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16

Ancient Vedic Scripture

the four canons

Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.

Arnold J. Toynbee

Because they form the skeleton upon which chakra knowledge has been built, I have devoted this entire chapter to discussing the four main canons of the Vedas, especially the primary scripture, the Rig Veda. I’ll present an overview of these writings—what they are and how they are organized—and invite you into a discussion about the dating of the oldest of these manuscripts, a question that has plagued and fascinated scholars worldwide for hundreds of years.

Wrapped up in the placement of these important writings on a calendar is another key question: authorship. We cannot understand a text without comprehending the people who originated it. Any complex system of thoughts, including chakraology, is more than a collection or configuration of ideas. The study of chakras is a vast discipline that incorporates belief systems and philosophies about life, death, and the nature of being human. It is an assemblage of knowledge, wisdom, and events that must be pulled from history like a thread from a tapestry. So first we must ask: who were the people who lassoed the stars of spirituality and enfolded them in the scripture we now call the Vedas?

Some scholars believe the Vedas’ creators were indigenous to the East Indian region. Others testify that the poets who wrote these scriptures came from elsewhere, bringing their oral traditions with them. This chapter will sketch both sides of this disagreement and leave it to you to make your own decision, and move into a discussion of the earliest mentions of the chakras in the most primary sections of the four main Vedas.

One thing is certain: no matter who the true originators of Vedic doctrine were, the hearts of these people lie within the scriptures themselves. That is why this chapter highlights some of the most important points of Vedic thought, seeking not only to understand who the story makers were but what they were striving to become. With the “when” and “who” of the Vedas considered, we will then cast our net a bit wider. While profound knowledge was brewing in the caldron of India, spiritual ideas, laws, and concepts were also percolating in other parts of the world. We’ll examine a few of those that coincided with emerging Vedic ideas and ideals.

A final section about Hindu cosmology, as well as an introduction to the Hindu deities, will round out our initial introduction to Hindu philosophy.

Everything this chapter covers is foundational to understanding the milieu that bubbles beneath our complex understandings of the chakras and related systems—not just from a Hindu perspective but from that of other cultures as well.

This chapter’s journey is extensive in that it spans thousands of years. The conceptualization of the chakras took every one of these years to develop, and it continues to do so today.

The East Indian Backdrop: The Four Main Vedic Scriptures

Hindu-based chakra teachings originated in the Indus Valley, an inhabited floodplain around the Indus River. This area is now located in part of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India and is currently known as the Punjab region. It is from here that Hinduism involved, but not through a single, universal set of beliefs. Thousands of Hindu sects arose, as evidenced by a chaotic array of writings dating back at least three thousand years. The ideas the people of this region captured could have been transplanted from people living far from the Indus Valley—in fact, as far as the steppes of Russia.

As I mentioned earlier, four of the Vedas are unarguably the most significant, containing the germ of Hindu philosophy, cosmology, and practices and serving as the soil that nurtured much of our current best-known chakra system and related ideas. All four were written in Sanskrit, the oldest known written language in the world.1

The word veda is based on the Sanskrit ved or vid and means “knowledge” or “revelation,” a fitting description for this collection of wisdom writings. The four scriptures are the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda. (Some sources link a fifth scripture, the Mahabharatha or Panchama Veda, with these other canons.2) They address the following main topics:

Rig Veda—“royal knowledge”

Sama Veda—“knowledge of chants”

Yajur Veda—“knowledge of ritual”

Atharva Veda—“knowledge of incarnations”3

All Hindu scripture can be categorized as shruti, “that which is revealed,” or smriti, “that which is remembered.” If it is considered pure revelation, then the writings are not human inventions; instead, they are holy and said to have originated at the beginning of creation. This divine knowledge could be perceived and explained by seers called rishis.

