Manipura ( sa, मणिपूर, IAST: ) is the third primary chakra according to Vedic tradition.

Description

Location

Located above the

navel The navel (clinically known as the umbilicus, commonly known as the belly button or tummy button) is a protruding, flat, or hollowed area on the abdomen at the attachment site of the umbilical cord. All placental mammals have a navel, although ...

, Manipura translates from Sanskrit as "city of jewels" alternatively translated as "resplendent gem" or "lustrous gem". Manipura is often associated with the colors

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the ...

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

in classical

tantra Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...

, and

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

in the

Nath Nath, also called Natha, are a Shaiva sub-tradition within Hinduism in India and Nepal. A medieval movement, it combined ideas from Buddhism, Shaivism and Yoga traditions in India.fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

and the power of transformation. It is said to govern

digestion Digestion is the breakdown of large insoluble food molecules into small water-soluble food molecules so that they can be absorbed into the watery blood plasma. In certain organisms, these smaller substances are absorbed through the small intest ...

and

metabolism Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run c ...

as the home of

Agni Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu ...

and the vital wind Samana Vayu. The energies of Prana Vayu and Apana Vayu (inward and outward flowing energy) meet at the point in a balanced system. Manipura is the home of the coeliac plexus, which innervates most of the digestive system. In chakra-based medicine, practitioners work this area to promote healthier

, elimination,

pancreas The pancreas is an organ of the digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a gland. The pancreas is a mixed or heterocrine gland, i.e. it has both an en ...

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...

and

Adrenal function The adrenal glands (also known as suprarenal glands) are endocrine glands that produce a variety of hormones including adrenaline and the steroids aldosterone and cortisol. They are found above the kidneys. Each gland has an outer cortex which ...

. Weak Agni (fire) in the coeliac plexus leads to incompletely digested food, thoughts and emotions, and is a source of ama (

toxicity Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subs ...

Appearance

Manipura is represented with a downward-pointing red triangle, signifying the

tattva According to various Indian schools of philosophy, ''tattvas'' () are the Classical element, elements or aspects of reality that constitute human experience. In some traditions, they are conceived as an aspect of deity. Although the number of ' ...

of fire, within a bright yellow circle, with 10 dark-blue or black petals like heavily laden rain clouds. The fire region is represented by the god Vahni, who is shining red, has four arms, holds a rosary and a

spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...

. Vahni is making the gestures of granting boons, or favors, and dispelling fear. Agni is later referenced as well as Hinduism altered over time.

Seed mantra

The seed

mantra A mantra ( Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ...

is the syllable 'ram'. Within the bindu, or dot, above this mantra resides the deity

Rudra Rudra (; sa, रुद्र) is a Rigvedic deity associated with Shiva, the wind or storms, Vayu, medicine, and the hunt. One translation of the name is 'the roarer'. In the Rigveda, Rudra is praised as the 'mightiest of the mighty'. Ru ...

. He is red or white, with three eyes, of ancient aspect with a silver beard, and is smeared with white ashes. Rudra makes the gestures of granting boons and dispelling fear and is seated either on a

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...

skin or a

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, includin ...

. Rudra's Shakti is the goddess

Lakini As per Yoga and Tantra philosophies in Hinduism, there exist psychic Chakra's in human body. There are believed to be seven major Chakras, which are arranged vertically along the axial channel ( sushumna nadi). They begin from Muladhara to Sahas ...

. She has a black or dark-blue

vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It i ...

color; has three faces, each with three eyes; and is four-armed. Lakini holds a

thunderbolt A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hel ...

, the arrow shot from the bow of

Kama ''Kama'' (Sanskrit ) means "desire, wish, longing" in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh literature.Monier Williamsकाम, kāmaMonier-Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary, pp 271, see 3rd column Kama often connotes sensual pleasure, sexual ...

, and fire. She makes the gestures of granting boons and dispelling fear. Lakini is seated on a red lotus.

