The Three Subtle Channels

painting by Graham Brown
The three subtle channels (nadis):

On the right side of the body is the Pingala Nadi (Sun Channel) which has a fiery energy that can be balanced with cool water.

One the left side is the Ida Nadi (Moon Channel) which has a cold wet energy that can be balanced by fire.

In the center is the Shushumna Nadi, which brings a person into balance, and through which the Kundalini energy ascends during the experience of Self-realisation.

El Greco

Fabula, El Greco, c. 1600

This wonderful painting is incredibly modern for 1600. The Self-realised painter El Greco depicts a youth blowing on an ember in order to light a candle, overlooked by a monkey and a fool. Perhaps the monkey on the youth's right side represents the quickness and agility, but waywardness, of rajas; while the fool on the youth's left represents the dullness of tamas.

Giving Self-realisation is like one candle lighting another.

The Self realises itself. There is no source of enlightenment beyond the Self. Indeed there is no thing beyond the Self. However, one Self-realised person may ignite Self-realisation in an "other".

In the Sufi tradition, Self-realisation is believed to be transmitted through generations of Sufi masters. This transmission is called Baraka.

The Nadis - Caduceus

Architectural detail

The Caduceus was a divine staff entwined by twin serpents. It was a herald's staff carried by the god Mercury but also of the goddess Iris, the rainbow messenger (the goddess Kundalini Shakti). She was said to be able to tell truth from falsehood by pouring out a vessel of water from a sacred river. The Kundalini also gives us the power to discriminate truth.

The Caduceus represents the nadis, or channels, of the subtle system.The central staff is the Shushumna Nadi, the serpents represent the left and right channels. The Kundalini rises in a spiral (helix) fashion, and the nadis cross over at the Agnya chakra (Brow centre).
The staff of Asclepius (Greek god of healing) is often confused with the caduceus, but the subtle symbolism is perhaps the same.