Talks and Lectures on the System of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga

Principles and Goals of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga

The system of Rajayoga as propounded by Sri Ram Chandraji of Shahjahanpur U.P. attempts to bring back Rajayoga in its original purity and simplicity to the ordinary man, the man of the world, so that he may live a life of harmonious development and inward calm. Yoga has been a practice which was held in almost sacred trust by the sanyasins, the renouncers, so much so, Swami Vivekananda held that Rajayoga is not for the householder. Perhaps it suggested that Karmayoga, Jnanayoga and Bhaktiyoga are eminently fitted for the householder. But even among them, karma and bhakti yogas would be held to be more suited to the ordinary man than Jnana yoga, that may demand renunciation or detachment from works. However we have come to see that these three types of yoga cannot be separated from one another, even as the three modes of our consciousness, cognition, conation and affections, cannot be separated.

In all Yogas the one supreme requisite seems to be the control of the manas or citta, which is ever undergoing modifications or movements towards objects of sense and pleasure. In every way the manas or citta is flowing outward to gain more and more experience (anubhava) and enjoyment (bhoga) of the external world. It seems to be fickle and unsteady, and moving from one joy to another and from one sorrow to another.The checking of these movements seems to be necessitated by the very fact of suffering and non-peace (ashanti). Karma yoga is utilised to help concentration on works or duties or service, bhakti yoga helps to detach the world from ungodly things and links it with godly worship, whereas Jnana yoga helps the detachment of the mind from the objects of the outer world which are in constant flux and fix it on the permanent self within or God. These are helpful aids or means to control the manas in the first instance and as such may be said to occupy the same place as the Yama and Niyama of the Astanga Yoga.

It is only when the goal is union with God and God alone is being sought that one even bye-passes the control of the mind. Perhaps one even gets behind the mind and mind becomes a veritable disturbance.

In earlier forms of the three yogas mentioned above, the purpose of yoga was union with the Ultimate Reality or God or Self. Karma meant the sacrificial activities as prescribed in the srutis. Jnana meant sruti-jnana and bhakti meant the devotional attitude that arises out of the sruti-janya-jnana. But the modern versions of these three yogas has almost made them man oriented and reason directed. All anubhava is restricted to anumana. Service of man is said to be karma yoga, and that of course leads to jnana which is social knowledge, and devotion also becomes worship of man, as he is and perhaps as he ought to be.

This basic man centredness of yoga has made yogas meaningless even when the expounding of the scriptures slants towards sruti, mula-karma, sruti-janya-jnana and Brahma-bhakti-bhava.

In this later development however an attempt had been made to make yoga a means of practice for the ordinary man but in the process as we can see the basic goal of union with Reality has been either lost sight of or deliberately dropped from view.

The basic fact is that man is endowed with Manas. Taking it in the comprehensive way, it could be said to include the mental processes of intellect, sensation, affection, desire and emotion. As psychologists know these have quite a variety of modifications, pure and impure. As recognised by Indian psychology of Nature, there are sattvika or harmonious or synthetic manifestations, as well as extremely active and forceful and equally extreme indolence and inert and perverse manifestations known as rajasic and tamasic forms of force.

Manas has been known to have sixteen manifestations such as Samjnanam, Ajnanam, Vijnanam, Prajnanam, Medha, Dhrtih, mati, manisa, dhrsti, jutih, samkalpa, smrti, kratuh, asuh, kama, vasa. This list can be expanded with the inclusion of Dhi (buddhi). Manas is said to be that which came out of Brahman first and expressed itself as samkalpa and expanded to become Bhuma. The word Manas then almost looks to be equivalent to the Prakrti which emerged out of the Brahman at the time of creation and became the field for the enjoyment of the Purusha. These sixteen forms of manas can be seen to be the instruments by which the different ways of 'knowing', 'enjoying' and experiencing the outer world manifested by the Manas are rendered possible. It is possible to consider that Manas means thought force and has been in Yoga identified with Citta (thought force generated by the presence of the Cit (purusa) or Brahman from whom it has arisen and which is in continuous touch with it, sustaining it and supporting it and determining it. While Samkhya uses the term Manas only in respect of the individual self or purusa, Yoga uses the Citta to cover all modifications from the prakrti down to the elements and organs, and in fact introduces the word Dhi as the upward moving Citta, even as the Samkhya realises that Buddhi in its sattvika condition has the four fold attributes of aiswarya, vairagya, jnana and sakti. In the Vedic times Manas has been almost used to be identical with the Prakrti or the First manifestation of Brahman. Sri Ramchandraji uses the term Ksobh which arises from the Brahman conceived as Akshobh. All this world is Thought - creation and thought and thing are in-fact different levels of Manas, the former is subtle whereas latter is gross. Speech (Vak) may be considered to be that which mediates between these two stages of Manas.

