by Peter Holleran copyright 2023
NOTE: This series of articles is in the process of being made into a book. It is still undergoing revision, and much new material is being added, so please check back periodically. However, already a great deal has been added and I wanted to get this available right now for viewing. A number of articles from this website have been spliced into it, so please be patient with the footnoting which has not been reorganized into one set of end notes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Testimonials
Preface
Introductory - Just what is the Heart’s Gaze?
Our Approach and Why This Book Was Written
[Note: entries below in CAPITALS indicates an article on my website www.mountainrunnerdoc.com]
Part One - A “Technical” Overview
The Map - Part One: "The Gist"
Sant Mat and Gyan
The Map - Part Two: Systemic Comparisons
A Brief Note on Lineage Divergence After Soamiji
Two more important chakras in the Nath tradition
Vasanas
Shiv Brat Lal confirms the Subtle regions are in the Brain
The Macrocosm is in the Microcosm - Can't Have One without the Other
A Second Look At The Roots of Modern Sant Mat Theory
The Great Causal Body - Vedanta versus Sant Mat
Bhanwar Gupha, or the ‘Rotating Cave’ - Sri Siddharameshwar
versus Faqir Chand
Belief and Investigation
Differing Initiation Promises among Lineages
The Master’s Form and the Nature of Visions
Faqir versus Kirpal: “It Would Not Be Expedient to Reveal These Things”
Bilocation East and West
The Astral Duplicate or “Clone” Teaching
Just ‘Who’ is the Master?
Faqir Chand - more on his radical views
Perspective from Orthodox Christianity, Taoism, Vedanta, and
philosophic teachings
The Throne of God
A ‘gyanic interpretation of Sant Mat?
Sacred Numbers
Sant Darshan Singh praises great Vedantic sage, Samartha Ram Das,
as a Sant
Ishwar Puri to the Rescue
A summary of internet posts on Faqir Chand
The Interior Word and "Talking to the Master Inside"; the role of intuition
This Is New And Interesting: Everything happens within Sach Khand!
More on mysticism from Aurobindo, Faqir, Brunton,
anadi, and others
Sant Mat and Kriya Yoga compared
Is Sant Mat the Easiest and Shortest Way to Self or God-Realization?
Purification versus Transformation
"PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA AND KRIYA YOGA"
“KUNDALINI: UP, DOWN, OR ?” - an extensive discussion of Kundalini,
Shakti, Prana, and Shabd from Advaitic, Yogic, Sant Mat, Sufi,
Christian, and Philosophic perspectives; Unrecognized Kundalini
manifestations
The Waking State: Its Importance for Realization, Clearing Karmas,
and Sahaja
“Only the "Totality" Goes from Sach Khand to Anami” - ?
“I heard the Big Bell, but it wasn’t where I wanted to go”
The death of Ramana’s mother and more on inner sounds;
the time of death; exiting through different chakras;
assurances of salvation after death; why a Master may not
take you "up" prematurely
"DYING IN THE MASTER'S COMPANY'
How Far Is Heaven?
More on the Waking State: Jivan Mukti versus Videha Mukti
Death for the Unliberated; Pre-Incarnational Planning
Why Sooner or Later Masters Say Everything
Do We Really Know What the Body Is?
Darshan Singh said we need to go from the ‘earth-earthy’
to the ‘heaven-heavenly’ - why this is not Sant Mat 2.0+
Once again, sooner or later, Masters say everything
Pralaya and Maha Pralaya, Sant Mat and Vedanta
Maha Sunn and the Void:
Charan Singh versus Ramana;
Isolation of the “I”: Dread and the Void
A Dark Night
Two Kinds of Void
The Master's Words: Saving Grace and Blessed Assurance
A Missing Key to Sant Mat?
Faith, Reason, and Stories
“SCARE TACTICS”
Part Two - A Non-Dual Exploration
The Spiritual Need for Precise Articulation and Deep Thinking
The Nature of Planes and Bodies
Atman, Brahman, Sach Khand, Anami
More Depths on Planes, Bodies, and Non-Dualism
Awakening and Re-awakening
Replicated or Reflected Planes
Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya: the Grandeur of a Master
The Advantage of the Non-Dual View
Shabda as the Creator: A Non-Dual Perspective;
Shabda not Creator but a “Liberating Presence within Relativity”
A Buddhist Creation Story
Some Teachings of Buddha and Christ Compared
Creationism Unmasked
Non-Dual Relief from Within Sant Mat!
What is the Sat Purush? - Eternal, Universal Guru
A few points on Simran, Spiritual Intuition, and Hierarchies
of Inner Masters
“It’s All Too Much for Me to Take” - Mind-Bending Thoughts on Holarchy,
Hierarchy, Time, Space, Relativity; the story of Lila
“IF THERE’S A HELL BELOW, WE’RE ALL GONNA GO”
Multiple Emanations/Simultaneous Incarnations and their meaning
for notions of “Creation”
Kabir and the Four Ages: Yugas and other Cycles
Saarsathi - another strange teaching to worry about!
Sant Mat and Buddhism
Shabd Yoga as a Jnana Path
Thoughts on Dissolution and Grand Dissolution in Sant Mat
Beyond and Beyond the Beyond
After Death: What Happens? - Integral Realization and a Non-Dual View
Part Three - Self-Knowledge, Progress, and the Ordeal of Purification
A Fresh Look at Self-Introspection
Keeping a Diary
”The subconscious reservoir of the mind must be entirely drained
out before it can be filled with love of the Lord/Master.”
Cultural Factors
The Deepening of the Process
When It May Not Look Like Progress But It Is;
Paradoxical and Unrecognized Progress;
Different Forms and Stages of Progress
Even Sawan Said That Inner Experiences Are Not It
Why Don’t Masters Take You Up Right Away?
A Note on "Perfect Masters" and "Perfecting" Oneself
The Self You Didn’t Want to Realize: Dark Nights of the Soul
"How long will you keep that pain within you?"
The chakras considered as one whole, centered in the Heart
'Down and In', Before 'Up and Out': Babuji Maharaj, Sri Aurobindo
An Astrological Model of Transformation
The Promised Land and the Desert to be Crossed on the way to It
are both Within Us
Non-Dual Awakening does not bypass purification but makes it possible
”SCRUBBING” - a Deeper Walk With the Lord
“Zen Illness”
The Nuts and Bolts of the Non-Dual View From The Heart's Gaze
On ‘Stories’ and Suffering
The “Besetting Sin” or “Chief Feature” - a potential roadblock to
successful Self-Inquiry and a key finding in self-introspection
Some related considerations about the ‘I’-thought, the ego, advaita
and the Soul
Self-Introspection 2.0+
The Value of Contemplation and Study as a Complement to Meditation
Journalling and Self-Introspection: Cultivating Two Sides of Our Nature
Affirmations or the ‘As If’ exercise
On the Subject of Judgementalness
A Comparative Look at Judgement and the Body in Different Paths
The Reality of Stages and the Need for Tolerance
“TWO SPRITES - HURRY AND WORRY”
Cultic Speech, Behavior, and Mind-Set: An Essential Consideration
Anekantavada: A Lesson from Jainism
Mental Illness and the Path
East versus West: a Core Difference in Articulating the Central Problem
"ON SUICIDE AND THE SPIRITUAL QUEST"
"I Will Never Leave You"
A Few Juicy Stories and Comments on the Nature of Visions
"RAIN"
Moving Towards An Emergent Global Spirituality
Cognitive Dissonance #1
Considerations Regarding Diet and Ethics
What about the Eskimos - Can they become initiates?
The Issue of eggs: nutrition, pasture-raised; what’s best for
chickens as a species; fertile/infertile
Birth - Ego - Person
Sattvic/Unsattvic; Health Issues Never Faced by Kabir or Nanak;
Prophet Mohammed’s Advice
Was Cain the First Self-Righteous Vegetarian
But What Are the Full Moral Implications Here?
The Hindu theory of the five elements and the minimizing of dietary
karmas: is it at least partly fear-based?
OMG! Guru Nanak and the Sikh Gurus Ate Meat
Is Even Breathing a Sin?
Wine!
The Role of Intuition
Part Four - Philosophical Issues
Samadhi versus Satori
The Concept of Perfect Masters, or perfection Itself for that matter
Is the Saint or Master Omniscient?
“The Inner Master is more strict than me”
Cognitive Dissonance #2
The Power of a Lineage
A Master is Unique and Not a Robot! (And Neither Are You)
Are Masters “above the stars”?
What does Self-realization and God-realization mean in Sant Mat?
If God Is The Controlling Power Keeping You In The Body,
Why Meditate To Get Out Of The Body?
Leaving the body doesn't automatically tell you what the body is
The Need for Basic Trust
Degrees of Mastership; brief remarks on karmas
Where are the Inner realms?
“Seeing” in Sach Khand
A Debate on “Merging” - Adyashanti versus Darshan Singh;
also commentary on Anami, Amrita Nadi, Soul, and Self
Kal - psychological, allegorical, philosophical perspectives.
Is Kal the Demiurge or not?
What is it and what does it represent?
Shiv Brat Lal on Kal
Kal and Fear
But Now for Real Goofiness
Kal and the Sant Mat conception of Avatars
The Hindu conception of Avatars and Reincarnation
"No One Knows What an Avatar Is!"
Lineage ego
Kal, Karmas, and Non-Dualism
Kal - additional theological considerations: Satan, Demons, the Fall
“RESIST YE NOT EVIL”
Kal and Spiritual Experiences
Two Metaphors for the Path to Truth
A Note on Short and Long Path Practices
Passing from Objectivity to Subjectivity
Do We Meet Past Masters Inside?
Do Buddhists Only Go To The Third Plane?
A sampling of ongoing non-dual debate among initiates
Sleep
The Sacrifice of the Sage or Master
“MASTERS DIE MANY TIMES”
More on the importance of human birth and the waking state
for realization of truth.
Eradication of Karmas in Sant Mat: an introduction
“KARMA AND GRACE' - a lengthy exploration
Jnana Chaksu and Divya Chaksu: Two Different “Third-Eyes”
Four Lives To Sach Khand?
Two Different Metaphysical Perspectives
Some differences between Yoga and Vedanta
Siddhis: What They Are, How They Are Done, and How They Relate to
Realization
Unique Christian Miracles
Jesus is Just All Right With Me, or the Deal with Kal is the Gospel Truth?
Levitation
Materialization and Dematerialization in Buddhism; the Rainbow Body
Death, "the Last Enemy," even for Saints?
A proposed model for comparing/classifying different teachings
and schools
A Summary of Non-Dualism as the Heart of any Authentic
Spiritual Teaching
Re-Cap: Sant Mat as a Non-Dual Path
Marked Souls and the “Fall”
Evolutionary Enigmas
Why Did We Leave Sach Khand Only To Return There
The Biblical Fall - The Beginning of Reincarnation?
The Cat Lady
The "Mauj"
The Map of Consciousness (0-1000); Self-Inquiry, Radical Faith,
Self-Surrender, The Absolute
The Conference of the Birds
Wrapping It Up: Sri Ramana and the Sants
The Concept of a Center
Metaphors
Concluding Thoughts
APPENDIX 1 - “THE DEATH OF A DREAM AND A GIFT OF TRUTH” - the author’s experience with Sant Kirpal Singh
The Beginning
A Prophetic Dream
The Play Begins
A Sad Tale
An Unknowing Prayer
A Test in the Form of a Core Question
The ‘Fish Oil’ Incident
The End Game
Farewell to India
The Years Pass
Carrying out the Master’s Words
Continuing saga and conclusions
Ongoing Prayer
What I Have learned
Final Thoughts
APPENDIX 2 - “THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT”
APPENDIX 3 - "SARMAD’S RENUNCIATIONS”
APPENDIX 4 - “THE LOST YEARS OF RAMANA MAHARSHI”
APPENDIX 5 - "THE ENIGMATIC KABIR"
APPENDIX 6 - "JACOB BOEHME - TEUTONIC SOUND CURRENT ADEPT?"
Notes
Sant Mat Part One - Book File
by Peter Holleran copyright 2023
Introductory
“Once the heart has been gained by God, everything else will eventually take care of itself. This is why He requires the heart above all else.” - Madame Guyon, Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ)
“God turns the heart into blood and desperate tears, then He writes the spiritual mysteries on it.” - Rumi, Mathnawi III, 1826-27
“There is a Light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all, beyond the heaven, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the Light that shines in our Heart.” - Chandogya Upanishad, 3 i3 7
"Not only does loving devotion raise the soul to God, but God, too, is drawn down from the transcendental regions and reaches for the devotee and takes His abode in his heart.”
“To know God you have to bring about a change in your heart, learn to look inward, and realize that He is your Overself. As soon as you have this realization, you are with Him." - Sant Kirpal Singh, (Sat Sandesh)
"If he is a true disciple, he will not agree that the Master ever dies...The death of the body doesn't matter for the disciple because he knows that the Master is something else. The Master is always seated in the Heart of a disciple. The disciple who knows this doesn't need anything else. He knows perfectly well, 'I don't miss my Master. My Master is here and now, always within me. This is the relationship between the Master and the disciple." (David Godman, ed., Papaji - Interviews (Boulder, CO: Avadhuta Foundation, 1993), p. 250)
“A subjective transformation alone is needed for ‘realization’. When one who has realized the Truth looks at the world, conceding the existence of the world, he finds that every object asserts one’s own self or consciousness, without which the object could never appear.” - Shri Atmananda (Notes on Spiritual Discourses, #17)
“A devotee of the Lord may talk about the world beyond but he is above both, this world and the next.” (The Philosophy of the Masters, Series Two, p. 197)
“In this inmost place of the believer, Jesus Christ has His own paradise. It is to Him you ascend while yet remaining on earth and even carrying out the daily affairs of life.” - Michael Molinos (The Spiritual Guide)
“It is not necessary to ascend into the heavens to find Thee; Thou art nearer to us than we are to ourselves.” - Fenelon (Christian Counsels on the Inner Life)
Our approach and how and why this book was written
“Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them.” - Anne-Sophie Swetchine
"If he feels guided to a mission which seems impossible, he may safely leave to the Overself the means of carrying it out."
"The illumined men wrote either out of their own intellect or their intuition, sometimes for scrupulous academic scholars and sometimes for simple persons. A sage like Lao Tzu wrote for neither the one class or the other, for us put forward the deep paradoxes of life; but another man not less illumined may have provided footnotes on nearly every page.” - Paul Brunton (Notebooks, Vol. 9, Part 1, 2.291; Vol. 16, Part 1, 3.115)
In this study a comprehensive comparative analytical approach has been chosen, if only because it has not yet been done with Sant Mat teachings. The writer (sometimes given as ‘writers’ because I have had a helpful friend, Mark Sullivan, who has assisted me on several sections) makes no claim to be illumined or perfected, but is solely acting as a researcher making comparisons of Sant Mat with other teachings, with any or all mistakes being his alone. It is however in no small measure because of the freedom granted me by my initiating Master, Sant Kirpal Singh, that I was set on a course that enabled me to write this series, along the way asking and searching for open dialogue on what remains for some a challenging yet mysterious path. I would not for the world take it upon myself, nor is it my intention, to cause one soul to entertain unnecessary doubts, but I figure that if you, dear reader, have gotten this far, you have your share of inquiries and may find some benefit in what is discussed herein, and that the day and age has arrived to speak more plainly on such matters. What follows is largely not for the beginner, or beginning student, perhaps, or for simple villagers living in a remote area of India, but rather for the seasoned questor who still has real questions regardless of his efforts, devotion, and experiences on this or other paths. As there are now several million followers in the many branches of Sant Mat, or Radhasoami tradition, with different gurus within each, offering similar but not always identical teachings [perhaps the two most predominant branches today descending from Sawan Singh (Beas) to either Maharaj Charan Singh (Beas) or Sant Kirpal Singh (Delhi), but also branches in Peepalmandi (Dadaji), Soamibagh, and Dayalbagh)], sometimes with significantly different points of view and practice, there are undoubtedly many seekers who harbor unasked and unanswered heartfelt questions. This is not due only to apparent internal discrepancies and controversies among or between the various lineages of Sant Mat, but also because of the challenge of a more radical, direct approach disseminated by a host of emerging Buddhist as well as non-dual teachers, many of the latter largely descending from Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta, and others.
We are aware of the risk expressed by the phrase, “The formula for failure is to try to please everyone.” We have not tried to do this in the sense of confirming preexisting opinions, but rather to present diverse and contrasting perspectives to foster a common spiritual intuition regardless of ones starting point.
Hopefully this study will bring the different schools of thought a little closer together, and thus, in some small way, justify the ecumenical efforts of my Master in founding The World Fellowship of Religions and Unity of Man Conferences several decades ago. This is an exploratory essay and not in any respect an attempt to "prove" or "disprove" Sant Mat or any other path, or to legitimize one lineage or the other. Our underlying assumption is that Sant Mat is in essence true and authentic, with yet numerous questions often arising for a discriminative seeker about these teachings, which, some feel, are frequently in need of improved expression - and which perhaps is not a strong point among some of the teachers, especially when some of the older books are overly relied upon for instruction. It must be remembered that often a Master comes chiefly to embody the Teaching and bless others with his Grace; he doesn’t necessarily have encyclopedic knowledge or even the ability to convey such teachings completely, or universally, or adequately for the diverse needs of every individual who comes to them. Prior to the internet, certainly, except for the rare acharya or sage, most spiritual teachers or gurus only had facility with the path they have traveled, and to some extent lthat is still the case. So we have pulled from many sources to in some small way lessen the burden of these great souls and their students, without any illusions as to our own competency in these matters. The reader will have to judge if we have met with a little success with our endeavors.
The points raised here, then, do not arise from any special knowledge claimed on the part of the writer, but from his own investigation of questions that presented themselves during his own quest. Where appropriate reference is given to other writers who have directly contributed material to this series of articles.This series is addressed to followers of any and all branches or lineages within the broader scope of Sant Mat, not to any one in particular, whether they are mentioned or not, as well as to seekers of any path who have an interest in these teachings. Its primary purpose is to foster deeper understanding and tolerance.
We have tried to take a diplomatic approach, but are well-aware that there are those who feel Sant Mat is, aside from its claims of being all about love, still a “cult”, especially with its 'perfect master' ideology and relative exclusivity as regards other paths, and is therefore failing to keep up with the times and an ongoing transmission of intelligence and grace that is said by many to be infusing our planet at this time without prejudice for any person or dharma. Some accuse it of being divisive, negative and closed-minded in this respect. For instance, they argue, why don't the respective masters of the different lineages within Sant Mat get together in a forum and debate and discuss their differences, and, equally importantly, why do they not do the same with leaders of other paths, rather than merely congregate occasionally on the stage with those leaders and/or promote their particular brand of spirituality without cross-pollination and sharing of input as done in the time of the ancient rishis and as sponsored throughout Indian history by its great and noble maharajas, and universities such as Nalanda? Since Sant Mat is one of the largest esoteric spiritual movements in the world today, it has felt necessary to enter into a comparative dialogue and analysis of its claims to bring all aspects into the light of awareness. We hope that this discussion will help move it forward so as to remain a viable way in its own right, where possible, and to change as required by the evolving needs and understanding of the human race.
It is also recognized that mystical experience enters a realm where the discursive intellect does not go, yet, it is still subject to some extent to reason or buddhi - the highest faculty of the mind, regarded as closest to Atman itself. Spiritual realization may reach beyond, but it certainly should not contradict reason. Spiritual experiences must also be understood, and confirmed by reason, which is higher than intellect. There is a healthy dollop of gyan in this book, not that we intend to explain everything, but to foster discrimination and intuition. In too many spiritual groups there are statements that are not up for discussion, but as physicist Richard Feynman has said:
"I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned."
If you are content where you are, wonderful. Otherwise, read on, with full attention and an open mind intent on truth. This book is at times dense, as well as exhaustive in its analysis; this was felt necessary to illuminate any and all questions and doubts that have arisen for many and varied students. Some sections may have to be read slowly, repeatedly, and pondered deeply to extract their meaning. One of our goals is to condense a lot of material and save the inquisitive reader a great deal of time, settling various concerns he may have so as to get on with his path in full earnest, one way or another. We hope to the best of our ability we are successful in this endeavor.
Looking back, it appears as a mystery how this book came to be. It was not planned ahead of time, and research and brain power alone could not do it. A form of intuitive guidance is gratefully acknowledged as having played a major role. This happens to every seeker in their path in life no doubt. Anthony Damiani explains how this unfolds:
"Something has to come in and start guiding the intellect, in the sense of manipulating thoughts to produce certain concepts which further your understanding...When you're working out the meaning of the doctrine in all its implications, and you're trying to make it explicit, you'll find that you can't do it under your own power. Its only when this higher power within you, the Overself, starts taking a hand in the game, that you start finding the material you need to answer certain questions, and you find other material to provoke you into asking certain questions, and so this mysterious process keeps going on. When a person is under this kind of surveillance by the Higher Power, you can almost say that the Logos [i.e., the "World-Idea" or Universal Intelligence] is working its meaning out in that person, and the person will become conscious of that. Everything else is secondary. That's the process that happens...But the interesting thing is that the World-Idea is working itself out and becoming conscious in you. That's the amazing thing. And anyone who has experienced that doesn't go around saying "my ideas." (Anthony Damiani, Living Wisdom (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1996), p. 64-65)
Herein we make frequent reference to many spiritual sources other than Sant Mat to elucidate various points about the path or quest; in particular I favor and make regular use of the posthumously published writings of Paul Brunton (“The Notebooks”), inasmuch as I personally feel that he articulates in an excellent way many subtle points about many aspects of spirituality in general, perhaps where the Sant Mat gurus sometimes do not do so in a sufficiently adequate fashion for the need of many modern seekers. I do not expect his words to be taken as speaking authoritatively one way or the other in regards to Sant Mat, but for me he fills in a lot of gaps. I also find eminently useful the words of Ramana Maharshi, Sri Atmananda Krishnamenon, and Sri Nisargadatta. Take what helps you and ignore the rest.
As the two major Sant Mat lineages put themselves forward as a scientific approach (Science of Spirituality and Science of the , and a foundational principle of the modern scientific method is that if something is true, it should be supported by independent pieces of data which all reach the same conclusion. This is another reason we refer to many different sources in this study. And, finally, it is important in such work to have a common reference point. Therefore we will try to adhere to the following dictum as much as possible:
“Truth is the first thing which should be defined in any serious book or by every serious seeker. Without such prior enquiry, it is useless to describe experience, whatever kind it be.” - V.S. Iyer (Commentaries, edited by Mark Scorelle, 1999)
How do you know your experience, or what this or that Swami says, is true? This is the gist of what he is saying here, and a point the sincere seeker must come to sooner or later.
We are well-aware of critical articles and websites by various authors and researchers regarding succession issues, purported scandals, and the like in the multiple branches of the Sant Mat or Radhasoami tradition. We have purposely omitted reference to those in order to keep this discussion on the relative merits of the philosophies alone - and thereby not lose too many friends. Each seeker is free to explore the other material, come to his own conclusions, and decide for him or her self what is useful or not. The internecine gossip is not altogether unimportant, but simply tangential and at a lower level than that which we want to discuss.
There a little in here for everyone, some of it easy, some of it difficult, and some of it perhaps very difficult. For some of the ideas discussed are difficult. But some are of things that never change. There is something for the young, for the not so young, and for the old in years, for practices engaged will vary on one's stage of life, disposition, character type, understanding, and experience. That is the way it must be in a work of this scope. But the central theme will be that of returning to the inherent simplicity of the Heart of things.
All four parts have been re-written and considerably expanded since this series was first released on my website. Please pardon us if themes are repeated. This is unavoidable in a work of this scope. Issues are addressed from different angles to broaden understanding. Finally, although section headings are provided, it is best not to pick and choose sections at random, and may be best to read this book straight through, at least the first time, as many concepts are built upon as the writing proceeds and a more complete picture unfolds.
Some caveats
A writer, what to speak of a teacher, has a responsibility to couple inspiration with skill. The first he can pray for, while the second must be earned. Brunton summarizes the craft nicely:
"The writer may set down whatever word comes into his mind to express his thought in order not to lose the thought, but later he should not hesitate to come back and examine what he has written and ruthlessly to change those words or to throw them out altogether if his meaning is not expressed with sufficient fineness...How often he will have to erase words and alter phrases and improve sentences, if his communication is to fit the thoughts which his intuition has given him!" (The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Vol. 9, Part 2, 1.6, 1.21)
"We have only to compare a muddled, bewildering statement of truth with a clear, carefully phrased one to learn the value of verbal accuracy." (Ibid, Vol. 9, Part 2, 1.95)
“Unless a spiritual teaching has enough inspiration behind it to help him successfully tackle his gravest personal problems, it is not the right one - however much it may be so to others. For he needs grace, and does not call in vain.” (Ibid, Vol. 2, )
The reader, as well, shares with the writer a common responsibility:
“He must first be a sympathetic enquirer and then only exercise the philosophic right of severely critical examination.” (Ibid, Vol. 2, 3.136)
This also means keeping in mind that historically
"There are three methods of approach used by the teachers, depending on the level of the people they have to deal with. They are: first, terrorizing the lowest type by fears; second, coaxing the better evolved ones by baits and lures; third, giving a fair, balanced statement of the truth for those people who are mentally and morally on the highest level." (Ibid, Vol. 2, 6.530)
Preliminary Comments
The question then arises from the quotes given at the outset, what exactly is ascension, what is realization, and what is the relationship between the two? That is one query lying at the crux of this mystic path, for some seekers, and relating to other paths that may not stress ascension per se in the same way or even at all. Kirpal Singh spoke of a “beyond the Beyond state,” and arguably, beyond that. Similarly the Buddha spoke of “gate, gate, param gate, bodhi svaha.” We hope in some way to try to bring some of the different paths closer together where that is possible, and find clarity where they may not.
Another issue is the understanding of experience. Not only do different paths use similar words, such as mind, soul, or consciousness, yet with quite different meanings - but, in addition, the mere having of a particular experience, it has been argued, does not necessarily or automatically come with the proper understanding of it:
"It is one thing to have an authentic mystical experience, another thing to have an authentic explanation of it...What so few understand is that a mystical experience may be quite overwhelming and quite genuine in character and yet leave a large number of the mystic's inherited beliefs quite untouched." - Paul Brunton (source misplaced)
And for instance:
“So also in nirvikalpa samadhi, there is no duality and there is perfect bliss. But on coming out of it, you express it in dual terms, in terms of subject-object relationship. This is wrong. It is not the experience by itself that really enlightens you, but it is the correct understanding of its significance. It is not possible to obtain the correct understanding of its significance except through the Guru; and until you obtain it directly from him, nirvikalpa samadhi will but be a source of transient happiness to you. It is true you were in an egoless state, both during the experience of worldly happiness and nirvikalpa samadhi. But your subsequent interpretation posits the ego there retrospectively. That is because you rely more upon the mind’s function and its satisfaction. Therefore, coming out of samadhi, you must humbly and reverently wait upon the Guru, and place before him at his sweet convenience all your experiences. Then the Guru will explain the meaning of it, and you will understand that you were visualizing your own real nature and that you have never been bound. This is how one who is addicted to samadhi has to become liberated.” (Shri Atmananda Krishnamenon, Notes, #1209)
Obviously, for a comparative understanding to come about, this type of issue must be discussed.
Still, one takes a big breathe, remembering that he is not alone:
“It is said in the old texts that the perfect Master feels not only for his disciples but for all those who are devotedly on the Quest, an affection similar to that of a cow for her calf.” - Paul Brunton (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.28)
“One love-pouring glance from the Master will go to the very depths of your heart and you will remember it all through your life; you can never forget it.” - Kirpal Singh (Morning Talks)
One will never be abandoned by the divinely chosen Master of his heart, and one will find himself returning again and again, in spirit, however far he wanders......
In Today's World Exclusivity is a Major Problem
On the positive side it is lauditory that by and large many of the masters of Sant Mat, at least, the ones I have known and loved, are examples of clean living, selfless service, loving others, personal discipline, profound depths of inner meditation and illumination, not accepting money for their spiritual work, and, compared to some paths, relatively free of gross scandals regarding drugs, money, and sex. On these points I think many unbiased observers would agree. The goal proposed and promised is lofty and celestial. The loved poured out by the greatest of these masters is real. The questions I have relate largely, as stated, to the philosophy itself and how it relates to practical and ultimate realization as described in other traditions and schools. In addition it is important to address claims of exclusivity as a teaching, as well as limitations and barriers placed on sincere aspirants who feel the need to seek guidance outside of their chosen group and Master to round out their development. Indeed, this has traditionally been recognized as a sign of maturity and encouraged by great Teachers. Especially in this day and age when there are now so many teachings and new teachers of different perspectives available for the first time in human history, it is becoming increasingly inescapable by comparative analysis that no one teacher has all the tools necessary to help everyone in all areas, nor should such a one be expected to. A student or disciple, therefore, should never be placed in the situation of being pressured directly by a teacher or indirectly by a group that "if you go somewhere else for further understanding or help do not come back." This is perhaps nowhere more the case than in Sant Mat where the concept of a Perfect Living Master as the be-all and end-all for the initiate is put forth. But today individual development of intelligence should be encouraged above all by a teacher with great humility and respect and not allowed to be overlooked or dismissed, the times so challenging, the individual and collective suffering too great.
Further, in the dissemination of any teaching it is our opinion that absolute judgements and statements should be avoided. There are ultimately no rules or methods applicable to all and for all times, and, in a multi-level, paradoxical reality no one true perspective on the Truth except in the most general terms. This may be disappointing to some who want certainty before stepping into what, to the mind, is viewed with fear as the unknown. We offer at the outset, however, a model proposed by writer Tim Conway in order to help cut through and navigate statements by sources referred to in this book that, in our efforts at comparative understanding, may also seem to a seeker of one persuasion or another as inflexible and "absolute." He simply suggests three ways of looking at reality. One, the view in which "nothing ever happened," (a phrase attributed to Papaji), that is to say, if we only had a perfect realization we would see everything as an illusion except the One, with creation only a mere passing show; two, there is a world or manifestation in which things are happening, but are perfect just the way they are; and three, we exist in an environment where there are real problems - real and not illusory suffering, for instance - and which we have to deal with. It is unrealistic to envision any one teacher or teaching being able to satisfy the needs of beings in all of these situations.
Many seekers these days feel a need to supplement their primary devotional alignment with association with other teachers, through books and other teaching media as well as in person, to round out their development. There should not be any taboo against this, and, as mentioned elsewhere in this book, this practice has been common among great teachers and masters in the past. The problem is that there are two kinds of teachers: those who inspire primarily by example and radiation, and those who can effectively and individually teach and guide diverse aspirants. Brunton (PB) writes:
"We may sit before the saintly phenomenon and enjoy the peace coming from him. But when we leave him, the peace leaves us too. We may have no such dramatic experience when working with the teaching Master. But he will guide our feet each step of the way, he will listen to our difficulties, problems, or questions and give us his wise counsel. That is the wide difference between these two types of illumined men."
"There are men of enlightenment who cannot throw down a bridge from where they are to where they once were, so that others too can cross over. They do not know or cannot describe in detail the way which others must follow to reach the goal. Such men are not the teaching masters, and should not be mistaken for them."
"The man of enlightenment who has never been a learner, who suddenly gained his state by the overwhelming good karma of previous lives, is less able to teach than the one who slowly and laboriously worked his way to that state - who remembers the trials, pitfalls, and difficulties he had to overcome." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.16, 5.20, 5.21)
All Masters cannot do this, due to various reasons, both logistical and on the basis of their past experience. This is not a personal criticism., only a call to recognize the diversity of needs among students. and allow them to "dare to grasp the means of their own liberation," without fear or undue hesitancy.
PART ONE - THE "TECHNICAL" OVERVIEW
The Map - Part One: "The Gist"
Sant Mat teaches an emanationist philosophy/theology of creation that believes the fallen soul must retrace its journey back from realms of varying densities (http://www.santji.allegre.ca/planes-640.jpg) of matter to those of pure spirit. As we shall see clearly in Part Two, this is only one way of interpreting the truths of Sant Mat. There is a more inclusive, non-dual way of looking at it, although that is not the way it is generally disseminated to the millions of its followers, many of whom are simple villagers not so inclined, nor needing to, to question at that level. This is a burden, in our opinion, some of the the Masters aware of these truths lovingly carry until such time as or with those whom they can speak more plainly.
The technique, believed superior to other paths and unique to itself alone, is to concentrate at the ajna chakra (third eye) and withdraw the attention from the body, catch the inner light and sound current, and ride that upwards to the fifth and, by their system, first divine and indestructible, spiritual plane, Sach Khand. Some Sants, such as Darshan Singh and Rajinder Singh, have actually described the supercausal realm, Bhanwar Gupta, as a true spiritual realm (inasmuch as it is said to be beyond mind and matter), where the soul first experienced its individuality on the downward path [which in some other yogic and vedantic lineages, such as that of Sri Nisargadatta, might be termed the ‘I Am’], and on the upward path (with but a thin veil of anandamaya kosha remaining, almost an integral part of the soul itself, said Kirpal Singh) first cries out "aham brahm asmi", i.e., "oh Lord, I am of the same essence as thou, or "Thou Art That", etc.), with Sach Khand being referred to as the True Region, or the realm of Truth or Spirit, the first primal expression in full effulgence of the nameless One. This plane also sometimes is referred to as the region of oneness or kaivalya. Param Sants are said to go further, being progressively 'absorbed by the Sat Purush' into three more planes, Alakh, Agam, and Anami, the nameless and formless. This is sometimes called mahakaivalya. On some paths this has been described as three degrees of deepening or penetration into the Absolute, and not three planes per se. Paul Brunton, Plotinus, some Buddhists and Taoists have spoken of this. It is in fact somewhat rare in the spiritual literature to find reference to these three degrees. As Sat Lok as a whole is considered transcendental, concepts of higher and lower do not apply here, and one can only speak in terms of a deepening. [Which, I wonder, may be why Kirpal Singh in one book said, “there is no difference between a Sant and a ParamSant except in nomenclature.” But, unless someone editing the book made an error, if there is no difference except in nomenclature then why have a difference in nomenclature? Our minds can only function dualistically and see Anami ‘higher’ than Sach Khand, but if this is not so, then what is the essence of the differences? This is but the first of many questions to be raised in this series of articles].
Some schools of Sant Mat such as the Agra branch sometimes appear to teach that Radhasoami Dham is not Anami itself but a stage or station beyond Anami. The suggestion, through use of the terms "wonder region," or, perhaps, that it is not a region, but the "source and reality of All", and "I ascended to a region that is not a region, and heard the Shabd thereof," etc., is that this may refer to some kind of fundamental non-dual realization, but it seems that it has not been made clear, and is difficult in any case to compare to the teachings of other paths. To thicken the plot, then, Agam Prasad Mathur, great great grandson of Rai Salig Ram (disciple of Soamiji who according to most sources is the modern day originator of the path of Sant Mat or Radhasoami Mat), stated that beyond Anami is Radhasoami Dham and Dayal Desh, and that these teachings were edited out of the Sar Bachan of Soamiji in the translation of that book by the Beas group under Sawan Singh. Was Mathur therefore saying that the Beas lineage descending from Jaimal Singh (also a disciple of Soamiji) on down through Sawan Singh did not have the full truth? I don't know. It appears so. In any case it seems that this rather significant alleged difference is little known among radhasoami satsang circles]. To complicate things further, Babuji Maharaj in Notes on Discourses on the Radhasoami Faith (https://www.scribd.com/document/126663034/Phelps-Notes), given in 1913-1914, denotes Anami as a plane lower than Alakh and Agam, and with Radhasoami Pad and ‘Anami Purush’ dwelling above all as the Supreme Source. Why the Anami Purush would not be dwelling in its own plane is confusing! [The book in pdf file in this link will be referred to later on; it is recommended that the serious Sant Mat student print themselves a hardcopy as no one can tell how long it will stay available from scribd.com, and it is long out of print. Despite the annoying discrepancies, however, it is a unique explanation of this path with details, particularly on Sat Desh not found elsewhere to this writer's knowledge. Babuji Maharaj came in contact with an affluent American satsangi whom He had initiated and had taken notes of His discourses during the years 1913 to 1914 at their private carriage outings. These would later be published as Phelps' Notes, which Babuji Maharaj had dictated entirely in the English language. It is unique in describing the creational spiritual hierarchy, the reason for man's spiritual fall into the lower material regions and the higher principles of the Radhasoami Faith. Years later, Babuji Maharaj's assistant, Sant Das Maheshwari, reproduced many of His Discourses into Four Authorized Volumes that were reviewed and approved by the Great Sant Himself.
Sant Mat is adamant and unique among the traditions in maintaining that the Vedantins are wrong in their assertion of Brahman as the ultimate reality, with all else illusion. This of course assumes that both schools mean the same thing by the term Brahman, which is at least debatable. "Ignorance," said a wise philosopher, "is nothing but giving a name to the unknown and immediately dismissing it from your mind."
Especially unique for Sant Mat is the assertion that Sach Desh or Sat Lok is created, but permanent, a dimension of all-consciousness, where before there was only the primal unconsciousness (from our point of view anyway) of Anami Purush, or the One. Sawan Singh says:
"Pind and Brahmand have beginning as well as end. Region of Dayal Desh has beginning but no end. Radhasoami Dahm which is the highest of all, has neither beginning nor end. On attaining this final stage I became free from beginning and end." (Discourses on Radhasoami Faith, Vol. One).
[Of course, for deep thinkers the question arises: 'when' was the beginning of the 'eternal' region of Dayal Desh? A tentative answer is offered much later in this book!]
And also, from Sar Bachan:
"According to the teachings of the Saints, the Jiva (Soul) is conceived as a particle of the Supreme Being, while the Vedantists believe in the sole existence of Brahman and assign no importance to the Soul."
From Sach Khand on down, there were then created planes of impermanence (even though they may last billions of years). This little word "then" drives the advaitin crazy. Since all above Sach Khand is 'before' space and time existed, how can one say, 'then' this or that was created, as 'then' implies time? For the advaitin this is therefore meaningless. It is thus difficult to compare the two systems. Nevertheless we will be trying. Advaita holds that beyond the mind is only consciousness, the sole reality. And further, the mind is ultimately consciousness as well, or a function of consciousness. Sant Mat is usually more nuanced, and seems to maintain that there are a number of possibilities beyond the mind, and that pure consciousness, while unchangeable permanence, and "in direct contact with the Supreme Source or Absolute," is not the Absolute. In other words, there are divine mysteries, - which advaita in general does not like.
We may or may not pursue this in more depth later, but the researcher will find that in some systems of Sufism, and even Taoism, there are also, as in Sant Mat, more nuanced positions regarding the so-called One and so-called Creation(s). Sufism, for instance, speaks of a first determination and a second determination of the Absolute. The latter, the second determination, in my opinion, corresponds to Sat Desh or Sach Khand in Sant Mat. [I refer the reader to the book Sufism and Taoism by Toshihiko Izutsu. It is a dense scholarly treatise but very illuminating]. The so-called first determination would correspond to what Babuji cryptically explains as "the original unconsciousness," or "mass of depleted spirituality," - the first change in the Absolute - and from which the region of pure consciousness (Sat) is/was created. This will all drive the advaitin to scoff and cry "semantic nonsense" and "logical inconsistency!", but we simply refer the reader to sections 1-18 of Babuji's book to get a feel for what he tries to explain. We are not saying he is right but it is certainly worth looking into if these questions grab the reader.
In any case, Dadaji (Agam Prasad Mathur) states
"In the Radhasoami faith, the ultimate reality is Radhasoami. In Hinduism and its branches the ultimate reality is Brahman and Isvara. Brahman is considered to be the highest reality in Vedanta. The founders of Radhasoami faith, however, came forward with a new concept. According to them, The Brahman of Vedanta is limited to the second grand division of the creation whom they call "spiritual-material region". They hold that the Brahman is not the true Supreme Being or the highest reality because he is not perfectly free from mind and matter. They assert that though spiritual components predominate in Brahman, there is Maya latent in the seed form and a Supreme Reality having the least admixture of Maya cannot be styled as the highest truth. They envisaged the highest and the first grand division of creation as the region of the true Supreme Being who is absolutely spiritual and totally free from mind and matter. Such a Supreme Being they have named as Radhasoami." (website of Dadaji Maharaj)
The view of Sawan Singh described above about Dayal Desh (Sat Lok) being created but eternal is similar to the view of Plotinus, where the Soul in an image of the Nous or Intellectual Principle (i.e., man as soul created in the first image of God or the Nous), which in turn is an overflow of the One. All three are eternal verities, and the expression of reality [see the Enneads].. Vedanta, on the other hand, does not deny emanationism, per se, but does not like me the words “creation or “creator.” Brahman is defined as pure consciousness. Mind and matter do not exist in seed-form in Brahman, according to the Yoga Vasistha, although they may appear to do so. Whether they do or not, however, it seems illegitimate for Sant Mat to make this claim, as the same can said to be true of Anami or Radhasoami: that creation exists in seed-form in that. Otherwise where does it come from? Actually, even this question arises in ignorance, assuming as it does the conventions of everyday living. Questions about creation are putting the cart before the horse, as creation has not yet been proven:
“This infinite consciousness apparently sees within itself a pure void: and the conscious energy (cit-sakti) thereupon brings space into existence. In that conscious energy there arises an intention to diversify; this intention itself is then regarded as the creator Brahma, with his retinue for other living creatures. Thus have all the fourteen worlds appeared in the space of infinite consciousness, with their endless variety of beings…But all this talk about who created this world and how it was created is intended only for the purpose of composing scriptures and expounding them: it is not based on truth. Modifications arising in the infinite consciousness of organization of the cosmic being do not really take place in the Lord, although they appear to do so. There is naught but the infinite consciousness, even in imagination! To think of that being the creator and the universe as created, is absurd…Creation is just a word, it has no corresponding substantial reality…Consciousness is Brahman, the mind is Brahmans, the intellect is Brahman, Brahmand alone is the substance. Sound or word is Brahman and Brahman alone is the component of all substances. All indeed is Brahman; there is no world in reality.” (The Supreme Yoga: Yoga Vasistha, trans. Swami Venkatesananda (Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidas, 2003), p. 126)
We will return to these types of comparisons in due course. for now we will continue our introduction on Sant Mat. In this schools, the “soul” is said to “die” or be absorbed at each succeeding inner region, this isolating or exfoliating itself from its vehicles or bodies. There is little or no talk of insight, prajna, or satori such as discussed in Buddhism and other schools. The goal is merger of the soul in the Oversoul, which absorption they say begins in Sach Khand and ends by stages in Anami. On this path, the Godman is all in all. The Sants speak endlessly of the need to first achieve fana-fil-sheikh (annihilation in the Master) as a prelude to fana-fil-Allah (annihilation in God). Ths consists in developing rapt concentration through loving remembrance of the human master and the Master-Power within, to the point of reaching the Master's inner Radiant Form. That, once attained, will, by magnetic attraction, escort the emanated soul to the Sat Purush, which in turn further absorbs the soul into the Absolute. On this path of love and devotion, at each stage there is allegedly both deeper penetration into the Essence within as well as greater interpenetration between the inner and the outer, to the ultimate point of no-difference... In The Crown of Life (1970), Sant Kirpal Singh speaks movingly of this process:
"This relationship of love between the Satguru and his shishya, the Godman and his disciple, covers many phases and developments...With his greater effort and the greater grace from the Master, the disciple makes increased headway in his inner sadhanas, leading finally to complete transcendence of bodily consciousness. When this transcendence has been achieved, he beholds his Guru waiting in his Radiant Form to receive and guide his spirit on the inner planes. Now, for the first time, he beholds him in his true glory, and realizes the unfathomable dimensions of his greatness. Henceforth he knows him to be more than human and his heart overflows with songs of praise and humble devotion. The higher he ascends in his spiritual journey, the more insistent is he in his praise, for the more intensely does he realize that he whom he once took to be a friend, is not merely a friend but God Himself come down to raise him up to Himself. This bond of love, with its development by degrees, becomes the mirror of his inward progress, moving as it does, from the finite to the infinite.....once it has reached the point where the disciple discovers his teacher in his luminous glory within himself, all analogies are shattered and all comparisons forever left behind; all that remains is a gesture, and then silence...." (p. 185-186)
The following few paragraphs were part of an earlier article; they may be difficult to understand for those without a philosophic background or familiarity with the thought of Plotinus and Paul Brunton (PB). Nevertheless, they are retained here for those who may find it clarifying. Others may simply skip the next paragraph and go on to somewhat easier material.
Paul Brunton and Plotinus teach that an emanant of the individual or unit Soul has penetrated or assumed a body, and it may be traced back to the Individual Soul from which it emanated and evolved through a long process of evolution. The Absolute Soul, which continually births Individual Souls, is inherent in the Intellectual Principle, the Nous, which is forever looking towards its prior, the One. The Absolute Soul is then the first of three degrees of penetration of the silent Void-Mind (Absolute Soul, Intellectual Principle, and the One) for one who has already realized his Soul. In PB’s terms that would be Overself, World-Mind (God), and Mind (Godhead). All of these higher principles are in the silent Void beyond perception, name and form, light and sound. Anami” of Sant Mat as it is described - "without attributes" - may or may not represent the first degree of of deepening of the realization of Soul, in the Absolute Soul, but not the One per se, in Plotinus' classification. For the One of Plotinus, Brahman of Vedanta, and the Absolute in some other schools, is not subject to spatial or temporal concepts, is not a plane, per se, nor does one get united with it. The true mystical union is with ones divine soul. The One is already the case no matter what state appears. It is not found exclusively by inversion. This need not lessen the greatness of such a state as Anami, only to outline its potential difference as described, and the ultimate goal as stated, in other schools. I will be the first to admit this may be entirely wrong. And also not the immediate concern of most people!
Similarly, however, Meister Eckhart said:
“God is infinite in his simplicity and simple in his infinity. Therefore he is everywhere and is everywhere complete. He is everywhere on account of his infinity, and is everywhere complete on account of his simplicity. Only God flows into all things, their very essences. Nothing else flows into something else. God is in the innermost part of each and every thing, only in its innermost part."
"When the soul enters the light that is pure, she falls so far from her own created somethingness into her nothingness that in this nothingness she can no longer return to that created somethingness by her own power."
"Blessedness consists primarily in the fact that the soul sees God in herself . Only in God’s knowledge does she become wholly still. There she knows nothing but essence and God. Between that person and God there is no distinction, and they are one...Their knowing is one with God’s knowing, their activity with God’s activity and their understanding with God’s understanding."
"I have occasionally spoken of a light in the soul which is uncreated and uncreatable...This light is not satisfied with the simple, still and divine being which neither gives nor takes, but rather it desires to know from where this being comes. It wants to penetrate to the simple ground, to the still desert, into which distinction never peeped, neither Father, Son nor Holy Spirit. There, in that most inward place, where everyone is a stranger, the light is satisfied, and there it is more inward than it is in itself, for this ground is a simple stillness which is immovable in itself. But all things are moved by this immovability and all the forms of life are conceived by it which, possessing the light of reason, live of themselves.”
This seems to be speaking of the Soul’s merger into or glimpse of Intellectual Principle, its prior, where the Soul is no longer herself. Could this be Anami of the saints, or is there a further realization that most of them have missed? This is for most of us perhaps a rather abstruse point and I promise that the bulk of this book will not be quite so technically demanding.
Is there a further stage beyond Anami, called “Radhasoami”, "Dayal Desh" or whatever name be given to the "Absolute," as some schools attest, or is there merely a matter of semantical differences? We think the latter is the truth, and there should be a clear line of communication between these teachings, but, as mentioned, it is often left a mystery in the teaching of Sant Mat where, like in other mystical schools, reasoning on such things is also unfortunately many times discouraged, simply because during the practice of concentration/meditation/dhyana the mental process is temporarily set aside. But that does not justify the denigration of the intellect and reasoning about these matters altogether, especially when so many sages appear to disagree with the interpretation of their inner experiences. Francis Wickes issues a warning:
” ‘Thinking hard’ hurts. It turns the sharp point of truth back upon the thinker. It pricks the bubble of ego complacency blown up by thinking easy. Its sharp wound forbids the forgetfulness which is the goal of evasive thinking. If one can forget the inner experience and its challenge can be evaded, the ego can remain comfortably unborn in the womb of the already known.” (1)
The most difficult and basic question must be asked at the outset, “where is the proof the path of inversion leads to the non-dual Brahman?” Vedanta says that, being non-dual, the One, no effort can lead there, that something more than mere yogic concentration must take place to realize it. V.S. Iyer states:
“When I am told to go and practice Yoga and then only I shall know its truth, I reply, “How do you know that Yoga leads to truth? This at once involves epistemology of which every yogi is ignorant and which he has never taken into consideration. Yet it is the very foundation of knowledge; without knowing epistemology a man who mentions truth or knowledge simply does not know what he is talking about...Vedanta’s attitude to mystics is, “granting that, if we place ourselves in your position, if we follow up the yoga-practices you prescribe we shall have the same mystic experiences you have had, how are we to know even then that those experiences are the truth? We shall still be faced with that question even after the experience. Hence the need for inquiry, whether before or after into “What is truth?”
Iyer was an important Vedanta teacher in the early to mid-twentieth century. Court philosopher to the Maharaja of Mysore, he taught many notables such as Brunton as well as Ramakrishna monks Siddeswarananda and Nikhilinanda. He once forthrightly asked Paramhansa Yogananda how he knew he experienced God in his meditations and the latter answered “I just know.” To which Iyer concluded, “These mystics will not think.”
What he is saying is that how do we know that duplicating the death process, in and of itself, through shabd yoga, for instance, leads to the truth, and not just inner higher states? Are these inner states in themselves the be-all and end-all of Truth? Even the great Guru Nanak said “true living is above Truth,” so this is not an academic question. This is also not a call for every seeker to become a great scholar, or even be literate, but if even great sages have disagreed on the nature of their enlightenment, however, where would ordinary souls like us be without the courage to question? Many contemporary teachers advise us to question right down to the marrow: study, listen, test, evaluate, challenge all of our beliefs, opinions, judgements and assumptions. In the Secret Sayings of Jesus it is said:
"Let him who seeks not cease in his seeking until he finds;
and when he finds he will be troubled,
and if he is troubled, he will marvel,
and will be a king over the All."
"To be able to formulate a real question is already quite a feat of knowledge," said Anthony Damiani, and the real reason we often don't get the answers or explication of doctrine we want or need is because there is a lack of capability, as well as courage or daring, to ask the proper questions of ourselves as well as our teachers. But as it is said, “If you don’t squeeze the lemon, you won’t get any juice.” It’s not as if the great teachers do not invite us to do this. Kirpal Singh used to say, “Bring me your worst questions, your hardest questions.”
Sri Nisargadatta forthrightly states:
“Stop, look, investigate, ask the right questions, come to the right conclusions and have the courage to act on them and see what happens. The first steps may bring the roof down on your head, but soon the commotion will clear and there will be peace and joy…To question and deny is necessary. It is the essence of revolt and without revolt there can be no freedom.” (I AM THAT, p. 519, 517)
David Hawkins writes:
"The real reason much information is not available is because there is a lack of capability to ask the right questions." (David Hawkins, Devotional Non-Duality (Veritas Publishing, 2007), p. 72)
Even in devotional Christianity, investigation is called upon by the believer. An Orthodox chant reads:
"Christ is joyous when he is investigated, because Christ is given the opportunity to reveal to the searching soul the glory of his existence." Furthermore, says Father Maximos, it is important to search well in order to find a spiritual guide who is a real doctor of the soul.
There is also a problem in interpreting much of the traditional teachings from ancient times, when a lot was handed down orally for a time, and when non-verbal cues and intonations, facial expressions and body gestures and so on were a large part of the process of teaching. One must also take into consideration the times and climes of the teachers, as well as their intuitive guage of the level of comprehension of their audience. In addition to the many commentators and at times even councils that subsequently voted on what was the correct doctrine! So inevitably we in the modern times must ask many questions. And in this age of the media and internet we can fortunately do so and have several lifetimes worth of experiences rapidly as compared to olden times when an entire lifetime might be limited to a small local space with a small role such as a blacksmith, and so on. So nowadays reason as well as faith must be the foundation of our search.
Plotinus said that “we must teach our souls,” which implies that if we have the wrong doctrine we may well misunderstand the experiences we have. So right understanding is not just an academic point, but critical to the success of our spiritual endeavors.
James Schwartz summarizes this consideration:
"In spiritual circles it has become an article of faith that a the quest for spiritual knowledge is an 'intellectual' and therefore misguided pursuit. But it should be noted that anyone seeking enlightenment through the 'heart' or other paths would necessarily be motivated by the intellectual belief that he or she was limited, inadequate and incomplete i.e. unelightened. To pursue experience is natural but to pursue it at the expense of understanding is foolish because it is only misunderstandings about our true nature that make us think we are unenlightened in the first place. The Self realized beings who went before left a vast body of information to help us purge erroneous concepts that stand in the way of appreciating who we really are." (http://www.shiningworld.com/Index.htm).
Faith can be simple, but also radical in conception. Paul Brunton (PB) gives a powerful definition of the term shraddha, traditionally meant as faith or trust in the spiritual master and also the revealed truth of the scriptures:
"That faith in the existence of truth, that determination to get at truth, come what may, which would make one a hero even in the face of God's wrath."
This also means faith and trust in oneself - one’s authentic being - as well, something often overlooked on predominantly ‘other directed’ devotional paths.
And finally, we have these words from scientist Carl Sagan:
"Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence."
The"Map" to be continued in greater detail after the next section.
Sant Mat and Gyan
It is quite a challenge to compare or reconcile the teaching of Sant Mat with any other system than gnostic or mystical schools; their doctrine says that Buddhism, Advaita, and all other yogas are on a lower level, either: (1) because, as they claim, their inner experience progressively reveals this, or (2) because the modern founder of the school, Swami Shiv Dayal Singh (Soamiji), once said so, perhaps in reference to the quality of so-called jnanis and vedantists he came in contact with who were available for comparison at the time - which he mentioned to be largely pundits and not practitioners - but not necessarily, it is humbly suggested, from an actual in-depth study of or with high Buddhist, Hindu, and other writings or association with modern sages of the caliber of Ramana Maharshi, Atmananda Krishnamenon, or Sri Nisargadatta. Descriptions of the meanings of "Brahman", and "Gyan", are also different than those given in other schools. Soamiji wrote (compiled by Rai Saligram), in Sar Bachan (Prose) (1978 edition):
"Yogis are tired out and exhausted by practicing Samadhi, and Gyanis, by thinking that they are Atma."
"Without performing Yogic practices, nobody becomes a Gyani."
Anyone who understands knows that Gyan itself has nothing to do with these things.
“There will be no salvation for Vachak Gyanis (those who only talk Gyan), for they only talk. In the case of true Gyanis, the Sthool Karmas (gross karmas) only are destroyed, but not the Sukshm Karmas (subtle karmas), as they can be destroyed only after reaching the region of the Saints. It must be born in mind that only Saints can lead to salvation in this age, because there can be no salvation unless all Karmas, both gross and subtle, are destroyed, and the Gyanis do not know the technique of destroying karmas.” (p. 138)
No proof is given as to why this might be so, only assertions. Salig Ram essentially makes a strawman argument, putting forth fake gyan and knocking it down without an honest investigation. Some great gyanis do not even claim to prevent reincarnation or to eliminate all karmas, as if that could even be done or needs to be done. Shri Atmananda, for instance, said: “I never told you that you will never be reborn. I have only said you will be rid of the illusion that you were born or will die.” One famous Zen master, on the other hand, said, “first enlightenment, then the bad karma is dealt with.” There may be few who actually achieve this. Yet many will argue that gyanis or sages such as Ramana Maharshi or Shri Atmananda were examples of those who both taught and achieved the transcendence or eradication of not only gross and subtle, but causal or root karmas as well, albeit through Knowledge rather than yoga or mysticism. Soamiji does clearly distinguish between Vak gyanis or those who just talk, i.e., 'academic theologians and sophists,'and real gyanis such as Ved Vyas. However, the latter type he still says only "get a little benefit," or at best go as far as the region or realization of Brahmand, but not Sat Lok. His justification for saying this is weak, and, frankly, in our view, not made clear at all.
Kirpal Singh, in his book, The Crown of Life: A Study in Yoga mentioned that Gyan or Jnana was a true path, but a steep one and not suited for the average person; he did not deny its efficacy, however, and even said it was a short-cut for those who had the qualifications for it (In fairness, he also pointed out the pitfalls for those who did not).
The reader is referred to section 17 of the Babuji book for a further Sant Mat argument on the difference between Sat masters and gyan yogis or adepts.
Of the following quote from Sar Bachan, however, few in any school will likely argue with:
"Saints do not condemn Gyan, but insist upon internal purity first. Only then will one be entitled to Gyan.”
This is fine and good, but it seems rather silly to then state things like “the revelation of the Vedas came from Trikuti,” and then jump to the conclusion that the thousands of years old teachings of Vedanta (df: ’the end of the Vedas’) and Gyan falls under the domain of Kal, and is a much lower teaching than Sant Mat. Frankly, this is almost embarrassing. First, let it be understood that the ancient sages always tried to adapt their teachings to the level of understanding of their different classes of listeners. The general idea is to bring people up one notch from where they stand. For instance:
"The Vedas tried to explain to the jivas, the human beings, how their world was created, according to the capacity of their understanding." - Sri Siddharameshwar (Amrut Laya, p. 53-54)
Thus, Sant Mat might be right in their characterization of the level of realization of certain parts of the Vedas that extoll Shiva, Vishnu, Indra, Prajapati, and other gods inhabiting the heavens, but the jump to dismissing the lofty philosophy of Vedanta - where Bhava Roga, or ‘the disease that created the idea that the world was created,’ is even taught - is unwarranted.
Further:
“The gnani of the highest order will always adapt himself to the needs of others who are suffering; he will limit himself outwardly and come down to their level. Thus if only yoga is their highest understanding, he will teach them yoga and nothing more. He will not refuse to help them because they cannot understand Vedanta, and thus leave them in their sufferings.”
“When a man says that he has seen his internal self, he is still a yogi, but when he says that he has seen the Universe in himself, he has become a knower of truth - a sage - a gnani…The removal of the ‘I’ is not enough to realize Brahman. It happens in sleep, for instance. There must also be the knowledge that everything is yourself. The mystic may make some claim. So a test is to be applied. The test is, is he doing anything for others?” - V. S. Iyer (Commentaries)
Ramana said, speaking of the Vedas:
“The Heart is said in the Vedas and the scriptures to denote the place where the notion of “I” springs…It springs within us somewhere right in the middle of our being. The “I” has no location. Everything is the Self. There is nothing but that. So the Heart must be said to be the entire body of ourselves and of the entire universe conceived as “I”. But to help the practitioners (abhyasi) we have to indicate a definite part of the universe, or of the body. So, this Heart is pointed out as the seat of the Self. But in truth we are everywhere, we are all that is, and there is nothing else.” (Talks, p. 27)
The Heart is said to be the post on which the wandering jiva is eternally linked. It has nothing to do with the internal chakra system(s) or hierarchy of planes. Sufis also talk of this Heart. [But Sar Bachan puts down both Vedanta and Sufism!] Coming to terms with this understanding of the Heart is one of the central themes of this book. We will come back to it one way or another many times before we are finished.
The cream of the Upanishads is the Mandukya, where the Vedantic concept of non-duality is fully elaborated. Another high text is the Ashtavakra Gita. Ramakrishna kept a copy of this under wraps in a tuffet he sat on and only taught it to Vivekananda, and not to his devotees. Incidentally, Sant Kirpal Singh referred to the sage Ashtavakra frequently, although not to expound his non-dual teachings but more to tell one version of the famous story of the sage as a Godman granting an instant samadhi to King Janaka in the time it took him to put one foot in the stirrup of the saddle on his horse. This appears on the surface at least to reflect a bias towards yoga over jnana or gyan. However,
“Do you think the scriptures contain all the secrets of spiritual practice? These are handed down secretly through a succession of Gurus and disciples.” - Swami Vivekananda
The latter remark could well apply to both Vedanta and Sant Mat, and still holds true to a point, although we must realize that none of these historical teachers or their students had access to the Internet, which has changed a great deal of the conversation as far as spiritual dharmas or teachings are concerned. Nothing except what remains ineffable can any longer remain unnecessarily hidden, secret, or limited to one geographical location or school of thought.
Life is relatively short, and it is said that there may be only so much one can do. On the other hand, as one teacher-friend of mine for a short while, Lee Lozowick, once said, “it is amazing how much can be accomplished if one gives up four hours of TV a night!” Bhakti or devotion with faith can be a complete path. That is basically Sant Mat for the masses. However, we are now modern men and women and find it hard to ignore the mind completely. The pull of self-knowledge and inquiry is often as strong as the devotional and meditative pull, and is what leads many to explore paths where the former is acknowledged. One thing I have always liked about early Buddhism, for instance, was the teaching of the Tripitaka or “Three Baskets.” This, in modern terms, is an emphasis on (1) moral/psychological discipline and purification; (2) concentrational or mindful meditation; and (3) metaphysical study. Sant Mat is usually almost entirely lacking in the latter, which has not only a balancing effect on meditation but when combined can carry one into even deeper intuitive levels of consciousness. This is often denied in yoga paths, but since those schools rarely employ a philosophic use of the mind where thought examined or looks into its own origin they are not really in a position to judge those paths that do. The case has strongly been made that without some modicum of self-inquiry one may evolve at a slower rate, although love, faith and devotion may amply compensate in many cases. So, while the title of this book emphasizes the heart, we will also frequently juxtapose that perspective with a healthy dose of self-understanding in order to come to a more balanced view of things. We have even thought of an alternate title for this book as “Sant Mat Through the Heart’s Intelligence” as perhaps more accurately depicting the task at hand. For the Heart we speak of is not mere emotion, but the clarity of the mind’s intelligence expressed as whole-body feeling and more. The reader may be surprised to soon find close historical links between the two approaches.
It is an error to assume an anti-thinking in favor of purely ‘experiential’ bias to the matter of spiritual realization, for several reasons: one, a lack of cognitive growth, enquiry and discrimination will limit the ability to fill oneself out developmentally (“The glory of man is that he is a thinking being,” said Swami Vivekananda); two, mystical experiences themselves will still need to be understood, which is a refined act of intellection, involving buddhi, ‘vidya vriti’ or higher reason; and three, if one’s experiences, due to a predetermined selection, are for the third eye and higher visionary kind alone, the dimension of the spiritual (or causal) Heart as well as organistic intelligence itself will be overlooked. This may severely limit the scope of our exploration as well as our capacity to discover or receive anything new.
In short, most mystics and students of mysticism prematurely denounce the use of the mind. Brunton sums up this problem:
"The average mystic is devoid of sufficient critical sense. He delights in preventing his intellect from being active in such a definite direction. He has yet to learn that philosophical discipline has a steadying influence on the vagaries of mystical emotion, opinion, fancy, and experience. He refuses to judge the goal he has set up as to whether it be indeed man's ultimate goal. Consequently he is unable to apply correct standards whereby his own achievements or his own aspirations may be measured. Having shut himself up in a little heaven of his own, he does not attempt to distinguish it from other heavens or to discover if it be heaven indeed." (Notebooks, Vol. 13, Part 2, 4.23)
One more point of importance. Some may prematurely think we agree with some teachers that there is no need for practice of virtue, or meditation, or even of enquiry, based on a superficial acquaintance with various pinnacle non-dual texts. One that comes to mind is Ashtavakra’s famous Gita with its assertion, “This is your bondage, that you practice meditation.” While this is a stage-specific understanding, a premature adoption of such is usually dispatched by the wise as shown in the following dialogue from Yoga Vasistha:
“RAMA asked: Holy sir, if ignorance is non-existent in truth then why should we even bother about liberation or about inquiry?
VASISTHA replied: Rama, that thought should arise in its own time, not now! Flowers bloom and fruits ripe in their due time.”
(The Supreme Yoga: Yoga Vasistha, trans. Swami Venkatesananda (Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidas, 2003)
The author had his own youthful tete-a-tete with Sant Kirpal Singh along those lines many years ago! Yet the time comes when to consider those sort of questions again at greater depth, and we intend to do so in this work, hopefully clearing out some cobwebs in the mind of the reader (and hopefully without creating any more!).
We will also suggest at the outset, then, that the reader consider the possibility that many traditional gurus often have given out only such a message they feel their audience will be able to understand, either by radically simplifying or re-interpreting the teaching, or holding back its more advanced portions dealing directly with truth. If this is understood up front, then the purposes of this essay may be more easily grasped. But then, if so, ultimately as one progresses the student may have to admit to himself that almost every basic tenet of the hagiographical and theological portions of Sant Mat dogma are false; or, not so much false, but as in many religious teachings, a convenient 'story', an unnecessary accretion, or a provisional teaching for beginners to be naturally dropped at a certain stage of their growth. But why not do so, at this stage of human development and rapid cross-cultural spiritual dissemination, even at the beginning? Are the following claims not obsolete ways of portraying the spiritual path, even now? These may even include, "this path is the only way to God"; "there is only one true Master in the world at any one time - and he is the ‘successor’ or ‘inheritor of the mantle’ of a living Sant Mat master (and usually “ours”) only”; "the Master is perfect, omniscient, and omnipotent"; "the world is a snare of Satan or Kal"; "liberation lies exclusively in leaving the body and ascending to higher realms"; and even, "the Shabd or Naam is the Creator-God." Many traditions and teachers would in fact argue contrary to all of these propositions, and without giving up his innate reasoning faculty the mature student cannot always afford to accept the limiting and provincial viewpoint of these tenets without deep inspection. And, in fact, it is our feeling and suggestion that none of these points need to retained in their more theological forms for Sant Mat to remain a legitimate spiritual path. It is certainly fine and good to hold deep in one's heart a faith in and reverence for one's Master as being a conduit or vessel for the perfection that the Divine love and wisdom represents; this is more than enough, is it not, but preaching to others, or even to oneself, that he is a perfect man, or even perfect vessel, is another matter. Perhaps it is better to remain silent in this regard, rather than repeat what one has been told to believe but one does not really yet know. These things being said - stating what is obvious for more than a few, and heresy for others - let us proceed.
There is certainly some silliness in Sar Bachan and many other old spiritual texts. One such example is the following:
"The soul is given the body of a cow after passing through the while gamut of eighty-four lakh of species, and then is born as a human being. If one lives a good life, he will continue to be born as a human being till the goal is reached." (p. 105)
One may well ask, is this reasonable? Is there any reason to believe this is true, that one is born a cow and then directly as a human being? Not only is it contrary to modern evolutionary theory, but as it is ubiquitous within Hindu religious thought may we not look for a more historical or cultural reason for its continued presence? In fact there is such an answer. It has to do with astrological timing of the ages, or the precession of the equinoxes. According to this concept, every larger cycle (the so-called Great Year of Plato), of approximately 25000 years, there are twelve 2100 year cycles or ages. The Piscean Age was from approximately 0-2000 A.D., the previous Arian age from 2000 BC to 0, the age of Taurus from 4000-2000 BC, and the Age of Gemini from 6000-4000 BC, and so forth. During the Piscean Age the symbols of the fish and sacrificial saviors were present, in the Arian Age the symbol of the ram was present, and in the Taurian Age the symbol of the bull or cow was prominent - in many cultures, most certainly in the Hindu one. It is very likely, then, that such a belief as reincarnation from a cow to a man came from this period, but it remains just a story, and nothing more.
But of course there are many more important issues relating to Sant Mat to discuss than things like this. So let us begin.
The Map - Part Two: Systemic Comparisons
Soamiji wrote: “Whoever seeks the Sat Guru will surely find Him, for the Sat Guru is an incarnation eternally present on this earth.” (Sar Bachan,p. 139)
However, he then seems to contradicts himself by claiming:
“Saints are the Incarnations of Sat Purush, and to serve Them is to serve Sat Purush. They did not manifest themselves in the first three Yugas - but They have now incarnated themselves in this Kali Yuga for the redemption of the Jivas.”
It then gets more complicated when claims are made by other gurus in these lineages that Kabir, a key figure in Sant Mat history, “incarnated in all four ages” (assuming ages are equivalent to yuga). This encompasses hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years, according to how these things are calculated. And he is also said to have only given out the full teachings of Sant Mat in the present Kali Yuga. This sort of unverifiable quasi-theological claim gives a person thinking in terms of infinite truths and universal principles pause, when one considers that even a yuga, vast as it is, is only one period of time in one cosmic cycle in one day of Brahma in one corner of one universe!
Example is often also given that Jesus Christ was a perfect master and taught Surat Shabd Yoga, as well as Buddha (as suggested in the Surangama Sutra where it mentions attaining the “diamond samadhi” through the faculty of “intrinsic hearing”), but at other times these past masters are spoken of as incomplete. During the time of Sawan Singh, for instance, Jesus was considered by the Beas group to be only a second-plane adept, but under Charan Singh he was raised to the status of a full Sant. The former claim may have come from initiate and author Dr. Julian Johnson, who in his correspondences said there were a number of disciples at Beas who were higher than Jesus. In addition, the path of Sant Mat has sometimes been held to have originated with the medieval saints Nanak or Kabir, and not with Jesus or more ancient masters. Moreover, Sant Mat teaches that all masters must have a master, but whether Shiv Dayal Singh, the modern founder of the line, for instance, had a master in Tulsi Das is yet a matter of controversy. Agam Prasad Mathur claimed that Soamiji was an Avatar and had no guru, whereas the Beas lineage claims that he did. Guru Nanak did not have a master, as far as we know, although some think it was Kabir.
A Brief Note on Lineage Divergence After Soamiji
Just as our stated purpose does not include writing about guru scandals and internecine squabbles - although there are plenty to choose from - we are also not concerned with the creation of different lineages or successors within modern Sant Mat, except insofar as they purport to represent changes in the basic teaching itself. This appearance be the case after the passing of Soamiji.
In brief, a disciple of Soamiji, Rai Salig Ram, created a new interpretation of the perennial Sant tradition of the Five Names and five or eight planes. He proposed that Anami, the nameless and formless (and by most accounts Unmanifest) dimension, was the abode of the Supreme Lord, which he called “Radhasoami,” and also that a primal sound “Radha-Soami” emanates from there. This was not the teaching of Soamiji, but it appears that he tolerated it, letting it continue along with his own teaching. The Beas group basically adopted it, while some other lineages did not. The Agra group had disputes over what they felt was a mistranslation of Soamiji’s book Sar Bachan by the Beas group under Sawan Singh. It gets complex regarding the numbering and ordering of some of the planes, and who was a legitimate successor guru. Agra, for instance, said that Radhasoami was a stage beyond Anami. Dadaji (Agam Prasad Mathur) claimed to be the only living Perfect Master among all the existing groups at the time. He also said to our friend Richard Handel that Kirpal Singh had visited him five times asking if was the highest. He also claimed that Kirpal had not gone to that stage. A problem is that none of this is verifiable but only heresay, and the terminology used being well-nigh incomparable with that of other schools - and even within its own. The Sar Bachan published by Agra clearly states that Anami is the highest region of the Sants, where Lord Radhasoami dwells. Yet another region is proposed. We know little of the substance or motives of these meetings. It is a little odd that Kirpal would visit five times to ask the same question. It may be true Soamiji had no master, and was not a continuation from the Sikh gurus or previous Sant tradition, but to claim he was an avatar is something else. One could easily argue that it might only be another way to try to make the Agra lineage the only legitimate one, just like some of the Kabir panthis do. It was Salig Ram who started the theology that Soamiji was the first incarnation of the Supreme Being, and a number of groups have since descended from him, with not all accepting this part of his teaching. Agra, particularly, believes that Soamiji as stated by Salig Ram was an avatar or swateh saint, who incarnated directly from the highest region, Radhasoami Dham, and never descended below the third eye. And along with him came his four nij anshas (Sat Guru successors), the last of which was Babuji Maharaj, who died in 1949. Since that time they have been awaiting Babuji's successor or the return of Soamiji himself. Thus, they do not recognize the line from Jaimal Singh to Sawan SIngh to Kirpal Singh and Charan Singh and so on. They hold fast to the belief that there can be only one Perfect Master alive at one time. They have been waiting for a successor to appear for seventy-five years. That is a long time, although there is talk on the street that they have a hidden guru working behind the scenes. That may very well be, but my feeling is, mostly, "if you can't see him, what good is he?" This is asking for too much blind belief for such outlandish claims. Their website also makes the amusing revelation that their gurus never have worn turbans like the Sikhs do, but only wear a hat.
They do not recognize Shiv Brat Lal, another disciple of Salig Ram, as a Perfect Master either. This is interesting, inasmuch as Shiv Brat Lal himself, a broad-minded teacher who is said to have written some 3000 periodicals and books, and considered a very advanced soul by Kirpal Singh, would send his own disciples at times to see Sawan Singh (Beas), Maharaj Saheb (Dayalbagh), Baba Faqir Chand (Hoshiarpur) - and even Babuji (Soamibagh, then Agra) - for spiritual guidance. This has been common practice in some other traditions, the Tibetans are one example, so where has come this fixation on there only being one true Guru on earth at a time? [More on Shiv Brat Lal and Faqir Chand shortly].
But did Soamiji really start something new? Madhav Prasad Sinha (Babuji Maharaj) said Soamiji was quite liberal with the names:
"Leave alone SAT NAM, Soamiji Maharaj prescribed Sumiran of even OMKAR to some people. Many Mussalmans were asked to perform the internal repetition of HU and HAQQ." (Internet post)
This inclines one to wonder if he intended to promulgate a new faith using “Radhasoami” as the name as SaligRam appears to have implied. But for someone who wonderfully said “don’t worry about the shabd meditation, just have firm faith and I’ll do all that myself,” it looks less likely. So much confusion reigns in the Sant Mat world.
We suggest at the outset that the best way to assess a Master’s worth, and not get detained with rather secondary discussions of planes and states, is to observe how he has lived. Are his “feet bathed in the blood of the Heart,” as Light on the Path tells us is the price of Truth? Has Truth been brought down even into the flesh of the adept? Is he a true human being? Granted, such intimacy with a teacher is not easily available for most seekers. Nevertheless this is the direction we will be pointing to in this book.
M: Because you imagine differences, you go here and there in search of ‘superior’ people.
Q: You too are a superior person. You claim to know the real, while I do not.
M: Did I ever tell you that you do not know and, therefore, you are inferior? Let those who invented such distinctions prove them.
I do not claim to know what you do not. In fact, I know much less than you do.”
- Sri Nisargadatta (I AM THAT, p. 4)
“There is no high, no low…All are satsangis I tell you…I am Mr. zero.” - Kirpal Singh
Richard, incidentally, who visited many of these masters in India, said that all of them told him they were the highest!
Therefore, while perhaps of importance to some, none of the above controversial details are of our immediate concern. What is of interest to us here, however, is that in no mystical school other than the Radhsoami branch of Sant Mat is literally hearing the sound of “Radha-Soami” ever reported. Which leads one to suspect as reasonable that in those who do claim to have heard it the power of mental suggestion and anticipation of hearing it is a predominant factor. This occurrence is very common with mystical experience. More will be said along these lines later in the sections on visions and inner experiences.
The Map Part Two - continued
Continuing our general discussion, Shiv Dayal Singh didn’t give substantial philosophic proof for his claim of the inherent superiority of Sant Mat, he merely stated it was so in more or less theological language. Of course, one might say, what proof could he give? - one must realize it for oneself. Yet for the beginner at least, in deciding if one will take up this path, it comes down to whether you believe Soamiji’s cosmology and ontology. I am not saying whether it is absolute truth or not, only that it is an article of faith on this path. Sant Mat would say there are inherent and inevitable paradoxes and mysteries on the path that make description of the inner truths ineffable. True enough, but then that makes comparison with paths of jnana, for instance, impossible, and, in fact, comparative references are mostly only given to that of various saints and mystics within the Sant or Sikh tradition itself, and not Tamil saints, or saints from Maharashtra, for instance, or Buddhist saints and sages. It seems it is time to do that.
Some of the differences in the traditional uses of various terms, i.e., Brahman, purusha, prakriti, gunas, etc, can be gleaned by the perceptive student from the following description of the four grand divisions of the cosmos according to The Path of the Masters, by Julian Johnson:
"Sat Desh, the Highest Region
Beginning now from Above, and going downwards, we come first to Sat
Desh (Sat, True, and Desh, country: True Country or Far Country).
Many other names have been applied to it, such as Nij-Dham, Sat Lok,
Mukam-e Haq and Sach Khand. These names are usually applied to the
lowest section of Sat Desh, but occasionally to the entire grand
division. This is the region or plane of pure spirit. All enjoying
the greatest conceivable happiness, its inhabitants are pure spirits
in such countless numbers as no man can estimate. It is the supreme
heaven of all heavens... It is known to Saints only, who alone can
enter it. It cannot be described. In substance and arrangement it is
wholly unlike anything known in this world. Neither can the human
mind imagine it. This section is so vast in extent that no sort of
understanding of it can be conveyed to human intelligence. No mind
can grasp it. All that the Saints can say of it is that it is
limitless. It is the only region which the great Saints insist is
practically limitless. We may say, although no mind can grasp the
thought, that it embraces all else, and is both the beginning and the
end of all else. It is the great center about which all other worlds
revolve. Anything which we might say about it would be incomplete and
only partially true, so declare the Saints. If the entire physical
universe with its countless millions of suns and their planets were
all gathered together in a single cluster, each sun being a million
light-years distant from any other sun, yet this entire ensemble
would appear no more than a few dark specks floating in the clear and
luminous sky of Sat Desh. In that happy country, a sun such as ours,
but a thousand times larger, would appear as a tiny dark spot, so
very great is the light of that world.
This region is the grand capital of all creation, the center of all
universes, and the residence of the Supreme Creator-Lord of all. From
this center of all light, life and power, the Great Creative Current
flows outwards and downwards to create, govern and sustain all
regions. It passes out from this region somewhat like the radio
emanations going forth from a great broadcasting station. It is the
Audible Life Stream, the most important factor in the system of the
Masters. This Stream permeates the entire system of universes. A
thing of great importance to us is that the music of this ever-
flowing current, the stream of life, can be heard by a real Master
and also by his students who have advanced even a little on the Path.
And let us reiterate that unless a Master teaches his students how
this current is to be heard, he is not a Master of the highest order.
This grand headquarters of all creation is the region of immortality.
It is unchangeable, perfect, deathless. It is for ever untouched by
dissolution or grand dissolution. So are its inhabitants. This region
will be referred to many times in this book. It is subdivided into
four distinct planes, each having its own characteristics and its own
Lord or Governor. But the difference between these subdivisions is
very slight. From above downward they are named: Radha Swami Dham
(meaning home of the Spiritual Lord). It is also called Anami Lok
(meaning nameless region). The next plane below the highest is Agam
Lok (Agam, inaccessible, and Lok, place). The third plane is Alakh
Lok. (Alakh, invisible and Lok, place). The last of these higher
planes is Sach Khand (Sach, truth and Khand home). The last one is
also called Sat Lok, the true place. By the Mohammedan Saints it has
been called Mukam-e-Haq, meaning of the same as above, the Home of
Truth.
The light of all four of these regions is so very intense that it is
impossible for any mortal to get an understanding of it. It cannot be
described. The great Swami Ji sums up his statements regarding is
region by saying simply that "It is all Love.
Brahmanda, the Second Grand Division
The second grand division from above downward is Brahmanda, (meaning,
the egg of Brahm, as said before). This refers to its shape and also
to the Governor or Lord who is its ruler. This Brahm is supposed by
most of the old rishis to be the supreme being of all creation,
because they knew of no one higher. But the Saints know that there is
not only one Brahm, but countless numbers of Brahms, who are
governors over so many Brahmandas. For it must be understood that
there are countless Andas and Brahmandas, each circling about the
supreme region in its own orbit. And each of them has its own
governor or ruler. Brahm was the highest God known to the ancient
rishi or yogi, and so the name of Brahm is retained by the Saints to
designate the ruler of the "Three Worlds," including the physical
universe, the Anda and lower portion of Brahmanda, named Trikuti. The
upper portion of Brahmanda is called Par Brahm.
As said before, this grand division is mostly spirit in substance,
but is mixed with a certain amount of pure, spiritualized matter. It
is the finest order of matter, and that includes mind. This is called
the "spiritual-material region," because spirit dominates the region.
The substance of that division gradually becomes less and less
concentrated as we descend toward the negative pole of creation. The
lower portions become coarser in particle, and more and more mixed
with matter. In the lower end of Brahmanda mind is supreme. It is
practically all mind, for mind itself is material of the finest
order. Of course, even mind is mixed with spirit substance to some
slight extent, otherwise it could not exist. All worlds become a
shade darker as we descend, because there is less and less of spirit
substance in the composition. Trikuti, the lowest section of
Brahmanda, is the home of Universal Mind. It is from that region that
all individual minds are derived, and to that region all minds must
return when they are discarded during the upward flight of the
spirit.
Brahmanda is extremely vast in area when compared with the physical
universe, but small when compared with the first grand division. It
is itself subdivided into many distinct regions or planes. Some
mention six subdivisions; but as a matter of fact, there are scores
of subdivisions in that one grand division, almost numberless
subdivisions, each constituting a separate and distinct world.
Divisions and subdivisions shade into one another so imperceptibly
that it is not easy to say just where one ends and another begins.
This accounts in part for the many different descriptions of those
regions, and the great variety of names assigned to them.
Anda, The Lowest of the Heavens
It lies nearest to the physical universe. Its capital is called
Sahasra dal Kanwal, meaning a Thousand-petalled Lotus [right here Dr. Johnson seems to substitute the common yogic terminology of sahasrar for sahans dal kanwal as if to give justification for the far superior nature of the Path of the Masters; but as we shall see, Sahans Dal Kanwal, is described by Soamiji himself as being an eight-petalled lotus, not a thousand. This in itself is confusing, for Sahas means one thousand, and Dal means petal, so which is it? In Persian mysticism this is described as a thousand-headed serpent holding the world on its head]. Its name is
taken from the great cluster of lights which constitute the most
attractive sight when one is approaching that world. This great group
of lights is the actual "power house" of the physical universe. Out
of that power house flows the power that has created and now sustains
all worlds in our group. Each of those lights has a different shade
of tint and they constitute the most gorgeous spectacle as one enters
that magnificent city of light. In that city of splendors may be seen
also many other interesting and beautiful things. Also, here may be
seen millions of earth's most renowned people of all ages of our
history. Many of them are today residents of this great city and
country. Naturally they are quite happy. It is far superior to
anything ever seen on this earth. Yet this is but the first station
on the upward Path of the Masters.
This region constitutes the negative part of all the superphysical
zones. That is, it lies most distant from the positive pole of
creation. This region is sometimes classified as a part of Brahmanda,
but the Saints prefer to consider it as a separate grand division of
creation. It has many distinctive features of its own. Lying nearest
to the physical universe, it forms the port of entry for all the
higher regions. All souls who are passing to still higher regions
must pass through it. The great majority of human souls at the time
of death pass to some sub-plane of this region. But very few,
comparatively, go direct to this central portion of the Sahans dal
Kanwal region. It is through all of these regions that the Masters
and their disciples must travel on their way to higher worlds.
This section of creation is not immortal or imperishable. Neither are
its inhabitants. Many of its inhabitants believe that they have
attained immortality because their lives there go on for extremely
long periods. All below that is subject to death and
dissolution.
There are two kinds of dissolutions. The one, simple dissolution"
which reaches up to the lowest section in Brahmanda, the region
called Trikuti; this occurs after many millions of years, and the
other, the grand dissolution" which occurs after immeasurably long
periods of time and extends up to the top of Brahmanda. Of course,
both of these dissolutions include the entire physical universe,
every sun, moon and planet in it. At that time every star and its
satellites are wiped out, and then follows a period of darkness equal
in duration to the life of the universe. When the period of darkness
has expired, a new creation is projected, and the heavens are once
more alive with sparkling stars. With each new creation begins a
new "Golden Age" for each planet and its inhabitants. But between
minor dissolutions there are also periods of renewal for the life of
each planet when Golden Ages succeed dark ages.
There is a general idea, finding its way into most religions, that
this world is to come to an end. And so the Masters teach. But the
end is a very different proposition to what it is generally supposed
to be. It will come at a time when all worlds of the physical
universe will be dissolved, and after periods of darkness and
silence, new worlds will take their places. The inhabitants of all of
those worlds to be dissolved are drawn up to higher regions in a sort
of comatose state to be replaced upon these worlds when they are
ready for human habitation. They will then begin a new life here
under more favorable conditions. These periodic dissolutions come to
the physical universe after many, many hundreds of millions of years.
No man need worry now, lest that time is near at hand. It is many
aeons away yet.
The Grand Division of Pinda -- The Physical Plane/Multiverse of Dark
Matter and Light
The fourth grand division, beginning from above, is called Pinda. It
is the gross material or physical universe. Here coarse matter
predominates, there being but a small percentage of mind and a still
smaller amount of spirit. Our earth is a small and insignificant
member of Pinda. It embraces all the suns and their planets known or
unknown, to astronomy. It extends out into space far beyond the reach
of any telescope. Astronomers have never been able to count these
worlds; although as their instruments become more perfect, the range
of their observations is extended. Who shall set limits or indicate
bound to those starry depths? Who can number the numberless? Who can
circumscribe the boundless? To the farthest extent of space wherever
there is a material sun or a speck of dust they are all included in
this fourth grand division which the Masters call Pinda.
In this division, coarse material predominates. Permeating this
coarse material are many finer substances, including mind, and last
of all there is a modicum of spirit to give life to all the rest. In
this lowest of all divisions of creation there is but little light
and a very low grade of life when compared with Brahmanda. But if
compared with Sat Desh, this world is pitch darkness and the life
here, in comparison to that, is scarcely cognizable at all. Its
substance is coarse, clumsy, inert, and full of all manner of
imperfections. These imperfections, as said before, are due to the
paucity of spirit at this pole. This condition of negativity is the
soil out of which all evil grows. However real it may seem to us,
negativity is the absence of reality, and the absence of reality is
the absence of spirit. Food is a reality to us, but hunger is also a
real condition to our consciousness. But hunger is due to the absence
of food. In its last analysis, all pain, longing, all desire is only
a cry of the mind and soul for more light, more spirit. In like
manner, evil is due to, the absence of spirit. And the reason we
have so small a percentage of spirit substance at this end of
creation is because this is the negative pole of all creation. Pinda
is the extreme negative pole. It is consequently so far depleted of
spirit that it lies in a state of semi-death, a condition of heavy
inertia over which broods deep shadow.
Out of this condition rise all the manifold difficulties experienced
by mortals on this plane of life. As one leaves this lowest plane and
begins to ascend toward the positive pole of creation, the light
increases, and hence more life, more beauty and more happiness. This
is all entirely due to the increase in the percentage of spirit on
the several planes. Love, power, wisdom, rhythm, perfection of every
sort take the place of negative conditions which prevail in the lower
sections of the universe.
It should be said here, with all possible emphasis, that just in
proportion to the degree of spirit substance prevailing in any
region, world, person or thing, will its perfections be manifest. And
vice versa, in proportion to the lack of spirit, imperfections will
show themselves. In proportion as matter predominates, those states
which we call evil will manifest. A depletion of spirit, is
therefore, the one fatal disease of the physical universe. Out of
that state all other diseases spring up. In the last analysis, we
believe there is but one disease in the world -- spiritual anemia.”
[Notice again, as mentioned, that Julian Johnson uses the term "sahsra dal kanwal and "thousand-petalled lotus" to describe the first inner region. As will be shown, however, Soamiji used the term "Sahans dal Kanwal" and said this region had only an eight-petalled lotus. This has significance in comparing other schools of yoga with Sant Mat].
Continuing, we have a more lyrical description of creation by Huzur Maharaj:
“A current issued forth from the feet of SOAMI [Lord]. It
is the Prime Current and the Creator
of the entire creation.
The Name of that ADI DHARA. (Prime Current) is RADHA [Soul].
THAT alone is the doer and dispenser of every activity.
The Source or Origin or Fountain-head from
whom the Prime Current emanated, is ADI
SOAMl (Absolute Lord) of all.
Where that current halted in its descent, the creation
of Agam Lok [Inaccessible Plane] was brought into being
Agam Lok is a vast sphere. It encompasses all
the creation.
The entire creation below is being cradled just in
a small nook of Agam Lok.
On completion of the creation of Agam Lok, a
current issued forth from there.
It descended and halted, and evolved the creation
of Alakh Lok [Invisible Region or Plane]
When the sphere of Alakh Lok was formed in the
above manner, the current descended, and
created Sat Lok.
Sat Lok [Plane or Realm of Truth] is the Dham (Abode) of Sat Purush,
and is inhabited by Hansas.
Each of the Hansas [souls] has a dweep (island) to himself.
They are absorbed in the Darshan [Vision] of Sat Purush.
Up to here is the creation of Sat (Truth) or pure spirit.
Neither Maya nor cruel Kal exists here.
There is neither any desire nor any work.
All are absorbed in the Darshan of Sat Purush and
feed on Amrit (ambrosia).
All live in perfect harmony and enjoy rapturous bliss.
There is no trace of pain and anguish due to Kal [god of time-death-
illusion] and there is no burden of Karma.
For a considerable period of time the creation
remained like this - a region of Truth
and pure bliss.
Time, The "Fall" of Kal, the Gnostic "Demiurge" or Universal Mind
Then, from the lower portion of Sat Pur (Sat Lok)
emanated a Shyam (blue) current. It came
down and underwent considerable expansion
and ramification.
It remained constantly engaged in the Sewa
(service) of Purush but, inwardly, it was
cherishing some other desire.
It disclosed its mind thus, "0 Sat Purush [God]!
0 Merciful One and Giver of all things! Grant
me the sovereignty of a separate region, and
furnish me with the seed of Surat. Life here is
not suited to me. Your region is not agreeable to me."
Hearing this, Purush replied, "Get out from this place. You are a nuisance here. Go and
evolve a creation for yourself in the lower part of the pre-creational neutral zone. Take your
seat there and rule over that dominion."
The name of that current is Niranjan. It has all
the characteristics of Kal.
Purush evolved another current with a yellow hue.
Its name is Adya.
By the order of Purush, this other current was
sent down. It associated with Niranjan
In Sunn, they came to be known as Purush and
Prakriti, and in Trikuti, as Maya and Brahm.
They halted in Sahas-dal-kanwal, from where
the three Gunas (qualities) came into being.
Here, Adya assumed the form of Jyoti, and Niranjan assumed a dark blue complexion.
They first brought into being Brahm-srishti. Then, the creation of Triloki (three worlds) was evolved.
Niranjan then engaged himself in Dhyan (contemplation) of Purush (Sat Purush).
Jyoti took upon herself the burden of looking after the creation.
The three Gunas or gods became her assistants. They evolved the rest
of the creation.”
-- Huzur Maharaj [AKA Rai Salig Ram], from "Prem Bani Radhasoami", Volume Four, Agra,
India
This appears to be a derivation from the Sar Bachan, and, in turn, possibly the Anurag Sagar of Kabir, of which we will hear more about later. In the first description of the inner regions given above, to repeat once more, it is noteworthy that Julian Johnson uses the term "Sahasra dal Kanwal" and equates it with the Sahasrara or thousand-petalled lotus as traditionally mentioned in yoga, particularly kundalini yoga. Sar Bachan Poetry, Part II, p. 277, by Soamiji, however, clearly states that Sahans dal Kanwal is a region of an eight-petalled lotus - followed by a lotus of twelve petals in Trikuti, thirteen in Sunn, and ten at Maha-Sunn. It is also of interest that further on in Sar Bachan, on page 394-395, it is stated that there are twelve "kanwals" or ganglia or lotuses in the human microcosm. Six are the traditional chakras in the spine from the coccyx or muladara up to the eyes or ajna chakra. The next three would be unique although not unheard of in the literature outside of Sant Mat, and appear to be centers deeper within the brain, although the impression given is that one is to believe that they are out of the body altogether. But is this so?
Soamiji says that the seventh kanwal is Sahans dal Kanwal, the eighth is in Trikuti, and the ninth is at Daswan Dwar (considered the tenth door or tenth orifice. This will suggest to some, and has in fact been stated, that the tenth orifice is the brahmarendra at the top of the head, and if so that the other preceding kanwals are experienced as the attention moves through the structures of the brain (including the "sky of mind" in the brain core, and the corpus collosum or ‘swanlike' structures - hence passing these one becomes a ‘paramahansa’), before passing out or beyond through the corona radiata into what may be the true sahasrara. Are kanwals or chakras seven through nine actually between the midbrain to the top of the brain, and experienced as attention curves through the ventricles and corpus collosum before passing out through the corona ? It seems so. R. K. Gupta writing for the Lalaji (Ram Chandra) Sant Mat-Sufi group perhaps describes it best. We will visit his thought shortly.
Sar Bachan states:
"Glistening like the head of an arrow, Surat darts forward from the bow (i.e., crosses the third Til) and sees the refulgence of Jyoti. [Comment: The two currents from the two eyes meet at the third Til, forming the arch of a bow]. The current of spirit which is the current of Ganga rushes from Sahansdal-kanwal to Gagan [Trikuti, also 'sky of mind']. At Trikuti the Pran becomes pure." (p. 481)
This is a clear indication one is still within the body and brain. There is no consciousness of prana without the presence of a body.
Sant Rajinder Singh has said that one will have proof that there is life after death when one reaches the third inner plane. This seems like it would only would make sense if the first two inner regions are really experienced before death in the domain of the brain core itself, otherwise why wouldn’t one have proof that there is life after death when he reaches the first inner plane, if that is truly out of the body? There is a possible resolution, which will also be suggested shortly. Radhasoami gurus Huzur Maharaj and Maharaj Saheb in their writings both added the interesting comment that the “doorway” to the lower subtle regions was in the gray matter while the doorway to the "purely spiritual" regions was in the white matter. Rumi, too, said, "in the folds of thy brain lie wondrous regions." In the folds of the brain, or beyond them?
Truly speaking, however, sages say that there is no death but only Life. Nothing real dies. The statement by Rajinder can be read in a consoling manner as indicating that there is a conscious life after death for a perpetuated ego-self, and of course, that is a different matter entirely. We hope to clarify that to some degree in these pages.
Soamiji stated: "I give out details of the ganglia, I have seen within my body. Twelve Kanwals (lotuses, ganglia) are found in the human microcosm."
It is very plain here that all the inner regions are experienced as if within the body, although one might argue, outside of "body-consciousness". What are we to make of this, however, in light of the statement of the sage Ramana Maharshi, that "the light in the brain is but the reflected light of the Heart" ? Our conclusion is of most importance when considering that all of the above chakras and bodies are viewed as more or less imaginary by Maharshi! By the end of this book we hope to make this at least a little more accessible to our understanding.
Yogis like Swami Sivananda, whom Kirpal Singh respected, taught, at least at one time, that spiritual illumination comes when the kundalini or shakti passes through the lower chakras, purifying one of gross attachment, and then finally rising into the sahasrara. In fact, he said when that is achieved one becomes a “full-blown jnani.” This would not satisfy the advaitin, but it does mean that for Sivananda (and maybe even Ramakrishna) this is an attainment greater than the average Sant Mat initiate who reaches Sahans-dal-kanwal), which is only `one inch’ within the eye center, according to some saints. The Kriya yoga of Paramhansa Yogananda held to a similar idea of purification and also considered the Sahasrar not as an actual chakra per se but the doorway to the infinite. Some argue that Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the end result of this process, while there have been traditional tantric gurus who have argued that through the union of Shiva and Shakti a non-dual awakening may even ensue from such an experience. I ask a question, therefore, at this, yet the outset, of this article: Is the Sahasrara or thousand-petalled lotus the same as the eight-petalled lotus of Sahans Dal Kanwal in Sant Mat, or does it really represent something more comprehensive than that? There is no doubt in my mind that the true Sahasrar is higher, and a host of Sant Mat teachers have said as much: Faqir Chand, Maharaj Saheb, Lalaji, even Sawan Singh, and others.
Soamiji goes on to list the tenth kanwal as in Maha-sunn, the eleventh at Bhanwargupha, and the twelfth at Sat Lok. These are all still considered in the "human microcosm", which, however, does not mean within the physical body itself, but the entire many-storied microcosmic structure. This can be confusing when looked at objectively and not subjectively, that is, from the inside. When we look outwardly we think there is a body, and imagine being out of it. But that is not quite the way it is. There is an interpenetration of bodies and planes. For instance, the astral body is not ‘up there’, but right here at this moment. Thus, one can introvert and experience structures apparently ‘in’ the body, but when the physical body is no more, the higher bodies and planes are still apparently there. One may invert and go deep into the head space, and have the Sound ‘take one up’, but that does not mean one is ‘out of the body’, per se. Because there is experientially such a difference between the body ‘below the eyes’ and the rest of the body (essentially the head and /or brain) ‘above the eyes’, subjectively there is the sensation of going ‘up.’ But it may still be in the brain-core, the microcosm. Some initiates have described their ‘return’ to body-consciousness as if an aperture opened in their chest and then they were ‘back.’ They usually do not describe an experience of descending from the Crown through the brain to the eye-center and so on. Not until one pierces the Crown at the Brahmarendra, the’ tenth door’, and reaches the true Sahasrar, ‘Sat Lok,’ can one be said to have truly transcended or perhaps ‘outshined’ the body. Each of the preceding stages could be said to be ‘beyond’ body consciousness, but not the body per se. The body is a microcosm of the macrocosm; it is not that one must leave the microcosm to know the macrocosm. They are essentially one. In Sat Lok one can say, in Meister Eckhart language, that the ‘Ground of the soul’ meets ‘the Ground of God.’ Or as Kirpal said, “Self-Knowledge becomes God-Knowledge.” Is this ‘in’ the body or ‘out’ of it? St. Paul said, “I met a man caught up into the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I don’t know…God knows.”
Kabir said there were twenty-one chakras or lokas, Sawan said there were twenty-two ‘voids’, from Mooladhara up to Sat Lok. This latter was confusing to me until I saw that it makes sense if one sees each stage as in essence “voiding” the stages before it. All these “voids” are not formless, dark, silent vacuums such as Sunn or especially Maha Sunn, but the language of ‘voids’ was chosen, and perhaps leads to confusion. The numbering of chakras will be discussed after the following quote from the book, Rainbow Body: A History of the Western Chakra System from Blavatsky to Brennan, in which the author says that there was an interesting convergence of early Theosophy and Radhasoami in the late nineteenth century, may help address this issue:
"The founder of the Radhasoami faith was Seth Shiv Dayal Singh (1818-78), known as Soami Ji. Soami Ji’s successor was Salig Ram (1829-1898), also known as Huzur Maharaj, a high-ranking official in the Indian Postal Service and therefore fluent in English. [Note: the author seems not to be aware of the Beas and Delhi lineages, which trace their roots from Soamiji-Jaimal Singh-Sawan Singh].He became a disciple of Soami Ji in 1858 and helped to found the Radhasoami Satsang in Agra in 1861. Salig Ram touched the Theosophical Society at several points during the 1880s and 1890s. Not only was he a subscriber to the Theosophist as early as 1882, but also he garnered a reference in one of the Mahatma Letters, communications from the two masters behind the founding of the Theosophical Society. In this letter (probably from Kut Hoomi), received in 1881, Salig Ram is identified as “Suby Ram”. The letter's recipient was Alfred Sinnett, a friend of Blavatsky’s and editor of an influential newspaper, the Pioneer. The Mahatma informed him that “no harm” would come from joining Salig Ram’s group. Sinnett himself referred to Salig Ram as “a cultivated and highly respected native government official”, who had informed Sinnett about his guru, Soami Ji.
In the 1890s, Olcott and Besant visited the group and met Huzur Maharaj. A brief account of this meeting occurs in a talk given by Babuji Maharaj (Madhav Prasad Singha, 1861-1949)), the 5th Agra Guru, some forty years later in 1931. Babuji had been living at the Agra ashram since 1873, so this was probably a first-hand account. Though Olcott and Besant stopped in Agra for a few days during Besant's first lecture tour of India in February 1894, Olcott’s published reminiscences do not mention a side trip to hear Huzur Maharaj speak.
A two-part article on Radhaswami beliefs appears in the June and August 1895 issues of the Theosophist, with an editorial note saying that they were written by someone who had been a devotee, they were based on Salig Ram’s own words, and they had been sent to Salig Ram for revision. The second part of this article posited not 12 but 14 chakras: the seven of the body including the Thousand petal Lotus; and 7 beyond that accessible through meditation on the thousand petal lotus.
It is difficult to determine the extent to which the Radhasoami sect and the TS influenced each other's teachings on subtle bodies, planes, and chakras during the early phase of contact between the organizations. Yet Radhasoami teachings intersect the history of the western chakra system several times - including an indirect reference by Leadbeater in The Chakras to a ‘school’ in India that makes free use of the chakras and has 16,000 members spread over a large area. As we shall see, Radhasoami teachings may be the source of later writings on the western chakra system that link the pineal gland to the sixth chakra rather than the 7th."
The passage in bold may hold some answers to the question of how or whether the Sant Mat realization surpasses the crown jewel realization in classic yoga systems. Are there “14” chakras, with numbers 8-14 the expanded dimensions of the Sahsarara? And are these ‘outside’ of the body?
Is it possible, then, that the highest reach or depth of the true Sahasrara is really Sat Lok, with further absorption into the wordless and formless state of Anami actually traditional ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi? If it isn't, why isn't it? Personally I don’t think it is, at least in most cases, but I don’t have the answer, and assume it must be complicated, if even Masters seem to disagree. This is not to diminish the realization of Anami, but rather to suggest categorizing Nirvikalpa in its traditional yogic profundity.
Can it be then that there are semantic differences between the traditions that cloud our understanding? The answer to this appears to be, "sure," and will be addressed later. We do have a difficult time assuming that the Nirvikalpa samadhi spoken of by one such as Ramakrishna was merely the equivalent of the Sant Mat experience of Sahans dal Kanwal. They appear to be two completely different states.
Nirvikalpa samadhi, moreover, is a concept that has several different connotations in the spiritual literature. It basically means “without thought.” In short, however, its depth appears to vary considerably. Faqir Chand equated it with a realization on one of the lower planes, perhaps Maha Sunn, while for Sri Nisargadatta it was equivalent to the Absolute or “Stateless State”, and essentially Sahaja. Sages differ, as mentioned, on whether it is even necessary. However, they are ones who are usually talking about a yogically ascended nirvikalpa. Just to make things clear - as mud!
[By the way, while we are mentioning theosophy, inasmuch as they talk of a “Trans-Himalayan” lineage, and inner hierarchies, this quote from Sant Darshan Singh is interesting. Speaking about the spiritual master, he writes:
“He has been appointed by the Higher Government to be the focal point where the lifeline of the Eternal Music is flowing…” (Spiritual Awakening, p. 45)]
A yet further complication in our study is found in this quote from Discourses on Radhasoami Faith by Sawan Singh, the like of which I have not found anywhere else:
"Where does the Word emanate from? Dadu Sahib says it comes from Sukhman (the central inner passageway or spiritual current through which the soul rises to the higher regions). This is the first sunnya, sunn, or void. There are twenty-two sunnyas inside, the last being Sach Khand." (p.227).
Twenty-two sunnyas (‘vacuums’ or voids) ? What could that mean? We have already given a preliminary explanation: it has something to do with corresponding to the twenty-one lokas or chakras spoken of by Kabir in the book Granth Abibhed published by a relatively obscure Kabir group. The progression of the inner passages will be discussed at various points in this section, but here is possibly some clarification up front - from a Sufi ‘cousin’ of Sant Mat. I say Sufi cousin because there is an interesting cross-pollination between the two schools. Lalaji who taught Sant Mat practices was in the lineage from Rai Saligram. He had also been in association with a Kabir Panth teacher before meeting a Sufi master. He was the uncle of Brig Mohan Lal, a Sufi (well-known among the sangat), and also uncle of Bhai Sahib, Sufi guru of Irena Tweedie. Neither of these Sufis taught shabd yoga, and even Lalaji did not teach it to every disciple.
Ram Chandra aka Lalaji group [R. K. Gupta in The Science and Philosophy of Spirituality [available at scribd.com] says the first void is at the ‘Sahstradal,’ [notice how each of these teachers takes liberties with the spelling of Sahans dal Kanwal, sometimes making it seem like the Sahasrar], a little above the eyebrows and towards the backside of the head. The way there is via a “very fine nerve called “Mukti Dwar,” literally the ‘door to liberation.’ Actually, ‘one inch’ inwards, says Gupta, based on the teachings of Ram Chandra. Kirpal Singh also once said that “if you go in an inch, it is better than trip around the world.” After seeing light at the ajna center, as attention deepens inward one reaches this sunnya or first void. It is deep inside the head. On the way to the next “void” - again, not really a void - of the next ‘region’ or stage, of Trikuti, one passes along the course of the optic nerve which is said to be in the shape of a new moon. This nerve resembles a crooked tunnel, hence the name bunknaal. [ “I find the “sweet spot” of the Light in the head. It is in, down, back and up inside the core (just below the top of the head.” (Ramaji,1000 (2014), p. 416). Then as one begins to ascend one reaches the stage of Trikuti where the vision of a single or triple-mountain may appear. And here, Gupta says, is the Second Void.
First of all, Gupta is incorrect in his choice of analogy here, for a new moon has no visible shape. Did he mean a crescent moon? Is it true, in any case, that banknal traces the course of the optic nerve in the head, and is not, as it is often described cosmologically, a structure separating the astral and causal worlds? This would make a great deal of difference in our understanding and ability to compare and contrast other paths. I cannot answer this question with assurance born of experience and wisdom, but there are those who one would think should be able to do so - why don't they speak and clarify any doubts there may be about this and similar related issues?
American teacher Ramaji writes of experiencing much of this in his own quite different sadhana:
“A bright light in the third eye (Ajna Chakra) appeared. Then it dimmed and began demanding enormous amounts of energy. The word shoonya appeared and kept repeating itself. The mind would swoon as it entered this void that was inside the head. The ability of the mind to attach from thoughts became disabled, in part because the world was of no interest. The experience of a dark vertical tunnel inside the center of the head was followed by the vision of a spiritual mountain sacred to Lord Shiva, Mt. Kailash, on the top of the head. When the snow on this sacred mountain would melt, drops of blissful soothing nectar flowed into my brain and down onto my tongue. The dark tunnel or vortex at one point went as far down as my throat chakra. Eventually, a new brightness arose and blotted out all of this phenomenon. It had the appearance of a spiritual sun. This sun was the revelation of the “I Am.” (Ibid, p. 414)
He goes on describing further events in his more or less self-enquiry type of path, in which he was spontaneously led to look at the origin of attention itself, and experienced the dissolving of the attention in the Absolute, otherwise known as the 'natural' or 'stateless state. Faqir Chand also said that Absolute was “beyond attention,” “beyond Anami,” the “stateless State,” and “only Gyan.” Faqir Chand and his views will be discussed at length shortly. Our main point here is simply to show independent confirmation and re-contextualizing of the ordering of some of the steps inward. As we shall see later, Kirpal SIngh also talks of “nectar dripping down from the moon of Trikuti.” So in summary the first void is at the back of the head, and Trikuti seems to be further up, but not yet penetrating to the Sahasrar. Viewing things objectively, we seem to still be within the confines of the human body.
So far, the ‘chakras’ , according to the Ram Chandra classification, are: the first six, mooladhara to ajna; then the seventh at Sahans dal Kanwal, the eighth Trikuti [which has six chakras; see Aim Divine by Shri V.B.Lal], then the fourteenth-fifteenth, Sunn/Maha Sunn, the fifteenth Bhanwar Gupha, the sixteenth, Sat Lok. Then Agam, Alak or Anami, and finally, “Dhruv Pada” (the Absolute, beyond Anami). Thus there are twenty-one chakras, give or take. Sometimes Sunn and Maha Sunn are combined. Sunn is included within Daswan Dwar of the Sants. Sunn is termed the “Vacuum” by Sri Yukteswar.
Gupta simplifies the “void” count by excluding the six lower bodily centers, as well as the six chakras in Trikuti, and comes up with seven voids corresponding to the major stages up to Anami. He mentions that “some saints consider Anami is at the Brahmarendra.” This is in line with the standard Yogic-Vedantic-Hindu classification.
It may be possible to dispatch the problem of the semantic confusion around the concept of the “tenth door” by simply recognizing that there are two usages of the term: one, the Brahmarendra at the top of the skull (or the passage from the sixth chakra at the eye-focus to the Crown), and another tenth door at the inner region of Daswan Dwar, considered the dividing line between the upper and lower regions, or alternatively, the higher and lower parts of the body-mind and /or brain [Daswan Dwar and Sunn being inside the skull according to the classification of Ram Chandra]. In the Kriya yoga or Sri Yukteswar this is simply labeled “the Door.”
Sawan Singh in 1943 stated:
“The soul came from the Satlok and entered the tenth door, then went down the Parbrahm. From there it stayed at the third eye behind the two eyes.”
So, did Sawan change the teachings of Soamiji? Is Sat Lok at the Crown, or far above that? Or, paradoxically, both?
This may be premature, but to place in stark contrast the teaching and approach of jnanis with those of the Sants, Sri Nisargadatta boldly states:
"You must realize first of all that you are the proof of everything, including yourself. None can prove your existence because his existence must be confirmed by you first. Your being and knowing you owe to nobody. Remember, you are entirely on your own. You do not come from somewhere. You do not go anywhere. You are timeless being and awareness...What is beginningless cannot have a cause. It is not that you knew what you are and that you have forgotten. Once you know you cannot forget. Ignorance has no beginning but can have an end. [~Mandukya] It is the mind that imagines that it does not know and then comes to know...Even the idea of God as the Creator is false. Do I owe my being to any other being? Because I am, all is." (I AM THAT, p. 160, )
“The world comes into being only when you are born into a body. No body - no world. First enquire whether you are in the body. The understanding of the world will come later.” (Ibid, p. 207)
This is a version of the standard two-part process of world-enquiry. First know the “who”, then know the “what”. The enquiry “who am I?” does not really yield a “who” (for there is no who, per se), but more of a “what” (the subjective logos within, or consciousness in itself). The “what is the world?” reveals the world to be a projection from the higher aspect of the soul or God through the soul, and thus one comes to non-duality. Here is really the crux:
“Once you realize, beyond all trace of doubt that the world is in you and not you in the world, you are out of it.”
What he is saying is for you you absorb the world into yourself, in your understanding, rather than yogically separating yourself from it [which is possible due to the inherent power of the soul to project itself, but will not in itself tell you what the world is. Thus, such a yogic realization is not complete].
“Of course your body remains in the world, but you are not deluded by it. All scriptures say that before the world was, the Creator was. Who knows the Creator? He alone who was before the Creator, your own real being, the source of all the worlds with their creators.” (Ibid)
He is not saying the Guru is not valuable or unnecessary. All this is ibeing introduced here more along the lines of a preview of coming attractions, of another, and perhaps, higher point of view. We hope to bring these seemingly vastly different camps closer together in these pages.
Continuing, Gupta says that according to the Sufi schools there are three divisions: Dayal Desh (‘lokas’ ‘above’ or ‘beyond’ Anami); Kal Desh (Sahans dal Kanwal up to Anami); and Maya Desh (mooladhara to Sahans dal Kanwal. Thus, he accentuates that there is in fact an Absolute, call it the ‘Stateless State” or perhaps “Wonder Region” , and that Anami is not the ultimate, but still a plane within relativity. He gives a correspondence of Sat Lok - Sat Purush; Agam Lok - Agam Purush; Alak or Anami - Videha Purush; and Dhruv Pada - Absolute Truth. This is a different use of terms than this quote from Sawan Singh, cited earlier:
"Pind and Brahman have beginning as well as end. Region of Dayal Desh has beginning but no end. Radhasoami Dham which is the highest of all, has neither beginning nor end. On attaining this final stage I became free from beginning and end." (Discourses on Radhasoami Faith, Vol. One)
Here Sawan Singh seems to he pointing with Radhasoami Dham to what elsewhere is considered the Absolute State, whereas Dayal Desh would be Sat Lok - virtually the reverse of Ram Chandra and his disciple Gupta.
Perhaps all of this is not immediately relevant to the average devotee, and perhaps any sense of a problem might be dismissed in considering that the regions and stages are all the same, while only the words have been switched! With the path being non-linear, moreover, even some variation in the ordering of the stages may be permissible. It might also be considered that every saint or sage may not be a great writer or have a perfect intellectual understanding of these teachings. That would not in itself be evidence that they are not great. Still, clarification and precision of articulation would go a long way in keeping things straight.
We are, however, getting closer and closer to high Hinduism traditional classifications. The only different item to consider is the Shabd. And Gupta says Ram Chandra explained that it is not a direct emanation of the Creator or Sat Purush, but a later product of “the transformation of the dissolution energy into matter and the action of time” wherein these two forces [whatever they are] turned into sound. It is difficult to understand (!), but then so is the creation story. We get more into creation and shabd in Part Two, but will just say here that there seem to be three versions of creation. Gupta says that the Sat Purush didn’t create the world(s), but that the Sat Purush “with the help of Maya and “Kaal” created them. All the emanatory descriptions from here down make some sort of sense, but up here at the beginning stages, like most creation stories, it breaks down so far as any kind of logic requires. In other words, it remains a story. For Vedanta, it is Maya that creates the world (if one admits there is such a thing as creation; even Sankara had to resort to maya when giving out his lesser teachings). For Ram Chandra, Sat Purush-Adi Purush-Saguna Brahman (all synonyms for him) creates the world with Maya and Kaal. But where did Maya and Kaal come from? There is a gap in the logic where the One Absolute becomes two and so on. Maya came from the first ‘desire’ of the One God (which desire was the first illusion), who then needed the help of these two other secondary illusions to create an illusory universe. Third explanation, the standard Sant Mat one, is simply that the Sat Purush and/or his Word is the Creator. This is extensively discussed in Part Two.
Ram Chandra (Lalaji), acknowledged Kabir, Nanak, Soamiji, Rai Salig Ram and Shiv Brat Lal as true saints of the highest order. He himself wrote similarly to his pupil Gupta, also suggesting that at least the planes up to Daswan Dwar are within the brain or head:
“Controlling the mind in the third plane, Supreme knowledge springs from this yoga; When this condition is seen in the head Thousand-petalled lotus will open. This multiplicity is the place of Virat the Brahmanda a going was seen thus; Attention was in the bower of the Lord. Light was seen and Divine Sound heard, Sound of the Bell and Conch pleasant, talks sweet and sign of light. Sound was heard and the Light Divine was seen. Attention as arrested, descended bliss divine, mind is engrossed in love Supreme. Thrilling delight in holy name. Dwelt in the Sahasra Lotus for some days. A desire arose for the second stage ascended the curved way run Trikuti and saw the Light of Om (also called Aum or Omkar). The secret Om and grace of Master, ripples of mind, two will conquer; this is the golden place of Master. A jubilee of words Satsang (the true teaching of the Master) inner. Red sun and the flag of red colour Sound of Om and Tabor to hear. Fix the glance at one spot. Hear the Sound with attention rapt. Keep the body in a steady position then alone comes the further vision. One who perfects meditation at Trikuti is called a Saint, Master of the body; this inner practice, brother, here begins the Path of Master. Heading towards the region of Zero, inborn duality suits the mind; Drink the nectar of cool moonlight. One who gets this, is the most fortunate. Pleasant Sound of Violin and Sarang heard inside and began to swing. See the form of fixed mind. DANCE in the mansion of nothingness. See and examine your own condition. Have permanent repose in bliss. Where pitch darkness pervades fixed attention can't be recognised; trance of nothingness undisturbed how can its vastness be described? Top of the Brahmarandhra pleasant was attained by the name potent. Shines there the sun of seven colours hear the sweet Violin and rejoice. Bathe in the Manas-lake Divine. Know the flight and the way of Sawan. Washing the dirt (Karma) and vice of this age become pure as the sage. Separating the milk form the water become the Sawan of the Highest order."
It is not clear what he means by “controlling the mind in the third plane” in the first sentence
, but by advising one to “keep the body steady” while in Trikuti he is acknowledging one still has body consciousness and therefore cannot be out of it. Similarly, by saying that at the top of Brahmarandhra is manasarovar (the divine lake in Daswan Dwar), he still has not really gone beyond the body-consciousness either, or recognized the mental nature of the I-am-the-body thought arising out of the heart as the advaitic sages propose. For Lalaji, moreover, the Sahasra lotus (acknowledged as a thousand petals, unlike Soamiji’s eight), is deep within the head and not at the top as traditional yoga maintains. So we see that this pattern is common in Sant Mat teachings, which can cause confusion especially with beginners when trying to make comparisons with other teachings.
Two more important chakras in the Nath tradition
Whether this will make things more simple or more complicated I do not know, but the structure of major chakras in the Nath tradition seems to parallel this discussion of various kanwals (chakras, bhumis or planes) between the Ajna and Sahasrar as being within the head. Comparative systems of chakras and bodies will be discussed in more detail in the section “Kundalini,” but for now let it be noted that in the Nath tradition there are nine major major chakras, not seven. According to Swami Nirmalananda Giri (Abbot George Burke), these are:
1. The Muladhara, located at the base of the spine. 2.The Swadhishthana, located in the spine a little less than midway between the base of the spine and the area opposite the navel. 3. The Manipura, located in the spine at the point opposite the navel. 4. The Anahata, located in the spine opposite the midpoint of the sternum bone. 5. The Vishuddha chakra, located in the spine opposite the hollow of the throat. 6. The Talu chakra, located at the root of the palate (opposite the tip of the nose). 7. The Ajna chakra, located at the point between the eyebrows–the “third eye.” 8. The Nirvana chakra, located in the midst of the brain: opposite the middle of the forehead. 9. The Brahmarendra chakra, located at the top of the head.”
