Beyond the Superconscious Mind: Inner Self Realization

BEYOND THE
$UPERCON$CIOU$
MIND
AVADHllTIKAlNANDAMITRi^AC.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011
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BEYOND THE SUPERCONSCIOUS MIND
BEYOND THE
SUPERCONSCIOUS
MIND
AVADHUTIKA ANANDAMITRA ACARYA
© 1999, 2000 by Ananda Marga Pracaraka Saifigha (Central)
Regd. Office
:
Anandanagar. P.O. Baglata, Dist. Purulia, W.B.
Camp Office :- 527, V.I.P. Nagar, Tiljala, Calcutta-39, W.B., India
© 1999, 2000 by Ananda Marga Pracaraka Sarhgha
527, V.I.P. Nagar, Tiljala, Calcutta-39, W.B., India
All rights reserved by the publisher.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publisher.
First Edition
:
1st January, '99
Second Impression
:
1 st
January, 2000
Published by
Acarya Vijayananda Avadhuta
(Publication Secretary)
Ananda Marga Publications
Eastern Metropolitan Bypass
V.I.P. Nagar, Tiljala
Calcutta 39, W.B., India
Printed in India by
Royal Half-Tone Co.
4, Sarkar Bye Lane
Calcutta-700 007
ISBN 81-7252-158-8
Price Rs. 35/- Only
TO
HIM WHO IS OUR
INNERMOST SELF
CONTENTS
Introduction
:
The Squatters in the Basement
Part One
1
:
Where We Are Going - Beyond the
Superconscious Mind
The Layer of the Mind
5
The Outermost Layer The Physical Body
7
Conscious Mind - Layer of Desire
10
Subconscious Mind - Recollection and Reflection.... 14
The First Layer of the Superconscious Mind The layer of Intuition
24
The Second Layer of the Superconscious Mind :
Discrimination and Non-Attachment
The Highest Level of the Superconscious Mind -
Yearning for the Infinite
39
42
The Blissful Self Within
The Sound of Silence
The Revolution of Consciousness
Part Two
33
45
47
:
How to Get There - The Process of Meditation
Conquering the Mind
53
Controlling the Physical Body
Reining the "Wild Horses"
:
Asanas
:
54
Sensory Deprivation
Experiments
57
The Process of Sensory Withdrawal
62
Concentration on Mantra
70
Mantra Transforms the Entitative Rhythms
79
The Laser of the Mind
The Third Quality of a Mantra
Samadhi One With the Goal
The Science of the Self
:
85
:
Ideative
92
94
96
THE SQUATTERS IN THE BASEMENT
It is
a commonly accepted fact that we human beings
are utilizing only a fraction of our mental potential.
As one scientist said, "Probably 99% of human ability
has been wholly wasted; even today, those of us
who
consider ourselves cultured and educated operate for most
of our time as automatic machines and glimpse the
profounder resources of our minds only once or twice in
a liefetime."'
It
has taken evolution ten million years to equip us
with an incredible brain with seemingly unlimited capacity,
but we use only a minute part of it. We are like a small
family of squatters who have taken over a vast palace but
prefer to live in a comer of the basement.
The emphasis of Western civilisation on external life,
on the domination and mastery of nature, has produced
monumental technological achievements, but it has exacted
a price. It has almost totally ignored our inner experience,
and the "shrunken psyche" of human beings is now crying
out for expansion. Thus, we see all over the world today
feverish interest in spiritual disciplines and psychic powers,
mind-expanding drugs and mysticism, hypnosis and
meditation, dreams and creativity. Humanity is becoming
increasingly hungry for transcendence, and more and more
people are embarking on an "inner odyssey" to realise
2
D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
their full potential
and develop the tremendous powers
hidden inside them. But as a contemporary biologist
warned,
"We must know where we are going, and how
we are going to get there. "Where we are going, and how we are going to get
there! If we are to journey into our inner spaces, we need
a map of the realms to be explored. And we must learn
how to travel.
PART I
WHERE WE ARE GOINGBEYOND THE
SUPERCONSCIOUS MIND
THE LAYERS OF THE MIND
According to the most ancient ideas of yoga and the
most modem theories of physics, existence is not a single
reality but a continuum of several interpenetrating layers
of being, ranging from the coarsest and densest - the
physical
- through various layers of mind, to the fmal
one called "spirit." As one moves up the continuum, the
layers become fmer and subtler.^ Yogis have divided the
levels of mind-in between body and spirit-into five layers
or kosas. In each succeeding layer, there is a more joyful
and expanded awareness; the higher layers contain vast
reservoirs of energy and knowledge, and exert a subtle
influence over the lower ones.
Beyond all the five layers of each indvidual mind is
the realm of "spirit" or infinite consciousness, the pure
Self within. In this state of perfect peace, beyond any
vibration or manifestation, all conflicts and contradictions
of the lower mind dissolve .... here all is One. When one
attains this state, even for a moment, one's entire existence
is flooded with enexpressible joy. This is the
goal of Yoga
and the goal of life to elevate the mind through higher
and higher layers until one realises the infinite, blissful
Self within.
But average human beings do not realise the
profoundest levels of their innermost self; they experience
6 n Beyond the Superconscious
Mind
only the lower two layers of mind
—
the conscious and
subconscious- because the surface restlessness of these
shallower layers prevents them from going beyond.
Occasionally, however, some individuals penetrate through
these turbulent lower levels and touch for a moment the
subtler, all-knowing superconscious mind. In a flash, they
have startling experiences of mental telepathy, or "see"
the future, or feel a rush of ecstasy as the boundaries of
their egos dissolve and they merge into the all-embracing
Oneness. But shortly, the restless domination of the
shallower layers resumes, and the glimpse into the Beyond
is
dissolved.
Only every few individuals throughout history have
made
sustained efforts to reach and remain in this
superconscious state and have realised its glory and power;
and still fewer have realised their true Selves. Most have
merely flailed about on the surface of their minds, tossed
by desire and pain, utilising only a fraction of their true
potential, living less-than-half lives in ignorance
and
confusion. Thus, the sages taught, "You know nothing of
yourself here and in this state. You are like the wax in the
honeycomb; what does it know of fire? When it gets to
the stage of the waxen candle, and when light is emitted,
then it knows. Similarly, you will
know that when you
were alive you were dead, and only thought yourself
alive."
THE OUTERMOST LAYER
THE PHYSICAL BODY*
:
Our inner odyssey begins with the physical body - in
fact, the
body is the vehicle for our journey.
The complex symphony of the body is conducted by
a system of glands known as the endocrine glands, which
secrete hormones into the bloodstream. Hormones have a
profound effect on
all
the body's functions
- growth,
metabolism, digestion, energy level, heat, sexuality, and
also on the mind. Over or undersecretion of various glands
can cause mental disturbances and negative emotions such
as anxiety, hatred, anger or fear, which destroy health and
peace of mind.
The most mysterious gland in the human body is the
pineal gland, located directly in the centre of the brain.
The ancient philosophers recognised the tremendous
importance of this tiny, mushroom-shaped gland; they
called
it
"the
site
of the soul" and "the controller of
thought".
Long ago, in the evolutionary past, some undeveloped
creatures such as lizards actually had a third eye in the
top of their heads, which was very sensitive to light and
regulated the natural cyclical rhythms of their bodies.
Gradually, over millions of years of evolution, this "eye"
"^'Annamava Kos'a in Sanskrit.
8
D Beyond the Superconseious Mind
descended into the brain, and the pineal gland in human
beings
is
the vestige of that primordial "third eye".
The pineal gland is the physical counterpart of the
"third eye of intitution" described by yogis which,
when
properly developed or "opened" by yoga practice, can
"see" into past, present and future in a blissful state of
higher consciousness.
Recently there has been scientific support for this
ancient idea, as scientists have learned that the pineal
gland secretes certain hormones which affect
all
the
lower glands and many of the boy's organs, and are
associated with the state of one's consciousness.
the production of
its
When
hormone serationin is suspended,
a person experiences a
more and more relaxed state of
being until one enters a higher state of transcendental
awareness.
Thus for centuries yogis have realised the necessity
of the proper balance of the body's hormonal secretions
for the control
and transcendence of the mind, and they
developed a series of physical exercises designed
specifically to affect the endocrine glands, as we will see
later.
The physical body is called "Annamaya Kos'a" which
means "made of food." This material vehicle is the
machine of the mind which the mind uses to operate in
the physical world. Thus, the fundamental awareness of
spiritual
body."
development
is
the realisation,
"I
am not this
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 9
The Greek philosopher Epictetus,
a slave of the
emperor, was one day beaten so harshly that his leg was
broken.
When he was asked how he became lame,
my leg is lame." He
Epictetus replied, "/ am not lame;
was completely detached from his body - he knew
real self was
If the
his
something far beyond.
physical body
is
a machine,
who is the
controller? The manipulator of this body is the first of the
five layers of the
mind - the conscious mind.
THE FIRST LAYER OF THE MIND
CONSCIOUS MIND*
LAYER OF DESIRE
A sage was once asked to show the miracles of the
mind. He pointed to a shopkeeper in the market selling
honey, who dipped his fingers in the honeypot and then
wiped them on the wall of his shop. Suddenly dozens of
flies swarmed about the honey, and then a lizard appeared
and started to eat the flies, one by one. Just then a cat
crept over to the wall and pounced on the lizard and ate
it.
At the moment, a dog saw the cat and chased it around
the shop, and in a furious fight, killed
it.
Now, that was
the shopkeeper's pet cat and he angrily told his servant to
kill
the dog. Unfortunately, that
was the dog of his
customer, who was enraged when he saw the shopkeeper's
servant trying to kill his dog, and he started attacking the
shopkeeper with violent blows.
The sage asked, "Now are you satisfied? This is the
miracle of the mind- it creates desires of every kind, and
you see where they lead. And it does this in every moment
in
every part of the world."
This indeed is the characteristic of the conscious mind
'^Ka'mamaya kos'u
"desire."
in
Sanskrit.
Ka'ina
literally
means
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D
- desire. It has three functions
:
1
(1) Sensing; (2) Desire
Sensing the stimuli of the
or aversion; (3) Acting
external world through the five sense organs (eyes, ears,
nose, tongue and skin); having desire or aversion to those
stimuli;
and acting to materialise that desire or aversion
with the five motor organs (hands, feet, vocal cord, sexual
and excretory organs).
For example, a child sees (with her eye organ) an ice
cream vendor on a hot day, and hears (with her ear organ)
the vendor's enticing bell. A strong yearning to taste that
cool sweetness on her tongue fills the child's mind (desire).
She runs to her father (on her feet organs), whines to him
(with her vocal cord organ) to give her some coins, runs
back to the vendor, gives him the money (with her hand
organ), and grabs the cone and eats it.
Another example
:
You are sitting under a tree beside
a stream. Suddenly you feel (with your skin organ) a
furrry object drop onto the back of your neck.
fear and revulsion
fills
A wave of
your mind (aversion) as you
remember that this area is known for its poisonous spiders.
You jump up and hop about (using your feet organs),
frantically brushing the object from your neck (using your
hand organs) and crying out incoherently (using your vocal
cord organ).
Just consider for a moment your actions during the
past hour, during the past day, the past year - your whole
life.
How many of them were precisely in this pattern
:
sensations of stimuli of the external world, desire or
aversion
in
reponse to those stimuli, and actions to
materialise that desire or aversion? Are not most of the
12
D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
actions of our lives indeed propelled by the desires of the
the conscious mind? So the sages say that the ten organs,
sensory and motor, are like ten wild horses, harnessed to
the chariot of the
mind. Dragged about by these
uncontrolled steeds in a thousand different directions in
search of pleasure, the chariot careers from place to place,
lurching and rolling, never coming to rest.
We finish work or school, go to a restaurant for tasty
food, then go shopping to buy a new object to please the
eye, later line up for a movie to delight the eye and ear.
The organs' capacity for enjoyment is limited, and their
objects of enjoyment are also limited; so they have to
run, after a while,
stomach
is
full!
from one object
to another
- Let's go shopping - I'm
:
"My
tired of
shopping - let's go to a movie."
Thus on this conscious level of instinctual desire and
aversion,
human beings are most similar to animals,
propelled by the four basic instincts which motivate all
lower creatures
:
hunger, sleep, fear and sex - the instincts
of self-preservation and reproduction."^
*In Western psychology the Behaviourist
Movement
concentrates primarily on the expression of the conscious mind's
instinctive drives through the behaviour of the physical body.
Because the behaviourists
insist that
exactly repeatable, they pay
little
consciousness which are difficult
Although many people
criticise
observations should be
attention to higher states of
to
describe and analyse.
the mechanistic
nature of
behaviourism, it is a fact that the insights of the behaviourists
into the principles of "conditioning" the conscious
very useful
in
learning theory.
mind are
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D
13
Many religious traditions throughout the ages have
taught that to be "holy" we should not express these
physical instincts but despise and repress them. But these
instincts are natural
and rather than being denied, they
should be controlled and channeled.
Human existence is much more than the instinctive
drives of the conscious mind, activating the physical body
to enjoy the external
world through the senses. The
materialistic ideologies in the world
today,
which are
based on physical satisfaction and enjoyment, concentrate
primarily on the economic aspects of life. Such ideologies
gradually crudify human beings, since they confine human
existence merely to the conscious mind, the lowest and
crudest level of being, and disregard mental elevation to
subtler,
more expansive' levels. The world needs
a
socioeconomic theory which recognises the sublter levels
of human existence as well, and seeks to nurture them as
well as the gross physical body.
