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Appendix IV 311 between the eyebrows, is called ajna, meaning command, and is the
“third eye” of inner wisdom. Leadbeater states:
[It] has the appearance of being divided into halves, one chiefly rose-colored, though with a great deal of yellow about it, and the other predominantly a kind of purplish-blue, again closely agreeing with the colors of the special types of vitality that vivify it. Perhaps it is for this reason that this center is mentioned in Indian books as having only two petals, though if we are to count undulations of the same character as those of the previous centers we shall find that each half is subdivided into 48 of these, making 96 in all. This sudden leap from 16 to 96 spokes and again the even more startling variation from 96 to 972 between this and the next chakra, show us that we are now dealing with centers of an altogether different order from those which we have hitherto been considering.6
When this center is awake, we are aware of our existence as the eternal witness beyond beginning or end, birth or death. We may be in touch with psi phenomena or the siddhi powers described by yogis, or such profound and awesome experiences of the subtle realm as perceiving archetypal deities, or ourselves as light—boundlessly expansive and blissful. This corresponds to the bliss stage,or anan- damayakosa, of the kosas; but as magnificent and ethereal as it is, it still represents duality, of which the witness stage is the last vestige.
There is still a stage beyond—where witness, that which is witnessed, and the process of witnessing all merge into one: the stage of final union with the universal, the experience of one’s divinity. This is atma, the level of chakra 7 known as the crown or coronal chakra, located at the crown of the head and called sahasarara by the yogi—the lotus of a thousand petals. When the crown chakra is fully awakened, one supposedly has the ability to leave the body and experience oneself as pure love and consciousness without limitation—at one with atma. Leadbeater describes its appearance to clairvoyants as:
The most resplendent of all, full of indescribable chromatic effects and vibrating with almost inconceivable rapidity. It seems to contain all sorts of prismatic hues, but on the whole, are predominantly violet. This chakra is usually the last to be awakened. In the beginning it is the same size as the others, but as the individual progresses on the path of spiritual advancement, it increases steadily until it covers almost the whole top of the head.7