Chakra Yoga: What Are Chakras? Mr BKS Iyengar Explains The Chakras, Nerves And Glands
Sit up tall right now and notice what happens inside your spine. Mr BKS Iyengar asked a whole hall of students to do exactly that in 1988, to show them where yoga’s chakras live. It is one of the clearest explanations of the chakras you will find, and it starts with your body, not with colours or crystals.
Flametree teaches in the Iyengar yoga style. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major person who set down traditional Indian yoga, through his books and his teaching, and he pioneered the use of props. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This post explains, in plain words, what he said the chakras are, how they line up with your nerves and glands, and what modern research does and does not show.
Chakra yoga, Mr Iyengar’s way: the short answer
What are chakras? In chakra yoga, the chakras are energy centres that yoga places along the spine, from the tailbone to the crown of the head. The word chakra means a wheel. Mr Iyengar explained them alongside the nerves and the glands, but he was careful: the chakras sit near the major nerve plexuses (bundles of nerves) and glands, yet he did not say they are the same thing. Here is the article in short form.
- Chakra means wheel: a flywheel that keeps the whole machine turning.
- Seven main chakras: from the base of the spine to the crown.
- Glands and nerves: they sit close by, but are not the chakras.
- Two side channels: Mr Iyengar linked them to the calming and the alerting nerves.
- Known from practice: research has not found chakras, and may never.
- What research does show: yoga and slow breathing calm stress hormones and nerves.
- You work them through poses and breath: not through special chakra tricks.
- The easy way in: a class in Darwin or LIVE online, starting free.
Sitting tall lifts the spine from base to crown, the line along which yoga places the chakras.
What does the word chakra mean?
The chakra meaning is simple. Chakra is Sanskrit for a wheel, a circle or a cycle. Mr Iyengar compared the chakras to the wheels in a big machine. Every wheel is linked to a central flywheel, and once that turns, the others turn too.
In the same way, he wrote, the steady turning of the chakras affects how we feel physically, mentally and emotionally. He called them storehouses of power. You can read his full article, “Physiology and Chakras”, in Yoga Vaani 41, September 1995, pages 4 to 9. Yoga Vaani is the journal of Iyengar Yoga Australia, and the article was first printed in a book marking Mr Iyengar’s 70 years. It is also available as a reprint from the Iyengar Yoga Australia library.
Set up for seated pranayama: a bolster and a belt help the spine stay upright, base to crown.
What are the 7 chakras, and where are they?
Yoga texts name seven main chakras. Mr Iyengar listed them from the bottom up, and gave each one an element of nature and a number of petals, the lotus shape it is drawn with.
- Root (muladhara): at the base of the spine, in the pelvis. Earth, four petals.
- Own seat (svadhisthana): just above the organs of generation. Water, six petals.
- Navel (manipuraka): at the navel, the area many people know as the solar plexus. Fire, ten petals.
- Heart (anahata): in the chest, by the heart. Air, twelve petals.
- Throat (visuddhi): in the throat. Ether, or space, sixteen petals.
- Brow (ajna): between the eyebrows, often called the third eye. Intelligence, two petals.
- Crown (sahasrara): at the top of the head, the thousand-petalled lotus.
The petals add up to fifty, which Mr Iyengar linked to the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. He said the chakras are placed within the spinal cord itself, running from the tailbone to the crown. That is why the spine matters so much in Iyengar yoga.
A glossary in Yoga Vaani 53, June 1998 lists a few more, such as centres for the mind, the sun and the moon. So “seven” is the common count, not the only one.
In shoulderstand the whole spine is lifted, with the chest brought towards the chin and throat.
Chakras and glands: what did Mr Iyengar actually say?
This is where most chakra explanations go further than Mr Iyengar did. Many books pair each chakra with a gland and a nerve plexus, because they sit in the same places. The throat chakra sits by the thyroid. The navel chakra sits by the solar plexus.
Mr Iyengar knew this pairing well. His view, in plain words, was that the chakras may or may not be the plexuses and glands. In his 1988 lecture he put it as “may be right, and may be wrong” (Yoga Vaani 53, June 1998, pages 6 to 11).
His reasoning was clear. Glands and nerve plexuses are parts of the physical body. Hormones belong to the body’s workings, its physiology. The chakras, he said, belong to a subtler layer that yoga describes, beyond what a scalpel or a scan can reach.
So he did not throw out the link to the glands. He wrote that the hormone system is “an essential factor for the tranquillity of the mind” (BKS Iyengar, Physiology and Chakras, Yoga Vaani 41). Calm glands help make a calm mind. He simply did not say a chakra is a gland.
The common modern chakra map
The 7 chakras, and what they sit close to
Where yoga places each chakra, with the nerve plexus and gland that many modern writers pair with it. Writers differ on some pairings. Mr Iyengar said the pairing “may be right, and may be wrong”.
A simplified picture. Chakra places and elements: BKS Iyengar, Yoga Vaani 41 (1995) and 53 (1998). Gland pairings: common modern usage, not Mr Iyengar’s own list.
