1. Swadhishthana Chakra - Lessons 1 to 3

'Chakra' means wheel, something circular that rotates, which is how our centers look to those who can perceive them.

The chakras lie along a central line that runs up our spine from the tailbone to the crown of the head. This central conduit for energy is called Sushumna. Entwined around it on the left and right sides of the spine are two other energy lines, the Ida and the Pingala, which carry feminine and masculine energy respectively. Ida and Pingala run from the tailbone to the nostrils, weaving back and forth around Sushumna. Wherever they meet and cross lies a chakra.

Chakras are the subtle energy hubs of our body. The seven major chakras are:

Sahasrara

Ajna

Vishuddhi

Anahata

Manipuraka

Swadishthana

Muladhara

Though they have no physical location, these energy centers are present along the length of the body.

Chakras roughly correspond to, and influence the activity of, the important glands of the body. The chakras deeply impact our physical and mental health. Chakras are, in turn, affected by our thoughts and emotions. The chakras are direct channels to the boundless energy of the Cosmos.

Immoderate lifestyles, stress and negative emotions can 'lock' the chakras, or cause them to malfunction.

Without even being aware of it, we are continuously blocking off these important sources of energy.

That's why almost all physical and mental illness can be partly or wholly cured, simply by cleansing and energizing the corresponding chakra.

These chakras were discovered a long time ago during the Vedic age. In fact, in many of the spiritual chants, you will find referen Today science has proved that there is a gland located near each of these chakras that is related to that particular chakra. These seven chakras supply energy to the glands.

These seven major chakras deeply influence our physical, emotional and mental activities.

Chakras are energy centers and if they are kept in a cleansed and energized condition, they can cause us to live an ecstatic and healthy life.

Dis-ease is only an imbalance in any one of these chakras, because our body and mind are rooted in our inner consciousness. Keeping these chakras in a healthy state, we can see a transformation happening in us at the mental and physical levels

After World War I, a biplane was abandoned near a remote tribal settlement in Asia. The tribal people had never seen an aircraft in all their lives. There was a lot of excitement and commotion about it and a big crowd gathered around it. They wondered what it might be and each one started giving some suggestion about it.

They finally concluded that since it had wheels, it must be a bullock cart! News spread in the village about the new bullock cart. There was a lot of celebration in the village and the biplane was taken around the settlement yoked to bullocks, and it served as a bullock cart.

Some weeks later, a young tribal boy who had returned from the city where he was studying, saw the biplane. He got into it and looked around. He saw all the gears and mechanisms in it. He fiddled with the switches and levers.

Suddenly, the engine came to life!

He managed to taxi the plane on the ground for a short distance and the villagers were shocked at what they saw. The boy had seen tractors being used and declared to the people that the biplane was not a bullock cart but some kind of tractor.

There was great celebration once again and the biplane started being used as a tractor!

Six months passed by and a retired army officer came to the village. He saw the biplane being used as a tractor and was shocked! He told the villagers that it was not a tractor and that the plane could actually fly. They refused to believe him because the only things they had ever seen flying were birds! The army officer got into the aircraft, flew it for a short while and landed.

The villagers were wonderstruck. Then they understood its true potential.

Understand: man is a wonderful mechanism meant to fly. But we don't know our true potentiality.

We have a very limited view of ourselves. Most of us operate only as a bullock cart, at the instinct level, surrendering to our emotions.

Just like this, there are mechanisms or gears inside us, called the chakras, which are boundless energy centers. Each of them is associated with a particular emotion within us. If we understand how to handle the emotion properly, we can function as an aircraft.

Each chakra is connected to a different endocrine gland in the physical body. The endocrine glands govern our hormones and therefore also our emotions.

Any positive or negative experiences we have had relating to the emotion of a specific chakra is stored inside that chakra.