THE SECOND LAYER
:
SUBCONSCIOUS MIND*
REFLECTION AND RECOLLECTION
Once a woman was walking to the market with a pot
"When I sell
this milk, I'll make a good profit and then I'll buy some
hens
then I'll have a big poultry farm. Soon I'll become
of milk on her head. She started thinking,
very rich
I'll
buy a big house and I'll have the most
handsome husband in the land, and I'll have so many
children, I'll just jump with joy! !" Thinking that, she
suddenly jumped - and the pot of milk fell off her head
and broke! Because she was thinking deeply
in
her
subconscious mind, her sense organs were not receiving
sensations from the external world, and her body acted
according to the imaginings of her subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is more expanded than the
conscioud mind, and has two functions
:
deep thought or
reflection, and memory. The vast majority of most people's
thinking goes on at this level of mind - all intellectual,
analytic reasoning, much scientific thought, and problem-
solving. For most people this layer of mind handles the
day-to-day problems of ordinary
the layer of
life
and society
:
it
is
information-management and computation.
This is also the level of deep philosophical thought; the
"^^Manomaya Kos'a; literally, "deep thinking layer."
Beyond ihc Superconscioiis Mind D
15
the world
-
controversies
different philosophical
in
including religious controversies - arise due to the mental
differences in the different subconscious minds of their
propounders.
is
also the layer of memory. According to yoga,
there are
two kinds of memory, "cerebral memory" and
It
"extra-cerebral memory" - one associated with the brain,
and one operating beyond it.
CEREBRAL MEMORY
A man drove to the local university one morning, in
his usual
absent-minded
mood while driving. He was
hardly even aware of the road because he was thinking so
deeply about the problems in his office. When he reached
the university, he participated in a hypnosis experiment,
in which he was hypnotised and then asked many questions
including, "How many telephone poles did you drive past
on your way to the university this morning?" Immediately,
without a moment's hesitation, he replied, "Two hundred
and fifty-seven." When the poles were later counted, it
was found that there were exactly two hundred and fiftyseven poles on his route!
Much more is stored in our subconscious minds than
we often realise; it is simply hidden by the turbulence of
the conscious mind. When the conscious mind is calmed
or suspended, as in
hypnosis,
we may remember
experiences of which we were not even consciously aware
when they happened.
16
D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
After years of scientific search for the physiological
basis for memory
or
its
specific
- the chemical substance of memory,
location in the brain
- scientists have
discovered that huge sections of the brain can be destroyed
by trauma, tumours, injury and old age, without any loss
of memory. This has led them to believe that learning and
memory create a certain field in the brain's electromagnetic pattern, an "engram" which preserves the
vibrational
impression of past events. This idea
corresponds to the yogic explanation that vibrational
impressions are received through the sense organs
and agitate the nervous system and the conscious
mind. This restlessness leaves an impression in the mind
- either short-lived or long-lasting-depending upon the
intensity of the vibration. Memory is the re-expression of
this vibration in the brain, so that the past experience is
relived.
In Bulgaria, a revolutionary
new type of learning
called "Suggestopedia" was developed, in which students
relax in reclining chairs, enter a meditative state under
the direction of the instructor, and then listen to soothing
classical music. Against this musical background, the
instructor begins reciting vocabulary,
grammar and
conversational phrases of a foreign language, but the
students are instructed to listen to the music, not to the
lesson. In this serene state, the
information like a sponge
:
mind seems to absorb
the students learn a year of
material in only one month! Their conscious minds are so
relaxed by the music and meditation that their "learning
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D
anxiety" disappears and the information
is
17
easily and
directly absorbed and stored in their subconscious minds.
It
seems that without the interference of the conscious
mind, the subconscious mind's ability
store and retrieve information
is
to
receive,
virtually limitless. This
system of learning, sometimes called "superlearning,"
is
now being used in many academic institutions with
other subjects besides languages, with excellent results.
Many such progressive learning techniques involving
meditation and relaxation will help the future humanity
to develop the full potentiality of this subconscious layer
of the mind.
EXTRA-CEREBRAL MEMORY
A group of American soldiers in the days of the old
forntier fled from an army fort when it fell to the Indians,
and escaped down the Ohio River on a hastily-built raft.
They had no food with them, and after a few days they
were starving. A stong bond of collective survival instinct
grew among them, and ultimately all of them reched safety
Seventy years later, a man walked into a midwestern
barber shop and saw a
chair, eating crackers.
little
boy sitting on the barber's
The little boy looked at him with
warm affection, and suddenly gave him the box of crackers
saying, "Here, take this - you must
still
be awfully
hungry!" The boy's father scolded, "Don't bother people
you don't know!" The child looked at the man and said,
"But 1 do know you, you were on the raft too - and we
were really hungry then, weren't we?'"^
n Beyond the Superconscious Mind
18
Such instances are being recorded more and more
frequently as scientists, increasingly interested
in
reincarnation, fmd indisputable cases of past-life memories
all
over the world. This is called "extra-cerebral memory"
because it recalls an existence beyond this brain, beyond
this
physical body. Often small children are able to
preserve this memory - such as the young Lebanese boy
who remembered the house of his previous life, his two
wives, and even his
lamp
oil
or the Alaskan Indian
boy who insisted he was the incarnation of
his
own
grandfather. The grandfather, who died six years before,
had told his son before he died that he would come back
as his own grandson,
and hid his gold watch safely in a
box inside the house. When the child could speak, he
called his uncle "son" and his great-aunt "sister" - and
walked straight to the hiding-place where his grandfather
had kept the gold watch, took it out and said, "This is
mine.'"^
But after the age of five, the twilight of forgetfulness
usually descends and the extra-cerebral memory is lost. If
it
is preserved
long beyond the age, the child will actually
be living in "two worlds" at once, in the past life and in
this one. In
such cases
to adjust to the present
,
the child often
becomes unable
body and environment and falls
sick and dies, to take another physical form which will be
more congenial for his or her further development.
THE WORLD WITHIN
:
DREAMS
A passage from the Upanisads describes our
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D
subconsious realm;
19
"When one goes to sleep, he takes
along the meterial of this all-containing world and
dreams he himself tears
it
apart, himself builds
it
in
up.
There are no chariots there, no bridges, no roads. There
are no joys there, no pleasures, no delights. But he projects
from himself joys, pleasures, delights. There are no ponds
there,
no lotus-pools, no streams. But he projects from
himself ponds, lotus-pools, streams. For he is a creator."
The kaleidoscopic images of dreams are windows
into the
subconscious mind. During the day, the mind is
many sense impressions which are, as we
agitated by
have seen, stored in the subconscious mind. Thus every
night, we have a tremendous backlog of partially-processed
experience; and during sleep
when these accumulated
unsorted impressions are revived in the braincells, the
disjointed images of daily life appear in the subconscious
mind as dreams. Dreams help us to process our daily
experiences, or to satisfy deep desires which do not fmd
fulfillment in our conscious, everyday lives.*
"^Treud" was
one of the
first
Western psychologists
to
emphsise the analysis of dreams as communications from the
deeper levels of mind. Only during dreams, he said, does the
"ego censor" relax and allow the expression of the repressed
sexual and aggressive drives which dominate our lives.
According
to
Freud, the imagery of dreams,
if
interpreted
properly through psychoanalysis, can help us to understand the
real nature
of our minds.
But. as
we have seen, aggression and sexual desires are
layer. Freud, like many
merely instincts of the conscious
psychologists, confined himself to the lower levels of the mind.
20 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
But the process expends tremendous energy.
Dreaming is indeed a kind of "internal frenzy"
:
the closed
eyes move rapidly in their sockets, the pulse and breathing
become
the blood pressure soars,
erratic,
oxygen
consumption is increased, the hormones in the blood rise
sharply, and the brain temperature soars alarmingly. And
this
bodily ferment may occur five or six times in one
wonder that we often wake up as tired as
when we went to bed!
night! Little
Dream stimulation may become even more agitated
if the nerves
are tense or weak, the brain is overtaxed due
to anxiety or intense mental concentration, or the digestion
is disturbed (over-eating or eating too late at night produces
gases which may disturb the mind during sleep).
Most people have to dream to discharge the waves of
nervous excitement which build up in their bodies each
day, and
if
they are deprived of dreaming for several
nights they may become severely mentally disturbed. Only
those who practise deep meditation do not need to dream,
for meditation performs the
same function of psychic
catharsis for them that dreams do for the dreamer.^ If they
maintain purity of thought and restraint over their diet,
they will remain in a deep, relaxed, dreamless state
throughout the night - and wake up feeling completely
refreshed, even after a few hours of sleep. The average
person spends about a third of his or her life in sleep and
a fifth in dreams
:
the yogi spends only a fifth of his or
her life - or less - in sleep, and
dreams.
little
or none of it in
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 21
PHANTOMS OF THE MIND
A widower, who had been dominated by his
overbearing wife, remarried but suffered from constant
guilt feelings
and anxious memories of his deceased
spouse. One day, on a picnic with his new wife, to a place
he and his dead wife often used to visit, he cried with
fear that the ghost of his old wife had returned to haunt
him. A photograph taken during the outing showed the
dead wife's face hovering between the newly-married
couple!
We have been haunted by "ghosts" throughout the
ages - but they are usually merely the hallucinations of
agitated
minds obsessed with fear.
Normally the images of our subconscious remain
within the mind, but if the mind is concentrated with fear
- for in stance, if one is alone in the dark, or the mind
is
upset by the suggestion that ghosts are often found in
such places - then one may imagine a ghost, or the image
of a beloved or feared person, with the subconscious mind,
and project that image outside.*
Indeed, scientists have often photographed the
^Occasionally what people conceive to be ghosts or
apparitions
that
may be "luminous bodies" or disembodied minds
have dissociated from their bodies after death. These
luminous bodies, however, are never seen in human form but
only as a flickering light, and cannot be seen in broad daylight
but only sometimes during the darkness of night. Since they
have no body or sensory or motor organs, they cannot talk to
human beings or "haunt" them, like hallucinatory "ghosts."^
22 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
ectoplasmic (mental) projections of psychics such as Ted
Serious, who can, like the "haunted" man above, mentally
create images at will on photographic film. Scientists call
this
"thoughtography".
In primitive societies, the clever medicine men used
to "exorcise" ghosts by trying to re-awaken the conscious
minds of the hallucinating individuals, for example, by
beating their bodies to "cast out the evil spirits", while
mumbling "magic" phrases to impress the spectators. Or,
like Ethiopian
shamans, they spray "holy water" into the
face of the "possessed" people for so long that they almost
suffocate.
By shocking the body and nervous system in
this way, the conscious mind again starts to function, and
the "ghost" vanishes into thin air.
THE HYPNOTIC INFLUENCE
An Indian street magician is surrounded by an awestruck
crowd who gaze unbelievingly as a coiled rope
twists and writhes, rising slowly into the air before their
eyes. But those whose minds are strong enough to resist
the magician's hypnotic influence, or are beyond the range
of his mental power, simply see an old rope lying coiled
up on the ground, and the magician standing in front of
it
with his eyes closed, concentrating intently.
Actually, he is imagining the rope rising into the air,
picturing the image in his subconscious mind, and with
all
his ectoplasmic power, projecting this
minds of the spectators.
image into the
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 23
Hypnotism
is
phenomenon of
another
the
subconscious mind, in which the powerful subconscious
mind of one person influences
another,
the conscious
mind of
who then perceives whatever the hypnotist's
subsconscious mind imagines, or does whatever the
hypnotist's mind wills.
Hypnotism
is
being
increasingly
used
in
psychotherapy, and in medicine and dentistry as a form
of anaesthesia without drugs; but although it may seem to
have many immediate benefits, it is ultimately harmful.
Hypontic suggestion can only act on a weaker, passive
mind. Under hypnosis one is not learning to control one's
brain centres and personality by the power of one's own
will, but instead
allowing the mind to be stunned by the
superimposition of another person's stronger mental force.
Thus each time individuals
are hypnotised, they lose
some of their mental energy, until ultimately their minds,
instead of attaining self-control, lose
all will
force and
determination.
Our aim is not that we should be transformed by
another's will, by the domination of another's mind, but
by becoming the masters of ourselves. Only in this way
will
we attain freedom from all external bondages.
THE FIRST LAYER OF THE
SUPERCONSCIOUS MIND 'SUPRAMENTAL MIND '*
THE LAYER OF INTUITION
"There is something mysterious, without beginning,
without end.
That existed before the heavens and the earth,
Unmoving, infinite, standing alone, never changing,
It is
everywhere and it is inexhaustible.
It is
the mother of all.
Looked for it cannot be seen - listened for it cannot
be heard - reacjied for it cannot be touched.
It is
the form of the formless
It is
existence in non-existence
It is
the greatest mystery."^
From ancient wisdom to modern physics, our sages
speak of a Cosmic Mind-the
infinite storehouse of all
knowledge, where past, present and future merge into one
super-stratum of reality beyond space and time. Those
who can transcend the lower conscious and subconscious
levels of their minds,
immediately realise
this
super-
conscious Cosmic Mind-for the individual superconscious
and the Cosmic Superconscious Mind are the same. Then
they, too, become all-knowing, and can "see" into past,
present and future, and into the mysteries of life.
"^'Atima'nasa Kos'a; literally, "supramental layer."
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 25
The supramental mind
is
the first layer of this
superconscious mind, the realm of intuition and creative
insight,
beyond the logic and rationality of the
subconscious mind.
Only a few adventurers have penetrated into this subtle
psychic realm, and have been tantalised by even a brief
glimpse of its glory - inspired artists and scientists, exalted
saints and mystics.
