The Atma Jyoti Blog

The fifth and last part of Akshay Kumar Banerjea’s important essay from the Philosophy of Gorakhnath.

The individual psycho-physical life of a Yogi does not however end with the experience of Kaivalya or Nirvana or Moksha. The consciousness again comes down from the transcendent plane to the normal plane, from the state of Samadhi to the state of Vyutthana (the normal waking state), from the perfectly illumined state to the state of conditioned knowledge. The enlightened Yogi again becomes conscious of himself as an embodied being, conscious of the objective world of plurality as external to himself. His knowledge of the world as well as of himself is again conditioned by his senses, mind, intellect and ego. He again apparently becomes one of innumerable finite individuals of the world.

Though outwardly he appears to become the same individual as he had been before the attainment of the Transcendent Experience of the Samadhi, yet inwardly this is not the case. The Truth-experience which illumines his consciousness in the supramental supra-intellectual supra-egoistic transcendent state exercises a great enlightening influence upon his normal mind and intellect and ego. His entire outlook on himself, his fellow-beings and the world of inter-related diversities undergoes a radical transformation as the result of that experience. Before he Was blessed with that experience, the Spiritual Unity of all existences had been veiled from his empirical consciousness. He used to see the plurality as plurality, but he had not the eyes to see the Unity that shone in and through them. The Absolute One, that manifests Itself in the diverse forms of relative plurality, that sustains their existence, regulates their movements, links them with one another and constitutes them into a magnificent cosmic order, had been concealed from his view, though he had felt a deep craving within his consciousness for having a glimpse of that Absolute One.

Now, that Absolute One has revealed Itself to his consciousness; the veil has been removed; the consciousness has been illumined. This illumination is transmitted to the intellect, the ego and the mind and even to the senses. They do not now experience merely what they used to experience before the illumination descended upon them, but also the Absolute One along with and as the real essence of the objects of their normal experience. The ego now feels the Absolute One as its True Self and feels itself as an individualized self-expression of the Absolute One. The intellect now no longer theorizes, but finds in the Absolute One the ultimate rational explanation of all the problems that may appear before it. All the thoughts, feelings and volitions of the illumined mind now revolve round the Absolute One as the center. All the diverse kinds of objects of sense-perception are experiences as diversified appearances or manifestations of the One.

In the transcendent experience of the Samadhi-state, the objective world of plurality and the experiencing ego are both completely merged in one Absolute Consciousness (or Super-consciousness), which is the Absolute Truth or Reality of both; while in the enlightened experience of the Yogi in the normal plane of his empirical consciousness the ego and the objective world of plurality are both present, both appear as pervaded by the One, as having their being in the One, as the two-fold manifestations of the One. The One being the Truth of both, the Yogi sees himself in all and all in himself. He looks upon all the diversities from the standpoint of Unity; he sees the Infinite in the finite, the Eternal in the temporal, the Changeless in all changes, and the spirit in all material things. He thinks and feels all as essentially non-different from himself, and hence he loves all and hates and fears none.

In the Samadhi-experience, a Yogi transcends time and space. The beginningless and endless flow of time is in this ultimate Truth-experience merged in one changeless Eternity. The boundless space is also merged in one differenceless Infinity. In the enlightened normal experience, the Yogi sees the timeless Eternity manifested in the flow of time, the extensionless Infinity pervading all parts of space. In the Samadhi-state, his senses, mind and intellect are all functionless; they do not condition and diversify the experiences of the consciousness. He then does not perceive any external objects; he does not feel any pleasure or pain, any hunger or thirst, any affection or compassion, any duty or obligation; he has no process of thinking, no conception or judgment or reasoning; at that stage, he has no behavior at all. His consciousness then shines in its unconditioned undifferentiated unveiled fulness, in which the Reality and the consciousness are one. When the Yogi comes down to the normal plane with the memory or illumination of his transcendent experience, his senses, mind and intellect perform their normal functions, but with some new enlightenment. His senses appear to perceive some supersensuous Reality behind the ordinary objects of perception; his mind, even in course of its normal operations, seems to dwell in some supramental plane, and an attitude of unconcern and disinterestedness towards all affairs of the world prevails in his mind under all circumstances. He remains under all conditions free from cares and anxieties, desires and attachments, confusions and perplexities. All his intellectual thinking also appears to have as its center the Truth of the super-intellectual experience.

An enlightened Yogi in his normal life lives and moves in the domain of the senses, the mind and the intellect, but has his inner being in the peaceful and blissful realm of the super-sensuous super-mental super-intellectual Reality. As the result of systematic discipline, his body, senses, mental functions and intellectual reflections are of course much more refined and tranquillized than those of ordinary men whose lives are almost wholly governed by worldly interests and worldly forces.

