RAJA YOGA , MESSAGE 28

                     Raja Yoga, Message 28

The section ‘Psychic Obstacles’ now continues...

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Perfected beings, gods and others surrounded Uddalaka. Divine nymphs flocked to him in great numbers. He was offered a heavenly kingdom. Uddalaka totally declined to accept anything. The ladies tried to entice him by their wily charms. They told him: "Please take your seat in the celestial car. It will take you to heaven. Here are the springs that confer immortality. Here are celestial nymphs to serve you. Here is the wish-fulfilling jewel. Your rare austerity has brought all these for thee." Uddalaka, the brave, resisted all temptations and shone in effulgence. (If one gets a glimpse of Brahman for a second even, he will not long for sensual objects.) After six months he awoke from his samadhi. He would spend, at one sitting, days, months and even years in deep samadhi, and then would wake up. 

If you practise regular meditation and concentration you are bound to get some psychic powers. You should not use these powers for base and selfish purposes, for gaining some material end or other. You will then face a downfall. You will be punished by Mother Nature. 

Action and reaction are equal and opposite. Every wrong action is bound to cause a reaction. I again and again seriously warn you. Beware! Power, sex, money and erudition act as powerful intoxicants. The possessor does not know exactly what he is doing. His intellect becomes turbid and his understanding gets clouded. You will not be tempted by these powers if you are established in the practice of yama or self-restraint. 

When you are lying in your bed, sometimes a big light will pass along your forehead. As soon as you try to behold the light by meditating in the sitting posture, it may disappear. You may ask: "How is it that I failed to catch the light by exertion, whereas it comes by itself when I am lying down without any effort?" The reason is that you lose the concentration as soon as you sit for meditation due to the entry of rajas with the idea: 'I am doing'. 

When you experience bliss in meditation some peculiar sensation will disturb you, and with this disturbance the sublime bliss will disappear. During meditation sattva increases, but rajas is ever trying to overcome sattva. You feel the peculiar sensation of a disturbance on account of the entry of rajas. The thought of work that you will have to do may also cause a disturbing sensation. Forget all works and say to the mind: "I have nothing more to do, I have done everything." When sattva increases through enquiry, vigorous sadhana and greater dispassion, this disturbance will vanish and you will experience deep meditation. The bliss also will last for a long time. 

Even though you have conquered sleep and distraction by repeated practice, dispassion and contemplation on God, yet the mind will not enter into a state of perfect balance or serenity. It will be in an intermediate stage. The mind is still not freed from attachment, which is the seed of all its activity in the direction of external objects. There is still lurking passion or hidden desires. You will have to restrain the mind again and again by enquiry, and do rigorous meditation. Finally, you must rest yourself in asamprajnata or seedless samadhi (nirbija samadhi). 

Rasavada is super-sensual bliss that comes from lower savikalpa samadhi. The seeker who has experienced this imagines that he has reached the final destination and gives up his sadhana. Just as man digs the earth very deep to find out the most precious hidden treasure and gems, just as a man is not satisfied with the petty things he has found just beneath the surface of the ground, so also the seeker should continue his sadhana till he gets the unconditioned state, or highest goal of life. He should never be satisfied with lower experiences. He should compare his experiences with the highest experiences of sages that are described in the Upanishads and find out whether they exactly tally with them or not. He should exert till he reaches the seventh jnana stage, till he becomes a full-blown jnani. He should struggle till he gets the inner feeling of 'I have obtained all desires, I have done everything, I know and have attained everything. There is nothing more to be known, nothing more to be obtained.' 

This obstacle prevents the seeker from enjoying the highest nirvikalpa bliss. Right thought, discrimination, prayer, pranayama, further earnestness and struggle in meditation will remove the above obstacle. 

Sometimes the mind remains quiet for a short time. You will find neither attraction (raga) nor repulsion (dvesha) in the mind. It occurs in the waking state. The aspirant mistakes this for samadhi. This is a neutral state of the mind. This is an obstacle in the path of God-realisation. He should overcome this state of mind by careful introspection and vigorous meditation. A seeker through experience and acute acumen can find out exactly the nature of the various states of the mind. He should adopt effective methods to control these states. Mere study of books will not help him very much, but experience and practice will do him much real good. 

