Commentary on the text “Ishvara Gita.” Chapter Nine
The rishis said:
Parameshvara, indivisible, unstained, eternal, inactive—tell us, O Mahadeva, how does he assume the universal form?
Ishvara said:
I am not the universe, nor am I outside the universe. O twice-born ones. Its cause is maya; it conceals the Atman. The beginningless receptacle, shakti, maya, rooted in the unmanifest. She is the cause of this world-manifestation. From the unmanifest she arose. The unmanifest is called the cause, bliss, the eternal, imperishable light. I am the Supreme Brahman. Apart from me there is nothing.
The Nature of Illusion and the Path to Liberation
The Supreme Truth is that all is Brahman. Apart from it there is nothing. Ekam Advityam Brahman. Brahman is one without a second. Until we realize this, we remain in ignorance; we are in great illusions. This must be accepted as a fact. Accepting that you are in illusion begins to open your eyes. The moment we acknowledge that we are in illusion, we already look critically at the world around us, at the surrounding civilization, at connections and relationships, at the culture around us. We also look critically at the contents of our own mind. We begin to distance ourselves from all of this, to observe. That from which we distance ourselves loses its power over us.
For example, the external world had power over us. We begin to observe it as an illusion. It is not so powerful after all, if you look at it. Social ties, prestige, what was implanted into our consciousness as an imprint from childhood, through upbringing and education. When we look, observe, we feel that it does not have such great power after all. For example, does communist ideology have power over you now? None. But forty years ago it had great power over minds, because people were conditioned by it, people believed in it. What we can recognize as illusory, observe, and distance ourselves from loses its power over us. This means that we can, to some extent, cope with those energies that usually strongly influence all people.
Emotion, our own anger, our own lust, our own greed, attachment. Greed does not necessarily mean that I am being greedy; it is simply attachment to any material things. Someone puts on your slippers, and you already do not like it: I bought these slippers. My slippers. You have false identifications of yourself with the slippers. Your “I” has extended itself into the slippers, and the slippers have become part of you, and you have become part of the slippers. This connection is illusory; it is absolutely invented by your mind. For some reason you decided that they are yours. Why did you decide that, on what grounds? Because there is the ideology of “do not take what belongs to others”: this belongs to one person, and that belongs to another; there is the institution of private property; there is a system of jurisprudence protecting the institution of private property. There is a culture of relations with property, there are different types, and from childhood you were taught: do not take what belongs to others, this is someone else’s. But in reality, there is neither yours nor someone else’s here. Everything belongs to God.
You already believe; you have believed in this system of connections and relationships, believed in the institution of property. In order to cease believing in this institution, people become sannyasis, take vows not to have this property. To remove these fixed notions. You believed that if you went into certain quadrangular buildings, gave cut, colored pieces of paper with numbers on them to some person who also thinks they are his, and he gave you slippers, then these slippers are yours. Irreversible relations of ownership have been established between you. This is complete illusion. None of this is yours; you imagined it.
Slippers are only one example. There are hundreds of thousands of such connections that permeate our life. That is why the institution of sannyasa exists, which says: cut all this off, do not wait. You will be dealing with this for hundreds, thousands of lives. If it is so difficult with just one pair of slippers. The mind has become so wedged into all this, has believed in it all so much, has identified with it so strongly, has become so saturated with it, that even after becoming a monk, becoming a brahmachari, becoming a karma-sannyasi, you may feel irritation simply because someone took your slippers. You believe that the slippers are real, and that they are yours, and that your relationship with the slippers is real. And you respect it. You demand that others respect your relationship with the slippers. Some little thing, but this little thing can become the cause of your next life. And there are millions of such little things.
This is only the very smallest thing. We are not saying that there is the institution of marriage, the institution of the family, a sense of pride, status, clothing, a sense of shame, fixed ideas, social relations, civilization, culture, reliance on science, scientism. There is faith in scientific facts, faith in history, faith in cause-and-effect relationships, in identification with dual time, with the past, the future, the present. We live in billions of illusory facts, in billions of invented relationships, in billions of identifications, and there is no end to this. This has been going on since past lives. Our very life is, as it were, the finale, the apotheosis of everything past that we have accumulated, billions of identifications. There will be no end to this.
