DESCRIPTION OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE

Spiritual state is eternal. It is newer. processes of experience, consciousness, and realisation of Ātman as an integral aspect of Brahmān, Cosmic Self or Absolute Reality revealing through a newer sense of values in the infinity of the infinity dimension. Sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda provides a clear explanation of the spiritual nature of experiences. According to him, a spiritual state of experience is not a sudden emergence of an existing experience that gives way to an entirely new type of consciousness, but rather a newer interpretation and a newer reading of meaning in the existing experiences. It is often asserted that truth does not originate. Truth is not a future event that is yet to take place but an eternity revealing itself with a new sense of value. Reality is the Cosmic Self in the eternity of the infinity of the infinite dimension. It is not a futuristic event or experience that takes place on a future date; rather, it is an in-depth expression of the horizontal expansion of consciousness to realise the revealed values of eternity. We cannot measure spirituality arithmetically by addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, nor is it a process in time calculation. The sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda lucidly explains that the state of spirituality is neither a process in time nor a history of events that occur empirically. It is something quite different from what we are acquainted with in our ordinary life—quite different in kind, not merely in quantity, extent, or magnitude, which is a crucial aspect of it to remember. It is quite different in kind, like waking consciousness differs from sleep or even dream consciousness, to give an example. Dream consciousness differs from waking consciousness in its understanding, values, complexity, and size. The foremost concern for humanity is to achieve an understanding of Reality, particularly that Existence is Absolute, imperishable, and infinite. Brahmān is the fundamental essence of all existence. and non-existence; it represents the cohesive, indivisible domain of consciousness.

 1. Outline

Spiritual state is nothing new. It exists as long as the universe exists; so do the spiritual forces, energies, and principles. Likewise, God is not created in our minds. The Eternal is not born at some point as an event in the historical process of time, says sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda. Basically, he said that a weak mind can't understand this principle. And spiritual practice, or Sadhana, is nothing more than making the weak mind open to these eternal principles, which we usually call God's laws. How do we know that we have a spiritual experience through the practice of years of meditation? We have a peculiar way of relating Eternity to a relative, on account of which we miss the recognition of the experience even when it comes. The Eternal is not beyond the world but is in the world; therefore, the experience of the Eternal or the spiritual does not come from a realm beyond the world but comes through the world and, perhaps, as the world, emphasises the sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda. Most often, the experience comes to us as the world itself, and not merely through the world, far from being beyond the world. The experiences through which we pass in our daily lives are the experiences of the Eternal. They are not something different from what we are seeking. The pleasures and pains through which we pass are eternally impinging upon our personalities. When our minds discover their meaning, they transform into spiritual experiences. We refer to them as empirical experiences when we fail to discover their meaning. The very same experience is called spiritual and is also called relative, empirical, mortal, and earthly on account of having two points of view upon which our minds operate at different times. This is something that needs careful training of the mind to think. We need to reorient our current, accustomed way of thinking.

