Rare are the diligent sannyāsins who, after working for many years within themselves, each in his own time, burst through superconsciousness into nirvikalpa samādhi, the realization of the timeless, causeless, spaceless Self. Many strive to attain Self Realization during many lifetimes and then for many years in their present birth. The many lives have brought certain accomplishment which leads to their first breakthrough into nirvikalpa samādhi. The first breakthrough into samādhi happens quickly, so that the subtle parts of the mind, shall we say, are not consciously aware of what is actually taking place and what has actually happened, because they are not used to being consciously aware in the higher states of consciousness. However, when the renunciate has broken through to the Self, Paraśiva, he has the possibility of the full use of his mind, the higher states of consciousness as well as the full understanding of lower states of consciousness and how his individual awareness travels from one state to another. The mere fact he has broken through to samādhi means that he was able to justify experience enough in his subconscious mind so that his subconscious mind could fall into line, into the habit pattern of pure concentration. When the conscious mind is in concentration upon one single thing, the subconscious mind is in concentration also, following the pattern of the conscious mind, on one particular thing. Then that expands consciousness automatically into the superconscious state of mind. With the understanding of the functioning of the superconscious mind, and not being deluded by any of the ramifications of the superconscious mind, often a renunciate has managed to go right into the very core and actually break through to the Self. This is what has happened to him. ¶Each soul comes into Self Realization differently, because each has a different mind, a different subconscious mind and a different conscious mind, with a different nature, so naturally his reaction through experience before the experience of Self Realization and his reaction afterwards, being of the conscious and subconscious mind, is going to be different, depending upon his background and understanding and his nationality, etc. ¶The teachings of yoga are so basically simple and so basically concrete. And the most beautiful thing in the world, on contemplation, is the simplest thing in the world. The most beautiful design is the simplest design. So, simply since one has realized the Self and gone into nirvikalpa samādhi once, then obviously the simplest thing to do is to do it again. This is the practice of samādhi. When one has accomplished this a second time, do it again. Realize the Self again and again and again. Each time the renunciate comes out of samādhi, he will rebound, and it is like popping back into a different aspect of the mind. Or, he will actually have more conscious awareness of the mind and totality of the mind. In other words, he will have a greater capacity of expanded consciousness. Or, in still other words, he will become consciously more superconscious for longer periods of time each time he experiences nirvikalpa samādhi. ¶When a beginning devotee is going up the path, he is spontaneously superconscious now and again. After his first samādhi, he has realized that he has had longer periods of superconsciousness. After his second samādhi, he will be more and more aware of the superconscious mind, and after the next samādhi, he will be even more and more aware of the superconscious mind. However, each will unfold the superconscious mind and superconscious possibilities, powers, etc., differently than another, due to the fact that all have different backgrounds, personalities and such; for though he realizes the Self, the entirety of the basic nature does not change. However, his understanding of his own control of his tendencies, the overall control that he has, and his ability to mold his own life—that starts a process which transforms him gradually and increasingly as he becomes more and more familiar with the laws of going into and out of nirvikalpa samādhi. §
The lesson I want to point out is that once the soul has realized the Self, it is now on the road to realizing it again, and realizing it again and again. It is just as simple as that, and the warning that I would give is: do not become fascinated in the aftermath of any experience of the Self—so that the inner mind is always reaching for the highest samādhi, not being intrigued with the superconscious that is after samādhi. When one is intrigued with the superconsciousness after samādhi, this builds up the forces, not only of the mind but all the psychic forces, and brings the maṭhavāsi into a realm of occultism. This is something to guard against, because when he is intrigued with the aftermath, with the possibilities and the ramifications of the mind, this will eventually lead him around and around in circles, because the mind can offer nothing other than ramifications. In the beginning teachings, all devotees learn that the mind created itself, created itself and created itself. Well, even the superconscious mind does this. ¶What must be really sought after, in order for one as a Self-Realized person to fulfill his destiny of bringing others into Self Realization, is a pure samādhi which will keep the pure teachings of advaita yoga alive on the Earth through the sannyāsins. Everything on Earth comes through people. Everything of advanced knowledge has come through people. Self Realization is the pure teachings of yoga attained on the Earth through people who talk, breathe, live just like the Self-Realized soul does. ¶If he goes into nirvikalpa samādhi and becomes ramified in the psychic powers that come after samādhi, after his first samādhi, his