Question: Could you please speak about the fifth chakra?

Sri Chinmoy: The fifth chakra is the throat centre. It is called the vishuddha or kantha chakra. The Sanskrit word for throat is 'kantha'. Like the other chakras, vishuddha is inside the subtle body, inside the subtle physical and not in the gross physical.

When one opens this chakra, one is bound to create things. One can be a writer, one can be a singer, one can be a dancer. When this chakra is opened, it means that one has established a free access to the world of creativity. This centre has a special connection with the universal music. This universal music is totally different from the music that we play or hear. This music is celestial; we can't express it. We hear this music inside the heart centre, anahata. Our ordinary human ears can't hear it; with our inner ear we hear that music.

Expression, revelation and manifestation: these are pure imagination unless and until the fifth chakra is opened up. We can realise the Truth, but unless and until the Truth is revealed and manifested in this world, it is sheer imagination. In other worlds, in the inner worlds, it is a reality. But unless and until we see something right in front of our nose, we have every right to deny it. When the throat chakra is opened up, imagination is transformed into reality. What we call imagination is a reality in some other world. In another world, vision has its own reality in a divine way; but until it is transformed into reality in the outer world, we do not fully accept it. The moment the fifth chakra is opened up, anything that is within in potentiality will come forward for its own divine manifestation. So this centre is the centre of expression, revelation and manifestation of one's hidden inner Truth.