Katja (00:00)
Hello welcome back to Rooted In the Seasons where ancient wisdom meets modern life with strong cup of tea and practical tools for a real busy women. I'm Katya Patel, Ayurvedic Diet and Lifestyle Educator, Yoga Teacher and Teacher Mentor.
Over the last few episodes we have been traveling through the chakra system. We started all the way at the base at Mooladhara, Chakra, with our foundations, our life, health, home, and basic needs.
So then we move to Swadhisthana Chakra our emotional life, our desires. At Manipura, the
solar plexus
we explored transformation and how intentions become actions. At the Anahata the heart center, something started to change. Our attention began to move outwards. We start looking beyond our needs towards connection.
Love and our relationships with others. Today I want to continue that journey into the higher chakras, Vishuddha Ajna and finally Sahasarara.
And the higher we move through the chakra system, the more subtle the teachings become.
So just stay here with me for a moment and one word before we start. You certainly don't need to understand everything about chakras from one podcast episode.
Each could feel an entire episode or probably an entire book. So today I want to give you a way of understanding what begins to happen as we move from the heart upwards towards expression, discernment, and inner awareness.
From the heart we move upwards to Vishuddha the throat chakra. The word shuddha means clean or pure in the sense of cleansing and purifying. And that already tells us something important about this chakra. Vishuddha
Is often described simply as communication chakra. And yes, communication is certainly an important part of it. It is connected with speech, hearing, listening, and sound.
But communication is only part of the picture. Vishuddha is also connected with expression and purification. Traditionally, Vishuddha has 16 petals and each of those petals is associated with a particular quality.
Some of those qualities are quite surprising. We find compassion and forgiveness, self-control, and straightforwardness, calmness, happiness, ruthfulness and knowledge. But we also find poison.
pride and vanity, and we find nectar. I think this gives us a much richer way of understanding Vishuddha Because as human beings we contain all sorts of experiences and tendencies.
We have thoughts, we have emotions, we have reactions, we have things we're going to say. We have things we struggle to say. We have experiences we haven't quite processed yet. And
Through Vishuddha, something begins to happen with all of this. It becomes increasingly conscious. We begin to understand it. We begin to find ways of expressing it. And this is where things start to connect.
If you have listened to the previous episodes, you might remember that in the traditional description, the Chakras have deities.
Associated with that. With Vishuddha we find also Hamsa, the swan. And this caught my attention when I went back to reread the traditional text for the chakras, for this episode, and the accompanying blog post.
Sarasvati has actually been the focus of our yoga sessions this term And Hamsa, the swan is traditionally Sarasvati's vehicle. Now, Sarasvati isn't directly named as a deity.
residing within Vishuddha in the text I was reading, but I couldn't help noticing the connection. Saraswati is the goddess of speech, of knowledge, music, arts, science, learning and the creative arts.
And suddenly the idea of Vishuddha as a center of expression becomes much bigger than simply speaking. We express ourselves through our words, but we also express ourselves when we write. We can express ourselves through music.
through art, through movement.
teaching and through creativity. Something that exists within us is given a form through which it can enter the world.
And then of course there is a way we can use our words. One of the things we have talked about in my classes this term is that Saraswati likes sweet words. I don't think that means
that we should only say pleasant things. Sometimes we need to have difficult conversations. Sometimes we need to say no. Sometimes we need to say
Something somebody else may not particular want to hear. The question is, how do we say? Yoga gives us satya, truthfulness, and ahimsa, non-harm. So we can begin to ask: is what I'm saying true?
Do I need to say it? How am I saying it? And do my actions actually live up to my words?
There's another side to communication too, which is listening. When somebody else is talking to you, are you actually listening? Or are you already preparing the answer? I think most of us probably caught ourselves doing that one.
even thinking about what needs to do next.
Communication moves both ways. Now here's something interesting. Vishuddha is also a center of purification as mentioned before. And there's a beautiful
Connection here with Shiva, who is the male deity of the throat chakra. Shiva is also known as Nilakantha, the blue-throated one. In the story of the churning of the ocean, a deadly poison emerges.
Shiva takes the poison to protect the world and holds it in his throat, which turns subsequently blue. I think that gives us a wonderful way of understanding purification. Difficult experiences don't simply disappear. We experience
Something, we process it, we gradually understand it. And eventually, perhaps we find a way to express it. Something we once felt incredibly difficult may eventually become something we can speak about.
something we can write about, something we can teach from. So we can transform it into something creative. And remember amongst those 16 qualities of Vishuddha we find both poison and nectar.
now feel significant. So how can we actually explore this in everyday life? I like to look at uncomplicated ways to connect. Doable for everyone. Start with communication for example. Notice how you speak when you're tired.