The second chakra, lying between the navel and the pubic bone, governs fear. If we have had a deep fright at some point in our lives, the feeling of it is stored in that chakra. It determines how we react to future situations that remind us of our fear. It may block us from achieving our goals in life by interfering

whenever we need courage to face our situations. The existence and location.

It has been proven that when a person is locked with a particular negative emotion, the chakra associated with that emotion shrinks to the size of a coat button. It becomes that small.

But when the same person experiences the associated positive emotion, the chakra expands to the size of a cartwheel! This is the effect that our emotions have on these energy centers, our chakras.

Our energy flow in these chakras is blocked by our negative emotions and activated by our positive emotons and we are totally unaware of it!

Swadishthana Chakra is situated about three inches above the base of the spine' It gets blocked by fear, and gets unblocked by transcending fear. Swa means self or being and adishthana means established, therefore Swadishthana means where Being is centred. Almost 80% never transcend the muladhara where one is born. Swadishthana is the death centre. When you go beyond fear of death Swadishthana gets opened.

We can categorize all our fears into five major categories:

• The first is fear of losing our wealth, our comfort, name and fame, prestige, and other outer world things.
• The second is the fear of losing our health and parts of our body through some accident or disease; the fears concerned with our physical health.
• The third is the fear of losing our mental health, our mental stability.
• The fourth is the fear of losing our loved ones, or their love.
• The fifth is the fear of the unknown: fear of God, fear of ghosts and fear of death itself.

If your fear is activated, if your swadishthana is pressurized, you can't do anything fully, you can't do anything freely. When you understand everything is mangalattva, auspiciousness; the best thing, which can happen, is happening, suddenly you will see so much of intelligence is radiating through you. In front of your eyes, so many possibilities open. Intelligence means so many possibilities, that's what intelligence.

If you have pressure in the swadisthtana, you will have only 120-degree vision. Understand you will have only 120 degree vision. If your swadishthana is released, if you don't have the pressure of fear, you will have 360-degree vision, of you and your life.

In Swamiji's own words: "I have seen my gurukul (literally'tradition of guru' , refers totheancienteducation systeminwhichchildrenwerehanded over to a guruat averyyoungage by parents for upbringingandeducation) kids. We neverforcethemtomemorize. Just, theyarelettoenjoy,jump around andthepower,theenergyand memory they radiate, OhGod!Some of my kids, they, actuallytheystudy in the ashrambut theycompetewith the regular students, bywritingexams with the regular students.Andthey come out withninety-five,ninety,not a single kid comes out withlessthanninety percent. I tell themitisjustbecause their swadishthana(whereSelfisestablished; the groinor spleenenergycenter) is not activated,theirswadishthana does not havepressure."

Actually, if you deeply analyse our fears, all the five categories of fear are related to the fear of death. They manifest themselves in

different ways.

Most of do not know anything beyond birth and death. On the grave was written born on and died on. Someone asked why. It was said these are the only two things that one does clearly.

Life is a bridge between birth and death. Unless you live your death you can not live your life. An intelligent man lives his death. Unconscious man dies again and again even in his life. If you really want to live should be prepared to die. How can life be afraid of death. Death is the culmination of life. We never look into death, real death.

We never give ourselves time to ponder death. We want to forget everything about death. That's why we stay far from graveyards, which are usually out of our way. There are two issues: The incident of death

that happens at the end of our lives, and psychological death. Real death happens only once, but psychological death the fear of death permeates our life. The idea and fear of death decides our entire life structure; It's controlled by death. Some philosophies believe in only one birth and one death, one life. That's why they are so materialistic. Whatever you have to enjoy, you need to enjoy now. The western world is so intense, so time conscious. Value of time arises from this concept of one life. Who knows whether there is anything beyond this life. Science is the by product of the idea of only one life.

Some philosophies say there is a life after life; there is no need to hurry; let's look deeply into the cycle of birth and death. Inner science was born out of this concept; whereas outer science was born in the West.

