Unfolding Divine Perception

I

know a place

That calls me with open arms

That I long for like a charged lover.

All the divine entities it holds for me,

Breathing anxiously for my touch.

That is what I call my home sweet home.

                    ~  Sandhya

In deep meditation and quiet prayer your mind becomes increasingly calm.

In becoming calm, your mind becomes absorbed into a blessed field of life that provides it with more bliss than can anything experienced through the usual activities of the five senses in the gross spheres of existence.

Naturally, then, when your mind becomes absorbed in that inner silence of bliss consciousness, your five senses cease clinging to the grosser aspects of existence and begin to appreciate objects in an increasingly fluid, refined, and luminous mode of perception.

Deep meditation usually comes about through enjoying more and more subtle levels of one or more of your senses.

For instance, if you are meditating on a mantra, or on the most natural of mantras—the sound of your breathing—or upon even a single, sonorous syllable of a prayer, you will begin to appreciate rarified states of the sense of hearing as your mind transcends.

Teresa of Avila described this Prayer of Quiet as being like an infant sucking at mother's breast:

On the gross level of language, there are many words in prayer, but as the mind fathoms deeper, more expansive levels of prayer, even one syllable is enough, as it begins to partake of the Word.

“Milking” an individual syllable of a prayer is like sucking on mother's breast: when the heart becomes increasingly quiet, the milk of Spirit begins to flow into the contemplative without any effort or act of will on the part of the pray-er.

In this, the Prayer of Quiet, the pray-er has transcended all the sounds and syllables of prayer and become absorbed in the Word.

When, due to the long habit of transcending, the mind becomes anchored in transcendence, then the sense of hearing, no longer attached to grosser levels of perception, can enjoy the most refined, luminous impulses of sound. 

In such a state, awareness, while remaining anchored in its own oceanic nature, stirs into the finest waves of perception.

It is on this level that the phenomenon known in Sanskrit as nama-rupa, or the correspondence of name (sound vibration) and form (light vibration) takes place.

Sound coalesces with form on an elevated, divine level that far exceeds the pleasures possible on the grosser levels of sensory experience.

One's mantra dissolves into infinite light, a humming sea of sound: “the sonorous silence, the silent music, the sounding solitude,” as San Juan de la Cruz wrote of it, a resounding inner silence that drowns out the noise of the world.

On this level one hears the anahata (unstruck) sound—the innate hum of consciousness, the most subtle impulse of manifest creation, wherein reside all the divine Beings.

How to fathom the depths of the Word?

These sutras of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, a dialog between two divine lovers, offer a succinct course in applied linguistics, Indian style, revealing how to locate the fruit of all knowledge within the luminous tissues of even one innocent syllable, wherein all the divine energies dwell. Within each splinter of speech dwells the Word:

~ * ~

Let your attention glide

Through the centers of awareness along the spine,

with adoring intent.

There is a song to each area of the body.

Listen to these sounds resonating in sweet vortexes,

Long rhythmic vowels

Ah . . . .

Eee . . . and

Hummmm . . .

Resonating on and on.

Listen to these as sounds,

Then more subtly as an underlying hum,

Eventually as most subtle feeling.

Then, diving more deeply,

Expand into freedom.

                                                  ~ * ~

Bathe deeply in that ocean of sound,

Which is even now vibrating within you,

Resonating softly,

Permeating the space of the heart.

The ear that is tuned by rapt listening

Learns to hear the song of creation:

First like a hand bell, then subtler,

Like a flute, then subtler still

As a stringed instrument, eventually

As the buzzing of a bee.

Entering this current of sound,

The Listening One forgets the external world,

And becomes absorbed into internal sound,

And then absorbed in vastness

Like the song of the stars as they shine

x

~ * ~

 Hum a sound,

such as ahhhhh . . .

uuuuuuu . . .

mmmmmm

or

hreeeeemmmm

 or

even the sound hum, itself.

Bathe in the sound with infinite leisure . . .

As the sound fades into an imperceptible hum,

it will carry you into the hum of the universe

~ * ~

 Think of any vowel,

They are all delicious.

Savor that sound with reverence.

Attend to where it comes from within you,

And where it goes to when it fades away.

Discover what gradualness is.

Learn to relish each minute variation.

As you feel the full range of sound,

Layer upon layer,

The power of sound will teach you

The power of Being.

~ * ~

Listen with total attention to the sounds of stringed instruments.

When performed with grace,

Each note appears to rise out of eternity

And disappear back into it.

When the music ends,

Stay with the echo of the music reverberating inside you,

And as the reverberation fades away into silence

Go with it.

~ * ~

Lightly begin a sound,

Whispering it audibly,

And then gradually,

Less and less audibly.

