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The currents of prana flowing through these
nadis are the subtle counterparts of the nerve impulses. The network of
nadis and chakras by mapping the flow of prana through this network was
through introspective experimentation.
The
physical body is built around the subtle framework of the nadis, and the
sustenance of the body is through the flow of the energy of prana through
this network of nadis. In the average individual the dynamic and creative
aspect of the energy of prana is only an infinitesimal fraction of the
total energy of prana, the major part of it being in a potential, or seed,
state.
The
manuals of yoga refer to this latent, stored up energy as kundalini, the
symbolic representation of which is that of a sleeping serpent coiled
up in the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine. In the average individual
there is flow of prana through ida and pingala, but not through sushumna,
this nadi being blocked at the base of the spinal column.
The
techniques of pranayama are aimed at devitalizing ida and pingala and
at the same time opening up the sushumna nadi, allowing the prana to flow
through this channel, experiencing great joy and freedom from the bondage
of time, space and causation. Having opened up the sushumna nadi it rouses
the sleeping serpent at the muladhara chakra and guides the tremendous
energy activated upward along sushumna, piercing the six chakras, to the
seventh chakra, called the sahasrara chakra, represented as a thousand
petaled lotus at the crown of the head.
This
arousal and ascent of the latent kundalini energy and its merging
in the sahasrara is synonymous with the union of cosmic potency,
or shako, with cosmic consciousness, or Shiva.
Merging one's individual soul, or atman,
with the cosmic soul, or Brahman.
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