Manipura (Sanskrit: मणिपूर, Maṇipūra), called “city of jewels”, is the third primary chakra according to Hindu tradition.
Also called the solar plexus, manipura is “the center of etheric-psychic intuition: a vague or non-specific, sensual sense of knowing; a vague sense of size, shape, and intent of being.”As such, some psychics recommend “listening” to it since it may help in making better decisions in one’s life on many different levels. It is positioned at the navel region and it has ten petals which match the vrittis of spiritual ignorance, thirst, jealousy, treachery, shame, fear, disgust, delusion, foolishness and sadness.
In kundalini yoga, different practices for arousing and balancing the energies of Manipura include various asanas which work on that part of the body, pranayama, Uddiyana bandha (exhaling and pulling back and up of the abdomen and diaphragm respectively) and agnisara kriya (practicing jalandhara bandha, and moving the abdomen in and out).
In the endocrine system, Manipura is said to be associated with the pancreas, and the outer adrenal glands; the adrenal cortex. These glands create important hormones involved in digestion, converting food into energy for the body, in the same way that Manipura radiates prana throughout the body. In Chinese qigong, there exists 3 Dantians, which distribute and regulate Qi energy (a concept similar to Indian Prana). The lower Dantian exists in the region of the stomach.
Prana (प्राण, prāṇa) is the Sanskrit for “breath” (from the root prā ”to fill”, cognate to Latin plenus ”full”). It is one of the five organs of vitality or sensation, viz. prana ”breath”, vac ”speech”, caksus ”sight”,shrotra ”hearing”, and manas ”thought” (nose, mouth, eyes, ears and mind; ChUp. 2.7.1).
In Vedantic philosophy, it is the notion of a vital, life-sustaining force of living beings and vital energy, comparable to the Chinese notion of Qi. Prana is a central concept in Ayurveda and Yoga where it is believed to flow through a network of fine subtle channels called nadis. Its most subtle material form is the breath, but is also to be found in blood, and its most concentrated form is semen in men and vaginal fluid in women.[1] The Pranamaya-kosha is one of the five Koshas or “sheaths” of the Atman.
Prana was first expounded in the Upanishads, where it is part of the worldly, physical realm, sustaining the body and the mother of thought and thus also of the mind. Prana suffuses all living forms but is not itself the Atman or individual soul. In the Ayurveda, the Sun and sunshine are held to be a source of Prana.
Pranayama (Sanskrit: prāṇāyāma) is a Sanskrit word meaning “lengthening of the prana or breath”. The word is composed of two Sanskrit words, Prāna, life force, or vital energy, particularly, the breath, and “āyāma”, to suspend or restrain. It is often translated as control of the life force (prana).
Hatha and Raja Yoga Varieties
Some scholars distinguish between hatha and raja yoga varieties of pranayama, with the former variety usually prescribed for the beginner. According to Taimni, hatha yogic pranayama involves manipulation of pranic currents through breath regulation for bringing about the control of chitta-vrittis and changes in consciousness, whereas raja yogic pranayama involves the control of chitta-vrittis by consciousness directly through the will of the mind.[25] Students qualified to practice pranayama are therefore always initiated first in the techniques of hatha pranayama.
| Manipura or manipuraka is related to the metabolic and digestive systems. Manipura is believed to correspond to Islets of Langerhans,[28] which are groups of cells in the pancreas, as well as the outer adrenal glands and the adrenal cortex. These play a valuable role in digestion, the conversion of food matter into energy for the body. Symbolised by a lotus with ten petals. The colour that corresponds to Manipura is yellow. Key issues governed by Manipura are issues of personal power, fear, anxiety, opinion-formation, introversion, and transition from simple or base emotions to complex. Physically, Manipura governs digestion, mentally it governs personal power, emotionally it governs expansiveness, and spiritually, all matters of growth. |
Western occultists make different kabbalistic associations with Manipura. For some, it relates to the sephira of Hod and Netzach, Netzach being that quality of energy to overcome different obstacles, and Hod being the tendency to control and break down energy into different forms, the two being contending and balancing forces, like the forces of anabolism and catabolism in the human body