The four main Vedas are all considered shruti—direct transmission from Source. Within each are four major segments:

The remembered texts, the smriti—which are adjuncts to the four main texts—tend to be those that bring out the meaning of the shruti (revealed) writings, often by providing explanations about moral conduct and offering instruction for rituals. Texts such as the Dharma Sutras and the Puranas are usually considered smriti, as are many minor scriptures. (There are arguments about this, however; some experts believe the Puranas, for instance, constitute a sort of fifth Vedic scripture.) The Dharma Sutras are several manuals that form the earliest basis of Hindu laws. Sutras are “threads” or “strings” of rules, especially dealing with human relations. Puranas are post-Vedic writings that mainly form a narrative of the history of the universe, as well as genealogies of kings and heroes. They also describe Hindu cosmology and geography and are organized into three categories, each named after a main god: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

And so it is that the original mystical revealed teachings have been illuminated and expanded over time.5 Still another text that factors into our discussion of chakras, sometimes considered revealed and sometimes remembered, is the Bhagavad Gita, a “song of God” composed about 200 bce and included in the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata. It features a discussion between the god Krishna and the Indian hero Arjuna about the purpose of life.6

If you have been walking the chakra path for a while, you’ve probably heard mention of many of these texts. If you are new to all of this information and choose to explore, you may discover that some of these Vedic writings are among the most beautiful in the world, inclusive of the songs of the gods and of the human heart.

Dating the Vedic Canons

One of the major debates among Vedic scholars is where to place the four main texts on a timeline. Various scholarly suggestions place the writing of them, or at least the sharing of the information they contain, between 12,000 bce and 1000 bce, a boggling span of eleven thousand years.7

What scholars can agree on is that the Rig Veda is the oldest compilation of wisdom in the world and therefore the eldest among the four Vedic scriptures. It is also the origin of much of Hindu culture, as many other Hindu sacred texts can trace their roots to this revealed word.

For perspective, the Abrahamic religions arguably arose much later.8 However, it is interesting to note that Hindu and Abrahamic writings share common concepts and perhaps similar seeds. Some scholars also connect the Vedas to ancient Egypt and other cultures.

There are many good reasons why it is so hard to pinpoint the exact birth of the Rig Veda. The primary one is that our ancestors flawlessly passed wisdom down through oral tradition, sometimes for thousands of years, before capturing it in writing. How can we ever know how old this mystical knowledge was before anyone preserved it in physical form? Legend says that it was first received by seven ancient rishis known as the saptarishis. Each of their students spent twelve years memorizing the scripture until they could remember every word perfectly.9 Because of this practice, it’s virtually impossible to figure out a “start date” for Vedic knowledge.

A second reason we can’t know the exact timing of these scriptures is that we’re not clear about their authorship, especially of the Rig Veda. As we shall explore in the next section of this chapter, we have two basic choices:

1. The Hindu scripture that eventually emerged in the Indus Valley was carried in by an invading race called the Aryans, although it was also influenced by the indigenous culture called the Harappans. If this is true, the information in Vedic scripture is most likely much older than the rough date of 1500 bce offered by many scholars.10

2. The majority of the works are native to the region, which would imply authorship between 2000 and 1200 bce.

Much of the linguistic evidence suggests that the Rig Veda was composed in the northwestern part of the Indian region between 1700 and 1100 bce.11 Yet other scholarly assessments relate it to earlier cultures, insisting it emerged between 2200 and 1600 bce.12 One more vote is that the Rig Veda was most likely conceived in 1500 bce, codified in 600 bce, and written down around 300 bce.13

A similar confusion clouds the dating of the other three main Vedic texts. The most commonly accepted chronology is that the Yajur and Sama Vedas were composed between 1400 and 1100 bce, and the Atharva Veda between 1100 and 900 bce. We also know that not everything we can read in these scriptures now was complete by those dates. For instance, the Yajur Veda references fully developed caste systems and advances in art that didn’t even exist in the early first millennium.14 This means that at least this book—if not all four—was expanded after it captured the original revelations of the seers.

The question of timing aside, the most vital of these early texts is the Rig Veda (the name also appears as Rigveda, Rgveda, and Rig-Veda). The source of much material in the other three scriptures, Rig Veda is the mothership, a complex collection distributed over a series of ten books and eleven supplemental hymns.15 Also known as the “Veda of Verses,” Rig Veda is composed of 1,028 hymns addressing various deities and arranged to serve the needs of the priestly families who were the custodians of this material.16 These poems are grouped into ten circles called mandalas, a term that has survived into contemporary literature and yogic practices and means not only “circle” but “universe.”17

The People Behind Vedic Scripture:
Who Was There “In the Beginning”?