In addition he states:
"Chakras are points in the bodies into which the universal life force (vishwaprana) flows. Without that constant inflow the bodies would become dormant and disintegrate – would die. The chakras are both entrances and exits for the cosmic life power as well as reservoirs of that power and points of intelligent direction of the power. There are many subsidiary satellites of the chakras called adharas. Adharas are reservoirs of pranic energies, storage units for the energies that flow into the subtle bodies through the chakras, and therefore can be (and often are) mistaken for a chakra."
There is a "minor" major chakra in the spleen, for instance, and chakras in the feet and hands. Of special interest for our discussion in this classification are the sixth and eighth chakras:
“The Talu chakra is a kind of switching station as on a railway. Subtle transmuting energies and the Kundalini move up the spine from the Muladhara to the Vishuddha chakra. Then they need to move forward and reach the Ajna chakra. In the centuries since knowledge of the Talu chakra was almost lost, sadhakas throughout India have expressed frustration with the fact that the energies rise to the Vishuddha and will not move to the Ajna. This is because the way the subtle bodies are constituted the Talu chakra must be prepared and activated before the energies can move forward to the front of the head. But that has usually not been known. I personally have heard of several people making this complaint and known one man who sought advice from many renowned yogis over the years but received no help.”
In Surat Shabd yoga this is not considered a problem, as the aspirant is supposed to concentrate on the ajna chakra only, bypassing subtle energies and kundalini. In Kriya yoga this may be different, as we shall see in later sections, since their sadhana appears to be more integral, dealing, for instance, with superimposed physical, astral and causal spines. The comparative "success rate" between the two schools is an open question.
The eighth chakra is deep inside the head and seems to be the launching pad to the Brahmarandhra/Sahasrar directly above:
“Nirvana chakra is the center in which liberation (moksha) is attained and experienced. Without knowledge of this chakra there is a problem in the liberating energies moving from the front of the head back and upward to the Brahmarandhra chakra through which the yogi’s spirit rises to merge with the Absolute. Like the Talu chakra, the Nirvana chakra must be prepared and activated before the energies can so move. <[It is unclear how this is done; in Sant Mat the bell sound or the Master's grace would pull one up, not any self-effort. Kirpal SIngh said, "Just sit at the door and wait, I will come for you."] The Nirvana Chakra is also called the Jalandhara chakra. Jalandhara means “Holder of the Net” in the sense of perfect mastery of both the subtle energy network of nadis and chakras and of samsara itself, the “net” in which all sentient beings are caught until the Nirvana Chakra is reached in full awareness. Jalandhara also means: “holder of the aggregation,” as it also controls the seven chakras beneath it...The energies of the Sushumna or Crown chakra are purely spiritual and unconditioned by any influences other than our finite spirit and the Infinite Spirit from which we derive our very existence. So there is never any trouble there. It need only be reached and empowered by the Kundalini to establish the precedence of these holy powers over the lower levels of our existence.”
“These nine chakras are the actual nine gates of the body spoken about in the ancient scriptures (see Bhagavad Gita 5:13), not the nine openings found in the body. <[The latter being the standard Sant Mat teaching] The nine chakras are major factors in the subtle energy system of a human being, the ruling power centers, though there are a great number of minor chakras throughout the gross and subtle bodies of each one of us.” (https://ocoy.org/seven-chakras-nath-yogi-tradition/)
The “Nirvana” chakra seems to correspond spatially with Sahansdal Kanwal and/or Trikuti in Gupta and Sant terminology, as well as Ramaji’s experience mentioned above: deeper within than the ajna and below the top of the head, but, obviously, still within the body. One will note that Nirmalananda Giri, distinguishing between the "Nirvana" chakra and the Sahasrar, appears to hold the standard yogic view that the Supreme is realized when kundalini unites with Siva in the Sahasrar. Both Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Sivananda held this view - at least part of the time, both veering more towards non-duality towards the end of their lives. By accepting the label "Nirvana chakra" Nirmalananda also seems to distinguish between moksha or liberation and realization of the Absolute, which is consistent actually with Sri Nisargadatta's lineage.
In a separate article on his website Nirmalananda Giri summarizes:
In Ezekiel and Revelation various supernatural beings are described as being “full of eyes” to indicate that they are fully conscious, “eyes” symbolizing their awakened faculties of perception. In some esoteric writings “eyes” also symbolize the points of spiritual power and consciousness that the yogis call “chakras.” Although yogis mainly focus on seven chakras, we really have hundreds of chakras throughout our bodies, which is why the Bible speaks of “eyes” within and without, before and behind. But all of them are dependent on the seven [or nine!] major chakras. (https://ocoy.org)
[We will discuss more on this concept in the section "Jnana Chaksu and Divya Chaksu: Two Different Third-Eyes" in Part Four].
Another important distinguishing issue to consider, besides terminology problems, is that in most yoga systems one starts almost automatically with the assumption that the world, the body, and the chakras are objective realities and tries to overcome their limitations, rather than seeing them as manifestations of a subjective center of consciousness and pursuing that directly. This is an important theme we will return to again and again as we proceed.
Also interesting to be discussed is the notion of Saarshabda. The creative action of shabd only applies to the lower spheres; in Sat Lok, although there are said to be sweet sounds even up to Anami Lok [a plane terminologically below Sat Lok for Gupta], attention is “dormant,” and the essence experienced is known as Sarshabda - which ‘essential or true sound’ Ishwar Puri says is realized as ones own Self - and Gupta says is “the reflection of the Primal Determination [a notion also found in Taoism], the first ‘desire’ of God, and which exists in all creation as “the essential remembrance of the Highest Truth.” This has echoes of non-dualism: truth can be realized here and now, and not just in Sach Khand - which is also here and now. We will have more to say on SarShabda in a while. As the essence of sound beyond the reach of the interior senses, it remains more likely as the intuited and not sensed aspect of the current which can pertain only to the subtle regions of the being, according to traditional classifications.
No doubt this is all difficult to follow, but there is more. The higher lokas are not to be understood in the physical sense of the term, as places in space. Rather, they denote the state of the soul, which all scriptures describe as imperishable, immutable, infinite, formless, and indescribable. Sant Rajinder Singh said, “the soul doesn’t go anywhere.” The soul, further, was an “irradiation of the Sat Purush” into the constituent elements of man, which could not of themselves organize into a living being. This is the Biblical “man made in the image of God” - i.e., of the Sat Purush - or what Plotinus would say “in the image of the Intellectual Principle or Nous.”
As souls descended from Sat Lok, says Gupta, their consciousness became dormant, and Kaal Purush “came into being” [somehow] as a kindness of God to provide them with suitable bodies in order for them have the opportunity to make spiritual progress. This is interesting. Once leaving Sach Khand the souls could not go back without assuming a body. Thus the earth experience is valuable. And even though Kaal himself “fell” into acquiring a sense of himself as a separate power, and also gave rise to the principle of ahamkara (ego) in man, this was in reality a gift of the Supreme and not a punishment for evil. This is a very positive statement about the ego, and also suggests the truth of non-dualism.
For Gupta and Ram Chandra, Anami lok was the first creation, a production of Kaal Purush [before its ‘fall’] and Adi Maya. Thus it is the first plane in relativity and one could say a 'veil' on the Absolute, and not the highest as some Sants assert.
But just to get some more difficult and confusing assertions out of the way (not solved, however), Gupta, following his reading of Kabir, states that there is a replication of higher lokas in Dayal Desh (which he labels Sat Lok) above this Anami, reflected as follows: Videhi Purush - Agam Loka; Agam Purush - Alakh Loka; Sat Lok/Sat Purush - Sach Khand. Shabd, Surat, and Nirat are dormant ‘up above.’ How one knows such things is not explained very well. Furthermore, below this Sat Lok, but above the created Anami, there are additional stages not usually mentioned in the literature: first is Surat Loka (“eternal bliss”), then Akshar Loka (“imperishable”). Going down, Bhanwar Gupha is a replication of Surat Loka, etc..This is incredibly confusing! And not very useful, in my humble opinion. The standard eight-planed scheme is difficult enough, but the one we willies here.
And, as Gupta states, some saints say this is at the ‘place’ - or should one say, ‘experienced at the place’ - of the Brahmarandhra, at the top of the Sushumna nadi, the sushumna which he also says originates in the Heart (and not at the Mooladhara at the base of the spine, as schools of traditional kundalini yoga maintain). This is interesting and is in fact what Ramana Maharshi said, in a slightly different manner. For Ramana there was an apparent ‘terminal bend’ backwards of the Sushumna from the top of the chakra system down into the Heart - which he made clear was not the heart chakra itself but when in the body one might feel it throbbing there on the right side as “aham sphurana” or the “I-current.”
Note: while Ramana spoke of the heart on the right - which others have associated with the sino-atrial node in the upper-rear chamber, the source of the heartbeat - it has been noted that the right side of the physical heart is actually placed in the center of the chest, not its right side. This may be important in sorting out the different teachings on the various depths of the heart.
We will return to this point again, but it is important to repeat that even the Maharshi admitted that his instruction to look for the source of 'I' in the right side of the heart [which Ishwar Puri dismissed as a minor bodily center] was a beginner's instruction for those identified with body-consciousness. Papaji asked Ramana:
"Why do you place the spiritual heart on the right side of the chest and limit it to that location? There can be no right or left for the heart because it does not abide inside or outside the body. Why not say it is everywhere? How can you limit the truth to a location inside the body? Would it not be more correct to say that the body is situated in the Heart, rather than the Heart in the body?" The Maharshi replied, "When I speak of the "I" rising from the right side of the chest, the information is for those people who still think that they are the body. To these people I say that the Heart is located there. But it is really not quite correct to say that the "I" rises from and merges in the Heart on the right side of the chest. The Heart is another name for reality and it is neither inside nor outside of the body; there can be no in or out for it, since it alone is. I do not mean by "heart" any physiological organ or any plexus or anything like that..." (David Godman, ed., op. cit., p. 51-52)
For Gupta and the Sufis, the Heart center or chakra is more complex. In brief, there are five sub-centers of the heart, two on the left (Sirr and Qulb), two on the right (Khafi and Rooh, and one at the top in between these four named Akhafa. The last two are associated with intuition and the deepest intuition. Sufi schools place emphasis on activating these centers and letting the heart in turn activate all the other chakras, and by the creation of love lead beyond them all without any further yoga. Bhai Saheb, guru of Irena Tweedie, spoke of this in her book Daughter of Fire, and when Sufi Pir Vilayat Khan met Kirpal Singh in 1972 and requested initiation, Kirpal replied, “there is no need, as you were initiated by your father (Hazrat Inayat Khan).” So it seems like in both schools, initiation is directly from heart to heart.
Gupta writes that prior to the time of Shah Baha ‘uddin Naqshband, the Masters of that order followed the practice of purifying all the chakras, starting from the lowest, the Mooladhara. Shah Baha ‘uddin Naqshband introduced the practice of starting from the Hridaya (anahat) chakra. The method of practice was further modified and improved by the Masters after him, and Shaikh Ahmad Faruqi Sirhindi considered that purification of Latifa-e-Qulb (one of the five centers of the Hridaya chakra, most related to the emotions) alone was sufficient. Once the Hridaya chakra is perfected the seeker can be immediately taken to the Nafs-e-Natiqa (Prana Bindu or Agya chakra), the subtle abode of the nafs, in one step, and he may thence be elevated to the Brahmand chakra (Sahstradal Kanwal) as the second step. The process was further simplified by later Shaikhs into placing all emphasis on the Master awakening the Heart chakra by transmitting shabd from heart to heart, which then awakens all others. Much emphasis is on prayer and feeling their Master in the heart. For the Sufis, if one has a heart of stone there is not much point in more technical, sophisticated spiritual practices. This was the focus of Bhai Sahib as well as Raghubar Dayal ji (Lalaji's brother). [Interestingly, Tweedie did write of hearing the Sound when she was in the Himalayas after Bhai Sahib’s death]. The Hridaya chakra is considered to be related to the attribute of creation, which is the basis for the existence of all possible being. Mythologically this chakra is associated with the Prophet Adam and is considered to be the root of all other centers. Activation and integration of this center results in transmuting any attachment to individual action of the seeker into action in harmony with the Divine Will. Perfection of this state results in the annihilation of the heart, known as the state of fana-e-Qulb. The Sant Mat Masters say their way is the most streamlined, scientific and quickest, starting not at the Mooladhara or the Heart, but from the Agya center. Yet how many disciples bypass their emotional purification this way? The better among these Masters do not allow this to happen for too long. “Concentration may be a passport to inner attainment, but it needs the visa of humility to make it an impeccable document,” said Brunton. The ajna center may be “the seat of the soul” in the body, as the Sants say, but the heart is in fact the center of the human being. Can the two be separated?
Brunton, one of the first westerners to meet Ramana Maharshi, wrote of advanced contemplation becoming "aware of the secret undercurrent of holy peace that flows silently beneath the heart." (Notebooks, Vol. 14, 5.102)
Vasanas
The Sufis consider purification of the nafs to be an essential point. Ramana seemed to agree:
"The seeker's aim must be to drain away the vasanas from the heart and let no reflecting consciousness obstruct the light of the Eternal Consciousness. This is achieved by the search for the origin of the ego and by diving into the heart. This is the direct path to Self-Realization. One who adopts it need not worry about nadis, brain, sushumna, kundalini, breath control and the six yogic centers. The Self does not come from anywhere or enter the body through the crown of the head. It is as it is, ever-shining, ever steady, unmoving and unchanging. The changes are not inherent in the Self for the Self abides in the heart and is self-luminous like the sun. The changes are seen in its light." (Talks with Ramana Maharshi (Carlsbad, CA: Inner Directions Foundation, 2001), p.)
Ah, yes: just "drain away the vasanas from around the heart." This must be the understatement of the century - does anyone have an idea how profound an ordeal that is? The ego could and would never do such a thing - the 'I'-thought will defend itself until the bitter end. Properly speaking, only a master-power could do it, of course with the disciple's cooperation. Ramana further says:
“Were the vasanas in the brain instead of the Heart, they would be extinguished if the head is cut off so that reincarnations would come to the end. But it is not so. The Self obviously safeguards the vasanas in its closest proximity, i.e., within itself in the Heart, just as a miser keeps his most prized possessions (treasure) with himself and never out of reach. Hence the place where the vasanas are is the Self, i.e., the Heart, and not the brain (which is only the theater for the play of the vasanas from the greenroom of the Heart.” (Ibid, p. 308)
And:
"Experience gained without rooting out the vasanas cannot remain steady. Efforts must therefore be made to eradicate all the vasanas. Otherwise, rebirth takes place [There is some debate on this]. Some say direct experience results from hearing from one's Master; others say it is from reflection [Advaita]; yet others say from one-pointedness and also from samadhi [Yoga, Sant Mat]. Though appearing different on the surface, ultimately they mean the same. Knowledge can remain unshaken only after all the vasanas are rooted out.” (Ibid)
In spite of what Ramana said earlier about the Heart not being a physical organ, it is interesting in regards to vasanas that when someone gets a heart transplant, very often the recipient assumes some of the traits and even memories of the donor [See The Heart's Code by Paul Pearsall]. This is not so hard to understand if we accept the notion that there are correspondences and interpenetration between the various chakras, bodies, and planes during life. Occult doctrine teaches that there is a mysterious 'seed-atom' that is the repository of the vasanas and gets implanted in a new body upon each incarnation.
Reflecting the title of this book, "Through the Heart's Gaze and the Light of Awareness," it is fitting even at the outset to also bring in the point of view of the path of knowledge, here regarding vasanas. James Schwartz writes:
"There is a strange notion that when one permanently experiences the Self the intellect is switched off for good and you just remain forever as the Self in some kind of no thought state. The fact is that the intellect keeps right on thinking from womb to tomb. God gave it to us for a good reason. Clear logical practical thinking is absolutely necessary if you are going to crack the identity code. It is called inquiry. You want to think before realization, during realization and after realization. Realization is nothing more than a hard and fast conclusion that you come to about your identity based on direct experience of the Self. Only understanding will solve the riddle...No experience will eradicate vasanas born in ignorance and reinforced with many years of negative behavior.” (www.shiningworld.com)
The gist is that the heart and there head must work together for a lasting and integrated realization. Yes, repeated deep inner experiences - grace given - can have profound after effects and in rare cases wonderfully transform a soul, and as divine gifts are not to be lightly regarded. But the truth is that in most instances when one comes back the ego and vasanas take over and the world confronts the mystic or would-be mystic like a sword. He is not able to put the two states together, and until he can do so, the job is incomplete, and so is the realization. Mental habits are vasanas, too, and almost impossible to break. Just try challenging someone's views and opinions. Seeing the world as world is also a vasana, and until it is seen as "self" or "God" an ancient vasana is still active.
Yes, it all can definitely get confusing. Returning to the previous discussion on planes and centers, Ramana says the Self doesn’t come from anywhere and does not enter the body through the crown of the head. Then, after ascribing all the lokas to centers in the human body, Gupta adds “when the soul descended to the human body, it first settled at Brahmarendra before descending to other centers and spreading into every cell in the body.” So based on these contrasting quotes it appears that the soul as usually portrayed in Sant Mat is certainly not the Self of Ramana. The question then arises: what is this soul, and where did it first descend from? Is there actually any better answer than simply saying, “from infinity?” Just saying that it was an irradiation from the Sat Purush into an insentient grouping of elements doesn’t help us much here. And how would we know this in any case? We would have to have been there before the Sat Purush to witness it. That is what many gyanis would say. Ramana would no doubt say the Sat Purush is in the Self. So we go round and round.
One more major question (in my opinion). Soamiji in Sar Bachan speaks of the transcendental region of Agam Lok as a "marvelous palace," and “From there is visible the Eternal Tower,” wherein the soul merges in the Anami Purush, the ultimate source of all. Now, this is from Sar Bachan Poetry, so we grant Soamiji some license here to portray things lyrically and through metaphor. Yet one asks, how does this “Eternal Tower” stand in comparison with sages who have portrayed the intuited structure of the Amrita (or Atma Nadi) spoken of by Ramana Maharshi as an “Eternal spire of light and sound rising to infinity when the mind lies formless in the Heart” - on a path without requiring a mystical tour of inner ascended realms? What living saint or sage can answer such a question? We will return to the themes inherent in this query again and again in this book.
Shiv Brat Lal confirms the Subtle Regions are in the Brain
In Light on Anand-Yog (https://archive.org/details/light-on-ananda-yoga-organized/page/n69/mode/2up), p. 43-52, Shiv Brat Lal reinforces much of what has been said before by Soamiji, Sawan Singh, and Ram Chandra, with a few additions emphases of his own. He writes:
"All the regions of Spirituality find room in the apertures of the brain up to the crown of the head."
"The centres beginning from ‘Muladhara’ up to ‘Sat-lok’ are twelve in number. Technically they are termed ‘Dwadash-Chakram’. The ‘Hath Yogis’ begin their practice from ‘Muladhara’ and finish it at the ‘Sahas-dal Kamal’ up to the topmost part of the head where the Hindus have their tuft of hairs and regard it as the centre or combination of the nervous systems. Thus they omit the intervening centres of which very few possess any knowledge.”
Here he appears to equate Sahans-dal-kanwal with the yogic Sahasrar, but alludes that the traditional raja yogis miss the intervening centers in the head, as if that were important."
"The Radhaswami Faith however begins its devotional method from ‘Ajna-chakra’ the centre of ‘Anand-mai Kosh’ or the Bliss Sheath and continues to the ‘Sat-lok’ and beyond."
[The six bodily] ‘chakras’ (centres) are omitted in practice by the followers of Radhaswami Faith simply because they are gross. They are reflections of the stages above i.e., the mental region of ‘Brahmand’ which begins from the Third-Pupil, which gland is the conjunctive point of the ‘Pind’ and the ‘Brahmand’. The practice begins from this place, Above this, is the region of ‘Brahmand’ existing in the head or brain between the Third-Pupil up to ‘Shunya’… Now we come to the plane of ‘Para-Brahm-and’, the Universe beyond the Mental realm which is nothing but the Causal Universe as already has been said elsewhere. It is seedy and its region finds room in man’s brain."
Here he is saying that the Brahmand or mental (or astral-mental) plane(s) extend from the ajna chakra to the midbrain, and the Par-Brahmand or causal plane reaches from there to Shoonya just under the top of the skull: approximately encompassing the top third of the skull.
"It should be noted here, that the ‘Sat-lok’ where the Fourth Dimension begins, is the region which is in immediate affinity to and above this Cause. The subject here gets a little complicated. However, the ‘Sat-lok’ is the centre of the All-life, the Reality as it were. And its reflection below, becomes the Causal Universe."
"It [Sat-lok is situated in the head where the lobes have been sewed or jointed. [At the “Anterior Fontanelle”, the unjoined portion in the skull- bones at the top of the head in an infant.] It is the centre of Name and Form. In a new-born child you may mark there, a short of agitation which rises and falls, making a sound resembling ‘Sat-Sat’, ‘Sat-Sat’, ‘Sat-Sat’."
"In majority of cases ‘Sat–lok’ becomes the terminous point. On reaching it, the Spiritual elevation is easy to ‘Alakh’, ‘Agam’, and ‘RADHA SWAMI DHAM’ which is the topmost part of the crown of the head. Up to the ‘Sat- lok’ the consciousness of name form, and colour is possible. Beyond it they find no room. There is neither Unity not Trinity. It is un-speakable. It is intuitional merely.”
This passage is extremely important for several reasons. First, he acknowledges Radhasoami to be beyond colors and name or form. “It is purely intuitional." This is consonant with the expressions of sages in other traditions in saying that there is no subject-object distinction at this level. The classification is clear cut, and therefore Ram Chandra's inversion of the meaning of the region Anami to have it contain light and sound seems needlessly obfuscating. Anami is Radhasoami Dham. Shiv Brat Lal merely drops the name Anami. Secondly, if Radhasoami Dham is located the top of the crown of the head, this is the same as the classic Sahasrar in kundalini and raja yoga, but not at all the same as Sahas or Sahans dal Kanwal in Sant Mat which we have seen is experienced in the center of the head or brain. Sahansdal Kanwal may indeed be felt as the “powerhouse" of the lower creation of pinda (defined as the body below the eyes), but it is still within the limits of the brain. Third, Shiv Brat Lal places Sat Lok just under the Sahasrar but yet at the top the skull where the anterior fontanel is located.This contrasting of the fontanel and the top of the skull is a novel distinction which I have not seen in any other yoga book. There is not much 'room' vertically between these two centers, but since both encompass what he refers to as the "Fourth Dimension" or "Static Sphere" - which by definition is beyond time and space - it should not be too hard to at least conceptualize. He places Radhasoami Dham intuitionally at or slightly above the topmost part of the crown, and refers to it as the "Spiritual Sun above." This is a clear reference to the yogic Sahasrar, and he says nothing to contradict this view. Fourth, I don't know about you, but isn't it kind of crazy to say that an entire region (supposedly vaster than our own universe) can be assigned a specific physical location in relation to the head?
Of the ancient hatha and prana yogis he writes (quoting from Sar Bachan):
"...these systems taught the awakening of the kundalini (i.e., serpent power) which is no other than shabda-brahman (the sound principle)."
Here he explicitly states that there are not two distinct forces, kundalini and shabda - that they are in fact one and the same - his only criticism being that these yogis got stuck in their initial methods and didn’t teach that sound was the highest aspect of the shakti or power of God. In this light Darshan Singh’s comment on kundalini ending at the heart chakra seems unwarranted [discussed in section "Kundalini"].
Shiv Brat Lal liked the concept of a reflected trinity. Thus, he had a triplicity of paired chakras in pinda (or the six chakras of the gross body, below the eyes); three primary centers in the middle third of the skull, collectively the Sukshma or Brahmand Chakra: Sahans dal kanwal, Trikuti, and Sunnya; three centers in the upper third of the skull, collectively the Karana or Para-Brahman Chakra: Maha Sunn (the great State of Chaos or Absorption), Bhanwar Gupha, and Sat-Lok (the Life-Region); and three regions above, collectively the Chautha-Pad Chakra: Alakh, Agam, and Radhasoami Dham.
Much like the Kriya Yoga teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, Shiv Brat Lal spoke of physical, astral or mental, and causal sets of "six important chakras, nerve planes or circular rings assigned to it." Yogananda recognized physical, astral, and causal spines, and Shiv Brat Lal seems to point to this as well:
"[The] 'Sushmna' passes up from the rectum in the gross body right through the Subtle and Causal bodies upward into the Static Sphere hinted at and alluded to. The Path lies within it."
This seems to be a recognition of concentric, interpenetrating and not merely 'pan-caked' spheres or bodies. The path becomes an integral and not exclusively ascending one. Indeed, while using somewhat traditional language, Shiv Brat Lal said the goal was not to be happy in paradise but to bring the kingdom of heaven down to earth and find paradise here and now. Many of the saints actually speak like this from time to time and in private, only the general articulation of the teaching tends to lag behind.
The Macrocosm is in the Microcosm - Can't Have One Without the Other
From the above one can see that he gives a distinct perspective on the microcosm and macrocosm, but one that is consistent with Sant Mat teachings. Pinda is not coterminous with the whole body but only the body below the eyes. Pinda (the body below the eyes, which then would not include the brain) is the microcosm, and Brahmand (found above the eyes) is the macrocosm. Thus, "the macrocosm is in the microcosm" as has been said in Sant Mat. But this is not the usual or traditional way of conceiving it, where the total body or personal self is the microcosm and the universe (virat) is the macrocosm. For sages, moreover, the mental interior is not necessarily senior or superior to the universal grandeur experienced outside and only capable of being experienced or known through a body. At any rate, what Shiv Brat Lal seems to be saying through his description is that shabd yoga does not really extend beyond the microcosm of the man-body in all of its dimensions, which is coterminous with the macrocosm. Nor does any other yoga. But, this is not a limitation, but a recognition that there is really no such thing as “outside the body,” objectively considered. All is in Mind or Consciousness, the rest more or less imaginary. But then, one further asks, what is Mind or Consciousness - a ‘box’, to locate or put things in? No it isn’t. You are everywhere, or everywhere is in you. So coming to this position is only a reorientation of viewpoint.
Some thoughts come to mind at this point. Kirpal Singh wrote on the radiant guru dev in his book, Godman, “If the master’s form should descend to the eyes a disciple has no more to wish for.” But also said, “the mastering is always within at the eye-focus, so you should look for him there.” What are the meaning of these statement? Is the form only normally found at the deeper centers in the head, but rarely comes down to the eye-center which is at the front of the head, as Shiv Brat Lal and other Sant have taught? Does the form really “descend”? It has also been said, “Those who get a contact should maintain it so it is not broken.” How many these days get such a contact? And not all lineages don’t promise to give one. This led one initiate friend to write, “If you trust Faqir Chand then consciousness is what we are and this is reassuring to me:
“He who thinks himself different from the Guru is in duality. Therefore, I lay stress time and time again on this fact that if you remain attached to the physical existence of any Guru, you shall not get liberation. Our mind is within and our thoughts are also within. The questioner within is the disciple, and he who answers within is the Guru. When the questioner gets satisfactory answers to all his queries, he becomes silent. When our mind does not have any more questions or when your mind has no desire to know anything, it becomes silent. This state of silence is known as the union of Guru and disciple.”
Can it be so simple, and need we be in search of more? Many ask this question and, confronted with contrasting teachings, feel themselves faced with a choice.
More may be said on the concept of the microcosm and macrocosm. An interesting question is this: if you are in a hospital room looking down at your body being operated on, maybe even “dead”, are you out of the body ?
Maybe not. Then how does it happen? It has to have something to do with the immaterial nature of the mind, which is not limited to the brain. But still, as Shiv might say if he is honest, the same applies to all these experiences of planes, except perhaps Anami which he equates with the Sahasrar just slightly above the top of the head. Yet even here he can’t seem to get past using a bodily reference point. I think there is no experience of a “macrocosm” possible without a “microcosm", and that the two go together. Therefore it is not in fact absolutely necessary to go inside to get out of the microcosm and get free. Without a body there is no experience of a macrocosm. Maybe 'beyond' the microcosm/macrocosm duality in the eternal now is the 'Absolute prior to consciousness' that Nisargadatta talked about, or the 'Stateless State' Faqir Chand talked about, or the 'Self' Ramana talked about, or 'No-Self’ Bernadette Roberts talked about. Truth has nothing to do with any of these apparent limitations. So then, “what’s wrong with the present experience?” is a question a meditator must eventually face. Without a microcosm we don’t experience a macrocosm, no matter what plane. But it’s not exactly as if the planes are actually in the physical head, as Shiv might make it sound, or some scientists try to discover with probes and drugs, but rather, a correspondence is there as long as there is a body. When it all goes, perhaps then we are just in the 'Kingdom of Heaven' where we always were. Anthony Damiani states:
“The association of the soul with a particular body is the entrance into the unlimitedness of the World-Mind [God]…" (Living Wisdom (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1996), p. 228/231)
This can’t be done without a body, whatever the world.
“Just as the soul is within the Nous and then there’s an image of the Nous within the soul, then that very soul sends forth a projection [surat] of itself to again be within that World-Idea that’s within itself. All those realms of nature [planes] are part of that World-Idea that’s within this I AM or eternal soul. And then that I AM or eternal soul sends a projection or stream of life to be conjoined with the part of the World-Idea that’s within itself, and through that projection gets to know itself discriminatively.” (Ibid)
This is difficult material, and we will return to it. What it means is that manifestation is meaningful and actually part of the higher aspect of the soul called Nous in the traditions, and through which the lower part is instructed and gets enlightened in this 'womb of the buddhas' and 'footstool of the gods.'
Shiv Brat Lal also uniquely equates Pind, Brahmand, and Par Brahmand with waking, dream, and deep
sleep and Sat Lok as Turiya, the ‘fourth' state. Traditionally after this comes Turiyatita, ‘beyond the fourth.’ It is not clear if he would mean by this Radhasoami Dham, or if it means Turiya realized in the waking state as Sahaj samadhi, but he doesn’t speak on this point. What he does speak about is akin to something I have pondered about before. My sense is that just as this world can be experienced, as it were, from an unenlightened and enlightened point of view, so, too, might the inner planes be so experienced also. What Shiv Brat Lal says is that not only Pind, but also Brahmand and Par-Brahmand can themselves be experienced in waking, dream, or sleep phases. It infers as well that Turiya can be experienced on any plane. But this is difficult to understand, and I am almost sorry I brought it up. But what it may mean is that just because one has managed to invert inside does not mean one is fully awake there. Maybe that was why Rajinder Singh, as recounted in the book of stories, The Flowering of Grace, rapped on the head of a woman who was deep in meditation several times and said to her, "wake up!" ?
A Second Look At The Roots of Modern Sant Mat Theory
Now that we have an ample amount of outline material presented, we may look once more at some of the foundational claims for Sant Mat. The following is from the website (https://www.radhasoamisatsang.org/radhasoamifaith/) of Dadaji Agam Prasad Mathur (Dadaji), who was not only a noted Sant Mat historian and philosopher, but also claimed to be the only living Guru with the full truth in the direct line from Soamiji - which, coincidentally, Babuji of Agra also claimed to be. In fact, our friend Richard Handel visited many of these gurus in India and told us that ALL of them said they were the highest and only true Guru! Obviously, logic and pure reason tell us that someone or something is wrong here. Might it not be time to say, enough of this nonsense! We have quoted from his website before, now we will present more interspersed with my comments. He writes:
“This Faith, which rests upon the thought and philosophy of Soamiji Maharaj and Hazur Maharaj, was unique and soon caught attention of the elite and the laity, who were gradually drawn to it in large numbers. The Gurus of the Faith had direct intuitive experiences of Truth, and taught its basic principles in simple, lucid and intelligible language."
Simple? Not really, read on.
"The founders assert that Radhasoami is a Dhunyatmak name because it is the true shabd."
This is simply SaligRam’s teaching that the five names of Simran should be discarded for worship or repetition of the name "Radhasoami" which he felt was the “sound” of the Supreme Being. And the lineages have been arguing about this for point for well over a hundred years.
"Shabd is energy and sound both."
Fine. This allows for attending to the sensible aspect of the shabd (i.e., sounds) in the subtle regions and being intuitively carried by the energy aspect (Sar and/or Sat Shabda) in higher regions beyond that.
"When there was no creation, pure and absolute spiritual energy rested in ellipsoid."
An ellipsoid? Woah! An ellipsoid is defined as "a quadratic surface, that is, a surface that may be defined as the zero set of a polynomial of degree two in three variables.” Sure, I knew that! And this, says Mathur, is a simple teaching. Moreover, how do they know Radhasoami is an ellipsoid? Did they see it? If somehow they can see it, the question then arises, says vedanta, 'who' sees it? What is the nature of the 'seer', who sees something that is prior to creation and presumably prior to conscious as well? Moreover, if even Anami is formless, how can anything beyond it be an ellipsoid, which is a kind of form? This is mere imagination and likely beyond the scope of even the highest sage, in our opinion.
"Through divine will, creation started and the Supreme Being first manifested himself as shabd."
Isn’t this the meaning of Saguna Brahman, the Supreme or Nirguna Brahman manifesting itself as energy?
"The creativity in the pure spiritual energy led to a commotion which was accompanied by a pure spiritual resonance or a holy sound."
A 'commotion'? Okay, he is speaking to simple unphilosophical people here, and we will let this one slide.
"In the Radhasoami faith, the ultimate reality is Radhasoami. In Hinduism and its branches the ultimate reality is Brahman and Isvara. Brahman is considered to be the highest reality in Vedanta. The founders of Radhasoami faith, however, came forward with a new concept."
Now we are getting at the essential, novel claim of nineteenth century Sant Mat. A NEW CONCEPT! Here he is, perhaps unknowingly, being honest. Soamiji and Saligram came up with a new concept. And they, at the very least, as we see it, interpreted their experiences to fit the concept. This is a problem with many writers and philosophers of Sant Mat, namely, they a priori interpret all other teachings on the basis of Sant Mat without first understanding them on their own merits. Without doing so we have no way of knowing owing if the different schools are talking about the same thing or not.
One can argue the founders of Sant Mat did a bait-and-switch with their concepts. In order to create a new concept for the Supreme they had to demote the concept of Brahman to a lower level and make it - a pointer to the Supreme - a ‘thing’ with limits.
“According to them, The Brahman of Vedanta is limited to the second grand division of the creation whom they call 'spiritual-material region'. They hold that the Brahman is not the true Supreme Being or the highest reality because he..."
'He'? Brahman is not a 'He', nor is it to be confused with the god Brahma, nor is it a 'The' as in 'The Brahman'. Brahman is not a thing, or a region, nor does it have a region. They have completed changed the 5000 year-old meaning of Brahman in their founding statements. A proper comparison therefore cannot be made or assessed.
" [The Brahman] is not perfectly free from mind and matter. They assert that though spiritual components predominate in Brahman, there is Maya latent in the seed form and a Supreme Reality having the least admixture of Maya cannot be styled as the highest truth.”
Why not? If everything is derived from a Supreme Reality, call it God or Brahman or whatever you like.
“They envisaged the highest and the first grand division of creation as the region of the true Supreme Being who is absolutely spiritual and totally free from mind and matter.”
'Envisaged'? What does that mean? One can envisage anything one likes but that does not make it truth. If they meant 'realized' here then they should say so. This is also an extremely dualistic view where spirit is opposed to matter. Is there such a 'thing' as matter, however? Does anyone ever experience 'matter' apart from an experiencer - consciousness? What then is matter?' And 'who' ultimately experiences themselves as free of mind and matter? This is what the Jains teach, to get beyond all matter. Is this version of Sant Mat a form of Jainism?
A related question is, “Who' merges into a Supreme Being? If a teaching is going to propose a merger one needs to be sure of the identity of the one who is supposed to get merged into that something first. What does Sant Mat say? It is sometimes stated this way: "when the attention recedes within to concentrate at the seat of the soul between and at the back of the two eyes, it realizes its true identity - that it is the indweller, controlling the body, and there is a Supreme Power that controls it [the soul ]in the body." This is not an entirely unique depiction. deCaussade in the Christian tradition wrote "God is more the life of the soul than the soul is the life of the body." Then it is said that "when you transcend the physical, astral, and causal bodies, you will completely know who you are." I believe these are tentative teaching and not the final truth. When one has abstracted himself from the gross body he may know he is a something not identified exclusively with that body, but he does not know who he is. A 'something' not the body is not his true identity. Even after transcending the so-called three bodies, ones True Home lies higher up, or 'Beyond', so this also is not the classic depiction of Atman or Self-Realization. A further question is, is it even out of the body? Or just abstracted from the portion of the body below the eyes?
Shiv Brat Lal said all the subtle regions are in the brain or head. Kirpal said to "rise above the body consciousness." To do so one is advised to withdraw the attention from the body - the body 'below the eyes'. The centers between the eye-center and the top of the head, however, are still in the confines of the body - the body 'above the eyes'. It is because of the existing correspondence between the microcosmic and macrocosmic chakras/planes, that one can be lying on their hospital bed and viewing their body apparently below, and still be considered to be 'in' the body! It may feellike being out of the body, but it is still in the microcosm, even while experiencing a macrocosmic reflection. In every monment the macrocosm is focussed at every point, one of which is the body. There is no entering the macrocosm as such; that is a wrong way of looking at it. The same principle seems likely to apply in the case of living saints contacting disciples from a distance, on subtle planes, and so on. Maharaj Saheb, a Sant Mat guru after Rai Salig Ram, explicitly said,
”In the fissure between the two lobes of the brain there are twelve apertures, which provide the means for communion with the six subdivisions of Brahmand and with the six subdivisions of the purely spiritual region. The apertures appertaining to Brahmand are to be found in the gray matter, and those appertaining to the purely spiritual region, in the white matter.”
We will revisit this quote later, but it clearly implies a bodily connection with the macrocosm. The perennial teaching say that the “macrocosm is in the microcosm.” If you reach the Sahasrar, which Shiv says is associated with Anami, are you finally out of the body - as a disembodied spirit - roaming the macrocosm? Or just emerge or shift into a new dimension entirely? No, you are not set free into the 'macrocosm'. Without a microcosm (body) there is no experience of a macrocosm. Both exist at the same time even as one lives a normal life. All of the inner phenomenon and apparent play of soul and Masters are accounted for by this primal duality. Beyond this lies the absolute, or whatever it is called in the various teachings, which is within, underlying, and beyond this duality of the microcosm and macrocosm. PB had a mysterious quote regarding deep contemplation in which he said that "on the edge of the void the soul and God meet for the last time." This must be accepted as happening in ordinary life as well, in a non-dual reality. Which would seem to imply something like a 'Stateless State'. And is also actually hopeful for those many who have not been able to 'leave' the body.
"Such a Supreme Being they have named as Radhasoami."
Gupta and Babuji postulate, and Mathur seems to agree, that the original 'ellipsoid' mass of spiritual energy had to 'deplete' itself to create maya which it (or Adi Purush) - needed to help create the cosmos. This is similar if not identical to the Hindu duality of Isvara and Maya. And it is also similar to the thought of the Cypriote mystic Daskalos who taught that the 'Absolute Beingness' created a 'super substance' called Mind with which to create the universe. But right here these teachers are implying that 'maya' - which is not a 'thing' anyway, and it is wrong to think of it that way - as well as 'mind”' (also not a separate thing) were latent or present in seed-form in Radhasoami in the same way they say it exists in seed form in Brahman. It can easily be argued that they have just added another confusing concept to the mix. In fact, it seems that is exactly what they have done. And added an exclusive theology on top of it In Hinduism, Brahman has no maya. Isvara is associated with maya but is not subject to it. But what are we doing here, mixing a cake? Add some maya and then presto - creation? Can you see or touch maya? Can you see or touch mind? Again, is Brahman a thing or a region? NO! Brahman is not an ellipsoid either.
New concepts - yes, concepts! The seeker after truth cannot assume that just because Sant Mat uses similar sounding words for the regions of Brahmand and ParBrahmand, and Vedanta speaks of Brahman and Para Brahman denoting absolute reality, that they talking about the same thing. It is quite possible that they do not. It is quite possible the early seers of Sant Mat misunderstood their own experiences. It is not fitting to just accept what they say without deep investigation. This does not mean that within the parameters of the Sant Mat cosmology they are not experientially correct in pointing out shortcomings of lesser stages and where some aspirants will stop and assume they have realized the highest. They may be quite correct within the framework of their system. But other schools also teach such fine distinctions and point out similar errors. The problem we have here is the conflating of terminologies and words as the same when they may likely mean different things. And the poor untutored disciples are supposed to just believe what they say because it sounds hopeful and mystifyingly esoteric. After all, what do we know?
"A New Concept of the Supreme Being and His Abode. The founders claim that the concept of the Supreme Being as enunciated by them had so far been unknown. They call Him as Sat Purush Radhasoami Dayal."
Again the word concept is used. "Reality - what a concept!" - Robin Williams. This is a major stumbling block in this teaching, the fly in the ointment so to speak. Do we even know what we are talking about?
The language here is very linear and personified and thus problematical. 'A' Supreme Being may have an abode, but Supreme Being itself is not localizable.
"The Brahman with both His aspects, vachya and laksh, is dependent upon the Supreme Being Radhasoami for His own existence and creation. The founders assert that the Brahman of Hinduism, Allah of Islam and God of Christianity are the Lords of the spiritual-material region or the second grand division of creation which is not free from mind and matter."
It is possible they are right, and it is possible they are wrong. Someone can 'envisage' and 'assert' whatever they like, but that doesn’t make it truth. For instance, which God of Christianity were they talking about? Jehovah of the Old Testament? The Elohim? The Godhead of the great mystics such as Eckhart? The “Father” Christ spoke about - the Unmanifest first person of the Trinity? Confusion on the latter matter may have led to the silly back and forth labelling at Beas of Jesus as either a third or fifth plane Master.
"Brahman is in fact kal or the universal mind with purest form of matter latent as seed in Him. Brahman and His region cannot escape change, decay or dissolution."
Again, the strict dualism. An absolute can not be contaminated with its own expressions. Brahman in Vedanta is certainly not a region nor is it subject to decay and dissolution. It is not the universal mind. Even still, the term 'Para Brahman' is used in some schools of Vedanta to denote Absolute Reality. Among these are the school of Samartha RamDas and Nisargadatta. Sant Mat speaks of Atman and Paramatman in lofty tones, but lets its demotion of Brahman and ParaBrahman stand.
"The founders envisage a new concept of the Supreme Being who is absolutely free from mind and matter and is the ocean of love, peace, intelligence, bliss, mercy, light and spirit."
Concepts again for the third of fourth time. All of the above attributes ascribed to divinity in all scriptures. Sant Mat, it is suggested, is again guilty of a form of bait and switch, essentially conflating realizations of an empty void with divinity and claiming they are the only ones who have ever pointed out this error. The error, however, is taken into account in many spiritual traditions.
"He is all-pure and all-spiritual and His abode knows as Radhasoami Dham or Dayal Desh is also all-pure and free from any admixture. The spirit entities are the particles of the true Supreme Being and as such their original abode is Dayal Desh."
Well, okay..... as long as this is interpreted in a non-dual way. But he has not said how one comes to know he is a 'particle' of the Supreme Being. Again, this is Jainism.
"A worshiper of Brahman..."
Vedanta does not 'worship' Brahman, it realizes Brahman, and in some schools, Para Brahman.
" [A worshipper of Brahman] will not attain true salvation because freedom from mind and matter will not be attained even after the attainment of Brahman. Those who strive for total redemption from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth must, therefore, try for the attainment of Dayal Desh – the region of Radhasoami Dayal."
There was a reason that Naropa, guru of Milarepa, and a great Siddha in the Tibetan tantric tradition, travelled thousands of miles on foot to get the 'mind-only' teachings from India, and something like this might be it. Perhaps it is the same impulse that is leading many seekers these days to teachings of non-duality. So why all the confusion and conflicting claims one might ask? I don't feel most of it is from any malicious intent. Ignorance due to limited exposure to a sufficient variety of wisdom teachings, insularity and cultural appropriation, and spiritual (ego) inflation from experiences on subtle planes is the most likely culprit. This simply happens, and it must be happening because all of these teachers who each claim to be the highest can't be right.
A few more comments are in order here to set the ground for much of the later discussions. Agam Prasad Mathur wanted people to accept him as the only legitimate one, yet his book and/or website contains confusing and exclusive language. This of course is not anise for his lineage alone. One small example. He says the new concept of the Soamiji-Saligram line that he represented describes the realization that the souls were “particles” of the Supreme Being residing in his own region. “Particles” implies pieces or fragments of a thing. First question to ask is, “how does he or they know they are particles of a Supreme Being and not just particles? In Jainism for instance that is just what they propose, that there is no Supreme Being but only eternal Purushas and the goal is to regain that isolated state as one of the Purushas. That’s what they believe. So a man like Mathur must hold something like there is an inherent self-knowing in the souls, or a recognition of their being the progeny of a Supreme. But he doesn’t say it that way.
Brahman, which they criticize, is not described as being composed of particles. There is no partibility in Brahman. So if he wants to propose an entirely new “concepts” there must be strong evidence for such a strong claim. I think part of the problem is that these teachers were not philosophically trained very deeply and were talking to mostly illiterate simple people. As well as maybe misinterpreting their experiences. This is not just semantics, but affects how one looks at reality. For instance, PB describes the Soul or Overself as “neither a division or a detached fragment of the Supreme, but more like a ray of the sun.” And further, that part of the Soul never incarnates, but an emanant of the soul apparently does. What this would mean is that there was never a “fall” of a distinct fragment into lower worlds that must struggle or need to attach itself to anything to get out of them, but only a matter of realization of the truth. True, this, too, can be said to be a concept (of soul), but some concepts have a better value of depicting what is actually happening.
In addition, as mentioned, Mathur and the Soamiji-SaligRam lineage play tricks with the meaning of Brahman. Sar Bachan basically equates Surat with Brahman, in my opinion, although without directly saying so:
"Surat is the source of energy and vitality for the entire creation…Surat is Sat, Chit and Anand."
Yet in Hinduism, says Wikipedia, "Satchitananda is a compounded Sanskrit word consisting of 'sat', 'chit' and 'ananda', all three considered as inseparable from the nature of ultimate reality called Brahman.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satcitananda]
Not only is there complexity in all branches over the notion of Brahman versus Radhasoami, and controversy over the name "Radhasoami" versus the five names, but the original Beas and Faqir lineages also can be said to add complexity, with the latter emphasizing attention to “Surat,” considered as the Creator - similar to the practice of “attention on attention” in advaita - whereas the former emphasize putting attention on “shabd”, also taught as the Creator.
How much simpler to recognize that Surat/Shabd are just other words for Shiva/Shakti, or Consciousness/energy.
[Or even Nirguna/Saguna, where Surat itself is the Saguna (expressive energy aspect), with shabd its sensible expression (along with touch and hearing as well)].
The Faqir lineage and current master Kamal Dayal, for instance, currently teaches that a Master is good for three things: instruction in the nature of the higher stages (which they call NAAM initiation), guidance, and radiation. While Beas has offered or promises (sometimes) a form of ‘spiritual-baptism’ NAAM initiation, and teaches meditation on that.
The what I will call “Saligram-ites”, in particular Faqir, say it is wrong to meditate on the sound, that rather, the emphasis should be on Surat, or attention on attention, that is to say, the direct meditation on consciousness and not its expression. Ramana Maharshi took a middle road when asked about sound meditation, saying it was good but better with self-inquiry to avoid going asleep in a state of laya, or forgetting the “I”. In any case in Sant Mat shabd as sensible sound comes to an end requiring the inherent pull of the Soul or Sat Purush to go further to the “Wordless State”.
But in practice I find instances in both of these lineages where the emphasis by the Teachers shifts from Surat to Shabd, depending on who is speaking to whom. My feeling is that shabd is an aid for concentration which the soul has a natural affinity for inasmuch as their source is the same; a kind of “comforting bed” that surat rests on, but ultimately it is Surat, attention, consciousness, that must stand forth alone. Sometimes it is said one should connect the lesser attention to the greater Attention, but, since the same Mind or consciousness is underlying both, this conceptual distinction does not answer the question of a difference in recommended practice in the two lineages.
The Faqir line says it is ultimately your own self that provides you with visions of a master, and your own self that is the real guru in the end. Brunton would be in agreement with this:
“Only when he has reached a point where he no longer thinks of the Master as another person but as the core of his inner self, can it be said that the Master’s work for him is done.” (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.280)
Ernest Wood, in Practical Yoga, writes:
“The Master is not the form that appears and speaks words. In nine cases out of ten that form is created by the pupil even when the words speak truth. The Master in the pupil speaks to himself.”
Sri Nisargadatta similarly said:
“The greatest Guru is your inner self. Truly, he is the supreme teacher. He alone can take you to your goal and he alone meets you at the end of the road…Your own self is your ultimate teacher (sadguru). The outer teacher is merely a milestone. It is only your inner teacher that will walk with you to the goal, for he is the goal.” (I AM THAT, p, 51, 149)
Further, ultimately all experiences of light and sound, smell and touch, can be said to be of the “psyche”, not the soul. Even the vision of infinite light is at the penultimate level of the imagination, according to sages like Ramana. . Penultimate, not the gross imagination. Only the experiences of consciousness itself are truly “mystical.,” in the sense of having to do with consciousness. And these are of a few types. Nirvikalpa samadhi is one. This might be Anami, I’m not sure. But it can be considered a Witness-I experience, one of “awareness of awareness.” Deeper than this is just “awareness,” sometimes termed “pure consciousness.” The former is usually mistaken for the latter.
No one can stay there all the time. The sahaja experience, or realization of non-duality, comes when one realizes that the very outer world is (or is one with) one’s deeper inner self. It in fact exists in unmanifest form with that self at the level of being, and is thus part of it and the expression of Divine Intelligence. When projected through the individual soul it becomes the sensible world, including a body which the soul enters into with a part of itself. Thus the goal can never be just radical separation but inclusion. PB writes:
“If the mystic attains his highest aspiration when the world is lost from his consciousness, the philosopher attains his when the world is again restored to his consciousness.” (unpublished, quoted in Living Wisdom, p. 169)
Thus, “the sage finds reality in the world without as his own self at all times and not at special occasions and wholly rather than in glimpses. The mystic’s light comes in glimpses, but the sage’s is perennial.” (Notebooks, v13, 20:4.23)
The goal as the sahaja state is to see that Mind or Consciousness is not different or separate from the world it manifests. The average yogi or mystic does not know this. He does not know the world is a manifestation of consciousness and is content to separate soul from body and reside in a personal heaven. He is entitled to this, but it is not full or true enlightenment.
Kirpal spoke of a time when “one will look at his hand and see the Master’s hand there.” This is I think what Brunton meant when he wrote:
“The ego to which he is so attached turns out on enquiry to be none other than the presence of the World-Mind within his own heart. If identification is then shifted by constant practice from one to the other, he has achieved the purpose of life.” (Ibid, 8:1.127
So it may be said that the Faqir and SaligRam lines give more of a nod to non-duality and consciousness whereas the other lineages incline more towards yoga and experiences, hoping to reach non-duality in the end. While it does seem that way, this may only be true when painting each path in broad strokes.
Mathur says “the teachers taught in simple language that rapidly attracted the learned and unlearned alike in large numbers.” Is is true they used simple language?! That aside, however, it is clear most of the people did and do not pay attention to Surat and do not even know what that means. They can understand “listen to this sound. Likewise, most of the people who went to Ramana are like those who go to Rajinder and other big-sangha teachers with their personal problems and family questions and so on. They did not do self-inquiry. Ramana let them just look at him and do whatever they wanted. So maybe this what Sant Mat gurus do also?
That is to say, it may not be quite correct to say Kirpal and Saligram and Faqir, are on different pages. Kirpal said “you are already there, you just don’t know it.” Likewise with Ishwar Puri. And for those who came to him with sophisticated questions Kirpal would back off, or sit back, and not hammer them with further teaching about light and sound. Despite traditional messages like “meditate two and a half hours or more to reach the five planes within one’s lifetime,” Sant Rajinder seems to be coming around to the other side with his “you don’t go anywhere” and “service is more important than meditation” and “Don’t worry about anything, I’m taking care of everything” messages. Just as Meher Baba said, “Don’t worry be happy.” Ramana also said “the elimination of all worry is the supreme state. And that is certainly well worth pondering.
Which leads back to a theory I came upon years ago that perhaps "Sant Mat" is not equivalent to “shabd yoga”, but only what it says: the path of the saints. “And in every age,” said Kabir (supposedly!), “ the path of the saints is a strange path.” The Masters usually are quite generous and do not require the same discipline and practices of everybody. Nisargadatta told some people all the food they needed was chanting and remembering the Name of God and they should “live on it.” Ramana did not require or even teach self-inquiry to all who came. Yogananda taught all yogas as well as self-inquiry. Once one has the proper vision and faith, all techniques fall away. The search is ended. Such a path is always available in the ambience of the saints. “No technology required.”
The Great Causal Body - Vedanta versus Sant Mat
To complete this preliminary discussion of planes and bodies and their relation to Realization, two systems of spiritual teaching must be compared. The Vedanta teachings of the 17th century Samartha Ram Das, whom Sant Darshan recognized as a great saint (more on this later), are found in his classic book Dasbodh. This is the source of much of the teaching of Sri Siddharameshwar, guru of Sri Nisargadatta, the latter whose talks form the classic I AM THAT. The teachings of this line more or less parallel those of the Sants in terms of the essence of the stages up to the causal body, although their practice is Vedantic and not mystical. This is a major point. For instance, for them the subtle body includes all inner functions of pranas, mind, intellect and ego (ahamkara). This is transcended in place, that is to say, through discrimination and not the mystical ‘exfoliation’ of the soul. Nevertheless, at the point of transcending the causal body which they describe as of the nature of the ignorance of deep sleep, there is a 'forgetting.' A forgetting of what? All the knowledge and cosmic consciousness that went before. One emerges in the Greater Causal Body - their term for what the Sants refer to as the Supercausal or sometimes Supracausal body - into a luminous clarity of the "I Am', which they say is the first act of the Absolute in limiting itself to the form of Pure Knowledge. The Great Causal body is inclusive of all five sheaths said to be covering the soul in yoga teachings. It is “Turiya” or the “fourth state. In this stage one may assert "I Am the Truth." This is alright, they say, because it is true, but just as a man would not continue to say "I am a man, I am a man," so one in the Greater Causal Body would not need to repeat "I Am the Truth," because to do so would eventually create a doubt of its being so. The Absolute would never assert that, it is what it is. So the final step would be to transcend the Greater Causal Body, which amounts to a "forgetting of the forgetting." In the Greater Causal Body, one feels liberated. In fact he is - liberated from the bondage to duality in body and mind. The Absolute, however, has no knowledge or even memory of ever being in bondage or being liberated. There is no mind there, no subject, no object, no world (which is also in the Form of Knowledge, i.e., a concept).
Okay. Now in the path of the Sants, upon passing through the experiential void of Maha Sunn, one is in the upper part of the supercausal body, and may utter the Maha Vakya of "aham brahm asmi," (or "Oh God, I am of the same essence as Thou art."). One has 'forgotten' the lower worlds and lower self, and abides in a pure state of Self-Knowledge. But now, unlike the other school, the step to the Absolute appears much more complex. The necessary "forgetting of the forgetting" leading to the Absolute could mean the ascent or transition to Sach Khand, or the passage through all the stages of Sach Khand, Alak, Agam,and Anami. This would be the case on the classification of Ram Chandra and perhaps even Soamiji where Anami is the first plane of relativity and not the Absolute. One may well ask then, "should we consider these four planes or stages as making up what the other school refers to as the Great Causal Body - and only the next step being the Absolute? If not, why not? Ram Chandra, using a lesser-known Dharamdasi text of Kabir, says that all planes up to Anami have light and sound. Thus based on this alone Anami could not be the Absolute. However, he has already confused us by switching the placement of Anami in the hierarchy of planes. Further, he writes
“It is a matter of experience that everything originates from sound and merge in the sound only…Sound is the manifestation of consciousness. [Note: contrast with Ishwar Puri above, who said that it IS consciousness, and comes out of ourselves; we do not come out of it; similarly the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: “‘I’ becomes the Name, ‘Om’ comes later.”] It is the life of lives, the soul of the soul and the existence of existence…This alone is the fourth state (Turiya)…The definition of a Sat-Guru is that he should attach himself to Reality; i.e. he should dwell in the fourth state - Sound alone is the fourth state - and in the Jivanmukta condition.”
In traditional Hindu yoga and Vedanta, the fourth state or Turiya is not the end, but is to be followed by “Turiyatita” or “beyond the fourth.” This would seemingly be equated with the Absolute as defined above.
A quote from Christian mystic Pseudo Dionysius the Aeropagite may also illustrate what we are getting at here:
"The simple and absolute and changeless mysteries of theology lie hidden within the super-luminous gloom of the silence, revealing hidden things, which in its deepest darkness shines above the most super-brilliant, and in the altogether impalpable and invisible, fills to overflowing the eyeless minds with glories of surpassing beauty...It is super essentially exalted above all, and manifested without veil and in truth, to those alone who pass through both all things consecrated and pure, and ascend above every ascent of all holy summits, and leave behind all divine lights and sounds, and heavenly words, and enter the gloom, where really is, as the Oracles say, He Who is beyond all." (John Parker, trans, Dionysius the Aeropagite, Works (1897) (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), p. 84-86)
This could be interpreted as portraying a passage into the 'dazzIing darkness' and ‘divine unknowing’ and the realization of the Pure I Am - awesome indeed, but still one step from the Absolute as thus far considered.
Perhaps a quote from another discipline may simplify things for us here. Paul Brunton writes:
“It is possible for the fully illumined mystic to experience two different stages of identification with his Higher Self. In one, he becomes conscious of the latter on IT’s own plane; in the other, which he experiences in deep trance only, even this is transcended and there is only the One/Being. Yet this is not annihilation. What it is (infinite) is beyond human comprehension, and therefore beyond human description.” (Notebooks, Vol. 14, 3.387)
Might the first of these ‘inbound’ stages be equivalent to Sach Khand (the soul’s own plane) and the second Anami (infinite Being)? That would leave us the unqualified Absolute, beyond inner and outer, as the so-called “Stateless State.”
Sri Nisargadatta said, ”In the Absolute every I AM is preserved and glorified.” Brunton said, ”At the base of each man’s being stretches the one infinite life alone, but within it his centre of existence rests.”
The ego, which knows only separate existence, does not exist in Sach Khand, but man’s higher individuality does. Rajinder Singh said that individuality is never lost; however, as contrasted with the ego, this unique individuality knows itself not separatively but as a consciousness within the universal existence. As such it can be said to be individual, but not personal.
And of course, it is to be recognized, sooner or later, that it is that way even now, from the heart’s perspective.
Well, are these sages not talking the same language here? Hopefully, we will see them even closer together before we are through.
Bhanwar Gupha, or the ‘Rotating Cave’ - Siddharameshwar versus Faqir Chand
This discussion is related to the one above. In either system, whether that of Sri Siddahrameshwar in Amrut Laya: The Stateless State and Sri Samartha Ramdas in Dasbodh, or that of Sant Mat, the passage to the Great Causal Body or Supercausal Body is not accomplished in one step. At first the Self-Knowledge attained is not pure or stable. Sri Siddharameshwar says that this is not enough to banish the causal ignorance, or veiling of the causal body. The Great Causal Body needs “polishing” or “scrubbing.” Thus, one goes back and forth between Knowledge and ignorance for a period of time. He states:
“The God of Knowledge…witnesses the dissolution of all the modifications of Knowledge and is the one who presides over the Great Causal Body. However, it should be clearly understood that this “Witnessing Knowledge” is also a parasite (an unwanted presence) on the “Pure Nature of the Self.” This “Witnessing Knowledge” is only needed to be used to annihilate the “Ignorance” of the Causal Body which means having “no knowledge.” Where the “Witnessing Knowledge” of the Fourth Body is left behind, the state of Forgetfulness is forgotten, and “Knowledge” sees only at itself. Observation of one’s Self cannot be called “witnessing.” The seer is called a witness when he forgets the Self and sees something objective or different from the Self. When seeing only Himself, he abides in this “Supreme Knowledge,” Vijnana, which is of the nature of the “Absolute.” (Amrut Laya, p. 50-51)
When reading Sant Mat guru Faqir Chand’s book, Illuminations, at first I was sceptical of his more ‘gyanic’ description of Bhanwar Gupha, but after reading Siddharameshwar I found Faqir’s depiction almost identical. Sant Mat usually teaches that the soul in its mystic ascent goes through a dark void of Maha Sunn and then later goes through a ‘whirling or rotating cave’ in the super and/or supra-causal plane. These are depicted as actual structures one ‘sees’. But is it really so, or are we better off understanding it as a transformation in consciousness? Faqir says:
“I have realized that all these stages of Sahasraradala Kamal, Trikuti, Sunn, Maha-Sunn,, are the play of the mind. Visions are based on the thoughts one keeps. This play of whatever one sees within (i.e., visions) is based on samskaras (impressions and suggestions). They are not the same for everyone. Visions or images vary from person to person…I told you the meaning Soham-kar in yesterday’s satsang. We call it Bhanwar-gupha. We attain knowledge. We try to stay there, but the mind brings us back down. Again, we leave the mind and go beyond. This cyclical process is called Bhanwar-gupha. When one ripens, one goes beyond this Bhanwar-gupha. Then what happens? One comes to know one’s true nature…” (Baba Faqir Chand’s Illuminations (MSAC Philosophy group, 2018), p. 55)
This is a far cry from traditional depictions of an actual cosmological journey. One such account from a Radhasoami group reads as follows:
"After the soul has risen from the dark emptiness, the Maha Sunn, it reaches that inner level which is known as Bhanwar Gupha or also: (the bent tunnel)...The soul ascends the peak from its west gate And penetrates across Maha-sunn. By throwing open the gate of Banwar Gupha It hearkens to the music of the flute that emanates from Sohang... If the soul proceeds it will cross a high, radiating pass above the vibrant breakers of spiritual force which is known as the Hansni Tunnel. Then, it proceeds through the huge entrance of the splendid Rukmini Tunnel where it sees an unbelievably beautiful object the radiation of which has an impact on the view of the soul with the effect that the soul’s Nirat (the visual faculty) and its Surat (the capability to hear) are finally completed and gain real peace. Then, the soul progresses to a higher region of this spiritual realm and sees at its right-hand side bright cosmic islands of an immense beauty and at the left-hand side many continents with splendid palaces which seemed to be built of pearls and the upper stories of which are decorated with rubies, emeralds and diamonds. The splendour of all these cosmic scenes fills the soul with a wonderful drunkenness....There is nothing in the physical world which can stand up to the comparison with the wonderful sound of Bhanwar Gupha’s melody. This sound emanates from the sparkling cosmic mountain that overlooks this region majestically and above which the soul sees a huge sun with a dazzling white light that is a thousand times brighter than the physical sun of our solar system."
A "west gate", and "sees on its right-hand side" and its "left-hand side"? We will encounter this language again, but for now let us ponder, how can there be a left-hand side to a region? Do souls on the right side see those on the other side as being on the left? In fact, Bhanwar Gupha has also been described as much more than just a rotating cave or tunnel, but
"In Bhanwar Gupha, the region below Sach Khand, there are 88 000 universes and the residents of these universes are all supporters of spiritual Adepts Who have gained entrance into this region. However, in Sach Khand itself, there are many million spheres under the merciful rule of the True Lord, and cosmic islands of the Blessed One rotate around this region, just as our tiny earth rotates around the sun. These spheres are the dwelling places of the Hansas, the pure souls, who never descended into the lower levels." (from "The Soul's Journey")
Even if there is just one region - a region supposedly much vaster than our physical universe - and beyond time and space - how can we speak of a left or a right side? Is not this a hint that all these experiences and regions must be experientially associated with the centers in the brain, as Shiv Dayal Singh and Shiv Brat Lal seemed to point to? Faqir confessed that he felt Beas created a lot of psychotics, might this be one of the reasons: disseminating a path of nearly impossible technical fulfillment for the average person? What does the heart say?
Moreover, from Bhanwar Gupha one sees at the top of a mountain a sun a thousand times brighter than our physical sun, and then in Sach Khand the brightness is said to be a "billion" times greater. Traditional yogic descriptions of Atman are of the "light of a million suns" - is that not enough? Why the hyperbole? Does it mean more happiness?
Faqir, at any rate, seems to be in agreement with Siddharameshwar that this stage is not steady until one ripens in Self-Knowledge. Otherwise, one falls back in ignorance.
Does anyone or everyone ‘see’ a ‘whirling cave’? I don’t know. I imagine it is possible, why not? Can there not be both a (dualistic) psychic vision beforehand and also a transformation in one’s consciousness, such that one does not merely go through a cave but becomes it, before attaining Self-Knowledge? But I doubt if we can imagine what it would be like going through such a ‘cave’. Is it like a washing machine, or a swooning in and out of awareness, uncertain which end of the cave we will pop out of ? Is such a cave part of the brain structures like the course of baanknal along the optic nerve, or the passage through the corpus collosum on the way to the crown? This general discussion is revisited in the concluding section in Part Four.
Belief and Investigation
Despite the promises of Soamiji, "Unless I see with my own eyes, I will not believe the sayings of the Master,” and “Know yourself by yourself, and do not rely on the sayings of anyone else,” therefore, much still seems to be expected to be believed without argument from the beginning. It is common in Sant Mat to say that “all Masters speak of the same path” and that its teaching is the same as many teachings throughout the ages. This makes the path sound like the highest and also helps legitimize it. It is said that Jesus, Buddha, and other classic figures all taught the same thing. But one can easily reach the conclusion they did NOT teach the same thing, at least not as historically recorded. In none of the schools of high Buddhism is shabd yoga taught, nor is there undisputed evidence that Jesus did so, other than a few oblique references in the gospels that are interpreted to suggest that he did. I am not saying they did one way or the other. There is obviously subtle light and sound experienceable within. That is not at issue. The point, however, is that one must assume that Jesus and Buddha taught this specific method of yoga in private only to a select few in order to justify such a claim. There is some presumptive evidence for the yoga claims, in the apocryphal gospels of Judas and Mary, but it is by no means agreed upon. There is also the problem that any number of mystical schools, such as Kriya Yoga, also attempt to gain legitimacy by claiming Jesus as one of their own.
If someone adheres to a particular ideology, he tends to defend it in the terms of that ideology itself instead of from a position of intellectually neutral comparative analysis. If one is a follower of another path, or if an initiate is decided to be seen as not a ‘good’ satsangi, for instance, it it sometimes argued that their practice or thoughts are the work of Kal or the negative power instead of tackling the criticisms themselves. This is no longer a justifiable position as mankind gets less and less provincial in its communication with each other. The teachings must be able to withstand debate from without and not just within. Otherwise, I ask, what is the purpose of having conferences like the World Fellowship of Religions and Unity of Man, such as were held by my guru, Sant Kirpal Singh? I say this with all due respect; it is time for the light of truth to be shed on the Path of the Masters - as well as all other paths (and “non-paths”). It is now time for philosophy (the “love of truth”), and no longer the time for religion and theology. In order to proceed further on the path, one must get to square one, or what the Buddha called “Right View”, or otherwise no matter how far one appears to advance he may not reach the highest truth.
Shabd gurus do make a point of encouraging people to examine the path critically, but then once that is done and the seeker has "made up his mind", he or she is advised he should follow the master's instructions, etc., and not worry about thinking anymore. But for many this is not enough. How many initiates, moreover, truly make an in-depth investigation of the path as it compares with others before making their decision? Very few. Even if one has, a true path must be able to withstand any new arguments that arise, for how can one be certain that he has examined all the issues in his initial study? Must one ignore new questions or criticisms that arise just because he has committed himself to a path? If, on the other hand, one relies only on his immediate feelings in making a decision to follow a path, such feelings are unfortunately subject to error as well as change when later held up against the light of reason and experience. So understanding, even just intellectual understanding, can not be bypassed, at least if one is to have a conversation with aspirants on different paths.
Yet this is too often discouraged on this path, and may partially account for the extremely high drop-out rate among westerners. This is certainly a red flag for the efficacy of a teaching. Unrealistic expectations are given with an inadequate level of understanding prior to initiation. And then, when one confronts some inevitable disillusionment and begins to ask question and broaden their study, they are warned that the mind is the principle means used by Kal to keep souls entrapped in the lower regions of creation and thus get labeled by others or themselves as doing something wrong! This is terrible group-think pressure that cannot but serve to bar the door to truth. The very faculty of reason put into our soul as a safeguard against deception is made the enemy. In fact, Buddha said reason - not intellect - was the only sure safeguard we have. But then, Buddha is sometimes made into an agent of Kal; at least, it appears so, or else why did Sant Darshan Singh say “Buddhists only go to the third plane”? [A mysterious claim discussed in great detail later].
A particularly silly, uber-personified, older (but occasionally still told within our lifetime) version of the Kal story is that he - the Universal Mind - earned the right to rule the lower creation by standing on one foot for eons of time. [An in-depth exploration of Kal awaits the reader in Part Four].
Apparently this is not the first time these points have come up! Thus, one initiate wrote:
“Questioning is supposed to happen before initiation. Afterwards, the initiate is warned to beware of Kal, the Universal Mind who stood on one foot for eons and earned the right from God to rule the lower regions of creation. Kal's job is to keep souls here, and the mind is his means of doing so. This attitude nullifies the checks and balances ingrained into our very souls to guard against deception. Willfully giving up the critical mind must indefinitely commit one to labor, with dwarfed mentality, through a spiritual never-never land where the only hope of eventual rescue is through painful disillusionment. This is one of the most sinister aspects of RadhaSoami where one is told to literally surrender and ignore the natural rational reasoning function of one's mind. This is very dangerous and a typical technique in cult mind control.”
The subject of cultism will be dealt with in detail in Part Three. This dynamic is rather common among spiritual groups that emphasize belief and loyalty over investigation and experimentation, and knowingly or unknowingly close ranks around the new member with various forms of fear-inducing group-pressure to avoid their own cognitive dissonance associated with ‘forbidden’ questions. Indeed, this can be so extreme that it has been said that some people would almost rather die than be ‘deprogrammed’ (or rather die than think, as Swami Nikhilinanda once said), inasmuch as the giving up of cherished and hopeful views - and possibly friends who share them - can feel like a ‘death’. For others it is easier to just quietly leave rather than speak out while still in the group.
All of this obviously has nothing to do with spirituality, and is both unfortunate and unnecessary.
Seeking is supposedly about discovering truth. Therefore, it appears someone must ask the questions too few seem to be asking - openly - and I risk the wrath of the faithful and even God if need be to do so. It was never my intention to be in such a position. I would by tendency rather have just reveled in inner bliss and a simple guru-devotee relationship. Yet my master confounded my assumptions, called me his friend, and in the end said I was a new man and that I should tell everyone so. Therefore, as Ramanuja once shouted from the rooftop while saying what he was told not to say, “I don’t care if I go to hell if it will help one soul find the truth.” I do hope that more than a few as well as my heart-friend will find me unworthy of damnation for this investigation.
There has, before we finish with this section, been an ongoing controversy among Sant Mat teachers (beginning with Faqir Chand) whether it is actually the Master who "gives" anyone a contact with the inner light and sound, or whether he merely points out the technique for the disciple to find out what is already there. I believe both of these may be the case, depending on the lineage one is a part of and the guru’s competency therein. In the line of Kirpal Singh, it is claimed that it is the Master Power, transmitted through the eyes from one master to His successor, which, directly or indirectly, can and will (at initiation) actually drag the attention of the initiate within to grant him experiences, and many can attest to that first hand. Personally, I believe they can and do - sometimes. In other lineages within Sant Mat, this is not promised, and there are apparently some masters who are only competent to give meditation instructions and some personal radiation, but no “transmission”. Some in these days of non-dual teachings and teachers may very well ask, "so what?" This will all be discussed further below.
Differing Initiation Promises Among Lineages
This promise of an experience at initiation (as a boost on the way, and as proof of the guru’s competency) was started by Kirpal Singh, and most initiates of that lineage (Darshan Singh, Rajinder Singh) do experience something, even before their initiation, sometimes shortly after, which explicit promise is not, to my knowledge, the case with initiates in the Beas or Agra line, where one is taught to keep repeating the simran or mantric charged words until they achieve concentration, only after which inner light will appear. "The only criterion of a true Master is that when He gives you Initiation, you will have inner experience to start with, you will get some light...A true Master is one who can withdraw your attention from outside, bring you up from the outgoing faculties and give you some reflection of Light." (Morning Talks (Bowling Green, VA: Sawan Kirpal Publications, 1981, 3rd Edition), p. 236-237). Initiation in the Delhi/Naperville lineage is said to be the moment of thought-transference from the Master, not necessarily the actual time of the official initiation, i.e., “the initiation is actually done the moment that it is authorized. That comes from the Word within you or from the human pole where the Word is fully manifested.” (Kirpal Singh Heart-to-Heart Talks (Delhi, India: Ruhani Satsang, 1975),p.168). Kirpal was emphatic that this was required for any success by the disciple. He said:
“You see, concentration can be done only when you have something to concentrate on. When you close your eyes, if you have nothing to see - nothing to stand on - you’ve got darkness before you. So there you will stay, like a child shut in a dark room with the door closed; he’ll break the door, he’ll cry. But if he sees something that’s attractive, enchanting, then he will not cry. So there must be something to stand on.” (Ibid, p. 41)
A few things may be said about this. While many do have this experience - especially in India - it is apparent that more than a few do not - in the West. And the initiatory "boost", according to reports, has been getting less as the years go by, to the point that it is not emphasized anymore. Telling a beginner who does not see light and has not achieved pratyahara - sensory withdrawal - to concentrate in the middle of the darkness in front of them, then, may do several things: one, it may actually increase body-awareness, as one tries to focus ‘in front’ of themselves, i.e., in front of their body. Where is the ‘middle’ of the darkness? Two, one is then left with japa of the names as their only means for concentration - just as it is on many paths; three, assuming this is the only way to learn to concentrate may lead some initiates to disappointment or despair, when there are in fact other means they could use. ‘Discursive meditation’, such as used in beginning stages of Christian mysticism, is one way. Most Eastern meditation paths do not consider this meditation, however, as it uses the mind, while directing their students or devotees directly into contemplation, which they may simply not be ready for. With the Master’s grace they certainly could do it, but that does not appear to always be forthcoming in the way it is promised or expected. I sat in on an initiation a few years ago and a man next to me doing the same afterwards said to me with some concern, “I have been initiated for two years and haven’t seen any light yet, what should I do?” What answer could be given? An apologetic implying he was ‘doing it wrong’ is easy to make but not very useful; and three, this is precisely the point where Ramana Maharshi would tell the seeker to “ask ‘who’ sees the darkness or blank.” This is where self-enquiry paths are very different from yoga paths like Sant Mat. Rather than try to concentrate on ‘objectively’ seeing something, one is advised to ‘hold the seer’, and find the ‘subjective’ reality. In the former, unconsciously attention is, as it were, ‘extended outside the heart’ and projected towards an independent ‘object’ (‘in front’ of oneself), while in the latter there is enquiry into the origin of attention or the thought ‘I’ in the spiritual heart. One is, as it were, the ‘forward step,’ and the other the ‘backward step.’ The latter is difficult for many, yet so is the former. And they are both very different and distinct practices. These kinds of contrasts will be discussed throughout this book, the point for now being to highlight a different approach to the darkness one perceives in meditation, and if one only had the insight to understand it, could be a way out of the distress accompanying one's ‘non-experiences’ in meditation.
But the issue of a need for a "boost" or not is a real one on this path. Ishwar Puri, whom we all adored and was a breath of fresh air in Sant Mat, emphasizing the Master as an accessible Friend and not one to be held in awe from a distance, as well as teaching that the path is not a journey but a state of awareness, and much more, whom we will refer to many times in this book, nevertheless said something very puzzling in regards to accessing the eye-center to begin meditation. He said that even he spent fifteen or more years repeating simran and hearing sounds but not progressing, always being aware of the body. This is everybody's problem! He asked Sawan Singh about this and said the latter told him to imagine himself inside the head first and then begin meditation. Ishwar spoke of this as if it was an amazing concept, and said he progressed rapidly from there. He then taught that you could spend thirty or forty years meditating but getting no where unless you could, by various tricks or gimmicks, situate yourself in the eye-focus. Two things come up in regards to this. One, why didn't Sawan tell him this many years before, if this was so radical and necessary a part of the teaching? And two, he goes on to describe the path as one of concentrating internally from there, recapitulating the process of birth in reverse. In other words, Ishwar taught that inasmuch as during embryonic development the brain appears first, and only later the body and then arms and legs, so in meditation the sensory current or surat withdraws from the limbs and then reaches the eyes and from there one meditates to return to God. This is standard Sant Mat, of course, and while Ishwar taught it with an emphasis on consciousness and not as a perceived journey, and is not necessarily wrong, one can see that this instruction assumes from the start the ordinary state of ignorance and the presumption that one is a something that experiences or is subject to birth and death - and the reality of the body as a limiting adjunct - a position that the jnanis categorically reject, starting and ending from the standpoint of truth. This is a deep subject and also something we will return to again and again throughout these pages. Ishwar said that when we reach Sach Khand we will realize that we never really left it; the jnanis say we can, in essence, realize we have never left Sach Khand without going through the inner meditative stages in the manner proposed by Sant Mat.
Ah, Ishwar! Akash Maharaj, a devotee, speaks lovingly about his entry into the lives of his followers:
"The Master is already yours. Yes, yours. He is the light of your life, so close that you can't even see him sometimes. Can our eyes see themselves? There is no need to be formal with the Master. Be playful, tease him, talk to him. Be playful! Ishwar Ji is very playful, and can be quite the prankster, too! life doesn't always have to be so serious. The Master has the best sense of humor. He enjoys laughing with you. The truth is, we need a true friend more than we need a Master, and the Master is truly our best friend. Give him a chance...The spiritual path is a state of awareness, not a journey...When the mind thinks it is not making any progress, that is when we are making the most progress." [This is a major theme of Part Three].
Ishwar said:
"Somebody told me yesterday, "Sometimes I get angry with you." I said, "I'm very happy about that." I'm very happy if people are getting angry with me, because only one who loves me will get angry. Others will ignore me."
For Ishwar, the game is essentially over when you meet a perfect Master, with only the realization of that coming in time. We will hear more from Ishwar later on.
Assuming a Master, whether consciously, or unconsciously can temporarily invert the attention of a prospective initiate, raise them to the eye-focus, and grant them an inner experience, further questions arise. Does that guarantee the ability to produce eventual enlightenment, or prove that the guru himself is completely enlightened? It would certainly elevate him beyond the ordinary teacher or guru, that is not in question. And for that matter, Kirpal Singh as far as I know himself never made the claim that the ability to give such inner experience is proof of complete enlightenment; it is only proffered as evidence that a Master is competent to give an initiating boost to people, and a promise to lead them further, and it is true that not many can do that. Other criteria would have to be added to support a claim of full enlightenment, or the ability to guide others towards that. A radical shift in identity - Self-Realization - is not the same as having temporary or even prolonged or frequent mystic experiences. This is not meant to disparage or criticize any teacher or this path, only to seek understanding. Many gurus on other paths, like Ramakrishna, Paramhansa Yogananda, Baba Muktananda, Neem Karoli Baba, to name but a few, have been able to give temporary experiences of mystic light and sound to others. [Never hundreds at one time, however, as far as I know - something that is heard of in some Sant Mat initiations]. One personage of particular importance to Yogananda was a householder devotee of Ramakrishna, Master Mahasaya (Mahendra Nath Gupta, otherwise known as "M”, author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna), who himself blessed Yogananda with several breath-stopping mystical experiences, including a first experience of samadhi, similar in nature to the touch that Ramakrishna had given to a young Vivekananda:
"I experienced that the Center of the Supreme Heavenly Abode was actually a place deep within myself and that the place of experience within was spawned by the Same. It was as if the entire creation was emanating from my Being and the radiance of an incredibly beautiful Light was spreading through the Sahasrar. 'It is His river of nectar flowing through the world'. A flow of liquid nectar was rushing through body and mind - waves upon waves. I heard the Onkar Sound, the Sound of Brahman - the thunderous Pranava resonance - the First Pulse of the creation of the Universe. Suddenly, my breath came back into the lungs. Oh, if I could only express how my heart was filled with disappointment. I cannot tell you. That Great Being of mine was completely gone. Again I came back and was imprisoned by this insignificant and miniscule physical cage - this thing that cannot contain that Colossal Person of the Atman. Like the prodigal son described in the Bible, I left my Immense Abode of the Cosmos, and again entered this tiny 'pot' of the body." (Swami Satyananda Giri, A Collection of Biographies of 4 Kriya Yoga Gurus, Yoga Niketan, 2004, p. 255)
It should be noted that, even so, Ramakrishna did not do this to everybody, perhaps because he could not do so, nor could any Master, be they Christ or Soamiji. Nor would they, knowing inside that the power is God's, not theirs, and divine wisdom and destiny dictate if this should happen in any particular case. This is a complex topic which we hope to explore in this book. Ramakrishna also hid his copy of the non-dual Ashtavakra Gita when "M" (The author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) was around, knowing that he was writing a book. Only Vivekananda among all of his devotees was personally instructed in the teachings of advaita vedanta, all the rest being given bhakti and yoga. Some things one must be ready for.
Sant Mat traditionally claims that other gurus will only be able to take their disciples so far, and not to the highest, which requires a Divine commission, and which only they have. Is this true? Maybe, but a question must be asked, "How does one know it is true?" This is a largely matter of faith, for most initiates. The ordinary beginning disciple has no way of knowing any of this for certain. So he should not assume or assert that he knows, only that he believes. There is no blame in that, but to assume knowledge when one only believes is to contribute to turning even a genuine path into a cult. And as they say, “extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.” We are not trying to sow seeds of doubt, but only to present different viewpoints and try to lead the reader a few steps towards a broader comprehension.
Another point here - a very important one - which will be reiterated in one form or another throughout this book, is that Masters often give out provisional and partial teachings, depending on the audience and understanding that they are addressing, only to be superceded by truer and more complete teachings later on. This is in fact quite common in spirituality. In Vedanta it is a primary method of teaching called superimposition and recession. But it happens in Sant Mat, too. For instance, Kirpal Singh used to say that it was psychologically impossible to give up something lower if something higher was not first given. This is a half-truth. It is psychologically difficult, but not impossible, to do so. In fact, the difficulty is known as tapas, or "heat," in the traditions of India. But in a form of "the teaching as fly-paper", and, if I may be irreverent for the moment, as a sort of 'sales-pitch' for initiation, but also a concession to our unevolved and ignorant natures, Kirpal kindly promised a spiritual boost to the initiate to place him at the third eye, "powerfully reversing the outwardly-rushing sensory currents" so the disciple could then successfully meditate. And for some this form of help continued for a long time, for others not so long. Another time he said initiation was just to show a person something was there. In any case, sooner or later, however, the nature has to be transformed. Because, as Guillore writes:
"It is all very well to believe in your steadfastness while untried and untempted; the real test is when the passions and desires which you thought done with break anew. Then is the time to meet your assaults calmly and bravely, and this is the real test of your resolutions." (Guillore, Spiritual Guidance (The Substance of Two or Three of Guillore's Books, compiled by T.T. Carter, (London: Rivingtons, 1873), p. 226)
Perhaps the Sants kindly withhold this understanding at the outset until their initiates are strong enough to assimilate it.
Masters also frequently say contrasting things. "God helps those who help themselves," and "God helps those who don't help themselves." Sant Darshan Singh also, as an example, would say again and again how the Master is closer than close, "closer than your jugular vein" (a verse from the Koran), and in fact, that the Master is in every cell of your body; while on the other hand he would say that God is very far away and it is a long journey to reach Him. Sant Mat isn't unique in doing this. Ramana Maharshi would often say how easy self-enquiry was, and then say how it was a struggle, meant only for the fit. We will have more to say on this theme later on. The point here is that these perhaps unavoidable contrasts within the teachings make it difficult to comprehend and compare them in a simple manner. Therefore please pardon the long-winded and at times repetitive discussions on these pages.
There is one other issue which we will present head-on. There are those who feel there has been a diminution of guru-power over time from one line to another, such that fewer are now having inner experiences at initiation or afterwards. Some teachers blame the students, while few blame the teachings themselves, as perhaps being in some ways out of date and not representative of where many are now at spiritually.
Leaving aside this question, the teaching of Sant Mat is that the Divine way is that one Master succeeds another in perpetuity, with the analogy given that as one bulb goes out another is fused, therefore never leaving the world bereft of the divine guidance. Brunton forthrightly throws down a challenge, however, to this piece of Sant Mat doctrine:
"The realized man leaves no lineal descendants to take over his spiritual estate. Spiritual succession is a fiction. The heir to a master's mantle must be win it afresh: he cannot inherit it." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.276)
We dare not presume to answer this question to complete satisfaction. Our belief is that no one is left without divine help and resource, human master or not. Be that as it may, within Sant Mat it is held by some - despite the fact that there have historically been gaps in various lineages, and that it would be difficult to verify - that a Master can by his own power produce a Master from a list of "available candidates," and some Sufi schools do teach that there is always such a hierarchy in waiting. But is this true, and is such Guru creation possible? We don't know. It may be the case for the planet that there is always a realizer in existence if we include all traditions, but not necessarily for all time or as defined by any one school. Again, we don't know and wonder if anyone does know. Sant Darshan Singh told one disciple that there was a school for Masters on the inner planes. What that might entail and imply is anyone's guess. Some have suggested that perhaps an "unknowing" saint such as Faqir Chand did not go to such a school, and could not guide people there, which, of course, he never claimed to be able to do. This would apply to jnanis like Nisargadatta or Ramana Maharshi as well, whose work was not in those dimensions. A person chosen to be a Master could also certainly grow into the role with help from his inner guide, and that seems to be the case according to testimony in a number of instances. But the quote of Brunton remains unanswered, in our opinion, and is worthy of deep pondering.
The Master’s Form and the Nature of Visions
There is a major controversy within Sant Mat that asks for a deeper exploration. This pertains to the role and nature of a Master’s subtle radiant form. There is certainly paradox and divine mystery involved, but, in our opinion, there is no reason for undue obscurity. For example, Faqir Chand created a stir when he claimed that no master ever was aware of his form appearing to anyone, and that it was solely a product of the disciple's own mind. He made a stir by revealing that some of his own disciples even claimed that he had appeared to them on the battlefield and helped them out of danger, while he had no awareness of this at all. He therefore concluded that such things never happen, which we will argue is an extreme view, true in many cases but not in all. Many articles and even a book or two have been written about him. Sawan Singh, on the other hand, said that since the physical master could not possibly be in contact with thousands of disciples at one time, therefore he creates an "astral duplicate" that resides in the third eye of the initiate and which looks over him and only “reports”, as it were, to the master when something really important needs personal attention. In this view, essentially it is iterations of the Master Power, not the physical master, that is constantly looking after the disciple once he is initiated. [which doesn't rule out an individual master intentionally projecting a clairvoyant appearance to a disciple on occasion]. We boldly affirm the intention to settle these issues here so initiates can move past any doubts and confusion over this. The answer is really quite simple, but we will explore it from a number of angles to allow the reader to dispense with any concerns over it once and for all.
This concept of an astral duplicate will be discussed in the next section, but for now this quote is presented:
“Every time He [the Perfect Master] gives initiation to anyone, He creates [or transfers] an astral image of himself in the disciple. And from then on, the Master never leaves the disciple. The double, or the other self, or image of the Master is sometimes what we call the inner Master. The Master sometimes calls these Doubles of Himself his agents. They do his work, taking care of all his disciples. They have power to act without limit. They can do what the Master wishes them to do, and they obey his orders. The human side of the Master…may not know what is going on here in the life of that person. It may be on the other side of the globe. He will not be aware of the details, but he can know them if he wishes. If the Master had a million disciples, he would have an astral double of himself in every one of them, and that agent of the Master would look after the disciple at all times, reporting to the Master here only in cases of extreme emergency.” (from a letter to a disciple by Baba Sawan Singh, as quoted in The Moth and the Flame by Arran Stephens)
One is sometimes advised to seek the company of one’s guru’s successor, but continue contemplating only on one’s own guru’s form, when it appears. Sant Mat in general claims that the form is “real”, and that all true Masters are One and may also appear. There have been some spiritual schools which denigrate or lessen the value of such a form by arguing that it is only a mental projection from the disciple's own mind or soul, saying that is why Christians see Jesus, Hindus see Krishna, etc.. But this only accounts for general, cultural instances. It doesn’t mean such an “ishta” as mentioned on the Path of the Masters is not real in its own right, or just a product of the gross imagination of a disciple, but the question does arise whether it is a product of the deeper mind and ultimately the soul or Overself of the disciple, and not necessarily “God” or the human Guru directly. Of course being paradoxical it could be, and likely is, both. It would certainly have to be a lofty definition of soul to account for the radiant form of a living Master who appears of Himself as being our creation. Yet Brunton describes this philosophic view:
"It is the mystic's ego which constructs the image of his teacher or saviour, and his Overself [divine Soul] which animates that image with divine power. This explains why earnest pupils of false teachers have made good progress and why saviors dead for thousands of years still seem to help their followers."
"Only when well-advanced does he learn that the help he thinks he got from a guru came often from the Universal Being. It was his own personal thoughts which supplied the guru image, but the power which worked was from that Being." (Notebooks. Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.183,189)
The key words here are, “only when well-advanced.” Of course, this is a paradox. Supposedly at the highest or most fundamental level Mind, God, Soul, and Master are all One. There can certainly, moreover, also be telepathic and transcendental help from the Master even without the presence of the form, and even whether or not one is receptive or aware of it. Even the human Master may not necessarily be aware of it, as mentioned, and yet still be a conduit for such help. Again, PB explains:
"The conscious personal mind of the teacher may know nothing of the help that is radiating from him to one who silently calls on him from a long distance, yet the reality of that help remains." (Ibid, Vol. 2, 6.744).
This, in my understanding, was precisely part of Faqir Chand's position. Furthermore, PB affirms that the blessing of the attention of a sage, given even once, is so profound that its effects may manifest over the course of some years:
"The guide may send his blessing telepathically only once but if it is powerful enough it may work itself out through a hundred different experiences extending over several years. Because he identifies himself with the timeless spaceless soul, his blessing may express itself anywhere in space and anywhere in time. Moreover he may formulate it in a general way but it may take precise shapes unconsciously fashioned by and suited to a recipient's own mentality and degree of development....Just as the sun does not need to be aware of every individual plant upon which it sheds its beneficent life-giving growth-stimulating rays, so the master does not need to be aware of every individual disciple who uses him as a focus for his meditations or as a symbol for his worship. Yet each disciple will soon realize that he is receiving from such activities a vital inward stimulus, a real guidance and definite assistance. This result will develop the power unconsciously drawn from the disciple's own higher self, which in turn will utilize the mental image of the master as a channel through which to shed its grace." (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 6.752, 784)
Kirpal Singh said:
“God is One who can manifest Himself in the subconscious reservoir of the mind.” (Morning Talks, p. 239)
He made reference to the Persian word “khuda” which means “one who comes of himself.” On this basis he cautioned the initiates from trying to visualize the form of the Master in meditation [although it is certainly all right as a random form of remembrance, as Sawan also affirmed] rather than wait for Him to appear of Himself. Whether this explanation contradicts that given by Brunton above is difficult to say. For it hinges on how one sees his higher self. Is it different or separate from the Master?
Not only Faqir Chand, however, but Sant Rajinder Singh has in so many words appeared to affirm that this is more or less how it works. Only in rare instances does the incarnate master personally involve himself in the disciple's inner life, but His own higher self is likened to a grand switchboard into which the many, many disciples are plugged into. The help or grace goes "over the head" of the adept as it were, but it is no less real. It flows largely through the Master's and disciple's subconscious minds, and only occasionally consciously. The maturing disciple will notice this flow, but more often the transmitted grace manifests as a seed planted grows over time as it percolates up into his consciousness even without his noticing it. It is important to note, again, that the Master need not even be aware that this has happened, for the Divine uses him as an instrument to send its grace. How could he be personally, consciously aware of five hundred thousand disciples at once and have any resemblance of an ordinary life? No, it doesn't really happen that way. But that doesn’t mean its effect is any less meaningful - or that it would have happened anyway if the Master didn’t exist. It might, but it is perhaps less likely. It is certainly mysterious. PB writes:
"...the illuminate may be used by higher forces to affect, influence and even change others without any active personal move on his part to bring about this result. He may not even feel, see, or know what is happening, yet he has started it!"
"With a teacher, it is the inward relationship that matters. What, then, is going to happen when there is only one Teacher and many thousands of students? How can all the wishes, dreams, and thoughts reach him, yet leave him time for his work? Obviously, it cannot be done. So Nature steps in and helps out. She has arranged a system very much like a telephone switchboard. The incoming "calls" are plugged into the subconscious mind of the Teacher. The "line" itself is composed out of the student's own faith and devotion; he alone can make this connection. Then, his wishes, dreams, and thoughts travel along it to the subconscious of the teacher, where they are registered and dealt with accordingly to their needs. In this way, they do reach the Teacher, who can, at the same time, attend to his work. Sometimes Nature deems it advisable to transfer a particular message to the conscious level. In such a case, it may be answered on either the conscious or subconscious level. Occasionally, too, the teacher deliberately sends one out when he is guided to do so."
“His beneficent spiritual influence may profoundly affect others to the point of revolutionizing their attitude to life, yet he may be unaware of both the influence and its effect! The part of his mind which knows what is happening is not the true source of his grace; this flows throughout him and is not created by him…Let us not ascribe to the ordinary self of man what belongs to the Overself. The mystical phenomena, the inner experiences engendered by an adept, are done through him, not by him...It is not really any power of his own that does it. But quite often he does not even have to invoke the power - and yet these things will happen all the same. Nevertheless, his followers are not attributing powers to him which he does not possess. For these happenings, after all, occur only as a result of the contact with him. He knows in some mysterious way he is the link between the power and the event."(Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 4.239, 4.242, 5.273, 4.239-4.240, 4.250)
These terrific quotes answer many of our questions, and account for a lot, including how visions of a particular Master can appear to people who have never even heard of his before but were perhaps destined to meet Him. The Master could be said to be consciously be seeking his own, and/or ones divine Soul is also calling one to Itself. One might say that this is happen by virtue of the Universal Mind, or Universal Soul [which the individual soul is rooted in], working with: the imaginative faculty of the seeker's ego to provide a particular Master's picture, his karmas to provide the sense of affinity, and his divine Soul [that part of the Soul that is eternally rooted in God and could be said to be ones direct intermediary with God, and which ‘overlooks’ its progeny, the human ego, unbeknownst to the latter] to provide the feeling of aspiration, reverence, and power. And of course in his divine realization a true Master in his inner being is non-separate or one with that Soul. The results in either case may be more or less the same, with the understanding somewhat different. Mysterious? Of course.
But which Master will appear? Kirpal Singh adds a little extra piece of information when he says that
"If you think of one whose causal body is quite clear, even if you have never seen him but have only heard about him, he will appear." (Morning Talks, p. 234)
The quote, I think, was not exclusive; It would apply even if one has never seen or heard of a Master as well. To be sure, once again, there does seem to be a difference between a form which comes of itself in meditation, and also stands before a Master's charged words, than simply a subconscious manifestation of a disciple's (culturally or religiously) conditioned mind (again, such as when, as mentioned, Christians tend to see visions of Christ, and Hindus of Krishna, etc.). In the Kirpal lineage of Sant Mat the Masters' forms have appeared to many who had never even heard of them before. This would seem to contradict the theory that it is just a manifestation of one's subconscious mind in every instance. If a true Master is indeed a 'mouthpiece' of, or in resonance with, an Absolute or Universal Soul, Sat Purush, 'God' - however one chooses to articulate it - due to the purity and depth of his realization then his subtle form could be imprinted or arise within and attract the soul and mind of his chela or disciple towards his own source. Yet even in this case, it must be remember that this form is still presented to us by or through our own Soul. Thus, we come around in the end to considering things in a non-dual way. There seems no getting around the fact that ones own subconscious has a part in these communications, and that also a time will come when the disciple will realize the Master as his own infinite Higher Self, with the human Master as such let go, if he is to graduate. Few willingly accept this, but "if I do not go, the Comforter will not come and lead you unto all truth," said Jesus. PB writes:
"Another misconception is also very common: "Is it not the master himself who helps me at such moments?" is a question asked in astonished surprise by those disciples who feel his presence keenly, see his image vividly, and converse with him personally in experiences which are genuinely telepathic in character. The answer is that it both is and is not the master himself. The minute particulars of the pictorial experience, or the actual words of a message are supplied by the disciple's own ego. The mental inspiration and moral exaltation derived from it and the emotional peace which surround it are drawn telepathically out of the master's being [or the disciples own divine soul, or Overself, which the master is said to be one with through his own Overself]. Both these elements are so commingled and diffused with one another in the disciple's mind, and so instantaneously too, that inevitably he gets only an unclear and partial understanding of his experience. The truth is that the master does not necessarily have to be conscious of the pupil's telepathic call for help in order to make that help available. Nor does he personally have to do anything about it in order to ensure that his help is transmitted." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.234)
Thus our problem is at least partly solved. The form both is and is not the Master. It is in His real being; yet even when a disciple converses with the form and it speaks words of truth and wisdom, in most cases it is a creation of both the Divine element in the aspirant himself, with some influence from his subconscious. Some have said that the Master within the pupil thus speaks with himself! Kirpal SIngh did say that the God in you is closer than the God in the Master. This is not any limitation but rather a different way of understanding the actual, paradoxical and mysterious situation regarding the inner Master.
To some extent, this divergence in languaging may reflect a cultural difference:
"The Orientals believe that the teacher is sent by God to seeking humanity. We believe that the Overself within them draws him to them. He is then used as a medium to help them until they can become conscious of their own Overself...This - the purist, deepest, quietist part of them - is the Overself and this is where the Teacher really lives when he withdraws from outer activity. At other times his presence acts as a link for those who would otherwise have to construct their own." (Ibid, 5.187)
Here one can see a tendency among easterners, to some extent, and beginners, to a greater extent, to go to a human master asking endless questions about their personal lives as if he were a counsellor or a walking encyclopedia, rather than seeking him or her for inspiration in their quest for self-knowledge and a reliable spiritual independence. Obviously this is a tendency that in most cases needs to be outgrown and should not be encouraged by a teacher - although many in their compassion do so indulge their followers.
"The disciple who believes himself to be in continual contact with a master unconsciously projects his own influence, limitation, and suggestion into the figure he sees, the message he receives, or the intuition he feels." (Ibid, 5.229)
"It is not often the master himself who thus personally communicates with, helps, inspires or uplifts the student; but it is more often his unconscious influence, his unconscious power...Although there is always this general response to each of the disciple's turning towards his master, there is also the special response deliberately made on the master's own initiative at special times and impressed on the disciple." (Ibid, 5.234, 5.237)
So the general influence of a Master is impersonal, although he can personally respond to a disciple's situation. Even in this case, however, the specific personal response may be unconscious on a Master's part. Or one could say that God is doing it. It depends on the level from which the Master is contacting the disciple. If from the mental telepathic level, the message may come in words - and paradoxically often using the disciple's own thoughts. If from the innermost being of the Master, the communication will be more intuitive, and recognizable by the receptive disciple. This is discussed more in the section "The Interior Word and "Talking to the Master Inside." Need we say again that it is all a mysterious process? PB suggests that it is indeed hard - maybe for both adept and disciple - to discern how it all works:
“Whether there is an actual transference of his power and light, or whether his actual presence and desire to help set up vibrations in the subconscious mind of the seeker, or whether he is merely a medium for higher forces, it is not easy to determine. The truth may well be a combination of all these three factors.” (Ibid 4.196)
So perhaps we should leave like this. He concludes:
"Only when he has reached a point where he no longer thinks of the Master as another person but as the core of his own inner self, can it be said that the Master's work for him is done." (Ibid, 5.280)
Until that point there will of necessity be a delicate dance with the disciple alternating between the twin poles of self-reliance and dependency:
"It is for the pupil himself to cultivate a perfect poise between the two extremes of utter dependence upon a teacher and complete reliance upon himself. Both extremes will obstruct his advance upon this path. Nor will it be enough to find the mid-way between them and adhere always to that point.The definition of poise will vary at different stages of his career. At one time it will be absolutely necessary for him to cultivate self-reliance, whereas a couple of years later it may be equally necessary to cultivate a mood of dependence. What is proper at one time or period may not be proper at another. Which phase is to be uppermost or when both are to be perfectly balanced is something which can be decided pnly by a mingling of inner prompting, logical reflection, and other circumstances." (Ibid, 5.234)
Faqir Versus Kirpal: “It would not be expedient to reveal such things”
So Baba Faqir Chand, a disciple of Shiv Brat Lal, and who was recognized by Sawan Singh, discovered that many miracles and appearances of his form within and without to his disciples occurred without any awareness on his part. He purportedly concluded that the form was a product of the disciple's imagination or faith, and not the Master's influence at all, and he taught likewise, changing the teachings of Sant Mat at the behest of his guru and with the blessing of Sawan Singh, although he did hold regular satsangs for a short while. He is said to have shouted at Kirpal Singh to reveal the truth as he saw it about gurus not being aware of their inner form appearing. Chani Sadhu heard Faqir say in satsang, "Kirpal! Tell the truth!" and Kamal Dayal heard the same at a meeting of gurus on Vaisaki day. He said Charan SIngh also agreed. and then Kirpal replied, “it would not be constructive" or "expedient." Kamal's actual quote as emailed to a friend was:
"My dear XXXX. YES I WAS VERY MUCH THERE IN MANAVTA MANDIR TO FIRST BAISAKHI SATSANG. HIS HOLINESS SANT KIRPAL SINGH JI MAHARAJ AND MANY MORE SAINTS OF RADHASWAMI FAITH WERE ALSO THERE. I LISTENED ALL OF THEM VERY ATTENTIVELY. I SAT WITH THESE SAINTS UNDER THE PHOTO OF MAHARAJ SAWAN SINGH JI AND SAID "PEOPLE SAY THAT I APPEAR TO THEM IN THEIR SADHANA AND GUIDE THEM WHEREAS I AM NOT AWARE OF IT AT ALL DOES IT ALSO HAPPEN WITH YOU, TOO? IF SO DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?" THAY ALL SAID NO. THEN BABA FAQIR SAID "WHY DO YOU NOT TELL YOUR FOLLOWERS ABOUT THIS TRUTH? SANT KIRPAL SINGH JI SAID, "PANDIT JI YOUR WORK IS NOT CONSTRUCTIVE." FAQIR SAID, "BABA JI THIS IS JUST TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS - THAT IS "CONSTRUCTIVE" WORK. I WILL.SPEAK THE TRUTH LET PEOPLE LISTEN ME OR MAY NOT LISTEN ME." BUT BOTH SAINTS {Faqir and Kirpal] HAD LOVE FOR EACH OTHER. SINCE THEY WERE VERY CLOSE TO BABA SAWAN SINGH JI. MY DEAR XXXX, ALL THESE VISIONS THAT WE SEE WITHIN THEY ARE ALL ILLUSION, THE CREATION OF OUR MIND. THEY MISLEAD US WE ARE TO GO BEYOND THE FEELINGS OF BODY MIND AND SOUL TO HAVE THE REALISATION OF SELF. FORGET THE PAST, DO NOT COMPARE SAINTS
The last few sentences are boiler-plate advice, and the sarcastic comment about "constructive" work was not, in my opinion, addressed to Kirpal Singh, who lived extremely simply and had no interest in big numbers for their own sake. The two masters are pictured walking arm in arm on the Manatva Mandir website, obviously having great affection for each other.
The rest of the message could have a number of explanations. Why would it not be expedient? People wouldn’t understand? Or it wouldn’t help them? Or just maybe no one asked?! Or finally, maybe none of the gurus had the philosophical background to explain in a more complete and satisfactory way the mysterious and paradoxical nature of visions themselves? I personally think it was likely because the people in general at that time would not understand rightly or benefit from a more sophisticated teaching, and so a provisional or partial teaching, as mentioned earlier, was given. As the Bible says it:
"First comes the milk and the bread for babes and small children; afterwards comes the meat." (1 Cor. 3:2)
"I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." (John 16:12)
Similarly, Muso Soseki (1275-1351) said:
"Ta-hui says, Zen teachers should only preach Dharma according to their students’ levels of Zen understanding...The Master’s way of teaching, sudden as a flint spark or a flash of lightning, can be grasped only by those who are ready for it. To use Zen methods of that kind with novices would be like pulling up young shoots that have just been planted.'” (Muso Soseki aka Kokushi (1275-1351), West Mountain Evening Talk, from Sun at Midnight, trans. by W.S. Metwin and Soiku Shigematsu (North Point Press, 1989)
It has always been the method of the great teaching masters never to give more instruction than one step beyond the level of comprehension of their students. Brunton wrote:
"He has to give out what those whom he is addressing can understand and not outstrip their development. He may, for this purpose, either simplify the teaching or keep back the more advanced portions, those dealing with the transcendental mysteries." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.95)
But not any longer, the general intelligence of humanity has escaped from a certain level of confinement, and too much has gone on with the worldwide dissemination of the spiritual dharma since the 1960’s - when this confrontation between Kirpal and Faqir Chand took place. There is nothing to gain by keeping the teachings needlessly obscure any longer.
The same Jesus, once again, said “it is expedient that I should go, for then the comforter shall come and lead you unto all truths.” The initiates whose Master has passed have that, too - as well as the internet. Thus, arcane theological approach must yield ground to straight philosophy. Much mystery will still remain, one need not worry over that!
It may be telling, for that matter, that Sawan Singh apparently did not himself feel the teaching modification of Faqir was important enough for him (Sawan) to disclose to the entire sangat. So why blame Kirpal for not doIng so?
A prominent spokesperson of one major lineage has said "Faqir was cracked." Darshan SIngh with his characteristic reserve merely said he "was confused." Various initiates have said he is "the missing link in Sant Mat," and "the only honest master." We simply ask, what is the truth? And in the following few sections we will try to explore that from various angles until some degree of satisfaction is reached.
A general theory that covers most visions has been put forth by various teachers. To summarize what has been discussed, Brunton taught that there are two components to a vision. One, supplying the form, is the mental background and/or spiritual aspiration of an individual, and second, supplying the inspiration, spiritual guidance and numinosity, is the individual’s divine Soul or Overself. A vision being a stage of inwardization of consciousness, it partakes of both of these factors. One could say that the vision of a master, even if one has never heard of him, is still a divine manifestation, coming from the dimension where “God, Guru, and Self are One.” Many mystics have reported seeing their ishta-deva or chosen ideal manifest and even talk to them. This mystical “Interior Word” ([not to be confused with the Word or Logos as defined in Sant Mat] refers to this phenomenon or stage of development. It does not go on forever, but can be exquisite. But progressing to a deeper intuition and serenity are further stages. Still, the guidance and bliss are real, and one may be considered to be on the right track. They might be considered divine manifestations and not just self-hypnotism. In this sense I feel Faqir may have been too extreme in his expression. It is not a simple either/or matter.
More from PB:
"..the illuminate may be used by the higher forces to effect influence, or even change others without any active personal move on his part to bring about this result. He may not even feel, see, or know what is happening, yet he has started it!"(Ibid, 4.242)
"Much occult phenomena of the adept is performed without his conscious participation and "above" his personal knowledge, as when various people claim to be aware of receiving help from him which he has no recollection of having given. It is the Overself which is really giving the help, their contact with him being merely like the switch which turns on a light...If it be said, in criticism of his unawareness of so much occult phenomena manifesting in his name, that this lessens his mental stature, he must answer that it also preserves his mental sanity. How, with a thousand devotees, could he be attending to all of them at one and the same time?...How could he be as God and yet remain as man, much more deal with other men? For all occult phenomena belong to the world of finite form, time, and space, not to the world of infinite spirit, to illusion and not to reality. And if, in further criticism, it be said that his unawareness makes him seem weaker than an adept should be, he can only answer humbly that because he has surrendered his personal rights he is weaker and more helpless than the most ordinary man, that he situation was tersely described in Jesus' confession, "I have no power in myself, but only from the Father." (Ibid, 4.244)
“Such is the wonderful infinitude of the soul that the man who succeeds in identifying his everyday consciousness with it, succeeds also in making his influence and inspiration felt in any part of the world where there is someone who puts faith in him and gives devotion to him. His bodily presence or visitation is not essential. The soul is his real self and operates on subconscious levels. Whoever recognizes this truth and humbly, harmoniously, places himself in a passive receptive attitude towards the spiritual adept, finds a source of blessed help outside his own limited powers…He takes no credit to himself for these things. He feels he is only an instrument. All that he can do is to invoke the higher power, and it is this which makes these things possible. It is not really any power of his own that does it. But quite often he does not even have to invoke the power--and yet these things will happen all the same. Nevertheless, his followers are not attributing powers to him which he does not possess. For these happenings, after all, occur only as the result of the contact with him. He knows that in some mysterious way he is the link between the power and the event.” (Ibid, 4.249-250)
A specific Master, then, whether alive or dead, may not and need not know when any of these things happens. But without the existence of such a realized being, it may not have happened. And yet the grace and help is there. You could say that somehow God makes it happen. This does not make the Master a mere irrelevancy. For it can be said that the force using a Master will respond to calls for help to that Master. That is to say, whether one thinks a response comes from one's Higher Self, from the Master (as he is in Truth - as a vast presence or force-field), or from the Power using the Master as a medium for dispensing grace, is there any essential difference, or could one even tell if there was? Perhaps only our understanding of what is actually happening will change. In conclusion we need to say that whether or not a personal master is aware of his form appearing to someone is one thing, while saying that a master has nothing to do with it, is quite another. Thus, we feel that on one hand Faqir was right, but on the other a bit too extreme in the presentation of his views. Our conclusion is that it is really more of a “both/and” sort of situation in the paradoxical reality we find ourselves in.
This seems very likely, and the following anecdote may be an example of this.
Kirpal’s cousin Ram Labhai was seriously ill and telegrams were sent to Kirpal asking him to come. He arrived the next day by train, but in the meantime the cousin had external visions of both Kirpal and Sawan Singh (whom she did not know), and started to recover. When Kirpal arrived she asked him if he had come the day before and he answered, “Yes.” She then asked him who Sawan was and he cryptically replied that 'one day he would take her to see him, but would she recognize him?' This perplexed her because she felt that she had seen him as clearly as she was seeing Kirpal at that moment.
“Then he explained to her that she had seen neither Baba Sawan nor himself physically but, that Power working throughout creation had come in those forms. Furthermore, that as Baba Sawan was one with God, then so it was really God who had come to her.”
She asked for further understanding and he continued:
“Alright, Ram Labhai, listen to what I am about to say, and listen carefully…Man is not merely what is seen by the naked eye - that is but a perishable abode for the real LIFE. You think that you are seeing me? No! That is an illusion. What is truly me is not this body made of matter. I am the Life; I am the Truth; I am that which is known as God. Forgive me, I do not mean ME by saying I. That is just speaking figuratively. You see we arethe Truth, but unfortunately we have forgotten it. How? Through habit. We do know who we are but when we came to this world we were given the human form to live in, so that with the help of it we could have the realization of our true selves. However, through the constant nearness of the body we became, or so we thought, the body itself. Once that happened, even the illusory world appeared to be very real for us…The only way out of the illusion is to step out of the human form [Note: mystically, or through the insight of direct understanding] and see all this play in its true perspective. Only then will you really understand what I meant when I said that it was not Hazur but yet it WAS Him. The body is not He. So what you saw today was not that which you saw before. Both in a way are illusion - the grosser body being the greater illusion, while the form which visited you was also an illusion for in Truth He is something quite different from either. He is something which cannot be seen and cannot be described. Even a soul which has learned something about illusion and reality, and has developed to a certain extent, has gained tremendous powers and can even create and destroy anything he likes. But a soul that has become one with the Truth is beyond, and greater than, any power you can imagine. And this great God Power is today working on this planet through the physical form named Sawan Singh. This power came to you to bless you, in the reflection of Sawan's physical form; otherwise you would not have been able to comprehend what was happening. We have become so bereft of awareness that God must come to our level before we can understand His message fully." (Devinder Bir Narendra and Eileen Florence Wigg, Love, Light and Life, 2010. p. 93-95)
So here Kirpal Singh, not yet a Master, apparently knew his own form had appeared to Ram Labhai (perhaps as a result of his meditation on her while en route on the train), while Sawan Singh may have not personally been aware of his appearance. [Or, then again, we may need to leave room for the possibility that neither of them knew at the moment the appearances it happened, and Kirpal said that he had appeared to her only to validate her experience, while then going on to offer a broader explanation how these things work].
Brunton says an interesting thing:
"It is ironically paradoxical, this discovery that the very higher power to which we turn in our helplessness is within ourselves." (Notebooks, Vol. 9, Part 1, 2.273)
The words he uses are within ourselves, not, within our bodies. This makes the matter more deeply a mystery, instead of a mere yogic phenomenon. This requires deep pondering.
A couple of examples may better explain something, although perhaps not all, about the metaphysics of visions for us. Brunton writes, regarding the renown Swama Rama Teertha:
“He meditated constantly and quickly attained a superlatively joyous realization of the presence of divinity, as was evidenced later during his brief return to ordinary society in the plains and in lectures which he then delivered to amazed audiences…The yogi had been a devotee of the Hindu Saviour, Krishna, and during the nights he would often see in vision the blue-bodied figure of Krishna dancing on a cobra’s head and playing a flute. This is the figure which has been made familiar to all India by pictures to be found in millions of homes. Rama Teertha said the Krishna-figure appeared to him quite outside his own body, when his own eyes were wide open and when all his five senses were fully awake. It was completely external and completely objective. [Years later] he said, “this marked a particular stage of the mind concentration and it was really the materialization of my own imagination, the precipitation of my own mind.” (The Wisdom of the Overself, p. 421)
This is akin to the realization of Papaji when he met Ramana Maharshi after being a devotee of Krishna for many years.
A similar account is given of St. Teresa of Avila in Talks with Ramana Maharshi:
D. “She was devoted to a figure of the Madonna which became animated to her sight and she was in bliss.”
M. “The animated figure indicates depth of meditation (dhyana bala). Shaktipata [descent of divine power on a person]prepares the mind for introversion. There is a process of concentration of mind on one’s own shadow, which in due course becomes animated, and answers questions put to it. That is due to strength of mind or depth of meditation. Whatever is external is also transitory. Such phenomena may produce joy for the time being, but abiding peace, i.e., shanti, does not result. This is obtained only by the removal of avidya (ignorance).” (p. 296)
We also read:
D. “It is said that Sri Ramakrishna saw life in the image of Kali, which he worshipped. Can it be true?”
M. “The life was perceptible to Sri Ramakrishna and not to all. The vital force was due to himself. It was his own vital force that manifested as if it were outside and drew him in. Were the image full of life, it must have been found by all. But everything is full of life. That is the fact. Many devotees have had experiences similar to those of Sri Ramakrishna.” (p. 445)
Yet these examples do not account for all instances of manifestation or materialization. While not the experience of ultimate reality, in fact they actually help explain how many Masters do these things!
I think the Faqir statement about telling people that all experiences are illusion and only their own mind is not quite true. True in many cases regarding some of their meditation experiences, but not all. He should to be consistent say the same thing about outer experiences too, imo. For instance, many many accounts exist in all religions of people (who had no intention or expectation of such things) who experienced the corporeal manifestation of a master or Christ or a saint in front of them. Either a visionary manifestation (inner or outer), or an actual physical manifestation. In the annals of Sant Mat this has been recorded quite often. This could be in the form of either bilocation (a master appearing in two places at once), or a master manifesting (materializing) a body from a distance. This is not just an illusion of that unsuspecting recipient person’s mind! Daskalos, the esoteric Christian mystic actually explained how this was done in the trilogy of books by Kyriacos Markides. Some masters can do this, and some can’t. And it doesn’t necessarily, although it could, have anything to do with if they are realized or not.
But it gets even more mysterious. There are countless instances, documented and verified, where these things happened and the saint involved also did not know how they happened! Although many times they did. Padre Pio, for instance, would bilocate, or simply find himself somewhere else for the purpose of helping someone, and not know how it happened. The implication is that the Holy Spirit (or whatever one wants to call this power) steps in and does these things. It happens often in this way on the Christian tradition, as opposed to by siddhi in the more Eastern paths. But either way it does not happen with just ordinary persons, so in some way a saint or master has something to do with it.
Many Christian saints did seem to know how to do it. I am reading an amazing book about hundreds of examples of this i. But trying to get an explanation of the "how" is difficult. At the level of some of these characters the mere intention appears to get it done, but, of course, that is not a very satisfying answer to the mind.
Faqir came out of trance states to tell certain people something of importance to them at the moment. He must have known something. And you say that he appeared to Sharma when his wife died. Sharma seemed convinced Faqir actually did appear to him and that it was not just hi sown mind needing consolation. So, how to explain that? Maybe he didn’t consciously appear, but somehow it just happened? Yes, that is possible.
