Month / February 2017

by Jayant Kalawar

The Feminine and Masculine in Each of Us: Dancing with our Chakras

Reading my previous post may give the reader context for this post.

The Chakras and their Significations

There are six subtle energy centers, which we call chakras, aligned along the spine.

These centers channel energies, which then drive changes in the physical body, and actions by the physical body.

The energy combinations channeled through the six chakras, at any given moment, give rise to our actions.

The MooldhArA chakrA is the root center. Its energy drives actions to support the instinct to survive and grow physically.

The SwadhisTAnA is the creative and pro-creative center. Its energy drives creative energies, including pro-creative actions out of and within the physical body. It manifests as sexuality, which may be channeled both positively and negatively.

The MaNipurA is the acquisitive center. Its energy drives appetite for acquiring and storing all things material. It manifests as risk-taking behavior. It is sometimes described positively as courageous and ambitious and at other times as greedy and deceitful. In the negative it gives rise to actions based on fear.

The AnahatA is the emotional center. Its energy drives nurturing and affection on one hand. It can also give rise to the opposite: anger and hate.

The ViSuddhA center provides energy for articulation. Its energy drives vocalization and expression of the balance between the energies of the AnahatA and the AjnA centers. Depending on which of the two centers are more dominant, the ViSuddha will channel more emotional or more analytical expression.

The AjnA is the center for analytical intelligence. Its energy drives processing of information gathered by the 5 senses, comparison with memories of past experiences with corresponding actions directed at the action centers of ViShuddha, AnahatA, MaNipurA, SwadhishTAnA and MooldhArA.

The SahasrArA is the center for conceptual abstractions. Its energy drives the direction of the other six chakrAs described above, more towards spiritual, and relatively less towards the material.

Correlating Chakra significations with Gender: Role of the Physical Body

The female physical body manifests capability to pro-create and nurture. To activate these capabilities it draws upon the energies of the MooldhArA, SwadhishTAnA, MaNipurA and AnAhata.

When the female body is more focused on acting out its role of pro-creation and nurturing, its Vishuddha center expresses more emotion reflecting the active AnAhatA than the analytical energy of the AjnA.

The male physical body manifests capability to acquire and protect what it has acquired. It therefore draws upon energies of the MaNipurA and AnahatA (channeling those energies more towards determination and fixedness and competition, than towards nurturing and affection and collaboration), which it expresses through Vishuddha.

The entire range of energies are available to all physical bodies, whether female or male.

Which energies the body draws upon depends on which aspect is most open to be activated in a given phase in life and in particular social configurations and contexts:

  • Different phases in life e.g. whether in puberty and youth, vs in old age, for example.

 

  • Different social configurations e.g. whether in hunter-gatherer, agricultural, industrial or digital social configurations.

Social rules of thumb, in different social configurations, have been formed over time with general observations about what works best to sustain that particular social configuration.

These social rules of thumb, to enable sustenance of a particular social configuration, may lead to gender differentiated roles and expectations.

For example:

  • certain expected division of labor for pro-creation and maintenance of family, on one hand

and

  • acquisition and accumulation of material requirements for sustenance, on the other,

in an agriculture based social configuration

  • may have led to certain social rules of thumb of roles to be played by those with female bodies and those with male bodies.
  • This in turn would have led to the need to access different combination of chakra energies by female bodies, as compared to the male bodies.

As social technologies (i.e. how technology is used within a society) have changed, so have the social configurations and the possible roles played by individuals, whether with female or male bodies.

The lines between the social roles played by those with female bodies and those with male bodies may become blurred, especially as the need to for focus attention and energy on basic survival and pro-creation decreases, as we move from agricultural and industrial configurations to digital configurations, as we move from agricultural and industrial configurations to digital configurations.

When Gender Generalizations and Differentiations Do Not Work: Welcome to the 21st Century

As the demand for varying combination of chakra energies to survive, pro-create, acquire and accumulate decrease in a particular social configuration due to changes in social technologies:

  • individuals, with both female and male bodies, tend to move towards drawing upon the energies of AnahatA, AjnA and SahasrArA to express through the VishudhA.

