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APPENDIX
TRANSMISSION-IYogic knowledge is unmediated knowledge. It is non-sensory and non-mental too. It does not proceed by means of images or imagination of forms, either concrete or abstract, nor does it look out for these presentations. It is an aesthetic-cognitive condition of feeling certain about what is presented to the pure spirit; the pure spirit being one that has discarded its ego-activity or ego-consciousness, or knowledge for self or ‘I’.
The attainment of this condition of knowledge is what is attempted by all the methods of training known as hatha-yoga (physical control), through breath-control or the stirring up of the inner nerves known as the right-breath (pingala or solar) and the left-breath (ida or lunar) so as to arrive at the vibrations which are central or spinal; or the usually well-known steps of the astangayoga-such as yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, dharana, and dhyana preceded by pratyahara, and finally samadhi. These may be of good help, but only according to the conception that if we control the physical, the mental will automatically get controlled. These yogas more often produce simulacrums or pseudo-conditions rather than the real conditions. One test of this matter is that theses become, or tend to become, ends in themselves, i.e. mechanical. They do not lead towards knowledge of the Ultimate or liberation that arise from such a knowledge or being.
The real yoga should be started from the other end by inducing the original movement or vibration that had set in motion these organic creations, and whose impetus has not died out. This is the central force that has to be brought into activity, and it is here that, in yoga, one needs the person who can start it, or give it an impulse from the central point of oneself. This central force or original vibrations that has enlarged itself from extreme subtlety to the grossest manifestation, is present in the grossest formations. There is one continuous flow of that vibration through out all the organic existence of oneself. The person who can stimulate or make manifest that vibration, or set it into motion again, is the knower of the secret of existence and reality.
The Yoga of inner stimulation or ignition, or ujjivana (upward living), is therefore effected by the connection, which the Yogin makes with this ultimate or primal vibration (spandana) or Kshobha. Self-ignition is rather difficult and, in a sense, impossible. It can be done only by that primal being or Reality itself, or by one who has been charged with this duty of igniting others-the Guru. Such a Guru is indeed Godhead-luminous and all knowing about the ways of the initial and final vibrations, and the paths of inner ascent.
Thus, Yoga starts with the transmission of the central force into the being or heart of the individual seeker. The original dhyana cannot begin unless this transmission is the force behind it; other kinds of dhyana are effortful mentations, despite the fact of their being conscious attempts to focus oneself on the goal, which is not defined. The transmission by the Guru into the heart of the seeker makes the seeker become aware of the true goal of reality, which begins to uncover itself. In Zen and other schools, the conscious awareness, either of discarding all ideation's or of aiming at Zero or nihil or pure ideationlessness, leads to strains on the system, and liberation becomes impossible. Even in the so-called Fourth Way of Gurdjieff-Ouspensky, the consciousness is sought to be intensified and uplifted to the highest center, and freed from the exclusiveness of the lower or other three ways. The attempt to lift consciousness to a higher, or even the highest, level beyond the there lower levels is undoubtedly necessary; the only question is whether that consciousness is not different from our own ordinary consciousness.
The highest consciousness which perhaps is about as unconscious as the sleep condition is such because it is unmediated consciousness, and is experienced as vibrations which might internally stimulate experience of sounds, lights, feelings, or sensations. In all these experiences, however, the inner certainty is that it is something not imagined by oneself, or consciously sought after, or in some sense constantly mediated upon; so that they do not become hallucinatory projections from oneself for one’s own satisfaction.
Usually, dreams are considered to be wish fulfillment. They may be due to other reasons as well. Modern psycho-analysts consider that certain kinds of wishes which could not gain fulfillment in our life, either public or private, and as such are repressed by oneself, either out of fear of criticism or any other fear, find expression either directly or symbolically in dreams. They have explained all the indigenously, and in any case these are usually subjective and refer to oneself. But dreams also have a symbolic techniques which is claimed to be universal, and they ore capable of being interpreted In fact even prognostications are made both in psycho-therapy and psychology. Certain drugs produce dreams which are about common to all those who take them.
