Perfection In Yoga

A Yogi can switch his life-currents, to and from the senses. He takes the Prana and the mind to the Sahasrara or the thousand-petalled lotus at the crown of the head. He enters into Samadhi. He is dead to the world. He experiences superconsciousness or Nirvikalpa Samadhi. He is in blissful union with the Lord.

From "Kundalini Yoga" by Sri Swami Sivananda

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ananda: (Sanskrit) "Bliss." The pure joy - ecstasy or enstasy - of God-consciousness or spiritual experience. In its highest sense, ananda is expressed in the famous Vedic description of God: sat-chit-ananda, "existenceconsciousness- bliss" - the divine or superconscious mind of all souls. See: God Realization, Satchidananda.

(See also: Ananda, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

chitta: (Sanskrit) "Mind; consciousness." Mind-stuff.

On the personal level, it is that in which mental impressions and experiences are recorded. Seat of the conscious, subconscious and superconscious states, and of the three-fold mental faculty, called antahkarana, consisting of buddhi, manas and ahamkara. See: awareness, consciousness, mind (individual), mind (universal), sakshin.

(See also: Chitta, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

ananda: (Sanskrit) "Bliss." The pure joy - ecstasy or enstasy - of God-consciousness or spiritual experience. In its highest sense, ananda is expressed in the famous Vedic description of God: sat-chit-ananda, "existenceconsciousness- bliss" - the divine or superconscious mind of all souls. See: God Realization, Satchidananda.

(See also: Ananda, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Parashakti: (Sanskrit) "Supreme power; primal energy."

God Siva's second perfection, which is impersonal, immanent, and with form - the all-pervasive, Pure Consciousness and Primal Substance of all that exists. There are many other descriptive names for Parashakti - Satchidananda ("existence-consciousness-bliss"), light, silence, divine mind, superconsciousness and more. Parashakti can be experienced by the diligent yogi or meditator as a merging in, or identification with, the underlying oneness flowing through all form. The experience is called savikalpa samadhi.

See: raja yoga, Shakti, Satchidananda, tattva.

(See also: Parashakti, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

inner (innermost): Located within. Of the depths of our being.

• inner advancement (or unfoldment): Progress of an individual at the soul level rather than in external life.
• inner bodies: The subtle bodies of man within the physical body.
• inner discovery: Learning from inside oneself, experiential revelation; one of the benefits of inner life.
• inner form (or nature) of the guru: The deeper levels of the guru's being that the disciple strives to attune himself to and emulate.
• inner law: The principles or mechanism underlying every action or experience, often hidden. Karma is one such law.
• inner life: The life we live inside ourselves, at the emotional, mental and spiritual levels, as distinguished from outer life.
• inner light: A moonlight-like glow that can be seen inside the head or throughout the body when the vrittis, mental fluctuations, have been sufficiently quieted. To be able to see and bask in the inner light is a milestone on the path.
• See: vritti.
• inner mind: The mind in its deeper, intuitive functions and capacities- the subsuperconscious and superconscious.
• innermost body: The soul body.
• inner planes: Inner worlds or regions of existence.
• inner self: The real, deep Self; the essence of the soul, rather than the outer self with which we usually identify.
• inner sky: The area of the mind which is clear inner space, free of mental images, feelings, identifications, etc. Tranquility itself. The superconscious mind, Satchidananda.

See: akasha. -

(See also: Inner, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Nirvikalpa Samadhi:

Nirvikalpa Samadhi: The superconscious state where there is no mind. Nirvikalpa is like water without waves or ripples.

 'Are we not at peace, when one thought ceases and another does not rise? You have to watch that moment, be one with that moment and get fixed in that, so that, there is ceaseless continuous peace; thoughts arise and die as ripples on water; you have to look at the water, rather than the ripples. Neglect the waves, watching the water'. 'The person who takes up the process of meditation lands into a state of Nirvikalpa some time or other though it is a very difficult state to attain. Even a Karmayogi or a Bhaktha touches this stage time and again in the most natural way, and knows fully what it is. Therefore, he can remember it and bring it back into experience, and feel the joy of continuous communion with God' (SSS-III)

(See also: Nirvikalpa Samadhi, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

jnana: (Sanskrit) "Knowledge; wisdom."