Many poets and artists have been lifted out of the
habitual anxieties and restlessness of their lower minds
and elevated to this superconscious state by the awesome
beauty of nature. Perhaps you, too, have experienced the
blissful feeling of being
"beyond yourself in the peace
of nature as the borders of the lower ego dissolve and the
mind merges into a higher, transcendent state.*
*One psychologist who attempted to include this level of
mind in the study of psychology was Abraham Maslow, the
founder of two new trends in modern psychology; the Humanist
and the Transpersonal Movements. Maslow felt that the function
of psychology is not to study ordinary people who are dominated
by ego, but
rather^ those individuals
who have had a "peak
experience", a blissful, transcendent experience of higher states
of mind. These people, "less than
1% of humanity," he called
"self-actualisers," and considered them to represent the forefront
of human evolution. They are usually, he said, creative,
courageous, humble, relatively desireless, and free from anxiety.
They have discriminating judgment and the ability to concentrate
deeply and completely forget themselves; and they live with
the spontaneity and simplicity of a child. Maslow found the
most of these extraordinary individuals are devoted to some
idealistic task or mission which they feel they are "chosen" to
do, and which takes them "out of themselves" - like the
missionary Albert Schweitzer, or the saints of many religions.
26 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
CREATIVE INSIGHT
The creative act has been experienced throughout \hc
ages as a sudden effortless "flash of insight" from a higher
dimension beyond logic or rational analysis - from this
superconscious layer of mind. The German opera
composer
Richard
Wagner
"heard"
his
music
spontaneously. Charles Darwin, after years of gathering
scientific data, suddenly "realised" his theory of evolution
while taking a carriage
ride.
Michelangelo could only
create in what he called a "seizure of the soul" when the
"spirit
of God" would elevate him to an ecstatic
state.
And Albert Einstein revealed that he did not discover his
theory of relativity by conscious logic and reasoning but
by "the way of intuition".
INTUITIONAL DREAMS
Sometimes a surging
vibrational flow from this
supramental mind penetrates the subconscious mind during
sleep and a special kind of dream results - an "intuitional
dream." Like other intuitional flashes, intutional dreams
are more likely to occur when the mind has been intensely
concentrated on some particular problem or topic and
become charged with the psychic force necessary to
penetrate the superconscious. The chemist Mendeleev,
after concentrating intently
on the mysterious relation
between the chemical properties of various substances
and their atomic structures, fell asleep.
saw
In a
dream, he
the periodic table of the elements laid out before
him, and upon awakening, he quickly copied it down.
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 27
Thus, there are really two types of dreams; ordinary
dreams - the disjointed mosaic of the previous day's
subconscious impressions - and intuitional dreams which,
like the prophetic dreams of Joseph in the Old Testament,
are inspired by the superconscious mind.*
A farmer in a small village in India was desperate
because his favourite son was dying of a disease no doctor
could even diagnose,
much less cure. With his mind
intently focused on his son's condition, he slept; and during
sleep his concentrated mind, like an arrow, pierced into
the all-expanded, superconscious level
- where,
in
its
was the knowledge of the correct
medicine to cure his son. But when the medicine appeared
in his dream, it associated itself with an image stored in
his subconscious mind; the image of the goddess Kali
reservoir of wisdom,
whom he worshipped daily in the temple. In his dream,
he saw the goddess Kali floating majestically toward him
with her hands outstretched, offering him the life-saving
drug. He awoke with a start and ran to the herbalist and
*The psychologist Carl Jung also sought to explore the
supramental layer of mind, especially through dreams. Formerly
one of Freud's closest disciples, he
later
broke with Freud
because of what he felt to be Freud's obsession with sex. Jung
distinguished between "ordinary" dreams and "important"
dreams which carry significant messages from the deeper layers
of the mind - messages which are clothed in powerful symbols
or "archetypes," since the subtler layers of the mind are beyond
logical thought and cannot transmit ideas directly. For Jung, the
goal of human
life was to realise these higher layers of the
mind - which he called the "self within" - and integrate them
with everyday consciousness.
28 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
bought the medicine - and his son was cured. Then he
donated all his crops to the Kali temple because, as he
told everyone in the village, the all-merciful goddess had
appeared to him in a dream to cure his son. But in reality,
was not Kali - it was his own superconscious mind.
it
PARA-NORMAL PHENOMENA"
A mother has a sudden, terrifying vision that her son
is
dying - and two hours later, receives a phone call that
he was killed in a fatal car accident. In a mental telepathy
experiment in Czechoslovakia, the "sender" imagines being
buried alive, and the "receiver" has an attack of asthma!
Telepathic messages can be "sent" thousands of miles
without difficulty, even through lead and iron capsules
that block all electromagnetic waves and radiation. Nothing
can "block" these perceptions because they are not crude
waves like electricity; they are psychic attunements to
higher levels of consciousness, beyond the limitations of
space and time.
The experience of such psychic phenomena as
extrasensory perception (ESP), telepathy or clairvoyance
may occur spontaneously only eight to ten times in the
life
of an average person, when the lower layers of the
mind are sufficiently stilled through relaxed tranquility or
intense concentration to allow the subtle perceptions from
the superconscious realm to penetrate into consciousness.
Thus, these phenomena are not all "supernatural"; they
are quite natural, but rare.
Only those who have brought their conscious and
subconscious minds under control and regularly attune
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 29
them to higher levels of awareness through meditation,
may experience these realisations regularly - like the
forebodings of the ancient Hebrew prophets, or the visions
of Christian saints. Through meditation and yogic
disciplines, Soviet researchers
were able to train people
to develop extra-sensory perception within three months!*^
Already scientists are imagining the beneficial uses
to
which our latent psychic abilities will be put
in
communications, to overcome language barriers and
:
defects of speech, hearing and sight; in psychotherapy,
medicine, education and rehabilitation; and even in space
exploration and communication with beings from outer
space
MEDIUMS AND SOOTHSAYERS
BLURRED VISION
:
But many people who have developed some psychic
powers often knowingly or unknowighly misuse them to
dominate, or confuse others. Those charlatans who try to
hoodwink the public by feigning trances in which they
are "possessed" by gods or demons and divinely endowed
with supernatural powers, are no doubt impostors; but
even those who sincerely invoke the gods or spirits with
humble devotion may mislead others by
their false
prophecies.
Some power of visualising past and future, or distant
may be developed even in average people by
events
practices such as crystal-gazing: the intense concentration
on a bright object, such as a crystal ball, stills the conscious
and subconscious functioning and temporarily expands
30 n Beyond the Superconscious Mind
the awareness to the superconscious state.
But the
predictions of crystal-gazers, hypnotised
mediums
and fortune-tellers - form oracles to ouija boards - are
almost never completely correct. Even when there
is
some clairvoyant inspiration from the sperconscious
mind, it may become distorted by the jumbled images of
their subconscious minds, like the
dream of the Indian
farmer, or the incoherent mutterings of some mediums,
or the muddled prophecies of the Delphic oracles. Thus,
it
unwise
is
to place
complete
faith
in
psychics or
soothsayers because, indeed, they are not always telling
the truth.
INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT
In these days of instant coffee, time-saving devices,
and quick service restaurants, some people are impatient.
They want fast results - instant Enlightenment. So they
turn to psychedelic (mind-expanding) drugs to chemically
precipitate an instantaneous shift to higher consciousness.
But more and more people are realising that drugs are not
the way to self-realisation; they are only a faint reflection,
a shadowy glimmer, of that blissful, all-expanded state of
consciousness.
Many of the "gurus" of the psychedelic
movement in the West have widely spoken of their own
realisation of the limitations of drugs; "Drugs opened the
door for us into the mansion of the mind, and we
saw there are so many rooms inside. But then we
found
that drugs could only give us a
glimpse of the
interior - they couldn't lead us inside to explore. For that,
we have to meditate - there is no short-cut."'^' Richard
Alpert (Ram Dass), one of the pioneers of LSD use who
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 31
later turned to yoga, described his psychedelic career; "It
was a terribly frustrating experience, as if you came into
the kingdom of heaven and you saw how it all was and
you felt new states of awareness, and then you got cast
out again.""
Many experimental
studies have
shown
that
meditation is a superior replacement for the drug "high",
as 85% of drug-users in some studies - even drug-abusers
- who start practising meditation completely stop taking
drugs (psychedelics, amphetamines, opiates and alcohol).
One scientist commented, "One sees many long-time drug
users give up drugs for meditation. But one does not see
any long-term meditator give up meditation to become
acid-heads. This observation supports the contention that
the highs obtainable
by meditation are better than the
highs obtainable through drugs." 'Indeed, sometimes sudden drug-induced glimpses of
higher consciousness may even be dangerous. When one
abruptly penetrates into the powerful superconscious realm
and the tremendous energies of that state are suddenly
released,
if
mind and body have not been
carefully
prepared to receive them, the result may be a "bad trip"
- or even psychosis.* Many mediums whose minds are
very sensitive to superconscious influences are constantly
fearful of "evil spirits"
:
but what they call "possession"
*Drugs have other harmful side-effects as well; they
damage the liver, and recent research'^ has found that LSD
inhibits the production of infection-preventing antibodies in the
spleen and lymph nodes - which is probably why many doctors
have reported that LSD-users have difficulty in recovering from
infections.
32 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
is
actually
their
loss
of control
over their own
overwhelming supramental forces.
Artistic geniuses like Blake, Varlaine, Coleridge,
Baudelaire and Van Gogh,
who worked in a state of
superconscious awareness, often suffered greatly trying
to integrate these breakthroughs to higher realms with the
"reality" of their everyday lives. Van Gogh constantly felt
himself going mad; he painted his last painting of a road
ending abruptly in the middle of a cornfield and, after he
finished
it,
killed himself in the cornfield.
Thus, yogis have always emphasised the importance
of the gradual and careful preparation of the mind and
body to recieve and control the unlimited powers of the
One master told his disciple, who
had begged him to give him the experience of higher
superconscious state.
consciousness, "As a small lamp bulb would be shattered
by excessive voltage, so your nerves are unready for the
cosmic current.
If
I
gave you the
infinite ecstasy right
now, you would bum as though every cell were on fire."
Through centuries of experimentation, a scientific physical
and mental system* was developed to safely and easily
attain the bliss of higher consciousness and then integrate
these expanded states with normal, waking consciousness,
to live life with fuller awareness.
Like hypnosis, drug-induced altered states of
consciousness lead us not out of bondage but further into
it
- for the goal of every human being is liberation through
consummate self-control.
*See Part II; "How To Get There."
k
THE SECOND LAYER
OF THE SUPERCONSCIOUS
THE "SUBLIMINAL MIND"*
:
DISCRIMINATION AND NON-ATTACHMENT
Who can imagine the unfathomable depths of this
second layer of the superconscious, the subliminal mind?
Ordinarily our minds are
confmed to the physical
world, while an ocean of vibrations is endlessly flowing
around
us,
of which
we are completely unaware. Our
limited sense organs perceive only a narrow range of the
electro-magnetic spectrum, and frequencies beyond ultraviolet,
gamma rays, x-rays, cosmic rays - more than
99% of the vibrations of the universe - are invisible and
unknown to us m our normal state of awareness. So the
physicists say, "I doubt very much if anyone of us has the
faintest idea of what is meant by the reality or existence
of anything but our own eyes."'"*
But when the mind
is
expanded to this subliminal
layer of the superconscious mind, it merges in the limitless
sea of vibrations, and from the world of sense
is
transported to the realm of the infinite.
Those rare individuals who attain this exalted state
feel
all
the variegated
waves of the universe flowing
"^•'"Vijina'nainaya kos'a", literally, "special
knowledge layer."
34 n Beyond the Superconscious Mind
eternally within and without them, radiating in
all
directions, without beginning or end,
creation
and perceive all
- from stones to stars - as undulations in the
void. From their stance beyond the very fabric of space-
time, they view on the stage of their all-expanded minds
the vast
panoramic dance of the universe - from the
wheeling of distant nebulae to the twirling of electrons
and positrons, spinning forwards and backwards through
time.
To them, the world with all its sorrows and joys,
pleasures and pains, is a vibrational play, a passing show.
They are too wise to be attached to any of its temporary
forms, for they have touched the Eternal.
A yogi once entered a king's palace and walked
straight to the throne. Because of his awesome appearance,
"I
am
looking for a sleeping place in this roadside inn."
The
no one dared to stop him. He said to the king,
king shouted, "This is no roadside inn, this is my royal
The yogi asked quietly, "Whose was it before
king replied "My father's." "And before that?"
The
you?"
"My grandfather's." The yogi smiled, "And this place,
where people come and go, staying and moving on, you
palace!"
call other than a roadside inn?"
TRUE DISCRIMINATION
Most people
become absorbed in
life's
illusions;
they cling to possessions and wealth, to loved ones, to
youth and to life. Although they see old people all around
them and mourn the death of others, they never imagine
one day become old and die.
that they themselves will
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 35
But those who have attained this sublime superconscious
level of awareness, develop true discrimination;* the ability
and discern the eternal
which underlies all the changing forms. With their minds
to transcend the illusions of life
merged in the ultimate Reality and realising that everything
in this
passing world will one day end, they are beyond
anxiety of loss and fear of death.
A sage went on an ocean voyage, and throughout the
journey kept repeating to the other passengers, "Always
remember that the only thing that separates you from this
deep ocean and from instant death,
boards." The
is
a thin layer of
passengers, engaged in
shipboard
amusements, soon became annoyed with the sage, and
told
him to leave them alone. One night there was a
terrible
storm at sea and the ship was wrecked.