There is also a state of stupefaction arising from fear or wonder. It is akin to the previous state. This is also another obstacle on the path. When you experience some wonderful astounding news the mind gets stunned for some time. This is stabdha avastha. There is no perfect awareness. The mind remains like a log of wood in a state of inertia. It becomes unfit for active meditation. When these states prevail there is heaviness of body and lack of cheerfulness. The mind also becomes dull for the time being. The student can find out these states by these symptoms. An intelligent seeker who practises meditation daily can easily find out the different states into which the mind passes. A beginner finds meditation dry in the beginning, but an advanced student who has an intelligent and comprehensive understanding of the nature of the mind and its operations and the laws of the mental plane, will find meditation very interesting. The more he meditates the more he gains control of the mind. He can understand the nature of the thought waves and the different mental states. He can control them. He will actually feel that he is gaining inner spiritual strength and that he cannot be easily swayed by the mind now. 

You must be on the alert. You must be vigilant and circumspect. You will have to get over these impediments step by step. 

You will have to cross the void also. What appears to you as a void when all the vrittis have perished is not really a void. This is the unmanifest, the invisible. Cross this void also. It will try to overpower you. You have nothing to see and nothing to hear. You are left alone now, there is none to cheer you. You will have to depend on yourself. Presence of mind is needed now at this critical juncture. Draw courage and strength from within. 

O my dear aspirants! I send you the thought-currents of peace from the peaceful atmosphere of the sacred Himalayas, the abode of sages. God is the embodiment of peace. Scriptures emphatically declare: ''This Self is peace.'' 

Desire is the greatest enemy of peace. It causes distractions of various sorts. There is no peace for him who has no concentration, and there can be no happiness for the unpeaceful. In the supreme peace all pains, sorrows, miseries and tribulations will vanish for ever. 

Children of Immortality! Plod on. Push on. Do not look backward. Forget the past. Forget the body and world, but forget not the centre, forget not the source. A glorious brilliant future is awaiting you. Purify. Serve. Love. Give. Live in OM. Feel always and everywhere the indwelling, all-pervading Presence. Realise the Self. Rest in the magnanimous ocean of peace, in the stupendous sea of stillness. Drink the nectar of immortality. May the indwelling Presence be your centre, ideal and goal. May joy, bliss, immortality, peace, glory and splendour abide with you for ever! 

I have placed before you in detail all the obstacles that stand in the way of realisation of God and have suggested various effective methods to remove these obstacles. Stand up now like an undaunted spiritual soldier in the spiritual battlefield. Become a spiritual hero of great intrepidity and unique chivalry. Get over the obstacles fearlessly one by one and manifest divine glory, splendour, purity and sanctity. Wait patiently with a calm and serene mind for results. Do not be hasty, rash and impetuous. Allow proper time for regeneration and renovation. Do not despair. Wear the coat-of-arms of dispassion, wield the shield of discrimination and hold the banner of faith. March boldly and cheerfully. Stop not till you drink the elixir of immortality to your heart's content, stop not till you enter the immortal realms of eternal sunshine, undecaying beauty, unfading ecstasy, supreme bliss, infinite joy, unalloyed felicity and unbroken peace. This is your goal, your final destination. You can take eternal rest now. This is your highest aim and purpose of life. Rest now in everlasting peace, friends! Cheer yourselves. Share this rare bliss with your brothers. Elevate them. This noble and stupendous selfless work is awaiting you now in the grand plan. Fulfil the divine Will and become a Buddha of undecaying fame. Salutations unto you all! 

When a bee finds that its feet are stuck in the honey, it slowly licks them several times and then flies away with joy. Even so, extricate yourself from the mind's sticking and clinging to this body owing to attraction and attachment, through dispassion and meditation. Fly away with joy from this cage of flesh and bone to the source, Brahman or the Self. 

No more words. Enough of discussions and heated debates. Retire into a solitary room. Close your eyes. Have deep, silent meditation. Feel His presence. Repeat His name OM with fervour, joy and love. Fill your heart with love. Destroy the ideas, fancies and desires, whims and thoughts when they arise on the surface of the mind. Withdraw the wandering mind and fix it upon the Lord. Now the meditation will become deep and intense. Do not open your eyes. 

Do not stir from your seat. Merge in Him. Dive deep into the innermost recesses of the heart. Plunge into the shining Atman within. Drink the nectar of immortality. Enjoy the silence now. I shall leave you there alone. 