For those who feel some of this sort of explanation as a loss, may be reminded of the words of Sant Kirpal Singh: “either you remain or He remain - not two.” Or again, Ramana who said “God, Guru, and Self are One.” No doubt there are mysteries here that we will not explain away or easily grasp. Even the Gurus bow down:
"Despite all his psychical knowledge and personal attainment, the sage never loses his deep sense of the mystery which is at the heart of existence, which is God." (Notebooks, Vol.16, Part 1, 3.171)
Bilocation East and West
There are a number of phenomena that have been reported and verified quite frequently in the West among their many saints that have their equivalency in the East. Bilocation, or appearing in two locations at once is one of them; a distinct but similar gift of the spirit is spontaneously being transported over large distances. In both cases the saints have been either aware of this happening, and/or aware of how it was happening, or not aware at all and merely being the amazed witness of a supernatural event. St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, among many others, all had these things happen fairly frequently. Some of them seemed to "know" how they happened. But whereas Tibetan adepts and Hindu yogis will explain the "how" such abilities are to be gained through yogic techniques (even if they are eschewed as impediments to self-realization), and the Masters are a little mysterious about the whole affair, sometimes saying such powers come automatically with divine realization, or because of their past development (but most times denying they have anything to do with it, as it being the will of God acting through them as it pleases), in the West the saints almost universally ascribe any "ability" simply to the response to their prayers, and not any technique. Some have bilocated without knowing how it happened at all, not being the response to any specific prayer, but always to where there is a need of others to fill.
Thus, there seems to be a greater reliance primarily on the Holy Spirit and not yoga to make things happen with these saints. In an amazing book, Mysteries Marvels Miracles (TAN Books, 1997, Joan Carroll Cruz gives example after example of these events in over five hundred well-researched pages. Ven. Mary of Agreda (d. 1665), bilocated over five hundred times from Spain to North America to help establish the Church of Jesus Christ there. She was one who seems to have been able to do this at will. She appeared to the Indians of New Mexico with a blue mantle over her habit, and came to be known by the local inhabitants as the "Lady in Blue." Even though she spoke Spanish which the Indians did not speak, both could understand each others' language. This is an example of the true meaning of "speaking in tongues." At her instructions a number of tribes traveled long distances to meet friars she had told them to seek out. When they baptised the tribes they found that they already knew all about the faith. All this was verified by bishop to bishop communications in America and Spain. She was actually placed under order to reveal what she and done because she was too humble to want to disclose what she had done. Fray Benavides, who witnessed some of these events, later wrote, "I call God to witness that my esteem for her holiness has been increased more by the noble qualities which I discern in her than by all the miracles which she has wrought in America." (p. 6-7)
Many of these saints simply said, "God, there is a need," and it was done. One saint, Ammon the Great (d. 350) found herself unable to reach a village being stopped at the bank of a swollen river. Instantly he found herself on the other side. Another saint in a similar situation found the waters parting, and yet another was able to walk across the water. None of them knew how to do it, it just happened. In modern times, Padre Pio bilocated and was transported many times, and often told people to say nothing about it - but also didn't seem to "do" anything to make these things happen. And then again, there were saints who seemed to do these things and many more (heal the sick, raise the dead, live without eating for decades, sleeping only an hour a night, while still working ten hours a day, topping volcanoes and floods, etc., etc.,), all these things have relatively frequently, but still, quite mysteriously and not through yogic power or technique, but through the sacramental grace of their inner communion with their Master. It truly seems after reading these stories like Jesus had and still has a living a mission in the West.
We will discuss many of the other miraculous things in the section on "Siddhis" in Part Four. Our point here is simple to show that saints sometimes know they are a focus for things happening, at other times they may not know, and at some times seem to be making things happen, but won't admit it. And, in light of all the arguments put forth in the previous and subsequent sections, we think Faqir was a bit one-sided in his pronouncements on the Master's Form both inner and outer, and that it is more multi-dimensional than he made it out to be.
.
The Astral-Duplicate or “Clone” Teaching
The mental switchboard theory of Brunton is in part explained, but greatly expanded upon in Sant Mat with the “astral duplicate” explanation of Sawan Singh. This has been elaborated upon by Ishwar Puri, in his own rambling style, paints a very high picture of a living Master, as follows:
“One Master whose name was Baba Faqir Chand from Hoshiarpur he made a statement in a Satsang that Master know nothing. They are ordinary human beings like us but they have this gift that they can create their image inside us and the True Master is inside us. That is why don’t think that the Master outside and inside is the same. The Master inside which is part of your own self is created by your own consciousness is the True Master. The outside is a replica, an outside image of that Master. So, the outside Master acts according to what is happening to the inside Master. Faqir Chand gave that example that Masters as physical beings are not all knowing. I was very interested in that statement of Baba Faqir Chand because he was our neighbor when my father was teaching as a Professor in Hoshiarpur. We used to meet him frequently. He was a very enlightened person. So, at one time I had to ask him the same question which I had asked Great Master once about whether the Master in the physical body knows everything and Baba Faqir Chand said of course they are not different but the outside has to behave like an ordinary person – unknowing. Because if he says he knows outside what will happen – nobody will go inside. Everybody will run after the outside person. Therefore it is appropriate for a Master to tell that he knows nothing, go inside and find out from your True Master inside. So, it is very appropriate behavior of a Perfect Living Master to do that. Now, this is what he explained and I understood it that the Masters want us to meditate and find the truth inside. Otherwise, we are running after illusions – Master’s outer form is part of the illusion."
"When you die, everything dissolves including the form of the Master but what does not dissolve is the inner form of the Master. Therefore, it is a very appropriate thing for a Master to say I don’t know what is happening, even if he knows. Now the question is if he really knows then how does he operate? One physical person, if he knows, has got so many initiates, so many disciples. He has initiated each one of them and told them I am with you. I have manifested myself in you. Any problem you have you can talk to me. And there are 1000 people sitting there and the Master is in all 1000. How can one physical person know what is happening to 1000 people? I had to find some appropriate language to explain how Masters work. In America, in one of my talks, I explained that and the explanation that I gave was – taken from the Manual for the Masters – so I just picked up from there and said, the Master use what is called the clone. A clone is a replica of the Master. And they make a clone and put that clone of themself in each person they initiate but they are in constant touch with the clone. They never disconnect with the clone. Clone continuously, all the time, sends messages what is happening inside the disciple and therefore the physical form of the Master at all time knows but they don’t have to use it for interactions with the disciple. The interaction should be ordinary human beings as friends. Supposing, we came to know that another human being a friend of ours knows all our thoughts and sometimes our thoughts are very ugly you know. In spite of the trier, even if you try to think very nice things once in a while some naught thoughts creep in. And if we know he is reading my thoughts , you hardly have any friendship with that person. So if you have a creepy thought and say Master did you receive what I thought. He will say what was that? We feel very comfortable. Thank God. So he has to balance all these things."
"The Truth is that Master in his awareness knows everything. He Knows. And he in his physical form acts just as an ordinary person like us who knows nothing more than what we know. Therefore we can be very free with such a Master as external physical friendship. When we go to his form inside, he can be very different. He can show his full knowledge. HE can show everything. He can give all the answers. Inside, he won’t say, I don’t know what it is. Outside, he will. This is part of the single plan. Once you know this cloning system, a Master can produce 1000, million clones and take care of them and be in touch with all of them. If we don’t understand, how a Master through clones can be in touch with all of them, take the digital world. One little chip, you can have a connection continuously working with not millions but billions of points. So, it is not very difficult for the consciousness of a Master to be in touch with all of them. Though in a physical body, in a physical relationship, he will pretend he knows as little or as more as you do or your friend does. And that sustains the friendship at the physical level. This system works beautifully. And sometimes we think that maybe the Master is using a clone but does not know what is happening. Somebody complains Master I had this problem. Oh, let me check with the clone. It is not like that. Then it is not a clone. Then we are separating the clone from the Master. Clone means identical copy. It is an identical copy of the Master. And the awareness of the clone because the clone is inside physical part of the Master is very far away. Physical form of the Master is so far away and has no time for anybody and we hardly get to see him for a little while but the clone is always there. Therefore the clone acts more aggressively in being our friend. And the Master in his physical form with his remoteness acts like an ordinary human being. It is a great combination. And sometimes we really suspect that Baba Faqir Chand was more right in explaining. He really did not know anything. And Masters really don’t know anything. And our doubting mind that can doubt anything begins to doubt. Master really doesn’t know, just a theory they made of Clones and all that. And suddenly one day he will spring a surprise by telling you something which you only know. How did Master know that? IT is just one little example he will give and put you back on track. No no, he knows. But he won’t say so because he is a friend of mine. [Note: that a saint or Master can know or appear to know something like this in any given moment is not in itself proof that he is omniscient. All we can say is that in some way he was given to know or say something that was required in the circumstance, by the power inherent in his higher self or God. It is not something to be lightly dismissed, but it also occasionally happens to much lesser souls, as well as psychics of one flavor or another who access the universal mind]. So, from time to time these experiences will also take place. I think it is a good game. Don’t put your Master on a pedestal. Don’t put him high away from yourself. The Master is your friend. Friend here in the physical form and friend inside and he will share your life. He will share your joys your sorrows your sufferings. He will suffer with you. He will feel sorry when he needs to be sorry. And he will fly with you. He will dance with you. He will eat with you. It is a very different relationship once you establish the form of the Master inside. And that is the beauty of this Naam Daan by a Perfect Living Master. That is the relationship that is created.” (Ishwar Puri – The Real Form of the Master is Shabd – Sound Current (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzXaZfkXlE8)
There is much to ponder here, two issues in particular stand out. Puri maintained that Faqir only said that the outer Master knows nothing in order to encourage initiates to go inside, and also so they would not deify the human form. Is this the whole truth about what Faqir believed? He certainly openly challenged Kirpal Singh to expose the truth as he saw it; he didn't just in a friendly way tell him this as a roundabout way to gently coax people to go inside, although there are photos on the website of Faqir's successor showing Kirpal and Faqir walking arm in arm cordially. What Puri claimed goes against everything Faqir many times spoke and wrote about, as well as his successor Kamal Dayal, who knew him since 1956. So what Puri claimed seems unlikely to be true, but how much do we really know?
Did Faqir even really ever say that the Master never knows he appears to anyone, or only that most of the time he doesn't know? It is likely we may never know the truth of this. Still, his immediate successor, Dr. I.C. Sharma, said that Faqir appeared to him both within and without to console and comfort him when his wife was murdered. Did Faqir actually appear, or was it Sharma's own Soul or the Universal Soul/God that manifested images for him? I get the impression that Sharma thought it was his master Faqir who personally appeared. The philosophic view it that it is our own divine Overself - what Nisargadatta would say was the eternal, inner Sadguru that is always with us and leads us to the goal and is the goal - through which even this is manifested to us. And which, again, does not mean that Faqir had nothing at all to do with it!
Once again mystery and paradox abound and it seems we have little choice but to learn to live with that.
Puri also said that the human master always knows everything but chooses to act as if he does not in order to make us feel comfortable. It is for the reader to decide, based on his own experience, and on what we have examined so far, whether this is believable or helpful, or if it be even necessary that it be true in order to secure our devotion and realization. It has certainly not gone unchallenged. The current successor to Faqir Chand at Manav Mandir in Hoshiarpur, Kamal Dayal, does not agree with Ishwar, or Sawan Singh: ”Ishwar Puri has not understood what Baba Faqir Ji has said at all. No guru places his clone in the body of his disciple to know his feelings. I am sorry to say that Radhasoami Mat is misrepresented without understanding it and without practical experience within.” (personal correspondence)
From our bias this sounds reasonable, but then, reasonableness is not the sole criterium of truth! We actually have no way of knowing whether a Master can create clones and place them in the bodies of his disciples. It does seem strange that he would need a surrogate to "talk" to him and tell him what is happening "down below" if he is all-pervading Spirit, aware or functioning on all levels, with his primary communication being heart-to-heart. Perhaps not all Masters can do it, and yet still be adequately competent as Masters. The astral duplicate arrangement appears to be limited to the occult spheres [i.e., astral and lower mental planes and not the formless dimensions above] which Brunton said earlier the adept was free from having to personally deal with.
But is it possible? Spyro Sathi [Daskalos, "the Magus of Strovolos"], healer animistic, may shed some light on this from a contrasting tradition of esoteric Christianity. He states:
"I build powerful elementals [living thought-forms] and direct them towards the persons in need of help. I let the elementals work by themselves. It is as if I am there. When the elementals need extension of life they come to me, draw energy, and report on the patient's condition. It is like receiving a communique." (Markides, Homage to the Sun (Penguin/ARKANA, 1987),p. 148) [More on this concept of elementals as living things is discussed in Part Four in the section "Do We Meet Past Masters Inside?"]
Daskalos's successor Kostas further explains:
Q: How do you monitor our spiritual development?
A: Through the elementals, of course.
Q: Elementals that you and Daskalos create?
A: Precisely. That is why sometimes some of you would come and tell me you saw me there. And I guarantee you I was not there.
Q: Who was 'there,'then?
A: The elemental of myself, of course. In such cases your consciousness has been coordinated with the elemental I have created and which is always with you. This is a part of the work and the responsibility of the master.
Q: Kostas, does this elemental offer protection?
A: It protects and admonishes, assuming that the present personality does not act in a naughty way....You see, there is a certain (let us say) programming that goes on in accordance with what has been stored up within the subconscious of the individual as knowledge, guidance, suggestion. From the moment, however, that a present personality steps outside these guideline, then the elemental cannot offer protection. Otherwise, the individuality and freedom of the will of the person is violated. (Markides, Fire in the Heart (Penguin/ARKANA, 1990), p. 292)
Or as PB has said, the cable of trust between master and disciple is snapped. Not necessarily forever, however, but full protection is, within broad limits, for those who keep the precepts. This, when asked, was also Kirpal Singh's position.
We are not saying the method of Daskalos is the same way that the Masters do it, but are only pointing out a similarity in concept. The Masters have not described their techniques in such detail!
The depth or degree of knowing bilocation and manifestation, further, may vary depending on how advanced a master is. Some, at times, may only be able to psychically appear, whereas others may appear physically. Kostas says:
"The advanced mystic...acquires certain psycho-noetic abilities that appear inconceivable to ordinary human beings by penetration into the realm of the Real [Sat]. The mystic, for example, may enter inside the psychic worlds any time he or she wishes through superconscious self-awareness without closing the doors of perception to experiences that are taking place in the gross material world. Additionally, the mystics by entering into the Real, moves beyond time and speace and therefore is capable of acquiring impressions and experiences simultaneously from all the dimensions of life - from the gross material, the psychic, the noetic, and beyond." (Ibid, p. 100)
Advanced masters, said Daskalos, live consciously and continuously within all dimensions of existence. Ishwar Puri similarly made the sweeping claim that Perfect Masters are simultaneously conscious on all planes at once. The devil is often in the details, however, when trying to get an understanding of such statements. It is not good enough just to say it is or it isn't. The questions to ask are "in what way is it true?" and "how is it done?"
All this is by way of introducing a concept. The reader will get a another chance to conclude one way or another on this issue when he reads the above-mentioned section in Part Four as well as the section on "Multiple Emanations" in Part Two! At the least, however, we can say that Faqir's claim that no Master ever knows when, or how, his form is projected to a disciple, is unwarranted. They seem to hhave ways and means of doing it, some conscious, some subconscious, and in other cases the Holy Spirit intervenes and does it for them.
Just ‘Who’ and 'Where' is the Master?
No doubt a bold and presumptuous question on our part ! Echoing what Puri says above, Sant Darshan Singh writes:
“He is not a single physical entity. In Shabd form, he is everywhere. He multiplies himself into the number of people he has to look after and can be with each one of his disciples at the same time. To the naked eye it appears that he is talking to one person, but if he wants he can know at the same time everything that is happening to each individual within his circle of grace. He may be talking to any one of us, and at the same time he might be taking another man out of the body, and helping all his other children according to their needs. All initiates can enjoy the love glimpses of the Master wherever they are because the Master is always sitting within them and watching them.” (Spiritual Awakening, p. 217)
”He is the Word made flesh. He is everywhere,” said Kirpal Singh (Morning Talks, p. 24)
These are bold statements in light of what we have just discussed. Obviously, these capacities must not be thought of the human master, the son of Man, but of the Divine within him, lest we run into insolvable problems. But one may rightly wonder if Darshan Singh, for instance, was speaking solely from personal experience, or partly from what he had absorbed from his tradition. A caveat in his statement is "if he wants to he can know everything that is happening to each individual within his circle of grace." This leaves open the possibility that, a the very least, if he doesn't want to, he wouldn't know everything. For instance, those who knew Darshan Singh know that he made mistakes. For some reason, it is only on the mystical paths that acknowledging such a human fact is taboo. Or that there can be grades of Mastership regarding al lof these abilities. And, at any one time the likelihood of there being many people leaving the body is quite small, so it would be possible for him as an individual to have the exceptional ability to simultaneously attend to such events without being made into something so superhuman as to be beyond ones expectation or capacity to believe without experiencing for oneself. Without explicitly saying so he does, however, affirm something like the astral duplicate theory ("he multiplies himself into the number of people he has to look after"). And, as we mention in the section on "multiple emanations in Part Two," something like this has been spoken of in other traditions, not only Sant Mat.
Our intention is not to bring down the Gurus to our level, but rather, to raise the inherent dignity and self-worth of the aspirant which might be unduly hindered by setting the bar of attainment of the Teachers so high as to make his own self-realization appear unreachable.
This also brings up a companion question for pondering and contemplation: not just ‘who’, but where’ is the Master? We will not discuss this at length here - hopefully suggestive hints (for all of us, the writers included) will be given throughout this book - but for now will simply present three short quotes, in addition to the one just given:
“The Master is always within at the eye-focus." - Kirpal Singh (Morning Talks, p. 53)
“The follower should be, what you say, in the tomb of his Guru, he should enter into it and be absorbed. This [the Master gestures to His chest] is the tomb. The Living Master lives here and you are there so you should leave your body and enter into His tomb.” (Ibid, p. 258)
“If we think that the Master is in one physical location, that is the most erroneous way of looking at things. The Master is always with us. He is nearer to us than our throat; he is within us. He is within our eyes; he is within our forehead; he is within every pore of our body...The Master is with us all the time. We are caught in the tresses of the beloved and we cannot wiggle out of them. We cannot even move our finger we are so tied up in our Beloved's tresses. Only if we look inside ourself will we find our Beloved master with us. Our Master can even be with us physically all the twenty-four hours. He is not gone. He has not left the earthly plane. He is here - now! [words similar to those of the dying Ramana Maharshi: "where could I go? I am here."]...We should call him from the core of our heart. He has not gone anywhere. He is with us; he is within us; he is without us; he is in every pore of our body. He enlivens us in our voice; he is in our breath; he is in our looks; we only fail to perceive him." - Darshan Singh (Streams of Nectar (Naperville, Il: SK Publications, 1993), p.106-107)
This statement by Darshan Singh is a bit more accessible for most of us than the one above, and brings realization well within our immediate reach.
One is reminded of a quote from Brunton:
“It is an amazing paradox that the Overself completely transcends the body yet completely permeates it. Both these descriptions are simultaneously true.” (Notebooks, Vol. 14, 3.336)
Neem Karoli Baba said:
"Christ gave up even his body for the truth (dharma). But he never died. He lives as the Atman in everyone." (Ram Das, BEING RAM DASS (Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2019), p. 190)
Hhhmm. The Third Eye? The Heart? Everywhere? Our entire body? A vast mystery without question. We are closing in on non-duality no doubt.
If all Masters are one - as has been said but often interpreted in a cultic way as "only the Masters in our lineage or school" - can we also ask, is there truly more than one Master? Certainly on a human level there are. And we have spoken on the practice of certain liberal teachers of sending their students elsewhere for 'finishing school.' But some jnanis speak differently about the Sadguru or eternal Guru. Papaji states:
"Different gurus teach different things: some give instructions for beginners, others have more advanced teachings. Finally, though, the student will graduate to his final teacher, who is the Sadguru. The Sadguru is one who enables you to recognize your own Self...He will give you perfect knowledge and liberate you immediately from the cycle of rebirth. He will give you the direct awareness of the highest truth: 'You are not born. The universe was never created.' This is the ultimate sat, the ultimate reality." (Godman, op. cit., p. 223)
More on Faqir’s radical views; Counterfeit planes; Master's form; important comments by PB and Atmananda
One of Faqir Chand’s boldest claim was that all visions - and inner planes - were "phantasmagoria" up to Bhanwar Gupha, sounding somewhat akin to the after-death appearances that the Tibetan Book of the Dead warns are products of one's own mind. He said in fact everyone may not experience them in the same way. Which would essentially contradict teachings like “there are 84 steps to the pool of Manasarovar in Daswan Dwar,” as Darshan Singh maintained. Faqir went from considering the things he saw inside as objectively real to seeing them as subjective mental creations, and he increasingly asked the question proposed by Ramana, “who" sees the visions, and "who" hears the sounds?", (although it is not clear from his writings that he attained the same Self-realization as the latter), which is certainly a legitimate inquiry practice, but in itself does not negate some form of ‘objectivity’ or universal conformity to the inner regions independent of the individual. He said:
“On the basis of my experiences I say that solution to all our worldly afflictions is beyond the mental realms. Go even beyond the state of thoughtlessness. Spirituality begins from thoughtlessness or the state of Mahasunna. I am indebted to those who consider me as Guru. They helped me to go beyond the mental realms. Now my Sadhana is of the Surat and not of the mind. But you cannot reach this stage so easily because you have the desires for name, fame, and wealth. Therefore, the teachings of the saints are not for the public in general. Do you think that the present method for initiation adopted by the Gurus is for the well-being of mankind? Decidedly not. These Gurus are doing this all for their own name, fame, and centers. This method of initiation would ruin those who get it because they are not aware of the thoughts of their subconscious mind. They do not know the power and the secret of their thoughts.”
“O man, your own mind is your Guru and the follower. Understand this secret from the Sat Sang of the realized man. Entertain noble and constructive thoughts and make your life. None can help you. Even a saint who dwells in light and sound cannot do anything for you. I dwell in light and sound, but I cannot do anything for you. After a long struggle, I have reached the stage of complete surrender to Him. It is all your faith.”
“This life is a bubble of consciousness. This bubble is the creation of His will and it will vanish at His will. I am nothing, but still, I am everything. I have been a son, brother, husband, and father, but I do not ensnare myself in this world of attachments. This is the essence of all the religions, but none tries to understand it. What is to happen must happen, so why make hue and cry? Saints live in the state of forgetfulness.”
“For me, the spontaneous form is that I am a bubble of consciousness. I do not claim that I am a God. He who claims himself as Brahma is not a practical man. He may be intelligent and well-read. If someone is really Brahma, let him do some good to the suffering humanity, or at least save himself from sorrows and pain. None can do it. All harvest the fruit of deeds.” (from Truth Always Wins by Baba Faqir Chand)
These passages have confused me. The metaphor "I am a bubble of consciousness" when used in reference to one's earthly life is reminiscent of how the Buddha described it's transiency, but as a metaphor for realization itself it falls short. He seems to have used it both ways at different times. A 'bubble', however, is a thing. It has dimensions. Further, are all bubbles the same size? That does not sound descriptive of the unlimited nature of consciousness, or the traditional description of Self-realization. See the problem? This conception of enlightenment, if that is what it is, lacks clarity. [Elsewhere he does give a higher conception ("In reality, you are neither body, nor mind, nor soul, but a pure being. You are invisible, unfathomable, nameless, formless, and beyond all qualities"), but for now, compare the above with how Sri Nisargadatta speaks of it:
Q: How do you know you are in the supreme state?
M: Because I am in it. It is only the natural state.
Q: Can you describe it?
M: Only by negation, as uncaused, independent, unrelated, undivided, uncomposed, unshakable, unquestionable, unreachable by efforts." (I AM THAT, p, 16)
Elsewhere he has said, "My world is my self. I am at home." (Ibid, p. 17) He used the metaphors, "a mass of consciousness," "a solid block of reality" to point to it. But nowhere is there anything but a resolute certitude, even when near death, which was not the case with Faqir. Some no doubt will dispute this. This is just my perspective.
Many have argued, in any case, based on Faqir Chand's words and books, that a Master's form is a projection of the disciple's own mind, yet again, I feel this conclusion may not cover all cases. It kind of depends on one's point of view. Many people who never heard of a certain Master before have had their inner darshan, and this does not seem to be simply a projection of their inner desire or pre-conditioned mental tendency. The true guru's radiant subtle form, it is said, can appear where and when he wishes, and, it is also claimed, God or the Sat Purush can project it in the same manner. Sant Darshan Singh, without refuting Faqir Chand's principle critiques, felt that he was misguided about Sant Mat. But others no doubt feel the same way towards him, so what's a poor boy to do?
There is also the vast issue to explore of the teaching that there are reflections or counterfeit copies by Kal of higher regions in lower ones, which myriad sub-levels, etc., that can deceive those without the highest insight or help of a Master who has navigated all regions. A Kabir Pathi, as well as Sant Mat scholar L. Puri in one of his books, say there are fake Anamis in lower planes. One may first well ask, "how can one duplicate infinite formless consciousness?!' Nevertheless, as we will see in Part Two, not only a counterfeit Anami, but all higher planes may be replicated in the lowers, and also lower planes in the higher (although the latter situation, counter-intuitively, is said to be more difficult to discern and understand - or even explain) Not that the average initiate need be burdened with the headache-producing problem of avoiding all possible replicated planes! It is suggested that the problem only exists when the Heart is left out of the picture. But, theoretically, it makes a kind of sense that the essence of all levels can be found in each one, if reality is viewed as holographic in nature, and if a universe can easily fit into a pin point, as many scriptures have declared.
Dr. I.C. Sharma, interim successor to the radical and iconoclastic Faqir, didn’t follow the latter's thinking that the form is 'merely a subjective vision', i.e., a personal creation, but that it was important to visualize and concentrate on it in the lower planes as long as one realized it wasn’t the be all and end all. In other words, the stages are necessary. And it is part of the humility and perhaps one could say divine physics of this thing that masters usually defer to their own master, even after their realization. This helps keep the transmission of the lineage pure. So even though a Master is merged in the light beyond any form of his Master, and in the great Beyond beyond that, he still gets charm from his master's subtle form. And why not? He gets charm from all forms as well. While a Master now in his own right, for convention's sake and an outward show of humility these masters usually defer to their own Master as the doer and source of grace.
Still, PB wrote on the terminal stages of the path of devotion:
“This last stage, where the presence and picture of the Master are displaced by the pictureless presence of the disciple's own spirit, is accurately described in the words of Jesus to his disciples: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ... when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." …Most aspirants shrink from this step, shrink from deserting what has been such a helpful faithful friend in the past, but it is one that cannot be avoided…It is a good master who is ego-free enough to recognize that his work is done, and it is a faithful disciple who will accept the fact and let him go. The master knows that however helpful he himself was in the past, his presence will henceforth be a hindrance. The disciple knows that it will now be better to depend upon his own intuitive self and work out his own salvation…The final stage puts an end to illusion, and then the sense of infinitude which was felt with the master is found to have its source within the disciple himself.” (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 6.590; Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.283-286, 5.190)
Of course, there is no law that one cannot ponder on this truth from the beginning and thus shorten his journey in relativity. At some point the disciple must stand on his own two feet if he is to realize the Atman.
"In the end he must inwardly walk alone - as must everyone else however beloved - since God allows no one to escape this price." (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 3.325)
Before leaving the topic of the Master's Radiant Form, however, we have this amazing, enigmatic, and wonderful quote from even a master of the path of knowledge, Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon, who said:
"Guru alone has the revered place of honor and veneration in all planes. It is an experience that sometimes when you go deep into pure Consciousness and get lost in it (i.e., nirvikalpa samadhi of the jnani), you see the person of your Guru there, and this vision throws you into an ecstatic joy taking you even beyond Sat-Chit-Ananda. Blessed indeed are you then." [from Notes on Spiritual Discourses, ed. by Nitya Tripta].
This Jnani also states:
"It is an invariable truth that Atma suffers recognition when the ego enjoys, and the ego suffers when Atma shines (is recognized). But this has a happy and lonely exception. The Guru's form is the only form in the universe which, if contemplated upon, takes you directly to the real subject - the Reality...When the ego thinks of the Guru and enjoys, even in the mental plane, Atma (Guru) also shines and simultaneously delivers a pleasant death to the ego." (Ibid, #1009)
Remember, Kirpal said in his book Godman
“The Master’s astral form takes over the charge of the spirit with full responsibility for leading it to the final goal. Even the Saints also adore this form and derive ecstatic delight from it.” (p. 107-108)
There may be different ways to the final goal, but one may well ask here, are the saints so deluded that they would take ecstatic delight from a mere illusory manifestation of their own minds? He further makes the bold claim that:
The astral form of the Master Soul is unchangeable and permanent. It is the form that guides aspirants to their goal...Guru Dev is the greatest and highest manifestation of Sat Purush. He is the controlling power of God and can grant salvation. Nothing but Sat is Guru Dev.” (p. 110)
This is very confusing. And the language may be inaccurate. How can an astral form be the highest manifestation of the Sat Purush, which is supposed to exist three planes higher? And how could it be permanent, as all the lower worlds are forever in flux? Elsewhere he does say that the form changes from plane to plane, so perhaps he meant to say that, for the disciple, within relativity the essential nature of the form is permanent, and that it is qualitatively different from all other forms within the manifest worlds. So the essential meaning is what we are after.
Needless to say, the mystery and meaning of the Radiant Form is profound, as well as likely inherently mysterious. And when even a jnani of the stature of Atmananda Krishnamenon (https://www.mountainrunnerdoc.citymaker.com/articles/article/2291157/73715.htm) praises the Form of the Master we mightstand up and take note. It does not seem to be just a bunch of business as Faqir’s or even Brunton’s positions may sometimes seem to imply.
Perspectives from Orthodox Christianity, Taoism, Vedanta, and philosophic teachings
How the Master may appear simultaneously in two or more places, or how his form appears to so many disciples, even without his conscious knowledge, is in fact reconciled in the teaching of the Holy Fathers of Greek spirituality. In light of this it does not appear to be a curiosity found only within Sant Mat that is unable to be explained to ones satisfaction. As explained by Kiriacos Markides, in Mountain of Silence (p. 92):
"Stories circulated of how, on many occasions, elder Paissos was seen in two places at the same time, a phenomenon known as "bilocation." He was also reputed to have been able to speak to a group of French pilgrims in their own tongue when he had no knowledge of French, to have healed people from incurable illnesses, and to have miraculously appeared in places of accidents to rescue people. When asked to confirm these rumors, elder Paissos denied everything and claimed that all those miraculous happenings that people attributed to him were in fact performed by the Holy Spirit. He vehemently rejected any credit for himself. Elder Paissos explained that the Holy Spirit would often appropriate his image and perform the miracles that people attributed to him. In fact, all he did was pray ceaselessly and therefore could not have been present where people claimed to have seen him. In his own subjective experience, he said, the episodes that people attributed to him were nothing more than lucid images that appeared within his mind while these events unfolded. But it was the Holy Spirit that performed the miracles by borrowing, as it were, elder Paissos' physiognomy."
Of course, it is a given that the issue of whether it is the Master, or the Holy Spirit, that does all these things is indeed a Mystery for us, but a transcendental Mystery that is very real. And what form of individuality are we really talking about at this level, such that one could distinguish between an individual Master and the Holy Spirit? For instance, Sant Rajinder Singh said, “I don’t do anything, the soul doesn’t do anything, the God-Power does everything.” Scripture tells us, "The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." These are Mysteries: again, whether one says it is the Master, or the Holy Spirit or God-Power, what kind of individuality are we really talking about at this level? It is certainly a paradoxical state and affair and the words do not tell us exactly how it works. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit does not seem to pick just any form to manifest itself in in this manner, it picks the Masters, not Mickey Mouse! So there has to be a connection, which seemed what reductionists like David Lane, quoting Faqir Chand, may not fully understand…Further, the Form when manifested is reality, certainly, inasmuch as it is a manifestation and representation of such, and also leads beyond ego to the Real, in similar fashion that a Holy Name does. Let us not fall into a mental advaita trap of disparaging this as all just a bunch of business!
In the following excerpt from “Gong-fu” Transformations Within the Physical Body," William Bodri
gives additional perspective on the relationship of advanced siddhis like bilocation and actual realization of the Tao or Enlightenment itself; he points out that:
"The physical body always undergoes transformations in a step-by-step fashion that matches the progress made in achieving higher mental states, but all these various forms of physical gong-fu require years to attain, even if you become enlightened. In other words, even if you become enlightened, it will require years for your physical nature to become fully transformed because there is very little you can do to rush the process. For someone with great prajna wisdom, however, the mind attainments can be achieved quite quickly."
This seems to imply that a Master need not be perfected for him to be used by the Holy Spirit for the initiating and guiding task of Mastership. He also says:
"We could fill an entire book with stories of various monks, masters, sadhus and gods—chosen from a wide variety of the world’s different religious traditions—who accomplished the yang shen emanation and who could project one or more body doubles (including bodies having other physical shapes), but accomplishing the yang shen doesn’t mean that someone has reached the highest stages of samadhi, and certainly not enlightenment. It only means that someone has reached a certain stage of chi-shen cultivation." ( p. 71)
Such siddhis as bilocation, invisibility, even raising the dead, are among the eight classic yogic powers listed by Patanjali. Advanced yogis may attain such powers, but in the those who have reached varying degrees of divine realization they are said to come of themselves as needed without deploying the personal will. Bilocation and raising the dead, knowing things about people that no one could have known, or putting his hand on people's heads to prevent their kundalini from rising when in his presence, were also attributed to Neem Karoli Baba. The essential point is that things such as bilocation of a Master is not of the same nature as the bilocation of a yogi. [More on siddhis in Part Four].
Proceeding on, Sant Mat teaches that in Sach Khand one is not, strictly speaking, seeing a mere vision, but "God as a Person" as the Sat Purush. We feel this needs to be understood in an intuitive and spiritual way. As Sat Lok is said to be a formless region, any 'meeting' between the Soul and its Beloved, felt as personal (as Ramana said, "the 'I' is the 'first person' in the heart" - the most personal experience), will not be of the nature of an ordinary dualistic human vision, but one seen with the 'eyes of the heart'. The soul, while impersonal from the point of view of the ego, is nevertheless the most intimate identity of the individual, and its being touched or known or seen by the Divine is most personal to it. So one can say it is personal, while it is also the first impersonal or absolute (Sat) level. This will make little sense to the Vedantist or Buddhist for whom any individuality is considered to be an illusion or only contraction of ego or separate self. But they usually offer little satisfactory answer to the question, who or what is it that experiences 'formless consciousness', 'emptiness', or a state of 'no-self'? 'No-self'? 'Consciousness'? Such philosophy has been said to be deficient inasmuch as one is already conditioned to negate individuality and to believe the truth to be only an impersonal, witnessing awareness, and simply is not subtle enough to realize or awaken to the presence of the soul within it. This has been the position of anadi, for instance.
It makes perfect sense for Sant Kirpal Singh to say “seeing is above all” regarding Sach Khand, for this is the Pleroma, not a mere void, and the Soul is the principle of all knowing, all seeing. One might say that the so-called “divine vision” is a vision in name only, being far beyond subject-object “seeing”, but more a “knowing” where to know is to be. We might also consider what Plotinus said about the Intellectual World (which might be equated with Sach Khand):
“In the Intellectual World everything is transparent, and all the essences see one another and interpenetrate one another in the most intimate depths of their natures.”
When one gets absorbed in the Sat Purush, then, there appear to be several degrees. Some advaitists, of course, will disagree, but solely on philosophical grounds, as usually they have not had this experience, nor do most of them have a conception other than a unidimensional one of a 'no-mind' experience beyond the conceptual mind. They believe that the impersonal subject of experience is the Absolute; they don’t always recognize that there may be more than one type of experience ‘beyond the mind’, and, according to some teachings, 'two' impersonal subjects: Soul and the universal subjectivity, God, the 'UniversaI I AM'. Their merger or union or meeting lies beyond the tacit intuition of presence or consciousness, which might be seen as more or less as the base for the soul's awakening. Moreover, the bare essence of the mind, consciousness, and the active center of intuitive intelligence that works in manifestation, are one unified whole. Therefore, any view that sees one or the other as the exclusive truth is incomplete. And this is the nature of many traditional teachings that envision enlightenment to be dissociation or abstraction from the plane of action or manifestation. [Much more on the topic of the nature of the Sat Purush in Part Two].
This may still not fully answer the question of whether one can see a form in Sach Khand. Sri Nisargadatta said, “ As long as you think yourself to be a person, He too is a person. When you are all, you see Him as all.” (I AM THAT, p. 88). The discerning reader will spot a flaw a problem with this more or less traditional statement. For 'who' is the one who 'sees Him as all?' It can't be the 'all’ that does so, can it? There is a resort to dualistic language here because Sri Nisargadatta may only have recognized the impersonal absolute, and not, as anadi suggested, the personal (but subjective) soul principle. This seems to have been a common approach among the ancient scriptures. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it says:
"When to the knower of Brahman everything has become the Self, then what should one see and through what?" (II.iv.14)
There are numerous possible problems with this type of languaging. First, everything cannot become the Self, and even if it did, then 'who' knows that? This is a relative world of polarities, of which absolute/relative is the first and fundamental one. By siding only with the absolute, or the impersonal, as many teachings do, a true non-dual picture of reality is not found, in which nothing is to be negated but rather all is included in a greater understanding or perspective. Rather than finding truth, a traditionally expected conclusion is reached. Many mysteries, however, cannot be explained under this type of view. Are we just the consciousness, 'no-self', or the state of Presence; are we the impersonal 'I Am' (advaita); are we the 'Unborn' or Absolute state beyond consciousness (Nisargadatta); ? Or might we be the Soul, which experiences and knows herself through all of these, and also knows herself most truly in oneness with her Divine Source? If the latter is true - although universally denied by traditional philosophies which negate all but an impersonal absolute as being real, including the soul as an eternal verity - then there may in fact be some truth in those who speak of a union of the soul with a personal God. For the realization of the (atemporal) oneness of the Soul and her Beloved is a most personal one, although of course, being beyond ego, it also has impersonal characteristics. For instance, it is beyond time and place.
But the reality is that Sach Khand while essentially formless (in relation to the realms below) it is not unmanifest. It has been described as “gushing fountains of light,” where all souls rejoice, communicating with soul vibrations, all felt and seen as one. So of course there is seeing - just not by the triple function (seer, seeing, seen) as exists in the realms of duality.
Vedantist V.S. Iyer, a well-respected pundit, teacher of Paul Brunton, and Ramakrishna Order monks Nikhilinanda and Siddeswarananda, wrote, however, that "even if you see Sat Purush, it is just a thought" and "He who says he sees the Sat Purush inside in meditation is no sage." Iyer's view, however, also seems to be a rather limited way of viewing the entirety of relative reality, which is more multi-dimensional than he may have realized. He was a philosopher presuming to speak for sages. But who says a sage can't see or experience or be absorbed into the Sat Purush? The promise of seeing the Master in Sach Khand is an interesting conception, however, as in Sant Mat the mind in the sense as manas is supposedly left off at the level of the mental or causal plane, two realms below Sach Khand, and all koshas left behind upon entry into Sach Khand, the 'full effulgence' of the Nameless One, with both the freed soul and and Sat Purush supposedly inherent eternal realities, even though one can go further. Yet there is really no problem here, as the Sant Mat teachings only say that man has no 'bodies' after the causal plane'; the absence of manas does not imply there can be no visible forms, or thoughts. Soamiji clearly states that Sach Khand has form (demarcation), color, and sound, while being a realm of all-consciousness. If this were not the case, it seems, the Buddhist notion of the Sambhogakaya as a spontaneous manifestation of the ultimate reality of the Dharmakaya would not be possible. Sach Khand or Sat Lok may be an eternal, non-dual realm, but sometimes describes as full of gushing, fountains of light, at least at its entrance. Is this then where even the vision of a 'million suns' is transcended? Apparently not. Just prior to Sach Khand some have said there is a dualism of a seer and this 'light of a million suns', but after rebirth in Sach Khand the game is changed radically in some way. Non-separation of the souls is directly known. Souls are unique, but known within the totality and not separately. Brunton described the Soul as individual, but not personal. It is described no doubt metaphorically, as it is really indescribable in earthly language. The soul is then said to progressively merge into the nameless, Wordless state. So what must be understood is that any advaitin who thinks that this supreme vision of infinite effulgence, or the Word itself, is somehow a last veil of maya or illusion, may be misleading, according to how Sant Mat sees it. It is a highly beatific state that transforms ones earthly experience as well. This was a main point of Sri Aurobindo. Still, we may be taking semantics. One school calls this MoolaMaya or Primordial Prakriti, while the other refers to it as the Full Effulgence of the Absolute. That is, assuming Anami is the Absolute, and not the first expression of the Absolute, as some sages hold. Either way this must be the light of consciousness, beyond light and darkness as we ordinarily know it. Noumenon and not phenomenon, or Chidakash (the expanse of consciousness) and not Chitakash (the expanse of mind) We will return to this concept in Part Four.
Perhaps it is possible, that just as it is said that there are reflections of higher regions in the lower, that there may also be reflections of the lower in the higher? This may be another way of accounting for some people claiming to see a vision of their master sitting upon a throne in Sach Khand - in what is supposedly a formless region.
Sant Mat differs with advaita in that it generally assigns the designation of maya to only the first three planes, or physical, astral, and causal, and their respective bodies. Sri Aurobindo basically said the same thing, arguing that Shankara was forced to make maya the divine creative but also illusion-making force, whereas if anything it was a lower power and “not the Para-Shakti or Divine Mother, source of both purushas and prakriti and one with Puroshottama or the Supreme Divine.” The term Puroshottama comes up in the Bhagavad-Gita and yoga literature with some frequency, but what more can be said of it? Here is what Ramana said with his characteristic simplicity:
“Purusha and Prakriti are only the bifurcation of the one Supreme. They are surmised because the student has the sense of duality deeply rooted. The same Gita also says that Puroshottama lies beyond Purusha and Prakriti.” (Talks, p. 320)
In Sant Mat they draw many more distinctions, and the bifurcation into purusha/prakriti per se occurs several stages down from the Supreme. Just as they refer maya to the lower regions, but Adi-Maya higher up, so, too, do they have differing grades of 'Purusha' and Prakriti. These are all words of course, but to illustrate this Kirpal Singh wrote, in Spirituality:What It Is:
“Primal Oneness expresses as a duality at all levels; the “Shabd”or Word permeates all levels.” He lists a descending hierarchy of densities: Sat and Sato (spiritual), Purusha and Prakriti (~spiritual), Brahm and Shakti (spirituo-material), Kal and Maya (materio-spiritual), Jyoti and Niranjan (material)."
Note that Gupta quoted earlier listed Maya as the co-creator of Anami, whereas here Kirpal places Maya further down. This is accounted for - but not necessarily explained - by the distinctions between Adi Maya and Maya, as well as Moola (or Adi)-Prakriti and Prakriti. Of particular interest is the bifurcation of Sat Lok into Sat and Sato. How can this be explained? Perhaps in the same way as thought resides, comes forth, and gets resorbed into mind, and as even unmanifest Nirvikalpa has been said to nevertheless have a ‘content,’ i.e., the unmanifest ‘World-Idea’), so, too, in Sat Lok there is ‘Sato,’ the creative power expressed or unexpressed.
Above the three lower worlds for Sant Mat is Par Brahmand or the supercausal region/realm/realization, which, while not yet non-dual, is still free from birth and death. Entry into Sach Khand implies freedom from, not only the three bodies/worlds, but also mind/matter/and illusion. They sometimes speak of a supracausal body that is also transcended [as does SIddharameshwar, guru of Sri Nisargadatta, but as explained in a more vedantic manner], but this is a body unlike what we usually imagine a body to be. What kind of 'body' is vijnanamaya or anandamaya koshas? What does a sheath of bliss look like? In vedanta koshas are expedients for our progressive understanding, and are to be know as consciousness, not ‘things.’. At any rate, Sach Khand is considered by some a non-dual realization (more on this Part Two), the first of what Sant Mat might be called the 'God-Realizing stages.
Sant Mat and similar schools also have a different way of conceiving the ultimate state. They speak of the drop merging into the ocean, whereas advaita sees this as the ocean 'recognizing' there is no drop. And they carry this into the immediate sadhana of daily life, and therefore see no need for progressive merger of an illusion. But this is hair-splitting, the husk without the kernel, and confusing the ego with the soul. Further, when the soul merges with the ocean, it is said to know itself in a new, transcendental way, via its own 'absence' in the 'presence' of the Supreme. Some traditions say that one may better say that the ocean merges into the drop. Neither is perfect language, which doesn't exist. The great vedantin Sankara put it this way in one of his devotional hymns, in language most often preferred by the Saints:
"O God, I know there is no difference between You and me, but I am Thine, Thou art not mine, because a wave can be of the ocean, but the ocean cannot be of the wave."
Sant Mat generally [with the possible exceptions of Shiv Brat Lal and Faqir Chand] appears to view the advaitic three states (waking, dream, and sleep) as only the experiences of a soul bound to Pinda, or the physical realm. Thus it does not hold to the standard yogic/vedantic explanation of realizing the waking state as one with turiya, the 'fourth state', as being ultimate realization. Rather, one must ascend above this lower world into superconsciousness, which is a greater reality and not just an imaginary state, albeit greater than our normal imagination or dream. It does not see sleep as the equivalent of the causal or prajnic state, but rather as a subconscious state when attention, the expression of the soul, sinks down into the throat and navel centers of the gross body. It would prefer to have the sleeping hours remain conscious by ascending to higher planes. Thus it has an entirely different view of avastatreya, or the vedantic analysis of the three states, as well as the nature of mind and the ultimate creative power.
While advaita admits of no creation or causation (ajata), it does allow, says even Swami Nikhilinanda, for the Effulgent Nature of Reality to appear as if there were creation, and from the position of Reality there is no separation between the Real and its manifestation. Kirpal said that Sach Khand and Sat Purush was the fullest expression of the Absolute God. A further quote from him will come later, as well as a non-dual portrayal of the Sant Mat path and cosmology in Part Two.
Ramana, as mentioned, spoke of God as a person, the "first person" or "I" in the Heart, but nevertheless beyond the vision of light. Rather, it is the 'uncreated light' that makes a vision of light possible (which would include the light visualized in the lower planes). Iyer continues his line of thinking:
"Ideas never reach Atman. The mind never knows it. He who says he has a vision of the highest or describes it as supra-mental, etc., does not understand Atman, because it is free from imaginations." (Commentaries, Vol. 1; see note 29).
According to Iyer, it may not be a personal vision at the level of a dream or a product of one’s personal mind, but it is still in the realm of the imagination, albeit at the highest level. Even if it is the great vision of light, there is still a perceiver; when the perceiver is gone, then who sees what, and who has merged with what? This is an important question. And it is where, however, it is necessary to bow to the fact that there is Atman and there is Paramatma. The universal projection is not a product of the soul, but of Paramatma. So it is not just imagination. Epistemological considerations just do not apply so rigidly here. The Sants would say that beyond the three-bodied ego the soul sees and cognizes by virtue of her own light. This means the Uncreated light that makes visions of inner light possible. In this vein the light seen in the three lower planes is considered to be the light of the human nature by the mystics of the Orthodox Church, but which is still beautiful inasmuch as 'man is made in the image of God'. One may view it all as a continuum of Naam, but it needs to be recognized that the essence of Sach Khand or Sat Lok is closer to pure Subjectivity and non-dual realization, beyond human experience and conception.
The Sat Purush, so-called chief principality of Sach Khand, is said to absorb the soul (not the ego, but the soul, freed from all coverings or koshas) further on into the Nameless One. And despite Soamiji's lyrical descriptions of Sach Khand, any sense of separation or bifurcation of the mind into perceiver and perceived, as in the lower orders of creation, is supposedly non-existent here. Thus much of the descriptions of Sat Lok are likely metaphorical ones for what are essentially intuited, formless essences, or energy 'signatures' or vibrations at best, and not humanly conceivable visionary sights.The Sants insist this is a purely spiritual realm, with mind and matter left far behind.
Sawan Singh describes how the saint progressively sees the material creation differently as he ascends. He says:
"All the Saints, when they look from the top, describe the creation as His manifestation. They see Him working everywhere. Now, looking at the thing from below, or the individual viewpoint, we come across variety as opposed to oneness."
"Everybody appears working with a will, and is influenced by and is influencing others with whom he comes in contact. The individual is the doer, and is therefore responsible for his actions and their consequences. All the actions are recorded in his mind and memory, and cause likes and dislikes which keep him pinned down to the material, astral or mental spheres, according to his actions in an earlier move in the cycle of transmigration."
"The individual in these regions cannot help doing actions and having done them cannot escape their influences. Individual is the doer, and therefore bears the consequences of his actions."
"As stated above, the observations differ on account of the difference in the angle of vision. Both are right. The individual clothed in coarse material form sees only the external material forms. His sight does not go deeper than that. If he were to rise up, the same individual from Sahansdal Kanwal will see the mind actuating all forms. The form will be secondary only; mind will be the mover in all. The same individual from Daswan Dwar will see the Spirit Current working everywhere and will see how the mind gets power from the spirit."
"From Sach Khand the whole creation looks like bubbles forming and disappearing in a spiritual ocean." (Sat Sandesh, ref. misplaced)
We would have to add one more perspective to this, that of the Param Sant who has merged with the indescribable and unimaginable attributeless Nirguna state or Anami. One might feel him as 'seeing' everything from a different, 'pointless' point of view. This would correspond to the transcendentally 'ordinary state' spoken of in many traditions. He may be able to see at any of the other levels, such as viewing all as 'bubbles' appearing in an ocean', but he also sees the reality of each thing, as it is, and from within its own point of view. From this perspective he no longer need be seen as viewing everything, including himself, as a manifestation of or immanently filled with the same omnipresent light, for while a lofty, penultimate realization, a universal, harmonic perspective of oneness - it is yet a oneness known from one particular point of view! The Param Sant or fully liberated being would be radically transformed and see, not only the one Infinite Absolute manifesting as all things, but also the Infinite Potentiality of each individual being trying to realize or express its own Absolute nature. Thus the Absolute is, if we may speak of it at all, of a dynamic and not static nature. Hence the natural humility of the Param Sants, who meet everyone at their own level.
Sant Darshan has written that after traversing the physical, astral, and causal planes," the soul no longer has mind, but perceives and understands with its own light." Yet, one might ask, can the soul by its own light perceive and understand anything other than Itself, without a vehicle (i.e., kosha) to do so? Apparently so, yes. Anthony Damiani, however, student of Paul Brunton, gives the traditional philosophical argument:
“Any mystical state, any dream state, any wakeful state is a content and an object of consciousness. Different ones are going to demonstrate different characteristics, and there’s going to be an infinite array of possibilities, but the point to be grasped is that every one of them is an idea to consciousness and that the mind puts forth its own ideas and then experiences them....If you go to a higher level than this one, it will still be a content of consciousness; and if you go to an even higher level, or even to the level of being itself, there will always be a content of consciousness....That’s why it is so important to grasp this principle firmly. Hold on to it, because with it you will be able to analyze all experience and tear apart any misconceptions you have....This is true of all the seven levels of existence, even if you live in the angelic world. So if someone came from another level of existence and said, “Yes, but your analysis doesn’t hold for my plane of existence,” I would say, “Is it a content? Is it an experience for you? Is it a world that you are perceiving? Is there a perception taking place? You know it? Yes? Then it’s subject to the same analysis.” That’s how it cuts through everything and that’s why this teaching is direct and the most comprehensive one you will find. This teaching has been around for thousands of years and it won’t disappear.” (1)
“Mystical experiences are still on a penultimate stage of the imagination. You become aware of that. And no amount of superlatives will take you away from that stage....it’s still not [ultimate] reality." (2)
“PB wrote The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga prior to reaching the jivanmukta [liberation in life] stage. And the statement he makes there is that through personal feeling and intuition he had already grasped the fact that the mystical level is not dominated by reality, and is not that reality. But it would only be a person who has disciplined and developed an extreme rational consciousness who would be able to see through the superlative effulgence of the mystic state, and see its shortcomings.” (3)
Keep in mind, Damiani said “the penultimate” level of the imagination [i.e., the image-making faculty of consciousness]. What the Sants call the “Full expression of Sat Naam” in Sach Khand, the Vedantins such as Sri Siddharameshwar in Amrut Laya call “the Primal Illusion” or “MoolaMaya” ! It is a state of “ Pure Knowledge,” a relative Liberation and high spiritual attainment, but not yet Ultimate Reality or the Absolute. Yet for most of us it is the fulfillment of our heart’s desire.
Sankara said in his commentary to the Brahma Sutras:
"The highest beatitude is not to be attained through Yoga." [although yoga is a useful preliminary to concentrate the mind and prepare it for inquiry into Truth."
The argument goes, why do some high paths, such as the Tibetan school of Dzogchen (http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.citymaker.com/dzogchen.html), teach that the goal of meditation is not to (only) go inside? Surely they know of the existence of the tenth door and the inner realms. Why did a venerated master such as HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche say not to strive for advanced states and inner bliss?
"We should realize that the purpose of meditation is not to go "deeply into ourselves" or withdraw from the world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual, unconstrained by introspection and concentration...The everyday practice of Dzogchen is just everyday life itself. Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach some "amazing goal" or "advanced state."
There is a reason for this, too, which we shall reveal shortly when we attempt to tie all of this together. But first, contemplate the words of Kirpal Singh, presented at the outset:
"To know God you have to bring about a change in your heart, learn to look inward, and realize that He is your Overself. As soon as you have this realization, you are with Him."
(Sounds rather simple put this way, doesn't it? One then asks, might it be said that the astral form of the Master is in the 'head', but the Master himself is in the 'heart' - and finally, is the Heart itself? Sant Mat seems to gets less mystifying when the casual words of the Master are allowed to penetrate the filter of the mind)
On the positive side, even Ramana Maharshi once said (to someone) that "visions are better than no visions," in so far as they indicate an increasing depth of concentration, but that they must be gone beyond before true Self-Realization. All school say that. In Sant Mat the only "visions" or perceptible phenomena to be paid attention to in meditation are the Light, the Sound, and the Master's Form, which itself must stand before repetition of the five charged words given at initiation. These five charged words are an ancient tradition or dispensation in many traditions that are said to be the 'open-sesame' to the succeeding inner regions. Except that in the last two regions up to Sach Khand the mental vehicle which would repeat these names is left behind, thus only the Naam itself and the Master's Light would assist the soul, with which it is ultimately realized to be one.Thus, the Form is an extremely important aid at deepening concentrative absorption towards the final goal. This, too, extends only through the lower three planes, after which the realms are, first, archtypal, or formless-form, and then formless. Thus, once again the Master's grace itself is the saving element. The allegory given by Soamiji in the beginning of this paper is just that, some say, an allegory, for upon reaching Sach Khand, or the station of Atman, there can, according to philosophy, be no form, and no one to answer a Sat Purush who asks one how he has gotten there, saying," by the grace of a saint." Any other explanation makes no sense according to standard yoga psychology. But such psychology - and philosophy - can be wrong. Kirpal Singh states:
"In the lower planes [the Form] continues, but absorption comes at every plane. When you devote your whole attention into the Form of the master, you sometimes become absorbed; but that continues in further stages. Absorption is better. It does become that Light. You are Light; you become one; you forget; but you are conscious all the same. It does come at every step. Ultimately, it becomes One, and there is no form when you are absorbed into Sat Naam. Then, Sat Naam takes you to the stages where there is final absorption. Otherwise, the Form continues to work in the radiant Form on the different planes." (Sat Sandesh, Feb. 1975, "A Thief in the Form of a Friend")
The Throne of God
Somewhere I read that the form of the Master changes from plane to plane but resumes human form upon reaching Sach Khand, where one meets the so-called "God as a Person", but in the above quote, when examined closely, he does say that there is no form when you are absorbed into Sat Naam, leaving the possibility open that until you are actually absorbed into Sat Naam, or the Sat Purush, one still might see the Master's Form in Sach Khand, but the philosophical criticism still asks for an answer. Can there be form when all the koshas are shed and one is supposedly beyond mind and maya? That question has already been answered. If Sach Khand is equivalent to the realm of Divine Intellection of the ancients, the Archtypal Realm with the Uncreated Logoi that eternally abide in the Divine Essence as spoken of by St. Maximos the Confessor, then, yes, there can be forms. So to say, as Damiani did, that the penultimate mystical stage has a 'shortcoming', gives the unwarranted impression that it is faulty, or a veil of maya - rather than a living, vivifying presence made of consciousness, the divine intermediary or Son that absorbs the soul in the Ultimate from which they are both an emanation. Kirpal often told the story of Kabir's disciple Indra Mati seeing him on the throne in Sach Khand, and then asking the saint why he didn't tell her before that this would be, and Kabir said, "because you wouldn't have believed me." Yet Baba Faqir Chand said that Sach Khand has no form, only the Light of awareness, and that any form seen there would only be the case for someone who has had a prior suggestion that he should see such a form. We have already answered this objection when speaking of the Buddhist concept of Sambhogakaya manifestations; we think Faqir Chand was a bit one-sided in thinking that mental creation was the only way it could happen, in much the same way as he may have been mistaken if claiming that one's having a personal vision of a master was always either his own mental fabrication, or that of the universal self providing that form for him, without relationship to a specific master. We do not know, but it seems reasonable that both views could be true. Kirpal, like Faqir, once described Sach Khand as nothing but "light - scintillating light." So the issue of a form is complex.
One might also ask the question, in such a case, was this the real Sach Khand, or one of its reflections in a lower plane? For that is said to be a possible experience [although it is hard to see how 'infinite light' can be duplicated]. If the higher planes dohave their reflections in the lower, then visions of them can be seen from there. But we will have to side with those who answer, "yes, visions may be possible in Sach Khand, inasmuch as the 'throne of God', 'Guru Rinpoche', or 'the Master', etc., is spoken of and recorded as having been experienced in many traditions, from Christianity to Tibetan Buddhism to Sant Mat. Apparently it is an archtypal reality and as such to be respected. Yet as the visions of a throne vary it must be considered to be in the imaginative dimension of the being, however numinous,
But it obviously has a symbolic reference also. In the Orthodox tradition, St. John Chrysostom wrote, ”He who is everywhere and fills all things, whose throne is heaven and the earth his footstool…” Thus it is part of a depiction of God’s omnipresence.
St. John of the Cross writes:
“Oh, then, soul, most beautiful among all creatures, so anxious to know the dwelling place of your Beloved so you may go in search of him and be united with him, now we are telling you that you yourself are his dwelling and his secret inner room and hiding place.” (The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 1.6 (Kavanough/Rodriguez: Collected Works of St. John of the Cross)
And Kirpal said:
“The heart is the Throne of God. The body is the Temple of God. If you defile the Throne where God is, then who will sit there? So blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” - Kirpal Singh, Morning Talks 1981 edition, p. 15)
Brunton describes this experience of the mind sinking into the heart:
"As this wonderful feeling steals over him there is a clear and unmistakable sense that the Overself is displacing the ego...Now he becomes acutely aware that a new sovereign is taking his place on the throne." (Notebooks, Vol. 14, 6.212)
Writing further, he states:
"One feels gathered into the depths of the silence, enfolded by it and then, hidden within it, intuits the mysterious inexplicable invisible and higher power that must forever remain nameless." (Ibid, 6.194)
Here, like Ramana Maharshi, points to spiritual intuition as most characteristic of our experiencing at this level. This will be discussed more in the section "Seeing in Sach Khand." More comprehensively expressed, he adds:
"Its coming is an emotional, intuitive, non-physical, intellectual, and spiritual event. It happens, this experience of a transcendental Presence, here in the place Jesus mentioned - the Heart." (Ibid, 6.195)
In other words, here there is an experience, an understanding, a feeling, and a cognition. In one word he refers to this as insight.
Advaita, while holding to speaking from sheer intellectual truth, may be seen as inadvertently 'leveling the playing field', some feel, making of reality something rather flat, and with no room for acceptance of such things suggesting a divine controlling power or intelligence. The higher planes are said to be realms of more and more beauty, truth, direct experience of consciousness and love - and not mere mystic illusion. That might be so of mystic vision confined to the sky of mind in the brain core, but not necessarily the conscious realization of these as higher dimensions. Kirpal writes:
"Saint Tulsidas says that when he rose above body consciousness and reached the causal plane and had an experience of bliss and joy, he thought, "That is the most and highest of all." But after that he had transcended the causal plane into the supercausal and beyond, he said, "The causal plane is perhaps only a washroom compared to this." (Sat Sandesh, March 1975, p. 10)
One can certainly say that in a truly non-dual universe, beyond the polarities of form and formless, a vision in Sach Khand can be possible; why not if it is an unfathomable, transcendental region as it is said to be? However, this is hard to understand.
Further, we may again ask, what is a master? He is said to be not just a man, or an inner form one sees, but, in truth, at the center of one's being, and the center of the universe, a vast unfathomable presence. As the opening quote says, his residence is said to be in the heart of the disciple, and ultimately is not separate from the disciple's own higher or deepest self. This is why Ramana said that God, Guru, and Self are one. The master of this path is also an embodiment (to whatever degree of perfection he has realized) of the Shabd-Brahman, and in a sense simultaneously in Sach Khand and on earth at the same time. Once faith in him is firm, there is said to be little else to be done to secure salvation/liberation. The question of further lifetimes becomes a mute point. We, too, are in Sach Khand, a non-dual 'realm'/state of consciousness, although we may not know it. As all of the planes are interpenetrating and concurrent, spiritual progress cannot be easily gauged according to the sequencing of inner experiential planes alone. The natural state of the open heart is the primary goal.
"He has to enter not just a different space-time level but that which is the base of all existing space-time levels." (Brunton, Notebooks, Vol. 15, Part 1, 8.148)
There was a series of exchanges by letter between Baba Jaimal Singh and his master Soamiji illustrating an aspect of this wonderful truth. Jaimal Singh was a high saint, but after initiation did not have any visions or ascended experiences in his meditation. He wrote Soamiji explaining his situation. Soamiji sent a reply saying, "I am happy your soul is soaring in the higher planes." Jaimal was perplexed, and wrote back, saying, "You must have sent that letter to the wrong person, I have had no inner experiences at all!" Again, Soamiji sent a reply, "I am happy to hear your soul is roaming the higher regions." Finally, Jaimal went to see Soamiji, who lived three hundred miles away. Jaimal was a solider at the time and had to get leave. When he saw Soamiji the saint revealed what he had meant in his letters. "At the time of my writing the letters you were in a state of intense longing to see me, were you not?" "Yes," said Jaimal. "Well then, that is the same as if your soul went to the highest regions." [One is reminded of St. Paul, in Ephesians 2:6, who wrote that even as we walk through this world we are also "now seated in heavenly places with God."] The moral of the story is that, one, for karmic reasons sometimes the saints shut down the door to inner mystic access so certain things can be paid off in this life, and, two, that the real master is always with us, 'closer than the vein in our neck', as the Koran states. Spiritual progress, which is a kind of illusion, goes along on 'parallel tracks' at the same time, and we are not a perfect judge of how it is working out. The old saying of the Sants that after the time of initiation the soul will take a maximum of four lives to reach Sach Khand was only meant for those who are backsliders or leave the path, otherwise the rule is one life, not four! You go where you are attached, and if you love the master you will go, or be, where he is. Since he is everywhere transcendentally present, that is your true nature and destiny also. Look at it this way, besides it being the truth, will also help keep one sane and not subject to every chance wind that blows his or her way.
An enigma and presents itself when comparing systems. For instance, Ramana Maharishi seemed to deny importance to anything but the ultimate reality. Further, he did not report and for all accounts did not seem to have the inclination of perhaps even the facility to travel to other planes like the Sants do. And near the time of his death he made the radical statement, “Where could I go? I am here.” Many take this as confirmation that the path of the Sants via the third eye is at best an unnecessary detour from direct realization of the heart. But is it really so? We will here merely quote in reply the words of Kirpal Singh from the book Godman:
“He is beyond everything...The Master of Truth is eternally the same. He neither comes nor goes. He is the imperishable Life Principle that pervades everything.” (p. 142)
So different? Sounds almost exactly how the ultimate substratum of infinite consciousness is described in the Yoga Vasistha. Is that what the “Sat” in Satguru means? One cannot help but wonder...
According to Arran Stephens, author of the book Journey to the Luminous, Darshan Singh, Kirpal’s successor, claimed that when Faqir Chand was asked to describe the various inner planes he did not name their proper order and specifically could not or did not give the proper answer to the question of how many steps led to the pool of samskaric purification named Manasarovar in the third plane. Of course, Faqir seems to have claimed this very thing, that there was no fixed ordering to all of the planes. This may be wrong, but it is also a complex issue. Darshan also said Faqir Chand was in error when implying that the luminous form of the Master was not 'real' in the sense of its being a direct manifestation of reality as the Master, but only a product of the disciple's own mind. This seems odd when Faqir's disciple Dr. Sharma said that the Form one sees in Sach Khand is ones real Master. Was Faqir really saying there was no connection with the subtle Gurudev and the real Form in Sach Khand? For reasons discussed previously, I do not think so.
The subtle Gurudev is said to lead directly to the Satguru or Satpurush, the true or divine form in Sach Khand. [Sat Purush will be discussed later, and then in greater depth from a non-dual perspective in Part Two]. In Buddhism similarly there are the Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya forms of the Buddha, active in the realms of form and the formless. Yet in general, Buddhism and Advaita argue that anything visible is not the reality, so, for instance, Sach Khand would not be considered “spiritual” in their sense of the term, as there must be a perceiver to see the sights and sounds there. Again, the Sants are adamant that the light and sound there is spiritual, beyond the mind or manas, and the soul paradoxically and transcendentally sees by her own light; there is no duality there, but an enigmatic comingling unity. These type of words are poison to the ears of the advaitist. Some other yoga schools, however, use this terminology of ‘spiritual’, as well as spirituo-material, materio-spiritual, and material planes reflecting various density of vibration. And what is vibration? - the direct expression of the Godhead. One should understand that in such yoga schools the word spiritual is sometimes used to mean realms of the higher mind or vijnanamaya kosha (the supracausal) in contrast to realms of the lower mind or manas where there still must be some means of dualistic perception. Yet in the higher traditions there is always mention of the logos; even Buddhism speaks of the heavenly Avalokitesvara whose sweet sounds will take one back to the soul’s true home. Sach Khand to the advaitist most likely sounds like a high celestial subtle plane, due to the language used to describe it. The Sants counter that they are hindered in their description by the limits of words, and must picture these realms in the language of metaphor. For the sages the word spiritual implies both a formless, subjective realization, and the non-dual nature of reality within and without.
Brunton, however, writes:
"Those who find that beyond the Light they must pass through the Void, the unbounded emptiness, often draw back affrighted and refuse to venture further. For here they have naught to gain or get, no glorious spiritual rapture to add to their memories, no great power to increase their sense of being a co-worker with God. Here their very life blood is to be squeezed out as the price of entry, here they must become the feeblest of creatures." (4)
Ramana enigmatically referred to scripture that said that the gyani is "invisible even to the Gods," and "trackless like a fish swimming through water." This appears in contrast to the saint or Sant Satguru, whose luminous radiant form is described as "blazing a path of light for miles and miles through the subtle realms," although it need not be so, if we understand the non-dual nature of the reality such a Sant has realized. Ramana poked gentle fun at the teaching of the yogis who speak of 'nectar' or 'amrit' trickling down from the crown center - the very thing the saints sing praises of - maintaining that the sahasrar or centers above the crown are but the reflected light of the true Heart (not to be confused with the heart chakra). He tended to minimize the reality of soul in deference to the advaitic realization of the one Self. This is also reflected in those who consider themselves his followers or lineage descendants. More on this important issue later.
Ramana, upon dying, famously said: “where can I go; I am here?” leading some to dismiss notions of higher realities and the soul. But that is short-sighted, in our opinion. Interestingly, nearing the end Kirpal Singh said he would soon be going, and one disciple asked, "where are you going?", to which he replied, "Oh, where we all go." Paramhansa Yogananda likewise remarked, "All paths are paths to God, because, ultimately, there is no other place for the soul to go." (Journey to Self-Realization, p. 51)
A ‘gyanic ' interpretation of Sant Mat
We have already spoken of Faqir Chand's challenging perspective on the nature of the production Master's inner form and have given our opinion; we will not repeat that here. What we have now before us is a very refreshing and provocative - and possibly interfaith-uniting - explanation of the inner planes as experientially described earlier. The following information is from the book, Surat Shabd Yoga: The Yoga of Light and Sound by Faqir Chand, translated by Dr. Ishwar C. Sharma, and being largely a commentary on the equally hard to find Hidayatnama of Soamiji Maharaj. This book is currently out-of-print, but is an eye-opening exposition of the planes from what might be considered a more or less classical yogic/vedantic as contrasted with a religio-mystical (or usual Sant Mat) way of perceiving them. Our initial impression is that this book deserves wide exposure, as it appears to hold a piece of the puzzle to reconciling many teaching that are currently at odds with one another. And that would surely be a good thing and is, in fact, a pressing need of the times. However, it is surely very controversial, and probably not without its weak points.
By way of introduction, in Buddhism there are said to be the 'four noble states', or 'formless absorptions: 'infinite space', 'boundless consciousness', 'nothingness', 'beyond perception or non-perception.' These are intermediate samadhis, realms, or states between lower gross and subtle states, and the truth or Sat. One may well ask, how many people can distinguish 'infinite space', 'boundless consciousness' or 'nothingness' - from the Absolute, the Tao , or whatever term one refers to Reality by? How many 'realizers' today who think they have realized such an absolute are really accessing some kind of impersonal 'buddhi', an intuitive not-ordinary-self kind of realization that feels like the ultimate? Probably few. But Buddha clearly states that even these rarified states are not the truth. And while possibly considered evolutionary advances, it has been said that one can sort of get stuck in them for a while, even a kalpa or two! It has been sometimes said that if a monk dies while in one of these formless absorptions, he might not be better off than a virtuous person who goes to a ‘Pure Land’, whether considered in the Tibetan tradition as a special region 'created' by a Buddha (such as Padmasambhava's Copper Mountain"), or simply as one of the higher mental realms or heavens, where he can progress after death with help from his adept or master. Of course this may be a controversial point, with infinite variations depending on the individual.
Keeping this in mind, we will now examine Faqir's book. The reader may recall that Faqir broke down into tears when Sawan Singh said that Sant Mat was higher than vedanta, indeed, higher than all other religions, which Faqir could not accept, feeling that truth was universal and could be found everywhere. He later felt, therefore, that the discourses of the great saint were “not sufficient to satisfy the curiosity of one such as himself”, and, after getting Sawan’s blessing and support, along with his advice to study Soamiji’s Sar Bachan, he spent his time chiefly in the association of Maharaj Shiv Brat Lal.
Characteristically, because of his background, Faqir seems to give a vedantic-yogic interpretation to the more mystical/theological and lyrical descriptions of the inner states by Soamiji. Faqir argues that Soamiji had to say some things in a literal way because the people of his time could not understand the truth told straight out. So, while he agrees with the other Sants on the importance and need for a Master, and also for the meditation on the Sound Current, he has what some feel is a radical yet straightforward way of explaining how it all works. For instance, regarding Trikuti, he says that there is no visible ‘triangle’, but that it refers to a state of mind-concentration where one realizes the unity of the perceiver, perceiving, and perception, or the 'triple function of knowing. He also ascribes the "redness" in the red rising sun found in Trikuti to an inner concentration of the mind similar to when one's face flushes from intense agitated thought. Interestingly, he advanced satsangis not to spend much time meditating on this red light here as it could lead to mental imbalance and insanity with damage to the physical brain. He also said he knew more than a few cases at the Dera where this occurred. I find this interesting for two reasons. One, because there are cautions in other schools about the dangers associated with meditation on the so-called third eye center, and, two, that saying it could damage the brain cells suggests that this Trikuti is not yet out of the body, although it may be visualized as interpenetrating it. We will return to this latter point shortly.
The inner states as functions of the concentration of the mind is a central point in Faqir’s teachings. So he does not mention the triple mountain (Mt. Meru, etc.) that the other sants do as a characteristic vista in Trikuti, although it is clear that many practitioners have reported that phenomena. For Faqir, ‘all is phantasmagoria up to Bhanwar Gupta', and as the subtle elemental construction of each aspirant is different, he will also experience different scenes there. For him even the form of the Master is a result of the integration of the subtle elements of one's own mind, i.e., a creation of one’s own mind. No talk of reaching the real astral form of the Master and one's self-effort being over, with the Master henceforth guiding the soul with his own power. Further, Faqir boldly states that it is the motion of the subtle elements of one's mind that produces the Sounds as well (although later he talks of the way as merging into ‘Ultimate Sound’). But no talk of the Word or Logos here. Not even a host of Archangels producing Sound or music as it is sometimes stated in esoteric Christian mysticism. Faqir is being more of a Buddhist/Vedantist than a gnostic or mystic. There is no talk of a macrocosmic or universal mind and its image upon which the individual mind and its perceptions are overlayed, as spoken of by some other sages. Moreover, even if one does not accept Isvara, there are no ‘Sambhogakaya emanations’, realms, or Pure Lands of a Buddha or host of saints or liberated cosmic beings that serve as an actual locus or realm for the ascending soul. Also, for Faqir, it is not necessary to explore completely all the planes before Sach Khand, but just to get the gist of their meaning. This is not really totally contradictory to what the other Sants say, and certainly what sages say, but is potentially, in our view, a rather reductionistic interpretation of the realms of creations, but typical of a vedantist.
Regarding Sahasdal Kanwal (which Faqir refers to as the thousand-petalled lotus - which may or may not be referring to the same thing as the Sahasarar, and it doesn’t seem to be, as we have pointed out earlier), and which Soamiji refers to as Turiya Pad (which is not at all the same as what a vedantist means by Turiya), Faqir says:
"When the Surat of an individual in search of something or with some desire in mind thinks over it calmly, then for the fulfillment of that desire many thoughts, many solutions and many plans would ooze out from within, from one particular thought of desire. One experiences an imaginary wave of thoughts within at this stage. So this state of the oozing of different thoughts is compared with Sahasdal Kamal or thousand petaled lotus and its one petal gives birth to thousands of other petals. It does not mean that lotus flower is in your forehead. It means that one thought is followed by thousands of other thoughts and their continuous flow starts to have their own creation."
This is clearly a gyan or subjective approach as contrasted to the more cosmological or objective view of yogis and most sants. And recall, Sahansdal Kanwal is supposed to have only eight petals, according to some of the prior sants. Perhaps Faqir was not describing the true sahasrar. In any case, his explanation is contrary to the experience of countless yogis and mystics who report seeing a lotus there. Ramaji spoke of experiencing an activated “sizzling sahasrar”, penultimate to his own heart-realization. Adi Da claimed to have the unusual experience of “the severing of the sahasrar,” and seeing it fall off like a blossom, prior to his heart-realization taking center stage, free of the limitations of the chakra system, as he described it. Faqir’s description seems to be his own experience and understanding, somewhat independent of the more common ones. The chakras may ultimately be imaginary as Ramana would say, but that there is a relative reality seems difficult to argue with. Note the classic experience of a Dr. Lewis, disciple Yogananda:
“The Master then placed his forehead against my forehead. He told me to lift my eyes and look at the point between the eyebrows, which I did. And there I beheld the great light of the spiritual eye. The Master did not suggest that I see anything. He did not in any way influence me through suggestion. What I saw came in a natural way. I was fully conscious, fully awake, fully alert, and I saw the spiritual eye because the Master stilled the waves of my mind and allowed my own intuition of the soul to show this to me. As I looked further in the great golden light, the whole spiritual eye formed, with its inner dark-blue center representing or manifesting the Christ Consciousness within me, and finally the little silver star in the center, the epitome of Cosmic Consciousness. Of course, I was overwhelmed at having found someone who could show me the inner reality that is within each and every one of us. I realized that he was not an ordinary person, but one far different from the ordinary run of men who profess to know about such spiritual things. We talked for a few minutes, and then he once more pressed his forehead against my forehead; and it was then that I saw the great light of the thousand-rayed lotus [the highest spiritual center, located in the top of the brain] — the most exquisite thing that can be seen, with its many, many rays of silver leaves. At the bottom of the thousand-rayed lotus I could see, outlined in denser light, the walls of the large arteries at the base of the brain. And lo and behold, as I watched, little sparks of light inside the arteries were bobbing along, striking the walls as they passed before my vision. These were the blood corpuscles, each with its little spark of astral light manifesting as it carried out its duty in God’s play of light." (source misplaced)
The question is, are these two radically different (philosophic, and yogic) descriptions incompatible, or not? This is a serious consideration bearing on the roots of our epistemology (i.e., the philosophy of knowledge, or how we know what we know)
After so depicting the subjective realization, apparently as opposed to the objective experience, of Sahansdal Kanwal and Trikuti, Faqir moves on to Daswan Dwar, which he labels the ‘vacuity, or Sunn. Supposedly it is ‘Sunn’ or empty as compared with the form realms of the physical, astral, and mental/causal planes; he says it is marked by bliss, ecstasy and self-forgetfulness. Sunn is then followed by Maha Sunn, or the greater vacuity, then Bhanwar Ghupta, and the planes of Sat Lok. Interestingly, he refers to 'Maha Sunn', or the experiential void between Daswan Dwar and Bhanwar Gupta, as 'endless space' , and also 'nirvikalpa samadhi'. The latter is unique as we have never seen a Sant Mat guru or yogi refer to nirvikalpa samadhi in this way. For Faqir, the reason for the appellation of 'darkness' is because at this stage the mind has ceased to waver and is still. Soamiji writes that when the soul is about to enter this void of Maha Sunn, it is informed that there are ‘four secret regions within it’. How one will see those regions is unclear as Maha Sunn is said to be so ‘dark’ that even the soul now shining with its own light as great as eight suns cannot penetrate the darkness, and is said needs the superior light of the Master to ferry it across. For Faqir, however, this is not really what is going on at all, and Soamiji spoke allegorically. For him, the ‘four secret regions’ only refer to the four functions of mind, intellect, chit, and ego, all of which are quiescent in Maha Sunn‘, hence nirvikalpa ensues, but, being impermanent, one cannot stay there. [Andrew Vidich, in Love Is a Secret), equates Maha Sunn with the Buddhist nirodha, which does not seem to be correct and is certainly arguable].
Endless space' seems very similar to Buddha's jhana of 'infinite space', doesn't it? As such it seems like it corresponds to one of the formless absorptions, and as such is not liberation, which is just what Sant Mat says. For Faqir, all up to and including Maha Sunn is in the realm of duality. This makes some sense, as, in our tentative view, Maha Sunn is a point of tension where the subtle ego dies its final death (at least on the 'inner' plane, but not necessarily back on the outer - that would be sahaj samadhi), but duality might be said to be 'seriously nicked' once the soul transcends the three lower worlds and reaches Daswan Dwar and above.
For Faqir, after passing through or transcending Maha Sunn, Bhanwar Gupta is as the rest of the Sants say, a stage of relative freedom but with a fine trace of 'matter' mixed in - but nevertheless part of the 'upper hemisphere', and a realm of intuitive knowledge and ananda - perhaps equivalent to the Buddhist 'Arhat' stage (beyond even the ‘non-returner’, beyond karma and reincarnation, but not yet non-dually liberated); however, Faqir says that one can, and many yogis have, fallen from even Bhanwar Gupta, and that it is not a stable or dependable state as it relies on direct perception and mental effort to comprehend it. For him the “rotating or whirling cave” is not an objective structure seen in mystic vision, but a process of the unripe soul cycling back and forth between causal ignorance and the knowledge in the super causal body. This was already discussed. However, once the knowledge is firm, in many yogic systems and under different names, this super causal level is spoken of as the first of the ‘spiritual planes’, with only anandamayakosha remaining covering the soul, and where the soul knows it is of the same essence as the Spirit, and proclaims, “I Am That”, or “O Lord, I am of the same essence as Thou art,” but is not one with it yet. That is reserved for Sach Khand, which might be called the first 'non-dual' plane, on this path of inversion. There, from what one is led to surmise, all terms such as finite/infinite, spirit/matter, Master-disciple, etc., begin to lose their relative value. And then we gradually see the outer in a different light as well, with a vast progression of unification taking place on all levels.
Another point at which Faqir is at variance with some fo the sants is in saying that there is no possibility of any scenes in Sach Khand (such as one’s Master seated on a throne); for him there is nothing but formless Light and Sound, or it isn't the real Sach Khand. Indeed, one might ask, if this is above or beyond the vijnanamaya kosha, how could there be such visions? Even meeting the Satpurusha as “God as a person” is for Faqir a mental suggestion that one expects and hence experiences as materializing out of the light of Sat Lok. Any other vision such as a throne, etc., would also be due to a prior projection of expectation of such. Or is a suggestive explanation not to be taken too literally. I don’t know whether this is absolutely true or not as I haven’t had the experience, Sach Khand or a throne. But the Zen Master Dogen said an interesting thing which goes something like this: “People think that in the realm of essence there should be no bloom of flowers.” So who knows?
Faqir was clear in his assertion that Sawan Singh’s statement, “cross the tenth door, and you will find me standing there,” did not mean his literal form.
“However people thought he meant that after crossing ten doors inside, they will find Baba Sawan Singh with a beautiful beard. That is totally wrong. Beyond lies your own SELF or being.” (Baba Faqir Chand’s Illuminations, p. 6)
This may be true, and also may depend on which interpretation of “tenth door” one uses. After leaving the super causal level, one attains Self-Knowledge. It has nothing to do with seeing the astral form of one’s Guru. Ishwar Puri also spoke this way, yet consoled at least one devotee I knew that when he died, “Sawan will be waiting for you.” Different folks, different needs.
Inasmuch as in Sant Mat it is sometimes taught that there are reflections of all higher planes in the lower, this frequently reported vision may then in any individual case be actually at a lesser stage than Sach Khand. We don’t know because we haven’t gone there. But we feel that this may be the experience of some, yet not all. The real throne room of God is said to be the human heart. The Buddha spoke of liberated realms beyond the formless states, and spontaneous Sambhogaya manifestations/realms, which may be equivalent to some type of transcendental form in Sach Khand. But, no doubt, it may be somewhat paradoxical at this level.
Reflections of higher planes in the lower is one thing, but the teaching sometimes given that there are counterfeit duplications by Kal of higher planes in the lower is quite another. That the poor ego-soul is faced with sorting it all out borders on craziness. What is an entire plane, after all? And how could one tell one from the other? Hence the great appeal of the self-enquiry of Vedanta, where the central question is 'who' is the experiencer,' who' is perceiving this 'plane', 'who' is the perceiver - the 'unperceived perceiver'? With this one can dissect all the seven planes of experience, and not worry about whether he is on the right plane! Zen Master Zufeng said long ago, " Even Shakyamuni Buddha and Maitreya Buddha were His servants. Ultimately, who is He?" Sooner or later this question must be faced.
Another difference, between Faqir Chand and the gnostic interpretation of Sant Mat such as portrayed in Kabir’s Anurag Sagar, is that for Faqir, the ‘sixteen sons (or ‘aeons) of the Sat Purush - of which ‘Kal’ or the personification of time or illusion and the negative power is one - are not beings, but the functions of the individual consciousness or Mind. Thus he doesn’t appear to give an inch with his more or less psychological/yogic interpretation of the inner dimensions:
“The “sixteen sons” are sixteen elements, comprised of five sense organs, five organs of action, plus body, mind, intellect, wisdom, ego, and soul, which are present in the Surat, or spirit, as causal body [this is similar to the theosophical view wherein soul is defined as the greater causal body, part of an ‘upper triad’ of atma-buddhi-manas, and, moreover, only a portion or emanation of which incarnates in any one lifetime, becoming enriched from life to life until it can unite with Spirit]. Surat is the aggregate of all those feelings and sensations that are created by these “sixteen sons”, or powers, of an individual. Though Surat gives birth to all these sixteen sons, yet it also falls victim to them. It wants to be free from the prison of these powers. This it does by uniting itself and merging into the soul. It also arrives at fixity or one-pointedness. This is the state of Satloka, the state of desirelessness or detachment.”
Whether the last two sentences are characteristic of Satloka, needless to say [discussed more on Part Four] this rendering of creation and Kal are at odds with the gnostic cosmology and creationism of most traditional Sant Mat teachings such as proposed in Kabir’s Anurag Sagar.
In addition, Faqir also has a unique, gyan-like or perhaps idiosyncratic way of interpreting the scriptural references to the 'wheel of eighty-four', or the Hindu belief in eight million, four hundred thousand species through which the soul may transmigrate:
“I do not wish to comment on the prevailing theory of reincarnation. However, my own view, based on my personal experience, is that the cycle of births and deaths means the physical and mental experiences of an individual, which are based on six Chakras or centers, or levels, of the body, and the six Chakras of mind. There are seven kinds of activities at each center. These are lust, anger, greed, ego, attachment, mind and intellect. Thus, six centers of body and six centers of mind, when multiplied by seven types of activities, or feelings, total eighty-four. The Surat moves in these eighty-four universes, constituted by pleasure, pain, sorrow, worry, fear and vicissitudes of life. The word “Laksh” is a Sanskrit word which means direction. But usually people interpret it to be “Lakh”, or one hundred thousand. So when Surat moves around eighty-four directions, in its ignorance, it is called eight million, forty thousand [note: actually eight million, four hundred thousand] births and deaths.There is no doubt that I was initiated by the perfect Master of our times and given my Mantra on which to meditate, but it did not prove very useful until I understood the true meaning of the eight million and forty thousand births and deaths.”
The reasoning behind this is not at all clear: what does understanding this have to do with the efficacy of the mantra? And surely this appears to be a rather idiosyncratic interpretation of the concept of the 'wheel of eighty-four'. But, on the other hand, not unlike some Buddhist type of explanations, which, as mentioned, are more psychological than mystical in nature. In this respect one also finds it curious that Sant Darshan Singh maintained that there were 'eighty-four' steps to the pool of Manasarovar in Daswan Dwar. Is that also an allegorical interpretation? I dare not say Sant Darshan was wrong, but a question arises, “does everyone experience exactly the same phenomena on their progression through the inner planes of relativity? Is there no subjective variation? As mentioned, Faqir definitely felt the answer was "no". Paul Brunton - I have misplaced the quote - also felt, yes, there will be individual variation, inasmuch as penultimate inner visionary phenomena are the “final experiences before the self’s dissolution.” But in Sant Mat the teachings are often presented as if the inner realms are objectively real and fixed. Are they? This is not, on the other hand, to suggest that it is all purely random either, but inquire we must.
Sacred Numbers
There is certainly little doubt of the ubiquitous presence of the number 84 in Hindu philosophy. There are 84 lakhs [84 x 100,000, or 8,400,000] species of life. Then it is mentioned in Korean Zen that there are said to be 84,000 volumes of the Buddhist canon, as well as 84,000 pores in the human body. Further, a Buddhist verse reads: "The thousand world systems are originally the Dharma body. The eighty-four thousand lesser actions form the wheel of Dharma. Since birth and death are fundamentally empty, they permeate a single path. All distinctions are actually Nirvana." (The Way of Korean Zen, p. 91). This is, apart from its symbolism, fundamentally a non-dual statement: in reality, no birth and death, no coming or going, no ordinary or accomplished persons, and we may as well add "no high, no low" (a favorite saying of Kirpal Singh). Further, 1000 in certain numerologies is a number of perfection. The original Dharma body means the Primordial Truth, or the clear and pure original body of the Buddha, while the eighty-four lesser actions means the phenomenal display, whether it be the process of birth and death, or the Buddha's demonstration of the realization of Buddhahood. Huang Po said that "the eighty-four thousand gates to the Dhamma are there only to attract the student's attention." (Sun at Midnight: Poems and Sermons of Muso Kokushi, trans. Thomas Cleary (Northpoint Press, 1989). Ch'an Master Hsi Yun (9th c.) similarly spoke of "the eighty-four thousand methods for counteracting the eighty-four thousand forms of delusion," which he added were "merely figures of speech for attracting people towards conversion," but that in fact "none of them really exist"! (E. A. Burtt, The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha (New York: Mentor Books, 1955), p. 199). Simply multiply 1000 by 84 and the result is 84,000. This number has been said to be a traditional expression meaning “very many.” Thus it is not literal. Now we are told 84 steps to the lake in Daswan Dwar. Is that universally true? Or just a possibility in the imaginative realm of being? For that matter, we will dare to ask the dumb questions, "has anybody actually counted these steps?" and, "Does it really matter?" We mean no disrespect but are simply after the truth, the essential meanings.
For there are other symbolisms. Dakshinamurti’s '24 gurus', said Ramana Maharshi, were in reality the '24 elements' of Samkhaya philosophy, corresponding with recognizable metaphysical/ontological aspects or functions. Kirpal also once wrote in code of '52' features on the way to Sach Khand. Was he, too, being strictly literal? We have no doubt of his competency, but also can't help wondering in the light of other things that he said whether or not absolute truth was revealed in such remarks. One can also not help asking why only in Sant Mat do they speak of specific 'objective' subtle structures (triple mountain, crooked tunnel (banknaal), pool of nectar, hansi tunnel, fountains, throne, etc.), that one and all must pass through, whereas some other schools that also teach about light and sound do not. Faqir's answer, as previously mentioned, is that Soamiji had to do so because of the level of understanding of the common folk of his time, and, further, that everyone does not experience the same things and in the same order or manner with their inner enfoldment.
As long as we are discussing sacred numbers, an especially interesting feature ubiquitous in spiritual teachings worldwide is the number 'seven'. For instance, there are said to be basically seven planes (with seven sub-planes within each), seven chakras (or seven 'candles' in the Bible), seven rays, seven colors, seven notes of the scale, seven elements (earth, water, air, fire, ether, akasha or space, chit or consciousness - similar to the Buddhist seven paramattha dharmas or essential realities that all samsara is made up of, consisting of four form elements and three formless or 'mind' elements - with Nirvana (Radhaswami?) as an eighth 'unconditioned' element), seven spirits before the Throne (i.e., seven Elohim by whose aid the Supreme Deity established his creation), seven rivers, seven sisters, seven delights, seven Muses, seven planets (in ancient cosmology, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), St. John of the Cross’ seven stages or 'wine cellars' of love (which he symbolically envisions engaged in spiritual warfare with seven heads of the Beast in Revelation); seven thoughts, seven flames, seven tongues, seven mothers, seven creative Words (sapta vanih); we are told in scripture that the 'sins of the fathers will be visited on the sons to the seventh generation', and, in Sant Mat, there is (sometimes) given an explicit pledge that the Master will provide protection to ones descendants for seven generations backwards and forwards. As for the latter, one might ask, why 'seven'? There is no doubt protection to near and dear ones, with many, many reports verifying such, but how connected are 'seven' generations to one's particular destiny, and what does protection really mean? That they are all going to get initiated in the next lifetime? What? Finally, there does seems to be definite esoteric significance to the number seven, but what if the number seven is of significance, say, only in our universe? For one can't help considering that possibility within the totality of infinity. In any case, we find 7 multiplied by 12 (signs, or partitions of the zodiac, 12 links in the nidana chain of dependent origination, 12 Apostles, 12 tribes of Israel, etc.), again giving us 84. The points is that these are archetypes, and permutations of archtypes, which as such are somewhat adaptable within relativity.
But then, three Hall of Famers have worn the number 84 for the Miami Dolphins, including Randy Moss, Andy Robustelli, and Shannon Sharpe. Antonio Brown is known for wearing the number 84 for the Steelers, where he became one of the best wide receivers of his generation. So maybe there is something special about it.
Faqir would likely agree with the Sant Mat teaching that there are can be reflections of the higher planes in the lower planes. Even Sri Aurobindo wrote about that. This can be interpreted in at least two ways. One, there are multiple correspondences between the chakras and lower regions and the higher regions - and this is Sri Aurobindo's view. It also seems to be that of schools of Puranic Hinduism which correlate the seven planes or worlds with the seven chakras, and also as taught by older sages and modern yogis such as Sivananda, who said that Sat Lok was Nirvikalpa Samadhi in the crown above or at the top of the head. This is, as we have seen, different from some versions of Sant Mat, but it may make sense from a more integral understanding than one where the goal is conceived as exclusively going 'up and out'. The chakras are themselves a mystery, said to contain many depths, both 'inner or horizontal' as well as 'vertical'.
Aurobindo said that while there was an aspect of Sat Lok in the crown, one needed to ascend in consciousness to the higher, universal dimension of Sat Lok above. This is vague language. Even so, for him this was the highest region within 'our manifested universe', but the absolute, which he referred to as SatChitAnanda, was beyond even this and not a plane at all. This sounds much like the stateless state everyone else is talking about. Anyone who has tried to penetrate the teachings of Sri Aurobindo will understand the difficulties involved. I personally asked many questions of one of the most prominent writers on Aurobindo and after our conversation he confessed he didn’t know anything about him and neither did anybody else!
Sri Aurobindo interestingly wrote, whether he was correct or not in his use of the term ‘nirvana’, that while in prison he experienced "nirvana in Brahman" long before he had knowledge of the overhead planes:
"The first result was a series of tremendously powerful experiences and radical changes of consciousness which I had never intended..and which were quite contrary to my own ideas, for they made me see with a stupendous intensity the world as a cinematographic play of vacant forms in the impersonal universality of the Absolute Brahman...In the enormous spaces of the self, the body now seemed only a wandering shell. It threw me into a condition above and without thought, unstained by any mental or vital movement; there was no ego, no real world - only when one looked through the immobile senses, something perceived or bore upon its sheer silence a world of empty forms, materialised shadows without true substance. There was no One or many even, only just absolutely That featureless, relationless, sheer, indescribable, unthinkable, absolute, yet supremely real and solely real. This was no mental abstraction - it was positive, the only positive reality - although not a spatial physical world, pervading, occupying or rather flooding and drowning this semblance of a physical world, leaving no room or space for any reality but itself, allowing nothing else to seem at all actual, positive or substantial...What this experience brought me was an inexpressible Peace, a stupendous silence, an infinity of release and freedom." (Sri Aurobindo on Himself,1972,p. 127-132)
However, this 'nirvana/nirvikalpa' experience was soon to expand and reveal a grander dimension to reveal itself to him:
"I lived in that Nirvana day and night before it began to admit other things into itself or modify itself at all...In the end it began to disappear into a greater Super-consciousness from above...The aspect of an illusionary world gave place to one in which illusion is only a small surface phenomenon with an immense Divine Reality behind it, and a supreme Divine Reality above it, and an intense Divine reality in the heart of everything that had seemed at first only a cinematic shape or shadow. And this was no re-imprisonment in the senses, no diminution or fall from supreme experience, it came rather as a constant heightening and widening of the Truth...Nirvana in my liberated consciousness turned out to be the beginning of my realization, a first step towards the complete thing, not the sole true attainment possible or even a culminating finale...Nirvana can not be at once the ending of the Path with nothing beyond to explore...it is the end of the lower Path through the lower Nature and the beginning of the Higher Evolution." (Aurobindo, On Yoga II, Tome One, 1969, p. 154, 71)
The above passage in bold may hold a key to our understanding of many issues as we proceed with our investigations. Leaving aside the question whether Sri Aurobindo's concept of Nirvana can be reconciled with that of the Buddha, the interesting idea here is that of a divine reality “behind, above, and within the heart of everything.” In other words, a question might arise: is there a mystery beyond the confines of traditional advaita, and are the Yog Vasishta and other texts that conclude that there is nothing to be realized but one infinite consciousness the last word to be uttered? We are just proposing the question, not presuming to answer it. Yet there is a very enigmatic statement of Sri Nisargadatta - whose lineage is basically vedantic, and who said that he agreed with all of Ramana's teachings 'except the heart on the right business' - that is perplexing. He said:
"Awareness is the light reflected on the waters of existence." (I AM THAT)
What is "awareness," what is the the "light," and what are the "waters of existence"?
Sounds almost biblical: "Let there be light," "the Spirit moved across the waters of the deep," and so on. Too bad no one asked him that question. It might help us a little. Seeing how his lineage proceeds from Samartha RamDas who was both a vedantist and a bhakti sant, his language is not surprising. Heck, even Adyashanti said he was getting tired of talking about non-dualism, that the word "mystery" seems much more meaningful!
Back to Aurobindo and Sat Lok. A hint at discerning the difference between Sat Lok being realized in or at the crown or far above it may lie in this obscure and enigmatic passage about a form of yogic experience from The Philosophy of the Masters, Series 3, p. 22 (penned by Sant Kirpal Singh under direct inspiration from Baba Sawan Singh):
"The tongue is lengthened until it can touch the eyebrows. It is then taken inside and is used to close or plug the palate. The nectar which drops from the moon which is seen on the left side of Trikuti is then enjoyed."<
Kirpal did point out that this was a yogic practice that had little use for God-realization. However, we might also keep in mind that Sri Ramana poked fun at the yogi's enjoyment of such nectar trickling down. He stated:
"Ravi marga (Sun marga) is jnana. Moon marga is yoga. They think that after purifying the 72,000 nadis in the body, sushumna is entered, the mind passes up to the sahasrara, and there is nectar trickling. These are all mental concepts. The person is already overwhelmed by world concepts. Other concepts are now added in the shape of this yoga. The object of all these is to rid man of concepts and to make him inhere as the pure Self - i.e., Absolute consciousness, bereft of thoughts! Why not go straight to it? Why add new encumbrances to the already existing ones?" (Talks, p. 175)
Be that as it may, since the inner realms are frequently described as being immensely vaster than this physical realm, can one not reasonably ask how Trikuti can be spoken of as having a 'left side'? Can one even stand outside and say where the left side of our physical universe or pinda is located? Of course not, so the conclusion here, it seems reasonable to say, must be that a 'left side' can only be in reference to something as visualized within a body. That is to say, might Kirpal Singh be saying that one may visualize a portion of Trikuti as the process of interiorization of the attention proceeds, but he is not yet in Trikuti per se, disembodied, but still within the confines of the physical structures? There thus seems to be a correspondence between the planes and the chakras, but not an identity. And yogis or sages that assert that when the kundalini and/or attention reaches the crown one is in Sat Lok and a 'full blown jnani' (as Swami Sivananda in fact wrote), would be, at least some of the time, mistaken, although this may depend on their level of discriminative understanding. On the other hand, if the planes do co-mingle or interpenetrate, as many teachers have said, then the experiences of such may differ in the degree of realization within different aspirants. As Puri has said, the astral body is not presently ‘up there’, it is right here. It will be there then, but it is here right now.
Aurobindo continues:
"You must remember that there are reflections of the Higher worlds in the lower planes which can easily be experienced as supreme for that stage of the evolution. But the supreme Satchidananda is not a world, it is supracosmic. The Sat (Satyaloka) world is the highest of the scale connected with this universe." (Letters on Yoga, Vol. 1, p. 252)
The latter seems to have been Faqir's basic view, as we shall see below.
A second way of looking at reflections of higher planes in the lower is found in Sant Mat teachings, such as L. Puri's book, Mysticism: The Spiritual Path, Part II, where he claimed that there are many "copies" of the "real" Spiritual Regions in Sant Mat, and in certain cases the actual names were not even changed. Hence, there are many Sach Khands, or Bhanwar Guphas in the planes connected with Kal, the negative power. The aim of such "replicas", or indeed,"near-replicas" of these Regions were meant to deceive the disciples of a "Perfect" Living Master during the inner journey to the "Highest" Region. This may be true, but it is almost enough to make a grown man cry. Is Truth really this complicated? In addition, again one may ask, how could a counterfeit Sach Khand even be recognized? All these inner regions are said to be progressively and near infinitely larger than the physical world, so how could one 'see a region' in order to be fooled - especially such a lofty realm as Sat Lok, and even more considering the subjective component at such a level? The light of millions of suns with the direct feeling of pure love seems pretty hard to replicate or be misled by. It is said to be the penultimate mystical experience, beyond all bodies and mind. And further, one is understood to have increased in both consciousness and intuitive wisdom as he ascends; that is, he is not just visiting such a 'place' as his usual self, so as to be fooled, but he has changed in the gradual process also. He should, one would think, and if the hierarchy of planes mean anything, increasingly know what is what at these higher levels by the increasing immediacy of his sense of presence and self-knowledge. One would think. Otherwise, what do we have to count on but the luck of our poor little ego in choosing a master competent enough to help us navigate through this maze? That would seem to make the success of our whole spiritual path a capricious thing. But then, perhaps we are not so helpless. We can pray to God within with all our being, with all our heart, mind, strength and soul, try our best to do what is right, and confide in the goodness of what Scripture calls “so faithful a friend, so tender a Father, so powerful a protector, and so passionate a lover and spouse.” To the God who is “nearer to us than we are to ourselves.” Can He then fail to help and guide us?
I hesitate to mention this, but our history of Sant Mat may get even more complicated! Maharishi Mehi, a disciple of Tulsi Das and contemporary of Soamiji and Rai Salig Ram, in his book Philosophy of Liberation, states the following:
“All saints do not equate the same Sounds to corresponding realms. For example, in the literature of some saints the music of the flute is described as belonging to the lower realms while other saints place
flute-like music in the higher realms. Kabir assigns the flute to Bhanwar Gupha, while Tulsi Saheb puts it in the subtle realm [a double confusion, perhaps, in that “subtle” could refer to either the astral or mental realms]. The assumption could be that one saint is correct and the other incorrect. However, the words of a true saint cannot be wrong and as such we cannot say that a saint is incorrect…From the literature it appears that specifics sounds can be heard in any realm. All the Gross Realm exists in the Subtle Realm and the Subtle Realm exists in the Causal Realm. In the same manner, the Sounds of the Gross Realm can exist in the Subtle Realm, and the Sounds of the Subtle Realm can exist in the Causal Realm; therefore, the Sound of a flute could be heard in any realm…Thus, the various Sounds experienced in meditation (such as a flute or a drum) cannot be correlated to any specific realm. With the exception of a few saints such as Sant Radhaswami and Kabir Sahib, most other saints as well as the writing of the Upanishads describe the various Sounds but do not mention the corresponding realms. However, all essentially agree on the existence of the Nameless State.”
Here it appears he makes a jump:
“[However] it is not possible to have experience of the Essential Divine Sound without first having experience of the Sounds of the lower realms.”
One may ask, “why not, if there is no fixed ordering of the sounds themselves? How do they then lead to the One Divine Soundless Sound said to exist beyond Sach Khand, be that “Radhasoami” or whatever?” Was Maharshi Mehi incorrect? Was Soamiji’s mother (or grandmother) right then in her claim that the only purpose of Tulsi Das’ life was to announce the incarnation of Soamiji, who came down to correct and refresh the teachings of Sant Mat? Just asking…
To finish this section, to some it might seem that Faqir does not account for the Master's form appearing to a disciple, whether on the inner or outer planes, when the latter is not concentrating on or even thinking of or has never even heard of a Master. Our impression is that Faqir's explanations might have a certain paucity of explanatory power in them, despite being reflective of certain aspects of Vedantic truth. As for the greatness of the Master, which Faqir applauds as necessary for guidance of the disciple, the reader is directed to the book, Ocean of Divine Grace (available at http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.citymaker.com/page/page/3236652.htm and other places on the internet), a collection of stories about Sant Kirpal Singh, for comparison.
Yes, Faqir appears to be in line with standard Sant Mat in maintaining that it was necessary to have a perfect, liberated Master, but for him the importance seems more for one to meet one who could give the tailored instruction and guidance suited for your particular personality, and not for him being the embodiment of the 'Greater Attention' which is God, with the Power to connect one's surat or attention to it. One can get the impression that Faqir leaves one much more on one's own in this area. Of course, we might be mistaken. After all, Faqir was authorized by Sawan Singh to teach and initiate! So maybe it is a matter of style.
Sant Darshan praises a great jnanic sage
One more little point of interest that has come to my attention. As we have described it is pretty clear that the teachings of Sri Nisargadatta as well as his guru Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj are not like those of Sant Mat. The latter, in his book Master of Self-Realization, leans heavily on the Dasbodh of Samartha Ram Das, considered a saint or siddha, but, as mentioned, he was a saint/sage who taught Advaita Vedanta, not mysticism and certainly not Shabd Yoga. He praised devotion to the Master, but there is not one mention in Dasbodh about leaving the body via meditation on the third eye. None. Why Darshan Singh considered him to be in the Sant tradition, therefore, is mysterious.
Soamiji and the Sants after him, moreover, taught that the Vedas themselves came or were inspired from a lower region than that to which the Sants attain. That in itself strains our credulity, and it is unreasonable to accept it just because Soamiji or Rai Saligram said so. Five thousand years ago the legendary sage Vedic Yajnavalkya said that the esoteric teachings came down from an even more remote antiquity. In Amrut Laya, Siddharameshwar wrote: ”The Vedas tried to explain to the jivas, the human beings, how the world was created, according to the capacity of their understanding…” (p. 53-54). He also mentions ”Bhava Roga”, which means “the disease that created the idea that the world was created.” We will discuss this more in Part Two, where the notion of the Shabd as Creator is examined. In brief, this ancient high Vedantic teaching of Samartha Ram Das is important to understand how Sant Mat and Advaita may yet find common ground, instead of what seems like a provincial and facile dismissal of the Vedanta as found in Sar Bachan and elsewhere. Here is a remarkable excerpt from the writings of Sant Darshan Singh where he implies that Samartha Ram Das was in alignment with the camp of the Sants:
“Maharashtra has produced a succession of illustrious exponents of the Sant tradition, and Namdev is among the five who are best known - the other four being his contemporary Sant Gyaneshwar, Samarth Ram Das, Eknath, and Tukaram." reference misplaced)
This is, for me, an eye-opening quote. The question is, are these two apparently disparate teachings, one vedantic and one mystical, somehow, in now the twenty-first century - and from the point of view of the primacy of “consciousness” - not so far apart as at first glance they may seem? If so we might rejoice, and set aside Soamiji’s denigration of most gyanis, or accept it at face value that he was not against real gyan. Or, perhaps, was Darshan unaware of what Samartha Ram Das actually taught in his Dasbodh, and using the word “Sant” loosely and possibly inaccurately in this passage? This is a real question. Either he did not know what he was talking about, and did what is all too frequent in the publications of the “Radhaswami” school: interpreting all historical teachings as if they were really the same as Sant Mat; or maybe he did know, but was keeping some things secret. I personally prefer to believe it was the latter, especially when combining this with his words mentioned earlier about an ‘Inner Government’ appointing the Masters. “All Masters are One, All Master are One, All Masters are One,” begins to resound in the mind…
The connection seems even clearer, however, when it is noticed that Darshan Singh wrote of "nine types of devotion," in his book Spiritual Awakening, while half a century earlier, Sri Siddharameshwar did the same:
"The nine types of Devotion, or the ninefold Devotion (Navanidha Bhakti), is that devotion by which many have become purified. Among these nine kinds of devotion, the ninth is "self-surrender," which is called Atma-Nivedana. We should meditate on this ninth type of devotion through our own inner experience. This is described as the "State of Power," the state of being"The Witness," and the state of "Chaitanya"....Among devotees there are very few who meditate on the nature of the Self and think about what their actual "Being" is. There are very few who inquire, "What am I?" The nature of this way of devotion is that we should observe who we are. When it is known that we are nobody, then who is? Someone is! That someone is Paramatman. Flawless and qualityless is that Supreme Self. He is [also] all objects, all qualities, the ego, everything. Only "you" are not there...The devotee who was thinking that he was only the body started to worship God, and as soon as he recognized his true Self, he vanished as a separate entity...The "men of wisdom" (Jnanis) experience the final end, the dissolution of the world, in the immediate moment, and even though they are living in the body, they become formless and of the nature of Brahman...The "Eternal Home" (Sayujya Sadan) means "All-Oneness," or Aloneness...The devotee surrendered himself to the Saints and he gained Self-Knowledge...The signs of Knowledge are that one loves all of the Saints and Sages. Such a one has a feeling of Oneness, and is affectionate to everyone...and has no pride about anything. One looks upon co-disciples as equal to the Guru. One thinks that the entire world is only God." (Master of Self-Realization, p. 339-341)
The passage in bold is certainly an acid test of genuine spirituality, and could well be asked of ourselves and our teachers. But the entire set of quotes seems to suggest an equality or at least fraternal relationship between the two paths mentioned: Sant Mat, and the Navnath Sampradaya (lineage from the ancient sage Dattatreya down to Samartha Ram Das to Siddharameshwar to Sri Nisargadatta). Both seem to teach the ultimate goal, one through "inversion," and the other through "Knowledge." And both through devotion to the Master. An interesting harmonic no doubt on the heartstrings of our tolerance?
“If there is no Devotion (bhakti) there is no Knowledge. Without the Master’s grace there is no Knowledge. When will the Master’s grace flow? Only through steadfast devotion…The Sadguru resides in the heart of one who worships him, and becomes his guardian. He knows how strong your faith is...The disciple can grow and flower into a Jnani under the loving gaze of the Master. Pray to the Sadguru that He may grant the boon of devotion to Him.” Amrut Laya, p. 176-177, 214)
In addition - and this is just my own feeling, for which I may be wrong and for which there will no doubt be much disagreement - but Sant Mat by definition is “the Path of the Saints,” not exclusively “the path of Surat Shabd Yoga.” All past Sants, including many referred to by the Masters in their writings, were realized souls, but not all taught the path of light and sound.. All emphasized devotion to the Master, but some taught Vedanta and others mysticism, raja yoga, etc.. Sri Ramana and Paramhansa Yogananda, likewise, were each known for one particular path (self-inquiry for the former and kriya yoga for the latter), but in practice both taught or acknowledged all methods. I say “acknowledged” because Ramana was somewhat reluctant to teach, but Yogananda was not, and according to his disciple Roy Eugene Davis he taught Jnana to some of his devotees. Anandamayi Ma did the same. This is but natural for great Teachers, given the unique differences in background, type, development, and understanding in their many, many followers.
The path of devotion is basically empty without the Master, but it seems reasonable to conclude, based on perennial teachings as well as some of the more private words of the Masters, that the intermediate mystical stages of light and sound can be bypassed directly for the “Wordless” or “Stateless State” through such devotion, faith, understanding, and most of all grace.
“I love them and they love me, no technology required,” as my Master Kirpal used to say. Something to ponder.
In light of this it is mentioned that one well-known follower of Kirpal and Darshan Singh in her later years switched practices and went to the successor of Sri Nisargadatta, feeling she was led by Kirpal to a higher teaching. Perhaps, then, it was not really a ‘higher’ teaching or path, but a more direct expression of it that better served her needs at her particular stage in life? And with the grace of the Masters she was in good hands. The Master promises never to leave the disciple and always remains by his side as friend and protector. Shall we not trust their blessed assurance?
Note: Samartha Ram Das was a saint with very peculiar ways. Besides having one thousand disciples, three hundred of whom were women, he used to keep with him a large amount of stones with which he pelted away anything or anyone he liked. In this he was similar to one Baba Kahan, whom Kirpal Singh early in his search used to go see and who threw stones at many people to keep away the insincere. Yet Kirpal told his brother, "Go to him - even if he kills you!"
Ishwar Puri to the Rescue
Perhaps Puri can shed some more light on the radical teachings of Faqir Chand in regards to the Master's form. In a talk, Illusion and Reality, he states:
"Baba Faqir Chand is one of the saints who claimed that he will do nothing. In fact, his biography published is called The Unknowing Saint, and he claimed that the masters know nothing. Everything you get is from within yourself, that the masters do not even project their radiant form in you. You project the radiant form yourself. And he gave an example…Baba Fakir Chand gave an example of his own life when he was in the military, and so were some of his disciples. And there, one day, three of his disciples were suddenly surrounded by the enemy on all four sides, and they knew they were going to be killed, so they sat together and prayed: “Baba Ji, this is the time when we are going to be killed by the enemy. As a last resort, we want to pray to you. Please take care of us and take us to Sach Khand as soon as we die. Please help us.”
"At that time Baba Ji appeared almost in a physical form standing right in front of them, and he said, “Don’t worry. You are not going to die today. Don’t worry. There is behind this small tree a little bush. Under the bush there is a tunnel. If you go in the tunnel, you will go behind the enemy lines and just escape. Go and take the tunnel and come out, and I will see you,” and then he disappeared. They marveled at the power of the master that he could do this. They looked behind, and under the bush there was a tunnel. They went through the tunnel and escaped, were not killed. They were so grateful to the master for sparing their lives. They ran to him and said, “Master, thank you very much for saving our lives.” He said, “What happened?” They said, “You came and you told us about the tunnel, and we came.” He said, “I know nothing about it. I was not there. I was myself very frightened of being killed myself. What are you talking about?” They said, “Master, you yourself came to us. We saw you. All three of us saw you! Not only we saw you, you directed us to a tunnel nobody could have known, and you saved our lives. Don’t be so humble and pretend you don’t know.” He said, “The truth is I don’t know. That masters know nothing.”
"Then he made general statements that masters really come as projections of the self, and the whole secret is in the self. Whatever you will find you will find within yourself. Even the radiant form of the master that you find is within yourself. And therefore, why masters appear outside is to generate the kind of faith that you can discover who you are and go within. Therefore, he said, “I know nothing. Masters know nothing, and if a master says he is doing everything, he is no master.” He made such dramatic statements which led to a lot of controversy. Do masters really have any power or are they mere shadows of the self and they just are projecting themselves to take you inside—and the whole secret is inside?"
"This question about Baba Faqir Chand, who people say was the only honest master because he confessed that he knew nothing. All others claimed that they have all the powers of a master. They say he is the honest master, but then they question, “What about all the other perfect living masters who initiated people, and the people saw their radiant forms? And didn’t they really see the radiant form of the master? Didn’t the master have any hand in it?” As it happens, I have met Baba Fakir Chand personally several times. He was our neighbor in Hoshiarpur. My father was teaching there. He was a good friend of my father, and we met him several times. And we even discussed this incident with Baba Fakir Chand personally, so I have some personal knowledge. And he explained why he said all those things. He said, “The reason I say this is because, when people begin to follow masters, they don’t do any meditation. They think just following that person is good enough.”
"Therefore, he overemphasized the fact that the truth lies within yourself. Even the master lies within yourself. After all, all this creation that we see outside is a projection from inside. If the whole creation is a projection from inside, surely a physical master is also a projection from inside, which means the truth is that the perfect living master we talk about is inside us, not outside, but we cannot see him. If we close our eyes, we see darkness. Therefore, the projected master who appears outside functions exactly like the master inside. And yet at the same time he is just a shadow of the master inside. He is not only a shadow; he is a very active shadow because by listening to him, by following what he says, by getting initiated by him, we find the true master within ourselves."
"Therefore, at all times the true master is within us. He emphasized this point that he knew nothing just to make a point that, “Don’t follow human beings just blindly. Listen to what they say. Follow what they are saying,” and you will find the truth inside, including the true master, because the radiant form of the master is the master who takes you back home, and that radiant form of the master is inside us, not outside. But he resembles the one outside so much that we can have a link. Why does he resemble so much? Because he is outside. He is the projected form outside. Therefore, it’s very difficult to say, “Which one should we follow—the outside or the inside?” The fact is we should follow the inside."
"Can we follow the inside without the outside? No way! Then it comes back to the same thing, that we have to follow a physical living master outside who can talk to us, who can teach us, who can answer our questions, who can guide us, who can tell us when we are wrong and when we are right on the path, who can tell us all the details of the journey we are going to have, who can encourage us to go within, who can time and again help us with the means to go within, but after he has done all that, we find that the master who will be with us for all time and is permanent is inside us. And that’s the radiant form of the master we find within ourselves."
"So there is a role for the master outside, and there is a role for the master inside. And because it’s a projection, actually it is the same. In fact, one perfect living master has said, “[quote in Punjabi],” which translated means, “The inside and the outside are the same.” That’s what I learned from my master. Do not think that the outside is separate and you run away from it, and there is a created world outside sitting objectively and we have to run away from it and go somewhere else inside. The outside projected world is also being projected from inside and is an inside world that we see outside. But it looks so real outside. It has all the elements of external reality. It becomes physically real. Therefore, in the physical reality which our mind accepts, that the world outside is real, we have to search for something very abstract, something very unknown inside."
"Since we think like that, therefore the outside world becomes a reality for us, and we search for other realities inside without ever leaving the notion that the world outside and the physical body here is the only reality we know. And that is why, because we take the outside world as real, we have to take the outside master also as real, although the outside master is projected from inside and is working exactly as the inside master is doing. There is no difference between the two."
"So this is a very strange kind of enigma for people, that while we take this physical world to be real—and we can’t help it—we have no other reality to compare it with. This is the only reality we know." (Illusion or Reality (ishanews.org/media/transcripts/eng/Illusion_or_Reality.pdf)
Ishwar Ji basically seems to be saying that Baba Faqir Chand said he came to realize that a Master is able to appear in our lives (and within) because we are drawing the experience from the same single Source in all of us; and that that is the definition of a Perfect Living Master.
All right; so far, then, Faqir teaches that to restore the soul’s native freedom requires a radical detachment from the plane of manifest life, through progressive levels of samadhi. This in itself is not different from standard Sant Mat doctrine. But he seems to possibly go one step further.
He held that Sat Lok or Sach Khand is the ‘self-awareness of the Spirit’ in which the soul or Surat is absorbed. Further in the Anami stage, that of the transcendental, nameless being, there is not even that self-Awareness. Still, no one can stay there while he yet has a body, and so he tells us that the final goal is to be united with ones manifestation while alive, which suggests a non-dual state of realization, and which Faqir calls Radhiswamidham stage, and which he defined as "complete freedom while in a human body," but which he also said he was only able to stay in for one minute or so at a time. He thus appears to be on the fence in the videhamukti/jivan mukti debate [to be discussed later].
“The self-awareness of the Surat is called Satloka and the loss of this self-awareness is the state of namelessness, or Anami Dham. Since Saligram Ji Maharaj had risen to this level while living in the physical body, and, since no human being can stay in any state permanently, he did not designate the final designation even as nameless state.”