Many
were instantly drowned. A few, including the sage, were
able to cling to pieces of the wrecked ship and float to
safety.
fear;
The passengers were hysterical with panic and
only the sage remained undisturbed.
When they
"How were you able to
remain so calm amidst disaster?" He replied, " I told you,
reached land, they asked him,
I
was always remembering
that the only thing that
separated us from instant death was a thin layer of boards."
NON-ATTACHMENT
Shakyamuni was a pleasure-loving young prince in a
place so luxurious that it was even air-conditioned with
"^"Viveka" in Sanskrit. Other higher qualities develop when
one has attained this state, such as gentleness, patience, serenity,
cheerfulness, humility, magnanimity, and undisturbed
concentration.
36 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
perfumed winds fanned through cool fountains, to banish
the heat of summer from those delightful halls. He never
thought about the nature of life; he merely enjoyed all the
sense pleasures life could offer, day after day, throughout
his youth.
His father, anxious about an astrologer's
prediction that his son would either become a world-ruler
or a monk, tried to keep him from knowing the existence
of sorrow, and never let him leave those pleasure-charmed
confines of the palace.
But one day, Shakymuni left the palace without telling
his father, and drove into the town in his chariot. On the
way, he passed an old man, toothless and bent double,
hobbling along on his cane. The prince asked his charioteer
who this strange creature was. The charioteer answered,
"That is an old man, my Lord." "Will I also become like
this" "Yes, Master, old
age comes to all people."
After some distance, they passed a leper lying beside
the road, his sores oozing with pus.
The prince was
shocked and asked, "Might I become like that someday?"
The charioteer replied, "Disease is the lot of all who
dwell in the physical body." The prince was silent.
Some time later, they passed a corpse being carried
to the burial ground,
and the prince asked, "Will
this
come to me also?" The charioteer answered, "No one
who is born can escape death." The prince was plunged
into
deep reflection upon hearing the words of his
charioteer, until suddenly they passed a
monk walking
beside the road. His face was radiant with an inner light.
The prince asked, "Who is thatT The charioteer replied,
"He has dedicated his life to realising the Truth, beyond
b
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 37
all
pleasure and pain." At that moment, true discrimination
awakened in the prince's mind and he knew that he, too,
must transcend the pleasures of his youth. He took off his
royal garments and set forth alone, without any
possessions, to journey along the difficult road to
Perfection. He became, ultimately, the Enlightened One the Buddha.
From discrimination, non-attachment* naturally
unfolds. To realise the Infinite, we have to surrender all
attachment to the
finite.
Like the monkey with his fist
inside a bottle, tightly clasped about a cherry, who could
not withdraw his fist because he would not let go of the
cherry, we can only attain higher levels of being when we
relinquish our grasping hold on the lower ones.
Those who are established in non-attachment realise
that everything we cling to in this universe of change, we
must one day lose. In profit or loss, honour or dishonour,
their minds remain undisturbed.
A husband and wife were
when one morning, they
woke up and found the child had died. The wife became
taking care of their sick child
distraught with grief, but the husband remained calm.
The wife cried, "Have you a heart of stone?" The husband
replied, "Last night I had a dream. In that dream I was a
king married to a beautiful queen, and I had seven children.
Then I woke up, and it all vanished. Now my son has
died, and I am wondering whether I should bemoan the
loss of my seven children when I was a king in the dream
or the loss of one in this waking state. I am unable to
decide, so I am keeping quiet and at peace."
"^'"Vaerdgy" in Sanskrit.
38 n Beyond the Superconscious Mind
But non-attachment does not mean
to forego all
pleasure and remain in a state of dry indifference to the
world.
Many religious traditions have distorted non-
attachment to mean painful renunciation, and their
followers have mortified their flesh to resist the transitory
pleasures of their bodies, or created aversions in their
minds
to the natural instincts of eating, sleeping,
and
sexuality, or fled from the world to dwell in distant jungles
or mountain caves, far from the temptations of the senses.
By trying to avoid pleasure, they rejected life.
Those who are truly non-attached do not deny life,
they embrace it, for they feel the touch of the eternal
hidden within all the changing forms of their lives. They
become like the child who is overjoyed to receive a new
dress from her mother; one minute she caresses and
hugs it to her, and the next, when she finds a beautiful
toy,
she leaves the dress and embraces the toy. Later, she
drops the toy to run after a flower - she is attached to
nothing. So those who see all objects and creatures of the
world as rediant waves in the ocean of universal
consciousness, and deal with them without attachment or
aversion, enjoy inexhaustible bliss, for they are in love
with the Infinite.
THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF THE
SUPERCONSCIOUS MIND
THE "SUBTLE CAUSAL MIND'
:
YEARNING FOR THE INFINITE
When this love, this divine attraction for the Irbfinite
Splendour becomes so intense that it overflows from the
heart and fills one's entire existence - when all the currents
of the mind surge into a single stream of intense yearning
- then a radiant flood of light blazes through one's being.
This is the highest level of the superconscious, the "golden
realm" of the mind.
Sometimes, the body even reflects the effulgence of
the mind. In this state, the complexion of the Indian saint
Ramakrisna became so luminous - like a "golden amulet"
- that it drew attention everywhere. He wrapped a sheet
around his body and prayed to God, "Take back
this
outward beauty and give me inner beauty, give me purity
of spirit!" Repeatedly stroking his body, he cried, "Dive
inward! Dive inward!" until his exterior again became
dull.
This is the path of the saints - ever inward.
The subtle causal (cosmic) mind is the last gateway
to perfection, the final thin veil of the mind that shrouds
"^"Hiranmaya kos'a" or "golden-coloured layer."
40 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
the effulgence of the soul. When the brilliant golden glow
of this layer of mind
is
experienced, one feels very
near to the infinite Self within, and the desire for
supreme union becomes almost unbearable. One
described that burning attraction
:
saint
"You cannot imagine
my agony at separation from the Supreme. Suppose there
is
a bag of gold in a room
and a thief in the next, with
only a thin partition in between. Can he sleep peacefully?
Will he not run about and try to force the wall to get at
the gold?"
Once a disciple asked his master, "When will I attain
self-realisation?" His master told him, "Later I will show
you." That afternoon when they went to the river to bathe,
the master grabbed his disciple, plunged his head beneath
the water, and held him there. The disciple soon became
desperate; his
air.
mind was riveted on his one desire - for
At the last moment, the sage released him and he
leapt into the air, gasping for breath and crying, "Master,
why did you do that to me? I almost died." The master
answered calmly, "When you feel as intense a desire for
the Supreme, as you did for air just now, then you will
know that you do not have long to wait."
Thus, mystics from age to age have expressed their
yearning in the language of lovers, for no other language
can express the ecstatic agony, the sweet intimacy, the
flame of desire burning so intensely inside them. The
pangs of separation torment their hearts, and they
feel
around their necks the noose of Love. Miira, the mystic
poet of India, sang.
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 41
"Who is there to understand this pain?
As the lotus without water, as the night without
the moon.
So do I feel without Thee.
Just as a fish cannot live without water,
I
shall not survive without Thee.
What should I do? I am helpless - tears flow from
my eyes.
Without meeting you, O Lord, my heart shall
know no rest.
I
stand knocking at Thy door, Pray, open
it."
THE BLISSFUL SELF WITHIN
Just as a thread with a few ragged fibres will not pass
through the eye of a needle, so a mind with even a single
attachment to the external world cannot realise the Self
within. But when all desires and distractions are burnt in
the fire of yearning, when all egoistic feelings of "I" and
"mine" dissolve in the intense concentration on the
Beloved - the mind becomes so finely-pointed on the
Infinite
that
it
disappears
-
and
one
plunges
instantaneously into the dazzling brilliance of the
innermost Self.
As the age-old darkness in the depths of a cave is
dispelled in a second when a match is lit, so self-realisation
comes in the twinkling of an eye, and countless lifetimes
of ignorance and illusion are dispelled from the mind
forever.
The individual consciousness exists within the infinite
ocean of Cosmic Consciousness like a pot full of water
in a
pond. The water in the pot seems separate from the
water of the pond only because of the boundary of the pot
in
between - the individual mind, the limited ago. But
when the pot is broken, the waters merge; when the mind
is
removed and there is no longer any separation between
"^'"A'tman" - soul or self
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 43
inner and outer, the individual consciousness dissolves
into the Cosmic Consciousness in an ecstatic flow. Then,
free
from all bondages, beyond all vibration and duality,
the Self realises
its
true glory
- nameless,
faceless,
changeless, birthless and deathless, infinite bliss and
eternal peace.
When those who have attained this ultimate state
return to awareness in the world, they feel that a surge of
exhilaration from some unknown realm has flooded their
minds, and every cell of their bodies thrills in that divine
current.
Having drunk deep from the fountain of bliss,
their senses are intoxicated
and they see the Supreme
Consciousness everywhere. In every morsel, they
taste
His sweetness, in every sound they hear His melody, with
every breath they inhale His fragrance, in every touch,
they feel His caress.
everything
is
the
Then they know that deep within
Supreme, playing hide-and-seek with
Himself.
Like the wandering saint who lovingly embraced the
dogs in the street and fed them the delicacies her disciples
had offered her, and then what fell from the dog's mouths,
among her disciples those who have dived deep into the Ocean of
Consciousness have realised that they are One with all.
she gleefully ate and distributed
Then whatever part they choose to play in the drama
of life - as they work and play,
move and speak in the
world - inwardly they always know that they are the
immortal Self.
44 a Beyond the Superconscious Mind
One divinely
realised being called the Blissful
Mother^' was once asked, "Please tell
me something of
your life." Her face was lustrous with an inner joy, and
in
her sweet voice she answered quietly,
consciousness has never associated
itself
"This
with this
temporary body. Before this body came on this earth, she
was the same. As a child, she was the same. She grew
womanhood, but still she was the same. When the
family in which she was born made arrangements to
into
have this body married, she was the same. Ever afterward, though the dance of creation changes around her
in the hall
of eternity, she shall always be the same."
Saying this, her body became motionless, and she went
into ecstasy.
'Anandamayii Ma, who never refers to herself as "I"
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
This then, is the goal of our journey
:
to transcend
one by one the grosser levels of existence until we reach
the
Supreme State where the mind ceases and the Self
shines in
its
infinite effulgence.
This sublime height of realisation is beyond reason,
beyond thought, beyond mind itself - how then can it be
described? Here "the guru
is
dumb and the disciple is
deaf." When the Buddha was asked by his disciple, "Does
the
Supreme Consciousness exist?", he was silent. The
disciple asked,
"Then does the Supreme Consciousness
not exist?" Again, the Buddha remained silent.
A pious man once sent his two sons to learn spiritual
knowledge from a preceptor. After a few
years, they
returned home, and the father questioned the two boys
about what they had learned.
He asked the older boy,
"My child, you have studied all the scriptures. Tell me,
what is the nature of the Supreme?" The boy began to
recite
many
was not
verses from the scriptures, but the father
satisfied.
He asked the younger child the
same question. The boy remained silent and stood with
his eyes cast down.
No word escaped from his lips. The
father said, "He has understood. It cannot be expressed in
words."
46 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
Those who realise this infinite state of consciousness,
the sages say, are like the people
who saw a high wall
and were curious to know what was on the other side.
One of them, with much effort climbed to the top and
looked over and cried with wonder and joy, "Oh! Oh!"
Suddenly, he leaped to the other side of the wall and
disappeared. The others looked at each other wonderingly
and shouted. "What is it over there?" But there was no
answer from the other side. So another made the difficult
climb, and he too gazed with blissful
awe beyond the
wall. In the same way, he cried with joy and jumped out
of sight. In this way, one by one, they scaled the wall and
disappeared in ecstasy.
No one can explain the bliss of transcending the mind
and realising the Self It has to be experienced for oneself
Once a salt doll went to measure the depths of the
ocean.
It
wanted to tell others how deep the water was.
But this it could never do, for as soon as it got into the
water, it melted. Now who was there to report the ocean's
depth?
THE REVOLUTION OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
In our ordinary state of ignorance, living only on the
lower planes of existence, we identify ourselves with our
bodies and lower minds. We feel ourselves to be different
and separate from the world and from our fellow human
beings; and we erect social barriers to demarcate our sense
of psychic separation - walls of creed or caste, sex, race
or nationality. We draw narrow circles around ourselves
and those whose bodies and lower minds (philosophies,
beliefs
and prejudices) are similar to ours; and then we
say to others, "Get out! You do not belong to our circle!"....
"You are foreigners!"
"You do not belong to my church
(temple, mosque)." This false sense of identification with
our lower selves has created endless conflicts in the history
of the earth.
8€LF
'.
.
iiiiiiii
MINO
SUdCONSCIOUS MtND.
CONSCtOUB MfND.
.
.
.
•:«:5l*J«t'
48 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
But in fact, only our physical bodies and our conscious
and subconscious minds are different and separate from
one another; on the level of superconscious mind and the
Infinite Self, all are
One.
Those who have elevated
their
minds beyond the
lower layers of their existence, transcend all psychic and
social barriers and attain universal vision. Realising that
all
minds are part of that Universal Mind, waves in that
ocean of Infinite Consciousness, they see every entity as
an experession of the Supreme, and they feel an unbroken
stream of love pouring out of them, flowing to all alike.
They have embraced the universe as their own.
A poet once wrote, "He drew a circle and shut me
but love and I drew a greater circle and took him
out
in."'"^
its
The love-circle of such elevated souls is infinite -
centre
is
everywhere and its circumference nowhere.
