This is not surprising because this second chakra (swadhisthana) helps the mooladhara (muladhara chakra or root chakra) in its awakening. As we know, the mooladhara occupies a crucial place in the pattern of the chakras.
The representative place of this energy center corresponds to the urinary and reproductive systems in the gross physical body. (Anatomically, it is quite close to muladhara chakra in both the female and male bodies.) A balanced sacral chakra is viewed from the front just below the navel. Additionally, the lower abdomen and the organs associated with it are connected to this chakra of the Chakras System. Not surprisingly, anyone who has a paunch has a severely blocked swadhisthana chakra. Also, while some hormones may influence the chakras, this particular chakra helps in hormone regulation.
Symbology
Traditionally, swadhisthana is symbolized by a 6-petalled, orange-red lotus flower. In modern terms, this chakra has qualities of the Id so it lies in the subconscious domain. Within the 36 Shaiva Tattvas, this chakra is classified as a water element tattva. In Tantra - as in most ancient texts - reality gets represented through mythological symbols. The symbolism of one era or one culture may not be comprehensible in another era or another culture. However, there is an archetype of the human mind that Tantra captures: In Jungian Theory, it is a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors, and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious.
Tattvas
Not unlike the Id, this chakra manifests as our reptilian brain. Strong emotions and passions are controlled by it so any kind of emotional instability is a contra-indication (overactive sacral chakra). Not surprisingly, meditation plays an important role here and prana visualization happens through water flowing in the body. The tattvas of smell and taste are associated with this chakra which therefore includes the tongue. This chakra also includes the sexual organs so food, sex, and sexuality predominate within it. Thus, awakening this chakra liberates you from lust and gluttony (two of the seven cardinal sins). Here is a chakra that is one more example of, "We are what we eat!" By craving certain foods or "tastes" we create a personality type that revolves around food and sex life.
Root, Heart and Animal Instincts
Remember, all chakras are working continuously either positively or negatively depending on the environment that we happen to be in. In this context, it's possible that you are not a lustful or gluttonous person. However, active participation in Hatha Yoga exercises will ensure that you are aware of the direction Kundalini is traveling. All animal instincts arising with swadhisthana and muladhara are controlled through this chakra. Since it lies between the anahata chakra and the muladhara chakra, it controls many aspects of both. It's kind of obvious because if we control our diet, we can actually control many negative moods that may arise. If our food is tamasic, then we become tamasic!
Ayurveda uses the healing power of diet control largely to control this specific chakra.
We call these food and sex cravings animal instincts and the person who conquers these animal instincts then becomes the Lord of these instincts. In Sanskrit, this is Pashupati - another name for Shiva and there's a temple in Nepal devoted to this avatar of Shiva. The temple is a residence for all animals because it's the abode of their master Lord Shiva!
The Unconscious
I've said this earlier: the tantric idea of the unconscious should not be confused for dormant! In other words, the muladhara manifests our instincts while the swadhisthana manifests our subconscious or unconscious state of mind. Instincts may operate in the unconscious mind but it is not the same as other unconscious behavior. We are born with instincts (a child born blind smiles out of instinct) but our sub-conscious and unconscious thoughts are acquired, often without our wakeful mind's knowledge.
Any event that may have changed your mood (temporarily) or your personality (permanently) has affected the swadhisthana without you being aware of it. For example, an inconsequential incident that may not attract any attention from you may put you in a good mood; the death of a dear one may change your personality in a way that you don't even realize. In some cases, this is so obvious: people who are in severe depression vehemently deny it! Thus, our consciousness is often controlled by our unconscious!
Tantra
In Tantra, every single perception, experience, and event is recorded. We also know this from neuroscience. Some instances are merely recorded and stored away and others are analyzed and therefore easier to recall. Once upon a time, our memory was compared to the RAM (temporary storage), and the Hard Disk - short-term memory went to the RAM and long-term memory was stored in the Hard Disk. However, Tantra has already documented that all memory is stored permanently. It's just that we have easy recall of some and not of others. Tantric exercises change that tremendously: you begin to recall memories that you never thought you could have stored away!
Since we are exploring the unconscious in this chakra, let's see how deep this unconsciousness goes: most humans are afraid of snakes; this is not simply a human thing, not just a thing with all primates, but a mammalian thing.
All mammals are afraid of snakes! It is an instinctive fear in all mammals!
Thus, using animals as symbols for our conscious and unconscious facets makes sense and this is evident in all cultures throughout the ages. Should it come as a surprise then that a serpent represents Kundalini!
Barriers to Awakening
ln Kundalini Yoga, the unconsciousness presents many barriers to awakening. After awakening in muladhara, swadhisthana awakening is quite difficult because we have to deal with our ghosts - our sub-conscious and unconscious mind. Just like ghosts, we can't see what we're dealing with. If this block is huge, then I would suggest an "exorcism." Don't worry, I mean that in jest. This exorcism is nothing but a radical change in your diet. Go vegetarian - better still, go vegan - and you will see how these blocks are removed. Please note that this is not a prescription, it's only a suggestion. By making such a radical change in your diet, you will easily be able to awaken this chakra.
