evil forces.

The ancient Persian goddess, Anahita, has many similarities to Shri Durga: both were originally warrior goddesses (although in the case of Anahita, later becoming more associated with water and the fertility of the earth), both are virgin goddesses, and both have a lion vehicle.

The Egyptian lion-headed warrior goddess Sekhmet is also similar. She was seen as a fierce protector of the Pharaohs. Her name means 'power' or 'might', and one of her epithets was "One before whom evil trembles".

Depiction of a lion-riding Iranic Goddess from the Kama River Valley in what is now Russia

Four-armed goddess, seated on a lion, from ancient Chorasmia, an Iranian civilisation in western Central Asia

Sekhmet

Inner Balance

Centredness is essential for spiritual ascent. Being in a state of balance: neither in the future nor the past, neither planning nor regretting, neither overactive nor lethargic.

According to fluid dynamics, at the centre of the stream the current is greatest. It is there that we are free of the snags and friction of the river banks, and we are carried along effortlessly.

Shri Mahalakshmi is the aspect of the Divine who gives us balance and gives us our ascent through the central channel of the inner subtle system. She resides at the centre of this subtle system, in the Nabhi (navel) Chakra, the colour of which is green, a balance of yellow and blue, the colours of the right and left channels respectively.

God-Mother

God-Mother from Nina Paley on Vimeo.

Shri Virata

On the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Lord Krishna appeared to Prince Arjuna as Vishwarupa, the universal form, all that is. All the worlds, deities, sages, and peoples appeared within this total form of Lord Vishnu. Another word for this omni-form is Virata. 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has explained that the Virata is the integrated brain and nervous system of the Divine, which can be awakened within us. It is the totality. It is everything that exists, the body of the Cosmos. It is also reflected within each human being as the subtle system of chakras and energy channels.

Kahlil Gibran Exhibition

Kahlil Gibran and the Feminine Divine

JEPSON CENTERApril 21, 2017–January 2, 2018

Renowned for his literary masterpiece The Prophet(1923), Lebanese-American artist and writer Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) began experimenting with the visual arts at a young age. Telfair Museums boasts the largest public collection of visual art by Kahlil Gibran in the United States, donated in 1950 by his lifelong supporter and mentor, Southern native Mary Haskell Minis. This exhibition concentrates on works that capture Gibran’s enduring belief in the oneness of all things, often characterized in his paintings and drawings as the feminine divine.

His representation of goddess imagery not only reflects his holistic belief in a Universal Spirit, embodied through symbolic female figures, but also reveals the powerful influence women exerted in his own life, molding him into the visionary poet and artist known to the world today. Gibran’s visual and literary works continue to inspire and resonate, as evidenced through contemporary women artists like Sawsan Al-Saraf, Sundus Abdul Hadi, and Tamara Abdul Hadi, whose work will be presented from May 26 through September 10 in the Jepson Center, creating a powerful dialogue between exhibitions.

Funding is provided by the City of Savannah’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

Kahlil Gibran
Mother Earth from Earth Gods, c. 1931
watercolor and pencil on paper
gift of Mary Haskell Minis, 1950; 1950.8.10

Happy Navaratri

Devi Mahatmyam

Detail from an illustration to the Markandeya Purana, a Hindu text containing the Devi Mahatmyam, an account of the heroic martial exploits of the Goddess Devi as she protects the world from evil forces. 

The Fountain

The Fountain
by St. John of the Cross

English version by Willis Barnstone

How well I know that flowing spring
in black of night.

The eternal fountain is unseen.
How well I know where she has been
in black of night.

I do not know her origin.
None. Yet in her all things begin
in black of night.

I know that nothing is so fair
and earth and firmament drink there
in black of night.

I know that none can wade inside
to find her bright bottomless tide
in black of night.

Her shining never has a blur;
I know that all light comes from her
in black of night.

I know her streams converge and swell
and nourish people, skies and hell
in black of night.