The most important fact for the purpose of Yoga is to recognise that Thought-force which is constantly supporting and sustaining the things is also actively in each one of us and can be utilised to raise itself to that pure level of subtle cit-sakti. What is the same in the macrocosm is the same in the microcosm. Thought within each one of us can be purified and lifted up to the standard of purity as the original thought force or manas as it emerged from Brahman or the Ultimate centre. In fact it is only when one really arrives at that purest condition, the human individual can realise that he is the Manisi or manisa the lord of Manas.

From Thought (Manas), time came into being and space also. All these categories of what may be called the Ksobh or thought as it progressively expands or drops from subtleness to grossness. In a sense this view explains how the process of creation has proceeded and has brought into being all sorts of complexities however exhilarating and amusing and revealing the infinite potentialities of thought (manas) which may be taken to be at later stages equivalent to maya (the principle of delusive delight). It could be seen also how the Manas has become the principle of bondage or limitation, grossening and conflict, at different levels of man's consciousness, posing problems of inextricable ingenuity. It was recognised by the Indian psychologists that there is a principle of automatic reversion of the process of gross manifestation and regaining of the subtle condition or the original pure state. Thus manas is stated to be also the principle of liberation. Samkya held the view that pradhana itself liberates the purusa or soul after the purusa has experienced all modifications and their interplay. More clear of course is this principle that Manas can be utilised to bring about the gradual return to the original condition of itself and thus liberate(?) the soul which realises its being in Brahman that which is Amanaska - the state of being before and beyond Manas, in which the Manas rests and from which it proceeds.

It would be necessary to relate the emergence of the Ksobh from the Infinite. The Immensity of Ksobh is even transcosmic. At first there is an infinite Field of Radiance or Splendours from which obviously there concretises the super cosmic world known as Para-Brahmanda. Then further concretion brings out Cosmoses (Brahmandas), and further concretions lead to the formation of Pinda (individuated bodies) wherein the several elements and subtle atoms and their aggregations take place. This is the downward journey of the Ksobh or Manas. The Upward journey has to be perforce in the same way from the pinda, to Brahmanda, from Brahmanda to Para-Brahmanda to the Central region and then to the Centre that is sustaining and supporting and regulating the Ksobh. It is so very transcendent to all that Ksobh means that it cannot be described. One who enters into that enters into something beyond all. That is something that cannot be described or spoken about. It is beyond Manas.

The downward movement in terms of time has taken so long that it might well appear that it must take double the time for return to that original matrix or Brahman. However it must be considered that this process of return or nivrtti or nisprapancikarana is not all really crave for seriously. If moksa or liberation means the cessation of all modifications of the Manas or citta, then it should follow that one would cease to be and may also involve that line of creative modification would have merged into the Manas and become nugatory or non-existent or realised its oneness in the ultimate. This might mean that other lines or rays of the Ksobh, such as the pinda, brahmanda, and Parabrahmanda and the Central Regions. The souls at different levels will continue to have their individualities till the whole ksobh is withdrawn into the Centre.

The total extinction of the individualities is not necessarily presumed.

Yoga is not an attempt to arrive at this pralaya or total extinction either of the Ksobh or of the individuality in some manner involving individual pralaya. Yoga would mean to realise the union or linking up of the individual Manas with the Manas at first so that he may be linked up with the Brahman which supports and sustains the Manas or Nature. According to some this linking up would involve or must involve the extinction of the individual manas and the individuality itself being swallowed up by the Great Manas (mahat). All that may be expected would be that the individual manas would have merged in the Cosmic and Supra-Cosmic Manas and become of their nature. Such a person would have become a cosmic man or one having supermind or vijnana or buddhi or any such manas which has gone beyond the limitations of the individual and particularised gross mentality.