Petals

The ten petals of Manipura are dark-blue or black, like heavily laden rain clouds, with the syllables ḍaṁ, ḍhaṁ, ṇaṁ, taṁ, thaṁ, daṁ, dhaṁ, naṁ, paṁ, and phaṁ upon them in a dark-blue color. These petals correspond to the

vritti Vritti (Vrutti) (Sanskrit: वृत्ति, Harvard-Kyoto: vṛtti, Gujarati: વૃત્તિ), means "streams of consciousness",it is also a technical term used in yoga meant to indicate mental awareness against disturbances in the mediu ...

s of spiritual ignorance,

thirst Thirst is the craving for potable fluids, resulting in the basic instinct of animals to drink. It is an essential mechanism involved in fluid balance. It arises from a lack of fluids or an increase in the concentration of certain osmolites, suc ...

jealousy Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety. Jealousy can consist of one or more emotions such as anger, resentment, inadequacy, helplessness or disgus ...

treachery Treachery is the betrayal or violation of trust. Treachery may also refer to: *Treachery (law), an offence in several countries, related to treason * Treachery (''Revenge''), the eighth episode of the American television series ''Revenge'' * ''Tr ...

shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...

fear Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...

disgust Disgust (Middle French: ''desgouster'', from Latin ''gustus'', "taste") is an emotional response of rejection or revulsion to something potentially contagious or something considered offensive, distasteful, or unpleasant. In ''The Expression o ...

delusion A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or som ...

foolishness Foolishness is the unawareness or lack of social norms which causes offence, annoyance, trouble and/or injury. The things such as impulsivity and/or influences may affect a person's ability to make otherwise reasonable decisions. In this ...

and

sadness Sadness is an emotional pain associated with, or characterized by, feelings of disadvantage, loss, despair, grief, helplessness, disappointment and sorrow. An individual experiencing sadness may become quiet or lethargic, and withdraw them ...

. The petals represent the ten Prānas (currents and energy vibrations) that are regulated by the Manipūra Chakra. The five Prāna Vayus are: Prāna, Apāna, Udāna, Samāna And Vyāna. The five Upa Prānas are: Nāga, Kūrma, Devadatta, Krikala and Dhananjaya.

Association with the body

The position of Manipura is stated as being behind the navel. Sometimes a secondary chakra called Surya (sun) chakra is located at the solar plexus, whose role is to absorb and assimilate Prana from the sun. Being related to the sense of sight, it is associated with the eyes, and being associated with movement, it is associated with the feet. In the endocrine system, Manipura is said to be associated with the

and the outer adrenal glands (the adrenal cortex). These glands create important hormones involved in digestion, converting food into energy for the body, in the same way that Manipura radiates Prana throughout the body.

Comparisons with other systems

Vajrayana

Vajrayana Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...

traditions, the chakra is triangular, red and has 64 petals or channels that extend upwards. This chakra is important as the seat of the 'red drop'. The short syllable 'Ah' is located inside the 'red drop'.

Meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

on 'Ah' is the key component of the practice of

tummo In Tibetan Buddhism, ''tummo'' (; sa, चण्डाली, caṇḍālī) is the fierce goddess of heat and passion. Tummo is found in the Mahasiddha Krishnacarya and the '' Hevajra Tantra'' texts. Tummo is also a tantric practice for in ...

, or inner heat. In tummo, a practitioner's 'subtle winds' are made to enter the central channel, and rise up to its top. This is sometimes compared to 'Raising the kundalini' in Hindu terminology, melting the subtle white drop in the crown, and causing an experience of great bliss. 'Raising the kundalini' is considered the first and most important of the six yogas of Naropa.

Qigong

In Chinese

qigong ''Qigong'' (), ''qi gong'', ''chi kung'', ''chi 'ung'', or ''chi gung'' () is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training. With roots in ...

, there is a degree of correspondence with the term "Kua" or door. this series of doors connect with three

Dantian Dantian, dan t'ian, dan tien or tan t'ien is loosely translated as "elixir field", "sea of qi", or simply "energy center". Dantian are the "qi focus flow centers", important focal points for meditative and exercise techniques such as qigong, m ...

s that act as furnaces to convert different energies in the body. The lower Dantian exists in the

stomach The stomach is a muscular, hollow organ in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and many other animals, including several invertebrates. The stomach has a dilated structure and functions as a vital organ in the digestive system. The stomach i ...

region. Its function is to convert

sexual Sex is the biological distinction of an organism between male and female. Sex or SEX may also refer to: Biology and behaviour *Animal sexual behaviour **Copulation (zoology) **Human sexual activity **Non-penetrative sex, or sexual outercourse ** ...

jing energy into Qi energy (a concept similar to Hindu prana). This is not the location of the lower Dantian.

