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It is an original discovery of Sri Ram Chandra
that there are rings, which bind the individual.
These rings seem to rise from about the Centre
of God, and move towards the farthest limit of
grossness in concentric spirals. The number of
rings is said to be seven, and colourless at the
beginning. They are said to be rings of
splendour, which are certainly beyond the region
of egoism, which arise later, after the
splendour fades away. Then arise eleven circles
of egoism, which are, as they move outward, more
and more gross. They are also luminous, but as
they move outward and away from the centre, they
get individualized more and more from other
similar movements from the Centre. The eighteen
spiral rings now move towards the enfoldment of
the outermost five circles or Rings. All these
are of Nature, and reveal the structure and the
process of organism-making. This description
of the individual's personality as comprising
the five gross circles, eleven subtle circles,
and finally the seven inmost circles around the
central nucleus, or Centre, is not indicated in
any earlier literature. Sri Ram Chandra holds
that the form taken, as for instance, the human
body, is due to the flattering and rounding of
the spiral rings, so to speak, into this pattern
of human form. By restoring them to their real
condition or form, the continuous and uniform
flow of energy is restored and the tensions of
the organism are removed or destroyed. In other
words, the rings are now in very bad shape,
thanks to all sorts of activity, which are
mutually restraining and effectively grossening
one's nature. If we could but restore the rings
to their real shape, or connect them with the
central spiral continuum, then the sense of
bondage can be lost; One is at peace.
Usually what is sought after is the complete
removal of these rings so that one is finally
freed from all process and movement. This may be
called extinguishment of personality, called
nirvana or emancipation. Sri Ram Chandra holds
that this final extinguishment of personality
does not take place except during the final
pralaya or withdrawal of all souls into the
Centre.
The individual pralaya proceeds only up to
the point of dropping the rings completely. One
continues to remain individuated and nearmost
the Centre or God, getting directions from it
for its own being or bliss or what ever that
condition may be, since it is indescribable. How
the souls which are free get their directions
from the Centre is transcendental to man's ways
of communication. It can be communicated only to
those who reach such a high condition of
crossing all the rings, and who are swimming in
the Centre, after going beyond the central
region. The picture of the individual thus can
be visualized as in the diagram given in the
book "Reality at Dawn" (p.25 first edition)
reproduced here on page 294.
The description of each one of the rings is
not given. Sri Ram Chandra says that most saints
consider themselves to have been emancipated if
they travel or cross over 1 1/2 Circles (the
state of liberation lies between the second and
third circle ibid., p.24). These five circles
are the circles of Maya. Thus it is clear that
most persons are even outside the circles of
maya, and the travel in abhyasa takes its rise
from the outermost of mayaic circles, and as one
travels backwards and upwards one feels the
sense of liberation increasing, so much so when
one passes the second circle one feels almost
liberated and beings to proclaim his liberated
state. But this liberation itself is Maya for
one senses power (another meaning of Maya), and
liberation is a sense of power over lower forms
of existence. But this is illusory power because
it is not the ultimate goal, and one must
discard power in order to be really free. The
rings, thus, are finally to be crossed, and one
should attain the state of Nothingness in order
to be called truly a realized soul.
The categories of the several schools or
darsanas do not fall into this kind of
description. These twenty three circles or rings
cannot be equated with the 23 tattvas of the
Samkhya or Yoga schools. They seem to be the
results of a New Vision.
The Rings themselves cannot even be
considered to be like the concentric circles
developing out from the Centre owing to the
initial latent motion, or vibration called
Thought or Manas, through this may be somewhat
nearer the truth. Ksobh, or Vibration of Thought
or First Mind, does in fact take this route
towards the grossest manifestation of the more
distant circles. The more distant from the
Centre, the more gross is the element, and the
nearer to the Centre, the more subtle. The
vibrations are sensed more easily by the subtle
than by the gross. Thus, as one advances towards
the Centre, one becomes more and more sensitive
to the Centre's existence. The gross manas
becomes more and more subtle, and the manas
becomes more and more subtle, and the manas
becomes clearly the most important intermediate
category, ranging from the most gross to the
most superfine subtleness. Manas, therefore, is
an indispensable category which is used to clear
up the path towards the Centre.
Sri Ram Chandra, in meditation, takes up the
Manas in the Heart and links it up with the
Manas-lake or cit-lake, which has a subtler
consciousness. This, in turn, is linked up with
the higher centres or the Highest centre. This
leads to the condition of Thoughtlessness, or
the Void, but the experienced Voids of the lower
centres are different from the Ultimate
Nothingness.
When one crosses all these rings one is
beyond all bonds and chains of evolution and
involution.
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