Course XL - Teaching 2: “THE SUSHUMN”

Verse 1

“On the space that is out of the spine, there are two nervous cords of the Great Sympathetic, placed to right and left.
The spinal medulla, or spinal nerve, is in the middle, and its substance is the union of the three qualities. So, this substance is derived from the Moon, from the Sun and from the fire, and formed by them. Its body, a chain of red flowers, extends from the middle of the coccygeal plexus to head or rachial bulb; and inside the shining stick, it extends from phallus to head.”

Commentary

The text calls symbolically the spine “Mount Meru”, and means that the one who by his own will succeeds in ascending the cosmic ether to the brain, has achieved the true union with God.
The Master of the Teachings would not die: he went to the Mount Meru and became a God, a myth. To transmute the cosmic ether is to transform a human being into a divine and lasting being.
While certain commentaries say that when kundalini coils herself as it goes up through the spine, here it is said that this does not occur in the spine but outside it where kundalini ascends and descends, to right and left respectively, through two cords. Hindus call this movement on the said cords Shiras; one is Shashî and the other, Mihira.
Hindus call the spine and its channels Sushumnâ. The Nadîsushumnâ is just the medulla or spinal nerve. In Sushumnâ is the cosmic ether; and this substance includes three aspects: material, energetic and spiritual. Hindus call these three aspects of cosmic substance the three Gunas. They are: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.
Sattva is mind, balance, and understanding.
Rajas is energy, movement, and passion.
Tamas is matter, heaviness, and inertia.
This substance is derived from the Moon, the Sun and the fire: from the Moon, in its feminine aspect; from the Sun in its male aspect; and from the fire in its neuter aspect.
Sushumnâ is the body, which keeps this substance that the text calls poetically chain of red flowers, or Dhustura.
In Sushumnâ there is a kind of tube, which keeps the divine substance, and extends from the middle of Kanda, which is the coccygeal plexus, to the head. And in this tube there is another subtler tube, which is the shining stick, or Vajrâ, extending from the phallus, or Medhra, to the head.
Many and diverse Eastern texts dealing with the cosmic power stored in the human body are not quite explicit to determine exactly in what area these powers stay.
In the center of the coccygeal area is the triangle in which the big power of the universal ether rests. The Mother of the Creation has Her seat there, and the blinking of Her eyes give life to beings. If She waked up totally, the power of man, his control over elements and sidereal forces, would be tremendous.
When the cosmic ether acquires strength or, rather, finds free way to ascend through the spine, it goes up by the right coiling itself in the nerves of the Great Sympathetic; it settles first in the navel, later n the heart, and finally in the brain. The upward movement is positive or solar, creative; the movement of stabilization is neuter or of fire; and the downward movement is negative, lunar or passive. In divine beings, the seat of the cosmic ether is constantly in the brain. Beings with high spiritual evolution have it in the heart, and it does not go down from there. In ordinary beings, although the power goes up to the brain, later goes down again slowly to the holy chamber, or coccygeal area.
In all beings, with stronger or weaker momentum, kundalini ascends through the sympathetic cords (nerves) to keep the life in one’s system. But the cosmic ether ascends not only through the sympathetic cords (nerves); also it has other ways already traced, but not used ordinarily.
The second way is in the spine and coils itself around the shining stick, or Vajrâ, giving to those beings that are able to use it, an extraordinary mental and psychic power.
The third way is in the Brahmanadhi, or channel of God; this way gives ecstasy and spiritual gift. The movement of the ether is closely related to respiration.
When the ether ascends, you breathe by the right nasal cavity, and when descends, you di by the left nasal cavity. Your respiration marks the rhythm to the movement of the cosmic ether.

Verse 2

She the Goddess of the Cosmic Substance is in the shining stick. She is lustrous, with the luster of the Highest Being, the Om, and ascetics can reach Him through ascetic practice.
She is the Goddess of the Cosmic Substance, who is flexible like cobweb and enters every center in the spine, and is pure intelligence.
She the Goddess of the Cosmic Substance is beautiful by virtue of these centers that are tied over Her. The channel through which the pure Spirit of God goes is in Her; this channel extends from the orifice in the mouth of the phallus to the place beyond head, where the Greater Divinity abides”.

