Anahata Chakra — The Heart Center
The Anahata (unstruck) chakra at the heart is the seat of the Atman, the meeting point of the individual and the universal, and the center from which unconditional love, compassion, and aesthetic sensitivity arise.
The Anahata (unstruck sound) chakra is unique among the seven in that its name refers to the primal sound that exists before all manifestation — the sound that creates rather than is created. Located at the heart center, it is the meeting point of the downward-flowing consciousness of Shiva (from Sahasrara) and the upward-rising energy of Kundalini Shakti. In Tantric iconography, the Anahata is depicted as a 12-petaled lotus containing a Star of David (two triangles — one pointing up for Shiva, one down for Shakti). Within the lotus is the Ananda Kanda (root of bliss) — a subsidiary lotus where the Jiva (individual soul) resides as a flame. The Hridaya Granthi (heart knot) — one of three psychic knots that block kundalini's ascent — must be pierced at this level before consciousness can fully expand. Opening Anahata transforms the practitioner's relationship with all beings: they are recognized as aspects of the same consciousness.
In the Anahata, the Atman shines like a lamp in a windless place — steady, luminous, undisturbed.
In the Sat Chakra Nirupana the Anahata is the twelve-petalled heart lotus whose name means 'unstruck' — the seat of the anahata nada, the inner sound heard in deep meditation.
Sat Chakra Nirupana