A warm welcome to Day 35 of our 40 Day Retreat 2009.
Today, we deal with a wonderful chakra called Anahata Chakra. It is a chakra of the heart. It is another stage in our evolving consciousness as we journey along the chakras. We have been journeying from the lower chakras and now we are making a step into higher ones. Although manipura is quite a powerful chakra in terms of vitality, it is associated with the lower planes. But this is a step higher and its energy is purer.
Anahata –important step on the journey
This is the center of emotional being, and when awakened it brings beautiful energies to our emotional being and the purest of energies when we take it further. This is an extremely important chakra on the journey as it brings about joy and happiness. It also brings a desire to want to engage in the world and to uplift it. It is a healing chakra.
It is a chakra that is also involved very powerfully in communication. As you know, heart center communication is a powerful form of communication. It is, therefore, a necessary chakra for leaders and in relationships. It is also a necessary chakra for going further on the journey with ease and with joy. Opening up of the heart chakra is an extremely important step on the journey. And of course, as we have been journeying upward, we are striving for higher consciousness. We are really striving to go deeper into our own Being.
Pathway to True Freedom
There is an innate drive within us to evolve. We are searching for freedom and true happiness. In the lower chakras we think that freedom means getting everything we need physically, or having the freedom to do what we want in the physical world. But as we go higher we begin to realize that freedom is much more. It is being free from negatives and from the bondage of the trap of material existence that only seem to possess happiness, but it does not.
As we begin to realize the futility of searching for happiness in the world or in worldly possessions, in worldly things and worldly power, we begin to search higher. That takes us upward on the scale of evolution and the desire for more. As we become more discontented with lower pleasures, we begin to seek something higher. Then the Anahata begins to be aroused.
When we meet those beings with this heart chakra open, we immediately begin to recognize, “Wow! This is what I want.” Needless to say that when Anahata comes, a smile comes in the face, the softness comes in the voice and a sparkle comes to the eyes. We are inspired by beauty, and we inspire beauty by bringing out the best in us.
Old Patterns are Challenged
It is important to have the awakening of Anahata, but when Anahata is awakened we may be carrying old patterns from the past that we think is love, patterns associated with the lower centers. We are challenged when Anahata opens up to move our thinking into a pure state. All the ideas we had about what love is, now become challenged. As Anahata opens up and we feel this emotional power, we may begin to feel as well all those old qualities that we kept with us. Initially the journey may become painful, because we want to express love and we may think it is still associated with those lower forms. As we engage Anahata on its opening in the lower forms, it becomes painful. But when it is opened, it allows us to move a step higher. When our ideas of love are challenged, we have the opportunity to go into the higher qualities of this chakra. Of course, we need guidance.
Power comes with Purer Forms of Emotions
When we see the higher qualities expressed in others and when we see people with open Anahata chakra being expressed, then that inspires in us the desire to want to express the higher qualities. As we begin to express the higher qualities we begin to feel more power flowing from our inner Being. We allow the manifestation of more power when we choose the purer forms of emotions. It is extremely important on the journey to engage at this level, when it comes up, into purer forms of love. When we do, we begin to feel this wonderful quality of happiness, joy and positive thoughts coming into our Being.
Search for Love Brought a Deep Spirituality
One of the reasons why I got into deeper spirituality was because of a search for real love. Early in my life I realized that people do not really love each other, they only say so. In the name of love they do all kinds of negative things. They speak badly about each other and hurt each other, yet they say that they love each other. When I saw that around me, a love that is tainted by selfishness and hijacked by lower desires, I did not want to love in the way the world loved. Deep in my heart I knew that love was purer. Somehow, deep inside my Being I knew we were capable of a purer form of love, but I could not feel it. I then began to search for true love.
Opening of Anahata Brought Transformation
What happened during my journey in India in my initial awakening was a feeling of true love. My heart center opened up. I could get this warm feeling in the Anahata area, as I am feeling now. The heart opened up and my whole being began to change. It was like a thirsty person now getting water and feeling so refreshed by it.
I remember how the hopelessness and the desperation began to give way to a wonderful feeling of wanting to live, to think good thoughts and to know more about spirituality. I wanted to delve in this feeling I was having. At the same time the chanting, music and song that I was exposed to during this awakening was so elevating. I could actually feel that my love was flowing out and expressing itself in all of these.