Many anthropologists have tracked the gods and their related chants featured in the Rig Veda to the steppes of Russia and a people called the Aryans. According to many scholars, Aryan concepts were cultivated between 4500 and 1500 bce in central Russia and were carried into the Indus Valley around 2000 bce.18

The native people of the Indus Valley were the Harappan civilization, whose kingdom had once spread widely through this valley. A highly accomplished people, they dwelled in two great cities but also peopled hundreds of smaller villages. Their civilization peaked between 2300 and 2000 bce. Their two main cities, Mahenjo-Daro and Harappa, were about two hundred fifty miles apart. These people left behind figures of mother goddesses, stone lingams, and a figure in a yoga pose, which hints at some of the yogic ideas that now incorporate the chakras.19 We will further explore these yoga origins in chapter 17.

For centuries, the Aryans—their name meaning “honorable” or “nobled”—led a pastoral existence in southern Russia. These Indo-Europeans had lived on the steppes since 4500 bce but had spread to Greece, Italy, Scandinavia, and Germany by 2500 bce. They basically became two people: one that spoke Avestan and the other speaking an early form of Sanskrit. They lived peacefully until 1500 bce, when each side adopted a different set of beliefs.

Before 1500 bce both groups believed there was an invisible force, dwelling inside themselves and outside as well, that provided unity. This force was the Creator at the center of the universe. The Avestans were appalled when the Sanskrit-speaking Aryans embraced the god Indra, a warring dragon slayer who rides a chariot to the clouds, with an emphasis on agni, or fire, the force that creates dynamism. For their part, the Avestans preferred Varuna, the god of order. When a master of peace, Zoroaster, attempted to restore accord between the two groups in 1200 bce, the Aryans were having none of it. Warlike, they were already migrating south into Afghanistan, Punjab, and the Indus River Valley—called the Land of the Seven Rivers—bringing their beliefs with them.

Many historians, including Karen Armstrong, believe the ancient Vedic scriptures reflect Aryan culture while also absorbing remaining Harappan philosophies. Other historians argue that Vedic scripture must be Harappan, as there is no evidence of fighting between the Aryans and the local people. (Yet others might suggest an even earlier origin of beliefs, such as the ancient East Indians or the Dravidians.)

As Armstrong points out, the Harappan culture had almost disappeared; fighting wasn’t necessary—merely a transplanting of culture was required. Besides, she adds, Vedic scripture contains a lot of evidence pointing to Aryan roots. The Aryans opted for yoga, or the “yoking” of their horses to chariots, for example, when they began a raid. We shall learn that one definition of the word chakras relates to these chariots in “The Rig Veda and the Chakras: The First Appearance” section later in this chapter.

The Vedic texts also uphold many of the attributes of Varuna, the Avestans’ god of order, such as the administration of law, guardianship of truth, and punishment of falsehood, but these are credited to Indra. Most likely, says Armstrong, the learned elite compiled the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda early in their inhabitance of India.

However, many of the poems contained in the sacred texts could go back even further in time and may have been the property of the seven priestly families who settled in India, each owners of their own private collections. These stories were learned by heart and were not committed to writing until much later.20

Even among those who believe the Aryans carried into the valley most of the information that ended up in the Rig Veda, there is agreement that the local spirituality was also absorbed into this scripture. This means that Hinduism is an amalgam of various cultural sources. As the Aryans moved east and west, local divinities became associated with their deities. For instance, the local Indian goddesses became the wives of the Aryan gods Shiva and Vishnu.21

Other historians reject the notion that the source of Vedic scriptural knowledge is Aryan. One researcher, N. S. Rajaram, has followed the lead of several other scholars to analyze the mathematics involved in ancient Indian texts called the Sulbasutras. He concludes that ancient Egyptians and Babylonians derived their mathematics from ancient Indian texts of the late Vedic period. This knowledge would have been wiped out by Aryans during an invasion, and since that did not happen, Rajaram discounts the Aryans as the authors of the Vedas.