Continuing thus, it eventually sounds only internally.

Listening to the sound as it goes on resounding within,

Let it continue as of itself.

Then it becomes just a thought, a remembered hum,

Then as even the echo of that hum fades away,

Be intimate with the silence that is the home of all music.

*******

If you really devote your attention to even one of these meditations,

each time your mind transcends during meditation, your nervous system becomes more accustomed to functioning on those subtle levels, exploring and cognizing refined, luminous, sensory impulses.

So, pleasant is this on every level of your being, so deeply restful and peaceful is this state, that one who enjoys it wishes to move not even a finger, nor even to breathe, nor to entertain a single thought or desire. 

Once you have become accustomed to beholding that light within yourself, during meditation, when you open your eyes, you will also behold all around you a world of light.

Once your mind becomes established in pure, unbounded awareness, you will then begin to see that not only is bliss consciousness your true nature, but that everything is a luminous vibration of bliss consciousness.

As the ancient seers of the Vedas said, "All this is nothing but That."

When your mind becomes absorbed in Being, what you then discover all around you in nature is a world of Beings.

Such perception does not involve belief, imagination, fantasy, hallucination, or wishful thinking.

This level of perception dawns as clear, pristine, and direct appreciation of finer, luminous levels of reality that have always been there all around you.

Your appreciation of life, then, is entirely in your hands.

If you take responsibility for your soul and its connection to your divinity, you will gain the silent, powerful support of all the Beings (devas) that dwell within those luminous levels of reality with which you are growing in increasing intimacy.

So, the formula is in the mystical tradition of every culture: deserve and then desire.

Through meditation and quiet prayer, refine your instrument of perception, the nervous system. Through meditation, refine the nervous system, refine the nervous system, refine the nervous system, refine the nervous system . . . .

To inspire you with what lies ahead for you in this area of life, I have appended the experiences of an Irish seer, and following upon those, some artistic video clips pertaining to this realm of inner beauty and luminosity.

First, the experiences of the Irish seer:

These are from an interview conducted by Walter Evans Wentz, a great anthropologist who wrote The Fairy Faith in Celtic Lands. Professor Evans Wentz, although an expert on Tibetan Buddhism, was interviewing an Irish seer who revealed to him the structure of the inner world of light.

Q. Are all visions that you have had of the same character?

A. I have always made a distinction between pictures seen in the memory of nature and visions of actual beings now existing in the inner world. We can make the same distinction in our world. I may close my eyes and see you as a vivid picture in memory, or I may look at you with my physical eyes and see your actual image. In seeing these beings of which I speak, the physical eyes may be open or closed. Mystical beings in their own world and nature are never seen with the physical eyes.

Otherworlds.

Q. By the ‘inner world’ do you mean the Celtic Otherworld?

A. Yes though there are many Otherworlds. The Tir-na-nog of the ancient Irish, in which the races of the Sidhe exist, may be described as a radiant archetype of this world, though this definition does not at all express its psychic nature. In Tir-na-nog one sees nothing save harmony and beautiful forms. There are other worlds in which we can see horrible shapes.

Classification of the Sidhe.

Q. Do you in any way classify the Sidhe races to which you refer?

A. The beings whom I call the Sidhe, I divide, as I have seen them, into two great classes: those who are shining, and those who are opalescent and seem lit up by a light within themselves. The shining beings appear to be lower in the hierarchies. The opalescent beings are more rarely seen, and appear to hold the positions of great chiefs or princes among the tribes of Dana.

Conditions of Seership.

Q. Under what state or condition and where have you seen such beings?

A. I have seen them most frequently after being away from a city or town for a few days. The whole west coast of Ireland from Donegal to Kerry seems charged with a magical power, and I find it easiest to see while I am there. I have always found it comparatively easy to see visions while at ancient monuments like New Grange and Dowth, because I think such places are naturally charged with psychical forces, and were for that reason made use of long ago as sacred places. I usually find it possible to throw myself into the mood of seeing, but sometimes visions have forced themselves upon me.

The Shining Beings.

Q. Can you describe the shining beings?

A. It is very difficult to give any intelligible description of them. The first time I saw them with great vividness I was lying on a hillside alone in the west of Ireland, in County Sligo. I had been listening to music in the air, and to what seemed to be the sound of bells, and was trying to understand these aerial clashings, in which wind seemed to break upon wind in an ever-changing musical silvery sound. Then the space before me grew luminous, and I began to see one beautiful being after another.

The Opalescent Beings.