The social technologies of the 21st centuries appear to be going, at least in early 2017, more towards the human body making less demands of both the basic survival and pro-creative energies from the MooldhArA and the SwAdhisTAnA. The acquisitive, accumulative energies still continue to be in demand, at the moment. We therefore see corresponding changes in how human bodies are acting: mostly by accessing MaNipurA (acquisitive), AnahatA (passionate determination) and AjnA (analytical intelligence). This configuration does not need to differentiate between male and female bodies.

Social roles based on gender differentiation focused on basic survival and pro-creation now make less sense.

Social context in practice of vibrational mantra for activating energy centers

Vibrational mantras (set apart from contemplative mantras) are practiced to activate specific energy centers.

The GAyatri mantra is a vibrational mantra, practiced to activate the AjnA energy, to enable access to analytical intelligence.

Practice of the GAyatri mantra on a daily basis over a sustained period of time may lead to more energy channeled towards analytical (AjnA) actions and relatively less energy towards survival (Mooldhaara) and pro-creative (SwadhisTAnA) actions.

The VishudhA expressions may also be more analytical and less compassionate and nurturing, by those practicing the GAyatri.

The GAyatri mantra practice, therefore, may not make sense to be practiced for those with female bodies, who wish to be mostly active in pro-creation and compassionate nurturing.

In the 21st century social configurations there are many with female bodies who do not find themselves in roles requiring long-term focus on pro-creation and nurturing.

They may be expected and required to perform roles which require sustained access to analytical energies.

The number of those with female bodies who will be playing these analytical roles may increase quite substantially in the next few decades.

Whether they will be assisted in their endeavors by chanting the GAyatri in a sustained manner in the long-term, is something that would need to be observed.

To sum up, ChakrA energy centers by themselves are gender neutral. The female and male physical body requires varying combination of energies from each of these energy centers in different phases of their lives, depending on the roles they are playing in the particular social context they find themselves in.

A well-designed comparative empirical study, of a carefully chosen test group and control group of women (and a similar parallel test and control groups of men), would certainly help to validate (or otherwise) the implicit multiple hypotheses, laid out in this article, about how vibrational mantras may impact male and female physical bodies differently.

The comments and suggestions from readers are welcome directly via email to the author at 21Banyantree@gmail.com .

by Jayant Kalawar

KulAmrutarasikA: the 90th MantrA of the LalitAsahasranAmA

sri-chakra-image-from-121018

Sri Chakra representation drawn by Jayant Kalawar

By Jayant Kalawar

In the 22 mantras, spanning the 90th through 111, the LalitA SahasranAmA (those unfamiliar, please read this overview link) describes how LalitAmbA, Mother LalitA plays within us, as She rises from the MooldhArA to the SahasrArA.

The 90th mantra describes her at the top in the Sahasrara:

kuḷāmṛtaika rasikā

This mantra occurs in the 36th verse of the LalitA SahasranAmA, which is:

mūlamantrātmikā, mūlakūṭa traya kaḷebarā |

kuḷāmṛtaika rasikā, kuḷasaṅketa pālinī || 36 ||

(Listen)

The vibration of the mantra connect us to LalitAmbA, LalitA-Mother (AmbA). Listen to the link above and chant the mantra. You are calling out to the Devi LalitA, the Mother (Devi pronounced it as They-vi, for those unfamiliar with SamskrutA). And the Mother responds to your call.

Many of us though would like to know the ‘meaning’ of the mantra. That helps too, as it helps to create a visualization. How to chant a particular mantra with what focus and visualization is best as a one-on-one conversation. The vibration of the mantra along with the visualization can and does begin to change the vibrational structure of the individual. It is something to be learned when one is ready to begin connecting with the more subtle aspects of oneself, after gradually stepping away from the attachments of sense based objects.

Just to give a high level sense of the verse:

Rasika is the enjoyer. LalitAmbA is playing and enjoying. What is She enjoying?

Amrut: that which is opposite of Mrut, death. Non-Death. LalitAmba enjoys the state of Non-Death when She reaches the SahasrArA, where she meets and dances with ShivA.