This is maya: belief in what does not exist, belief in illusion, belief in the habitual illusory vision of the world. Therefore there is the institution of sannyasa, which says: stop believing in all this, in all this nonsense. Here is God, here are the saints, here is Shiva, here is the path of Liberation—cut all this out at the root. If you do not cut it down in this life, you will be sawing away at it in the next life; you will be doing the same thing, and if you do not saw it off in the next life, there will be more. This will never end. Look into the essence of yourself: you are Brahman, this world is illusory, you must understand this, these energies are illusory.
But “illusory” does not mean that they can simply be ignored or discarded; this is the mistake neophytes make: ah, this is illusory, it can be ignored. It is not so simple. These illusions are still dense; they permeate us. They permeated our channels and chakras in the past and continue into the future. It is not so easy to detach from these illusions. To cast off these illusions, one still has to do a great deal of work. This is our life, this is our reality in which we live.
And Shiva says: I am the Supreme Brahman; apart from Me there is nothing. But we cannot understand this. Then we must first accept on faith the words of Shiva, the words of Shankara, the teaching of Advaita, and then think about how to understand them, how to realize them in the conditions in which we live. Because the conditioning of us as human beings is great, and we cannot reject it by some single act; this is impossible, utterly impossible. But we can develop an entire strategy of life, an entire path: the path of renouncing the fruits and results, the path of renouncing the doer, the path of mahayajna, of constant offering to God, the path of renouncing action, the path of developing subtle contemplation. This is a very smooth, systematic path in which we must always be impeccable. In which we must always act impeccably, as sadhus. Then gradually it will be possible to realize this.
The Relationship Between Guru and Disciple
The disciple begins by learning to surrender to the Guru, to listen to his instructions, to follow his instructions. This surrender must be voluntary, because on the spiritual path nothing can be imposed—never, nothing. If the disciple does not accept, then no tapas, no worship, no devotion is possible. It is like love: love cannot be imposed, it can only be accepted.
Gradually, by interacting with the Guru, the disciple learns to accept his instructions and follow them. This is not easy, because when the Guru speaks, the disciple often has his own notions, and at the initial stage the disciple must place the Guru’s notions above his own. This does not mean replacing one set of fixed ideas with another, one set of concepts with another. The Guru’s notions are non-conceptual; they flow from awareness, and the Guru acts not from himself, but from the scriptures, from the saints and sacred texts, from Guru yoga. When the Guru speaks, he is trying to reach the inner layer of the disciple’s consciousness with which the disciple himself is not yet in contact. Sometimes he does this with the help of concepts, sometimes even beyond concepts. He may give some assignment, and the disciple may not even understand what it is needed for. But if he can carry it out, he will reach himself.
The first contact is the contact of the disciple with the Guru. If such contact is successful, the disciple has come into being as a disciple; he can follow for a long time the instructions that come from the spiritual teacher, perform the practices, understand the method, and most importantly, receive the transmission of the spirit. It is very important to receive the transmission of the spirit. Ultimately, why does the disciple come to the Guru? In order to realize what the Guru has realized, that of which he speaks.
But it happens that a disciple has certain limitations. He cannot immediately accept this, understand it; time is needed. The Guru gives the disciple this time, without any problem. Sometimes the disciple needs to lose his way; the Guru allows him to lose his way, because he never acts directly. Sometimes the Guru gives some instruction to the disciple, and the disciple resists. Outwardly he accepts it, but his soul resists it, because his karma is not yet ready. The Guru says: fine, do as you know, do not rush, there is still time. Then the disciple realizes what he wanted. After some time, all of it collapses for him; it does not work out. He becomes convinced that what the Guru said was correct. But now he has understood it himself; he has gone through a certain circle lasting five years, perhaps, but now it becomes his own experience. He comes to the Guru again after five years, asks the same question; he has already forgotten, but the Guru remembers it. He gives him instructions again, and now the disciple, made wise by experience, accepts them, because he has gained such experience.