Q. Can you describe one of the opalescent beings?

A. The first of these I saw I remember very clearly, and the manner of its appearance. There was at first a dazzle of light, and then I saw that this came from the heart of a tall figure with a body apparently shaped out of half-transparent or opalescent air, and throughout the body ran a radiant, electrical fire, to which the heart seemed the centre. Around the head of this being and through its waving luminous hair, which was blown all about the body like living strands of gold, there appeared flaming wing-like auras. From the being itself light seemed to stream outwards in every direction, and the effect left on me after the vision was one of extraordinary lightness, joyousness, or ecstasy.

At about this same period of my life I saw many of these great beings, and I then thought that I had visions of Aengus, Manannan, Lug, and other famous kings or princes among the Tuatha De Danann, but since then I have seen so many beings of a similar character that I now no longer would attribute to any one of them personal identity with particular beings of legend though I believe that they correspond in a general way to the Tuatha De Danann or ancient Irish gods.

Stature of the Sidhe.

Q. You speak of the opalescent beings as great beings. What stature do you assign to them, and to the shining beings?

A. The opalescent beings seem to be about fourteen feet in stature, though I do not know why I attribute to them such definite height, since I had nothing to compare them with, but I have always considered them as much taller than our race. The shining beings seem to be about our own stature or just a little taller. Peasant and other Irish seers do not usually speak of the Sidhe as being little, but as being tall. An old schoolmaster in the West of Ireland described them to me from his own visions as tall, beautiful people, and he used some Gaelic words, which I took as meaning that they were shining with every colour.

The Worlds of the Sidhe.

Q. Do the two orders of Sidhe beings inhabit the same world?

A. The shining beings belong to the mid-world, whereas the opalescent beings belong to the heaven-world. There are three great worlds that we can see while we are still in the body: the earth-world, mid-world, and heaven-world.

Nature of the Sidhe.

Q. Do you consider the life and state of these Sidhe beings superior to the life and state of men?

A. I could never decide. One can say that they themselves are certainly more beautiful than men are, and that their worlds seem more beautiful than our world. Among the shining orders there does not seem to be any individualized life. Thus if one of them raises his hands, all raise their hands, and if one drinks from a fire-fountain, all do. They seem to move and to have their real existence in a being higher than themselves, to which they are a kind of body. Theirs is, I think, a collective life, so unindividualized and so calm that I might have more varied thoughts in five hours than they would have in five years, and yet one feels an extraordinary purity and exaltation about their life. Beauty of form with them has never been broken up by the passions that arise in the developed egotism of human beings. A hive of bees has been described as a single organism with disconnected cells, and some of these tribes of shining beings seem to be little more than one being manifesting itself in many beautiful forms. I speak this with reference to the shining beings only. I think that among the opalescent or Sidhe beings, in the heaven-world, there is an even closer spiritual unity, but also a greater individuality.

Influence of the Sidhe on Men.

Q. Do you consider any of these Sidhe beings inimical to humanity?

A. Certain kinds of the shining beings, whom I call ‘wood beings,’ have never affected me with any evil influences I could recognize. But the water beings, also of the shining tribes, I always dread, because I felt whenever I came into contact with them a great drowsiness of mind and, I often thought, an actual drawing away of vitality.

Water Beings Described.

Q. Can you describe one of these water beings?

A. In the world under the waters--under a lake in the West of Ireland in this case--I saw a blue-and-orange-coloured king seated on a throne, and there seemed to be some fountain of mystical fire rising from under his throne, and he breathed this fire into himself as though it were his life. As I looked, I saw groups of pale beings, almost grey in colour, coming down one side of the throne by the fire-fountain. They placed their heads and lips near the heart of the elemental king, and, then, as they touched him, they shot upwards, plumed and radiant, and passed on the other side, as though they had received a new life from this chief of their world.

Wood Beings Described.

Q. Can you describe one of the wood beings?

A. The wood beings I have seen most often are of a shining, silvery colour, with a tinge of blue or pale violet, and with dark, purple-coloured hair.

Reproduction and Immortality of the Sidhe.

Q. Do you consider the races of the Sidhe able to reproduce their kind and are they immortal?

A. The higher kinds seem capable of breathing forth beings out of themselves, but I do not understand how they do so. I have seen some of them who contain elemental beings within themselves, and these they could send out and receive back within themselves again.

The immortality ascribed to them by the ancient Irish is only a relative immortality, their space of life being much greater than ours. In time, however, I believe that they grow old and then pass into new bodies just as men do, but whether by birth or by the growth of a new body I cannot say, since I have no certain knowledge about this.

Sex Among the Sidhe.

Q. Does sexual differentiation seem to prevail among the Sidhe races?

A. I have seen forms male and female, and forms that did not suggest sex at all.

Sidhe and Human Life.

Q. Is it possible, as the ancient Irish thought, that certain of the higher Sidhe beings have entered or could enter our plane of life by submitting to human birth? On the other hand, do you consider it possible for men in trance or at death to enter the Sidhe world?