Not only that. By means of appropriate Yogic practices, he often acquires such extraordinary powers and visions even with regard to the relative realities of the world as appear miraculous and superhuman to others. He acquires the powers of seeing and hearing things beyond the range of normal ocular and auditory perceptions and of seeing without eyes and hearing without ears. He acquires the powers of knowing the events of the past and the future just as those of the present. He acquires the powers of entering into the minds of others and reading their thoughts and feelings and often exercising control over them. He may acquire the power of making his gross material body lighter than air and rising high up in the air and moving to distant places by the aerial path. He can often make his body invisible to the people present before him and can make his way through thick walls. He can acquire the power of assuming many bodies at the same time, making himself visible to people of different places and performing different actions with the different bodies. He may acquire the power of exerting control over the forces of nature and of transforming one natural thing into another. He may acquire the power of creating new things by the mere exercise of his will and of changing the natural characters of things; and so on, and so forth. According to the Yoga-Shastras, an enlightened Yogi may develop in himself even the power of creating a new world. Truly enlightened Yogis seldom make any display of their Yogic powers, which appear miraculous or superhuman to ordinary people. But, some Yogi teachers give occasional expressions of their minor occult powers, perhaps in order to demonstrate to the self-diffident people of the world what great powers lie hidden and dormant in them and to inspire them with the faith that they also can become masters of the forces of nature, if they undergo a systematic course of self-discipline under expert guidance in the path of Yoga and thereby become masters of themselves,

Although in the plane of transcendent spiritual experience no difference exists between one Yogi and another, nevertheless when enlightened Yogis come down to the normal planes of practical life, their behaviors are often found to be different. These differences are generally due to the natural differences of their psycho-physical embodiments, their habits and modes of training in the pre-enlightenment period, as well as their environmental conditions. Different Yogis are found to have temperamental differences. Some Yogis are found to cut off all connections with the affairs of the external world and to pass their time in solitude in a constantly meditative mood and in continuous enjoyment of the bliss of Samadhi-experience. They seldom allow their consciousness to come down to the lower planes. Other enlightened Yogis are moved by love and compassion for the people of the world, whom they see suffering various kinds of sorrows on account of their ignorance of the Eternal Truth and their hankering for and attachment to the petty transitory things of this earth. They come in close contact with these people and adopt various means to give them True Light and emancipate them from sorrows and bondages. Inwardly, they also dwell in the plane of the Infinite and Eternal; but outwardly love and compassion make them active. It is these Yogis who become Gurus or spiritual guides in the society. It is through them that spiritual light comes down to the people of the world and awakens in their consciousness the yearning for the Infinite Eternal Absolute Reality, which otherwise remains dormant in it.

The enlightened Yogis, who look upon all human beings and all the affairs of the world from the spiritual point of view and move among the the people on account of their deep-seated love and compassion for them, have in all ages been the true teachers of humanity and the true leaders of culture and civilization. It is from their lives and teachings that the people living and moving normally in the physical, vital, sensuous, mental and intellectual planes, get glimpses of the Supreme Truth underlying and pervading and transcending the world of ordinary experience and some ideas about the Highest Ideal of their lives. It is these saints who present before their fellow-beings the noblest ideals of their intellectual pursuits and social activities, the highest standards of values, the deepest meanings of life and its aspirations, the innermost significance of the wonderful order and harmony in all the departments of this most complicated cosmic process. They are the permanent sources of inspiration to men and women of all grades of the society.

The ideas of Universal Brotherhood, Universal Love and Sympathy, Equality of all men, Sacredness of the lives of all creatures, Inherent Right to Liberty and Justice of all people, Respect for Truth for Truth’s sake, Selfless and Disinterested Service to all fellow-beings, Unity of mankind and Unity of the world-order, all such lofty ideas, which have been pushing mankind to higher and higher types of civilization, have been obtained from enlightened Yogis, who have been instilling these ideas into the minds and hearts of the people from time immemorial. All the noblest and most dynamic ideas, which have been progressively refining the human civilization, have been based upon the spiritual experiences of enlightened Saints, who have been preaching them in all parts of this earth for hundreds of years. It is from them that the people learn that the cultivation of their social virtues and their sense of duty and obligation should not be confined within certain territorial boundaries or within certain racial or communal or national limits.