“Then, after all, where can we find peace? In the final Radhaswami Abode, which is in your Surat, your Pure Self. Always remain united with your own manifestation. In other words, let your Surat be united with the Pure Self Radhaswami...The answer lies in unification, the spontaneous inclination in the union of the Light with Sound - Radha with Swami. Peace lies in merging into one’s own Self. This spontaneous state is spontaneous meditation. This alone is the Radhaswami Abode. It is clear that this state is always present within each individual, but most people do not go deep into their depths to discover it...I have seen the Radhaswami present in every atom. I have seen Radhaswami clearly in everything manifested. The entire cosmos is manifesting the Pure being and the qualified Being. I have seen Radhaswami as the moving spirit of the whole world.”
He concludes:
“In reality, you are neither body, nor mind, nor soul, but a pure being. You are invisible, unfathomable, nameless and formless...When I say our real nature is Pure Being, what does it mean? It means that It is invisible, unfathomable, unnamed and beyond all qualities. God, and Supreme God, are the names of the concentration of gross matter. Similarly, the concentration of subtle matter in a particular form is designated Brahman [certainly an unusual definition of Brahman], the Absolute, and Parabrahman, the Supremely Absolute. The concentration of the most subtle form of matter is called the Satloka, the region of Truth. All these are emanations from our Pure Being and remain under its control. They come into existence from It, but It is Itself above all these existent entities or qualitative states.” (p. 59-97)
Here Faqir is saying much more than the "I am a bubble of consciousness" metaphor mentioned earlier, but is asserting a semi-vedantic point of view. All is in the Self seems to be what he is saying. So we see that Faqir like many masters speaks differently with different people and at different times. It is also possible that he was progressively working towards his final understanding. The reader may keep all of this in mind as we go one with this discussion. However, at this point the final goal as he portrays it does not seem radically different from what many sages say about sahaj samadhi. “It is beyond Sunn and trance,” in fact said the great Kabir. Yet also, in some teachings sahaj samadhi is not the end either. There are said to be infinite depths to the awakening and evolution within the Mystery. Yes, there's that word again: 'Mystery' - the obvious, crystal clear, always new, never-ending Mystery!
Impressions of Faqir Chand
Before leaving the topic we submit these comments (with names withheld) in summary of some of the ongoing questions raised about Faqir Chand and his teachings:
“People keep repeating the Faqir Chand thesis but it doesn't quite hood together. Faqir Chand had a lot to say about Sant Mat, and even more to say about himself and how he was more honest than his fellow gurus. Reading Faqir, he comes across as a somewhat neurotic character who was forever ambivalent about whether orthodox sant mat was legitimate, or whether all the gurus beside himself were cheats and liars. Faqir never managed to arrive at a conclusion on whether sant mat was good or bad, except that he had no conclusion. That's not exactly wisdom, it's just an admission of uncertainty."
"Faqir told many stories about what other gurus supposedly told him in private that they told no one else. I find these stories hard to believe. I especially find it hard to believe Faqir's claim that Kirpal Singh and the gurus of RSSB all confessed to him that they didn't have inner knowingness. I also question why this claim is still being circulated without mentioning that Charan Singh and Darshan Singh both flatly said that Faqir was wrong."
"No RSSB guru has ever admitted to be unknowing. All of them lived in luxury and took in massive amounts of money seva because of their position as Godmen. That was a machination that Faqir says he abhorred. Yet Faqir revered Sawan and Charan and even gave satsang for RSSB? Faqir's respect for RSSB makes no sense, given his rantings about corrupt sant mat gurus who pretend to occult knowledge of their disciples' experiences. Even if Faqir's stories were true about these gurus telling him in secret that they didn't know anything, wouldn't "the honest guru" refuse to have anything to do with them, given that they were still perpetuating a lie? What about Faqir's satsangs at RSSB -- did he spend that satsang telling the people that their guru was lying to them? Doubtful. Then there's Faqir's lifelong reverence to his own guru, and his repeated statements of respect and gratitude for the spiritual help his guru gave him. Yet we don't have Shiv Brat confessing that he was unknowing. Why would Faqir reverence his own guru if he was a liar? Somehow, none of these gurus are ever called out by Faqir as fakes, and yet Faqir's "honest" declaration is that they are indeed all fakes, all liars."
"Taken all together, Faqir's line on Sant Mat is a muddled mess. No doubt, it counts for something that Faqir confesses that he himself had no personal knowledge of the miracles his disciples reported to him. But what Faqir has to say on other gurus and spiritual topics in general isn't all that impressive. To this reader, much of Faqir's stuff comes across as....well, have you ever read a Faqir book, and not just a few selected quotes that bolster the thesis that Faqir was of all gurus the most honest, wise and intelligent? Try reading a few chapters from Faqir's Truth Always Wins and see what you think:
http://manavtamandir.com/books/english/Truth-Always-Wins.pdf “
“Faqir's writing is a stream of consciousness ping pong of one wild story after another, followed by neurotic ponderings, gossip about what other gurus told him in secret, triumphal declarations he's uncovered the Real Truth about sant mat, and then abject words of devotion to his own guru for making it all possible. In short, it's the work of a confused man, perhaps the most rhetorically discombolulated guru of the last century. The Faqir was great thesis reworks all this into a picture of Faqir as the most honest guru. But that thesis just doesn't work, because it depends on ignoring so much about Faqir's guru ministry. If Faqir truly believed his supposed conclusions about what's false in sant mat, he would have "done a Krishanamurti." completely dropping sant mat and denouncing all gurus. But he didn't do that, as to the end of his long life he still preached a version of sant mat that, despite all its ruminations about what other gurus did wrong. And despite all his insights about the pitfalls of following a guru, Faqir still held fast to the necessity of a guru.”
“Faqir sought out what other gurus had experienced and it was from their own confessions to him in private and elsewhere that Faqir formed a more general view. In addition, even to the very end of his life Faqir pointed out that he could be wrong and welcomed others to correct him.”
“That's very reminiscent of Ishwar Puri's words echoing Great Master's
advice to him at initiation:
"All that I am sharing with you is something for personal experience.
My teacher, the Great Master, Hazur Maharaj Baba Sawan Singh
who taught me this stuff told me, 'Do not believe even my word
unless you can experience it.'
And also told me something else. He said, 'If somebody in the world
can give you something better, take it! Don't say, `I am tied up with
one person.' Don't make it a cult. Don't make it a closed society. It's
an open knowledge for the universe, for humanity.' Everything is in
every human being. There is no special group of people who say they
have God inside them, others don't."
“Having met lots of shabd yoga gurus during the past forty years, I found Faqir Chand unique. You could ask him any question and he would never shy away from it. Moreover, Faqir (to his great credit) consistently said that he could be wrong and that his point of view was not final. That was entirely refreshing to me. I say this because one can see a progressive quality in Faqir's writings from the earlier days to near his death. So here are some answers to questions posed:
1. First, Faqir came to believe that all the inner regions were ultimately illusory and that even the inner sounds were illusory. As Faqir said in London in 1980:
"Like I said yesterday, I have realized that all these stages
of Sahasraradala Kamal, Trikuti, Sunn, Maha-sunn are the
play of this mind. Visions are based on the thoughts one
keeps. This play of whatever one sees within (i.e. visions)
is based on samskaras (impressions and suggestions). They
are not the same for everyone. Visions or images vary
from person to person. "
2. Faqir was appointed a guru by Shiv Brat Lal some 21 years before his guru's death. As he himself confessed, " Hazur Data Dayal Ji called me in his
room. I was already waiting for the moment. I
went inside. Lo! His Holiness with a strange
blend of affection placed in my hands one
coconut, five [coins], made a frontal mark on my
forehead and bowed himself to my feet saying,
"Faqir, you are yourself the Supreme Master of
your time. Start delivering spiritual discourses to
the seekers and initiate them into the path of
Sant Mat. In due course of time, your own
satsangis will prove to be your True Guru,' and it
is through your experiences with them that the
desired secret of Sant Mat will be revealed to
you." Touched by these words, I experienced
both joy and sorrow within me. Hazur noted both
expressions on my face and asked for
clarification. I humbly said, "Your Holiness, I am
myself ignorant of the Truth, how can I lead
others on this sublime path? And when the
thought that I have become a degree holder and
would deliver discourses and initiate people
flashed within my mind, I felt that I had become
something and thus a spark of joy." Hazur then
said, "Faqir, you may be suffering from ninety-nine shortcomings, but one sure virtue of Truth
which is within you will lead you to your goal in
life. You will not only redeem yourself but will
help many others to attain release."
In 1981, Faqir said, "Further R. S. Dayal writes that he heard the
conch-shell sound and the omkar vibration
inside. I have explained in a book why a
meditator hears inside him sounds of bell,
conch, omkar, flute and sitar. All these are
manifestations of the mental plane. Since this
knowledge came to me, I ceased to be caught
up in the whirlpool of the mind and
transcended it. Now, I took upon all these manifestations
as mere maya. Therefore, now, even if I try to
catch these sounds, I do not get them, because
their value, as something real, has vanished
for me who has transcended the mind.
3. Faqir stopped initiating anyone formally after 1942, but he continued to give satsang and tried to argue
that we should go beyond the mind, even beyond light and sound, and find the source from which all this appears.
Faqir explained his own way of speaking:
“I believe that the intensified faith of these
devout persons becomes creative and
produces these results. Many so-called gurus
misappropriate the credit for similar
happenings, which take place in their
disciples, whose own true faith should be
held responsible for those results. By the lack
of moral, courage and honesty on the part of
pseudo- gurus, credulous disciples are kept in
the dark and fleeced under fake pretenses. I
alert the faithful but simple minded satsangis,
to beware of such sneaks and their false
claims. I had been commanded by my
Gurudev [Shiv Brat Lal] to introduce plains peaking into religion, so I am duty bound to
proclaim the truth behind these miracles, and
to save the simpletons from exploitation. If I
do not reveal the truth, I can, by keeping
satsangis in the dark, extract from them large
sums of money by claiming fake credit, for
the miracles that no doubt do happen."
"It is correct to ascertain that Faqir argued for something beyond light and sound.... and in this way
dovetailed with the Tibetan Book of the Dead.....He called it hanging on the gallows. Here is a quote:
“What conclusion did I reach? When I
found out that I do not manifest or appear within
anybody, then I also leave the mind (and all its
appearances). Then remains light and sound. Every two or
three months or sometimes every three days, when I
go and search for that entity that listens to the sound,
then my being disappears. What remains? Nothing.
Now I think to myself – if I have become something by
reaching that place, if I can do something, then I should
be able to remove all the problems that the world is facing
right now. If they could, the ancestors from the past
would have removed their problems or difficulties. Baba
Sawan Singh would have removed his troubles. Swamiji
would have alleviated his disease. Kabir had kidney
problems for ten years in the old age.
So what did I understand? What is my realization of this
supreme element (Tatva)?
I am a bubble of the supermost consciousness. In the process of
evolution, I appeared or manifested. Similarly, you also appeared. I
did not exist before, and I won’t exist again. Only one element will
remain from which this bubble came into existence. That element is
Sound. It’s name is Naam. That Naam is not the sound of bells or
conch. It’s not the sound of Veena. It is the principle sound (Saar
Shabad). This is what the bani of saints mentions – Saar Shabad.
So after reaching this, what happened to me? What did I gain? I found peace. What did I gain at this age of ninety-four? Peace.”
“Faqir’s 1978 talks with David Lane (“The Master Speaks") for me is a combination of intimate confessions and bizarre remarks. Dozens of silly statements ("Teachers like Sawan Singh or Buddha or Jesus who didn’t teach the “total truth” suffered in old age”), many just plain false statements (“Jesus in the Bible taught that the earth is flat”), an honest admission that he knows nothing and doesn’t claim to have the right answers (which is admirable), and an obsession with taking about the excesses of sex, for which I forgive him since he was a Scorpio! Like his other books there is the presumption of making a total change in Sant Mat, but then tells people to do simran, dhyan and bhajan and reach the highest plane beyond the deluding lower visions and sounds. But no baptismal initiation, just talks on understanding are the initiation. That part is fine with me, it’s a bit like the “introduction to the view” in dzogchen, which also is not an experience. But I find no firm conclusions about realization, what it is and when it occurs. I also read his book Naam-Dan and found difficulty in establishing any coherency. And no mention of Naam or how to contact it, which his lineage no longer seems to stress. In fact they distinguish themselves on not stressing it. So there seems to be an inconsistency in his delivery. While perhaps unique for Sant Mat, I find the awakening value of his books not even close to those the great historical sages like Ramana or Nisargadatta or Yog-Vasishta. I’m not saying he wasn’t a good, maybe even a great man, just not very clear imo. His service projects were praiseworthy, and maybe in Punjabi instead of English he would be more understandable. I can see how people who have only received a cultic, simplistic, materialistic Sant Mat orientation would find him refreshing, and fifty years ago what he said did seem very refreshing compared to PLM ideology, but it does not represent anything new in the greater world spiritual traditions. For myself, I find his writing all over the map, and not without a healthy dollop of the usual Indian pedantic pomposity, despite a disarming candor. “My mind is pure, no one teaches like me,” “all the other teachers are liars” but yet, “don’t compare teachers.”
"Faqir means beggar. Now listen to what this Beggar has to say about big ashrams and grandiose masters:
'This is the hard fact: the plain truth does not help in establishing centers; it does not increase the number of followers. But how is anyone to understand it? Only after this realization: that I am a bubble of consciousness. A bubble of consciousness would not claim itself to be a yogi, sadhu, or a gnani. Had I not realized this Truth, I might have made claims of my greatness and got myself worshipped by you and exploited you.'"
This is all well and good, and quite true, yet Faqir's death bed confessions raise questions for me. According to David Lane, he said:
"It is ten o'clock at night. I am lying in a room number 2015 of a big hospital in Pittsburgh. The entire life of 95 years moves in front of me. I did inner exercises and practices. What have I understood? I'm actually a bubble of consciousness. I wished and still I wish that when my last hour comes I shall tell how I went above after leaving body and mind etc. But the experience is somewhat contrary. I wish I should separate myself from the body and mind but it becomes impossible when there is physical pain, giddiness. Since glucose is being given continuously day and night for the past four days, hence, I am tired now and it has become impossible. Now it is 12 o'clock at night. For the past four days I am unable to eat anything due to excessive urination and extreme burning. Where has the knowledge and concentration gone? Regret! Great souls have not told as to what they experienced. Worldly people would have benefited from that. Regret! There is no any other particular trouble except that I am confined to the bed for the past five days or there is burning while urinating. But Lord! I have a grief. During life, so far as possible, I did not feed on offerings of followers (Satsangis). Only Mool Chand Rijjumal of Katni, Durga Das and my son send money on which I sustain. God only knows what will be the expenditure here. The house/room rent is $150 per day. Dr. Rao says--'do not worry', he will bear all expenses. And if I die in America there will be additional expenditure of $2000. Eyes shed tears while I look at the philosophy of Karma. Whether, in another life, I shall have to repay them the money they are spending? The only thing to support my heart is that I know how to finally merge with Him.” (from "The Suffering Saint" by David Lane, https://integralworld.net/lane162.html)
Refreshing, compared to some gurus these days, that he was respectful of karmas, but what of his realization ?
His confession does not express the certainty of the great jnanis, and is apparent from some of the things he said in the hospital. For example, Ramana said “the jnani could be writhing on the floor in pain and agony but it wouldn’t matter - he’s the jnani.” He wouldn’t be concerned that he couldn’t meditate and separate from body and mind, rather, he would be at peace with his crucifixion. Nor would he question where he was going to go because of some karma accrued from getting bills paid by his relatives. He would know that he doesn’t go anywhere. He would know what he is and abide as that, regardless of the condition of his body and brain. Nor would he be consoled by the thought that he knew how to “merge” with Him. What merges with what? Both Ramana and Nisargadatta died with painful cancers, but their realizations were never at stake, nor did they share any of Faqir's concerns.
I’m not putting Faqir down. What he says is good, but, outside of Sant Mat, can what he says really be considered that revolutionary? I am thinking part of the problem is in the approach itself, which he was not totally free of. And that is the unique to Sant Mat idea that truth lies in ascended samadhi. When one goes that way, the inability to keep repeating it inevitably confirms its limitations and disappointments. Truth does not need samadhi or its repetition. Ramana when dying said, “Where could I go? I am here.” Ramana was not distressed about it. So I am confused about what Faqir's teachings on this important matter were.” He said he realized he was a bubble of consciousness. That's okay as far as a metaphor goes, but a bubble has shape and dimensions, while consciousness does not. Is it the best metaphor for self-realization, often characterized as unchanging, dimensionless, infinite consciousness? He said it made him feel he was nothing, and therefore could not put himself forward as someone special and deceive disciples. Yet other teachers presumably have realized the same state, and yet instances of conflicting actions and contrary views seem to be drawn from it. So one must inevitably ask, what is the truth?
What certainly must raise the scepticism of the attentive observer is the claim by Shiv Brat Lal (as told by Manav Dayal) that he and Faqir had been Buddha and Ananda in a previous incarnation. This sort of silliness seems rampant in mystical paths that play around in subtle planes while denigrating jnana. Neither of these two gurus evidenced much understanding of Buddhism which one would expect if they had such an illustrious past. We will see more of this hubris in the section on Yogananda and Kriya Yoga. Ramakrishna, Aurobindo and Yogananda all claimed to have been Krishna! Sant Mat claims Kabir as their own, while Yogananda claimed Kabir - as well as Jesus - taught Kriya Yoga, and that Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar, and Babaji were the Three Wisemen. So and so was the reincarnation of Soamiji, Soamiji was Kabir, and it goes on and on.
Finally, I don’t agree with his argument that no master ever knows or can manifest himself to others. It may not be the usual way these things happen - which he was good to point out - but it does happen. And he has no explanation how it does happen - for instance, how someone a person has never met or heard about physically manifests in front of them to save them from danger (except for one case he mentions where he concluded a woman unknowingly had contacted his own unconscious mind - but this must have been an exception). For the rest he may be sure he had nothing to do with it, fine, but he can’t explain what really is happening when it does happen. And it does happen. Shouldn’t we seek an explanation? So I still feel he is too simplistic.” [End of internet posts on Faqir Chand]
The current website of Manavta Mandir, the center founded by Faqir, states that he was told by his Guru to update the Sant Mat teachings:
"Data Dayal Maharishi Shiv Brat Lal Ji, through a suggestion, gave Param Dayal Faqir Chand Ji Maharaj the work of changing education of Santmat over time. At the time of partition of India, Param Dayalji saw bleeding humanity and the sacrament given by Data Dayalji started taking its form. Param Dayalji, while working as Satguru of Time, opened the secrets of Santmat and changed the teaching of Santmat which is evident from his literature."
This group further states that Faqir gave up the traditional Naam-dan initiation or baptism, replacing it with a detailed description of the higher planes. While he certainly did the latter, in ways never before disseminated in Sant Mat, wouldn't the combination of the two - initiation and philosophy - be even better? There is no mention in his book Naam-Dan of spiritual transmission in the form of an inner boost or contact with the sound, as some other lineages claim to offer, but much emphasis on getting a true understanding in satsang, both practical and metaphysical. He also stresses the need for a guru to help one develop in all areas and not just inwardly. Perhaps at the time that was unique, but it is only common sense. Other than that, the goal and the means are the same, in my opinion, as stated elsewhere: simran, dhyan, bhajan - connecting with the naam to eventually get beyond the naam in the higher stages. He seems to stress what may have seemed radical decades ago, that one should not get bogged down in the lower stages of light and sound and visions, which can be a problem in beginners who still think objectively and not subjectively. One can indeed spend years involved with watching “internal TV” (!) without making much of a dent in the ego. Therefore he stressed right understanding and balance. He also rightly criticized gurus who try to get a large following through making promises based on exaggerated claims of their personal power.
If Faqir was so non-traditional, however, teaching there was no Anami, no Sat Lok, and that if you are "attached" to sound you have to come back [as said by his one-time lineage holder Shoonyo] , why did he still teach that there was an essential need for attaching to the sounds in order to reach the higher, unattached-to-sound, Wordless State? "If you get attached to the sound you have to come back" sounds a bit simplistic to me. That is to say, something that may have been said to someone but is not universally true. The standard Sant Mat teaching has always been to get attached to it and then get led beyond it. Certainly one should know that the five sounds only lead through the subtle realms. Then there is a blankness to deal with. Other paths tackle that head-on, while Sant Mat makes it like a journey through darkness where you - as a "you" - need a big flashlight to cross. But I don't think it is really like that, as discussed later on in the sections on Maha Sunn.
They say if you don't get attached to Naam or sound you will come back; now Faqir and Shoonyo - and Greg Leveille (Charan Singh initiate) - say if you do get attached to sound you will come back. Can't win, it seems! But it is really only a confusion of levels, understanding, and approaches.
The following, from Manavta Mandir, sounds like very traditional and at all not non-traditional Sant Mat to me:
"For Mukti, you have to first take the path of Divine light and sound - there is no other way. You have to leave the stage of Yamraj (negative thoughts and images of mind), Dharamraj (positive phenomenon of mind), chitragupt (deep buried desires)...leaving this all you go to the state of Parbraham (Divine white light)."
This Faqir quote is an example of what I meant that sometimes he talks like a traditionalist, and sometimes not. Here he seems to say that meditating on light and sound is the only way to “get past” the regions of thought and deep buried desires. He is not proposing a comprehensive sadhana at the life level to do that, and could be seen as still teaching what could be considered as a form of spiritual bypass. He doesn’t here or in published books speak much of purification, or a heart-realization like Ramana, or purgation emphasized by the Christian mystics, or dealing with ones shadow material like the emerging embodiment teachers. His teachings do offer a refreshing, more philosophical and psychological interpretation of the planes and bodies, and an honest re-assessment of the nature and function of a master, but without a form of spirit-baptism (initiation), what is the average beginning aspirant to do with this teaching? And, while it is certainly true that in person the gurus in his lineage have addressed the need for love, thinking well of others, being kind to all, watching ones thoughts, giving individualized instruction (more likely because their groups have been smaller), and so on, this is also true of gurus in other lineages - and paths. The question in both cases is if this is down to earth and deep enough to be accessible and productive to modern aspirants, especially westerners.
I think it depends on what happens in consciousness and understanding - whether you listen to sounds or not - as to whether you need - or choose - to come back. Even Kirpal said there was a Wordless State, so one must eventually go "beyond" attachment to sounds. But the key is what one means by that word "attachment." It seems that a de-attachment would happen naturally if, as Ishwar Puri said, the sound is coming out of, or is, our Self. Or if, as Ramana recommended, one combines listening to sound with vichara, that is, to keep the "I" in focus. This appears relatable with the esoteric Christian mysticism of Daskalos where he describes within an Absolute both the Logos and the Holy Spirit. The Logos is responsible for self-awareness and the Holy Spirit for creation. Church Father Origin called the Holy Spirit the "active force of God." Listening to the sounds without self-awareness would be to attend to the Holy Spirit, while self-enquiry alone would be to attend to the Logos. Listening to sounds with self-awareness would be, in one singular open-hearted intuitive act, as it were, to attend to both. Maybe something worth pondering.
Here is another Faqir quote that sounds good but begs for a clear meaning if we are not to be left hanging like many suchlike statements in Sant Mat often leave us:
“It is written that The 'Satpurush (Divine omnipresent reality) is the body of a perfect saint, he has the power to connect you to the ineffable.' The outside spiritual master is 'Puran" (complete, perfect).”
Here he says something that (1) clearly contradicts what he has said at other times (unless it is a misquote), and (2) sounds like much of standard Sant Mat. Except for the “outside master is perfect” part, which is generally denied by the Sants.
Where is it written that “the Sat Purush is the body of a saint and the “divine omnipresent reality” ? Most importantly, what does it mean? A source is not given. It is fine to say so, but it seems like a reinterpretation of what Sat Purush usually signifies. Renditions of Sar Bachan have Sat Purush being considered either a deity or stage on the way to Anami Purush and Beyond, and not the “divine omnipresent reality,” so what is Faqir's purpose here? And, if it is true about the body of a saint, the divine "omnipresent" reality should also be "omniscient", which Faqir time and again argued against! After reading the website of Manatva Mandir, therefore, I tend to think that alongside its good work the group may be unnecessarily perpetuating somewhat of a legend about Faqir Chand and his purported radicalism.
“Dr. Sharma told me Faqir said inner experiences are from the mind but have a positive purpose along the way. “
This needs a fairly long discussion, imo, but in short, sounds a bit too dualistic to me. It is akin to Faqir's saying that all experiences, especially inner experiences, are illusion. Or course that is what some of the lesser forms of advaita teach. But no one lives like that. Yes, all experiences, inner and outer, come through the mind, but maybe not only the individual mind. And then, also, where does the mind come from? What is the mind? An expression of consciousness? Then?
So calling them all illusion seems too extreme. Unless you want to call your experience of the world an illusion, or maya. But why not call it a product of divine ideation, instead of just maya? And why then just write off any reality to a Master's Form, or all visions - yes, even all perceptions - as illusion, instead of trying to understand them? They are after all part of the complex realm of Relativity which we are working with.
Finally, one problem I have is with one lineage taking credit for changing Sant Mat, as if God Almighty or Soamiji or whoever dispensed this task to them only. I see the changes bigger than any one man or lineage, or even any mystical or philosophic school. These pioneers of Sant Mat were speaking upwards of 50-100 years ago, and a lot has been revealed across the board since then. Saying “Faqir was Satguru of the Time” is more exclusivity and does not really help us, does it?
In summary, my feeling is that the greatest contribution of Faqir was in started a conversation reframing Sant Mat from that of an actual cosmological journey to an exploration of the depths ones own inner being. He was the first in Sant Mat to do this, but not the first overall. There have been other pioneers, Brunton being one of them.
The Interior Word and “Talking to the Master Inside”
Before we leave the topic of the Master’s Form it is appropriate to say a few words on the companion topic of an aspirant speaking face to face with the Master from within. Outside of Sant Mat, the traditions of mysticism mention a phenomenon called the Interior Word in which as one’s inner contemplation deepens one’s own Higher Self talks to oneself using one’s own mind and words as a medium. This is an exquisite experience in which guidance is given, but it does not go on for more than a relatively limited period of time. In Sant Mat the impression is often given that once the initiate has succeeded in reaching the threshold of the astral plane he can talk to his Master thereafter any time he likes and get answers to all his questions and guidance for all his problems. We have already given ample information and views on the nature of visions and the Master’s Form, so the reader may come to his own general conclusions on that issue. Does it ever happen like this, however, even for advanced souls? Or is the matter of guidance more nuanced and intuitive, and less limited to a dualistic conversation through the medium of the inner senses? That is to say, guidance comes in different ways reflecting our maturity, and we are expected to progress from the more dualistic visionary forms to the deeper, intuitive and more direct non-dual perspective. The faculty of spiritual intuition needs to be developed as it is more an inherent aspect of the soul than communication through the senses, whether these be internal or external. We have the naive view that all we need to do is invert through meditation and all our problems will be easily solved in a kind of mystically mechanical fashion without the development of our own wisdom!
Brunton writes:
“The notion that the Overself’s voice is necessarily accompanied by occult phenomena or heard clairaudiently inside oneself is a very limited one. It may be totally unaccompanied by anything strange or as if it were conscience, felt rather than heard. Or it may speak to one indirectly through any other person or any circumstantial event that touches one's path."
"The deeper mind is so close to the source of our karma that we may at times get its right guidance not only intuitively but also circumstantially from without." (Notebooks, Vol. 14, 1.214, 1.100)
This is pointing directly to the non-dual perspective, beyond our spiritual childhood. The Overself is within us, yet we are also within the Overself. The Heart is within us, yet we are also in the Heart. Guidance is continual if we only have eyes to see and have no preconceived notions of where it shall come from.
An example about intuition may help here. When Kirpal Singh was seated at his desk one night writing the Gurmant Siddhant [later published at Beas as The Philosophy of the Masters series], one disciple noticed him writing very rapidly and Kirpal said that Sawan Singh was dictating to him. The disciple asked, "do you mean he is talking to you inside right now?" Kirpal replied, "By intuition - the same." Kirpal also is quoted in Morning Talks as saying that "the true devotee will divine the intention of the Master and not have to be told what to do."
What this means for me is that a basic or fundamental trust in one's own true nature must somehow develop, and a genuine teacher will encourage this, or one is not growing - always essentially asking for permission or guidance before speaking or acting on the basis of essentially intuitive promptings from his own deeper self, also recognizing that to do so is not separate from receptivity to ones Master. The disciple must outgrow - and is expected to outgrow - a childish relationship to the Teacher as well as to his own spiritual development, by resorting to the freedom within the Heart's Gaze, and the concomitant responsibility of, so to speak, "standing in one's own shoes." For who is getting realized, anyway?
THIS IS NEW AND INTERESTING: Everything Happens within Sach Khand!:
Recently I listened to one of Puri's talks in which he said an interesting thing about Sach Khand, which sounded much like the confession of many jnanis and buddhist sages, albeit from a Sant Mat point of view. He said (paraphrased from memory) that when ‘you’ ‘get to’ Sach Khand, it is like awakening from a dream and you realize not only that you never left it, but that the entire drama of creation, planes, reincarnations, eons of time, and all the rest, TOOK PLACE ONLY IN SACH KHAND - and which of course you are in right now, if only you realized it. Sort of expands the notion of what Sach Khand is or means. No good, imo, to simply say cryptically there is no such thing as Sach Khand and leave it at that, as ‘Sant Mat 2.0’ did when first proposed by Beas guru "Babaji" Gurinder Dhillon a decade ago. He threw his sangat for a loop proposing there was no soul, only the One; no master or master’s form coming for you after death, because there is no you, or duality, only the One; Sat Purush is an illusion, God does not live in Sach Khand, he lives here; the regions are metaphorical, not literal; Sach Khand only means realization; since there is no time and space there is also no one to take any one any where; there is no benefit of seva because there is no one to do seva (even while calling for thousands to do seva); no soul to meditate and leave the body, because there is no separate soul and only the One; the only purpose of meditation is to get you to give up and tire the mind; and so on. Although the instruction was apparently given out in small groups, once it hit the internet it caused waves. The sangat seems to be rolling on as if this did not really happen, but a number of things could be said of this.
First, long ago the sage Vasistha wrote:
“It is said that he declares ‘All this is Brahman’ to one who is ignorant or half-awakened goes to hell. A wise teacher should first be established in self-control and tranquility, then the student should be thoroughly examined before the knowledge of the truth is imparted to him.” (Yoga Vasistha)
Times may have changed, and we have no idea if this was the case in Babaji’s delivery of this new message. But the risk of confusing levels and teaching what is not accessible for one’s students is a real one. That is why sages have offered a graded teaching in the past. Actually, with some of the listed ‘changes’ we are in some agreement. But with others we are not. Many hailed him as a smart ‘Zen master’ for saying these things. But is there any evidence for this? Anyone, myself included, can give a good rap. But is it true that the sole purpose of meditation is to tire out the mind? Certainly not in Zen meditation on a hwadu, koan, or intense self-questioning, and certainly not with vedantic self-enquiry. In both these disciplines there is a practice to use the mind or mind’s intelligence to go beyond the mind, or isolate the root of the mind. Even in classic yoga and vedanta meditation it is recognized there is only the One (or, more precisely, ‘not-two, because One is a concept and then implies two!), but there are recognized stages of practice that are transcended or superceded by others. Perhaps Gurinder meant only Sant Mat meditation was useless to get you anywhere, and some will argue that point both pro and con. A lot depends on the sincerity of an aspirant, but the idea is not entirely baseless. The whole notion of getting anywhere sooner or later must be undone, because it is not quite true. Even Rajinder Singh has said as much, that the soul doesn’t really go anywhere. Actually, much depends on what the meaning of the word ‘go’ is. According to sages like Plotinus, the soul has powers, including that of projecting an emanant of itself into or out of incarnation, and thus can freely roam throughout God’s infinitude” - even while it doesn’t really go anywhere! For Plotinus, the Soul, the Nous, and the One all exist and are eternal verities, the expression of Reality. You see, there is not just Vedanta. That aside, however, to suggest that because Reality is already the case or there is only the One that there is nothing you can do because you as a soul don’t really exist, is to presume a process of realization has already happened when in fact it hasn’t, and you can’t kid the soul - even if in one’s philosophy it doesn’t exist!
At the very least a teacher should encourage one to endure the trials, tribulations, difficulties, responsibilities and heartaches of life with as much awareness, courage, and poise as one can muster, because, as the Buddha said, “Patient endurance is the way to enlightenment.” To ignore this and imply that the only thing one can do for their realization is to hang out with the enlightened Master, falls short, in our opinion. For then where did he get his enlightenment, one may well ask? If there is not a solid faith in that then where are the means for realization? Even if there is only the One there is still a great ordeal from here to there. Just as it is true that it doesn’t matter if you can’t find the ego, it is still strangling you every minute! Let’s not be fooled by facile teachings that the ego can hide itself in, one needs a real expert to help force it out of hiding. And that is among a true Master’s primary roles, not only to magically get you to some inner plane, where, without self-understanding, one can hide some more.
Is it true there no Sach Khand simply because there is only the One? Well, let us consider: is there no Earth because there is only the One?
Yes, the regions and many stories may not be meant to be taken strictly literally; other teachers like Puri, Ramana, even Sawan at times, have said as much. And yes, God does not ‘live’ in Sach Khand as we imagine; however, He/She/It is likely as much alive there as he is here - why not? If even parallel universes exist, why not a divine domain? And God by whatever name is also present in and as us as Higher Self, Divine guide, faithful helper, and friend. And one needs to be able to actually feel and ‘see’ this in oneself, and then also, through life circumstances and encounters, at the same time ‘see’ the self you perhaps didn’t want to know being ‘packaged’ for ones inspection, ‘see’ it being dismantled, and ‘see’ it dying. Not by going to the astral plane, but in as prosaic and direct a way as possible. The “I” needs powerful help to transform, eliminate and then resurrect itself. It sounds dualistic and is certainly paradoxical, but a fact of relativity all the same. “The ‘I’ transcends ‘I’ and yet remains ‘I’; the wise see no contradiction in it,” said Ramana.
Just telling a large group of people that there is only the One changes very little in terms of undoing illusion and transforming the being. Fallback questions I always ask myself about a teacher are, “What struggles and sufferings have you had?” “How often have you cried?” “What sadhana have you done?” “What is your understanding of XYZ ?” Then I can have some confidence that he may be able to be of help. Those are not the only criteria I look for, but very important ones. Others will have their own.
Having seen many followers of many teachers, I find a good case can be made for what some teachers have in fact said: that the quality of the student is more important than that of the teacher. I believe that Sri Nisargadatta was correct, that earnestness and sincerity are the determining factors, and not the imprimatur, shaktipat, secret password, or get-out-of-jail-free-card of ones Guru. But the more humanity and genuineness in and less cultic baggage attached to the latter are also of great importance.
My Vision of "2.0+”
I am using "2.0+" to distinguish my vision from the "2.0" label given by internet posters to Gurinder's comments. On a recent bike ride I had an insight about this. Good ideas often come that way. I believe it was Nietzche who said “never trust an idea you come upon sitting down.” [I guess biking is partly sitting down, as even better ideas came to me when I was a runner!] Here it is:
Sant Mat 1.0 - Dorothy before going to Oz:
“Somewhere where I can’t get into any trouble. It’s not a place you can get to with a boat or a plane, it’s far far away. ‘Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, there’s a land that I’ve heard of, once in a lullaby.….…..’”
Sant Mat 2.0+ - Dorothy after returning from Oz and waking up in her bed:
“What did you learn, Dorothy?”
“Well, iI think if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t go looking farther than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with…is that it?
But look what she had to go through to be able to say that: leaving home to go on a strange and perilous journey, loving and losing, accomplishing seemingly impossible tasks, being blessed by deity, and getting bloodied and hit on the head! Not just sitting home or in satsang and saying or hearing all is one. A great and blessed ordeal before she could say from her heart, ”But anyway I’m home, and I love you all, and I’m never going to leave here ever ever again!”
Maybe I am simplifying a little. Hopefully not complicating. The concept of a 2.0+, with a few tweaks - including Part Three of this book - can be a useful modification and/or provisional launching pad or base station for eventual higher things.
This idea that Sach Khand is also to be recognized here and now, with only a thin veil, or as one master put it, "a single sheet of paper" separating one from its realization, has further implications for the subjects of purification and intelligence, in respect to the various bodies said to cover the soul. First, anadi writes:
"Intuition is a combination of sensitivity and intelligence. To awaken intelligence is many times more difficult than to awaken to enlightenment. To reach enlightenment you often need one lifetime. To become truly intelligent, one Kalpa is needed! Intelligence is something very subtle and very profound. It is not just to have a clever mind...Intelligence comes more from the heart. It is the deep intuitive wisdom of the soul which enables her to understand. It is the unity of the heart, intellect and imagination. Yes, to truly understand you must have imagination.” (reference misplaced)
An initiate responded to this quote when I sent it to him via email:
"A lovely confirmation of my personal experiences. Whoever I ever met in this life who radiated spirituality, without the need for words or propaganda, had deep intelligence that penetrated his or her entire being. This has been described by Kirpal Singh as "having clean astral and causal bodies," free of conditioned reactions and stored misunderstanding of natural laws. No words can describe this situation, but the radiation itself is the most authentic and trustworthy demonstration of its existence."
As all the bodies are said to be concurrently present here and now, for many initiates the bulk of this so-called cleansing of the astral and causal bodies happens in life, with the results, in mystical terms anyway, largely realized perhaps at life's end when the physical shell is dropped. My friend Mark simplified further and said that "for most people, the astral body is the main event." Here he did not mean disembodied psychic journeying, but the purification of the deep-seated emotional tendencies and reactivity where the most purgation or "heavy lifting" takes place. This is what Kirpal referred to as the need for the "subconscious reservoir of impressions to be thoroughly drained out" before true love for the Master would manifest. Ramana likewise spoke of the need to eradicate the vasanas from the heart. This very often-maligned flesh is the cauldron, the alchemical alembic, the furnace where the spiritual gold is refined, and where, for some anyway, the Kingdom is to be found first.
The causal body, then, defined in Vedanta as the 'body' of ignorance, in Theosophy often as synonymous with a 'mental body’, and elsewhere as a ‘repository of latent impressions’ (i.e., the 'cause' of the other two bodies), for our purposes would simply be the mental habits that need to be broken: beliefs, concepts, false ideas, expectations, assumptions, ego-centric perspectives, judgements, and points of view that prevent clear seeing. Many of these mental habits may seem nearly impossible to break - such as the more subtle ones like "the world is out there and I am in it," "I was born," "I have parents," "I am in the body," that may seem to strike at the very heart of ones spiritual path. But what one is really doing is to knock down the conventions of ordinary living as ones starting point and to begin from a base of non-conceptual truth, call it beginner's mind, no-mind, divine ignorance or "unknowing". It doesn't matter what you call it, as long as one recognizes "I do not know." "Give up the claim to knowledge and you move very quickly, a teacher of mine once said. The latter radical sort of enquiry is not usually done in Sant Mat, and that's okay. But the point is to recruit the mind to enquire into itself and thereby shorten the process of realization, instead of just waiting for a mystic dip in the pool of Amritsar in Daswan Dwar to do the job! To "love the Lord thy God with all your strength, heart, soul, and mind." And, as Sri Nisargadatta and countless sages before him have said, at least at some time to question everything one has assumed to be true, even the seemingly most obvious things, such as those depicted above. This enquiry and/or mental inspection cannot be done when out of the body, because there, it has been said, "mind makes you," while here, "you make mind" ! Likewise, it is easier to deal with emotional vasanas when present in the anchor of the body than in the subtle sphere where things change so fast. The bottom line is, loving-wisdom is chiefly gained here, and then (in full consciousness) enjoyed there, and forever.
Moving on, Papaji’s “nothing ever happened,” and Ishwar Puri’s “everything only happened in Sach Khand and it’s just like waking up from a dream” - one may ask, “is there really much difference?”
This in fact sounds a lot like how the sage Atmananda Krishnamenon defined liberation:
"From one standpoint liberation may be defined as going beyond birth and death. But that is not the whole Truth. Strictly speaking, it must be defined as going beyond the delusion of birth and death."
Atmananda also said the ‘he did not promise one would have no more births, per se, but only that he would be free of the notion that he was ever born.’
So whether every individual who reaches Sach Khand in his inner sadhanas comes to this further realization outright, or if it is rather an extended development, that is, a matter of application in ordinary life until such a realization is stabilized, is a valid question. For me it appears obvious that an enlightened understanding is not automatic after any experience, when one examines the claims and confessions and lives of those who one way or another have reached that level in their inner practice. Some teachers have even said that further purification can still be needed even if one goes to Sach Khand. Of course, this would seem to contradict the Sant Mat claim that all impurities are washed away after passing through Daswan Dwar and the succeeding stages on the way to Sach Khand. But it is perfectly aligned with the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and ancient sages like Vidyarana and Vasishta who say realization even of pure consciousness will not be stable until all vasanas are eradicated from the heart.
I heard Kirpal once similarly say, “you are already there, you just don't know it.” And, "To know God you have to bring about a change in your heart, learn to look inward, and realize that He is your Overself. As soon as you have this realization, you are with Him.”
The path then becomes more one of recognition than that of a separated seeker trying to get somewhere. The paradigm in Sant Mat teachings appear to be changing, albeit slowly. And, of course, there is still a lot of paradox and mystery involved - there's no getting around that. But let’s explore this a bit. Can we possibly find common ground between Puri’s “everything happened in Sach Khand”, and Papaji’s “nothing ever happened” ? It does seem we are coming closer - with one difference. If we take the view of seers like Plotinus, Brunton, Eckhart and some others, that a truer conception of Soul is one in which Soul has two aspects, an eternal part that never incarnates and never leaves the “Nous” (or God), but by its power of projection sends an eminent of itself into apparent embodiment - Plotinus thus calling Soul a “double-knower” - then when this eminent un-projects or introjects into itself, as in meditation, it can ‘return’ to its origin and knows itself [as Soul, or Overself] in its Homeland alone (i.e., Sach Khand). However, this eminent of consciousness at any point when enlightened to its true nature, that is, when the person that is enlivened by this eminent awakens, it is the entirety of the Soul that is in fact realized at that moment, and not just a part. At no point is there any differentiation or separation. And this would be the advaitic realization, without the extreme depth of yogic interiorization of attention.
Ishwar said. to repeat, that when we reach Sach Khand we will realize that we never really left it; the jnanis say we can, in essence, realize we have never left Sach Khand without going through the inner meditative stages in the manner proposed by Sant Mat. Ishwar said that the meaning of going from the upper region of ParBrahmand to Sach Khand was one of going from the place where the very first individuation takes place to the Totality [more on this distinction in the section on "Pralaya"]. But if Sach Khand is the Totality, what then is Anami? Simply saying that it is "beyond the Totality" will hardly do for comparative purposes! Nor does merely saying it is the "nameless state" - which even Faqir did not consider the absolute reality. A problem with using dimentional words like these make some assume the 'abslute' is something 'big,' whereas it is more like something which IS.
Both realizations, those of the saint and the jnani, are valid, it appears reasonable to assume. But perhaps also, having both would be superior in its fullness. Yet, how many have both? Neither faction seems to have the realization of the other. Puri, for instance, denigrated the “Heart”, or the intuited“heart on the right” of Ramana as a “minor bodily center,” rather than a locus or armature for Self-realization while in the body, the place where the ‘I’-thought is born and dies ushering in liberation. So I have to say, he seemed confused or not fully informed on what the advaita of Ramana actually taught. On the other hand, when pressed even Ramana conceded that his language was a concession to beginners and not the absolute truth of the Self. But I doubt if Ishwar knew that.
"Love, intuition, and beauty are the qualities of Sach Khand," said Ishwar. This may help us if we then understand that the Ultimate or Absolute, whatever, word one chooses to denote it [Anami, Stateless State, etc.], is not characterized by these qualities, but is of a different nature entirely. This is not a loss, but essentially 'Other'. Nisargadatta said one will irrevocably rotate into another dimension. While Sach Khand may be said to be the plane of Unity - such as in Sufi classification - what comes 'after' this is 'beyond' Unity, and basically uncharacterizable, inconceivable, and unimaginable. It is not the Creator, nor is it the cause or Cause of anything. Obviously the mind cannot grasp this. And, be it noted, at this stage this will apply to how one sees his Master, and Self, as well. [Much more on this in the concluding sections of Part Four].
One important point as I see it is this: if one realizes that everything including all reincarnations actually have occurred in Sach Khand, and that we never left there, then that applies to the current life also, and our problem then is really one of knowledge or recognition as direct path proponents maintain, and not our lack of an altered, exalted form of mystic experience. In any case we are called to bring it down to earth, as Shiv Brat Lal and other great Masters - what to speak of Jesus - have emphasized.
We do not ‘recognize’ or see that we are in our essence in Sach Khand already. So then the door is open for the pursuit of jnana through a method such as self-enquiry, or surrender in radical faith, to achieve the desired goal. The exclusivity [although not the legitimacy] of certain aspects of Sant Mat or its claims may dissolve, but nothing real is lost. Again, as Kirpal once said, “You are already there, you just don’t know it.” The important thing is to try to ‘close the gap’ between our everyday experience and the reality our heart desires but imagines is so far away. For fundamentally there is no more basic barrier to realization than our continual thinking and imagining it is not already the case. "Believing is seeing," (or becomes seeing), on this view, rather than the contrary espoused on most paths where it is expected if not demanded, i.e., "seeing is believing." This may be difficult for the new aspirant who has taken on so many disciplines and practices to believe, but not so difficult perhaps for some who have been at it for a good while. It is not so much that one must see something different, but the recognition must dawn that the seeker as such is unreal. Or that the seeker is the sought. It is not something 'out there'. In any case this is something worthwhile to ponder. PB beautifully writes on this almost to-good-to-be-true revelation:
“The notion that the truth will be gained, that happiness will be achieved, that the Overself will be realized at the end of a long attempt must be seen as an illusory one. Truth, happiness, and the Overself must be seen in the Present, not the future, at the very beginning of his quest, not the end, here and now. It is not a matter of time. This is because time is a trick the mind plays on itself; because the past, the present, and the future are all rolled into one eternal NOW; because what is to happen has already happened.”
“It is an error, although a reasonable one, to believe that attainment comes only when the whole distance of this path has been travelled. This is to make it depend on measurement, calculation--that is, on the ego's own effort, management, and control. On the contrary, attainment depends on relinquishment of the ego, and hence of the idea of progress which accompanies it. It is then that a man can be still; then that he can, as the Bible promises, "know that I am God." (Notebooks, Vol. 15, Part 1, 5.213, 233)
Understand? No? Don’t worry, this general theme will be explored from many different angles before we are through. But alas, by then you may be realized and may come and shoot is - for lying!
More on planes and inner experiences from Aurobindo, Faqir, Brunton, anadi, and more
For Aurobindo, Sat Lok is the dimension of 'sat' (being), and the Unmanifest (probably Anami of the Sants) is 'asat' (non-being, the Transcendent Void), while the 'Puroshottama' of the Gita (Radhaswamidham of Faqir?) is the Absolute Truth or Divine Person that includes all of the other aspects within it, including 'Para Prakriti' or the Divine Mother, inseparable from Puroshottama and itself source of all purusha and prakriti ('consciousness' and 'matter') and manifested dualities 'below'. This seems to agree with Faqir's explanation that all dimensions are condensed forms of matter, and even the 'spiritual' regions (generally considered 'pure consciousness' in Sant Mat) are actually the most subtle form of 'matter', and all of these dimensions are products of Pure Being, Mind, or Atman. This conception loosely correlates with a number of ancient teachings where even 'pure consciousness' as such is not ultimate reality, as in the schools using less dualistic language showing a continuity or connection by using phrases for even the non-dual levels of awareness like 'Original Mind' or 'Essence of Mind' and so on. This would tend to exclude most versions of Advaita Vedanta for whom consciousness is all. But the reader may note that in all ancient systems of Hinduism both Sam'khya and Vedanta were always presented together. The Vedanta in later times from Shankara was a rather novel teaching in which the introduction of the concept of maya not only made the Divine Mother a creator only of illusion (instead of upper divine realms of reality with ignorance or illusion pertaining only to created realms lower down), but also allowing consciousness to be divorced from matter and then by itself represent ultimate reality. So it would follow from this that the Sant Mat conception of the soul as a drop of pure consciousness merging into the ocean of 'greater' consciousness may be an experientially valid but provisional teaching to be supplanted by a wordless mystery at a higher stage.
It is expected that there may be some individual variation in the inner experience, but the commonality of various inner visionary phenomena almost begs for a more complete explanation than given by Faqir. We can not get fully into what that explanation might be here; it is too complicated. However, it may simply be suggested that neither subjective nor objective conceptions do full justice to the non-dual mystery. While there is some necessary contribution to each individual's experience, both inner and outer, due to cultural, religious, and intellectual background, and the realms themselves are indissolubly linked with the very structures of human consciousness, Faqir's insistence that they are solely 'projections of the mind' appears too reductionistic. It also begs the question, "what mind?" The individual mind (manas) ? Or Isvara, a universal mind that gives to each of us the shared experience of a relative world in common? That is to say, there does seem to be a kind of 'objectivity', not only to the outer world, but also to the inner planes, with some degree of individual variation. And the clearer the instrument of the mind becomes, the clearer the perception of the relative objectivity of the inner realms, including the manifestations of enlightened beings there, will become also. Even Faqir argues that above Bhanwar Gupta one is free of all 'phantasmagoria', being direct manifestations of consciousness. We only ask, is the earth plane entirely 'phantasmagoria' also? If not, his view needs some adjustment.
Contemporary teacher Aadi makes some good points that both support and, in my view, may surpass Faqir's understanding. He states:
"The traditional teachings do not acknowledge the correlation between the experience of the inner and that which is recognizing it. It is not only that our intelligence recognizes the inner states, but that this very intelligence is an inseparable part of those states...It is not enough to be awakened to the inner. One must also be awakened to the fact of being awakened to the inner...How the presence of the inner state is understood and appreciated depends exclusively on the level of evolution of the recognizing intelligence...It is not the inner state alone that creates our perception of reality. The inner state adds to the psyche the background of silence and stillness, but the perception itself is formed within the mind and channeled through our sensitivity...There can never be a universal language of Enlightenment, only a unique individual expression of the Universal Truth...The ultimate perception is born when the complete realization of the Inner reality, that is, Enlightenment, meets fully the unique sensitivity of an individual Soul. This is called maturity." (Aziz Kristof (anadi) and Houman Emani, Enlightenment Beyond Traditions (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999), p. 159-160, 41, 43)
"Firstly, there is the experience itself and secondly, there is how you interpret it...It is always a combination of the state itself, how deep the state is, and the intelligence plus the sensitivity of the Soul...So it is not only how deep the Inner State is, but also how deep and mature the intelligence is of the one who is in that state. For example, how you translate the fact of sitting in this room depends on how deeply you see reality. You can, for example, think that you are simply sitting on the floor and there is nothing special about it; or you are able to truly see that where you are sitting upon is the Universal I AM, God...The Soul is forced to evolve by the suffering she experiences. Through this suffering the intelligence of the Soul grows, and gradually she is able to formulate the right questions...It is your Soul which appreciates all states using her intuitive intelligence...Through this intuitive and sensitive understanding, you are able to recognize what it is that you experience, for the experience is extraordinarily subtle...When there is not enough intelligence and sensitivity, one is unable to give real appreciation to the inner experience. One knows neither who is sitting nor in what one is sitting...Now you can understand how important the model of awakening one uses is. The model reflects reality of the spiritual evolution and on some level creates this reality. Most seekers prefer to follow traditional models, for it gives them security and sense of authority behind their search. Unquestionably, they try to fit themselves into the traditional models, not being able to think critically." (Aziz Kristof (anadi), Transmission of Awakening (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999), p. 292-295)
The gist here is that it is not enough to have experiences, but one must understand them also. And that certain levels of realization and all forms of enlightenment are both an experience and an understanding.
One conclusion implied, then, is similar to that which the jnanis such as Ramana, Atmananda, as well as Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda, the Buddha, and others affirm, that realization is here and now as well as transcendental, but not exclusively elsewhere, nor dependent upon experience, no matter how rarified. The True You is not in the body, the world, or in time. The Soul (or in some traditions, as mentioned, an emanent of the Soul) incarnates, but it is not born; the body and mind are born. Finally, an expanded inclusion of the multi-dimensions of experience will to varying degrees be integrated and lived, all being part of a wholistic Totality. The above considerations of Faqir's are in part perhaps one of the most important issues to consider Sant Mat and its place in world spirituality today. We will return to these topics of Sant Mat and non-duality, the planes and bodies, the nature of realization, and so on, in Part Two of this series.
One more point from Faqir. He differs from traditional Sant Mat when interpreting the common saying, "the Master changes his clothes when he comes again," to mean, not that a Master transfers his powers to another Master before he dies, but rather, that a new Master simply changes the teachings and language when he incarnates as appropriate for the times. He refers to the former as "an exotic way of expressing things to impress the listener." Here he is certainly standing apart from Kirpal Singh who affirmed that the power of initiating souls, i.e., connecting them to the Sound Current or Naam is transferred directly from one Master to another through the eyes before a Master passes on. And of course a Master can change the language of the teaching if he feels it is necessary - he would be a robot if he didn't have this freedom and capacity.
Another interesting issue is whether everyone experiences the same things/structures/forms when they pass through the various inner stages. Faqir seems to say no:
“The stages from Sahasdal Kanwal to Bhanwar-Gupha open (manifest or are activated) differently for each person according to their nature.”(p. 93)
“I have realized that all these stages of Sahasraradala Kamal, Trikuti, Sunn, Maha-sunn are the play of this kind. Visions are based on the thoughts one keeps. This play of whatever one see within (i.e., visions) is based on samskaras (impressions and suggestions). They are not the same for everyone. Visions or images vary from person to person.” (p. 55)
Brunton apparently would agree:
“These are the ultimate phenomena - that is, appearances and experiences - before realization: They differ at different times, or with different persons, but that is because they come into being as human reactions, as the self’s final point of view before its own dissolution.” (Notebooks, Vol. 14, 8.54)
This is not to say, on the other hand, that all happens randomly; rather, that the meaning and intuitive understanding of an experience is more important than the particular form it takes.
Further, Faqir plainly states:
“There are different ways in which different people are awakened. There is no single path for all people. Each person has his or her unique doubts and confusions. A single message is not for everyone…There is no single instruction that applies universally. A guru or doctor knows how to best treat a particular disease. When he sees that a medicine is not working, he changes the medication. This is why the Guru is the most important in the world". (p. 43-44)
For Faqir, the ultimate goal is gyan, wherein the concept of God and guru will disappear: “No Sat lok, No Naam, No Anami!" (p. 85)
This is really a major point, about a final stage little talked about in most spiritual traditions outside of Vedanta and perhaps Buddhism: what, for lack of better words, might be called the ‘beyond God’ stage. In most teachings the final stage is really a penultimate stage. This is a realization that you, the world, everything comes from God. But still there is a subtle veil, a duality, a rarified and hidden ‘I’-thought or sense of self. Soul and God appear united or merged, yes, but “who” knows that?Thus, sages say, there is a final stroke, a transition to seeing that everything, self, world, and God comes from you, or rather, to avoid the absurdity and solipsistic hubris of saying the latter, from the ‘True I’ or ‘Universal I Am’. Sri Nisargadatta and his masters used the term the ‘Absolute’ for this. I believe that Kirpal Singh referred to this when he spoke of God and ‘Absolute God’. Meister Eckhart likewise spoke of God and Godhead. In the light of this, Puri’s “all has occurred in Sach Khand” realization has still to sacrifice or let go of all of that divinity. Who wants to do that? It is a hard sell and few saints have realized it. It must certainly require a high degree of purity and discrimination to go there. But sages do talk about it, yet they are generally dismissed by yogis and even saints, certainly satsangis, as deluded or having a lesser realization. But, “see, and then say,” said Kirpal Singh.
“The divine love-spring surges over the soul, sweeping her out of herself into the unnamed being of her original source. In this exalted state she has lost her proper self and is flowing full-blood into the unity of the divine nature. Henceforth I shall not speak about the soul, for she has lost her name in the oneness of the divine essence. There she is no longer called soul, but infinite being.” - Meister Eckhart (From the Western Mystical tradition, Meister Eckhart, http://www.gnosis.org/library/coll.htm)
“Others think he stands in the great light, but he himself has no particular self-importance,” wrote Brunton. This leads to “ordinary mind,” the “return to the market place” stage in Zen.
Puri may have been pointing towards this when he said that “no individual soul goes to Anami.” Kirpal said that “the Sat Purush absorbs you into the Wordless State.” (Heart To Heart Talks, p. ) But then, Faqir went further in saying that in gyan there is not even Anami anymore. Anami must certainly be the formless, ‘Wordless State’, but by definition it is not the ‘Stateless State”, as it is something one may come into and out of and the latter when matured does not fluctuate.
[Note: again, the Ram Chandra group seems confused in their writings about Anami. In The Science and Philosophy of Spirituality by R. K. Gupta, it reads: ”The ‘Anami Lok’ is full of light and various sounds, which attract millions of souls, who rest here immersed in this light and sound. Shabd is the base of this loka.” But they merely switched out the name of Anami for Radhasoami, and put another 'anaml' below Sat Lok where there is such sound]
Anyway, it is difficult enough talking of these things, when books and sects do not articulate clearly in unison. Much to ponder here, but, one cannot help but wonder, is this really different from what many Masters will say, when pressed for the pristine Truth?
Sant Mat and Kriya Yoga compared
Sant Rajinder Singh, as mentioned, has said that one will be assured that there is life after death when one reaches the third plane. (I am assuming that he wasn’t counting the physical plane). This is interesting, but does that in itself imply that the first two inner planes are then not after-death planes but reside in the brain and are thus still within the body? We don’t think so, only that as they interpenetrate the same 'space' they may be contacted while in the body, but interestingly, the Sar Bachan Radhasoami (Poetry) : Part Two appears to say so. After Sahans Dal Kanwal and Trikuti, one enters the Banknal and then goes through Daswan Dwar (the “tenth door”) to reach the third inner region of Sunn:
“Surat moves onward and opens the door. It enters Banknal (crooked tunnel) and gets across. It passes through high and low valleys. It turns up the pupil of the eye.” (p. 118).
“Turning up the pupil of the eye” and entering the “tenth door” (Daswan Dwar - ‘the door’) or aperture (the other nine being the bodily openings: eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and two below) implies attention finally leaving the body. Babuji Maharaj of the Agra branch said that “within the folds of thy brain there are many beautiful regions,” etc. He may have been quoting Maulana Rumi, who likewise said, “Within the folds of thy brain there are wonderful gardens and beauty spots. Should you like to enjoy them, hie to a Murshid (Master) for instruction.” (5)
In The Philosophical of the Masters, Series Three, p. 55, we read:
“Beyond Trikuti one meets the Master; the door of salvation is in the fourth stage.”
What does this mean? Either the first two inner planes are in some sense ‘in’ the body, or that the Master’s form does not appear there; or that rather, reaching Daswan Dwar is in some sense the ‘point of no return’ to illusion? Penetration of the true Sahasrara at the crown or top of the head? Confusing isn’t it? It would be great if the Masters of the different lineages would convene in a forum and settle these differences once and for all, wouldn’t it? Why don’t they? After all, this is the twenty-first century, not Victorian or even medieval times.
Maharaj Saheb, a Sant Mat guru after Rai Salig Ram, even more explicitly said,
”In the fissure between the two lobes of the brain there are twelve apertures, which provide the means for communion with the six subdivisions of Brahmand and with the six subdivisions of the purely spiritual region. The apertures appertaining to Brahmand are to be found in the gray matter, and those appertaining to the purely spiritual region, in the white matter.” (6)
First off, this passage is also somewhat confusing, as it suggests that someone who has an accidental death would have no access to the spiritual regions because he had no chance to pass through the apertures in the white matter of the brain. Some Buddhist schools teach this also and advocate phowa initiations to make sure the consciousness exits the body through the top of the skull. But is it really the truth that this is necessary? In general, Sant Mat teaches (as did Sri Aurobindo, but not the Tibetans!) that everyone eventually leaves the body via the crown of the head. Other Sant Mat masters have said that a true disciple in such a case is immediately with the Master within, so not leaving via the crown cannot truly be an impediment for an initiate]. The suggestion definitely, however, is, from these quotes, that the path of Sant Mat initially takes place in a passage through the brain, the most direct route being via the central channels in the white matter (i.e., via the corona radiata), culminating in the “God-light” or “purely spiritual region(s)” that manifest when one truly pierces the crown center in ascended samadhi. This implication or interpretation is somewhat uncommon in the Sant Mat or Radhasoami literature, which generally assumes a gnostic position considering all of the subtle realms to be outside, or above and beyond, the body, while Saheb seemed to be suggesting that, as experienced in meditation, they are actually in the braincore, with only the alleged truly spiritual realms beyond the limits of the body. Sometimes Sant Mat writers, as mentioned, claim that the third eye is between and behind the eyebrows (i.e, near the pineal gland, with the pituitary more towards the center of the head), while the so-called "tenth door" leading to Daswan Dwar, the third region, is at the crown of the head - where the fontanelle is in an infant. So, this would suggest that only the highest inner planes, such as Bhanwar Gupta and Sach Khand are truly out of the body, as the spatial descriptions of a lower region where the ”crooked tunnel” (Banknal) is found seems to suggest the passageway in the braincore itself. This would also mean that Sahansdal Kanwal, the first inner station in Sant Mat, may not be the exact equivalent of the thousand-petalled lotus of the true Sahasrar as described in traditional yoga sutras, but yet a region in the sky of mind in the braincore, which would, however, truly be felt to be outside of or interior to the body for the normally extroverted individual. Faqir Chand went so far as to say there is no lotus at the sahasrar at all, that the thousand petals simply reflected the belief that a thousand nerve endings were in that area. But many yogis have reported seeing a glorious lotus there. Teacher Ramaji spoke of experiencing a “sizzling sahasrar.” (1000. This experience is certainly enjoyable, but its actual nature should be clarified, so adequate comparisons can be made with other schools.
For instance, in the Kriya Yoga as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda, the "spiritual eye" is visualized at the ajna or agya chakra, but passage between the agya chakra and the sahasrara at the top of the head is said to culminate in nirvikalpa samadhi and “transcendence of the astral and causal bodies”. The actual passageway is said to be a subtler form of the sushumna called, in their school, firstly the vajra and chitra nadis (luminous astral nadis, the "spine of the astral body"), and then the "brahmanadi" (or the "spine of the causal body"). Thus, in the kriya school, the implication is also that the astral and causal worlds, at least before death, are somehow within or coterminous with the physical body or brain itself. Based on this idea the argument could be made that the Kriya path might be more integral than that of some Sant Mat schools. Rajinder Singh and general esotericism tentatively solves this dilemma for us, however, by asserting that the planes do interpenetrate one another, but certainly exist on their own after the severance of consciousness from the physical body.
Soamiji also interestingly but confusingly describes Trikuti as being within the sushumna, the central yogic channel that culminates in the sahasrar, an additional implication that this region may not be outside of the body. That is, however, contradicted even by many, many near-death experiences (NDE’s). Sant Kirpal Singh, in his book Godman, similarly quotes Guru Nanak as saying:
"The Master exhorts the jivas to listen to this music in the Sukhman, the artery between the two eyebrows; Then be established in Sunnya (the Region of Silence - here he seems to be agreeing with the yogis, as well as Yukteswar who called this region towards the back of the head at the level of the ajna chakra, Sunnya, the void or 'vacuity', not to be confused with Maha Sunn, or the 'Greater Vacuity"), with the result that all oscillations of the mind would cease. When the chalice of the mind thus turns into the correct position, it will get filled with the Elixer of Life, making the mind steady and self-poised. The ceaseless music of eternity becomes a constant companion." (7)
And also, commenting on some verses of Guru Amar Das:
"That upside-down well in the void contains a lighted lamp, which burns with neither wick nor oil; through its flame the Sound vibrates and issues forth; he hears, whoever enters the samadhi of true knowledge, and none other." Those who go into samadhi or very deep meditation hear the true Sound." (Sat Sandesh, June 1974)
The upturning of the chalice of the heart is standard mystic terminology, but the usual Sant Mat reference to the region of Sunn is at the third inner plane, while here it is experienced in the brain, prior to ascension to the crown via the upturned chalice or inverted well. The importance of these questions lies in establishing the true uniqueness of shabd yoga as contrasted with other traditional yogic explanations.
The exposition of this in the Kriya Yoga in the lineage of Paramhansa Yogananda is sometimes even more confusing. [for more on this, see "Paramhansa Yogananda and Kriya Yoga: A Comparative Analysis” at www.mountainrunnerdoc]. In that path, as in Sant Mat, the aspirant is to focus at the spiritual eye, located between and behind the eyebrows, which is said to actually extend from that subtle center backwards to the medulla. However, they do not start their sadhana at that center, but do kriyas and concentrations at the lower centers of the sushumna - in which there are said to be contained three spines (physical, astral, and causal). They also concentrate at sounds heard at these lower centres. Some yogic traditions speak of the bell at the solar plexus, then the flute at the heart, and increasingly more subtle sounds ultimately fading out as you approach the sahasrara and Nirvikalpa. This is quite different and may reflect even a difference in the way realization is conceived than in Sant Mat, where the loud pealing of the big bell begins at this topmost chakra - with sounds below considered mere reflections or at best faint echoes of the higher ones. However, as stated above it could also possibly be argued that the Kriya system, with the acknowledgement of three overlapping spinal nadis (the vajra, the chitra, and the brahmanadi), corresponding to the three interpenetrating created bodies, and given an intimate multidimensional relationship between the seven chakras and the seven planes, may be a more 'integrative' path than Sant Mat. Of course, this is refuted by Sant Mat which argues that it is in reality a lower system of practice. According to Yogananda,
"The spiritual eye is perceived as a golden aura surrounding a sphere of blue, in the middle of which is a five-pointed start of white light...The point of origin of the single eye is in a subtle spiritual center in the medulla oblongata (at the base of the brain where it joins the spine). The energy from this single eye divides at the medulla and pours through the brain into the two physical eyes, through which the world of duality is perceived. The spiritual eye with its three lights, or three different rays - one within the other like an extending telescopic lens - has all-seeing spherical vision. Through the gold ray, the deeply meditating yogi beholds all matter and the mass of radiation (the vibratory cosmic energy) permeating the universe. Penetrating the blue light [the reader may recall references to the "blue pearl" by Swami Muktananda], the yogi will realize the Christ or Krishna Consciousness - the Kutastha or infinite intelligence of God - which is present in all creation. Piercing the tiny five-pointed white star, the yogi experiences Cosmic Consciousness - the transcendent consciousness of God that underlies all creation and that is also beyond the realms of manifestation in Infinitude. The yogi in Cosmic Consciousness perceives that all creation, including the microcosm of his body, is a projection of the fivefold rays of God's Cosmic Consciousness."
Here one sees that for Yogananda piercing the white star is not just a threshold to the astral plane, but to beyond the three planes and into what is considered the spiritual dimensions on these paths.
"The tricolored rays of the spiritual eye, through a complex transformation known to yogis, form the physical body of man the microcosm. The golden rays of cosmic energy, for example, are strongly inherent in the vital red blood, and are manifested in the electric current that flows through the nerves. The blue rays are a predominant factor in the gray matter of the brain, which provides a medium for the expression of thoughts through sensory-motor activity - just as on the universal scale Christ Consciousness provides the medium that upholds all of nature's activities. And the white rays are the predominant factor in the white matter of the brain, in which God's transcendent Cosmic Consciousness is insulated." (Journey to Self-Realization, p. 92-94)
The last sentence in this quotation is most interesting, and similar to the comments above of Maharaj Saheb that relate the "spiritual Regions" to the white matter of the brain. In his first book, A Search in Secret India, Paul Brunton wrote of similar comments given him by Radhasoami guru Sahabji Maharaj of Dayalbagh:
"The innermost parts of our brain centres are associated with subtle worlds of being; that, after proper training, these centres can be energized until we become aware of these subtler worlds; and that the most important centre of all enables us to obtain divine consciousness of the highest order...The most important of these centres is the pineal gland, which, as you know, is situated in the region between the eyebrows. It is the seat of the spirit-entity in man...It is the focus of the individual spirit-entity which gives life and vitality to man's mind and body...Since the human body is an epitome of the entire universe, inasmuch as all the elements employed in the evolution of creation are represented in it on a miniature scale, and since it contains links with all the subtler spheres, it is quite possible for the spirit-entity in us to reach the highest spiritual world. When it leaves the pineal gland and passes upwards, its passage through the grey matter of the brain brings it into contact with the region of universal mind, and its passage through the white matter exalts its consciousness to lofty spiritual realities." (p. 244-245)
Now this talk of a tri-colored spiritual eye is interesting and may resonate with an obscure passage from Sawan Singh where he speaks of differences between the 'Brahmand Avatars' and the Saints:
"The teachers from Brahmand (the causal region), the Avataras, ascend along the three light currents (three gunas) which starting from behind the eyes, and passing through Sahansdal Kanwal (thousand-petalled-lotus [here he agrees with Dr. Johnson]) reach the top of the Sumer mountain [part of the three mountains of Trikuti, and they cannot go higher. On the other hand, the surat practitioners, viz., the Saints, go up by means of the Sound Current to the first stage, thence go down through a sort of tunnel to the second stage, thence proceeding to the third and from there respectively to the eighth stage or the Radhasoami region...The Saints go by Sound; while the Avataras travel by light or with Sound of the second degree. As the second degree lies within the scope of Kal or Maya, and the coverings of all the three bodies (physical, astral, or mental) cannot be removed until the third stage is reached, therefore, the souls of the Avataras are not so pure and powerful against imperfections and hence they come into the world again and again at intervals." (from an early letter to Dr. and Mrs. Brock, his first initiates in America)
Now one can see several things here that are not commonly taught in this school and are no doubt confusing. One, the talk of three light currents between the eye-chakra and Sahansdal Kanwal, and the 'second degree sound', upon which Avataras travel, while Saints travel on the pure shabd or Sound current. Also, the concept that the 'three gunas' only start in Sahansdal Kanwal, and not from the level of Isvara as is assumed in traditional Hinduism/yoga/vedanta. [A hint at this apparently idiosyncratic use of terminology may lie in the Sants calling the 'matter' of the astral plane 'prakriti', and the 'matter' of the causal plane 'pradhan'. Third, it is assumed that Avataras (that is, 'Brahmand Avataras' - this seems to imply that there could be other kinds) find themselves at the top of Brahmand or the causal region via light and Sound, but somehow cannot go further. Now, one may ask, why can't they go further if they had followed the light and sound current thus far? Is it because, once arrived at Trikuti, they can no longer locate or contact the sound current? Good question, and the answer might be given that, in such cases (which, however, might not cover all Avataras), 'they have not gotten all five of the Names, and the mark of the Master - and thus lack the 'passport' to the higher realms'. However, later in Part Four we will see quotes that show that in some cases a Saint has also been an Avatara, and of course both come from the same God-Source, and in fact are sometimes spoken of as both being realized beings, only playing different roles. This appears to be the most logical answer. [A sort of linguistic flip-flop is unfortunately found from time to time in these teachings; for instance, the Saints love to refer to Ramakrishna where he said, "jump in, it is an ocean of immortality!" (and then proceed to describe it in such complex terms), while also relegating him to the lower status of a Yogeshwar (causal plane adept) solely on the basis of his early life sadhana of worshipping the goddess Kali - even though he appeared to far surpassed that in later years].
I must confess that hearing teaching statements like the above about three currents of light, second degree sound, etc., almost makes one pull out his hair, for they seem not only overly technical and obscure, but, in this day and age, divisive and cultic: it is hard enough to contact the sound current, but now one must be concerned about finding the 'right form of the current', in order to follow a convoluted pathway through the subtle realms, with inverted tunnels and whirling caves, etc.? The Tibetan Buddhists seem not at all concerned with this level of detail. Is it really necessary, therefore, or only possible? How to explain this abstruse doctrine? The difficulty is compounded when one considers that after the super-causal level one is supposedly (according to some Sants) dealing with the 'essence' of sound and no longer its sensibly audible form. This needs to be explained satisfactorily for an emerging world spirituality. If indeed it is the fixed geography of prominent points within the human microcosm as well as macrocosm, as Sant Mat asserts.
Paramahansa Yogananda's guru, Sri Yukteswar, in The Holy Science, uses much the same terminology of the Sants, even speaking of practicing shabd yoga once the preliminary kriyas in the lower chakras are successful, but also seems to alter the order of the inner planes. He has Mahasunn coming before Daswan Dwar, whereas the Sants have it afterwards. This may or may not give possible credence to Faqir's radical claim that the planes are not necessarily experienced in a fixed order. We think that Yukteswar may be found to be consistent with Sant Mat if some explanation is added. He then lists the regions of Sat Lok: Alak, Agam, and Anami, much like the Sants. But he also speaks of a more integral realization beyond this, where non-duality (the Father) is established all of the time. This is not explicitly described in the Sant Mat literature, other than the aforementioned reference from Baba Faqir Chand. However Charan Singh did say that the Sants have direct access to the Father. Here is a chart we formed comparing Yukteswar's scheme of planes with Sant Mat. This and the following discussion is rather technical, and, as far as we know, not been done so far. I must emphasize that the following discussion is not a product of any genius on my part, but largely of my co-researcher:
Yukteswar goes from Bhu, Bhuvar, Swar (which he calls Maha Sunn), to Mahaloka (Daswan Dwar, the atom, the magnet, beginning of maya, the idea of separate self), then appears to 'jump' to janaloka (which he calls alakh or 'incomprehensible’ to anyone in the darkness below; he also says this is where the idea of separate self 'starts' [his use of the terms alakh and agam and anami here may be more a matter of semantics and being descriptive, however, and not an actual difference with the Sant Mat system wherein they are the names of inner planes within Sat Lok): then he advances to tapaloka, or 'the region of the Holy Spirit', which he calls agam, or 'inaccessible to even one of the Sons of God (Purushas)'; and finally Satloka which he calls Anami. So Sant Mat and he appear to be in synch up to Swar (except that he calls it Maha Sunn or the greater vacuity), then they both have Daswan Dwar or ‘the door,’ but from here Sant Mat lists Maha Sunn, Bhanwar Gupta, and Sach Khand - whereas Yukteswar jumps right to alakh; remember, however, this may be only a linguistic difference, for Sant Kirpal Singh himself, in his book Godman, p. 77, writes, ”...all that can be said is that he has come directly from the Kingdom of God or Sat Lok, and having crossed the various intermediary planes (Tap Lok, Jan Lok, Swar Lok, Bhanwar [Bhuvar ?] Lok, etc.) has reached the physical world or Bhu Lok just to manifest the Godhead that is his to the world-weary.” So perhaps the two systems are in perfect accord, except that Sri Yukteswar uses the terms alakh, agam, and anami to describe the transpersonal phases prior to and including Sat Lok, whereas Sant Mat from Soamiji uses them as phases or planes ‘beyond’ Sach Khand but within Sat Lok. He even describes them, in his Sar Bachan, as having ‘palaces’ with ‘turrets,’ etc., which must surely be metaphor. But If we understand these more as stages of deepening within Sat Lok rather than as ontologically separate regions, per se, there is no conflict between systems. And a number of high esoteric traditions do describe Sat, the Soul, Consciousness, or Emptiness, as having three degrees of penetration. Kirpal in fact, in the same book, while describing a Sant as one who has attained the level of Sach Khand and a Param Sant as one who has reached Anami, said that “between the two there is no material difference except in nomenclature.” However, as mentioned earlier, why have a difference in nomenclature if there is no difference?
Yukteswar (~Aurobindo) Sant Mat
Bhu Bhu (Pind)
[Trikuti (sensorium; Sushumnadwara or door [Brahmarendra/crown as 'Daswan Dwar]
to interior word where he sees "Radha" or the
God-sent luminous body]
Bhuvar (electric) Bhuvar (astral; Anda)
Swar (magnetic - Maha Sunn) Swar (mental/causal/Trikuti/Brahmand)
Maharloka (atom; Daswan Dwar; the 'beginning
Daswan Dwar (super-causal, Par Brahmand)
of maya', or where the Spirit is reflected) Maha Sunn (super-causal)
Bhanwar Gupta (supercausal)
(apparent gap in schemas) Sach Khand (spiritual, Sat Lok)
Janaloka (alakh) Alakh (incomprehensible)
Tapaloka (agam) Agam (inaccessible)
Satloka (anami) Anami (nameless)
One sees the apparent omission of Sach Khand in Yukteswar's schema. Is this really a gap indicating a flaw if the system? We suspect it can be correctly correlated like this: Yukteswar's planes are, more or less, the same as the Hindu Lokas, which are the same as the seven planes of Neo-Theosophy as discussed by Leadbeater and Bailey, which is also the same system Daskalos adopted, ignoring some of the confusing terminology. Then there is Sant Mat. They basically have a ten level system going from physical to Anami if you include Mahasunn as a plane. Here is how Yukteswar's system may integrate with the traditional seven plane system - first, we drop Anami, as that is Nirguna, 'beyond' the seven. That is another issue! The first three lower planes are the same - with the mental - higher and lower together - being same as causal in Sant Mat. Then Sach Khand and Atman or the fifth plane are the same. So that leaves two above, Alakh and Agam, which are the same. So then the three other planes in Sant Mat that get lumped into the category of the super-causal dimension, or Par Brahmand - between the causal and Sach Khand - (Daswan Dwar, Maha Sun, Bhanwar Gupta) would all be aspects of the 4th plane, the buddhic, in theosophy, or Maharloka in Yukteswar. Daswan Dwar is lower Buddhic, Bhanwar Gupta is higher Buddhic, and the Mahasunn is the 'soul knot' in the center of the Buddhic or Intuitive body.
Each body has a lower and higher aspect. In the physical it is the dense (made up of the four form elements - earth, water, fire and air), and the etheric or pranic, made up of the three energy elements. This pattern is repeated on each plane, and parallels the idea that the lower four planes as a whole - physical, astral, mental, intuitive are all 'bodies', whereas, starting with Atman/Sach Khand, we are in realms of 'pure spirit', which means deeply formless, universal levels beyond time and space and form and karma.
Looking at in terms of 'initiations' on an integral yogic path, as our consciousness grows, this reflects on the level of our identification with each body as a gradual 'piercing' of the relationship of the 'soul' with that body, so that a knot or granthi is pierced, which from the angle of the chakras, is the kundalini piercing one of the granthis along the spine - first the one at the base for the 1st initiation, then the one between the solar plexus and heart for the second, then the one between the throat and ajna for the third. These are the four more material of the bodies, and so the kundalini reaching the crown means we are liberated from form and now identified with our permanent personality or 'intuitive soul body'. Each of these levels can also be seen spread out over the bodies as a shift of focus in each body from lower to higher aspect of that body at the corresponding initiation or stage of enlightenment. So at the fourth initiation, we are no longer breaking identification with the form bodies and separate ego/personality, as in the first three stages. It is piercing the formless, soul body, the buddhic or anandamayakosha. This is the heart of our 'witness', our transpersonal self that is not yet the non-dual atman, but close. And as a center of soul identity throughout all our lives as a human, it is a level of deep identification and continuity between all our lives. So breaking through this 'formless granthi' (hence its lack of focus in the chakra level along the spine), is a great 'dark night', and it would be between the higher and lower buddhic, which is, if this is correct, just where Sant Mat has it, between Daswan Dwar and Bhanwar Gupta. So the reason it is called 'the Great Void' is that it is the same as 'the Great Death' in Zen and Dzogchen, and why folks like Bailey and Leadbeater relate it symbolically to the Crucifixion, not of the personality but of the subtle body itself. By coming to the higher buddhic, the individual is now bathed in the light of the higher realization of non-dualism, though not yet fully 'absorbed' into it until the fifth stage. But it is so close, one is now a Sadh, or for the Sufis has attained 'nearness to Allah', or for Yukteswar is a 'pure heart' and reflects the Light of the Purely Spiritual Realms. This is 'close enough' to be an jivanmukti as the Vedantic model has it. Then one more step (whether in pure direct realization, or by journey through planes) and one has 'union with Allah', which is the fifth stage for the Sufis, or Mastery for the Theosophists (rather than the Buddhist Arhat, which is the fourth), or a Sant for Sant Mat, which is the first stage of God-Realization.
So that is our 'guess' - the Mahasunn is the final Dark Night that corresponds to the final body before attaining the Atman. At the fourth initiation one breaks through the heart of the final body, penetrating the mid-point of all seven planes, now in the upper levels of the buddhic (Bhanwar Gupta), poised now for final 'assimilation' into Atman at the fifth. That is why we think Sant Mat distinguishes these three 'planes', as they map out (in a inversion path), three important stages of development beyond the lower three bodies. If what we have suggested here is true, then this is an important contribution that Sant Mat makes to clarifying all this, though it does benefit from translation into, and comparison with other models.
On a side note, Paul Brunton referred to the words of the evangelist John, "I baptise you with water, but he who comes after me will baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” In the latter “soul is no longer herself, but infinite being,” explaining that here the Holy Ghost referred to the kundalini, while 'fire' meant the higher illumination of the intelligence, or buddhi. This could mean the fourth initiation described above. Thus the kundalini would be limited to purification of the three bodies or vehicles and not satori or the revelation of consciousness.
The basic ordering of the planes, traditionally, follows a seven-fold patterning. To complicate matters, as mentioned it is sometimes said that there also are seven sub-planes in each. Sometimes the are are said to be 49 cosmic planes beyond the microcosmic seven planes. As there are 'human' souls, so there are cosmic and galactic souls - beyond the human evolution. The word "seven" is a common theme in ancient Vedic theology: seven rivers, seven sisters, seven delights, seven thoughts, seven flames, seven rays, seven tongues, seven mothers, seven chakras, seven elements (yes seven: earth, water, fire, air, ether, space and consciousness), etc.. In Hindu mythology Vishnu was said to 'reside in the seven oceans', which is said by Siddharameshwar Maharaj to mean that Vishnu reside as the form of the Self with seven dhatus or coverings. In the Puranas, from which the sage Ramanuja bases his cosmology, there are also listed seven netherworlds below the earth (atala, vitala, nitala, tatataya, mahatala, sutala and patala). Interestingly one of the seven holy Rishis, Narada, is said to have journeyed to these nether regions and returned very favorably impressed! Mystic Daskalos also felt that there was a hell somehow 'below' the physical plane, which is somewhat different from the Hindu idea that hell is a type of lower astral realm. "Stranger things in Heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy", said the great Bard. Following these seven nether worlds are listed seven higher worlds, beginning with our Earth-realm or Bhur, followed by Bhuvar-loka, Svarga-loka, Mahar-loka, Jana-loka, Tapo-loka, and finally Satya-loka. This seems, with slight variation, the schema used by all of these different paths. Sometimes in Hinduism, as mentioned earlier, these seven planes are correlated with the seven chakras, suggesting a greater inner dimension or significance to the chakras themselves than is given in Sant Mat, where the emphasis is on getting radically 'up and out' entirely. However, the Hindu explanation makes some sense from a more integral point of view. Thankfully, such exploration, as well as samadhi, is said to be not a requirement for the attainment of Nirvana or subjective freedom and peace in itself, but may be for a total transformation that includes the higher worlds and forces. That was Aurobindo's view, whose mystic researches as well as investigation of the Rig Veda also revealed a similar schema of planes, with three lower worlds (Earth, Antariksha or the middle region, and Heaven (Dyaus), corresponding to body, life, and mind, divided from the higher divinity by an intermediate region known variously as Truth Consciousness, Greater Heaven (Brihad Dyau), the "Wide World," the "Vast" (Brihat), or the "Great Water," or "Maho Arnas"; this is the fourth Vyahriti mentioned in the Upanishads as "Mahas", most likely corresponding to Vijnanamayakosa / Buddhi. This could with some certainty be considered to correspond with Daswan Dwar, where the "lake of mind" or manas-sarovar is located. This may possibly be the origin of the Biblical passage where the 'waters divide the firmament from the Earth'. Sri Yukteswar called this region "the Atom". The higher supreme worlds embodying Sat, Chit, Ananda are not as such named in the Vedas. Aurobindo says, however, that in the Puranic and Upanishadic systems the seven worlds correspond to seven psychological principles or forms of existence: Sat, Cit, Ananda, Vijnana, Manas, Prana and Anna (Being, Consciousness, Bliss, Intellect, Mind, Life, and Body). He says that "both systems depend on the same idea of seven principles of subjective consciousness formulating themselves in seven objective worlds." (The Secret of the Veda, p. 45)
As mentioned, Sri Yukteswar has a slightly different ordering of the planes. He lists them alternately as: (1) the Puranic schema already mentioned, or (2) Gross, Sunya (Ordinary Vacuum), Mahasunya (the Vacuum), Dasamadwara (the Door), Alakshya (Incomprehensible), Agama (Inaccessible), and Anama (Nameless). In yet (3), a third classification, he lists the various levels as Annamayakosa, Pranamayakosa, Manamayakosa, Jnanamayakosa, Heart/Citta/Buddhi, Anandamayakosa, Son of God/Atman, Chit-Ananda, and Sat.
In Sant Mat there are sometimes listed five planes [i.e., Guru Nanak in his Jap Ji lists Dharm Khand (Realm of Action), Gyan Khand (Realm of Knowledge), Sarm Khand (Realm of Ecstasy), Karm Khand (Realm of Grace), and Sach Khand (Realm of Truth)], and sometimes eight or nine: Physical, Astral, Causal, Mahasunn, Bhanwar Gupta (Supercausal), with Sat Lok divided into four planes, Sach Khand, Alakh, Agam, and Anami. The latter division is reflected in many systems, where the experience of the Great Void or Void-Mind [in this case meaning Sat Lok, not Maha Sunn] encompasses three levels of deepening realization or penetration beyond Atman.
Theosophy generally uses a nine-fold schema: Physical, Etheric, Astral, Lower and Higher Mental, Buddhic, Atmic, Monadic, and Logoic.
Clearly, it is reasonable to suggest that these modern systems basically follow the seven-fold pattern, with an eighth true 'Nirguna' or 'Nirvanic' dimension added. What is of most interest, however, as pointed out by Sri Aurobindo, is that the planes all interpenetrate, occupying, as it were, the same space. That is why a non-dual realization is the final goal. In Sant Mat it is not mentioned publicly so much, but Yukteswar and the Yogananda school frequently spoke of the realization of jnana along with the higher states. Yogananda, for instance, spoke of the Christ Consciousness being 'within' the Aum vibration. [This issue is discussed in detail later in Part Two, where it will be suggested in what ways Sant Mat can be considered to be a jnana path, and also in the article on Yogananda already cited].
Sri Aurobindo wrote:
"The triple principle was doubly recognized, first in the threefold divine principle answering to the later [post-Vedic, or Upanishadic era] Satchidananda, the divine existence, consciousness and bliss, and secondly in the threefold mundane principle, mind, life, and body, upon which is built the triple world of the Veda and Puranas. But the full number ordinarily recognized is seven. This figure was arrived at by adding the three divine principles to the three mundane and interpolating a seventh or link-principle which is precisely that of the truth-consciousness, Ritam Brihat, afterwards known as Vijnana or Mahas. The latter term means Large [this could mean Universal Mind in the Sant Mat classification] and is therefore an equivalent of Brihat. There are other classifications of five, eight, nine and ten and even, as it would seem, twelve; but these do not immediately concern us."
"All these principles, be it noted, are supposed to be really inseparable and omnipresent and therefore apply themselves to each separate formation of Nature. The seven Thoughts, for instance, are Mind applying itself to each of the seven planes as we would now call them and formulating matter-mind, if we may so call it, nervous mind, pure mind, truth-mind and so on to the highest summit, parama paravat...So also the seven rivers are conscious currents corresponding to the sevenfold substance of the ocean of being which appear to us formulated in the seven worlds enumerated by the Puranas. It is their full flow in the human consciousness which constitutes the entire activity of the being, his full treasure of substance, his full play of energy." (Ibid, p. 98)
"The sevenfold waters thus rise upward and become the pure mental activity, the Mighty Ones of Heaven. They there reveal themselves as the first eternal ever-young energies, separate streams but of one origin - for they have all flowed from the one womb of the super-conscient Truth - the seven Words of fundamental expressions of the divine Mind, sapta vanih...The Force rises into the womb or birthplace of this mental clarity (ghrtasya) where the waters flow as streams of the divine sweetness (sravathe madhunam); there the forms it assumes are universal forms, masses of the vast and infinite consciousness...This is also his own new and last birth. He who was born as the Son of Force from the growths of earth, he who was born as the child of the Waters, is now born in many forms to the goddess of bliss, she who has the entire felicity, that is to say to the divine conscious beatitude, in the shoreless infinite." (Ibid, p. 120-121)
These last two paragraphs are examples of the philosophical poetry of Sri Aurobindo; they use Vedic imagery and are not meant to stand alone in total clarity without further study of his work on the Vedas. What they are meant to show is the ancient nature of the seven-fold schema of worlds, and also the big picture of a non-dual realization, uniting all of the planes in a conscious experience.
What remains clear is that a full understanding of the planes and chakras still eludes us; no tradition has done it completely as yet. Further, we have yet to fully understand this matter of "inside" and "outside". Advaita says a man who has realized turiya, and turiyatita ('beyond the fourth', or the fourth state while in the waking state) is outside of time and space and mind, with no up or down. Ramana Maharshi said:
"Leave out the body-consciousness (the idea that I am the body) and then where is 'in' and where is 'out'? All life-consciousness is One throughout." (Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Laxmi Narain, ed, 2007, p. 276)
What, then, does it truly mean to be “outside the body?” If one takes the view of the jnanis or sages who state that it is closer to the ultimate truth to say that all bodies and worlds arise within the Soul or Mind, and it is a fact that while alive in the gross plane all bodies, sheaths, or koshas interpenetrate, then that would certainly not preclude one also having experience of the subtle regions once the gross body disintegrates at physical death. Some sages maintain, that while that is true, that as the physical, subtle and causal bodies interpenetrate in consciousness while one is alive, one can do sufficient sadhana while in the gross body, bypassing the need for ascent. Sant Rajinder Singh, in fact, has started to speak in this manner about the various inner planes:
"Most religions believe that there are higher regions of existence to which the soul goes after it dies...The question is, where are these realms? They are not zones in outer space delineated by borders. All these realms exist concurrently with this one. The reason we are not aware of them is because they operate on a different frequency or vibration." (Sat Sandesh – April 2003).
The notion of 'up' and 'down is therefore very interesting. A necessary question to raise is how do we compare yogic paths such as Sant Mat with teachings such as the following which state:
"If in meditation he goes down sufficiently far through the levels of consciousness, he will come to a depth where the phenomenal world[s] disappear from consciousness, where time, thoughts, and place cease to exist, where the personal self dissolves and seems no more....But in the end Nature reclaims the meditator and brings him back to this world. It is only an experience, with the transiency of all experiences. But it will make its contribution to the final State, which is permanent establishment in the innermost being, whether in the depth of silent meditation or in the midst of worldly turmoil and activity." (Paul Brunton, Perspectives, p. 37).
"Down" through the levels of consciousness? Is this a reference to Ramana's "I-thought sinking from the head or sahasrar into the Heart" ? Perhaps, yet Brunton also spoke of the descent of divine grace from above.
So, while it may be plausible to assume that there can be a relative 'up' or 'down' in reference to the subtle bodies just as there is in relationship with the physical body, at some point one would think that the words become meaningless, certainly past the causal realms of the cosmic archtypes 'between' the three lower worlds and 'higher' divine realms.
If all of this is truly so then some of the aforementioned contradictions and discrepancies are overcome. If all of the planes exist concurrently, they must all exist in consciousness, or the soul, and then the 'direct path' of the sages is somewhat exonerated.
At some point, one must confront the argument of the sages, who question, "what is the body?", "Is the soul in a body? How do you know?, and the general teaching that the Soul has no location, is omnipresent and infinite, but that an emanant of the Soul is projected into manifestation, producing the apparent personality that evolves through time. The Soul, the higher part, never leaves its own plane, and is not a separate discrete drop that falls into a body without still being connected to its parent, but a part of it - for partability is a power of the soul - is projected into 'creation', for a divine purpose which is somewhat mysterious but generally spoken of as a journey through time and space in order to gather experience and know itself in a way that it has never known before. Thus, man's prodigality is not a true 'fall', but a process of evolution. Man is on the rise. But even this is likely a metaphor.
In this vein, Jagat SIngh, interrum Beas guru between Sawan Singh and Charan Singh [guruship disputed, however, by the Delhi lineage], is accredited with having said, "90% of spirituality is correct thinking." And Sant Kirpal Singh, my guru, once asked me, "do you want anything, my friend? - do you want to leave the body?", to which I answered, "no, nothing." He became animated and exclaimed, "You're an emperor, I'll kiss your feet - "nothing" is God!" To another who asked him, "Master, what AM I?", he answered, "What you see is you." Further, when someone asked him, "Master, do you still meditate?", he replied, "If you get your PhD do you still have to learn the ABC's? You have the knowledge but don't need to use it all the time." Very mysterious language coming from these gurus (back in those days), and obviously something to be revealed to only a few to avoid confusion for the unripe mind. Other saints have acted likewise. Lord Krishna, after giving Arjuna the Cosmic Vision, as recounted in the Bhagavad-Gita, then said, "Now I will teach you." Ramakrishna gave visions and samadhis and devotional exercises to his devotees, but instructed or taught only one disciple, Vivekananda. This he did through the help of his copy of the non-dual Ashtavakra-Gita which he kept hidden from the others, including his chief biographer, "M", or Master Mahasaya.
Kirpal Singh and many others thought highly of Ramakrishna, often capitalizing on his oft-repeated phrase to Vivekananda, "Yes, I see God as clearly as I see you - even more so!" But the implication most often in Sant Mat is that Ramakrishna had not transcended the causal plane, the uppermost limit of the lower three worlds. As previously mentioned, many in Sant Mat would argue, simply by virtue of his early worship of Kali, that he was but a 'Yogeshwar', or one whose realization was limited to the causal region of Brahm, but not to the higher regions above that. This is not warranted, in our opinion, however, and is pure speculation.
Is traditional ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi higher than the Sahans dal Kanwal realization of the shabd yogi? It certainly sounds like it. One thousand petals lotus above the head is greater than an eight-petalled lotus within the head, and neither does Sahansdal-kanwal result in a formless state of consciousness. The issue does not appear to be one of mere semantics, even though there are different depths to the experience of the chakras and the realization attained thereof, also depending on the evolutionary maturity of the aspirant.
In addition, we have to contend with Faqir Chand's novel delineation of the state of Maha Sunn as 'Nirvikalpa', where thought processes fade out. There are some who would make Anami into Nirvikalpa, however, inasmuch as it is (most often considered as) formless, infinite, unmanifest consciousness. What to make of this quandary? Well, it is said that one can have Nirvikalpa samadhi from any plane. In which case its inner equivalent as Anami would, it appears, be a superior version of this, inasmuch as one also has traversed and assimilated the wisdom of all the planes of consciousness (in the microcosm at least; some say there are further 'macrocosmic' planes, a subject too advanced for this one's poor brain). Perhaps the following may help us. In the Katha Upanishad we read:
“Beyond the senses are the objects, beyond the objects is the mind, beyond the mind is the intellect, beyond the intellect is the great Atman...Beyond the great Atman is the Unmanifested; beyond the Unmanifested is the Purusha (the Cosmic Soul); beyond the Purusha there is nothing. That is the end, that is the final goal.”
One may read this quote as equating the Atman with Sach Khand, the 'Unmanifest' with Anami, and the 'Purusha' as the Radhisoamidham state spoken of by Faqir Chand and before him Soamiji. Maybe.
The entire concept of the chakras and the need to go to the crown of the head is more or less a form of nonsense to the Vedantists and Jnanis, such as Ramana Maharshi, who see all this as a mental creation only. Indeed, Ramana called the chakras 'imaginary mental pictures for beginners' [this is considered by some an extreme view, with the chakras not a product of the personal imagination alone but the universal, with significant energetic correlations to higher planes (as well as internal connections to the levels of the brain: neo-cortex, mid-brain, and brain stem corresponding to the head, heart, and navel or solar plexus centers), but in Ramana's system they could be bypassed by directly letting attention falling into the heart through direct inquiry or surrender]. Iyer says that the vedantin 'feels the same way about the Logos doctrine of the Theosophists as he does of the Shabda-Brahman of the Sants: that it is just a thought'. This will be gone into in more detail in Part Two, but suffice it to say that in sticking to such a strict position of non-causality (ajata) and absolutism is, in our opinion, a rather linear and short-sighted way of viewing the entire relative nature of reality, which itself is a mystery as inexplicable as the so-called 'absolute'. If I say 'a door is just a thought,' I will still walk around it. The Shabda-Brahman as a Universal Liberating Presence within relativity with immense capacity of grace, whether or not one conceives it to be the 'Creator', is difficult to view as just a though. It seems in some fashion to be built into the universe, as an intermediary bridge for unenlightened souls from the relative to the absolute. There may be different ways of approaching it, with more or less non-dual understanding, but to deny its power outright in order to fit into a tight-knit philosophy appears unwarranted.
The aforesaid yogic views, as stated, would also be highly refuted by the Sants; they generally use the term Daswan Dwar in a different meaning than the yogis, in that it is refered to as not only the crown doorway, but the third inner plane, which is not a brain structure. This is important to keep in mind. But as we have seen, Babuji Maharaj, Maharaj Saheb, and Sahabji Maharaj spoke differently about it.
Despite these discrepencies and apparent contradictions, it is suggest that the issue can be resolved if it is accepted that there are simply two uses of the word, 'Daswan Dwar', or the 'tenth door'. In the common yogic and (sometimes) Sant Mat usage, it at one time means the crown center, and at other times it refers to a passage in the center of the head that is the 'gravitational' dividing line between the more material-mental and more mental-spiritual regions.
Like Sivananda, Ramakrishna at times spoke in the traditional yogic manner of reaching the higher centers for liberation [when he was not teaching Vivekananda non-duality]. He said:
"The mind ordinarily moves in the three lower chakras. But if it rises above them and reaches the heart, one gets the vision of Light. Even though it has reached the throat, the mind may come down again. One ought to be always alert. Only if his mind reaches the spot between the eyebrows need he have no more fear of a fall, the Supreme Self is so close."
He goes on to say that reaching the thousand-petalled lotus of the sahasrara at the crown of the head is liberation or God-consciousness. This is what Swami Sivananda said also. The great Tibetan adepts Marpa and Naropa also spoke of meditating to reach the thousand-petalled lotus, which in their tradition in tantric sadhana is visualized as a foot or so above the head. Shiv Brat Lal placed it at the top of the head. In either case, as mentioned, the thousand-petalled lotus of the sahasrara (one thousand is the definition of sahasrara), is hard to consider the same as the Sahans Dal Kanwal of the Sants, which only has eight petals. Just the way these great yogis or saints describe their attainment does not sound remotely like only the beginning stage of the inner journey as portrayed by the Sants, more or less attained by many, but rather, something far more significant and integral. This is not to say that it is self-realization, sahaja samadhi, the natural condition, but a profound state nevertheless. So here we hold that much work needs to be done to reconcile all of the extant teachings in their profundity, and not childishly hold out one or the other interpretation as the 'highest'.
Interesting also how Ramakrishna talks of the 'mind' reaching the heart center and giving the vision of light, whereas in Shabd Yoga the 'attention' reaches the eye-center with the light sprouting forth from there. How is this to be explained? Does one dare say that Ramakrishna saw the wrong kind of spiritual light? And how to explain the difference from the 'mind' reaching a center, as the phrase is used here, and the concentrated attention or 'surat' reaching a center? It feels like there must be a difference, but experientially exactly what that is is a question that has not been answered, In Sant Mat one is said to only get little flickers of light upon approaching the eye-center, and not full light until the attention is completely concentrated at the eye-center, but Ramakrishna says “the vision of light “ is had when the mind reaches the heart center. The words used may be different; but how likely is it that the experiences are so different? What then did he mean by “mind” here? Kundalini? But is kundalini the mind? It is often important in these matters to reason contextually to determine meaning. It is clear from a survey of the spiritual literature that neither the mind or kundalini or attention permanently stays poised at the eye-center, so does this imply that maybe for Ramakrishna the experience of ascension catalyzed a deeper realization than happens for most people who do fall back after such an event? This is a possibility.
Once again, however, we repeat: it seems the Sants are not the only ones who assert that the Sat Lok as realized by kundalini yogis in the Sahasrara is not the real Sat Lok, but, while indeed a correspondence, is yet only a reflection of that, and so, in fact, one needs to penetrate further, into the higher planes associated with that chakra or center, to realize the true Sat Lok. Sri Aurobindo said that while there is an aspect of Sat Lok in the crown, one needed to ascend in consciousness to the higher, universal dimension of Sat Lok above. For him this was the highest region within 'our manifested universe', but beyond even that, what he considered the absolute, and termed the SatChitAnanda, was not a plane at all ` which brings the whole yogic tour back to what some of the jnanis, such as Ramana Maharshi, speak about:
"You must remember that there are reflections of the Higher worlds in the lower planes which can easily be experienced as supreme for that stage of the evolution. The Sat (Satyaloka) world is the highest of the scale connected with this universe. But the supreme Sachidananda is not a world, it is supracosmic." (Letters on Yoga, Vol. 1, p. 252)
In reference to Kriya Yoga, Kirpal wrote the following on what is called ghora anhad shabd :
"This (Ghora Anhand Shabd) is the intense vibratory sound that yogins hear by concentration in the navel center, which is one of the six reflex centers in Pind on the model of the higher centers in the astral region, and is accordingly not much consequence to those who are put on the spiritual path Godward." (from The Life and Teachings of Baba Jaimal Singh)
We have mentioned that in the kriya yoga as taught by Yogananda, Yukteswar, and Babaji, et al, they speak of deeper layers of the spine and chakras, and also of moving up and down the chakra system, attaining inner purification of the three bodies in that fashion, with the ultimate goal of sahaj samadhi apparently the same, or nearly the same, as in other paths. But how can we explain the wide disparity in the way the two paths are presented? Here is one possible way. Take it for what it is worth.
Is Sant Mat the Easiest and Shortest Way to Self or God-Realization?
When one puts out a simple path that requires less involvement (physical guidance, instruction, etc.) from the master, then you have to design a practice that goes to the essence, yet is somehow accessible from the beginning. Vipassana/zazen does that. Mantra yoga does that. In Sant Mat, if you can't hear the nada or shabd, then you gaze and say the mantra, which can be very powerful and, gradually purifies the body-mind until you do hear the nada, and then you just listen at the ajna, and the energies (elementals/vasanas/karmas) are gradually purified in the lower chakras, until the sensory currents are freed up enough to withdraw to the ajna and then the shabd yogi 'exits' the body there and enters the subtler planes, and so on. In theory it really is a very simple, elegant, profound path.
But it is not necessarily the fastest, despite being presented as such. And not everybody appears able to do it. One certainly cannot do bhajan or listening to inner sounds as a separate practice if he as yet hears no sounds! And as far as learning to concentrate goes, how concentrated and not detracted and wandering will the mind get if there is not much to concentrate on, and one is not supposed to do simran repetition during bhajan practice? For many then the main practice will be simran of the names until concentration is achieved and something internal arises to latch on to. Not all lineages teach a bhajan practice before that. Of course, a competent Master can make that possible by grace at any time.
The tantric idea is that you go into the focal point in your experience/body where the focus of the transformation/purification is taking place, and maximize feeding the transformation there, and in a way particularly suited to the stage of the process that you are at. This approach may seem more complicated, but it is actually more efficient, because doing a practice is like energizing a realization. And it is most efficient to teach people according to their stage. We are imbedded in many veils. The nada emanates from beyond all the veils below the atman. So it is like we are listening to one teaching to lead us through all the stages of learning, which will work, but not as efficiently if the insights/energies/qualities of our practice were better matched to our stage. The nada is pretty abstract. As a realization/presence/quality, most people will not feel the 'satchitananda' of it until a fairly advanced stage. So many part of the personality will find the practice uninspiring and 'irrelevant', and can't get its teeth into it. So other paths, like various forms of tantra, give practices for various stages, various chakras, where one 'goes down' to the level of the focus of current stage, and works with it to 'bring it up'. Doesn't sound very ‘non-dual', but that is because we are working with the personality where it is actually at, rather than projecting philosophical ideas at our personalities which we think they ought to be able to understand, integrate, and be maximally liberated by. But advanced non-dual teachings, or advanced bhakti paths like shabd yoga, do not necessarily offer the most accessible, relevant approach for all. Hence kriya yoga is offered as kind of a step of tantric/kundalini bridging practices to lead to full ripeness for samadhi. In fact, in Autobiography of a Yogi, an advanced yogi who had been doing an advanced practice was told by Lahiri Mahasay that he would benefit greatly by kriya, because, although he was advanced at using an 'essence' practice, he still had 'blocks' that were being worked through less efficiently that way, and that kriya would liberated him more quickly if combined with what he was doing. This is also why most Dzogchen teachings, for instance, are packaged with Ngondro and then eight previous stages of tantric practices - and then final Dzogchen. Some teachers are bypassing all that today, but that does not mean it is better. It is just easier to share it with a wider audience in that form, and also, inevitably, there are those who believe that, 'why not just go for the 'highest teachings'?' Namkhai Norbu, in fact, who was the first well-known Tibetan teacher to offer Dzogchen teaching to the public, was finally given the go-ahead by his peers on the reasoning that, "people will only want to come to hear you speak if you give them the ultimate Dzogchen practice"! Which doesn't mean it is the most efficient practice for them at their stage, but then, westerners are impatient.
Kriya yoga as Babaji taught it is kind of a middle path here, as it is a more complex teaching, but it is still packaged for wider use. Most tantric adepts would teach according to the individual, which is why it is harder to create a large movement or broad teaching work with a complex path that require individual participation of the master with each student. For this reason, for instance, Swami Rama only worked with several hundred personal students. He said that each day he would have them meditate at the same time and he would personally leave his body and go and check their individual meditations. Obviously, not all paths can be like that.
So when someone in Sant Mat dismisses a 'lower' manifestation of the nada or shabd it is often simply for this reason. The nada is both one and many. It is one in essence, like a thread running through the heart of all subtle sounds, but they do take different forms according to which plane and chakra they are being reflected in, for instance. Lower nadas can have a more direct effect on lower chakras and less evolved aspects of our nature, which, as mentioned above, can be more efficient. But it is recommended not to do a practice like that without a teacher who understands that path. So any nada can be used to focus awareness and transform our energy/realization, but in Sant Mat, they direct one to the 'higher sounds' and the ajna chakra. It is simpler that way and often works just fine. Either way works and has its strengths and limitations.
Purification versus Transformation
But assuming one has access to abiding at the ajna center and listening with rapt attention to the sounds, is it actually purification as mentioned above? It can be considered that, if by purification is meant the lessening of physical attachment only, but this can also be understood as a spiritual bypass and not transformation of the lower bodies and their tendencies. Real transformation, we suggest - in the sense of the subconscious reservoir of impressions being exposed to consciousness and eliminated , as Kirpal said was necessary - is largely done while “in” the body, not out of it. And this is largely a secret on this path [discussed in the section “SCRUBBING” in Part Three]. Teacher anadi describes it as a purification necessary “for the human nature to fuse with the soul.” Madame Guyon metaphorically details its depths:
“First the chaff is separated from the grain. This is an example of your conversion and separation from sin. After the grain has been separated, it must be ground by trials and by the cross. The grain is ground until it is reduced to flour. The process, however, is far from finished. The flour is course and must have foreign matter removed from it. The flour is kneaded and made into pastry. The flour appears dark as it is kneaded, but the kneading is essential for the flour to be made into pastry. The pastry, in turn, must be put into the fire. After the pastry is baked, it is destined for the king's delight. The king not only looks upon the pastry with delight, he partakes of it...This comparison shows you some of the different aspects of your spiritual journey. It shows you the difference between union with God and transformation...Not many people come to this place. For this reason, people do not talk much about the cross and transformation. We cannot speak well upon subjects we know little about." (Les Torrents)
How is this accomplished? In truth, this would require another book to elaborate, but in brief it may be said to comprise an entire life of sadhana and not merely a technique, whether that be of yoga or of knowledge. Much happens through a divine physics enlivened and activated in relationship with a divinely realized Master, if one is so fortunate to have found or be found by such a one, or directly through the aspirant's own higher divinity or God. From the side of the disciple, earnestness is needed to call forth and endure the "heat" generated by right living (essentially, in cultivating the virtues, as well as mental and emotional balance and all that entails), devotion, striving for understanding, and awareness of ones reaction patterns, particularly those that are more prominent in nature. Some "shadow work" is usually needed here. This means recognizing and owning ones hidden dark side (shame, anger, hatred, guilt, primal wounds), which requires patience, acceptance, and a certain form of intelligence as well as courage, and also developing the will to stop projecting it outwards onto others. It means coaxing the shadow material into awareness, as well as not living identified with ones limited social persona and avoiding the deeper part of the sacred ordeal. In fact, this has been put forth by Fr. Richard Rohr (Falling Upwards, p. 134-135) as the definition of a saint: one who has no "I" to hide (shadow) and no "I" to project (persona). Rather, to abide in union with the I AM of God or Overself is our goal. There is is a delicate dance in getting there. As Jesus said:
"Don't pull out the weeds or you might pull out the wheat along with it. Let the weeds and the wheat both grow together until the harvest." (Matt.13:29-30)
It is wise to understand that neither the shadow nor the persona (or ego) are evil or wrong in themselves, but they often allow us to do wrong without recognizing it. In our efforts to avoid facing our shadow, however, trying to "be good" and avoid sin, we often end up sinning (df: "missing the mark") even more. The only way out is through; that is to say, by becoming more conscious. And the primary function of the Guru is to intensify consciousness in the disciple. This does not mean - in terms of what we are taking about right here - giving him a boost to reach the astral plane! We are really getting down on the ground right now.
But it also should not be implied that having deep or lofty inner contemplations will leave no impress on the soul. The residual effect, at least, will be the recognition that there are higher values not to be taken lightly. And one's passions, for instance, will likely be reduced. If you manage to have nirvikalpa samadhi, the ego will not be quite as bad. But it might! PB writes:
"All desires are naturally quenched in the void because nothing that is relative can coexist with it. This ever-renewed contemplation of our infinite Root will in time dissolve our lower tendencies and give the quietus to our animal passions." (Notebooks< Vol. 15, Part 1, 8.15)
It will of course vary in every case, but it is just that the likelihood of stable and permanent change without the exposure and resolution of core wounds is a limited one. Something to do with pouring new wine in old wineskins. [Much more on this in Part Three].
One caveat on bhajan: in Sant Mat it is advised to only listen to sounds coming from the right side, and eventually from above, as the sounds heard coming from the left side are said to be debasing. Some to as far as to say they will draw one to the nether regions. We do not know about that part. Similarly, how does one re-enter the body after leaving it? Does one need to follow certain sounds? Does one just will it? Or does it just happen by itself, for all but the adept? It seems for most initiates there is no conscious process engaged in coming back to the body. Brunton says, speaking of such experiences:
"...it is a temporary state because so long as we are in the flesh we are unable to sustain it and we are drawn back by the forces of nature - first to the ego and then to the body." (Ibid, 8.172)
One could say it is the Master-Power that draws one back, but this gets confusing - wasn't it the contact with the Master-Power that took you out? Are there two Powers at work? We ask a lot of questions in this book, and do not pretend to answer them all. Much is for the reader to enquire and find out, or ask the Masters for illumination.
Nevertheless the notion of the right side is intriguing in light also of Ramana Maharshi’s teaching about the right side of the Heart as the source of the “I”. Is the right side something built into the evolutionary history of man, or alternately, in the way he was created?
Words are no doubt poor substitutes for reality. Ramana considered even this world to be nothing but spiritual. This is true if the concepts of matter as well as the ego-soul or ego-self are rejected in favor of the view and insight that "all is a perception or appearance to Mind". But must it be one or the other in practice, as the vedantins might have it? May we start with both, at least as a working hypothesis? In Sant Mat, as well as theosophy and certain yoga paths, the various planes are described as containing differing amounts of matter and spirit, from gross material, material-spiritual, spiritual-material, to purely spiritual. This is, however, an experiential way of describing things. For Ramana, Vedanta, Buddhism and Zen, anything perceivable ("things") or conceivable ("thoughts") could be considered “mental”, all arising in and as Mind. To them, the concept of matter is really no more than a guess, with no proof. This doesn't mean one may not experience or feel a difference while passing through different planes, etc., but only that the same epistemological discipline must be applied when discussing each of them and their relationship to truth. There is only the Drk and the Drysam - the perceiver and the perceived. Any concept of a ‘thing’ called matter is unknowable, since nothing is ever known or perceived outside of the awareness or consciousness of it. Mystics in general have no interest in doing this, assuming what they see and feel is real. To sages and philosophers, however, such an endeavor is important if not crucial if one's interest is in truth, and not just bliss or peace. It is, they say, essential for a full understanding of concepts such as "soul," "spiritual", and "consciousness." To the more emanationist schools, like Sant Mat and Kriya Yoga, physical matter is condensed astral matter, which in turn is condensed mental or causal matter or mind, which in turn is condensed spirit or consciousness'. So there is a different way of looking at things. And it has a bearing on how one conceives of realization or liberation. No one school to date has combined all of these views into an integral view. Now that the world's teachings are openly available, with the explosion, first the printing press, then global travel, and now the internet, such a synthesis will eventually and inevitably come.
"PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA AND KRIYA YOGA"
[Note:There will be a limited amount of duplication here with what has been discussed in the last section, but this previously released article contains more on this subject, and from additional perspectives, which was felt worth including to further broaden the consideration.]
“When the child refuses to be comforted by anything except the mother’s presence, she comes. If you want to know God, you must be like the naughty baby who cries till the mother comes.”
Paramhansa Yogananda (1893-1952) was perhaps the equal of Swami Vivekananda in widely disseminating Indian yoga to the West. The Kriya Yoga path he taught was essentially an emanationist mystical path with similarities to both kundalini and shabd yoga. This essay will dissect its philosophy and practice and compare and contrast it with both shabd yoga and the path of jnana as espoused by sages such as Ramana Maharshi, Paul Brunton (PB), and others.
Yogananda was born Mukund Lal Ghosh into a devout Hindu family. His parents were disciples of Lahiri Mahasay, the modern exponent of Kriya Yoga. The young boy Mukunda used to meditate with his mother in front of a picture of their guru, and on many occasions the image of the photograph would take on living form and sit beside them. At the age of eight Mukunda was healed of cholera when, gazing upon Lahiri’s picture, he was enveloped in a blinding light which filled the entire room. His mother died when he was eleven, and she left a message for him saying that Lahiri had told her that one day Yogananda would carry many souls to freedom and that he had actually been spiritually initiated or baptised by him during infancy.
Yogananda was, like so many great souls, a very mischievious, fun-loving, and strong-willed youth. He was also possessed of numerous yogic abilities from a young age. Once, while walking along a road with his brother and a friend, Yogananda (known as "Mejda" by his friends and siblings) decided to have some fun. The group was overwhelmed by the horrible smell of some rotting, maggot-ridden rice wafting in their direction. Yogananda boasted that since he realized that God was in everything he could therefore eat some of the rice without coming to any harm. His friend, Surenda, mocked him, saying that if Yogananda could eat the disgusting mess, then so could he! Whereupon Yogananda calmly picked up a handful of the putrid rice and ate it as if it were the most delicious of treats. His friend ran, fearing his upcoming fate, with Yogananda in hot pursuit, but he couldn't outrun the future saint. Yogananda shoved a handful of the rice in Surenda's mouth and the boy promptly vomited and nearly passed out. Yogananda rubbed his chest, smiling, and Surenda recovered and conceded his defeat.
Yogananda lived in a rich spiritual milieu and met many holy men before accepting kriya yoga initiation from Sri Yukteswar. He liked to go to the temple at Dakshineswar and engage in devotion to the Divine Mother and Ramakrishna. Here he said that the radiance of Divine Light from the image of the Mother's body filled his own body, mind, and soul. Later he spent time with brother disciples of that great saint. He also received instruction as a youth in shabd yoga techniques from the brother of his brother-in-law, Charu Chandra Basu, who was a Radhasoami initiate, and practiced meditation on inner light and sound for some time with rapid and spectacular results, although he later always considered it complementary to his devotion to the Kriya yoga as taught by Lahiri Mahasay, and which he considered a superior path.
One personage of particular importance to Yogananda was Master Mahasaya, or Mahendra Nath Gupta (otherwise known as "M”, the author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna), who blessed Yogananda with several breath-stopping mystical experiences, including his first experience of samadhi, similar in nature to the touch that Ramakrishna gave to Vivekananda:
"I experienced that the Center of the Supreme Heavenly Abode was actually a place deep within myself and that the place of experience within was spawned by the Same. It was as if the entire creation was emanating from my Being and the radiance of an incredibly beautiful Light was spreading through the Sahasrar. 'It is His river of nectar flowing through the world'. A flow of liquid nectar was rushing through body and mind - waves upon waves. I heard the Onkar Sound, the Sound of Brahman - the thunderous Pranava resonance - the First Pulse of the creation of the Universe. Suddenly, my breath came back into the lungs. Oh, if I could only express how my heart was filled with disappointment. I cannot tell you. That Great Being of mine was completely gone. Again I came back and was imprisoned by this insignificant and miniscule physical cage - this thing that cannot contain that Colossal Person of the Atman. Like the prodigal son described in the Bible, I left my Immense Abode of the Cosmos, and again entered this tiny 'pot' of the body." (Swami Satyananda Giri, A Collection of Biographies of 4 Kriya Yoga Gurus, Yoga Niketan, 2004, p. 255)
Yukteswar commissioned Yogananda to spread the teachings of Kriya Yoga to the West and in 1920 he sailed for America. Except for a brief period in the 1930's, Yogananda remained in America for thirty years, teaching and initiating over 100,000 people into Kriya Yoga, and establishing the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) on the Mount Washington Estates in Los Angeles. One of the first Indian teachers along with Swami Vivekananda to come to America, Yogananda's intention was not, as he put it, to "Indianize" Westerners, but to awaken them to their own inherent spirituality. "Being a Westerner," he said, "is no excuse for not seeking God. It is vital to every man that he discover his soul and know his immortal nature."