second samādhi, his third samādhi, he will become more intense and will realize new possibilities within himself. If he remains on those planes of the phenomena of the occultism of the mind, then he gains new and fascinating powers of the mechanism of the mind, but he loses the power to bring others along the path into samādhi. If the renunciate maintains a clean samādhi and comes back into the mind, he realizes he has had some extrasensory perceptions, and he does not use them. He does not use them at all unless, of course, he uses them quite naturally, just as naturally as he would enjoy a meal, but he does not dwell on supernatural powers as anything special. He is at every point in time just who he is. ¶What the renunciate is taught to dwell on would be the next time and the next time he would be going into samādhi. Then he awakens a strong current within himself that can bring others into samādhi. By dropping off unessential powers, he gains one great power. That is the one great power that those who have realized the Self want, the power to bring others into Self Realization. You can only do that by having first attained a pure Self Realization yourself and going into samādhi again and again and again. Remember, the sannyāsin’s destiny is this: having realized the Self, bring others into the pure realization of the Self, and teach other sannyāsins to go into samādhi and come out with a well-balanced mind, without deviating one way or another on the psychic planes. §
After his first nirvikalpa samādhi, the renunciate’s concentration and his practice of concentration should be easier. His first step in practicing samādhi would be to concentrate upon one physical object, that is if he cannot see his inner light. And if his mind is confused, he won’t be able to see the inner light, like before he went into his first samādhi. Only after he has gone into samādhi many, many, many times, where his whole body becomes filled with light, will he then see his inner light all the time, twenty-four hours a day. But at first he won’t. He will have his first breakthrough, but he won’t see the light all the time. ¶If he doesn’t see the inner light, he must concentrate, get his mind quiet, write down his confessions and understand the different experiences he has gone through, in the very same way he has been taught in his beginning study. Then, finally, when his inner light—which he will soon begin to find right at the top of the head—comes into prominence, he must turn his concentration onto that. And, with enough mind power, he should be able to hold that inner light, a very bright white light looking just like a star, right at the top of the head. This will give him figures and conscious-mind forms, about three inches in diameter, and then he would concentrate the light into a three-inch diameter. He may not always know where the center is, especially if he has been involved in his Śaiva seva. If that is so, he should press the top of his head with his finger, and that will indicate to him where the center of that light should be. This will immediately center his awareness in the center of the light. Then he tries to part it, tries to open it up like a camera lens, and comes into brilliant, very brilliant, light. It will just be scintillating, much brighter than a star. It will be like a carbon-arc light. This is very brilliant and very powerful. The renunciate is then schooled in how to hold that to a three-inch diameter, because the tendency will be for that light to fill up his whole head. He will feel very blissful. We don’t want that to happen. We don’t want the emotions or the lower mind to get out of control simply because he found a bright light in his head. ¶He has seen other seekers, as they were just awakening in the inner light, get so carried away about the inner light that it throws them into an emotional state and they can get fanatical about it. It doesn’t give them any inner wisdom or anything like that. So, remembering this, the wise sannyāsin will not allow himself to get emotional about the inner light, because seeing this light indicates that he is only beginning to come into his superconscious. The light, really, is the friction of the superconscious mind against the conscious and subconscious mind. In my way of looking at it, it is an electrical friction. The odic forces and the actinic forces merging causes light and sound. ¶So, when he sees this brilliant light right in his head—more brilliant than he has ever seen, intensified brilliance—he tries to find the center of it. When he finds the center of it, again trying to open up that light like a camera lens, he will then come into a state of consciousness called Satchidānanda, a state of pure consciousness, a state of pure bliss, savikalpa samādhi. Here he won’t be in a brilliant light anymore. Above him it will look like he is looking way up in the sky, into outer space, and the color of it will be a whitish blue. That will be the ākāśa he will be in. §