Shiva is always sitting in meditation bathing in peaceful moonlight at the Sahasrara. Awaiting his beloved LalitAmbA to join Him.

LalitAmbA works through a series of obstacles to rise from the MooldhArA to meet her beloved ShivA in SahasrArA.

She awakens Him out of his meditative state in the Sahasrara. They begin their celestial dance.

And the Amrut, Non-Death, flows in the subtle plane.

In the physical plane it flows out of Kula: the body.

Hence, the practitioner tastes the sweetness when the Devi Shakti reaches the SahasrArA. It  flows as KulAmrut.

For LalitAmbA is indeed the RasikA, the enjoyer, of KulAmrut.  Hence KulAmrutaikarasikA.

The reader may have noticed, in the description above, how gender apparently seems to play a role. The feminine principle, LalitA rises to meet the male principle, Shiva.

Where does this take place? In each of our individual subtle bodies. So in that sense, each one of us has something that we may categorize as feminine and also masculine.

It is the meeting of these two principles within each of us culminates in the subtle celestial dance, which produces the A-Mruta, the Non-Death state.

It is also interesting to note that the 1000 mantras of LalitA are roughly divided, in terms of gender ascription, into one third feminine gender nouns, one third masculine gender nouns and the rest as neuter gender nouns.

Many of you may be interested to know more about how both the feminine and masculine principles play a role in each of us. I have written more about that here.

 

by Jayant Kalawar

Connecting Your ChakrAs to the Thousand MantrAs

First let us chant the shAnti mantrA, which many of us are familiar with:

purnam adah, purnam idam purnat purnam udachyate; purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate (Brihadaranyaka Upansidhad 5.1.1, which is part of the Shatapatha Brahmana, which is part of the Shukla Yajur Veda)

This verse is repeated in Isha Upanishad (part of Shukla Yajur Veda) as the first verse.

There are various interpretations of this verse. I leave it to the reader to do a web search to get these range of interpretations.

This is my interpretation: what is in the entire cosmos is fully embedded in each micro element, and any composite set of micro elements that we perceive and interact with. I take this as an axiom. I call it the Fullness axiom. Rest is my proposition, arising from this axiom, as applied to specific word descriptions in the Lalita SahasranAmA. The proposition suggests actionable knowledge for you. To help you understand your own nature and have better sense of how to navigate through your world of experiences. Hence what follows may be of interest to you.

The Proposition

Our human body is just such a composite of micro elements. Applying the Fullness axiom, in principle the human body contains all that is in the entire cosmos. Let us view the human body as being made of multiple layers of chemical components moving about in space over time. These layers of chemical components interact with each other through neural vibrations.

The systematic descriptions of the world based on the Veda (known as ShastrAs) speak about three passages which connect the perineum area of the body to the top of the skull. Neural vibrations travel on these major highways. There are six interchanges on these highways, from which local networks lead to different parts of the human body. These six interchanges are called ChakrAs. The Lalita SahasranAmA (LS) specifically speaks of two speed bumps which slow down and serve as check points at each of the interchanges. Some of the interchanges have three check points. Getting past these check points requires the vibrations to have certain energy levels. Proper functioning of these check points and having the required vibrational energy levels are required to ensure smooth flow of neural vibrations throughout the human body. Blockages at these check points can lead to a dysfunctional human body.

In each of the articles linked below (I will add sporadically as I write and post on a mantra, as and when inspired by LalitAmbA), I take up one of 22 mantras, from the 1,000 mantras, in the LS. The 22 mantras span the 90th to the 111th mantra in the LS and describe how LalitAmbA manifests (and what results from such manifestation) as her energy travels the path from the MooldhArA to the SahasrArA.

The 90th MantrA: Kulamrutaikarasika is described at this link:

https://21banyantree.com/2017/02/24/kulamrutarasika-the-90th-mantra-of-the-lalitasahasranama/

by Jayant Kalawar

21B Case Study: Taurus Rising

Your ascendant is Taurus. You have the potential to undertake courageous initiatives in collaboration with select individuals with nurturing capabilities.

case-study-chart-for-taurus-rising-170208

Moon, Sun, Mercury and Saturn channel benefic energies through you. Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Rahu and Ketu channel energies which may impact you negatively at certain times. There are traditional practices to strengthen your benefic energies and sublimate energies that may impact you negatively. These are discussed and arrived at in individual coaching sessions.