One mataji from Moscow, about ten years ago, asked: Guru, I am suffering, I want to practice, my work is not working out. I tell her specifically: become a karma-sannyasi, settle near Divya Loka, live there for some time. Then enter, pass the first stage, then retreat practice, go through a one-month retreat, go through a three-month retreat, practice, accumulate merit, complete the first stage, go through a year-long retreat — here is the key to happiness, a direct prescription for you, openly, concealing nothing. Either accept monasticism or karma-sannyasa.
And this woman was known in political circles, a businesswoman, with her own team, a certain group. She was simply bewildered by such a proposal from the Guru. And what is so difficult here? There is a prescription. Here are pranayamas for you, here are meditations for you, here is contemplation for you, here is morning arati, sutra, puja, here is the evening bhajan mandala. The entire menu is at your disposal, the whole universe is at your feet. But she could not carry it out. She said to other disciples: see, the Guru did not take pity, he gave direct instructions for happiness, he did not take into account her high position, he did not take into account her conditioning, her karma. This is precisely the disciple’s ability to accept or inability to accept.
At first, at least, the disciple has no way out except simply to learn to believe, to trust. If he can learn to believe, to trust, and gain patience, after some time he will have his own experience. This personal experience will help him further; it will reveal the principle of Guru-tattva more deeply; he will go from the personality of the Guru to the Guru-parampara; he will establish a connection with the chosen deity, with the entire Refuge Tree, with Ishvara; he will begin to discover the mystical dimension, to enter into it, and attachments will leave him.
Therefore my universal form, according to the firm view of those who speak of Brahman, is called one and indivisible. I am that supreme Brahman, the eternal supreme Atman. He is called “without cause,” O twice-born ones. The Atman has no flaw.
All objects in this world have a cause; God has no cause for His own existence. He Himself is the cause of Himself. Brahma-vichara, reflection on God, reflection on Ishvara, includes reflection on several things. This is called “the four preliminary practices.” Reflection on the questions: What is God? Who am I? What are the qualities of God? Where does He abide, and what is my connection with Him? The four preliminary practices of Brahma-vichara. We must devote enough time to such reflections in order to answer these questions for ourselves. In order to gain a personal experience.
Infinite Shakti, maya, and others abide in the unmanifest. In this sky only the unmanifest shines eternally. By their nature they are distinct and not distinct, and are firmly united with me, the beginningless, steadfast receptacle. The beginningless Purusha increases from one and diminishes from another, being bound by avidya. That supreme manifest is surrounded by a circle of light. The imperishable One, that Supreme Light, is the highest foot of Vishnu.
The Four Feet of Brahman and the Development of Consciousness
According to the Upanishads, Brahman has four feet. The four feet of Brahman—what are they? The physical world, “vishva”; the astral world, “taijasa”; the causal world, “prajna”; and the fourth transcendent state, “turya.” To know Brahman means to develop one’s consciousness in each of these worlds.
Where do we begin? We begin with the fact that we need to develop our own strategy for spiritual life in the physical world. In the world where we have the awareness of “jagrat.” At the level of “jagrat,” we need to develop faith, cultivate qualities, determine meanings, values, and goals, study philosophy, and cultivate within ourselves a philosophical picture of the world. All of this is done at the conscious level.
Until we have cultivated such a picture of the world within ourselves, have determined our faith, Refuge, and Guru Yoga, have set a goal, motivated ourselves properly, and disciplined our mind, under no circumstances should we try to penetrate the subconscious, experience mystical states, meditate, or strive for samadhi. It is like trying to light a candle in a strong wind. How will it end? The candle will immediately go out at the first gust of wind.
A typical mistake of many beginning yogis and esotericists is a passionate thirst to obtain mystical experience, to break through into the transcendent at any cost: I want it so much, I want it so much, I want, I want, I want. This is actually childhood, a child. Where can a child be allowed to go? It is not allowed, under any circumstances. Once I witnessed a scene in a children’s store: a mother comes in with her child, and the child, a classic scene, says, buy me a toy. The mother says there is no need, we have little money, the toy is expensive, you do not need it. As mothers say, you are good even without it. But the child does not want to listen; he insists, stamps his feet, clenches his fists. She leads him away by the hand, he resists, then falls to the floor, begins jerking his arms and legs, saying, buy it, I want it. The first impulse of the ego to break through into the transcendent resembles this. Precisely such a state, such behavior, as they say, must categorically not be allowed in.
