Yoga Psychology, Part II

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The six lower chakras have a total of fifty petals. These petals represent the

fifty main

vrittis or vortices of psychic energy. Some of the fifty Sanskrit terms can be

roughly

translated as "fear", "anger", "greed", "hypocrisy", "hope", "affection",

"universality."

The first chakra, which is the beginning of our human existence, contains

aspects of

every desire or longing of life: physical, mental, psycho-spiritual and

spiritual (kama,

artha, dharma and moksa in Sanskrit). The second chakra contains very reptilian

vrittis such as pitilessness, indifference and self-indulgence. The third chakra

has

vrittis that challenge our human potential such as anger, cruelty and lethargy.

The

fourth chakra's vrittis create our higher human capabilities for both beauty and

destruction such as hope, love, and effort and conversely greed, arrogance and

hypocrisy. The fifth chakra contains vrittis which elevate the human state such

as

altruism, universality and surrender to a higher power. And the sixth chakra's

vrittis

contain the possibility of limitless knowledge.

 

These chakras, with their distinct petals, or vrittis, create patterns of

psychic energy.

A person with a problem with depression, for example, would manifest a specific

distorted pattern of energy within the second, third, and fourth chakras,

because

vrittis within each of these chakras could contribute to depression. Since

different

people manifest depression in different ways, each depressed individual's energy

pattern would be distorted based on his/her own specific way of manifesting that

imbalance. Why do two people who face the exact same challenge respond

differently? Why does losing a child cause one person to create a support group,

develop a scholarship fund, volunteer at a local school, and have a more

pleasant

disposition while it causes another person to sink into deep despair and become

bitter? Why are the patterns of psychic energy so different in these two people?

 

Samskara is a Sanskrit word which means "reactive-momentum." According to yoga

philosophy, samskaras are the seeds of reaction that we bring into this world

with us.

People often call this concept karma, and it is much the same idea. We all come

into

this world with different sets of challenges, or different samskaras. These

samskaras

help dictate which vrittis will be activated and cause mental imbalance. The two

people who lost a child have come into this world with very different samskaras

that

have caused them to react differently to the same event.

 

So what is happening when you find yourself continually having challenges

around a

particular emotion? Say for example, you find you are getting angry at all sorts

of

little things that normally wouldn't you. Or perhaps you have a tremendous fear

of

public speaking. Both of these scenarios are symptoms of imbalance. The psychic

patterns of chakra energy, distorted by samskara and activated vrittis as well

as

lifestyle, personal history, diet etc., have created the imbalance in the

emotional

state.