Maṇipūra Cakra

The third cakra, located in the navel region (nābhi). Maṇi means “jewel”; pūra, “city”. It is the centre of the digestive fire (jaṭharāgni) and the seat of samāna vāyu, the vital air that balances and assimilates.

Associated with the fire element (tejas), the sense of sight and the seed syllable RAṂ. Its yantra is a ten-petalled lotus with an inverted red triangle —fire that transforms.

In the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, maṇipūra is the centre that uḍḍīyāna bandha activates directly: by contracting the abdomen and lifting the diaphragm, the internal fire is stoked and prāṇa is forced into suṣumṇā (3.55-60). Tāḍāgī mudrā —the “pond”— works the same region, turning the abdomen into a reservoir of energy (3.82). Viparīta karaṇī inverts the relationship between the fire of maṇipūra and the nectar of sahasrāra, preventing the fire from consuming the amṛta (3.77-81).

Maṇipūra is the body’s furnace. When its fire is weak, digestion —physical and mental— stagnates. When it burns strong, it transforms food into energy, experience into understanding.