The Atma Jyoti Blog

Part 4 of Akshay Kumar Banerjea’s important essay from the Philosophy of Gorakhnath. Having compared the approaches of the philosopher and the yogi, Banerjea now focuses his analysis on the experience of the yogi.

The experience which is attained in the highest state of Samadhi cannot be regarded either as purely subjective experience or as objective experience or as negation of experience. It is not of the nature of subjective experience like that in the dream-state of consciousness or in the state of reverie or imagination or illusion or hallucination, in which the experiencing subject projects itself as the objects of experience under the influence of some internal or external stimulation. Such experiences are not accepted as forms of valid knowledge. They occur only in the impure and restless states of the empirical consciousness. In them, there is no correspondence between the objects of experience and the actual realities.

In the Samadhi state, the consciousness is pure and calm and tranquil, free from the influences of all external and internal stimuli. In it there is no room for imagination or error or self-projection. In it there is no functioning of the mind or the intellect. The sense of the ego as the experiencing subject disappears, and hence this also does not condition the experience and make it an affair of a particular egoistic mind. In the deepest Samadhi, what is experienced does not appear as an object of experience, as distinct from and related to the experiencing subject. The individual consciousness ascends in that state to the transcendent universal plane, and the Reality as experienced in this plane cannot be merely a subjective reality real to a particular individual and unreal to others. Every individual consciousness that rises to this plane should be blessed with the same transcendent experience. Hence the Reality as revealed in the highest state of Samadhi must be recognized as the Absolute Reality.

It is also clear that Samadhi-experience is not of the nature of objective experience like that of the normal waking-state of the consciousness, in which the experience is conditioned by the natural limitation of the psycho-physical embodiment, and in which the objects of experience are as a matter of course finite relative phenomenal realities. In the state of Samadhi, the consciousness, though not unrelated to the psycho -physical organism, transcends its limitations, rises above the plane of finite egohood and the relativity of subject and object and becomes perfectly pure and tranquil and refined and illumined. The Reality revealed in the experience of this transcendent consciousness does not appear as a phenomenal object, distinct from the experiencing subject, but as one with it.

Questions

It may be questioned whether there is any real experience at all in this Samadhi-state of the consciousness. From the standpoint of the plane of our normal objective and subjective experiences, the question is not irrelevant. How can ‘ there be any real experience in the state in which there is no distinction and mutual relation between the subject and the object, the experiencer and the experienced? Can it be called any real experience, if only pure consciousness exists and nothing is present before it as its object? No only that. It may also be questioned if consciousness can at all exist as consciousness, when there is neither any subjective experience nor any objective experience in it. How can consciousness exist without any functions or phenomena of consciousness? May not what is called Samadhi-state be really the suicide of the consciousness? Or, may it not be a state analogous to the state of deep sleep (sushupti) or swoon (moorchcha), in which there is no real experience, in which the consciousness is in a state of absolute ignorance, in which it is ignorant of the psycho-physical embodiment, ignorant of the objective world, and even ignorant of its own existence ? May not the Samadhi state be a state of absolute ignorance or an absolutely unconscious state?

Such doubts may naturally arise in the fickle minds and speculative intellects of those who had never got the beatific experience of the Samadhi state. The enlightened Yogi, whose consciousness has risen to the highest spiritual plane and had an actual taste of this state, is free from all such doubts. To him this state of Samadhi is not a vacant state, but a state of fulness, not a state of darkness, but a state of perfect illumination, which is never experienced by the mind in the normal conditions. In this state, the consciousness does not commit suicide, it is not reduced into a state of unconsciousness or absolute ignorance; but it elevates itself into a state of absolute knowledge (purnagnana or kevalagnana), in which the knower and the knowable become perfectly united with each other, in which no difference remains between the Reality and the Consciousness and nothing more remains to be known, in which the entire universe of the apparent plurality of existences unveils its essential spiritual unity to the consciousness as well as its identity with the consciousness itself. The all-unifying truth-revealing transcendent experience of the highest spiritual plane of the consciousness, though indescribable and even inconceivable in terms of the normal objective and subjective experiences, is to the Yogi the most real experience.

Spirit and Matter

Normally, we live and move and have our being in a world of plurality a world of differences and inter-relations. Differences among the various kinds of realities appear to be fundamental, and at the same time mutual relations among them also appear as inherent in their very nature. Spirit and matter are, so far as our normal experience goes, essentially different from each other; neither can be proved to be the cause or the effect of the other. But the inter-relation between them is so rooted in their nature, that we cannot even form any definite conception of the one except in relation to the other. In the world of living beings, matter constitutes the embodiment of the spirit and the spirit is the soul of the material body. We conceive matter as unconscious and inanimate and inert and it cannot by itself be conscious and living and moving; it is the conscious spirit which, entering into every particle of matter, converts it into a living and moving and self-organizing conscious body, and it is this body which becomes the medium and instrument of all self-expressions of the spirit. What we experience as inorganic material things are also what they are as objects of experiences of the conscious spirit; apart from relation to the conscious subject, i.e. the spirit, they seem to have no characters they are as good as nothing. The spirit also appears to be contentless and characterless, except in relation to the material body and material objects. Thus, in our normal experience, spirit and matter are essentially distinct as well as essentially related.