Summary

Your strongest energy is the Moon energy. Moon energy is nourishing and nurturing. Strong Moon energy signifies an individual with affectionate nurturing qualities which flow into all their behaviors. Strength of the Moon energy gives indication of supportive mother (or maternal figures), social behavior, emotional peace, financial solvency, happy married life, inheritance from the mother’s side, as well as love and care in general.  In your case, the Moon also additionally gives you energy to pursue a career by taking up and bringing to fruition initiatives that channel nourishing and nurturing energies. The Moon energy channels very strongly through you. Consider it your best guide and supporter for your career.

Your Saturn energy is also very strong. Saturn drives the direction of your career. This Saturn energy is also likely to guide to finding your long term partner, who may very well be from your career area. This long term partner is likely to hail from a location distant from your birth place. Saturn will expect and motivate you to practice your career with perfection, spirituality, detachment, reliability with discipline, honesty, sincerity, stability, longevity. It gives consistency and enables detailed work over long periods of time.

Thus, the combination of the Moon energy and Saturn energy will be your most reliable guides in your life and career.

Mercury and Jupiter channel relatively weak energies through you. They are required for your career success. Mercury energy provides you with creative and analytical intelligence in your daily career activities. Jupiter energy gives insight into the mysterious and the occult, which you need for the career area you are most likely to choose (something concerning nourishing and nurturing).  You should, therefore, incorporate daily practices and have coaching sessions to strengthen Mercury energy and propitiate Jupiter energy.

Your Sun energy, signifying your father, is well meaning but weakly channeled through you. It is unable to be of support to you. This results in weakness in your ability to acquire and hold home and assets, as well as support from influential people and gains from investments. There are ways of strengthening the Sun energy through practices and coaching, which you should explore.

Your Mars energy is weak and negatively impacts your relationship with your Sun energy. This may cause you to have disturbed sleep and allergies causing inflammation in your body. You should explore ways to propitiate Mars energy.

Your Venus energy acts very negatively for you. It not only weakens your Sun and Mercury energy and is reflected in your sense that you need to substantially increase your ability to channel creative and affectionate energies as well as nourishing and nurturing energies towards children.

by Jayant Kalawar

21B Case Study: Libra Rising

The ascendant point, in your Jyotish chart, is in the Libra zodiac sign (sidereal chart). This indicates that you are motivated and energized to set and achieve goals for yourself. Your goals are likely to be a mix of acquiring advanced knowledge and peace of mind. Acquiring a home and portfolio of financial assets may also be important to you. When you project your image in an ethical and balanced manner, you will likely come across as an attractive, intelligent, even charismatic, person to people at large. Those in one-on-one personal or business relationship with you, however, may sometimes see you as being passive, not assertive enough with your creative, affectionate and nurturing sensibilities.

case-study-chart-for-libra-rising-170208

Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Moon and the Sun channel positive energies through you. Mercury, Rahu and Ketu channel energies which have negative impact on you from time to time. There are therapeutic ways to strengthen your benefic energies and sublimate energies that may impact you negatively. These are discussed and arrived at in individual coaching sessions.

Summary of Your Karmic Strengths and Areas of Improvement

Overall, you have two very strong positive energies, of Venus and Moon, channeling through you. You have four positive, but weak, energies, of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Sun supporting you. You have one negative energy, that of Mercury, which from time to time misleads you through over analysis and wrongly presenting an apparently rational view of the world.

Karmic Strengths

Your Venus energy is positive and strong. It helps you set your goals and project your image. It is most supportive when you are active in:

  • acquiring knowledge
  • achieving peace of mind
  • acquisition and maintaining of home
  • acquiring financial assets portfolio and
  • focusing on your career and social status.

As you begin to accept these as your core goals in life, you will gain clarity on what broad direction you to take in your life.