But the Yogic Consciousness is not like dream consciousness, through in ordinary life it is just possible that since every abhyasi is also capable of having dreams, or rather, dreams being also states of consciousness, they are the operations of the higher consciousness already introduced or transmitted to him. They through out the inner psychic contents and, in doing so, do not create psychos but abolish them. Further they are, in one sense, the intimations of the highest consciousness. In other respects it may very much look like the other symbolic imagination or projection from within one’s own depths.
The transmission of the highest consciousness is experienced by the abhyasi when he sits before his Guru who ignites his inner being or his central being connected with his heart. The heart-the physical heart-is important at the first stage because our closest thoughts are surely tinged with the affective factors, which have linked themselves with all thought. Man is a creature of emotional thought and instinctive thought, and the center of the physical existence is the heart. The transmission of the spiritual force by the Guru to the heart may be expected to bring about a lot of change. The usual anticipation of most abhyasis expect immediately some changes like the abolition of the mental modifications-or the passing of thoughts which prevent concentration on the Guru or his transmission. But, what is experienced actually is not any such radical or spectacular phenomenon, but a setting up of anew kind of vibration which makes one feel ‘the quiet’ amid the chasing thought, ‘the quiet’ amid the noise of the surroundings, a withdrawal of the senses of hearing from the outer world and also a slow giving up of desire for anything other than the ‘quiet’ itself. The experience of the ‘silence mind’ even when the objective mind is not completely stilled, is almost the first experience of the abhyasi. Normally this attainment takes quite a long time if it is striven after in the usual way by trying to control the pose, the breath, the checking of incoming thoughts and throwing out of the thoughts already within us etc.
Psychological experience of this silence is at first only subjective. In some cases psychologists would say that it is a kind of negative adaptation to the environment as happens in the case of school boys who have to speak, when the neighbourhood is full of all kinds of noise ranging from the tin-workshop and blacksmith to the modern entertainment's of radio songs, ribaldry, and the sound of the boots of cars and lorries. One may thus be said to feel the silence of a place in dhyana also. But this is not really the experience of the silent-mind.
The experience of stillness as all pervading, and accompanying us all through our works, is a different thing from negative adaptation. It is this that is experienced during transmission by the Guru when one has sought his help on life’s journey. Out of this experience of the silent mind develops the experience of omnipervasive presence-a presence that is very different from the constant fear that haunts most people not just the criminals and sinners.
Stillness, omnipervasiveness, and a spiritual dynamism awakening the individual to aspire for the highest experience, and therefore a sense of movement towards the highest and Ultimate, are almost the first fruits of the first transmission. The experience of the abhyasi is of course subjective. It is however common to all those who experience the transmission. The flow of some force or current all through the body is actually felt. It is subtle at the beginning. It appears also as if it is cleansing the whole system. Ancients called this process a kind of nadi-suddhi-a purification of the entire psychonic (nadi) system, which is subtler than the nervous system. In one sense the psychonic system cleans and clears both the nervous and the circulatory systems, as these two are all pervading in the organism.
But though the first aim of transmission is actually to connect the individual’s heart with the supreme trans-cosmic force or Spirit that is the goal of the individual, yet it achieves the cleansing process of the entire organism. This is seen by the transmitter who removes the dirt and disease of the system appearing in the organism, and thus makes the individual sensitive to the transmission, a feel of the glow (called light) and lightness of the entire system interpreted in the usual Yoga as anima. The lightness, the glow, and the feeling of subtle vibrations all through the system are the triple experiences as the abhyasa or practice of transmission advances.