2. Scriptures

2.1. Sage Vasistha, (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.1-6.126-102), in his discourses with Sri Rama, explains in detail the practices of the seven stages of yoga and the characteristics of yogis in each of the stages of yoga. Before going into specifics, Sage Vasistha divided people into two groups: the zealous were hoping to reach heavenly reward, and the resigned were inclined to supreme felicity, thus remaining content with their lives (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.1-6.126.12). We say such a man stands on the first step of yoga.prefers the quietude of nirvana as everything to their purpose. Supreme Bliss, expounds Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.1-6.126.12). He reflects on the nothingness of the world and the uselessness of his situation there. Such a person does not allow himself to be carried on by the current of his old and rotatory course of duties here day after day. He has an unfeelingness in his heart, of the very many thoughts that daily rise in his mind, and manages his gravest and greatest concerns without being much concerned about them in his mind; each man is said to taste the delight of his staidness day by day. When a man comes to reconnoitre in himself, becomes dispassionate, and gets over the boisterous ocean of the world, such a man is said to have come to his good and right sense and to stand on the way to his tolerance. Such a person engages in agreeable tasks and unpainful acts, fears sin, and disdains all pleasures and bodily enjoyments. His discourses are full of love and tenderness and appropriate without any harshness and whose speeches are suitable to the time and place in which they are delivered. And he who reflects in himself after being released from the burden of his business, on the delight of his rest after labour; he is the man who is said to repose in his quiescence. On the other hand, according to Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.1-6.126.12), the others are zealous and addicted to worldly pleasures. Such a man of the world bears his responsibility, resembling a tortoise, which, though it has its neck well hid in its shell, still stretches it out to drink the salt water of the sea it inhabits; until after many births, he gets a better life for his salvation. (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.3). Those that are addicted to enjoyments and give preference to worldliness, and he that acts his part on this sense, is styled an active and energetic man. Such a man lets the current of his old and rotatory course carry him on with duties here day after day. 

Stages of Yoga 

First stage: 1. Dispassion, detachment, quiescence, solitude, disdain for pleasures, and bodily enjoyments. (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.1-6.126.11). 2. Association with holy men (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.38) through the collection of virtuous acts leads one to the initial stage of yoga. 3.  Man makes it his duty to attend the society of the good and great, whom he learns to imitate in his thoughts, words, and actions (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.12). 4. He collects the work on divine learning from everywhere and reads with attention and diligence; he then considers their contexts and lays hold on the tenets, which serve to save him from this sinful world (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.13). 

Second stage: Vichara, or outer discrimination by casting (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.15–6.126.18), purification of mind from his outer habit of pride and vanity, his jealousy and avarice, and the other passions that formed, as it were, an outer garment of his person, as a snake casts off his slough from him. He practices moral discipline and actively seeks the truth. He then hears from the mouths of the best pandits the explanations of the srutis and smritis, the rules of good conduct, and the manner of meditation and conduct of yoga practice. He learns the divisions of categories and distinctions of things, together with the difference between actions that are to be done or avoided.

Third stage: Inward discrimination, Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.37, through the power of reasoning and virtuous acts, is the hallmark of this stage. Through these actions, all desires and arrogations in the mind of the yogi are controlled and subjugated. He finds unsociality or avoidance of all company as agreeable as a bed of flowers. (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.19). Here he learns to fix his mind on its steadiness, according to the dictates of the sastras, and passes his time in talking on spiritual subjects in the company of hermits and devotees. In the third stage, the practitioner learns two kinds of his unconnectedness with the world. one of which is his ordinary disassociation with all persons and things, and the other is his Absolute Unconnection with everything, including himself (Yoga-Vasistha 6.126.24-6.126.25). The ordinary unconnection is the sense of one's being neither the subject nor object of his action, nor of his being the slayer of or slain by anybody, but that all accidents are incidental to his prior acts and all dependent on the dispensations of Providence. The Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.26–6.126.29) says that ordinary unconnection is the feeling that one is neither the subject nor the object of one's action, nor is oneself the killer of or killed by anyone else. Instead, all accidents are caused by actions one has done in past lives and depend on Providence's will. Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.33) says that whoever sits quietly, silently, and tranquilly in himself, such a one is said to be absolutely unconnected with everything in the world. It is the conviction that I have no control over my happiness, misery, pain, or pleasure, and that all prosperity, adversity, employment, privation, health, and disease come to me of their own volition. All unity is for its disunion, asserts Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.28), and all gain is for its loss; so health and disease and pain and pleasure come by turns, and there is nothing that is not succeeded by its reverse. Time, with its open jaws, is always ready to devour all things. We have the negative idea of not existing because we don't trust that things are real. This is exactly what the phrase "our ordinary unconnection with all things" means. As it is by association with holy men, Yoga-Vasistha, 6.126.38-6.126.39) pronounces, and by means of the assemblage of virtuous acts, that one arrives on a sudden to the first stage of yoga. So is this first step to be preserved with care and grown up like a tender sprout, with the watering of reasoning at its root? A truly venerable man is one who follows the rules of sastras and common sense, as explained in Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.55), acts with responsibility and in line with his position, and handles all of his business in the world in this way. The venerableness of yogis germinates in the first stage, it blossoms in the second, and becomes fruitful in the third stage of yoga, declares Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.56). The venerable yogi dying in a state of yoga comes first to enjoy the fruition of his noble desires for a long time in his next birth and then becomes a yogi again for the completion of his yoga, says Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.57). According to Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.32), the various stages of yoga focus on becoming aware of the supreme author of creation, sitting beyond the ocean of the universe and watching over its concerns, and impressing us with the belief that God does everything in the world and that I do nothing. Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.35-6.126.36) continues to proclaim that God is the Absolute Existence, or the Cosmic Self. Who lives neither in the sky nor in any side or part of the all-surrounding air and space; who is neither in anything nor in nothing, and neither in gross matter nor in the sensible spirit. Who is present and manifest in everything, without being expressed in any, and who pervades all things like the clear firmament, who is without beginning and end and birth and death. Whosoever seeks this Lord of all is said to be set in the best part of this stage. Contentment, according to Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.36), is a sweet fragrance in the mind, and virtuous acts are as handsome as the leaves of a flower; the heart string is as a stalk beset by the thorns of cares and anxieties and thralls with the gusts of dangers and difficulties. 

