Wk 140 – Granthis – Vishnu Granthi

This session we will focus on Vishnu granthi. This is the second out of three physical, psycho-emotional and energetic knots. This Granthi holds back our experience of love, compassion, empathy, connecting to health relationships, belonging, acceptance, connected to a loving protection of faith, our ability for clear honest communication and creative expression as it covers the Manipura, Anahata and Vishuddha Chakras. This results in the Rajasic mess of being bound to our limited ego that over relates to our resentments, hurt, wounds, grief, sorrows, the lies we tell ourselves and others as well as the Inability to speak truth or say what we need to say honestly. This knot keeps us immersed in the relentless attachment to our negative memories (samskaras), emotional bondages and cultural programming. 

So to go through this mess of a knot: 

It covers Manipura associated with the bondage of being over stimulated, disturb by our perpetual actions, unhealthy attachment to being defined by the self-limiting doer-ship which values ourselves only by our worth of what we do, who we do it with and where we do it. And how this influences the knot at our heart, Anahata, giving rise to the feelings of insecurity, FOMO, fear of maintaining status, feelings like an imposter, fear of ageing and not being loveable and the loop of narrative ‘I should’. I should be doing this, I should have this, I should be here by now, I should be better, I should accept this. At our heart, we just want to feel love, to be loved, belonging and accepted just as we are, however if Vishnu granthi is trapped by the threads of ‘I should’ this motivates our actions to have poor boundaries, imposing ourselves, our beliefs, opinions, traditions, religion, politics, and feelings onto others, pull us into the bottomless void felt at the heart. If things are not what we feel they SHOULD be, we hold resentment, there is discontentment, jealousy, grievance, malice. If things change in our relationships, work and life and we are so invested in it staying as we feel it SHOULD be ‘this’, we experience the grief of loss and change which pulls us tighter into our suffering felt at our heart. We can assume if we are holding resentments, grief, sorrow and our hurt there will be a dysfunctional relationship with whatever we come into contact with and find it hard to speak our truth, to express or communicate clearly, creating the knot at Vishuddha. The residue of the Vishnu Granthis is just this deep lack of acceptance for life as it is, for who we think we should be and how others should be.

We look to the iconography of Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi. They are like the flame at your heart, just as you can’t separate the heat from the fire. These two express a souls longing to fully live, love and remember what is really important in life! Vishnu is said to be the sustainer or preserver of all life, our relationships and opens you to your dharma creating the space to deal with your karma. His consort is Lakshmi who is the creative shakti of prosperity and good fortune, fulling our desires in a well lived life.  The Purusharthas or 4 Desires are Dharma – Purpose, Artha – Means and tools to support the purpose, Kama – Worldly beauty and sensuality and Moskha – Spiritual liberation. SHREEM is her Bija Mantra which we will use in practice. To use sound, vibration we feel it resonate at the heart and throat. Pranayama and chanting is best for dissolving Vishnu Granthi as to build Prana at the heart. 

Other suggestions to help dissolve this knot are Prana enriched environments. Being in nature, eating good wholesome food, being around inspiring, loving and joyous people, surrounding yourself with beauty, art, music, travel, new experiences that crack light into your heart. Reconnecting to your faith, love and capacity to experience compassion, empathy, acceptance and forgiveness for ourselves and others.

Enjoy this practice!