The Great Misunderstanding About Chakras

Chakras are fascinating. But trying to open or manipulate them to reach awakening may be getting the order of causation backwards. The teaching of The Spiritual Path offers a different reading: it is the deepening of consciousness that naturally harmonizes the chakras — not the other way around. A perspective that fundamentally changes the way we approach spiritual life.

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Why trying to open them is a dead end.

Chakras are fascinating. But trying to open or manipulate them to reach awakening may be getting the order of causation backwards. The teaching of The Spiritual Path offers a different reading: it is the deepening of consciousness that naturally harmonizes the chakras — not the other way around. A perspective that fundamentally changes the way we approach spiritual life.

Chakras hold a prominent place in today's spiritual landscape. Books, courses, retreats, and teachings are devoted to them. Many seekers strive to understand, harmonize, or open them, convinced they play a decisive role in spiritual evolution.

According to certain traditions, awakening results from the progressive activation of these subtle centers by the kundalini — a spiritual energy said to rise from the base of the spine to the crown of the skull, gradually transforming consciousness.

The teaching of The Spiritual Path offers a different perspective.

It neither denies the existence of chakras nor their possible role in the subtle workings of the human being. It simply invites us to reconsider the assumed cause-and-effect relationship. It is not the opening of chakras that leads to higher consciousness — it is the deepening of consciousness that naturally fosters their harmonization and development.

This distinction may seem subtle, but it profoundly changes the way we approach spiritual life.

Chakras in the Indian Tradition

The word chakra means "wheel" in Sanskrit. Indian traditions generally describe several subtle centers distributed throughout the human being, often depicted as wheels or lotus flowers.

The most widely known system includes seven main chakras, from mūlādhāra (root) to sahasrāra (crown). Each is associated with particular functions, symbols, sounds, elements, and sometimes deities.

The roots of these ideas reach back to ancient India. The Upanishads already speak of prāna — vital energy — and the nāḍī, the subtle channels running through the human body. They draw connections between breath, consciousness, and certain invisible dimensions of existence.

Yet the oldest texts do not present the detailed seven-chakra system as it is commonly known today. There are no precise descriptions of multi-petaled lotuses, no colors, no mantras, no elaborate symbolic correspondences. These developments would emerge gradually within the Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions from the sixth century onward. Texts such as the Kubjikāmata Tantra (8th–10th century) and the Shiva Samhita (14th–15th century) describe the chakras with their locations and symbolism. It is the Shat-Chakra-Nirupana (1577), attributed to Purnananda, that would codify the seven-chakra system in the form familiar to us today.

Contemporary representations also owe a great deal to Theosophy, founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky. It was C. W. Leadbeater who, in The Chakras (1927), standardized the rainbow color palette now universally associated with chakras — a convention entirely absent from the original tantric sources. In seeking to make these teachings accessible to a Western audience, such reinterpretations sometimes simplified, or even transformed, ideas that were originally far more diverse and nuanced.

A Possible Anatomical Correspondence

In the course of my research into human anatomy, one observation caught my attention.

Running along the spine are several regions where the main nerve networks branch out to supply the organs and various parts of the body. These areas form major junctions of the nervous system.

Their location sometimes bears a striking resemblance to that of the chakras described in Indian traditions.

The parallel is not perfect, and it does not allow us to claim that chakras are simply anatomical structures. Yet several traditionally described subtle centers are located at levels corresponding to major nerve plexuses — and the physiological functions associated with these regions often show compelling analogies with the symbolic functions attributed to them.

For instance, the region of the solar plexus relates to digestion and energetic regulation, which closely echoes the traditional associations of maṇipūra. The pelvic regions correspond to the reproductive functions linked to svādhiṣṭhāna. And the nerve networks of the thoracic region are situated at the level of anāhata, traditionally associated with openness and relationship.

This observation is obviously not scientific proof of the existence of chakras. It simply suggests that the ancients may have described, in the language and concepts of their time, certain realities whose expressions also have a physiological dimension.

If this hypothesis holds any truth, chakras appear less as mysterious objects to be manipulated and more as a subtle dimension of the human being's natural organization.

Kundalini and Awakening

In tantrism and kundalini yoga, kundalini is described as a latent spiritual power. Its awakening and ascent through the various subtle centers are said to progressively transform consciousness.

Kundalini is often depicted as an energy coiled at the base of the spine, rising gradually through the subtle centers to the crown of the skull — like mercury climbing a thermometer. As it reaches each chakra, it activates it, unveiling the spiritual capacities specific to that center.

This approach has its own internal coherence and belongs to ancient, respectable traditions.