The problem for the yogi would yet be whether his gross body would be persisting when the manas has attained the cosmic or super conscious states for the gross body itself is a formation out of the Mind or Manas. Here again there have been instances of yogis who have felt that the ultimate realisation or union with the Ultimate cannot permit the continuance of this gross body nor even the subtle bodies of the superconscious mind or buddhi. Therefore many had feared for their physical existence in Yoga and therefore were afraid of undertaking yoga of liberation, or for liberation. This is one of the reasons why those who had renounced love of life alone were said to be competent to undertake the practice of Yoga. These were sanyasins. To the householders yoga was taboo, something to be honoured and feared.

However it is clear that Yoga as practised by the truly enlightened did not involve these presuppositions. It has been shown to be possible to bring down the Ultimate Manas into the gross formations of the manas and to make for the liberation being experienced as also the several levels of the Manas, such as the Pinda, Brahmanda, Parabrahmanda, Central Region and the Ocean of Infinity beyond these.

For this purpose Sri Ramchandraji has explained that along with the Ksobh there is the double poise of the inner divine along with the outer human parallelly flowing downwards even to the limits of extreme grossness. The divine is the secret inner of all manifestation of the Manas. What is done in Yoga is to realise one's inner divine line more and more and bring out its luminosity and action whilst withdrawing the outer human ray or sheath. Thus the divine interior being very much like the soul nature as it becomes more and more patent and active transforms the manas into more and more subtle conditions. The limitations of the knots which have developed during the downward journey of the manas become loosened and power is gained to move upward and become more and more subtle. The human body now begins to vibrate with the higher rhythms of the Manas, its brahmanda or cosmic and supra-cosmic parabrahmanda forms. The physical body itself undergoes transmutation in its rhythms or vibrations and subtle condition. It is also seen that the physical grossness is slowly adapted to the divine rhythms and vibrations and the atoms of the body themselves break up into cosmic vibrations and supra cosmic waves.

Here of course one does not affirm that the physical body will last forever but the very mechanism undergoes change and therefore there is every possibility of not being limited and feel bondage while remaining within the body. The divinisation of the human body is rendered possible, though it must be remarked that there is no assurance of the immortalisation of the physical body. The spiritually realised man may have his body which may for all practical purposes look like any other body, but which really is capable of functioning like a very highly developed supra-cosmic instrument in perfect co-ordination with the entire Creation, from Brahma to the blade of grass as the phrase runs. This particular transformation of the physical body which is capable of performing miracles or Siddhis reveals the possibilities of the physical body having supernormal psychic powers and capacities. This may not be the goal of the man who seeks Ultimate Reality or union with that Ultimate Reality having realised or attained all power over Nature or understanding of it so as not to be caught in its downward current.

Sri Ramchandraji points out that these natural powers or powers of Nature are open to any one who has linked up with the Ultimate or the Ksobh, the First thought.

Today man is anxious to make the earth the Kingdom of God, not a hell or a purgatory with which it has been previously identified. It may entail that divine manifestation of Thought or Consciousness would transmute the very stuff of the earth to the veriest mineral. This too is revealed by the tremendous and incredible inventions and discoveries made about Nature. But the question would yet arise whether these atomic, sub-atomic, nuclear and other forces which reveal the possibilities of cosmic or inter-planetary travel and greater than light speeds can be called the spiritual refuse or resultants or possible spiritual material. It appears that unless life is involved there hardly can be the emergence of spiritual values. The organic integration of the highest forces is only possible through Manas whose entire process is organic involution and evolution. When the lower organisms are unable to manifest the inward divine, a higher type of organism arises and we proceed from the most simple and rudimentary forms of life to more and more diversified and developed forms. The Yogi attempts at the human level to realise the possibility of the descent of the Highest or primal mind or thought into his heart so as to reorganise a new super organism capable of cosmic and super cosmic ranges of thought-cum-activity.

The ideal of a superman has been brilliantly mooted and efforts have been made to realise such an organic superman possessed of most wide ranging occult powers utilised for the beneficence and glory of God. God is not only good in his transcendence but also in His immanence according to Sri Aurobindo. His Lila is to be more glorious than His Eternity.

