Second Chakra: SvādhiŚṭhāna Chakra

The second energetic center is the chakra of sex. It influences our way of relating with our fellow man and society. In the muladhara, our attitude towards others is defensive, ready to fight to defend our basic survival needs, while in the swadhistana, we expand our relations with the people who surround us, our family, friends and acquaintances. The svādhisṭhāna chakra is tantric par excellence, it is characterized by desire, pleasure, passion, imagination, and creativity. Great artists have created within this chakra, which is intimately associated with creativity and communication. Those who are really creative, sublimate the sexual energy, expressing it through their creations. On the contrary, a person who unconsciously represses her sexuality also represses her creativity and is less communicative.

While for those who act from the first center, the focus is on the basic needs for survival, protection, and on whatever is essential for the physical body and the continuation of the species, in the second chakra there is the awakening of a desire, not only to possess, but to enjoy what is possessed.

Acting from this center, one’s relationships are influenced by an exaggerated attraction towards everything that seems appealing and pleasant on the corporal level. Here we go beyond the search for essential needs, to seek pleasure, which in turn carries with it a great danger. We should not forget that water flows only downwards, therefore it is very easy to fall, descend and degrade oneself in this chakra, if one is not careful. It is important to understand the difference between enjoyment and the addiction to pleasure.

Sublimation happens when we let go of searching for pleasure in that which we do not have, which situates us in a position of lack, of neediness, in order to begin to enjoy what we do have. It is to let go of fantasizing about the pleasure that we will enjoy in the future by obtaining something, in order to enjoy what is here and now. It will be this attitude that on the more elevated levels will elevate us to the desire for the Self, to seek the enjoyment of the only thing that really exists, to live enjoying every moment of life to its fullest in love and freedom. 

However, if in your pursuit of objects that offer you pleasure, you develop addictive habits, you will lose your freedom and all possibility of bliss. Addiction blinds us, it does not allow us to see reality clearly. We view someone who gives us chocolate, a cigarette, alcohol, illicit sex or drugs, as our friend, and we see as our enemy someone who does not smile, or speaks to us of our weaknesses. Addiction always demands an ever—increasing dose of the object that gives us pleasure, because in the end it always gives us the sensation that we have only obtained a moment of enjoyment but not of bliss. Our addiction leads us to try to increase the enjoyment by looking for greater quality in our objects of pleasure. 

The sublimation of desire is required to transform it into aspiration. Because the svādhisṭhāna is the chakra of sex, from here arises the necessity of feeling attractive. To transcend this chakra we must convert sex into love, to obtain the understanding that, in the depths of this irresistible attraction to sex there lies the search for the Self. Lust will not be satiated with sex; only in God will the search for pleasure through sex be satisfied and peace be attained. Only those who have accepted sex with due respect will see its transformation into love, and only among those who truly love will this love blossom into sannyasa, the order of renounced life.

Sannyas is the maximum expression of love to which the human being can aspire. The sannyas has accepted the vow of celibacy, yet he has not repressed sex, but has managed to reach its peak. The sannyas has not dedicated himself to fight against sex, but to elevate himself, as it is in the heights that sex disappears to give place to the realization of God. It is not that pleasure and sexual ecstasy disappears, however. Instead, what evaporates is the need for someone else or for a relationship to able to experience what one has been searching for. That is to say, sex ceases to be a relationship in order to be transformed into a meditation.

On the much more elevated level of religion, sex contains within itself the seed of love in a potential form. The moment we love we encounter God, because God is love. Sex is the beginning, the first step on a path that leads to enlightenment. Sex is perhaps the most important energy of all, we cannot forget that without it, we would not be here writing or reading these lines. Sex is life, since without it, the physical worlds would not exist. A connection with this chakra brings to our actions the spark of life.

The fact that the element of this chakra is water explains its relationship with the physiological functions and fluids, such as the circulation of the blood, urinary excretion, bile, lymphatic fluid, perspiration, saliva, mother’s milk, etc. Concentration on the lunar crescent of svādhisṭhāna is highly purifying, and it brings psychic powers and knowledge of the entities of the astral plane. 

A malfunctioning of this chakra is manifested at the mental level as vacillation, disinterest, difficulty in decision making, apathy in daily life, depression, lack of energy, dependence on the past, materialism, and blocks at the sexual level. At the physiological level, it is expressed as shallow breathing, fatigue and weakness, problems with the nervous system, diseases of the liver and gall bladder, problems with the lower back, constipation, migraines, and lack of strength. A hyperactivity of this energetic center stimulates obsessive thoughts about themes related to sex. A person situated in this center sees the world that surrounds him only in relation to his sensations, his pleasure, and his impulses and desires, and he develops a lack of sensitivity. A block in this center is manifested as a lack of enthusiasm and motivation. There is a lack of vitality that can lead to poor health. 

The characteristic signs of the good functioning of this center are sexual vigor, vitality, harmony in sexual life, physical stability, deep communication with the environment, security, emotional fulfillment, responsiveness and compassion, enthusiasm, the desire to touch and caress, strong nerves, a joyful appearance, a healthy liver and gall bladder, and a stable body temperature. A good functioning of this chakra is manifested as creativity and a zest for life. Due to its stimulation of the nervous system, it grants great enthusiasm and stamina. The person whose svādhisṭhāna works in a balanced way will be a person very well situated in physical reality, or as it is said, someone with his feet very well planted on the ground and secure in himself.