Seven Centers of Instinctiveness
The seven chakras, or talas, below the spine down to the feet are all seats of instinctive consciousness, the origin of fear, anger, jealousy, confusion, selfishness, absence of conscience and malice.
The first chakra below the mūlādhāra, called atala and located in the hips, governs the state of mind called fear. When someone is in this consciousness, he fears God as well as other people—even himself at times. In the chakra below that, called vitala and located in the thighs, anger predominates. Anger comes from despair or the threatening of one’s self-will. When people are in the consciousness of this chakra, they are even angry at God. With their wrath, they often strike out at those around them, leaving a trail of hurt feelings behind them. From sustained anger arises a persistent, even burning, sense of resentment.
The third chakra below the mūlādhāra, called sutala and located in the knees, governs jealousy. Jealousy is actually a feeling of inadequacy, inferiority and helplessness. When mixed with anger it causes terrible reactions within the nerve system of the astral body. When people are in the consciousness of this chakra, they often deny the existence of God and are contentiously combative with one another.
The fourth chakra below the mūlādhāra, called talātala and located in the calves, governs instinctive willfulness, the desire to get rather than give, to push others no matter what the reactions may be, all to benefit oneself. When people are in the consciousness of this chakra they proclaim the existence of materialistic advancement over everything else. Greed, deceit, coercion and bribery prevail. This is truly a “dog-eat-dog” state of mind.
The fifth chakra below the mūlādhāra, called rasātala and located in the ankles, is the true home of the instinctive mind. When people are in the consciousness of this chakra they see to the well-being of “number one” first, “me, myself and I.” Memory, reason, willfulness; thoughts, feelings and actions without conscience are all motivating factors here, governed by anger and fear. To this state of mind, jealousy, anger and fear are experienced as intense, even high, states of consciousness. There are even philosophies that have been conceived based on the states of consciousness experienced in these five chakras below the mūlādhāra. One of these is existentialism. Many true atheists reside in the fifth chakra below the mūlādhāra, and it is in this chakra that a great part of the mass consciousness resides at this time in the Kali Yuga.
There are still two more chakras below this one. The sixth chakra below the mūlādhāra, called mahātala and located in the feet, is “theft without conscience.” Persons living here feel that “the world owes them a living.” They simply take what they justify to be theirs anyway. The seventh chakra below the mūlādhāra, called pātāla and located in the soles of the feet, governs revenge, murder for the sake of murder, malice expressed through the destruction of others’ goods, properties, minds, emotions and physical bodies. Hatred abides here. Malice reigns supreme. This is the consciousness of terrorists and those who support terrorists with vigor and enjoy from afar their every killing, rape and torturous act. Reason seldom influences those who live in this state of mind.
From here, at the bottom, there is no other way to go. The only way is up. Evolution takes its toll in bringing the consciousness of these wanton souls up and up into personal ego and some semblance of self-esteem, and then up into the ability of being jealous, then up into conquest of their fears and memory of their past actions, fearful that these horrific events might be repeated, then finally ascending into memory and reason, then into willpower in the maṇipūra chakra. Here they may become religious, repentant, resistant to ever, ever wanting again to face the experiences they look back at constantly and cry about in their remorse. Yes, there is only one path. It goes up or it goes down.
Here, in the maṇipūra chakra, which coordinates with the chakra of memory, they are ready to practice prāyaśchitta, penance—whatever it takes to extract the emotion from the memories which are tangled together deep in the subconscious. This is a painful process. But evolution makes it necessary to be lived through. Once accomplished—and practically speaking it is not easily or always accomplished—this changes for the better the course of the prāṇas that flow through the subconscious, the sub of the subconscious and subsuperconscious mind for themselves, their family, ancestors and progeny several generations back and many generations into the future.
To further explain, those who are well settled in consciousness within these seven chakras below the mūlādhāra are not interested in religion. They are irreverent and deny the existence of God. It is here that superstitious fears often prevail. There are no rules. There is no conscience. The various interrelated states of consciousness found within these seven chakras foster chaos, confusion, feelings of hopelessness, despair—all adharmic states of mind. These are the rates of vibration of the instinctive mind below the mūlādhāra, where Lord Gaṇeśa sits in all His majesty.