History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.78

v7.c92.78

¹⁷¹⁵ Vide षट्चक्रनिरूपण (Tāntrik Texts, vol. II ed by Arthur Avalon) verses 4-49, Dakṣiṇā-mūrtisamhitā VII 11-16 for cakras and "Serpent Power" (by A Avalon, ed. of 1953) which contains an English translation (*Continued from last page*) of षट्‌चक्रनिरूपण in which plate I shows the positions of the six cakras also called lotuses (*padma*), plates II to VII facing pp. 356, 365, 370, 382, 392, 414 illustrate the six chakras from Mūlādhāra to Ājñā together with their colours, numbers of petals, letters, the devatās in each and other details These are drawings used by the Yogis. Plate VIII facing p 430 illustrates '*sahasrāra*'. Vide C. W. Leadbeater's work on 'the chakras' (Adyar, 1927), in which the author claims that the illustrations of the cakras represent them as they actually appear to those who can see them and on p. 56 he furnishes a table of the colours of the lotus petals as observed by Leadbeater and his friends, and as described in षट्‌चक्रनिरूपण, शिवसंहिता and गरुडपुराण. The Rudrayāmala (17th Paṭala, verse 10) speaks of Kuṇḍalī as 'Atharvavedacakrasthā Kuṇḍalī paradevatā', verses 21-24 speak of Kuṇḍalinī passing from Mūlādhāra-cakra and reaching the crown of the head that has the thousand-petalled lotus, that when united with Śiva he (sādhaka) drinks nectar there. Rudrayāmala (27 58-70) dilates on the six cakras and the Sahasrāra together with the *dalas* (petals) and letters assigned to each. A stern warning has to be given that none should try to experiment about the cakras by reading books or try to rouse the Kuṇḍalinī except under the guidance of a real Master in Yoga, as otherwise very dangerous consequences would follow. Even as regards wrong methods of Prāṇāyāma and Dhāraṇā, the Vāyupurāṇa (chap XI 37-60) states that Yoga practices by ignorant men result in dullness of intelligence, deafness, dumbness, blindness, loss of memory, premature old age and disease and it specifies certain remedies to cure these defects. The present author knew a person who practised prāṇāyāma continuously for long periods becoming stone deaf, though otherwise he was strong and muscular, and an expert in ear diseases declared on examination that there was no possibility of his recovery by the methods of modern medical science.