The Spiritual Path of Original Yoga offers a different reading.

Consciousness Before Chakras

According to the teaching of The Spiritual Path, true transformation does not begin in the chakras — it begins in consciousness itself.

It is not because a chakra opens that consciousness becomes deeper. It is because consciousness becomes deeper that the various dimensions of the being naturally tend toward harmony.

In other words, the proper functioning of the chakras would not be the cause of inner transformation — it would be one of its consequences.

This transformation begins with the regular observance of an authentic sadhana. It is rooted in meditation, in service, in satsang — and also in humility, detachment, and the gradual release of the drive that pushes human beings to want to control everything.

Consciousness deepens when it stops believing itself to be the author and controller of all things. It grows when it learns to recognize the Guidance of Grace and to trust it. This is the wu wei — the non-doing — of Lao-Tzu.

This is where the essential difference between the two approaches lies. One seeks to act directly on subtle mechanisms in order to transform consciousness. The other seeks to transform consciousness itself, allowing the subtle mechanisms to adjust naturally in turn.

Grace Before Energy

Most teachings on chakras describe an upward movement. Energy is said to rise from the base of the being toward the higher centers.

The Spiritual Path proposes a different understanding.

Grace — by which we mean the spiritual influence acting from the most subtle planes of consciousness toward the denser dimensions of existence — is not an outside rescue one waits for passively. It is the very power that makes inner transformation possible, when the being consents to open to it.

This movement is not primarily upward but downward: it is not the individual who ascends toward Realization through sheer mastery of energy. It is Grace that acts within consciousness when consciousness becomes available — through sadhana, meditation, service, humility, detachment, and faith in its virtue.

The subtle workings of the being belong to a natural order that far exceeds us. They no more need our conscious intervention than the circulation of blood or the growth of a tree.

When consciousness settles, when the mind gradually loses its restlessness, and when the being learns to trust the Guidance of Grace, the necessary adjustments happen on their own.

The priority, therefore, is not to push energy upward — it is to become receptive to the action of Grace.

The Trap of Wanting to Control Everything

The desire to understand is natural. So is the desire to grow. But the spiritual search can sometimes be colored by a quiet illusion: the belief that everything depends on our ability to act, master, or control.

This temptation spares no one — not even spiritual seekers. One can come to think that properly mastering an energy, opening certain subtle centers, or acquiring a specific technique would be enough to reach Realization.

Yet this drive for control can itself become an obstacle — not because chakras are unimportant, but because it keeps alive the idea that spiritual transformation depends primarily on our personal power.

Realization arises less from mastery than from surrender — less from the will to power than from openness to Grace. Faith in the virtue of Grace does not excuse us from effort. It means recognizing that effort alone is not enough.

The Mechanisms Are Not the Goal

Authentic spiritual traditions have long warned against the fascination exerted by extraordinary phenomena.

Patañjali speaks of unusual faculties that may arise in the course of practice: "From that arise inspired hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell." (Yoga Sūtra III.36)

But he immediately adds: "These are obstacles to samādhi, and in the ordinary state they appear as attainments." (Yoga Sūtra III.37)

The warning is clear. The phenomena that may accompany practice must not be confused with its goal. Jesus expresses the same idea in different words: "Seek first the Kingdom, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

The priority is not what accompanies transformation — it is transformation itself.

A Natural Consequence

According to The Spiritual Path of Original Yoga, chakras need not become a central preoccupation. If they exist — and there is no reason to rule that out — they belong to the natural order of things. Their functioning is an expression of life's own intelligence.

We do not need to make the leaves grow; we need to tend to the roots.

Likewise, we need not concern ourselves with chakras first. What we must do is observe the dharma, practice sadhana faithfully, and make ourselves available to the action of Grace.

As consciousness deepens, as the mind settles, and as sattva gradually prevails over rajas and tamas, the being naturally moves toward greater balance and harmony.

The chakras then harmonize naturally and fulfill their function in accordance with the degree to which consciousness has deepened.

The real question, then, is not: "How do I open my chakras?" The real question is: "How do I deepen my consciousness?"

For when the cause is present, the consequences follow on their own.

Further Reading

Ancient Texts

• Chandogya Upanishad and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

• Kubjikāmata Tantra (8th–10th century)

• Shiva Samhita (14th–15th century)

• Shat-Chakra-Nirupana, Purnananda (1577)

Modern Scholarship

• Georg Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition

• David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body

• Edwin F. Bryant, The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali

Theosophical and New Age Context

• C. W. Leadbeater, The Chakras (1927)

• Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life

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