Rajaram also uses geographical research to show that the Rig Veda must have been written long before the Aryan invasion. As he and others have pointed out, contemporary Indians consider the Ganges the most sacred of rivers, but this wasn’t the case in ancient times. The holy water then was the Sarasvati, a huge river that ran somewhat parallel to and east of the Indus River.

Modernity labeled the Sarasvati a “mythical” river. However, satellite data has shown that such a river did, in fact, flow in India—exactly in the same way and places as described in the Rig Veda. The late explorer V. S. Wakankar traced the course of this ancient river and, along with others, showed that it had dried up by 1900 bce, if not earlier. This means that the people who composed the Vedas were already in India before the Aryan invasion of 1500 bce.

One more important voice in the “great debate” about the origin of the early Vedic scripture is David Frawley, who often works with fellow scholar and student of mysticism Georg Feuerstein. Frawley has directly examined Vedic literature, wondering if nomadic pastoral invaders could have written the texts. If so, they should have no knowledge of the ocean. Frawley found no mention of an invasion and also discovered that the voices in the Rig Veda were not ignorant of the ocean; rather, they evoke images of oceans, ships, and navigation devices.22

Frawley offers an alternative view of the Indus Valley being continually occupied by its early people, who believed themselves to be Aryan. Besides pointing to the mention of the Sarasvati River, Frawley supports his view with archeological evidence and astronomical lore implying that the Vedic people were already in the region of India before 2400 bce. There are over a hundred references to the ocean in these old writings, and a recent French excavation in the area showed that all ancestors of the Indus Valley culture could be found within this region dating back to at least, if not before, 6000 bce. In other words, Vedic scholars usually assume an Aryan invasion, whereas Frawley and other scholars assert that the people who wrote the main Vedic scriptures had already lived in that region for thousands of years.

Why strive so mightily to determine who wrote these classic texts? Frawley believes it is important to discern their true authorship for several reasons. Primary is the fact that many of the anthropologists analyzing the time period were Christian and interpreted the region according to the timetable of creation laid out in the Bible. If peoples inhabited the Indus Valley before 6000 bce, it could arguably be the oldest and most central of ancient cultures; the Vedic Scripture, rather than the Bible, could be the most authentic view of the ancient world. This would have been information Christian anthropologists simply could not believe.23

A Key Philosophy of the Vedic Scriptures: The Yugas

If Vedic philosophy is indeed the oldest in the world, or at least one of the oldest, it must still sing somewhere deep inside each of us, which makes it even more important to ask this question: What does the body of the four Vedic scriptures illustrate? This, perhaps, is the most essential question to ask for those of us interested in placing chakra knowledge and medicine within a philosophical context.

In order to answer this question, we must temporarily disengage our minds from our everyday concerns, which Westerners tend to qualify as either good or bad. We must divorce ourselves of the need to seek authority elsewhere, such as in a religious or political leader, established doctrine, or family matriarch or patriarch.

We must then see ourselves as part of a long tradition, one that is thousands of years old, grounded in a culture so ancient that we do not question its existence or authenticity. We must actually perceive ourselves as part of a world that has been created many times in yugas, or ages, with this epoch, the Kali Yuga, being the fourth.

It would be essential to understand the nature of this yuga as well as those that preceded it. To do this is to understand that we have been de-evolving and that the chakra system, among other ideas, is in place to help us step back toward the heavens.

According to Hindu ideas, a yuga lasts between 4.1 and 8.2 billion years and comprises one life and death cycle of Brahman, the Creator. Each yuga encompasses only a very small amount of his time, as within the “causal ocean” there are innumerable Brahmans rising and disappearing like bubbles in the sea, all a part of the material universe and therefore constantly fluctuating. Within the physical universe even the Creator is a part of birth, aging, disease, and death, although Brahman is engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord and therefore is able to attain liberation from this cycling.24

We mortals have all existed within each of these great cycles, reincarnated over and over again. Unfortunately, our path has been one of decline, characterized by a loss of truth, wisdom, knowledge, life span, and emotional and intellectual intelligence. There is even a formula that measures the loss of righteousness throughout the ages. For instance, we lived in the fullness of truth in the first epoch, the Satya Yuga, but in each subsequent age lost one-quarter of our truth. As we are now in the Kali Yuga, we have only one-quarter truth left.25

We were all present during the first and greatest of epochs, the Satya Yuga, which was longer than the other yugas. This was the yuga of truth, or the golden age, characterized by virtue and religion and an absolute lack of vice. A single life span was a hundred thousand years, and we attained self-realization through meditation.

