Chakra Focus in the Life Cycle

We can learn from the wisdom of the east how we evolve through the chakras. Satgurun Sivaya Subramuniyaswami describes the chakra cycles through which we pass, not just in one lifetime but through many.  In Merging with Siva, lesson 287, he writes (gender specificity is that of the author):

"In the seven cycles of a man's life, beginning at the time of his birth, his awareness automatically flows through one of these chakras and then the next one, then the next and then the next, provided he lives a pure life, following Sanatana Dharma under the guidance of a satguru.


In reality, most people never make it into the higher four chakras, but instead regress back time and again into the chakras of reason, instinctive will, memory, anger, fear and jealousy. Nevertheless, the natural, ideal pattern is as follows.

Age 1-7
From one to seven years of age man is in the muladhara chakra. He is learning the basics of movement, language and society--absorbing it all into an active memory. The patterns of his subconscious are established primarily in these early years.

Age 7-14 

From seven to fourteen, he is in the svadisthana chakra. He reasons, questions and asks Why? Why? Why? He wants to know how things work. He refines the ability to think for himself.

Age 14-21

Between fourteen and twenty-one he comes into his willpower. He does not want to be told what to do by anyone. His personality gets strong, his likes and dislikes solidify. He is on his way now, an individual answerable to no one. Generally, about this time he wants to run away from home and express himself. 

Age 21-28

From twenty-one to twenty-eight he begins assuming responsibilities and gaining a new perspective of himself and the world. Theoretically, he should be in anahata, the chakra of cognition, but a lot of people never make it. They are still in the bull-in-the-china-shop consciousness, crashing their way through the world in the expression of will, asking why, reasoning things out and recording it in memory patterns which they go over year after year after year. 

But if awareness is mature and full, having incarnated many, many times, he goes on at twenty-one to twenty-eight into the anahata chakra. Here he begins to understand what it's all about. He comprehends his fellow men, their relationships, the world about him. He seeks inwardly for more profound insight. The chakra is stabilized and smoothly spinning once he has raised his family and performed his social duty and, though he may yet continue in business, he would find the energies withdrawing naturally into his chest.

Age 28-35

It is only the renunciate, the mathavasi, the sannyasin, who from twenty-eight to thirty-five, or before, depending on the strictness of his satguru, comes into the vishuddha chakra, into inner light experiences, assuming a spiritual responsibility for himself and for others. This awakening soul appreciates people, loves them. His heart and mind broadly encompass all of humanity. He is less interested in what people do and more in what they are. It is here that, having withdrawn from the world, the world begins to renounce him.

Age 35-42

Then, from thirty-five to forty-two, or before, he perfects his sadhanas and lives in the ajna chakra, experiencing the body of the soul, that body of light, awareness traveling within naturally at that time, withdrawing from mundane affairs of the conscious mind

Age 42-49

From forty-two through forty-nine he is getting established in the sahasrara chakra in a very natural way, having met all of the responsibilities through life.

This is the exacting path a devotee would follow under the training of a satguru. Ideally, and traditionally, the young man should come under the training of a guru at about fourteen years of age, when he is just coming into the manipura area of will. At this point, the will is malleable and can be directed into the channels of the inner climb, rather than directed toward the outer world, though he may work or study in the outer world, too. But his motivation is inner. Carefully guided, awareness flows through each of these force centers, and at fifty years of age, he is fully trained and mentally prepared to take on intense spiritual responsibilities of his sampradaya and soar even more deeply inward in a very, very natural way."