Chakra

(“wheel”) In Hindu iconography the
chakra is the discus-weapon carried by
several of the Hindu deities. It is often
associated with the god Vishnu and is
one of the four objects he invariably
carries, along with the club (gada), lotus
(padma), and conch shell (shankha).
The discus was an actual weapon in the
Indian military arsenal, and its sharp
edges made it fearsome in close combat. Vishnu’s discus (named Sudarshana)
is even more fearsome in its power.
According to tradition it was fashioned
by the divine craftsman, Vishvakarma,
from pieces trimmed off of the sun;
thus it carries the power of the sun’s
blazing energy. The discus is also carried
by certain powerful forms of the
Goddess. In her charter myth, she was
formed from the collected radiance of
all the gods and received duplicates of
all their weapons.
In the esoteric ritual tradition
known as tantra, a chakra is a psychic
center in the subtle body. The subtle
body is an alternate physiological system that corresponds to the material
body but is believed to reside on a different plane of existence. The subtle
body is visualized as a set of chakras,
or psychic centers, that are arranged
in a column from the base of the spine
to the top of the head and connected
by three vertical channels. Each
chakra is pictured as a multipetaled
lotus flower. All tantric traditions
speak of six chakras: muladhara, svadhishthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddha, and ajna; some traditions name
additional ones. Each of these chakras
has important symbolic associations—
with a different human physiological
capacity, subtle element (tanmatra),
and with differing seed syllables (bijakshara) formed from the letters of the
Sanskrit alphabet, together encompassing all sacred sounds. For further information see Philip S. Rawson, The Art of
Tantra, 1973.
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Chakra