In the ākāśa, he would be able to go into all sorts of psychic phenomena. We don’t want that. We don’t want to utilize the ākāśa in that way, because then we cause the growth of gross matter in the subconscious mind, which is capable of imprinting into the ākāśa things that we want to happen. Then we could go in the ākāśa and see them. We will see those forms change shape from what we have, from our own subconscious, imprinted in the subconscious. Then, through the power of the light, it takes form in the ākāśa, and we can have a little world of our own going around on the inside, and that is called psychism or occultism. We don’t want that. Nor do we want to tune in with anybody else who is also in the ākāśa, because that leads us away from the purity of yoga. ¶Now, for instance, if I were in the ākāśa and two other adepts were in the ākāśa, then we could tune in with one another, and I might even see their faces in the ākāśa. We would guard against this, because that would be allowing the superconscious mind to take form. When the superconscious mind takes form, then that means the consciousness is lowered and we are being led away from our goal, and the next thing we knew we would come through the subconscious back to the conscious mind. We want to avoid this. We don’t want to come through the subconscious to the conscious mind. From samādhi, we want to come directly from the superconscious into the conscious. So, we avoid all form and colors that we might see in the ākāśa. ¶When the sannyāsin arrives at that state, the next lesson will occur. He will be in a pure state of consciousness, pure bliss. It will appear to him as spaceless. He will be having a feeling of timelessness, a feeling of formlessness, but it is not the Self. It is taken as the Self, but it is not the Self, for it still has consciousness. In summary, we have discovered how to come out of darkness into light in the practice of samādhi, and how to go through two different stages of light into a realm of pure consciousness which we call the ākāśa. ¶As we have previously studied, there are seven different states in the superconscious mind, seven different states and usages. The very first is the light. And the pure consciousness state that we just discussed is the seventh state. All the others we want to avoid. It is not that it wouldn’t be possible to get into them and develop them, but we want to definitely avoid them, because they are, shall we say, deterrents to the purities in the Self. So, we shall avoid them by going from basic inner light to a more intense light and popping out into a pure state of consciousness. The sannyāsin will still have an overall consciousness of the physical body. As a matter of fact, when he is looking down at the physical body, it might just appear like a shadow to him. It is not advisable for him to look down at the physical body in consciousness, for that will lead him down into the sixth or fifth plane of consciousness, and we don’t want to be there in the superconscious. Then other things will intervene, and he won’t achieve the samādhi. He will have to come out and start over again. So, these investigations we want to avoid, because they are not necessary, ever, though they are not impossible. When he is in his pure state of consciousness, then he has to look for the continuation of the kuṇḍalinī force or, shall we say, the continuation of the nerve currents that house the kuṇḍalinī force. In conscious-mind terms, that will look like a tube or a nerve current which would be issued right from the top of the head. ¶In this state of pure consciousness, like in outer space, he tries to find just one nerve current right at the top of the head. When he finds this nerve current at the top of the head, he is taught to concentrate on it from where it begins at the top of the head right up to the end of it, and soon he finds the end of it. The experience of experiences. Of course if he has a mishmash in his subconscious mind, he won’t be able to hold this pure state of consciousness. The subconscious mind in its power and intensity of this contemplation will begin picking up, and he will be coming right back into outer consciousness. But if his subconscious is fairly clean and under control, then he will be able to hold it, and he will hold it quite naturally. It will be a natural state to him after Self Realization. ¶So, then the next thing to do is to find this nerve current. In conscious-mind terms, it may be about one-half inch in diameter. In superconscious-mind terms, it may be eleven feet in diameter, because the superconscious mind can magnify or it can diminish. It has that power almost at will. He must try to find the center of this nerve current, and then he comes into the core of this ākāśa, the very atomic structure that makes it up.§
What is life like after realization? One difference is the relationship to possessions. Everything is yours, even if you don’t own it. This is because you are secure in the Self as the only reality, the only permanence, and the security that depends on having possessions is gone. After Self Realization, we no longer have to go into ourself. Rather, we go out of ourself to see the world. We are always coming out rather than trying to go in. There is always a center, and we are the center, no matter where we are. No matter where we are, no matter how crude or rotten, the vibrations around us will not affect us. Curiosity is the final thing to leave the mind, which it does after Self Realization. The curiosity of things goes away—of siddhis, for example. We no longer want power, because we are power, nonpower, unusable. And we don’t have the yearning for Paraśiva anymore; we don’t have the yearning for the Self. And Satchidānanda is now to us similar to what the intellect used to be. If we want to go to a far-off place, we go into Satchidānanda and see it. It is that easy. Samyama, contemplation, is effortless to you now, like the intellect used to be; whereas before, samyama was a very big job which took a lot of energy and concentration. Therefore, before Paraśiva we should not seek the siddhis. After Paraśiva, through samyama, we keep the siddhis we need for our work. ¶But Paraśiva has to be experienced time after time for it to impregnate all parts of the body—our big toe has to experience it—because we are still human. From a rotten state of consciousness, feeling totally neglected, that nobody loves us, we have to realize Paraśiva. When ill and feeling we may die, we have to realize Paraśiva. When concentrating on our knees, we have to bring Paraśiva