A vital, energetic individual with a free spirit, Yogananda visited many famous people in search of spiritual influences and kindred souls. The Autobiography of a Yogi tells of his meetings with RabindranathTagore, Luther Burbank, Calvin Coolidge, Therese Neuman, and Ramana Maharshi. He also saw Anandamayi Ma, Mahatma Gandhi, and many other notable figures. While at the ashram of Ramana he met Paul Brunton and also an advanced disciple of the sage known as Yogi Ramiah. Yogananda considered Ramiah to be a fully enlightened soul. (1) Interestingly, it was to Maharshi that Yogananda is said to have sent a young inquisitive Robert Adams, when the latter questioned him on the limits of kriya yoga for attaining Self-Realization, and why he bothered to teach it. Yogananda’s response was, “I am doing very well, thank you, doing things the way I am,” but nevertheless recommended that Adams see Ramana.
Towards the end, Kriyananda recounts:
"During this last period of his life, he was very much withdrawn from outward consciousness. He hardly seemed even to have a personality. Truly, as he often told us, "I killed Yogananda long ago. No one dwells in this temple but God..I won my liberation many lifetimes ago." To the monks...he said, "When I see that God wants me to be born again in another body to help others, and when I see that I am to re-assume a personality, it seems at first a bit like donning an overcoat on a summer day; hot, and a bit itchy. Then," he concluded, "I get used to it." (2)
When Yogananda died his body has said to have remained in a state of perfect preservation for twenty days afterwards, when his casket was finally sealed. This example of yogic super-regeneration was evident in the case of a number of saints, such as St. Catherine of Sienna, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, as well as Sri Aurobindo. [This claim must be somewhat qualified, however, as he did get embalmed (2a)]
His manner of death itself was quite dramatic:
“Paramhansa Yogananda had often voiced this prediction: “I will not die in bed, but with my boots on, speaking of God and India.” On March 7, 1952, the prophecy was fulfilled. At a banquet in honor of the Ambassador of India, Binay R. Sen, Paramhansaji was a guest speaker. He delivered a soul-stirring address, concluding with these words from a poem he had written, “My India”: “Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves and men dream God - I am hallowed; my body touched that sod!” He lifted his eyes upward and entered mahasamadhi, an advanced yogi’s conscious earth-exit. He died as he lived, exhorting all to know God.“ (3)
Rajarski Janakananda (James "Saint" Lynn) succeeded Yogananda as president of SRF. Upon his death in 1951, Sri Daya Mata - who met Kirpal Singh - assumed the leadership, a position she still holds. Swami Kriyananda was forced to leave SRF in 1962 and he started his own community, the Ananda Fellowship in Nevada City, California, in the late 1960's. Roy Eugene Davis, ordained by Yogananda in 1951, started CSA, the Center for Spirtual Awareness, where he has blended Kriya yoga with a form of advaita in a refreshing manner different from the other ordained teachers of Yogananda. (His description of the stages of realization seems to differ somewhat from those of both Yogananda and his predecessors as well, as will be delineated later). As with many spiritual movement when the teacher dies, there were power struggles and controversies, none particularly earth-shaking, however, compared to other groups. Yogananda left no clearly agreed upon successor-guru, recognized no self-realized disciples, and, in fact, according to Sri Daya Mata, “before his passing on Paramahansaji said that it was God’s wish that he be the last of the YSS/SRF line of gurus.” This means that henceforth disciples would have to establish a relationship with him in their hearts as there would be no new master for a direct human guru-shisya relationship. Nevertheless it appears that Daya Mata, Kriyananda, Roy Eugene Davis, and others unmentioned were commissioned to teach Kriya yoga.
Swami Sivananda felt highly of Yogananda and issued this tribute: “A rare gem of inestimable value, the like of whom the world is yet to witness, Paramhansa Yogananda has been an ideal representative of the ancient sages and seers, the glory of India,” while His Holiness the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, revered spiritual leader of millions in South India, wrote of Paramhansaji: “A bright light shining in the midst of darkness, so comes on earth only rarely, where there is a real need among men. We are grateful to Yogananda for spreading Hindu philosophy in such a wonderful way in America and the West.” (4)
The Autobiography of a Yogi is a wonderfully human account of a great soul and a fascinating story of a spiritual oddysey that has inspired millions. (4a) To have a complete picture of Yogananda's life it might, however, be supplemented with The Life of Yogananda (2018), by Philip Goldberg, as well as the delightful Mejda: The Family and the Early Life of Paramahansa Yogananda; and also The Path: Autobiography of a Western Yogi (now retitled The Path: One Man’s Quest on the Only Path There Is, by Swami Kriyananda. In this book, imbued with devotion, are given many, many details of day by day life with the Master, whereas in Yogananda's book we are for the most part introduced to the various people he has met. Little is revealed therein of the specifics of the sadhana which Yogananda undertook nor of the realization he gained. Even so, Autobiography of A Yogi is one of the most influential spiritual chronicles of the twentieth century and with its writing the author did countless people an immense service. Yogananda's most famous book is somewhat short on a detailed description of the nature, methods, stages, and goal of the Kriya Yoga path, especially as it compares with others, although I will try to explain it as best I can based chiefly on the above-mentioned book by Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization and also The Second Coming of Christ by Yogananda. The path as outlined by Yogananda appears to be different than that described by his guru, Sri Yukteswar, in the latter's book, The Holy Science, which sounds much more like shabd yoga. The specific details for actual kriya practice are given out in the lessons that members of the Self-Realization Fellowship subscribe to. Further complicating the picture is that Yogananda actually gave out different practices and even yogas to different individuals as the particular case demanded, according to his disciple Roy Eugene Davis. This is not exactly a complication but a not uncommon practice of among great masters.
Kriya Yoga, essentially, is a form of yoga practice employing breathing techniques and meditation to free consciousness from the physical, astral, and causal bodies. It is not absolutely clear, to my understanding, from Yogananda's writings, whether the goal is dissociation with these bodies or only disidentifcation from them, of first one, then the other, a common two-part sadhana. In his autobiography and early writings Yogananda suggests that God-Consciousness takes place when the soul or disembodied attention has actually separated from these three "coils" and, correspondingly, from the three worlds (physical, astral, and causal or ideational). Thus divested, he calls this state of the soul "God or Cosmic Consciousness", and seems, as far as I can tell, to mean something like traditional Nirvikalpa samadhi. Yet he also describes two states before this. The first is to become "superconscious", attuned with Aum, the vibratory power of creation on all levels, and feel the universe as ones own body. The second is to achieve "Christ Consciousness," which is realization of oneness with the all-pervading, still Christ Consciousness, the Kutshtha Chaitanya, within and transcendent of the Aum vibration, the 'pure reflection in all things of the consciousness of God the Father beyond creation'. This is the definition of a Master according to Yogananda. It is jivanmukta, but not yet total liberation. The further achievement of Nirvikalpa beyond manifest creation is defined as "the samadhi-meditation state of oneness with God both beyond and within vibratory creation at the same time." (5) Thus state must then be brought down into the physical body and realized simultaneously while embodied:
"The stages of enlightenment are, first, to be conscious of the AUM vibration throughout the body. Next, one's consciousness becomes identified with that AUM vibration beyond the body, and gradually throughout the universe. One then becomes conscious of the Christ Consciousness within the AUM vibration - first within the physical body, then gradually in the whole universe. When you achieve oneness with that vibrationless consciousness everywhere, you have attained Christ Consciousness."
"The [next] stage lies beyond vibration itself, in oneness with God the Father, the Creator [through the Holy Ghost] beyond the universe. When, still in that highest state of consciousness, you can return to the body without losing your inner sense of oneness with God, that is complete freedom. All true masters, even those who are not yet fully liberated, live in that nirbikalpa samadhi state. That is what Jesus Christ had. It was what he meant by perfection, in saying, 'Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt 5:48). To be a Christlike master, one must have attained that state." (5a)
In short, he calls the final state "the complete union of body, Holy Ghost, Christ Consciousness, and God the Father, perceived as one in Spirit." (5b)
Part of the difficulty in understanding all this is that Yogananda appears to have used the word "nirbikalpa" where sages like Ramana Maharshi used the term "sahaj", and "sabikalpa" where others used "nirvikalpa." Yogananda states:
"There are two stages of samadhi. In the first, the conscousness merges into the Infinite during meditation. The yogi cannot preserve that state, however, once he comes out of his meditation. That state is known as sabikalpa samadhi."
"The next state is called nirbikalpa samadhi. In this state of consciousness you maintain your divine realization even while working or speaking or moving about in this world. Nirbikalpa is the highest realization. Once attaining that, there is no further possibility of falling back into delusion." (5c)
Here Yogananda seems to reverse the traditional usage of the terms Sabikalpa and Nirbikalpa. However, the difficulty clears up if we understand the first usage to refer to traditional Nirvikalpa samadi, and the second to refer to Sahaja or Sahaja-Nirvikalpa samadhi.
"I made this distinction in a chant I once wrote:
"In sabikalpa samadhi yoga
I will drown myself in my Self.
In nirbikalpa samadhi yoga
I will find myself in my Self."
(The Essence of Self-Realization, 1990, p. 196)
The aforementioned three stages of Self-realization (Superconsciousness, or attunement with the vibratory current of Om, Christ Consciousness, and Cosmic Consciousness), Yogananda equated with the Hindu version (AUM-TAT-SAT) of the Christian Trinity (Holy Ghost-Son-Father). Yogananda states:
"In my perceptions, just as I feel my own consciousness in every part of my physical form, I feel you all to be a part of me. Everything that is living I feel within this body. I know the sensations of all. It is not imagination; it is Self-realization. This consciousness is far beyond telepathy. It is awareness of the perceptions of every being. That is the meaning of Christ Consciousness." (6)
In his poem, "Samadhi", from Songs for the Soul (http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/ind/paramahansa_yogananda/yogananda_poems/1), he gives hints of his realization.
And further he writes:
"When he re-identifies with his soul as individualized ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss, he then merges with the all-pervading ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss of Spirit - even as a droplet returns to the sea. Still, that individuality is never lost; that portion of Spirit eternally retains its "memory" of that individualized existence." (7)
This latter paragraph is consistent with Shabd Yoga wherein the purified soul merges further, losing its identity in the absolute, and then returns to be soul, and the idea of a "memory" of the individualized life is consistent with PB's idea of an ever-spiralling spiritual evolution, even after sahaj is attained, or Sri Nisargadatta's assertion that in liberation "every I AM is preserved and glorified."
Fortunately there is so much good in the devotional writings of Yogananda that in my opinion it makes up for any difficulty I have with his sometimes unique use of traditional terms, and I find a growing appreciation for his greatness the more I read his writings and stories about him. It makes me long for the presence of my own guru.
It would certainly, however, be interesting for a current teacher of Kriya yoga to debate with a master of the Radhasoami school as well as disciples of the Maharshi, for the former gurus attest to the existence of at least four more planes beyond the causal, which in each case is defined as the mental or ideational seed-realm, and thus still in the domain of the manamaya and vijnanamaya koshas, while the latter consider the causal realm as the transcendental root or source of attention and ego-self along with the anandamaya kosha in the right side of the heart. In fairness, Yogananda used the term astral to refer to what traditionally would include prana, manas, and buddhi, while causal is ideational-consciousness, self-awareness, and intelligence. Christ Consciousness is both transcendental to and immanent in all lower bodies and worlds, the abode of perfected saints, the first individualization or 'spark' of the Spirit as soul, while God-Consciousness is transcendental to all cosmic vibration and above that. He also spoke of not one, but various causal worlds, as did Yukteswar. Yogananda also said that the heart was the center of consciousness and perception in the body, which was in contact with the spiritual eye center in the head. So he is perhaps not so far apart from either the Sants or Maharshi.
He spoke of "having killed Yogananda," "there is only God now in this body," and "I won my liberation many lifetimes ago," so he certainly seems to have gone beyond separation and ego.
Kriya yoga as popularly presented is a modern form of Raja Yoga, and as such is a mystical school advocating ascension of the soul to the realms of light above, while also teaching of their integration as true liberation. Thus, there is a jnana component. Sri Yukteswar was in fact referred to as "Jnanavatar" Sri Yukteswar. In practice, among personal students, Yogananda actually taught all of the classical yogas, even self-inquiry, and had one disciple in particular, Sri Gyanamata, who he said achieved liberation through the path of knowledge and by grace. Near the end of her life she asked him for nirvikalpa samadhi and he said, "you don't need that. If you are in the palace already why do you want to explore the gardens?" Yogananda, like Swami Muktananda, speaks with special praise in Autobiography of A Yogi of the causal realm, the "abode of the siddhas", but in that famous book didn’t mention or emphasize the merits of Nirvikalpa samadhi, which is the fulfilment of this ascending process [although elsewhere he certainly did, and his guru, Sri Yukteswar, certainly did so also], although his yoga system was based in vedanta like most ancient yogas. The famous book was written to get a wide audience of western beginners "hooked" with fascinating spiritual tales. Perhaps, also, the more advanced teachings were reserved for an inner circle, such as in Ramakrishna hiding a copy of the Ashtavakra Gita strictly for Swami Vivekananda.
The writings of Paramhansa Yogananda are overflowing with great heart-devotion, and have done much good to many, many people - including even Robert Adams, who felt jnana without bhakti was dry and lifeless.
“God tries us in all ways; He exposes our weakneses, that we may become aware of them and transmute them into strengths. He may send us ordeals that appear insupportable; He may sometimes seem almost to be pushing us away. But the clever devotee will say: “No, Lord, I want Thee. Nothing shall deter me in my search. My heartfelt prayer is this: Never put me through the test of obliviousness of Thy Presence.” [Note: The test of a saint].
“Do not expect a spiritual blossom every day in the garden of your life. Have faith that the Lord to whom you have surrendered yourselves will bring your divine fulfillment at the proper time.” (8)
“The moment when Divine Mother beats you the hardest is the time you should cling tenaciously to Her skirt.” (9)
Yogananda’s principle guru, Sri Yukteswar (1855-1936) [he also took instruction from Swami Kebalananda, another disciple of Lahiri Mahasay] was described by his famous disciple as being a strict disciplinarian, an uncompromising taskmaster, and a man with forceful and candid speech. Yogananda felt that Yukteswar would probably have been the most sought-after guru in India if his methods and manner had not been so severe. Alas, such has been the fate of many true teachers. Nevertheless, Yukteswar was revered by those who understood his ways. It is worth noting that his reprimands and rebukes were not directed to casual visitors, but only to those who were devoted to him and to his discipline. Yogananda expressed gratitude for Yukteswar's "humbling blows", confessing that the hard core of ego is "difficult to dislodge except rudely." Yukteswar was also an excellent astrologer. He cast charts for both Satyananda and Yogananda and gave them each a protective amulet. He told them that it made no difference whether they believed in such things or not for the scientific principles would work irregardless. Yukteswar was fond of discussing astrology with eminent practitioners of the art, and to this end he would forward full-fare round-trip tickets to coax them to visit him. If they could not come then he would visit them. One of his most important theories was that the precession of the constellations in the 25,000 year “Great Year” cycle was due to our sun being part of a binary sun system with perhaps Sirius as its companion star. This is being born out by much contemporary research. Yukteswar also correllated this with the Hindu system of Yugas, and found errors in the calculation of those. Most importantly, he discovered that confusion with a greater or Maha-Yuga cycle led many people to conclude that we are in the dark Kali (Iron age)Yuga, whereas in fact we have been in the ascending phase of the Dwapara (Silver Age) Yuga since 1699 A.D..
Yukteswar established several Self-Realization Fellowship centers (known, in India, as Yogoda Satsanga - YSS) and appointed two successors: Satyananda for the East (10) and Yogananda for the West. He died on Mar 9, 1936, and in June of that year appeared in a "physically rematerialized body" to Yogananda and at least one other disciple. (11)
Sri Yukteswar shared the general yogic view, and the view of Kriya yogis in particular, that the ajna chakra or third eye is the most important bodily center for spiritual realization. He said that "the essence of religion, pure consciousness, and the Supreme Lord reside in the "Cave" in between the eyebrows." (12) Kriya teachings, somewhat uniquely, for I have seen it nowhere else in the literature, argue that the vibratory pranic or cosmic life-energy enters the body at the medulla oblongata (brain stem), which is "the main switch that controls the entrance, storage, and distribution of the life-force." (13). They consider the medulla as the twin pole of the ajna or agya chakra, Christ center, or spiritual eye. The prana then goes upwards into the higher brain and downwards from there to the various bodily centers (chakras). In the yogi much of it is stored in the sahasrara at the top of the brain. This is, as mentioned, a unique view. The shabd yogins would say that both the the prana as well as the attention or surat, both enter the body from the top of the head, not the medulla. Yogananda called it the "mouth of God", where the Aum vibration enters the body. He also said that the seed-atom or matrix for the coming incarnation is implanted at conception in the medulla, while most yogic and vedantic schools say it is implanted in the heart.
Swami Kriyananda, in his rendition of Yogananda's commentaries on the Bhagavad-Gita, interestingly states:
"The sun in the body represents the light of the spiritual eye - or, alternatively, the sahasrara (the "thousand-petalled lotus") at the top of the head. The moon represents the reflection of that light in the ego, or agya chakra (the medulla oblongata), and therefore represents the human ego itself. Ego-consciousness is, in fact, centered in the medulla." (14)
That, too, is a unique view. How to determine which view is right? When you find out please let me know!
For Ramana Maharshi, in contrast, the center for Self-Realization is the transcendental Heart (the "sun"), all-pervading yet felt or intuited prior to realization relative to the body as being in the heart on the right side, and from which the light above the crown (reflected in the brain - the "moon") emanates and, upon Realization, is recognized, free of egoic illusion. Ramana therefore would likely object to this Kriya interpretation of the sun and moon as rendered from the Bhagavad-Gita.[Ramana and Yogananda met but did not discuss these details]. Ramana also simply said that the source of the pranas is the same as that of the mind, which is the Heart, and did not concern himself with any of the bodily centers, although he did mention them, but tended to dismiss in advaitic fashion as existing in the mind and irrelevant for realization.
The Kriya path posits the physical, astral, and causal bodies/worlds, and teaches that when the attention is withdrawn from the outer body it enters three progressively deeper "astral" nadis: the vajra, the chitra, and then the brahmanadi. [The classic "ida" and "pingala" nadis are considered as more superficial, more to due with the breath, than the other nadis, which are deeper and luminous with astral light]. This is also a unique interpretation of the nadis:
"Passing through the chitra, the energy and consciousness enter the innermost channel, the brahmanadi, which constitutes the spine of the causal body. [this is interesting; one has not yet left through the top of the physical head, but he is supposed to be in the spine of the causal body]. It was through the brahmanadi that Brahma, the Creative aspect of AUM, in His aspect of Creator of individual beings and their three bodies, descended into outward manifestation. It is through this final channel of brahmanadi, therefore, that the soul must once ascend in order to become again one with the Spirit. As the yogi withdraws his energy up through this final channel, he is able to fully offer his separate, individual consciousness to infinity...The opening of the brahmanadi is at the top of the head. On reaching this point, the yogi becomes reunited with omnipresence, for the last sheath has been removed that closes him off from infinity." (15)
Vedantist V.S. Iyer, court philosopher of the Maharaja of Mysore, teacher of Paul Brunton and Ramakrishna monks Nikhilinanda and Siddeswarananda, by contrast, had this to say about this sort of view, from the point of view of truth:
“Some yogis teach that Brahman is in the top chakra of the skull; that therefore we must ascend there. This is childish.” (Collected Works, Vol. 1, ed. Mark Scorelle, 1999, p. 105)
We will hear more from Iyer later. Ramana Maharshi also adamently opposed this view.
This also appears a problematic and contradictory teaching for the shabd yogin, for according to that school a successful exit at the top of the head would only leave the soul at the threshold of the astral world, with astral and causal bodies intact and yet to be transcended. Therefore, the shabd yogin would not agree that "the last sheath has been removed." It is, of course, a traditional kundalini and raja yoga teaching that nirvikalpa samadhi and infinite consciousness is attained when one reaches the sahasrara, but there seems to be a big jump in logic here. There is much explaining needed regarding the subtle channel or "brahmanadi" between the agya chakra and the sahasrara. What exactly happens to the astral and causal bodies? How indeed are they transcended by the life energies, consciousness or attention passing from the agya chakra to the sahasrara, the sahasrara being defined as at the top of the head? If the sheaths are so transcended by this process then it seems that the astral and causal worlds would also have to be transcended, which then either suggest that such worlds are within the "brain-core", and not outside of it, or that this path is integral in methodology, such that when one did leave the body,all of the sheaths interpenetrating, he may have already in effect transcended the astral and causal worlds. But if that were the case then there would be no subtle or heavenly realms after death either, and that can't be the case. What exactly, then, are the Kriya yogis saying?
Yogananda's teaching is sometimes more than a little confusing. If we accept Kriyananda's rendition and (sometimes) Yogananda's teaching about leaving through the crown of the head and entering directly to Christ Consciousness at the Sahasrar, then how do we interpret his more common teaching that one must penetrate through the spiritual eye the gold ring (signifying the vibratory astral world), the blue field (signifying Christ Consciousness (and sometimes also meaning the causal world), and then the "white star" (signifying the gateway to God or Cosmic Consciousness)? For instance, for the Sants of the shabd yoga school the white star is only at the threshold of the astral plane.
The Kriya teachings involve the use of traditional Hatha Yoga means including asana (right posture) and pranayama (breath control), as well as the traditional Raja yoga components of pratyahara (abstraction of attention from the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (contemplation), and samadhi (transcendental absorption), with the goal being ascended absorption at the ajna center, passage through the central brightness within the spiritual eye, and finally Nirvikalpa Samadhi, beyond the three bodies and worlds. Its practice of concentration of attention on the lights and sounds in the brain core is similar to that of Shabd Yoga, although the latter claims to take the soul much higher with a much less arduous sadhana. Kriya Yoga, on the other hand, makes claims for bodily transformation and rejuvenation that the latter does not. Sometimes this tends to get over-emphasized at the expense of the goal of realization itself. From an interview with Paramhansa Yogananda:
“The technique I had already received from two disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya—Father and my tutor, Swami Kebalananda. But Master [Sri Yukteswar] possessed a transforming power; at his touch a great light broke upon my being, like the glory of countless suns blazing together. A flood of ineffable bliss overwhelmed my heart to an innermost core...."
"The Sanskrit root of kriya is kri, to do, to act and react: the same root is found in the word karma, the natural principle of cause and effect. Kriya yoga is thus union (yoga) with the Infinite through a certain action or rite (kriya). A yogi who faithfully practices the techniques gradually freed from karma or the lawful chain of cause-effect equilibrium."
"Kriya yoga is a simple, psychophysiological method by which human blood is decarbonized and recharged with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen are transmuted into life current to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centers. By stopping the accumulation of venous blood, the yogi is able to lessen or prevent the decay of tissues. The advanced yogi transmutes his cells into energy."
"The kriya yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upwards and downwards, around the six spinal centers (medullary, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral and coccygeal plexuses), which correspond to the 12 astral signs of the zodiac, the symbolic Cosmic Man."
"Elijah, Jesus, Kabir, and other prophets were past masters in the use of kriya or a similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to materialize and dematerialize at will."
"Kriya is an ancient science. Lahiri Mahasaya received it from his great guru, Babaji, who rediscovered and clarified the technique after it had been lost in the Dark Ages. Babaji renamed it, simply, kriya yoga.”
The next to the last paragraph above could pose a problem, as the "similar technique" used by Jesus and Kabir, according to the Sant Mat gurus, would be Shabd Yoga, not Kriya Yoga! The Kriya organization promoted a theocentric myth that their yoga was a special dispensation to the "New Age" from the legendary immortal master "Babaji", which presentation, like Theosophy, is representative of much occult mythology which became the manner of many early twentieth-century communications of traditional oriental esotericism - including Sant Mat, with their Kabir and Soamiji avataric theology - into the Western world.
To complicate matters Babaji was supposed to have been Krishna in a previous incarnation, which wouldn't set well with some of Sri Aurobindo's disciples, who felt that he had been Krishna in a previous life. Ramakrishna also claimed to have been Krishna. To add some spice to the mix, Sant Mat Master Shiv Brat Lal said that in an earlier incarnation he and his disciple Faqir Chand had been Buddha and Ananda.
Kriya yoga thus appears to be a popularized and even theistic version of an assortment of hatha, raja, and nada yoga techniques that have been taught since ancient times. Its primary domain is clearly experiential mysticism in the manifest realms, with a goal, however, of the unmanifest, finally integrated with the world.
One area that I contemplated omitting from this section as of somewhat lesser importance, but decided to include explore anyway because it kept gnawing at me from time to time. And that is the talk that keeps popping up about one Guru or another influencing world affairs as a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan. First of all, kind of like feeling that the only ones who should be President are the ones who do not want the job (!), so, too, the only ones who can be co-workers of a Divine Plan are those who have no feeling of being such. PB said that passing through the void makes one "the feeblest of creatures," with no such sense of inner greatness. So utmost humility with no consciousness of being humble as a requirement seems more than reasonable.
Paramhansa Yogananda was said to have been spiritually active in influencing world events, in particular the Korean War. Yogananda stated:
"When South Korea was invaded by the north, I myself put the thought into President Truman's mind to go to its defense. That situation was a threat to the whole world. Had South Korea fallen, the communists would have gone on to Japan, and would then have come up and taken the Aleutian Islands, from where they would have invaded Alaska and North America. The whole world, ultimately, could have been swept up into the materialistic philosophy of communism. For these reasons it was very necessary that South Korea be defended. That is why I have called this a holy war." (16)
Yogananda also commented on the role of sages in influencing the outcome of WWII. As Swami Kriyananda recounts:
"When Hitler first rose to power, Paramhansa Yogananda, for several reasons, saw some hope in that accession. One of those reasons was the unfairness of the Versailles Treaty, which had forced germany into virtual destitution. He also saw, as he told a few people, that Hitler had been, in a former lifetime, Alexander "the great" of Greece, who had shown an interest in the yogis of India. When Hitler allowed himself to be seized by ambition for power, however, that ambition distorted his potentially spiritual leanings. At that point, several masters began to work against him [Aurobindo, the Mother, Narayan Maharaj, and Meher Baba, to name a few who were claimed to have done so]...They..put the thought in Hitler's mind to make mistakes that led to his eventual destruction. They suggested to him from within, for example, to divide his forces and fight both in the east and in the west, and also in Africa. This they did by feeding the confidence he felt in his own ability to win "everywhere." Militarily, there was no need for Germany to divide its fronts. That self-division proved, for it, a fatal error." (17)
Yogananda said that Mussolini had been Marc Anthony in a past life, Stalin was Genghis Khan, and Churchill had been Napoleon (this might have been a small problem, as Sri Aurobindo was also said to have been Napoleon). When asked the same about FDR, he quipped, "I've never told anybody...I was afraid I might get into trouble!" (18)
Yogananda said that "the divine purpose behind the Second World War was to liberate the 'third world' countries, most of which were British colonies." Supposedly a part of this was karmic retribution against Churchill: as Napoleon>"he wanted to destroy England. As Churchill he had to preside over the dissolution of the British Empire." (19)
Apparently, for Yogananda, as well as for Sri Aurobindo, the thought that the world bankers as well as secret societies and major power-elite actually funded the Russian Revolution, triggered WWI, orchestrated the Versailles Treaty and its inevitable repercussions, and also financially supported Hitler until several years into WWII, never crossed their mind. Whatever the divine plan was for the fate of the nations involved in these major conflicts, there was another plan that the sages and masters seem not to have been privy to, that of the Illuminati, who appeared to have achieved all of their major goals, to wit: the breakup of Germany as a major power, the fomenting of unrest in the Middle East, the handover of eastern Europe to the communists in order to create a Cold War, with the subsequent creation in the public mind of a need for a global governing body, first materialized in the incipient United Nations, and in dialectical fashion thus move a few steps closer to accomplishing their long-cherished New World Order. Divine plan or no divine plan, one obvious irony is that if the masters had not influenced Hitler to split his forces, but rather cooperated with his desire to make peace with England, he might have been able to prevail in his goal of stopping world communism and thereby avoid the consequences for humanity of both the Korean conflict and the Cold War - the outcome of which Yogananda said he had also favorably influenced. "Who can fathom the mind of the Lord?", saith the psalmist.
Numerous accounts of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother claim they were psychically active in altering world affairs. Howard Murphet reported that Sri Aurobindo remarked, at the outbreak of World War II, that if the Nazis won the war it would set the Divine Plan back one thousand years. His disciples claim that he and the Mother used occult powers or yogic siddhis to influence the outcome of the war. Narayan Maharaj and various other spiritual figures were said to have done likewise. The Meher Baba devotees say hewas the avatar intervening for WWII.
from “Stripping the Gurus” by Geoffrey Falk, with some additional comments of my own:
”Sri Aurobindo put all his [e.g., astral] Force behind the Allies and especially Churchill. One particular event in which he had a hand was the successful evacuation from Dunkirk. As some history books note, the German forces refrained “for inexplicable reasons” from a quick advance which would have been fatal for the Allies.” (Huchzermeyer, Wilfried (1998), Mother: A Short Biography (Silver Lake, WI: Lotus Press).
Other admirers of Aurobindo regard that Allied escape as being aided by a fog which the yogi explicitly helped, through his powers of consciousness, to roll in over the water, concealing the retreating forces.
Aurobindo’s spiritual partner, “the Mother,” is likewise believed to have advanced the wartime labor via metaphysical means:
Due to her occult faculties the Mother was able to look deep into Hitler’s being and she saw that he was in contact with an asura [astral demon] who is at the origin of wars and makes every possible effort to prevent the advent of world unity (Huchzermeyer, 1998).
When Hitler was gaining success after success and Mother was trying in the opposite direction, she said the shining being who was guiding Hitler used to come to the ashram from time to time to see what was happening. Things changed from bad to worse. Mother decided on a fresh strategy. She took on the appearance of that shining being, appeared before Hitler and advised him to attack Russia. On her way back to the ashram, she met that being. The being was intrigued by Mother having stolen a march over him. Hitler’s attack on Russia ensured his downfall...
(Apart from the war), Mother saw in her meditation some Chinese people had reached Calcutta and recognized the danger of that warning. Using her occult divine power, she removed the danger from the subtle realms. Much later when the Chinese army was edging closer to India’s border, a shocked India did not know which way to turn. The Chinese decided on their own to withdraw, much to the world’s surprise. Mother had prevented them from advancing against India by canceling their power in the subtle realms....
The Mother further believed herself to have been, in past lives, Queen Elizabeth of England—the sixteenth-century daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Also, Catherine of Russia (wife of Peter the Great), an Egyptian Queen, the mother of Moses, and Joan of Arc. [the talk around the ashram as to the prevous incarnations of Aurobindo included Michaelangelo, Napoleon, and even Krishna - the latter a bit of a problem since according to Sri Aurobindo not only Swami Vivekananda but Lord Krishna himself had appeared to him while he was in his jail cell. If so, was this a case of his giving darshan to himself?] [Suchlike claims were also made of Paramahansa Yogananda. He was said to have been William the Conqueror in a previous life, and he himself said that Hitler had been Abraham Lincoln].
The Mother's diary entries reveal that even during her illness she continued through her sadhanas to exert an occult influence on men and events (Nirodbaran, 1990). [The Mother] is the Divine Mother [i.e., as an incarnation or avatar] who has consented to put on her the cloak of obscurity and suffering and ignorance so that she can effectively lead us—human beings—to Knowledge and Bliss and Ananda and to the Supreme Lord" (Aurobindo, 1953).
In the person of [the Mother], Aurobindo saw the descent of the Supermind. He believed she was its avatara or descent into the Earth plane. As the incarnate Supermind she was changing the consciousness on which the Earth found itself, and as such her work was infallible.... She does not merely embody the Divine, he instructed one follower, but is in reality the Divine appearing to be human. (Minor, Robert N. (1999), The Religious, the Spiritual, and the Secular: Auroville and Secular India (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press).
India’s independence from British rule followed soon after the end of WWII. Aurobindo himself marked the occasion in public speech:
August 15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age....August 15th is my own birthday and it is naturally gratifying to me that it should have assumed this vast significance. I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and seal of the Divine Force that guides my steps on the work with which I began life, the beginning of its full fruition (in Nirodbaran, 1990).”
[End of Geoffrey Falk material]
To be blunt, all such talk of helping the “Divine Plan”, if engaged strictly through occult means on the subtle planes, without inspiration directly from a Divine Mind or Intelligence coming from a much higher level, would smack of the very “Intermediate Zone” that Sri Aurobindo warned so much about. He would no doubt argue that he did not fall into that category. Certainly, if we take the teachings of a sage such as PB or Plotinus, if there is a Nous, or Divine or "World-Mind" with its "World-Idea" - an guiding evolutionary paradigm for the cosmos - which a sage could tap into through his oneness with his own Divine Soul, then he could certainly be a unique force for change in the world. This could include using any and all means on any and all planes of manifestation, or even by silent contemplation in the Void. He may not know he is such a vehicle, and if he is truly realized this is possibly even likely, and a mantle of safety and protection. As PB stated:
“The catalyst which by its presence enables chemical elements to change their forms does not itself change. In the same way the illuminate may be used by higher forces to affect, influence, or even change others without any active personal move on his part to bring about this result. He may not even feel, see, or know what is happening, yet he has started it!”(30)
Even a person of lesser spiritual realization but relatively noble intention could be an agent of destiny - consider one such as Gandhi. No man, however, no matter how highly evolved, is omniscient. The entire history of high spiritual teachings argues against any one person having, or even being able to have, the absolute knowledge or omniscience of the Divine Mind. Getting bogged down in the details and time frame of a so-called divine plan on earth, moreover, sounds more like something ET’s and lower demigods, or religious-fanatic politicians, would play around in. During WWII, it would have been very politically correct to have been on the right side, fighting “pure evil”, but in hindsight, can one always recognize what was the right thing to do?
In the light of all of the above, therefore, to suggest that any “godman” can know or consciously do battle with forces arrayed against the “Divine Plan” must, at the very least, be suspect. He may do battle with what he perceives is evil, that is another matter, but who can totally fathom the mind of God? And if he does, from that position even "Kal" is not inherently evil, so then what is he to do?
It has been well said that the victors write the history books. So much about WWII and world events that we think we know has come under challenge in recent years. The social-political-cultural "Matrix" is being exposed. It is not as easy as it may seem to know who to influence and who to support in every instance for the greater good in the end. But, for the purposes of argument, assuming we know which side and what leaders had God on their side in WWII, from a ‘psychically simpler’ point of view, I can’t help supposing, wouldn’t it have been a lot easier for Aurobindo to simply “tweak” the dreams of the assassin of Archduke Ferdinand? There might then have been no WWI, no Versailles, no onerous reparations against Germany, no grounds for the rise of Hitler, and thus no WWII. It seems much more complicated to engage in psychic warfare on the battlefields one at a time. But perhaps, this would have required omniscience on the part of these gurus, and circumventing Kal's laws of recompense. Maybe it all had to happen in the bigger picture. One cannot help but wonder, however, if one is going to claim special divine power, why not have “tweaked” the dreams of Winston Churchill, influencing him not to jail Rudolph Hess, who had secretly flown over to England to negotiate a plan to end the war several years early by getting the top brass of the German military to go against Hitler? That would have been much simpler and saved millions of lives. Or why not “tweak” the dreams of the Wall Street bankers, who financed Hitler before and during much of WWII, just like they had done the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution? Why not “tweak” the dreams of FDR, telling him not to hand over eastern Europe to Stalin, thus preventing millions of more deaths, as well as the cold war? And how benevolent was it of the Mother to convince Hitler to attack Russia knowing he would lose? Maybe he later would have destroyed communism, or been able to make a peace with England, which he wanted to do but was not allowed to do so by the allies. Who can say that might not have led to a greater good? There is little doubt Hitler took the ball he was given and ran with it, and was negatively influenced by the occult and perhaps mentally deranged, but are we so sure that is also not the case with the "other side", and that the motivating forces behind world events are much more complicated? In any case, it seems so much easier to just manipulate one person or two than have an elaborate and involved campaign of dealing with evil forces for years and years. Not so dramatic, however, and not so exciting or capable of keeping ones disciples entertained.
Sant Mat is not immune to such stories. They may have some truth. After all, a "micro-God", as we are all said to eventually become, has some power and can at least "put a comma" in the world's karma, as Swami Rama phrased it. Sant Kirpal Singh was said to have averted a China-India war by causing a torrential rainstorm. Judith Lamb-Lion, a former stewardess, while traveling in a plane with Kirpal said at one point during a lightning storm he oddly placed the seatbelt below his knees, and the plane to her vision essentially de-atomized to bend around a lightning bolt, with all souls arriving safely. But then, that is different from taking credit for doing so.
The devotee can only remain in awe of such things. All must admit, "what do we really know?"
Yogananda also made some controversial claims for his lineage of Masters. He said that he had been St. Francis of Assisi in a previous life, and led some devotees to believe that he had even been Jesus, who taught kriya yoga. He said that in the 19th century Jesus told Babaji to spread the yoga teachings in the West. He also said that the three wisemen or magi in the Gospels were his masters Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Sri Yukteswar, and that they also were Jesus' spiritual teachers during his 'lost years' in India. When speaking to his devotees, he told them to only read writings of those 'in their line', among whom were St. Francis and St. Teresa of Avila. He said that stigmatist Theresa Neumann had been Mary Magdalene, and that Judas was a disciple of Ramakrishna.
Kriya Yoga is sometimest difficult to describe because there have been differences and modification of the practices as it has been passed down from Lahiri Mahasay to Sri Yukteswar to Paramahansa Yogananda (see http://oaks.nvg.org/yogananda-changed-kriya.html). Supposedly this has been to speed up and make more scientific the process to the attainment of Christ Consciousness and God-Realization. The above link opens into an extensive amount of material suggesting contradictions within the Kriya teachings, and cultic aspects of the organization, including scare tactics such as the threat of lifetimes wasted if you ever leave the guru and the fellowship (all too common among almost every religious group, including at times the Radhasoami Mat, Auroville under the Mother, Adidam, as well as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, fundamentalist Christianity, and many more), and the need to take an SRF loyalty oath, that the reader will be left to explore for himself. Here we will give Yogananda the benefit of the doubt, out of respect for the great devotional inspiration derived from his writings, leaving each individual to draw his or her own conclusions about guru politics.
Essentially, again, kriya yoga employs asana and pranayama techniques to move the subtle life energy up and down the spine, attempting to purify karmas associated with each of the six spinal chakras, with the hoped for result that this life force eventually collects at the third eye (ajna chakra) and from there proceeds to the sahasrar, which Kriya considers the doorway to the infinite. When the life-force collects at the ajna, a circle of colored rings appear, predominantly a golden ring around a blue sky, with a brilliant white star in the center. Concentration on that star leads to passage beyond it and beyond the "three coils", to eventual Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Repeated attainment of Nirvikalpa Samadhi eventually is supposed to lead to realization of the same in daily life, which, as stated, is called “Cosmic Consciousness” in the terminology of Yogananda. It is, essentially, realization of Nirvikalpa samadhi in the midst of daily life.
How that is achieved is not entirely clear. The assumption is that repeated immersion in nirvikalpa will bleed through into ones daily life and eventually and naturally create sahaj, although that specific word is not used or explained. Here is what PB said on this basically yogic and Indian version of sahaj samadhi, versus its Ch’an and, in his language, philosophic version:
“The Indian notion of sahaja makes it the extension of nirvikalpa samadhi into the active everyday state. But the Ch’an conception of sahaj samadhi differs from this; it does not seek deliberately to eliminate thoughts, although that may often happen of its own accord through identification with the true Mind, but to eliminate the personal feelings usually attached to them, that is, to remain unaffected by them because of this identification."
"Ch’an does not consider sahaja to be the fruit of yoga meditation alone, nor of understanding alone, but of a combination seemingly of both. It is a union of reason and intuition. It is an awakening once and for all. It is not attained in nirvikalpa and then to be held as long as possible. it is not something, a state alternately gained and lost on numerous occasions, but gradually expanded as it is clung to. It is a single awakening that enlightens the man so that he never returns to ignorance again. He has awakened to his divine essence, his source in Mind, as an all-day and every day self-identification. It has come by itself, effortlessly.” (20)
[Note: do not be misled by the last sentence of this quote. Elsewhere PB says a man must work hard for this, but only that the final stage, that of irreducible insight into reality, comes effortlessly by grace].
It is not clear whether the final realization for the Kriya yogin is the same as realization herein defined. It appears to be in the category of the former or Indian version wherein something like nirvikalpa is attempted to be held onto as long as possible. Yogananda also wrote in Autobiography of a Yogi that final liberation for a saint is usually attained from a higher astral world after death rather than from the physical plane. This concept has its counterparts in Sant Mat, Sufism, and even Buddhism, which speaks of a realm called Sukhavati from where the bodhisattvas attain their enlightenment.
PB gives a warning on the yogic view of the stabilization of ecstasy as a characteristic of the goal, if not the goal itself point of view:
"The philosopher is satisfied with a noble peace and does not run after mystical ecstasies. Whereas other paths often depend upon an emotionalism that perishes with the disappearance of the primal momentum that inspired it, or which dissolves with the dissolution of the first enthusiastic ecstasies themselves, here there is a deeper and more dependable process. What must be emphasized is that most mystical aspirants have an initial or occasional ecstasy, and they are so stirred by the event that they naturally want to enjoy it permanently. This is because they live under the common error that a successful and perfect mystic is one who has succeeded in stabilizing ecstasy. That the mystic is content to rest on the level of feeling alone, without making his feeling self-reflective as well, partly accounts for such an error. It also arises because of incompetent teachers or shallow teaching, leading them to strive to perform what is impracticable and to yearn to attain what is impossible. Our warning is that this is not possible, and that however long a mystic may enjoy these 'spiritual sweets,' they will assuredly come to an end one day. The stern logic of facts calls for stress on this point. Too often he believes that this is the goal, and that he has nothing more about which to trouble himself. Indeed, he would regard any further exertions as a sacrilegious denial of the peace, as a degrading descent from the exaltation of this divine union. He longs for nothing more than the good fortune of being undisturbed by the world and of being able to spend the rest of his life in solitary devotion to his inward ecstasy. For the philosophic mystic, however, this is not the terminus but only the starting point of a further path. What philosophy says is that this is only a preliminary mystical state, however remarkable and blissful it be. There is a more matured state -- that of gnosis -- beyond it. If the student experiences paroxysms of ecstasy at a certain stage of his inner course, he may enjoy them for a time, but let him not look forward to enjoying them for all time. The true goal lies beyond them, and he should not forget that all-important fact. He will not find final salvation in the mystical experience of ecstasy, but he will find an excellent and essential step towards salvation therein. He who would regard rapturous mystical emotion as being the same as absolute transcendental insight is mistaken. Such a mistake is pardonable. So abrupt and striking is the contrast with his ordinary state that he concludes that this condition of hyper-emotional bliss is the condition in which he is able to experience reality. He surrenders himself to the bliss, the emotional joy which he experiences, well satisfied that he has found God or his soul. But his excited feelings about reality are not the same as the serene experience of reality itself. This is what a mystic finds difficult to comprehend. Yet, until he does comprehend it, he will not make any genuine progress beyond this stage." (21)
Another difference between emanationist paths, such as Kriya yoga, and philosophic paths, such as described by PB and as given in Advaita Vedanta and various forms of Buddhism, lies with the concept of matter. Kriya is a firm believer in matter as crystalized or condensed Consciousness. Even astral matter, which Yogananda terms "lifetrons", falls into this category. To the philosophic sage, all experiences, high or low, no matter how they are subjectively perceived, as dense or ethereal, are ideas in the mind - and ultimately, Mind - but to Yogananda this was the wrong way of perceiving things. He said:
"The human body - and all things else - are naught but a mass of condensed energy; and energy is "frozen" Cosmic Consciousness, or God. We should not call it mind. Mind is different. To say that everything is mind is incorrect. It is Cosmic Consciousness that causes us to be aware of different things, to have a consciousness of so-called matter and a consciousness of Spirit...You will know that the cosmic golden cord that binds the atoms is the tender consciousness of Spirit. It is with this cord that He binds the atoms to become the flower, or the human body." (22)
Thus, Yogananda is not a mentalist. He even criticizes the great Sankara of confusing "mind" with subtle matter. To Yogananda "thoughts" or "ideas" only begin in the causal plane.
"In the causal world, he knows that everything is made of idea-forms, or thoughts...he knows himself as soul (jiva), a manifestation of Para-Prakriti: Pure Nature." (23)
For Yogananda, proceeding downwards from pure Spirit, it is on the causal plane that the first individualization of the soul takes place. it further limitation to an egoic form of life occurs on the astral plane.
The raical advaitist might say at this point, "has anyone ever seen 'Para-Prakriti'? Can you prove its existence?" The answer is no. Then why use the term and suppose it leads one to truth? As a yogi Swami Yogananda - as well as Sri Aurobindo - took issue with the advaitins and their epistemology of Drik-Drysam-Advaitin, that everything seen or experienced (Drysam) is a presentation to and inseparable from the seer (Drik), Atman or Brahman. In this view everything is mental, even the soul, which reduces to a thought or concept in Mind. Yogananda might possibly be classified as a parinama-vada vedantist, in which the Mind projects out various levels or stadia, or even a modified advocate of Sam 'khya, believing in two primary substances: consciousness and matter (i.e., maha-prakriti, the primordial field of nature). Indeed, Roy Eugene Davis describes Yogananda's schema of manifestation as Sam 'khya, although, it seems, it is without the extreme dualism of classical Sam 'khya, for Yogananda accepted vedanta and posited a supreme Spirit, which produced Maya or cosmic illusion, which itself then generated a transcendental Trinity of Father-Christ Consciousness-Holy Ghost, with the latter producing the 'Aum' vibration responsible for creation of all of the manifest worlds. Yogananda, however, would not likely have agreed with the strict ajata-vada vedantist who is a firm adherent to the doctrine of non-causality and that all is Mind; that 'things' are not produced by Mind, they are Mind. V.S. Iyer, teacher of Paul Brunton, had this to say about Yogananda:
"Swami Yogananda of Los Angeles visited me. He kept on saying "I am Brahman. All this is Brahman." I smiled but kept quiet. I ought to have said to him, "How can you prove that you are Brahman?" He would have replied, "I know, practice my method of yoga and you too shall know. To that I would have said, "How can you prove that your method is the correct one?" Such mystics will not reason." (24)
PB states, and this is generally the view of advaita vedanta, as well as Ramana Maharshi and sages such as Atmananda and Nisargadatta:
"The Theosophic doctrine that the physical world is an externalization of an astral plane or even the higher Platonic doctrine that it crystallizes a world of divine ideation is given to beginners as a help to give them a crude grasp, a first step towards the theory that the world is an idea, until they are mentally developed. When their mind is mature they are then told to discard the astral plane theory and told the pure truth that all existence is an idea."
"How hard for the average mind to grasp this central fact, that the World-Idea is the world-creation. The one does not precede the other. The second is not a copy in matter of the first. Man has to work, with his senses and his intellect, when he wants to convert his ideas into objects, but the World-Mind does not need to make an effort in order to make a universe, does not in reality have anything to do at all, for Its thought is the thing. Some mystics and most occultists have failed to perceive this. Their realization of the Spirit did not bring the full revelation of the Spirit. This is because they have not thoroughly comprehended...its utter emptiness. Nothing can come out of the Universal Mind that is not mental, not even the material world which men believe they inhabit and experience." (25)
Even so, and while it is epistemologically consistent, even PB appears to hedge on this point a little bit, when he states:
"It is not quite correct to assume that we are the manifested forms of the perfection from which we emanate. More precisely, we are projecteds of a denser medium from the universal mind, appearing by some catalytic process in natural sequence within that medium. The cosmic activity provides each such entity-projection with an individual life and intelligence centre through an evolutionary process, whereby its own volitional directive energies are, ultimately, merged with the cosmic will in perfect unity and harmony." (26)
This is more in line with the Sant Mat emanationist position. The mentalistic insight, however, that all arises in and as Mind, is how a sage like Papaji could make the enigmatic statement, "nothing ever happened." Yogananda would consider the causal body to be made of mind or mental "stuff", but it would still be, from this point of view, a subtle stuff, more subtle than the astral lifetrons, or the physical body, but still an actual condensation of Consciousness (which to the philosophers is Mind), rather than an appearance within or apparent emanation of Consciousness. This becomes more than mere hair-splitting when one goes deeply into the doctrine of mentalism, and affects the very nature of ones understanding of the identity of Self or Soul and Ego. Similar problems emerge when studying the teachings of Sri Aurobindo. Are the differences in these teachings mere words? We will let the reader decide.
For the shabd yogin, separating from the "three coils" of the physical astral and causal bodies, would not, as in kriya Yoga, lead the soul directly to the Purushottama, or nirvikalpa, but first to the "super-causal" dimension, where the soul is essentially aware of itself as a self-existing eternal 'entity' beyond mind and illusion (a 'drop' of consciousness), but still covered by a thin layer of anandamaya kosha, and confronting a dark void (Maha-Sunn) which it cannot cross to enter the eternal realms without the superior light of the Master. The help of the guru is needed to pass from there to Sach Khand, which is considered the Spiritual realm or true home of the Sants, and from which one then gets progressively absorbed by the Sat Purush past Alakh and Agam Loks, and into the nameless and formless Godhead known as "Anami".
Further, in The Second Coming of Christ, Yogananda refers to all of the sounds as 'astral sounds', whereas for shabd yoga they lead beyond the causal and super-causal planes to Sach Khand or the home of the soul.
Kriya as such [with the caveat, as mentioned, that Yogananda taught all of the yoga paths] differs markedly from the path Shabd Yoga, in that the latter teaches the aspirant to bypass the path of the prana (motor) currents and to instead concentrate the sensory currents at the third eye, ignoring the centers below. Kriya wants to bring both energy and consciousness up to the top of the spine.The upward course from there appears the same, in that one is to pierce through the big star, but in Kriya what comes after that, again, is simply said to be passage beyond the three worlds, while in Shabd Yoga a hierarchy of seven planes beyond is taught, with the Master or Master-Power being one’s chief aid in transcending from one plane to the next on to the highest goal. In Shabd Yoga, moreover, one is taught to cross the sun, moon, and then the big star leading to the first inner plane, although, to be fair, the experience of disciples vary. Lahiri Mahasay states:
“In the kutastha [soul center] there is darkness surrounded by a golden ring. A tiny star with the effulgence of the sun is in the center, which opens the door to Purushottama [the Supreme Being]. Purusha [the Cosmic Man] in the kutastha is Purushottama. When one goes through the door of the kutastha he realizes Purushottama.” (http://www.hariharananda.org/english/who_we_are/kriya/Quotes_Lahiri.htm)
This sounds similar to the shabd yoga teaching of the soul upon reaching Sach Khand beholding and then merging in the Sat Purush, but, again, seemingly ignores the many intermediate regions before the Supreme.
I say seemingly because in the book, The Holy Science (SRF, 2006), by Sri Yukteswar, the Kriya path appears almost identical, once pratyahara is achieved, with that of Sant Mat. He even uses the term Surat Sabda Yoga (!), and stages of Trikuti, Daswan Dwar (the "door" between the material and the spiritual regions), Sunn, Maha Sunn, Alak, Agam , and Anami. Seven stages or planes of creation are mentioned (Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka, Swarloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Satyaloka), which correspond with traditionally delineated yoga stages which are even listed in Sant Kirpal Singh's The Crown of Life: A Study in Yoga, p. 54 (bhur, bhuva, swah, maha, janah, tapah and satyam).
The involvement with pranayama and kriya techniques, which Shabd Masters argue is a waste of time, are considered in the Kriya teachings as essential preparation to attain the state of pratyahara, whereby one can then catch the sound current and ascend further by attuning with the radiant form of the guru. In shabd yoga the boon of pratyahara is supposed to be given by the master at the time of initiation, with simple concentration at the spiritual eye from that point on all that is necessary. On the kriya path, the assumption is that more is required to become capable of concentrating there. From that point, in any case, the path is almost identical with shabd yoga proper, at least, according to The Holy Science. What I find even more intriguing is how Sri Yukteswar explains the inner phenomena of the great divide between the material and spiritual creations, in terms of passage beyond the" Atom" at the heart where the ego or sense of a separate self originates. I recommend this short book; to me it is metaphysically and cosmologically more revealing than that found in later books on that path).
Paramhansa Yogananda in his lengthy commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita [which he felt appropriate to write inasmuch as he considered Babaji to have been Krishna in a former life, and he Arjuna] summarizes his views on the process of realization. Yogananda was adamant that his viewpoint was more practical than that of the strict non-dualists. He said:
"Other Gita interpretations..are not fully rounded, as scriptures ought to be. Even Swami Shankaracharya's commentaries were one-sided in the sense that they completely rejected duality, though duality, for people living in the world, is a daily reality. [This doesn't seem to be entirely correct; Sankara rejuvenated religion at all levels throughout India, not just advaita] That is why Krishna says in the Gita that the path of yoga is higher than the path of wisdom, which Shankaracharya taught. [Iyer disagreed, saying that Krishna taught gnana yoga as the highest]. The path of yoga accepts actual human realities, and works with them as they are, instead of dismissing them as non-existent. They are illusory, certainly, but for all that duality exists, as a dream exists. It just isn't what it appears to be." (27)
This is consistent with Yogananda's view on karma:
"Why live a bad dream by creating bad karma? With good karma, you get to enjoy the dream. Good karma also makes you want, in time, to wake up from the dream. Bad karma, on the other hand, darkens the mind and keeps it bound to the dreaming process." (28)
I have noticed in Yogananda’s later writings, after he met Ramana Maharshi, references to a different viewpoint than he emphasized in his early years. Perhaps he had read some of Ramana's books:
“Look upon this world as a dream, and then you will understand that it is all right for you to lie down on the bed of this earth and dream the dream of life. You won’t mind, because you will know you are dreaming...Dismiss this phantasm of disease and health, sorrow and joy. Rise above it. Become the Self. Watch the show of the universe, but do not become absorbed in it. Many times I have seen my body gone from this world. I laugh at death. I am ready anytime. There is nothing to it. Eternal life is mine. I am the ocean of consciousness...When you truly want to be released from this earth dream, there is no power that can stop you from attaining liberation. Never doubt it! Your salvation is not to be achieved - it is already yours, because you are made in the image of god; but you have to know this. You have forgotten it.” (29)
"The truth is, nothing is really created anyway! The Spirit simply manifests the universe. Ultimately, nothing causes anything, for nothing, in actuality, is even happening." (30)
"Evolution is only a suggestion to the mind. Everything, in reality, is going on in the present tense. In God's consciousness there is no evolution, no change, no 'progress'. it is always and everywhere the same one reality."
"The simple thought that you are not free...keeps you from being free. If you could only break that simple thought, you would go into samadhi...Samadhi is not something one needs to acquire. You have it already. Just think: Eternally you have been with God. For a few incarnations you live in delusion, but then again you are free in Him for eternity! Live always in that thought....Evolution..is only a suggestion in the mind. Everything, in reality, is going on in the present tense. In God's consciousness there is no evolution, no change, no 'progress.' It is always and everywhere the same one reality." (31)
When asked by Roy Eugene Davis how many of the saints he had written about in Autobiography of a Yogi had attained liberation, Yogananda replied:
"Not many. Many saints are satisfied to experience the bliss of God-communion and don't aspire to liberation of consciousness." He then emphatically said, "You must go all the way!" (32)
Sri Yukteswar, while elaborating a seven-storied creation and the need to ascend to its heights, speaking of the last two stages wrote:
"In this state man comprehends himself as nothing but a mere ephemeral idea resting on a figment of the universal Holy Spirit of God, the Eternal Father, and understanding the real worship, he sacrifices his self there at this Holy Spirit, the altar of God; that is, abandoning the vain idea of his separate existence, he becomes "dead" or dissolved in the universal Holy Spirit; and thus reaches Tapaloka, the region of the Holy Ghost."
"In this manner, being one and the same with the universal Holy Spirit of God, man becomes unified with the Eternal Father Himself, and so comes to Satyaloka, in which he comprehends that all this creation is substantially nothing but a mere idea-play of his own nature, and that nothing in the universe exists besides his own Self. This state of unification is called Kaivalya, the Sole Self. (33)
These views, however, are still closer to the Sant Mat view than the ajata doctrine of Maharshi, or the 'nothing ever happened' viewpoint of Papaji. And it is hard to get away from the view that for Kriya Yoga, the goal is some form of heaven, even as it points to an integral view. Yogananda writes:
"Heaven may be said to consist, overall, of three regions: where the heavenly Father lives in vibrationless Infinity; where Christ Intelligence reigns - omnipresent in but transcendentally untouched by vibratory creation - and in which the angels and highest evolved saints reside; and the vibratory spheres of the ideational causal world and lifetronic astral world. These heavenly realms, vibratory and transcendent, are only figuratively "above" the gross vibrations of earth "below": They are in fact superimposed one on the other, and the finer screened from the denser through the medium and intervention of the "firmament," vibratory etheric space, hiding the astral from the physical manifestation, the causal from the astral, and the transcendent Christ and Cosmic Consciousness from the causal. Without this integration - producing a physical instrumentality empowered by astral life, guided by individualized intelligence, all arising from consciousness - there could be no meaningful manifestation." (33a)
A kriya practioner gives a detailed description of the basic, and quite complicated, kriya techniques. One thing that is distinctive is that sounds that are to be listened to beginning at the third eye by the shabd yogi (who says it is a waste of time and effort not to start at the top) are listened to progressively beginning at the muladhara chakra by the kriya yogi:
“The sounds of the chakras are discribed as: root
chakra--hissing, 2nd chakra--crickets, 3rd chakra--pan flute or deep throated whistling, 4th chakra--tinkling bells or heavy gong, 5th chakra--high pitched whistling, 6th chakra--glorious trumpets, crown chakra--thunder followed by the AUM.”
The final sound they listen to is thunder, heard from the ajna chakra to the sahasrar. Sometimes the big bell is listed as heard at the heart chakra. In shabd yoga, in contrast, the big bell comes from overhead and pulls the soul up above the lower centers into the astral world. Also, in kriya yoga, the pineal pland or third eye center is spoken of as linked with the medulla oblongata, and collection of the pranas between the two is considered necessary for ‘lift-off’ to the sahasrar.
Kriya places attention to the mechanics of energy in the body, and speaks of cleansing the karmas in the "pranic centers" (bodily chakras), but does not place much emphasis on jnana. It is possible that the preliminary techniques employed by the Kriya practitioner may allow easier integration of the physical body with the God-state once that is realized. On the other hand, it may be additional, unnecessary work! Further, the Sant Mat masters, at least in some lineages, speak of granting the practitioner an experience of the light and sound at the time of initiation. Yogananda mentioned it, but his successors do not. Both this path and Surat Shabd Yoga, finally, speak of final passage of consciousness through the heart of the cosmos into a divine realm or domain. The differences to be made explicit are in what happens before and after passing beyond that central luminosity or "White Star." Only in Sant Mat, in this writer's opinion, is what lies afterwards made clear (as far as possible), and even then, according to sages or jnanis, a question exists regarding the finality of ones understanding, especially when returning to the realms of creation. For as PB emphasizes, once again,
"Enlightenment, philosophically found, is both an experience and an understanding." (34)
It is both of these, simultaneously, as one single insight. Would passage through the various inner regions into a Divine Domain, then, be complete enlightenment - even when coupled with the experience of the "cosmic body" as one's own when re-entering the planes of manifestation? To be as accomplished of a mystic to be faced with such a question is no small achievement, but is it liberation itself? We would answer that it could be - but it would depend on what happens along the way. As PB forthrightly states:
"When you awaken to truth as it really is, you will have no occult vision, you will have no "astral" experience, no ravishing ecstasy. You will awaken to it in a state of utter stillness, and you will
realize that truth was always there within you and that reality was always there around you. Truth is not something which has grown and developed through your efforts. It is not something which has been achieved or attained by laboriously adding up those efforts. It is not something which has to be made more and more perfect each year. And once your mental eyes are opened to truth they can never be closed again." (35)
As mentioned earlier, Roy Eugene Davis has been teaching Kriya Yoga for over fifty years, and, IMO, uses different terminology in describing the stages of the path than his Master did. He also says that Yogananda did not teach only Kriya Yoga, but Bhakti and Jnana as well to those qualified for such approaches, much as Ramakrishna had. Davis says that in the Kriya school it is taught that not only Lahiri Mahasay, but Sankara, the vedantin, himself was initiated by Babaji ! Yogananda himself felt that Sankara had achieved Christ Consciousness.
Davis taught standard Kriya practices, but also visualization techniques, and advaitic practices. This is refreshing from my point of view. He advised disciples, no matter what level of experience they have achieved, to understand that enlightenment can happen at any time, and that it is not an "attainment":
"The very idea that this ideal state is to be attained or acquired is a delusion, an invalid belief. Self-realization is not a state or condition to earn or possess. It is a realization to which we awaken, to discover that, at our core, we have always been enlightened, knowledgable, and free." (36)
(Actually, as we have seen, despite all of his esotericism, in later years Yogananda said much the same thing).
Davis taught that the soul is an individualized ray or unit of God's consciousness. He says:
"It would not be accurate to say that we are God, for we are not. What is true is that "God is us." Our role is to consciously know ourselves as we really are, as spiritual beings in relationship to God. When we are fully conscious of what we essentially are, and what our true relationship with God is, we are Self-realized." (37)
There is a subtle dualism implied here, akin to the Muslim idea of "fellowship with God" rather than "union" or "Oneness" with God. For those familiar with the works of PB, Davis is in good company on this. PB wrote:
"The Sufi term "companionship with God" is more accurate than the Christian-Hindu "union with God"...It is humbler to admit, with Muhammed, "I am a servant of God, I am but a man like you," than arrogantly to assert with the Advaitin, "I am the infinite Brahman." It is better to say modestly with Jesus, "the Father is greater than I," than to announce with the Sufi Mansur: "I am God." (38)
For those familiar with the philosophy of one such as Plotinus this is not necessarily a problem, or an impediment to a non-dual position. Much of it hinges on ones definition of Soul or Atman, which has been dealt with in depth elsewhere on this website, and is beyond the scope of this article. Davis does say that when the 'individualized soul' becomes fully awake, it knows itself as the non-dual Self.
The interpretation by Davis of the Kriya cosmology is as follows. The reader will have to refer back to earlier portions of this article to see where this varies from the schema put forth by the other Kriya gurus.
In his introduction to his book Self-Knowledge, a transliteration of Sri Sankara's Atma Bodhi, a classic advaitic text, he diagrams the sequential processes of cosmic manifestation as follows. He follows more or less of a Samkhya schema which he considers consistent with Sankara's commentaries as well as Kriya tradition.
Krishna Prem, widely recognized even by Ramana Maharshi as highly knowledgable on Indian philosophy, and who studied Sankara in the original Sanskrit, also accepts in his Gita commentary the idea that Sankara followed the basic Samkhya framework - from Parabrahman to Atman and Mula Prakriti, Mahat, Buddhi, Manas and the whole scheme of Indriyas and adhibhutas and the so-called external or material world of "purely" adhibhuta. For Sankara, however, the word Samkhya basically meant one who 'discriminated the real from the unreal'. Being an advaitin, he nowhere accepted the strict Samkhya dualism as such, nor did he accept the yogic view that samadhi was the sufficient means for liberation. Davis seemed to be in agreement with these views. As Michael Comans states:
"At the beginning of his commentary upon the Gita, Sankara makes a significant statement concerning the relation of Sankhya to Yoga. He says that Sankhya means ascertaining the truth about the Self as it really is and that Krsna has done this in his teaching from verses 2.11 up until 2.31. He says that sankhyabuddhi is the understanding which arises from ascertaining the meaning in its context, and it consists in the understanding that the Self is not an agent of action because the Self is free from the sixfold modifications beginning with coming into being. He states that those people to whom such an understanding becomes natural are called Sankhyas. He then says that Yoga is prior to the rise of the understanding above. Yoga consists of performing disciplines (sadhana) that lead to liberation; it presupposes the discrimination between virtue and its opposite, and it depends upon the idea that the Self is other than the body and that it is an agent and an enjoyer. Such an understanding is yogabuddhi, and the people who have such an understanding are called Yogins. From this it is clear that Sankara relegates Yoga to the sphere of ignorance (avidya) because the Yogins are those who, unlike the Sankhyas, take the Self to be an agent and an enjoyer while it is really neither. They are, therefore, in Sankara's eyes, not yet knowers of the truth." (39)
Cowen's view is debatable; Sankara was a great yogic adept as well as a champion of non-dualism.
In spite of his advaita, Davis inserts many comments in his writings purporting to illustrate that Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita primarily espoused Kriya Yoga as the means for realization. But as Krishna points out, in shloka 10, chapter 10, "I give Buddhi Yoga, the Yoga of discrimination, to those ever-devout who worship me with love, by means of which they come to me." (40)
In any case, according to Davis, in the Kriya cosmology first there is the Transcendant, Absolute Reality, infinite and without attributes. Then there is the 'Radiant Field' of the Absolute with three constituent attributes, i.e., the three gunas of sattva, rajas, and tamas [Unlike Yogananda, he abandons tradition by not positing 'Maya' arising prior to that of the 'Radiant Field']. Emanating from this is the 'Field of Primordial Nature' ('OM', the creating vibratory current responsible for creation of all the lower worlds), with time, space, and fine cosmic forces. Then there is the 'Field of Cosmic Mind', which is the:
"Field of individualized units of pure consciousness produced by the blending of the Radiant Field (Oversoul) and the characteristics of the Field of Primordial Nature. Souls have Self-Awareness, intellect, mind, and ego (a sense of self-identity)" (41)
Finally, there are the causal, astral, and material realms.
The progression to Enlightenment, then, proceeds through the following stages (keeping in mind, as he says, that "awakening", being beyond time and space, can happen at any time in the process):
The first stage is Superconsciousness, which is described as awakening to 'higher realities and the experiencing of subtle and refined states of consciousness'. Then comes Cosmic Consciousness, which, in short, is an awareness of oneness or wholeness, the realization of the 'omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of the universal Consciousness'. Supposedly this is a realization beyond the causal level. Then comes God-Consciousness:
"The reality of God is known as God is - as the only expressive Being, Life, Power, and Presence from which the worlds and souls emanate...The soul is liberated from all former restrictions." (42)
Finally, there is Enlightenment:
"Flawless realization (with knowledge) of the allness of Consciousness: from the field of pure Existence-Being (that which is Absolute, unmodified, or pure), to God, Cosmic or Universal Mind, the primordial field of unmanifest nature, and the causal, astral, and matter realms. When established at this stage there is no other level to experience and nothing more to know. Fully enlightened souls live in the world only to fulfill evolutionary purposes and to assist souls to their higher good." (43)
To conclude, he writes:
"Grace is the enlivening life (spirit) of God supporting and transforming creation. It expresses throughout the field of nature and from within every soul. It directs the course of evolution and awakens souls from their sleep of mortality." (44)
With the latter statement one can find no argument.
Final thought: there is a very good reason that the teachings and cosmology of Yogananda were presented as he did. He had been told by his guru, Sri Yukteswar, to try to show how the teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita and the teachings of Christ were essentially the same. That was a basic part of his mission. This he did by writing, in the last few years of his life, two large, two-volume books on each, published by the Self-Realization Fellowship. When Yogananda initially went to the West, moreover, he was encountering an audience that was largely Christian, and also influenced by such books as William Bucke's "Cosmic Consciousness," William James, "The Varieties of Religious Experience," etc. So it is only natural that he, unlike Yukteswar, simplified what was an ancient Puranic-Vedic seven-tiered cosmology into one with three bodies, along with the terms Christ Consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness. He was speaking to a population of diverse understanding and making things less complicated for their benefit, much as Swami Viekananda had done with his 'neo-Vedanta' and various yoga teachings. So as we try to compare and contrast Kriya, Sant Mat, and various yoga teachings, we should keep in mind the times and climes in which these great souls spoke. There are differences, to be sure, and some valid questions - for which the time is right to seek answers - but the basic foundations are very similar.
1. Paul Brunton wrote highly of the enigmatic Yogi Ramiah in A Search in Secret India. He elsewhere confessed, moreover, that on one occasion Yogi Ramiah affirmed to him "You have learned all about yoga. There is nothing more for you to learn about this practice." (The Notebooks of Paul Brunton(Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1987) Vol. 8, 5.34)
Swami Kriyananda (Donald Walters) quotes Yogananda as implying that he felt that Ramana's disciple Yogi Ramiah was more realized than Ramana himself:
"I also met another fully liberated soul," he told me. "His name was Yogi Ramiah. He was a disciple of the great master, Ramana Maharshi. It does happen, occasionally, that a disciple becomes himself more highly advanced than his guru." (Swami Kriyananda, Conversations with Yogananda (Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity Publications, 2004), p. 108)
The only other saints Yogananda recognized as liberated were Babaji, Sri Yukteswar, Lahiri Mahasaya, and two disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Pranabananda and Ram Gopal Muzumdar. Walters elsewhere relates that he felt Yogananda was relatively quiet in his meeting with Ramana because he realized they each had two very different roles to play, and he didn't want to call attention to himself. Nevertheless, the following interesting conversations occured between Walters and Yogananda:
"He once told me, "When I met Yogi Ramiah, in Ramana Maharshi's ashram, it was a true meeting of souls. We walked hand in hand around the ashram together. Oh! If I'd remained in his company another half hour, I could never have brought myself to leave India again! He represented everything that is, to me, the true India. It is why I love that country so much."
"Paul Brunton, whom I met there, was another disciple of Ramana Maharshi's. Brunton once told me that, during meditation one day, Yogi Ramiah had materialized before him and asked him to send him my photograph. He wanted to put it in his room. It is sitting there still." I asked Master, "If Yogi Ramiah was fully liberated, did he have disciples also?" "He must have had," the Master replied. "One must free others, to become completely freed oneself." "How many does one have to free?" I asked. "Six," was his reply." (Ibid, p. 225-226) [This comment is interesting in light of Radhasoami guru Baba Faqir Chand's comment that Baba Sawan Singh had told him that his own disciples would become his guru].
"Sri Yogi Ramiah, whom I (Walters) met in 1960 in India, said to me, "Always ask yourself, 'Who am I?" This was the fundamental teaching of his great guru, Ramana Maharshi. "That wasn't what my own Guru taught us," I replied. Sri Rama Yogi [the name Ramiah was called at that time] smiled wryly. "If all the disciples of the great masters really understood what their gurus taught, there would not be the bickering one finds everywhere in religion!" I reflected, then, that of course the Master had said repeatedly, "Know who you really are. You are not this little ego: you are the infinite Self." (Ibid, p. 228)
2. Swami Kriyananda, Conversations with Yogananda (Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity Publications, 2004), p. 220, 359
2a. "The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramhansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our experience. Had the muscle protein and blood stream of the deceased not been comparatively free of bacteria, deterioration of the body could have set in as early as six hours after life had departed. No physical disintegration was visible in Paramhansa Yogananda's body even twenty days after death.
The body was under daily observation at the Mortuary of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Association from March 11, 1952, the day of the last public rites, until March 27, 1952, when the bronze casket was sealed by fire. During this period no indication of mold was visible on Paramhansa Yogananda's skin, and no visible desiccation (drying up) took place in the bodily tissues. This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one.
Officials of Forest Lawn viewed the body of Paramhansa Yogananda an hour after his death on March 7, 1952. The body was then taken to his home on Mount Washington in Los Angeles, where many friends gathered to gaze at his form.
For protection of the public health, embalming is desirable if a dead body is to be exposed for several days to public view. Embalming of the body of Parsmhansa Yogananda took place twenty-four hours after his demise. In normal room temperature, the enzyme action of the intestines of deceased persons causes distention of the tissues in the abdominal region about six hours after death. Such distention did not occur at any time in the case of Paramhansa Yogananda. When our Mortuary received his body for embalming, it presented no signs of physical deterioration and no putrefactive odor; two very unusual absences when a death has occurred twenty-four hours earlier.
Paramhansa Yogananda's body was embalmed on the night of March 8th, with that quantity of fluid which is customarily used in any body of similar size. No unusual treatment was given. In cases of persons that are embalmed and exhibited to friends for a period of two or three weeks, it is necessary, to insure presentability, for the embalmer to apply, on the face and hands of the deceased, a creamy pore?sealing emulsion that temporarily prevents the outward appearance of mold. In Paramhansa Yogananda's case, however, no emulsions were used. They were superfluous, inasmuch as his tissues underwent no visible transformations.
After embalming on the night of March 8th, the body of Paramhansa Yogananda was returned to the Self Realization Fellowship headquarters on Mount Washington. At the final public rites there on the afternoon of March 11th, the glass sealer lid of the bronze coffin was fastened securely and was not again removed. His body was never touched again by human hands.
The body in the casket was taken about 10 p.m. on March 11th to our Mortuary for daily observation. The reason for this procedure was the hope of Self?Realization Fellowship officers that two disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda's from India might arrive in Los Angeles sometime in March, when they could be brought to the Mortuary to view the body.
In any sealed casket, into which air cannot enter and from which air cannot escape, the internal moisture of the dead body, whether'embalmed or unembalmed, soon forms a white mold on the skin unless the protective cream, not used in this case, is used. The natural characteristic of the muscle protein is to break down into amino acids and then into ptomaine acids. When ptomaine acids become active, deterioration of tissues is rapid. Paramhansa Yogananda's body was apparently devoid of any impurities by which muscle proteins could be resolved into ptomaine acids. His tissues remained intact.
At the time of receiving Paramhansa Yogananda's body, the Mortuary personnel at Forest Lawn expected to observe, through the glass lid of the casket, the usual progressive signs of bodily decay. Our astonishment increased as day followed day without bringing any visible change in the body under observation. Paramhansa Yogananda's body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability.
On the late morning of March 26th, we observed a very slight, a barely noticeable, change the appearance on the tip of the nose of a brown spot, about one/fourth inch in diameter. This small faint spot indicated that the process of desiccation (drying up) might finally be starting. No visible mold appeared, however. The hands at all times remained normal in size, revealing no signs of shriveling or pinching at the fingertips the place where desiccation is ordinarily seen very early. The lips, which wore a slight smile, continuously retained their firmness. No odor of decay emanated from Paramhansa Yogananda's body at any time. Although the casket was closed by the heavy glass lid, it was not hermetically sealed. Any odor from the deceased, had it been present, would have been immediately detected by persons standing near the coffin. The volatile nature of odors renders it impossible to conceal their presence, except in rare circumstances that did not here obtain.
As word had been received that the two disciples from India would not be coming to America until 1953, the officers of SelfRealization Fellowship agreed, on March 27, 1952, that entombment of Paramhansa's casket should now take place. The inner glass lid was therefore sealed by fire to the lower part of the casket; the massive bronze cover was then placed on top and secured with mastic sealer and with bolts. The process of sealing by fire was accomplished on March 27th and 28th. The casket was removed on March 28, 1952, to a crypt in the Great Mausoleum in Forest Iawn Memorial Park, to remain there until such time as permanent enshrinement of the body can be arranged for by the Self Realization Fellowship.
The physical appearance of Paramhansa Yogananda on March 27th, just before the bronze cover of the casket was put into position, was the same as it had been on March 7th. He looked on March 27th as fresh and as unravaged by decay as he had looked on the night of his death. On March 27th there was no reason to say that his body had suffered any visible physical disintegration at all. For these reasons we state again that the case of Paramhansa Yogananda is unique in our experience.
On May 11, 1952, during a telephone conversation between an officer of Forest Lawn and an officer of Self Realization Fellowship, the whole amazing story was brought out for the first time. Previously the Fellowship officer had not known the details, as he had not been in touch with the Mortuary Director but only with the Administrative Department of Forest Lawn. In the interests of truth, we axe glad to present this written account for publication in Self Realization Magazine."
Yours sincerely,
FOREST LAWN MEMORIAL PARK ASSOCIATION, INC.
Harry. Rowe, Mortuary Director
3. Paramhansa Yogananda, Journey to Self-Realization, Vol. III (Los Angeles, California: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1995), p. xxii
4. Ibid, p. xx
4a. In The Life of Yogananda (Hay House, Inc., 2018), author Philip Goldberg writes:
“Many holy personages from India are generated in the West despite never having been there in the flesh. But perhaps none is more widely known than the trio of Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Sri Yukteswar. Their faces, along with Yogananda’s, are not only on altars throughout the world, they can even be spotted on what is surely the most iconic album cover in music history: The Beatle’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” In a note he adds: Their presence on the cover was George Harrison’s doing. He had been deeply affected by Autobiography of a Yogi, and kept stacks of the book around to give away.”
5. Ibid, p. 425, 436-7
5a. Kriyananda, op. cit., p. 119
5b. Paramahansa Yogananda, The Second Coming of Christ, Vol. 1 (Self-Realization Fellowship, 2004), p. 133
5c. reference misplaced
6.Yogananda, Journey to Self-realization, op. cit., p. 171
7. Ibid, p. 186-187
8. Paramhansa Yogananda, The Master Speaks, p. 25, 94, 92
9. Ibid, p.
10. Swami Satyananda (1896-1971) and Paramhansa Yogananda were both commissioned by Sri Yukteswar to accept disciples and teach Kriya yoga, Satyananda for the East and Yogananda for the West, Yogananda once remarked that while he himself could not follow the rules of Sri Yukteswar, a strict disciplinarian, Satyananda could. For fifty years he was the spiritual head of tha Yogoda Satsangs in India, teaching and initiating seekers into Kriya yoga, as well as building schools and hospitals. He also spent considerable time traveling throughout India gaining the darshan of many noble souls, including devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, such as Swami Brahmananda, Swami Abhedananda, and Swami Saradananda, as well as Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi, Yogiraj Gambhirnath, and women saints Anandamayi Ma and Brahmajna Ma. He was considerably impressed with Ramana Maharshi, as was Yogananda. (One can only speculate if the latter's contact with the sage had anything to do with his decision to make himself the last in the line of Kriya gurus, despite the movement's continuance).
11. Paramhansa Yogananda, The Autobiography of a Yogi (Los Angeles, CA: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1972), p.
12. Swami Satyeswarananda Giri, Lahiri Mahasay: The Father of Kriya Yoga (San Diego, CA, 1983), p.
13. Paramhansa Yogananda, Journey to Self-Realization, Vol. III (Los Angeles, California: Self-Realization Fellowship, 2005), p. 432)
14. Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of the Bhagavad-Gita, Nevada City, CA: Crystal-Clarity, 2006), p.475
15. Ibid, p. 229-230
16. Swami Kriyananda, Conversations with Yogananda (Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity Publications, 2004), p. 316
17. Ibid, p. 317
18. Ibid, p. 318
19. Ibid
20. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1988), Vol. 16, Part 1, 2.141
21. Ibid, Vol. 13, Part 1, 4.125
22. Paramhansa Yogananda, op. cit., p. 342-3
23. Paramhansa Yogananda, The Essence of the Bhagavad-Gita, op. cit., p. 308
24. V.S. Iyer, Collected Works, Vol. 1 (ed. Mark Scorelle, Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies, 1999), p. 108-109
25. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op. cit., Vol. 13, Part 3, 3.65, 3.57
26. Ibid, Vol. 6, 1,131
27. Swami Kriyananda, op. cit., p. 348
28. Ibid, p. 372
29. Paramhansa Yogananda, op. cit., p. 35, 41, 59
30. Swami Kriyananda, op. cit., p. 37
31. Ibid, pp. 345, 367, 348
32. Roy Eugene Davis, Self-Knowledge (Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 2010), p. 35
33. Sri Yukteswar, The Holy Science (Los Angeles, California: Self-Realization Fellowship, 2006), p. 85
33a. Yogananda, The Second Coming of Christ, Vol. 1, op. cit., p. 203
34. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op. cit., Vol. 16, Part 1, 2.8
35. Ibid, 2.77
36. Roy Eugene Davis, An Easy Guide to Meditation (Lakemont, GA: CSA Press, 1995), p. 22
37. Ibid
38 The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op. cit., Vol. 16, 1.78, 1.164
39. Michael Comans, (http://www.realization.org/page/doc2/doc200.html) The Question of the Importance of Samadhi in Modern and Classical Advaita Vedanta
40. Ramesh Balsekar, Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj (Durham, NC: The Acorn Press, 1982), p. 206
41. Roy Eugene Davis, Self-Knowledge, op. cit., p. 11
42. Roy Eugene Davis, An Easy Guide to Mediation, op. cit., p. 39-40
43. Ibid, p. 40
44. Ibid, p. 43
"KUNDALINI; UP, DOWN, OR ?" - An extensive discussion of kundalini and its relation to shakti, prana, and shabd from advaitic, yogic, Sant Mat, Sufi, Christian and philosophic perspectives
[This article is also taken from my website, and may contain a some but hopefully not too much repetition of material from the past two sections, which final editing has overlooked. We ask the reader’s patience and apology. But most of it is new information - and perhaps useful repetition! “My method is repetition, and brevity,” said Kirpal Singh. I plead guilty of the former, but not the latter].
1
The kundalini is a widespread yet 'mystifying' topic. Many speak of it, but few can say with precision exactly what it is, what must happen with it, or what a would-be spiritual aspirant must do with it. Are we to be as "Clark Kent Ji, mild mannered sadhu for a great metropolitan ashram, able to leap tall chakras at a single bound...", or may we be unconcerned with the whole thing?
Some sages and traditions say that for spiritual realization the kundalini or 'serpent power' must 'awaken', ascend up the spine and reach the sahasrar chakra at the top of the head and merge therein. Others such as Sant Mat teach, no, the sahasrar center is only the beginning of a much higher ascending path where kundalini is left behind. Still others argue that the kundalini and the mind must then also descend from the sahasrar back down into the formless heart on the right. Then there are those, such as some Taoist schools, who say that the kundalini or more generally the shakti or life energy, potentially or actually, ascends and descends within the body-mind in a circle, which one needs to cultivate it. There are also those who say that nothing need be done with it or to it within the confines of the body-mind in order to realize prior consciousness itself, the source of a greater or Maha-Shakti, of which kundalini is a stepped-down emanation. Others interpret kundalini in a variety of additional ways, and view it as an inevitable, if secondary, part of a greater spiritual process. In this article we will examine these different views and try to make sense out of many seeming contradictions. This essay covers a lot of ground and therefore tends to ramble a bit, so please read with both kindness and discrimination. More theoretical aspects of kundalini are given in the first half of this article, with practical recommendations and common manifestations and cautions being described more towards the end.
We will start out by way of what may be considered to be an atypical version of traditional kundalini, that of Lakshmana Swamy, who was believed by some to be a Self-Realized devotee of Sri Ramana Maharshi. His point of view on the kundalini or serpent power is, not surprisingly, similar to that of the sage, but radically different from that taught in most yoga paths. His view that the mind must die in the heart is quite opposed to those schools that teach the kundalini must merge in the sahasrar for realization to occur. Lakshmana has taught that the life force or attention must descend via a terminal pathway from the sahasrar into the causal heart center for realization of the Self, which Ramana originally said was felt intuitively from the bodily point of view to be on the right side of the chest, 'two digits from the midline.' As will be shown, however, this view is not exactly the same as that of Ramana in his full maturity, nor that of most contemporary non-dualist teachers, who do not teach that full inner trance absorption in the heart on the right or anywhere else is required for awakening or enlightenment. Also, it must be distinguished that the retraction of the soul or its emanant, the attention, up to the crown and then down into the heart, is not the same as saying the kundalini energy itself must do the same. The two are different processes. It is entirely possible for attention to be absorbed with the life energy remaining as it is, keeping the life in the body going naturally. Further, while there does seem to be an inherent logic to a polarization of energy and attention - and purification or subtlization towards the crown, in any one case the opening of chakras and their purification may or may not happen, and in any order, depending on various factors.
After we have discussed the life and realization of Lakshmana Swamy we will offer a brief life sketch of Swami Sivananda, as an example of one who disseminated the traditional yogic view that the kundalini must reach the sahasrar for realization. With small modifications, this general view is similar to that taught by Swami Muktananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, at times Ramakrishna, and also Swami Shiv Dayal Singh of the Radhasoami school.
As a child Lakshmana never had any interest in either school studies or religion, although he did have an aptitude for line drawings. He was active in sports at school, yet liked to spend much time sitting quietly by himself. His schoolmates were very fond of him because of his keen sense of humor and ability to make everyone laugh.
At the age of seventeen Swamy had an experience which dispelled his scepticism of spirituality. He felt an "evil force" descend upon him, like a weight crushing his chest. He spontaneously began to repeat the Rama mantra ("Rama, Rama"), which had the effect of dispelling the force. After this he made it a habit to rise at 3 A.M., go for a swim, and engage pranayama (breathing exercises) and japa (mantra repetition) until 5 A.M. He grew increasingly dispassionate, and resisted all efforts by his family to get him married and settled into a normal life. He entered college, but after his first year he had a spiritual experience in which he saw a "sudden flash of light within. The divine light shone in its full magnificence.” (1) Swamy tried to repeat the experience but was not successful, and he felt more and more the need of a human guru for further guidance and grace.
Swamy heard of Ramana Maharshi from one of his college professors, who was a disciple of the sage, and after twice failing his second year exams he began to intensify his meditations. In 1948 he met Ramana at his abode in Tiruvannamalai, and shortly afterwards experienced the permanent death of his 'I"-thought in Ramana's company.
"There was 'a lightning flash and a flood of divine light shining within and without.' Sri Ramana' s face was smiling 'with more radiance than that of innumerable lightning flashes fused into one. In that ineffable bliss tears of joy welled down in unending succession, and they could not be resisted.' Finally, the 'I'-thought went back to its source, the picture of Ramana Maharshi disappeared and the Self absorbed his whole being." (2)
Lakshmana spent the next year in trance samadhi most of the time and let his body waste away for want of attention. Finally he moved near his family in order that his physical needs be taken care of. For two or three years he spent most of his time in the hut provided for him, eating little and speaking less. People heard that he was a great ascetic and began gathering around him, and he eventually consented to give his darshan, first only once a year, then, from 1951-1972, twice a year. In 1974, Swamy met Mathru Sri Sarada (1959 - ), a young girl whom he had seen in a vision twenty years before. Within four years, she, too, according to their report, realized the Self, and during the period of her sadhana Swamy was much more available for darshan. The story of Sarada's realization contains an account of an interesting phenomenon, one which may be unique in the literature of the spiritual traditions.
"Just before Sarada realized the Self her 'I '-thought tried to escape by breaking her skull. If I (Swamy) had not been present the experience would have killed her. The 'I '-thought would have broken her skull and escaped to the higher regions where it would have been born again." (3)
Sarada said that this was like an axe trying to split her head open from the inside. She put her head on Swamy's feet in surrender and her 'I'-thought "subsided forever." It was a year after this before she was able to function normally in the world again, as she had lost all interest in it and was continually on the verge of dropping the body. It was only her love for Swamy that brought her back to the world.
Whatever one is to make of Sarada's realization experience, it is certain that the peculiar dramatic nature of it is rare. Neither Ramana Maharshi nor Lakshmana Swamy felt the 'I'-thought threaten to break their skull in its flight from the Heart. Others, however, have reported experiences of pain and pressure in the head due to the force of the kundalini energy, and these accounts are worth examining.
Two points must be made regarding the nature of the kundalini phenomenon before proceeding further. One, as mentioned in numerous places in this book, the testimony of the ancient sages who authored the Vedas and Upanishads is that the primary locus of spiritual realization is associated with the heart, and not with the sahasrar as claimed by contemporary exponents of kundalini yoga and other similar yogic traditions. Secondly, many yogis mistake the trance states associated with the ascension of attention to the ajna chakra (the center behind the eyes in the brain core) for the passage of attention, to the sahasrar (which is above the brain core). They explore the “sky of mind” in the brain-core, the blue pearl of Muktananda, the cosmic blue of Yogananda, and perhaps the Trikuti, etc. of sant mat, and do not pass to either egoic dissolution at the heart or at the sahasrar.
If Sarada had been directed towards yogic ascent she would have followed the (apparently) awakened kundalini (in her case) to the crown of the head and, according to some interpretations of Ramana’s teaching, experienced her 'I'-thought being reborn into further destiny on the subtle planes. With the help of her guru, however, her 'I'-thought became "cauterized" in the heart, thus providing her with the right foundation for true and radical ascent at some future time. Her tendencies for ascent were strong, as evidenced by the fact that even after her heart-realization she had difficulty staying in the body. This may be the remnants of a karmic liability, or it may illustrate a common disposition in those newly but not yet stably self-realized. Many individuals spend significant time after initial self-realization in states of internal absorption. This was the case with Sarada, Swami, Ramana Maharshi, Meher Baba and others. This is because when at first awakened Self may still tend to associate the manifest realms with bondage, but until the Self is realized under all conditions true lasting and full realization is not achieved. The sage Sri Atmananda Krishnamenon in no uncertain terms calls this tendency to define ones freedom by the need to go into samadhi as a “vicious yogic samsara.”
In other words, the very revulsion or turning away from experience that accompanies the intuitive awakening of Self-Realization is a tendency that could delay entry into the ultimate stage. It is not clear if Swamy or Saradi have made this transition, despite their concession to continue living in the world.
It appears, in the case of Sarada, that, perhaps, due to her young age, brevity of sadhana, and other reasons karmically unique to her, that a dramatic and painful transition occured, during which she was fortunate to have had the immediate help of her guru. Yet this does not necessarily have to happen. Heart-communion with the master can enable one to avoid many of the dangers and obstacles, as well as 'shoals and sandbanks' in the sea of spirituality. However, sometimes it is the inherent character liabilities of an individual that prevent that transmission of the Heart or hridaya-shakti of a sage or master from being effective and sufficient. An example of this is found in the practice of Ganapati Muni, a famous disciple of Ramana Maharshi, a guru of his own with many disciples, who experienced rare and remarkable yogic phenomena, yet was not successful in attaining Self-Realization. He used to say he could go to Brahma Loka, but could not take the "backward step" into the Self. Ganapati Muni met Maharshi after twenty years of spiritual efforts, and immediately recognized that he was no ordinary man but rather a great sage of the highest type. It was Ganapati who gave him the name Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and became his most ardent supporter. He chose to do much of his spiritual practice away from Ramana's direct company, but after two years he returned to Ramanasramam to be with the sage. Along the way he experienced a spontaneous, forceful awakening of the kundalini-shakti (which he confessed was not caused by any intention on his part, but, rather, was the "result of the grace of his Guru and God"), and which began a strenuous, two-week ordeal in which he endured the yogic phenomenon known in the Taittirya Upanishad as vyapohya sirsha kapale, or "the breaking of the skull". Ganapati began to experience a flood of energy through his body at all times, with a stream of bliss piercing his head making him completely intoxicated He felt totally out of control of his body and went to Maharshi for guidance. The sage blessed him with a pat of the hand on his head and said not to worry.
"That night Ganapati suffered terribly. There was an unbearable burning sensation throughout his body...It looked as though his head would break into pieces at any time. He suffered unbearable pain. Suddenly a sound was heard, something like smoke was seen. The Kundalini had caused an aperture at the top of his skull... After that experience for ten days something like smoke or vapour was found emanating from the orifice at the top of the skull. By that time the burning sensation subsided. The play of force became bearable. The long story of suffering, pain and agony ended. The body was filled with the flow of cool nectar of bliss. The face of the Muni reflected an ethereal splendour. His eyes bore the effulgence of the supernatural. After this extraordinary experience of kapalabheda, the Muni lived for fourteen years..." (4)
This event awed the disciples of Ganapati Muni, who were knowledgable about the practices of kundalini yoga but were unprepared for such a rare and unusual phenomenon. There are few references to the "breaking of the skull" in the traditional literature, and it is essentially unknown in the teachings of contemporary yogis. What references there are, particularly in the Tibetan tradition, usually mention that such an experience can happen to a yogi only at the time of death.
In spite of the unusual nature of Ganapati's transformation, Maharshi affirmed that he had not attained enlightenment. When asked whether the Muni was realized after his death, Ramana replied, "How could he? His sankalpas'(inherent tendencies towards mystical ascent and feeling that the world was real) were too strong." In other words, in Ganapati Muni's case the overwhelming awakening of the kundalini was yet not sufficient to unlock the "knot of self" that was still alive at the heart. He had not yet realized the causal heart or the all-pervading, formless Self.
Another disciple of the Maharshi reported the awakening of the kundalini with radically different results, including the awakening of his heart center. See: "Nothing Existed Except the Eyes of the Maharshi” by By N. R. Krishnamurti Aiyer (http://www.realization.org/page/doc1/doc109a.htm) .
2
J. Krishnamurti wrote of a process of several decades in length during which he suffered intense pain in his head and spine, yet he, apparently failed to complete the full course of yoga. In his case, he repudiated his early yogic experiences, arguing principally for what he termed "choiceless awareness", and in so doing may've confused (at least for some of his listeners) the profundities of advanced practice of identification with the witness consciousness requiring the death of the ‘I’-thought with a basically cognitive exercise in releasing the conceptual mind. [For more see "The Two Krishnamurtis" at https://www.mountainrunnerdoc.com/articles/article/2291157/76362.htm]
Many teachers have warned about the dangers of the premature awakening of the kundalini energy. Great heat can be created in the body, with possible damage to the brain and nervous system. In order to be prepared for the circulation of spiritual energies in the body-mind, the aspirant must be purified of ego, and equipped with the ennobling virtues of humility and self-surrender. This is accomplished through self-understanding or clear seeing and the accompanying opening of the feeling being. Then the energy can move freely without obstruction generated by false identification with the ego.
The teaching of Lakshmana Swamy is very similar to that of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Three points in particular, however, are arguable. One, Lakshmana Swamy holds that a living guru is essential for liberation. He maintains that without such a teacher the most one can hope to attain is mental concentration, or an "effortless, thought-free state" (perhaps similar to that proposed by J. Krishnamurti), but in order for the mind to be "pulled into the Heart and die there", a living guru is necessary. Some current non-dualists would disagree on the point of the mind needing to be pulled into the heart, in a yogic sense, in order to die. They say there is no need for the mind to die, but only for ‘clear seeing’ to arise; nothing needs to be changed, and no experience is required for awakening. Nor is a guru necessary in all cases. If the experience of the "death of the mind in the Heart" is not had while your guru is alive, however, according to Swamy, then one will need another guru to accomplish it. Swamy gives the example that, in his own case, he had experience of the Self briefly through his own efforts but needed a guru to make it permanent. He does allow that there may be a few rare exceptions to this, such as his guru, Ramana Maharshi, who apparently became realized without the help of a human guru, but he maintains that in most cases it is not possible. There are others, however, who do not agree with Lakshamana Swamy on this point. Paul Brunton asserted that a human guru is required until the disciple transcends identification with the gross personality, but that at a certain point ones individual Overself takes over and bestows its grace, leading attention across the threshold into the Heart. Kirpal Singh, on the other hand, taught that once a disciple is initiated by a true Master that even if that Master should die he would still help the individual and be his subtle gurudev once the disciple was capable of transcending body-consciousness, and that he would still help the disciple in many ways even if the latter did not know it. He held that the company of another Master would be useful for spiritual development but was not necessary for initiatory purposes. Sant Darshan Singh has said, however, that in such a case where a guru has passed on his successor may have to take on some of the disciple's karmas, if that is necessary, for to do so requires a body. (5)
A second distinguishing feature of the teaching of Lakshmana Swamy is the notion that a jnani (self-realized sage) could not continue to exist after death on the subtle planes because his 'I'-thought is dead, and since it is the 'I'-thought which takes on a new form, it would not be possible for the jnani to do so. This was also Ramana Maharshi's view, at least on one occasion, but not always. Clearly, however, the testimony of other sages is that just as a Realizer can assume physical form in order to do spiritual work, so can he take on (or retain) subtle 'bodies' for the same purpose. Furthermore, it is not quite correct to say that the mind has to die for realization to be the case, but only that identification of the conscious Self with the mind must cease. It is a potential limitation of the practice of the jnana paths to assume that complete cessation of the mind is necessary for (or the equivalent of) realization. The Tripura Rahasya ( a favorite text of Ramana Maharshi) argues that cessation of the mind is only the case in the middle class of jnanis, but not in the highest. (6) The highest stage the “hidden teaching beyond yoga” position, allows for more creativity than that which dwells on the Witness position, even "allowing" creation (or manifestation) itself to be as it is. Annihilation is not required, only realization. Nothing need be annihilated except ignorance.
Thirdly, Lakshmana’s viewpoint on kundalini differs markedly from that of the common yoga tradition. This is discussed fully in the section below on Swami Sivananda. In brief, Lakshmana says that “kundalini is the mind” and as such arises from the Heart and not from the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine as is most commonly supposed. This view is perhaps understandable if “kundalini” is here equated with the more general term, “shakti”, which is the manifest power of prior consciousness, or “shiva”, which is not limited to the energies within the gross body-mind. Ramana also said something similar to Lakshmana when he remarked, “it is wrong to say the Self is down here (the muladhara) or up there (the sahasrar); in other words, to think is not your nature” (Talks). He often stated that the chakras and worlds are ultimately 'in the imagination' and therefore not the way to realization itself. This is true, but also perhaps somewhat overstated and incomplete as an explanation of this vast subject.
The Russian and Eastern Orthodox contemplatives (see St. Seraphim of Sarov and Theophane the Recluse in "Those Amazing Christians” at http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.citymaker.com/InterestingChristians.html) spoke more often on a descent of the spirit or grace, as opposed to the kundalini traditions of India which emphasize the ascent. Father Paissos wrote:
"One night, as I was standing there praying, I felt something come down from above and totally encompass me. I felt such joy and exultation as my eyes shed tears like water gushing from two faucets. I physically saw grace and felt it...The experience was so intense and powerful that it supported me and kept me going for ten years, until, in Sinai, I experienced even greater states in a different way." (6a)
This can be understood if one allows for a full circle of conducted energy in the body-mind. The Taoist sages taught this full circuitry. Baha u'llah also spoke of a descent of grace:
"During my days I lay in the prison of Tihran...I felt as if something flowed from the crown of my head over my breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitated itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of my body would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments my tongue recited what no man could bear to hear." (7)
The force or blessing, as reported by these mystics, is felt and described as coming more from "without", as a form of baptism, than from "within", as in common yogic experience. How to reconcile this? Well, for one thing, as PB stated, "the Overself's without is our within." Thus, the Divine Shakti both comes from outside the separate self and also manifests within the individual body-mind. Similarly, in the school of Sant Mat (to be discussed shortly), while it is said that the practitioner is to ascend via the Light and Sound current via initial concentration at the ajna chakra, it is also said that the Divine Grace descends into the very pores of the body and envelops one in a feeling of warmth. Thus there appears to be a natural non-dual result on this path - although such wholistic experiences vary depending on the prior disposition, understanding, and maturity of the individual practitioner. And in fact, the permutations of the divine energy are myriad: a descent of grace can actually be felt as a cooling and a relief, as contrasted to the more burning of the kundalini energy manifestation. And it appears that I am not alone in wondering about this dual process:
the ascent of shakti and descent of grace. (See this interesting talk by emerging teacher Igor Kufayev at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYZ64RgjRo).
Further, as Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche writes:
"In the last analysis, the division of existence into internal and external is based on a false view formed by the conceptual mind regarding the dualistic condition. In the true condition there is no distinction between internal and external since the same empty space gives rise to internal and external existence alike, just as the air inside and outside a jar is the same." (7a)
One awakened and standing in the transcendent witness position, moreover, having already undergone a "second birth," will find such energetic experiences safer and less deluding as they may then be experienced from a more impersonal, non-separate point of view, beyond or apart from the sense of encasement in the body-mind or that of a covered soul. There is also then less chance of "getting fried" due to egoic interference with the intense energy release, as many unprepared practitioners sometimes have reported. PB writes:
"Those who have previously made satisfying spiritual advance often find themselves pulled up and unable to go further, sometimes for years. This is because the undeveloped and imperfect parts of their natures offer obstruction to further progress. If the higher forces were to descend on them while they are purified only in parts and developed only in some faculties, these forces would prove harmful instead of helpful. Consequently, these parts are brought up by events to the surface of his life in order that they may be dealt with." (Notebooks, Vol. 3, Part One, 3.120)
None of these transformations must happen, in this or any one life; it is just that they do happen, and these are some of the possibilities thereof. Again the reader is referred to a talk by Kufayev on the energetic internal re-wiring that may occur. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rrq78kxZko). It may also be that often the transformation for many is more mundane and prosaic, beneath the surface, as a general maturation of the being, without high yogic drama.
3
John the Baptist, a prophet and according to others also Jesus' initiatory guru, said:
"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." (Matthew 3:11).
In this instance, it can be assumed that "water", a universal symbol for the emotional nature of man, represents the purification of baser feelings and animal passions. This is the necessary conversion of heart to prepare the individual for the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, which generally have been said to represent the initiation by the higher process of kundalini-shakti, or spirit-power, as is common in the yogic traditions of the East, and which was presumably the province of Jesus the Christ (or such a one as he). PB hinted at the different stages of this baptismal process when he stated:
"There is, further, a difference between the baptism by the Holy Ghost and the baptism by fire. The baptism by the Holy Ghost arouses and awakens the potentialities of the dynamic Life-Force, raising its voltage far above the ordinary. This process is usually accompanied by thrills, ecstasies, or mystical raptures. it represents the first awakening on the spiritual level as it filters through the partially cleansed emotional nature. Baptism by fire represents the next and highest stage after this event, when, the thrill of the new birth has subsided and when, in a calmer and steadier condition, the intelligence itself becomes illuminated in addition to the feelings, thus balancing them. (8)
Thus, archtypal stages of purification are emotional (i.e., kenosis and metanoia), followed by energetic (kundalini), and intellectual-intuitional-insight (jnana). However, depending on one's past-life background the ordering may be different. That is, a glimpse may come first, and physical-emotional-energetic purification later. But then it is assumed one had done the groundwork previously. 'Fire', then, for PB means the higher illumination of the intelligence at the buddhic level and beyond. Kundalini as such would be limited to purification of the three lower bodies (physical, emotional, mental, or physical, astral, and causal, depending on schema) and not satori or the revelation of consciousness per se. This may be confusing because traditionally the term 'fire' has been used for the preparatory kundalini manifestation. The Rig Veda declares:
<
"He tastes not that delight (of the twice-born) who is unripe and whose body has not suffered in the heat of this fire; they alone are able to bear that and enjoy it who have been prepared by the flame."
Regardless, the kundalini as it arises from the Muladhara center is really, from the awakened point of view, only an apparent movement, perceived to ascend (or descend), only after body-identification has already been assumed. According to some sages, such as Ramana, the truly significant 'arisal', if you can dualistically call it that, of kundalini, life-energy, and mind is at the heart-root, prior to body-consciousness, and it is to that locus, if any, that one's attention needs to be directed, not to its apparent extensions in the circuitry of the body-mind. And in the highest stage, even this locus, conceived objectively, as an exclusive site of realization, is transcended: kundalini, or all energies and manifestations arise out of the heart of infinity, not a particular place.
For one who is involved in a kundalini practice or experience, Paul Brunton has written these words of instruction and warning, pointing out the need for preparation and purification:
"Why did so many primeval cultures in Asia, Africa, and America worship the serpent? A full answer would contain some of the most important principles of metaphysics and one of the least known practices of mysticism - raising the force symbolized under the name of the "serpent fire." The advanced occultists of Tibet compare the aspirant making this attempt to a snake which is made to go up a hollow bamboo. Once aroused, it must either ascend and reach liberty at the top or it must fall straight down to the bottom. So he who seeks to play with this fiery but dangerous power will either reach Nirvana or lose himself in the dark depths of hell. If a man seeks to arouse kundalini before he has rid himself of hate, he will only become the victim of his own hatreds when he does raise it from its sleeping state. He would do better to begin by self-purification in every way if he is to end in safety and with success...The intense fire of love for the higher self must be kindled in the "mystic" heart, kindled until it also shows a physical parallel in the body, until the latter's temperature rises markedly and the skin perspires profusely. Deep breathing is an important element in this exercise. It provides in part the dynamism to make its dominating ideas effective. The other part is provided by a deliberate sublimation of sex energy, through its imaginative raising from the organs in the lower part of the body to a purified state in the head."
"The strange phenomena of a mysterious agitation in the heart and an internal trembling in the solar plexus, of sex force raised through the spine to the head in intense aspiration toward the higher self accompanied by deep breathing, of a temporary consciousness of liberation from the lower nature, are usually the forerunners of a very important step forward in the disciple's inner life. A twofold trembling may seize him. Physically, his diaphragm may throb violently, the movement spreading like a ripple upward to the throat. Emotionally, his whole being may be convulsed with intense sobbing...The agitation of his feeling will come to an end with the calm perception of his Soul. The kundalini's activity being primarily mental and emotional, the diaphragmatic tremors and quivers are merely its physical reactions. The necessity for keeping the back erect exists only in this exercise, not in the devotional or intellectual yogas, for such a straight posture permits the spinal column to remain free for the upward passage of the "serpent fire." The latter moves in spiral fashion, just like the swaying of a cobra, generating heat in the body at the same time. If the trembling continues long enough and violently enough, a sensation of heat is engendered throughout the body and this in turn engenders profuse perspiration. But all these symptoms are preliminary and the real mystical phenomena involving withdrawal from the body-thought begin only when they have subsided. This exercise first isolates the force residing in breath and sex, then sublimates and reorients it. The results, after the initial excitement has subsided, are (a) a liberating change in his consciousness of the body, (b) a strengthening development of the higher will's control over the animal appetites, and (c) a concentration of attention and feeling as perfect as a snake's concentration on its prey. It is a threefold process yielding a threefold result. In those moments when the force is brought into the head, he feels himself to be liberated from the rule of animality; then he is at the topmost peak of the higher will. Power and joy envelop him. The attainment of this state of deep contemplation and its establishment by unremitting daily repetition bring him finally to an exalted satisfied sense of being full and complete and therefore passion-free and peace-rooted." (9)
This aspect of kundalini as purificatory is found in all traditions. An episode in the life of Dodrupchen Jigme Thrinle Ozer, an advanced Tibetan Tulku, illustrates this phenomenon from another angle. On a three-year meditation retreat he experienced a terrible ordeal:
"After a month or so, a great shaking up (Lhong Ch'a) arose in him. It became hard for him to stop the turbulent waves of thoughts, emotions, and illusions. He now started having disturbances of the life-force energy (Srog rLung), symptoms that brought him to the brink of insanity. All appearances arose as enemies. He even saw fearful animals in his teapot. He felt he was involved in fighting with weapons. One night in a dream he heard a frightening shout, and he felt that it almost split his heart. Even after he awoke, he kept hearing the same cry and then saw a pillar-like dark light linking the ground and the sky. His body was trembling violently. He felt an unbearable terror and feared that the sky and earth were being turned upside down. But then in an instant, all the disturbing appearances dissolved into himself, the "I," which was merely projecting and experiencing all those appearances. Then the concept of "I" was also gone beyond any elaboration. The fearful mind and the objects of fear all had merged into one taste, the taste of ultimate nature, the total openness."
The author of the book from which this biographical account was taken explains:
"Just before reaching a high realization, it is normal for many meditators to experience the final mental, emotional, and habitual struggles in various forms or degrees of temptations, fearful illusions, threatening sounds, or painful feelings. Many great masters have had the same kinds of experiences just before they entered high states of realization. If you do not succumb to these kinds of last-minute disturbances created by hidden subtle habits and get beyond all those final encounters by remaining in the realized nature, like shaking the dust from a rug for good, you will attain total freedom from mental and emotional obscurations with their traces. A person having a so-called smooth meditative experience might think, "I am doing so well that I have no shaking-up experiences," but the truth could be that he has not yet destroyed his mental and emotional defilements and their habits from the root." (9a)
4
For a traditional yogic view on the kundalini we may look at the life and teachings of Swami Sivananda (1897-1963). He was born, by his own confession, into a family "of saints and philosophers". He was a very mischievous boy whose pranks often brought angry hearts of embittered villagers to reconciliation. He was an excellent gymnast and would frequently arise at three or three-thirty in the morning and sneak out of the house to pursue his training. He admitted that he could fool his parents, who did not look too favorably on his gymnastics, by putting a pillow on his bed and covering it with a blanket to make it appear as if he was still asleep.
Sivananda studied at Tanjore Medical Institute, and, in his own words, "was a tremendously industrious boy" at the school. He spent all of his free time learning from the doctors and professors, and at the end of his first year he had admittance to the operating theater and was able to answer questions that even senior students could not. After graduation he traveled to Malaya and was the manager of a hospital on a rubber estate for seven years, and subsequent to this he worked three more years at the Jayore Medical Clinic. Sivananda was well-liked by his patients, but his mind wasn't on business and he often forgot to charge for treatment or medications [that’s my kind of guy]. He started a popular medical journal called The Ambrosia which he ran for four years. In order to maintain it at a high quality he let his own financial reserves dwindle, but Sivananda didn't care: his overruling passion was to disperse knowledge that would aid the sick and needy.
Medical work drove home to him the fact of pain and suffering in this world, and, remembering the verse, "the day on which one gets vairagya (dispassion), that very day one should renounce the world," in 1923 he left Malaya for India and began a rigorous life as a wandering mendicant. Through hot sun, cold rain, bare-headed and
bare-footed, sometimes with food, sometimes without, Sivananda went from place to
place in search of a spiritual guide or true Guru. He met many yogis. and sadhus on
his journeys, including the sage, Narayan Maharaj at whose ashram he spent a
few days (Narayan Maharaj was said to have enlightened Upasani Baba with a piece of food, and was one of five allegedly perfect masters that worked with and prepared the way for the 'avatar' Meher Baba). Sivananda arrived at Rishikesh in 1924 and took initiation from Viswarananda Saraswati of the Sringeri Math of Sri Sankaracharya. He stayed in Rishikesh and practiced intense austerities and meditation, even though his Guru moved elsewhere. Sivananda considered moments spent in idle pursuit and without purpose as time highly wasted. Throughout his life a favorite motto of his was "Do it now!"
Along with a life of strict austerity (tapas), Swami Sivananda was very active in service to the sick, the poor, and other sadhus in his vicinity. On the advise of another mahatma in the area, he opened a medical dispensary for just that purpose. He tended the deathly ill without fear of contagion, taking no special precautions and not even bothering to wash his hands after treating a diseased person. He was a fearless servant of mankind.
For his personal sadhana he maintained a rigorous, exacting daily schedule. To ward off the spiritual aspirants who came to him in ever-increasing numbers he had a barbed-wire fence erected around his hut, and he locked the gait. He also had the ever-increasing number of personal disciplines that he assumed recorded in a notebook which he called "The Whip". He was a strong man and kept up a daily routine of physical exercise as well as up to sixteen hours of meditation. In 1936 he started the Divine Life Society to spread yoga teachings throughout the world. He went on a tour of India and Ceylon in 1950, and in 1953 convened a World Parliament of Religions. He was a respected friend of Sant Kirpal Singh who later continued such endeavors. It is said that he wrote more than three hundred books, often published at phenomenal speed: up to three two-hundred page books a month! Sivananda was a highly respected guru, perhaps because he gave out a pure, undiluted yoga teaching, with little accompanying dogma, and also because he demanded much of his students.
Sivananda was an outstanding example of a karma yogin as well as a supreme realist:
"Service gives me joy, I cannot live without service even for a second."
"I never said or did anything to tempt people with promises of grand results like Mukti (liberation) from a drop of Kamandala water, or Samadhi by mere touch. I emphasized the importance of silent meditation for a systematic progress in the spiritual path. Invariably, I asked all aspirants to purify their hearts through selfless service to mankind." (10)
The specifics of his sadhana in his own case are not clear; apart from mentioning that he spent alot of time in meditation, and served the general community of renunciates where he lived, his autobiography gives few details of what actually occured spiritually during the years 1924 to 1929, when he achieved his realization. His writings provide, however, a complete elaboration of yoga philosophy and practices. The book, Kundalini Yoga, in particular, presents his view on realization:
“If he reaches the spiritual center in the brain, the sahasrar chakra, the yogi attains Nirvikalpa samadhi or (the) superconscious state. He becomes one with the non-dual Brahman. All sense of separation dissolves. This is the highest plane of consciousness or supreme Asamprajnata samadhi. Kundalini unites " with Siva. The yogi may come down to the center in the throat to give instructions to the students and do good to others (Lokasamgraha)." (11)
“Brahmarandhra” means the hole of Brahman. It is the dwelling house of the human soul.
This is also known as “Dasamadvara,” the tenth opening or the tenth door. The hollow place in the crown of the head known as anterior fontanelle in the new-born child is the Brahmarandhra. This is between the two parietal and occipital bones. This portion is very soft in a babe. When the child grows, it gets obliterated by the growth of the bones of the head. Brahma created the physical body and entered (Pravishat) the body to give illumination inside through this Brahmarandhra. In some of the Upanishads, it is stated like that. This is the most important part. It is very suitable for
Nirguna Dhyana (abstract meditation). When the Yogi separates himself from the physical body at
the time of death, this Brahmarandhra bursts open and Prana comes out through this opening
(Kapala Moksha). “A hundred and one are the nerves of the heart. Of them one (Sushumna) has
gone out piercing the head; going up through it, one attains immortality (Kathopanishad)."
"Sahasrara Chakra is the abode of Lord Siva. This corresponds to Satya Loka. This is situated
at the crown of the head. When Kundalini is united with Lord Siva at the Sahasrara Chakra, the
Yogi enjoys the Supreme Bliss, Parama Ananda. When Kundalini is taken to this centre, the Yogi
attains the superconscious state and the Highest Knowledge. He becomes a Brahmavidvarishtha or a full-blown Jnani." (12)
This is the traditional yogic view where the highest realization takes place in an ascended form of samadhi (nirvikalpa); however, it is generally the case that when an individual returns to bodily consciousness from this samadhi he feels a sense of limitation, depending on his background. Some yogis, therefore, as Sivananda mentions, only allow their consciousness to descend as far as the throat center, where they are able to communicate with others while still feeling relatively free of the body. If they were not already feeling identified with the body, however, they would have less need to ascend to regain or maintain their realization, so say the sages. Thus the urge towards ascent is motivated by identification with the body-consciousness, in most cases. And in all cases, a furtherperiod of application is required for stabilization in sahaja.
For what it is worth, one close disciple of Swami Sivananda, after his death, was guided on the inner planes to take initiation from Kirpal Singh.
Elsewhere Sivananda let the cat out of the bag - as did Faqir, as well as Ramana Maharshi, and Ramakrishna near the end of his life - when he asserted that even this, in fact, is not a necessary experience:
"Yogic students feel that a Yogi can fly through the air or walk on water, and do other miracles. They think then only you know Yoga. To be peaceful, to be calm, to radiate joy, to have an intense aspiration and devotion, to have a spirit of service - this is Yoga. This is not so easy. Flying in the air is not Yoga. Why become bird after so many years of sadhana (spiritual practice) and pranayama (life-force, breath)? Even Nirvikalpa Samadhi is not necessary for us. You must have a willing heart to serve everybody, the spirit of service and a desire to possess all divine virtues. This is Yoga. To be good, to do good - this should be your ideal [similar to Kirpal's saying, "Be good, do good, be One]. Why do you want to get yourself merged in the Absolute? Possess Divine qualities and move as a Divine Being...Merging in the Absolute is not necessary. Let us have a small veil of individuality [the same attitude of Swami 'Papa' Ramdas] and serve as Nityasiddhas (eternal perfect ones)." (Radha: Diary of a Woman's Search, p. 197)
Nevertheless, the earlier claim of Sivananda that one becomes a "full-blown" jnani when reaching the sahasrar is flatly rejected by Ramana Maharshi who said:
"Atman is in the Heart and is the Heart itself. The manifestation is in the brain. The passage from the Heart to the brain might be considered to be through sushumna or a nerve with any other name [such as Atma Nadi or Amrita Nadi]...The yogis say that the current rising up to sahasrar (brain) ends there. That experience is not complete. For jnana, they ,must come down into the Heart. Hridaya (Heart) is the alpha and omega." (Talks, p. 47)
5
Compare this position of Swami Sivananda with that of Ramana Maharshi; Lakshmana Swamy, and even Shiv Dayal Singh (Soamiji): none of them would agree that the kundalini unites with Siva (Divine Consciousness) in the sahasrar, but for different reasons.
Shiv Dayal Singh (and the path of Sant Mat, or surat shabd yoga) holds that the sahasrar [which, as explained earlier, may be mistakenly equated with "Sahans dal Kanwal"] is but the first of many ascending inner stages on the path to Self and God-Realization. It is, according to them, definitely not Satya Loka, which is far above it, although it might be said to have a correspondence with it, as all chakras seem to have their correspondence with the various planes of manifestation. Sant Mat maintains, however, that the realization of advaita only takes one to the second plane of Brahm or universal mind, beyond which are Par-Brahmand and Sat Lok, and that there are various lower regions that are faint reflections of higher and truer ones. This is obviously contentious in both advaita and yoga circles, which, however, does not mean it is not true. The question lies in its meaning.