Again, in this world of plurality of our normal experience, spirits appear to be innumerable and essentially distinct from one another; different spirits are embodied in and conditioned by different psycho-physical organisms, having different kinds of experiences and different kinds of hopes and aspirations. But inter-communications and interdependences among them are also quite obvious. Similarly, the elementary material things which constitute the objective material world appear to be essentially different from one another; but they are all inter-related.

It is the plurality of inter-related phenomenal realities which constitute the contents of our normal experience and knowledge. Our empirical consciousness cannot transcend this plurality. But, there is always a feeling in the depth of our consciousness that this knowledge is not perfect. It mysteriously feels within itself that there must be some underlying Unity, holding together the plurality, harmonizing and unifying all the phenomenal diversities, and that that Unity must be the real Truth of the plurality.

Discovery

It is the inherent demand of the consciousness for the discovery of One Absolute Reality as the Ultimate Truth of the inter-related plurality of existences, that is at the root of all sciences and philosophy. Every science makes serious efforts through the methods of keen and careful observation and experiment as well as logical reasoning and theorizing to discover some principle of Unity behind the plurality of phenomena within the scope of its investigation. The ambition of every philosophical system is to discover some Unity as the Truth of all existences. Since their methods of approach are inherently incapable of giving any sure knowledge of this Unity, they invariably fail to reach their goal. Whatever theories they may form, they can never grasp the Unity of Spirit and Matter, the unity of the conscious subject and the Objective Universe, the Unity of the knower and the knowable. The knowledge which is attainable through the scientific and philosophical methods is phenomenal and objective knowledge; while the Unity that underlies and unifies all kinds of phenomena of the past, the present and the future and is the Infinite and Eternal Ground of all cannot be a phenomenal reality and cannot therefore be an object of scientific or philosophical knowledge. The Reality, which is the Supreme Ground of the relations among all conscious subjects and all objects of consciousness, cannot itself appear as a particular object of the empirical consciousness of a particular knowing subject. Thus the Ultimate Unity of all existences, for which there is an inherent demand of the consciousness, remains beyond the reach of all scientific and philosophical knowledge.

The Samadhi experience of an enlightened Yogi at the highest spiritual plane of the consciousness is the direct knowledge of this Unity of all existences. It is distinct from all scientific and philosophical knowledge. It is distinct from knowledge of sense-perception and inference and logical reasoning. In it the consciousness transcends the difference between Spirit and Matter, the difference between the Subject and the Object, between the Internal and the External, between the One and the Many. In it the consciousness becomes perfectly one with the Truth of all existences. The inherent demand of the consciousness for the Absolute Truth is in this experience perfectly satisfied. It is transcendent experience.

A Yogi who is blessed with this spiritual experience in the state of Samadhi has not merely the intellectual satisfaction of having discovered the Ultimate Truth, but also attains the perfect satisfaction of the fulfillment of life. He becomes free from all sorts of bondage and sorrow, from all kinds of weakness and infirmity, from all senses of imperfections and limitations. Having in the transcendent plane of his consciousness experienced the perfect character of his innermost Self and its identity with the Infinite Eternal Self of the Universe, he becomes free from all fears, all cares and anxieties, all attractions for and attachments to, as well as all disgusts against and repugnance to the ‘finite and transitory things of the world. What he feels is so described by the illustrious commentator of the Yoga Sutras: “What is worth knowing has been known, what is worth getting has been got, all the Kleshas (imperfections) which are fit to be destroyed have been destroyed, all the bondages of Karma (actions virtues and vices) have become infructuous.” (Jnatam jnatavyam, praptam prapaniyam, kshinah kshetavya kleshah, karma-bandhanani shithilani.)

The Yoga-Sutras enumerate five kinds of Kleshas i.e. fundamental imperfections and sources of sorrows and bondages, viz., Avidya (ignorance or false knowledge), Asmita (egohood I-am-ness) Raga (attachment), Dvesha (aversion) and Abhinivesha (lust of life and the consequent fear of death). It is these which determine all our worldly activities, virtuous as well as vicious; and it is these which place us under subjection to the Law of Karma and compel us to reap the pleasurable and painful fruits of our actions in repeated births and in various forms of living existence. All these Kleshas, to which our consciousness is subject in the normal planes, and by which all our actions as well as enjoyments and sufferings in the worldly life are determined, are destroyed, when the consciousness is illumined by the Transcendent Experience. An enlightened Yogi thus attains perfect freedom from all bondages of individual life. This is called Mukti or Moksha. In his enlightened experience, he virtually ceases to be a finite individual and the world also ceases to exist as a reality external to him. The lamp of his life as a finite changing mortal individual is extinguished. This is therefore spoken of as Nirvana. The individual then attains the character of the Absolute the one without a second. He is therefore said to attain Kaivalya.

Previous installments:

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

Next: Enlightening Influence of Samadhi-Experience Upon Normal Life