Death is not a simple incident; not just something physical. It's something far more, if it guides your whole life psychologically. Your entire life will be transformed if you experience consciously. You will become fully awake, enlightened. You reach your peak, not your end, at the time of death.

Why are we then so afraid of death? Why do we feel frightened of this word?

One reason, we have not lived completely. If we had we will not be afraid. One who has lived fully will have deep satisfaction, fulfilment. We just carry on where our parents left off, carry our desires and their desires, and others' desires through our lives. We have lived others' lives. So we do not have the satisfaction. Why Are You Afraid Of Death ?

When Socrates was about to be poisoned to death, he was asked are you not afraid. He said: why? Either I live after death in another form if there is something called another life, in which case I shall live on in another form and name, or I will be erased completely, and I am not going to be around in any form. Either way what is there for me to worry?

Fear of death is just the fear of continuity or discontinuity. We are afraid of what next. That's why we live not in houses, but in graves, full of security. Complete security is only death. Life is never secure. In a grave yard you have to worry about nothing, nothing to pay, no one to bother you. What worse can happen?

Katopanishad talks about death. A young boy wants to die and goes to meet death. For 3 days he waits for death to come to him. Death was not there when he goes to meet death. Death is a frightening experience when it comes to you, not when you go to death without fear, voluntarily, consciously. This is not committing suicide. We are talking about facing the psychological fear of death. Nachiketa, the young lad, was finally received as a guest by Yama, God of death, and given boons and the knowledge of Death.

When you get the knowledge that you are never going to die, bliss blooms, you are in ecstasy. Your life is transformed from fear to fearlessness, from death to deathlessness.

If we think about continuity no one dies; all lives continue to exist. Once in six months your body is completely changed; not one cell remains the same. When you are forty you are not what you were when you were 10 or when you were 20 or when you were 30. But you do not feel you died, though you are completely different; you are different physically, mentally, emotionally, materially because you feel you are continuing.

If you intelligent, even a little bit, understand that everything in existence continues in one form or another. Leaves become manure and become trees again. Understand and you will lose this fear.

Nothing dies, noting discontinues; everything continues in a manner that nature dictates. Your idea about death will change if you understand this. That you are going to continue, perhaps in a different form, different way.

Once you understand this Swadishthana blossoms. When you get the courage to live your life as you want, with complete insecurity, you will transcend your fear. You will look into your fear deeply and you will be transformed; you will transcend death; death can not touch you. If you die physically its meaning will change.

Emotion: Fear

Chakra: Swadhisthana Chakra

Location: Two inches below the navel. In Sanskrit, Swadhishthana means ' where your being is established' from swa which means 'self' and adhishthana which means 'established'. This chakra is locked by fear, especially the fear of death and it can be made to flower by facing fear; by facing death itself.

Meditation Technique to be an innocent and egoless being: Nirbhaya Dhyana— a technique fromVedanta

GOALS: To make the children understand fear..

All our fears are actually fear of death but under various disguises. Every single fear is related to the fear of death, but in a roundabout way. Because it is roundabout, we don't see it as fear of death. Without fear, the word death itself loses the meaning that we have been associating with it. Death is not something that happens at the end of our lives. It is something which is happening every moment of our lives. Every act of ours is unconsciously related to our death, the fear of dying. Death changes the very quality of our life. It is not the end; it is the climax of our lives, towards which our whole life is oriented

. Because our whole life is controlled by our concept of death. Even our social structure is dictated by our concept of death.

• ¤ What is every single death related to?
• ¤ When death happens?
• ¤ Which is something that is happening every moment of our lives?
• ¤ What changes the very quality of our life?
• ¤ What controls our whole life?

MATERIALS NEEDED: Paper, Pencil, Eraser, Color Pencils

PROCEDURE: Draw Fear in a Pictorial Format and Color It.

INFERENCE: All our fears are actually fear of death but under various disguises.

Talk about all the things they are scared of.

