Sahasrra

Sahasrra, also transliterated as Sahasrāra, is the seventh primary chakra in many Indian spiritual and yogic traditions. The name means "thousand-petaled" and it is described as a lotus at the crown of the head, signaling the highest stage of consciousness. In these systems, Sahasrāra is considered the locus of pure awareness and the point of union with the divine or universal consciousness.

Symbolically, it represents transcendent insight, stillness, and the dissolution of the individual ego in a sense of oneness. The color is often white or violet; the element associated with it is space (akasha); and the associated mantra is commonly Om (AUM). In some lineages, it is described as beyond sensory experience, sometimes depicted as a blooming lotus with a thousand petals.

In practice, awakening or balancing the crown chakra is said to support spiritual realization, calmness, and a broader perception of reality. It is typically approached after developing the preceding chakras through meditation, ethical conduct, breath work, and devotion. In tantric and some Buddhist-adjacent traditions, Sahasrāra participates in the broader framework of energy channels and causal phenomena rather than as a separate physical structure.

Regarding physiology, there is no scientific consensus linking the crown chakra to explicit anatomy; some modern interpretations loosely associate it with the pineal gland, though this is speculative. The concept remains a symbolic framework used in meditation, yoga, and spiritual discourse. It also appears in various Hindu and Buddhist traditions as the crown center of spiritual realization and enlightenment.