Of this transmission hardly any other system of Yoga is aware. Nor are they aware of its powers. Usually it claimed that it is personal devotion that produces this condition. It is an emotion that produces this condition. It is an emotional hallucination. Some who have not known this transmission seek to affirm that it is a product of the repetition of the primal sound, OM which makes one feel it all over. This condition is called anahata, the attainment of the indestructible sound. But all these explanations are not correct. Inner agitation does not mean transmission. Emotion cannot set up transmission. Transmission is that process by which one is connected from above with that below, or by which the inward psychic being is awakened by the overhead, cosmic or supercosmic or primal Being. This is an initiation-literally it means the beginning of the evolution of man into a cosmic being. It is the beginning of passing from the individuated or personal, limited, circumscribed, physical being to the world of cosmic functions. One becomes energised as a member of that cosmic world. In a deeper sense it is not that also; but one becomes one which Ultimate Reality, or begins to be linked up with that Ultimate Reality.
The result of the transmission is, as it were, the beginning of the experience of the Ultimate Reality, and this experience, at our human level, is experienced as vibration or movement. Some say it is of the nature of nada (sound-occult and internal) It also facilitates the several modifications within the organic system. We are able to sit in a steady posture for a considerable time in absorption in the transmission. The transmission itself puts one in a state of absorption (dhyana). Though there is no effort to achieve the control of mental movements outside oneself, such control is something that results from this transmission. Concentration seems to be natural and not something enforced by will. The individual will itself begins to disappear, but it manifests itself as aspiration, which is the sublimation of the will.
Thus, in Sri Ram Chandra’s Rajayoga, the mental modifications, controls and concentration become resultants of the transmission of the superconsciousness from Above.
TRANSMISSION-IIThe method of initiation into the spiritual life has been stated in Sri Ramchandra’s Rajayoga to be transmission of the spiritual energy in order to (1) give impetus to the seeking aspiration of the abhyasi and (2) to bring about a change in the very nature of the mind and its modifications. The ordinary concept of mind-control almost tries to put an end to the modifications, and this is done by damming its movements by will-force, or by abolishing it by force of the will, so as to arrive at a blank mental state. Both these are difficult because both would entail the abolition of the mind itself, which lives only by its modifications. An alternative suggestion has been proposed, to substitute good or desirable thoughts in the place of the evil thoughts, or cultivate assiduously the contrary-point of view (prati-paksa bhavanam). Even this is shown only to create a tension of the mind; a mind divided against itself, and there takes place an artificial dialectic.
More useful, perhaps, is the method by which one gels beyond the mind itself to a condition where the dialectic will not create a continuous tension. in Our modern terminology, the yoga of mind-control cittavrtti-nirodha, is a cold-war condition, a tension of the opposites waiting for the tilting on one side or the other. But if awareness is to be defined only as the awareness of tension, then this is a condition, which has to be transcended. One aims at inner peace, and these methods do not help us at all. But nirodha after all may not mean checking the mental modifications but reversing the process instead of going outwards, it is helped to go inward and transcended its own duality and dialectic. This cannot be done by ones own efforts except under great crises or shocks. It can be done with the help of the transmission that reverses the movements of the mind. The force or current of superconsciousness introduced into the heart, which is the seat of citta, reverses the trend of movement of the citta towards the objects and imaginations of the universe around. In fact the citta or particularised manas moves in the orbit of objects and sensory data, and the emotional needs of the body and physiological needs too. Thus there is hardly any moment when the mind, as citta, is not in modification, taking the shape of the objects and things it desires. The transmission of the Guru at the heart reverses this outward movement and we find that, automatically, these modifications become more and more infrequent Instead of a sense agitation and activity there results calmness and non-activity, and even contemplation or role of passive witness ceases after a while. Peace is the result. Mental modifications get removed and mind becomes still because, it has being reversed or taken back to its original Condition from which it took rise.
Transmission is felt as a series of vibrations--one's rhythm gets modified. One seems to be tuned, to something higher and more composing and harmonious. A new set of vibrations seem to be set up in body which makes one feel happy, blissful and peaceful.