Only those with such an all-expanded, universal vision
can bring about true unity and harmony on earth, for their
all-embracing love
is
the solvent
which dissolves
all
differences.
Today, there is a dire need of such love. There is too
much hostility and fear, contempt and domination in the
world, and not enough warm affection, respect and trust.
This is due to the false and narrow ideologies which are
constricting the psychic spheres of
materialistic philosophies
human beings -
which confine us to the lower
levels of self. The present human society is a sick society,
with its heavy emphasis on material and economic success
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 49
and its total neglect of psychic and spiritual development.
Materialistic
economic theories such as capitalism and
communism, recognising only the existence of lower,
material needs, have propagated false values; and the
frantic
scrambling to satiate the endless desires of the
lower mind has bred frustration and greed, exploitation
and strife.
Today a new, healthy human society must be created
which not only fulfills physical needs but fosters psychic
and
spiritual
elevation as well, guided by those with
universal vision,
all.
whose every thought is for the good of
The world desperately needs their soothing touch of
love.
There must be comprehensive ideology* which
embraces all levels of human existence and which includes
a practical psychic process to elevate us to the highest
levels of our being and realise our oneness. Then alone,
can we shatter all the barriers which have turned us against
each other in hate.
The
leaders of such a society will have love and
sympathy
for the
whole world, because they are not
attached to any nation, race, caste, creed or sex; their
lives are attuned to the life of the universe.
There is no
possibility for them to hate or harm or exploit any creature
of the world, because they look upon everybody as
*Neo-Humanism as expounded by P. R. Sarkar, is such an
all-embracing philosophy. See The Liberation of Intellect - Neo-
Humanism..
rsrrrrF
50 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
themselves. Then all humanity will be encouraged to attain
self-realisation,
and all people will co-operate to fulfill
their potentialities
and utilise their collective resources
for the welfare of all.*
Thus, the practical foundation for a universalistic
society where people are truly in harmony with one another
is
an indiyidual mental process by which the leaders and
members of that society are regularly expanding their
minds to experience their essential unity. There is no use
in
trying to reform our political,
system
if
economic and
social
our minds are not reformed; the continuous
effort to elevate our minds by meditation is the prerequisite
for social change.
The first revolution is the revolution of consciousness.
* PROUT, a new socio-economic theory propounded by P.
R. Sarkar, provides the guidelines to maximally utilise all our
resources through the decentralisation of unwieldy bureaucracies
and the creation of self sufficient economic units which control
their own resources and develop the full economic potentialities
of each region
PART II
HOW TO GET THERE
THE PROCESS OF
MEDITATION
il
CONQUERING THE MIND
A master once asked his disciples, "A monkey,
intoxicated on wine, staggers drunkenly from one fruit
tree to another and then stumbles into a nest of scorpions.
As they swarm and sting him all over, he howls and
hops about in rage and pain. What is he?" The disciples
could not answer, so he explained, "The human mind.
It
as restless as a
is
moneky, drunk with the wine of
running blindly from one sense pleasure to
desire,
the next. Stung by the scorpions of jealousy, greed
pride,
it
lashes out with furious hatred.
and
So the greatest
conquerors on earth are those who have conquered their
own minds."
How can we calm the turbulent waves of the conscious
and subconscious mmds and attain the indescribable
peace and bliss of the superconscious state and the Self
beyond? We must first transcend the extroverted conscious
mind and for this we must perfect its vehicle, the physical
body.
CONTROLLING THE PHYSICAL
BODY ASANAS
:
"A'sanas" or "easy postures" are a scientific system
of exercises developed thousands of years ago by yogis.
They not only maintain
the health of the
body by
stimulating circulation, limbering the joints, toning the
muscles, and massaging the internal organs, but they also
help to calm and control the mind.
Yoga-dsanas are
strenuous exercises
:
totally different
in
from vigorous or
asanas, slow, gentle movements
accompanied by deep breathing are alternated with periods
of complete immobility which creates a deep relaxation
in the muscles and nerves. During asanas, vital energy is
increased rather than spent; and thus, by regular practice,
the yogi accumulates a storehouse of internal energy to
be used by the mind for the attainment of higher
consciousness. By learning to quiet the nerves and bring
the body to a total standstill for extended periods of time,
one develops control over the mascular and nervous
systems, and attains the physical equipoise necessary for
long meditation.
But the most important effect of asanas is on the
endocrine glands. As we have seen, the endocrine glands
have a profound influence on our emotions and on the
state of our consciousness. The subtle pressures of yoga-
dsanas on the various endocrine glands affect the hormonal
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 55
secretions and bring about emotional balance and mental
peace. For instance, in the Hare Pose (Shashaunga'sana),
the
crown of the head is repeatedly pressed against the
ground, which exerts a delicate pressure on the pineal
gland. By the repeated practice of this dsana, one develops
patience and tranquility of mind.
Thus yoga-dsana are not simply physical exercises
for health, beauty and long life, as is popularly believed;
they are an important part of an integrated physical and
psychic practice to refine the body and prepare the mind
for higher consciousness.
WE ARE WHAT WE EAT
The physical body
is
not something different and
separate from the mind - it is the mind's outermost layer,
and the base for meditation. In yoga,
it
is
called the
"annamaya kos'a' or "food layer" because it is composed
of the food we eat. As the mind becomes more subtle
through meditation, the body must also become more
56 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
subtle as well, otherwise the parallelism
between the
psychic and physical layers of our being will be lost and
our progress will be retarded. Thus, yogis have always
emphasised the importance of a vegetarian diet to maintain
the purity of the cells of the body, just as the practice of
meditation is purifies the layers of the mind.
More and more doctors and nutrition experts are
coming to realise that compared to vegetables, meat is a
highly toxic source of protein - "50% impure" according
to the Encyclopedia Britannica - and may ultimately cause
many diseases including gastric and kidney trouble, high
blood pressure and even cancer. Societies which consume
primarily vegetarian diets, like the Hunzas of Pakistan,
Peruvian Indian tribes, or Seventh Day Adventists, have
a much lower incidence of disease and a longer life span
than meat-eating populations. Vegetable proteins have been
proven to be as nourishing as meat protein, and without
any of its harmful effects on the body.
According to yoga, meat-eating has an ill effect on
the mind and personality as well, for our minds are subtly
agitated by the ingestion of animal flesh.
Einsterin - himself a vegetarian - said,
As Albert
"It is
my view
that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical
effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially
influence the lot of mankind."
REINING THE "WILD HORSES"
SENSORY DEPRIVATION
:
EXPERIMENTS
But controlling the conscious mind, as we have seen,
is
not so easy. The ten wild horses of sense and motor
organs are ceaselessly chasing about from one object of
pleasure to the next, with the agitated
mind
in
tow.*
Reining in their restless activity is the first step in calming
the mind, as some very interesting research in the West,
called "sensory deprivation experiments," has shown.
In
these experiments, which were specifically
designed to "turn off" the ten organs, the subjects are
suspended
in
huge tubs of warm water, the exact
temperature of the skin, so there will be no sensation on
the skin at
(their
all.
They are fastened so they cannot move
hands and feet motor organs are turned off), and
they are blindfolded (eyes turned off). They do not eat or
excrete during the course of the experiment (taste and
*An important part of yoga practice to control the fitful
wanderings of the conscious mind, are the ten principles of
mental purity, called Yama (Principles of Harmony with Others),
and Niyama (Principles of Harmony with SelO Non-harming
(Ahim'sd), Benevolent Truthfulness (Satya), Non-stealing
(Asteya), Simple Living (Aparigraha), Surrender to the Supreme
{Brahmacarya). Cleanliness (Shaoca), Contentment (Santos'a)
Service (Tapah), Spiritual study (Svddhya'ya), and Meditation
:
[lishvara Pran'idhdna).
58 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
excretory organs turned ofO; they do not speak (vocal
cord off) nor engage in sexual activity (sexual organ off).
The room is completely soundproof (ears turned off) and
no smells enter (nose off). All their ten sensory and motor
organs have become completely inactive during the course
of the experiment. And
They
they fall asleep.
sleep sometimes for as long as twenty-four
hours. Without any external stimulation to draw their sense
and motor organs into activity, the conscious mind turns
off,
and they lose all track of time. After they wake up,
and feel no more need for sleep, what do you think they
experience next?
INTO THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
Hallucinations. Visions. Daydreams. Waking fantasies
more vivid than any experience they have ever had in
their lives.
Even people who consider themselves quite
unimaginative, experience brilliant visions which startle
them with their intensity, and they become absorbed in
these internal cinemas. With the sense and motor organs
turned off, and their operator, the conscious mind, also
not functioning, the subjects plunge deep into the
subconscious layer of their minds, the receptacle of
dreams, memories and stored images; and without any
external disturbances or interruptions, these images
combine and recombine
in
a fantastic kaleidoscopic
collage.
The functions of the subconscious mind are memory
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 59
and deep reflection, and when it is given free play by the
absence of conscious activity, the subjects relive memories,
and experience imagined images, as if they were indeed
real.
BEYOND THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
Most people in the experiments went only this far,
piercing through the barriers of their conscious minds by
the artificial
means of externally turning off their sense
organs. They could not penetrate through the subconscious
realm, crowded with long-stored internal sensations.
A
few, however, were able to go beyond, and their
experiences in those warm-water tanks often changed their
lives.
After their conscious minds were stilled for lack of
external stimulation, they were able to
restless
internal
calm also the
wandering of the subconscious, and
touched the superconscious level of the mind. They
experienced that state of ineffable bliss and oneness, like
that described by the saints and mystics of all ages seeking
union with their true Selves, with God. One person said
that he left as
if
he were "the centre of the universe."
THE SEEKERS
:
STILLING THE SENSES
Throughout history, there have been individuals who
have not been satisfied with the experiences of the
conscious and subconscious layers, as most people are,
and have searched for a way to go beyond - yogis.
60 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
religious saints, alchemists, sufis, primitive medicine men
and shamans, psychics and mystics. They have used a
variety of strange and often painful methods to transcend
the sense level of experience, but all these methods have
one element
in
common
:
they
all
attempt to
still
the
senses and penetrate the restless, shallow layers of the
mind to attain the infinite glory within.
Monks turned their backs on the noise and stimulation
of the world and sought "sensory deprivation" in the
solitude of Himalayan mountain peaks or jungle caves.
Saints and prophets of all rehgions controlled their tongues
by long fasting, and their vocal cords by long periods of
absolute silence. They practised celibacy, and remained
immobile
for
many hours, absorbed in internal prayer
and meditation.
OVERSTIMULATING THE SENSES
Another type of people - perhaps more extroverted have sought to transcend the senses
in
seemingly the
opposite manner, not by depriving them but by
overstimulating them. Oversaturated with sights, sounds,
movements and
stimulation
sensations, the nervous threshold of
becomes so high that further stimulation is
impossible and the senses turn off, rather like a fuse which
has blown because too
many
electric
appliances are
drawing its current. So the Sufi "whirling dervishes" spin
and spin in an accelerating, twirling dance until they "lose
consciousness" and fall into ecstasy. African warriors and
Carribean sects dance freziedly to wildly beating drums
Beyond ihe Superconscious Mind D 61
and rhythmic chanting and clapping, their limbs flying,
they collapse from sensory exhaustion and
until
experience, perhaps a glimpse beyond.*
Religious fanatics of all persuasions have sought the
fastest
and most brutal way
systems
themselves
fakirs lie
to overload their
nervous
- through pain. Christian devotees whip
until they are
drenched with blood; Indian
on beds of nails or sit on thrones of swords;
Japanese Zen monks meditate under freezing waterfalls;
Sioux Indians suffer extreme heat and thirst in the desert
sun; and Tibetan seekers
sit
for hours, naked, in the
mountain snows. By mortifying their flesh, they seek to
overcome the transitory pleasures of their senses and attain
the One Imperishable Reality.
But how many can follow this path? In this modern
world,
how many people are ready to hide away in the
Himalayan mountains, fast for forty days, whip themselves
mean
that the highest state of awareness, our birthright as human
beings, is to be forever denied to us just because we lead
or pierce their tongues with spears? Yet does this
normal lives in the world?
No. There
is
a universal process
- so simple that
even a child can perform it - the most practical and natural
way to realise one's Self. It is practice of meditation, and
it
begins with sensory withdrawal.
In
Trinidad, they call
it
"bringing down the Holy Ghost."
THE PROCESS OF SENSORY
WITHDRAWAL
TURNING OFF THE HAND ORGAN
HANDS FOLDED IN LAP
:
In the process of meditation, one sits motionlessly,
with the hands folded
in
the lap, the fingers locked
together. Many religions use a string of beads of a rosary
which
is
rhythmically turned by the fingers, while
repeating a prayer or chant. The monotony of any repetitive
rhythmic activity lulls the restlessness of the conscious
mind. * But while telling beads, the hand motor organ is
still
operating, so the conscious
mind is still somewhat
active, although less. During meditation, however, we keep
the hands completely
still,
locked together
in
the lap.
Thus, the hand motor organ is completely "turned off".
FEET, GENETARY, EXCRETORY ORGANS
:
"LOTUS" POSE
Some spiritual disciplines use swaying prayer (the
"^Some scientists have suggested
that
"normal" brain
functioning depends on the continuous arousal of the cortex by
the constant bombardment of information from the sense organs.