The matured state of the soul. It is the wisdom that comes as an aftermath of the kundalini breaking through the door of Brahman into the realization of Parasiva, Absolute Reality. The repeated samadhis of Parasiva ever deepen this flow of divine knowing which establishes the knower in an extraordinary point of reference, totally different from those who have not attained this enlightenment.

Jnana is the awakened, superconscious state (karana chitta) working within the ordinary experience of the world, flowing into daily life situations. It is the fruition of the progressive stages of charya, kriya and yoga in the Saiva Siddhanta system of spiritual unfoldment.

Jnana is sometimes misunderstood as book knowledge, as a maturity or awakening that comes from simply understanding a complex philosophical system or systems. Those who define jnana in this way deny that the path is a progression of charya-kriya-yoga-jnana or of karmabhakti- raja-jnana. Rather, they say that one can choose his path, and that each leads to the ultimate goal.

See: God Realization, door of Brahman, Self Realization, samadhi, jnana yoga.

(See also: Jnana, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

smriti: (Sanskrit) "That which is remembered; the tradition."

Hinduism's nonrevealed, secondary but deeply revered scriptures, derived from man's insight and experience. Smriti speaks of secular matters - science, law, history, agriculture, etc. - as well as spiritual lore, ranging from day-to-day rules and regulations to superconscious outpourings.

1)    The term smriti refers to a specific collection of ancient Sanskritic texts as follows: the six or more Vedangas, the four Upavedas, the two Itihasas, and the 18 main Puranas. Among the Vedangas, the Kalpa Vedanga defines codes of ritual in the Shrauta and Shulba Shastras, and domestic-civil laws in the Grihya and Dharma Shastras. Also included as classical smriti are the founding sutras of six ancient philosophies called shad darshana (Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta).

2)    In a general sense, smriti may refer to any text other than shruti (revealed scripture) that is revered as scripture within a particular sect. From the vast body of sacred literature, shastra, each sect and school claims its own preferred texts as secondary scripture, e.g., the Ramayana of Vaishnavism and Smartism, or the Tirumurai of Saiva Siddhanta. Thus, the selection of smriti varies widely from one sect and lineage to another.

See: Mahabharata, Ramayana, Tirumurai.

(See also: Smriti, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Satchidananda (Sachchidananda): (Sanskrit) "Existence-consciousness-bliss."

A synonym for Parashakti. Lord Siva's Divine Mind and simultaneously the pure superconscious mind of each individual soul. It is perfect love and omniscient, omnipotent consciousness, the fountainhead of all existence, yet containing and permeating all existence.

It is also called pure consciousness, pure form, substratum of existence, and more. One of the goals of the meditator or yogi is to experience the natural state of the mind, Satchidananda, holding back the vrittis through yogic practices.

In Advaita Vedanta, Satchidananda is considered a description of the Absolute (Brahman). Whereas in monistic, or shuddha, Saiva Siddhanta it is understood as divine form - pure, amorphous matter or energy - not as an equivalent of the Absolute, formless, "atattva," Parasiva. In this latter school, Parasiva is radically transcendent, and Satchidananda is known as the primal and most perfectly divine form to emerge from the formless Parasiva.

See: atattva, Parashakti, tattva.

(See also: Satchidananda, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

MIND

Mind very much resembles matter, both in its degrees of density and in its peculiarity of design. That's not surprising since the one derives from the other. We might also say that they are mirror images of one another. Just as matter varies in the size of its conglomerations, from the circumferences of giant stars and galaxies to the infinitely small subatomic world of its constituents, so mind ranges through the levels of experience infinitely above and below consciousness. There is no Not-Mind - not ever - except within the Ultimate Void itself.

