Sahasrara (Yoga)

The absolute, non-dual state beyond all divisions, visions, feelings, ideas and thoughts, beyond subject and object, beyond knowledge and names. There is the silence that is the basis of the no longer heard syllable AUM.

Only on attaining this chakra can the yogi attain asama-prajnata-samadhi, where there is no activity of mind, no knower, no knowledge, nothing to be known. Knowledge, knower and known are unified and liberated. Immortality is achieved. There is the bliss of total inactivity. The prana moves to its highest point. All thoughts, feelings and desires dissolve into their primary cause. For as long as he remains in the physical body the yogi retains nondual consciousness, enjoying the play of lila without being troubled by pleasure, pain, success, humiliation. His is sat-chit-ananda (knowledge-consciousness-bliss).

According to the shastras this chakra is the seat of chitta or citta, the self-luminescent soul, the essence of being. Chitta is like a screen on which the reflection of the cosmic Self is seen and through it the divine reflected. Here one can feel the divine, even realize divinity within one's self.

In traditions that put sahasrara beyond the physical body, this chakra is the seat of Siva, of cosmic consciousness, and if kundalini rises to this level and is united with Siva then bliss arises.

The seventh "lotus" or chakra defined in kundalini yoga, said to be situated at the crown of the head or, according to some sources, above the crown of the head. In the sense that it is beyond the physical body it is above the other six chakra which together constitute the shat-chakra or sat cakra.