Sahasrāra Cakra

Not a cakra in the strict sense but the final destination of kuṇḍalinī. Located at the crown (mūrdha), sahasrāra is the point where ascending Śakti meets Śiva —pure, motionless, attributeless consciousness.

Its name means “thousand petals”: the lotus of infinite possibility that opens when energy completes its journey through suṣumṇā nāḍī. It has no element, seed syllable or associated sense. It lies beyond categories.

In the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, sahasrāra appears as the goal of all practice. It is where kuṇḍalinī arrives after piercing the three granthis (1.54, 3.33, 4.12). It is where amṛta —the nectar of immortality— descends, which the mudrās seek to preserve (3.48, 3.50, 3.51). It is the point that khecarī mudrā and viparīta karaṇī seal so the nectar does not dissipate in the digestive fire (3.53, 3.73). In the description of the four stages (avasthā), the last —niṣpatti— culminates here (4.40). And śāmbhavī mudrā directs gaze and consciousness toward this centre (4.34).

In the Yoga Sūtras, Patañjali describes saṃyama on the light of the crown (mūrdhajyotiṣi) as the path to the vision of perfected beings (3.32). He does not name sahasrāra explicitly, but the correspondence is direct.

Sahasrāra is not “activated” like the other cakras. No technique opens it at will. It is the result —not the means. When practice has purified the channels, dissolved the knots and directed prāṇa upward, sahasrāra reveals itself as what was always there: witness consciousness, prior to all experience.

What the texts call samādhi.