into them. The knees are the center of pride, and this helps in attaining ultimate humility. So it is with every part of our body, not only the pituitary center, the physical corollary of the door of Brahman—that is the first place—but with every part of the body. The pituitary gland has to be stimulated sufficiently to open the door of Brahman. But only the strictest sannyāsin disciplines would induce this result. Ears, eyes, nose, throat, all parts of the body have to realize Paraśiva, and the siddha has to do this consciously. The calves have to realize Paraśiva. All the parts of the lower body have to realize Paraśiva, because all of those tala chakras have to come into that realization. ¶Then, finally, we are standing on the mūlādhāra chakra rather than on the talatala chakra. Then, finally, our feet are standing on the svādhishṭhana chakra, and so on. And this is the true meaning of the holy feet. Finally, we are standing in the lotus of the maṇipūra chakra. And doubly finally, the kuṇḍalinī coils up in the head and lives there rather than at the bottom of the spine. ¶For ultimate freedom, everything has to go away, all human things, possessions, love, hate, family, friends, the desire for attention and community acceptance. The sannyāsin renounces the world, and then, if his giving up is uncompromisingly complete, the world renounces the sannyāsin. This means the world itself won’t accept him as it once did as a participant in its mundane transactions of a job, social life, home and family. Earlier friends and associates sense his different view of their existence and now feel uncomfortable with him. Slowly he joins the band of hundreds of thousands of sannyāsins throughout the world, where he is joyously accepted. All must go, the past and the future, and will naturally depart as the great realization deepens, as it penetrates through all parts of the body and all states of the mind. This alone is one good reason that family people and noncommitted singles are never encouraged to strive for realizations higher than Satchidānanda, and then only for brief periods now and again at auspicious times. For family people, gṛihasthas, to go further into themselves would be to earn the bad karmas, kukarmas, of subsequent neglect of family dharma, and to lose everything that the world values. ¶When the renunciate finally attains Paraśiva, everything else will fall away. It all has to fall away to attain Paraśiva. But it doesn’t totally fall away when he attains Paraśiva, because he arrives into Paraśiva only with a tremendous amount of built-up effort. All the Gods have given permission. Lord Śiva has given permission, and He now says, “Enter Me.” That is grace, His grace. §
A sannyāsin of attainment has had many, many lifetimes of accumulating this power of kuṇḍalinī to break that seal at the door of Brahman. Here is a key factor. Once it is broken, the seal never mends. Once it is gone, it’s gone. Then the kuṇḍalinī will come back—and this gives you a choice between upadeśī and nirvāṇī—and coil in the svādhishṭhāna, maṇipūra, anāhata, wherever it finds a receptive chakra, where consciousness has been developed, wherever it is warm. A great intellect or a siddha who finds the Self might return to the center of cognition; another might return to the maṇipūra chakra. The ultimate is to have the kuṇḍalinī coiled in the sahasrāra. ¶I personally didn’t manage that until 1968 or ’69 when I had a series of powerful experiences of kuṇḍalinī in the sahasrāra. It took twenty years of constant daily practice of tough sādhanas and tapas. I was told early on that much of the beginning training was had in a previous life and that is why, with the realization in this life, I would be able to sustain all that has manifested around me and within me as the years passed by. Results of sādhanas came to me with a lot of concentrated effort, to be sure, but it was not difficult, and that is what makes me think that previous results were being rekindled. ¶The renunciate’s path is to seek enlightenment through sādhana, discipline, deep meditation and yogic practices. That is the goal, but only the first goal for the sannyāsin. To stay enlightened is even a greater challenge for him. This requires a restrictive discipline, not unlike a military, at-base, on-call life, twenty-four hours a day, even in his dreams. ¶Many people have flashes of light in their head and think they are totally enlightened beings, then let down in their sādhana and daily worship to later suffer the consequences. Enlightenment brings certain traditionally unwanted rewards: attention, adulation; one becomes the center of attraction, knows more than others and can exist on words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, for a long time, even after the light fades and human emotions well up and new mixed karmas build. He then may become known as having attained the erratic human behavior of the “enlightened” person. This is totally unacceptable on the spiritual path. Once enlightened, or “in-light,” even to a small degree because of daily sādhana, stay enlightened because of daily sādhana. Once having intellectually realized Vedic truths and become able to explain them because of study and daily sādhana, then realize these truths by intensifying the daily sādhanas, lest the remaining prārabdha karmas germinate and create new unwanted karmas to be lived through at a later time. ¶The advice is, having once attained a breakthrough of light within the head, wisdom tells us, remain wise and do not allow these experiences to strengthen the external ego. Become more humble. Become more self-effacing. Become more loving and understanding. Don’t play the fool by giving yourself reprieve from prāṇāyāma, padmāsana, deep meditation, self-inquiry and exquisite personal