A. I cannot say. I think anyone who thought much of the Sidhe during his life and who saw them frequently and brooded on them would likely go to their world after death.

Social Organization of the Sidhe.

Q. You refer to chieftain-like or prince-like beings, and to a king among water beings. Is there therefore definite social organization among the various Sidhe orders and races, and if so, what is its nature?

A. I cannot say about a definite social organization. I have seen beings who seemed to command others, and who were held in reverence. This implies an organization, but whether it is instinctive like that of a hive of bees, or consciously organized like human society, I cannot say.

Lower Sidhe as Nature Elementals.

Q. You speak of the water-being king as an elemental king. Do you suggest thereby a resemblance between lower Sidhe orders and what medaeval mystics called ‘elementals’?

A. The lower orders of the Sidhe are, I think, the nature elementals of the mediaeval mystics.

Nourishment of the Higher Sidhe.

Q. The water beings as you have described them seem to be nourished and kept alive by something akin to electrical fluids. Do the higher orders of the Sidhe seem to be similarly nourished?

A. They seemed to me to draw their life out of the Soul of the World.

Collective Visions of Sidhe Beings.

Q. Have you had visions of the various Sidhe beings in company with other persons?

A. I have had such visions on several occasions.


********************


Such perception, of worlds of Beings nested within worlds of higher Beings, is also found in Japan's native way, Shinto.

The Japanese call such beings kami (神) rather than Sidhe, however.

One of the most awe-inspiring artistic expressions of this world of Beings appears in Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, which can be viewed in the clip below.

In the Princess Mononoke clip you will find kodama (木霊), the tree spirits of Japanese folklore.

Although the kodama in Princess Mononoke appear as little white beings, in Japanese folklore, the kodama, as any subtle being, can assume other forms as well.

This is because the appearance of subtle beings is influenced by the consciousness of the perceiver.

This feeling of awe can come about through meditation, and is a prerequisite for divine perception.

Princess Mononoke overflows with the emotion of the awe one feels in the presence of awe-inspiring natural objects.

In Japan, this feeling of overwhelming awe is called mono no aware (物の哀れ).

Literally ‘the pathos of things,’ also translated as ‘empathy toward things,’ or ‘sensitivity to ephemera’, is a Japanese term used to describe the awareness of mujo or the transience of things and a bittersweet sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing.

The term was coined in the eighteenth century by the Edo period Japanese cultural scholar Motoori Norinaga, and was originally a concept used in his literary criticism of The Tale of Genji, and later applied to other seminal Japanese works including the Man'yōshū, becoming central to his philosophy of literature and eventually to the Japanese cultural tradition—as we can see in Princess Mononoke.

The word is derived from the Japanese word mono, which means ‘things’ and aware, which was a Heian period expression of measured surprise (similar to ah! or oh!), translating roughly as ‘pathos,’ ‘poignancy,’ ‘deep feeling,’ or ‘sensitivity’. 

Thus, mono no aware has frequently been translated as the ‘ah-ness’ of things.

In his criticism of The Tale of Genji, Motoori noted that mono no aware is the crucial emotion that moves readers.

Its scope was not limited to Japanese literature, but forms the underlying aesthetic principle of the Japanese cultural tradition, such as in cherry blossom viewing.

You will also find a Shining Being in Princess Mononoke (the Sanskrit word deva means ‘shining being’ and is a cognate of the English words ‘divine’ and ‘day’).

The supreme Shining Being in Princess Mononoke is the Spirit of the Forest, who appears in both a diurnal form and in a nocturnal form.

You will notice how the smaller spirits, the kodama in Princess Mononoke, seem to draw their power and energy from the more powerful Spirit of the Forest and how the Spirit of the Forest responds to the kodamas’ call to come and heal the wounded young man.

All true healing partakes of these deep energetic levels of creation. One must remember that all devic beings have their source and nourishment and energy either directly or indirectly within the Soul of the World, call it what you will.

Thus the way to attract and behold the world of devas is to become familiar, through meditation, with the Soul of the World.

Kodama awaken by RichJuz

If you have viewed the above clip, you may have noticed Miyazaki's portrayal shares a deep resonance with what Shinto, Irish, and Vedic traditions reveal about the shining worlds.

However, your personal experience is what really counts.

Deep levels of luminous perception usually unfold very gradually, on the basis of daily allowing the mind to cognize increasingly more subtle levels of thought, eventually leaving the thinking process behind and entering into a magical world of seeing.

Some other artist representations of this luminous realm follow:













Duende means fairy or, more spookily, goblin, and it is with this more sable hue that it haunts much of Hispanic art as a underlying spirit of aesthetic darkness, especially in poetry and flamenco.  