If these stimuli
become too monotonous, or cease altogether.
then the activity of the cortex
mind ceases to function.
is
disturbed and the conscious
Beyond the Superconscious Mind a 63
Hasidim), rhythmic waiting meditatons (Theravadin
Buddhists) or dancing (Sufis). These monotonous or
rhythmic bodily movements also serve
to
calm the
conscious mind, but they cannot still it completely because
the feet
motor organs are still operating. To completely
transcend the senses we must stop the functioning of the
feet organs completely.
For this, a special posture has
been recommended by yoga experts after thousands of
years of experimentation.
(Padma'sana) because
in
It
is
it,
called "Lotus Posture"
the meditator
becomes
symbolically like the lotus flower which grows in the
muddy water of roadside canals throughout Asia, with its
blossom ever spotlessly pure and white, unaffected by the
filth
below. So the spiritual seeker remains in the world.
but his or her mind rises above, transcending the disturbing
64 n Beyond the Supercon.scious Mind
and often degrading stimuli of the world around. In this
posture, the right foot
the left foot
is
is
folded onto the
left thigh,
and
folded onto the right thigh.
Scientific experiments conducted in a
London
laboratory revealed that persons simply sitting in this
posture, not even meditating, experienced an immediate
change in their brain waves, from the restless and rapid
beta rhythm to the calm and slower alpha rhythm (see
page 72), indicating a relaxed and heightened awareness.
The subjects were given difficult math problems to solve
while sitting in this posture, and were subjected to loud
noises, bright lights,
and very cold objects
to distract
them. It was found that in this posture they reacted much
less
to disturbing external
stimuli,
and were able
to
concentrate more deeply than people sitting in an ordinary
posture. Thus simply sitting in the lotus pose internalises
and concentrates the mind.
One reason for this is that the pressure of the heels
against the body affects the lower energy centres* which
direct the sexual and excretory organs, and as a result the
functioning of these organs is temporarily suspended. Thus
the energy they normally utilise
is
redirected above, to
energise and expand the mind.
**The lower two "cakras" or subtle energy centres (see
page 68), and also the lumbar and sacral plexes from which the
sympathetic and para-sympathetic nerves emanate to the genitalurinary system.
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 65
VOCAL CORD INTERNAL CHANTING
:
Some religions and spiritual practices use verbal
chanting, prayer, or reading sacred books aloud in an
effort to divert the
mind from
its
mundane
ordinary
preoccupations and channel it towards the divine. Although
this
has a definite beneficial effect, it cannot elevate the
mind to the highest state, because by this method, the
vocal cord is still in operation, and also the ear organ is
hearing one's own voice; and thus the conscious mind is
still
active. Yoga meditation, however, uses a process for
concentration which is completely internal, by which the
vocal cord is not used at all - a process which we will
discuss later.
Thus, merely by sitting in the lotus posture, silently
and motionlessly, and folding
we have
the hands,
succeeded in inactivating all the five motor organs : hands,
feet,
vocal cord, genetary and excretory organs.
SUSPENDING THE SENSE ORGANS
CLOSING THE EYES
Then
the eyes are closed.
In
:
some forms of
concentration, a candle is used, and the concentrator stares
fixedly at the candle flame. Indeed, by this process one
develops some psychic powers, for intense concentration
always creates mental force. This technique
employed by hypnotists and those
is
often
interested only in
utilising the lower powers of the mind. But it cannot lead
to the subtlest state of awareness
because the eye organ
and thus the conscious mind are still in operation, making
ujt
;»
66 n Beyond the Superconscious Mind
it
more difficult
to dive
deep inside the mind. So
in
meditation we close the eyes.
TURNING OFF THE NOSE AND EARS
:
VISUALISATION
What about the nose and ears? They are not so easy
to close! When you are sitting by an open window above
the roar of traffic in the street below, and the next-door
neighbour is frying some savory dish, how
to prevent
these sensations from disturbing your mind? For this, there
is a specific
from
all
process fo visualisation to withdraw the mind
external vibrations.
Now psychologists are
realising the tremendous power of visualisation in creating
mental states, particularly altered states of consciousness.
In meditation,
we use a specific visualisation to imagine
we are far away from the external disturbances sounds and smells - that may agitate our minds. By this
technique, we completely isolate ourselves mentally from
the external world; one may be sitting in the busiest city
that
on earth and yet feel the same internal peace, silence and
solitude as if he or she were sitting on a Himalayan peak.
This is one of the higher practices of meditation, so it can
only be learned personally from a trained instructor of
Ananda Marga.*
TONGUE TURNED BACK AND SKIN
UNSTIMULATED
To remove the sensation of taste, the tongue is turned
^'^A'nanda
means
Path of Bliss."
"bliss"; so
A'nanda Ma'rga means "The
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 67
back in the mouth in a specific position which effectively
stops the operation of the taste organ.
internal
And by another
visualisation (which must also be learned
individually from the instructor), the meditator withdraws
all
awareness from the physical body, so all tactile feelings
disappear and the skin organ becomes inactive.
ALL TEN SENSE AND
MOTOR ORGANS INACTIVE
Thus, by sitting motionlessly in the proper posture
with the hands folded, eyes closed, tongue turned back in
the mouth, and mind withdrawn from external physicality,
all the ten sense and motor organs have been controlled
and the conscious mind completely stilled."^
This
is
"^
the correct process of sensory withdrawal,
and at the end of it, without using a tub of warm water
or any painful, difficult or complicated techniques, the
meditator has easily transcended the conscious mind and
enters deep into the subconscious state. Thus,
that
it
is
said
meditation actually begins with the subconscious
mind.
GETTING PAST THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
So you have
stilled
your senses and gone beyond
"^^Scieniists have found in their experiments on yogis that
deep meditation they are completely oblivious to external
stimuli. When a loud noise sounds in their ears, or a bright
light shines on their eyes, or a hot iron rod touches their hands,
they do not respond to the stimuli at all.
in
68 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
your conscious mind into the subconscious. Now what is
happening inside your mind?
Everything. Visions, pictures, memories, plans,
anxieties. They are flooding your mind in a torrent. You
remember everything you did during the day and plan
everything you will do tomorrow. You regret arguing with
your friend and losing your temper at your mother. You
worry about the children, or you wonder when you will
get married, and to whom. You picture the new car you
wish you had. You plan w^at you are going to eat as soon
as you finish meditation, and you imagine, yourself eating
it.
You write a letter in your mind. You make your shopping
list
for tomorrow. You analyse your character and praise
your own virtues, and analyse the people you know and
criticise their faults.
Then you start to wonder, "What good is this
meditation anyway? I'm supposed to get mental peace,
but I'm thinking more than ever before!" Your mind is
rattling
and churning, and ideas are flying everywhere
like popcorn popping from the pot when the lid is suddenly
removed. The internal activity of the subconscious mind
is usually repressed
by the intense activity of the conscious
mind, which is outwardly directed into the external world.
(Only people
like
artists,
poets and day-dreamers are
accustomed to giving their subconscious minds full rein).
So when the conscious repression is suddenly released,
as in dreaming, the subconscious mind bursts into activity
and there you are, sitting there with your head clattering
with images and thoughts.
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 69
This is why many people find it difficult to perform
certain types of meditation that seek merely to "empty
the mind" or to "think of nothing".
It
is
impossible to
think of nothing. The mind must always have some object.
Even if you think that you are thinking of nothing, you
are actually thinking, "Aha! I'm finally thinking about
nothing!"
Let us make an experiment
:
Please close your eyes
for thirty seconds and think about anything you like, except
a
RED COW.
You just couldn't help it, could you? That big red
cow kept coming back into you*- mind, whatever you tried
to
do to get rid of it.
And if you tell your mind to think about nothing, it
will vengefully erupt in an avalanche of thoughts
and
feelings.
There must be a better way. And there is. It has been
tried and tested for thousands of years - the most efficient
and practical process to pierce through the disturbances
of the subconscious
mind and enter
superconscious state. It is called
liberates the mind."
the blissful,
MANTRA - "that which
CONCENTRATION ON MANTRA
The mantra is like a rocket engine that propels the
mind beyond the "gravitational fields" of the lower levels
of consciousness, through
all
the turbulence of the
subconscious mind, to the superconscious - and beyond.
Thus, a correct process of meditation involves the
generation of immense psychic energy through intense
concentration on the mantra.
Some systems of meditation which involve internal
repetition of certain sounds, advise the meditators not to
concentrate on them. Such techniques are quite relaxing
and refreshing,* but for spiritual elevation, concentration
is essential
- the intense effort** to focus the mind on the
mantra. Like the farmer whose mind was concentrated on
his sick son, or the chemist concentrated on his research,
or the
medium concentrated on her crystal ball - the
fixed attention of the mind on any object of thought will
produce the necessary internal energy to elevate the mind
to subtler levels. Experiments on Ananda Marga meditators
*Brain wave experiments on such types of meditation have
shown that 40% of meditation time is spent in sleep - a stale
the yogis call "nidrd samcidhi" or "merger in sleepconsciousness."
**Thus meditation is called "sa'dhana" in Sanskrit, which
literally
means "effort".
Beyond ihe Superconscious Mind D 71
whose process begins with concentration have shown that,
rather than being asleep or passively relaxed, their bodies
and minds are in a state of intense physiological activation:
more energy, rather than less, is flowing through them.*
THREE QUALITIES OF A MANTRA
:
ONE-PULSATIVE
What is the special
effect of the mantra, that
by
focusing the mind on it, one can transcend the ignorance
and illusions of the lower mind?
A mantra must have three qualities to hold the restless
mind steady, to energise it, and to transport it to subtler
realms. It must be pulsative, incantative and ideative.
First, it must be pulsative. It must be of two syllables
so that
it
can flow rhythmically with the breathing, for
the breathing has a profound effect upon the state of one's
consciousness. You may have noticed that whenever you
are angry or upset, your breathing
*
It
appears the proficiency
in
is
fast
this
and short; but
form of Tantrik
meditation is charcterized by physiological activation by EGG
(brain-wave) autonomic (nervous system) criteria. This activation
is consistent
with the Tantrik emphasis on the struggle to achieve
union with the object of concentration. This is in contrast to the
relaxation which has been reported in studies of meditation
which are
relatively
been practised by
more passive and which
less
typically have
experienced meditators." (Dr. James
Corby, Psychophysiological Correlates of the Practice of Tantrik
Yoga (Ananda Marga) Meditation, Department of Psychiatry
and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of
Medicine, Stanford, California, 1977.)
72 D Beyond the Supcrconscious Mind
when you are absorbed in any task, you naturally breathe
slowly and deeply.
The functioning of breathing
is
closely associated
with the flow of vital energy in the body, called pra'n'a,
which in turn greatly affects the mind. If the breathing is
fast
and
irregular,
the
prdna becomes unsteady and
agitated; the mind becomes disturbed and perception and
thinking are unclear. Thus control of breathing
(pra'n'a'ya'ma) is an important part of yoga training. The
more the breathing is slowed and regulated, the greater
the
composure
in
the prdna, and the greater the
concentration and control of the mind.
Once there was a minister who had greatly displeased
his king. As punishment, the king ordered him imprisoned
in the top of a very high tower,
and the minister was left
there to perish. That night, the minister's faithful wife
came to the tower, crying, to see if there was any way she
could help him escape. He told her to return to the tower
the following night, bringing with her a long rope, some
string,
some silken thread, a beetle, and a pot of honey.
Wondering at this strange command,
the wife obeyed,
and the next night brought him the desired articles. The
minister directed her to tie the silken thread firmly around
the beetle's leg, then to
smear its feelers with a drop of
honey and place it on the tower wall, with its head pointing
upward. Attracted by the scent of the honey, the beetle
crawled slowly up the wall, drawing the silken thread
behind it. Hours later, it reached the top, and the minister
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 73
caught it and untied the silken thread. Then he told his
wife to tie the other end of the thread, dangling on the
ground, to the long string. The minister then pulled up
the thread until he could grasp the end of the string. Next
he instructed her to tie the rope to the other end of the
string, and pulling up the string, he grabbed the rope and
tied it to the
tower window - and slid down to freedom.
The silken thread is the motion of breathing
string
is
the prdria or vital energy, and the rope
the
:
the
is
By controlling the motion of breathing, we can
gain control over the prdria; by controlling the prdna, we
can control the mind. Then we attain liberation from all
mind.
bondages.
Thus the mantra must be of two syllables so that its
slow and rhythmic internal chanting will serve to slow
the breathing, steady the prdria, and calm and control the
restless
wandering of the mind.
THE SECOND QUALITY OF A MANTRA
:
INCANTATIVE
The second quality is incantative. The mantra must
have a certain sound, a certain vibrational pattern so that
when it is chanted internally, it will elevate the individual's
own vibration, or "entitative rhythm".
Each entity of this creation has its own particular
entitative rhythm,
its
own note in the universal harmony.
From pulsing quasars to oscillating electrons - from the
ultrasonic
melody of mountain ranges to the ceaseless
74 n Beyond the Superconscious Mind
reverberation of the creatures, singing and drumming,
whirring and clicking, laughing and crying - all the notes
are orchestrated in a vast cosmic concert.
The source of this ceaseless rhythmic movement is
the Infinite Consciousness, soundless and still, the ocean
of peace. Undisturbed by any vibration,
infinite straight line
it
flows
in
an
through eternity.
The ancient sages, who had merged their minds in
this sea
of unexpressed Consciousness, realised that the
universe is a vibrational play of varied waves with different
wavelengths.
By their intutional powers, they came to
understand the laws of universal harmonics governing this
vibrational flow, and they developed a subtle science of
sound
to affect the
rhythms of creation - without any
mechanical apparatus.