Lataif-e-sitta

Within the Sufi Lataif-e-sitta, the

torso The torso or trunk is an anatomical term for the central part, or the core, of the body of many animals (including humans), from which the head, neck, limbs, tail and other appendages extend. The tetrapod torso — including that of a huma ...

contains several Lataif. Unlike the chakras, the Lataif are not distributed vertically, instead to the left and the right. The

nafs ''Nafs'' () is an Arabic word occurring in the Quran, literally meaning "self", and has been translated as "psyche", " ego" or " soul".Nurdeen Deuraseh and Mansor Abu Talib (2005), "Mental health in Islamic medical tradition", ''The Internati ...

, or lower self, is a centre that is situated below the navel.

Kabbala

Western

occultists The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism ...

make different kabbalistic associations with Manipura. For some occultists, it relates to the

sephirot Sefirot (; he, סְפִירוֹת, translit=Səfīrōt, Tiberian: '), meaning '' emanations'', are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which Ein Sof (The Infinite) reveals itself and continuously creates both the physical realm an ...

of Hod and

Netzach Netzach ( he, נֶצַח ''Neṣaḥ'', in pausa: נֵצַח ''Nēṣaḥ'', lit. 'eminence, everlastingness, perpetuity') is the seventh of the ten Sefirot in the Jewish mystical system of Kabbalah. It is located beneath Chesed ('loving-kindn ...

. Netzach is the quality of energy to overcome different obstacles. Hod is the tendency to control and break down energy into different forms, the two forms being contending and balancing forces. This is like the forces of anabolism and catabolism in the human body. Hod and Netzach are associated with the left and right legs and feet of the body.

Yogic

The Manipuraka chakra is said by the 10th century '' Kubjikamatatantra'' 11.35 to be at the navel. The ''Samgitaratnakara'' 2.125-127 agrees it is at the navel, stating that it has 10 petals, containing deep sleep, desire, envy, slander, shame, fear, compassion, stupor, impurity, and anxiety. The breath ( prana) that dwells there is named the sun. It is said in the ''

Hatha Ratnavali Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...

'' 1.63 to be purified by Nauli, one of the

Satkarma The shatkarmas (Sanskrit: षटकर्म ''ṣaṭkarma'', literally ''six actions''), also known as shatkriyas,

Pagan

"Our focus, manifestation, ambition, and our critical aspect/ defensiveness come from the Solar Plexus.". When we are out of balance here we may have control issues, hypersensitivity, action imbalances, and issues with our health in the form of anxiety, blockages in digestive system, fear and welling up of negative responses that prevent us from moving beyond built up negative space, rather than to keep us safe its to prevent ourselves from healing in our desire, thought and fear. Solar plexus is where the incoming energies from people are received. Attitudes breathing is the flow of decharging emotions in tense situations. "The tool combines the power of the heart and gut to enable you to shift emotion and physiology right in the middle of a strong reaction". Attitude if its giving us difficulty try choosing the opposite from what you've been feeling; "love and appreciation if you’ve been feeling animosity and resentment". "Use your notebook to write down unproductive attitudes you know you have and more positive attitudes you wish you had.". Guide yourself with alternative attitudes that you think could help with for example a nemesis in our life that redirect the flow out of our objectivity, let that alternative be with your breath, breath love, breath appreciation, breath compassion or breath excitement (i.e. the most suitable) and feeling (within a few minutes) we will be moving back into coherence (out of noise of anyone's background thought), we will also feel framed in our attitude when sometimes we aren't making that cohesive effort to be. We are guided by our heart when we are more closely feeling and taking the frame of an attitude.

Alternative names

Tantra Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...

: Dashachchada, Dashadala Padma, Dashapatra, Dashapatrambuja, Manipura, Manipuraka, Nabhipadma, Nabhipankaja *

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

(late

Upanishads The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...

): Manipura, Manipuraka, Nabhi Chakra *

Puranic Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...

: Manipura, Nabhi Chakra

References

Sources

* {{cite book , last1=Mallinson , first1=James , author1-link=James Mallinson (author) , last2=Singleton , first2=Mark , author2-link=Mark Singleton (yoga scholar) , name-list-style=amp , title=Roots of Yoga , publisher=Penguin Books , year=2017 , isbn=978-0-241-25304-5 , oclc=928480104

External links

Description of Manipura Chakra from Kheper.net

Manipura - The Power Chakra by Anodea Judith
Chakras