We learn from them that our morality does not become truly human morality, until and unless it transcends the narrow domestic and communal and racial and national limits and recognizes the entire mankind as one grand and beautiful family, and that our religion does not become truly spiritual religion, until and unless it rises above all sectarian and communal exclusiveness and bigotry and dogmatism and fanaticism and inspires us to feel in our heart of hearts the unity of all men and all creatures. It is these saints who have taught the human society to value self-control as superior to self-gratification, self-sacrifice as superior to self-aggrandizement, self-conquest as superior to the conquest of other people, spiritual self-fulfillment as superior to materialistic advancement, all-embracing love as superior to all-vanquishing brute-force, renunciation of all earthly goods for the sake of the eternal good of the soul as superior to ambition for and attainment of even the greatest possible power and prosperity and pleasure in this physical world. The examples they set up through their own character and conduct and the precepts they preach by words of mouth elevate the sense of dignity of man to a higher spiritual level, awaken in man the consciousness of his inner spiritual possibilities and of the true seat of his glory as the crown of the creation, and practically lead him in the path of his perfect self-realization. These Yogis are the true makers of civilization.

When a Yogi, out of deep sympathy and compassion for the ignorant and distressed people of the world, feels prompted to assume the role of a public teacher and preacher, he is required to give expression to his inner experiences in such intellectual and emotional forms as may be easily intelligible and appealing to those people of the lower planes. Knowing fully well that the truth of the higher planes of spiritual experience cannot be adequately expressed in the language and concepts of the lower planes, he takes the help of various kinds of figures of speech, poetic imageries, suggestive parables, imperfect analogies, mystic formulas, inspiring exhortations, etc., in order to awaken the deeper consciousness of the people and to raise their thoughts: and imaginations forcefully to the higher planes. The instructions of an enlightened Yogi, coming out of his heart with the force of his inner experience, carry conviction to the hearts of the listeners and often bring about a radical change in their outlook and mode of thought. Sometimes a Yogi does not require any word of mouth or movement of limbs for the purpose of exercising his spiritual influence upon the minds and hearts of people; his presence is enough. His very presence as a living embodiment of Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Love and Bliss, exerts a mysterious influence upon the consciousness of those who come to learn from him, and even upon the cultural atmosphere of the society in which he lives.

But usually the enlightened Yogis, who compassionately undertake the work of bringing down spiritual light to the people of the Society suffering from ignorance and earthly desires and attachments, adopt the usual means of imparting true knowledge to them. Though inwardly dwelling in the supra-mental supra-intellectual spiritual plane, they practically adjust their modes of teaching and preaching to the mental and intellectual and even the social and physical needs of the people whom they want to serve. While in their teaching life, they primarily concern themselves with inspiring the people with spiritual ideas and ideals on the basis of their deeper experiences, they often attempt to bridge over the chasm between the practical experiences and intellectual conceptions of the ordinary people and their own spiritual realizations in the higher planes of consciousness, by means of suitable logical arguments and philosophical speculations which may appeal to the intellects and imaginations of those people. Thus the Yogis convert themselves into Philosophers to suit the purpose of their teaching.

Very few among the truly enlightened Yogi teachers built up any regular system of philosophy. They usually give suggestive hints with regard to the Ultimate Truth, which they have realized in the plane of transcendent consciousness and which they instruct the truth-seekers to realize themselves by means of proper self-discipline, and they teach them the path in which they should proceed. Systems of philosophy are generally built up by their disciples and admirers who dwell in the intellectual plane, on the basis of the inspiring formulas and aphorisms uttered by those adorable teachers. Even those enlightened Yogis who happen to present a system of philosophy to the intellectualist truth-seekers do not lay undue emphasis upon the concepts in terms of which they describe the Ultimate Truth and the logical arguments leading to these concepts. To them all such intellectual concepts are necessarily imperfect expressions of the Ultimate Truth realized in the supra-intellectual plane of the consciousness and no logical arguments can possibly lead to that Supreme Truth.

Nevertheless they recognize the value of philosophy as a mode of search for the Truth and as a mode of discipline of the mind and the intellect. The mind and the intellect are greatly purified and refined and emancipated from irrational ideas and superstitious beliefs and earthbound dispositions through a regular course of philosophical discipline. The systematic study of philosophy under the guidance of enlightened teachers can very well raise a sincere and earnest Truth-seeker from the physical, vital, sensuous and mental planes to the plane of refined intellect and lead him very near to the realization of the Ultimate Truth. The enlightened Yogi-teachers therefore encourage their intellectualist disciples and truth-seekers to take to the systematic study of philosophy with an unbiassed mind as a very suitable method of self-discipline and self-enlightenment. They accordingly sometimes present before them a system of philosophy for the proper regulation of their reasoning faculty and their mode of approach to Truth. These Yogi-philosophers seldom entangle themselves in polemical controversies with the advocates of other systems of philosophy. To these enlightened teachers every well-reasoned system of philosophy is a particular mode of intellectual approach to the same supra-intellectual Truth and a particular form of effective discipline of the intellect. When the intellect is properly disciplined and refined, it becomes much easier to transcend the domain of the intellect.

Earlier posts in this series:

• A Yogi and a Philosopher: Alike and Different
• The Philosopher’s Method
• The Path of Yoga Instead of Philosophy
• The Nature of Samadhi Experience