Vishuddhi: The Meaning of the Throat Chakra

What is the throat chakra, and what changes when it begins to open? Umesh Guruji describes Vishuddhi as the chakra of expression and of truth: the place where a person stops hiding, starts to speak, and begins to ask who they really are.

What is the Vishuddhi chakra?

Vishuddhi (often spelled Vishuddha) is the fifth of the seven chakras described in the introduction to the chakras, and it lives at the throat. Umesh Guruji also calls it the "True Chakra", related to the energy of the sky, with sixteen petals and the mantra HAM. When energy reaches the throat but cannot flow, people find it hard to express themselves: they feel shy and afraid, and do not easily speak the truth. As it opens, the mind grows wide like the sky.

Expression and the search for truth

For Umesh, this is where real knowledge begins. People start to express themselves, often meeting resistance from family and society. A search also begins, through many things and many places, which is really a search for the Self: "Who am I?" He links an open throat with creativity and a love of music, dance and painting, and points to Krishna, whose music, words and Bhakti, loving devotion, he sees as the energy of this chakra.

How does Umesh suggest working with it?

He names one practice, Khechari Mudra, in which the tongue is turned up to touch the palate. He also speaks of silence as a "very powerful power" from which creativity grows. In his teaching, as the throat opens, energy slowly rises towards the third eye and the higher chakras.