Iḍā, Piṅgalā, Sushumṇā
In mystic cosmology, the seven lokas, or upper worlds, correspond to the seven higher chakras. The seven talas, or lower worlds, correspond to the chakras below the base of the spine. Man is thus a microcosm of the universe, or macrocosm. The spine is the axis of his being, as Mount Meru is the axis of the world, and the fourteen chakras are portals into the fourteen worlds, or regions of consciousness. The actinodic life force within the sushumṇā current runs up and down the spine and becomes very powerful when the iḍā and piṅgalā, or the odic forces, are balanced. Then man becomes completely actinodic. He doesn’t feel, in a sense, that he has a body at that particular time. He feels he is just a being suspended in space, and during those times his anāhata and viśuddha chakras are spinning and vibrating. When, through the practice of very intense, sustained states of contemplation, he merges into pure states of superconsciousness, the iḍā and the piṅgalā form a circle. They meet, and the pituitary and the pineal glands at the top of the head also merge their energies. This produces deep samādhi. The pituitary gland awakens first and through its action stimulates the pineal. The pineal shoots a spark into the pituitary, and the door of Brahman, the Brahmarandhra, is opened, never to close. I once saw the sahasrāra on a long stem above my head when I was in New York in 1953 or ’54.
The sushumṇā force also merges, and the kuṇḍalinī, which is at this time playing up and down the spine like a thermometer, as the fire-heat body of man, rises to the top of the head, and man then goes beyond consciousness and becomes the Self and has his total Self Realization, nirvikalpa samādhi.
The iḍā nāḍī is pink in color. It flows down, is predominantly on the left side of the body and is feminine-passive in nature. The piṅgalā nāḍī is blue in color. It flows up, is predominantly on the right side of the body and is masculine-aggressive in nature. These nerve currents are psychic tubes, shall we say, through which prāṇa flows from the central source, Śiva. The prāṇa is flowing down through the iḍā and up through the piṅgalā, but in a figure eight. The sushumṇā nāḍī is in a straight line from the base of the spine to the top of the head. The iḍā and piṅgalā spiral around the sushumṇā and cross at the third chakra, the maṇipūra, and at the fifth chakra, the viśuddha, and meet at the sahasrāra. This means that there is a greater balance of the iḍā and the piṅgalā in man’s will center, the maṇipūra chakra, and in his universal love center, the viśuddha chakra, and of course at the great saṅga center, the meeting place of the three rivers, the sahasrāra chakra.
The sushumṇā nāḍī, flowing upward, is the channel for the kuṇḍalinī śakti, which is white. It is the cool energy, as white contains all colors. When the kuṇḍalinī rises, which happens almost imperceptibly under the guru’s watchful eye, consciousness slowly expands. The novice only knows of the subtle yet powerful spiritual unfoldment when looking back to the time the practices were begun. Now he sees how life was then and how now his soul’s humility has overtaken the external ego.
Through breathing exercises, meditation and the practice of haṭha yoga, the iḍā and the piṅgalā, the aggressive and passive odic forces, are balanced. When they are balanced, the chakras spin all at the same velocity. When the chakras spin at the same velocity, they no longer bind awareness to the odic world; man’s awareness then is automatically released, and he becomes conscious of the actinodic and actinic worlds.
Those chakras at the crossing of the iḍā and piṅgalā are the more physical of the chakras, whereas those it skips are energized by the sushumṇā itself. When the yogī is really centered within, the iḍā and piṅgalā then blend together in a straight line and merge into the sushumṇā, energizing all seven chakras, and in the older soul slowly, very slowly, slowly begin to energize the seven chakras above the sahasrāra. When this happens, he no longer thinks but sees and observes from the ājñā chakra between the eyes. He is totally consciously alive, or superconscious. It is only when his iḍā and piṅgalā begin functioning normally again that he then begins to think about what he saw.