The Heart Chakra (Anahata Chakra)

When you reach the heart chakra, you are completely established in yogic consciousness and you depend solely upon the power of your own consciousness, rather than anything external or fate.

MEANING:
The literal sense of word "anahata" is unstruck or unbeaten.

This centre is known as such because it is related to heart which beats or vibrate with constant unbroken rythm continuously.

The Location Point:
The heart chakra is situated on the inner wall of spinal chord directly behind the centre of chest i.e in the region of heart.

Although this chakra is known as the heart chakra, it should not be confused with the biological heart. Although the physiological counterpart of this chakra is the cardiac plexus nerves but their nature is totally different from its physiological dimension.

Anahata chakra is a very delicate center and it is related to that part of brain which is responsible for all types of creative arts like painting, dancing, singing, poetry etc.

SYMBOL:

Anahata is symbolized by a twelve petalled lotus and on each petal one the letters: kam, kham, gam, gham, ngam, cham, chham, jam, jham, nyam, tam, tham is inscribed.

The inner region is hexagonal in shape which represents the air element. This region is made up of two interlaced triangles which represents the union of the consciousness and creativity.

Within this, the beeja mantra of anahata chakra is written i.e yam.

It is said that if you meditate on anahata, you will become a excellent yogi, exceptionally wise and will be full of noble deeds. You can use your mind with intense concentration.

As long as your consciousness in centred in,lowr chakras like muladhara, swadhisthana or manipura chakra, you will remain completely dependent on what is already enjoined for you i.e your fate or destiny. The lower chakras belong to empirical world of body, mind and sense.

But once you reach anahata chakra, you will become beyond these empirical dimensions. Then you will realize that fate is of course real, but one can go totally beyond what it dictates. You will become the master of your own destiny.

Wish Fulfilment is another trait of awakened Heart chakra. According to tantras, at the root of anahata chakra there is a "Wish fulfilling tree", also known as kalpa taru. When this tree starts to fructify, whatever you thinks or wish comes true.

Ordinarily we have many wishes but they are generally a sort of daydreaming. However, if they all starts turning into realities, we would quickly start questioning that whether we want our wishes fulfilled at all because most people rely on their fate rather than creating their own destiny.

To illustrate this, I will quote one story here:

Once a traveller was sitting underneath a tree. He was feeling very tired and wanted to have a drink. So he thought of a clear stream, and immediately he heard the trickle of water flowing beside him. After drinking some water, he thought he would like to have a little food to satisfy his hunger, and that appeared beside him also. Then, as he was feeling tired and thought he would like to rest, there appeared before him a nice bed, and so he went to sleep. The foolish man did not know that he had come to rest beneath the wish fulfilling tree. In the evening when he awoke, the sun had already set and night had fallen. He got up and the thought came to his mind: 'Oh, it is terribly dark, perhaps the tigers will come and eat me', and so they did.

This is what happens to anyone who awakens this wish fulfilling capacity without proper preparation. If you awaken you heart chakra but you do not know the power of your mind, or you posses negative and pessimistic attitude and other negative mental tendencies, then you will fall prey to them.

If this happens, there is a risk that your consciousness will fall back from anahata chakra and once you fall from anahata chakra, there is hardly any chance of making a second start.

Therefore you should always remain alert about our thoughts and perceptions. When whatever you wish becomes true, you will be very happy but at the same time you should also keep analyzing you attitude toward others and yourself.

You have to be careful of your doubts, for instance, if you start doubting that "Perhaps I am having appendictis or gall bladder disease", than this thought will create a lot of problem for you. Similarly if you think "My friend has not contacted me , he must have had an accident", then may be your friend will actually meet an accident.

When kundalini is dormant, these type of thoughts have no energy, but once kundalini awakens and reaches anahata chakra, these thoughts starts turning into realities.

Therefore firstly, you should change your entire way of thinking if you are going to awaken Heart chakra. You must be extremely optimistic and full of hope and you should never fall into the negativities of your mind. Never be neagtive about any situation, no matter whatever it may be.

When anahata awakens, a feeling of unconditional and universal love for all will start developing in you.

Generally, every type of love in contaminated with some sort of selfishness, even the love for God, because you are expecting something from him. Perhaps in this world, the love with minimum selfishness is Mother's Love.

But when heart chakra opens, all your actions becomes unselfish and altruistic and you develop spiritual compassion. Your love becomes free of expectations.

During Heart chakra awakening, you may experience pain in chest and irregular functioning of heart, such as accelerated pulse. However rather than feeling ill, you will feel healthy and will require less sleep.

You will attain complete emotional balance and you will start listening the sounds coming from other realms.

You may become a great poet or any other type of artist. You will develop clairvoyant/ clairaudience and psychokinetic ability, and you will be able to conquer anyone by the power of your love.

With the awakening of Heart chakra, you will develop detachment to the worldly things and you mind will become more relaxed, free and peaceful.