This ideal is yet in the proving. There is no doubt that there have been legends of those who have attained that status but that has not been the general nature of man or possible to humanity. Superman as a member of super humanity is a promised goal. But as Sri Ramchandraji says that it presumes that there is a Goal for God Himself or the Transcendent to realise Himself in terms of terrestrial immanence. On the other hand it is really possible to show that the Divine Transformation of the gross entails nothing more than that the gross can be divinely used according to the Nature in its highest purity. The human organism so infilled and re-organised in all its atoms and forces, tanmatras and bhutas, could perform supra cosmic functions and order in a natural way. For this the concept of an Ideal of humanity to be supermen is not strictly germane. Not the discovery of the supermind is strictly relevant as a step in the evolutionary cycle. It could be bye-passed. In any case the Yogi of this system sees that the divinisation of his nature requires the primal thought (Ksobh) rather than the descent of a supramental consciousness as that may mean the formation of a different type of humanity which is yet unfree, freedom being the supreme nature of the Ultimate Transcendence itself.

In a sense the ancients' felt that even the Devas are unfree though they are not subject to karma, they are subject to bhoga. They are also in a sense when rulers of the several levels of Nature subject to the laws of the several levels. Though the laws are perhaps framed by the Devas they are subject to them. The provision that the king can do no wrong does not apply, though perhaps this proviso has been adopted to put finality or omniscience in a person. The Devas may conceivably do no wrong. Our mythologies have demoted the Devas so much so they are shown in the ugliest of colours and poses. To speak of a devajati seems inappropriate in the context of our mythologies. The ancient seekers after liberation, knowing that gods are also bond, sought to go beyond the ideal of gods, or devajati. The Seer is far beyond them, not in the sense in which the Brahmins conceived them to be capable of being dictated to do what the ritualist Vedic rishi wished to do, but in the sense the real Seer is beyond the bondage of the Kshobh or Creative thought with all its cycle of births and deaths and dualities.

Man's manas is at that particular turning point which makes it resemble so much the original Manas that at this point that original Manas could be made to bring about a radical change or open up the pathway to that Infinite State. The Devas perhaps have a manas that is not at this condition and so it has to be brought to the human condition before it could be linked up with the Primal Manas. In other words it seems to lose its capacity to be stimulated directly by the Primal Manas or Ksobh. Gods even therefore it is said have to become or take a human birth- so very important in evolution in the human state. It becomes imperative at this point to emphasise that there is a real side-tracking when one attempts to evolve the super-humanity or devajati, unless the deva is defined in different terms as the jnani of the Bhagvad Gita- Jnanavan mam prapadyate- where the word has the connotation of the illumined being or illuminating being. In any case the divine as amanava without the manas would have transcended the terrestrial evolution.

The above gives an outline of the genesis of the theory of Knowledge of this system of yoga, where knowledge is regarded not in the usual sense of the professional philosophers of Nature or even psychology. It is what results when one is born so to speak in Brahman- brahma-sambhuta as the Isavasya Upanishad intimates. The Isa Upanishad intimates in its 8th Mantra about the levels of attainment as Kavih, Manishi, Paribhuh, Svayambhuh. These four terms connote the spiritual insights of the abhyasi or seer. In the 12 to 14 Mantras the Upanishad mentions the two terms asambhuti and sambhuti, which seem to be higher attainments than Avidya and Vidya. In any case the Upanishads mention about Brahmaja. This transcendent living, or living by the Brahman in the creation or the world of Thought and its modifications(Vikriti), seems to have been known as the most desirable goal which grants atyantam santi, and basic reality- experience (yatharthanubhava) as it is in itself and for itself.

This is the spiritual possibility presented to man by the true mystic vision of Sri Ramchandraji following his own Master of the same name popularly known as Lalaji of Fatehgarh.

II

It is quite all right to have mentioned that the foregoing is the nutshell of this system of Rajayoga. Thought primal is to be connected with the thought in its gross presence in the human being or the individual, this is the technique of yoga, which would bring about the eradication and extinguishment of the wavering and worrying thought-flow within each and every individual. The attempt to bring about the cessation of thought processes by conscious suppression or repression or even by bhoga or anubhava have produced tensions of all sorts. The patient became worse rather than better. The vyavasayatmaka buddhi through continuous abhyasa also had proved of no avail generally. It is a path full of artificial restraints and long drawn out tiresome exercises. The method of controlling the mental modifications by giving them alternative foods so to speak has also not proved successful: man reverts to his original animal nature or falls precipitously into a deeper depression than ever imagined. One's own efforts at concentration or one-pointed direction towards an object or a goal even has not helped the transformation of mind into the primary original nature as luminous, sovereign, equilibrium and free. This is the natural condition of the Manas to which it has to revert.

