Hindu Medicine c8.9

c8.9

A mystic yoga doctrine, on the other hand, interprets the structure of the human organism as the counterpart of the unfolding of creation and views it as containing the five elements, ether, air, fire, water and earth, in the sequence in which they evolve out of each other in a gradual process of transmutation by condensation, from subtle to solid. A corresponding series of centers, bearing the symbolic names Mūlādhāra, Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇipūra, Anāhata, and Viśuddha, representing the essence of the five elements, earth, water, fire, wind, and ether respectively, is conceived by the adept of Kuṇḍalinī-yoga. These centers are situated along the spinal column and form a sequence of strata of the human organism.