Part 2: Swadhishthana Chakra - Lessons 1 to 3_English_part_2.md

• 1. Everyone sits in a large circle.
• 2. One player is chosen and blindfolded.
• 3. They stand in the middle of the circle. They are then handed a soft ball or something similar to throw.
• 4. They throw the ball at the circle trying to hit one of the players sitting in it. Each time they hit someone in the circle that person leaves the circle.
  • 5. The blindfolded player then spins around again and continues trying to hit the other players.
• 6. The last player in the circle left is the winner. Players in the circle can shout out directions to encourage other players to get hit.

Conclude the topic by reiterating the important details like all our fears are fear of death in various disguises

Teach the children about the science that helps us live life at it's optimum.

To make the children understand fear

We need to solve death and see it as a mere continuity in a different form.

The cultures which believe in a single life with no concept of reincarnation, have poured all of their energies into excelling in life. They have achieved the peak in terms assimilating of information, gaining of knowledge and material comforts. These cultures have given rise to science. Science helps us live life at its optimum and get the maximum out of this life. The cultures which believe in reincarnation have turned the focus of their life inwards.

Their search is different. They are not motivated to live life in a hurry, because eternity is granted to them. Our whole mental set-up, the course of our lives, our society, our culture, our religion, everything is based on our idea of death. We try our best not to think about death, but death pervades every moment of our life!

When we understand the depths, the secrets and mystery of death, we will understand the secrets of life. We need to solve death and see it a mere continuity in a different form. Otherwise, we will miss life itself.

• ¤ How does science helps us?
• ¤ Which is based on the idea of death?
• ¤ When does death pervade?
• ¤ When we will understand the secrets of life ?
• ¤ When will we miss life?

1. Illusion picture

2. sketch pen

PROCEDURE:

Encourage the children to color the swadhisthana picture given to them

The cultures which believe in reincarnation have turned the focus of their life inwards.

Talk about reincarnation Vaakyartha sadhas

You must have an even number of players for this. All the players are blindfolded. They are given an object such as a pencil. Another player will be given an object that complements a

pencil such as a pencil sharpener. Other items that could be used lipstick and makeup mirror things like that. All the players are moved to places around the room and spun around. They then have to wander around the room without talking and find their complemented pair. When they do they can removed their blindfolds and watch the others. The game is played until everyone is linked up.

Include the topic by reiterating the important details like all our fears are actually fear of death under various disguises

how the quality of life changes by releasing fear in the Swadhishthana energy center.

Teach the children that death is nothing but continuity in another form.

To make the children understand about how we wear glasses of greed and fear.

Death is the greatest teacher.

If we understand that death is nothing but continuity in another form, we will not fear death. And when we stop fearing death, we will know to what extent we have been missing life.

We take life for granted and we live so superficially that we miss many aspects of life. Death will simply teach us to look into life with more awareness. Death is the greatest guru ever.

When we want to bring in conviction about something, we can do it in two ways: we can either experiment and see for ourselves what the truth is or we can take reference from someone who has already undergone the experience of it

• ¤ When we take life for granted?
• ¤ When we will fear life?
• ¤ Who is the greatest guru ever?
• ¤ Which will teach us to look into life with more awareness

• 1. Paper,
• 2. pencil,
• 3. eraser,
• 4. color pencils

Encourage the children to draw death in a pictorial format and ask them to explain about what death means for them

When we understand that death is nothing but continuity in another form, we will not fear death.

Vaakyartha sadhas

Discuss all the things they do not want to let go of

One player stands blindfolded in the centre of the room. The other players stand in a circle or a line. The players then switch places in the circle and one leaves the room. The blindfolded player is spun around and then has their blindfold removed. They now have one minute to name the missing player. If the player guesses correctly, the person who left is blindfolded. If they do not guess correctly they are blindfolded again and repeat the process.

Conclude the topic by reiterating the important details like all our fears are actually fear of death under various disguises