Having a tantric teacher/guru helps! The most important thing a guru will do for you is to identify these blocks (also called unconscious Karmic barriers) and suggest techniques to overcome them.
Visualization
Many tantric techniques teach us to prolong our pleasures. Kundalini Tantra teaches us to intellectualize this problem of incomplete satisfaction by guaranteeing us pleasure forever. How? By mastering tantric visualization techniques, we can "re-live" or "re-enact" any pleasurable moment, sexual or something else. These are powerful techniques that transcend space-time because you can do this from anywhere and at any time. Often these manifest as sex dreams: dreams where you are aware of being in a dream, and having sex, and controlling the dream! Once you have had such a dream, the unconscious is automatically pacified and claimed in the assurance that desires can be met anytime, anywhere, and even when one is beyond those pleasures physically. Thus all desires can be fulfilled regardless of time and space!
The path is simple: persist in your practice, don't fight your passions,
and dedicate your mind to detachment!
Swadhisthana \u0026 Cognitive Neuroscience
The sacral chakra governs the domain that modern neuroscience calls the reward system, the gut-brain axis, and the emotional unconscious. Where Muladhara is about survival, Svadhisthana is about thriving — the neurological architecture of pleasure, creativity, and emotional fluidity. The convergence between tantric psychology and modern neuroscience is perhaps nowhere more striking than here.
| Tantric Concept | Tantric Function | Neuroscience Parallel | Key Researcher / Model | Core Concept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sexuality & Creativity | Pleasure, emotional fluidity, desire, creative impulse | Hypothalamus / limbic reward circuitry / dopamine system | James Olds (1954); Helen Fisher (romantic love neurocircuitry) | The hypothalamus governs sexual behavior, hormonal cycles, and emotional drives. Dopaminergic reward pathways map onto the tantric concept of "flowing energy" (apana vayu). Olds discovered that rats would press a lever thousands of times per hour to stimulate the septal/hypothalamic region. |
| Water Element (Ap) | Fluidity, adaptability, taste sense, emotional processing | Enteric nervous system / gut-brain axis / serotonin system | Michael Gershon (1998); Emeran Mayer (Mind-Gut Connection, 2016) | The gut contains 500 million neurons and produces 90% of the body's serotonin. Water's fluidity is the neurological equivalent of serotonin's role in mood regulation — neither rigid nor chaotic, but adaptive and flowing. |
| The Unconscious Mind | Subconscious drives, emotional memory, automatic patterns | Implicit memory / procedural learning / amygdala storage | Squire (implicit memory); LeDoux (emotional memory) | The unconscious is not a Freudian myth but a neurobiological reality: the amygdala stores emotional memories that cannot be verbally retrieved (implicit memory). Svadhisthana awakening corresponds to making these memories conscious and metabolizable. |
| Animal Instincts | Food cravings, sexual desire, basic appetites | Mesolimbic dopamine pathway / nucleus accumbens | Berridge (liking vs wanting); Schultz (reward prediction error) | The nucleus accumbens and ventral striatum form the core of the brain's wanting system. Tantra's "animal instincts" are not metaphors — they are the neural substrates of desire that modern neuroeconomics studies daily. |
Convergence: The Feeling Brain
Both Tantra and neuroscience describe a layer of the psyche that operates below conscious thought. The Svadhisthana chakra is the dwelling place of the Id, the unconscious self, and the emotional body. Neuroscience calls this same territory the limbic system, the enteric nervous system, and the implicit memory networks. What Tantra calls "water" — the fluid, adaptive, emotional dimension of consciousness — neuroscience calls the serotonin-dopamine neuromodulatory system that governs mood, motivation, and meaning.
The creative impulse that Tantra attributes to Svadhisthana is not mystical speculation. It is the output of the brain's default mode network — the same network that generates dreams, insights, and novel ideas. When this network is unhindered by the prefrontal cortex's evaluative function, creative flow emerges naturally. The tantrik who awakens Svadhisthana is, in neurological terms, someone who has learned to trust and follow the generative capacity of their own unconscious mind.
Divergence: Sanctity vs. Pathology
Western psychology tends to pathologize the Svadhisthana domain. Excessive desire is addiction. Emotional instability is borderline. Creative impulsivity is bipolar. Tantra takes the opposite stance: these energies are sacred, not sick. The task is not suppression but transformation — channeling the same energy that drives sexual desire into creative acts, spiritual insight, and compassionate action. Where psychology prescribes restraint, Tantra prescribes refinement.
Practical Exercises for Swadhisthana Awakening
The following exercises target the Svadhisthana domain: interoception, creative flow, and pelvic proprioception. They are designed for the modern practitioner with limited time but a sincere commitment to inner work.
40-Day Svadhisthana Mandal
Practice the full sequence of three exercises for 40 consecutive days. The total daily commitment is approximately 47 minutes. Consistency is the key variable — not intensity, not duration, not technique. By day 40, many practitioners report a qualitative shift in emotional responsiveness: less reactivity, more fluidity, and a surprising resurgence of creative energy.
© 2026 by Chaitanya Prabhu (tiahc2@gmail.com)