This age passed and we entered the Treta Yuga, or silver age. We still lived a long time—ten thousand years—but self-realization also required great sacrifices, or yajñas. We lost goodness and our sense of high ideals, and our morals began to decline.

Next we passed into the Dvapara Yuga, or copper age. Living for one thousand years now, we achieved self-realization by worshipping in the temple. Our consciousness reduced even further and we began to concentrate on our own personal needs and comfort, no matter the effect on others. Finally we entered our current epoch, the Kali Yuga, or iron age. While we cumulatively started with one-fourth wisdom, this is shrinking to zero. We might live to a hundred years of age but must work hard to attain wisdom, such as by devotedly chanting the names of the Lord.

We have lost our spiritual awareness and identify only with our physical selves. In this “age of vice” all is strife, discord, and argument. Evil and dishonesty have replaced the virtues we experienced in the golden age. We have lost track of our “breath body,” which many believe includes the spirit bodies such as the chakras, as well as our higher selves, and we identify only with our physical bodies and lower selves.26 As was predicted in the Hindu text the Vishnu Purana, written between 800 and 300 bce, the following is occurring:

The minds of men will be wholly occupied in acquiring wealth; and wealth will be spent solely on selfish gratification…Corruption will be the universal means of subsistence.27

Is there hope?

It is said that in every epoch Lord Vishnu, the Vedic supreme god called the “preserver of the universe,” is said to incarnate ten times as ten different avatars. Lord Krishna, one of the incarnations of Vishnu, is one of the avatars of this age.

According to Hindu philosophy, we also have for our salvation the Vedic scriptures, compiled by the rishis headed by Vyasedeva, the literary incarnation of Lord Krishna, at the beginning of the Kali Yuga, so that wisdom cannot be lost through these dark ages.

All of us can access the divine light reflected in Vedic scripture, according to long-held beliefs, for we all have a soul that can communicate with Atman, or the “ultimate.” This means that understanding scripture and moving toward final emancipation or enlightenment are not dependent on having a teacher or following a religious leader. Rather, embracing the totality of scriptural wisdom is based on darsan (seeing), immediate perception, and knowing, rather than intellectual speculation.

Because of this, we must all walk our own talk. We can evolve by reincarnating, and, as Hindu philosophy insists, we have done this. But we cannot simply move into a “state of oneness” and assume higher consciousness. As the Vedic saying goes, “Even in a flock of birds, each bird has to fly for itself.”28

And what is one of the most important methods we have for learning to fly? The chakras and their related systems.

The Rig Veda and the Chakras: The First Appearance

Whoever or whatever the exact source or sources of the Rig Veda, it is the first scripture that presents the word for chakra: the Sanskrit term cakra.29 It actually appears many times in the Rig Veda in a variety of ways—none of them obviously spiritual. Rather, spiritual symbology ascribed to the chakras appears in another part of the Vedic scriptures, the Upanishads, which are outlined in chapter 17 (although expert David Frawley suggests otherwise through arguments I presented in this section).

One use of the word cakra (which I will state as “chakra” from this point forward unless directly quoting or referencing a text) is in relation to technical knowledge, most specifically to a cart with rims attached to “tyres” (outer parts of a wheel). The Rig Veda also describes a process for irrigation through an iron wheel called a cakra that draws water from wells.30

In addition, the Rig Veda references the word chakra as a symbol of dynamism, and it also uses it as a label for the wheel of a chariot. The latter is a favorite symbol of the Vedic sages, often ascribed to the dawn with such regularity that dawn itself is called a chakra. Creation is thought to move on its axis like a chakra, or wheel, so the word often appears as a symbol for this movement.31

