World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 120

Located on the right side of the chest, this is awakened and illuminated by the meditation and one-pointed attentiveness on it. Once it becomes illuminated, a vibration similar to the heartbeat is felt on the right side of the chest. Then the Name of God, Ya Allah is matched with the vibrating pulse. The meditation is done in this way. This is development in rank and status and is better than the Qalb. It is able to travel to the realm of the souls (the station of the Gabriel. Anger and rage are attached to it that burn and turn into majesty
Latifat-as-Sirri (the Secret):
Sirr is positioned in the solar plexus and is linked with white colour. It records the orders of Allah for the individual in similarity to that which is originally present in Loh-e-mehfooz (Preserved Scriptorium). After its activation, human being gets acquainted with Aalam-e-Misal (The Allegorical realm - Reflection of knowledge of the preserved Scriptorium.) This center is associated with consciousness. This is also awakened and illuminated meditation and one-pointed attention on it with the Name of God, Ya Hayyu, Ya Qayyum. Sirr, literally means "the secret". Emptying of the Sirr (Taqliyya-1Sirr) is basically a focus on God's names and attributes in perpetual remembrance or Dhikr, hence diverting one's attention from the mundane aspects of human life and fixing it on the spiritual realm. The "emptying" signifies negation and obliteration of ego-centred human tendency.
When we compare the Lataif with similar concepts in Indian traditions, we come across the system of chakras in Hinduism or rather Indian religio-spiritual practices. Paramhans Swami Maheshwaranand describes a Chakra as a powerhouse in the way it generates and stores energy pulling it from cosmos.
The Lataif are generally compared with the Chakras of the Vedic belief system but they are not similar. Though there seems an apparent similarity between the Chakras of Vedic belief system and the Lataif of Sufi-Islamic tradition, they are different esoterically, exoterically conceptually and methodologically. It is a better not to establish the similarities between them, because the Chakra system starts from Muladhar the lowest place near the anal region and moves upward through the spinal cord, where as the Sufi Lataif starts from Qalb the heart and are located around the Qalb and move upward to forehead as believed by some Sufi schools. Latifat-al-Khafi (Mysterious):
The term Khafi means inexplicable, arcane or Latent Subtlety. It represents intuition.This Latifa is located in the middle of the forehead between the eyes or on the point of third eye. Its colour is black or darkest blue. Some believe that it is located to the right of the chest and it is darkest green in
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