Fourth stage: He who devotes his mind to yoga, asserts Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.59) with his undivided attention from first to last and sees all things in one even and same light, is said to have arrived at the fourth stage of yoga. At this stage, the yogi perceives everything in a unified manner. The practice of the parts, according to Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.58), enjoyed in the first three stages of yoga, serves to destroy at first the ignorance of the yogi and then sheds the light of true knowledge in his mind, as brightly as the beams of the full moon illuminate the sky at night. As Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.60) says, the mistake of duality goes away and the knowledge of unity shines brightest. A yogi is said to have reached the fourth stage of yoga when he sees the world as a vision in his dream. According to Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.61), the first three stages show the yogi in his waking state. The fourth stage, on the other hand, is said to be his dreaming state, when he can no longer see anything, like how the clouds slowly disappear in the fall and the scenes in a dream fade away into nothingness. 

Fifth Stage: At this stage (Yoga-Vasistha 6.126.62-6.126.64), minds lay dormant and insensible to bodily sensations. This is a state of sound sleep, when the yogi loses all his external perceptions and sits quietly with his internal vision within himself. This is called the sleeping state or hypnotism of yoga meditation. In this state, the yogi's mind is completely free of feelings and the endless variety of things and their different species. The yogi only knows that there is one thing, and any sense of duality has been completely melted away by the happiness of his awake mind. 

Sixth Stage: This step gradually leads to the sixth stage, Yoga-Vasistha 6.126.66–6.126.69, which is a state where you can't tell the difference between things that exist and things that don't exist, or between being egoistic and not being egoistic. The yogi remains unmindful of everything and quite unconscious of the unity or duality, and by being freed from every scruple and suspicion in his mind, he arrives at the dignity of living liberation. The yogi of this sort, though yet inextinct or living, is said to be extinct or dead to his sensibility; he sits as a pictured lamp that emits no flame and remains with a vacant heart and mind like an empty cloud hanging in the empty air. He is full within and without him, with and amidst the fulness of divine ecstasy, like a full pot in a sea; and possessed of some higher power, yet he appears as worthless on the outside. 

Seventh Stage After passing his sixth grade, the yogi is led to the seventh stage, which is styled a state of disembodied liberation because of its purely spiritual nature. According to Yoga-Vasistha (6.126.70–6.126.74), it is a state of peace that can't be described in words and goes beyond the limits of this world. Some people say it looks like the state of Siva, while others say it looks like the state of Brahma. By some it is said to be the state of the Androgyne deity, or the indiscriminate of the male and female powers; while others have given many other denominations to it, according to their respective fancies. The seventh is the state of the eternal and incomprehensible God, which no words can express or explain in any way.