behavior. Having once attained even a small semblance of samādhi, do not let that attainment fade into memories of the past. The admonition is: once enlightened, stay enlightened. ¶Enlightenment has its responsibilities. One such responsibility is to have respect for and pay homage to the satguru and the satgurus of his lineage. These are the ones who, in seen and unseen ways, have helped you on your path. Another is to keep up the momentum. The wise know full well that the higher chakras, once stimulated, stimulate their lower counterparts as well, unless the sealing of the passage just below the mūlādhāra has been accomplished. Diligence is needed, lest higher consciousness fall unknowingly on the slippery slide of ignorance into the realms of lower consciousness, of fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, loneliness, malice and distrust. The faint memories of the beginning enlightenment experiences still hover, and while now in lower consciousness but still emulating the higher qualities in personal behavior, the now unenlightened claims full benefit for the previous enlightenment. Shame! This is because he did not maintain his disciplines after enlightenment. He let down and became an egocentric person. §
Many gurus and swāmīs don’t insist on continued disciplines and sādhanas after a few inner accomplishments have been made. The beginning is the end of the course to them. These gurus and swāmīs are modern, and often take an easy approach of not putting excessive demands upon themselves or their devotees. Traditional Sanātana Dharma, however, insists on daily sādhana for the enlightened one who desires a greater on-going transformation and for the unenlightened who has little or no anticipation of becoming enlightened. ¶Pūjā bells are heard ringing before sunrise throughout the homes of India in every city. In these early morning hours, men and women are priests and priestesses in their own home. Children learn ślokas; haṭha yoga is a daily exercise; prāṇāyāma is done for maintaining a healthy mind and body. Discipline is the criterion of being a good citizen. In Hinduism it happens to be a religious discipline. The effects of abandoning the earlier yogas upon reaching a certain stage of spiritual unfoldment for gurus and swāmīs is reflected in the lives of their students. When they began to teach, they would not be inclined to take their devotees through the beginning stages; they would not impart the practices of the first two mārgas—charyā and kriyā. They would be more inclined to start the beginners out at the upper stages, where they themselves are now, and abandon the beginning stages. This would be, and is, a mistake, one which many gurus and swāmīs have lived to regret when their own disciples began to compete with them or turned sour when unable to attain the expected results. Traditionally, the character has to be built within the devotee as a first and foremost platform before even the hint of an initiation into inner teaching is given. This purifying preparation involves repentance, confession and reconcilation through traditional prāyaśchitta, penance, to mitigate kukarmas. This crucial work often takes years to accomplish. ¶Once some level of enlightenment has been attained, this is the time to intensify the sādhana, not to let up. When we let up on ourselves, the instinctive mind takes over. We are still living in a physical body. Therefore, one foot must always be kept firmly on the head of the snake of the instinctive-intellectual nature. The higher we go, the lower we can fall if precaution is not taken. Therefore, we must prepare devotees for a sudden or slow fall as well. They should land on the soft pillows of consistent daily sādhana, worship of God, Gods and guru, and the basic religious practices of karma yoga and bhakti yoga. Without these as a platform, they may slide down in consciousness, below the mūlādhāra, into the chakras of fear, anger, doubt and depression. ¶The scriptures are filled with stories of certain ṛishis who reached high levels, but had given up all their bhakti and japa. When difficult personal karma came, each fell deep into the lower nature, way below the mūlādhāra, to become demon-like to society rather than a holy seer and a guiding force. ¶The whole idea that bhakti is for beginners is a modern expedient. It was created by modern people who do not want to do the daily sādhanas, who do not believe the Gods really exist and who are so bound in their individual personality that they do not accept the reality that God is in and within everything. This nonbelief, lack of faith, changes their values very slowly at first, but changes them nonetheless into those that cry, “Personal freedom is what is sought, making the little ego big, and then bigger.” Traditional disciplines and the spiritual teachers who know them so well nowadays come under the purview of these “free thinkers,” later to regret it. This is similar to children being the head of the house, telling their parents what they will do, and what they will not do. ¶Only the strongest and bravest souls can succeed in enlightenment and maintain and develop it until true wisdom comes as a boon. Therefore, we reaffirm, having attained a small degree of enlightenment, or a fuller enlightenment, stay enlightened, because mukti, the transference from the physical body through the top of the head at the point of death, has not yet occurred. And only after that happens are we enlightened forever. This is the beginning of the ultimate merging with Śiva in a physical body! Thereafter follows viśvagrāsa, the final, final, final merger whence there is no return, where jīva has in reality become Śiva, as a bowl of water poured into the ocean becomes the ocean. There is no difference and no return.§