Notice how you speak when you're irritated or in a hurry. Notice how well you listen. You could journal or use free writing if there are thoughts or ideas you are trying to make sense of. And then we have sound.
You can hum or work with the bija mantra. Ham Chanting is another way of working with sound. Traditionally, the bija mantra associated with Vishuddha is Ham as I just mentioned. In the teaching I received, however,
We were taught not to chant Ham on its own. I explain why when we reach Ajna Chakra because they work together. Brahmari is the humming bee breath. It's also a lovely practice here because you can actually feel the vibration.
Created by the sound. There's also
There are also asanas, yoga poses traditionally connected to Vishuddha chakra, like the fish pose, for example, opens the neck. Lion pose opens as well the neck as we stick out our tongue. Shoulder stand and plough pose, for example. But also Ujjayi breathing. Choose one of those.
or conscious listening already gives
You something to explore. From Vishuddha we move upwards towards Ajna Chakra. Ajna is often called the third eye chakra. The word Ajna can be translated as order or command, which is why it's sometimes described as the command center.
It is also known as the Guru chakra. Ajna is connected to judgment, rationality, wisdom, concentration and intuition. But I think one of the most useful ways of understanding Ajna is through one word, discernment.
Can we clearly see? Our first reaction to something isn't always the clearest one. Our thoughts are influenced by previous experiences, by emotions, by habits, fear, desire. And this is where discernment comes in.
We begin learning to look through some of those old patterns and understand more clearly what is actually happening and what is best for ourselves and others. Because something can feel very strong.
without necessarily being intuition. I think that's an important distinction. As the mind becomes steadier, we have more space to observe what is happening. We can begin
to distinguish between an immediate reaction and something we understand at a deeper level.
And that brings us to concentration. Where the eyes go, attention follows. There's a simple way to experience this in your
Yoga practice. Let's do an experiment. Stand in tree pose. Let your eyes wander around the room. Look at the floor. Look at something moving. Look out of the window. And notice what happens to your balance. Then
Choose one steady point in front of you and rest your gaze there. And usually something changes. Your gaze becomes steadier, your attention becomes steadier, and often your body becomes steadier too.
In yoga, we call this point of focus for the eyes Drishti, where the eyes go, the attention follows. And I think this gives us a very practical way of understanding something that becomes much subtler at Ajna First, we learn to place our gaze.
then we learn to place our attention. And sorry, gradually we learn to turn that in attention inwards. One of the most accessible practices here is Nadi Shodana, the alternate nostril breathing.
to understand why we need to touch briefly on the subtle body. In the yogic model, nadis are channels through which prana, our vital energy, flows.
Three of the most important nadis are Ida, Pingala and Shushumna Ida and Pingala weave alongside the central channel, Shushumna meeting at the Chakras.
And at Ajna Chakra they meet for the last time before moving towards their respective endpoints outside the nostrils. Ida and Pingala are associated with the dualities of calm and activity, moon and sun. Shushumna represents the balance between those.
Nadi Shodana cleanses the nadis Shodana and shuddha from Vishuddha. Remember purification of cleansing. And that helps to balance these channels. And that's why it is such an appropriate and accessible practice when you're exploring Ajna chakra.
There's of course much more to the nadis, to prana and the subtle body that I can cover here. Actually understanding the subtle body framework makes the entire chakra system considerably
Easier to understand. So that's something I want to explore separately.
Other Ajna practice is work directly with concentration. So we have drishti in our asana practice as we mentioned. We have Trataka or candle gazing where we hold the gaze steadily on the candle flame. And we have sound again. There's something interesting here.
When we look at the petals of the chakras. Remember, we started with four petals at Mooladhara the Root Chakra. Vishuddha has 16, as we've just heard. And Ajna has only two.
The sounds associated with these two petals are Ham what we know from Vishuddha Chakra and Ksham. My teacher taught us to always chant these together rather than chanting Ham on its own.
If you remember the qualities associated with Vishuddha, they included also pride and vanity, as well as truthfulness, compassionate knowledge. Ajna brings in discernment and greater awareness, helping to keep those qualities in check.