It is obvious that Manas in its original purity is beyond this latest modification or truncation of it nor has this manas the ability to go back with unaided efforts of its cognition or conation or affective exuberance. As it was stated thinking hard will not precipitate intuition or help it to jump over its own shadows; nor would willing hard nor feeling hard produce that heat (tapas) which would make it unite itself with that primal condition. As the ancients had pointed out, there had developed centres or points which verily demarcated level from level, even as solids and liquids and gases demarcated and the passage from one state to another involves condensation and expansion laws. Enormous amounts of energy are involved in these processes of degradation of Manas and consequently there are bound to be enormous unknown forces released in the process of reversion to its original condition.

Therefore this process of reversion to the original condition is almost impossible with one's efforts, though what is requisite is the interest to get back to that condition of equipoise which is natural to the original Manas. Nor is it possible to get the original Manas to do this without the grace of one who has arrived at that condition or the Grace of that Manas itself. It is the most important factor in Yoga. There may be irresistible desire and craving for the Ultimate state beyond the Manas itself, there may be the sense of urgency to get the Primal Manas down into oneself to help the restoration of one's mind or manas to that pure condition- this association with that Manas might be sought in the company of those who have arrived at that condition, but if it does not get a person who is in that Primal condition or the Ultimate itself to help him, it becomes well-nigh impossible. This is the Guru, the Isvara, or as Sri Ramchandraji would say one who is in the Isvara-gati, the personality who is liberated and who is in constant association with the Ultimate state. (The Yoga sutras do indeed speak about the Isvara, surrender to whom is necessary. The eternally Free Being is Isvara. This Isvaratva is not be equated with the Brahman -the Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer of the Creation- though nothing prevents their being one. In Yoga the Godhead is approached as the Adi-Guru - the First Guru of the path of Yoga as of all Veda.) To get the association (sat-sangh) of this Personality who has reached the peak of spirituality is an event of greatest luck or fortune. It is the blessing of God- His inestimable Grace.

Once the Guru is secured the Guru brings the primal Manas into contact with the individual gross mind roaming among sense objects or imaginations and ideas of objects of pleasure and enjoyments. The individual manas becomes absorbed in that Primary Manas, gradually it begins to be slowly pushed up through the several knots, granthis, or chakras (plexuses), and points by this primary Manas or its force as granted to it by the Guru. Undoubtedly the Guru cleanses the entire adhar or organism and removes all past dirt and present dirt and diseases also, which are usually designated purva karma - results of past perverse activities. All the impurities arising from karma are thoroughly thrown out from both the subtle levels and the gross layers of the mind. The Manas then becomes luminous and the self appears as the inward flame (tejas) flowing upward to its original condition. It seems from practical experience that only the Ultimate Manas can do this task if not that something above it should be able to do it and not any lesser formation of the mind. Thus buddhi or ahamkara or manas as the sensorium belonging to the five sense organs as the sixth (Manas Sastendriyani Prakrtisthani). Therefore it is all attempts to arrive at purification of the individual mind (Manas) or the adhara (organic body) through mere mentation or mentational repetitions. Recitations, strenuous fasts and exercises or reasoning processes lead no where. Further the moral or ethical aids for the purification of the body and mind seem to be disciplines that hardly lead to the purification of the manas. All are effortful exercises imposed from without, gross in nature and never go deep into the psychic being so to speak. All these artificial modes to bring about cultural change in man have failed sooner or later and man reverts to his gross nature-of the infra mind, the nimal mind. To those who hold that the Manas has not reached the lowest or greatest amount of degradation or grossness or its final potentiality of being non mind or ajiva, one can point out the grosser levels of being below the human and the animal.

