The Baptisms and the Chakras: A Comparison of 2 Nephi 31:13 and Kundalini Yoga (Part 7 of 7)
Sahasrara (The Crown Chakra)
If ajna is the consummating union of opposites, the marriage of heaven and earth, what could possibly lie higher? Well, in ajna Shiva and Shakti are still distinct; I am still a subject beholding an object, even if my unitive vision allows me to incarnate the far in the near-at-hand. In sahasrara, however, even such oppositions reveal themselves as contingent on a higher unity. Those with a casual knowledge of Hinduism will know of its idea of Brahman as a non-dual Self, one which acts as the fundamental be-ing of all things, living or non-living. To put it simply, sahasrara is the abode of Brahman. Here is the metaphysical basis of the scriptural “Great I Am,” [1] perhaps the way in which Christ could claim that “He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever.”[2] Despite the paradoxical nature of this passage, it makes sense when one considers that space necessarily involves duality—a here and a there—while in sahasrara there is no two but only one. This is the Keter of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, [3] “the One” of Neoplatonism, or perhaps even Heidegger’s “Being.” In all these cases, we are dealing with something beyond duality, beyond even the possibility of conception. For conceivability, like perception, requires the duality of a perceiving subject and a perceived object, but sahasrara transcends even that.
Let’s imagine, then, that this unified Being found itself lacking. Though it contained in itself all the possibilities of being, all the ways one can “be,” no one was there to experience it—not even itself. Like the Islamic hadith which says, as if from this Being,
“I was a hidden treasure / And I longed to be known, / So I created the creation / So that I may be known,”we can thus see this Being as fundamentally lonely—one that brought creation into being because it wanted to be seen, to be loved. May we thus imagine all creation? Could we see entire spectrum of Gods, worlds, and souls as a series of mirrors by which that Being multiplies itself from within itself, to introduce multiplicity into unity? Any God would then create a world simply to express the fullness of his or her being, to fully reflect back his or her latent potential in further actuality.
And thus we come full circle. For what is muladhara but such a mirror? We may then see the earthy mother of which we have spoken the way certain adherents of esoteric Islam speak of Eve’s creation from Adam’s rib—as an “externalization” of the internal parts of an originally androgynous whole. Perhaps the Mother Herself wasn’t cut off from the Father, but instead She gave Herself to their perfect union as an external vision of that which is most internal, most essential. For what is more internal than woman? The earth is not the dead “husk” of a divine center, but rather a mirror in which that center can view itself. Woman would then not be an appendage to a male divinity, but His very heart of hearts! The world would thus be a way for the Father, whose image remained above, to contemplate and love the image of His beloved. Perhaps we don’t speak of the Mother because She lies too close to see—not as a divine being-there in our hearts (as with the Holy Ghost)—but as the marrow of our bones, our rushing blood and our wrinkled faces. She is immanent to us, or perhaps better, we are immanent to Her. Though their perfect union is never separated as such, let’s imagine this world as a way for Him and Her to withdraw from each other just enough to demonstrate their love—a kind of dance. We are a divine woman—the daughter of Zion, the bride of the Lamb—withdrawn just enough from Her divine lover to receive His gift, to germinate it long enough for their inherent beings to spring forth into the embodied forms of all their internal possibilities. For that is the true purpose of this earth—a mirror in which the perfect union of a divine couple can separate itself, so that its members can more perfectly behold each other.
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