On Enquiring about the condition after meditation, people often say they do not experience anything. Now, the first thing in this regard is that not experiencing some time and even not having any experience at all also remains an experience, after all. If I assert that this state of having no experience is supreme condition of spirituality, people shall certainly demand an explanation, provided that they be really deserving candidates in the sphere of this discipline.

We may take a concrete example. You come out of your home, and a thorn pricks your foot, or suppose an accident occurs, in which you suffer serious injury. In that situation, you will have much to tell about your experience. There will be lots of experience worth narration, even during extraction of the thorn or healing of the injury; but after extraction of the thorn and healing of the injury, you will only say that now you experience just nothing. On persistent enquiry, you will say at the most that there remains no trouble now. This will also be possible for you to say only in case the remembrance of the earlier condition of trouble may still remain.

This example refers to physical (bodily) trouble and relief (comfort); but human existence extends, who knows, how far beyond the body, viz., in fine and finer forms. In comparison to the state of relief/comfort, experience is more acute and manifest during the state of trouble as compared to relief/comfort; and experience, worth narration, is there also during release from trouble. But the experience which is born out of release from relief/comfort continually grows on crossing the limits of narration. Clarification of this point has started just here, in so far as the word 'relief/comfort' is used to indicate release from trouble, but when we need to speak of release (liberation) from relief (comfort), we have to use again the same word 'relief/comfort' only. This means that relief arising out of release (liberation) from trouble (calamity) also happens to be some sort of trouble (calamity) only, release from which also creates a finer or subtler type of relief (comfort) and this chain (process) continues on and on for which we have to speak of relief (release) from relief, and then release from that also etc. When stepping beyond physical (bodily) trouble and relief (comfort) of heart, mind and soul etc., there is bound to be difficulty in experiencing and narrating the experience.

If we pay attention to further account (narration) concerning experience of the pain of thorn-prick, there are many categories (states), wherein pain is not experienced from thorn prick, or there remains no possibility of telling anything about it. Thorns prick the feet of many animals other than man, but in certain cases there is no experience of that at all and in some other cases there is no experience of the experience. Similar happens to be the cases of the newly born human child. On growing up also the particular part of body can be got anaesthetised by using some drug or otherwise in the case of a grown up human being as well; and experience and narration of pain gets blocked also in the event of vivisection or non-functioning of the relevant part of the brain. Thus, many illustrations of this sort are there lying below the level of normal human experience.

Then there are other examples which may be spoken of as states of higher category. Love or attachment of heart, whether mundane or Divine, in proportion to its intensity reduces the experience (sensitivity) and expression of physical penury: and still beyond and above a certain limit, attachment of heart and mind obstructs the most profound physical experience altogether. An anecdote about a prominent scientist is well known, that he was so absorbed in his work that his dog ate his lunch and when in the evening his servant on enquiry told him that he had eaten his lunch and empty plates were taken away for washing by the servant, he(the scientist) was satisfied just that in a state of self-oblivion he had forgotten having eaten his lunch. Whether some body treats it as a state of high level or low level, this story is certainly true at the level of human experience.

So then, you can form an estimate of that superb spiritual state, whereas there remains no experience or its remembrance: and possibly even you may have experienced it yourself some time, and in order to remember it as a high level experience, you may have made a note of it or else felt worried, considering this state of self forgetfulness as a harmful disease of heart and mind. In fact, people assess good, bad, right, wrong generally on the basis of personal benefit (or loss).

It may be asked as to what constitutes the standard of personal benefits finally after all! A hungry person considers food as personal benefit: but the scientist forgets his hunger in his fondness for his work. It may be remarked here that intellectual benefit has precedence over physical benefit. There is yet another anecdote about this very scientist that his dog upturned the lamp on his table, and the labour of his about 20 last years of life got reduced to ashes in no time. It is stated that the scientist just patted the dog and said only 'you do not know what great harm you have dealt to me'. It is also stated that Lord Christ, in this very strain, prayed for his killers: 'O God, pardon them for they do not know what great sin they have committed'. Here even intellectual and emotional benefit also weighed lighter as compared to spiritual benefit. We can proceed on and on like this to realise that on emergence of higher form of experience, the experience of lower category loses its weight (value) and one who lacks acquaintance with (comprehension of) higher and finer form of experience has only to say that he had no experience.

The last point in this context is that there is a whole world of difference between the condition of having no experience at the initial and the top most stages of our way of puja (worship or spiritual practice). Initially the egoism, identified (harmonized) with physical (bodily) and materialistic desire, stands incapable of recognizing the experiences of superior most stage; and the speed of self-forgetting, on stepping forward on higher stages, starts obliterating the possibility of the value (importance) and admissibility of the experience of (sensitivity to) pain and comfort (happiness or otherwise) of the lower and cruder existence. In the superior most state of perfect balance, whereas our narration and comprehension having become suspended, there does happen plenty of experience so much so that no desire for anything in exchange for it remains. However, experience and its description become meaningless there, which state has been fixed under the term 'Indescribable' (Anirvachaniya) in the Upanishads, expressed by Lord Buddha through silence and Sufism and Kabir have felt contented to speak of, as 'It is just what it is'. The simplicity (naturalness) of our way of training (and practice) has by itself become a veil due to which high stages of spiritual progress (refinement) have suffered loss of appreciation. People in the initial stage of having nothing go around speaking in denigrating terms about high spiritual stages, as if considering themselves established stout in the highest state of NOTHINGNESS'.

In short, just say: every honest genuine practicant is bound to comprehend and experience spiritual advancement in the right way. In the beginning, mostly there may be emphasis on the importance of physical and material experience. However, comprehension concerning health and peace of heart and mind should develop gradually. Miracle, jugglery, black magic, machination, fraud etc., producing effect through such means, is entirely against spirituality and Brahma Vidya (Divinity); and anyone after these can never be a deserving vessel for this superb science. Certainly there remains so much beyond and above the reach and grasp of heart and mind (intellect), but proper comprehension and experience of that too is possible only through the heart and mind, which is oriented to soul and God. Just due to this, then, there is special emphasis on cleaning and training of heart and mind in this science. The finest Divine gift, which is patrimony of the entire progeny of mankind, stands reserved just for the human being, residing in the state of moderation in all respects. However, proper form of orientation and effort for that is difficult to be ones fortune. It is rightly stated: 'To be Real Man is hardly available even to human beings!'

That is no point for dejection; anyway, but Divine help happens to fall to the lot of human being of right sort of courage alone. As such, adopt the purpose of life and path of its realisation; and move on and on until the purpose be fulfilled, holding on to the promise that whoever moves one step towards it, the goal advances ten steps towards that one. The experience of all this is a matter of fact, but only for the one, who may have faith in that Divine assurance, and keeping stead fast to it may continue marching on. Amen!