Because certain work must be done on the relative level, on that plane where we are maximally conscious. Pure qualities of self-discipline must be developed on the physical level in “jagrat”; we must work with that level of consciousness in which alone we are conscious. The only area of consciousness available to us is jagrat, which we control, in which we are fully aware, in which we can motivate ourselves, set goals and actions, and develop.
The level of “svapna” is inaccessible to us. The level of “sushupti” is even more inaccessible. Even if we break through, open a portal into it, a gateway, we will enter the hurricane winds of karma. Hurricane winds blow there. And these are the winds that move the destinies of all living beings. We will not be able to cope with them, to practice there. Therefore, in the first years one should not make a breakthrough there.
In the first years, one should cultivate jagrat, that consciousness which we control: high intellect, great clarity, control of the senses, control of the mind, strong will, impeccable self-discipline, the capacity for tapas, logic, concentration, good memory, responsibility. All those qualities that, perhaps, we lacked in worldly life. We must cultivate them.
It cannot be that some businessman surpasses a sadhu in qualities. A sadhu strives for Liberation, while a businessman strives to earn a million dollars. But the businessman is more concentrated, more confident, more self-disciplined, and more hardworking than the sadhu. It should not be so. A sadhu, by definition, should be stronger than him in qualities. At first, we must devote ourselves to cultivating such qualities; we must purify our conceptual mind, establish ourselves very firmly in the state of jagrat. It is precisely jagrat that is the only state available to us.
I have already said this. The subconscious, svapna, is inaccessible. It comes to us in the form of vague experiences, in the form of dreams, in the form of signs, in the form of intuitive decisions. This channel must open. But in fact, it cannot yet be made a support. Because we have not yet done our work at the level of jagrat.
What must we accomplish at the level of jagrat? We must come to an understanding of impeccable, purest faith and self-surrender at the level of surface consciousness. At the level of surface consciousness, we must cultivate strong faith. Such as that of the Nayanars, who are described in the Purana.
Working with Refuge and Accepting Responsibility
To come to the right Refuge. At the level of jagrat, we must become disillusioned with samsara. We must do the work, analyze all the shortcomings and flaws of samsara, and realize certain things, for example, the four awarenesses: impermanence, the uniqueness of human birth, the law of cause-and-effect relationships, the law of karma, and suffering in samsara. We must become thoroughly convinced of the suffering in samsara. We must be steadfast against all the illusions and tricks of samsara; we must recognize the suffering of samsara behind any of its temptations, in order to cultivate detachment from it. Disillusionment with samsara must give rise in us to distance, the ability to maintain distance in samsara.
Faith and disillusionment with samsara are based on the Four Awarenesses. After this, we must learn to rely properly on Refuge. What is Refuge for a sadhu? The Guru, the Guru-parampara, the ishta-devata, Ishvara, the dharma, the paramguru, the guru-acharya—all of this embodies Refuge. We must understand what the proper relationship with Refuge is; understand that it is not a formality, but a part of our life. That which blesses us, protects us, grants us wisdom, that which supports us always and everywhere. This is concrete faith in God, which has become a concrete relationship. For example, one can speak of love in general, or one can have a concrete relationship with a specific beloved person. That is what Refuge is. Love for God is good. But how is it realized personally, how does it manifest in life, specifically: whom and what do we serve, with what do we interact, what do we hope for in this life? This is Refuge. The altar embodies this Refuge. Our dharma, our sangha, our ishta-devata.
When, in the waking state, we have determined all this for ourselves, we must then learn here to accept responsibility for our choice of Refuge, for our choice of the Path of Liberation. This means learning to rely on our inner “I”; we alone are responsible for this, apart from God, naturally. If we have not learned to accept responsibility, there will always be someone who interferes with us, someone whom we can reproach for the fact that because of him we are not moving toward Liberation, or that something is not working out in our affairs. Accepting responsibility means that we radically turn our view toward the fact that the world is a manifestation of our consciousness. Since the world is a manifestation of our consciousness, it means that I am the center in this world. At the very least, I try to view it this way. Then I am responsible for what is already manifesting from me. Since I am an Advaitin. There is such a saying: if you do not like this world, then change it; you are conscious, after all, this is a dream. But it happens that a person is an Advaitin in his view, yet he forgets that the world is a manifestation of his consciousness. He complains that this person is not right, that one spoke incorrectly, another acted incorrectly. But if you are at the center of all this, it means your consciousness is generating such things. Accept responsibility for it. When we accept responsibility for our choice, we stop looking at others and can demand only of ourselves. Therefore, sadhus have such a saying: if you want to criticize someone, criticize yourself; if you want to change someone, change yourself as well.
