The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)

It is a mistake, therefore, in my opinion, to identify the Chakras with the physical plexuses mentioned. These latter are things of the gross body, whereas the Chakras are extremely subtle vital centres of various Tāttvik operations. In a sense we can connect with these subtle centres the gross bodily parts visible to the eyes as plexuses and ganglia. But to connect or correlate and to identify are different things. Indian thought and the Sanskrit language, which is its expression, have a peculiarly penetrative and comprehensive quality which enables one to explain many ideas for which, except by paraphrase, there is no equivalent meaning in English. It is by the Power or Shakti of the Ātmā or Consciousness that the body exists. It is the collective Prāna which holds it together as an individual human unit, just as it supports the different Principles and Elements (Tattva) of which it is composed. These Tattvas, though they pervade the body, have yet various special centres of operation. These centres, as one might otherwise suppose, lie along the axis, and are the Sūkshma Rūpa, or subtle forms of that which exists in gross form (Sthūla Rūpa) in the physical body which is gathered around it. They are manifestations of Prānashakti. In other words, from an objective standpoint the subtle centres, or Chakras, vitalise and control the gross bodily tracts which are indicated by the various regions of the vertebral column and the ganglia, plexuses, nerves, arteries, and organs, situate in these respective regions. It is only therefore (if at all) in the sense of being the gross outer representatives of the spinal centres that we can connect the plexuses and so forth with the Chakras 3spoken of in the Yoga books. In this sense only the whole tract, which extends from the subtle centre to the periphery, with its corresponding bodily elements, may be regarded as the Chakra. As the gross and subtle are thus connected, mental operation on the one will affect the other. Certain forces are concentrated in these Chakras, and therefore and by reference to their function they are regarded as separate and independent centres. There are thus six subtle centres in the cord with grosser embodiments within the cord itself, with still grosser sheaths in the region pervaded by the sympathetics Idā and Pinggalā, and other Nādīs. Out of all this and the gross compounded elements of the body are fashioned the organs of life, the vital heart of which is the subtle Chakra by which they are vivified and controlled. The spiritual aspects of the six centres according to Tantrik doctrine must not be overlooked whilst attention is paid to the gross or physiological aspect of the body. As previously and in the Commentary to the thirty-fifth verse of the Ānandalaharī explained, there are six Devas—viz., Shambhu, Sadāshiva, Īshvara, Vishnu, Rudra, Brahmā—whose abodes are the six Lokas or regions: viz., Maharloka, Tapoloka, Janaloka, Svarloka, Bhuvarloka, and Bhūrloka (the Earth). It is these Divinities who are the forms of Consciousness presiding over the Shatchakra. In other words, Consciousness-feeling (Chit), as the ultimate experiencing principle, pervades and is at base all being. Every cell of the body has a consciousness of its own. The various organic parts of the body which the cells build have not only particular cell-consciousness, but the consciousness of the particular organic part which is other than the mere collectivity of the consciousness of its units. Thus there may be an abdominal consciousness. And the consciousness of such bodily region is its Devatā—that is, that aspect of Chit