AN understanding of the location, function and area of influence of the chakras is necessary for a practitioner of yoga. Rather than learning from books, this knowledge is better revealed through practice of particular yogic exercises. The student, with help from the teacher, learns to discern problem areas and work to clear malfunctioning in the particular chakra, thus curing the body of disease, physical, emotional and mental. To do this it's not essential to intellectually explore the cause, the practice of the prescribed techniques will take care of the ailment. There are seven major chakras aligned along the spine that gather energy and distribute it in the body. We will discuss them in sequence of progression of the human life from a child in muladhar to a realised soul in the sahasrar.

Muladhar, meaning the root or foundation, is situated between the anus and the scrotum for men and in the posterior side of the cervix for women. It is graphically illustrated as a red lotus with four petals and vibrates to the sound of 'lang'. The seat of all our issues of survival, its element is earth. People who have had a secure and loving childhood have stronger muladhar and are better able to face and survive life's battles as the root have received nourishment in the early stages. We store all our fears about life, death, money, love, family, property etc; gathered over the years and many past lives, in this chakra. Congestion here affects the knees, excretory and urinary organs. Some diseases related to this chakra are colon and prostrate cancer, piles, arthritis of knees and ankles. As this chakra is cleared and balanced we overcome fear and gain confidence, becoming more stable and secure in our surroundings.

Swadhishtan, the sacral chakra is situated at the end of the coccyx or the tailbone. The Swadhishtan, meaning 'one's own dwelling place', is an orange lotus with six petals vibrating to the sound of 'vang', its element being water. Here we store all our sensual and sexual desires and passions and so naturally it is the storehouse of our guilt too. Society has created and maintained unnecessary pressure on natural adolescent desires and needs leading to disorderly habits in teenagers. A disturbance in this Chakra shows up as extreme guilt, inability to display emotions or conversely erratic emotional actions and a difficulty in sustaining meaningful relationships. The suppression of natural desires may lead to abnormal behaviour such as alcohol and drug abuse, overeating and sexually deviant activities. The physical organs that are effected are the kidneys, the reproductive organs, the large intestine, the legs and the disease that manifest may be failure of the kidneys, sciatica, fissures and cysts in the organs in this region, fibroids, varicose veins etc. Balance in this chakra brings a great sense of calm and peace, emotional stability, comfort with ones own sexuality, ability to show and share affections strengthening relationships with both sexes.