 

EXPERIENCES IN MEDITATION 

During deep meditation you will forget the external world first and then the body. You will enjoy a sort of higher type of indescribable peace, but it will take a long time to get real spiritual experiences, to merge the mind in your chosen object of meditation or to get over body-consciousness completely. Be patient. Persevere. You will succeed. 

During deep meditation you will have no idea of time. You will not hear any sounds. You will have no idea of environment. You will forget your name and all sorts of relationship with others. You will enjoy peace and bliss. 

In the beginning you will remain in the state of bliss for some time. Then you will come down. By constant practice of incessant meditation you can continue to remain in that exalted state for ever. Later on the body idea completely vanishes. You will have no consciousness of your body. You will have equanimity of mind. There will be stoppage of up-going and down-going sensations. The consciousness of egoism will also gradually vanish. You will experience inexplicable joy and indescribable happiness. Gradually, reasoning and reflection also will cease. You will rest in samadhi. 

Physical Sensations 

The feeling of rising up during meditation is a sign that indicates that you are going above body-consciousness. You will feel a peculiar ananda (bliss) also when you experience this feeling. In the beginning this feeling of rising up will last for a minute only. 

After a minute you will feel that you have come back to normal consciousness again. In dream you will feel that you are trying to come out of your body. You will feel great pressure at the end of the spine. 

During meditation you will get into rapture or ecstasy. This is of five kinds — the lesser thrill, momentary rapture, flooding rapture, transporting rapture and all-pervading rapture. The lesser thrill will raise the hairs of the body (like goose-flesh). The momentary rapture is like the production of lightning, moment by moment. Like waves breaking on the sea-shore, the flooding rapture descends rapidly over the body and breaks. Transporting rapture is strong and lifts the body up to the extent of launching it into the air. When the all-pervading rapture arises, the whole body is completely surcharged and blown like a full bladder. 

When you meditate with closed eyes you will see in your body two luminous strings in which are placed luminous lotuses at intervals; and the strings pass through the image of your chosen deity seated in one of these lotuses in the region of the heart. 

Continue your meditation. You will feel that your anus and a spot in the top of the head are connected by these strings. You will experience a great upward pull on the anus and the lower end of the spine. Sometimes you will feel great tingling sensation at the lower end of the spine. You will feel as though some great change in your system will happen soon. You may feel that you will lose your physical consciousness. Be not afraid. Be bold and courageous. You will have rare spiritual experiences, you will have cosmic vision. Do not open your eyes now. You will come back to normal consciousness. Keep steady and wait for further experience. 

It does not matter much whether you return to body consciousness or not. All our attempts are mainly directed towards getting over this body-consciousness and being one with the higher spiritual consciousness. However, we are used to certain limitations. When these limitations suddenly drop away we feel that there is no definite base left to stand upon. That is the reason why we are afraid when we go above body-consciousness. It is a novel experience. Courage is needed. Courage is an indispensable requisite. The scriptures say: ''This Atman can hardly be attained by weak (timid) persons.'' All sorts of forces have to be encountered on the way. A dacoit or an anarchist can easily realise God because he is fearless. Only a push in the right direction is necessary for him. 

Feeling of Separation 

One day, after a course of sadhana for a long time, you will feel that you have separated yourself from the body. You will have immense joy mixed with fear — joy in the possession of a new, light astral body and fear owing to the entry in a foreign, unknown plane. At the very outset the new consciousness is very rudimentary in the new plane, just as in the case of a pup with newly opened eyes on the eighth or tenth day on the physical plane. You will only feel that you have a light airy body and will perceive a rotating, vibratory, limited astral atmosphere with illumination of golden lights, objects, beings, etc. You may feel that you are rotating or floating in the air and consequently there will be the fear of falling. You will never fall; but the new experience of subtlety generates novel feelings and sensations in the beginning. How you leave the body remains unknown at the outset. 

Sometimes you will feel an invisible help (possibly from the ishta devata) when you are actually pushed from the physical body into the new plane. That invisible power assists in your separation from the body and going above body-consciousness. You will have to mark carefully all these operations. You will be suddenly startled when you have completely separated and when you enter into the new plane, sometimes with a blue-coloured sphere all around, sometimes with partial illumination mixed with darkness, while at other times with extremely brilliant golden yellow diffused illumination. The new joy is inexpressible and indescribable. You will have to actually feel and experience it yourself. You will be unaware of how you left the body, but you will be fully conscious of your returning. You will feel as if you gently glide on a very, very smooth surface; as if you enter smoothly and gently through a small hole or fine tube with an airy, light body. You will have an airy, ethereal feeling. Just as air enters through the crevices of a window, you will enter with the new astral body into the physical body. I think I have expressed the idea lucidly. 

