Viśuddhi Cakra

The fifth cakra, located at the throat. Viśuddhi means “especially pure”: this centre acts as a filter between what is thought and what is expressed, between what is ingested and what is assimilated.

Associated with the ether element (ākāśa), the sense of hearing and the seed syllable HAṂ. Its yantra is a sixteen-petalled lotus —one for each vowel of Sanskrit— with a white circle representing empty space.

Viśuddhi has a crucial function in Haṭha Yoga: it is the region where amṛta (nectar) distilled from sahasrāra falls. Without intervention, that nectar descends to maṇipūra, where the digestive fire consumes it. Classical techniques seek to intercept that descent.

Jālandhara bandha —the throat lock— seals viśuddhi to retain the nectar (HYP 3.70-73). Khecarī mudrā rolls the tongue into the nasopharyngeal cavity, where according to the texts the amṛta is collected directly (HYP 3.33-53). Viparīta karaṇī inverts the entire body so gravity stops working against the practitioner (HYP 3.77-81).

In the Yoga Sūtras, the throat appears as an object of saṃyama: by meditating on the “throat well” (kaṇṭha kūpe), hunger and thirst cease (3.30). This is not a dietary metaphor. It is the effect of activating viśuddhi: when the nectar is retained, the body needs less.

Viśuddhi is purification in the most literal sense: what passes through here comes out clean or does not come out at all.