How do the chakras relate to the nervous system?
Mr Iyengar went further with the nerves than with the glands. He described three tiers of the nervous system, as modern medicine does: the nerves out to the body, the automatic nerves that run the organs, and the brain and spinal cord.
Then he set yoga’s names beside them. Yoga speaks of channels of energy called nadis. Three matter most:
- Ida, on the left, which he linked to the calming side of the automatic nerves (the parasympathetic nervous system). He said it governs the emotional centres.
- Pingala, on the right, which he linked to the alerting side (the sympathetic nervous system, the “fight or flight” nerves). He said it governs the physical centres.
- Susumna, the central channel inside the spine, which he linked to the central nervous system.
He said ida and pingala cross each other at each chakra and store energy there. In his 1988 lecture he also said that the one special channel yoga texts trace from the heart to the head is, in Western terms, the vagus nerve, the great calming nerve of the body (Yoga Vaani 53, June 1998).
Yoga’s channels, set beside the nerves
The calming nerves (parasympathetic).
Emotional centres.
The brain and spinal cord (central nervous system).
Where the chakras sit.
The alerting nerves (sympathetic).
Physical centres.
As BKS Iyengar described it in Yoga Vaani 41 (1995) and 53 (1998). A simplified picture.
Try it: Mr Iyengar’s spine test
Back to the opening. In 1988 Mr Iyengar told a hall full of students to sit still and notice the inside of the spine, not just the outside. Then he asked them to stretch the spine up. Most felt something lift inside. A moment later, still sitting straight, many felt it drop again.
He called the fluid in the spine a kind of thermometer. It rises and falls with what the body and mind are doing. Yoga practice, he wrote, keeps it steady without swings.
His point, made with some humour, was that if we cannot even keep this simple lift going for a minute, we should not get carried away with talk of chakras opening. The work starts with sitting and standing well, again and again.
A chair and belts help the chest stay lifted, so the spine can stay long through a whole pranayama practice.
Does Iyengar yoga work with chakras?
Yes, but not with special “chakra yoga” tricks. Mr Iyengar said the poses (asanas) and breath control (pranayama) are how the chakras are worked. In his words: “Do not get carried away and think that bandhas are superior to asanas” (Yoga Vaani 53, June 1998). Bandhas are the locks used in pranayama.
He also said many poses are themselves seals. When you lie back in Supported Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana) over a bench, he told students, you seal the whole back of the body. Shoulderstand (Salamba Sarvangasana) was another he named. Each pose works on the spine, the chest or the belly in its own way, and that is where the chakras are placed.
His idea was about energy. We spend energy through many outlets: rushing, talking too much, worrying. Poses and breath work help close the leaks, so energy is stored rather than scattered. That is a big part of why people leave a good class feeling calmer and fuller of energy at the same time.
Supported Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana) on a brick. Mr Iyengar called poses like this seals for the body’s energy.
Flametree’s view, as teachers trained in this tradition, is that yoga does this work quietly. You do not need to picture coloured wheels. You need to learn to lift the spine, open the chest, soften the belly and steady the breath. That is chakra yoga as Mr Iyengar taught it.
The five layers, and where the chakras fit
Mr Iyengar’s article starts with the yoga idea of five layers, or sheaths (koshas): the body, the breath and energy, the mind, the intelligence, and the deepest self. He suggested the chakras belong to the middle layers, the bridge between the outer body and the inner self.
That is why the breath matters so much. Breath is the layer that joins body and mind. Pranayama works right on that bridge.
Yoga works through layers. The chakras belong to the breath and energy layer, the bridge between body and mind.
Are chakras real? What modern research does and does not show
Here is the plain answer. No scan or dissection has found a chakra. Mr Iyengar’s son, Prashant Iyengar, said as much: “no scanning technology will ever reveal the chakras”, because they are subtle, not solid (Yoga Vaani 53, June 1998). Mr Iyengar himself pointed out that the four chambers of the heart were only seen once dissection began, and he left the door open.
So the chakras sit in the first of what Flametree calls the three ways of knowing: known from long practice, not yet tested by modern research. Not yet proven is not the same as wrong. Generations of practitioners have felt these centres in their own practice.
What modern research has tested is the body systems the chakras sit beside: the glands and the nerves. And there the news for yoga is good.
What research shows about yoga, glands and nerves
These studies tested yoga in general and slow breathing, not Iyengar yoga or chakras as such.
In plain words: the Australian review found that yoga which includes poses helped regulate the body’s stress system, the line from the brain down to the adrenal glands (the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis). These are the same glands many writers pair with the brow and navel chakras. The breathing review found slow breathing tipped the automatic nerves towards the calming side, the side Mr Iyengar linked to ida.
Lying supported, with the chest open, is where many Flametree pranayama classes begin. Slow breathing calms the nerves.
