Chakras: The Subject is Love - about the lower chakras

By Swami Sarveshwarananda Giri

Chakras: The Subject is Love

How does love, springing from a divine source, become misguided in so many ways? How did we fall into such animalistic forms of love? Some understanding of our subtle anatomy is necessary at this point. We are all engaged in five types of work in our life, corresponding to our five lowest centers (chakras): maintaining our physical survival (first chakra - money), ensuring the continuation of the human race (second chakra - sex), providing fuel for the physical vehicle (third chakra - food), developing our emotional life (fourth chakra - heart), acquiring a set of philosophical and religious principles to guide our life (fifth chakra - throat). These 5 lower chakras constitute the kingdom of delusion, illusion and error.

Swami Sarveshwarananda Giri

Sane and insane, all are searching lovelorn for Him, in mosque, temple, church, alike.

For only God is the One God of Love, and Love calls from all these, each one His home.

-Sufi saying

A great Sufi poet once wrote a poem entitled "Tonight the Subject is LoveÉ" Yet I cannot think of anything in this world that is not loveÉ This love current, all-pervading and all-accomplishing, is the secret of the mutual relationship between God and His creation. Study any scripture, and you read over and over again the same story of GodÕs creation of love-"For God so loved the worldÉ" (John 3:16). Examine the lives of all saints, mystics and prophets of all religions, times and spaces, and you find only one personality: the incarnation of heavenly love in the flesh- "My life is an instant, a fleeting hour. My life is a moment, which swiftly escapes me. O my God, You know that on earth I have only today to love You." (St. Therese of Lisieux.)

Love is the engine of the universe, and it is built in our human system at all levels of biological, neurological, mental, emotional activities. Be it lofty love, bestial love, motherly love, conditional love, healthy love, sick love, beautiful love, ugly love, pleasurable love, painful love, warm love, cold love, famous love, infamous love, secret love, humble love, boisterous loveÉ everything is love, however misguided it may be.

Falling in Love

Man is what he loves. If he loves a stone he is a stone; if he loves man he is a man; if he loves God-I dare not say more, for if I said, that he would then be God ye might stone me! 

-Indian proverb

How does this love, springing from a divine source, become misguided in so many ways? How did we fall into such animalistic forms of love? Some understanding of our subtle anatomy is necessary at this point. We are all engaged in five types of work in our life, corresponding to our five lowest centers (chakras): maintaining our physical survival (first center-money), ensuring the continuation of the human race (second center-sex), providing fuel for the physical vehicle (third center-food), developing our emotional life (fourth center-heart), acquiring a set of philosophical and religious principles to guide our life (fifth center-throat). These 5 lower centers constitute the kingdom of delusion, illusion and error.

Above that, in the brain, is the kingdom of heaven, with its two main centers: the soul or guru center (sixth center-pituitary), and the God center (seventh center-fontanel).

Thus, if we confine our consciousness to these 5 lower floors of our spiritual building, forgetting the source of our life at the top (in the fontanel), we are blindly projecting our love on meaningless, fleeting objects of desire. Not only does this narrow dramatically our experience of life at an individual level, but it also affects the whole world. Whatever little love we experience in the consciousness of our chakras, we project it on our family, neighborhood, institutions, workplace, city, country, and the whole planet.

Here a but a few examples:

1st center-money center. Uncontrolled love for money at the individual level has led to gambling, speculating, money-laundering, stealing, murder, endless corporate mergers and acquisitions, hostile takeovers, political destabilization, coups, wars, looting, poaching, etc. The impact on all levels of society is immeasurable.

2nd center-sex center. Uncontrolled love for sex at the individual level has led to prostitution, sex-slavery, crimes of passion, divorce, destruction of the nuclear family, single-parent families, gangs, pornography, domestic violence, political scandals, wars, etc. Again, no one is safe from the perverted effects of an uncontrolled second center.