An interesting point is that many so-called kundalini yogis, as well as kriya yogis (and even H.P. Blavatsky in her book, The Voice of the Silence), speak of the internal sounds that often accompany kundalini as getting more and more subtle as it rises through the chakras, until finally it fades out when it reaches the crown. Thus, in kriya yoga, for instance, they meditate on the big bell sound in a lower chakra, where to the Sants the bell sound is a higher sound that pulls one up from the ajna center to the sahasrar, with a fade-out into the 'true wordless state' not occuring until one traverses the intermediate planes and reaches the higher dimension of Sat Lok referred to as Anami Lok. The Sant Mat answer to this contrasting phenomenon is that the yogis only hear lesser sounds, or reflections of the true sounds, and the shabd is a higher manifestation of the divine shakti than the kundalini.
According to Darshan Singh, in a rather unique view, kundalini as such does not extend above the navel, only the sensory currents or surat reach further. And also that paths manipulating the kundalini harken to an earlier era in the history of man, with a technique the Sants no longer employ. Opinions vary, and can get apparently far-fetched. Esoteric Christian mystic Daskalos felt that the origin of kundalini coiled in the lower centers of the human form had its beginnings in a great cosmic event of pre-history he named the “Marduk disaster.” This supposedly happened to a previous earth or globe in another cosmic cycle that was in the same space as our present earth. (see Markides, Fire in the Heart).
Sant Darshan Singh summarized his view as follows:
"If we compare the different yogic systems we find that some begins their concentration, their meditation, at the lower chakras in the body. There are six chakras, the lowest being at the juncture between the legs and the trunk, which is the center of the kundalini. Those who practice kundalini yoga begin their concentration at that point. Their sensory currents begin to withdraw from the toes and legs, and those portions become numb as at the time of death. But during meditation and at the time of death, the process of withdrawal does not stop with the kundalini center. When the sensory currents come above the kundalini center, the kundalini stops functioning and itself becomes numb, but the man is still alive. During the further withdrawal from the body, the currents next come to the navel center. Other yogas begin their concentration here; they generate a deep sound from the navel [i.e., kriya yoga]. Yet when someone withdraws above the navel, that center also becomes numb and stops functioning even though the man is still alive. By this time the death of the kundalini is past history. Then the sensory currents withdraw to the heart center, the gullet and the tongue; each one in turn becomes numb and ceases to function, yet the man is still alive. Many practices begin their point of concentration at the tongue, where the repetition of holy mantras goes on. But when the withdrawal of the currents continues, this center also stops functioning. Next, the currents withdraw above the nose and come to the eyes. Finally, the sensory currents reach the last point before transcending the physical body. This center or chakra is between and behind the two eyebrows, and is called the center of the soul. It is also referred to as the still point, the third eye or single eye, the tisra til, shiv tetra, divya chaksu or the tenth door. When the currents reach this point the pupils first turn upwards, and then downwards, and we say at that time the soul has finally left the body."
"Now, we can see for ourselves that the kundalini center, and the other lower centers, stop functioning long before the man has left the body. It is not the lower center, but the point between the two eyes which is the last center our soul passes through before leaving the body." [We have seen that this is not exactly correct, even according to Sant Mat, as there are several centers in the head to pass through before truly exiting the body at the crown; since Sant Mat defines only the body below the eyes as the domain of "body consciousness", however, neither is he wrong in using this language]
"If we start meditating at the kundalini chakra and then slowly go from one chakra to the other, before rising up to the point where we finally transcend the body, it is a long process. It requires a great amount of time and effort to rise from the lower centers to the center of the soul. In this short span of life of about fifty to seventy years, we can hardly expect to reach our goal. So the saints off modern times, instead of starting at the very base, and then working their way up, start with the highest point - the third eye or single eye. The basic requirements remain the same, but by changing the center from the kundalini to the eye-focus, the saints have clearly given us the shortest possible way. They tell us we should make the jump to the center of the soul...to the highest center, the point between and behind the two eyebrows. It is at this center that the real heart of the mystics exists. If we read Hafiz, Attar, Shamas-e-Tabrez or Maulana Rumi, we will find that according to them the real heart of the mystic is the center of the soul. It is not the lump of flesh the size of one's fist. It is a much vaster expanse because this is the fountainhead of love in the physical body. The saints always teach a method of meditation which involves concentration the attention at this center." (12a)
What this path teaches does seem to be different than most others. Sant Mat differentiates between the sensory currents, attention or surat, and the motor currents, or pranas [and presumably kundalini]. The former is the attention or outer expression of the soul, and is said to have its source much higher than the latter, as well as the that of the mind. Thus, they claim to differ markedly from the teaching of traditional yogas. So then what do the yogis such as Ramakrshna or Padmasambhava and others mean when they say kundalini does in fact rise to the sahasrar? Are we to suppose they mistake the further rise of the kundalini beyond the navel for the continued rise of the sensory currents alone? Does it really matter? Or that they unknowingly 'switch' from the kundalini to the sensory currents once they reach the heart-center? That seems highly unlikely, remember Shiv Brat Lal said kundalini and Shabda-Brahman are one and the same, but I’m sure I am not the only one who gets confused on this point!
According to the saints, then, one does not have to have kundalini rise in the traditional fashion, certainly starting at the Muladhara, in order for the soul to have experience of higher dimensions; nor, say some of the sages, does the kundalini have to rise or descend into or rise out of the heart for the consciousness to do so either, that is, for Self-realization.
Let us briefly summarize a few points before proceeding.
I think Kirpal and Darshan and other Sants might be a bit a bit misleading when they say how efficient shabd yoga is compared with kundalini where you “have to start all the way down the other end of the spine when you are already at the eye-center”. All kundalini teachers don’t start there nor require you to start there. For example, Bhai Sahib’s Sufi line activate the heart - the “King” - chakra and let it gently activate all the rest. The guru does it. They aren’t trying to get you to higher planes exclusively. They work more with the heart.
There was a connection between Sant Mat and theosophical masters and the Nath tradition which seems to have added a few chakras in the head between the ajna (eye-center) and the crown. The Sant Mat technique explores these avenues or subtle dimensions. Traditionally one went straight from the ajna to the crown, but Sant Mat goes in, back, and up in the head first. Apparently it is not necessary to reach the Sahasrar. Jnaneshwari, Milarepa, Sivananda were kundalini yogis. If kundalini really ended at the navel center as Darshan Singh said, how could they ever have ever reached the Sahasrar, which they certainly did? There is only one energy, manifesting differently at different levels.
Charan Singh told a disciple to avoid kundalini, saying that it would wreck your life, and why seek powers? The Kundalini tradition like all others warns about seeking powers. Plenty of shabd yogis developed powers and got messed up! Kirpal had many kundalini experiences before he met Sawan. It did not wreck his life. He had already asked God to take away the powers he had as a youth. Sivananda was a kundalini yogi but was also very big on seva.
Shiv Brat Lal in his book is pretty clear that the inner regions up to Bhanwar Gupha are in the head. He even draws a picture of them outlined on the forehead. Other Sants teach they are really places you are going to whereas it is more like only the interior of the body-mind, that is, the microcosm with a macrocosm reflected therein. Shiv odddly 'locates' Sach Khand at the top of the head near the anterior fontanelle, and Anami as slightly above the crown of the head. This is interesting because it relates to the raja yoga claims for enlightenment ensuing upon reaching the Sahasrar, which is also said to be slightly above the head (as considered from the subjective point of view. Sahans dal kanwal is only eight petals, not one thousand, in most Sant Mat books, and is therefore much lower than the classic Sahasrar. [One thousand basically means, 'very many'; it is doubtful anyone ever counted therm all]. Finally, Shiv states directly in his book that there is no difference between shabd and kundalini.
Even more interesting is that he equates Sach Khand or Sat Lok with 'intuition'. So to me, that means it is qualitatively different than any of the infinitely varied subtle realm possibilities of experience, and not just “more of the same only better." Does this mean here one is finally 'out of' the microcosm and set free into the macrocosm? No, as discussed earlier, the two polarities go together, it is not possible to have an experience of the macrocosm without the microcosm. Beyond and within both is the bedrock, of Reality, qualitatively of a different dimension, beyond subject and object. This means, among other things, that you can have the essential experience of a Sach Khand here and now. Shiv Brat Lal said the goal was to bring it all down to earth, not just stay on high. He was trying to say something radical in my opinion. So, with Kirpal liking Shiv very much - definitely a more philosophical Sat Guru and the inspiration behind Faqir Chand - and with Sant Rajinder occasionally saying you don’t really go anywhere and that seva is even more important than meditation, one wonders where this is heading...? Sant Mat will remain a genuine path, but without feeling constrained to argue that all others are not. This will of course pose a challenge for some gurus and disciples. How Sant Mat will stand unique is explored in Part Two.
For Ramana all the chakra and planes business is basically imaginary. The heart-center as mentioned by sages is only a provisional one. This heart is all-pervading, and not in just one place. Yoga Vasistha states what is essentially the position of Ramana Maharshi:
“The heart which is acceptable is of the nature of pure consciousness. It is both inside and outside, and it is neither inside nor outside. That is the principal heart. In it is reflected everything which is in the universe and it is the treasure-house of all wealth. Consciousness alone is the heart of all beings, not the piece of flesh which people call the heart.”
While often first realized within in samadhi, in reality it is the natural state and perpetual samadhi, or sahaja. There is then no going into or out of it.
“Please tell me why only that state of mind which is free from thoughts or notions is called samadhi? If one is a knower of truth whether he be engaged in constant action or in contemplation does his mind ever lose the state of samadhi? No, the enlightened ones are forever in samadhi, even though they engage themselves in the affairs of the world.”(Ibid)
Thus, it seems that a Faqir Chand speaking of ‘going into’ the stateless state, or Darshan Singh having attained the ability the go to Anami by an ‘act of will,’ may not be referring to this condition, but to something else, however grand.
So what then is the purpose of the kundalini movement? It may be largely one of psycho-physical purification, and it takes many forms other than the classic one.
Lakshmana Swamy interprets the kundalini-shakti in a rather unique manner, as mentioned above. He says that it is actually equivalent to the mind, which arises from the Heart and ascends to the brain through the channel called the amrita nadi ("current of nectar", or "current of immortality"). By this interpretation, Siva and Shakti, or Siva and the kundalini-shakti, do not unite in the sahasrar when said kundalini rises; rather, the kundalini-shakti (or mind) must return to its source (or its original locus relative to the bodily self) , which is the heart centre, and die there. Kundalini-as-the-mind, according to Lakshmana Swamy, arises from the heart, therefore, and not from the Muladhara chakra at the base of the spine as yoga maintains. The arising of kundalini through yoga practice is only apparently such; it is actually a mental or imaginary phenomenon, only appearing as substantial to the non-Heart-realized individual. Swamy's use of the word "imaginary" is interesting and it was similarly used by Ramana Maharshi. It simply means, "in consciousness", or "Mind". Paul Brunton used the philosophic term "mentalism" to the same effect. It is not meant to obliterate the distinction between gross and subtle phenomena, although that may in fact be the intention of some teachers, but its basic meaning is that all phenomena arise in consciousness (or to and as consciousness), and the true vision of things is generally not had without the transcendence of the ego in the heart. This can be, as stated above, attained with the provisional descent of the mind into the heart, or simply through clear seeing that all is mind in ordinary life (i.e., outside trance).This grants the true understanding of the kundalini energies as well.
Swamy states:
"The kundalini tradition is not speaking from the highest standpoint because it does not teach that the mind must go back to the heart for the final realization to occur. When you speak of the kundalini rising to the sahasrar you are speaking of a yogic state which is not the highest state. At the moment of realization the 'I' -thought goes down the channel (amrita nadi) and is destroyed in the heart. After realization neither the amrita nadi nor the heart-center are of any importance. The jnani then knows that he is all-pervading Self.” (13)
[Here he does acknowledge a higher point of view, although he insists that the Witness position attained by samadhi in the heart must be achieved first. Simply said, all sages are not in complete agreement on the necessity of this experience either].
The activation of the kundalini-shakti can be a profoundly transformative - and potentially disorienting - process if it occurs in the unprepared. It is a function universal intelligence that serves not just to yogically re-polarize the energy and attention to the crown or sahasrar, but, more basically, to purify physical and emotional obstructions and, in its higher aspects to clear vision and understanding. And its free movement might, more desirably, to be a byproduct of a foundational moral purification of the individual, rather than a strategic, motivated technique. Such preliminary purification or tapas is not without drama [see "Scrubbing" in Part Three], but neither must it be be 'yogic fireworks' as imagined in the traditions.
While we prefer to see it all as one seamless interwoven process, according to some sages this energetic activation is chiefly preparation for the forms of inquiry and grace that lead attention to its root in the heart space (the 'witness self'), or its eventual 'dissolution' or 'abidance' in the un-localizable Heart or Self that is prior to all dualistic conceptions or perceptions of the mind. These mental conceptions include time and space, in which case the notion of a 'Heart on the right' may be seen to be a relatively arbitrary or at least a provisional structure in consciousness. And in fact Ramana did not repeatedly place much emphasis on this, often saying things like, 'why wander in all this maze, just be who you are', although some of his lineage successors (notably those from his ashram, such as Lakshmana Swamy, but not teachers such as Papaji, Mooji or Gangaji) made a big deal of it. Ramana in fact seems to be the first one in modern history to mention this specific locus. Traditional Hindu sources make reference to the initial place of realization of the inner Purusha being the heart, but not specifically a heart on the right. In Sufism, as mentioned earlier, they speak of multiple sub-chakras of the heart, left, right, center, top and bottom, to be activated, while Paul Brunton, an influential disseminator of Maharshi's presence and teachings to the Western world, also vdid not mention the 'heart on the right' in his own writings. Nor did Sri Nisargadatta:
"He had enormous respect for both his [Ramana's] attainment and his teachings. He once told me that one of the few regrets of his life was that he never met him in person...With regard to the teachings he once told me, ‘I agree with everything that Ramana Maharshi said, with the exception of this business of the heart-centre being on the right side of the chest. I have never had that experience myself.’ (“Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj”, by David Godman).
So one may reasonably conclude it is not altogether a necessary experience. Nevertheless, this is how one questor described it:
"First came an experience where I thought I had been shot by a gun in the chest and could feel what I thought was blood pouring out of my chest, to which my response was to sit bolt upright in bed (as I had been deep asleep) and race to turn on the light, only to discover that I could not 'see' anything although an excruciating pain continued for perhaps 10 minutes with the feeling of something wet pouring out. After this, I began to detect a 'second' heart beat on the right side of the chest (one that beat entirely different from the physical heart) and it was noticed that there would be a throbbing of compassion at even things so dumb as a Folgers coffee commercial followed by a sensation of molten candle wax dripped from the crown of my head until it reached the feet, wherein I would burst into flames and be fairly nonfunctional for a couple hours in what felt like a narcotic stupor.” (internet source misplaced)
Despite the abysmal depths of depravity that grew to surround him and overshadow his work, the late Adi Da made controversial observations about this process that at one point at least seemed provocative enough to warrant discussion by a number of contemporary spiritual philosophers. In an article, “The Severing of the Sahasrar,” David Todd, one of his students, writes critically of the traditional view of kundalini uniting with Siva in the Sahasrar being the ultimate realization:
“This description of God-Realization however, is a degeneration of the original spiritual teaching of India as expressed in its ancient scriptures, the Upanishads and Vedas. First of all, these sources, as well as the testimony of God-Realized Adepts in more recent times, reveal that the ultimate spiritual realization is associated not principally with the sahasrar as the kundalini tradition and many other yogic and saintly traditions have come to assert, but with the heart. Secondly, those who recommend a method of internal concentration and ascent and claim that their ultimate experience represents the awakening of the sahasrar are misinterpreting the phenomena they witness. They mistake the trance states that arise as attention moves to the brain core or “ajna chakra (the sixth energy center located below the true sahasrar) for the actual awakening of enlightenment. In fact, they may experience a formless samadhi or trance absorption as a natural expression of the concentration of attention in the brain core, or ajna chakra, but such a formless samadhi is generated in the upper extremity of the brain core, not in the sahasrar, which is above the brain core.”
This 'formless samadhi’ might correspond to “Sunn” or the first “shoonya” or void as experienced in Sant Mat at the level slightly above the ajna center towards the back of the head. The statement appears true then as far as it goes, but it does not follow that the Sants or their disciples do not ascend from there via the Sound Current to the Sahasrar and/or higher planes, or that renown yogis such as Ramakrishna also have not ascended to the Sahasrar above the brain-core itself. Ramakrishna did not speak of dissolution of attention in the Heart, or the ‘death of the ‘I’-thought therein, but Ramana emphatically said to Jung, castigating him for assigning Ramakrishna a lesser status than himself, “what did Ramakrishna not know?!” Adi Da’s contention was that one cannot truly pass to the Sahasrar until attention is dissolved in the Heart, and at which point one of the possible spiritual signs is the manifestation of the “Amrita Nadi” or “Atma Nadi” mentioned by Maharshi and some ancient sages. It is not clear, however, if it is absolutely true that one cannot pass to the Sahasrar without dissolution of attention in this spiritual heart, although, it might be preferable. The implications of this may not be that far from Faqir Chand’s depiction, mentioned earlier, of the Absolute State as being “beyond Anami and “beyond attention.” Todd continues:
"Although the tradition of kundalini yoga in its present form does not represent a complete system of spiritual practice and realization, it was originally based on a more inclusive teaching that did provide for true practice. Such true practice is founded on the primal or prior disposition of the heart and includes the full awakening of all bodily centers and functions.”
He then quotes Adi Da:
"…the Bodily Life-Current is Released from its structural association with the body-mind. This only occurs when the root of the body-mind, which is the gesture of attention, is re-cognized or Dissolved in the Heart. It is not that attention, or the mind, passes up with the Life-Current, through the crown or fontanelle, beyond the gross body, into an astral body and astral realms of experience. Rather, the mind is itself Dissolved in the Heart, the Divine Self. Therefore, the Life-Current of the body-mind is Released from the structural destiny of the covered soul. In this manner, the “sahasrar” is not merely Illuminated in itself, but the Bodily Life-Current is Identified with the universal All-Pervading Radiance of the Heart, the true Self. Therefore, the Life-Current does not itself pass up and out through the crown, but it is Diffused Universally in the Heart, via the body-mind as a whole.” (The Enlightenment of the Whole Body, p. 424-425).
Here again we see the difference between the path of Sri Ramana and that of the mystics. Note that Adi Da doesn’t explicitly say here that it is not possible to ascend to higher planes, only that it can be bypassed to reach the purported final goal by realizing the Heart. Yet he did make this assertion:
“In fact, the brahmarandhra, which is the same as the sahasrar, cannot be penetrated by the acts of attention. The “Sky of Mind” is simply the subtle mind in the realms of experience contacted via the brain core, or ajna chakra. Only the dissolution of attention in the heart permits the Life-Current to pass beyond the limits of the body-mind via the brahmarandhra and the body-mind as a whole.” (Ibid, p. 477-478)
This is a strong criticism. In fact, the ancient Yoga Vasistha states:
“Only one who has arrived at wisdom can ascend to the ethereal realms.” (The Supreme Yoga: Yoga Vasistha, trans. Swami Venkatesananda (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 2003)
In Sant Mat, however, it is the Sound Current - an expression of Consciousness - that is said to pull the surat of the disciple up through the brahmarandhra or crown. It is not the act of attention alone per se that does it. And perhaps one could describe this as the dissolution of the 'physical level attention' with magnet absorption in the next higher level of the Sound Current.
Nor do the life-currents per se or pranas leave the body, or need to. Without a Master, however, there would no doubt be great difficulty as well as delusion, and potential danger, in doing so. The general consensus among sages is that it would be better if one realized the Heart first - that is, the Witness consciousness - before exploring inner realms - and I think some saints realize this, and quietly move some of their disciples in that direction - but then, again, it doesn’t seem to usually happen that way in Sant Mat, but more often would come at the end of the inner sadhana - if then.
In any case, and one way or another, purity of the human heart is also recommended if not required before exploring inner realms of the being can be done without illusion and ego-inflation. And one way or another, the best of the saints try to safeguard their disciples from this bypass. This is something sorely missing from many new paths. I need not say more.
The question remains if all named planes in Sant Mat are experienced in life in the brain core. Earlier discussion has concluded that at least Sat Lok is not. One internet critique, however, in a somewhat confusing manner and with a rather dark vision of Radhasoami history (in my opinion), outlined the planes as follows:
1.Sahas Dal Kanwel, Jot Naranjan Flame of candle, bell, conch shell, 3/4 inches behind Tirsa Til. 2. Trikuti, Om Kar, Rising sun, Thunder, drum, between two eyebrows. 3.Sunn (Dswan Dar), Ranrankar, Satan, Kal, Lucifer, full moon, fiddle, center of forehead. Maha Sunn vast region, Ankar is also the mantra of Aleister Crowley Satanic groups. 4. Bhawar Gupta Sohang Ji, mid day sun, flute, 5. Sat Lok, Sat Nam, where hair starts on forehead, harp, bin, 100 million suns 5a. Extra inner planes of Agra groups who go to Radhasoami Pad using Radhasoami mantra are: 6. Alakh Lok, Alakh Parush, 2 fingers after hair starts, undescribable 7. Agam Lok, Agam Parush, 2 fingers after Alakh line, undescribable 8. Radhasoami Dayal, top of head, undescribable. (see: R. S. Beas Secret History).
This writer (not a master, and who seems biased towards Agra) comes close to Shiv Brat Lal's schema, but places Sat Lok at the hair line where as Shiv Brat Lal locates it at the top of the skull, by the anterior fontanelle. Perhaps this much is splitting hairs (!), but for both, however, only Radhasoami Dham or Anami is realized at the Sahasrar. This contradicts Swami Sivananda and Sri Aurobindo who place Sat Lok at the Sahasrar. What is certainly reasonably clear so far, at a minimum, is that Sahansdal Kanwal is not the traditional yogic Sahasrar, and this has important comparative implications.
The Feet of the Lord
This is an interesting subject in itself and relates to the notion of the Heart versus the Sahasrar as the locus of realization, much of which has been discussed earlier and will be discussed more later on. In the literature of Sant Mat there is mention of attaching the soul to the lotus feet of the inner Master manifesting as astral light. Calling something the feet implies there is also a body with a head. Where does that come in Sant Mat? Sach Khand? But it is also mentioned that the feet of the Sat Purush are in Sach Khand. Does that imply the head is in Anami?
In any case the yogic literature generally refers to the feet of Lord Shiva as being in the Sahasrar and, as mentioned by Sivananda, the union of kundalini or shakti with Shiva occurs there. But in some vedantic traditions that recognize the Heart as the seat of realization the feet of the Lord are said to be imbedded there. Sankara, most famous for his advaitic non-dualism as exemplified in his commentaries on Guadapada's karika on the Mandukya Upanishad, nevertheless wrote much bhakti poetry, and in a work called "Shivananda Lahari" wrote the following:
"The mind losing itself in Shiva's Feet is Devotion - Knowledge - Liberation...The thick cloud of bhakti formed in the transcendental sky of the Lord's Feet, pours down a rain of Bliss (ananda) and fills the lake of mind [trans., manas-sarovar] to overflowing." (cited in Talks with Ramana Maharshi, p. 251).
Other sages have interpreted Manasarovar, a "lake" found in Daswan Dwar on the path of the Sants, in a more vedantic and less mystical or yogic way. What, however, did Sankara mean by that term, and what did he mean by "transcendental sky"? It seems unlikely that he meant the "sky of mind" in the brain core, as referred to by Yogananda or the Sants, but if not, then what? Is the transcendental sky in the head? Above the head? Or in the Heart? Being “transcendental” it would not be localizable in space, yet somehow that does not satisfy our curiosity. Perhaps someone can come up with a better answer!
To conclude this section, it can be noted that kundalini or not, even on the path of Sant Mat an energetic bodily transformation is also spoken of:
"Once you discover this Light and learn to live by it, your whole existence will be changed. Love will permeate your very being and it will burst forth from the very pores of your body.” (The Teachings of Kirpal Singh, v2, 83, 84)
6
Ramana Maharshi and Lakshmana Swamy speak of the amrita nadi as arising out of the Heart and projecting to the sahasrar above, and then simultaneously to the body-mind as a whole. In realization, Lakshmana, as mentioned, speaks of attention or mind as going down the channel of amrita nadi into the heart, after which he says that the Self is reached, and the heart and amrita nadi are then more or less superfluous. In Ramana's case, one gets the feeling that in the realization of sahaj, the amrita nadi, after realization of the transcendental Self in the Heart, reappears as a regenerated pathway of the Heart and its Light, forever known as inseparable. However, this phenomenal appearance is only on occasion and not the norm in daily life.
This causal pathway is generally not, however, acknowledged in the yoga schools. A modern exception to this is Swami Yogeshwaranand Saraswati. He argues:
"A stream of rays pertaining to the life-force arises from the bliss sheath (The causal body in the heart) and goes to the astral body (manomaya and vijnanamaya koshas in the brain) and from there to the physical body." (14)
Even among the Greeks one finds this view:
"Aristotle regarded the heart and not the brain as the thinking or control centre of the body. He also spoke of certain very fine thread-like tendons that went from the heart to all the larger tendons of the body as in a marionette. Hence the notion of one's "heart-strings' being tugged." (15)
Ramana once said "You doctors say that the heart is at the left side of the chest. But the whole body is the heart for yogis. Jnanis have their hearts both within and without." A devotee of his, Janaky Matha, claims to have had her liberation under Bhagavan's grace when her kundalini rose to the sahasrara, after which she realized the One, Universal, Transcendental Self as Heart-Light and Amrita Nadi as a "pillar of light", rising up to the sahasrara and above, as sometimes described by Ramana. (http://bhagavan-ramana.org/janakimata.html) She once almost had the experience of Ganapati Muni of the kundalini trying to break out of the top of the skull but it subsided when she cried out to Ramana. Maharshi said of her that she was born realized, and that he was only the causal or karana guru for her (i.e., the “closing pitcher”).
For advanced Tibetan Buddhists, kundalini practice can be both preparatory for non-dual realization, or part of the progressive, fully integrating stages of such realization leading to attainment of the Light Body or Rainbow Body whereby the practitioner reduces the physical body into the subtle essence of its elements, leaving nothing behind but the hair and nails, considered to be impurities. In this tradition, such is considered to be a sign of Total realization. Such phenomena are not due to conventional yogic siddhi, but rather transmutation due to radical non-dual realization wherein even the physical body is so resolved. [For more on this and additional comments on the kundalini see "Step By Step To The Temple of Total Ruin: Lessons from Milarepa” (http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.com/articles/article/2291157/159374.htm)].
On the other hand, most non-dual philosophies, such as Advaita, teach that there is nothing to attain but the ever-present Self or consciousness. Kundalini-Shakti may appear to rise, or the devotee may appear to ascend through the chakras, but really this is only an appearance, or even a play of attention. However, this appears to overly minimize the reality and significance of the movement of the life-force within relativity. The average aspirant is in no way equipped to deal with the full and sudden activation of kundalini, and is usually, in his best interests, advised against such motivated pursuit. Fortunately or not, the average hide-bound and mind-ridden aspirant is also not in a position to experience this, so it is largely an unnecessary worry!
The ascending motion, for Taoists, Kriya Yogins, and perhaps especially Tibetan Buddhists, is part of a greater process, including descent, ascent, and non-dual identification with consciousness itself. For the general devotee it is enough to understand and that whatever it is that ascends, or what the process of ascent is altogether, can only be observed or known properly from the point of view of consciousness. The ego-soul may appear to ascend and descend, but such is only an illusion based on identification with the bodily self. This insight is an advanced one, known to the realizer. Such identification is undermined through spiritual insight into the all-pervading, formless Soul - or Self - which is realized as empty-fullness of Reality. If the ego-soul is an illusion, therefore, based on mistaken identity, how can it really be said to ascend? Yet strangely, it can (or it appears to), as ascension is one of the functions of the emanated soul), and right and proper in its time and place in a total spiritual process. Moreover, as PB writes:
" 'Give yourself to the Overself' is simple to say, but one must descend and ascend through a number of levels before its full majestic meaning is realized." (16)
And what this all implies in the final analysis is that kundalini awakening is God's business, not that of the humble aspirant, whose basic task is not the willful attempt to manipulate or pursue the experience of subtle energies for their own sake, but, rather, through profound self-transformation, self-understanding, and self-surrender, to permit consciousness itself and its divine spirit-current or shakti, itself inseparable from consciousness, to dissolve all exclusive, fixed, limited identification with the body-mind. A brief illustration may suffice for our purposes. This is priceless, in my opinion. A learned monk came to the Athonite holy man, Elder Paissos, having read book after book on noetic prayer, or the various mystical states and stages. After expounding on how 'in this spiritual state, this takes place, and in that state, that takes place', he asked Father Paissos what state he was in. Paissos recounts:
" 'In what state?' I repeated, ' In no state.'
" 'So what are you doing out here?' he asked.
"What am I doing? I ask God for self-knowledge. If I know myself, I'll have repentance. And if repentance comes, so will humility, and then afterwards, grace. That's why I'm seeking repentance, repentance, and repentance. God will send His grace afterward." (17)
The summary point in this discussion is that the apparent ascent or descent of consciousness and/or kundalini in the chakra system is part of a larger spiritual process, and is not the immediate concern, or necessity, of the separately identified, unawakened individual.
Adyashanti seems to concur on this basic point (although he also recognizes that it is almost inevitable at some point for energy to be liberated in the body-mind as one's conscious awareness deepens):
"Awakening is just here. You don't need to bring it backwards or up or down or behind something to be essentially free of what's arising. It already is free. It doesn't need to back up. Only the little me thinks it needs to back up or get away." (p. 217 Emptiness Dancing)
It needs also be said that it is possible that the purifying activity of the kundalini or spirit-energy on the chakras may cause them to open in any order, from below-upwards, or above-down, depending on the stage of the individual and his/her karmic history/requirements. For example, one may have opened at the level of the heart or throat, but need to 'go back' and integrate the energies/emotions of the second (sexual/desire) or third (solar plexus/will) chakras. So one need not then be fixated on the notion of a mysterious force shooting straight up the spine in every case. What we are essentially talking about - with difficulty - is the Spirit, Soul, or Overself moving more freely in its association with its own bodily vehicle, and causing 'friction' when it meets with obstructions.
Ramana considered the following to be the essential point:
"The seeker's aim must be to drain away the vasanas from the heart and let no reflecting consciousness obstruct the light of the Eternal Consciousness. This is achieved by the search for the origin of the ego and by diving into the heart. This is the direct path to Self-Realization. One who adopts it need not worry about nadis, brain, sushumna, kundalini, breath control and the six yogic centers. The Self does not come from anywhere or enter the body through the crown of the head. (17a) It is as it is, ever-shining, ever steady, unmoving and unchanging. The changes are not inherent in the Self for the Self abides in the heart and is self-luminous like the sun. The changes are seen in its light."
Ah, yes: just "drain away the vasanas from around the heart." This must be the understatement of the century - does anyone have an idea how profound an ordeal that is? Perhaps only those undergoing multiple Pluto transits will understand! The ego could and would never do such a thing - the 'I'-thought will defend itself until the bitter end. Properly speaking, only a master could do it, of course with the disciple's cooperation.
7
Bhai Sahib, guru of Irena Tweedie, in Daughter of Fire, spoke of in his Sufi tradition the master activating the heart chakra of the disciple, letting the heart then open all the other centers through its own inherent wisdom-process:
"By our system it [kundalini] is awakened gently...we awaken the 'King', the heart chakra, and leave it to the 'King' to awaken all the other chakras."
The advaitic sage Shree Atmananda Krishnamenon breaks the heart down as follows:
“The spiritual heart is of no gross material stuff and so cannot be located in space. Still, to satisfy the lower adhikaris in the gross plane, it is conveniently located in the right hand side of the chest. But in the subtle plane the heart is the integral ‘I’ - thought forming the center of all thought. And beyond it, the heart is the right Absolute." [Atmananda’s term for the Ultimate Reality or Principle]. (Notes on Spiritual Discourses (#207)
Sri Nisargadatta, as mentioned, once said he was in complete accord with the teachings of Ramana ‘except for the heart on the right business.’ So he would probably have been in agreement with Atmananda that it was merely a convenient physical locus without absolute value.
Madame Guyon writes in as Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ:
“Once the heart has been gained by God, everything else will eventually take care of itself. This is why He requires the heart above all else.”
Victoria LePage elaborates:
"By this method man's natural state of purity is regained not by meditation or ascetic disciplines [per se], or by any abstraction of the senses, but in full consciousness; ideally by a spontaneous union with the pure consciousness of the guru." (17b)
In other words, realization, as well as activation of energy, is a result of a process of infused contemplation by grace, and not the strategic efforts of an individual. The individual has removed himself from all concern for the process, and is in a state of surrender. This is the safest way, and in some sense the easiest and also the most difficult.
[Bhai Sahib also made an interesting statement worth pondering, that "new chakras are discovered all the time..there is not enough time in a lifetime to awaken them all."]
It has been said that there are really not 'two things': Spirit and matter are one, kundalini and the soul are one, and thus one can appreciate that ultimately kundalini is not separate from our own self. It is quite a paradoxical affair, but it may be said one that has its own logic within relativity. In advanced Dzogchen ultimately the energies are non-dually resolved into their essences. The lights and sounds perceived within or moving in the body are finally known as manifesting from our own primal essence. But of course, from within relativity there seems to be a process.
And, again, which has its own logic, which must be respected. "Getting fried" is a real possibility. The annals of spirituality are filled with cautions about premature awakening of the centers, which can lead to bodily and psychic ruin, madness, etc.. The Cypriote mystic Daskalos, as reported by Kyriacos Markides in his book Homage to the Sun, taught that the chakras, or what he called the 'sacred discs', at birth begin to rotate in a clockwise manner, and are largely under the control of the Holy Spirit as the infant develops. Stress, agitation and arisal of evil propensities can temporarily reverse this flow. In maturity, the discs at the head (primarily the ajna and sahasrar), which govern our self-consciousness, may be developed through our efforts at right thinking and discrimination, while the discs at the heart and solar plexus remain under the aegis of the Holy Spirit. An aspiring mystic can open any of these discs through raja yoga type of practices, but the safer way is the aforementioned process of right living and thinking, without flooding by opening the gates of the subconscious. The reason, in part, is that there is a close connection to mental illness or madness and an unstable relationship between the solar plexus and the brain. When these are unable to handle the intense vibrations of our subtle body a breakdown can occur. It takes time to prepare the channels properly. Which is why most masters advise a gradual devotional and intellectual development a supposed to a concerted yogic effort to propel us towards exotic inner experiences. Daskalos states:
"Violent vibrations in themselves do not lead to madness. Madness is the inability of the material brain and the solar plexus to express the inner conditions of the psycho-noetic body [i.e., subtle bodies]. Sometimes you will notice, for example, that before an individual gets into these fits of madness he may begin to feel pain in his stomach, bend down and start vomiting. The vibration that gets him off balance may start from the solar plexus." (p. 25)
And
"The disc at the heart begins to revolve simultaneously with the movement of the disc at the solar plexus. It begins revolving while the infant is still in the womb. The two discs, that of the solar plexus and of the heart, are responsible for offering us the phenomenon of life. After birth the disc at the heart is also responsible for energizing the movement of the lungs."
"The sacred discs of the heart and the solar plexus are completely independent of the present self-conscious personality. They are under the direct and omniscient supervision of the Holy Spirit which sets these two discs into motion, making possible the functioning of the physical body."
"The two discs at the head are responsible for the development of the personality and offer us the potential of self-consciousness...The [disc over the head] begins to move very slowly right at birth and it gradually develops as the child learns how to concentrate and reason...Now, it is possible that a person may so end a lifetime with the disc over his head never moving in a normal and harmonious manner. This may happen when the person is over focused on and overdetermined by earthly material existence. I have noticed that for a lot of people that disc hardly moves. I said "hardly" because in reality that disc always moves at least a little for all persons regardless of their mental and spiritual development. However, for threes earthly people the disc remains atrophied. It maintains the size it had when the person came into the world."
The development of this sacred disc will depend on the person's self-consciousness, the way the person thinks, the way he handles noetic [i.e., mental] substance. It starts to grow and move harmoniously when the person makes proper use of the power of thought."
He makes the following point:
"The disc over the head can develop through appropriate meditation exercises of concentration. But it can also develop without the individual consciously trying to develop it. Sometimes this may be a more preferable way. There have been people who through virtue, reason, powers of observation and through self-discipline managed to develop the disc over their heads without ever learning of its existence, and never consciously trying to open it and develop it. On the other hand, there are Researchers of Truth [i.e., a term given to aspirants in his mystical circles] who learn about these centers on the etheric-double by reading books from the Orient. Through practice they may begin to move that sacred disc rapidly and open it up. But unless they also develop their characters, they will not accomplish much. In fact they may prematurely open their sacred discs, which could be damaging to their present personalities. The safest method of developing this disc is through self-analysis, reason, and the right way of living." (p. 76-78)
[Note: there is much more to Daskalos teachings; as this is so different than advaita and other oriental philosophies, for further study the reader is directed to the trilogy by Markides (The Magus of Strovolos, Homage to the Sun, Fire in the Heart), as well as "The Idea of Man" at www.mountainrunnerdoc.com/philosophy]
8
Perhaps the following may offer another clarifying perspective. Swami "M", in Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master (2010), writes of a time as a young teen (!) when he was conflicted by contrasting accounts by these various masters over the location of the heart center, i.e., was it at the crown center, the ajna, or the right side of the chest. While spending the night at the samadhi site of Sri Ramadasa Swami, a strange man spontaneously appeared to him and said, "Don't fear...So you have a problem, yeah? Don't know where the heart lotus is, yeah? It is everywhere, here, there, everywhere. Ha ha, manifested in different centers for different people. No controversy." He then tapped him in the middle of the chest and said, "Yours, right here, anahata, you stick to it, Babaji's order." A violet light he never saw before then filled his heart center which he saw even with open eyes. He was later given another practice by one named Dadaji:
"I was given the sixteen letter (Shodasakshari), the Sri Vidya mantra belonging to the Lopamudra category with the starting sound Ka. "While kriya yoga clears up the central spinal pathway for the kundalini energy," said Dadaji, "the sound vibrations of the Sri Vidya help activate the cerebrospinal centers, and prepare them to receive the serpent power as it begin to ascend. I have come to teach you Shiva Raja Yoga, Thirumoolar's teaching, seven more centers in the brain."
The point of interest here is regarding numerous centers in the brain. Perhaps in this we there may be found at least a partial reconciliation between the above-mentioned teachings of yoga and Sant Mat regarding Sat Lok and the Sahasrar.
Several years later with his own guru he had a more definitive shakti opening which coincided with the falling away of his sense of separate self. This in itself is somewhat unusual on most shakti-type paths. The illumination of the intelligence is more often occurs on jnana paths.:
"A searing pain shot up my backbone, and such heat was generated that I felt that my whole body, especially my heart, was on fire. I almost thought that this was the end, and that I might not come out of it. Suddenly, a roaring sound, that quickly transformed itself into a soothing hum entered into my consciousness. It was as if someone with a Jim Reeves voice was chanting a long drawn "Om." The convulsions ceased, the heat subsided and a warm glow, like the comforting warmth of a fireplace on a winter night, suffused my body and soul. From the crown of my head, a secret elixir began to flow down my spine, and from head to toe, I experienced a wondrous, blissful ecstasy. I opened my eyes and looked around. Everything was fresh, new, and pulsating with life energy. I was a new person; resurrected from the old that seemed to have vanished and died. I was no longer an isolated self. The center of consciousness was everywhere from the humble dust to the Milky Way. All boundaries were broken. When I saw Babaji, it was as if I was him, looking at me. Babaji said, "Yes. Now, you are reborn. This is the real meaning of Dwija, born again. Rise slowly, for it will take some time to come to terms with your new self. Like a newborn babe, you'll have to crawl, then sit up, and finally walk with faltering step, until practice gives you the steady, confident stride of a full-grown being."
From the book it is not clear if this was a permanent shift in consciousness or not. One can have such a glimpse, or radical insight, for a day, a week, six months, and then go back to a normal dualistic state, if the "I"-thought or ego has not been either: seen through with philosophic understanding, slain or 'cauterized' in the heart. Compare this rare form of energetic breakthrough, however, with the following account by non-dual advaita teacher Francis Lucille, which will serve as an example of the approach taken in this book contrasting paths of knowledge or self-enquiry with those of yoga, such as Sant Mat. Few practitioners of the latter have experiences like this, for their sadhana precludes it mostly because it does not look for it. Which is not to say these breakthroughs are automatically permanent either, but they are certainly unique. Sant Darshan Singh spoke of those who attain the "gyan 'samadhis" - somewhat telling in that generally gyan is not about samadhi - saying that "we revere them and they reach the highest human realizations, but do not go to the highest." This is certainly subject to rigorous debate and clarification. Darshan did not further explain wh, and apparently no one had the courage to ask. But, "First see, and then say," said Kirpal Singh. Few who criticize jnana or the jnanis have actually had that experience or realization in order to make an honest comparison, and vice versa. [note: some use the terms 'gyan' and 'gyani'; I am never sure of the preferred spelling!]
Important questions (touched on later in the section "I heard the big Bell, but it wasn't where I wanted to go"), is whether one is better prepared having this form of ego-death prior to experience of the inner regions; and also whether it gives an enlightenment, while still tethered by the Heart to the body, thus saving one the rigours involved with sainthood by not requiring such states; and further, whether or not it may even give a superior or more authentic form of Self-Realization. We merely raise these questions, but do not intend to answer them. And, as far as we know, no one yet has done so. Lucille writes:
"In an almost simultaneous apperception, the personal entity with which I was identifying revealed itself in its totality. I saw its superstructure, the thoughts originating from the I-concept and its infrastructure, the traces of my fears and desires at the physical level. Now the entire tree was contemplated by an impersonal eye, and both the superstructure of thoughts and the infrastructure of bodily sensations rapidly vanished, leaving the I-thought alone in the field of consciousness."
"For a few moments the pure I-thought seemed to vacillate, just as the flame of an oil lamp running out of fuel, then vanished. At that precise moment, the immortal background of Presence revealed itself in all its splendor." (Francis Lucille, Eternity Now, www.francislucille.com)
A definite contrast to inner mystical experience, especially that herein the ego is still retained. Something to ponder.
There is, of course, much more that can be said on this topic, we have but scratched the surface.
For instance, a number of other questions remain. "When and why and how did the kundalini get 'coiled' at the base of the spine?" [the so-called ‘serpent-like’ action being mainly rmanifested in the lower centers]. And, "what exactly is the kundalini? Is it the pranas, what the Sant Mat teachers refer to as the 'motor' or life currents, or a variant or emanation thereof?" or "is it also related to the 'sensory' currents, part and parcel of the soul or consciousness itself?" "Does the kundalini only have to rise to the sahasrar once to achieve what its proponents claim, or are multiple such ascensions necessary?" And, finally, "must it be felt to arise at all?" As we have seen, opinions on this vary, as do definitions of what kundalini actually is. Ultimately, it has been said that there is only One stuff (18); that this Divine Mind, in which the Soul is said to be rooted or from which it is derived, is also Its own Substance and Energies. So what, then, is kundalini really? Is it apart from us? In what way? What is going on here? This is something to contemplate on deeply, instead of just giving a name to what for us remains the unknown.
9
Some summary reflections on the above discussion are now offered. First, there is a need to distinguish between concentration or interiorization of the mind or attention (surat), and its apparent movement in the sushumna and/or to a bodily center, whether in the spinal line or to the heart, and the movement of the soul's energy in such a manner. Kundalini is generally mentioned in reference to the latter.
Second, Lakshmana Swamy and other Ramana descendants often seem to confuse the two, when saying "the mind is the kundalini, and must descend into the heart and die," etc.. One can have a mystic transport or feeling of leaving the body, or ascending up the chakra line,or descending into, or abiding as, the heart without the kundalini as such awakening. And vice versa. Or both. Further, the consensus is that it is not necessary for all aspirants to have any of these 'movements' to become self-realized, although some variation on these themes is probably relatively inevitable and natural in the context of existence as a human being. This is because, it is said, there are multiple simultaneous, non-separate streams emanating from the Divine/Soul/Overself, i.e., Consciousness, Life, Energy, which are all One yet also experientially distinct.
Third, it may be possible to bypass the lower kundalini energy by meditating on the shabd, or light and sound current, as the Sants say, but it may or may not be possible to achieve full integration within the lower vehicles without some variety of "lower" kundalini activation. Many of the Sant masters have in fact had transformation of both kundalini opening and shabd absorption. In addition, both kundalini and shabd may be considered forms of shakti. As my co-writer Mark expresses it:
"The sound current, in my experience, only has an upward 'pulling' effect when listening to it in the ajna chakra or head area, as this energizes it's ascending nature. One practice Paramhansa Yogananda suggested, on the other hand, was listening to the nada as vibrating throughout the whole body, which suggests it is not limited to higher planes, but can be experienced as the underlying vibration of all the planes, bodies and chakras. Actually, this is not entirely foreign to some Sant Mat schools. Another practice he suggested was learning to hear it spread throughout the whole universe, beyond one's own body, and certainly not limited to higher planes. So there is definitely different ways to experience the nada, and 'pulling' is only one way, in my experience."
"The reason that I asked [whether I was hearing the sound without closing the ears during a time of intense energetic purification - i.e., a very painful period] is that the ascending sound current as the Word or Logos, Shabda Brahman, the Music of the Spheres, and so on is understood in different ways in various traditions; one aspect that most Sant Mat teachers have not emphasized so much is that in tantric/kundalini traditions like Tibetan Buddhism and certain Hindu schools, the sound current is considered to be a manifestation of kundalini (Shabda Brahman being the 'Shakti' or dynamic/creative energy of God or the Transcendent). Swami Rama, for instance, says that 'kundalini manifests as subtle light and sound (nada)'. And nada yoga is a key component of Laya Yoga, which is what kundalini yoga used to be called before the 20th century. I mention all this by way of explaining why I asked the questions. It is, to me, a sign of the kundalini being active if a person hears the sound current, even if only periodically. Most people I have asked do not hear it at all, though many do. My intuitive studies have lead me to feel that it is one of many clear signs that the kundalini is 'moving'. This means that one is, without a doubt, 'on their way home'. So, just another confirmation of things we have been talking about for years."
And fourth, while the Overself may be said to be rooted in the heart while incarnated (some try to pinpoint this to the sino-atrial node, and hence 'on the right', but 'deep in the heart' is good enough for most traditions), at some point one also transcends the idea of the Overself or Soul being related to any bodily center, be it the head (pineal gland or sahasrar) or the heart. Brunton writes:
"From this ultimate standpoint, space is regarded as being merely an idea for the mind whilst the mind itself is regarded as being outside both position and distance. Hence the philosophic meditation seeks to know the Overself by direct insight into its timeless, spaceless nature and not indirectly by bringing it into relation with a particular point in the physical body." (19)
And also:
"Whether the divine power is looked upon as being inside or outside oneself - and both views will be true and complementary - in the end it must be thought of without any reference to body and ego at all." (20)
And at this point one knows the shakti, shabd and/or kundalini, as the form and energy of one's own self, and not leading to that self. There is then nowhere to go, and nothing to do.
Seven hundred years earlier the author of the mystical treatise, The Cloud of Unknowing, said as much in the following passages:
"...the intention in the depths of our spirit. Which is the same as the 'height' of our spirit, for in these matters height, depth, length, and breadth all mean the same." [and] "Since it had to be that Christ should ascend physically, and then send the Holy Spirit in tangible form, it was more suitable that it should be 'upwards', and 'from above', than it should be 'downwards and from beneath', 'from behind, from the front, or from the sides'. Apart from this matter of suitability, there was no more need for him to have gone upwards than downwards, the way is so near. For, spiritually, heaven is as near down as up, up as down, behind as before, before as behind, on this side or that! So that whoever really wanted to be in heaven, he is there and then in heaven spiritually. For we run the high way (and the quickest) to heaven on our desire, and not on our two feet. St. Paul speaks for himself and many others when he says that although our bodies are actually here on earth, we are living in heaven. He is meaning their love and their desire, which is, spiritually, their life. Surely the soul is as truly there where the object of its love is, as it is in its body which depends on it, and to which it gives life. If then we will go spiritually to heaven, we do not have to strain our spirit up or down or sideways!" (21)
And further, lest one on any path be concerned that he has not had the 'required' experiences, the following story of Ramana Maharshi should allay his worry once and for all:
"In 1942, a Tamil scholar had a lengthy and detailed discussion with Bhagavan on the amrita nadi, believed to be the nerve associated with Self realization. Bhagavan showed interest in the discussion and answered all the pundit?s questions, giving a detailed description of the functions of the amrita nadi. Nagamma felt out of place as she did not know anything of the subject matter. After the pundit left, she approached Bhagavan and began to ask him about what was discussed. Before she could complete her sentence, Bhagavan asked, “Why do you worry about all this?” Nagamma replied, “Bhagavan, you have been discussing this for four days; so I thought I should also learn something about it from you.” Bhagavan answered, “The pundit was asking me what is written in the scriptures and I was giving him suitable replies. Why do you bother about all that? It is enough if you look into yourself as to who you are.” Saying this, Bhagavan smiled compassionately at her. After another two days or so, there was once again another dialogue on the same subject. This time Bhagavan said that it was only a notion, a mere concept. Nagamma intervened to ask whether all matters relating to the amrita nadi were also only concepts. Bhagavan replied emphatically, “Yes, what else is it? Is it not a mere notion? If the body itself is a notion, will that not be a notion as well?” Bhagavan then looked at Nagamma with great kindness. That very moment, all her doubts were laid to rest. In narrating this incident, Nagamma wanted to make known how important it is to go back to the source when spiritual doubts arise." (from Ramana Periya Puranam)
So here Ramana appears to be agreeing with Sri Nisargadatta that all but the Absolute are concepts. In which case it does not matter which way one proceeds, the 'I'-thought or ego can be tamed, transcended, or made irrelevant on any path or via any center.
Also in Ramana Periyam Puranam is found this quote from Ramana:
"The Self alone is to be realized. Kundalini shakti, visions of God, occult powers and their spell-binding displays are all in the Self. Those who speak of these and indulge in these have not realized the Self. Self is in the Heart and is the Heart itself. All other forms of manifestations are in the brain. The brain itself gets its power from the Heart. Remaining in the Heart is realizing the Self. Instead of doing that, to be attracted by brain-oriented forms of disciplines and methods is a sheer waste of time. Is it not foolish to hold on to so many efforts and so many disciplines that are said to be necessary for eradicating the non-existent ignorance?”
Clearly, for Ramana the kundalini force was not of much importance as compared to the primary realization of the heart or consciousness itself.
10
An interesting description of kundalini is given in the Spandakarika, a translation with commentary by Daniel Odier of the ancient tantric text by Vasagupta, which speaks of a "spherical kundalini that unfurls from the heart, permeating the totality of space, and which is absolute love" - by contrast which the chakras and spinal kundalini movement are more or less imaginary, as said Ramana. This book is highly recommended.
There is an interesting section in PB's Notebooks on kundalini that may help tie up some loose ends on this topic. Among the most intriguing entries are the following:
"What the Hindus call kundalini, meaning the "coiled force," is really a manifestation of [the] power of the Overself. It does not have to appear in the case of every progressing disciple."
"It is really nothing other than the soul's Energy, the dynamic aspect of the still centre hidden deep in man."
"It is the original life-force behind all human activity - mental and physical, spiritual as well as sexual - because it was behind the very birth of the human entity itself."
"This force is originally derived from the sun. It is universal, living, conscious, and like electricity in its dynamic potential."
"He who brings to the attempt a sufficient degree of informed spiritual development and mental-emotional self-control need have no fear. But he who does not - and such a type is in the majority - may find the solar plexus pouring out the force unrestrainedly through his nervous system, inducing permanent insomnia by reason of its pressure upon his brain, until his mind becomes unhinged."
The latter is a warning regarding the premature and incomplete awakening of this force in unprepared individuals, whose many internal blocks - largely of a moral nature - prevent its full, unhindered circulation. Best, then, to leave to God the working out of this dimension of the spiritual process, while one humbly increases his devotion and understanding. deCaussade gives one example of this from a Christian mystical perspective:
"That which you experienced in Retreat was a slight increase of your ordinary state, resembling the paroxysms of a fever [kundalini?] This increase of trouble cannot have been very salutary for you from the moment you accepted it ...God leads you, His grace works in you, although in a severe and crucifying manner , as is experienced in all violent remedies. Your spiritual maladies had need of remedies such as these; let your good Physician act as He best knows how; He will proportion the strength of the remedy to the power of the malady. Oh! how ill you were formerly without being aware of it! It is then that you ought to have taken the alarm, and it now when your convalescence is secured.”
Finally, Mark puts this entire process in a broader context:
"Beyond simply its 'serpent power' aspect, one might say that kundalini can be considered as a way of talking about an expression of transmission/grace/stimulation that can come from any number of sources: spiritual practice, directly from the Holy Spirit, Sat Purush, the lineage/guru, or one's own Soul. Kundalini, or more broadly, Shakti, is often used when wanting to emphasize the energy/bodily aspect of the spiritual process, which, of course, can, when activated, lead to a clearing of karmas and energy blocks referred to in different ways in different contexts, such as : 'kriyas' (Muktananda), 'spontaneous body movements' (Yan Xin), or burning/purifying (U Ba Khin). All of these sources and many others each have their own list of the potential symptoms that can arise when the 'kundalini is active'. These include:
- spontaneous mudras, asanas, pranayama
- psychic openings
- sensations in the spine
- OBEs
- experiencing inner lights and sounds
- distorted body image
- strange emergence of various physical sensations with no apparent pathology or outer cause
- cathartic eruption of emotions
- patterns of stress and tension moving through the body
- chakras opening
- sensation of body vibrating
- sense of misalignment of 'inner nature' and the body
- dissociation from the body
- numbing, deadening, dulling of senses
- heightening of senses
- shutting down of emotional sensitivity
- hyper-emotional sensitivity
- deeper intuitive insights
- feelings of suffocation, pressure, crushing, or bands of tensions in the body
- rapture, bliss, love, contentment, peace
- intensive negative emotions - fear, anxiety, sorrow, anger, existential despair, alienation
- laughing, crying, coughing, sneezing
- strange sensations of dismemberment, head disconnected from body, paralysis
- dizziness, loss of appetite, confusion
- vision problems, hearing problems, chronic headaches
- sudden emergence of diseases that then quickly pass without treatments such as pneumonia, fever, bad headaches, allergies
- lethargy, tiredness, loss of motivation, low vitality
Intensified episodes, then, could be called 'clearing karma', 'the scrubbing process' (Sant Darshan Singh), 'perinatal/transpersonal process' (Stanislov Grof), 'the path of purification' (Theravada Buddhism), 'diseases of the mystic', 'shakti fever', 'pranic disorder' (Wilber), 'dark nights of the soul', etc.. All this may loosely be put under the umbrella of a 'kundalini' (or more preferably, 'shakti' or energy) aspect of the spiritual process."
In some of the more ‘masculine’ paths of strenuous effort, such as Korean Zen, the aspirant is warned of the arisal of saggi in meditation. Symptoms such as intense heat, headache, feeling as if the teeth are falling out, the eyes are sinking into their sockets, or perhaps the simplest form of saggi - pain in the buttocks from prolonged sitting - are some examples of this. The aspirant is usually told to ignore these signs and persevere, that they are hopeful signs of their meditation progressing! Supposedly the Buddha’s disciple Ananda [incidentally the closest of his disciples and the one who spent the most time with him, but the last to get enlightened] at one point felt his head would burst, and a god appeared in the sky and told him that the pain in his head was an indication of his transformation from a common to an accomplished being. (see The Way of Korean Zen, p. 77). The main point is that these signs are not necessarily an indication of disease, such that one should stop practicing, but possibly signs of purification and cure. Of course it is a delicate matter and the development of wisdom is needed. Sometimes one needs to take a step backwards and achieve balance, and sometimes one needs the courage to press onwards. In the Buddhist/Taoist tradition for ‘meditation sickness’ one is often technically advised to ground the energy by focussing one’s attention or enquiry on the elixir field or tantien, approximately three fingers below the navel, thereby uniting heaven and earth.
Yes, things can be very harrowing. St. John of the Cross in his Dark Night of the Soul describes graphically an extreme of this overall process:
“The soul must needs be in all its parts reduced to a state of emptiness, poverty and abandonment and must be left dry and empty and in darkness.
All this God brings to pass by means of this dark contemplation; wherein the soul not only suffers this emptiness and the suspension of these natural supports and perceptions, which is a most afflictive suffering (as if a man were suspended or held in the air so that he could not breathe), but likewise He is purging the soul, annihilating it, emptying it or consuming in it (as fire consumed the moldiness and rust of metal) all the affections and imperfect habits which it had contracted in its whole life. Since these are deeply rooted in the substance of the soul, it is wont to suffer great undoing and inward torment, besides the said poverty and emptiness, natural and spiritual...For the Prophet says here that, in order for the rust of the affections which are within the soul to be purified and destroyed, it is needful that, in a certain manner, the soul itself should be annihilated and destroyed, since these passions and imperfections have become natural to it.
Wherefore, because the soul is purified in this furnace like gold in a crucible, it is conscious of that complete undoing of itself in its very substances, together with the direst poverty...If He ordained not that, when these feelings arise within the soul, they should speedily be stilled, it would die in a very short time..."
This is simply not a cookie-cutter or entirely predictable process, as it is the Divine, after all, which is in charge. In Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, Madame Guyon writes:
“Of, how many times the gold is plunged back into the fire - far, far more times than seem necessary. Yet you can be sure the Forger sees impurities no one else can see. The gold must return to the fire again and again until positive proof has been established that it can be no further purified.”
11
Unrecognized Kundalini manifestations
Mark continues:
”In general, then, most people with active kundalini do not experience the majority of these symptoms, but only a handful, at any given time or even over a pretty long period, and, further, most do not experience much in the way of the more exotic symptoms, such as OBEs, fire up the spine, chakras opening, and so on. Instead, the process is usually more subtle, gradual, and less dramatic. Subsequently, many more people have active kundalini than realize it, and more often than not, they experience mostly what may be called the 'negative' or less dramatic symptoms, as these are the result of clearing negative physical and emotional karma, and mostly take the form of strange physical sensations, disturbance of vitality and motivation, and passing through a lot of difficult emotional spaces."
"At times one may have an 'over-active kundalini', which means that sometimes this process is proceeding somewhat forcefully, and so the symptoms are fairly difficult to live with. In some historical cases this has been terrifying, or even life-threatening. [The strange episode of Ganapati Muni mentioned earlier comes to mind]. More often, however, this rapid clearing may simply be inevitable, as the natural course of our spiritual growth combined with our karmic situation leads to some accelerated working out of much 'shadow material'. But it can also be the result, at least in part, of extra stimulation so that the intensity is more than is necessary or even desirable or integratable. This extra stimulation can result from doing energetic exercises (chi gong, pranayama, etc.), or having done them in past lives, or even just from a lot of any spiritual practice, or drugs, exercise, giving birth, etc.. So if the kundalini is already active it becomes important to try not to let it, or cause it, to get over-stimulated. As Jack Kornfield wrote in A Path with Heart, it is sometimes necessary to 'find the brake' and slow down the process of purification so it may be assimilated. One student having a very difficult, painful time was told by her forest master not to do vipassanna as that only stimulated her pain, but rather, to simply concentrate on the good for a while. The reader also shall note the incident of Ramdas with Neem Karoli Baba when his and others' kundalini spontaneously started to rise, and the saint stopped it by putting his hand on their heads."
Ramakrishna Paramahansa said this of the kundalini process that began after his initial dramatic spiritual awakening:
"No sooner had I passed through one spiritual crisis than another took its place. It was like being in the midst of a whirlwind...Sometimes I would open my mouth, and it would be as if my jaw reached from heaven to the underworld...An ordinary man couldn't have borne a quarter of that tremendous fervor; it would have burnt him up. I had no sleep at all for six long years....I got frightened and said to the Mother, "Mother, is this what happened to those who call on you? I surrendered myself to you, and you gave me this terrible disease." I used to shed tears - but then, suddenly, I'd be filled with ecstasy. I saw that my body didn't matter - it was of no importance, a mere trifle. Mother appeared to me and comforted me and freed me from fear." (22)
Llewelyn Vaughan-Lee, who served under Sufi teacher Irena Tweedie, author of Daughter of Fire, writes of his own experience of this phenomenon in his early years of spiritual practice:
".. but my physical body and psychological states were still giving me problems. I was highly stressed and could not eat very much. I had a very limited diet at the time and still found it very difficult to digest anything. I tried homeopathy and acupuncture to no effect. I knew the importance of natural methods of healing. I knew that this was the right spiritual approach, but what could I do? One day in despair I asked Mrs. Tweedie. I expected some spiritual advice, but she responded, "Try valium. I often use it and found it very effective." I did what I was told, went to my family doctor, and was given a prescription. The valium calmed down my body, relaxed my tensed nerves...However [after some time], while the valium had calmed my nerves, I was encountering another problem: lack of sleep. For months, however tired I was, I could not sleep more than a few hours. I had left my mother's house and was living alone in a small room that seemed always damp and cold. I would go to bed exhausted at ten or eleven, only to sleep two or three hours. There is nothing more depressing than waking at two in the morning to a cold, damp room, knowing that you cannot go back to sleep, and also knowing that you will be exhausted for the whole next day. Night after night, week after week, this torture continued. I tried taking sleeping pills but they did not work. I would still awake, exhausted, at two in the morning. Lying awake while half-sedated with the effect of a sleeping pill is particularly unpleasant. I limped through each day, always tired, not knowing what to do."
"I prayed, I cried, I asked. What was this about? I had always slept so well before. Sleeping had never been a problem. Now the focal point of each day was how I would sleep that night. I was always allowed to sleep just enough to keep me from breaking apart, but no more. Life was truly miserable - it was like being dragged through the mud. Suddenly, one morning in the underground train going to work, I knew what was happening. I was being ground down, being told quite definitely that my life was no longer my own. My Sheikh was in control. I needed to know soon after I met the path that I was in the hands of another. Like a horse in the hands of a horse trainer, I was being broken in."
"The lack of sleep continued for about two years. Often it would be the kundalini energy that awoke me and I found that I could only go back to sleep after going for a run. At two or three in the morning, whatever the season or weather, I would jog through the streets. I was once stopped by the police who thought I was running away from nearby burglary. I became almost used to living a life of tiredness combined with intense energy. Then one day I noticed that it was over, that I had slept through the night, that I could live a 'normal' life. But by then I also knew that I belonged to someone else, that my life was not my own." (23)
Another example of a version of this process, which began after many years of practice, is told in the autobiography, Mystical Awakening, by William Johnston, a Jesuit monk who studied Buddhism in Japan for years. It is especially noted that he did not experience the classical ascent of energy in his spine, but nevertheless did have many experiences commonly associated with kundalini or energetic opening, including prolonged sleeplessness:
"One night, when I was in a deep sleep, something within, like a spring of water, came sizzling up inside of me. It seemed to come from my belly (I prefer the Japanese words hara or tanden) to the surface of my consciousness and I woke in fear and trembling. What had happened to me? This swish! And I could not go back to sleep. I lay awake for the rest of the night...On reflection I saw that I had felt something of this inner energy for quite a while, but I was able to repress it in my waking hours. When I was fast asleep it could uninhibitedly come to the surface. But what was it? And why was I filled with anxiety?...[A] Jesuit who I met in Ireland saw it as something very valuable. "Throw away your sleeping pills and even your rosary," he said, "and attend to this inner fire."
"I spent a terrible sleepless night plagued by anxiety. In the morning I was desperate...My problem was sleep. I could not sleep! The sizzling energy that had awakened me in Baguio, spiraling to the surface of my consciousness during deep sleep, grew and continued to irritate me. It was like a buzzing in my head. Eventually it irritated my whole body. Call it kundalini, the serpent power. Call it the fire of love. Call it the life force. Call it what you will. Whatever it was, it kept me frightened and awake and I kept swallowing sleeping pills....One night I was laying awake in bed. I was looking up at the ceiling, when suddenly a column of smoke came down from the ceiling and struck my breast very violently with the tremendous clang of a bell. It was not just a symbolic experience; I felt deep physical pain and I shouted out,"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Then I lay awake. What was happening?
"After some years I came to see this incident as an awakening of my true self which, hard and brittle, had to be broken open violently with the crash and the clang of the bell. The smoke, I now see, came from a fire that came to burn within me. The smoke seemed to come down from above but perhaps it was like the serpent power rising up from below. The fire came to burn gradually. Only after some time could I call it a fire. Eventually, however, it became very strong and moved from my breast to my head and back again to my whole body. It kept me awake. It was not at all pleasant."
"St. Philip Neri experienced heat all over his body and laughed at the young men who were afraid of the cold [note: see "Those Amazing Christians" on this website for an account of Philip Neri, Seraphim of Sarov, and many other such mystics]. And St. John of the Cross..writes poetically of "the living flame of love that tenderly wounds my soul in its deepest center." When he writes this poem, the living flame of love is a tender and beautiful fire, but he hearkens back to an earlier time when the flame was oppressive."
"My prayer went on, and I continued to give retreats, but a new area of my psyche seemed to have opened up...I lay awake all night, night after night...I could not sleep and I could not take sleeping pills. It was as though my being rejected sleeping pills and told me that I must remain awake."
"A new dimension of energy or a new level of consciousness seemed to awaken, yet I did not toss around in bed. I lay in utter and deep silence. It was an experience of nothingness, a dark nothingness at the depths of my being. I was terrified at the thought of getting no sleep...My inner being continued to say, "You must be awake! Do not sleep! Do not take those sleeping pills!"...This was the advice I had received from [a] Chinese sister in Hong Kong at the beginning of my crisis. "Let the process take place," she had said. "Let God act! Don't fight against God! And this was wonderful advice. Gradually, over a period of years (altogether it was five years), I began to sleep, at first with sleeping pills and then quite naturally."(24)
The writer goes on to say how he later met many other people, both priests and laymen, who experienced this inner fire, with sleepless nights, terrible fears including fear of not sleeping, thinking one was going insane, convinced one was going to hell, being labelled as 'sick', experiencing apparent breakdowns, and going to doctors to no avail. All of which illustrates the respect and sensitivity one ought to bring to such experiences, if and when they do happen.
Finally, in much of Taoism/Zen they speak of curing ‘meditation sickness,’ as well as providing a solid base for deeper practice, by bringing the energy of the heart into the lower body, the tanden or ‘elixir field’ just below the navel. The great Hakuin writes:
“The genuine elixir does not exist apart from the Great Way; the Great Way does not exist apart from the genuine elixir...You should draw what Mencius called the ‘vast, expansive energy’ (25) down and store it in the elixir field - the reservoir of vital energy located below the navel. Hold it there over the months and years, preserving it single-mindedly, sustaining it without wavering. One morning, you will suddenly overturn the elixir furnace, and then everywhere, within and without the elixir universe, will become a single immense piece of pure elixir. When that happens, you will realize for the first time that you yourself are a genuine sage, as unborn as heaven and earth, as undying as empty space. At that moment, your efforts to refine the elixir will attain fruition.” (26)
This is clearly not third-eye meditation, which this school is not keen on. (27) Rather, in some cases, it might be seen as a cure for such meditation - when taken to an unprepared and ungrounded extreme. The Great Way is the path to satori and enlightenment, which is not concerned with longevity for the body-mind itself, or ascent to the overhead planes, but directly experiencing Reality here and now. Yet, the two, the practice of the elixir field and the Great Way, are not entirely separate either. Indeed, Hakuin suggests that assiduous tending of the elixir field will in itself remove all the obstructions to enlightenment and leave the aspirant experiencing “a joy so intense they will find themselves clapping their hands ecstatically and whooping in fits of laughter.” “Why?” is the mysterious ending to his short book, Idle Talk on a Night Boat. (28)
In conclusion, it is hoped that this article has been of some use to the reader in presenting the kundalini phenomenon from a number of different perspectives. And it is certainly hoped he does not find himself more confused than ever!
1. David Godman, No Mind, I Am The Self (Nellore District, A.P., India: Sri Lakshmana Ashram, 1986), p. 10
2. Ibid, p. 18
3. Ibid, p. 4.
4. "The Muni and the Maharishi," Part III, The Mountain Path 14, No.3 (July 1978), pp. 147-148
5. Darshan Singh, Spiritual Awakening (Bowling Green, Virginia: Sawan Kirpal Publications, 1982), p. 261-262
6. Sri Mungala S. Venkataramaiah, Tripura Rahasya, or the Mystery Beyond the Trinity (Tiruvannamalai, S. India: Sri Rarnanasramam, 1962), p. 167-16, 172
6a. Hieromonk Isaac, Elder Paissos of Mount Athos (Chalkidiki, Greece: The Holy Monastery "Saint Arsenios the Cappadocian"), p. 71-72
7. Baha u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf (Wilmette, Illinois: Bahai Publishing Trust, 1953), p. 22
7a. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Wonders of the Natural Mind (Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 2000), p. 146
8. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1988), Vol. 12, Part 1, 5.39-40
9. Ibid, Vol. 4, Part 2, 2, KUNDALINI
9a. Tulku Thondup, Masters of Meditation and Miracles: Lives of the Great Buddhist Masters of India and Tibet (Boston: Shambhala, 1999), p. 140-141
10. Swami Sivananda, Sadhana (Shivanandanagar, India: The Divine Life Society, 1978), p.
11. Swami Sivananda, Kundalini Yoga (Shivanandanagar, India: The Divine Life Society, 1980), ref. misplaced
12. Swami Sivananda, Kundalini Yoga, p. 32-33 (http://www.dlshq.org/download/kundalini.pdf)
12a. Darshan Singh, op. cit., p. 24-27
13. David Godman, op. cit. p. 98-100
14. Yogesh Satyeswaranand Saraswati, Science of Soul (New Delhi, India: Yoga Niketan Trust, 1987), p. 238
15. Benjamin Walker, Encyclopedia of Esoteric Man (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977), p. 120
16. Brunton, op. cit., Vol. 16, Part 1, 6.5
17. Hieromonk Isaac, op. cit., p. 378
17a. Although some argue that something, i.e., an eminent of the soul or Self, appears to do so.
17b. LePage, Victoria, Shambhala (Varanasi: Pilgrims Publishing, 1996), note 1, p. 279
18. Then again some have maintained, strictly speaking, that it is not permissable to say there is just One stuff!
"If I say it's one, it isn't so;
If I say it's two, it's slander.
Kabir has thought about it:
As it is
So it is."
19. Brunton, op. cit., Vol. 4, Part 1, 1.218
20. Ibid, Vol. 16, Part 3, 2.38
21. Clifton Wolters, trans., The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works (Penguin Books, 1978), chapter 37, 60
22. Swami Chetanananda, ed., Ramakrishna As We Saw Him (St. Louis, Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1991), p. 15
23. Llewelyn Vaughan-Lee, The Face Before I Was Born (Inverness, California: The Golden Sufi Center, 1997/2009), p. 38-40
24. William Johnston, Mystical Journey: An Autobiography (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2006), pp. 177-178. 184-185, 190-191
25. D. C. Lau, Mencius (New York: Penguin, 1970), Book II, part 2.2
“The vast expansive energy...immense and flood-like, unyielding in the highest degree. If man nourishes it with integrity and places no obstacle in its path, it will fill all Heaven and Earth and he will be in the same stream as Heaven itself.”
26. Norman Waddell, trans., Wild Ivy, The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin (Boston: Shambhala, 2010), p. 85
27. In the Taoist book, The Secret of the Golden Flower, they do speak of “accumulating snow-drops behind the eyes,” but the overall practice is one of cultivating energy in a circuit, not mystical ascent through the top of the head.
28. Waddell, op. cit., p. 107
The Waking State: Its Importance for Realization, Clearing Karmas, and Sahaja
Plotinus, Paul Brunton, Ramana Maharshi, and Buddhism teach that the Reality itself is neither within or without, that the highest inner trance state (ie., nirvikalpa) is still a subjective realization, a partial realization only, which must also be integrated or realized in the normal waking state as well as 'sahaj samadhi', if truth be ones goal. This, they say, grants non-duality. That is, the "drop appears to merge into the ocean" in nirvikalpa, but the "ocean merges into the drop" in sahaj. That would appear to make Radhasoami or Anami Lok of the Sant Mat tradition appear to be only a halfway house on the philosophic path (in as much as it is, as described, similar to nirvikalpa - nameless and formless, without attributes), whereas Sant Mat considers Sach Khand as the halfway house of Self-Realization, with Anami as God-Realization. I, for one, have difficulty reconciling the two positions. Sant Darshan Singh, a blessed soul, peace be upon him, answered a similar question regarding gyan or jnana by simply stating that gyan masters reach the highest human states of realization or samadhi, but that only Sant Mat takes one to the highest. Once again, this begs for more elucidation. Exactly how and why is this so? Hang in there, for a possible answer will be given in a little while. [Interestingly, on a side note, one of Sant Darshan's favorite books was Somerset Maughan's, The Razor's Edge (http://the-wanderling.com/mentor.html), which is supposed by some to be the story of a seeker's visit with the sage Ramana Maharshi].
Scriptures and teachers seem to be in agreement that the waking state or earth life is the most important gift for realization, that enlightenment must be achieved or realized here and now, not after death. Few outline exactly why that is so. For instance, Kirpal Singh said one can make more progress HERE than after death. He casually mentioned sometimes that that is the case because the inner planes are so deceiving, bewitching, and also consoling, that the spiritual progress that can be made here in a few months would take hundreds of years up there. Others have pointed out that here ones experiences are so vivid, etched in stone, as it were, while up there they are, without the anchor of the body, too vivid and subject to distraction. There is the quote from the Buddhist sutra, The Transmission of the Lamp, which says that one can be lost for many, many kalpas in the bliss, not just in the inner realms, but the inner void itself. This suggests there is something special about the waking state, and that it is not only to be dismissed as illusion, to be dualistically left behind in search of some permanent spiritual place. The "Radhasoami state" seems to imply a realization that would encompass this perspective. Sometimes, that is. At other times it is presented as if it were an eternal domain elsewhere.
Brunton, a philosopher-sage, clearly states that all yoga is only preparatory for inquiry, and that realization is achieved in the full waking state. Brunton's teacher, V.S. Iyer, argued that the waking state is essential for Self-Realization because only here (not in nirvikalpa or sleep) is the faculty of buddhi (reason) active - which is not merely intellect as yogis frequently misinterpret it, but the highest faculty of the mind which distinguishes the real from the unreal. "Through buddhi will you come to Me," said Krishna in the Gita. For the vedantist, realization requires, among other things, as stated, the faculty of buddhi in the waking state, not in trance. This is because, according to the vedantic argument, our beginningless ignorance began in the waking state and there it must end. This is definitely not the teachings of the Sants, as reflected in Sar Bachan of Soamiji or Anurag Sagar of Kabir. For them our ignorance or fall began in the supracausal realm. This and the very concept of creation itself are major and important differences between the two schools.[ For more on this topic, the reader is directed to see Appendix 5, "The Enigmatic Kabir”].
Ramana said that ones samskaras or inherited egoic tendencies must be scorched one by one as they arise and traced to the Heart while alive. This is the general Vedantic position. It appears much different from Sant Mat which teaches that the samskaras are only removed, one, by the master’s grace at the time of initiation, and, two, after the soul passes through an "inner" pool of Mansarovar or Amritsar on the causal plane [more on this later]. If the latter view is true then most paths besides Sant Mat are wrong. But is it true? If one adds the all-important element of purification, then gross karma is eradicated by this method also, and, perhaps, most importantly. This is discussed in much more detail in Part Three. Vedanta would not be in disagreement here. Sant Mat is a little weak in its communication of this area. It speaks much about man-making and ethical life, but not soften deep purgation and conscious suffering. If it did maybe it would not have hundreds of thousands of initiates! But this is how many karmas are cleared in full waking consciousness.
Damiani gives another perspective on why the full waking state is important:
"You transcend the World-Idea by absorbing it.You don't transcend the World-Idea by negating or denying it, but by absorbing and understanding it you take it into yourself...The philosophic yogi must transcend the World-Idea. How? By understanding it and penetrating it and taking it in, which is the reverse of the ordinary mystic's procedure of negating the World-idea and residing in the personal self. So, the philosopher who understands the mystical states has achieved not only an understanding of the I AM but also the World-Idea, in which the I AM is always involved." (Anthony Damiani, Living Wisdom, op.cit., p. 68)
In other words, as discussed earlier in the material about the philosophy of Agam Prasad Mathur, the realization of soul is not one of exclusive dissociation (such as is experienced on the 'inbound' stages), but rather, a non-dual one in which it is recognized that, astoundingly, the manifestation or 'World-Idea' being projected through the soul is a part of its eternal nature even in its unmanifest state. Damiani also adds:
"Without the fullness of understanding which the soul acquires or achieves in its penetration into the World-Idea, then when in the trance state, and when it penetrates deeply into the nature of its own being, it cannot possibly understand what is there." (Ibid, p. 69)
Thus, life has meaning, and "is not a trap or a degradation of the divine essence." The suggestion of the sages, then, is that realization consists in seeing Truth without excluding the waking state, such as in inner trance alone. Nanak said, "Truth is above all but higher still is true living." If that is not just a metaphor, what is its true meaning? What Truth was he talking about - the truth of the inner reality found at the innermost mystical level - like Anami or Nirvikalpa samadhi - or the truth of Sahaja? Certainly nothing can really be above Truth. So Truth must include life. Which brings one back to the argument that full realization must be had while alive - not in meditation alone. In other words, non-duality. Vedanta has always insisted that only in the waking state are all the states present, and not in either the microcosm of dream or sleep, or the corresponding macrocosm of astral, causal, and other inner states.
This has not generally been discussed in so many words by Sant Mat masters, to my knowledge, although they do certainly mention this world as a place to "pay off karmic debts." That is not false and is more easily understood by the average seeker, but it is certainly only half of the story, and can give the impression of a person finally free of debts escaping to a personal bliss somewhere above. But is it not quite like that. To the Sants credit, however, it might be argued that the non-dualists who often criticize them lack a cosmogony, or theory of creation, in fact some even deny it, holding strictly to the ajata theory, for stance, and many of these aspirants and even in some case their teachers may only be privy to having had a partial awakening or glimpse of reality, however long it lasts, and not full realization. That is apparently clear, for instance, among some Papaji disciples, many of whom were declared enlightened by him, when it became clear that that was just not the case. Unless one wants to distinguish between 'enlightenment' and liberation. They may have had true glimpses. A glimpse, even if it lasts five years, however, is not the same as fully grown union with ones Soul, which, according to Paul Brunton, may entail a number of successive lives of spiritual application, even after nirvikalpa or its equivalent has been attained, or re-attained, in any particular life. That would also suggest, on the other hand, and to be fair, that simply traveling to Sach Khand or even Anami, once, would not grant ultimate and permanent enlightenment by itself, although Sant Mat teachers, where they allude to it, which is infrequent, appear to differ on this point. Some sages say that the longer one dwells in the Void the deeper one's realization and the purification of 'earthly taints ' becomes, especially if one has some metaphysical background to accompany the mystical fulfillment. So it would seem the same argument for repeated immersion would apply to a mystical merger in Anami. But whether it brings the fullness of realization described in the previous paragraphs is a separate question.
Sant Darshan Singh, in his biography, mentioned that by a certain date he had been able to achieve the ability to go to Anami at will, implying that before he had gone there, but not at will. He in fact described his first journey being taken there by his Master. Kirpal Singh said one needed to be 'ushered' into those planes.
Maybe one only needs that original passport or boost beyond relativity once? Obviously, going there by ones own will seems to imply is a higher accomplishment than just being escorted there. This brings up an interesting issue, however.
"Only the "Totality" Goes from Sach Khand to Anami" - ?
The idea of will is a tricky one, however, as there are sages like Ramana Maharshi who speak of losing the will or vikalpa to do anything, that the Self does all, which would include the inherent wisdom of knowing when retracting the emanant of the soul into itself was of use for its divine purpose. Kirpal Singh would say that he did not do anything, and that if his Master did not send his grace, he was nothing. Taking him at his word, one might assume that would apply to when he might be absorbed into Anami, hold initiation, or even going to the grocery store. When one loses the personal will, what does it mean to speak of having the ability to do something at will? There is still the reintegration with the world to deal with, sometimes referred to as the “downward” practice. This may not be as commonly expressed in Sant Mat as it is in Zen, for instance, but it is there.
Ishwar Puri describes the passage of going from Sach Khand to Anami as one beyond the individual soul. He said it is only the "Totality" that goes to Anami. In my opinion we can't even talk reasonably about that statement without first defining what we, or he, means by "individual soul", "Anami," and "the Totality."
What is the nature of the individual soul in Sach Khand? Is it finite or infinite, personal or impersonal, pure consciousness or not, does it have identifiable limits, or is it essentially unlimited?
What is the "Totality"? If "I" go to Sach Khand, for instance, and then the "Totality" goes to Anami, obviously other people, other souls, don't go with me, and aren't they part of the Totality, too? So then, does only part of the "Totality" go to Anami? What is that part, and what is its relationship to the soul? The soul is part of the "Totality", too, isn't it? It seems it is not so easy to describe these things as one may have first thought. What is important is not to agree or disagree with what he says, but to understand the essence of what he is saying. Of course, this is in a sense beyond human understanding, and we do not yet have access to the experience, so what can we say?
Ishwar, in my opinion, is trying to skewer us with an intuition (which is also the vision we have for this book). Simply put, as other teachings have stated, there is a deepening contemplation that takes place: once we have attained unity with our Soul, we can then glimpse an Absolute, but still, we return and be Soul for most of our time in these lower worlds. Plotinus conceptualized it as there being three Primal Hypostases: Soul, Nous, and the One. To get a glimpse of its next higher principle, the Nous, the Soul per se must be left behind. Another way of saying it is that there is only one Mind, but it has depths. The Soul may appear to disappear, but it still exists, because it again comes out of the Absolute. So one can say, as one initiate reported his Master saying, that the deeper experience is as if Sach Khand merges with or "collapses" into the Guru, who merges with Sat Purush, and so on.
[But then, on the other hand, is not this what happens at every plane? That in higher levels you do not so much experience things, but more and more you become that which you experience, the outside becomes the inside, knowing is being? Kirpal said you truly understand by merging, which is as if to say, "you do not enter worlds, you become them." Could it be any other way on route to Unity?
If the "Totality" goes to Anami, how does that mesh with Darshan saying his master took him to those higher realms? He took the "Totality" along with him? Does consciousness "move"?! No, it is more like there was an absorptive boost that initiated that soul to its deeper aspect, termed the Nous, Higher Self, or higher aspect of the Soul in various traditions. And so on towards Anami. It is not a journey of an individual soul, per se, but it is not devoid of some aspect of unique identity or individuality either. After all, we are there in some way to experience it, so who is the Sat Purush? Must it not be our Higher Self? Only we were not in a position to so know it directly before. And once we do, then we, like Darshan, can "go" there at will. But large quotation marks are needed around both the words "go there" and "at will" here, for it is a highly transformed will that is being spoken of if this lofty state is to mean what it implies, and, being beyond time and space, how can one speak of a region or "place" at all? Even the "I-ness" becomes attenuated and refined as consciousness interiorizes, and is seen less as a thing than as a state. But something remains or arises within us that enables subtle distinctions to be made.
Unless one denies that there can be more than one soul - that my individual soul, cosmic and infinite as it may be, is not the One Absolute - then it appears we must say there are more than one "Totality" that penetrates to Anami! More accurately stated, we might say that it is the "Totality" or "Unity of our own divine Soul that deepens into its higher stage of being that is Anami. It does not fly there as if to another place. "Place" is no more. This is the only kind of Totality that makes any sense. Otherwise, can one doubt that I have my own thoughts and you have your thoughts, my soul is not your soul, and therefore if I go to Anami I don't take you with me (!), so why struggle over a vague concept of a "Totality"?
So the passage to Anami is a progressive deepening “beyond attention,” and then we return and be soul for most of the time. No one can stay in the Anami condition at all times so long as he has a body. This was Faqir Khand's confession near the end of his life. There is some disagreement on this point, but generally the sage returns from his deepest contemplation first to his soul, not his ego, and through which he navigates the lower world. And the soul has the faculty of attention through which it can project and retract itself. A difficulty in understanding this is that the word soul is not used today in the way the ancients, such as Plotinus, used it, or a modern like Brunton. In their view, there is a part of the soul which never incarnates, is rooted in the divine, and another part of it that does seem to incarnate. This is the general idea. Whenever we ‘awaken’ it is to the first part, which is ‘beyond’ attention. And that can happen any time anywhere. At the same there is a play of attention, and all kinds of experience. A sage who has realized both aspects of his soul lives, as one writer put it, as the “waking paradox of the Nous.” He is more than a mystic. He is one with his divine soul, and knows the world as a manifestation of his own deepest inner being. In addition, he now knows that God “is”, that is to say, he intuitively knows where his soul “comes” from. This is not to go so far as to assert that the soul is God, but for this soul God is no longer a concept. Beyond this we cannot go at this time. By the end of Part Four the reader can weigh for himself if other sages have realized more.
A related concept expressed by Darshan Singh to a disciple was that "You are Everything." Kirpal SIngh did say "What you see is you," which is kind of similar. But he didn't say "You are all souls" or "the One Absolute." This sort of confusion may come down to a misunderstanding of what the term Overself actually implies. Two quotes from PB may illustrate and make this more accessible for us (not suggesting by any means that this is an ultimate answer either, only less liable to exaggeration and error, or embracing a "Fallacy of Divine Identity" - discussed elsewhere):
"The Overself is the inner or true self of man, reflecting the divine being and attributes. The Overself is an emanation from the ultimate reality but is neither a division nor a detached fragment of it. It is a ray shining forth but not the sun itself." (Notebooks, Vol. 14, 3.319)
"There is much confusion of understanding of what happens to the ego when it attains the ultimate goal. Some believe that a cosmic consciousness develops, with an all-knowing intelligence and an all-overish" feeling. They regard it as unity with the whole universe. Others assert that there is complete loss of ego, an utter destruction of the personal self. No, these are confused notions of what actually occur. The Overself is not a collective entity as though it were composed of a number of particles. One's embrace of other human beings through it is not in union with them but only in sympathy, not in psychic identification with them but in psychic harmony. He has enlarged the area of his vision and sees himself as a part of mankind. But this does not mean that he has become conscious of all mankind as though they were himself. The true unity is with one's own higher indestructible self. It is still with a higher individuality, not a cosmic one, and it is still with one's own self, not with the rest of mankind. Unity with them is neither mystically nor practically possible. What we discover is discovered by a deepening of consciousness, not by a widening of it. Hence it is not so much a wider as a deeper self that he has first to find." (Ibid, 3.108
The passage within Sat Lok to Anami, then, can be looked at as different in nature than the passage from Pinda to Sat Lok. In the latter, there is a sense of prodigality as ones approaches ones home. In the former, this is absent. One is already home, but gets to know it in more depth. In the initial inwardization process of meditation there is felt a centripetal motion towards ones center; in the advance stages, within Sat Lok, there is no center to reach. Self-realization is now known within God, and the center is everywhere and nowhere. The Soul is absorbed into its higher aspect and deepens into its knowing of the prior Principles that are, as it were, eternally generating it.
If this seems to difficult to grasp, do not worry, we will return to it several more times in later parts of the book.
There is an aspect of this experience in the deepest contemplation that is worth mentioning: the sense not only of Stillness or Presence but also of "Power". Damiani states describes this in terms quite similar to how Sant Darshan Singh described Anami as "an infinite ocean without any shores":
"We would have to say something like this; that the World-Mind, or Mind, the unique Mind, is the same One in all Overselves. Or, if you want, you could say that each and every Overself is a point within the World-Mind. It is from the position of the Overself where the recognition of this unique Mind can take place...The only way you can come across the notion of Mind, unique Mind, is when you are situated in the Overself. You certainly can't know it when you're in the ego...You become aware of this immense Power, this unique Being, this unfathomable Mind, this shoreless bottomless ocean, the World-Mind or Mind. You won't discover that Mind unless you are situated in the Overself...[There is] the arisal of this mighty Presence, a Presence that suffocates you, and you feel that though all the forces of the universe are converging on you, and you can hardly breathe. After a while you begin to get a feeling of this Presence. And for someone who has had the experience of the Overself or has gone into the stillness, very often, this arises, this Presence of Power...You'll even like it. You'll even enjoy it. You'll want more. You could stand it. The ego isn't there." (Damiani, op.cit., p. 31)
Here, as in Sach Khand, the sense of prodigality is gone, and like Anami, even the sense of centripetal movement is gone. Instead of a magnetic pull from within towards a center, there can be a sense of an 'outward' overshadowing pressure.
There can be a corresponding aspect of this process in the outer life as well. It need not happen only in a deep trance. Madame Guyon writes:
“Its former devotion caused it to sink within itself, that it might enjoy God, but that which it now has, draws it out of self, that it may be more and more lost and changed in God. The difference is quite remarkable, and can only be accomplished by experience.” (Jeanne Guyon, Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ (Sargent, Georgia: Christian Books Publishing House, 1975), p. 131)
Students of mystical forms of meditation will be familiar with the stage of "sinking within ones self." The understanding of being "drawn out of ones self" is less common, however, but leads to a more complete, natural, and sustainable form of realization. This second stage, in which "the world without becomes known as ones inner self", is harder than the first. Here, says Brunton:
"There is no kind of centre to be felt nor any circumference either - one is without being localized anywhere with reference to the body, one is both in the body and in the Overself. There is then no contradiction between the two." (Notebooks (Vol. 13, Part 2, 4.136)
[The concept of a "center" is discussed in detail at the end of Part Four].
It is said in Sant Mat that the Master's job is over when he takes a soul to the feet of the Sat Purush. On the other hand, Sant Darshan Singh said that his master took him all the way to Anami. Again, perhaps somewhat uniquely Kirpal Singh said that one must be ushered into those planes by a living Master, yet all branches of Sant Mat do not teach that. So what is the truth? I have to think that for a mature soul there might be an incarnate master, inner masters, the Divine, one's Higher Self, or Sat Purush itself, whose grace can assist in transitioning a soul to its own deeper depths.
To summarize, this is “beyond attention,” inasmuch as attention is a power of the soul. You cannot put attention on it.
Call it God or Sat Purush, or just the higher aspect of soul (Nous), reabsorbing its progeny, the experience is the same.
Likewise, you can’t put “attention”on the downward or “outward” pressure, nor can you make it happen, you can only surrender to it if and when it does. This is also an absorption or “overshadowing” of the individual soul.
Purification or tapas, when deep, can also bring experiences of intense pressure when one has descended via the limbic system and brain stem and "dropped into" to recapitulate early experiences before the ego-self was formed. That can happen, and is not the same, although it shares some similarity. The prior experience could be said to be purely spiritual and one will enjoy it as there is no ego there. The latter when a connection or rewiring is made is no longer painful and there can be a subsequent freedom of release. Since one’s psychology cannot really be separated from one’s spirituality, however, this can also be considered spiritual in the sense that deeper embodiment paradoxically can make pure consciousness more accessible. The website for Aadi-Houman teachings says, "Only through self-love can the light of me awaken to its pure subjectivity." A student of Aadi writes: I had been practicing Ch'an meditation for many years denying my subjectivity, and thus keeping me in awareness without the possibility of embodying it.In Ch'an advanced practice of 'awareness of awareness,' I was not able to establish myself in pure consciousness." Non-dual teachings beginning with Sri Nisargadatta have stressed that the body, in fact, is a portal to self-realization, and one dismissed at one’s peril. This is, of course, counter-intuitive to what is often taught in mystical schools like Sant Mat and Kriya Yoga, etc., but is touched upon numerous times in this book.
Grace is also needed to manage the earlier void passage of Maha Sunn (or its possible equivalent experience on other paths) where the inward bound power of the soul called the attention is said to be divested of all the koshas except a now apparently dormant vijnanamaya and soon to be only anandamaya kosha or bliss sheath can go no further under its own power, and is said to depend on the superior light and power of the Master to ferry one across to Sat Lok, the home base of the soul and where she regains her primordial freedom. This is a rather unique explanation given in Sant Mat. Does the soul need a flashlight to see its way through "something" objective, or is the problem that its power of discrimination is wanting? Ramana Maharshi, among others, from the perspective of a jnana path, did speak about a similar stage:
“With the mind turned inward, drown the world in the great void, dispel illusion. Beholding then the void as void, destroy the void by drowning it in the deep ocean of Self-Awareness.” (K. Swaminathan, trans., The Garland of Guru’s Sayings by Sri Muruganar)
In other words, when the void-stage appears, without losing hold of the “I”, inquire, perhaps wordlessly, “who sees the void?” and thus pass into the realization of pure consciousness. We are not yet saying the two experiences are identical, but an essential archetypal similarity and need of grace is noted. The same progression, from a more vedantic perspective, is found in the writings of the Maharashtran saint Samartha Ram Das in his book Dasbodh, and his descendants, such as Sri Siddharameshwar (Guru of Sri Nisargadatta) in Master of Self-Realization. [Much more on this void-passage will be discussed later on in the sections on Maha Sunn.]
“I heard the Big Bell, but it wasn’t where I wanted to go.”
Here are some anecdotes that brought questions to my mind. I am giving all of the questions first, after which there will be the resolution and explanation to help resolve hopefully at least some of the questions. I realize so far this may seem very pedantic to many; to others perhaps not so. Anyway, in Ramana's case there was a disciple, Palanaswami. When Palanaswami died, Ramana said that his eyes opened, which to him signified that his "I-thought", as he put it, or ego or soul, escaped into and was "reborn in the higher planes". To Ramana that signified that Palanaswami must take another birth before realizing the Heart (Self or Soul, source of the feeling of "I", not to be confused with the heart chakra), that if Ramana had been there he could have "pinned his ego down in the heart," thus scorching his sanskaras there, never to be reborn again. One other case previously mentioned was Ganapati Muni who, a few years after meeting Maharshi experienced a spontaneous, forceful awakening of kundalini-shakti, and which began a two-week ordeal in which he endured the yogic phenomenon known in the Taittirya Upanishad as vyapohya sirsha kapale, or the “breaking of the skull." Ganapati began to feel a flood of energy through his body at all times, with a stream of bliss piercing his head making him completely intoxicated. He felt totally out of control of his body and went to Maharshi for guidance. The sage blessed him with a pat of the hand on his head and said not to worry.
delete note #8
In spite of the unusual nature of Ganapati’s transformation, Maharshi affirmed that he had not attained enlightenment. When asked after his death whether the Muni was realized, Ramana replied, “How could he? His ‘sankalpas’ (inherent tendencies) were too strong.” In other words, in Ganapati Muni’s case the overwhelming awakening of the kundalini was not sufficient to unlock the “knot of self” that was still alive at the heart. "Ganapati Muni used to say that he could even go to Indra loka and say what Indra was doing, but he could not go within and find the "I." Sri Bhagavan added that Ganapati Muni used to say that it was easy to move forward, but impossible to move backward. Then Sri Bhagavan remarked: “However far one goes, there he is. Where is moving backward?" (9)
Of course, this "escape into the higher planes" warned about by Ramana and Lakshmana Swamy is exactly what is considered advisable by Sant Mat. So there is a major difference here. [Or is there? In one quote even Ramana stated that, at death: “Some are immediately reborn, others after some lapse of time, a few are not reborn on this earth but eventually get salvation in some higher region, and a very few get absorbed here and now.” (Talks, p. 192)].
My teacher in Ithaca, NY, Anthony Damiani, once told us that both he and his wife Ella May heard the big bell overhead in meditation, and he confirmed to us that we could go with it, because it would "take you up and get you to the mental world." The big bell is the prominent sound one hears that takes you from Sunn at the back head up to the astral plane. However, he said he didn't pursue following the bell sound higher because "it wasn't where he wanted to go." I didn't understand at all what he meant at the time. He also said that he "didn't want holiness," which I didn't quite understand either. He held out for the completion of his inner concentration and mind's tracing itself to the Heart, which gave him stable realization of the witness self, (after a period of application), which he described as "peace, peace, peace." He acknowledged the possibility of spiritual ascent, and eventually different possibilities of spiritual evolution, but wanted to realize the heart-root first, which, he said off-handedly, would "take your head off." He said to those of us who were into shabd practise to "get this (the witness) first." The idea is that, without such prior realization of true consciousness, or the heart, entering the inner realms would be deluding. In Sant Mat this possibility of delusion is also asserted, however the major point they emphasize is that what is required on such a path is the "sheet anchor" of the true Master and his Radiant Form to guide one without danger through the maze of possible inner experiences as quickly as possible to reach Sach Khand and the formless realms beyond. One may wonder if this is sufficient assurance, given the inflated claims of some initiates and certain masters that come under scrutiny. Even Kirpal Singh warned that the ego goes all the way up. To achieve this, nevertheless, the agency and help of a qualified adept is necessary, and the soul, merged with the form of the master can also go, undercover, as it were, directly to Sach Khand, the first plane of Sat Lok, without danger of getting lost on the way. To try to do it oneself is not recommended by the masters of many paths.
Here is what Ramana commented about sounds like the bell. It reflects his view that the soul is not exclusively within the body, but the body and mind are within the soul, or better, the Self, but it is unusual and may, but does not necessarily, stand as a refutation of the claims and path of Sant Mat:
A disciple Mastan wrote: "For some time I was meditating at night for about an hour, I used to hear the sound of a big bell ringing. Sometimes a limitless effulgence would appear. In 1922 when I visited Bhagavan at his new ashram at the foot of the hill, I asked about this. He advised me, "There is no need to concern ourselves about sounds such as these. If you see from where it rises, it will be known that it arises on account of a desire (sankalpa) of the mind. Everything appears in oneself and subsides within oneself. The light, too, only appears from the same place. If you see to whom it appears, mind will subside at the source and only reality will remain." (The Power of the Presence, Part Three, David Godman, ed., 2002, p. 32)
The sound of the bell is a sankalpa within the mind? Ramana by this quote and others seemed to have had an uncompromising view of the nature of all visionary or auditory phenomena, including the big 'vision' that constitutes the world itself, namely, that they all arose in the Atman, the Self or what the Buddhists would call Mind. Actually, this view is found in the Yoga-Vasistha as well, and like all ‘ultimate’ teaching that reduce everything to infinite consciousness, deserves to be pondered deeply before simply being dismissed outright:
“When sound is thought of, there is a fanciful projection of what sounds like sound.”
Thus, in this view the sound is not ultimately outside of ourselves. Ishwar Puri also said we realize at some stage that the sound is coming out of ourselves. I suppose that would make us in our true identity prior even to the logos. Which is what Ramana, Nisargadatta, and others attest, and what Sant Mat appears to refer to with terms like the Wordless State, or Stateless State. Kirpal Singh often said “what you see is you.” This is true as an interim position pointing to the cosmic or universal perspective, but it is not the end. Anything perceivable requires a perceiver, and we are in truth not what we perceive - even from a universal point of view - but more fundamentally that which makes perception possible. Even the “light of millions of suns,” which Ramana sometimes made fun of when devotees expressed the desire to see it. Paul Brunton, similarly, in speaking of the sage, said “others may see him standing in the great light, but he himself has no particular self-importance.”
Greg Leveille, an initiate of Charan Singh, in his own writings, similar to Ramana above, teaches that one should not follow the light or the sounds, and said that Charan Singh told him privately many years ago that to do so was not the highest practice in Sant Mat. This may be so or not, and sounds rather shocking. But it should also be pointed out that the method of the great sages has always been to give an aspirant only that which is capable of understanding and practicing at the stage of development that he is at. And then lift one a little higher when he is ready. And this is why individual instruction has always been the norm in traditional guru-disciple relationships. Obviously, this rarely happens today in very big lineages.
Traditionally in Hinduism the audible sounds are only assigned to the subtle regions. Beyond that Sant Mat resorts to referring to the shabd as Sar Shabd, or as the “essential” or perhaps “essence” of sound. Yet it may still be felt as a current, albeit more like an intuition, or intuited current, as has been described by sages like Ramana. Writers who ascribe sounds even to regions as far as Anami, such as Ram Chandra quoted earlier, may be assumed to be either speaking lyrically or not knowing what they are talking about or not having experienced themselves, but only be summarizing from certain books they have read.
Ramana’s teaching on the nature of visions is illustrated by the following excerpt from the rare and out-of-print book, Conscious Immortality: Conversations with Ramana Maharshi, by Paul Brunton:
"The sights and sounds which may appear during meditation should be regarded as distractions and temptations. None of them should be allowed to beguile the aspirant.
Q: Do the appearance of visions or the hearing of mystic sounds come after the concentrated mind is still and blank or before?
A: They can come both before and after. The thing is to ignore them and to still pay attention only to the Self. Forms which interfere with the main course or current of meditation should not be allowed to distract the mind. Bring yourself back into the Self, the Witness, unconcerned with such distractions. That is the only way to deal with such. interruptions. Never forget yourself. Intellect is the astral body. It is only an aggregate of certain factors. What else is the astral body? In fact, without intellect no Kosa is cognized. Who says that there are five Kosas? Is it not the intellect itself?
Q: There are beautiful colours in meditation. It is a pleasure to watch them. We can see God in them.
A: They are all mental conceptions. The objects or feelings or thoughts, i.e. all experiences, in meditation, are all only mental conceptions."
"When Sundaresa lyer, a local teacher, described yogic experiences, including visions of light, ringing of bells etc. which he was having, Maharshi replied, " they come, and they would pass away. Be only the witness. I myself had thousands of such experiences, but I had no one to go to and consult about them."
Q: Can we not see God in concrete visions?
A: Yes, God is seen in the mind. The concrete form may be seen. Still, it is in the devotee's own mind. The form and appearance of the God-manifestation are determined by the mentality of the devotee. But the finality is not that for it has the sense of duality. It is like a dream vision. After God is perceived, Vichara commences. That ends in the realization of the Self. Vichara is the final method.
Q: Did not Paul Brunton see you in London? Was it only a dream?
A: Yes, he had the vision. Nevertheless he saw me in his own mind.
Q: But did he not see this concrete form?
A: Yes, but still it was in his mind. Keeping God in your mind as everything around you becomes Dhyana. This is the stage before realization which is only in the Self. Dhyana must precede it. Whether you make Dhyana of God or Self, it is immaterial, the goal is the same.
Q: St. Theresa and others saw the image of Madonna animated. It was external. Others see the images of their devotion floating in their mental sight. This is internal. Is there any difference in degree in these two cases?
A: Both indicate that the person has strongly developed meditation. Both are good and progressive. There is not difference in degree. The one had conception of divinity and draws mental images and feels them. The other has the conception of divinity in the image and feels it in the image. The feeling is within, in both instances.
Q: In the spiritual experience of St. Theresa, she was devoted to a figure of Madonna which became animated to her sight, and she was in bliss.
A: The animated figure prepared the mind for introversion. There is a process of concentration of mind on one's own shadow which in due course becomes animated and answers questions put to it. That is due to Manobala (power of mind) or Dhyanabala (power of meditation). Whatever is external, is also transitory: Such phenomena may produce joy for the time being. But abiding peace, i.e. Shanti, does not result. This is gotten only by the removal of Avidya (ignorance)."
Ramana, however, also said that listening to the sound was good, but better if done in junction with vichara or self-enquiry. This might be like combining samadhi with vipassana or insight practices. And it certainly seems reasonable. After all, there is a Wordless state proposed in Sant Mat - which is what? One's own true Self, wouldn't it be? Therefore all sounds arise within or from that. And in this stage there is no sense of prodigality anymore. Ramana would propose that such an attitude could and should be cultivated at all stages; this would be a form of gyan yoga, combining meditation and contemplation or inquiry (which is not merely repeating 'who am I?' but an entire 'philosophic' way of life). But to call the sound of the bell just a sankalpa or tendency in the mind is difficult to comprehend, or at least something easily misunderstood. Not only that, but as he and other great Gurus did so many times, Ramana said contradictory things to different people, including remarks regarding the nature of and meditation on the sound. In Talks, he spoke favorably about it as 'the current' that takes you home':
"M. Meditation on nada is one of several approved methods. The adherents claim
a very special virtue for it. ..Just as a child is lulled to sleep by lullabies, so nada soothes
one to the state of samadhi. Similarly, just as a king sends his state musicians to welcome
his son on his return from a long journey, so also nada takes the devotee into the Lord’s
Abode in a pleasing manner. Nada helps concentration...After it is felt, the practice should not be made an end in itself. Nada is not the objective. The subject should be firmly held, otherwise a blank will result. Although the subject is there even in the blank state he would not be aware of the cessation of nada of different kinds. In order to be aware even in the blank state one must remember his own self...Nada-upasana (meditation on
sound) is good, but even better if associated with investigation (vichara). In that case, the
nada is made up of chinmaya and also tanmaya (Knowledge and Self).” (2001 edition, p. 102)
As will be discussed later, this inability to hold onto the subject when a blankness intervenes may be part of the problem of passing through Maha Sunn without the help of a Master.
V.K. Iyer sought more light on nada (sound).
M.: He who meditates on it feels it. there are ten kinds of nadas. After the final thundering
nada the man gets laya. That is his natural and eternal state. [Note: elsewhere Ramana referred to laya as an unconscious state to be avoided] Nada, jyoti (light), or enquiry
thus take one to the same point. (The former are indirect and the last is direct).
D.: The mind becomes peaceful for a short while and again emerges forth. What is to be done?
M.: The peace often gained must be remembered at other times. That peace is your
natural and permanent state. By continuous practice it will become natural. That is called the
'current'. That is your true home.” (Ibid, p. 218)
it must be remembered that Ramana rarely if ever told anyone what to do, in terms of practices. He permitted any and all of them within his ashram, but usually summarized the options by saying that you either inquire, if you can, or surrender to God if you cannot. Shabd meditation would generally fall under the latter category.
Another unwarranted conclusion, in our view, is the explanation from Dzogchen Buddhism, where uniting the inherent nature of one’s mind or "child luminosity" with the "Ground Luminosity" or "Clear Light" while alive, as well as when it dawns at the time of death, is considered the most important means for liberation, but that for those not so advanced it is advised to practice phowa transference, or directing consciousness so that the soul leaves the body through the crown of the head as the only means for passing directly to the pure buddha realms [see, The Tibetan Book on Living and Dying, by Sogypal Rinpoche]. If this exit route is considered necessary for an auspicious death (which the Bhagavad-Gita also taught), it also suggests that everyone will not necessarily leave the body by the crown center as Darshan Singh and other sants in his lineage maintained was the universal process. Other traditions, as well as some Sant Mat teachers, say it is in fact not the case that everyone leaves via the ajna chakra up to the crown. One Sant Mat teacher wrote that if you left via the ajna chakra, but not the crown, ones consequent inner progress would be limited and another birth would be required to advance further. The consensus in the traditions then is that everyone does not leave via the top of the head. In the case of a sage, of course, this is immaterial. As Sri Nisargadatta said, "I am already dead, do you expect me to die again?" For Ramana Maharshi, there was a final breath, and that was it. The eyes did not roll up, and in fact in several disciples of his where this had happened he considered it inauspicious and an indication that the ego had not died.
But is it true that when the eyes roll up it is a sign indicating that the soul has completely left the body - or only the body below the eyes? Let us look at the matter again.
But perhaps there is not a contradiction. Maharaj Saheb said the way to the material-spiritual regions was through the gray matter of the brain, and the spiritual regions through the white matter, so meditating on the crown would therefore possibly bypass those intermediate stages. So maybe Darshan is right - that most people eventually exit the (lower) body via the ajna or third-eye center - but not necessarily via the crown, which would be more auspicious. Greg Leveille said that Charan Singh told him to meditate on the crown, and Faqir successor Kamal Dayal advised the same. By doing so it seems they are saying to forget the realms accessed via the centers in the head.
But what then if you meditated on neither, and only stayed “aware”? Dying ‘like the men of old’, as praised by Lao Tzu, not caring if one lived or died? Perhaps not meditating on anything would get you to neither the subtle realms or the spiritual realms, but just yourself - the natural state or stateless state? Just a thought.
Particularly confusing if not at time downright silly is the following from Meher Baba:
“A person dies when his sanskaras are exhausted – spent in full. After a person dies his sanskaras snap the mind’s connection with the gross body, and at that time he receives such a shock that he forgets every incident of his past life. But even though the gross body drops, the mind and the subtle body remain full of sanskaras. For the next forty to seventy hours after death, the attention of the sanskaras is centered mostly on the place where the body is kept. But after that, there is no connection whatsoever between the dead person and that place. Within the next eight or ten days, the spirit of the dead person experiences the subtle state of either heaven or hell according to his sanskaras. After a person dies, many people perform rites and ceremonies for a long time, but all these are useless. No ritual is necessary after ten days; however, the best rites would be to feed either dogs or crows near the body because they have subtle sight and can see the spirit of the dead person. Crows and dogs are not subtle-conscious, but they have subtle faculties of perception and draw toward themselves the sanskaras of dead people.” (Lord Meher, Original Publication, Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 3, p. 848)
This of course does not apply to initiates or most spiritual seekers who after they leave the gross body behind recognize what is what much quicker and who have esoteric help from the other side. And various traditions have different views on this subject. Tibetans read scriptures for up to 49 days in some cases, believing that is how long it takes to pass through the bardos and get reborn. Three days, however, is not uncommonly recommended in western esotericism.
How can dogs or crows drawing near to the samskaras of dead people be of any help? Sounds a little like Carlos Castaneda with the crow business! And how can “samskaras” do anything - like “snap the connection” of the mind and the gross body? This must be a metaphorical statement. No doubt for an average unreflective individual there may be a shock, but what is really happening here? The situation is viewed differently in other schools. In Christian esotericism it is said that the archangel Raphael cuts the silver cord. Daskalos taught that the archangels of the elements - of which Raphael is one - have a role to play in terminating and creating a body, and not only impersonal samskaras. Of course, must we choose one or the other, and is there anything in this mysterious and paradoxical universe stopping this from being a ‘both/and’ situation? As much as our mind may be uncomfortable with that, probably not. And what is the silver cord? It is difficult to find clear answers, but it likely has something to do with the etheric webbing that is said to sustain and connect all the bodies.
Most teachings say, contrary to what Baba says above, that a person dies but does not necessarily immediately forget everything of his past physical life. Some don’t even know they are dead and have to be informed they have died and then acclimate to their surroundings. It depends. Maybe Baba was speaking about ordinary people here. But again, this is not the initiate’s fate (the word ‘initiate’ interpreted in the broadest sense here, meaning anyone on the path).
The explicit need for Phowa is also different from the general perspective of Sant Mat in another respect, where it is assumed that, barring traumatic accidents, even if it is true that you do pass out of the body via the crown, your direct access to the purely spiritual (or buddha) realms is not automatically assured , but depends on the grace of the spiritual master and/or one's prior progress on the path. However, one is generally promised that one's master will be there to guide one at the time of and after death itself. The slow and painful twisting and turning stage by stage withdrawal from the body mentioned before by Darshan Singh, it seems, is bypassed by initiates into Sant Mat, where the Master's radiant form is said to comes for (or appear to) the disciple at the time of death, assuring a smooth passage, leaving the body behind like a fallen leaf. Personally, I suspect there is a more than even chance that Darshan Singh's depiction of a prolonged and painful death process was a form of 'scare story', or in other words, a form of 'practice motivator', and not the complete truth. Similarly, Kirpal Singh would sometimes describe the nine months in the womb as a torture chamber of 'intense heat and pressure' - kind of like certain descriptions of hell - and at other times would say that the baby cries when it is born because it was sustained by the light and sound while in the womb! The problem, however, is that almost nobody remembers the former, and not everyone experiences the latter; most subconsciously desire a return to the womb, and not all cry at birth, especially with advanced birthing methods. My writing partner says he was told that he laughed when he was born! [These are examples of "Sooner or Later Masters Say Everything," an upcoming section].
In any case, the grace of the Master at death would also obviate any three-day or forty-nine day vigil or waiting period after physical death as is also advised in Tibetan Buddhism and some other traditions. Indeed, the promise given by the Sant Mat lineage at least since the time of Sawan Singh has been that the Master takes complete charge of the sanchit or storehouse karmas of the disciple and at death takes him to a suitable inner plane to progress further, even escort him to Sach Khand and beyond, a glorious promise much like the one proclaimed in the New Testament:
"Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. For I have come down from heaven. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." (John 6: 35, 38, 40)
In traditional Christianity the last day means the general Resurrection at the end of the world, while in Sant Mat it means at the time of death. Sant Darshan Singh affirms:
"In spite of our blemishes, our shortcomings, our enslavement to the world and worldly desires, the Master has taken us to himself. The Master belongs to the realm of immortality, and in taking us to himself he takes us within the ambit of eternity." (Spiritual Awakening, Chapter 8)
The death of Ramana’s mother and more on inner sounds; the time of death; exiting through different chakras; assurances of salvation after death; why a Master may not take you "up" prematurely
Also somewhat curious was a comment by Ramana’s that when the soul or "I-thought" merged in the heart there was a sound like the tinkle of a bell that the jnani could hear that indicated liberation. He indicated that that was the case with his mother, whose soul he guided at death until it merged in the Heart, but that it was not the case with Palanaswami whose "eyes opened at death meaning his soul had escaped to be reborn in a higher plane" instead of merging once and for all in the Heart. So what for Sant Mat was an escape and a boon was for Ramana a failure to attain self-realization. I don’t know in what way if any the tinkle of a bell sound relates to the naam or shabd in Sant Mat or not. Many in Sant Mat hear the tinkling of bells all the time. The words of Ramana do not suggest it is the same, because Ramana did acknowledge the existence of inner sounds or nada as a concentration method favored by its adherents to lull the mind into samadhi. Here is the full quote from Talks:
“Meditation on nada is one of the accepted methods. The adherents claim a very special virtue for it…Nada helps concentration. After it is felt, the practice should not be made an end in itself. Nada is not the objective, the subject should be firmly held, otherwise a blank will result. Although the subject is there even in the blank state, he would not be aware of the cessation of nada of different kinds. In order to be aware even in that blank state, one must remember his own self. Nada upasana (meditation sound) is good, but even better if associated with investigation (vichara). In that case, the nada is made up of chinmaya and also tanmaya (Knowledge and Self).”
This might be one reason that on the path of Sant Mat the disciple would need the help of the Master to get him across the blank or void or MahaSunn. Ishwar Puri implied that as one progressed inwardly his sense of ‘subjectivity' increased automatically, while various sages (more mentioned later here and in Part Four) seem to feel it doesn’t necessarily do so, but depends on one's deeper understanding. That would seem to be Ramana’s view also. Puri still held that one needed a perfect Master to pass MahaSunn.
Ramana didn’t speak of sound practice as a way into higher planes, however, which he looked on as a kind of unnecessary detour - although devotees remarked that, in his own case, his eyes looked like two stars, and that he appeared to return from a far-off place when he came out of inner absorption. He, however, like Anandamayi Ma, Swami Sivananda, Teresa of Avila, and others, seemed to go inside into full trance less and less as he got older. Shree Atmananda said that once you realize that your own nature is happiness, you will never again be attracted by the goal of happiness in samadhi. You might enjoy it for refreshment, but not for realization.
Now, returning again to what Sant Rajinder said, that one would have certainty of life after death once he reached the third plane, my question remains, why wouldn't one get assurance of life after death after reaching the FIRST inner plane? The suggestion was that the first two planes were not outside the body. In addition, it may also be asked, how can there truly be any "up" or "down" or spatial sense except in relationship to the body? V.S. Iyer said that inside and outside apply only to the body, and since the body is a perception in the Mind, such concepts become meaningless. So how can one truly go up AFTER leaving the chakra system by passing into and through the brain? Where is ‘up’ once the body is dead and you are in a mental realm(s)? Sant Mat might argue that there is still a sense of up and down in relationship with the other bodies or coverings of the soul, such as the astral and causal, as they are in the realm of space and time or Kal, and this is entirely possible and a reasonable explanation within the domain of relativity.
Coming back to my question about how, and in exactly what way, is this life the most important for realization, and in precisely what way can one make more progress here, one asks, "Why is the waking state considered so important?" Kirpal quoted Jesus about how after death "no man can work", so one had better work now. PB said that this world is more valuable than after death states because only here are lessons etched so strongly on the ego, whereas after-death realms are more dream-like. Sant Rajinder Singh has said that souls are supposed to be literally 'lined up' waiting a chance at getting a human body, as there are currently not enough suitable bodies available in which to make appreciable spiritual progress.
The Sant Mat masters do say that one can work from the subtle planes after death, but, again as mentioned, that it can take a much longer time than here. Buddhist scriptures generally say that the personality disintegrates back to the elements, after the death of the body, and that the ego-soul does not survive, certainly not after the so-called "second death", where the subtle elements disperse. Kirpal once joked said, "we have to make the most use of the man-body, and that is - to get out of it!" I think he was speaking somewhat tongue in cheek, because I saw more in Him than that would imply. But for the spiritual beginner that can make intuitive sense. Certainly advaita would disagree. And I think Kirpal would have disagreed also, at least in the sense that there was purificatory work to do here. A disciple, Rameshwar Dass, relates in Ocean of Divine Grace, p. 97-98:
I told Maharaj Ji, "My friend told me that You would give me a glimpse of my Divine Home. But that has not been my experience." "As for taking you up there," He said, "it could be done, but in your present condition you will not be able to stay there; nor when you come back would you be able to carry on with your normal life on earth."
