the spirit. As the opposite, water is used as a symbol for something lower, physical, bodily. By coincidence of water and fire in consecration, baptising, a new being is initiated. Fire can also represent the masculine principle, while water can represent the feminine principle, and their integration inuniomystica. If we can understand the symbolic language of mysticism, then we also can understand mysticism. Consequently, comparison of various symbols would mean comparison of various sorts of mystical traditions. It is however questionable whether we can compare varying symbols in different religious and mystical traditions. Without comparison, as Dalibor Antalík (2005, 101) says, there is no knowledge. “Comparison is not purely classification, it is especially a tool for understanding (…) The process of comparison does not end when the formula that expresses similarity and differences is constructed. The aim of comparative frame is to understand better whatever religious practice, when we understand the formula that is behind.” A man simply wants to learn, since learning is one of the natural desires of man as an intelligent being. He also wants to know things outside his culture and religion. Max Müller expressed that “the one who knows only one religion, does not now any” (Antalík 2005, 15). Yet comparison needs to be done with great care, because we know what troubles rise even when we translate languages, which express profane things. The more so, if they express also religious symbols. We need to imagine meaning of the written text, and we only can imagine something we know, something we have already experienced. It is more complicated to imagine, for example, what fire or water symbolise in various religions. Our imagination and knowledge can be helped significantly with descriptions of images. Such images have a translinguistic nature and are easier to understood among languages. There are plenty image expressions of symbols, but many of them would be very difficult to understand without a thorough study. Despite this, there are also many symbols that are quite clear, because they are directly linked to human body. In our case, it is the system of energy centres, the so-called chakras. Although we find descriptions of the chakra systemmainly in Hinduism, especially in Yoga, it can be recognized in other religious and spiritual traditions as well. All of the image-based representations of chakras are linked to a certain location in the body along with descriptions of spiritual experience. We presuppose that the socalled chakra system is an important starting point for a study, in particular a comparison of various mystical or spiritual traditions. 3 Comparison of the chakra system Etymology of the word chakra comes from Sanskrit and means a circle or a wheel. In the full sense of the word, chakra represents an energy centre that connects body with the astral world. The classic Yoga recognizes the sevenmain chakras or six that link to the body and the seventh, which is above the crown of the head (Eliade 1999, 185–187): 1. The Muladhara chakra is situated at the base of the coccyx between the anus 100 (4) Slavomír Gálik - Sabína Gáliková Tolnaiová
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