Development of Spiritual Power and Liberation from Karma
Then the sadhu must learn to relate to the world as an intelligent divine force, shakti. In the waking state, he must develop his spiritual power, Atma-shakti. Atma-shakti, prana-shakti, antaranga-shakti are one and the same. He must understand that how much shakti he has, what kind of shakti he has, how developed his subtle body, prana, and mental power are, determines how he will be able to understand God, to know God, and how he will be able to walk the Path of Liberation. He must live in such a way that this power is not dispersed but, on the contrary, is strengthened and increased. We are not speaking only about prana, but about all the powers that a sadhu possesses. This is the principle of shakti. A sadhu lives so that his life is subordinated to increasing and accumulating this shakti. Sometimes, to increase shakti, he does pranayamas, and sometimes he performs seva. Because seva, when performed properly, also increases shakti, only a subtler kind. He increases his shakti through self-giving. When he acts selflessly, his shakti also increases. Through invoking blessings, through sadhana, through meditation. All of this he must also do in the state of jagrat, accumulating spiritual power.
Traditionally, about twelve years are allotted for all these actions. Over these twelve years, having accumulated spiritual power, developed faith, realized the shortcomings of samsara, and relying on Refuge, he must purify his mind of subtle karma, learn to think in accordance with the Dharma, transcend his worldly mentality, his patterns and stereotypes of thinking that we spoke about at the beginning, and free himself from the past, to change. Because if he does not free himself from the past, the past will find him no matter where he meditates. Even if he tries to enter samadhi, the past will come to him and block the way. There have been cases when yogis tried to enter high samadhi, but the past, in the form of worldly deities, came to them and said: you have not yet resolved your relationship with that woman; you have not yet given your mother a birthday present; you have not yet repaid your karmic debt. You cannot enter the higher realms. Your subtle energies say that you must repay your karmic debts. But where do karmic debts come from? From false concepts. False concepts shape the orientation of the mind. The orientation of the mind creates karmic credits. Karmic credits attract karmic creditors, who truly create obstacles. But if these false concepts are removed, then there are no karmic debts either. During this time, a sadhu must erase his past karma, purify his past, so that there are no serious, gross, obvious karmic debts.
To train his mind in such a way that, with the help of the teaching and philosophy, he can freely answer any question for himself.
The Story of the Brahma-Rakshasas and the Importance of Philosophical Knowledge
There is a special class of demons, at least in the past the Brahma-rakshasas, fallen brahmins, were described in the “Tripura Rahasya” and the “Yoga Vasistha.” A brahmin who had been cursed by someone or who performed tantric sadhana incorrectly, failed to attain Liberation and was reborn as such a hungry spirit or unsatisfied demon. He accumulated great power through mantras and meditations, but became a low being. A low being with little merit, but with great power, with great energies. Such Brahma-rakshasas can devour people. For example, there was one learned brahmin, reborn as a Brahma-rakshasa, who liked to stop travelers practicing the teaching of Advaita Vedanta and ask them questions, challenging them to a philosophical debate. Just as our monks conduct philosophical debates. In the same way, he asked many questions, put such a traveler in a difficult position, and if he could not answer, he would simply devour him, drink his life force. This story is found in both the “Yoga Vasistha” and the “Tripura Rahasya.” If a sadhu could answer—and to answer is not merely words, but to change the state of his mind—the Brahma-rakshasa would let him go, or even thank him, or give him something.
We must master the teaching in such a way that our inner clarity can resolve any of our inner problems, give an answer to any question, to any difficult situation, to any karmic debt that has surfaced. To give an answer to any demon, any spirit, any dakini, any deity. An answer in the spirit of the Dharma, in the spirit of Advaita. So that such contact or such a connection is blessing, not conditioning. At the highest stage, such a yogin gives no answers verbally or conceptually; he simply contemplates. He places his mind in the position of the Absolute or in the position of devotion to God. The mind itself, situated, abiding, as they say, in the superposition of such a position, is the best answer.