What he seems to be saying is that after such exaltation one’s personal life might seem insipid if he had not integrated their realization with a parallel development in character, surrender, selflessness, and perhaps most of all, acceptance, at the physical level. Brunton writes of this kind of practitioner's lament:
"Those who have previously made satisfying spiritual advances often find themselves pulled up and unable to go farther, sometimes for years. This is because the undeveloped and imperfect parts of their natures offer obstruction to further progress. If the higher forces were to descend on them when they are purified only in parts and developed only in some faculties. these forces would prove harmful instead of helpful. Consequently, these parts are brought up by events to the surface of his life in order that they may be dealt with. (Notebooks, Vol. 3, Part One, 3.78)
Indeed, Church Father Irenaeus (125-203, in Against Heresies, wrote:
"God wanted to give human beings their fullness right from the beginning, but they were incapable of receiving it, because they were still little children."
Once some one else asked Kirpal for such grace, and he replied, "But are you ready to receive?"
There could also be a few more reasons why it might not be warranted to grant such a request. Bhai Sahib said, "Sometimes one takes somebody to a high state and they do not progress - there is no desire." (Daughter of Fire, p. 342). Only a Master may know what one will do with such a gift of grace - and maybe not beforehand either. "Who wants the self to go? Who wants those things?!" The matter of progress is a tricky affair, to be discussed in Part Three. Further, without a sufficient degree of ego-transcendence or ego-transformation the higher planes cannot be experienced fully as they are, that is, without a sense of illusion, which would be counterproductive until such time as one was ready to experience them without causing a great reaction in the body-mind instrument. Moreover - if it were in fact possible to do so - in taking an unprepared person to the highest plane it has been said that they might not recognize it, or even be very uncomfortable in such a rarified atmosphere. After the initial stages of inner bliss, which implies a still active emotional nature, further advance, for the unprepared and unpurified nature, can be felt as a loss. It is, for the ego. The early bliss is replaced by a much deeper serenity, but which is not seen as desirable until one is really ready for it. It takes either a supremely rational consciousness to see past the comparative effulgence of the mystic states, or a grinding of the ego into dust to accept the seeming nothingness that confronts one like an abyss. One must really get to know oneself well, and grow tired of it, before the sunshine of the true inner being shines forth. For the ego never makes it to the promised land, not even the spiritual ego, and no one wants to give that up. It is even possible to spend years immersed in inner bliss without advancing - or awakening - and Kirpal warned about this possibility. This is hard to grasp by the beginner, who understandably is largely motivated by the escape from pain and suffering, but until it is no further appreciable inner progress can be made. The soul knows joy, but it is like a deep, wide ocean and is not always gushing over with ecstasy.
Another reason for a delay in so-called ascension is that, according to various occult sources, there might be the possibility of some kind of damage to the etheric webbing said to unite the various bodies. And finally, it might not be necessary for both progress and realization for such a thing to happen! For some it is possible that only the final stages - bypassing all the intermediate ones - may become known after a lifetime of striving in apparent darkness, with all so-called progress happening under their radar. This need not be cause for despair, if one practices with the right view, to wit, with the understanding that he and the Master reside in the Heart even now. Then he will potentially be able to enjoy all the fruits intuitively at any and every moment. And which doesn't mean one will be happy all the time or that there will not be any suffering, but rather that there will be a serenity beneath it and much unnecessary suffering may be avoided.
The vedantic answer as to why the waking state even more so than ascended samadhis is so important is expressed by Iyer in the following quote:
"Gyan is to see that all things are the mind's own creations, that none are different from yourself, that none are other than the mind itself, and that therefore there is no second thing. But this you can get only by analyzing world during the waking state itself and finding it to be like a dream. This is why truth must be understood when awake, not in blank trance, when facing and seeing the world, not in negation of it." (Commentaries, Vol. 1 ; see note 29)
A quote of Soamiji that seems out of place within even Sant Mat teachings was made by him on the day of his death:
“Life-long Bhajan and Simran is only for this reason: That one should not forget at this time (at the time of death).” (Sar Bachan p. 21)
This also causes questions to arise. What was his true meaning here? Forget what? - Bhajan and Simran? - The image of his Master? It is said in many traditions that one’s last thought is very important, but surely “life-long bhajan and simran," according to Sant Mat, is also for the purpose of achieving liberation in life, isn’t it? Maybe or maybe not. That does not seem to be emphasized so much in Sant Mat, where it is sometimes held that 95% of the Master's grace is withheld until ones time of death. Thus videha mukti, or liberation after death seems the more common expectation. But, in any case, surely the general trend of the mind over a lifetime is more important than any stray thought that crosses it at the time of death. What if, when one’s time comes, as has happened even to great sages, one lapses into a coma, or has an accidental death? Does then the inability to remember anything cancel out one's progress, relationship with his guru, or, most importantly, one's enlightenment? The answer is, “No.” And Kirpal has said as much. In addition, a dear friend of mine was killed instantly in a head-on collision with a truck on a snowy night, and later Sant Rajinder Singh in answer to a point-blank question by an initiate as to where our friend was today, replied, “in Sach Khand, because of his great love for Kirpal.” There is said to be an unbreakable grace-laden connection with one’s initiating Master in the path of Sant Mat - not unlike but perhaps more consistently stated than other paths. This remark by Soamiji was likely directed to one person at a particular time for its impact value, but, nevertheless, when placed in a source text like Sar Bachan can create confusion. But do not forget, he also said "have no doubts, make your faith firm and this meditation I'll get done by thee myself."
Sawan made similar enigmatic statements, in the line of the "good news" and "easy yoke" spoken of by Christ. As told by Giani Rurdh Singh, one of his initiates:
"I am stating that any Satsangi whose mind upon having attained his Satguru's Darshan - even for a second, nay, half a second, accepts Him not really as a human being but as the Perfect Lord - Sat Purush - then whether he meditates or not - or whether he remembers NAAM or not - he will be protected."
And further he wonderfully proclaimed:
"Do these Souls think that they will come to Sach Khand on the strength of their own meditation or efforts? I only make them sit in meditation so that their faith may not waver but become stronger...It is only Faith that is required! The rest of the work has already been accomplished."
Even Ramana Maharshi said that "Faith in God is enough to save you from transmigration." How great is that? Faith is everything, just believe and you are saved, that is it in a nutshell - and we could very well end here. But then, it wouldn't be much of a book, would it? So we will continue plowing through a jungle of conflicting and confusing views until hopefully all are convinced and satisfied.
There are many who have not had the good fortune to have developed that kind of faith in their Master. And, apparently contrary to Sawan Singh, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs said "those who see me as the Supreme Lord will go to hell!" So we are more or less forced back on our own resources even to understand, in most cases.
Once more, the waking state is valued in most traditions because they say realization must take place while here to be true liberation. Why? Perhaps one answer is because it is very important both how we interpret or understand our experiences across all of the states, and also that we do not live here or go ‘within’, in ignorance. Also, the faculty of buddhi or higher reason is not active in sleep or trance, and in advaita it is said that it is, in fact, buddhi which gets enlightened. “The Self is always shining in the intellectual sheath,” Ramana Maharshi often quoted from scripture, as the intellectual sheath or buddhi is closest to Atman and reflects its light. When it gets enlightened it stands aside and Atman is realized. Technically, the bliss-sheath is closest, but as it is said to be made of undifferentiated maya there is also said to be no knowing or enlightenment possible when it is active, such as in sleep. It is present when the soul is in Maha Sunn, as well, and as we have seen, the soul is helpless there. Brunton states:
"If the body does not become non-existent because, ultimately, it is a thought-form, neither does it become unimportant. For it is only in this body that we can attain and realize the ultimate consciousness...the physical wakeful state is the only one in which the task of true self-realization can be fully accomplished.." (The Notebooks, Vol. 7, Part I, 1.5)
As in Sant Mat, however, Brunton elsewhere admits that this may not need to be achieved on earth but could occur on "other spheres." There is also permitted this exception in the Buddhist tradition (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sagga/loka.html) for certain advanced aspirants of a degree of sainthood who had purified a sufficient number of the "fetters" or “defilements" (http://sped2work.tripod.com/fetters.html). But the attainment would still not be achieved in a purely subjective state in their case, and the higher realms themselves, however blissful and however long one might stay there, which could be kalpas, may be considered "pure" but not necessarily eternal, as they are in Sant Mat. For example, one of the higher fetters in Buddhism is "attachment to the formless realms". But the confusion does not go away completely because there are formless realms in the higher mental planes, according to Kirpal Singh in Life and Death.
Tibetan Buddhism somewhat differently argues that only awakening to the "Ground Luminosity" of Mind while alive assures merger with the Clear Light when it initially dawns at the time of death. This is the great opportunity for liberation according to their teachings. If one cannot hold onto this realization at the time of death one then passes into the dawning of the "dharmata realm", which is the all-pervading creative radiance of Mind, similar to how the Sants describe Sach Khand. Failing to sustain awareness of that, one falls into identification with mind and ego once more and passes into the various intermediate realms of the bardos, and eventually rebirth. Only through experience in the waking state with its sharply defined limits can one be prepared, through spiritual practice, for the dawning of Mind or the Clear Light at death. In Sant Mat the waking state is also valued to prepare one to be aware while in the bardos or inner planes, as well as for the working off of karmas, but the defining difference after death is the boon of the Master coming for the soul, sparing him the bewildering and disintegrating experience of the withdrawal of the attention and pranas, a less than auspicious exit into an undesirable lower realm, and even further rebirths prior to liberation. There is no teaching in Sant Mat, however - at least in "1.0", about immediate non-dual recognition of the Dharmakaya or Self or Consciousness prior to passage through all the inner planes to Sach Khand and beyond. Nevertheless, there are hints here and there in Sant Mat about the non-necessity of experiencing all of the planes in a linear fashion. Kirpal said some initiates may go directly to Sach Khand and not experience the other planes along the way, although, generally, they would, at least to some degree, as in a brief "meet and greet" of the various deities presiding therein. He also said, however, "you are already there, you just don't know it." But he was very clear that a disciple of some degree of attainment, and even those without much in the way of that but who nevertheless had full faith, may not have to be reborn but could continue their sadhana on inner planes, at the discretion of the Master. Bhai Sahib, guru of Irena Tweedie, also affirmed this.
"The initiates have a great concession: at the time of death, your Master will come to receive you, and not the angel of death. He usually appears several days or weeks before death to advise you of your coming departure from this world. I'm talking about those who keep the precepts! For those who do nothing with the gift of Naam, he may or may not appear before they leave the body...In your final moments, and much beforehand if you have gained proficiency in meditation, Master's radiant form will take you to a higher stage where you can make further progress. At the time of death the initiate will be as happy as a bride on her day of marriage! He may then place you in the first, second or third stage, or he may take you direct to Sach Khand. In some cases, where worldly desires and attachments are predominant, he will allow rebirth, but in circumstances more congenial for spiritual growth." (Arran Stephens, Journey to the Luminous (Seattle, Washington: Elton-Wolf Publications, 1999), p. 41)
Similarly, Sawan Singh had this to say on this matter:
“If, due to some adverse conditions, much time has not been given to the Current – but there has been a strong love for the Master and a wish to go within – even then rebirth is not given. The soul is taken to Trikuti or Daswan Dwar and made to make up the deficiency there and, in time, taken further up, to the end of the journey…[But even] if you are not able to put in much labor, try to develop love for a mahatma or for a realized soul. If you really love a saint or mahatma, then - asleep or awake - you always think of him. Where would you go after death? You go to the place of the person on whom your thoughts have been dwelling all along.” (Spiritual Gems, letter 13)
"DYING IN THE MASTER'S COMPANY"
from Talks with Ramana Maharshi, p. 163-164:
"It must be remembered that Sri Bhagavan had been with his mother from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. until she passed away. He was all along holding her head with one hand, the other hand placed on her bosom. What does it signify? He said later, that there was a struggle between him and his mother, until her spirit reached the heart.
Evidently the soul passes through a series of subtle experiences, and Sri Bhagavan's touch generates a currrent which turns the soul back from its wandering into the Heart.
The samskaras, however, persist and a struggle is kept up between the spiritual force set up by his touch and the innate samskaras, until the latter are entirely destroyed and the soul is led into the heart to rest in eternal Peace, which is the same as Liberation.
Its entry into the Heart is signified by a peculiar sensation perceptible to the Mahatma - similar to the tinkling of a bell.
When Maharshi attended on Palaniswami on his deathbed, he took away his hand after the above signal. But Palaniswami's eyes opened immediately, signifying that the spirit had escaped through them, thereby indicating a higher rebirth, but not Liberation. Having once noticed it with Palaniswami, Maharshi continued touching his mother for a few minutes longer - even after the signal of the soul passing into the Heart - and thus ensured her Liberation. This was confirmed by the look of perfect peace and composure on her features."<
(For more, see "Ramana Maharshi's Mother Enlightenment" (http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Enlightenment/Ramana_Maharshi's_mother_enlightenment.htm))
from The Moth and the Flame, by Arran Stephens, p. 291-292 (http://www.mothandtheflame.com/moth.html):
"Mataji [Sant Kirpal Singh's wife] returned to her eternal abode on April 3, 1970. Her frail form had suffered from cancer for about four years. On this subject the Master afterwards remarked: "Many people who have experienced this sickness have suffered greatly and have screamed aloud with the agony that it causes, but with the grace of God, through having direct contact with Him within, Mataji was spared the pinching effects.."
Eventually Mataji was unable to get around anymore, and while the Master was on tour in the latter part of March, her condition worsened. On March 30 (1970) the Master asked her if she was ready to leave and she replied, "Yes, in three days." The Master thought for a moment and then said, "Well, three days, that means April 2nd - and I will be very busy that day (due to the commemoration of the death anniversary of Hazur Baba Sawan Singh). The 3rd would be better, in the early afternoon, say 1:30 p.m. I will be more free then."
At about 1:00 p.m. on the third it was noticed that Mataji's condition had become very serious. When told about Mataji, the Master said, "I know it." The Master went to Mataji and looking down at her very kindly, asked, "Are you prepared?" She looked up and said, "Yes." The Master said, "Are you sure your heart is absolutely clear - with no hatred for anyone?" She replied, "Yes, I have nothing against anyone in my heart." The Master asked, "Then why are you not smiling?" With this, her face..began to glow with joy. Ripples of laughter came forth and she looked radiant with happiness. Taking hold of the Master's hand she said, "Forgive me, if I have ever done anything to offend you." The Master smiled compassionately. She said, "Both forms are here - I am seeing you outside and inside." The Master said, "All right, now close your eyes and relax," and with these words he returned to his room. Within ten or fifteen minutes, Mataji had left." Kirpal afterwards remarked, "she is more alive now than ever."
Even a jnani like Sri Nisargadatta said much the same: "In death only the body dies. Life does not, consciousness does not, reality does not. And the life is never so alive as after death." (I AM THAT, p. 12) This is not guaranteeing an eternal post-mortem heaven for the ego, of course, but depending on where one's heart is inclined, it is ultimately comforting.
Commentary
"If he accepts the decree of destiny quietly and obediently, if he is willing to pass, without rebellion and without fighting, out of this world when the ordained hour arrives, he achieves that peace of mind which the prophet Muhammed called "Islam"--a resignation to, and harmony with, God. It is as far as detachment from the ego can go without losing the ego itself." (1)
While all may take solace from these words of Brunton - as it is most likely to be our lot - in the traditions it is said that the friendship of a saint or sage may grant notably great comfort, but even liberation, to the fortunate soul at the time of death. In Sant Mat there are frequent references to the Master Power, or grace of the Godman, holding court over the power of Dharam Raj, the angel of death, regarding the fate of dying souls, whether initiated or not. I have heard numerous such stories from the life of Kirpal Singh as told by devotees. Ramana Maharshi said likewise in regards to the true sage:
"The jnani can leave the body whenever he likes. When the time comes for the jnani to leave his body, Lord Yama [the Hindu god of death] comes and asks, standing at a distance, "Will you please come?" if the jnani says, "No, not now," Lord Yama will have to leave without him." (2)
Besides generating a feeling of awe in one's heart and mind, these stories also offer food for thought regarding the place of such apparently divine siddhis or powers. In the case of either of these saints or sages many people experienced miraculous changes, effects, cures, etc., without the master's apparent awareness, yet it may be assumed not unrelated to his being or presence. On some occasions, however, an apparently active role was played by these great souls. I say apparently because from a non-dual perspective and using the language of Plotinus one can consider that the Universal or Absolute Soul or Self, undifferentiated as it is from the Individual Soul and apparent jiva or human personality, uses that purified agent as a means to produce such effects. In the case of Paramhansa Yogananda there were a number of instances when people had died and the saint revived them. Kriyananda recounts relates one such story, in Yogananda's words:
"A real estate agent in Encinitas, hearing that I had healing power, came to me to request a healing for his wife, who had been ill for ninety days. I prayed, but God told me not to go to her bedside. Shortly thereafter, she died. Only then was I given guidance to go to her...About thirty people were present in the room when I arrived. Her husband was weeping and shaking her, almost out of his mind with grief. He wouldn't accept the fact that she was already dead. I motioned him away...Putting one hand on the dead woman's forehead, and the other one under her head, I began invoking the divine power. Five minutes passed. Ten minutes. Suddenly her whole body began to tremble like a motor. After some time, a deep calmness stole over her. her heartbeat and breathing returned. Slowly her eyes opened; they held a far-away expression, as though she had just returned from a long journey. She was completely healed." (3)
In Maharshi's case, towards the end of his life while dying from cancer he remarked that he, as a jnani, lacked the will, or vikalpa, to do anything about it, nor did he care. His position throughout his 50 years among devotees, moreover, was generally of this nature, and therefore in contrast to the remark above, which claimed the jnani had power over Yama, the lord of death. He characteristically took the position that the jnani, or sage, was oblivious to the issue of birth and death, and was beyond possession of any kind of power attributable to an individual, "being in his true nature invisible even to the gods." Even though such incidents as the above-mentioned one in the case of Yogananda also occurred due to Maharshi’s presence, on one such occasion where the son of a man who had asked for his help died, he said:
“Even an incarnate God cannot raise all the dead. He has no individual will so he cannot decide to perform a miracle. If miracles happened in his ambience, he witnessed them; that was all.” (3a)
[Note: this is an instance where speaking of the 'will' is certainly paradoxical, and Ramana, in our opinion, is being unnecessarily simplistic; for the accomplished Siddha or Master, one can not say he does nor does not use personal will to do such things, or that he merely witnesses all that happens. That so-called miracles do happen in his company that he is not aware of being involved, but that he also may 'individually' accomplish them via divine siddhi is also heralded in the literature extensively and can not be denied. "Siddhis" will be discussed at length in a section in Part Four].
Zen master Bankei, in classic non-dual fashion, belittled concern over one's physical death:
"When it comes to the idea of being free in birth and death, people are apt to misunderstand. There are some who, beforehand, announce they're going to die in a certain number of days, while others go so far as to express their intention to die, say, next year, in such-and-such a month and on such-and-such a day. When the time arrives, some of them, even though they are not ill, die just as they said, while others put it off for another day, or a month, and then pass away. There are lots of people who consider this being free in birth and death. Not that I say this isn't so. So far as freedom goes, they're terribly free! But things of this sort are only a result of the strength of people's ascetic practices, and often they haven't opened the Eye of the Way. Even among ordinary people, you frequently find this. While they may know [the time of their] death, they haven't opened the Eye of the Way, and that's why I don't accept this kind of thing. The man of the Unborn transcends birth and death.
Now, I'm sure you're all wondering just what it means to transcend birth and death. That which is unborn is imperishable; and since what doesn't perish doesn't die, it transcends birth and death. So, what I call a man who's free in birth and death is one who dies unconcerned with birth and death. What's more, the matter of birth and death is something that's with us all day long -- it doesn't mean only once in a lifetime when we confront the moment of death itself. A man who's free in birth and death is one who always remains unconcerned with birth and death, knowing that so long as we're allowed to live, we live; and when the time comes to die -- even if death comes right now -- we just die, [realizing] that when we die isn't of great importance. Such a person is also one who has conclusively realized the marvelously illuminating Unborn Buddha Mind. Talking and thinking about something like what hour of what day you're going to die is really narrow-minded, don't you think?" (4)
The Taoist sage Chuang Tzu said:
“The true men of old knew nothing of the love of life or of the hatred of death.
Entrance into life occasioned no joy; exit from it awakened no resistance.
Composedly they came and went.
They did not forget what their beginning had been, and they did not inquire
into what their end would be.
They accepted life and rejoiced in it; they forgot all fear of death and returned
to their state before life.
Thus there was in them what is called the want of any mind to resist the Tao,
and attempts by means of the human to assist the Heavenly.
Such were they who are called the true men.”
Sri Nisargadatta goes so far as to radically state:
"Whatever is getting transformed will not remain, any
transformable state will not remain. If you have accomplished
knowledge correctly, you will never know that you are dying.....
The very tool by which you observe will itself disappear.
After so called death where is the tool of observation? The
very instrument or consciousness will not be there. (5)
This might need to be qualified in the case of someone accustomed to "dying daily" in the manner the Sants describe, if Sri Nisargadatta is referring here to physical death. It might then perhaps be alternately stated as, "one who has accomplished knowledge correctly barely notices his death, or doesn't consider it a death." I seriously doubt the saint or sage is prohibited by their accomplishment of jnana from being aware when they are physically dying. [for more on this see “The Integrationalists and the Non-Dualists - 3” (http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.citymaker.com/Fallfromgrace2.html)]
PB, nevertheless, in a fashion similar to Bankei, writes:
"The wise man lives secretly in the even, sorrow-soothing knowledge of the Oneness, and remains undisturbed by the inevitable and incessant changes in life. From this lofty standpoint, the tenet of rebirth sinks to secondary place in the scale of importance. What does it matter whether one descends or not into the flesh if one always keeps resolute hold of the timeless Now? It can matter only to the little "I," to the ignorant victim of ephemeral hopes and ephemeral fears, not to the larger "I AM" which smiles down upon it." (6)
The sants and the jnanis appear paradoxical at times, both taking the position of not doing anything to cure either themselves or another, and also being attributed with healings, postponing the time of death of various disciples, and even apparently re-enlivening certain souls. One such case took place in the presence of Yogi Bhajan, a disciple of whom had succumbed and whom the yogi could not help. The mere touch of Kirpal Singh brough the man back to life. One may rightly ask, what miraculous divine power can do such a thing? This is certainly no ordinary yogic siddhi. According to Patanjali, however, it can be explained, as a result of profound samyama, or dharana, dhyana, and samadhi on all the stages up to Isvara or the Mahapurusha, from which the creative power of "OM" emanates, leading to purification of all the sheaths or coverings over the free Soul.
Still, from the position of ultimate awakening, according to proponents of jnana, or non-duality, this would still not be considered proof of the final stroke, the realization of the Void-Mind or "Suchness,", nor would it be the necessary accompaniment of enlightenment. Patanjali himself warned against attachment to even the highest of such things. Alice Bailey, in her exposition of the yoga sutras, Book 3, Verse 37, said,
"These powers are obstacles to the highest spiritual realization, but seen as magical in the objective realms."
On the other hand, I.K. Taimni points out that
"it is almost impossible to distinguish the terminal stages of self-realization and the powers that adhere in those stages, for the siddhis that come out of that realization are hardly occult powers as such." (7)
So there is a rahasya, or mystery, here that must humble mere mortals to dust. Kirpal Singh gave a hint of this with the following quotes:
"I tell you now. As I explained many times, the son of man
is not the Master; the son of man is the human pole at which God as the
Master works. And it is that God Power that goes around and awakens all
those who are initiated. He even appears to those who have some
background, although they do not know who he is..."
(8)
"That is His Grace--if He leaves me, I am nothing. I am Mr. Zero. I don't
do anything. That is the safest way." (9)
Once approached by a new disciple, Ed Wallace, who at the time, about forty years ago, had become paralyzed on one side of his body due to the effects of liver disease and drug abuse, Kirpal said to him, "Oh, nobody can cure that." Two weeks later the man was free of all symptoms.
One may rightly ask where such saints and sages exist today, and whether the purported help and enlightenment of many contemporary - and in particular, western - teachers is deep enough to last beyond the portals of death. Have they had a glimpse of Emptiness - or the fullest embodiment of Emptiness-Luminosity-All Pervading Energy, the three kayas of the enlightened Mind as termed by Padmasambhava in Tibetan Buddhism, requiring not only the "turnabout in the deep seat of understanding", as the Lankavatara Sutra says, "but also the fundamental transformation death of the bodhisattva's individualized will-control?" Have they achieved this much deeper non-dual realization, the ultimate liberation of anutarra samyaksambodhi itself? For it seems reasonable to assume that the deeper the realization, the deeper the help that may be given. On the other hand, the deeper one's individual practice itself, the greater the opportunity offered by the process of death for spiritual advancement or even enlightenment itself, according to the Tibetan tradition. Here all nature cooperates with your final "meditation" and there is a chance for one to recognize and abide in the clear light of consciousness as it dawns, if not permanently then for a brief period that will benefit ones future rebirths. This is the purpose behind recitation from the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol), to help the dying one remember who he is at the time of death and spiritually auspicious moments shortly afterwards. As Evans Wentz states:
“The whole aim of the Bardo Thödol teaching...is to cause the Dreamer to awaken into Reality, freed from all the obscurations of karmic or sangsaric illusions, in a supramundane or Nirvanic state, beyond all phenomenal paradises, heavens, hells, purgatories, or worlds of embodiment.” (10)
Vic Mansfield points out, in “Tibetan Buddhism and Analytical Psychology,” that this inherently implies a non-dual state of consciousness:
The text clarifies this point when it discusses the dawn of the primary Clear Light at death.. It reads, “Thine own consciousness [rigpa, pure, pristine awareness], not formed into anything, in reality void, and the intellect [shes-rig, consciousness revealing contents or intellect], shining and blissful,—these two,—are inseparable. The union of them is the Dharma-Kaya state of Perfect Enlightenment." (11)
Sogyal Rinpoche speaks of this as the dawning of the “Ground Luminosity merging or uniting with the Pure Essence of one’s own Mind." PB also writes on this last chance at freedom:
“The aspirant whose efforts to attain inner freedom and union with the Overself while living seem to have been thwarted by fate or circumstances, may yet find them rewarded with success while dying. Then, at the very moment when consciousness is passing from the body, it will pass into the Overself.” (12)
In Sant Mat, of course, the equivalent of this is the grace of a Master immediately transitioning one to Sach Khand, which for one reason or another had been unattainable in life.
There are advaitists, such as Sri Nisargadatta and Ramesh Balsekar, who at times speak quite strictly on these things, and appear to deny any intermediate reality or awareness by an "I" after death (http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.CityMaker.com/page/page/5395196.htm). Their point of view is worth considering, along with that of the others, if only to counter false hopes of the ego among serious questers. Sri Nisargadatta states:
"The memory of the past unfulfilled desires traps energy, which manifests itself as a person. When its charge gets exhausted, the person dies. Unfulfilled desires are carried over into the birth. Self-identification with body creates ever-fresh desires and there is no end to them unless this mechanism of bondage is clearly seen. It is clarity that is liberating, for you cannot abandon desire unless its causes and effects are clearly seen. I do not say that the same person is reborn. It dies, and dies for good. But its memories remain and their desires and fears. They supply the energy for a new person." (13)
This is also very Buddhistic in nature, yet even in a path such as Sant Mat one is said to die at each plane quit by the soul. The teaching as more commonly presented, however, is that for those who are unenlightened but somewhat spiritually aware, there is a period of individual existence after the brief swoon of death, “where happiness, bliss, comfort, and rest can be found as can only be imagined but not found here” (14), in various astral or causal realms, to be eventually followed by the "second-death" wherein the as yet not fully enlightened ego goes to sleep before its eventual re-embodiment. According to PB, one's own divine Soul oversees the entire process. PB also emphasizes that philosophic study while alive is a help in the afterlife, which would also appear to de-emphasize the (sometimes) all or nothing message of some of the sages:
"For as the Bhagavad-Gita truly says, "A little of this knowledge saves from much danger." Even a few years' study of philosophy will bring definite benefit into the life of the student. It will help him in all sorts of ways, unconsciously, here on earth and it will help him very definitely after death during his life in the next world of being." (15)
It is maintained in Sant Mat, moreover, throwing a question mark over certain aspects of the Buddhist and Advaitic teachings, that some souls which have not yet undergone this second death wherein the subtle and causal bodies disintegrate into their constituent elements and the being with a new personality incarnates may do spiritual sadhana or devotion after death through the help of a Master-Soul, and the question of their need to eventually incarnate again might vary from individual to individual. Kirpal Singh affirmed that this is the case:
"The initiates have a great concession: at the time of death, your Master will come to receive you, and not the angel of death. He usually appears several days or weeks before death to advise you of your coming departure from this world. I'm talking about those who keep the precepts! For those who do nothing with the gift of Naam, he may or may not appear before they leave the body...In your final moments, and much beforehand if you have gained proficiency in meditation, Master's radiant form will take you to a higher stage where you can make further progress. At the time of death the initiate will be as happy as a bride on her day of marriage! He may then place you in the first, second or third stage, or he may take you direct to Sach Khand. In some cases, where worldly desires and attachments are predominant, he will allow rebirth, but in circumstances more congenial for spiritual growth." (16)
St. John of the Cross similarly writes of the death of those in genuine communion with the Lord or approaching sainthood:
“It should be known that the natural death of persons who have reached this state is far different in its cause and more from the death of others, even though it is similar in natural circumstances. If the death of other people is caused by sickness or old age, the death of these persons is not so induced, in spite of their being sick or old; their soul is not wrested from them unless by some impetus and encounter of love far more sublime than previous ones; of greater power, and more valiant...The death of such persons is very gentle and very sweet, sweeter and more gentle than was their whole spiritual life on earth. For they die with the most sublime impulses and delightful encounters of love, resembling the swan whose song is much sweeter at the moment of death. Accordingly, David affirmed that the death of the saints is precious in the sight of the Lord [Ps. 116:15]. The just one’s first treasures, and last, are heaped together as company for the departure and going off to the kingdom, while praises are heard from the ends of the earth, which, as Isaiah says, are the glory of the just one [Is.24:16].” (The Living Flame of Love, Stanza 1:30)
“Death cannot be bitter to the soul that loves, for in it she finds all the sweetness and delight of love. The thought of death cannot sadden her, for what she finds is that gladness accompanies this thought. Neither can the thought of death be burdensome and painful to her, for death will put an end to all her sorrows and afflictions and be the beginning of all her bliss. She thinks of death as her friend and bridegroom, and at the thought of it she rejoices as she would over the thought of her betrothal and marriage…"(Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 11:10)
The following account mirrors these descriptions of St. John and depicts one disciple’s inner experience upon the death of Sant Kirpal Singh:
from “The Homegoing of the Master”, a talk by Arran Stephens (Sat Sandesh, October 1974, p. 25)
“At the time of Master's passing - the evening of the 21st of August - one initiate was sitting in meditation in Delhi. This initiate saw the Master's body in meditation lying down as though it were dead. And he said these powers began coming out of the Master, out the top of His head, and they were in the form of Light. One after the other came out, great powers, each one with different intensity, different luminosity, a different shade coming out of the Master. And he thought that these were the five elements that were leaving the Master's body. But he said that a hundred and twenty powers came out of the Master, and finally He withdrew completely from the body. And on the higher spiritual planes this disciple saw the Master walking towards a great congregation of Saints; and Swami Ji Maharaj, the fourth Master back, came forward to greet the Master and put His hand on His head and said, "What you have done, no one else has accomplished so far. So much work has been achieved through you." And Baba Sawan Singh came from above the Master, and this Great Light was shining out of Sawan Singh, from His feet, from His whole body, and streaming down on to His Beloved Son, Kirpal. Baba Jaimal Singh was there, Guru Nanak was there...all the Saints were there. They had come to greet the Master. Baba Sawan Singh came to Master and He went and touched Master's legs; He said, "You had pain here?" He touched His thighs: "You had pain here?” And He touched His chest and His back and His neck and head: "You had pain here? I gave you so much pain, but you bore it as a gift! You have freed multitudes of souls. So much grace of the Sat Purusha has been achieved through you, as was achieved through none other." And there was a great chorus of acclamation from all the Saints to the Master. And throughout it all Master's Face was very serene and very sober. And all mingled together their rays of Grace and Light in the Master. This was Master's triumphant Homegoing.”
[Note: this story will be revisited in the section on visions in Part Three].
Many, many of course, have attested to the experience of the peaceful passing away of loved ones. The presence of the divine guide is a great help, however, as this is not always the case. At the time of death the vasanas or latent tendencies are said to become active and take over almost completely in the unprepared individual, mightily resisting the process and pleading for the return of familiar ground. As Fenelon puts it:
"We flatter ourselves that we have no regard for this life and long for the heavenly country, but when age or sickness make us see that the end of our life is much nearer, self-love awakes, feels sorry for itself , and is alarmed."
In short, many say they do not fear death - when they are not dying! To have a true guru or master is a great blessing.
Ramakrishna, PB, and other teachers similarly confirm that the visionary or subtle form of one's guide, if he is advanced enough, or one's faith in him is strong enough, may comfort one during the transition at the time of death. Here is a current example as told by one Sant Mat initiate:
”On February 4th, 2008, we had a very sweet tea-time with Mata Ji. Such a divine sweetness in her presence! It's a kind of spiritual power. Imagine: daughter-in-law of Master Kirpal; wife of Master Darshan, and mother of living Master Rajinder."
"MataJi shared with us the recent passing of dear Jaswant Singh (a Baba Sawan Singh initiate, and the groom in the rare movie of Hazur in the 1940's). Sardar Jaswant Singh was a highly elevated, interesting, inquisitive, eccentric, intoxicated and joyous soul, full of love for the Masters. He was also a Munshi - Persian scholar. What most people didn't know that he was quite an entrepreneur, and had established a chain of dry cleaning stores, with which he amply established his family."
"When nearing his end (I think he was over 90 years old), the family could hear him in his bedroom calling out loudly (for he was at least 98% deaf), "Give me the date! Give me the date!" "Eighth? O.K." At least the family thought he said the 8th. The 8th was only a couple of days away, and all became apprehensive, as Master always comes to notify devoted initiates before actual physical death. The 8th came and went. It turned out that they had not heard correctly, as the Inner Master told him "the 18th!" Accordingly, he passed peacefully on the 18th, his face imbued with a rare glow for several hours, according to family and friends.”
Huzur Maharj (Soamiji), when asked by a disciple about their apparent lack of progress in mediation and a dearth of inner experiences, replied that 99.5% of our meditation is being held in reserve by the inner Master explicitly for our benefit at the time of our death. This is pretty much a cornerstone of Sant Mat.
While the concept of further evolution itself after death might appear difficult for some to reconcile with Buddhism, wherein it is generally assumed that all who have not attained enlightenment in this life face complete egoic or skandhic dissolution followed by rebirth until they realize enlightenment in the waking state, and is certainly one of the great mysteries in the traditions, it is not always mandated in the Buddhist canon that one must reincarnate on the earth-plane to attain enlightenment; exceptions are noted: see "The Four Levels of Sainthood" and "The Ten Fetters of Buddhism" as presented by the Wanderling (http://sped2work.tripod.com/fetters.html) and also "The Thirty-One Planes of Existence" from the Theravadin perspective (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sagga/loka.html). PB also wrote that one might continue evolving on other spheres. Traditional yogic schools, including the Kriya path of Paramhansa Yogananda, concur with this possibility:
“Salvation is of two kinds: final liberation from all karma and union with God; and freedom from earthly karma, giving the possiblitiy of living from then on in high astral regions, from which one can work out his astral and causal karma until he reaches final liberation. Salvation from the need for further imprisonment on this material plane is in itself a great blessing, and can be won even without (yet) achieving divine perfection.” (17)
In any case, “From God we come, to God we go"...."the Self of all beings"...."who is more the life of the Soul than the Soul itself is the life of the body.” Fear no more. All is well.
"Some people, sweet and attractive, and strong and healthy, happen to
die young. They are masters in disguise teaching us about impermanence." - The Dalai Lama
"Your fear of death is really fear of yourself: see what it is from which you are fleeing." - Rumi
"Nobody is born or dies at any time; it is the mind that conceives its birth and death and its migration to other bodies and other worlds." - Yoga Vasishta
"Nothing dies. The body is imagined. There is no such thing. Time will come to an end.This is called the Great Death (maha mrityu), the death of time."
But,
“He [the gnani] gets happier every day. The reel of destiny is coming to an end. He is going home.” - Sri Nisargadatta
"Here and hereafter are words to frighten children. We never come or go, we are where we are." - Swami Vivekananda
"I have never told you that you will never be reborn. I have only said that you will be rid of the illusion that you were ever born or will die." - Atmananda Krishnamenon
"Unlike life, death cannot be taken away from men, and therefore we may consider it as the gift of God." - Seneca
"Why dread even death? God allows it to happen to everybody, so it cannot be bad." - Paramhansa Yogananda
"Understand for yourself that death is nothing. Know that, "I am birthless, I am deathless, I have never taken birth and I will never die." Take the poisonous tooth out of the serpent and play with him. You know it is not going to do any harm to you. Death is nothing. Everyday, when you sleep it is like a small death. Why to fear? Nothing is there. Everything is illusion. Keep your mind in that fearless state only. Just as the poisonous tooth is taken out, in the same way, play with the world, play with the illusion, there is no harm. It won't affect your mind. Live fearlessly; no death, no fear, knowing "I am that real Power." There is nothing! What will harm you?" - Ranjit Maharaj
"There is no difference between life and death." When asked by someone then why is it that you do not die, he replied "because there is no difference between life and death." - Thales
“Nothing happens.” - the 16th Karmapa, on his deathbed.
"Our own death absolutely confronts us with the reality that this is a story. Other people's deaths can also confront us with that. It is precisely the existence of death in the dream that makes so many of us make up these wild, wild stories about the things that must be achieved and the heavens that must be aimed for. For a person, death is quite a challenge, so to avoid contemplating its own annihilation, the mind makes up the most wonderful and bizarre stories about an entity that continues after death in some way...Nothing continues after death but that's o.k. because nothing is continuing right now." - Richard Sylvester, The Book of No One
"To fear death, gentlemen, is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know. No man knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest of blessings for a human being; and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain that it is the greatest of evils." - Socrates
"The fear of death, which is the highest punishment, comes to all in order to teach them the true immortality, which is in Unity. If you think that you are one and he is another, then you have to die: if you think all are one, then you become deathless."
"Death causes fear. What is the meaning of fear? It arises from the meaning you attach to the word death. The train of ideas (kalpanas) of the loss it entails come into your mind and frightens you. Therefore it is the thought that causes fear. Hence when you know this why should you be afraid of a thought? The obstacle is that you do not want to look upon this body as an idea. Yet the word 'body' brings to you only a thought. In dream and sleep all ideas sink back into the Mind, like the waves into the ocean, why then be dissatisfied? The waves are still in the ocean, the ideas are still in the Mind. Therefore nothing is really lost, at death it is really a going back into itself. So you must inquire what is the self? If men knew this, that higher than the mind is the Atman, that everything goes back into it and IS there, what room for fear?"
[“The soul departed in the Lord does not die, it returns to God, who is the Giver of Life.” - Ecclesiastes 12.7]
"The best way in which nature teaches you to inquire is giving you a number of deaths. Be born and die constantly and then you will begin to question seriously what death is. Then you will not be satisfied with what you see, but begin to ask questions of Nature [God]."
"After having done everything, achieved everything, had the greatest pleasures, even then I shall be taken away and must die. Hence the thoughtful man inquires into the meaning of death. Thus philosophy springs out of death."
"The notion that you will go to some world after death, some astral plane or religious heavens will disappear as nonsense with the disappearance of belief in the reality of the I."
"He must be as indifferent to the death of his own body as we are to the death of people we have never seen or heard of and living in distant continents." - V.S. Iyer
“What a worthless notion life and death is - ha! - Zen Master Boshan
"A jnani is as indifferent to death as to life. Even if his physical condition should be the most wretched, even if he should be stricken with the most painful disease and die rolling on the ground, shrieking with pain, he remains unaffected. He is the jnani." - Ramana Maharshi
"This wise one neither abhors birth and rebirth nor wishes to perceive the Self. Free from joy and sorrow, he is neither dead nor alive."
"Reposing on the foundation of his own being, and forgetting the entire cycle of birth and rebirth, the great-souled person does not care whether his body dies or is born." - Ashtavakra
"Once the Master was asked by a monk: “Your reverence always teaches that the worlds of paradise, heaven and hell, hungry ghosts and fighting demons are all in the mind and don’t exist outside, etc. But in the Sutra [the Buddha] says that if you travel westward across a billion buddha lands, there’s a region called Paradise, which is the manifestation of the Buddha Amida. Does that mean the Buddha is lying?” The Master said: “Who decided on that direction?” - Bankei
1. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications), Vol. 6, Part 2, 1.109
2. David Godman, The Power of the Presence, Part One (Tiruvannamalai, India: Sri Ramanashramam, 2000), p. 19.
3. Swami Kriyananda, The Path: One Man's Quest on the Only Path There Is (Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity Publishers, 1996), p. 380
3a. Professor Laxmi Narain, Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi (Hyderabad, India: Sri Ramana Kendram, 2007), p. 257
4. Peter Haskell, Bankei Zen (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1984), p. 63-64)
5. Sri Nisargadatta, I AM UNBORN, p. 193
6. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op. cit., Vol 15, Part 2, 3.239
7. I.K. Taimni ,The Science of Yoga (Wheaton, Illinois: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1981), p. 312
8.Sat Sandesh, May 1976, p. 9
9. Kirpal Singh, Heart to Heart Talks, Vol. 2, p.120
10. W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1977) p. 358.
11. Ibid, p. 96 (excerpted from Victor Mansfield, ”Tibetan Buddhism and Analytical Psychology: Appreciating Differences.”)
12. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op. cit., Vol. 6, Part 1, 1.86
13. source misplaced.
14. Ibid, 1.137
15. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op. cit., Vol. 2, 5.416
16. Arran Stephens, Journey to the Luminous (Seattle, Washington: Elton-Wolf Publications, 1999), p. 41
17. The Essence of the Bhagavad-Gita, Explained by Paramhansa Yogananda, As Remembered by His Disciple, Swami Kriyananda (Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity Publishers, 2006), p. 569
For those who believe in the concept of an individual soul, and its experiences after death, please feel free to read the following:
Mystery of Death by Kirpal Singh (http://www.ruhanisatsangusa.org/mod/mod_title.htm)
What Becomes of the Soul After Death by Swami Sivananda (http://www.dlshq.org/download/afterdeath.htm)
"How Far Is Heaven?"
Or so goes a popular song implying non-duality! One enigmatic incident relating to the "distance" or relationship of Sach Khand to the earth plane (Pinda) is illustrated by the following. Sawan Singh, when asked how long it took him to go to Sach Khand, closed his eyes for a second and then reopened them, saying that that was how long. In the yoga sutras, however, it is sometimes said that for concentration to mature into absorptive samadhi takes approximately two and a half minutes! So perhaps Sawan was speaking from a higher, non-dual point of view? In the Gurbani, or Sikh scriptures, Sach Khand is in fact described as both an after death realm and a state of consciousness one can enjoy during earth life. That would explain things. Master Charan Singh clarified this point, mentioned before:
"Maharaj ji, do the saints have a short-cut inside?"
Charan Singh:
"They have a short cut in the sense that they have immediate access to the Father. After reaching sainthood, they do not have to pass through all those stages on their way to the Father. Christ also indicated that he could leave the body when he wanted to and he could take it up again when he wanted to, as he was always with the Father and he and the Father were one." (Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. 1 (Beas, India: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 2010, p. 446-467)
This suggests that the Master is in a non-dual state and with access to all the states of consciousness instantly, with or without the body, if the quote of Jesus truly applies; on the other hand, it can also be interpreted to mean he can access the state of highest samadhi whenever he wished, quickly, but is not necessarily in a non-dual condition otherwise. In other words, there are different degrees of adeptship. Kirpal Singh remarking that the Master can take some of the disciples directly to Sach Khand without passing through the preceding planes, seeming to imply a similar thing. He also said, in Life and Death:
“The atmospheric range of a Master-Saint is a vast immensity which man can hardly imagine...The Saint is present everywhere and His sway extends to realms undreamed of. He never leaves nor forsakes His disciples to the end of the world.”
He clarified this remark, reminiscent of a well-known Gospel verse, to mean, "until he takes him to the feet of the Sat Purusha."
Sant Rajinder Singh said:
"People often focus on what they want to “do,” but a bigger question is what they want to “be.” The world is caught up in doing this activity or that activity, but when we look at spirituality, the goal is in “being.” Doing involves activities of the body and mind, but being involves connecting with our soul. Our soul is a part of God, a state of permanent love, bliss, and consciousness. It does not need to do anything. When we stop our physical and mental activity and sit in silent meditation, we become our true self, or soul. When we identify with the soul, we will merge back into God and enter a state of eternal love and bliss."
Again, this, in itself, could imply non-duality or not. It could suggest the ancient concept of the Atman as a disinterested witness of all activity, or it could express a greater vision. anadi also said that the true identity of the soul is one of eternal union with the Beloved or God; the question for Sant Mat is if one is in this state of eternal love and bliss on all the planes, or only in Sat Lok. Kirpal Singh suggested it is always, when he answered the question, "Master, do you meditate?" by replying, "Look here. If a man gets his PhD, does he have to go back and learn the ABC's?"
One more thing to consider. The Master if he is advanced enough to be aas one with the Logos, the Word or Shabda-Brahman, need not be constrained with lesser yogic limits of laboring to concentrate for the two and a half minutes Patanjali said was necessary to enter samadhi, what to speak of Sach Khand. He is already there in essence, and could retract his attention instantly as he exists beyond time and space at all times. So Sant Darshan would be correct when he wrote:
“Hazur Baba Sawan Singh used to tell us that there is a stage when our soul’s condition is such that it can fly at will from the human body to the Creator, and then come back to the body in the twinkling of an eye.” (Spiritual Awakening, p. 282).
Further, a great Master may be able to “go” to Sach Khand or elsewhere without even appearing to leave his usual state. This phenomenon is mentioned in different spiritual traditions. Of course, this boggles the mind. But it is not dissimilar to St. Paul's experience(s):
"I was caught up into the third whether in the body or out of the body I do not know” (2 Cor.12-2)…I know such a man - whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows - that was caught up into Paradise and heard secret words that man may not utter."(2 Cor. 12:3-5)
[Note: According to some of the Orthodox Fathers, St. Paul is here describing two experiences, one to Paradise and one to the third heaven. This has been a subject of debate over the centuries. Origen, possibly due to his gnostic leanings and belief in the preexistence of the soul, felt that the third heaven and Paradise were the same. He also argued that the soul fell into the body due to sin committed on a higher realm. This was also the view suggested by Kirpal Singh in The Wheel of Life and Heart-to-Heart Talks. He said that we were originally sent down from Sach Khand (having done nothing wrong), but “fell” from Dev Lok, “a special kind of sanctuary on the mental plane,” (as mentioned by Annie Besant). St. John Chrystostom, St. John Damascene, St. Methodius, and other Orthodox Fathers argued against Origen, however, and said that they were distinct places, inasmuch as in Genesis it is written that Paradise had been a special place on earth. For Orthodoxy there is both a literal as well as spiritual meaning in scripture. There was no preexistence of the soul, both were created together by God and, first as Adam, placed in Paradise, or the Garden of Eden. Orthodoxy believes that Paradise still exists, but since the Fall of Man and then the Flood the total physics of the initial (Six Day) creation was changed, and Paradise is no longer located on earth, but in some kind of in between state, which can be and has been visited by holy saints over the centuries. One such visit by St Andrew the Fool for Christ of Constantinople (ninth century) has been written down:
"Once during a terrible winter when St. Andrew lay in a city street frozen and near death, he suddenly felt a warmth within him and beheld a splendid youth with a face shining like the sun, who conducted him to Paradise and the third heaven. "By God’s will I remained for two weeks in a sweet vision....I saw myself in a splendid and marvelous Paradise....In mind and heart I was astonished at the unutterable beauty of the Paradise of God, and I took sweet delight waling in it. There were a multitude of gardens there, filled with tall trees which, swaying in their tips, rejoiced my eyes, ands from their branches there came forth a great fragrance....One cannot compare these trees in their beauty to any earthly tree....In these gardens there were innumerable birds with wings golden, snow-white, and of various colors. The sat on branches of the trees of Paradise and sang so wonderously that from the sweetness of their singing I was beside myself...." (Fr. Seraphim Rose, Genesis, Creation, and Early Man (Platina, California: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2011, 2nd edition), p. 222)
St. Gregory the Sinaite described this spiritual Paradise in the following words:
"Eden is a place in which there was planted by God every kind of fragrant plant. It is neither completely incorruptible, nor entirely corruptible. Placed between corruption and incorruption, it is always both abundant in fruits and blossoming with flowers, both mature and immature. The mature trees and fruits are converted into fragrant earth which does not give off any odor of corruption, as do the trees of this world. This is from the abundance of the grace of sanctification which is commonly poured forth there." (Ibid, p. 222)
Various saints in the in the Orthodox tradition, such as St. Euphrosynus (ninth century), and others more recent, are recorded as having even brought back fruits from visitations to Paradise which were eaten by others with health-restoring effects! (Ibid, p. 223)]
The primary point of our referencing the verses of St. Paul was to illustrate that other dimensions can be seen or experienced both while in the body as well as when out of the body.]
Kirpal Singh and Darshan Singh have also said (paraphrased): ”when graced with the wealth of devotion, the Master enters every cell of your body.” Can’t get much closer than that. And what is the Master? The Word (the Logos) made flesh. He is literally everywhere.
Kirpal referred to a ‘Beyond the Beyond state.’ The ‘Beyond’ generally refers to the transcendental planes of Sat Lok (although sometimes, at a lesser level, merely leaving the body is spoken of as being ‘reborn into the beyond’). Beyond the Beyond, in the higher sense then, means what? Muruganar, a poet-devotee of Ramana Maharshi, wrote a verse which Ramana quoted, “That which is said to be beyond the beyond, and which is at the same time inside of the inside and shines within the Heart itself.” Paul Brunton wrote that “the Overself’s without is our within.” Do these statements give us some kind of clue to ‘Beyond the Beyond? Surely it is ‘beyond’ both objectivity and subjectivity, within and without, here or there, and beyond even a non-duality of consciousness and its objects. In short, it is an Absolute, Supreme Wholeness. Or, as Sri Nisargadatta simply put it, "The Real is really Beyond."
Videha Mukti versus Jivan Mukti
“The world is not a trap nor an illusion, neither a degradation of the divine essence nor an indication of the divine absence…It is the arched entrance under which we must pass through to the infinite life.” - Paul Brunton (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 2, 1.182, 1.188)
Buddha, Vedantists, the Ch’an masters and others agree on the importance of waking earth life. Damiani says, further, that without the knowledge that the World or “World-Idea” can teach the soul, one would be utterly incapable of understanding what one was experiencing in the mysterious Void (beyond all the manifest planes). One could come out of his trance and still be confused about the relationship between world, self, and God, eg., be not enlightened. This is as close as I have found for a metaphysical reason for the importance of the waking state for realization, or, since it is not basically a ‘personal ‘ attainment, per se, but more likened to the Void-Mind awakening to itself or coming to self-recognition. The Lankavatara Sutra said that one day all beings will get purified and ascend the stages, but "if they only realized it, all things are in Nirvana from the beginning." How can one realize that "all things are in Nirvana" by leaving some things out (ie., like the world) and only going within? Obviously, one can't. This is the mistake of the yogis and ordinary mystics. The highest teachings always posit stages after the mystical ones. The progression of stages in Buddhism, as stated, beyond those of the beginner, are from ecstasy to peace to insight to Nirvana. Does Sant Mat recognize a stage after going within as far as you can go (as profound as that is), as the sages do? Personally, I think they do. Kabir, for instance, spoke of a stage "beyond Sunn and trance." Brunton writes, in an important quote we will repeat several times in this book:
"After all, even the Void, grand and awesome as it is, is nothing but a temporary experience, a period of meditation. The realization of what is Real must be found not only in deep meditation, in its trance, but when fully awake." (Notebooks, Vol 15, Part 1, 8.187-188)
And further, he speaks about ultimate attainment and why it may not be the goal of the average devotee - and why they may not be drawn to a book like this!
"The mystic may get his union with the higher self as the reward for his reverent devotion to it. But its light will shine down only into those parts of his being which were themselves active in the search for union. Although his union may be a permanent one, its consummation may still be only a partial one. If his intellect, for example, was inactive before the event, it will be un-illumined after the event [this would say something about the idea of "perfect masters"]. This is why many mystics have attained their goal without a search for truth before it or a full knowledge of truth after it. The simple love for spiritual being brought them to it through their sheer intensity of ardour earning the divine grace. He only gets the complete light, however, who is completely fitted for it with the whole of his being. If he is only partially fit, because only a part of his psyche has worked for the goal, then the utmost result will be a partial but permanent union with the soul, or else it will be marred by the inability to keep the union for longer than temporary periods."
"The Mystic may be illiterate, uneducated, simple-minded, but yet may attain the Overself. Thus he finds his Inner Peace. It is easier for him because he is less intellectual, hence has fewer thoughts to give up and to still. But Nature does not absolve him from finishing his further development. He has still to complete his horizontal growth as well as balance it. He has obtained depth of illumination but not breadth of experience where the undeveloped state of faculties which prevents his light from being perfect may be fully developed. This can happen either by returning to earth again or continuing in other spheres of existence; he does this all inside his peace instead of, as with ordinary man, outside it. When his growth is complete, he becomes a philosopher."
"It is not that the mystic does not enter into contact with the Overself. He does. But his experience of the Overself is limited to glimpses which are partial, because he finds the Overself only within himself, not in the world outside. It is temporary because he has to take it when it comes at its own sweet will or when he can find it in meditation. It is a glimpse because it tells him about his own "I" but not about the "Not-I." On the other hand, the sage finds reality in the world without as his own self, at all times and not at special occasions, and wholly rather than in glimpses. The mystic's light comes in glimpses, but the sage's is perennial. Whereas the first is like a flickering unsteady and uneven flame, the second is like a lamp that never goes out. Whereas the mystic comes into awareness of the Overself through feeling alone, the sage comes into it through knowledge plus feeling. Hence, the superiority of his realization."
"The need of predetermining at the beginning of the path whether to be a philosopher or a mystic, arises only for the particular reincarnation where attainment is made. Thereafter, whether on this earth or another, the need of fulfilling the philosophic evolution will be impressed upon him by Nature." [The "philosophic discipline" is not meant as a mere academic one, but philosophy - the love of wisdom - restored to its ancient grandeur, which Brunton describes, in brief, as the development and balancing of the faculties of feeling, knowing, willing, and intuition, as well as the full inner mystical realization as well as metaphysical realization of non-dual Oneness]. (, Notebooks, Vol. 13, Part 2, 4.9,11-13)
“The understanding that everything is illusive is not the final one. It is an essential stage but only a stage. Ultimately you will understand that the form and separateness of a thing are illusory, but the thing-in-itself is not. That out of which these forms appear is not different from them, hence Reality is one and the same in all things. This is the paradox of life and a sharp mind is needed to perceive it. However, to bring beginners out of their earthly attachments, we have to teach first the illusoriness of the world, and then raise them to a higher level of understanding and show that the world is not apart from the Real. That Thou Art unifies everything in essence. But this final realization cannot be got by stilling the mind, only by awakening it into full vigour again after yogic peace has been attained and then letting its activity cease of its own accord when thought merges voluntarily into insight. When that is done, you know the limitations of both yoga and enquiry as successive stages. Whoever realizes this truth does not divorce from matter - as most yogis do - but realizes non-difference from it. Hence we call this highest path the "yoga of non-duality." But to reach it one has to pass through the "yoga of philosophical knowledge." [i.e., jnana] (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 2.116)
These ideas are deep ones and explored further in other parts of this series and other articles on this website. The gist is that merely having an experience (of any kind) does not necessarily give the understanding of that experience.
Brunton makes this point:
"If the human entity has no other purpose to fulfill on this earth than to return to the sphere of its origin, then it had no business to leave that sphere. There must be something to be gained by its earthly journey, if the universe has any sense in it at all." (Notebooks)
Rumi poetically appears to be in agreement with this when he penned these verses:
“If a spiritual explanation were enough, the creation of this whole world would have been an idle undertaking…His beauty was a hidden treasure, which burst forth and made this earth more resplendent than the heavens.” (Mathnawi)
I am sure many of the Sants understand this, at least to some degree, but often express this perennial query otherwise and in potentially misleading ways. I mention an occasional quip by Kirpal Singh, wherein he said (albeit humorously and with a twinkle in his eye), "We are here to make the best use of the man-body, and that is...to be out of it." But we are effectively ‘out of it’ in deep meditation, so why is it beneficial to come back into it? Why is it said that we make more progress meditating while in the body on earth than after death? I am merely posing the question again here, not presuming to answer it definitively, if in fact that could be done. There are a number of good answers given by the saints and sages. One of them apparently is that it is important to have the anchor of the body to assimilate the knowledge, the awareness of reality gained on the inside. Another is that karmic lessons and debts are processed much faster here than inside.” Kirpal used to say, days or weeks versus many years on the inner. Damiani elaborates on this theme of why life in a body is valuable:
"For one thing, experiences in the body are so intense, in comparison to experiences outside the body, that you learn much faster what in the spiritual worlds may take you many, many years to learn. And I am speaking about hundreds and hundreds of years. Experiences in the body are so intense that sometimes one experience is all you need to learn. The body provides the means whereby our experiences are intensified to the nth degree. You can experience pain here that you can't experience elsewhere, you can experience joys here that you can't experience elsewhere, because of the very intensity of the mechanism by which the soul is operating in the world." (Looking Into Mind, (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1990), p. 75)
Another reason is that samadhi, being a product of causation (i.e., a process of meditation), can never by itself take one to the Ultimate, which is uncaused. This is quite often ignored by yogis and mystics, whose goal is usually the halfway house of realization of the inner self, or what might be termed the subjective logos within, and not the full universal realization that comes by returning from his samadhi and by further practice absorbing the world into ones consciousness yielding knowledge of the full Overself or All-Self, that is to say, to see the world and others as ones Self. This is not an automatic fruit of mere yogic samadhi. For the average mystic the world confronts him as a sword when returning from his trance. He does not yet know what the world ‘is’. Thus his development is not yet complete. And PB said that this second task is the harder of the two. Most mystics, satisfied with their labors resulting in inner peace, shy away from this calling.
So one way of stating a primary purpose of the waking earth life is to learn to see everything as within oneself and not 'out there,' which can not be easily done on the inside only. This experience can be (usually temporarily) catalyzed by a Master, and was what Vivekananda experienced when Ramakrishna tapped him on the head and he felt himself and the world dissolving into a void of immaterial, infinite awareness. Kirpal Singh, likewise, said:
"When the Master gives the contact and opens the inner eye, what is outside will be the same as seen within." (Sat Sandesh, July 1971)
This doesn't mean one will be walking around seeing visions all the time, but rather that everything experienced, both inner and outer, will be known or apperceived to be of the same stuff, i.e., mind or consciousness. Philosophically speaking, anything experienced or perceived is to be considered a content to consciousness. And fundamentally, the mind (or soul) projects its own ideas or images and then experiences them [even if, to avoid solipsism, it is acknowledged that one of those ideas is a master-image superimposed on it and through it by its divine parent-Soul]. But we take them (a creation) as things or objects existing in their own right outside us. Plato said: "What a superior being would have as subjective thought, the inferior perceives as objective things." This non-dual insight is difficult to gain after death.
Another aspect of the point just mentioned is that 'inner' and 'outer' are concepts only relating to the body, both of which must be transcended. Another is that the self-knowledge gained by assimilation of earth experience in the waking state, actually helps the soul understand itself in the great inner Void, which those who abandon the world for a life of exclusive inner meditation may not achieve. The latter is a profound subject mentioned earlier, but which is rarely discussed in the literature.
Finally, Sri Nisargadatta points out that only in the waking state is there the presence of the witness, whereas in sleep, for instance, there is not:
"[The witness-consciousness] is the reflection of the real in the mind (buddhi). The real is beyond. The witness is the door through which you must pass...A ray of awareness illumines a part of our mind and that part becomes our dream of waking consciousness, while awareness appears as the witness.” And generally it is acknowledged that for realization one must go through the witness, that is to say, “sadhana consists in the witness turning back first on his consciousness, and then upon himself in his own awareness.” (I AM THAT, p. 52, 532)
It gets a little confusing. For Ramana "pure consciousness" is what Nisargadatta means by "awareness." Ordinarily, when a man is conscious there is an 'I am' present; in awareness there is only undivided being, aware of itself in an unself-conscious manner. Awareness underlies all the planes and states of consciousness. Kirpal said in one of his books that at the moment of death "one may get a flash of reality, but it is then too late to do anything with it" i.e., unite ones consciousness with it. Most traditions say something to this effect. During life or at death, the ordinary man is either unaware of these moments or runs away from them. To be taught to make the mind look within to the source of things is to begin to have awareness take the place of consciousness. Nisargadatta suggests this turning back on itself of the witness, from consciousness to awareness, is not easily done after death:
"There can be no transition from consciousness to awareness, for awareness is not a form of consciousness. Consciousness can only become more subtle and refined and that is just what happens after death. As the various vehicles of man die off, the modes of consciousness induced by them also fade away." (Ibid, p. 262-263)
In the usual man, says Ramana, once the bodies drop off the "I"-thought immediately latches onto another body, and reincarnation follows. Nisargadatta is basically saying the same, unless one has realized himself as awareness there is no freedom even in the highest reaches of consciousness. This would seem to say that there is no possibility of reaching complete liberation or a "Stateless State" after death if it had not been realized in life. That would perhaps not seem to be most of our problem!
Many of the Sants, Paramhansa Yogananda, Bhai Sahib (guru of Irena Tweedie), some of the Buddhists, and even Ramana, however, have said it is possible for some souls to attain liberation from the inner planes after death - although it may take more time. Ramana summarized the possibilities:
“Some are born immediately after, others after some lapse of time, a few are not reborn on the earth but eventually get salvation in some higher region, and a very few get absolved here and now.” (Talks With Ramana Maharshi (Carlsbad, California: Inner Dimensions Foundation, 2001), p. 192)
To play the devil's advocate, maybe some of the contemporary jnanis and non-dualists are mistaken, or missing something, and the emanationists, such as the Sants and sages like Plotinus, are right, that down here we only see as in a glass dimly, a poor reflection of the real - but up there "face to face." Maybe any non-dual realization must be made abiding on all planes after passing through multiple "zero-points" or apparent "deaths". Even though the Real is not separated from Nature, or the hierarchy of planes, perhaps it is true that only the purified soul has a chance at realizing God, and that such must be attained through passing through and understanding successive levels of the cosmos. And only then an Absolute. If the Soul is a permanent emanation of the Divine or the Nous, as Plotinus says, perhaps then, having a satori or deep awakening while on the earth plane does not in itself simply dissolve all that lies between 'Nature and the Nous', as many non-dual teachers imply while casually and with self-assurance bordering on its own form of fundamentalism dismiss all discussion of cosmology and the Soul. Perhaps. In Sant Mat as well as some of the gnostic traditions, the true form of the Soul is said top be known only in its own domain, and what we see and know down here is but a glimmer of the reality, even though it is paradoxically a manifestation of the reality and can be realized as such. Perhaps it can be said then that even if one intuits the Nous in the waking state, i.e., has the non-dual realization, the soul still naturally desires to seek its origin. Perhaps...Maybe…
Maharaj Saheb, in his discourse, "Ode to the Unknown God," said:
"Radhasoami Dayal [the Merciful Lord of the Soul] has graciously assumed human form to grant redemption to the entire humanity, nay, He has made the reflection of His Form available even at the lower chakras.
"Still lower down, He assumed the dark bluish form of Niranjan. Such is my beloved Radhasoami. Descending to the heart centre, He became subject to desires. Such is my beloved Radhasoami. He, however, reduces the evil tendencies of Indri-centres (lower centres pertaining to senses). Such is my beloved Radhasoami." (quoting Swami Ji Maharaj, Sar Bachan Poetry, Book One)"
In philosophical terms what he seems to be saying, in this instance, is that the Idea of Man, and the form of the Master-Soul, gets reflected from plane to plane from Sach Khand on down. The higher up, the more it approximates, in Plotinus' terms, the eternal emanation from the Nous (or Intellectual Principle), even though the One, prior to that, is always self-existent, self-contained, unique, and "there is nowhere that it is not."
In any case, in Sant Mat it is sometimes said that after the soul reaches the radiant form of the Master on the threshold of the astral plane, most of its personal toil is over and the rest is in the hands of the Master, who as Word or Naam attracts the soul like iron filings towards a magnet. Likewise, upon reaching Sach Khand, the unified soul is then in the hands of the Sat Purush - whatever that is and however it is defined - in Plotinus' terms perhaps the Absolute Soul in the Nous - is said to absorb the soul by stages into the Anami, the nameless and formless absolute 'realm' or state. So whatever we are talking about seems far beyond the aegis of the personal will. Timothy Smith similarly writes from the point of view of the Sam'khya tradition of this need for grace:
"Finally, when the cosmos itself reaches a moment of perfect self-knowing,
Buddhi, through the Grace of Ishvara and with the support of Prakriti, stands
aside, and a new Bodhisattva is born. With neither will nor ego-identity
remaining, this is the moment of viveka turning upon itself – and being turned
upon itself. This is the assimilation of mentalism and the fruition of
epistemological discipline. The remaining ascent from Purusa to Âtman shall
unfold in the mysterious remoteness of pure, empty Being.... The higher tattvas [Buddhi, Aham'kara, Tanmatra], starting with Aham’kâra, are not the product of the individual Purusa alone, but are the work of Îshvara, Shakti, and Shiva. As such they can not be truly dissolved by any individual act, including viveka.” (paper at Wisdom’s Goldenrod for Philosophic Studies)
In The Crown of Life: A Study in Yoga, it is implied that Surat Shabd Yoga fulfills if not transcends the goal as elaborated in the Sam'khya school. This makes a precise categorization of the terms Sat Purush and Anami even more compelling.
In Sant Mat it is said that a state of 'counterfeit' oneness in which the mind is said to merge in ITS own source in the causal plane, is itself a stepped-down manifestation of higher spiritual realization of Oneness, with which it is often confused. Maharaj Charan Singh said:
"Unless the mind returns to and merges in its origin, the soul cannot be released from the negative power and cannot begin its real spiritual evolvement to God-Realization." (Katherine Wason, The Living Master (Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1984) p. 136)
The reader will refer to the schema of planes (http://www.santji.allegre.ca/planes-640.jpg”) given before for a suggestive visual example of this.The language is inadequate, in our view, suggesting that there is no spiritual development - or possible realization - prior to mystically reaching ParBrahm. But overlooking that for now, in Sant Mat the mind is said to merge with the universal mind at this second main stage of the inner journey with soul traveling beyond on its own. Sometimes there is a silliness expressed in saying that the mind is left off in "its own home," for this suggests the mind is a conscious entity with a life of its own, which it is not. The mind is ultimately a manifestation or function of consciousness, but as a matter of expression only it is said to have a home. This concept is much different than advaita vedanta where the mind even as a kosha is merely an expedient, being no more than thoughts arising in and as consciousness. Katherine Wason continues:
"The stage of Brahm is the apex of reality , the very height of spiritual attainment, to one who has not a perfect Master who has gone beyond the reach of Brahm. With the blending of self into Universal Mind and the expanded consciousness which embraces the furthest reach of the cosmos of the Universal Mind, it seems that no stage can be further attained. For how is it possible even to conceive of a stage above and beyond Universal Mind, often called Unity itself? To merge into that which interpenetrates the entire universe would seem to constitute the furthest limit of spiritual ascent.”
“Yet for one initiated by a perfect Master, the now purer and far more powerful force of the Shabd lifts the disciple out of this appearance of Unity and transports him to the stage of Parbrahm - "beyond" Brahm. And here a greater, more glorious dimension of consciousness is met. For each stage reflects the higher, and a reflection - no matter how real and pure and beautiful it may seem - cannot but distort and vaguely hint at that which it reflects. Thus the appearances vanish and the Oneness of Brahm is known to be but a part of the Whole. In fact, the sojourner directly comprehends that there is not only one Brahm, but others as well - that within each of these Brahmandi regions revolves the same vast, seemingly limitless cosmic scheme, each with its own cycle of birth and death and liberation, each with its own Universal Mind and astral and material creation.”
“At the third stage of the spiritual journey, the soul is pure, completely unfettered and free. The once slumbering spirit realizes its true identity as a drop of the Supreme Ocean and for the first time wakens to the full wonder and glory of God...Now the soul is in the majestic realm of pure spirit-consciousness, and awe and joy and wonder become increased beyond imagination. At each threshold of the stages of consciousness..the soul is flooded with the awareness that glory of a greater dimension lies beyond...By the great Love and Light of the true Lord Himself, the soul, united with God-consciousness, expands and advances to the three remaining regions." (Ibid, p. 306-308)
This is of course standard Sant Mat theology. There may certainly be some truth in it, the question is how to interpret it in light of other high teachings. Still, one of the appeals of non-dual teachings is that they can make one keep his sanity when bewildered with all the mystical complexities like these that make it seem like one will never attain the goal in this life. Ramana said:
“People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light, etc.. How can it be so? it is not light, nor darkness. It is only as it is and cannot be defined. The best definition is “I Am that I Am.” That state is beyond light and darkness, but still it is called light since no other proper word could be found for it. “Not real, not unreal; not darkness, nor light, it is. (Skanda Anubhuti)….The ultimate Truth is so simple. It is nothing more than being in the pristine state. That is all that need be said.”(Talks with Ramana Maharshi (Carlsbad, California: Inner dimensions Foundation, 2001), p. 86-87)
“People would not understand the simple and bare truth - the truth of their everyday, ever-present and eternal experience. That Truth is the Self. Is there anyone not aware of the Self? They wouldn’t even like to hear it (the Self) whereas they are eager to know what is beyond - heaven, hell, reincarnation. Because they love mystery and not the bare truth, religions pamper them only to bring them around to the Self. Wandering hither and thither you must return to the Self only. Then why not abide in the Self right here and now? The religions are according to the viewpoints of the seeker.” (Ibid, p. 99)
The reader has a right to his frustration if in the end we seem to have only posed tough questions but have not definitively answered them. It is our feeling that a conversation has to be started somewhere, especially when
Sooner or Later Masters Say Almost Everything
In fact, the Vedanta makes no bones about its method of instruction being one of “superimposition and recession.” That is, a series of pedagogical steps are proposed and then successively withdraw as the mind of the student becomes capable of comprehending more. Subba Rao states:
“Whatever characteristics are attributed to the Self as a means to awaken the student to absolute reality are always finally denied. This is the heart of the method.” (The Method of Vedanta, p. 111)
It seems, therefore, that sooner or later - whether by way of “crazy wisdom” [which can get real crazy, and as a teaching method has perhaps had its day for a while], inherent spontaneity, or methodical procedure - most Masters say everything. They may appear to assert, to deny, to deny what they have asserted, assert what they have denied, and contradict, depending on whom they are talking to at any point in time. They may say the path is easy, or that it is very hard; that “only those who seek shall find” or that “only those who stop seeking shall find”; “row in one boat” but also “accept Truth wherever one finds it.” “God helps those who help themselves,” but “God helps those who do not help themselves,” was a favorite of Kirpal. Sri Nisargadatta said “All desires are bad,” but then, "The entire universe strives to fulfill a desire born of compassion,” and also “Steady faith is stronger than destiny,” but, “you cannot change the course of events.” Moreover, “Make your life as simple as possible and don't do any more than is necessary," but also, "Marry the girl back home, take up your father's business, question the limits, go beyond, set yourself tasks seemingly impossible - this is the way." "Be quiet,” but, “If you want peace you must strive for it; you will not get peace just by keeping quiet.” “Be still, don’t ask questions," but, "If you were really serious you would be asking many more questions." The simple answer is that the mind cannot win in this game! This also appears inevitable in a world of opposites, and with many levels of understanding among aspirants of all different types and backgrounds. Here is another more subtle such example from Ramana:
"Major Chadwick: I try to shake off the body.
M: A man shakes off his clothes and remains alone and free. The Self is unlimited and is not confined to the body. How can the body be shaken off? Where would he leave it? Wherever it is, it is still his.
But later Chadwick expressed a certain involuntary fear while meditating. He felt the spirit separated from the body, and the sensation created fear.
M. To whom is the fright? It is all due to the habit of identifying the body with the Self. Repeated experience of separation will make one familiar and the fright will cease." (Ibid)
Later Ramana commented on the notion of the spirit leaving the body and becoming ‘disembodied’, and he said the spirit does not, in truth, become disembodied, only the bodies differ, that is all. Sri Nisargadatta said something similar, that after such a happening “you do not become disembodied, you just are.” These are insights to ponder for a long time. What the sages are doing is re-contextualizing our un-inspected manner of understanding things, they are not denying any and all types of inner experience
Do We Really Know What the Body Is?
It does seem reasonable to believe that one can only learn that he is not the body by "leaving" it. That is the mystical contention. But questions arise, as well as contrary testimony from sages. Yes, the nature of the soul is that it has the power of inverting upon itself, but does one then know what his ultimate identity is? Sant Mat seems to say, yes, if one penetrates within far enough. But philosophic sages say that also depends upon ones understanding. Yes, one will come to the farthest reach of inwardness and realize what some call the subjective logos, or soul in its native homeland within. But then one comes out and must deal with the world, which to the average, even accomplished mystic, usually confronts him like a sword. He does not know what the world is. He treats it as well as the various adventitious vehicles over his soul as something 'other.' And he gets addicted to samadhi. Thus, his further task is to absorb the world in his understanding and realize Oneness with the All. So one comes back from his contemplation and then inquires with full consciousness "What am I?" and "what is the world?" He then literally absorbs the world into himself with a purified intelligence (or utmost humility). Paul Brunton says that this second part of the task is the harder of the two, purchased, as it were, with the blood of the heart. One does not only merge with inner consciousness, but he then merges with the world. One sees others as himself. This brings one to non-dualism. Or, as Nisargadatta said, self is taken into Self, "and in the identity of the outer and the inner the Supreme Reality manifests itself."
It is strange when a sage like Atmananda Krishnamenon says, "How to transcend the body? By being aware of it." We think this is absurd and impossible, that we are already aware of it and know what it is, but in reality, that is not so. We think we are aware of it. That is the problem. We really do not know what it is at all. One must not only realize one is not the body by leaving it in a trance state, and as it were looking "down" on it, but one must go on to realize he is not the body even while living in it. Or one could also say that one can only know what the body is by allowing oneself to fully enter it and in a sense be it. And of course, this results in sahaj samadhi or the natural state. Brunton says at this stage the Overself totally overshadows oneself, that it makes a mystical union with ones own body, and that one will actually be in the Overself (or Spirit) and in the body at the same time. Another way of viewing this (but, again, which can only be understood by being it, which means tolerating and accepting such a descent - something difficult for most mystics who view the flesh as an obstacle to allow) is to say that rather than coming to understand ones full being by leaving the body behind, paradoxically, in almost becoming it, being reduced to it (if grace draws one in that way), as it were, being inseparable from, and fully present to and as it (while not limited to it) which is a kind of crucifixion, an impaling, a fusing or welding, one then intuits the greater Presence in a fullness that is almost unknown to the average mystic. One knows he or she is Spirit precisely by being in a body. One could say one first becomes consciously aware of the body, then aware init, and then aware as it. The 'aware in it' stage is an uncomfortable one and is referred to by both Sri Aurobindo and Babuji Maharaj in Part Three.
Here is a paradox: As one becomes more ‘non-separate’ from the body through release from reactive struggle against it, even the limitless dimensions of our nature become more and more conscious! This is a very fine point which may be misunderstood. It is not as if one literally becomes the body only, of course not, there are not really two things - spirit and matter - after all, but one lets himself, or is led to become, non-separate from it in his feeling and conscious being, for as long as the inner alchemy requires. In a way the separateness of the ego, as it were sinking into and sacrificing itself to the bodily being lived from the Heart, dies a peaceful death, as such, and at last, by no longer being at war with the body, or radically seeking to flee from it. The soul will soon enough abandon it, but for the ego to try do so is an error. The ego should be finished here and not leave the body to cause havoc on the inner planes! But unfortunately, it often does. Again, this process is rare on a path so dualistically conceived and fear-based as to prevent it, but it can, and so it is mentioned. In its fullness this can result in the "mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers again" stage spoken of in the Zen tradition.
Another way this human waking state issue has been portrayed, by Anthony Damiani based on his study of Plotinus, is that paradoxically the finite body is the portal of entry into, and the ability to realize, the vastness of the Infinite Mind, in a way that cannot happen solely from the disembodied state. (Living Wisdom (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1996)
There may be an unusual, enigmatic, yet strangely delightful experience of an accompanying gradual sense of ones center of gravity in the head, or the upper part of the head and then the head itself, being ‘trepanned’ or ‘trimmed down’, and then sinking towards the chest. Or not. I have experienced this, and will attest that it is quite a different feeling that one has no head above the eyes from the Sant Mat experience of living only above the eyes! It would indeed be shocking to experience such a change all at once. The sense of loss could be catastrophic. But happening gradually within a process of purification, trust, and understanding, it is a loss that actually feels like a gain. Paradoxically one begins to feel more physical yet more spiritual than ever before. When stabilized in such a condition, mystical flights may still become possible, that is, the descent of the life-current may reverse itself, but, either way, one may not care, for it is simply not one’s concern anymore. Yet, having reached this ‘asylum of rest’, for initiates it is not unlikely that a gentle and natural polarization towards the crown may return. This is certainly all right and a natural sign of health in the fully erect human being. But it is essentially yogic in nature and not a matter for concern. The essential point is that from this stage, from the Heart's Gaze, one will never know the body as separate from spirit or consciousness and its manifesting intelligence ever again, the darkness being fully exposed. The "I" has been extracted from "you" and that is the simplicity of the central spiritual matter at any and every stage.
The experience can be one like this: as the sun in the heart is rising, the sun in the head is setting, or dropping into the chest. There is a shift in the center of gravity. This usually is a gradual thing, but often resisted tooth and nail. What is really one’s salvation may appear as a disaster, with the born-being in recoil from its real ‘asylum of rest’ below. Therefore, the need for faith and understanding is great. It is important not to 'try' to achieve this. For now, just recognize the possibility if it occurs . More will be said on this in the concluding sections of Part Four where ultimate stages are discussed.
This apparently ‘descending’ process is a delicate matter, but we mention it because more and more people seem to be heading in this direction, and there not should be inordinate disillusionment or fear in surrendering to it if such be the case. This is likely pretty rare in Sant Mat to date, but may be more and more common going forward. We fully realize it runs counterintuitive to the traditional model which tries for full transcendence of the body and the physical (and other) worlds, either through mystical ascent or advaitic detachment (as abidance in consciousness alone). The result here, however, is not the same insight or realization as even that of an accomplished mystic feeling the body as a part of his greater self, or at a lesser level, simply as a cloak he puts on and takes off, but rather, almost more like the Christian view where Jesus - or in this case, yourself - is known and living as both fully human and fully divine, with no limiting barriers based on the notion of an individual soul and its imaginary journeys, absorptions, or separations - nor are the latter precluded. There is fundamentally, however, no such separation.
This is also the "beyond." It might be said that all is sacrificed for the seamless divine to have its way. This is not like the traditional approach that has been likened to spiritual warfare against all that the soul - of ancient humanity - conceived as standing in the way of its freedom. Saniel Bonder speaks of that as a centuries or perhaps millennia-old “hypermasculine approach.” But that way may no longer be fruitful nor capable of fulfilling the heart’s desire of the complete, integral person. Nature and the body must be brought into our realization, for its completion and perhaps for humanity’s survival.
Please do not struggle to grasp this material if it appears too abstruse (for which I apologize) or is not at all in your experience, or reject it outright because you do not understand it, but retain whatever feeling-sense or deep intuition it evokes in you for a later time when or if it becomes a reality. This is to some extent unexplored territory. But then, you didn’t really expect this to be just another Sant Mat book, did you? Didn’t you want something fresh and new?
One final note. As mentoned, , debate over whether liberation in life (jivan-mukti) is possible or whether it is only possible after death (videha-mukti) has been going on for a couple thousand years. And there are pros and cons and different perspectives on each. Some of the differences lie in how liberation is defined. If it implies perfect and complete bodily transformation and submission of all of its energies and deep cellular structure to spirit (or to its hierarchically senior dimension), then few if any have ever achieved it. But if liberation means being free from major limiting fetters, being aware of the real in all three states (waking, dream, and sleep), having an ego but not being identified with it, seeing the world but knowing it is nothing but Brahman or Mind, then while still rare, it is not impossible. Even so, sages like Sri Ramakrishna said that one will need at least 3% of ego to remain here. Human perfection is impossible. This is the view of Christian mystics like St. John of the Cross who in elaborating on ten stages in a ladder of perfection resign themselves to the tenth belonging “more to the next life than this one.” Brunton was also of the view that total Realization was only possible after leaving the body:
“All human beings on this planet are imperfect. Perfection is not fully attainable here. But when a man has striven for it and advanced near to it, he will attain it automatically as soon as he is freed from the body.”
“The liberation from further reincarnations can be attained while still here in the flesh, but the full completion of its consequent inner peace can come only after final exit from the body.”
“So long as he is held by the finite flesh, so long as existence in the inner human body is continued, the perfect and complete merger of his individuality in the cosmic mind is impossible. But once through the portals of so-called death, it becomes an actuality.” (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 2.110-112)
The important point here is that freedom from rebirths can be achieved here, without achieving perfection. The importance of the waking state of earth-life, however, is still paramount for awakening itself.
Subba Rao gives a more traditional vedantic interpretation of videha-mukti, similar to that of Swami Satprakashananda mentioned previously:
“The one who has immediate intuition (saksat-kara) of the Absolute while still alive in the body is said to be liberated, even though he is not dissolved in the Absolute. He will have a second liberation in the form of dissolution in the Absolute on the death of the body…” (Subba Rao, op. cit., p. 245)
This view, of course, is refuted by more orthodox Vedantins, such as Suresvara who argued that only Sankara’s view - that only liberation attained while in the body was true liberation - was valid. And this goes along with the more exclusive Advaitic view that awakening is all or nothing - sort of “now or never”. This appeared to be Ramana’s view, who barely seemed to notice his body until the end of his life when his cancer made it nearly impossible. Which tends to support Brunton’s more practical view. Most sages are not unaware of their pralabdh karma as Ramana claimed to be.
Death for the Unliberated; Pre-Incarnational Planning
But what if you don’t make it to either of these two forms of liberation in one life - what then? The Masters have promised that some will continue to profess - albeit more slowly - after death, while some will be given other lifetimes to do it. Much has been written on this, we will offer some lesser recognized perspectives.
Cypriote mystic Daskalos assures us, that, contrary to some traditions, even the so-called 'second-death' after the initial passage into the astral dream (or world, depending on one’s school of thought) is nothing to fear, that it is not like the first death at all, but more like a beautiful meditation as one gradually expands into a world more and more light, the noetic world, shedding the psychic or astral body, before either passing into even higher spheres and then eventually passing into sleep (the 'third' death) and being reborn:
"Some people hear about a second death and they are horrified. They imagine something analogous to earthly death. The second death is the dissolving of the psychic body in Kamaloka. You don't even recognize it because it is a very gradual process. It is not something that happens suddenly, it is unlike the death of the gross material body which, after it dies - or rather, after you drop it - you can see lying there. The second death is the gradual cleansing of the psychic [or astral] body from its negative vibrations whereby the surrounding environment becomes increasingly numinous. It is something analogous to the illumination over landscape as the sun rises...The second death is a process toward higher levels of awareness and illumination..All human beings have the potential of having this experience. They will have it, assuming they have come to their senses and assimilated the lessons of life just lived. Otherwise the masters of karma will put the ego to sleep. That is, the psychic body will dissolve instantly, will pass momentarily through the noetic dimension and descend down to the gross material level in a new incarnation. In such a case the individual will not experience or have consciousness of the noetic body. It is a very complicated process...It is an individual matter of how long you stay within the psychic dimensions and not a fixed mathematical formula which is the same for everyone." (Kyriakos Markides, Fire in the Heart (London, England: ARKANA, 1991), p. 207-209)
And further:
"I have reached the realization that all human beings are free to choose how their next life will unfold prior to the second death. They can choose before the second death how they are going to come down and deal with their karma." (Ibid, p. 202)
Sri Nisargadatta said:
“What you see is nothing but yourself. Call it what you like, it does not change the fact. Through the film of destiny your own light depicts pictures on the screen. You are the viewer, the light, the picture and the screen. Even the film of destiny (prarabdha) is self-selected and self-imposed. The spirit is a sport and enjoys to overcome obstacles. The harder the task the deeper and wider his self-realization.” (I AM THAT, p. 480)
Ishwar Puri also said that the soul has a role in choosing the circumstances of its next birth on the causal plane in between lifetimes. (Mentioned again in Part Three). It is not the ego as we know it that does this. The actual decision into which physical body to be born, and how ones karma will be dealt with, says Daskalos, is made by the self-conscious-soul - the inner self, not the present personality - in cooperation with the great archangels of the four elements (who craft the three bodies of each incarnation (physical, astral, mental), along with ones guardian angel (which, according to Daskalos, is assigned to everyone at the time of their first incarnation when the spirit-entity passes through the archetypal Idea of Man to become a human soul). In Sant Mat the Master is said to be in charge of much of this decision - if another birth is warranted - in consultation with the above "Lords of Karma" as well as His superiors. Everything is very carefully arranged! This is one way of looking at it.
So the after-death experience is thus often felt as a truly liberating one. It may be viewed as partly karmically determined by the thought-forms or elementals created by oneself, partly molded by the evolutionary impulse of the World-Idea - PB’s term for the manifest intelligence of the One Great Mind or Source of all - and also subject to the actions of Grace in the form of one's own Overself, Guru or spiritual Master, as well as forms of group learning. Relatively few people, certainly among initiates, actually spend hundreds of earth-years in the lower forms of the subtle or psychic planes, since this would only be the result of profound unconsciousness and attachment that keeps the trapped in their own psychic shell and blocks the progressive waking to the life of the true psychic and noetic worlds.
Even for the average person, then, , for a time life is more vibrant, with understanding less obstructed, than on earth. As each person assimilates into that world consciously, their life is enhanced, often considerably, by being freed of the constraints of the physical body, any illnesses they have, physical karma in general, etc.. So it is often rather liberating and naturally results in a gradual or sudden expansion of consciousness. Eventually passing through the second death and entering the mental world is even more so a liberation and expansion, and so life there is certainly not boring at all. More advanced souls are even more likely to enter into a fuller experience of the types of experience and consciousness now available resulting from freedom from the physical, and eventually the mental, bodies. This would include a greater sense of peace and contentment, more aliveness and vitality, gaining energy more ‘pranically’, directly rather than through sunlight, food and sleep; less psychological need for dreams, and other positive changes. For some it can take only moments to make this transition, usually days and months, for others it can take decades. Even knowing about all this, having some idea of how it works, what to expect, makes a real difference. And, of course, having spiritual ‘connections’ makes a very big difference.
In what respect is the after life like dreaming? Many schools like Advaita Vedanta assert that there is no significant spiritual value in anything but waking earth life, or, as the New Testament states, "work while it is day, and not at night, when no man can work." Sri Nisargadatta appeared to be of this view:
"Exactly as a shadow appears when light is intercepted by the body, so does the person arise when pure self-awareness is obstructed by the 'I-am-the-body' idea...When the body is no more, the person disappears completely without return, only the witness remains and the Great Unknown." (I AM THAT, p. 400)
Similarly, Ramana said that "The world is a passing shadow in a flood of light."
In the avastatreya, or analysis of the three states of waking, dreaming, and sleep, Vedanta says that the afterlife is nothing but a dream. But this is perhaps too simplistic. Another view is offered in the beginning sections of Part Two. It may be said to be dreaming in the sense that there are aspects of the way that we interact with the environment there that are more like our dreams, yet, especially with any growth in conscious awareness there is a stronger experience of an interaction of our psychological state with the way we perceive things, and even what we perceive. The environment can be both experienced as relatively solid and stable as in the physical plane, or also as rather subject to our minds and creatively modified or even whole environments can be created with thought. The difference being that a person who has been consciously assimilated into these psychonoetic dimensions knows that that is where they are, they are consciously functioning there, so that they adapt to the reality that they do not need to eat, that they can change form at will, that they can communicate by telepathy, and so on. So it is unlike common dreams in that the individual who knows they have died knows they are 'dreaming', is not only lucid but, no longer having a body, tends to be even more awake than they were while incarnate, and can interact more creatively with their world and its inhabitants. The liability is that the mind is not only clearer, but also more fluid and therefor unstable unless one has achieved some degree of understanding and awareness during physical life.
We have to remember that time, or the sense of time, is said to be very different there. Also, it is somewhat like going to a new exotic country with an unexplored culture where you magically are given more powers, can now meet old friends and make new ones, can find meaningful fields of service, can more easily than ever before study anything you want, and can have contact with more of the most enlightened people. You may be gradually able to remember more of your past lives, see into the deeper patterns of meaning behind the life just past lived, realize many of the people you knew during that life were old friends from past lives or inner worlds, gain access to environments more beautiful and luminous than anything you had ever seen on Earth. All of this on just the astral. And then magnify that considerably when moving onto the mental plane. The problem is not boredom - the problem is getting distracted in the largest, most mesmerizing amusement park imaginable, not only to the senses, but to the heart and mind as well. The immediate challenge is to keep one’s equanimity, focus on the path, the Dharma, and prioritize service and the other tasks at hand, and move on efficiently. This is why it is so useful to have a master and dharma friends. For the ego is still alive here.
If there is a need to come back, it will only be after a good amount of spiritual rest and rejuvenation that will leave the Permanent Personality refreshed and ready. And the part of you that assumes it is here now, and especially the part that 'does not want to come back', is not really the part that does come back. For it dies. It is, in essence, the “Permanent Personality” [Daskalos’ term for what might be considered the karana sarira or true causal body] that can be said to reincarnate, not the temporary Joe Doe personality. The latter is a temporary identity formed anew in each life out of the inner essence of the Permanent Personality, combined with elementals of desires, emotions and thoughts from past lives, and molded by the body, family, culture and experiences of the next birth. So by the time a new personality forms, it will have many core traits that are similar that carried over, but also a new combination of karma/elementals than the last life, plus the positive fruits of experiences after the last death on the higher planes, all coordinated around a new body/incarnate identity. So in a certain sense it is the same you coming back, but in another important sense it is not, because it is like a multi-facted reconfiguration with new elements mixed with old, and all constellated around a new body and pattern of life experience. So, for instance, if one leaves incarnation with a strong desire not to be here anymore, and had a rough life, some of these feelings may carry over in the subconscious, but they will mix with new karmas and also with the inherent love of life and vitality that comes with every new body. Human bodies created by the Holy Spirit have a natural vitality, love of life, self-preservation and other drives and instincts that get us going and engaged. These are brand new, fresh and dynamic with each new life, and so even though the old elementals will mix with this body to form a new identity, it will not be the same as when we left incarnation with a tired, battle-scarred and maybe burned out body/personality. It's a fresh start with a rejuvenated inner self, a new balance of karmas/elementals, and a new, dynamic body. And, of course, we usually don't remember how the last life went. So, even though we are not talking about ultimate realization....is it so bad? All the while one is in the bosom of the Lord and not howling through the bardos as a separate entity.
Interestingly, to a devotee who was afraid of needing another birth to attain perfection, Ramana said, “why be afraid of reincarnation? That implies imperfection.” Sri Atmananda, once again, similarly said, “I never promised you would not come back, I only promised that you would realize that you were never born.”
Why the Masters Come Back
p
We know from the study of Sant Mat and other traditions that “merger” in the Absolute is only one option after death, and that, even so, all individuality is not totally lost (although it may be transformed almost unrecognizably). Brunton mentions three possibilities: merger, a choice of reincarnation (the bodhisattva vow), or advancement to a higher planet, as an inhabitant or as a god or logos. For the realized sage, says Brunton, the second option - reincarnation - must be willed prior to his death. And it is a great sacrifice which the adepts make. He writes:
“Among those who have attained this higher life, who feel its power and sense its peace, there are some who wish that others shall attain it too. We say some for the very powerful reason that not all are able to find it in their hearts to return to this bleak earth of ours, with its sickness and darkness, its sins and sufferings, its evil and ignorance, when there stretches invitingly before them the portals of a diviner world, with its sublime harmony and beauty, its burden-free peace and goodness."
But,
"If he refrains from the final mergence into Nirvana, it is not only because he wants to be available for the enlightenment of his more hapless fellows, but also because he knows that he has really been in Nirvana from the beginning and has never left it.” (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 4.4,3)
Much to ponder here…
Darshan Singh said we need to go from the ‘earth-earthy’ to the ‘heaven-heavenly’
This statement, on its own, is not Sant Mat 2.0+. Rather, it is the traditional statement of 1.0. Sant Darshan Singh admitted he was ‘old-fashioned’, but many of us thought he was only talking about not having sex before or outside of marriage. While that may in fact have been what he was referring to, the further implications for the philosophy are relevant. Are the heavenly worlds our origin and destiny, or only the upper-half of the corresponding microcosmic body-mind of man? The reader will recall Ramaji finding that the lotus blossom of the sahasrar actually having a descending stalk with roots imbedded in the right side of the heart. In a similar way, Brunton writes: “…the lotus-flower of reality which looks so lovely in the bright gay sunshine cannot be separated from the roots which look so ugly in the black muddy slime.” (Notebooks, Vol. 9, Part 1, 2.178). The Lord’s Prayer tells us, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Are we not to bring the light into the darkness, to make the unconscious conscious, rather than to escape the darkness into the light, and in a sense leaving the world and the flesh behind as a mass of confusion and craziness? Isn’t that, as an exclusive pursuit, the classic form of spiritual bypassing, and a starkly dualistic split? This is not a personal criticism of Darshan Singh, who among Sant Mat masters spoke a great deal on purification and purgation, trials and tests, endurance, sacrifice, and ‘positive mysticism’. But the significance of the latter is misunderstood, however, if it is taken only to mean living ethically and honestly, to ‘pay off debts’, in order to radically and finally separate from the manifest dimension of life. There can be a subtle undercurrent of fear behind this disposition. That is 1.0, the traditional pathway of escape, conceived by mystics and even sages in ancient times. It is not false but increasingly viewed a partial and limiting articulation of reality and the greater goal set before mankind.
This, the purpose of human birth and the waking state, is a subject for deep contemplation:
“This is the extraordinary paradox of the Quest, that it is a road leading out of daily life and yet far inseparable from daily living itself.”
“This earthly life is the “narrow gate” which opens into the kingdom.”
“Whoever lives in such a society, his heart is in the Real, his mind in the True, is as much absent from it as he is present.”
“For sincere questers there is, or should be, an interest in life which grows with time.”
This is an interesting one. When I shared this with a fellow initiate he had a hard time accepting it. "How can you be interested in an illusion?" Nisargadatta said reality never changes and is "rock-solid and steady", but, on the other hand, it is "always fresh and new." Can you accept the paradox? So if faced with the chance, do you think a sage would not invent the electric bulb if he could? Is he supposed to just sit in a corner and bloom? No, he is alive!
“What is the path?” the Zen Master Nan-sen was asked. “Everyday life is the path,” he answered.”(Ibid, 2.180-181, 185-187, 190)
Once again, sooner or later, Masters say everything
Since the absolute truth, or even the way to it, is not entirely explainable in words - this has been said thousands of times over the centuries - masters, saints and says often appear to take both sides on an issue. They assert and they deny, they may deny what they have asserted and assert what they have denied! And just when you may get comfortable with their unpredictability, they may seem to become very predictable with a consistent, reasonable and easily comprehensible message. All this is not because they are fools or ignorant (!), in most cases, but because it is the nature of the beast; that is to say, their fluidity is not only because the dharma is complex and the disciples are of different types and widely varying stages of development with a multiplicity of diverse needs, but because of the paradoxical role a Teacher or Master must also play in breaking a hypnotic spell in the devotee, who thinks he is who he thinks he is and is or is not making spiritual progress towards an imagined goal somehow or somewhere separate from himself, and which the simple dispensing standard spiritual talks and remaining as an example to follow will not accomplish.
Thus, Sant Darshan Singh, for instance, would say that God is nearer than our breath, nearer than our jugular vein (a citation from the Koran), and also that God is very far away and a long journey is needed to reach Him. He would say “there are no tests, but only regular difficulties on the path,” while Kirpal Singh, to the contrary, would say “Masters do test their followers as they progress on the path, and usually they do not know what is happening.” Ishwar Puri, however, said "the Master is your friend, he never tests you." Bhai Sahib, finally, said, "I am not your friend, I am your taskmaster." So one can see, there is something here for everybody.
Regarding 'tests', at one level we all know when that is the nature of a situation. In most cases it happens quite naturally and life itself offers the test, and our choices are usually fairly simple: Do we contract, or do we stay open? Do we try to feather our own nest by opting for a passing advantage, or do we think of the good of all concerned? Do we follow up on a positive opportunity needed for our development, or do we hesitate out of fear? Sometimes things are more subtle, and it is our intuition and discrimination between truth and illusion that is being tested. Even so, it is all a natural process and not separate from life itself. So in this sense Master Darshan was right. Ever since Moses said that God put conscience in our hearts, we are aware, if we are honest, we are facing such moments. But Master Kirpal was also right, a Teacher may test his students. But even when when such a one does so, however, it does not mean that he personally needs to go in and shovel around in one's subconscious, or willfully manipulate outer circumstances to achieve that end. This, too, occurs via a natural process, albeit of a higher order perhaps and following its own mysterious laws.
Kirpal would also say, “God helps those who help themselves,” and then, “God helps those who do not help themselves.” Countless examples could be offered. “Meditation is effortless effort,” but then, “stilling the mind is very difficult.” Once, at Sawn Ashram, we were challenged with the gift of a flower if we would try and meditate all night. At one point my back hurt and I lay down intending to do so only for a few minutes, and I fell asleep until the next morning. Kirpal told me (with a twinkle in his eye I now realize, amidst an apparently gruff exterior), that I was making a mockery of the path! A few minutes later he was telling me how much love he had for me. Why all this strange behavior and seemingly contradictory teachings? Two things, as I see it. One, to by and by coax the disciple to the point of surrender, and, two, to get one to think. Because the mind can not really let go in a genuine way unless it is exercised to its fullest extent, all major questions and doubts are satisfied, and one can actually watch the very mechanism of the mind die a natural death, instead of merely suppressing it in mental quiet only to see it arise again when ones meditation is over. [Note: If this sounds more like gyan than that of a celestial yoga, that is correct. But a little of that won't hurt to complement ones practice, and in the long run can only help ones self-understanding. If the brain grows weary, or one does not grasp the concept (in essence, of thought thinking on itself, or enquiring into its own origin), don't worry, we are not finished yet and will visit this theme again. At the very least compliment yourself on having the concentration to follow such a long and complex sentence, for that is a form of yoga in itself!]
Brunton, one of our more sober and articulate philosophic sages, also taught by contrasts at times. For instance, he wrote:
“There is a way suited to the particular individuality of each separate person, which will bring out all his spiritual possibilities as no other way can...It is misleading to pick out any one way to the Overself and label it the best, or worse still, the only way. It is unfair to compare the merits of different ways. For the truth is that firstly each has a contribution to make, and finally each individual aspirant has his own special way...It is a common error, among the pious and even among the mystics, to believe that one path alone - theirs - is the best. This may be quite correct in the case of each person, but it may not necessarily be correct for others, and even then it is only correct for a period or at most a number of lifetimes...We hypnotize the mind with ideas that may suit other persons but are unsuitable for us, we practice techniques that warp our development, we follow teachers which know only the way they have themselves walked and who insist on crowding all seekers on it regardless of suitabilities and we join groups which obstruct our special line of spiritual growth...Again and again one observes that the technique, exercise, method or rule which bring good results for one person fails to do so for another. It is absurd to make a single uniform prescription and expect all persons to get a single uniform result from it.”
“However different personal reactions will necessarily be with every individual seeker, there will still remain certain experiences, requirements and conditions - and these are the most important ones - along his path which must be the same for every other seeker too...Each man’s approach must inevitably be individualistic yet each will also share in common all the essentials which constitute the Quest...Whether he seek the Christian Salvation or the Japanese Satori, the fundamental approach is more or less the same.” (Notebooks, Vol.2, chapter 5)
Try and wrap ones mind around that one! The fundamental approach for the Christian Salvation and the Japanese Satori is more or less the same? In fact, it is, but a great deal of understanding is required to get at that essential meaning. That is a factor needed for an interfaith understanding, and even an in-depth understanding of ones chosen path, in our view.
Even a great Vedantic sage such as Vasistha was not immune to this ‘speaking with forked-tongue’ tactic. On the one hand, speaking from his liberated condition, he proclaimed:
"That God is not distant from anyone, O Holy One, nor is he difficult to attain; he is forever seated in the body and he is everywhere like space."
But then:
"Nearest to all, yet far on account of its inaccessibility to the mind and senses."
On the one hand he said:
"Very many such liberated beings exist in the universe, O Rama. Some of them are sages, some are Kings, others shine as stars and planets, others are divinities and others are demons. O Rama, there are liberated beings even among worms and insects, and there are stupid fools among the gods. The self is in all; it exists as the all everywhere at all times and in all ways."
But then asserts what most saints and sages maintain:
"Among the many species of living beings only the human beings are fit to be instructed into the nature of truth." (op. cit., p. 251, 204, 126)
I suppose one could argue that he didn't exactly say that only humans could be liberated, thus leaving it open for exceptions such as the cow Laxmi getting emancipation in Ramana's company, but only that humans alone could be instructed about truth. But that feels unlikely. He also said that even though a rock is nothing but consciousness, it is not in a liberated condition. He also speaks of enlightenment as an "attainment" but then also as "not an attainment." They all speak like that: it is not an attainment because it is what is already the case, but it is because few realize it. Either way, the suggestion we arrive at is two-fold: both the human form and the waking state of consciousness (not trance alone) are advantages if not requirements needed for enlightenment.
To some Maharaj Nisargadatta would say “be quiet, don’t ask questions,” while to others he would say “if you were really serious you would be asking many more questions.” To some he would say “simplify your life and don’t do anymore than is necessary,” to another he would say “marry this girl and take up this business and set yourself seemingly impossible tasks, which will make your self-realization more secure.” And so on.
Gurinder Singh said, "there is no Sach Khand," but then, "Moksha is liberation of the soul with the help of shabd to get to Sach Khand." Or, "God gives us the task of meditation because he knows we can do it," but then, "It is okay to take a break from meditation, you do not need to do it everyday."
The devil is always in the details. Things are not so black and white. Practices for a 25 year old may be different for a 75 year old. What works for one today may not have worked years ago. (i.e., time of day for meditation, length of meditation, even form of meditation). Also variable is the manner one chooses to deal with desires and fears. The approach of a celibate yogi is different from a more tantric approach. One generally avoids engaging life energies while the other embraces them. The advice from each teacher, and to each student, will and must be different. For instance, many traditional teachers often recommend a practice cultivating the gradual diminishment of thoughts and feelings, leading to silence, then consciousness and love. But advocating the diminishment of feelings can be wrong for someone who can’t feel very much at all. Diminished thoughts and feelings can also lead to deadness. There are vastly different kinds of silence!
And there is also the matter of the vasanas needing to be purified or eradicated for realization to become stablised. Vasistha told a story about the sage Uddalaka that illustrates this:
"Uddalaka's mind had attained absolute tranquility and no distraction could afflict it. Directly he beheld in his heart the darkness of ignorance that veiled the light of self-knowledge. With the light of knowledge that arose in him, he dispelled even that darkness. He then beheld the light within. However, when that light dimmed, he experienced sleep. But, he dispelled the dullness of sleep, too. [causal?] Once the drowsiness of sleep had been dispelled, his mind threw up diverse brilliant forms. He cleared his consciousness of these visions. Then he was overcome by a great inertia, like one intoxicated. [maha sunn?] He got over that inertia, too. After this, his mind rested in another state which was different from all these so far described. [super causal?] After resting for a while in this state, however, his mind awoke to the experience of the totality of existence. [Sat Lok?] Immediately after this he experienced pure awareness [Anami?]...Even as the wave merges in the ocean and becomes one and non-different from it, the consciousness abandoned its objectivity and regained its absolute purity. Uddalaka was enlightened....He beheld the gods and the sage, and he even beheld the members of the trinity. He went beyond even that state. He was completely transmuted into bliss itself and hence he had gone beyond the realm of bliss. He experienced neither bliss nor non-bliss. He became pure consciousness. He who experiences this even for a moment is disinterested even in the delights of heaven. This is the supreme state, this is the goal, this is the eternal abode. He who rests in this is fully awakened and never again entertains the notion of objectivity or conceptualisation. Of course this is not an 'attainment'."
Sounds pretty good, right?
"Uddalaka remained for six months in this state." (Ibid, p. 191)
Insight, ‘enlightenment’, and stages of grace can remain for varying lengths of time. Six months is not forever! The issue of the purification of the vasanas is dealt with in Part Three.
Pralaya and Maha Pralaya
This line of reasoning or explanation leads naturally into a discussion of the concepts of cosmic dissolution and Grand-Dissolution as mentioned in Sant Mat. Only initiates of a Perfect Living Master are said to be free of these two events. This is a huge topic, in my opinion, but we will offer here first what Ishwar Puri has to say on the issue. He states:
"Pralaya means dissolution of the whole universe. When the whole universe dissolves, the souls in the causal plane also get dissolved, no reincarnation even as mind or astral body or as physical body. Where are the souls held? They are held in a certain section of the lower part of Par Brahm, where they stay until a new series of worlds is created and they are reincarnated again from there as minds, and then from minds as astral bodies, astral bodies to physical bodies. Same cycle is repeated."
"What happens if the entire system is dissolved? When the entire system is dissolved, which we call the Grand Dissolution or Maha Pralaya. In Maha Pralaya, everything is destroyed. Everything ceases to exist, including the physical universes, including the astral universes, and including the causal-mental universes, including universal mind. All that is completely wiped out, and the souls have to then go from the lower part of Par Brahm, where they stay as dissolution, to the upper part of Par Brahm, which survives even a Grand Dissolution."
"So when the Grand Dissolution has taken place, the upper part of Par Brahm is known as part of Sach Khand. It always is a part of Sach Khand, even now. It is where individuation takes place from totality. So the upper part of Par Brahm is different from the lower part of Par Brahm. It looks the same, is combined, so it's very strange that there can be people stuck there, and they have no minds. They have gone beyond mind. They have gone beyond senses, beyond physical bodies. They are souls, but they are stuck there thinking that's Sach Khand. But that is still controlled by a timeless time." (page 8, Master is the Sound Current, (http://ishanews.org/media/transcripts/eng/Master_is_the_Sound_Current.pdf)
The astute reader may note discrepancies that may or may not be more than semantics in this argument, namely, if souls in the upper part of Par Brahm are "beyond the mind," how can they be stuck there "thinking" it is Sach Khand? What does it mean to have thinking if one is beyond the mind? Beyond manas but 'stuck' in the vijnanamayakosha, buddhi, or the witness? What exactly? Furthermore, what does it mean to say one is controlled by a 'timeless' time"? How can you call that time? Is time even a "thing"? This is a logical contradiction and meaningless from a semantical perspective. Yet, Ishwar seems to be trying to express something, the question is, “what is it?” [Hint: an answer is suggested in Part Four where Sri Siddharameshwar says here one has realized the ‘I Am’ - or ‘Pure Knowledge’ - signified by a complete forgetting or transcendence of all before (or below) - but has not yet passed to the higher stage of the ‘forgetting of the forgetting,’ and therefore this ‘I Am’ (‘ahambrahmasmi’ in the Sants’ terminology) remains as the Primal Illusion and ‘parasite’ on the Absolute].
Strange indeed. Yet Sant Mat seems to have difficulty in articulating what happens here. For instance we find:
"Bhanwar Gupha and all regions below it, the super causal, causal, astral and physical ones, are subject to dissolution as the Adepts of Mysticism express it. Dissolution of a relatively short duration reaches up to the summit of the causal region, whereas the immensely long lasting and big dissolution reaches from the super causal region of Daswan Dwar up to the region of Bhanwar Gupha." ("The Soul's Journey")
But again, how can you even speak of time? In a deep sleep, or a deep trance, a minute can seem like a week.
After a grand dissolution, do the human souls start over from scratch as amoeba, or do the karmic seeds sprout again again as man? Who can know these things?
Yet forgetting the complication of pralayas right now, how in contemplation do you get from upper ParBrahm to Sach Khand (“the Totality”?) There is no sound to follow anymore. A perfect Master’s grace? That is generally what Sant Mat teaches.The ultimate discrimination? That is what advaita teaches. Brunton says that "the Overself lovingly swallows us." Opinions vary, but grace of the Self or God or Master seems to be a common factor. But then, where is the question of getting 'stuck' here, if such help is said to be needed even to cross the Maha Sunn?
Kirpal spoke of this place, where you see "fountains of light gushing out," or "something like that," but “still there is a little entranceway to Sach Khand." A little entranceway? Was he speaking metaphorically? You are already beyond the mind, which means beyond any spatial dimensions, so what are we talking about here? So does this mean there is a hidden ‘I’-thought (which is more like a state than a thing at this ethereal contemplative level) present, but not seen or recognized? Does that characterize the upper dimension of Par Brahmand? Many traditions seem to speak of this stage. Even Madame Guyon, who talks of the soul being dead, but not yet “put away in God.” All teach that here only grace can finish the job. It is similar to the penultimate development prior to satori in Zen. Brunton enigmatically said “the boundary between the void and inner being is hard to find.”
One can perhaps imagine souls getting stuck there on the mystical ascent, but realistically, when would they be stuck there simply in terms of time running out? Think of how long the current big bang has been, billions of years! Who can worry about surviving even a grand dissolution by being safely in the upper part of ParBrahm as Ishwar says? How many lives have we and maybe will we have before the next cosmic or super-cosmicdissolution? Except our individual dissolution between each life. Maybe if we get to the stage which Papaji (and Yog-Vashista) describes as “nothing ever happened “ then maybe none of this matters, and even our being born again becomes irrelevant? So this is an area needing clarification if we are not left with merely accepting someone's or some teaching's word for it, and rejecting all the rest.
Here is a quote for comparison from the advaitic sage Atmananda regarding the so-called deluge or pralaya or cosmic dissolutions.
“The ‘deluge is the last refuge after the misguided search, through the cosmological path, for the cause of the objective world. [The ‘deluge’ here is ‘pralaya’, the dissolution of the world into an unmanifested seed form of undifferentiated causal potency, at the end of each cosmic cycle. It is from this unmanifest potency that the next cycle of cosmic manifestation is supposed to be caused]."
"The root of this question, as well as of the search, is the acceptance of the principle of interdependence of objects as true. This position is not correct."
"Take for example your seeing a cow and a calf in your dream. It is admitted that the see-er, the seeing and the seen are all creations of the mind. So you see the cow, and you see the calf separately. But immediately, you create a new perception that the calf is the offspring of the cow. Thus in fact, the cow, the calf and the relationship between them are three entirely different perceptions related only to the common perceiver, ‘you.’"
"Similarly, the whole objective world and all things gross as well as subtle - including even the ‘deluge’ and its accredited cause ‘mula-prakriti’ [‘root nature’] - are all objects, and you are the only real subject."
"Therefore, if you correctly understand the real significance of the statement that objects have only one relationship and that with you alone, your perspective which enabled you to visualize a ‘deluge’ disappears altogether.” (Notes on Spiritual Discourses, # 378)
Sri Siddharameshwar offers a similar analysis of pralaya:
"Some of the people advise that the flow of attention should be like a thin stream of oil being poured. But will it ever be possible for any such an attitude to realize Brahman? Only one whose self-centered thinking has disappeared can realize this. When self-surrender has taken place, the state is called "Total Liberation" (Sayujya Mukti). That annihilation or dissolution of illusion through the utilization of discrimination is called "Videha Pralaya"...There was never a time when the one who is the individual is not existing, nor is there any time when the individual is existing. Blessed is the one who understands this." (Master of Self-Realization, p. 345)
Thus pralaya is here given an immediate Vedantic explanation without leaving us with the need to prove something at the end of an immensely long cosmic cycle.
The advaitic approach, as contrasted with that of yoga, is one of one visualizing, recognizing, or asserting identity with the Subjective Reality, without conceding even a tentative objective reality apart from that. This is a difficult subject. As a bridge to the next section, one might say on this understanding that a key to passage in Sant Mat from Maha Sunn to Sach Khand is the recognition, with the Guru’s help, of the apparent ‘objectivity’ of Maha Sunn as really an expression of the Subjectivity that is always the case, but usually only known on the mystic path first in Sach Khand. Hopefully this may get a little clearer as we proceed.
Maha Sunn and the Void
The philosophical concept of the "void" is necessary to be investigated here, because of the way that in Sant Mat it is explained that there is a great void or region called Maha Sunn separating the 'materio-spiritua'l regions from the purely 'spiritual' ones, in which even great souls get suspended until a living master brings his great Light through it to guide them out of it and "usher them into" the spiritual planes. This may be confused with the concept of the void(s) as given in Buddhism. For it is unlikely the two are the same. Maha Sunn is described as an experiential void that divides the supracausal region, crossing signifies ego-death and possible freedom from births and deaths, but it is not yet the 'void' of Sat Lok, which is reality.
The use of such terminology can be even more confusing when it is recognized that in the consideration of the void or ‘emptiness’ in Mahayana Buddhism, ‘emptiness’ itself is also ‘empty’. It is not considered to be a state as such but more often as a dialectical methodology of understanding the non-entitification of things. (For more on this please see ”Emptyness Is Empty” at http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.com/emptiness_is_empty.html).
Nevertheless, once again, in Sant Mat the plane of Maha-Sunn (http://www.santji.allegre.ca/planes-640.jpg) is referred to as a dark experiential void, like a form of dark space, that the soul passes through on the way to the 'void' of Sach Khand and the deeper Void of Anami. One might well ask, void of what in Sat Lok? - void of ego and duality. Ego and duality are not gone in Maha Sunn. It can be said that the "I"-thought is still there, only in hiding and hard to perceive. Faqir Chand as we have seen in Part One, depicts the so-called "four mystery regions" there as simply the four functions of mind: chit, manas, ahamkar and buddhi. Some teachings, however, say there are five regions plus one "inconceivable isthere:
"There are interesting places for the soul to visit on this plane: Maha Sunn, for example, "great emptiness," a vast expanse of utter darkness located above Sunn, where hidden spiritual secrets are revealed and where five new universes, each with its own Brahm, may be observed. Or the soul may rest in Achint Dip, an "inconceivable island" of spirituality in the midst of the void. The Lord of this region is called Parbrahm, "super Brahm." He has the power to direct the soul either downward or upward to an even higher region, and with the assistance of the master, the Radhasoami soul can make the further ascent." (L.R. Puri, Radhaswami Teachings, p. 180)
Moreover,
"This region is called Maha-sunn. There are prison cells for the condemned spirits, ejected from the Court of the True Supreme Being. Although these spirits are not subjected to any trouble, and they perform their functions by their own light, yet, as they do not get the darshan of the Lord, they are restless. However, there is a way of their remission also. Whenever Sants happen to pass that way with the spirits reclaimed from the lower regions, some of these spirits fortunately get their Darshan. Such spirits go along with the Sants who very gladly take them to the Court of the Lord and get them pardoned.” (David Lane, Enchanted Land, MSAC Philosophy Group)
"Condemned spirits" trapped one plane below Sach Khand? For what crime?
Nevertheless, one initiate describes his experience there. (source unknown):
"Beloved Father: Again this afternoon, I have had a short, but quite the best, bhajan I have had so far. At first, I was drawn up and up through (seemingly) millions of miles of space on a beam of celestial glory filled with colours and vibrating with the most wonderful music my ears have ever heard until I stood by your side. Together we traversed the great blackness. I could appreciate fear on all sides, but never once did it assail me. Every type of ordeal connected with darkness closed in on me, but the tiny flame of my soul clung to, and was comforted by, the great white light of your being. Who could be downcast by suffering when it brings such results?"
It is not known if this devotee went further, or if he or she understood this voidness in the sense that we are philosophically referring to it here. It seems clear that it is still being described as something happening to a "me." Still, one wonders if this is anything like what the psalmist had in mind when he wrote, “Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”
There is sometimes spoken in Sant Mat of a possibility of a soul reaching a state of merger and thinking it is the final goal. This is it. Words are often loosely thrown about. It is not a real merger but a false merger. Merge in what is the question. They are talking about a pseudo merger in some kind of nirvikalpa state in Maha Sunn, where the ego still exists but is in hiding. One needs help to move past this non-existent barrier, whether on a jnana path of a mystical one like Sant Mat. But how to bring the ego out of hiding in such a dark cave? It may be that the waking state holds the key. Trance states are easy to hide in, who will give them up?
Another, more difficult question, was indirectly posed by Faqir Chand. He held that one can be merged in Anami, but that was not the end. It is not so much that one can be deceived by his apparent merger in Anami, for it is Reality, but still, it is not the ultimate state. This of course is sahaja, the natural state, abiding in reality whether in trance or without. This will be gone into again and again as we go along.
Advaita generally does not talk about merger at all. 'Who' merges in 'what' ? they might ask. For more comparative discussion on this there is section called "Adyashanti versus Darshan Singh on Merger" in Part Four.