When you have returned you can markedly differentiate the life in the gross and subtle planes. There is an intense craving to regain the new consciousness and to remain in that state always. You are not able to stay for a period longer than three, five or ten minutes in the new region. Further, you can hardly leave the body at will through simple willing, in the beginning. By chance, through effort, you may be able to separate from the body once in a month in the course of sadhana. If you plod on with patience, perseverance and firmness, you will be able to leave the body at will and stay for a longer time in the new plane with the new subtle body. You will be quite safe from identification with the body. You have made conquest of the false identification with the body only if you can leave the body at will and only if you are able to stay in the new region for two or three hours. Your position is quite secure then and not otherwise. The vow of silence, solitude and living alone are necessary to achieve this end. 

After continuous hard practice you will be able to separate yourself from the body very frequently. A habit is established. As soon as you silence the thoughts and calm the mind, the mental habit of slipping from the physical body supervenes automatically. There is no difficulty then. The mind enters the new groove and appears on a new stage or platform. 

Astral Journey 

Simply by mere willing you can travel to any place you like with the astral body (astral travel, astral journey) and there materialise by drawing the necessary materials either from the ego or the universal store-house. The process is very simple to occultists and yogis who know the rationale, the detailed technique of the various operations, albeit it seems extraordinary to poor mundane creatures with diverse emotions, passions and attachments. Thought-reading and thought-transference also can be quite easily performed by those who can function with the astral body. Concentrated mental rays can penetrate opaque walls, just as X-rays pass through bones. 

You first separate yourself from the body, then you identify yourself with the mind and then you function on the mental plane with this fine body, just as you do on this earth plane. Through concentration you rise above body-consciousness; through meditation you rise above mind; and finally, through samadhi, you become one with Brahman. These are the three important, internal means in the achievement of final beatitude. 

Visions 

The beings and objects with whom you are in touch during the early period of meditation belong to the astral world. They are similar to human beings minus the physical overcoat. They have desires, cravings, love, hatred, etc., just as human beings have. They have a fine body. They can move about freely. They have powers of materialisation, dematerialisation, multiplying and clairvoyant vision of an inferior order. The lustrous forms are higher devatas of mental or higher planes, who come down to give you darshan and encourage you. Various powers manifest in lustrous forms. Adore them. Worship them. Do mental puja as soon as they give you darshan. Angels are beings of mental or higher planes. They also appear before your mind's eye. 

When you get these experiences, when you behold these visions, you will feel a peculiar, indescribable bliss. Do not get false contentment. Do not stop your sadhana and meditation, thinking that you have attained the highest realisation. Do not attach much importance to these visions. You have attained only the first degree of concentration. The highest goal or realisation is the profound silence or supreme peace wherein all thoughts cease and you become identical with the supreme Self. 

Occasionally during meditation you may behold a dazzling light with abrupt motion. You may behold a head of marvellous form, of the colour of a flame, red as fire, and very awful to look at. It has three wings of marvellous length and breadth, white as a dazzling cloud. At times they beat terribly, and again will be still. The head never utters a word, but remains altogether still. 

Sometimes you will see an infinite blue sky, an ethereal space. You will see yourself in the blue space as a black dot. Your form will appear in the centre of the light sometimes. Sometimes, you will notice highly vibratory, rotating particles in the light. You will see physical forms, children, men and women, sages with beards, perfected souls (siddhas) and lustrous forms also. Perfected souls and sages, etc., appear to encourage you. You will find a huge collection of devatas and celestial ladies with various musical instruments in their hands. You will see beautiful flower gardens, fine palatial buildings, rivers, mountains, golden temples — sceneries so lovely and picturesque as cannot be adequately described. 

Visions are either subjective or objective, your own mental reactions or realities of finer planes of matter. The universe consists of planes of matter of various grades of density. Rhythmical vibrations of subtle elements in various degrees give rise to the formation of various planes. Each plane has its beings and things. Visions may be of these things or beings or they may be purely imaginary. They may be a crystallization of your own intense thinking. You must discriminate in yoga practices. Reason and common-sense must be used throughout. 