Manas in one of its earlier meanings also meant prana or life breath and in fact these two attributes of thought and life coincide at the highest level. Prana or life even like Manas has its levels by which the Manas at that level lives and moves and has its being. The man who has come to a state of meaninglessness and therefore feels life itself to be a boredom and a punishment needs meaning to be given to him or life open itself to him or both. Perhaps many think that philosophies could give meaning to some who seek the consolations of philosophy, others think that if needs are catered to, man will regain confidence in himself and seek to live a more meaningful life. However neither wealth nor position and power nor even the pomp of pleasure give this zest for life for it is constantly moving downgrade or degradation. Energy dissipation and degradation seem to be the law of life at the level of its encounter with Reality in any one of its planes and grades. Neither food, nor pleasure, nor mental imaginations are the real things or principles of life. Our Manas is not quenched; by these.

The supreme upward lifting force of life (pranasya pranah) by which all begin to feel alive and expand has been designated as Prana-Brahman, (yad pranasya na praniti yena pranah praniyate tad eva brahma tvam viddhi neidam tad idam upasate) as the kenopanisad seer has put it. It is the force - that which sustains the entire process - the primal Manas - that has to be introduced into the system as the life of life, breath of breath, mind of mind, vision of vision, speech of speech, as the same seer says. It is this life force of the Ultimate nature that is sought within one's own mind, secret in the heart which is the known gross centre of human life. In this sense it is that the supreme self is taught to be first realised in the heart, from which all arteries flow out to the entire organism. Heart is also said to be the seat of citta (manas) and soul and God.

The spiritual initiation is done by the Guru by awakening the Heart by means of the pranasya pranah. It is true that it is also done through the Ear because of the sruti concept of the Ultimate Veda or knowledge (sratrasya srotram). However it is seen that the real awakening comes not by the word in the ear but by the inner audition that takes place in the Heart- the original Conscience, (antasruti), which is also Harda (intimate), Manisa (gnosis), or the antar-vak. Laukika sruti and Vak may be said to be of the order of the external organs but this inner transcendental (para) Vak is from the Divine Master through the heart.

The Guru (God) puts this supreme force of the primordial Manas into the heart of the seeker of the Ultimate and spiritual evolution starts almost immediately by the realisation of the Silent Manas. This act of the Guru is called transmission. Its is called Pranahuti: Prana offering into the fire of the heart, the heart being symbolically considered to be the fire altar so to speak. The inner flame in the heart smouldering is now given the necessary force to rise up to its fullest spiritual nature. The prana is transmitted in the form of thought-vibrations into the heart of the abhyasi. The Guru sits before the sisya or abhyasi almost heart to heart when this prana is transmitted. This spiritual thought transmission is the most important aspect of the training of the abhyasi. (Transmission according to others as well as Sri Ramchandraji can be of three kinds, the transmission through speech, transmission through eye (vision), and transmission through the thought force of the primary Manas). Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga specialises in the transmission through the primordium subtlest thought force or Ksobh. Thus there is hardly a mantra (speech) nor a gaze (vision) for it appears that these are of the grosser levels and cannot be made subtle even when the mantra given is of the Veda or some such literature like the agamas. In fact the history of these mantra and tantra or yantra methods of initiation of the spiritual journey finally become just ritual and repetitive and gross or solid. They may appear to be effective at the beginning but later tend to lose force and when transmitted from teacher to teacher of this method lose their spiritual quality also. The importance of reverting to the earliest method - transmission through thought force of the primordial form has been able to bring about the condition of the silent mind easily and spontaneously. It would be seen that if the other kinds of transmission have to become effective they must first be reduced to or revert to the primordial form of thought force or else they would only be hindrances to effective recovery of the Manas in its fullest plenitude or equilibrium or nirvana. This could be done only by one who has arrived at that stage of primordial simplicity and has been in touch with the Ultimate by which this is maintained or supported.

Another important training which is also of this simplicity and spontaneous nature is the practice of the Presence and nearness to God. The transmission of the prana is not just an act of pouring the Ghrta (ghee) in the Hrdaya-fire (dahara), but it is a continuous flow or vibrations of the supreme thought supporting the abhyasis' mind. The Ultimate is thus made to be felt constantly and the abhyasi feels this presence of the Guru or God with him all the time, without any effort on his part. He also feels nearness of the Godhead all the time, whether doing any other work or this work. In fact all work seem to be taken over by the Divine Guru and the presence fills all the place and time.

