New-agey types always talk of anahata, sahasrar or agna chakras. But what of the “lowest,” the muladhara? Isn’t it important at all? Sadhguru explains why this oft-overlooked chakra is of great consequence to a seeker.
If you look at the human body just after conception, it is just a tiny ball of meat. That tiny ball of meat has slowly arranged itself into what it is now. To arrange itself in this particular way, there is a kind of software which is known as pranamaya kosha or energy body. The energy body forms itself first and the physical body starts manifesting over that. If there are any distortions in the energy body, they will also manifest in the physical body. It is because of this that in this culture, when a woman was pregnant, she used to go to the temple and get blessings from people – they were trying to influence the energy body. If a pregnant woman has a very vibrant, well-formed energy body, she will deliver a very capable human being.
Foundation Matters
The muladhara is the foundation of the energy body. Nowadays, people think the muladhara is the lowest chakra and not worth working upon. Anyone who thinks the foundation is something we needn’t take care of is living in a fool’s paradise. The foundation is the most important thing. The muladhara is the most important thing. When we do Yoga, we are more focused on the muladhara than anything else because if you stabilize this, the rest is easy to create. If the foundation of the building is loose and we try to hold up the building, it will be a daily circus. That is what has happened to human life – holding themselves in some state of balance and wellbeing every day is a circus for most human beings. But if your muladhara is stable, life or death, you will be stable because your foundation is good and we can fix the other things later. But if the foundation is unstable, anxiety is natural.
Perils of experience-hunting
If Grace has to transmit itself, you need to have an appropriate body. If you do not have an appropriate body and Grace descends on you big time, you will only fuse out. Many people want big experiences but they are not willing to transform their body to be able to conduct those experiences. So many in the world have lost their minds or broken their bodies because they went experience-hunting.
In yoga, you don’t chase experience, you only prepare. That is how it was with the Saptarishis – the first seven disciples of Adiyogi. They simply prepared and prepared. They never asked for anything. They simply prepared for eighty-four years and when Adiyogi saw that they were so prepared, he couldn’t hold back anything. He had to give it all. But today’s world has become like this – “Sadhguru, I am here for two days, can you enlighten me?”
The yogic systems always focused on the muladhara. It is only in recent times that non-practicing “yogis” have written books and say you must focus on higher chakras. This high and low business is too entrenched in book-reading minds but that is not how life works. Some years ago, I used to conduct two or three-day programs in Hata Yoga. Just doing asanas, people would burst out laughing and crying. Most yogis just use a few simple postures to break the limitations of who they are. That is how Hata Yoga is. Hata Yoga means balance. Balance does not mean sanity. If you want your life to be exuberant, you need to have some madness in you. But if you become compulsively insane, you lost it.
When we talk about balance, we are not talking about sanity, we are talking about finding that perch between sanity and insanity where you can venture and adventure. Madness is an adventure. It is a most wonderful thing as long as it is in control. If you lose control it will become ugly. Similarly, sanity is a beautiful thing but if you become perfectly sane, you are as good as dead. This ability to venture and adventure into whatever you want at any moment will come to you if your muladhara is well-established.
~ Sadhguru
Read more about Meditation and Chakras at: Chakras – Wheels of life