Liberation from the Eight Worldly Dharmas and the Ego
During this time, in his surface consciousness, the yogin must discard the eight worldly dharmas to such an extent, free himself from hope and fear, that he renounces the sense of false individuality, the sense of ahamkara, the ego, identification with this sense. The eight worldly dharmas are what governs all living beings:
- The hope of attaining worldly happiness and the fear of suffering
- The hope of attaining fame and the fear of infamy
- The hope of receiving praise and the fear of censure
- The hope of gaining profit and the fear of losing profit
These are the eight worldly dharmas that govern all living beings. Over twelve years of preparation in the waking consciousness, the yogin must free himself from these dharmas, analyze them, and see their complete illusoriness. Their complete illusoriness—that they lead to suffering, that they lead to delusion. And leave behind these eight worldly dharmas. Ultimately, to be completely freed from the ego as a sense of one’s own exceptionalness, one’s own self-pity, the sense of the significance of one’s ego, the pride of one’s ego—to be freed from all of this.
When he has done all this work in the waking state, then the first period of his life has passed successfully: he has developed the necessary qualities, cultivated faith, the necessary self-discipline, purified his karma, and freed himself from karmic debts. Then he can begin naked awareness, meditation, the stopping of thoughts, work with subtler energies, and move from the state of jagrat into the state of svapna. To try to interact with God at the level of the subtle body. Then new frontiers of the subtle body open before him. But for this he must become strong, learn to act in the spirit of self-renunciation, of non-attachment to the fruits and results. By this time his life must be permeated with God—to act for the sake of God, to serve God. By this time he must also have developed within himself a new motivation for life. What motivation? The carrying out of the divine will, a life for the benefit of other beings. Because the divine will is such that all living beings attain enlightenment. Not that all living beings become wealthy billionaires. There is no such divine will, and there never will be. Sometimes the divine will may take away material riches, give them to someone, because each person needs their own lessons. These are lessons of non-attachment, lessons of responsibility, and others. But as for all living beings attaining Liberation, this divine will is immutable. To cultivate the motivation to serve the divine will means to conduct the enlightening divine energy, anugraha-shakti. All of this, all this work, must be carried out in the state of jagrat.
Transition to the Subtle World and Its Dangers
When it is done, only then can the yogin enter the state of svapna, the subconscious. The subtle world, dream sleep, concentration, kundalini yoga, dream yoga, and the yoga of the illusory body become accessible to him. Here he encounters the energies of the subtle body, and the subtle world opens before him. The subtle world lives according to different laws; the physics of the subtle world is entirely different, the psychology of the subtle world is entirely different. If the yogin is weak before the subtle world, if he has weak faith, a weak Refuge, the subtle world can make him confused, lost, weak, powerless, and pitiful. It can simply crush him and destroy him as a sadhu, casting his spiritual life back many years, if he does not rely on faith, Refuge, and God. If he has not completely purified himself, if he has selfish motives. Selfish motives are very difficult to maintain in the subtle world, although they can still be maintained. Because there are selfish beings there. But impure selfish motives certainly cannot pass there in any way.
But if the sadhu has already trained himself, is protected, and has Refuge, he can live at the level of the subtle world, he can enter the subtle body, develop his awareness, develop his devotion to God, and develop his presence in the subtle world. Then it is said that he has realized the state of svapna-svapna, svapna-sushupti, svapna-turya.
Gaining Experience of the Natural State
I also have not mentioned what the sadhu must do over twelve years in the waking state. The most important thing. The sadhu must gain experience of the natural state while awake. Through contemplation, without entering the subtle world, in the waking state he must learn the fullness of attention and contemplative presence, and receive rasa, a certain taste of the causal body or turya. This is the most important thing. To enter a certain state of awareness through transmission from the Guru, by practicing independently, studying texts—in some way he must approach this. Both the transmission from the Guru works, and shastra-kripa works, and one’s own contemplative practice, contemplation, mahashanti. This is called jagrat-turya.