Both reviews tested yoga in general, not Iyengar yoga as such. The difference matters, and we explain why on our page Yoga or Iyengar yoga? Why the difference matters in the research.
What the chakra idea means for you in a class
You do not need to believe in chakras to gain from the practice. You need to turn up and do it. Here is how the chakra map shows up in a Flametree class.
- Standing poses ground the legs and the base of the spine.
- Twists and forward bends work on the belly, where the navel centre sits. See our guide to yoga for digestion.
- Chest openers and backbends lift the heart area. Most of us sit with a collapsed chest, and opening it changes how we breathe.
- Shoulderstand and its supported versions work on the throat. See our guide to the thyroid and yoga.
- Restorative poses and pranayama quieten the brain and the senses. See our guides to stress and burnout and sleep and energy.
Shoulderstand (Salamba Sarvangasana) on folded mats, by the water in Darwin. In the chakra map, it works on the throat.
On breath work: Flametree suggests starting with some yoga poses first. The poses quieten the mind, which makes the breathing techniques of pranayama much easier to reach. Read more in what pranayama is and how to do it.
And if you want the bigger picture, the chakras sit inside Patanjali’s eight-step path. Mr Iyengar pointed out that Patanjali names the navel circle, the throat and the light in the head, even if he does not use the word chakra for each. Our page on the 8 limbs of yoga walks through it.
Where to try chakra yoga in Darwin, and online
Reading about the chakras is a start. Feeling the spine lift from base to crown, with a teacher watching, is where it comes alive.
- Start with a free class. Flametree teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online across Australia. If you are new to Flametree, your first class is free. See all the class times on the timetable.
- New to yoga? The beginner deal: 2 free classes and 10 classes at half price, in the studio, online, or both. For anyone new to Flametree, or away three months or more.
- Already practising? The non-beginner deal: 2 free classes and 10 classes at half price, for experienced students new to Flametree or away three months or more.
- Add the breath. Our pranayama and breath meditation classes run in Darwin and online.
- Look up a health topic. Our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions brings together what Mr Iyengar, the yoga doctors and the research say, condition by condition.
2 FREE Beginner Yoga Classes & 10 HALF Off | New & Lapsed | Online & Studio
NON-Beginner HALF Price 10 Packs | New & Lapsed | Online & Studio
Questions people ask about the chakras
What are chakras?
Chakras are energy centres that yoga places along the spine, from the tailbone to the crown of the head. Mr BKS Iyengar described them as storehouses of power and compared them to the wheels of a machine, all turned by one central flywheel.
What does chakra mean?
Chakra is Sanskrit for a wheel, a circle or a cycle. Each chakra is drawn as a lotus with a set number of petals, from four at the base of the spine to a thousand at the crown.
How many chakras are there?
Seven is the usual count: root, own seat, navel, heart, throat, brow and crown. Some yoga glossaries, including one printed in Iyengar Yoga Australia’s journal, list a few more, such as centres linked to the mind, the sun and the moon.
Are chakras real?
No scan or dissection has found a chakra, and Prashant Iyengar said none ever will, because chakras are subtle rather than solid. They are known from long yoga practice and are not yet tested by modern research. Not yet proven is not the same as wrong.
How do chakras relate to the glands?
Each chakra sits near a major gland and nerve plexus, such as the throat chakra beside the thyroid. Many books pair them. Mr Iyengar said the pairing may be right or may be wrong: glands belong to the physical body, while the chakras belong to a subtler layer. He did say calm hormones are essential for a calm mind.
Does Iyengar yoga work with chakras?
Yes. Mr Iyengar taught that the poses and breath control are how the chakras are worked, and that poses such as Bridge and Shoulderstand act as seals for the body’s energy. There are no separate chakra exercises in an Iyengar class. The work is in lifting the spine, opening the chest and steadying the breath.
What are ida, pingala and sushumna?
They are yoga’s three main energy channels. Mr Iyengar linked ida, on the left, to the calming nerves (parasympathetic), pingala, on the right, to the alerting nerves (sympathetic), and sushumna, in the centre of the spine, to the brain and spinal cord.
Where can I do chakra yoga in Darwin?
Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga and pranayama at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online across Australia. Your first class is free if you are new to Flametree, and there are half price 10-class deals for beginners and experienced students.
Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online. This page is general information about yoga tradition and practice, not medical advice. Sources: BKS Iyengar, “Physiology and Chakras”, Yoga Vaani 41 (September 1995), reprinted from 70 Glorious Years of Yogacharya BKS Iyengar; BKS Iyengar, “Chakras, Bandhas and Kriyas”, lecture, Pune 1988, Yoga Vaani 53 (June 1998) and 101 (June 2010); Prashant Iyengar, “Why You Are Like This and Why You Are Not Like That”, Yoga Vaani 53 (June 1998); Pascoe, Thompson and Ski, Psychoneuroendocrinology 2017; Zaccaro and colleagues, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2018. Yoga Vaani is the journal of Iyengar Yoga Australia.
