The Evolution of Consciousness, Part One

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

"In mystic cosmology, the seven lokas, or upper worlds, correspond to the seven higher chakras. The seven talas, or lower worlds, correspond to the chakras below the base of the spine. Man is thus a microcosm of the universe, or macrocosm. The spine is the axis of his being, as Mount Meru is the axis of the world, and the fourteen chakras are portals into the fourteen worlds, or regions of consciousness. The actinodic life force within the sushumṇā current runs up and down the spine and becomes very powerful when the iḍā and piṅgalā, or the odic forces, are balanced. Then man becomes completely actinodic. He doesn’t feel, in a sense, that he has a body at that particular time. He feels he is just a being suspended in space, and during those times his anāhata and viśuddha chakras are spinning and vibrating. When, through the practice of very intense, sustained states of contemplation, he merges into pure states of superconsciousness, the iḍā and the piṅgalā form a circle. They meet, and the pituitary and the pineal glands at the top of the head also merge their energies. This produces deep samādhi."