The culmination of twelve years of training in the siddha tradition occurs when the disciple experiences the state of turiya for the first time. This is called “the conception of the inner immortal child of awareness.” When he has experienced turiya in the waking state, it means that, while awake, he has experienced the taste of God, the touch of God. When the Guru confirms this and gives instructions to work with it, he must remember it and then nurture it in the waking state. He must become sufficiently established in self-liberation, in contemplative presence precisely in approaching concentration, not in dhyana, precisely in jagrat, in the waking state, not in svapna, not in sushupti. This continuous maintaining of turiya or the state of sushupti, or at least of some contemplative taste similar to it, is the culmination of a sadhu’s twelve-year training in jagrat, in the waking state.
Then he may try, through dream yoga, through dharana, through kundalini yoga, through the yoga of the illusory body, through the meditation of dhyana and mahashanti, to penetrate the subtle body and the causal body, in order to bring sahaja into jagrat-turiya or jagrat-svapna. In the state of dreaming sleep, in the state of svapna, to bring awareness, inner faith, and self-discipline into the subtle body. He already has something to bring; he already has something to offer to God. But if a person has not cultivated this, then when he enters the subtle body, he has nothing to present to God, nothing to present to those forces that await him.
For example, he enters the subtle body: gods appear, spirits appear, dakinis appear, gandharvas appear, siddhis appear, wrathful beings or peaceful ones appear. Their silent question is: well, what have you brought us? And the sadhu: nothing. “Well, then why have you come here?” Such a dialogue may approximately take place. The deities will not say this; they will simply contemplate, but you must make some offering to them. If in the spirit of tantra, these are visual offerings: you must be able to materialize flowers, incense, bowls of delicacies, everything that embodies the beauty of your soul. If they are wrathful beings, they will look at you fiercely, thinking: will you offer me anything at all or not? And if they are lower, non-divine beings, they will simply demand something from you: give me this, come with us somewhere. And you will have to answer them somehow. How to answer? For example, enter the state of contemplation and dissolve them, show a higher work of consciousness, roughly say: Aham Brahmasmi. At least on your own level. You are a part of me. I am your higher consciousness; I abide in the center of your soul. In such a way that they, as parts of your consciousness, or as separate beings, at least relate to you favorably.
The Supreme Manifestation and the Path to Liberation
That supreme manifested is surrounded by a circle of light. That imperishable supreme light is the highest footstep of Vishnu, in which all this is permeated and encompassed, and this entire universe. This is the entire universe. By knowing this, Liberation is attained.
A sadhu who has successfully passed from jagrat-turiya into the state of svapna has realized the small birth and is confidently moving toward the great birth. He successfully masters the state of dreaming sleep and then penetrates into dreamless sleep. This is called sushupti. If he makes any of the mistakes, it is said that he has lost action in awareness or lost action in the View. But if he makes no mistakes, gradually he becomes established in the three states: jagrat, svapna, and sushupti. He prepares himself for an encounter with divine reality, for an encounter with God. He already senses the taste of God; this taste of God has become natural for him, but now it grows as a culmination, as the experience of the samadhi of light, as complete dissolution, complete self-surrender, the experience of Ishvara in various aspects. This is already a direct vision of God.
Once, a saint was seized by a ruler because he constantly repeated “anal-haq, anal-haq.” It is a well-known story. When they came for him, he was not in the cage where he was sitting. On the second day they came, and again he was not there. On the third day he appeared. They asked him where he had been. He said: on the first day God came to me, on the second day I went to visit God, and on the third day I am free, I have time.
A sadhu is able to directly experience the taste of God. He experiences the taste of God in jagrat, in the state of svapna, and in the state of sushupti. He moves toward the dimension of turiya; the dimension of turiya gradually permeates all three planes. Therefore, in the tantras it is said as follows, I believe in the Svacchanda Tantra: a sadhu must pour the state of turiya into all three dimensions. Turiya, as if from a vessel, must flow into jagrat, into svapna, and into sushupti and, as it were, flood all these three dimensions. When all these three dimensions merge, the sadhu comprehends the three feet of Brahman. Then he comprehends the fourth, turiya. All parts of his being are illuminated by the light of divine grace: the waking state, the subtle body, and the causal body.