Hypnosis sheds a faint light on certain levels of consciousness beneath the ordinary. By means of the intense concentration and focusing of attention that hypnosis evokes, we are able to accomplish feats of mind and body that otherwise only yogis know. Hypnosis works by forcing a thread of memory awareness deep into the mind labyrinth, which, however deeply it may penetrate the darkness, is always tied tightly to the ordinary consciousness at the top. Without that Ariadne's thread, the more deeply we were to concentrate on something, the more we would be lost to the world. The more attention we bring to bear on anything, the deeper into a simulacrum of sleep we proceed, as our surroundings and the outside world disappear into this darkness and outer sensations are walled off - presumably to prevent distraction. Since this state of concentration so much resembles sleep, in fact, the slightest lapse of the will sends us drifting towards unconsciousness. Ordinary sleep is a mirror-like repetition of the fragmentation of superconsciousness that we shall see results in abandonment of the self. However, as concentration proceeds ever more inward, the more the inner landscape is illuminated and narrowed. This "inner light" of laser-like consciousness is shared by the vegetable kingdom. (Its character can be recognized in psychedelic intoxication of various kinds). Finally, as we proceed into the unconscious itself we enter a quantum universe of our own. Here we find ourselves in the very "consciousness" of matter itself, with its links to everything in the universe. Presumably, death is but a deeper descent still, a proceeding into the actual heart of Mind, leading into the Void, which is the womb of all manifestations. Ordinary consciousness is obviously the link between higher and lower planes. It is a delicate balance between retreat into self-absorption and abandonment of the self to the sensory experience. It is maintained with great difficulty, for we have a tendency to drift out of it into one or the other of the two diametrically opposed realms of experience that it separates. These realms, of course, are infinitely more attractive than boring, old, routine mind. Within this narrow water-hole of ordinary consciousness, however, lie all the accomplishments and discoveries of human history. Indeed, it is this narrow and unreliable bridge that human society has learned to exploit as "civilization". Unfortunately, it has been examined but superficially and little has been done to stretch its dimensions or protect it from disintegration. Consequently we know almost nothing either of its limitations or its potential powers.

Heightened awareness is the opposed of focused attention or concentration. Attention becomes more and more generalized and cognizant of every petal on every flower in the garden, then every vein in every leaf. . . But now, as attention fans out, mind loses its coherency and begins to fragment. Under the influence of psychedelic drugs the attention is so fragmented that it merges altogether with the outer world and the inner self is abandoned to the chaos of the interface. The loss of the inner self, however, is usually accompanied by extreme panic as it attempts to jump from scintilla to scintilla.

For a time, the fragmentation of expanding mind can be kept under control by the use of amphetamines or cocaine in ever-increasing dosages. By means of these substances, alertness and intelligence are increased because attention is spread infinitely thin across a wider and wider spectrum of sensory experience coming in from the outer world. The "outer world" includes, of course, the consciousness of one's own body, as well as reflexive self-observation. At the same time, the inner self is being supplied with increased energy and speed too, so that it can maintain consciousness of itself and stave off chaos by racing back and forth around the ever-enlarging periphery of experience. As we are all very well aware, however, this path quickly comes to an end.

Fortunately, the heightening of externalized consciousness can be achieved without drugs, through mysticism. The sensory awareness can either be bypassed or used as the vehicle of its own transcendence. If the inner self is voluntarily released to heightened consciousness, which we sometimes refer to as leaving the ego behind in order to enter Nirvana, peace descends at once and chaos is transformed into the so-called "mystical experience." This process, once begun, can continue into such total absorption that the individual consciousness ceases to exist at any point and we could refer to that as a more or less permanent trance.

(See also: MIND, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

The psyche is a multidimensional aspect of consciousness, most commonly thought of as being composed of the subconscious and superconscious. Thus, to humans, the psyche is considered to be those portions of the self other than the ego. However, our traditional definition of the psyche is limited by our lack of experience in utilizing the psyche as an integral, involved segment of acknowledged experience. This lack of utilization prohibits comprehension of the full range of knowledge and ability native to the psyche.

Elizabeth Jo Bittof is the author of MINDWALK; DIALOGUE WITH THE PSYCHE and MINDSCAPE FACILITATOR. She specializes in counseling and training for development and utilization of the many varied abilities of consciousness. Since a near-death experience in 1983, Elizabeth has devoted her life to exploring the untapped potentials of consciousness biologically available to mankind.

Read more here: » Meaning of Dreams: Spirituality, the Psyche, and the Multi-Sensory Person

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