The word chakra is also used in relationship to the god Vishnu, who inherently holds the three worlds of earth, space, and the atomic realm together. The chief characteristic of Vishnu is his dynamism. In the form of a chakra, or wheel, Vishnu rotates continually, uniting all three worlds. An example of Vishnu’s energy is depicted in illustration 41, which showcases his special chakra symbol.32

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Illustration 41—Vishnu and the Sudarshana Chakra: Vishnu holds a chakra, or spinning disk, in one of his four hands. In this context it is said to be a reminder of time as well as a weapon against blasphemy. It is the Sudarshana Chakra, which is not one of the main in-body Hindu chakras; rather, it is a weapon with 108 serrated edges. This disk is occasionally mentioned in the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, and the Puranas. illustration by llewellyn art department

It is the use of such symbols that prompts many researchers to assert that chakras were considered spiritual organs even in the Rig Veda. Frawley points to the common appearance of the symbolic number seven. As he relates, the Rig Veda frequently speaks of seven worlds, seven rivers, seven sages, seven wisdoms, seven pranas, and more, although it doesn’t specifically mention seven chakras.33 It does, however, say this:

The seven Gods have seven spears and seven lights. They hold seven glories. (7.28.5)

Frawley links these and other recitations to the mention of meditation in a Vedic hymn by Ayasya Angirasa, one of the oldest and most famous of the seers. Angirasa states that the original nature of sacrifice involves meditation through the seven chakras of the subtle body and four states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and being very conscious). Frawley also interprets other scriptures in the Rig Veda in relation to the symbolism of the sun, which he believes relates to the practice of yoga, and the use of seven chakras to open to a spiritual vision of the world.34

Chakras in the Atharva Veda

Another of the four Vedic scriptures that mentions the chakras is the Atharva Veda, which was written much later than other texts. Some place the writing at 200 bce but suggest that it may have been composed about 1000 bce.35 According to these writings, the city of the god Ayodhya is represented bodily by eight “cakras” and nine gates, which consist of two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, a mouth, and the organs of reproduction and the anus. This city is lit by golden rays and serves as the abode of eternal peace. A yogi who follows the tenets laid forth, or “yog,” can achieve this city and its eternity.36

Echoes of the Vedas in Other Parts of the World

Linguistic similarities between Vedic civilizations and other cultures are evident even today. For instance, Siberian nomads and the North American Lakota Sioux both use the term garuda to describe their thunderbird eagles.37 In the Hindu realm the god Garuda is the king of the birds, who often acts as a messenger between the gods and humans.

Several archeologists have concluded that in ancient times, people from the region of India migrated to America and developed a great civilization. The author of A Compact History of Mexico, Ignacio Bernall, asserts that this Asian occupation of the Americas occurred thirty-five thousand years ago. Brazilian nuclear scientist Dr. Arcio Nuns and other researchers point to a group called the Dravidians of Asia, who left for the Americas about eleven thousand years ago.

These statements are substantiated by several findings. For instance, archaeologists have discovered deities in America resembling the Hindu gods Shiva, Ganesh, Kali the Sun, Buddha, and more. (We will learn more about the link between Vedic scripture and Buddhism in chapter 24.) The Aztec calendar contains concepts similar to those found in Vedic scripture, including the idea of the four yugas, a cataclysmic event, death and rebirth, and the concept of two planets causing solar eclipses. Similarities also exist between languages, all pointing back to the possibility of Sanskrit roots. Also related are similarities between the Hindu trinity—Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva—and the Mexican trinity of Ho, Huitzilopochtli, and Tlaloc (all related to Quetzalcoatl, mentioned in chapter 2).38

Still more symbols that are important to the Vedas and Hinduism appear in other parts of the world. The sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi, Greece, as well as all similar holy temples, was formed around a stone called the omphalus, also termed “the center of the world.” There are multiple similarities between this stone and several ancient Hindu concepts. In appearance, the stone looks like the Hindu Shiva lingam, with a conical shape upon which are depicted the tantric symbols describing polar energies, such as ascending and descending forces and male and female dualities. It is a representation of Shiva, one of the oldest worshipped gods mentioned in the Vedic scripture. Shiva can be seen as Rudra, who is featured in the Rig Veda.39 The serpent found on the omphalus is comparable to kundalini in Hindu literature and can be seen in illustration 42.

