Mūlādhāra
Mūlādhāra · mūla-ādhāra, “the root support”
Grammar: neuter noun; mūla (root) with ādhāra (support).
Meaning: the first of the six cakras, the centres of the body that yoga pierces in order.
In the scriptures: In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, the cakras are named where yoga is told. When the gandharva Upabarhaṇa left his body by yoga, he pierced the six cakras, mūlādhāra, svādhishṭhāna, maṇipūra, anāhata, viśuddha and ājñā, and the sixteen nāḍīs (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13). By the path of yoga, Manoramā passed beyond the six cakras beginning with Mūlādhāra, held the vāyu in her head and, in the thousand-petalled lotus in the brahmarandhra, withdrew her mind from sense-objects and fixed it on the spotless Parabrahman (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 35). Brahmā bound the six cakras, which the text prints as mūlādhāra, svādhishṭhāna, maṇipūra, manohara, viśuddha and paramājñā, and made the vāyu cross them step by step and rest in the brahmarandhra (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 20). In his teaching to Yaśodā on the five kinds of jñāna, Śrī Kṛshṇa names the marks of yogātmaka jñāna: overcoming hunger and thirst, searching within oneself, purifying the nāḍīs, piercing the cakras, and contemplating Īśvara joined with the Śakti Kuṇḍalinī. He gives the six cakras as Mūlādhāra, Svādhishṭhāna, Maṇipūra, Anāhata, Viśuddha and Ājñā (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 110).
Related terms: Cakra · Kuṇḍalinī · Nāḍī
Sources
- Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13; Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 35; Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 20, 110