Indian music, developed by the great yoga master,
Shiva, over seven thousand years ago, was one branch of
that science. The classical ra'gas, or musical scales, are
so subtly attuned to the rhythms of nature that each rdga
is to
be played or sung only in a certain season and at a
certain time of the day, to produce a specific emotional
effect in the musician and audience.
One rdga is played
only at dawn in the spring, to evoke the mood of universal
love, another is sung only during the evening in summer,
to arouse compassion; still another only during midday in
the rainy season, to summon courage.
It
is
said that the masters of music had control over
not only human emotions, but all natural manifestations
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 75
as well they could produce heat and rainfall at will, and
the vibrations of their voices alone
would cause finely-
tuned musical instruments to resonate in accompaniment!
Historical
documents describe the remarkable powers
possessed by Tansen, the 16th Century court musician of
Akbar the Great. Commanded by the Emperor to sing a
night rdga while the sun
was overhead, Tansen's
vibrational song instantly caused the
whole palace
to
become enveloped in darkness.
But the subtlest of all these sciences of sound was
the science of mantra.
individual's entitative
frequency. Like
playing
in
The masters knew
rhythm vibrates
many instruments
in
that each
a particular
at
a
symphony
harmony, the combination of all the various
"bio-rhythms" of mind and body (psychic waves, heartbeat,
metabolic
rate,
etc.)
produces the individual's
particular "melody". If this individual melody is raised to
subtler and slower frequencies,
infinite
- and the mind merges
it
in
ultimately
becomes
boundless Cosmic
Consciousness.
Through long inner experimentation, the yogis
developed a series of powerful sounds or mantras which,
when chanted internally, resonate with the individual's
entitative
rhythm and gradually transform
it
into the
infinite straight line of Supreme Peace.
These sounds originated from inside their own bodies,
and were systematised into the oldest alphabet and
language on earth - Sanskrit.
76 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
SANSKRIT
:
THE HUMAN BODY'S ETERNAL SONG
Close your eyes for a moment and just listen.
What did you hear? Even when we are in a "quiet"
environment, so many sounds bombard our ears the dull
:
drone of machines, distant voices carried on the wind,
birdsongs, telephones, construction noises, traffic
it
seems impossible to escape external noise in this modern
world.
But if we can withdraw our minds from these external
sounds,
we will hear much subtler, inner vibrations. In
the absolute stillness of soundproof chambers in scientific
laboratories, insulated from all external noise, some people
have been able to hear some of these internal sounds
:
a
high-pitched resonance, and a deep throbbing - the
vibrations of their own nervous system, and the pulsing
of their blood.
Thousands of years ago, yogis meditating in the utter
silence of caves or mountains, were able to withdraw
their minds not only
from external sounds, but from the
noises of the physical body as well.
They could then
focus their minds on centres of subtle energy inside them.
Along the spine and in the brain, there are seven psychic
energy centres or cakras which control the functioning of
'^The "mysteries of the seven stars" and the "seven churches"
in
Revelations
cakras.
(1
:
20) are symbolic references to the seven
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 77
mind and body. Most human beings are unaware of these
cakras, but when the mind and body become more refined
through meditation, these subtle energy centres can be
perceived and controlled.
The cakras have been described by enlightened saints
and mystics of all
spiritual
paths and cultures - by
Buddhists, ancient Chinese, Hindus, Tantriks, Christian
78 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
and Jewish mystics*, Sufis, and Native American Indians.
Recently, science has detected them as well. Sensitive
instruments have measured energy emanations (beyond
frequencies which are known to come from biochemical,
anatomic systems), surging from the surface of the body
at the
exact locations of the cakras.^^
Those ancient yogis who directed
their inner ear
toward these energy centres, were able to hear the subtle
vibrations emanating
from each of them - 49 different
vibrations in all. Then they spoke them aloud, and each
of these subtle inner sounds became one
letter
of the
Sanskrit alphabet.
Thus, the Sanskrit language - sometimes called "the
mother of all languages" - was developed from the
externalised sounds of our subtle internal energies.
the human body's eternal song.
It
is
MANTRA TRANSFORMS THE
ENTITATIVE RHYTHM
The yogis then combined these powerful sounds into
mantras which are attuned to the universal rhythms of the
cosmos. For thousands of years, these mantras were never
written down, lest they be misused by unworthy powerseekers, but were passed
down directly from guru to
disciple. Even today, they must be learned personally from
a qualified teacher of
Ananda Marga;
for different
individuals, with different entitative rhythms, will receive
different mantras for concentration. Thus, people of all
nationalities, regardless of their language, will use Sanskrit
mantras for meditation, because Sanskrit is the universal
language for self-realisation.
COSMIC RHYTHM
INCANTATIVE
RHYTHM - MANTRA
ENTITATIVE
RHYTHM
80 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
The repeated chanting of the subtle inner music of
the mantra (the "incantative rhythm") in meditation
vibrates the cakms and stills the restlessness of the mind
:
Gradually, the meditator's entitative rhythm slows
down in resonance with the mantra
COSMIC RHYTHM
MANTRA
ENTITATIVE
RHYTHM
:
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 81
Finally, it is transformed into the straight line cosmic
rhythm, and merges into the eternally still and serene sea
of Cosmic Consciousness, the goal of all yoga practice.
BRAIN-WAVES
Recent scientific discoveries have shed new light on
this ancient yoga process. The brain, composed of billions
of nerve cells creating tiny electric currents, emanates
subtle electromagenetic
waves or "brain waves" which
change with the change in consciousness. These brain
waves many be detected by attaching the sensitive
electrodes of EEG machines'^ to a person's head, which
picks up these rhythms and records them on a graph. In
this way, scientists have discovered several different types
of brain waves, which are emitted in different states of
consciousness.
"NORMAL" RESTLESS CONSCIOUSNESS
BETA WAVES
:
The brain wave produced during normal waking
is called the beta wave - a rapid (13 or
more cycles per second), irregular rhythm
consciousness
:
'''Electro-encephalogram, or "electric brain-writing'
machines.
82 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
It
is
a graphic manifestation of the agitated and
restless state of the average person's
ALPHA WAVES
:
mind.
SERENE AND ALERT
During a state of calm alertness, however, the brain
gives off a completely different type of wave, the alpha
wave - much slower (about
8
cycles per second)
and steady and rhythmic, but of higher "amplitude" or
energy :
Although the mind is clam and balanced, it is not
weak or passive; it is serene but extremely alert. During
experiences of mental telepathy, or creative inspiration,
alpha waves are emanated from the brain.
SLOWING THE BRAIN WAVES BY
MEDITATION
Experiments on practitioners of Ananda Marga
meditation'^ have shown that during meditation, the brain
waves are immediately slowed from the
restless beta
rhythm to the serene alpha rhythm; and, with continued
•concentration on the mantra, the energy level of the alpha
waves increases.
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 83
Many people have experienced a strange slowingdown
of time and events during
moments of intense
concentration or extreme emotion. Sports figures often
describe their experience of this "slowing effect" during
critical
moments of contest, as if they were watching a
movie in slow motion. This sensation is often accompanied
by a feeling of mental detachment; and in that state of
equanimity their actions are effortless and their play
becomes flawless.
Computer analysis of certain mantras has revealed
that their acoustic frequencies are similar to the
and slower brain frequencies^^ Thus,
it
alpha
is
the
superimposition of the slower and subtler mantra rhythms
on the agitated brain waves that progressively calms and
slows the mind.
THETA AND DELTA WAVES
DEEP MEDITATION
:
Gradually, in deep meditation, the alpha waves are
transformed into the slower and more powerful theta
rhythm (4 cycles per second)
:
In this superconscious "theta state," scientists suggest,
the
mind
joy,
as
if
is
flooded with creative insights and inner
one
at
is
the
very threshold of Cosmic
Consciousness.
As meditation becomes more and more profound,
the brain
waves slow
cycle per second)
:
still
further to delta
waves (one
84 D Beyond ihe Supcrconscious Mind
The energy
level
increases and the inner ecstasy
becomes more and more intense
suddenly the
until
mind "stands still". All motion in the universe - and in
one's own mind - seems to cease completely. All illusions
of motion or time, all distinctions between inner and outer,
between perceiver and perceived, vanish
in a
moment.
The meditator pierces through the confines of space and
time, and plunges into the infinite.
Thus during meditation, by the continuous
superimposition of the mantra vibration on the entitative
rhythm, the brain waves gradually become slower and
subtler, until they
become infinite, and the mind merges
with the Supreme Consciousness within
ALPHA WAVE;
THETA WAVE
RESTLESS
CALM
THINKING
AWARENESS
DEEP
MEDITATION
BETA WAVE
:
:
:
DELTA WAVE
VERY DEEP
MEDITATION
:
MERGER IN
COSMIC
CONSCIOUSNESS
THE LASER OF THE MIND
A laser is a special kind of light. Unlike an ordinary
which is made up of waves of many different
frequencies*, laser light is "coherent" - it has been
light ray,
concentrated to only one frequency, and this gives
tremendous power
would have
the sum.
:
it
a laser light bulb of only 10 watts
a far greater intensity than the surface of
A narrow laser beam of such intense energy
can melt diamonds or - like the "ray guns" of science
fiction
- incinerate a person to ashes within a second.
Already the superpowers are preparing for laser wars in
space.
During deep meditation, the yogi's mind becomes
beam
like a laser
are
made
:
all
the mental and physical energies
"coherent" by the intense cncentration on
the mantra, and he or she develops
immense psychic
power.**
Normally, the different parts of our brain are engaged
in monitoring different activities of the body and mind at
the same time - movement, digestion, speech, etc. - and
so they simultaneously emit different brain waves
:
*Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, infra-red, etc.
**Any coherent wave creates a powerful
force.
When a
battalion of soldiers marches across a bridge, they are ordered
to fall out of step: for all those feet, stomping in a single rhythm,
will create
such a potent coherent vibration that the bridge's
infrastructure
may be weakened!
86 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
But during one-pointed concentration on the mantra,
of the brain vibrate in the same
frequency, and it is the same rhythm as the hearbeat and
all the different parts
respiration! *
/an www
I
*Some scientists have suggested that the internal chanting
of the mantra creates a sympathetic vibration
in
the brain's
limbic system, the portion of the brain which seems to be
associated with ecstatic, superconscious states.
The limbic
system is involved in the mental repetition of sounds, not the
hearing of external sounds. Through this limbic network which
is connected to all major portions of the brain, the mantra
vibration spreads to other parts of the brain and flows in waves
through the nervous system to other parts of the body as well,
to vibrate the endocrine glands. In this way all the vibrations
of the mind and body are synchronised by the mantra.''^
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 87
When one attains perfection in meditation, all the
rhythms of the mind and body are synchronised into a
single,
powerful rhythm, and attuned
to
the
Cosmic
Rhythm. Like the resonance of many voices singing in
unison in a choir, the previously scattered vibrations of
ordinary thinking are blended into one harmoniously
pulsating flow.
are
Such coherent personalities can move the world. They
dynamos of power, and by the tremendous force of
their will, anything they
succeed.
By
choose to do
their personal
will inevitably
magnetism, others are
irresistibly drawn towards them; like the great saints, they
are blazing torches that illumine
many clouded minds
and awaken many sleeping souls.
Those realised individuals, who have concentrated
psychic and spiritual energies into one
wave
and
coherent
attuned it to the infinite, become free
from all the bondages of matter, space and time. Those
all their physical,
who have achieved complete mastery over the rhythms of
own life attain mastery over the rhythms of the
their
universe as well - because they have realised that the
essence of creation
is
consciousness. The so-called
"miraculous" powers of perfect masters - which are not
at all "supernatural", only rare - are the natural expressions
of their exact understanding of the subtle laws of
consciousness. Like the great prophets, they
may
sometimes perform "mairacles" for, as Christ explained,
"except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."-"
Trailanga Swami, the famous Indian yogi who lived
during the British period, sought to teach people that
88 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
human life can transcend the bondages of flesh. Supposed
to be over 300 years old, his reputation was so widespread
that
few would doubt the
truth of
any account of his
astounding "miracles." On many occasions, he was seen
to drink the most deadly poisons; and thousands saw him
Ganges for days together.
Sometimes he would remain submerged for long periods
floating on top of the river
under the water.
A common sight on the riverbank in
Benares was the swami meditating motionlessly on
blistering stone slab, completely oblivious to the scorching
Indian summer sun.
Trailanga Swami always remained completely naked
:
but unfortunately this was against the British Law; so
the British police arrested him for nudity and sent him to
The door of his cell was securely locked - but in the
evening he was seen happily walking about the prison
roof. The next day, a guard was posted in front of his cell
door; but that night, he was again strolling nonchalantly
on the roof! When the guard saw him, he shrank in fear,
but Trailanga laughed and said, "My son, nobody can
keep me behind the bar - I move according to my own
jail.
will."
The achievement of these occult powers, however, is
extremely dangerous. Many such saints, though they have
inspired
many people on the path of spirituality, could
not themselves attain the highest state of complete
liberation because they utilised their powers too often, or
developed pride or vanity in their display. The release of
such potent spiritual energies into the external world before
one has attained spiritual perfection may deteriorate the
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 89
mind and body; all the powers will be lost, and the goal
of Cosmic Consciousness will never be attained.
MIND OVER MATTER ?
A plump, middle-aged Russian woman named
Mikhailova sat before a plain table covered with various
objects.
She was concentrating
intently.
Gradually her
brain waves, heartbeat and respiration started to pulse in
the same rhythm - the slow theta wave - and suddenly a
piece of bread on the table in front of her started to move.