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Illustration 42—The Greek Omphalos: The Greek omphalus is similar to the Indian Shiva linga, as both are round and feature a serpent similar to the Hindu kundalini serpent. illustration by elisabeth alba

Among the Greeks, the omphalus was linked to the navel and the connection between earth and humans. The Hindus believed their creator, the god Brahma, emerged from a lotus flower that emerged from the navel of the sleeping god Vishnu.40

The overall suggestion is that ancient India was the bed of civilization and that, for a time, it was as if the entirety of the world shared a similar viewpoint—a unified worldview that seems not to exist today unless it lies beneath our apparent cultural differences.

The Evolution of the Hindu Gods

It is impossible to acknowledge the full range of the symbolism contained in chakra lore without understanding the hand-in-glove relationship between the Hindu pantheon and the chakras. In section 1 you met the goddess Shakti and learned the story of her rise through the chakra bodies, a journey to her god-consort Shiva. Also in section 1, in the seven chapters dedicated to each of the seven main Hindu chakras, you learned which gods and goddesses relate to each chakra. Eventually Buddha and his many forms became linked to the chakras as well, and other cultures assign their own gods to the chakras.

There are so many Hindu gods and goddesses mentioned in the Vedas that it’s easy to become muddled when they are referenced. Some appear in earlier texts and then reappear later, transformed into newer, upgraded versions of themselves. As well, when a particular god appears in one particular form—and is called by one of his names—the form and name of his consort might change. Yet despite the shifting terrain of ancient chakra lore—which you will have learned by now is the rule, not the exception—I think it’s important to glimpse this divine aspect of our understanding of the chakras. Following, then, I have outlined a few of the deities as they appear in different eras so you may follow their mighty treks across time.

Early Vedic Deities

Early worshippers believed in one supreme god, Brahma, and saw the forces of nature as the manifestation of this god. All other Vedic gods can be classified into three categories: terrestrial, atmospheric, and celestial. I have selected the gods that appear elsewhere in this book, with the first three considered the most important during the earliest of ages.

Indra (Male): Also called Vayu, Indra is a warlord and the most important deity of earliest times. He rules the air.

Agni (Male): An intermediary between gods and man, whose place is on the earth.

Surya (Male): The sun god, seen in the sky.

Varuna (Male): Upholds cosmic and natural order.

Vishnu (Male): A relatively minor god that becomes one of the three main gods of Hinduism (along with Brahma and Shiva). He is the preserver and god of creation, the embodiment of goodness, and the god that maintains dharma, or goodness.

Vayu (Male): Wind god.

Rudra (Male): An archer that can bring disease.

Prithvi (Female): Goddess of the earth.

Sarasvati (Female): Goddess of knowledge, music, and the creative arts; called the Mother of the Vedas. One form of Saraswati, Gayatri, is the consort of Brahma and can be called through the Gayatri mantra described in chapter 15.41

The Deities in the Puranas

By the time the Puranas were written, the deities were more completely defined and their physical features, as well as their moral and mental traits, are quite distinct. The two great epics composing the Puranas—the Ramayana and the Mahabharata—along with other principal tantras (placed as early as 500 to 100 bce through the eighth century ce), are organized as the stories of, or praises to, the gods. They constitute the authority underlying today’s Hindu view of the gods.

The three most important of the Puranic gods are the Hindu triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. I describe them here along with other members of the important pantheon.

Brahma (Male): The Supreme God that manifests himself, Vishnu, and Shiva. He is sometimes called Purusha when mated with the Prakriti form of the goddess. He is said to split into his male equivalent, or Parashiva, and his female component, named Parashakti.

Vishnu (Male): As described in the previous section, the one that preserves creation. Krishna is one of his forms; known as the black or dark one, he is worshipped widely. Sometimes Buddha is also seen as a form of Vishnu.