3rd center-food and power center. Probably the most troublesome kind of love, as all spiritual masters have declared: "Learn how to control your stomach, and you can control your destiny." An uncontrolled love for food and power has led to hoarding, food shortages, mass starvation, economic imbalances, political strife, wars, crimes, senseless consumerism, waste of natural resources, ecological destruction, national insecurity, the source of most chronic debilitating disease, etc.

4th center-heart center. The heart is the center of both divine and animal emotions. An uncontrolled heart center, filled with selfishness, passion, jealousy, envy, cruelty, anger, violence, animality, etc. has tuned the world into a loveless place of cold business: we only know the language of selfish, conditional love. Lord JesusÕ "Love thy neighbor as thy own self" has been replaced by the cold and calculating "WhatÕs in it for me?" at all levels of society and in all forms of activity. We can see everywhere the result: cruel treatment of the poor, the destitute, prisoners, women, the mentally unstable, the old, animals, nature, children. Where is the proverbial "BrotherÕs keeper?" Even our acts of generosity are often perverted by other motives: we need the tax write-off, or to look good in society, or to buy ourselves friends, influence, power, a career, etc., or to relieve a guilty conscience.

5th center-religion center. Everybody knows the effects of a perverted neck center, in which religion has been used to oppress, conquer, divide, colonize, silence, censure, torture, destroy, kill, indoctrinate, brainwash, profit, and control the masses. Religious fanatics exist in all societies and no religion is exempt from some form of abuse.

As we can see, wars have been fought and crime committed to satisfy a perverted love in every chakra: for money, for sex, for food and power, for passion, and for religious righteousness. This only reflects the war that is constantly being fought within ourselves, between our demonic propensities and our divine nature. "We have found the enemyÉ and it is us!" said Pogo the Possum.

Rising in Love

God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:16

What is the way back to real love? If we lift up our spiritual gaze to the radiant light, all-pervading sound and subtle pulsation of God which enlivens our entire inner and outer universe, then we awaken to our Supreme Nature of Love. If we constantly watch our faint, slow and smooth breath calmly ascending from the nostrils to the hidden abode of God-the fontanel-we become one with that love, and remain established in true love. And that is the purpose of the spiritual training: to remember and realize that, "From bliss (love) we are born, in bliss we live, and into bliss we shall return." (Taittirya Upanishad 3:6:1) That is why people go to ashrams, monasteries, or spiritual retreats-"A monastery is a place where one goes to learn the art of loving." (St Thomas Aquinas). That is also why people are eternally searching for the guide, the spiritual master, the embodiment of immaculate purity, who can teach us what real love is.

But where to start? We ordinary human beings are such an uncouth, selfish and dirty lot, how can we ever hope to attain the sublime summit of the pure love of a Jesus, a Buddha, or a Ramakrishna? The answer is this: under the proper circumstances, any type of love can lead to God-this is why the spiritual master teaches how to redirect our love-urge toward God. Many examples are found in all religions. In India, Tulsidas was obsessively attached to his wife Ratna, who one day exclaimed "If you could only have the same love for God that you have for me!" This remark started a formidable transformation in TulsidasÕ consciousness; soon he realized God and became known as a great saint and poet, who wrote, among many other great works, one version of the Ramayana. In Israel, Mary Magdalen had an excessive love for men, but after encountering Lord Jesus, she became completely transformed, washed clean from all her sins, and became the foremost female disciple of Jesus. She later was the first human being to meet the resurrected Jesus Christ and to share this good news with all.

No love is too unclean or unworthy, when you use it to reach God. In the Upanishads, it is said, "As the miser loves his money, as the new groom loves his bride, as the drunkard loves his wine, you should love God." So next time you feel this inborn urge to love driving you blindly into the nearest object or person, for a temporary little sense satisfaction, remember God in your calm and slow breath, and offer a humble prayer to him, "O God, I pray Thee, make me mad with love for Thee and Thee only." And contemplate these words spoken by Swami Vivekananda in one of his lectures: "There is a proverb in our language - ÔIf I want to be a hunter, IÕll hunt the rhinoceros; if I want to be a robber, IÕll rob the kingÕs treasury.Õ What is the use of robbing beggars or hunting ants? So if you want to love, love God."