The stream whose birth is in this source
I know has a gigantic force
in black of night.

The stream from but these two proceeds
yet neither one, I know, precedes
in black of night.

The eternal fountain is unseen
in living bread that gives us being
in black of night.

She calls on all mankind to start
to drink her water, though in dark,
for black is night.

O living fountain that I crave,
in bread of life I see her flame
in black of night.

Ghent Altarpiece (detail), Jan van Eyck.

St. John of the Cross was a Spanish Christian mystic and poet of the 16th century.

The Eternal Fountain is an image of the Kundalini, the nourishing energy of the Holy Spirit, which John describes as the feminine aspect of the Divine.

Phra Mae Thorani

Phra Mae Thorani is a Thai and Laotian Earth Mother goddess sometimes depicted beneath images of the Buddha. 

The water she wrings from her hair represents detachment, which drowns the demons sent to distract the Buddha from attaining enlightenment.

The Buddha is often depicted with one hand touching the Earth, as a sign that he is seeking the Mother's aid in attaining liberation. This Earth-touching gesture is called the Bhumisparsha Mudra, and signifies the moment when the Demon Mara (delusion) challenged the Buddha's right to gain enlightenment. Mara claimed that his own spiritual achievements surpassed those of the Buddha, and his countless demon soldiers attested to this. The Buddha, in turn, called on the Mother Earth to attest to his worthiness. The testimony of a deity as important as the Earth Goddess trumped that of Mara's army.

Reading about The Buddha's use of the Mother Earth reminded me of the importance of regularly sitting on the ground (weather permitting). It gives a firm foundation to one's meditative practice, and an 'earth', in the electrical sense, for superfluous or unbalanced energies in the body and mind.
While sitting on the ground you can respectfully ask the Mother Earth to remove your physical and spiritual problems. This is something Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has recommended.

Goddess Excellently Bright

Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,

Now the sun is laid to sleep,

Seated in thy silver chair

State in wonted manner keep:

         Hesperus entreats thy light,

         Goddess excellently bright.

Earth, let not thy envious shade

Dare itself to interpose;

Cynthia's shining orb was made

Heaven to clear when day did close:

         Bless us then with wished sight,

         Goddess excellently bright.

Lay thy bow of pearl apart

And thy crystal-shining quiver;

Give unto the flying hart

Space to breathe, how short soever:

         Thou that mak'st a day of night,

         Goddess excellently bright.

-Ben Jonson (1572-1637), English poet and playwright

Johannes Vermeer, Diana and Her Companions (1650s).

In this painting, possibly the earliest existing work by the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer, female companions of the goddess Diana (Artemis) solemnly wash her feet. 

The theme of women in quiet, reflective moments would become a recurring feature of Vermeer's work as it developed.

The hart (deer), object of the chase, is a symbol of the god Shiva (the Self) residing in the heart. The goddess of chastity, Diana, crowned with the moon, resembles the Hindu goddess Parvati, whose sole aim was to win the love of Lord Shiva and become one with the Self.

A Joyful Christmas

William Blake, The Virgin and Child in Egypt, 1810, tempera on canvas.

Dear reader, wishing you a joyful, peaceful and safe Christmas.

Shri Durga

We are presently at the culmination of Navaratri, a nine night festival dedicated to Shri Durga, the fiercely protective Mother Goddess, who defeated the demonic forces threatening her children: the gods and human beings.

"The greatest thing is the blessings of the Mother, the way She looks after you, the way She loves you and the way She cares for you, which you should never take for granted. You must meditate, it's very important. No question, without meditation you can't keep yourself all right, it's no question. Meditation is the most important thing which must be followed, because that's how you come close to Her vibrations, come to Her nature."

-Shri Mataji Nirmal Devi, Navaratri 2002

Bede Griffiths

Bede Griffiths was a British-born Indian Benedictine monk who lived in South India and became a noted yogi. He has become a leading thinker in the development of the dialogue between Christianity and Hinduism. 

Happy Christmas