It's also for protecting an important energy channel. According to Ayurveda there are 108 subtle and sensitive energy channels in the body called strotras. These do not correspond to the veins or arteries or even nerve channels; they are in fact, energy channels. They are stronger than any energy carrying channels and many diseases arise from blockage of these strotras. A healthy balance between these seven elements is what a person has to strive for.
There are 3 in the head: 1) Brahma Randhra, 2) Sikha or Crest of the Head, located about 8 finger widths from the Medulla Oblongata, the place where Skull meets the neck, 3) Medulla Oblongata - Base stem of the Brain. This point is pivotal to the way the brain communicates with entire nervous system.
Many devotees are feeling shy to show a sikha and when they go out of temple shaved it up. But they should know how many important plus points they are loosing. Nadis are many more - 72000, so this 108 are the most important and also biggest nadis. At the place where is sikha there is special chakra, that has nectar in it called bindu chakra. List from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
1. Muladhara (Sanskrit: Mūlādhāra) tip of the tailbone, spiritual potential 2. Swadhisthana (Sanskrit: Svādhiṣṭhāna) tailbone, unconscious emotion or desire 3. Manipura (Sanskrit: Maṇipūra) navel, dynamism 4. Anahata (Sanskrit: Anāhata) heart, love based decisions 5. Vishuddha (Sanskrit: Viśuddha) neck, discrimination and wisdom 6. Ajna (Sanskrit: Ājñā) eyebrow, mind 7. Bindu (Sanskrit: Bindu) a dot at the back of the head, prayer and Aum 8. Sahasrara (Sanskrit: Sahasrāra) top of head, higher consciousness
So this special Bindu chakra is where the sikha is located. Then the significance of this Bindu chakra according to Padanjali yoga sutra. In this chakra there is nectar, which is droping step by step to light up the kundalini shakti which is giving energy to the chakras. Then this power is going up the susumna nadi and can leave the body through the bindu chakra. But if there is a sikha then this energy is returned back to sushumna and in this way there more and more energy is accumulated.
Thanks for that answer, that makes a lot of sense. And we know that not only Vaishnava's wore shikhas, all followers of Vedic culture wore them so it makes sense that it is not even specific for worship of Lord Vishnu, it is returning the energy of the body.
i have a fairly large sikha according to iskcon standards, about 8 inches. srila prabhupada said that a gaudiya vaish. sikha should be no more than 1.5 inches, about the size of a calf hoof print. mine sits on the "center-top-back" of head covering the "big" chakra. and i usually twist instead of tie.
2 things I have heard, Shika means flag, so it is a sign we are a devotee. And the reason some devotees sport larger Shikas is because it is South Indian Style. Heard this when I was a bhakta.
When I was a bhakta they chastised me when I asked about why some devotees have a large shika. They said I was unsurrendered, because I wanted more hair for sense gratification, and in Kali yuga people will think they are attractive because of their hair. So maybe that is where the "unsurrendered" phrase comes from.
Although there seem to be no sastric injunctions regarding the size of the sikha, Gaudiya Vaisnavas traditionally keep the sikha about the size of a calf's hoofprint, approximately 1 1/2 inches (5---6cm) in diameter. Srila Prabhupada mentioned this in a conversation with some of his disciples in Hawaii: "Gaudiya Vaisnava sikha is an inch and a half across-no bigger. Bigger sikha means another sampradaya. . . . And they have to be knotted." (May 6, 1972, Hawaii; Srila Prabhupada Lila V, pg. 93).
SROTRIYA ANNAM VAISNAVANNAM HUTASESAN CA YADDHAVIH ANAKHAT SODHAYET PAPAM TUSAGNIH KANAKAM YATHA
(HARI BHAKTI VILASA 9.282 from VISNU SMRTI)
As a straw fire purifies gold, similarly, grains from a Vedic person, from a Vaisnava, from a fire sacrifice, these all purify a person from the toe nail to the sikha.
A student shall shave all his hair, or wear it tied in one lock. (Visnu smriti 26.41)
Having seen one intoxicated, or insane, deformed, he must or turn back; (Also, if he has seen) one who has vomited, or one who has been purged, or one who has had his head shorn, or one who wears all his hair tied in one knot, or a dwarf; (63.34-5)
One who gains his subsistence by wearing (a lock on the crown of the head or other) distinguishing marks of a caste or religious order, to which he does not belong, takes on himself the (consequences of the) sins committed by those who have a right to those marks, and enters in a future birth the womb of an animal. (93.13)