In small jerks, it hopped across the table, closer and closer
to her, until
- it reached the edge and jumped into her
mouth! Next, she spun pencils with her mind, and mentally
separated the white of an egg from
its
yoke. When the
electric field around the moving objects was measured, it
was found to be pulsating in exactly the same frequency
as her brain waves and physical rhythms! Her entitative
rhythm had become completely coherent, and with the
power of "psychokinesis" ("mind moving matter"), she
performed "miracles"
But afterwards, she was an exhausted wreck.
Temporarily blinded and feverish, nauseated and dizzy,
she lost 8 kg. and her blood pressure soared. She became
hysterical,
and collapsed in a coma for several days.
After years of demonstrating her psychic powers, it
is
said that she has lost them.
Those who
visited her
found her "weak and drawn, deeply lined about the face,
physically and mentally ill - a broken and shriveled old
woman."-'
90 n Beyond the Superconscious Mind
THE FOUR STAGES OF MEDITATION
Thus throughout the centuries masters have taught
that there are four stages of spiritual progress. The first
is
the stage of difficulty,
when one has to exert much
effort to calm and control the agitated, scattered waves of
the mind. Many people at this stage become restless and
impatient, and abandon their spiritual practice.
The second is the stage of attainment when the mind
achieves complete concentration and experiences a higher
state of consciousness. Those who taste that supreme bliss,
even for a moment, realise that it is the highest experience
of human life, and dedicate all their energies to remain
merged in that state forever.
In the third stage, by regular and intense concentration,
the mind becomes coherent and psychic powers develop.
This is the most dangerous stage, when even great yogis
have fallen from the path. If one's psychic energies are
prematurely released into the external world, one will
never achieve perfection. It is rather like trying to pump
water to the top floor of a building through a pipe with
many holes in it - the water will never reach the top.
The saint Ramakrisna once told his beloved disciple
Vivekananda, "Through severe spiritual discipline, I have
acquired certain powers.
I
am giving them to you - you
may use them when necessary. What do you say to that?"
Vivekananda reflected a moment and asked, "Sir, will
these powers help
me towards self-relisation?" "NO",
answered his master. Vivekananda said, "Then I don't want
them. Let
me first realise God and afterwards I shall
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 91
decide whether
I
want them or
not.
If
I
accept these
wonderful powers now, I may forget my ideal. And if I
use them for any selfish purpose, it may lead to my ruin. So
please, master,
you keep them!"
Those who do not
let
their
minds be diverted by
psychic powers and channel all their energies in yearning
for the Superme are like a child who cries repeatedly for
her mother. To distract her, the mother gives the child a
toy.
But when the child is not satisfied with the toy and
flings it aside, shouting "I don't want the toy, I want you\"
then the mother has to come and take the child on her
lap. Spiritual aspirants
should be like such a child. They
should cry to the Supreme,
"I
don't
want your occult
powers, I want You!" Then they are sure to attain their
goal.
And when they reach the fourth stage, and that
indescribable bliss surges through every fibre of their
being, they will know that, in comparison to the ecstasy
of divine union, psychic powers are very cheap.
Two brothers started practising yoga together, but
while one was a sincere seeker of truth, the other was
enamoured of occult powers. After many years of
separation, they met beside a river. One brother used his
occult powers to walk across the water, while the other
paid one rupee to the boatman to ferry him across. When
they reached the opposite bank, the first brother proudly
asked what his brother thought of his feat. He answered,
"I
see that after
all
these years of effort, your spiritual
achievement is worth only one rupee."
THE THIRD QUALITY OF A
MANTRA IDEATIVE
:
The mantra is not only a vibratory, pulsating sound
that
harmonises all the rhythms of the mind and body
with the Supreme Rhythm,
it
has a specific expansive
meaning as well.
Yogis have taught for centuries the simple truth
you think, so you become."
It
is
:
"As
now an accepted
psychological fact that the mind becomes like its object
of ideation.
Many experiments have shown that our
consciousness tends to merge or identify with any focus
of attention that is maintained for a sufficient period.^^
Thus visualisations and affirmations will gradually
transform our minds according to their object of
concentration.
Understanding that people are often limited by the
negative or inferior ideas they have of themselves,
psychologists attempt to change our "self-image" and thus
to
completely transform our personality. In one
experiment, a man - sweating and straining as hard as he
could - could only lift 150 kg. of weight. Then he was
hypnotised, and the hypnotist repeated, "You are the
strongest
man in the world
strength!"
Under hypnosis, he lifted 200 kg. without the
slightest strain or difficulty.
you have tremendous
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 93
Today, the "power of positive thinking," positive
affirmations and creative visualisations are being used by
many people all over the world to become more successful,
more popular, more wealthy. But the goal of yoga is not
so narrow or limited as worldly success or wealth.
It is
nothing less than infinity - the infinite expansion of one's
mind to merge with the Supreme Consciousness.
Thus, the process of meditation also employs a
repeated affirmation - the meaning of the mantra
Infinite Consciousness"
"I
"I am
am one with That." Actually,
:
this is the reality - on the highest levels of our being,
we
we always have been; we only do not
realise it because we identify with our small egos, with
are infinite and
the limited lower levels of our minds.
So by daily practice, by the constant ideation, "I am
That,"
we gradually lessen our false identification with
our body and lower mind, and identify with the blissful
Self within. As the mind gradually, imperceptibly expands
through higher and higher layers, one glorious day
we
become completely free from all the bondages of ego and
realise that we are not this body, we are not this mind, we
are not this imperfect personality
- we are infinite. We
are the Supreme Consciousness. In that moment, we go
beyond the mantra - beyond pulsation, beyond vibration,
beyond ideation - and in breathless silence, we dissolve
into ecstatic union with the origin of all.
SAMADHI*
ONE WITH THE GOAL
:
The mind has plunged deeper and deeper
in
meditation; the mental waves and the breath have become
slower and slower. Gradually all the storms of the mind
have become
stilled,
all
the
shadowy
veils lifted.
The
breath suspends, the mind suspends, and the physical body
seems metamorphosed into light. An inexhaustible stream
of delight pours down from an eternal source, and we feel
our consciousness spreading over infinite space. One who
tasted that splendour wrote; "An oceanic joy broke upon
the shores of my soul.
The spirit of God, I realised, is
exhaustless Bliss; His Body is countless tissues of light.
The entire cosmos, faintly luminous, like a city seen afar
at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being.
Eternity and I became one united ray - a tiny bubble of
"-^
laughter, I had become the Sea of Mirth.
One yogi described his meeting with another such
mango garden, I met a saint by the
name of Atmananda ("Bliss of the Self") and that name
realised soul; "In a
perfectly suited him. Every two or three minutes, he would
break out into laughter without any apparent cause.
He
was bubbling with joy - laughing and laughter. He could
not control it even if he wanted to - it was bursting out
of him.
It
was not the happiness of getting something
^Literally, "to be
one with the goal." It is the Nirvana of
the Buddhists, the satori of Zen, the unio mystiea of Calholieism.
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 95
longed
for.
The laughter of the saints is different. The
fountain of joy is opened within - on the removal of the
veil
is
of ignorance, that joy has been revealed. Then there
no end to the joy. One has to be happy - one cannot
help
it.
What a wonderful state it is! All are aiming at
such a state.
"-^
Sooner or later, we will all experience it - it is the
birthright of every human being. Each person is a channel
for infinite
to
power and energy and knowledge - a vessel
be filled with this never-ending bliss. The revelations
of dreams, hypnosis, hallucinations, creative flashes, and
intuitional foresight
have given us some idea of the
limitless resources of our inner spaces.
Now we must
check the external drift of our minds and turn our
awareness in upon itself so we can explore the Kingdom
of Lisht within.
"The Superme Consciousness is inside
mind
through meditation and He will appear - you
you
like butter in
milk; churn your
will see that the resplendence of the Supreme
Consciousness illumines your whole inner
being. He is like a subterranean river in you.
Remove the sands of mind and you will find
the clear, cool waters within.
—
"^^'
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti
THE SCIENCE OF THE SELF
Most people in the world are caught up in the endless
maze of the lower planes of life, wandering here and
there to possess objects to delight the senses. But instead
of satisfaction, they find frustration. Sometimes their lives
seem dry and insipid - sometimes their egos are tossed
about by anxieties, fears and doubts - sometimes their
minds suffer the pain and sorrow of disappointments
and loss.
Just as we cannot clearly see the reflection of the
moon in a clouded mirror or a turbulent lake, so we can
never attain the peace and bliss of our innermost selves,
the Superme Consciousness within us all, because of the
restless, impurities
of our lower minds. The process of
self-realisation is the effort to raise the mind step by step
through all its levels and to purify each, one by one. One
must experience and cleanse each and every layer; none
can be neglected.
Each of the
steps on the Path of Bliss has been
*The teachings of yoga are sometimes called the "EightFold Path" {As't'aunga Yoga)
(1)
Asanas
...
(2)
Principles of
...
:
To purify the Physical Body
{Annamaya Kos'a)
Conscious Mind (ka'mamaya
Kos'a)
Harmony with
Others (Yama)
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 97
carefully developed over thousands of years and
scientifically adjusted to suit
each individual.
"^^
First,
by
proper food and exercise, the physical body must be
conditioned to be a steady base for an unwavering mind,
and purified
to
receive the divine current. Then, by
ignoring the noises and disturbances of the world outside,
the
mind must be immersed in the music of the mantra
and in the thought of the Infinite. As the flow of breath
and the tossing waves of the mind become stilled, and the
mind concentrates one-pointedly in deep meditation on
Supreme - all at once the waves become straight -
the
and one feels the exhilaration of a bird suddenly released
from a cage.
This subtle science of yoga has universal application
in the life
of every human being - man or woman, rich
or poor, young or old, educated or not. By its practices,
all
the layers of the
mind
are strengthened, and one
develops a healthy and pure body, emotional balance,
sharp memory and clear thought, intuition and creativity,
discrimination and non-attachment
(3)
Principles of
...
until finally, the
Conscious Mind
Harmony with
Self (Niyama)
(4)
(5)
(6)
Control of Breath
{P ran'ay a' ma'}
Sense Withdrawal
{Pratyaha'ra)
Concentration
...
...
...
{Dhdrand)
(7)
(8)
Deep Meditation
(Dhya'na)
Supreme Union
(Sama'dhi)
...
...
Subconscious Mind
{Manomaya Kos'a)
Supramental Mind
{Atima'nasa Kos'a)
Subliminal Mind
(Vijina'namaya Kos'a)
Subtle Causal Mind
(Hi rati may a Kos'a)
The Self Within (Atman)
98 D Beyond the Superconscious Mind
sweetness of spiritual devotion pervades one's being. As
the impurities are cleansed
from each layer, the mind is
converted into a more and more perfect mirror to reflect
the radiance of the true Self. Just as the dark coal
is
gradually metamorphosed into a brilliant diamond by being
buried deep within the earth, so an ordinary personality,
by diving deep within, becomes self-illumined, a valuable
asset to the world.
SEEK THE MOON IN THE SKY
Today, many people are fascinated by the powers of
the mind.
They attend lectures of learned teachers and
read numerous books on the boundless potentialities of
consciousness. It may be satisfying to the intellect to hear
new discoveries and interesting stories, but to attain that
loftiest ecstasy, all talk and words are useless. The limited
intellect
cannot enter into that glorious kingdom. The
Buddha said, "Do not dip the string of thought into the
unfathomable.
He who questions errs, he who answers
errs."
Bliss, Supereme Consciousness, ecstasy, peace - these
are
all
mere words. If you want to know what they are,
you must experience them. Thus, the mystics advise, "Seek
the truth in meditation, not in books. Look in the sky to
fmd the moon, not in the pond."
The sages have laid out the path before you; the way
has been charted for thousands of years. Now it is up to
you to move forward on it, and taste that endless rapture
for yourself.
Beyond the Superconscious Mind D 99
FOOTNOTES
14.
Sir Arthur Clark, in Frontiers of Consciousness, ed. John
White.
Lyall Watson, Supernature.
William Tiller, in the Brain Revolution by Marilyn
Ferguson.
Edgar Cayce, On Reincarnation.
Ibid, from a study by Dr. Ian Stevenson at the University
of Virginia, USA.
John White, The Frontiers of Consciousness.
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, "Are Ghosts Hallucinations?"
in Notes on Spiritual and Social Philosophy, June 1982.
The Tao Te Ching.
Ostrander & Schroeder, The ESP Papers.
Ken Kessey.
Marilyn Ferguson, The Brain Revolution.
Andrew Weil, The Natural Mind.
Edward Voss, University of Illinois, USA.
Sir Arthur Eddingtin, The Nature of the Physical World.
15.
Edward Markham.
1
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
1
1.
12.
13.
16.
Research of Dr. Valery Hunt at UCLA,
California, USA, as described in "Human behavior", Jan.
1979.
17.
18.
Dr. James Corby, Psychophysiological Correlates of the
Practice of Tantrik Yoga {Ananda Margal) Meditation,
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences,
Stanford University School of Medicme, Stanford,
California, 1977.
Dr. Bernard Glueck, "Psychophysiology of Mantra
Meditation."
19.
Ibid.
20.
John 4 46-54.
Ostrander and Schroeder, The ESP Papers.
John White, The Frontiers of Consciousness.
Yogananda, An Autobiography of a Yogi.
Swami Ramdas, God-Experience.
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, Subha'sita Sam'graha IV.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
:
Every living being is moving along life's
mysterious pathway searching for a
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BEYOND THE SUPERCONSCIOUS MIND
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