The ancients seem to have known this. But, as in many other similar matters, the change from one rhythm (chandas) to another sort of rhythm (chandas) has been forgotten. It is however mentioned in the Vedas. Transmission from different levels of the Guru are done in order .to change the level of the abhyasis consciousness: they are also done in respect of different points (chakras) so as to bring about harmonious and natural ascent to higher levels. Thus one finds a new rhythm oneself after transmission, even from the very first day of admission into the samstha (organisation of the Mission).
This is to show that even thought is in the form of vibrations, and can be shown to be of this nature. Consciousness, too, is in the form of subtle vibrations. This is an ancient discovery of the tantrik and Vedic seers. This can be fully seen in the works on Spanda (Spandakarika). This is also seen in the Ahirbudhnya samhita. It is true that this fact is of capital importance in the Modification of the citta, in fact, of any category, since according to the Sri Ramchandra’s Rajayoga the whole creation has proceeded out of' the first Impulse (Ksobha) which is considered to be of the nature of the First Mind or thought. This theory of course has to be accepted as a hypothesis, or rather as working system.!
1. The yoga system as such holds that prakrti or nature is that which evolves from its subtlest undifferentiated condition to its grossest Physical and sensory condition. Nature is said to be an independent entity and distinguished from Purusa or consciousness-entity or soul. Further according to it, Nature comprises the three gunas (qualities) sattva, rajas and tamas. The aim of Yoga is to increase the sattva and diminish the other two. The diminishing, of tamas and rajas is what is sought to be attained through control of mental modifications. In Sri Ramchandra’s Rajayoga the concept of Nature is accepted as the First Mind emerging from Kshobha some how from the Zero, and it is this First mind which has to be brought down to do the job of return to it from the grossest physical, with which it is, in a basic sense, one. The nature of the soul is that it is one with the Zero, and to that it returns helped by the First Mind's force. Its individuality or manyness remains till its absorption in the Zero, which happens only when Kshobha is itself withdrawn. The rings formed by the First Mind around these souls differentiate them from each other and with independent circles or rings determined by each in itself. This may be called the egoity, which is earlier than the other formations called buddhi and its other grosser forms, manas and citta. In fact the use of buddhi and manas interchangeably has lead to many serious misunderstandings in Indian psychology.
Transmission has been tried by many yogis. Some have given samadhi conditions. Some have produced awakening of the Kundalini sakti. These have helped these transmitters ton be considered as being of the highest order of Realised souls. But the truth was discovered by Sri Ramchandra when he found that the real transmission—which is a continuing act of transformation of the rhythm of being from the gross to the subtlest - is of a different order. The transmission must be of the Highest and from the Highest, or the Ultimate. Other kinds of transmission which people do get, and perhaps feel, lead up to a particular point, and then they do not lead one further. The point that one has arrived at becomes, for them, the Ultimate, and one is even blinded in respect of the states above it. Samadhi becomes an end in itself, even as the awakening of the Kundalini becomes an end in itself. Similarly, the state of Vacuity of the mental processes becomes a goal, and one ceases to move forward. It is also claimed that transmission can be likened to the descent of the Grace of God or the Supermind. Surely it looks very much like a descent into the heart, but the transmission is a deliberate conscious force offering of the Prana (Pranahuti) into the heart for uplifting the soul to the highest condition possible to the soul. There are some who hold that transmission can be likened to the solar force which makes one go to the solar orb (Subodh sect of Indonesia), but the level of the consciousness to which this transmission leads is very much lower than the Ultimate, though it may appear to have cosmic awareness.
As it was well understood, each level has its own happiness and the Ultimate happiness is beyond all these. The science of transmission of the spiritual consciousness has been known only to adepts, and has been kept a secret, which should not be divulged to any one who is not fit for transmitting. The medium of transmission has to be prepared carefully. Sri Ram Chandra puts it clearly that one who has not crossed or ascended to region far beyond the level of the physical, psychically cannot be entrusted with this task. Only those who have reached a very high psychic level of subtlety, and have been prepared for it, could transmit that highest consciousness.
