NADI are channels through which PRANA – divine energy, life and consciousness – flows. A fine and perfect network of 72,000 nadis distributes life energy throughout the body. Corresponding to the nadi channels on the physical level are the nerves, but the nadis extend into the mental and astral planes of the human being. When all the nadis are functioning as they should, we are healthy and feel good. However, each of us has some physical or mental problems and this means that some nadis are not right and need to be balanced.
Prana is conscious energy – so with prana, nadi and consciousness are distributed. Nadis allow one to enter different planes of consciousness, see and hear distant things. There are testimonies of many people who survived clinical death. They all describe a similar experience – a journey through a tunnel at the end of which there was a light. That tunnel is the passage through which life escapes from the body.
The tunnel experience can also be experienced in a dream or during astral travel. At the same time, we are not out of the body, but on another level of consciousness. The nadis lead man on journeys of discovery through the universe; thanks to them, consciousness is able to visit any place in space without moving the body.
The three nadis are particularly important. They are IDA, PINGALA and SUSHUMNA.
IDA starts in the left part of the body and represents the moon principle.
PINGALA begins in the right part of the body and symbolizes the solar principle.
SUSHUMNA runs through the central back channel and represents consciousness.
The physical counterpart of pingala is the sympathetic, the counterpart of the ida is the parasympathetic, and the central nervous system corresponds roughly.
The mutable moon symbolizes the mind. The Sun represents the intellect. Just as feelings and thoughts constantly change, so does the moon. Reason, on the other hand, represents the principle of constancy and stability, much like the sun. A person is healthy and able to develop mentally and spiritually only if there is balance and harmony between the lunar and solar systems.
The nadis are activated by the breath. If we breathe through the left nostril during pranayama, we support the activity of ida. Idá cools, soothes and refreshes body and mind like the silver light of the moon. The effect of pingala on the organism can be compared to the effect of the sun, which warms the earth and promotes the growth of vegetation. Pingala is stimulated by inhaling and exhaling through the right nostril.
Ida and pingala originate approximately where the pituitary gland lies in the brain. Ida affects the right cerebral hemisphere and pingala affects the left. Both nadis zigzag against each other from one side of the body to the other along a path resembling the movement of a snake. This keeps them in balance. The tracks always cross on the middle nadi, on the sushumna. Energy centers called CHAKRAS are created in the places where they cross - that is, where the radiation of the sun meets the radiation of the moon, additionally strengthened by the influence of sushumna.
The first time it goes with the pingala cross in the upper part of the spine in the places of the larynx (VISUDDHI-CHAKRA), the last time at the lower end of the spine in the chakra called MULADHARA (the root, base chakra). Here, ida is found in the left part of the body and pingala in the right. It is at this point that our sleeping consciousness lies hidden.
The nadis create a kind of "knots" (GRANTHI) at various points of the spine. And these are the key points of spiritual development. If the "knots" can be untied, released, we will simultaneously release blocked energy and hidden powers (SIDDHI), such as healing ability, clairvoyance, the ability to see the aura, and the like.
The three main nadis are also referred to by other names: GANGA – ida, YAMUNA – pingala and SARASVATI – sushumná. These are the names of three sacred Indian rivers. Ganga and Yamuna flow on the surface, Sarasvati is an underground river. It comes to the surface only once every twelve years, which is connected to a certain star constellation. Once every twelve years, three sacred rivers violently meet at the city once called Prayaga, today Allahabad, and this remarkable event brings millions of people here who take a purifying bath in the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati called SANGAMA to wash away their karmas and hope for freedom from the cycle of rebirth. The pilgrimage to the confluence of three sacred rivers is called KUMBHAMELA. For yogis, however, those "sacred rivers" are the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna. The blessed "pilgrimage place of liberation", the confluence of ida, pingala and sushumna, is the AJNA-CHAKRA, the center between the eyebrows.
Just as the mysterious river Sarasvati shows its power only at certain times, so the dry river is active only occasionally and for a short time: at dawn and dusk. When the three nadis come together, consciousness flows in one strong current in the sushumna. Energy passes through Sushumna during meditation or in samadhi. Until we activate the sushumna, we will constantly be prey to the fluctuating chitta-vrtti: burdensome thoughts, feelings, worries, and the like.
Once the sushumna begins to function, the waves of the mind calm down and we immerse ourselves in the bliss of divine consciousness.
