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The ancient Vedic and Upanisadic thinkers have
mentioned about the knots or granthis. The most
prominent of these is said to be the hrdaya
granthi or the heart-knot. This has to be broken
or cut, and then alone one is said to be free.
The usual meaning for this is that our
attachments produce knots of affection, and
these prevent our getting dispassionateness.
Renunciation, Vairagya, is thus said to help in
the cutting of this knot. In fact if one pierces
the hydra granthi one's doubt are said to get
dissolved. This is the role of knowledge, in
addition to the former role of affection. Hrdaya
granthi therefore is a very important obstacle
and has to be cut. There are tow others who
consider that there are three knots, the knot of
Brahma or creative faculty, of progeny, the knot
of Visnu, the attachment to live on for ever or
preserve oneself; and the knot of Rudra-the fear
of death which produces its own kind of
attachment. These three knots are usually placed
at the navel plexus, the Cardiac plexus, and the
Ajna centre, the plexus at the middle of the
eyebrows. When the susumna Kundalini pierces
through these three knots and rises to the
highest place at the crown of the head, one
begins to be free from attachment to the three
worlds, the bhuh, bhuvah and svar, the
terrestrial, the middle and the celestial
worlds.
The origination of the knots is nowhere
given. They may be considered to be the points
of intersection of the three levels of being,
and they produce divisions and distinctions
between the levels of experience. One has to
pass from one to the other if those experiences
are to take place. Sri Ram Chandra, in his book
"Anant ki Or" has revealed how these knots form
the original thought-force or energy as it moves
out centripetally in the form of vibrations and
waves.* As vibrations they have the sound, and
as waves they have light. These two properties
are there, becoming grosser and grosser, and
becoming many rayed as they move out from the
Centre, and thought-energy itself becomes more
and more energetic as it moves out from the
centre. So much so, we are aware of energy or
force more than thought in grossest
manifestation of matter as particles.
The movement of the waves is always wavy, and
that means that which is above becomes below and
that which is below goes above. There is thus a
kind of inversion. Secondly this kind of
property is present in all cases of movement
whether it is upward, or downward, sideways or
angular, or inward or outward. The ancients have
indeed mentioned that prana, or energy, or
force, moves in five ways; downward, upward,
sideways, rotatingly and inward, prana, apana,
udana, samana and vyana. May be there are
sub-divisions of these movements to explain the
grossest formations, or to maintain the several
organic systems, namely, the bone, muscle,
blood, nerve, hormones, respiratory etc., also
called upa-pranas. The inversion takes place in
all cases. This inversion itself creates knot at
the points of inversion, and thus the speed of
the movement gets impeded. Thus there is a
gradual slowing down of the movement, and this
slowing down creates grossness and materiality.
At each point of inversion there is, thus, the
emergence of a new element of property.
All the several evolutes of the Original
Thought-Energy can be shown to have come into
being through a series of inversions, thanks to
such wavy movements and vibrations, and later of
particles of atoms. Thus Sri Ram Chandra shows
that the knots are important points which also
perform another function-they do not permit a
return or back flow, and there is a kind of
entropy tending to the maximum in these fields
of movement-and not merely in terms of the
Second law of thermodynamics.
The general law of inversion then operates,
and not only do we have knots but also
inversions; and thus in the organism that has
grown out of these movements, vibrations, and
degrees of loss of speeds and inversions, we
must presumably be aware of the fact that in the
several systems of cells, circulatory system,
neural path and organs, there could be discerned
the several systems of organization.
Sri Ram Chandra has, in his "Efficacy of Raj
Yoga", clearly shown that the several centres at
the Heart, the Forehead, the Crown of the Head
and the Central Region, have their localizations
of functions inverted. He has shown that what is
below in the one centre gets reversed in the
higher centre, and so on. Thus there will be
resemblance between alternate points or centres.
There is also another possibility. The bundle
of waves moving might interlace, and thus we can
have complexity within the knot. Thus many think
it is necessary and inevitable to cut these
knots rather than help their loosening so that
the knots cannot become so tightened as to
interfere with the free flow of energy. The
interruption of the force from flowing easily
down to the very end is one of the other causes
that makes for loss of awareness and
consciousness, and the consequent feeling of
misery and enfeeblement, leading to death.
The knots, then, are to be carefully loosened
so that the primal current may be enabled to
flow freely from the Centre to the periphery
thought all the concentric rings of evolution of
the body.
Thus he presents a picture of the body other
than what we have been given, even in the
scriptures.
There are any number of knots, but Sri Ram
Chandra gives an account of only fourteen knots.
The crossing of each one of the knots, according
to him, in the return march to the centre, gives
us experiences of subtler and subtler kinds. Our
consciousness becomes superfine, and
increasingly so as the Centre is reached. The
change from one knot to another is marked, and
so also man's awareness of the universe around
him.
The first step is the attainment of santi,
which is the loss of forward process. This is
the knot of Cit and acit, which are interwoven
here. It appears that there is an general law
that the poison and its medicine are very near
each other. In fact, in homeopathy, the
potentised condition of poison is the poisons
cure, on the basis of similimum. When we begin
to experience this mixed condition, we try to go
beyond it. So one has to move upward to the
awareness.
The second knot is that of jnana or
knowledge. One experiences facility at the
beginning, then takes on the knowledge of that
place or knot called technically sarupyata
(which is as it were the attainment of immanent
are intuitive knowledge of the knot) and then
become one with it (laya).
The third knot is said to be the seat of
Atma. Here we perceive the light of the Atman.
This may be called the seat of the atma. With
this we cross over the first avarana or sheath.
Sri Ram Chandra holds that this granthis are
like sheaths, or coverings, or bodies, and one
passes from one to the other. The fourth granthi
is like a wheel in rotation. This grants
illumination.
The fifth granthi is the place of water. One
gets absorbed in this experience of exceeding
freshness and peace.
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