What are the Nadis ?

You might have heard about nadis if you are familiar with Pranayama practice or even read something about Kundalini.

The word nadi literally means ‘flow’ or ‘current’.

According to the ancient text, our psychic body is composed of 72 000 nadis.

In our time now, nadi has been translated as ‘nerve’, but actually, nadis are blueprints for physical manifestation.

They are like the chakras, we can’t touch them, they are not part of the physical body.

To do simple nadis are channels of panic energy flows.

Like the chakra, the nadis have a few major one, three to be exact.

Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna

From those three, the most important one will be Sushumna. All the nadis in our psychic body are subordinate to Sushumna.

Like in the picture, you can see that Sushumna nadi (white) concentrates on the centre of the spinal cord and starts from the mooladhara chakra (the root chakra) until the sahasrara chakra (the crown chakra).

Ida nadi (blue) will start flowing from the left side of Mooladhara in spirals, passing through each chakra in turn, forming a criss-cross pathway that terminates at the left side of the Ajna chakra (third eye chakra).

Pingala nadi (red) then will flow from the right side of moolladhara and be the mirror of Ida, terminating at the right side of Ajna chakra.

Ida and Pingala represent the two opposite forces flowing within us.

Ida remain to the passive, introvert and feminine, also known as the Chandra (moon) nadi.

Pingala, therefore, is active, extrovert, and masculine, and it is called Surya (sun) nadi.

What we try to do, for example, when we practice Pranayama is to activate Sushumna nadi.

If you pay attention to your breath, you will notice that one nostril is more activated than another, and a few hours later, it changed. If left is activated, then ida is predominant; if left, pingala is.

If the flow is equal, then sushumna is predominant.

When Ida is predominant, you will be more in a mental energy mood. The mind is introverted, and any kind of mental work may be undertaken.

On the other hand, if Pingala is dominant, you will have more vital energy for physical work, better digestion of food, and so on. The mind is extroverted, and the body generates more heat.

During your sleep, the changes are happening as well. When pingala is flowing, your sleep will be restless and disturbed.

When you eat, if Ida is flowing, the digestive system process may be slow and can cause indigestion.

All our activities will be influenced by the flow of the nadis, which alternates approximately every sixty to ninety minutes.

How do you influence the Nadis?

Well, it is possible to alternate the flow voluntarily by using techniques of pranayama and asanas.

If you are going to do some physical work and Ida nadi is flowing, you can use some techniques to redirect this flow to Pingala to obtain more energy.

Or you can adjust your activities according to your flow, like eating at the right moment to have better digestion.

You surely heard about Hatha yoga. The aim of Hatha yoga is to bring balance to your pranic flow between ida and pingala.

Hatha can be decomposed into sun and moon.

To balance those two forces, the body needs purification by doing shatkarma, asanas, pranayama, mudras, and bandhas.

When both nadis are balanced and purified, Sushumna nadi is flowing and the mind is controlled.

For successful meditation, Sushumna must flow. If ida is flowing, the mind will be overactive; if pingala is flowing, the body will be restless.

When Sushumna flows, Kundalini awakens and rises through the chakras.

Keep practicing,

Namaste