Swadhisthana: The Sacral Chakra of Creativity

Why does Umesh Guruji call Swadhisthana the creative chakra? He explains how the second chakra feeds every kind of creation, how its power is lost through suppression or waste, and how to clean it and turn it toward creativity in a positive way.

What is the Swadhisthana (sacral) chakra?

Swadhisthana (also spelled Svadhisthana) is the second of the seven chakras described in the introduction to the chakras, after Muladhara, the root chakra. In English it is often called the sacral chakra; Umesh prefers the creative chakra, the source of "all creation". He relates it to water energy, with six petals and the seed sound VAM, chanted to clean and strengthen it. When this chakra is clean and strong, he says, creativity flowers on its own: singing, painting, dancing.

How creative power is lost

Umesh sees two opposite ways of losing this energy. It can be suppressed, often through fear taught by religion and society, until creativity is gone; or it can be too open, and the energy is wasted. Young people especially carry strong energy that nobody teaches them to use, and some turn to drugs, smoking or alcohol. Asked whether this is the "sex chakra", he answers that sexuality is also creation and nothing dirty: the energy is holy.

Growing creativity in a positive way

His answer is to give the energy a direction. Exercise, dancing, painting and music carry it upward, toward the higher chakras, instead of spending it on films, the internet and phones. The beautiful statues and music of old times, he says, came from this energy well used. No energy is bad: like a poison made into medicine, it needs to be understood and respected.