Samoan-Hawai'ian sylph Taimane's ukulele eschews garden-variety aloha fare for darker, duende-infused forests of the soul.

The concept and coreography of the video echo those of Max Reinhardt's 1935 production of a Midsummer Night's Dream.


Taimane - Diddy from Erik T. Butts on Vimeo.




In the Vedic tradition, the transition from the thinking mind to the luminous mind is characterized as appreciating increasingly deeper levels of the Goddess of Speech, Vak.

All these levels of speech unfold when meditating on even a single syllable, such as Ah. . .

Vaikari Vak = articulated speech

Madhyama Vak = thought, (madhyama, literally means Middle)

Pashyanti Vak = literally, the Seeing Speech (the level of cognition upon which the meditator cognizes the luminous nature of the inner world).

Para Vak = the ontological substratum, pure awareness or pure consciousness, the Atman, or Soul, the Soul of the World (see, for instance, Coward's excellent study of Vak in Bhartrihari.)

It is said that the Goddess Vak unveils Her luminous nature (Pashyanti) and her innermost core (Para) only to her lovers.

When, during daily meditation, the mind fathoms increasingly more subtle and charming impulses of sound, it spontaneously finds itself becoming more collected, more unified, more steady.

As attention flows inwards, towards its own unbounded nature, it finds ever-increasing charm until it rests in bliss consciousness.

The more steady attention become, the more clearly it can mirror bliss consciousness.

In a perfectly calm, breezeless mood, the ocean reflects the full brilliance of the sun more clearly.

The more calm the mind becomes, the clearer is its reflection of the omnipresent bliss that is always already present.

As the mind and breath come to rest in deep prayer or meditation, the nervous system also comes to rest in a perfectly peaceful state.

It then can mirror the unbounded Soul of the World. All the Divine Beings (Devas = Shining Ones) are gathered around that transcendental source, as described if you click on Amber Terrell's photo, below. She sings a verse of Hymn 164 of Mandala 1 of the Rg Veda.

Your nervous system has that capacity.

It is only a matter of where you put your attention.

And whatever you put your attention on grows stronger in your life.

~ * ~

“ The gap means non-connectedness, un-connectedness — the Self, Absolute, unconnected with the relative. This is Cosmic Consciousness. All activity — the movement of the hands, and the activity... of the mind and intellect and ego — and then the Self, Absolute, being a witness to the whole thing. So there is a gap; there is a non-connectedness between this [activity] and this [Self], and that is the gap. Now in God Consciousness the gap is there, but it is so beautiful; it is celestial. That is what interested me. This gap is filled by light and then, further on, the light gains the state of pure awareness. So [in God Consciousness] there is the celestial and the Self — whatever the gap, that gap becomes celestial. And then eventually the celestial merges into pure awareness, pure consciousness, and then the Unity results. “

—Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Conversations with Maharishi by Dr. Vernon Katz

~ * ~

  The Glow

1959

            Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: We see before us great extension of the universe, so many worlds here and there. We begin to wonder whether man like us or beings or life exists in those parts or not. The almighty creator wouldn’t create anything without meaning.

            So, what is spreading in this unlimited universe is different innumerable strata of creation. We could describe it in short: gross strata of creation, subtle strata of creation. Gross strata of creation means where earth element is predominant. Subtler strata of creation where water element is predominant. And in the creation where earth element is predominant there would be millions of worlds pertaining to millions of strata where earth element would be predominant. Predominance of earth element means from 50% to 100% earth element. And other 50% other four elements. So predominance of earth element means innumerable strata ranging from 99% and then coming on to 50%. There will be innumerable worlds where the earth element will be predominant.  

            Likewise there would be innumerable, innumerable worlds representing different strata of creation where water element is predominant. Innumerable worlds like that representing different strata of creation where fire element would be predominant. Like that where air element would be predominant and like that where akasha tattva would be predominant. This is the whole extension of the universe, unlimited, unthinkably big, extended to – we could say – infinity.

            The creation where the akasha tattva is in predominance is in this field the subtlest field of creation. And because all this field is the field of glow, all the creation that there is, the body and all that is there – the body of the people who live here, the beings residing here, their bodies are celestial bodies, made of all light, that glow which you experience in your meditation. The whole creation is of that glow. The houses that are there, they are built out of that glow material as we on earth having earthly bodies make use of the earth to build our houses; they make use of that celestial matter of which their bodies are made – glow, made of all light. Nearest to imagine would be houses built out of glass bricks and the man made of that glass – all celestial. This is the field of celestial body, celestial life. This is the field of Gods. All the innumerable Gods, the stories that we hear, come from this field. Somewhere in the creation there exists a world of celestial life and that is that field where akasha tattva is in predominance.