Commentary

Before any explanation of the text, we need to know several names and concepts of the Hindu about the cosmic ether stored in the human body.
The cosmic ether is the power of the Divine Spirit in motion; it is its creative power that has in the human being diverse expressions emanated from this only and unique root.
Also the cosmic ether is called Chitrinî by the Hindu, especially in connection with its image as cosmic material substance.
Also the cosmic ether is called Âdiveva (Greater Divinity) by the Hindu, in connection with the cosmic substance in state of the highest vibration, whose seat is in the brain.
Also the cosmic ether is called Kundalini by the Hindu, and it is the energetic aspect of the cosmic substance whose seat is in the coccygeal plexus. Chitrinî, the cosmic substance stored in the human being, is carefully confined in a channel whose name is Vajrâ.
The cosmic substance is always mind, energy and matter; but its prevailing aspect is that of creation of forms.
As this divine substance fills up entirely the spine, permits the individual being to stand up. But of course this divine substance cannot be detached from the primordial cause, from the Divine Spirit; this is why She, Chitrinî, receives Her beauty, strength and life from the Highest Being with luster of Pradana.
When one says that Yogis can reach Him through Yoga, this means that the true liberation for the achievement of God can be obtained with methodical control of matter and possession of cosmic substance. She Chitrinî is flexible like cobweb, the verse says, and permeatesnetrates all centers. Flexibility indicates movement, and movement of cosmic substance confined in the spine, is the work of the energetic power or Kundalini.
Also here it is said that She is pure intelligence because Her purpose is to vibrate and eventually achieve a pure mental state: Âdiveva.
Âdiveva, Chitrinî and Kundalini are three different and at the same time equal forms; they work differently one from the other, but are inseparable; they are three independent emanations and only one essence in their fundamental cause.
As we said, Chitrinî manifests Herself in the matter; this is why Her beauty is the form. She is beautiful by virtue of these lotuses tied over Her.
The purpose of waking up the cosmic power of man is to find God in mental ecstasy given by Âdiveva; you achieve this with the rhythmic movement of inner energy, Kundalini, acting over Chitrinî.
While this movement is taking place in man, the outer manifestations are of multiple forms, varied powers and different expressions.
The Brahmanadi is in Chitrinî; Brahmanadi is the channel of God, extended from the mouth of Hara, an image of the phallus of Siva, the perfect man made God, to the place beyond the head, seat of Âdiveva, the Greater Divinity. It is this channel crossed the vivifying Spirit that is behind every manifested aspect.
The power of the cosmic substance stored in man, from coccygeal plexus to coronary plexus, acquires life constantly through the cosmic power penetrating continuously into the body from outside. This power, coming from outside, circulates through the Brahmanadi, and this means that it is a power infinitely subtle; an almost divine vibration, breath of God.

Verse 3

She the Goddess of the Cosmic Substance is beautiful like a lightening chain, thin like a lotus fiber, and shines in the minds of sages.
She is extremely flexible; and it is she who wakes up pure knowledge, incorporation of all happiness, whose true nature is pure consciousness.
The Secret Passage shines on Her mouth: this place is the entrance to the region sprinkled with ambrosia and called Knot, and also Mouth of the Spine.”

Commentary

The text says that Chitrinî is beautiful like a lightening chain, and this indicates clearly that, if the cosmic substance is scattered throughout the spine, each emotion produces a different vibratory tonality.
She is thin like a lotus fiber because is as subtle as energy itself that makes Her vibrate as such and eventually shines in the mind of sages, or rather, transforms Herself into Âdiveva.
The text says that She wakes up pure knowledge; so once again it states that there is no essential difference among diverse aspects of the cosmic substance, since these unite one another.
The highest happiness as the result of the awakening of Kundalini in the brain is called Incorporation, which is Union; and of this Incorporation or Union, the pure consciousness, or fusion of the soul with God, is born. The union of two that are essentially equal, but seemingly different elements, Chitrinî and Âdiveva, which give the highest ecstasy through their unification, is called Shudda-bodha-svabhâva by the Hindu, which means: Divine Food, Heavenly Bread, Holy Communion, Convivium, or Eucharist.
The text gives further confirmation of Chitrinî as only one with Kundalini and Âdiveva by saying that when Chitrinî reaches the brain, she becomes pure consciousness and pure happiness, and at once adds that the Brahma-dvara, which is the passage between genital organs and the spine, shines on her mouth, in Chitrinî, and that this place is the entrance to the divine region.
Knot is the passage between the coccygeal plexus and spine, and also is called Mouth of Sushumnâ. The text tells constantly that the Cosmic Substance is always the same, although with diverse vibrations and that She is always from the mouth of Sushumnâ to Âdiveva.