2.2. All this is Brahmān, the Chandogya Upanishad (3.14.1-3.14.4) unequivocally declares. The Chandogya Upanishad (3.14.1-3.14.4) asserts that everything originates from Brahmān, returns to Brahmān, and sustains everything. One should therefore quietly meditate on Brahmān. Each person has a mind of his own. What a person wills in his present life, he becomes when he leaves this world. One should bear this in mind and meditate accordingly. The mind rules him. He has a subtle body, and he is luminous. If he wants something, he never fails to get it. His self is spotless like the sky. The whole world is his creation. All those desires are his desires. All odours are his; similarly, all tastes are his. He is everywhere in the world. He has no sense organs, and he is free from desires. My self within my heart is smaller than a grain of rice, smaller than a grain of barley, smaller than a mustard seed, smaller than a grain of millet, and smaller even than the kernel of a grain of millet. The Self in my heart is larger than the earth, larger than the mid-region, larger than heaven, and larger even than all these worlds. Self is everything and everywhere. It is therefore smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest.  He who is the sole creator, whose desires are the desires of all, whose odours are the odours of all, whose tastes are the tastes of all, who is everywhere, who has no sense organs, and who is free from desires—he is my Self and is in my heart. He is none other than Brahman. When I leave this body, I shall attain him. He who firmly believes this has no doubt in his mind. He will surely attain Brahmān.

2.3. Brahma Jnanavali Mala of Adi Shankaracharya unequivocally states Brahmān is the ultimate reality; the world is illusory, and the individual soul is identical to Brahmān, as elucidated in the sacred texts of Vedanta (Brahma Jnanavali Mala, 20; Adi Shankaracharya). Brahma Satyam: Brahmān is the ultimate reality. Jagan Mithya: It is unfeasible to classify the realm of appearances as either real or unreal. The Jiva (individual self) and Brahmān (Cosmic Self) are indistinguishable. Advaita Vedānta asserts that the world is an illusion, or māyā, and that redemption necessitates renunciation of it in favour of the pursuit of truth. Existence is a singular, indestructible, eternal, and absolute being.

2.4. The Srimad Bhagavad Gita (13.8-12), advocates one should elevate oneself through his mind by imbibing the characteristics of humbleness; freedom from hypocrisy; non-violence; forgiveness; simplicity; service of the Guru; cleanliness of body and mind; steadfastness; and self-control; dispassion toward the objects of the senses; absence of egotism; keeping in mind the evils of birth, disease, old age, and death; non-attachment; absence of clinging to spouse, children, home, and so on; even-mindedness amidst desired and undesired events in life; constant and exclusive devotion toward Me; an inclination for solitary places and an aversion for mundane society; constancy in spiritual knowledge; and philosophical pursuit of the Absolute Truth—all these I declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to it, I call ignorance.

3. Remarks

Spiritual state is one in a unified whole. This state is a cohesive entity. Self-revelation facilitates awareness of the eternal nature of the spiritual. The eternal is not external to phenomena; an eternal that exists beyond something is not truly eternal. It no longer remains eternal. The Eternal is synonymous with the Universal. The Universal is, consequently, not exclusive of what we may refer to as the phenomenal or the relative, asserts sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda. One cannot have spiritual experiences or pursue success in yoga or spirituality through biased thinking or a fabricated set of ideals that one has intentionally imposed for personal convenience. Divine laws are unbiased. They possess neither allies nor adversaries. Without adherence to the law of the Eternal, we will remain oblivious to its existence. If we reject adherence to its laws while maintaining our own perspectives, believing that ours is the sole correct viewpoint, then may divine providence be upon us.

-Asutosh Satpathy