Once again, in Buddhism where reference is made to the void it is generally not to a phenomenal void but, rather, either a realm of the absence of ego or self-consciousness, or, alternatively, ‘Suchness,’ the only reality there is. In Maha Sunn, however, there is the experience of darkness, but in the true void there is no darkness and no separate "I", so this void-nature, it appears reasonable, would have to be at least what is called Sach Khand or perhaps even Anami in Sant Mat. When I publicly asked Sant Rajinder Singh to comment on Kirpal Singh's enigmatic comment to me, "God is nothing," he replied, "because there is a void in Maha Sunn the soul has to cross." In my question I had not intended to ask about an experiential void as such, but the void-nature of reality, of the soul and God. Crossing 'Maha Sunn' may be, it seems, the inversion equivalent of the 'Great Death' in Zen, and a profound stage. But it is not “Emptiness” or the “Void,” capitalized. That refers to a Positive Reality, a Fullness - the ‘negation’ of the negation represented by Maha Sunn. Nagarjuna, the essential originator of the Mahayana emptiness teachings said, “It cannot be called void, or not void, or both or neither, but in order to point to it, it is called ‘the void’.”
The Void, or Sunyata, Suchness, whatever name one chooses to point to the non-conceptual Truth, is not dark (another concept or experience), but the clear light of Reality, the goal-less goal of all the paths. How could Sant Kirpal Singh, for instance, in his time explain such a thing to his disciples other than on a one-to-one basis and not necessarily through words but through a potent spiritual silence? Looking back now, I see the reason for Kirpal's exclamation to me, "God is nothing!" In Buddhism, God IS nothing, or the Void-Mind, which is really not nothing but the fullness (purna) of Reality. It is described as empty like space, but it is not really empty, because it is full of Consciousness. And inseparable from the Absolute; this wholeness might be what Guru Nanak meant by his term in his Jap Ji, "the Unmanifest-Manifest."
The void, unfortunately, is probably the most misunderstood concept in Buddhism. It does not mean nothing as conceptually understood - such a 'nothing' is only an idea - but rather, once again, the true non-conceptual reality. It is the REAL. But as asked at the outset, is that realized in Sat Lok - be it Sach Khand or Anami - or is it beyond even Anami? The views of the Sants differ on this, some considering Anami to be within relativity, and others viewing it as the Absolute. Sant Darshan Singh described Anami as “an infinite ocean that has no shores.” That is still conceivable, however, and the Absolute has no description or attributes whatsoever. Darshan also said he could go into and out of it at will. That, too, is not a characteristic way of speaking of the Absolute. It is not a state one goes into or out of. One is never out of it. An infinite ocean with no shores is no doubt a lofty realization, but then so is "God." That does not make it the Absolute, or Stateless State as described by sages. But Darshan Singh, also being a poet, may perhaps be granted a little slack here.
One teacher, Ramaji, described the Pure “I Am” (perhaps the Samartha Ramdas-Siddharameshwar-Nisargadatta equivalent of the Sat Lok level) as “the non-dual quintessence of duality.” That is also similar to how Mark describes it in Part Two. It is the wonderful first step - sometimes considered an eternal expression (like Sat Desh) - out of the Absolute.
The idea of a barrier of nothingness to be crossed is found in many traditions. Sri Siddharameshwar writes:
"There is a void that is emptiness, or ignorance, and beyond that is the fourth body, which is of the nature of God." (op.cit., p. 97)
[It gets confusing. Sometimes Siddharameshwar says this fourth body of Sat-Chit-Ananda is perishable, while at other times as mentioned he says it is an "eternal expression" of the inexpressible Absolute. His disciple, Nisargadatta, said in I AM THAT that "in the Absolute every I Am is preserved and glorified." That actually sounds somewhat like Sant Mat positing Sat Desh as an eternal yet created realm, acknowledging the difficulties with the term "created" as discussed in Part Two.]
At any rate, there is a void-passage. Shri Atmananda states: “Even great yogins have often been stranded for years in nothingness...because the experience of nothingness also gives you a reflected and limited peace and happiness.” (Notes on Spiritual Discourses, #1089). Nagarjuna warned that “believers in emptiness would end up in a self-condemned void”; ‘Nothingness’ is but the third of the four higher jhanas in buddhism, followed by the plane of ‘neither perception nor non-perception’, and only then Nirvana. Atmananda, speaking from the point of view of a jnanic and not a mystical perspective, nevertheless further explains:
"In the traditional method...the process is adopted by scientists, slowly ascending from the world, always attributing reality to the objective. Proceeding this way, they knock against a blank wall of ignorance, because they find no way to transcend duality." (#936)
“In your attempt to reach the Absolute, you transcend the realm of objects and senses, and sometimes get stranded in a state of void or nothingness. This void or nothingness, though highly subtle, is still objective in character; and you remain as that positive principle which perceives that nothingness also...So whenever the concept of nothingness confronts you, take the thought that nothingness is also your object, and that you are its perceiver, the ultimate subject, whose nature is Consciousness; and it becomes one with the ‘I’- principle. The void is the last link in the chain which binds you to the objective world. Its appearance in the course of your spiritual sadhana is encouraging, since it forebodes the death-knell of the world of objects, of course in the light of knowledge.”
“Shri Buddha first analyzed the eternal objective world in the right yogic fashion, utilizing mind and intellect as instruments, and at the end reached what may from the phenomenal level be called void or nothingness. A negative can never subsist by itself. Much less can it be the source of positive things. That which was called void or nothingness has to be understood as Atma itself. Buddha must have gone beyond and reached the atmic principle himself. But Shri Buddha’s followers seem to have stopped short and interpreted the Ultimate to be that void or nothingness.” (Ibid, #187)
[The past paragraph suggests to me a possible reason why Sant Darshan Singh made the broad claim that “Buddhists only go to the third plane.” This is discussed at greater length in Part Four].
Ramana said:
"The state of emptiness is the bone of contention in all philosophies." (Talks, p. 396)
And it is also probably the most misunderstood concept in Buddhism, so much so that the great Nagarjuna himself - who codified these teachings - said "Believers in emptiness are incurable."
Here is how Sri Siddharameshwar summarized this problem:
"When going beyond all visible appearances, the invisible void remains. Thinking this to be Brahman, one returns back from there...On one side is what is visible, and on the other side, there is attributeless God. In between the two there is nothingness, or the void. It is because of dull intellect that some say that this is Brahman... First, visible appearances are given up. Then, going beyond the void one sees the "Primal Illusion" (Moolamaya). Only from there, can the Absolute Reality, Parabrahman, be realized."
This was discussed earlier. "The Primal Illusion" is actually the "I Am" as the primal form Self-Knowledge.The "visible appearances" are the first three planes in Sant Mat. A void separates the two.
"When one tries to see from a perspective of being a separate observer, one finds the state of the void, and doubts increase in the mind about this state of nothingness. Experiencing a sense of separation from it, one labels it as the void. However, if ones goal is the realization of Reality, one must first recognize undivided oneness. Be Reality itself to see Reality. When looking in a state of separation, one only gets the experience of the void." (Amrut Laya, p. 216-217)
The void of Maha Sunn, these sages seem to be saying, is only seen as thick darkness when understood or viewed objectively. Which is apparently how it is generally viewed in a cosmological path such as Sant Mat. But with the grace of the Master Power and the Holy Spirit or Naam - on this path - it becomes the transition from the objective to the subjective point of view, i.e., the “Beyond.” In Advaita, where successful, this point is tackled from the beginning through inquiry, and optimally the grace of an adept master as well. As Atmananda further says:
“From inactivity (even of Nirvikalpa Samadhi) you cannot get to the beyond without something active coming to your help.”
This sounds similar - in concept at least - to the Sant Mat idea of needing a Master to get the bewildered soul across the void of Maha Sunn. His next statement is provocative:
“But from the active sphere (the waking state), you can rise straight to the Ultimate, merely by understanding it aright.” (Ibid, # 329)
The latter statement, of course, is pure Advaita and quite a contrast to the approach of Sant Mat - at least as generally portrayed. But some may have had a different experience with the Masters of that path, especially with the greatest of such Masters who may be competent in guiding their disciples to realization through varying methods.
PB expresses the problem from another angle:
"When the emptying of the mind is made the goal of the mind, then it is not really emptied even if this seems to occur. The unexpressed goal is also present, even though unthought during the time of the void. In short it is not a genuine, authentic emptiness. Yet this is the sort of thing that happens in most yogic circles. Only a philosophically informed mind can reach the real void." (Notebooks, Vol. 15, Part 1, 7.150(
Further:
"When self-absorption is somewhat advanced and concentration fairly steady, we are ready for the third stage. Here, personal effort should cease. An intuition will gently make itself manifest and the moment it does we must let it affect us by being as inwardly submissive as possible. If we can follow it up, it will increase in strength and clearness. It is not at all easy to arrive at this profound submissiveness within ourself and let go of all the egoistic resistances which we unconsciously harbour. There should be a glad self-yielding to this intuition, which is a harbinger of the soul whose presence and power we had so long to accept on trusting faith alone. As it develops, some ethereal presence seems to come over us, a diviner happier nobler self than your common one. An ethereal feeling will echo throughout your inner being. It seems to come from some far-off world yet it will be like some mysterious half-remembered music in its paradoxical mixture of strangeness and familiarity. We are then on the threshold of that in us which links us with God." (Ibid, 7.197)
The task presented with Maha Sunn is that of leaving behind all vestiges of objectivity. When David in Psalms says “Near to God and round about Him are darkness and clouds,” and “Through the splendor of his presence passed clouds,” this is not so in reality, but due to our lack of understanding and viewpoint. This is a loose interpretation of scripture, but I believe it can be applied as well to our “dark nights” while on earth as well as during mystical ascent through inner planes.
Christian mystic Madame Guyon, interestingly, seems to describe a state perhaps ‘equivalent’ to that of Maha Sunn and perhaps the super causal plane subsequent to it (that is, a condition beyond the mind, so-called, where the ego-self is essentially dead, but the soul has yet been taken into God, as Ishwar mentioned as discussed in the last section) in the following passage:
“From the time that the soul expires mystically, it is separated generally from everything that would be an obstacle to its perfect union with God; but it is not, for all that, received into God. This causes it the most extreme suffering. You will object here, that, if it be wholly dead, it can no longer suffer. Let me explain. The soul is dead as soon as it is separated from self; but this death or mystic decrease is not complete until it has passed into God. Until then, it suffers very greatly, but its suffering is general and indistinct, and proceeds solely from the fact that it is not yet established in its proper place...After death, I repeat, the soul is entirely rid of self, but not at first received into God. There still exists a something, I know not exactly what, a form, a human remnant; but that also vanishes. It is a tarnish which is destroyed by a general indistinct suffering, having no relation to the means of death, since they are passed away and completed; but it is an uneasiness arising from the fact of being turned out of self, without being received into its great Original. The soul loses all possession of self, without which it could never be united to God; but it is only gradually that it becomes fully possessed of Him by means of a new life, which is wholly divine. As soon as the soul has died in the embraces of the Lord, it is united to Him in truth and without any intermediates; for in losing everything, even its best possessions, it has lost the means and intermediates which dwelt in them; and even these greatest treasures themselves were but intermediates. It is, then, from that moment, united to God immediately, but it does not recognize it, nor does it enjoy the fruit of its union, until He animates it and becomes its vivifying principle...The dead soul is in union, but it does not enjoy the fruits of it until the moment of its resurrection, when God, causing it to pass into Him, gives it such pledges and assurances of the consummation of its divine marriage, that it can no longer doubt: for this immediate union is so spiritual, so refined, so divine, so intimate; that it is equally impossible for the soul to conceive or to doubt it.” (The Way to God, in Spiritual Progress (Dallas, Tx: Gideon House Books, 2016), p. 194-195)
Things are then radically simplified across the board: "Neither space nor time matter when you glimpse the eternal realm. Everything is as it should be, all places are good. When the believer has experienced the fullness for which he was created, there really is nothing else to look for; all is God and all else is put away...Whether you live or die, it is to the Lord.Never be concerned whether you live on earth or go to be with your Lord. Allow yourself to be transformed into the image of the One you love the most." (SpiritualTorrents (SeedSowers Books, 1990), p. 117-118)
Charan Singh "versus" Ramana
A German guy once asked Charan Singh why all these divisions of planes in Sant Mat? He argued that Ramana didn’t distinguish planes, and that when you were one with the Self that was it. Charan replied that Ramana only went to the fourth plane: “Let me tell you, that is the 4th plane. You are above the mind but there are certain subtle marks on the soul there. And more importantly that you can be reborn after a grand dissolution, while at Sach Khand you are never reborn." (Unless you want to be - as Ishwar and various sages have pointed out with respect to post-enlightenment "options"). Charan stated:
"Between the mind and Sach Khand there are still the impressions of those karmas which, of course, cannot pull the soul back to this creation; but those impressions are still with the soul. There is a darkness we have to pierce before we can reach Sat Lok, Sach Khand...It is only in the company of the master that the soul is able to go through that darkness of Maha Sunn, as we call it, and merge into the infinite...After all the coverings are removed, the soul still doesn't go straightaway and merge back into the Lord. That is why, when the mystics explain the teaching, they always say that without his grace the soul can never go back to the Father...The soul has its own light, but still it is not sufficient to enable it to cross that veil of darkness. Then the master's light, which is much brighter, has to envelop the soul, so to say, and merge back into the infinite light. This is just a way of explaining things which really have to be experienced, to be realized." (Spiritual Perspectives, (Beas, India: Radhasoami Satsang, 2010), Vol. 1, p. 183-184)
“Just a way of explaining things” may be key for our understanding here - on other paths it might be explained that an “act of divine Intellection,” or an extreme form of discrimination, or recognition, or grace, must take place, to move the stranded soul beyond a blank albeit still objective state to the pure subjectivity of “the Beyond,” for the jiva has reached a dead end. The darkness faced here is not like an objective darkness that the ego might face on a dark night and need a flashlight to get through. If it is, then this darkness is different than what the vedantins are talking about, which is akin to the causal darkness or ignorance of the deep sleep state. Atmananda goes further, explaining the concept of 'merger', or apparent merger, from an advaita perspective:
"From the standpoint of Truth, the personal God - as well as the state of sayujya (i.e., merger) - are only concepts of the devotee's mind. In sayujya, that mind merges in its own concept. It is impossible for the individual mind to come out of that state at will, because the mind, being merged, is deprived of all initiative. Therefore the state is more or less a well-earned and indefinite rest, without any specific experience of misery. Even this state, in the relative realm, has its natural termination; and the devotee is eventually born again as a man." (Notes, #1137)
He further implies that those souls - such as are halted in Sant Mat at Maha Sunn - while transcending body and senses and manas, have not transcended intellect, and therefore get stranded in nothingness or "shunya," (#1140) until the organon of higher reason, which he calls "vidya vritti," or the power of consciousness [or in Sant Mat, the Master or Master-Power], comes to their aid.
Ramana cautioned that in meditation, be it on a mantra or on sound, one should not lose hold of the meditator (that is, one should maintain vichara or the attitude of self-enquiry) or at a certain stage a blank would ensue (laya). Sri Nisargadatta likewise said:
“A man deprived of outer or inner sensations blanks out, or goes beyond consciousness and unconsciousness into the mirthless and deathless state.” (I AM THAT, p. 479)-
Ramana, as quoted by David Godman in The Power of the Presence, Vol. III, said:
“Grammatically, this word [maha sunya - “the great non-being”] can also be resolved into maha asunya, which means “the great being.”
The gist, in my humble and tentative opinion, is that in advaitic paths the power of understanding converts an objective and/or yogic viewpoint into a subjective one, whereas, it appears, in mystical paths such as Sant Mat one begins from an objective viewpoint or presumption and then needs esoteric help in going beyond that once Maha Sunn is reached. This passage would become a lot easier, however, if one could use every moment of ordinary experience to move from the objective to the subjective viewpoint, instead of inadvertently reinforcing the objective view by trying too hard to go within! The concept here is foundational but subtle. It is a matter of learning to see the world, time and space in you, and not you in the world, time, and space. Once this is done, says Nisargadatta, “the main obstacle to realization is removed.” I believe Kirpal Singh and many of the Sants said much the same thing in somewhat different words. Is this discipline a form of gnana yoga? Yes, you could say so. It is also a form of contemplative, practical devotion, with a balancing effect on a narrow mystical focus.
Another way of looking at the change called for at Maha Sunn is perhaps suggested in the writings of St. John of the Cross:
"God is the supernatural light of the soul's eyes, and without this light she is enveloped in darkness...The soul longing to focus the eyes of her will on the light of something outside of God is justly deprived of the divine light - insofar as the spiritual power she has for receiving God's light is occupied with this other light." (Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 10.7,9 (Collected Works, trans., Kavanough/Rodriguez, ICS Publications, 1991)
Another perspective is that in Sant Mat the mind has been left behind in Maha Sunn, and great yogis have mistaken this for realization, but the soul has not yet ‘passed into God’, in Mde. Guyon's terminology. In Zen, there is a similar passage described:
"The aim of Zen training is to die while alive, that is, to actually become the self of no-mind, and no-form, and then to revive as the True Self of no-mind and no-form. In Zen training, therefore, what is most important is for one to revive from the abyss of unconsciousness.” (Abbot Zenkei Shibayama, A Flower Does Not Talk (Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1970), p. 46-47)
The examples given suggest a universality to this experience on the way to realization. The following may also illustrate the difficulty here. Ramana said:
"Abhyasa consists of withdrawal within the Self every time you are disturbed by thought. It is not concentration or destruction of the mind, but withdrawal into the Self." (Talks, p. 382)
This is more a sense of retreating mentally into subjectivity away from objects as opposed to actual yogic absorption into an inner void to escape objects. The objects as objects are not real, therefore there is no escaping them objectively. Going within thus described is not to be understood in a spatial manner, but as an orientation towards ones sense of awareness, which is ultimately realized as both within and without and beyond both. The void, when conceptualized, as something to be absorbed into within, is not the subjectivity Ramana is pointing to, but is still more or less an object as is the Maha Sunn stage.
Ed Muzika, disciple of the American sage Robert Adams, faced similar difficulties with his practice of self-enquiry:
"It took me a long time to realize that going within, for me, meant space/void/mind exploration, while what I really needed to do was to flee into subjectivity away from objects as opposed to fleeing into the void to escape objects [important point]. Until you have done this practice for some time, it is hard to notice the difference. Going within is not a spatial thing, but a heading towards the sense of the source of sentience. The void is not subjectivity, it is still an object." (Ed Muzika, Dancing With God)
What is required is known as antardrishti, or ‘inward looking’. It is not meant in a mystical sense, but is sometimes difficult to understand for those who have not moved beyond the yogic or mystical stages of orientation. The injunction to look within, such as in searching for the heart on the path of Sri Ramana, is only a provisional teaching to break the habit of looking outwards. One is actually called to look within oneself, not within the body.
I believe this antardrishti is what Kirpal Singh meant when he said ”To know God you have to bring about a change in your heart, learn to look inward, and realize that He is your Overself. As soon as you have this realization, you are with Him."
Note that here the emphasis is on "He" being your Overself. Your Overself is not "He." Man does not become God, but he comes closer to God in the sense that when he realizes his Soul, he knows God IS, and is his Divine Source. The drop of the Soul, seemingly infinite itself, recognizes that it comes from the Sun. This is close to Sufism and the position of Brunton, rather than Advaita. More on this later.
Note also that in these words there is no mention of physical, astral, causal, or super-causal planes, only a direct inward seeing similar to what Maharshi spoke of. This perspective of jnana may take some time to discern for one practiced in a yoga path, although in essence it is simpler. Nor is this a mere academic point but one filled with much importance. For example, as the Buddhist text, The Transmission of the Lamp, states:
"The ordinary man is going astray, but in a way is enlightened; the Sravaka, however, who is enjoying the bliss of absorption for ever so many kalpas, is, from the point of view of the Bodhisatva, suffering the fires of hell, having buried himself in emptiness with no possibility of insight into the Buddha-Nature itself."
The analysis of Charan Singh about the difference between the fourth and fifth plane appears valid. Though it is a little awkward to speak of being “beyond the mind”, yet still having stains or blemishes or traces, it makes sense if looked at as being beyond the mind as such, but not beyond the root of the mind, the subtle I-thought, or even the I Am of Nisargadatta, after which transcendence the realization of Sat Lok or its 'non-inversion equivalent' would ensue.
But I feel it is unwarranted and maybe even ludicrous to pidgeon-hole Ramana into a fourth plane limitation merely because he didn’t care to bother with making or exploring distinctions in levels of inversion, when he was more disposed to abide as the essence of all planes, and which can be realized on any plane, including this one. After all, the jnani has been described as "trackless, like a fish in water, and invisible even to the gods." How could one see him? Sri Nisargadatta was that way, too, pointing out that the various mystical attainments required “special training,” which from his point of view would be more or less optional.
I have no personal experience with Charan Singh, but have no reason to assume that he was speaking from experience (i.e., of actually "seeing" on what plane Ramana was "located"), but rather that he made this claim based on theoretical grounds and his own personal understanding of Vedanta and Sant Mat.
There was a “debate” of sorts via a series of correspondences between Ramana and Sri Aurobindo, mentioned in Talks and also David Godman’s The Power of the Presence where a similar issue came up, with Aurobindo arguing for higher planes and bodies as necessary, and Ramana saying they were not. It is very interesting:
“A visitor asked Bhagavan about the “over-mind,” the “super-mind,” the “psychic,” and the “Divine” in Sri Aurobindo’s terminology. “Realize the Self or the Divine,” said Maharshi, “then all these differences will disappear.” (Talks, p. 402-403). I give Ramana the odds in the debate. His final answer was along the lines of, “all agree that the ego must go, realize that and then see if more is required.”
Ramana, Atmananda Krishnamenon, and Kirpal all stated that the only thing standing between man and God was the ego. Nothing else. So the fourth plane seems not like a place to get stranded (like Maha Sunn) but more like a jumping off point. And to me it further seems rather silly to make what is essentially a “sales pitch” for Sant Mat by scaring people with the threat of not making it through a grand dissolution by remaining at the fourth plane, as the supposed billions of years that must pass for such an event would seem more than enough time to rectify such a small error!
Assuming cosmic evolution and such immense scales of time between dissolutions are even true; that is to say, there are other views of creation to consider, such as the instantaneous creation in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.This is a huge topic. Much of evolutionary theory concerning immense time frames of millions of years has been called into question by legitimate scientific researchers who argue persuasively, through either Creationist or catastrophic theories, for a much shortened process, perhaps only thousands of years. In addition, the mechanisms for one species, even starting at the molecular or cellular levels, to evolve into another species has never been proven and remains a theory. It is difficult as well to reconcile reincarnation with these different views. Were souls created all at once, or are they being continually created, and falling, and so forth? Sant Mat and Christianity both have problems with an "in the beginning" story. A once and for all beginning presupposes the the existence of time, and a creation as such implies a creation of something out of nothing, which is impossible. So then we are left with theories of an emanation of something out of something - the eternal - and notions of a beginning are not tenable. Further, we must ask, a beginning of what - this universe? All universes? For some teachings say there are an infinitude of universes, all eternally cycling through births and deaths, or manifestations and dissolutions, and further doing so independently of each other.
"If the divine activity ceases in one universe it continues at the same time in another. If our World-Mind [i.e., God or Saguna Brahman] returns to its source in the end, there are other World-Minds and other worlds which continue. Creation is a thing without beginning and without end, but there are interludes and periods of rest just as there are in the individual's own life in and outside the body." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 3, 2.51).
Is the story of man's fall in either Sant Mat or Christianity, then, only a local one for our universe, or to be even more local, our earth? Did Christ only come to restore souls on planet earth, for instance, and is here and here alone where Satan - or Kal - corrupted things?
The ultimate problem is that all stories are false and only meant to satisfy the primitive mind.
For instance, Sawan Singh spoke of 9/10's of the souls in Sach Khand being sent down out of a desire to check out a new creation of Kal's lower down; Kirpal also said we were sent down, and that so far we were sinless and there was nothing we did wrong. But then, "as the story goes," we fell further from Dev Lok to the earth plane and became enmeshed in a cycle of birth and death. When asked if we will find out why we were sent down when we reach the causal plane, Kirpal said, "no, there you will only know something of your past births." When further asked, well, will we know the reason when we reach Sach Khand, he replied, "no, not Sach Khand either, such a question can not be substantiated." (see Heart-to-Heart Talks) . In other words, there is no answer, there is a problem inherent in the question itself. The Middle Eastern faiths are quite different, and hold that at first only two souls were created, by fiat of God - those of Adam and Eve - simultaneously with their bodies.
Whichever of these school of thought one believes, there is also the problem of how to account for the dramatic increase in the world's population over all these years. The Orthodox Fathers believe that after the initial Special Creation of the Six Days, and the subsequent Fall of Man, and Flood - which they maintain changed the physics of the original creation entirely - there has since been a continual creation of new souls by God from the moment of conception. It is still non-evolutionary, however, and there is no reincarnation. All the species were complete from the beginning. There has been no millions of years of anything. Theosophy, not holding to Orthodoxy, accepts reincarnation and appears to account for the discrepancy in population numbers by bringing in the idea of other planetary waves of souls entering the earth chain of evolution, but this seems a bit like kicking the can down the road, imo, for how to account for the creation of those souls, not of this earth, or from a different time? Further, theosophy holds that the soul of man pre-existed or was predetermined to always be Man, and awaited the evolution of the forms up to man before incarnating in a body. This is very similar to Origen's view of the pre-existence of the soul and its descent into a body from a higher realm (although without the evolution aspect). Of course Origen's view was adamantly refuted by many Church Fathers who accepted the more literal story of creation with no pre-existence of the soul. [In fact, the Orthodox Fathers have always viewed the gnostic views of the Greek Neo-Platonists with disdain, and have issues with St. Thomas Aquinas as well, who admired the Greeks and was a major influence within the Roman Church]. The theosophical theory of man's descent was that of a gradual incarnation via a process of emanation down through the various strata or planes, quite a different concept than the Darwinian model, but also like Darwin a process over millions of years. Daskalos, Greek Cypriote esoteric Christian mystic, did not teach evolution per se but did teach that there is continuous creation of souls via a process of differentiation of what he termed Holy Monads within what he termed the Divine Be-Ness, which pass through the archetypal Human idea or Idea of Man becoming human souls. Archangels, for instance, do not pass through the idea of Man. That accounts for the increase in the population, but then where is the Fall? We did not sin merely by passing through the Idea of Man, and we are left with essentially a spiritual evolutionary view and no Fall. He affirmed reincarnation, but not transmigration, animals having a different creation and line of development. Finally, Brunton like Plotinus taught that the soul entire never incarnates, but an emanate of it does which eventually becomes the human ego. Thus a man upon Self-realization attains union with the higher part of his soul which resides in the Nous and is rooted in God. Thus there is no question of one never making it or being forever lost.
In truth it seems that nobody really knows the whole answer of creation. Some Vedantists even deny there is such a thing! Suffice it to say that the views of the Middle Eastern religions and those of the Hindus could not be more apart. Bhai Sahib said that "Some people believe crows can be human beings; it is written in the scriptures.Those who believe in evolution think humans were animals once, but it is nonsense. Animal is animal, man is man. Realized people never believe such a thing." (Daughter of Fire, p. 379) In Islam, Christianity and Judaism, all of the species were created along distinct lines. And in this vein there has also been confusion within Islam, for instance, regarding the oft quoted verses of Rumi:
"I died as mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man,
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e.er conceived.
O let me not exist! For Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones "To Him we shall return.'"
Bhai Sahib, speaking to Ms. Tweedie, said, "This is something quite different; the meaning of it is not what you think." (Ibid)
I am reminded of the experience that Papaji had after seeing Ramana when he went through what appeared like an visionary evolutionary journey through all of his lives in every species from the amoeba to man, followed by the vision of Bhagavan, and then the Self alone. I believe Adyashanti mentioned a similar experience. And it is said that the Buddha had such an experience as well. But even so, this does not prove anyone had all of those past lives in different species. From a different perspective, it may only show the imprint of a similar maker or creator, and a form of cosmic vision granted to these people. St. Gregory of Nyssa (330-395 AD), in "On the Creation of Man," wrote:
"It is the whole of nature, extending from the beginning to the end, that constitutes the one image of God Who Is."
The Darwinian evolutionists used to believe "ontogony recapitulates phylogeny," whereby the embryonic stages seemed to mirror the theorized evolutionary stages. This has since been disproven and shown to be erroneous. And so may be the reincarnational/evolutionary spiritual theories. That is to say, maybe Guru Nanak was wrong when her told his companion that a worm he saw crawling on the ground used to be the Lord of a plane or a Guru but because he was a false teacher he was reborn as a worm! [Much more on the topic of creation, the fall, how can there be both evolution and a fall of souls in the beginning, and so on will be discussed in "Evolutionary Enigmas" in Part Four].
As we try to do throughout this book we are being fairly exhaustive in examining many sides to this topic to shed light on the various questions that may arise. The issue of being beyond the mind but not yet situated in realization of the Absolute is mentioned by Sri Siddharameshwar in Amrut Laya. He states:
"When there is nothing, that is called the causal body. It is also called ignorance...Who was the One that experienced or saw during sleep, that there is nothing? The answer is "I." So "you" had the experience that there was nothing during sleep. Existence-Knowledge-Bliss [Sat-Chit-Ananda] is the fourth body. He is God. That there is "nothing" during sleep, is known without the help of the mind. Leave off even that "I Am," then the modification of the mind which says "I Am" also remains at rest." (p. 103)
Here he seems to be referring to the subtlest dimension of the "I"-thought, which he says is the "origin of the assertion of objectivity." Kabir may have referred to this when he wrote, "but who can part with the seed mind within?" Shankaracharya called this Inner Mind or Fourth Body the "Primal Illusion," but it has also been called the "God of Gods," and sometimes "the Self." (In other sources the Self sometimes refers to Parabrahman, however, another reason not to jump to categorize a realization such as Ramana's).
There is more to be said, however, about the issue raised by Charan Singh. It is actually quite a difficult topic. And not one of immediate importance for one’s day to day practice, perhaps, but still useful to amine to show commonalities across different paths. To recap, Charan said that at the fourth plane there were still subtle blemishes or marks on the soul even though one was beyond the mind. We must first define what the fourth plane is. Is it just one state or plane? The causal is the third, but after that there is Maha Sunn and Bhanwar Gupha, or the supercausal. Siddharameshwar spoke of a Great Causal body or Fourth body realized after the causal ignorance is left behind. This is no less than SatChitAnanda, although not yet the Absolute or ParaBrahman. It is not the darkness of Maha Sunn, where one can hardly locate Ramana’s realization. But the issue of the super or supra or great causal body is of interest. It is ‘beyond’ the mind, but, what is it characterized by? For Sant Mat, the ascending soul realizes “ahambrahmasmi” or “I am of the same essence as God.” For Siddharameshwar there is utterance of the Maha Vakya “I am Brahman.” He say this is all right, but repeated assertion of that will raise a doubt about it, and this is veil upon the Truth.
Papaji expresses this advaitically by bringing in the notion of ‘no-mind.’ He says that when the ‘descent’ from consciousness reverses itself, one goes from attachment to the physical, the vital, the mental, the intellectual and finally to the ‘I’ alone. This is the root of the mind. From there, he says:
“It can’t go back to the world of attachments, to samsara. It has a desire for freedom; it wants to return to its original place. This ‘I’ which arose from consciousness want to return to consciousness. It takes the decision, ‘Become no-mind now,’ and with that decision the ‘I’ is gone, mind is gone. The ‘I’, which is the mind, has been rejected, but there is still something there which is between the ‘I’ and consciousness. This in-between thing is called no-mind. This in-between entity will merge into consciousness, and then it will become consciousness Itself…When you go from mind back to consciousness, you go through this stage of no-mind. In that stage there will be the feeling, the recollection, ‘NowI have no-mind’. Gradually, slowly, this no-mind will merge back into the beyond. But how it happens, I do not know.” (Papaji, p. 264-265)
The latter is surely an enigmatic statement, but not one uttered out of ignorance. Papaji said that he had an advanced teaching that none of his followers were ready for. We can only guess what that was, but here he equates no-mind with the anadamayakosha or bliss sheath on the Atman, and says that once you reach there your work is done. From there, from no-mind, the task is turned over to the beyond which “will come to receive and embrace you, it will take hold of you and work on you in a very wonderful way.” (Ibid, p. 263)
PB, too, spoke like this:
“We cannot take hold of it; it takes hold of us. Therefore the last stage of this quest is an effortless one. We are led, as children by the hand, into the resplendent presence…The Overself lovingly swallows us.”
So we see in three traditions a very similar penultimate transition. [‘Penultimate’ because the further step, in all traditions, is to extend this awareness into ordinary everyday life]. One may wonder, however, why did Papaji imply knowledge of what happens, but say he did not know how it happened? One answer lies in the meaning of the faculty of intuition, which has been defined as “the perceptual ability to know without knowing how you know,” which lies on the borderland of the soul’s direct insight. Ramana spoke of an intuition arising that one would follow into the heart. We might do well to ask or enquire, “How does it happen?”, or perhaps, “What is the power in Consciousness that makes it happen?”
This is a real mystery, especially when considering the Sant Mat position, making it appear that something external to consciousness must do something to secure the salvation of a soul. Kirpal Singh, for instance, said that “one must be ushered into those [transcendental] planes.” The question presents itself, “Who or what ushers what into what?” Well, what is a Master, after all? Consciousness? Hhhmm….
Isolation of the "I" : Dread and the Void
There is another aspect, besides ending up in a bewildering dead-end state of laya, as mentioned by sages noted above, that may come up in terms of difficulty in passing beyond the void. Whether this is the case in Maha Sunn we are not certain, but it is commonly reported in the spiritual literature for what seem to be similar stages. That is related to the fact that at this stage the ego is becoming more isolated and alone. Body, thoughts, feelings, and even cosmic experiences are gone, and offer it no support. All it sees is a nothingness and an abyss. It may have been taught that it must surrender to a Higher Power, but here it does not know there is a Higher Power! Further, the more it enters the void and the more isolated it becomes, the more a sense of fear or dread may arise as it senses its impending annihilation. And it will recoil and fall back into the welcoming arms of its prior experience of life in the ego, both worldly and spiritual. Only its prior discipline and understanding will help it stay the course at this critical juncture, but even still, with few exceptions, it won't surrender willingly. A higher form of help must come to its aid and 'force the issue.' If one is prepared, through prior struggles with his ego, he will recognize intuitively the help when it begins to manifest itself, and not be as inclined to be at war with it..
Here we are talking of penetrating the roots of fear. The "dread" is more or less, depending on how much one has been able in their practice - in all its forms - to 'die' a little each day. Still, it is not the ego that can surrender itself completely. Help must come to it, but unless its prior experience and discipline and understanding have prepared it to struggle with the ego, day by day and in all circumstances of life, it may not be able to recognize the Help when it does come, but in fact may run from it. Only when an ego has matured and reached a profound level of understanding, or satiation with experience, or the deepest humility, will it be really capable of surrendering itself, or even recognizing both in or out of meditation that this is what it is called for.
The problem is something like this. The basic nature of the "I" or ego is the assertive will-to-be, or the self-will itself. How will it give that up, when it knows nothing else? The problem is also that in a deep contemplative stage the ego-I becomes not so much a thing but a state, and it is difficult to let go. This, in my opinion, can apply to a path of jnana as well as a mystical one like Sant Mat. Damiani explains:
"As we're tracing back this I-thought, it becomes ever more and more ethereal and refined and difficult to pinpoint because it's no longer a thing; it becomes really a state. Within the psychological state, that I-ness is relatively undefined, not very articulate. But as we advance into more mystical states, that becomes more and more defined and more and more felt, so we become identified with an infinite existence."
"The next step is to give that up. And you won't. No one will give that up. A situation has to be brought about where you're forced to choose between identifying with that I-ness or dropping it. The analyses from the psychological level just are inadequate." (Standing in Your Own Way (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1993), p. 205)
It is not only that one will hesitate to give up an infinite existence, but that, in a way, the ego is in hiding here and difficult to see, being experienced more as a state than a thing. So help in some form or other is needed to get past this invisible, some say non-existent, barrier. Some have likened Daswan Dwar (the “door”) and Maha Sunn to a “black hole”. We go through it to come out a “white hole”. Some can get stuck there because of the peace and the lower personality is gone (to “zero”, as Faqir Chand put it in his book Truth Always Wins), but the “I”- thought is actually still there. So it’s not the real Zero yet. [Otherwise we might be persuaded, for instance, that Kirpal Singh, who called himself “Mr. Zero”, only went past the causal plane and no further, which is clearly not the case]. Perhaps this diffuse presence of the ego is why Faqir called the “four hidden regions” in Maha Sunn, as lyrically depicted in the Sar Bachan, as none other than the four functions of mind (manas, chit, buddhi, ahamkara).
So some kind of help is needed. Not necessarily outside help, however. For the ripe and prepared soul, he will begin to intuitively sense the "King within" becoming active and helping the ego do what unaided it can not do by itself.
"There is something in us which takes charge and knows and can distinguish between the profoundest subtleties of the ego and the non-ego. One has to deliver oneself to that guidance." (Ibid, p. 206)
Yes, in Sant Mat it is promised that the Master will come and, as it were, overshadow the soul with His greater light and safely take it to Sach Khand. But I wonder how easy this is without the soul's cooperation? So far, up to Maha Sunn, the mystic may in a manner of speaking not have surrendered anything substantial. He should have, but it is actually possible to reach this stage in meditation without altogether letting go of the ego. Kirpal admitted as much when, responding to the erratic behavior of one satsangi who went very far within but still acted stupidly outside, said, "why did he act like that? Because the ego [or egoism] goes all the way up." This certainly happens a lot on this path, and one might question why a master would permit this to happen. On the path of Sri Ramana this is less frequent, because the question of the ego is directly tackled from the beginning, and trance states are eschewed. The Masters have their ways, however, and as Kirpal would say, "give the disciple a long rope." One way or another, hopefully the job gets done.
David Hawkins also writes on this issue, and how many have stopped with the realization of the Void, feeling it is the Divine:
"The void of Nothingness...is the end-point of the pathway of negation that denies the reality of everything or anything (i.e., the linear form or 'thingness' as attachment). The error that follows is the presumption that the transcendence of all form is the sole condition of Buddhahood. This is an easy mistake to make because experientially, the condition of the Void is enormously impressive. As it unfolds, it is ineffable, infinite, timeless, Oneness, all encompassing, still, silent, unmoving, and strangely inclusive of the 'awareness of non-awareness' that precludes even beingness or existence. This state is definitely and experientially, without question, beyond duality. There is neither subject nor object, there is nothing left to surrender and no one left to surrender, thus, it indeed seems to be the ultimate state of Enlightenment itself"
"If the state of Void (Nothingness) were the ultimate reality, it would be a permanent condition, and there would be no entity to report it. However, it is not, and therefore, sooner or later, one leaves the Void and returns to conscious existence...The Knowingness that is needed to transcend this level is that Divine Love is also nonlinear and without subject, object, form, conditionality, or location. The limitation (incompleteness) of the Void is reached a as consequence of intense dedication to the pathway of negation; however, missing is the realization that Love is a primary quality of Divinity and is also nonlinear, and that spiritual love is not an attachment...In contrast, Divine Love is predominant, powerful, overwhelming, and the primary quality or essence of the Presence. It is profound and unconditional, with no subject or object. It is not an emotionality but a condition or state that is liberating rather than limiting. The Void is comparable to infinite, empty conscious space. In contrast, the Presence of Divinity is like the heart of the sun. There is no mistaking it for the Love is realized as the very core and Source of one's primary Self." (David Hawkins, Transcending the Levels of Consciousness (Hay House, 2015), p. 301-302)
He writes of his own experience:
"...while it is one thing to happily give up the iron chains of ego, it is quite another to abandon the golden chains of ecstatic joy. It feels as though one is giving up God, and a new level of fear arises, never before anticipated. This is the final terror of absolute aloneness.”
A final death awaits. This suggests that the “I”-thought is still present although as it were in hiding.
“To the ego, the fear of nonexistence was formidable, and it drew back from it repeatedly as it seemed to approach. The purpose of the agonies and the dark nights of the soul then became apparent. They are so intolerable that their exquisite pain spurs one on to the extreme effort required to surmount them. When vacillation between heaven and hell becomes unendurable, the desire for existence itself has to be surrendered. Only once this is done may one finally move beyond the duality of Allness versus nothingness, beyond existence or nonexistence. This culmination of the inner work is the most difficult phase, the ultimate watershed where one is starkly aware that the illusion of existence one here transcends is irreversible. There is no returning from this step, and the specter of irreversibility makes this last barrier appear to be the most formidable choice of all. But, in fact, in this final apocalypse of the self, the dissolution of the sole remaining duality of existence and nonexistence-identity itself -- dissolves in Universal Divinity and no individual consciousness is left to choose. The last step, then, is taken by God.” (Devotional Non-Duality (Veritas Publishing, 2007), p. 291-295)
After years of mystic experience, Brunton went through a similar event:
"Only a man in a higher state of consciousness can really depend upon God; because without such illumination he depends upon his ego to the end. No matter how much he prays for help he first tries to work out his problems by his own management. In the illumined state, he completely depends upon God for everything. He no longer has any ambitions or desires. The desiring ego is dissolved. Only a grave inner crisis involving the crushing of the ego can bring on this God-conscious state. Very often this is not possible of achievement by ourselves so it has to be done by an outside force or by outside circumstances. It is seldom that a man's own voluntary power can shatter its ego shell. However, he can assist the process somewhat through self-discipline, purification and trying to raise himself to a higher existence. But in the end he has to acknowledge the ego's limitations and turn to the Short Path or else circumstances or disasters must crush him. He is so much in the ego that he cannot see outside it and therefore cannot, unaided, destroy it. Ultimately, if he remains on the Long Path, unpleasant and humiliating experiences must finish this process. It is the dark night of the soul, the shock of being driven out of his personal complacency. He cannot help himself and feels that no one in the world can help him either. In that darkness he is utterly and completely lost, and there is no place to turn for light or relief, no way out at all. He is forced to give up and cry out in desperation to the great Nothingness which surrounds him. He loses faith that God is merciful for he seems so deserted and alone."
"When this experience happened to me, I felt dead and empty inside. I was suddenly faced with an entirely new problem which caused me intense mental anguish for about a day and a half. There seemed to be no way out from it. Desolation and emptiness covered my heart. Confusion and torment filled it. There seemed to be no one to whom I could turn for help or advice, and I could find no solution within myself and had no power to do anything within myself. It was impossible not to refrain from crying and giving away to tears as I sank deeper into this black state. I became oblivious of my physical surroundings, as I was so intensely wrapped up in my descending thoughts. I felt utterly lost within myself. All the people around me seemed like empty shells. I felt no affinity with them."
"Suddenly, I realized that this was a crushing of the self by an unknown power beyond myself. It was then that I began fervently to pray, feeling forlorn, humbled, terrified and lost. I did not pray for any particular one thing but prayed only for help in a general sense. I lost the feeling of the passage of time. I felt severed from earthly reality and became dizzy at the thought that I had reached the end of my endurance. Then I swooned. The moments just before I fainted were filled with indescribable horror. But I soon awoke. A tiny flame of hope appeared in my heart. And then it grew and grew. My first thought was that God was answering my prayers. I began gradually to feel close to the people around me once more, closer than ever before. Some hours later reassurance gradually returned to me and I felt mature and newly born. Enlightenment seemed to come."
"Next a feeling of oneness with God followed. I seemed to know and understand much that I had never understood before. My ego was going and my happiness increased every moment. I felt that this newfound faith would guide me through every possible situation...All day long I felt that I was in communion with God so that I was either praying or talking to Him, and he was constantly with me as my beloved companion, whose presence I felt strongly. At times I would become so immersed in this feeling that I thought I was God! I felt that the real me was invulnerable. No one could hurt it whatever they did to the outer person."
"The word 'I' was pronounced in me; I saw it was the only reality, all else was illusion...'I AM' is the foundation of truth and reality of the whole universe. I saw my body as a mere shell and all other people's bodies as shells. I felt like a bird, free of all desires, really detached from everything. I was not the body and felt so free of it that I knew I could not die; in the real 'I' I would always be able to live for it was God...I lived completely, vividly, and intensely in the present moment. There was no past and no future; they were both contained within it. This was not like the ordinary man's Now which is based on the passage of time. This had a timeless quality about it. It was an unmoving stillness and things, events, people, came into and flowed out of it. I realized that the passage of time was an illusion, that everything which was happening to the ego was not making any difference to the real self, which remained the same. Looking back upon the past years I still seemed to be in the same eternal Now which I had been in which I first experienced it. It is as if nothing has happened since then..." (Kenneth Thurston Hurst, Paul Brunton: A Personal View (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications) p. 29-31)
So there are a few problems faced with the void. For one, the Soul is of the nature of voidness and so is the Divine. Primarily, however, the main difficulty is that the person as ego will always run from the loneliness, the emptiness (from its point of view) of their higher self. This is fundamental. The ego being, as Ramana said, a "spurious entity," or in Brunton's terms, no real "I" but rather a series of concepts actualizing themselves as an "I"- process; or in other words, a collection of thoughts or 'matrix of possibilities' constantly externalizing, corporealizing and believing in themselves, energized by self-will, that will recoil from their impending doom in the void and paradoxically, seemingly impossibly, pull ones consciousness back into illusion. Further, in any so-called 'spiritual' experiences, up to and including even that of the Soul itself, the ego will try to infiltrate itself into that glimpse. Thus, one habitually says "my" experience, or "I" had a vision, and so on, including, in big ones, the proverbial "I am the new Messiah" complex. And this is why having mystical experiences without metaphysical or philosophical training, and paths which may encourage that, can be so dangerous, and why so few unite with the Soul or Overself or realize the Sach Khand stage. We say "stage" here to emphasize once again that the realization can, and some say, must, be found not only in meditation but in full wakeful consciousness with the senses active.
Ch'an Master Hsi Yun wrote:
"Ordinary people look outwards, while followers of the Way look into their own minds, but the real Dharma is to forget both the external and the internal. The former is easy enough, the latter very difficult. Men are afraid to forget their own minds, fearing to fall through the void with nothing to which they can cling. They do not know that the void is not really void but the real realm of the Dharma." (E. A. Burtt, op. cit., p. 199)
So this problem of breaking through an (essentially imaginary) void is an ancient one. The permanent solution, when all is said and done, is one of understanding, and not merely experience. From what we have discussed earlier, it appears that some Sant Mat gurus recognize and acknowledge this, and some don't.
One fundamental point to grasp, in our view, as emphasized by Aadi quoted earlier, is that having of an experience and the understanding of it are two different things, and the one does not necessarily follow upon the other. Safeguards, besides holding fast to the feet and teachings of a true sage or Master, are humility, the use of one's reason, and the recognition that the ego is far more clever than the conscious mind, having essentially millions of years experience in seeing after its own survival.
Isn't this an interesting perspective? That when one looks into his own loneliness, he turns away from it, being more interested in the incessant combustion of a series of habitual thoughts actualizing themselves as an "I" than he is in the seemingly 'empty' center that is his Real Being? One's impending death is entirely illusory, it has been said countless times, but, unchallenged, enough to drive one up a wall for an indefinite number of incarnations!
Here, in the void, however, there is, so to speak, nowhere to go, nothing to call ones own, and the challenge to surrender presents itself, if one is ready. If one has not tried, however, to 'whittle' down the ego - as prosaic and hopeless a task as it is by itself for displacing it - day by monotonous day - choosing the higher over the lower, the positive over the negative, the ethical over the unethical - dropping irrelevant thoughts, not expressing reactive emotions, letting go of all that the lower self wants you to do, say, feel, or think - all of which are tied to self-will, and the rejection of which essentially shows our faith in the higher power - all of that, as well as developing that ego (for it has a role to play in life) - how readily then, one may ask, will one be able to surrender when the Grace arises and calls for one to do so completely? Many of us will likely flee from the encounter, not recognizing what is actually happening. And this is why a Master or God does not simply take us there without us doing our part. Because there is something for us to learn in all the trials and tribulations of this earth experience. We must come to know ourselves. "Know Thyself," said Plutarch, "was thought so highly that it is considered to be a Divine Precept."
I think many of us imagine the progression from the astral and mental planes to Sach Khand something like "more of the same only better and better." But I sense that the truth is more that Sach Khand or Sat Lok as a whole is a qualitatively different dimension. Not only is it unimaginable, but we do first pass through an equivalent of what is called the "Great Death" in Zen. This is why the depth of humility is so different in those who have made this passage, and why comparatively few make it there in life, according to the Masters. Even though it is our destiny and in fact what we are in truth.
Bernadette Roberts speaks of the fear upon approaching this transition, the absolute need for preparation to endure it, and the unique and unimaginable nature of the crossing over:
"...there may be an initial movement of fear at the idea of crossing over and never again returning. But what eventually casts out all fear is a lifetime spent with the divine, a lifetime of being finely attuned to its ways and doings, and years of testing self's absolute immovable trust in the divine. An entire life's journey of love and trust is now brought to bear on the single unknown moment of permanently crossing the line. The enormous preparation and variety of experiences needed to come to this moment can never be sufficiently stressed."
The gist is that readiness is an important factor, and one should not be under the illusion that such a transition will just happen by magic. The fear comes chiefly from lack of readiness, but as we have said elsewhere, "even when you're ready you're not ready," and grace is necessary to crown the work with success.
Roberts continues, but here I think she may be speaking more to a higher stage even than Sach Khand - perhaps, in Sant Mat, the equivalent of Anami or the Stateless State (which some Sant Mat Masters have described as "beyond consciousness"), or the transition from the Great Causal Body to the Absolute as discussed by Sri Siddharameshwar in Amrut Laya:
"There begins the adjustment to a totally new dimension of experience, and one that could not have been imagined ahead of time...The moment consciousness is permanently, irrevocably suspended - with no possibility of return - is a moment unknown to consciousness; thus the moment of crossing over is totally unknown. It is not an "experience"...We should also add that no one - no entity or being, no self or consciousness - passes over the line. Passing over simply means that all experiences of self or consciousness have permanently ceased." (What Is Self?, p. 46)
Roberts makes an intricate and challenging argument for a definitive divide between consciousness and what is 'beyond' consciousness, and a state of manonasa or no-mind, but other sages are more nuanced on this issue. Adyashanti said that "the sage is associated with consciousness, but doesn't dwell there," essentially reflecting Sri Nisargadatta's view. PB echoes Plotinus in affirming that the "Soul is a double-knower," being simultaneously aware of the Absolute and the relative, with consciousness as such transcended but not obliterated.This is not essential to the discussion at hand but is explored more in the concluding sections of Part Four.
An important point is that the essence of the process described here applies in paths of knowledge or jnana as well as mysticism like Sant Mat. And it also need not be seen as limited to those who are able to achieve a profound depth of inner meditation. From the Heart's Gaze we need not be Olympic athletes of the spirit to claim our inheritance. It can - and should - apply in the everyday life as well. A crisis of one sort or another - not only a dreaded void passage - may be that moment when Grace will arise in the Heart and beckon us Home. In our understanding, then, passing through "Maha Sunn" is not limited to meditation. It can be seen as here and now as well. The trick is, as Fenelon said, "to die a little everyday so there will be little to do at the last." It is all in all a very humble, even prosaic, affair, but it will get the job done as far as our part is concerned.
There is a further consideration to make for us to see things in a practical way. We can call it non-dualism, but practical brings it more down to earth. This has been a theme and intention throughout this book. As Kirpal was quoted earlier, "To know God you have to bring about a change in your heart, learn to look inward, and realize that He is your Overself. As soon as you have this realization, you are with Him." This is a simplification of the spiritual path in a nutshell: to see the Spirit here and now, even in the apparently most mundane, through the Heart's gaze. Unfortunately, even though he said this, most of us will not believe his plain words. Anthony Damiani expresses the insight in another way:
"See how subtle it is? Very, very subtle. Just a shift in attention and emphasis - if the attention shifts into the thought, identifies with the thought, you're in the ego consciousness. Shift the attention out of the ego-consciousness, don't identify with the ego, the thoughts, and you'll be with the Overself...You don't have to have a world-devastating illumination and the light of a million suns shining to be in the Overself. It's so close, but we fail to recognize it all the time. That's our problem...Don't think that the Overself consciousness must be some extra rapture and ecstasy, where you swoon because you're so ecstatic. It doesn't have to be that way. The Overself consciousness could be very peaceful and quiet. You could experience the nobility of its peace and the certitude of it as understanding. It could be that way, too. And it could be experienced in a discussion taking place about some very subtle point...You say, "But can it be such a trivial thing?" It's not trivial. Rather, it's because we're so gross that we see it as so ethereal and trivial. If we were capable of purifying ourselves to some extent, then that trivial point that we're talking about could become quite important." (Ibid, p. 95, 97, 99)
We don't want to discourage anyone, only to present a sober, yet accessible and reasoned impression of things. Surely the love towards and from a Master can carry anyone through all these complexities. We really wish to inspire all at whatever apparent level or place they may be in. So please do not despair. Many saints, East and West, have in fact wept bitterly over their inability to understand complex teachings - and even their inability to read! - only to find immediate consolation from the God in their Heart. Yet,
"To whom does that power to understand belong? To the ego? For instance, when we understand the illusory nature of the ego, do you think it's the ego that understands that? So the power by which you understand is the divine in you." (Ibid, p. 96)
Brunton, to repeat, also attempts to ease us into an understanding of the intimidating concept of the void:
“The Void must not be misunderstood. Although it is the deepest state of meditation and one where he is deprived of all possessions, including his own personal self, it has a parallel state in the ordinary active non-meditative condition, which can best be called detachment...After all, even the Void, grand and awesome as it is, is nothing but a temporary experience, a period of meditation...The awareness of what is Real must be found not only in deep meditation, in its trance, but when fully awake.” (Ibid, 8.186-188)
When speaking of the void here he is not talking specifically about Maha Sunn or such experiential void or blankness [although his point could apply to that as well] but the pristine 'voidness' of the Soul when realized internally at its source, but not yet in ordinary life in sahaj samadhi, which he characterized as a “further and extended operation.” As Abbot Shibayama continues from his preceding quote:
“Zen training is not the emotional process of just being in the state of oneness, nor is it just to have the "feeling" of no-mind. Prajna wisdom (true wisdom) has to shine out after breaking through the extremity of the Great Doubt, and then still further training is needed so that one can freely live the Zen life and work in the world as a new man." (A Flower Does Not Talk, op. cit., )
Here there seems to be some difference as to the steadiness of realization. The general consensus among sages, whether in Zen, Ramana Maharshi, or Brunton, is that the enduring stage of sahaja, or knowing/being reality in all states and conditions, takes time to stabilize and integrate. In Zen, for instance, there is mention of the "downward practice" after satori, and the "return to the market place" stage. Ramana quoted the Kaivalya Navaneeta to the effect that realization can, in effect, be lost until vasanas are eradicated. Sri Nisargadatta at times appears to be unique in claiming that realization - and not just a glimpse - is sudden and irreversible:
"There are no steps to self-realization. There is nothing gradual about it. It happens suddenly and is irreversible.You rotate into a new dimension seen from which the previous ones are mere abstractions... There can be progress only in the preparation (sadhana). Realization is sudden. The fruit ripens slowly, but falls suddenly and without return." (I AM THAT, p. 331-332)
Inasmuch as he said that he was in agreement with the teachings of Ramana one might ask if he was speaking of the same thing, or if this was just another variant on the sudden-gradual enlightenment debate that has gone on for centuries. He also said:
“If you wait for an event to take place for the coming of reality, you will wait forever, for reality neither comes nor goes. It is to be perceived, not expected. It is not to be prepared for and anticipated. All you can do is to grasp the central point, that reality is not an event and does not happen and whatever happens, whatever comes and goes, is not reality...Then you are vulnerable to reality, no longer armoured against it, as you were when you gave reality to events and experiences. But as soon as there is some like or dislike, you have drawn a screen...There was no coming. It was always so. There was discovery and it was sudden. Just as at birth you discover the world suddenly, as suddenly I discovered my real being...[It is] absolutely steady. Whatever I do, it stays like a rock - motionless. Once you have awakened into reality, you stay in it. A child does not return to the womb! It is a simple state, smaller than the smallest, bigger than the biggest. It is self-evident and get beyond description...The three states rotate as usual - there is waking and sleeping and waking again, but they do not happen to me. They just happen. To me nothing ever happens. There is something changeless, motionless, immovable, rock-like, unassailable; a solid mass of pure being-consciousness-bliss. I am never out of it. Nothing can take me out of it, no torture, no calamity.” (Ibid, p. 190-192)
But in the following he clarifies his position and affirms, like the majority of sages there is a process of stabilization, and realization is not, in fact, a "one-shot":
"When the mind is kept away from its preconceptions, it becomes quiet. If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it, you find that it is permeated with a light and love you have never known; and yet you recognize it at once as your own nature. Once you have passed through this experience you will never be the same man again; the unruly mind may break its peace and obliterate its vision, but it is bound to return, provided that the effort is sustained; until the day when all bounds are broken, delusions and attachments end and life becomes supremely concentrated in the present." (Ibid, p. 308)
Yes, you will never be the same man again: this is the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning; but, no, ones real-ization is not fully grown under all conditions. So the saints and sages are in general agreement on this point.
In any case he is affirming the point that the awakening to ones true being - 'absolutely steady, rock-like' - is inclusive of all states and not only to be accomplished on an inner plane, no matter how lofty.
A Dark Night
The concept of personal or psychological emptiness or voidness, of a soul’s ‘dark night’, will be looked at much more in Part Three, but for now a recent internet post has captured some of our own thinking of a way of looking at “Maha Sunn” from a non-inversion perspective experienced in our ordinary life:
“I think there is an intimate connection between states of deep and intense "depression", futility, meaninglessness, nihilistic phases etc, and experiences that occur through spiritual or mystical beliefs and practices. This is commonly referred to as "dark night" in western traditions...and I personally believe this is labelled as "sunya" or void in the Indian eastern traditions such as RS (a state, stage or region in RS is often interpreted literally within geo-spatial terms, rather than energetic resonances across all "spaces", so here "maha-sunn" is a literal "region" in a cosmology, between daswan dwar and bhanwar gupha, whereas imo it is more a stage in a person’s life that is reflected throughout their entire experience, worldly, personal, familial, financial, emotional as well as possibly visionary, ie. an experience of a visionary void in their meditation. This comes back, imo, to how unsophisticated the RS theology and teachings are)."
“I strongly feel, based on direct personal experience, unless one has reached the absolute depths of despair, depression, futility, nihilism, meaninglessness, lack of love from the outside world etc, one is unable to reach, comprehend and integrate the absolute heights of "spiritual ecstasy", of "Oneness", of a "love" so pure and unconditional. If you have not suffered and drunk, deeply, at the well of depression, despair and futility, then you are an incomplete human being. You have not understood reality. Your entire being has not been disassembled and put back together again with the very DNA of compassion, understanding, non-judgementalism, love, etc..”
This is a cogent, penetrating statement - as well as strong criticism - of a dimension often lacking in the traditional teachings on most paths, that one would do well to ponder deeply. That the way is not, in reality, only a disembodied mystical journey, but a moment to moment transformation and shift in consciousness no farther away than our own heart, is also a central theme of this book. PB again seems to bring the two concepts together:
"He feels himself to be on the very edge of existence, with a dark annihilating void just in front and the lighted, safe solidity of familiar ground just behind him." (Notebooks, Vol. 15, 8.69)
"If the Overself did not lead him into and through the final dark night, where he becomes as helpless as an infant, as bereft of interior personal possessions as a destitute pauper, how else would he learn that it is not by his own powers and capacities that he can rise at last into enduring illumination?” (Ibid, 3.54)
Two KInds of Void
There may still be some confusion here as to what void we are talking about experientially: the void of Maha Sunn between the causal and supracausal or spiritual realm, or the "Void" of Anami after Sach Khand. The fear experience, it seems - on this path - can only be applicable to crossing Maha Sunn, for emotion and the ego should no longer be present in Sach Khand, if it is what it is said to be, and that passage is the primary death to contend with, with anything further more or less a deepening that takes care of itself. But, on the other hand, the final Void of Anami seems the only one to merit the absolute term "Nothing." And this must then be coordinated or integrated with daily life to be considered the Fullness state of sahaja as scripturally defined.
Let us again direct our attention to the first major void discussed in the previous section. Again, I quote Brunton, despite his being from another tradition, and not because he is the ultimate authority, but simply because he is most articulate, and the distinctions we are inquiring about are are not addressed adequately from a philosophical perspective in Sant Mat literature. He writes:
"Those who succeed in reaching this point in their meditation often withdraw just there, overcome by terror or gripped by panic. For the prospect of utter annihilation seems to yawn, like an abyss, beneath their feet. It is indeed the crucial point. The ego, which has lurked behind all their spiritual aspiration and hidden in disguise within all their spiritual thinking, must now emerge and show itself as it really is. For where, in this utter void, can it now conceal itself?...This is not an ordinary kind of courage which is required here. All that ties him to his nature as a human being, to his very existence, must be let go...Those who find that beyond the light they must pass through the Void, the unbounded emptiness, often draw back affrighted and refuse to venture further. For here they have naught to gain or get no glorious spiritual rapture to add to their memories, no great power to increase their sense of being a co-worker with God. Here their very life-blood is to be squeezed out as the price of entry, here they must become the feeblest of creatures...The dividing line between the Void and Being, between utter emptiness and inner reality, is hard to find...The battle against the ego and the first great fulfillment take place in the Void." (Ibid, 8.38, 8.42, 8.39, 8.2)
This is part of why the soul that attains the state of Sach Khand is not only much humbler but also in a different position than one who has not yet done so. Obviously the battle with the ego has taken place many times in lesser stages, but here it can be said to be in its most direct, final stages. But then, Brunton says:
"God as MIND fulls that void. In being deprived first of his ego and then of his ecstatic emotional union with the Overself, the mystic who is inwardly reduced to a state of nothingness comes as close to God's state as he can. However, this does not mean that he comes to God's consciousness." (Ibid, 8.10)
"The moment he emerges from the void, he regains his individuality, for without this he has to live and move in the lower world. But it is not the personal ego which is regained. That is already dead. It is his soul." (Ibid, 8.171)
"It is a temporary state because so long as we are living in the flesh we are unable to sustain it and we are drawn back by the forces of nature - first to the ego and then to the body." (Ibid, 8.172)
Even though the nature of the soul is voidness, here he seems to speak of the deeper realization of the Void, what may be the equivalent of the Anami realization in Sant Mat. By the "ecstatic emotional union with the Overself," (although the word 'emotional' is likely not accurate, since the ego has been left behind), he can only mean union with the higher part of the Soul in or as Sach Khand. But beyond that, beyond the individual (but not personal) divine soul, there is the immaculate Void; some might want to say it means the Atman. Brunton appears to side more with the Christian and Islamic view than that of Advaita, in holding that one does not become God, although the soul being rooted in divinity shares in some of its attributes. This also seems more or less the Sant Mat view.
"The soul is a particle and an image of Him and shares His wonderful qualities." (The Philosophy of the Masters, Part Three, p. 108)
Brunton phrases it a little differently:
"The Overself is an emanation from the ultimate reality but is neither a division nor a detached fragment of it. It is a ray shining forth but not the sun itself." (Perspectives, p. 296)
It gets difficult to articulate the nature of what is realized. While one can be absorbed into Anami, he is not the Absolute. He comes out of it. A ray of the sun is not the sun, but, neither is it separate from the sun. Yet there are not two things, such as Soul and Sat Purush; rather, they are really two aspects of our true nature. Brunton adds in his own language:
"The mysterious character of the Overself inevitably puzzles the intellect. We may appreciate it better if we accept the paradoxical fact that it unites a duality and that therefore there are two ways of thinking of it, both correct. There is the divine being which is entirely above all temporal concerns, absolute and universal, and there is also the demi-divine being which is in historical relationship with the human ego." (Notebooks, Vol. 14, 3.386)
But the critical point is that there is no fear in this transition, whereas, in passing Maha Sunn there can be fear and hesitancy, primarily due to insufficient understanding, preparation, and purification.
And here we might also venture to say that Maha Sunn, for the sake of comparison with other systems, is where it is no longer easy to conceive of subjectivity or objectivity, and this void is as much a point of tension between the higher and lower planes, or a higher and lower perspective, as it is an actual region. One goes from experience as a reflection of the light (the 'I am'), to being a transmitter of and as that light. Thus, the darkness is experienced as dark according to the natural light of the soul, which is reborn in its true nature when this passage or transition is complete.
Words of the Master: Saving Grace and Blessed Assurance
Can it be simpler than all this? Yes. From another perspective the worry and difficulty of passing “Maha Sunn” is a matter of lack of love, faith, and surrender in our daily life. When that is established, or accepted, the rest is a mere technicality. But to cover all the bases we had to go through this exhaustive analysis in order to convince the mind to let go. Such knowledge was a useful but not required. It all depends on the soul. The Masters are not here to prolong our agony or present us with an elaborate search, but we are often so complicated it is difficult to embrace “you are already there, you just don’t know it” - or, perhaps, believe it. So reality gets provisionally sliced and diced into complex teachings to engage our intelligence while the inner Master of us all simply beams reality into our hearts.
To rescue our by now no doubt over-heated brains, Sri Siddharameshwar thankfully does this for us with a stunning statement:
"Firm faith in the statements of the saints is itself the pure experience of the Self." (Ibid)
Kirpal Singh likewise wrote:
"Words of the Master are the Master."
"Remember me" is a summary of the "Short Path", and the "Way of Self-Surrender" spoken of by Kirpal. It seems almost to good to be true, and it is, from the mind's point of view: just believe and act as if you were saved. But how many really try it? What are we always doing instead? Worrying, doubting? So it is not as easy as it may seem at first. Still, many masters and sages proclaim its efficacy:
Sri Nisargadatta states:
"Words of a realized man never miss their purpose. They wait for the right conditions to arise which may take some time, and this is natural, for there is a season for sowing and a season for harvesting. But the word of a Guru is a seed that cannot perish. Of course, the Guru must be a real one, who is beyond the body and the mind, beyond consciousness itself, beyond space and time, beyond duality and unity, beyond understanding and description. The good people, who have read a lot and have a lot to say, may teach you many useful things, but they are not the real Gurus whose words invariably come true." (I AM THAT, op. cit., p. 421-422)
And again from Kirpal Singh:
"The bitter words of the Master taste sweet;
His sweet words are a boon all their own;
His words, whatever they are, bear fruit in abundance,
But the idle words of others go in vain."
Shri Atmananda states:
“You first listen to the Truth direct from the lips of the Guru. Your mind, turned perfectly sattvic by the luminous presence of the Guru, has become so sensitive and sharp that the whole thing is impressed upon it as if it were a sensitive film. You visualize your real nature then and there. But the moment you come out, the check of the presence of the Guru being removed, other samskaras rush in and you are unable to recapitulate what was said or heard. But later on, whenever you think of that glorious incident, the whole picture comes back to your mind – including the form, words and arguments of the Guru – and you are thrown afresh into the same state of visualization you had experienced on the first day. Thus you constantly hear the same Truth from within. This is how a spiritual tattvopadesha helps you all through life, till you are established in your own real nature.” (Notes on Spiritual Discourses , Vol. II, #934)
For me the most moving description of a process of trusting one's Master comes from Sri Nisargadatta, who confessed that he did nothing - no sadhana - other than trust his Master's words and live his life, and was liberated in just three years!
"Somehow it was very simple and easy in my case. My Guru, before he died, told me: Believe me, you are the Supreme Reality. Don't doubt my words, don't disbelieve me. I am telling you the truth - act on it. I could not forget his words and by not forgetting - I have realized it. [I did] nothing special. I lived my life, plied my trade, looked after my family, and every free moment I would spend just remembering my Guru and his words. He died soon after and I had only the memory to fall back on. It was enough...His words were true and so they came true. True words always come true. My Guru did nothing; his words acted because they were true. Whatever I did, came from within, un-asked and unexpected...[You made no efforts whatsoever?] None. Believe it or not, I was not even anxious to realize. He only told me that I am the Supreme and then died. I just could not disbelieve him. The rest happened by itself. I found myself changing - that is all. As a matter of fact, I was astonished. But a desire arose in me to verify his words. I was so sure that he could not possibly have told a lie, that I felt I shall either realize the full meaning of the words or die. I was feeling quite determined, but did not know what to do. I would spend hours thinking of him and his assurance, not arguing, but just remembering what he told me. [What happened to you then? How did you know that you are the Supreme?] Nobody came to tell me. Nor was I told so inwardly. In fact, it was only in the beginning when I was making efforts, that I was passing through some strange experiences, seeing lights, hearing voices, meeting gods and goddesses and conversing with them. Once the Guru told me: 'You are the Supreme Reality', I ceased having visions and trances and became very quiet and simple. I found myself desiring and knowing less and less, until I could say in utter astonishment: 'I know nothing, I want nothing'...You can only put it in negative terms: 'Nothing is wrong with me any longer. It is only by comparison with the past that you know that you are out of it. Otherwise - you are just yourself." (I AM THAT, p. 390-391, 332)
A Missing Key to Sant Mat? - Ishwar Puri on bodies and planes
Ishwar Puri, once again, seems to be the current teacher of Sant Mat who appears to address what many of the advaitins and non-dualists speak about in terms of the path being one of awakening, not experience per se: that upon awakening we see clearly that we have never dreamed, have never been separated from the reality. This has been somewhat discussed earlier. I see his manner of expression as a missing piece in the debate between mystical paths of seeking and paths of direct awakening. Perhaps this may open a new understanding of the path of Sant Mat. He says:
"The mind loves classification. The mind loves putting things in a certain order, and it makes more sense to the mind....This ability of the mind to create classification, place one above the other, put up a real diagram. The mind tries to make the diagram all the time. The truth is not diagrammatic. The consciousness is not placed like that in diagrams. Consciousness is one whole. We experience various phases of consciousness. If we say that the soul comes from Sach Khand, it doesn’t mean that it is still sitting there. It is right here. If we say the mind originates from the causal plane, it is not sitting there; it is sitting here. If we say that the sense perceptions or the astral body sits in the astral plane, it is not sitting there; it is here. Everything is here. It is all integrated into the physical body, and all the systems are at work. We are unaware of some part of it. Now you can’t say there is a classification like that if we are unaware of some part of ourselves as functioning right now.It is not that our mind is not functioning; it functions here. Love functions here. Intuition functions here. Spiritual functions are all being performed here. Mental functions are all being performed here. Sensory perceptions are all taking place here. Physical body is moving around here. Where is something else anywhere? It is all here. Somebody sent me a poem sung by a Pakistani singer, a Sufi singer who believed in Marfat and the wording of that was, “Ithi nahin tey kithe nahin,” which meant if it is not here it is nowhere. If you can’t find it here, it will be nowhere. Condensing everything into here, everything is here, it’s operating here. We don’t know where “here” is. We don’t define. We think here is Montreal. We think here is this hall. We don’t realize here is where we really are right now in a physical body in Montreal, in this hall, right up in the head. That’s where we are, and that here never changes."
"Let me explain why that never changes. It never moves. When we say the body moves, I just walked in. Now if I tell you what really happened, you will put me in a nuthouse, I think. What really happened, I stayed here, and the whole hall and everybody moved along to make me feel I am here. I am driving a car, and I feel the car is moving, going to places. It can’t look like that the whole thing is moving and you are stationary. The truth is the entire experience of every level, including the physical, moves around you, is created around you. You never move; you are always here, and that’s the place, here, where we have to go. Here is our true home, here. And if it is not here, it is nowhere. I love that poem, that song, and, therefore, what we have to find is ... It’s a continuous expansion of awareness. It is not going anywhere. The spiritual journey does not mean going anywhere. It means stop going anywhere. Our mind runs so much. We don’t reach our home by running around somewhere. We reach our home by staying at home. Supposing we are at home, and we say we are trying to go home. We don’t run out for that; we just become aware. This is my home. I didn’t realize it. It is realization. It is self realization. It is not a journey to the self. It is self realization. It is an enlightenment of your own self where you are. All these functions of all the levels are being performed right here. Our awareness is lacking...When ‘you’ ‘get to’ Sach Khand, you realize not only that you never left it, but that the entire drama of creation, planes, reincarnations, eons of time, and all the rest, TOOK PLACE ONLY IN SACH KHAND - and which of course you are in right now, if only you realized it." (Montreal – May 18, 2013)
This resonates with what various renown advaitins have spoken of for centuries. Shri Atmananda said this:
“Certain shastras hold that everything from intellect down to the gross body is dead, inert matter, as it is. They ask you to get away from all that matter and get to Atma in its pure form, in a state called the nirvikalpa state (samadhi). In that state, there is no sense of bondage, it is true. But, coming out of that state, you find the same world. To find a solution to this, you have to examine the world again, in the light of the experience you had in samadhi. Then you find that the same Reality that was discovered in samadhi is found expressed in the objects also as name and form. And that name and form, which the shastras also call maya, are nothing but the Reality itself. Thus you find yourself to be one with the world, and all doubts cease.” (Ibid, #35)
Brunton, mentioned before, similarly writes:
“In contacting the Overself, he does not really sense a bigger “I.” He senses SOMETHING which is. This is first achieved by forgetting the ego, the personality, the “I.” But, at a later stage, there is nothing to forget for then he finds that the ego, the personality, and the “I” are all of the same stuff as this SOMETHING.” (Notebooks, Vol. 14, 5:47)
Ishwar also states:
"It is true that when consciousness “sees” the Master it is only the subtle mind. Above the mind the Soul “sees” by becoming that which it sees! All souls merge into Total consciousness in Sach Khand including the souls of Masters. Anami is higher state of consciousness for Totality to visit. No individual soul reaches Anami.”
'Totality’ is Consciousness, how can one say that Consciousness ‘moves’?! And how can one say the experience of one soul merging in the Totality and penetrating to Anami takes the whole of any kind of Totality with it? Other people are not experiencing the same thing at the same time, so what does it mean that the Totality visits Anami? Yet, as discussed several times in this book, there is mentioned three degrees of deepening into the Absolute in various traditions, so there may be something behind Puri’s attempt at describing the ineffable.
Perhaps the poet Hafiz had this in mind about Sach Khand and Anami when he wrote:
“In the end our abode will be in the valley of the silent ones. For now let us raise a riot in the dome of the highest heaven.” (The Illuminated Hafiz, p. 117)
The prodigal soul rejoices when it rejoins its father in Sach Khand, but this is not its final identity. There is then Anami, and the “Wonder Region”, which is not likely a region at all.
This appears to solve some of the questions that have arisen above over the notion of 'seeing' in Sach Khand. Being beyond the mind, it is beyond time and space, beyond the perceiver-perception split, and no forms are possible there, in pure subjectivity. One 'sees' only in the sense of 'being.' Even 'boundless light’, while formless, is still not the unmanifest reality, i.e., the total consciousness, as we imagine. Nor, for that matter, is 'darkness.' Allegorical stories, then, have been created by the saints to describe this realization. But in the interests of serving better our understanding it is now possible to speak more plainly. It will still be a mystery, we needn't worry about that! But better to be mindless than to picture with expectation castles with turrets, and islands of souls dwelling on their islands or dweeps imbibing nectar like it is written in Sar Bachan. Suffice to say that the realization here is that soul, as Plotinus said, is a one-and-many: a Principle of Absolute Soul birthing many individual souls, which, when reabsorbed, albeit temporarily, allows a process of deepening to occur. The ocean and the drop are distinct but not separate. The soul is gone beyond, but we can hardly speak of a totality of consciousness moving as Puri suggests. How can consciousness “move”? The most we can speak of is a process of deepening, and no doubt even this language falls short.
From the level of true soul-realization, in Sach Khand, then, there are said to be three further degrees (in Sant Mat, 'Alakh,' 'Agam,' and 'Anami' - or for Plotinus, 'Absolute Soul,' 'Intellectual Principle/Nous,' and the ‘One') that, again, can only be experientially conceptualized as a 'deepening' - not as an actual 'going anywhere of a separate something.' For here the soul is left behind, just like the ego was left behind further “below”. And this idea of three degrees of transcendental deepening after self-realization of what is inherently already void in nature is found in a number of esoteric schools in addition to Sant Mat. [Please see “PB and Plotinus: The Fallacy of Divine Identity” at http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.com/PBandPlotinus.html for further explanation]. Understanding this makes Sant Mat less enigmatic and more reconcilable with other streams of enlightenment, even though what we are talking about here is beyond human understanding!
Faith, Reason, and Stories
In conclusion, we prefer not to argue with the great masters, but it seems to some extent necessary and inevitable, especially as we no longer live in the Middle Ages or in a provincial setting. To call something a "Science" - whether the 'Science of the Soul', or 'The Science of Spirituality' - as the two largest branches of Sant Mat call themselves - means to submit it to the test of 'peer-review' and dialogue, at the highest levels. And as this is a 'subjective' science the rules it follows need not be exactly the same, nor as linearly predictable, as in the so-called objective sciences. So a certain semantic analysis of the term 'science' is also required. [More on this in Part Three]. This needs to be understood to avoid confusion or disappointment. The results are guaranteed, but the timing and mechanisms involved are complex.
Of course the truth is beyond our feeble intellects and presumptuous questions, and we must bow our heads in the dust at the feet of such sages when confronting the practical task of realization. That is well understood. We tremble at our own boldness.
Yet this is also one description that has been given for what faith or shraddha is: "the courage to persevere in the pursuit of truth even in the face of God's wrath." We are after truth first of all, not even God (which at our beginning stages of understanding is but a concept). If truth happens to be found to be God, then we will accept God, is it not so? And herein we must mention a related caution of Sankara, that if a scripture agrees with pure reasoning, then it has value, otherwise not. If one does not want to reject scripture, therefore, he must give of it an interpretation that agrees with reason. This is where some have a problem with certain of the public teachings of Sant Mat. For instance, it has been said by one guru that the reason for the so-called 'Fall' was that 'in the beginning 9/10's of the souls chose to leave Sach Khand to explore the lower worlds created by Kal, although not expecting to be trapped there. That it was basically their own choices and allowed by God. Another has said that souls were expelled from Sach Khand by God because of their sins. But how can there be sins before leaving Sach Khand? Or that they were simply sent down by God for his own purpose even though they had not sinned. Yet another has said that, regardless, 'never more will souls be sent down here by the Creator.' Sant Kirpal Singh wrote in The Mystery of Death, whether tongue in cheek only he knows, that the fall from the biblical Garden of Eden actually took place much further down, from a ‘sanctuary’ on the mental plane named Dev Lok where man - “as the story goes,” he says - was expelled by God for his first disobedience of His commandments. From here he was ‘cloaked in animal skins,’ i.e., physical bodies, to work out his salvation with toil and tribulation. This view of descent was also that of the Cypriote mystic Daskalos, as well, notably, as esoteric Judaism as found in the Qabballa. For Daskalos it was not a matter of disobedience to God, but was part of the divine plan for producing self-conscious souls, and there was therefore no fall per se. The consensus of the mystery schools is that any ‘disobedience’ was to the Demiurge (Jehovah, Kal), tasked with keeping souls bound to the lower worlds, and not to a Supreme Creator. This disobedience, prompted by a serpent in the Garden (a prototype of a Universal Savior, such as Prometheus who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man) would lead, on various interpretations, to self-knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil, and the eventual redemption of creation. This was long after the first individuation of spirit entities in the Spiritual realm, however, where one wonders how any such choice could be made. (For Plotinus, it was ‘audacious self-will’ that made the souls leave the Nous, but again this leads us around and around on this point).
One can, of course, see multiple problems with each of these stories. For that must be what they are: stories. Which means not literal, but allegorical and descriptive - if not imaginative. For example, if God is all powerful, how could one be sure if the individual soul, might not be made to leave Sach Khand again? How does one know he will remain there eternally? Maybe God will change his mind. In fact, in Sant Mat, beginning with Soamiji himself as stated in Sar Bachan, the 'Mauj' or so-called Will of the Supreme Being has been said to change! Leaving aside for now issues such as 'how could a changeless being change'?, or that eternity, which does not mean 'endless time', and that before and after, therefore, have no meaning for it, how could one ever talk of leaving it?, etc, etc. In the book, Heart to Heart Talks, Kirpal said that answers to all these questions about how or why the soul came down are not even answered in Sach Khand. It remains a mystery to ponder - or dissolve into.
Conundrums like this could perhaps be summarized by saying that either the written doctrines of Sant Mat, as generally taught, are totally true and all other teachings are false, or simply that their fundamental meanings can be better articulated or expressed so as to accord with reason - which men such as Plato and Buddha said is our sure guide in the wilderness. That is to say, it is one thing to point out that the highest perspective or realization is beyond words, such as mystics frequently do, but another that it contradicts reason altogether. Things are different today, the collective mind has advanced in understanding, so the provincial and limited teachings of yesterday can be, and need to be, stated more plainly. If Sant Mat doctrines have multiple levels of expression, designed for varying levels of comprehension or mental maturity in its students - which it, like many spiritual teachings, does in fact have, why deny it? - then that, too, should be laid bare. Why not? How long must we remain children? Yet having said so, much may forever remain a mystery. And a paradox. It seems we can never get around that. Still, this remains an area needing further exploration, to be discussed in the next section.
”SCARE TACTICS”
“There are three methods of approach used by the teachers, depending on the level of the people they have to deal with. They are: first, terrorizing the lowest type by fears; second, coaxing the better evolved ones by baits and lures; third, giving a fair, balanced statement of the truth for those people who are mentally and morally on the highest level."
“The pictures of hell as a sulphurous realm of shades were not therefore without their use for keeping unenlightened multitudes within decent bounds. Their lurid details of torture and torment indicate that the priestly minds which painted them originally understood well the inhibitive power of suggestions to the impressionable minds of the populace, especially the suggestion that evil-doing brings painful retribution.” - Paul Brunton (1)
"If the mind will not be led by true reasoning, we restrain it by false." - Timaeus Locrius, teacher of Plato
“The verbal teachings of the buddhas and ancestral teachers are just a snare and a trap…The Zen teachers imparted various expedient teachings and provisional techniques for the purpose of helping people enter into the experience of the Way…This is called recognizing the intent on the hook that the teacher uses to “fish” for the student’s true potential and not accepting the marks on the scale of a provisional definition as an absolute standard.” - Yuanwu (1063-1135) (2)
“In almost every person, every religion, every group, every teaching, and every teacher, there are ideas, beliefs, and assumptions, which are overtly or covertly not open to question. Often these unquestioned beliefs hide superstitions, which are protecting something that is untrue, contradictory, or being used as justification for teachings and behaviors that are less than enlightened. The challenge of enlightenment is not simply to glimpse the awakened condition, nor even to continually experience it. It is to be and express it as your self in the way you move in the world. In order to do this, you must come out of hiding behind any superstitious beliefs and find the courage to question everything. Otherwise, you will continue to hold onto superstitions that distort your perception and expression of that which is only ever AWAKE.” - Adyashanti (3)
“It has been said that awakening from ignorance resembles awakening from a fearful dream of a beast. It is just like that.” (Ramana Maharshi (4)
The sacred writings of all of the worlds religions place a great emphasis on the value of the human birth for spiritual growth and realization. From the more common exoteric teachings to the most esoteric, however, they all seem to have their version of stories designed to place fear and terror in the heart of the devotee in order to stimulate either his dogmatic obedience or true religious practice. The main lesson from all of these should be the inner dawning of an acute appreciation of the true horror of every minute spent in unawareness of ones real identity, and in apparent separation from truth, happiness, love, and oneness, and not from fear by the ego of facing the fires of hell - although such things are real and do happen. In this article will be examined a few of the more outrageous “scare tactics” still in use by religious and spiritual teachers to goad or provoke motivating reactions in their students. It should be distinguished at the outset that for mainstream religion some of these can be considered just crowd control, while in spiritual circles we cut the gurus some slack, for they must be free to play every 'card' in their deck, according to the intelligence of their disciples, in order to break a hypnotic spell of unconsciousness. The strongest card they play is one of love, apparently giving and withholding it at crucial times, in order to break open the hearts of the disciple. They will probably continue to play this card until the end of time. In the past, however, many strange teachings or verbal instructions were employed at different times and with different people for the purpose of cracking the mind, or simply keeping the disciples in their company (in which case at some times “the teaching could be seen as “fly paper” as one teacher put it), and no doubt will continue to be used until such time as they are no longer needed and things can be said more plainly, without losing the positive effect. Assuming that such a time has arrived, we will proceed with our mission.
The more eggregious or unphilosophic the examples used, the more likely for the ego of the disciple to actually be reinforced, and the more skillfull the master will have to be in order to know who will or will not be adversely affected by his or her methods, and for whom they might be a catalyst for a breakthrough of some kind. I have seen both of these, with fruitful as well as disastrous results. Fortunately, there have always been a few, such as Ramana Maharshi, for whom the teaching has been an "open book", with no secrets and unnecessary remnants of pedegogic technique of days gone by maintaining unnecessary mystery among their disciples in order to keep them from backsliding or abandoning basic discipline. Times have changed, however, and it is time to speak plainly about such things. The basic discipline is self-understanding. The Way is difficult enough without years wasted in fear and trepidation over false views that are a distraction from what is already a terrible enough truth: the painful fact of ego and its separative life. Moreover, if the ultimate truth is one of no-self, no birth, no death, no bondage, and no liberation, how much good can it do to be repeatedly meditating on a fear of death and the ego-centered preoccupation with escaping some of its more imaginative forms?
One of the lines repeated ad nauseum by oriental teachers up to the present day is the rarity and preciousness of obtaining a human birth. The analogy is given in Indian scriptures, I believe in a story by the Buddha, that it was as rare an event as it was for a turtle that pokes his head above the water once every hundred years to stick it through a small hoop cast at random into the middle of the ocean. Other teachers warn, particularly in some of the mystic traditions, such as the Sikhs, that if you fail to awaken in this human birth you may be reborn as an animal for who knows how many lives. There are many stories among Hindu and Buddhist teachers about high yogis falling from great heights to be reincarnated as animals after spending a long time in the hell realms. While it may be true that in many respects man still shows evidence of his animal nature, and some men in particular act beastly in character, does that make these stories actually true? Here is one example from the writing of a reknown Zen Master:
“The study the Path you should step back and study with your whole being. Make birth and death your only thought. The worldly truth is impermanent, this body is not everlasting. Once you stop breathing then it’s already another lifetime. [So far, so good] In another birth you may sink into nonhuman species, and then you might go on for thousands of lifetimes through countless ages without emerging.” - Yuanwu (5)
Occult teachings, such as Theosophy and Anthroposophy, however, unequivocably say no, it is not like this. Paul Brunton also says no. Modern scientific, and evolutionary, theory, while a stranger to the mystic realms, and not strict proof, also argues against this possibilty. H.P. Blavatsky, in The Secret Doctrine, maintained that the doorway of passage from the animal kingdom to man in this (fifth) cosmic "Round" on this globe was closed, in both directions, some 8-9,000,000 years ago (she says it will be re-opened in the seventh Round, millenia from now). And that once self-consciousness arose in man he can not revert to the animal stage. Whether she was right, the gist is that there is an evolutionary guiding wisdom behind the Human Idea. Buddhist teachings argue to the contrary, however, saying that such an evolutionary teaching is a denial of the law of karma. Thus in Buddhism beings are continually cycling through the six realms of creation, until they become liberated and get off the wheel of birth and death. Buddhism has little room for a divine intelligence overseeing creation and all beings. Yet in so doing it has difficulty explaining a common world experience when it states that creation is solely the result of the karma of all beings, and a common experience the result of many beings incarnating simultaneously when the appropriate conditions/karma arise. Far more reasonable, it is suggested, is to assume there is a master guiding world-image or idea of a divine mind projecingd through all individual minds at the same time to account for such commonality.
Hindu teachings such as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda also say that a man can revert to an animal form, but for one incarnation only, as a form of punishment. That, however, is rare. The aforementioned Philosophy teaches that in general no matter how uncivilized, nasty, and inhumane a man may be, he is still a man and a man he will remain for the forseeable future and for indefinite forseeable incarnations. He may face a less than favorable destiny, however, and even be 'put in cold storage' somewhere, so to speak, for an indefinite period of time until his evil karma runs out, at which time he may, so to speak, start at a lower rung of the human ladder once again. This type of teaching is still prevalent in India and Tibet, with the Tibetans saying that it is only through accumulating infinite merit through eons of time that one is blessed to get a man body, and that in the lower realms (such as the animal realm) the thought of practicing Dharma or gaining merit would never even arise. But one can easily see the contradiction here: if this were true then there would be no way to ever get the human form at all! So maybe that is not exactly how it all works?
Further, regardless of the spiritual significance of a man's last thought at the time of death, which some eastern teachings assert as being of primary importance, if that thought happens to be of a man's pet cat it is not very likely the case that he will be reborn as a cat! The overriding determining factor is a man's character; that will follow him and make him what is is. After a brief swoon at the beginning of his separation from the gross body, it has been said he will awaken as his ego and subtle personality and undergo many experiences in the intermediate realms where he will have a lot more things to consider and see and think about than the pet cat. His eventual “second death” and rebirth in a new body will be once more as a man, for better or worse, and his ultimate destiny is for the better.
Stories like the following from Guru Nanak should most likely be read both for amusement and for their deeper underlying meaning rather than the literal one:
“On one of his journeys, Guru Nanak, accompanied by his companions Bala and Mardana, met with a strange sight on their path. A large worm was writhing on the ground as hundreds of ferocious ants were biting it to death. Being tender hearted, Bala asked the great Guru what terrible deeds this poor worm had committed to warrant such suffering. Nanak replied that in a former life that worm had been a false master and the ants were his disciples. They had to be reborn in this form - cruel though it may seem - to balance the scales of karmic justice.” (6)
Of course, being a false teacher is a serious matter, and we must leave open the possibility for exceptions, which are always possible when dealing with such-like Saints! Here is a more recent suchlike anecdote which Sant Chander Prabhaji Maharaj, of the Adhyatmic Satsang Society (http://www.sa-ss.com/), includes in her official biography the following story:
“Sushma [one of her students] would do tuitions apart from her household work and Bhajan. One of her student’s family had kept a pet dog. But to her surprise and disgust they would give it water to drink only once in a day. The rest of the day he would lick his own urine to quench his thirst. The lady of the house remarked that since she could not wipe his
urine all the time, at least this way some of her work was saved. One day after giving
an assignment to this student, she sat in Dhyan. She was then told by Hazur in
meditation that this particular dog was a Satsangi in its previous life but would drink
alcohol against the orders of his Guru. It was now paying for his past deeds and thus
had to drink its own urine.”
This can also work both ways. An exception to the rule of the "closed evolutionary doorway" is sometimes mentioned in the case of pets who through extreme devotion to their masters may possibly gain a human birth in their next life, or even realization in this life such as Lakshmi the cow, whom Ramana Maharshi said had experienced nirvikalpa samadhi and even liberation. A jnana-type guru known as Dadasri also taught, contrarily, that it is possible to be reborn as an animal (and that 85% of humanity is in this condition!) but only for 100-200 years, or a maximum of seven lives - and even for as little as five minutes - but just no longer necessary to go through the entire wheel of 8.4 million species again - to which we say, "thank God." He also taught, rather bizarrely, that if one dies in a coma he will be reborn as an animal - unless one has attained self-realization beforehand. That would doom a number of spiritual masters and advanced practitioners who, in fact, have died in that manner. His successor (http://www.dadabhagwan.org/gnani-purush-spiritual-masters/pujya-dadashri/about-gnani-purush/) offered a no-charge self-realization in just two hours, which will assure one of liberation in only one or two more lives. Strange teachings indeed].
A favorite saying of some of these teachers, from the Koran, warns that at the time of death it is as painful as if a “thorny bush being pushed into the rectum and extracted through the mouth," is now somewhat humorous to me. In my shabd meditations decades ago I had experienced a couple of times being partially withdrawn from the body, up to about the solar plexus, when upon my concentration being interrupted there was an apparent battle between the ego-consciousness and the withdrawal process. The awareness of what was going on interrupted the smooth and effortless inner concentration and withdrawal of attention or the sensory currents, and I felt a heat and pain in the body, until the process wound itself down and I was brought down, as it were, into the world and the normal condition. Having nothing better to do I asked Kirpal Singh if there was any danger in this, or if any damage could be done by such an experience. With a sweeping gesture and laugh he loudly said, “Not the least!” So then and there I knew that the fear of having such an experience at the time of death was kind of a joke and not, in a true understanding, much of an incentive or motivation to sustain a lifetime of practice, and particularly fearful practice at that. (7) Yet many high masters still repeat similar stories, such as one found in the Puranas, that at the time of death it is "like a thousand scorpions stinging you all at once," or that "there is a long drawn-out process in which it feels as if all of ones joints are twisting and breaking." Patrul Rinpoche repeats teachings that strike fear into the heart, saying,
"At that time, unless you have already mastered the path, the fierce wind of your past actions will be chasing after you, while in front a terrifying black darkness rushes towards you as you are driven helplessly down the long and perilous path of the intermediate state. The Lord of Death's countless henchmen will be pursuing you, crying, "Kill! Kill! Strike! Strike!" (8)
Padmasambhava said, "Your consciousness, already wandering in the intermediate state like a dazed dog, will find it very hard to even think of higher realms." There is some truth in this, but it may not be exactly as it is often so traditionally portrayed. (9)
Similarly, the process of life in the womb has been described as a painful one in which "one's bones are formed in intense heat." Guru Rinpoche says, "Both mother and child go halfway to the land of Death, and all the mother's joints, except her jaws, are wrenched apart." After contemplating such stories one may well question how anyone could be motivated by such worries, for surely a lifetime of suffering in the many ways possible is a much greater concern and torment than a few minutes of pain at the time of birth or death. And by that we mean not the suffering from bodily disease prior to death, but the actual death process itself. The evidence that has now come out through the findings of Near-Death Experience (NDE) researchers is that many ordinary persons have quite peaceful deaths. There even seem to be chemical and biological processes that are activated in the brain and body that make the transition more easeful, especially so in those who have even a little faith in a divine reality (10) Sri Nisargadatta said that, regardless of appearances, death itself is rarely an unpleasant experience, and most people are unconscious. Daskalos forthrightly said:
"Ordinarily people assume that death is a frightful and painful experience. In reality it is the opposite. The process of death is no different than a pleasant sleep after the exhaustion of a day's work. One may suffer from a serious illness but at the moment of death no pain is experienced. A great mystic once said, "Never have human lips tasted a sweeter kiss than the one given by the angel of death." I know this from personal experience. The moment a person begins to abandon his body his face acquires a serene stillness and he no longer experiences any pain." (11)
So unless one has the 'luxury' of holding on for dear life (and not falling directly into a coma or swoon), the suffering due to withdrawal from the body itself is likely to be not great. Kirpal, in a private conversation, admitted as much when asked about non-initiates who appear to die in peace (for which we now have thousands of case histories):
"The end comes only as a result of the whole life's essence. Every man has not the same story behind him. One may be devoted and of good character. There are various cases." (12)
The rebirth story gets even more outlandish when we consider some idiosyncratic Hindu versions. Here is one such tale:
"If during his lifetime the individual had performed some special acts of merit (punya) or demerit (papa), then the jiva-atman would proceed to heaven or hell. After spending his special karma-phala there, he comes back to the earth. However, if the jiva-atman has not performed any exceptional karma, then he will come back straight to the earth and not at all go to the intervening heaven or hell [In the Tibetan tradition only those who commit one of the four unpardonable sins, such as killing a saint, or spreading false doctrine, must immediately come back to earth]. Anyhow, while coming to the earth, he enters into rain and through it into food grains. Here comes the role of God. Circumstances have to be set into place for the jiva to be able to enter into the appropriate father. The conditions however may not yet be suitable for the father to have him right away. In the meantime, it may so happen that an animal consumes the particular food grain containing the jiva. But after digestion, the jiva will again come out of the animal’s body through waste discharge and then re-enter the food grain. This shunting will go on till the appropriate father is ready to receive the jiva. When that particular food grain is consumed by the father and digested, the jiva is not thrown out again. Rather, it gets into the father’s seed and from there enters into the mother’s womb, soon to be reborn again." (13)
Such teachings appear crazy, but then, who knows?! In the general teachings of esotericism, however, none of these views are entirely reasonable. Many factor are said to go into the time period between births, and which is usually fairly long, with less evolved people spending a shorter period in the subtle realms, in more or less awakened condition (but still at least months, if not years), while more evolved types not only possibly having some say in the matter, but it may be anywhere from 0-3000 earth-years, as and when a suitable vehicle becomes available, and the post-death entity has accomplished what it needed to do. Further, many beings cooperate in a complex process of building a new body and guiding the reincarnating monad into association with it. And humans stay human, for thousands of lifetimes, and do not go down all the way through the 'wheel of eighty-four'. This would be contrary to all logic of evolution. So scare story number two can be set to rest.
Theosophical teachings have suggested that anyone who commits suicide will commit suicide for four more lifetimes. Why they stop at four I do not understand. It would seem like an infinitely regressing proposition, since each time one did such an act he would incur another four lifetimes in the future where he felt impelled to repeat his sin. It is obvious here that the major emphasis of this statement is on driving home the serious nature of such an action, its unfavorable spiritual consequences, and also its basic failure in achieving its true aim, i.e., the relief of suffering, which belongs, says one such as PB, more to the ego than to the body itself. Ramana Maharshi said, on the one hand, that a person who commits suicide is only trying to remove the source of his suffering, but also made sure to add that it was the false identification of the infinite Self with the bodily-based ego that was the true suicide. Yet who will cast the first stone in morally judging someone who feels so miserable as to take his or her own life? There also remain ethical questions about terminal illnesses, extreme pain, etc., that even high Buddhist lamas argue over. (14)
Another tale sometimes told in the Sant tradition is that the soon-to-be-born-soul hangs upside down in the womb, suffering great agony, heat, pressure and misery, and then and there prays to the Almighty that if he ever gets out he will devote his lifetime to doing good to others and trying to find God. This description of intrauterine life, however, is contradicted by a great amount of research involving pre-natal and peri-natal experiences in deep feeling therapies, such as primal and Stanislof Grof’s holotropic breathwork, among others. The experience of being in the womb, except in some cases of trauma or in the later stages after labor has begun, is most often remembered or re-experienced as having been heavenly or paradisiacal, and not hellish. And in fact Sant Kirpal Singh, after giving the above depiction no doubt as a practice motivator, would also say that the child cries when it is born because it is sustained by the divine light and sound while in the womb! So which is it then, heaven or hell? So there is something in the teachings for everybody. In addition most advaitic teachings say that the ego per se does not fully appear until about the age of two, so it is not likely a fetus is making any deals with God in the womb.
The Bhagavata Purana says that all men in this world were women in their previous births, and vice versa, and that each died thinking about the opposite sex. In his book, Good Life, Good Death, an otherwise compassionate and balanced work designed to console, clarify, and offer gentle, helpful wisdom, the respected Gehlek Rinpoche similar claims that the bardowa (subtle personality in the after death realms), sees his future parents making love, and becomes envious and resentful to the parent of the opposite sex, “dies in rage,” and re-enters the womb:
“The transition from the bardo to the next life is provoked by the force of a powerful emotion that draws a person to the sexual engagement of parents. The bardowa finds perfect, fertile, genetic conditions that can generate life...As a bardowa, you have an attachment to either the male or female - their lovemaking will draw you. Since you don’t have a physical identity, you will fall into their lovemaking and get caught in it because of jealousy or aversion. The mind of the bardowa flows in and is caught. Unable to escape, the bardowa dies of rage and takes on a new life. If you are drawn toward the female, you are jealous of the male, and you are born as a male; if you are drawn to the male, you are jealous of the female, and you are born as a female." (15)
This is not only very Freudian but a very extremely psychological, deterministic view. When I first read this I was at that moment in a vulnerable state and it hit me somewhat forcefully.. I was scared because I felt the strength of such emotions in myself. But is strong feeling proof that these are the sole determinants of the nature and timing of ones rebirth? No, not likely.
PB wrote in The Wisdom of the Overself and also the Notebooks that the afterlife time-frame varies, from months and years in some cases to much longer than earth life in others. The distillation of most esoteric traditions is that one generally first experiences a life-review, a period of consolidation of the past life, and maybe some new learning in the dreamlike environment of the bardos, followed by a long and refreshing sleep. It is not universally taught that one “plunges’ headlong consciously into a womb based on a Freudian sexual theme - something I also find a little odd coming from a Tibetan perspective. A close friend of mine who has spent much time in Tibet as well as with Tibetan teachers told me that, in his opinion, sex in that country is generally not that big of a deal. Moreover, in the village of Drugpa Kunley (the famous and locally revered “crazy wise” sex-guru, who is famous for uttering epithets such as “you like samadhi, I like pussy”), there are icons of his penis over nearly every house, emitting semen as well. I asked my friend, incredulous, “you've got to be kidding, how could they do that, what about the kids there?” He laughed and said, "it's like it's nothing, nobody really cares.” (Apparently, infertlle women come from miles around to spend a night next to Drugpa Kunley's shrine, ask for his blessings, and more often than not soon become able to conceive). So these stories in the tradition about re-entry into the womb don’t jive in my mind except from within the cultural milieu from which they often arise. Perhaps sensing this, Gehlek Rinpoche somewhat hedges his position when he continues:
“From the Buddhist point of view, those conditions appeal to you because of your karma. Karma or no karma, you happen to be passing through, the love making happens to be happening, you happen to be drawn to it, out of attachment or jealousy. You go to it because you want to participate. It can be attachment. It can be profound love. It can be anger or it can be self-esteem or self-determination. The emotions can be right or wrong, good or bad, but they are strong. These powerful emotions cause the transition from bardo to life.” (16)
So the issue of incarnation is very complex. Many karmic factors and agencies are involved in creating and providing a suitable body for a being's evolvement. While the "last thought" at the time of death, if it be for enlightenment and a higher purpose, may be very important and auspicious for the next incarnation, it is unlikely if one is semi-conscious and has a brief thought of a loved one or a favorite pet he will come back in such a form strictly to fulfill that fleeting thought. There are too many other intervening experiences, and ones reincarnation, or more properly termed, incarnation (in that the gross and subtle personalities die while the light, the consciousness that is the true person or being, continues), is not generally immediate in any case - unless perhaps, one is a sage or boddhisattva needing only a brief rest before his perpetual return to serve all sentient beings.
The threat or fear of hell has its purpose. First, such experiences, while not permanent, are relatively real. I know numerous initiates of Kirpal Singh, for instance, who attest to having had the experience of being mystically transported in a protective bubble, as it were, by the Master, on a preview of a hell realm, where they saw various people, and I myself had several night time experiences when I felt myself being drawn “down,” wherever that was, and heard ghoulish ball and chain sounds and groans, etc. During these experiences I recalled my readings of the Tibetan Book of the Dead wherein it says that one should realize such things are only visions or manifestations of ones own mind, but such memories of the teaching failed to make the visions or the fear go away, because, the way I understand it, at that time in the dream-like world I was basically identified with the dream character and my thoughts were on the same level and therefore failed to break the spell of the experience! Bottom line, it is not so easy to disidentify with "the dream" when you are in it. The hell (and heaven) realms are not ordinary psychological states, then, although they can have their counterparts as such during earth-life. But the traditions do seem to get carried away sometimes, with talk of hot hells and cold hells, seven levels of nether regions below the earth, and/or seven levels of hell also below the earth or sometimes said to be above the earth in lower astral regions. And sometimes the seventh or lowest hell is one from which no one ever returns. It doesn't take a genius to ask the question, "How can anyone ever know that, without going there, when if they go there, they can never come back?!" [For more see "If There's a Hell Below, We're All Gonna Go" in Part Two].
The Perennial Wisdom teachings on hell are counter to the orthodox Middle Eastern religions in that in them one is not “eternally damned” to such a place, but only remain there for a time (perhaps a good long time in some cases!), before the elements that make up his personality disperse and one experiences a deep sleep before being born once more. The dualistic war between God and Satan, Kal, or the Devil, Heaven and Hell, the forces of Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, the Spirit and the Flesh, and signs and tribulations of the End-Times, may have first appeared in ancient Persia with the teachings of Zoroaster, and from there made their way to Sumer and Rome. The Apocalypse of John, of disputed authorship, considered spurious by Eusebius, and of questionable authorship by John the apostle according to some Church fathers, apart from its revelatory message appears to be at least in part an amalgam and epitome of such teachings:
“He shall drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and he shall be tormented with fire and sulpher in the presence of holy angels and the presence of the Lamb...And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, no day or night, these worshippers of the beast and its image, and whosoever receives the mark of its name.” (17)
This prophetic spirit as supposedly channeled by John is doubly fear-inducing, for the presence of sulpher has long been associated with that of the Devil or Satan, not the Lord. Moreover, in this Book of Revelation,
“[John] denounces Greco-Roman civilization in all its richness and splendor as the work of the devil, but he appears to know and borrow freely from pagan iconography. Seven is a sacred number in Jewish tradition, to be sure, but it is also significant in the astrological beliefs and practices of classical paganism, which knew only seven heavenly bodies. Twelve is the number of the tribes of Israel, but it is also the number of signs in the zodiac. Astrology, in fact, is condemned in the Bible as one of the great besetting sins of paganism - “offerings to the sun and moon and constellations, all the host of heaven” - and yet John may have invoked precisely these images and associations in the text of Revelation."
"Among the most sublime and exalted scenes in Revelation, for example, is the “great portent” that will appear in heaven to mark the beginning of the end-times: “[a] woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” The woman, pregnant and already in labor, is stalked by “a great red dragon,” which waits to devour the newborn child as soon as she gives birth...”St. John’s mind sets to work on the lines of a very old mythic pattern,” writes Austin Farrer, who suggests that John borrowed the figure of the woman from pagan astrology - “the Lady of the Zodiac” who is “crowned with the twelve constellations.” (18)
The Revelation of St. John also distinguishes the elect 144,000 from the rest of humanity by their being ‘sealed upon their foreheads” with the name of God and the name of the Lamb.” (19) This number is replete with symbolic meaning, but is basically an astrological derivative of the 360 degrees of the zodiac times the 4 minutes it takes the sun to advance one degree, times ten to the 2nd power = 144,000 (19); furthermore, while not accepted by all Christians (some of whom fear they may not be among the chosen 144,000), this book has also been claimed as borrowing from an ancient text relating the Mithraic legend of one of the Zoroasters (there were at least seven) in the form of an astrological mythos of the precession of the equinoxes, or the "Great Year" (26,000 years), in this case ushering in the age of Aries approximately 4400 years ago. Acharya S quotes Churchwood:
"The drama appears as tremendous in the Book of Revelation, because the period ending is on the scale of one Great Year. It is not the ending of the world, but of a great year of the world...The book is and always has been inexplicable, because it was based upon the symbolism of the Egyptian Astronomical Mythology without the gnosis, or "meaning which hath wisdom" that is absolutely necessary for an explanation of its subject matter; and because the debris of ancient wisdom has been turned to account as data for pre-Christian prophecy that was supposed to have its fulfillment in Christian history." (21)
Anthroposophist Rudolph Steiner argued that this dualistic philosophy of ancient Persia, perhaps the world’s first true religious dualism, was actually a necessary evolutionary stage in the long history of mankind, to be succeeded by a further stage embodied in the descent of the Christ, and additional evolutionary stages beyond that, in our present time and beyond. Incarnation, or bodily life, is not to be feared, but lived, transformed, and understood.
In addition, the above reference in Revelation to the dragon waiting to devour the new-born child is similar to the myth of Zeus swallowing Metis and her unborn child, resulting in Athena - or wisdom - spouting from his forehead, signifying the birth of reason, the soul of Greece and that of modern man, something the eastern gurus at times seem to forget. Fear of thinking is a big one in mystic and religious circles.
The Roman Church took care of that for a long time by making reading of the Bible taboo for the rare soul who could actually find a copy. Don't assume, however, that the problem was solved by the Protestant Reformation and the invention of the printing press. These in turn spawned a fear of damnation for not reading and interpreting the Good Book correctly. (http://www.livescience.com/history/071211-fundamental-birth.html). The Prologue of Tyndale's Bible warned:
"If you fail to read it properly, then you begin your just damnation. If you are unresponsive ... God will scourge you, and everything will fail you until you are at utter defiance with your flesh."
So far we have: fear of being born as an animal, fear of the process of death, fear of emotions and desires (leading to rebirth), fear of going to hell, fear of thinking, fear of reading, fear of not reading, and even a hypocritical fear of astrology. (Oh, and curiously, those 144,000 elect in Revelation are virgins, undefiled by contact with the opposite sex. Therefore, add fear of the body to the list).
Pardoning this long diversion, then, threats of hell are only of a relative value. More important is coming to the realization of how ordinary life is like a hell, and even an excruciating torment, certainly when experienced apart from the realizing and knowing of who and what one truly IS. That in essence is the chief merit, if in this day and age there remains any, of such scare tactics.
Still, if one is so inclined, he can take note of the following quote attributed to C.S. Lewis:
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.” (!)
Or that of William Shakespeare from The Tempest, "Hell is empty and the devils are all here."
It also wouldn't hurt us too much to consider the words of Abbot Zenkei Shibayama of the Nanzenji Monastery in Kyoto, Japan, who puts a healthy fear of our apparent predicament into a particularly elegant form. He said:
"The first step in pursuing the way to religion is to “empty oneself.” But this “emptying oneself” does not mean, as ordinarily understood, merely to be humble in one’s thinking or to clean out all from the self-deceived mind so that it can accept anything. It has a much deeper and stronger meaning. One has to face the “ugliness and helplessness” of oneself, or of human life itself, and must confront deep contradictions and sufferings, which are called the “inevitable karma.” He has to look deep into his inner self, go beyond the last extremity of himself, and despair of himself as a “self which can by no means be saved.” “Emptying oneself” comes from this bitterest experience, from the abyss of desperation and agony, of throwing oneself down, body and soul, before the Absolute."
"It is the keenness with which one realizes one’s helplessness and despairs of oneself, in other words, how deeply one plunges into one’s inner self and throws oneself away, which is the key to religion. “To be saved,” “to be enlightened,” or “to get the mind pacified” is not of primary importance. Shinran Shonin, who is respected as one of the greatest religious geniuses in Japan, once deplored, “I am unworthy of any consideration and am surely destined for hell!”....When one goes through this experience, for the first time the words of the great religious teachers are directly accepted with one’s whole heart and soul...” (22)
"But wait," some might say, "isn't this just the fear of not attaining enlightenment?" Good question. It could be just that, or then again, it might be that as well as an honest sign of true repentance and metanoia, qualities in a high degree of scarcity today. This fear, or more appropriately, remorse, at a certain stage you are entitled to have. It is a sign of spiritual health.
Brunton summarizes:
"Such was the primitive intellectual condition of the masses in former times that spiritual truth was best conveyed and easiest understood through parables, myths, allegories, and personifications. In our own day, improvement of the intellectual condition permits of straightforward statement and scientific precision in conveying the same truth...The teaching will always be adapted to the intellectual and moral capacity of its hearers. Hence the teachers will speak differently to different men or groups of men. Only at the highest level of intake will there be absolute identity and quality of teaching." (23)
According to an internet writer, the reference which I have misplaced, one respected early Church Father even spoke to this effect:
"Clement of Alexandria, in the early third century, distinguished four senses in which Scripture can be interpreted: the literal sense and three "spiritual" senses. In addition to the literal sense, the "meaning of the law" is known by its spiritual senses as displaying a sign, establishing a command for right conduct, or making known a prophecy." This four-fold interpretative schema, which informed the Catholic consciousness throughout the Patriarchic and Medieval eras, was known as the Quadriga. In other words, it became accepted the there are four senses of scriptural interpretation: (1) the literal; (2) the allegorical; (3) the tropological, or the moral; and (4) the anagogical or spiritual."
"The allegorical sense of reading scripture occurs when characters or events are presented for the sake of drawing the reader's attention to a larger theme or issue. Essential to the tropological sense of reading Scripture is the use of moral metaphor. It consists of reading, not literally, but figuratively. To read Scripture analogically is to read it in the spiritual sense. "Anagogue" is a Greek word implying an ascension on the part of a person, a "climb" upward."
[The author of this piece goes on to say - addressing Christianity, in this instance - that even the "literal" interpretation is often more nuanced, being distinguished in fact into "literal," "literal-historic," and "literal-prophetic" categories. Such a depth goes beyond the scope of this article.]
(1) Paul Brunton, The Notebooks of Paul Brunton (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1986), Vol. 2, 6.530; The Wisdom of the Overself (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc., Second revised edition, 1984), p. 164
(2) J.C. and Thomas Cleary, trans., Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu (Shambhala, 1994), p. 57, 69
(3) Adyashanti, The Impact of Awakening, reference misplaced
(4) Ramana Maharshi, Talks, p. 483
(5) Cleary, op. cit., p. 77
(6) Arran Stephens, Journey to the Luminous (Seattle, Washington: Elton-Wolf Publishing, 1999), p. 288
(7) There may be some danger in the premature awakening of the kundalini energy, however. Some say this could damage the 'etheric web' connecting the conscious entity to the physical body. And cases have been reported in Sant Mat where an unrelenting disciple was granted his wish to be taken up to higher planes, and suffering greatly as if being 'torn apart by lightning bolts', and even dying soon afterwards. This is an unusual incidence. Masters will generally not so endanger their disciples, and rather allow such development to occur gradually and naturally, when necessary. [This issue of etheric webbing has some relevance for the after death vigils common in the Western traditions, some schools of esotericism of which say that it takes forty days for the etheric body to completely dissolve after death. Therefore, to ensure a complete departure from the earth's influence, as well as prevent any demonic entities from attaching themselves to the etheric shell, various rites are performed in the Orthodox Church.. The Hindu practice of burning the bodies of the dead avoids this problem, and, of course, it is not a concern for the initiate whose master promises to come for them at the time of death].
(8) Patrul Rinpoche, Words of My Perfect Teacher, p. 17
(9) see “In the Bosom of the Lord: Death for the Unliberated”(http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.com/consciousness_after_death.html) for some perspective on this issue.
(10) Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I AM THAT (Durham, North Carolina: The Acorn Press, 2008), p. 284
(11) Kyriakos Markides, The Magus of Strovolos (Penguin/Arkana, 11990), p. 92
(12) Kirpal Singh, Heart to Heart Talks, Part One, p. 51
(13) Nitin Kumar, Moments Before Death: Transfer of Karma from One Birth to Another, Article of the Month, www.exoticindia.com, June 2013 (http://www.exoticindia.com/article/transfer-of-karma/)
(14) See “On Suicide and the Spiritual Quest” in Part Three (or at :http://www.mountainrunnerdoc.com/on_suicide_and_the_spirit.html) for additional perspective on this sensitive matter.
(15) Gehlek Rimpoche, Good Life, Good Death (New York, N.Y.: Riverhead Books, 2001), p. 39
(16) Ibid, P. 39-40)
(17) Jonathan Kirsch, A History of the End of the World (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006), p. 69
(18) Ibid, p. 93-94
(19) Ibid, p. 79
(20) Karl Anderson, Astrology of the Old Testament (Mokelumne Hills: Health Research, 1970), p. 85
(21) Albert Churchwood, The Origin and Evolution of Religion, p. 313, 366
[Note: in our references to the Book of Revelation we do not mean to imply it is nothing but an old fairy-tale meant to scare children. We have only highlighted some of the verses that, taken literally, have been used that way. For instance, some religious groups live in fear that they may not be among the 144,000 that are to be saved. There are indeed far more penetrating psychological and mystical meanings to be derived therein, however, and for a good treatment of this see T. Craig Isaac's, John's Apocalypse (Cascade Books, 2016)].
(22) Abbot Zenkei Shibayama, A Flower Does Not Talk (Rutland, Vermont: The Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1970) p 172-173
(23) Brunton, op.cit., Vol.13, Part Two, 2.280, 2.271
Ending Note
Aside from the support of reason, the quantum nature and vision of science, and the democratic nature of social politics, in addition, might also be brought into the picture, being part of humanity's evolution. A strictly 'top-down' approach, it has also been suggested, may no longer be valid and sufficient. The Heart is universal and no ones exclusive possession. This may require major re-working of the many spiritual dharmas as the years go by. In our humble, limited understanding, this seems to make sense. Of course, it is not a matter of utterly devaluing the gurus, only seeking a
re-articulated perspective and understanding of their importance in the enlightenment process.
Having said all that, I am in agreement with Fenelon, with whose words we will now close Part One:
“We may be sure, then, that it is the love of God only that can make us come out of self. If his powerful hand did not sustain us, we should not know how to take the first step in that direction.” (Spiritual Progress, p. 45).
(1) Francis G. Wickes, The Inner World of Choice (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1986), p. 81
(1) Anthony Damiani, Looking Into Mind (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1990), p. 105
(2) Anthony Damiani, Living Wisdom (Burdett, New York:Larson Publications, 1996), p. 167
(3) Ibid, p. 168
(4) Paul Brunton, The Notebooks of Paul Brunton (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1988), Vol. 15, 8.59
(5) Kirpal Singh, Godman (Delhi, India: Ruhani Satsang, 1971), p. 128
(6) Maharaj Saheb, Discourses on Radhasoami Faith (Soamibag, Agra, India: Radhasoami Satsang, 1983), p. 52
(7) Kirpal Singh, Godman, p. 131
(8) “The Muni and the Maharshi,” Part III, The Mountain Path 14, No. 3 (July 1978), p. 147-148
(9) Talks with Ramana Maharshi (Carlsbad, California: Inner Directions Publishing, 2001), p. 272