Shiva (Male): The destroyer. He has many forms and names, including Sthnana, “the everlasting,” and Panchanana, who has five faces, one of which is Ishana, an internal aspect of consciousness. The other four faces of Panchanana Shiva, also called Panchavaktra Shiva, are Sadashiva (or Ardhanarishvara), Rudra, Aghora, and Mahadeva. Other names for him are Adi Anada, or Supreme Divine Consciousness, or Paramashiva, foundation of the universe.

Sarasvati (Female): As described previously, Brahma’s wife, also called Gayatri, Maheshvari (one of the names of Pavarti or Shakti), and Savitri.

Lakshmi (Female): Wife of Vishnu. Also called Padma or Kamala, Dharani, Sita, Sri, and Rukmini.42

A Fourth Major Deity: Shakti

If Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, in all their various forms, represent the Hindu triad, or trimurti, then Shakti, consort of Shiva,43 has become the fourth main deity.

She is considered the personification of material energy; hence, kundalini is seen as an expression of Shakti—and the reason for special emphasis on her in this section. She holds many names, including Parvati (Mother Nature), Kali (passion, sometimes cruel and destructive), Durga (protective, armed for battle), Devi (goddess), and Mataji (respected mother). Other goddesses may also be addressed Shakti when mentioned in the context of being a spouse.

Shakti sometimes replaces Brahma in describing three main types of Hindu worship:

Shakti in Tantric Tradition

Shakti holds particular importance in tantrism. While most of this chapter is devoted to Vedic scripture, I have chosen to explore her tantric relationships here as well. In the tantric tradition Shakti is seen in ten different forms, or the tantric mahavidya. In turn, these aspects of the goddess are also subdivided into different names. The core form of Shakti is Kali, who represents the primordial powers of life, death, and transcendence. The remaining Shaktis are often considered aspects of Kali and are variously Tara, Maha Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Chinnamasta, Bhairavi, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi, and Kamala. As Bhuvaneshvari, she is also called Kakini Shakti, a benefactress. Yet another name for Kali is Lakini Shakti, also known as Bhadra Kali, the compassionate form of the usually ferocious Kali.

She is known as Parvati when, as the wife of Shiva, she is considered a maiden or virgin, and she is known as Devi when mature.

In the Puranas, Shakti is sometimes said to possess daivi (angelic) or asuri (demonic) powers; hence she may be called Daivi (or Devi) Shakti or Asuri Shakti. In the form of the kundalini Shakti she holds still more names. One is Rakini or Chakini Shakti, the inspiration of art and music. In Buddhism a goddess is often called a dakini, and so Shakti is also Dakini Shakti, the gatekeeper of physical reality. She can be called Shakini as the embodiment of purity and Hakini Shakti, who, when red-faced and ensconced as a representative goddess in the ajña, indicates a fully awakened kundalini. And in her complete form of kundalini, she is often called Shankhini.45

The story of the gods that is perhaps most central to the chakras is the love story of Shakti and Shiva, a brilliant metaphor for spiritual evolution and ultimate union with the Divine. This was more fully explored in chapter 2.

Additional Gods

While there are other gods we could consider in our exploration of this pantheon, I will mention three others before we leave this topic. All can be found depicted in the form of animals.

Ganesh: Elephant god that grants protection and removes obstacles.

Garuda: King of birds that represents five breaths (vayus).

Hanuman: The monkeylike god central to the Ramayana.

Leaving the gods now and returning to our tapestry thread, we find that chakras begin to take form in the Upanishads, part of the Vedic scripture. They also emerge in other ways and by other names in other parts of the world. These ancient ideas and the systems they formed are addressed in our next chapter, which also introduces us to some of the basic principles of tantra and yoga, two complex spiritual disciplines that are inextricably linked to the chakras.

Having traveled thousands of years in a mere few pages, you can appreciate the layers of history that contributed to our chakra knowledge today. Like a sparkling gem emerging from eons of sediment, the Vedic canons honed our current chakra concepts and practices, and we have their authors to thank for these insights. How much of this sacred wisdom was indigenous versus transplanted, we’ll likely never know. We do know that chakra information was closely tied to the stories of the land and its people, the gods, the Sanskrit language, and the beauty of truth.

This body of knowledge became even more defined through the emergence of texts that stemmed from the basic canons, as well as three branches of thought—the topic of the next chapter.

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