Your Moon energy is strongly positive and flows to you through your mother. However, the Moon energy is in the shadow of Rahu, the north node of the ecliptic axis, in your birth chart. This causes you to make demands on your mother and from time to time be in conflict with her. Please be aware that the Moon energy, through your mother, gives you guidance in spiritual and material matters, including:

  • Social connections
  • Ethical matters
  • Relationship with authority figures
  • Pursuing advanced studies and
  • Long distance travel to expand and contribute to social connections.

These actions, driven by the Moon energy, open up the potential of you flourishing in your career and reflects positively in your social status.

Connecting directly, through appropriate breath-work, chanting and meditation, with the spiritual aspect of the Devi may ensure this strong Moon energy to continue to support you all your life, and at the same time free your mother’s energies for other ends. It will also help in dissipating the sometimes demanding / conflicting interactions you may have with your mother.

by Jayant Kalawar

21B Case Study: Gemini Rising

Your ascendant is Gemini (sidereal chart). You have the potential to undertake courageous initiatives in collaboration with younger friends and colleagues.  What it will take to realize this potential is assessed here.

case-study-chart-for-gemini-rising-170208

Your Ishta Devata is Shri Mahalaxmi. Guidance on practices to ensure receiving continual blessings and protection of your Ishta Devata can be provided at one on one skype sessions, tailored for your specific chart configuration.

Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars channel positive energies through you. Rahu and Ketu channel negative energies through you from time to time. There are therapeutic ways to strengthen your benefic energies and sublimate energies that may impact you negatively. These are discussed and arrived at in individual coaching sessions.

Summary of Your Karmic Strengths and Areas of Improvement

Overall you have two strong set of energies working for you: Moon and Mars. Sun and Saturn energies are moderately strong. Also, you have no negative energies working through you.

Your Karmic Strengths

Your Moon energy is already strong and channeled to you especially through your mother in particular, and through your family in general. To sustain the strong Moon energy and make it even stronger, do inner work to invoke the (Feminine Divine) Devi’s energy to channel directly through you. It supports and enables you to flourish in your career and, hence, give you a relatively respected social status.

Your Mars energy channels strongly through you. This helps you enter into and sustain successful partnerships. However, to achieve this, you need to strengthen the prerequisite: ability to enter and maintain one-on-one significant relationships. This points to the need to strengthen your Jupiter energy, as described below.

Sun energy is moderately strong. This energy manifests as support from your father and other paternal figures in your life. Inner work will help to energize the Sun energy in you, to amplify your will power and mental stamina, required to achieve the rewards you are seeking.

Saturn energy is moderately strong for you. It is one of the drivers in your personal and business partnerships, which could lead to ease of life, if managed well. However, to succeed in entering into and sustaining business partnerships, you need to strengthen your Jupiter energy that supports your ability to enter into one-on-one relationships, which is a pre-requisite for sustained partnerships.

Your Karmic Areas of Improvement

You have some weak energies channeling through you that need work, if you are to achieve and realize your full potential levels in your life time:

  1. Energize your communication and analytical capabilities channeled by Mercury energy, which is relatively weak: Coaching in public speaking and debating may help in communications. Also (and only as an example), slow but steady practice with increasingly complex Excel spread sheet analysis may help in building analytical capability. In any case, keep in mind your analytical strength relative to what may be demanded by your job, before making commitments.
  2. Your Venus energy is channeled as a transformative energy. It may enable you to explore mysterious spiritual experiences. Transformation also means giving up old ways of doing things, as you explore new ways. Your Venus energy, being quite weak, may trigger these transformations but not enable you to complete or sustain them, leading to a sense of a roller coaster ride in your life. This is major energy area of improvement for you. Focused inner work for Venus energy, the energy of the Devi manifested in the material world, will help.
  3. The weakness of Jupiter energy impacts your ability to initiate and sustain collaborative projects. It also results in confusions in the process of initiating and sustaining significant one on one personal as well as business relationships. This is a relatively weak area for you, requiring substantial strengthening, through inner work and relationship coaching.