            When we say that there are worlds of different intensity of life, gross and subtle, then even our experience of meditation shows that there is within us that field of glow which we are counting here to be the world of celestial life. That you have experienced within yourself, when the Mantra goes and you get to the most subtle state of vibration, that field of glow, and that within yourself, which is the field of celestial life.

            In its pure state it might be existing in some part of the universe, but again in its pure state it exists within us as a particular subtle strata of our own existence. And therefore by getting in tune with that more and more we get directly tuned to that field of Gods in different strata of the universe.

            You have heard the saying that all that there is in the universe is within man? And that is it. The subtlest strata of our existence, that state of glow, that we experience, is the field of God. And from there comes to us the direct communion with those celestial Gods. And this is what Christ said, ‘the Kingdom of heaven is within you’. Certainly it is somewhere in the universe, the life where there is no suffering, no sin, all happiness and bliss – in its pure state that celestial life of heaven exists somewhere in the universe, but apart from that and in addition to that, it exists within ourselves also. The more we get tuned to it, the more we become like it, more celestial, more powerful. This through your practice, you know by your own experience.

            And those who have not experienced that glow, don’t try to experience it. Trying it won’t come! We don’t have to try to get on to that. The most natural way is just start on the Mantra and take it as it comes, then go and come and go and come. Naturally you become used to what is there in all these fields. And naturally you begin to feel that which we call that field of akasha tattva or the field of the glow and then the Ananda (Joy) that lies at the basis of it.

MAHARISHI: ...Let me conclude it by telling you, you have seen Nirvikalpa Samadhi, that Samadhi which is eternal. Another type of Samadhi which are not eternal, which are impermanent with breaks, two names we have put down: Anandanugat and Atmikanugat (Asmitanugat) - Ananda that glow and Atmika that pure consciousness. Two types of Samadhi, one is Nirvikalpa, that is eternal, that never breaks and the other is Savikalpa - Savikalpa and Nirvikalpa. Savikalpa means that which breaks, sometimes it comes, sometimes it breaks. Nirvikalpa never to break, eternal. Savikalpa Samadhi is of four types: - Vitsaranugat (Vicharanugat) - Vitarkanugat - Anandanugat - Atmikanugat (Asmitanugat) What is Vitsaranugat (Vicharanugat)? When the mantra begins to be slow and becomes slower and slower, this is Vitsaranugat (Vicharanugat) Samadhi, first state of Samadhi. Second, Vitarkanugat is that where the mantra ceases to be a specific thought, it becomes only a rhythm. That is Vitarkanugat. And when that hum, humming sound is also gone and you are left in that glow, that is Anandanugat (Samadhi), the third (type of Samadhi) And when that glow is also gone and you are left in a state which the speech can not describe, that is (Samadhi), just 'am'ness, 'is'ness, existence pure. In this meditation you have experienced all these four types of Savikalpa Samadhi and you have begun to grow by degrees in the Nirvikalpa Samadhi... ...I will describe to you two types of experience: one is pure consciousness and the other is bliss consciousness. The experience of bliss consciousness is Anandanugat Samadhi. And that pure consciousness is said to be Atmikanugat (Asmitanugat) Samadhi. Atmi means 'am', pure consciousness. Atmi and Ananda. Anandanugat Samadhi, that bliss consciousness. The feeling of that glow and just happiness. Atmikanugat (Asmitanugat), that is Samadhi that got into Atmika state, state of 'am'. And when this Atmikanugat (Asmitanugat) Samadhi becomes uninterrupted, it is not broken up by any state of consciousness, whether wakeful, dreaming or deep sleep. When the nature of the mind is pure consciousness all the time during all experiences of wakeful state and dreaming state and deep sleep state, then that Samadhi is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi. That is Cosmic Consciousness. The word Nirvikalpa means uninterrupted, continuous, unbreakable, eternal, ever lasting. It is called Jivan Mukti, life eternal, divine life...

"So, it all depends upon how awake we are—how much awake we are. Ordinarily, deep sleep, dreaming, waking, and then especially Transcendental Meditation. In the beginning days, we don’t know anything. It’s all dark; it’s all deep, dark nothingness, nothingness. But when we become more familiar with it, when we become more familiar with it, then we begin to see different values of creativity—different levels of creative intelligence. In the Vedic Literature, it is called Devat...a. Different kinds of Devata—Shiva, Vishnu, Ganapati, Durgamba, Mahalakshmi, Sarasvati—all these different, different Devatas. As we become familiar with that level of the transcendental field, Devatas come up to our awareness; Devatas come up to our awareness.

