Chapter 4The System of the Chakras · The Mind Centres

In the process of our Yoga the centres have each a fixed psychological use and general function which base all their special powers and functionings. The m¯ul¯adh¯ara governs the physical down to the subconscient; the abdominal centre — sv¯adhis.t.h¯ana — governs the lower vital; the navel centre — n¯abhipadma or man.ip¯ura — governs the larger vital; the heart centre — hr.tpadma or an¯ahata — governs the emotional being; ternalising mind; the centre between the eyebrows — ¯aj˜n¯acakra — governs the dynamic mind, will, vision, mental formation; the thousand-petalled lotus — sahasradala — above commands the higher thinking mind, houses the still higher illumined mind and at its highest opens to the intuition through which or else by an overflooding directness the overmind can have with the rest communication or an immediate contact.1

* I never heard of two lotuses in the heart centre; but it is the seat of two powers, in front the higher vital or emotional being, behind and concealed the soul or psychic being.

The colours of the lotuses and the numbers of petals are respectively, from bottom to top: — (1) the Muladhara or physical consciousness centre, four petals, red; (2) the abdominal centre, six petals, deeper purple red; (3) the navel centre, ten petals, violet; (4) the heart centre, twelve petals, golden pink; (5) the throat centre, sixteen petals, grey; (6) the forehead centre between the eyebrows, two petals, white; (7) the thousand-petalled lotus above the head, blue with gold light around. The functions are, according to our Yoga, — (1) commanding the physical consciousness and the subconscient; (2) commanding the small vital movements, the little greeds, lusts, desires, the small sense-movements; (3) commanding the larger life-forces and the passions and larger desire-movements; (4) commanding 1 In a draft of this letter Sri Aurobindo wrote in the opening paragraph: “I have often written of the centres — but without using the Sanskrit names which are intelligible only to Hindus. They are the same but our interpretation and application is not quite identical. We relate them to the psychological levels or planes.” — Ed.