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| Home > The Subtle Body > Physical manifestation of subtle body
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| | Physical manifestation of subtle body
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Several interpreters have attempted to relate the phenomena of the subtle bodily matrix to those with physical anatomy of human body and in the context of modern biological science.
While the chakras are not to be identified with the physical plexuses of the nervous system, they are nevertheless connected with, and in a physical sense represented by them.
Many have gone further and have indeed tried to draw an equation between the nadis and chakras on the one hand, and the Fibres and plexuses of the physical nervous system on the other.
 In his book Kundalini The Secret of Yoga, Gopi Krishna, founder of the Kundalini Research Institute, sets out to `clear the cobwebs that have grown around the subject` of the chakras so that `the existence of the power reservoir of Kundalini` may be established `on a scientific basis, acceptable to a strictly rational mind, and on a physical plane`.
In practical terms, he has tried to divest the doctrine of its more `superstitious` and `mysterious` appendages, which are believed to be from `an earlier pre-scientific stage in the development of the human mind. The efforts are to bring it into conformity with a biological understanding of the human organism. Krishna thus rejects the notions of presiding deities, Sanskrit syllables, seed mantras and other symbolic associations as `fabricated` ritualistic elements.
On Gopi Krishna`s theory, the notion of a subtle bodily matrix, imperceptible to normal scientific methods of observation yields to much tangible definition. The web of nadis can be equated with the physical nervous system, the chakras with `clusters of intersecting nerves`, and prana with nerve energy.
An earlier commentator, Brojendranath Seal, goes even more far than the Gopi Krishna as to identify specific nadis with known nerve channels. According to him, `Sushumna is the central cord in the vertebral column` and that `The two chains of sympathetic ganglia on the left and right are named Ida and Pingala respectively.` He then proceeds to identify eleven further nadis as named in Tantric sources, with that of particular nerves. However, even if Seal were right to equate certain nadis with nerve Fibres, the locations he ascribes to them do not concur with descriptions given in the hatha manuals.
With regard to the chakras, Seal provides with the following description:
He equates Muladhara with the sacro-coccygeal plexus.
Svadhisthana with the sacral plexus
Manipura with "the lumbar plexus".
Anahata, as possible cardiac plexus
Visuddha-chakra as the junction of the spinal cord with the medulla oblongata`.
Ajna-chakra is the cerebellum.
Manas-chakra, the sensorium.
Soma-chakra, `a sixteen-lobed ganglion, comprising the centres in the middle of the cerebrum, above the sensorium`.
Sahasrara is `the upper cerebrum with its lobes and convolutions`.
Such a comparison between the chakras and the various cerebro-spinal and sympathetic nerve centres is insightful, as it interestingly suggests the possibility of significant correspondences between physical and subtle aspects of the bodily matrix. However, to regard this as more than mere comparative analogy, and to imply them as direct equivalence between these different centres, is to oversimplify what is a highly complex and elaborate schematic of the human being.
It is perfectly consistent with hatha theory that a relationship should exist between the physiological processes of the Sthula-sharira and the operations of the subtle matrix. If the two were not intimately linked, then the techniques of hatha wherein physical mechanisms are utilized i.e. the postures, muscular contractions and breathing methods would be pointless. All the hatha yoga techniques are to effect change on a more subtle level.
But the relationship is not at all straightforward.
Even if we consider the network of nadis and chakras as comprising a more primary importance, which manifests as certain physiological organs on the physical level, it is far from clear exactly which organs correspond to which chakras.
According to the Sat Chakra Nirupama, the chakras are located within sushumna-nadi, and not in the nerve plexuses, which surround it. It is only therefore in the sense of being the physical outer representatives of the spinal centres that we can connect the plexuses and so forth with the chakras spoken of in the Yoga books.
The nervous system can be defined as a more tangible counterpart to the web of nadis, but certainly not as its equivalent.
The major point of disagreement with the physical identification of subtle body is that it allows for only two extreme pont of views:
The nadis and chakras are synonymous with physical channels and centres already known to biological science.
OR
They are entirely non-physical.
The later of these possibilities is incompatible with statements in yoga texts that describe the locations of nadis and chakras in our body. Hence the conclusion that the nadis must be nerves and the chakras nerve-plexuses. Any inconsistencies between yogic accounts of nadis and modern information about the nervous system is explained away on the basis that `the structure of the body was an unfathomable mystery in their time and that they lacked modern experimental tools for scientific analysis.
Althogh the ignorance can be attributed to the masses in general, it is a huge exception for the yogis who went in the depth of human mind and soul.
The third possibility is completely ignores by the modern day commentators, and that is that the nadis and chakras are neither physical nerves nor entirely non-physical, but consist, of a level of substance more ethereal than do the cells known to biology.
Here the word subtle means something highly refined and intangible in context with the yogic philosophy.
It remains an unfortunate fact that the phenomena associated with the human being below the level of the outer body are generally unsusceptible to physical measurement. This is the reason for those non yogis who have not yet acquired direct perception of the subtle organs, and who are not naturally gifted with psychic abilities, the existence of such phenomena can only be inferred or accepted on faith.
But the bottom line remains that it is important to get some notion of this aspect of our subtle body to gain proper understanding of hatha yoga techniques and principles.
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