Devatas are beyond boundaries. Being beyond boundaries, they are absolutely free to move in silence. That move in silence makes them competent to have a frictionless flow—a frictionless flow. That means total Natural Law is their field of concern, we can say “their field”. They roam about in the field of the total Natural Law.
And this requires pure wakefulness to be able to move around on that level of the Veda—to move around more in the land of the Veda. And there is the ability to have silence and dynamism together—silence and dynamism together. And this is the capability of human intelligence. This is human birthright."
— Maharishi, Press Conference, June 30 2004

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Meher Baba, an Indian saint, received his first spiritual awakening at the age of nineteen, when he came in contact with an elderly and revered Muslim holy woman, Hazrat Babajan, who, living beneath a neem tree at the side of the road, kissed the young Meher Baba on the forehead. For months after the kiss, Meher Baba, absorbed in God, had no awareness of his body or mind.

Because he could not function in the world, his family took him to various healers and gurus.

When one teacher saw Baba being led in by his family, the guru picked up a stone and threw it at the young man, hitting him in the forehead exactly where Hazrat Babajan had kissed the youth.

Immediately, he regained consciousness of his body, mind, and surroundings.

Meher Baba did not teach meditation or other common spiritual pursuits. He looked to the suffering world and helped to alleviate that suffering. He was known for his work with masts (a Persian, Sufi term pronounced like the English ‘must’), a God-intoxicated soul who, as a result of his or her God-absorbed state, becomes disoriented externally. Many of these God-intoxicated ones could be found sitting in public urinals or on the streets or in shacks. Baba was able to find them. He established an ashram for them.

Baba's work was to help masts better integrate their fathomless inner infatuation with the necessities of outer life.

Although he kept silence most of his life, Baba did write.

He was, incidentally, the originator of the phrase popularized by the Bobby Mcferrin song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

Concerning the realms of light and the Beings to be encountered therein, he wrote the entries in his notebook that appear below.

Like those of the Irish seer, they are remarkable for their lucidity and for their recognition of the uniform life of the devic (Angelic) beings, which perform the will of God.

This discourse is also remarkable for straddling several theological worlds, encompassing Indo-European as well as Sufi divine realms and Beings.

Discerning readers will recognize the common elements, beyond the varied cultural colorings, in Baba's account and in that of the Irish seer:

The Angels (unembodied souls) are mere automatons for the will of God, and they do nothing that is not desired or prompted by God.

These wishes happen to be mere expressions of divine power and activity, which are all-pervading.

In short, Angels are pure, and not contaminated with physical embodiment.

In this they are superior to the man whose consciousness has not extended beyond the limitations of the Gross (meaning a man not yet on the Path).

Paradoxically, man, the inferior, who has succeeded in being contaminated with physical embodiment, is actually the superior in the strength of the potentialities latent within him.

Experiencing his imperfections, limitations, and weaknesses, he is potentially ripe to realize his real strength and purity, which are far above those of, and beyond the reach of, even the Archangels... Man has and man shall (because man alone can) jump over the last seven links of the really non-existent relative existences of all the four spheres into his really own—the fifth, the Real sphere.

In short, Angels must necessarily cease to be Angels and become man before they can reach the reality attainable to man.

And when man ceases to be man and enters the I am God state, he realizes that Angels and Archangels are, in fact, his own attributes in one sense or another. Herein (in the Subtle world) the relationship between God and his manifested attributes is of the sort that exists between father and children. Here God is kind, merciful, and vigilant towards his children, who are carefree, with no thoughts of punishment or reward, no desire for knowledge, and no craving for spiritual attainments.

And such entities are commonly known as Angels...

The entities of this world are exclusively busy with their appointed task of remembering God.

Even the evolution of Angels and Archangels, with all of their hierarchy, is not to be regarded as an exclusive stream in advancing life.

They can incarnate among the human beings and become linked up with the human stream of life.

They are also subject to the laws of cycles, and all that happens to them is subject to the control of Perfect Masters.

Some drop-bubbles remain latent in the six states of the oceanic stir.

They remain stationary in the Mental or Subtle planes with only bubbles of mind, or bubbles of energy.

Such drop-souls with only bubbles of mind are called Archangels, and they exist in the Mental world.

Drop-souls with only bubbles of energy are called Angels, and they exist in the third Subtle plane.

Archangels have a Mental body, but no Gross form.

They have Mental consciousness without sanskaras.

Angels have a Subtle body, but no Gross form.

They have Subtle consciousness without sanskaras. . .

All other drop-bubbles which come out of the Nothing pass into the seventh state of movement, the Gross world, to journey through evolution, reincarnation and involution.

This journey has a purpose—it ends in an answer.

The purpose is to attain Everything, and the answer is ‘I am God’ to Everything’s question: ‘Who am I?’

