Sahasrara: The Meaning of the Crown Chakra

What is the crown chakra, and what does it mean for it to open? Umesh Guruji describes Sahasrara, the seventh chakra, as the door to universal energy, and explains that it asks less for gaining something than for letting go of knowledge and ego.

What is the Sahasrara chakra?

Sahasrara is the last of the seven chakras described in the introduction to the chakras, known in English as the crown chakra. Umesh Guruji says it has one thousand and eight petals, each with its own power and creativity, and that they open slowly, like a flower, over time. When the crown opens, in his teaching, a person is connected directly with universal energy and with prana, the energy of life, and comes to a silent state of mind.

Why the ego has to go

For Umesh, the step from the third eye to the crown is the hardest, because the ego is strong there. One can reach the third eye alone, he says, but here the help of a guru, a spiritual teacher, is needed: the guru does nothing but break the ego. "All knowledge is gone means your all ego is gone." What remains is the sense that the soul and the supreme soul are the same.

Living like an actor

Umesh describes this state as living like an actor in a film: you still act, but without restlessly running after this and that, and nature helps you. A teacher who speaks from here is only a mediator of a message from God. He closes with the Gita's teaching of karma, action, done without attachment, and with the silence in which the soul feels satisfied.