The Celestial Energy Areas that will Drive Your Life in the Next Five Years

Most people ask: when will the karmic energy areas shift and how they will impact me? Here is a short answer for the next 5 plus years (the last two digits of some of the years have been changed to letters to further ensure confidentiality):

 

Your Karmic Celestial Energy Areas Time Periods Most Active in the Next 5 Years of Your Life Are they Strong or Do You Need Working on to Make them Stronger?
Venus December 20AB to April 20CD On a scale of -5 to +5, Venus energy is +1.5. It is weak.
Sun April 20EF – April 20GH On a scale of -5 to +5, Sun energy is +4.0. It is moderately strong.
Moon April 2020 – December 20IJ On a scale of -5 to +5, Moon energy is +5.0. It is strong.
Mars December 2021-February 20KL On a scale of -5 to +5, Mars energy in +5.0. It is strong.

 

You will have noticed that I have indicated that the Venus energy, that is manifesting in your life currently (and up to April 20CD), is weak. It is giving you challenges, at present, in your material and spiritual quests.

by Jayant Kalawar

Successful American Entrepreneur: 21B Jyotish Initial Diagnostic and Success Path Assessment

Featured Image (c) Anuva Kalawar

This is an illustrative 21B Jyotish analysis  based on the sidereal chart of a successful business personality, who is very much in the news in 2016 (named Joshi Rabinez (not his real name) in this description). Some of you may guess who it is based on birth details, the initial diagnostic and success path assessment, presented below.

american-entrepreneur-chart-170208

Initial Diagnostic

Joshi Rabinez was born June 1971. An Aries ascendant, Joshi has a rather strong chart. Strong Mars (his ascendant ruler) makes him a driven personality. Mars being positioned very strongly in his 10th house of career shows he will make his career his top priority. Rahu (the North ecliptic node) is also placed, again in strength, in his career house, thus ensuring multiple career interests in parallel, in each of which Joshi would relentlessly work for success. The Moon in his birth chart is the ruler of his 4th house of mother and home. It is positioned to provide him ways to grow creatively and also be supportive of his romantic aspirations and to have children. The Sun in Joshi’s chart makes him courageous, visionary and risk taking. Saturn in his chart ensures Joshi has income and capital gains to build family wealth. All of these strengths together indicate that Joshi is very bright in many areas and has high social visibility.

Now to his weak areas: His communication style is combative and can come across as overly assertive and even abrasive (indicated by Mercury which signifies communication, rules his 6th house of competition and struggle and positioned to play a major role in his role as entrepreneur by virtue of its position in the 3rd house). He will have ups and downs in his married life and potentially have multiple marriages: the ruler of his house of marriage, Venus, is afflicted by Rahu from the 10th house: Joshi’s multiple career aspirations trump his capacity to sustain his marriage. Also, Joshi’s relationship with authority figures shows ongoing challenges, which may lead to potential failures are some key points in his career.

Summary of strengths and weaknesses: Joshi has the intelligence and the drive to achieve career and financial success in multiple areas. He is likely to come across as combative abrasive, thus not able to gather and sustain a core leadership team around him. His married life is likely to be overshadowed by his driven focus on career aspirations. He is likely to have difficulty in his relationships with authority figures as well as business and financial partners, potentially negatively impacting his business plans at some point.

This section of the report (deleted to preserve confidentiality) will typically drill down into specific details in actual cases: based on skype / phone interview which follows the horoscope analysis, as part of the service package.

 Success Path Assessment

Joshi Rabinez is well positioned for career and financial success. He will benefit through ongoing coaching in the areas of communication, marriage and in managing relationships with authority figures and business / financial partners.

This section of the report will typically drill down into specific details in actual cases: based on skype / phone interview which follows the horoscope analysis, as part of the service package.

Additional observations

For the near future, over the next two years (from April 2016): Joshi is currently going through a phase where he is ruled by Rahu, which makes him overextend (and overpromise results) himself into multiple career areas, albeit in creative ways – from now to the fall of 2017. He is likely to be in a relatively tough position to deliver his promised results, especially in late 2017. While he will be very driven and be able to deliver, especially in early 2018, he is likely to come up short vis a vis his relationships with his financial / business partners and advisors. Intensive coaching, in the three areas indicated above (communication, marriage and relationship with authority figures / partners), over the next year and half will help Joshi to increase probability of success.