Usually the disciplines (tapasya) undertaken by saints are for the Sake of reaching the level of spiritual awareness-an awareness of the astral condition of the individuals one comes across and who seek transmission. Virtues such as satya, ahimsa, aprigraha, asteya, brahmacarya, sauca, dana, daya etc. And also austerities such as observing vows and fasting, reveals the training that is being given to the sense and motor organs, and the mind itself, in order to prepare one for the receipt of Divine Grace or power.
In Sri Ramchandra’s Rajayoga the entire purification of the human organism, both in its physical and its astral forms, is completed by the transmission itself. The transmission of the superconsciousness starts the whole process, and prepares the individual for his becoming a medium of that conscious-force.
The process of transformation is achieved by bringing the grosser under the control and rhythm of the higher and higher levels, but the whole process seems to be done by the Highest consciousness itself, and not by any subordinate or penultimate consciousness, as is usually supposed in the hierarchy of levels of consciousness. in any case it is the highest consciousness that works through the different centres of the lower levels so as to bring about the transformation. In transmission, the Master’s superconsciousness-force directed from the centre, or the central region, is introduced at the heart of the abhyasi or associate. This makes the heart yearn towards its own central region through all this is felt as peace, peacefulness, santi, or bliss. The introduction of the superconsciousness is a level for the personal ascent, and makes for upward movement, which takes place in the form of inverse circular movement at the cakras or points. All this is not, of course, fully felt at the beginning, but it is however responded through delight and seeking after the superconsciousness which is high above, within itself.
It is also true that the Master's superconsciousness not only is introduced at the heart, but may be introduced at several other points or cakras within the body, physical or astral, and at each one of the centres there occurs illuminations and peace of that centre. As was remarked by one of our abhyasis, there is no doubt that some of these feelings at the heart are, physiologically considered, reflexive, and not basically there. If we consider the whole organism as being connected in a harmonic way, it would follow that at each point there is both the direct impulse-giving experience and the reflexive experience or change due to some other organ (head for example) causing feelings at the heart. It is also seen sometimes that transmission reveals simultaneous experience at several points, both in the pinda and the brahmanda.
All these only show that in Sri Ramchandra’s Rajayoga every care is being taken by the Master to keep the physical body and heart in good, sensitive, condition capable of ultimately hearing and working for the Ultimate Consciences itself. This is a unique phenomenon in the history of Yoga.
The nature of manas has been understood in the different abhyasas in different ways. For example, has been held to be an organ of synthesis or samkalpa of the sense and motor sensations. It has been, in more general sense, identified with the first impulse of the Supreme, and all the degradations or grossening conditions have been called manas. Thus buddhi ahamkara and manas have all been said to denote the separate functions of the original manas. In fact another term also has been introduced called citta, which may be an omnibus term comprising all the functions. But the aim of Yoga is said to be the nirodha, or control, of the mental modifications-citta-vrtti-nirodha. The Gita has indeed shown how very difficult it is to control this citta. In fact the entire life of sadhana was aimed at this controlling of the mind and arriving at the silent condition. The samadhi was said to be one such condition. The state of amanaska is the greatest achievement in Yoga. Manas being controlled, stilled, or transcended, one is free from the world of samsara or bondage, and free from the struggle for freedom.
In Sri Ramchandra’s Rajayoga the stilling of the manas is achieved directly by the introduction of the Prana of the Centre itself by the Master. This introduction at the heart of the abhyasi immediately brings about the calming of the mind in its grossest form, and slowly ascending it would bring about the state of amanaska without passing through the samadhi of the usual description that leads to the condition of suspension of all normal activities. This means that the psychic being, when supported by the Master's transmission or prana, does not need the manas and its formations for supporting the gross body at all. Usually the whole organism is considered to be a product of the mind but this reveals that it is not so. The Supracosmic Mind or Centre directly runs the entire organism and it lives and moves by that power of the Centre. One becomes mindless at the very beginning. |
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