THE NADI SYSTEM
According to the Vedas, the sushumna (or Sacred Jordan) is the principal organ of a subtle force field that provides the basis for the mind and all bodily processes. The Vedas refer to this subtle field as the nadi system. Although it is nonmaterial, the nadi system has a definite structure and is said to be composed of 72,000 specific motion or force lines through which prana, or life energy, moves. Prana, like the nadis, is extremely subtle. Of the 72,000 nadis in the body, 101 stand "in relation to hrit," meaning that they originate in the hrit center. Of these 101, fourteen are said to be most important, and of these, three are key. These three most important nadis are depicted in the caduceus, the famed heraldic staff of Hermes. Sumerian artifacts have confirmed this symbol's great antiquity; it appears to have been universally known in the ancient world.
Two of these nadis are referred to as ida and pingala. It is said that pingala extends up the spine to the right nostril and ida to the left nostril. But the most important nadi of all is the central channel, the sushumna, which, though it lies within the vertebral column, is said to be distinct from and without direct connection to the central nervous system.
Normally, the prana is said to move through the nadi system in an outward or worldly direction, sustaining the mind and all of the body's vital functions. When the hrit center is aroused, however, prana ceases to flow in the usual outward manner and instead enters the sushumna. The medieval woodcuts that show the wounding of the heart of Jesus are accurate depictions of the arousal of hrit, which is described similarly in the Vedas as the piercing or penetration of the heart center by the spiritual energy. Truly, it is a kind of wounding, as if one is being stabbed at the core of one's being, sometimes even causing a sharp but brief pain - yet followed by an ecstasy of love. This is the reversal of the flow, and from a spiritual standpoint it is by far the most important event in a disciple's life, tantamount to the biblical descent of Holy Spirit.
The sushumna is said to be composed of three sheaths, each one within the other and each of increasing subtlety. The outer sheath is the vajra nadi; within it is the chitrini nadi; and at the innermost level is the extremely fine brahma nadi, known as "the path of the absolute". It is said that when the spiritual energy moves into the sushumna, the mind becomes calm and very stable. Of this remarkable spiritual organ Swami Vivekananda, the great disciple of Ramakrishna, wrote:
The yogi alone has the sushumna open. When this sushumna current opens, and thought begins to rise through it, we get beyond the senses, our minds become superconscious, we get beyond even the intellect, and where reasoning cannot reach. To open that sushumna is the prime object of the yogi.
Swami Vivekananda was the first Indian adept to visit the West in modern times. His incomparable teacher Ramakrishna sent him to America to attend the 1893 Chicago World Congress of Religions, at which Vivekananda delivered a stirring address that, by all accounts, caused a sensation. His appearance left a deep impression on all who were present. Such is the company of a liberated soul.
Although the sushumna is subtle, at certain times it can be experienced directly. In her book The Sacred Power: A Seeker's Guide to Kundalini, Swami Kripananda, a monk of the Siddha Yoga lineage, describes one such experience:
One morning while I was sitting for meditation, I suddenly felt all the vitality in my body withdraw itself from my limbs and gather in the center of my body. It rose up through the central channel and exited through the crown of my head, taking my full awareness intact along with it. I felt that I was formless consciousness completely independent of my physical body, which I could observe from a few feet away. There was nothing frightening about it-I was still "me" as I knew myself, but without a body. Then, just as suddenly, I returned to my body, reentering it through the crown of the head. As the vital force descended through the sushumna, it shot out into all of my limbs through an infinite number of tiny channels, revitalizing them once more.
The spiritual life of the disciple does not begin to unfold until the sushumna becomes active, for the sushumna is said to contain not only the various chakras, but also the samskaras, the residual karmic impressions generated in past lives, impressions that prevent the full awakening of kundalini or, in other words, the soul's final liberation. Before kundalini can enter the sushumna at full force, all of the outstanding issues from past lives must be dealt with and successfully resolved. Assuming this work has finally been accomplished, however, Supreme Yoga then follows naturally and spontaneously. Kundalini is aroused for the last time and the soul begins its swift and final stage of the homeward journey. The Naassene Sermon actually includes a reference to this summit of human life and religion (Refutation 5.9.4), one, fittingly, that we shall discuss in chapter 14, the final chapter of this book.
The sushumna, then, is "the narrow gate" in Matthew 7:13-14, Luke 13:24, and John 10:8 - all passages cited in the Sermon - and the same channel mentioned in the Dialogue of the Savior, which has close affinities with the Gospel of John. The Dialogue has also been compared to the Gospel of Thomas, and was probably known to the Naassenes. In it Jesus says, " . . . when I came I opened the way, I taught them the passage through which will pass the elect and the solitary ones. "
Although Christian scripture never mentions the sushumna and the nadi system, their existence cannot be doubted. The Vedas and Tantras describe these spiritual organs in amazing detail, employing language so technically precise that it can only be compared to the language of science. Indeed, these Hindu scriptures are powerful evidence that the Eastern traditions advanced far beyond orthodox Chrisrianity in the important area of mapping out and delineating the spiritual body.
Similar descriptions can also be found in Buddhism, which was born in India and developed alongside Hinduism for several centuries. As a result of this geographical association, there was considerable mixing and sharing between these two great traditions. It is no accident, for example, that in Buddhism the figure Avalokitesvara, who is associated with the heart center, is revered as the greatest of all the Bodhisattvas (highly evolved souls who incarnate on earth for the purpose of uplifting humanity). Nor is it mere coincidence that Buddhists regard the experience of emptiness - in other words, the heart space - as the first important breakthrough on the spititual path. What holds for Hinduism and Buddhism is also true of Taoism, though a discussion of the relevant aspects of this tradirion is beyond the scope of this book.
Christians who remain skeptical about the universality of these ideas would do well to study the drawing made by Saint John of the Cross (see images below in Spanish and English, from pg. 168), a sixteenth-century Spanish contemporary of Saint Teresa of Avila. John was one of Christianity's greatest saints, and his drawing was intended as a summation of his spiritual ideas. Originally it accompanied his famous poem "The Ascent of Mount Carmel." The drawing is a clear depiction of the ida and pingala nadis and the sushumna. The central channel leads to the summit of Mount Carmel, where, in John's own words, "only the honor and glory of God dwell." Saint John of the Cross lived during the height of the Inquisition, dark times indeed. During his life he endured imprisonment and even excommunication. Unlike India, where saints have always been revered, the Christian West has tended to distrust and persecute its own. The Church has often viewed mystics and even great saints as psychotics, if not heretics. Nor have things changed appreciably in this regard: John's important drawing appeared in the 1973 English edition of his collected writings, yet in Christian circles it remains almost unknown.
Poem from the image below:
To reach satisfaction in all
desire satisfaction in nothing
To come to the knowledge of all
desire the knowledge of nothing
To come to possess all
desire the possession of nothing
To arrive at being all
desire to be nothing
To come to the pleasure you have not
you must go by a way in which you enjoy not
To come to the knowledge you have not
you must go by a way in which you know not
To come to the possession you have not
you must go by a way in which you possess not
To come to be what you are not
you must go by a way in which you are not
When you turn toward something
you cease to cast yourself upon the all
For to go from the all to the all
you must leave yourself in all
And when you come to the possession of all
you must possess it without wanting anything
In this nakedness the spirit
finds its rest, for when it
covets nothing, nothing
raises it up, and nothing
weighs it down, because it is
in the center of its humility.
3 preceding posts from "Gnostic Secrets of the Naassenes" by Mark H. Gaffney
pgs. 157- 168