So this is another example of why I don't think it is particularly helpful to take one chakra or one practice completely in isolation. The chakras are part of the system and traditionally these practices developed together.
And then we have meditation. In the Shat-Chakra Nirupa Ajna is described as the seed of mind or manas. And there's another description I particularly love. Ajna is said to shine with the glory of Dhyana meditation.
The practices are becoming quieter now. And that reflects where we are in the chakra system. We are moving from doing towards observing, towards concentration, towards awareness, towards learning to recognize what is happening within us.
I've written another article specially about why meditation matters and how it fits into Patanjali's eighth limbs of yoga. I put that link into the show notes if you like to explore meditation in more depth.
And finally we come to Sahasrara. Sahasrara is located at the crown of the head and it is traditionally
Represented by a thousand petaled lotus. It is associated with pure consciousness and the sound OM and with moving beyond our individual sense of self.
I think Sahasra is difficult to reduce to a list of practical exercises. The teaching is associated with it to point towards states of consciousness that develop through sustained spiritual practice.
It isn't something we suddenly arrive at. It's the culmination of everything that has been developed.
Throughout the journey. Our foundations, our emotions, our capacity of transformation, compassion, expression, discernment. All of those have brought us here. Sahasrara is the revelation of all of this.
Deeper awareness that has been maturing throughout the entire path.
Before we finish, there's something important to say.
The higher we move through the chakra system, the more subtle the practices become. We've just explored that. Traditionally, chakras, chakra practices were never about trying to force the chakra to open.
Yoga gives us practices through which
Awareness, steadiness, and sensitivity can be developed gradually. And the nervous system needs time to become more resilient and able to hold the effect of these practices.
Remember what we said about the gaze, where the eyes go, the attention follows. We can think about energy in a similar way. Energy flows towards what is already active within us.
So if anger, fear, selfishness or need for recognition is dominant, more energy can strengthen those tendencies. As we gradually transform those patterns.
That same energy can support compassion, clarity, discernment and greater awareness.
of others. And that's why we don't simply leave the lower chakras behind and race towards the higher ones.
The lower centers are essential. They continue to be integrated and refined. Simple asana, nadi shodhana, bhramari, mantra, concentration and meditation give us plenty to explore in everyday practice.
more advanced practices involving kundalini, strong pranayam, bandhas and mudras.
are traditionally learned progressively and with an experienced teacher. There is no need to rush. The preparation is part of the practice.
So here's what you could remember from today's episode
The chakra system can be understood as a journey through the evolution of human awareness. We begin with our basic needs, survival, safety, home, our emotions and desires, our sense of self and our ability to act. All of these things matter.
And then something begins to change. at Anahata, the heart center, our awareness starts expand towards other people. At Vishuddha, we learn to express what is within us.
At Ajna, we develop discernment and learn to see through some of our habitual reactions and patterns. And through Sahasrara, the teachings take us beyond our individual sense of self towards.
consciousness itself. We still need our roots though, we still have emotions, we still have desires and ambitions.
The difference is that as awareness develops we have more choice in what we can do with them. We can care about the people around us and the environment we live in. We can express ourselves more truthfully and creatively.
We can make choices with greater clarity and we gradually can become more conscious of who we are, how we affect the world around us, and the life we are here to live.
And perhaps that's where these ancient teachings become more practical. Becoming aware of patterns is one thing. Learning how to make different choices in the middle of an ordinary busy Tuesday.
Is where the practice really begins. And that's also something we explore much more deeply in back to rhythm.
Understanding the signals your body gives you, recognizing the patterns that keep pulling you out of rhythm and gradually building a way of living that supports your energy, digestion, sleep, and emotional balance. I put the interest list link in the show notes as well, if you like to find out more about that.
Before we finish I want to leave you with this
There's no need to rush through any of this. Choose one practice, notice how you communicate. Try nadi shodhana a few minutes every day.
Spend a few minutes with your gaze or meditation. See what you notice. Thank you so much for listening to Rooted in the Seasons. If you enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe or follow Rooted in the Seasons on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
That way new episodes land automatically for you. And if you like more support between the episodes, you can download my five daily Ayurvedic shifts to feel like yourself again. And join my Sunday week newsletter.
You'll find the link in the show notes. And if something in today's episode resonated, I'd love to hear from you. You can connect with me on Substack or drop me an email. I always read and answer them.
Until next time, stay rooted in the seasons. Bye bye.