Love Brought a New Enthusiasm
When I began to move, I could feel that love was also inspiring my movement. It became graceful and effortless. It was simply amazing! It was then that I began to appreciate my world so much more. Suddenly trees came alive. People came alive and things around came alive. I wanted to engage in conversations. I wanted to read. I wanted to do things that I had given up. I even began to look at my body differently, to take care of it a little more and to feel compassion for it. It was amazing that a healing kind of response was happening inside of me.
I had left my country and my family being completely detached from them, saying, “I do not know how to love you. I really do not know what love is.” I remember my mother having strong emotional pain thinking, “What is my son saying?” And I said, “Mum, I really do not understand what all this is about. I know you love me but I do not even have love in my heart.” After this wonderful experience in India, I was writing to them a few days after. I had not written to them at all. I was saying “I am okay. There is a sudden change in me and I am so happy. I just want you to know that.” That was the opening of the heart center.
Love Became the Hallmark of my Life
Discipline became a joy. Before, discipline was hard. I tortured myself to wake up early in the morning, to do everything that I thought was discipline: fasting, keeping a rigid schedule, sleeping on the floor and not caring for any sort of comfort around me. However, after this awakening came my discipline became different. I began to enjoy it. I did not mind keeping the body comfortable. Now it did not matter whether I slept on a soft bed or not. I was more interested in keeping my body comfortable. I was also more interested in people around me.
Work around me became a joy. Everything became a joy. I pursued that strongly. I did not want that feeling to leave me so I held on to the heart chakra. I always held on to the heart chakra and allowed it to take me step by step upwards, never giving it up. That has been a hallmark of my life and my work. As you know, Blue Star is about love. Sri Vasudeva is about love. That Anahata chakra, in awakening, began to take me a step higher and it began to help me purify the lower centers.
Anahata Needs Support of Upper Chakras
When Anahata opens up, it can help us to see the lower chakras differently, and to help the lower chakras in channeling purer energies. But Anahata needs the support of the upper chakras. It cannot stand by itself. It needs the support of the throat chakra and most of all it needs the support of the brow chakra. That is why when Anahata opens up we need proper guidance.
Path of Love and Devotion
Anahata by itself is a path to freedom. It can take you, when you follow its lead to the upper chakras effortlessly if you continue and keep it. This path is called Bhakti Yoga. It is the yoga of love and devotion. It is the path that takes you to that Divine connection and to full freedom through the path of love. It is a very powerful path on the journey.
Anahata Can Close if Neglected
As I said before, challenges are there when the heart is opened. And for some of us, when the heart opens up, we begin to think, “What am I feeling here? I am feeling spiritual qualities some times but they are disappearing.” When Anahata begins to open up it may begin to close again when you get involved in energy associations that are low, just like the lotus flower.
The chakras are symbolized by the lotus flower. When the lotus flower is in light, it opens up and in darkness it closes. When Anahata is opened and we come around people or environments that are loving, we experience a wonderful feeling coming up and the best begins to come out of us. When we begin to move away in thought or in association in the external world, with lower energies, we feel that the Anahata begins to close again.
How to Protect Anahata
In this vulnerable situation we need to continue to protect the open Anahata. We protect it by staying in loving thoughts, no matter how challenged. We protect it by keeping loving company so that we can be supported. We keep it sustained with a discipline of attention and intention to love and to love in a selfless and pure way.
Anahata is the center of emotional being. And emotions are powerful expressions in the human experience. They consume our thinking and our energies. In the Anahata chakra of course, there is the dual experience of fear, anger, hate, and jealousy, especially so when it is associated with the lower chakas; especially the second chakra or even the third chakra in its negative state. We need to be very careful about that.
Anahata for Peaceful Co-existence
We need to work through Anahata coming to the purer qualities of love, compassion and kindness. When we do that Anahata is like a beautiful flower which, when opened up, emits its wonderful fragrance, a fragrance which creates harmony and peace everywhere. Anahata is a chakra for peaceful co-existence and is a chakra that allows for very powerful communication. It is a chakra that we need in our world today. When this chakra is opened up within us through grace and through our effort, it is a blessing and it begins a marvelous journey towards evolving consciousness.
Anahata is a gift that we need to explore when it is opened up. Give attention to emotional being, give attention to love and stay in the purest form of love. It is a wonderful step on the journey. It makes the journey effortless.
Be loving! Be selflessly loving. It brings out the best in your emotional being. Look at where Anahata is placed, at the center of our being, bridging both worlds. It is an important bridge.
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