AJNA CHAKRA

   The ajna (command) chakra is the sixth chakra (energy center) from the base of the spine in the K 20 Ajapa Yoga Foundation KUNDALINI YOGA systems. It is located between the eyebrows. The realization of ajna chakra yields undifferentiated cosmic awareness transcending all emotion. Some take the “element” associated with this chakra to be Prakriti, the source of the natural world, and her three GUNAS, or strands. Others associate this chakra with the elements of consciousness—BUDDHI (higher mind), AHAMKARA (ego), and MANAS (mind). In either case, the ajna chakra’s presiding deity is ARDHANARISHVARA, the form of SHIVA when he is half-goddess and half-god. This form symbolizes the end of differentia-tion and the integration of the transcendent and the worldly. The SHAKTI, or energy, of the chakra is hakini. This chakra has two petals of luminescent, translucent whiteness.

   Further reading: Harish Johari, Chakras: Energy Centers of Transformation (Rochester, Vt.: Destiny Books, 2000); Swami Nityabodhananda Saraswati, Ajna Cakra (Mong-hyr: Bihar School of Yoga, 1973); Lilian Silburn, Kundalini: The Energy of the Depths: A Comprehensive Study Based on the Scriptures of Nondualistic Kasmir Saivism. Translated from the French by Jacques Gontier (Albany: State Uni-versity of New York Press, 1988); Sir John Woodroffe, trans., The Serpent Power (Madras: Ganesh, 1978).