The third heaven, Alm-e-Kudasi, the Pure World, is divided into three sections or parts. The first section is the state of Indra, in Sanskrit Indra loka, the abode of the rain god to Hindus, and in Persian Makan-e-Hoori, the house of the faeries.

The second section is the abode of the Angels or the abode of the gods, in Sanskrit Deva loka.

The Greek and Roman gods were these Angels or Devas, and they are the Hindu gods.

The third section is the actual section of Alm-e-Kudasi, where the pilgrim experiences Subtle knowledge.

This knowledge is not Gnosis, but occult or mystic knowledge.

Each section in the third heaven holds millions of times more bliss, more happiness, more powers than the second heaven.

The state of Subtle consciousness known as Indra is the state of the first section of the third heaven. Indra is known as the king of the gods or the king of the Angels, the same as the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter.

In Persian, Indra's abode is Makan-e-Hoori, the House of Faeries or the House of Beautiful Women.

Indra's faeries are feminine Subtle beings, a type of Angel with exceptional beauty and charm.

The state of Indra is referred to as a post of divinity, a station of considerable power and certain duties concerning the elements of nature, specifically to do with Earth.

If a man successfully performs a severe penance such as Chilla Nashini, staying inside a circle for forty days and nights, when he drops his physical body (dies), this man attains the Indra state.

This means that a Gross-conscious man becomes Indra and gains that Subtle identity with the status (king), the powers, the duties of that post (throne).

He has become the king of the gods (Zeus, Jupiter) who rules millions of Angels. . .

Being king of the Angels is an experience of Alm-e-Kudasi, which is millions of times more blissful than any experience in the second heaven of Alm-e-Ruhani.

Through his Subtle body he consciously experiences the bliss of being deified, and holds that post while in a disembodied state.

Angels are those drop-bubbles who remained stationary in the Subtle world during the first six stages of movement in the ocean of Nothing, and never reached the seventh stage, the Gross world.

When the drop-bubbles first entered creation through the Mental planes unconsciously, some became Archangels that exist in the sixth heaven.

Those who became Angels continued to pass through the Mental planes, but attained consciousness when they entered the third plane's second heaven, the Angelic abode, Deva loka, or the first heaven Makan-e-Hoori, and became Faeries.

Though completely happy and enjoying bliss to the fullest, Angels still aspire to attain human form, because only in human form can a soul become God-realised. God-realisation is the divine goal of all life, not Angelic existence or being a god among gods.

So the Angels and Archangels must attain a human form . . .to progress further toward Godhood.

After an Angel has existed in Deva loka for four cycles, the Angel has the opportunity of being born in human form.

After only one birth and lifetime as a human being, that Archangel or Angel receives Liberation from all future births and deaths.

Mukti, the state of infinite bliss is realised.

The universe, though huge, immeasurably vast and of countless variety, is a closed system, and a balance of nature must be maintained within this universal container (Universal Body).

The universal container holds all light, all heat, all sound, all water, all the elements contained in nature and the natural forces (energies) generated in the universe.

It is the work of the Angels and Faeries (various types called genii, or jinni, or ‘sylphs,’). . .  to keep light, heat, sound, water, and the elemental forces of nature in equilibrium.

Without the Angels and Faeries, there would be frequent colossal disturbances in the universe as a result of the imbalance of these elements and energies, for the human mind plays havoc with the natural forces through scientific exploitation.

It is only after many years that the natural forces go out of control.

During such eruption in the universe, resulting as chaos in the world: earthquakes, floods, famines, and so on, not even the Angels and Faeries nor Indra can control the cosmic consequences.

These cosmic consequences are universal disharmony caused by human extravagance and excessiveness.

Then the Ancient one himself must come into creation and work to restore equilibrium in the universe.

Each Angel performs a different function. . .

Some control the winds, temperature, the seas, or evolving forms.

Some Faeries are connected with metals, vegetation, worms, insects, fish, birds, or animals.

The million Angels in Deva loka perform specific functions for the maintenance or preservation of the universe.

According to the specific duty assigned them, each Angel is called a god of this power or that power (as it is said Neptune rules the seas)...

Angels do not advance through the third Subtle plane, because neither have Gross bodies, and one needs a Gross human body to advance.

Angels remain stationary in the first and second sections of Alm-e-Kudasi, namely in Makan-e-Hoori and Deva loka.

However, the third plane pilgrim advancing through the third section of Alm-e-Kudasi has a physical human body as well as a Subtle and Mental body, and so he can advance.

Finally, the angels taken collectively are called ‘heaven,’ for they constitute heaven and yet that which makes heaven in general and in particular is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord and flows into the angels and is received by them.

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