Anahata Chakra

  Location

The Anahata chakra is in the central channel in the spine at the heart, with its kshetram (superficial activation site) between the breasts

Appearance

Anahata is represented by a smoke-grey lotus flower with 12 petals. Inside is a smoke-coloured region made from the intersection of two triangles, creating a shatkona. The shatkona is a symbol used in Hindu Yantra, representing the union of the masculine and feminine. Specifically, it is meant to represent Purusha (the Supreme Being) and Prakriti (Mother Nature) and is often represented by Shiva and Shakti. The deity of this area is Vayu, who is smoke-coloured and four-armed, holding a kusha and riding an antelope (the chakra's animal).

Petals
The twelve petals are vermilion-coloured, and on them are inscribed the syllables kam, kham, gam, gham, ngam, cham, chham, jam, jham, nyam, tam and tham in Sanskrit. They match the vrittis of lust, fraud, indecision, repentance, hope, anxiety, longing, impartiality, arrogance, incompetence, discrimination and defiance.

Function

Anahata is considered the seat of the Jivatman and Parashakti. In the Upanishads, this is described as like a tiny flame inside the heart. Anahata is so called because here sages hear the sound (Anahata – Shabda) which comes without the striking of two things together. It is associated with air, touch and actions of the hands.

Offering to Lord Shiva

Anahata is associated with the ability to make decisions outside the realm of karma. In Manipura and below, man is bound by the laws of karma and fate. In Anahata one makes decisions ("follows one's heart") based on one's higher self, not the unfulfilled emotions and desires of lower nature. As such, it is known as the heart chakra.It is also associated with love and compassion, charity to others and psychic healing. Meditation on this chakra is said to bring about the following siddhis: he becomes a lord of speech; he is dear to women; his presence controls the senses of others, and he can leave and enter the body at will.

Anahata chakra has twelve vermillion petals. The Yantra in the centre of the chakra is composed of two overlapping, intersecting triangles. One triangle, facing upward symbolizes Shiva, the male principle. The other triangle, facing downward, symbolizes Shakti, the female principle. A balance is attained when these two forces are joined in harmony.

The seed mantra is Yam and the vital breath is Prana. The presiding deity is Ishana Rudra Shiva. He has a camphor-blue skin, he is two-armed. The nature of Ishana is peaceful and beneficent. He holds the trident in his right hand and a damaru drum in his left. The holy Ganga (river Ganges) flowing from his hairlocks is a cooling and purifying stream of self-knowledge: the knowledge that "I am That". The snakes coiled around his body are the passions, which he has tamed.

His energy is Kakini Shakti, her skin is rose-colored. Her sari is sky-blue and she is seated upon a pink lotus. In her four hands Kakini Shakti holds the implements necessary for one to attain balance: the sword, the shield, the skull and the trident symbolizing the balance of the three forces of preservation, creation and destruction.

It is in Anahata chakra that Kundalini Shakti appears for the first time as a beautiful goddess. She sits in lotus posture within a triangle. The triangle is pointing upward, showing the tendency of Shakti to move upward and carry the aspirant into the higher planes of existence. Dressed in a white sari, Kundalini Shakti is serene and centered within herself. She is the virgin mother and is synonymous with Shakti, selfless spiritual devotion. No longer is she personified as a destructive serpentine force, as is typified by the first chakra. Kundalini Shakti now becomes a goddess and one may communicate with her, the upward-moving energy.

 

She is no longer coiled around the lingam, but sits independently in a yogic posture. She embodies anahata nada, the cosmic sound, which is present everywhere and is known as "white noise". This sound begins in the heart as AUM, the seed of all sounds.

Source: Wikipedia