Don't waste your time in looking at these visions. This is only a curiosity. These are all encouragements to convince you of the existence of super-physical, metaphysical realities and the solid existence of Brahman. Drive out these pictures. They are all obstacles in the way. Fix yourself on the goal. Advance. Proceed seriously and energetically. If you are timid you cannot march further. Draw power and courage from the Atman within, the inexhaustible source. You will come across very good spirits also. They will help you a lot on your onward march. 

Aspirants are eager to get spiritual experiences soon. When they get a flash of illumination they are afraid. They are awfully alarmed when they go above the body consciousness. They entertain a passing wonder whether they will come back again, or not. Why should they be afraid at all? 

Vision of God 

You will sometimes see a vast golden bright light all around. Within the light you will see your ishta devata (chosen deity — e.g. Rama, Krishna, Vishnu, Siva, Jesus, etc.) in front. Sometimes you will see yourself within the light. 

You may see your chosen deity as big as a mountain shining like the sun. You may see the figure while eating, drinking or working. When you enjoy the bliss of this vision you will experience no taste of food while eating. You will hear the continuous ringing of the veena. You will see the blazing light of the sun. 

Sometimes you will feel the presence of your deity near you. The image will begin to appear as living when you practise regular meditation. 

When you advance in meditation you can see your deity in physical form. Lord Vishnu will give you darshan with four hands, Lord Krishna will appear before you with flute in His hands, Rama with bow and arrow and Lord Siva with trident and drum. While meditating with closed eyes on the image placed in your heart you will find that the image is becoming more and more luminous. Even with open eyes you will see a bright sun or moon and lights of different colours.

Sometimes the Lord will come before you in the form of a beggar or a sick man with dirty rags. He may appear before you in the form of a coolie. You must have the keen sense to detect Him. Your hair will stand on end when you meet Him. He appears in your dreams. Lord Ganesha comes in the form of an elephant in dreams. Devi appears in the form of a girl in your dreams. 

Lights in Meditation 

Various kinds of lights manifest during meditation owing to concentration. In the beginning a bright white light the size of a pin's point will appear in the forehead in the space between the two eyebrows, which corresponds approximately to the ajna chakra of the astral body. When the eyes are closed you will notice different coloured lights — white, yellow, red, smokey, blue, green, mixed — flashes like lightning, like fire, burning charcoal, fire-flies, moon, sun and stars. These lights appear in the mental space. These are all subtle elemental lights. Each subtle element has its own specific colour. The subtle element for earth has a yellow-coloured light; water has a white-coloured light; fire has a red-coloured light; wind has a smokey light; space has a blue light. Yellow and white lights are very commonly seen. Red and blue lights are rarely noticeable. Frequently, there is a combination of white and yellow lights. 

In the beginning small balls of white light float about before the mind's eye. When you first observe this, be assured that the mind is becoming more steady and that you are progressing in concentration. After some months the size of the light will increase and you will see a full blaze of white light, bigger than the sun. In the beginning these lights are not steady. They come and disappear immediately. They flash out from above the forehead and from the sides. They cause peculiar sensations of extreme joy and happiness and there is an intense desire for a vision of these lights. When you have a steady and systematic practice of two to three hours in the morning and two to three hours at night these lights will appear more frequently and remain steady for a long time.  

As soon as you retire for sleep, just as you are drowsy and going to transcend the physical consciousness, these lights manifest themselves without any exertion on your part. Also in the morning before you get up in the transitional stage — half sleep, half awake — you will get these lights by themselves, without effort. 

The vision of the lights is a great encouragement in sadhana. It impels you to stick steadily to meditation. It gives you strong faith also in super-physical matters. The appearance of the lights denotes that you are transcending the physical consciousness. You are in a semi-conscious state when the lights appear. You are between two planes. You must not shake the body when these lights manifest. You must be perfectly steady in the posture. You must breathe very very slowly. For those who concentrate on the space between the eyebrows, the light appears there, while for others who concentrate on the top of the head, the sahasrara chakra, the light manifests on the top of the head. The light is so powerful and dazzling sometimes that you have to withdraw yourself from looking at it and break the meditation. Some people become afraid and do not know what to do, how to proceed further. By constant practice the mind engaged in concentration will become used to it and the fear will vanish. Go on with the practice.

Some people concentrate on the heart, some on the space between the eyebrows and some on the top of the head. It is a question of personal taste. It is easy to control the mind by concentrating on the former. If you are used to fixing it there, stick to it always. Don't make frequent changes. Steadiness is very necessary. 

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