It is a matter of experience and not born out of any suggestion. Even when suggested it turns out to be not dependant on the suggestion about the Omnipresent and Omnipervasive Reality or God.

Thus one begins to see that what appeared to be autonomous working of mere Nature without the presence of the Supreme Spirit or Reality known as Sat-Cit-Ananda, now appears in its true sense as being supported by the Ultimate. Nature as scientists conceive it has no need for a spirit or God. It may itself be conceived as Thought. But such a state only led thought to divorce itself from the supporting Spirit ( Centre), and led to ignorance and misery. The restoration of the Spirit or Gods' presence through the introduction of the Primordial Divine Thought into the individual's heart immediately or rather as quickly as possible brings meaning to the process. In a sense it is this truth that Samkhya emphasised when it stated that the nearness (psychic) of the Purusa to the Prakrti (Manas-Mahat-Buddhi) when realised leads to the proper understanding of the transcendental relationship between the Purusa and Prakrti. When nearness is forgotten then manas becomes distorted or inverted or knotted and leads to all the degradations and misuses of it. When the reminiscence of nearness or proximity that is basic to organic evolution in the supra-cosmic, cosmic, and individual organism is brought back there arises the harmony of all being. This is about the simplest way of doing it- through transmission of the Divine Thought in its primordial condition into the heart of man. The realisation that God is in all and all are in God seems to happen spontaneously and speedily.

"Yatanto Yoginacainam pasyantyatmanyavasthitam

Yatanto-pyakrtaatma no nainam pasyantyacetasah //" B.G. XV-11.

The one who is connected with the Divine perceives the Divine as seated in the self; with all effort the ayogi (not connected) cannot see- being without the supreme manas. Thus the transmission of the Ultimate Thought (of God) is necessary to bring about the qualification of yogitva: it is the yogyata that is necessary for spiritual realisation. Not any other. This leads to the experience of the Divine in all and in oneself. One begins to live in the Cosmic and Supra-cosmic Being and is slowly led towards self-realisation.

One develops the sama-damadi sadhana-sampatti naturally. One is made fit to ascend the higher levels of consciousness or mind. The ascent goes along with spiritual yogyata and ethical spontaneity. Passions lose force and tensions are reduced to a minimum. Dhyana becomes easy and pleasant, for dhyana is the process by which one becomes more and more aware of the Ultimate Presence. The question as to whether one has to meditate on a form or the formless, on the personal or the impersonal seem to become secondary for the primary attention is riveted to the Ultimate presence and its inflow within into the heart and the entire organism from head to foot. The experience of God within spreads all over - the vibrations of sweet ecstasy are felt all over - to the finger tips so to speak. The flow of this Dhi or the supreme thought is so evenly spread all over the body, both internally and externally, that it is felt to be supreme absorbtion in God himself. This is truly designated as Samadhi - which is oneness with the divine thought. This is samadhi in the waking state itself and not that which involves the loss of normal consciousness due to the supervening of what is known as super consciousness. This is the Sahaja Avastha whereas the other obtained through the usual rajayoga or hatha-yoga or even the kundalini yoga is abnormal or asahaja. The divine man is a normal God conscious being. Trance is not a necessity for this, though possibly it is needed when one wishes to do super normal feats, clairvoyance, clair - feats so to speak. Siddhis perhaps demand utilisation of the thought powers in diverse ways demanding different techniques. Since they are not the goal of Sahaja samadhi, they are avoided by the teacher or guru to prevent the diversion into employing them. The Guru assures the abhyasi however that they are possible to the sahaja satsanghi. One goes beyond them and they are of no use to him. It would be wrong to hold that siddhis are the real pointers to spiritual evolution, even when they are intended to be used for world welfare, and in a disinterested manner.

One gets one's direction from the Centre in its purest thought and by that one lives and moves and has his being.

The pathway taken up on the ascent according to Sri Ramchandraji is not the usual path of ascent by the same route by which the descent of degradation took place. For one reason it is difficult. The usual way is to affirm that one must raise up the kundalini through the susumna in the spinal cord through the several plexuses upto the Sahasrara at the crown of the head and take it beyond the Brahma-randhra so as to connect it with the Brahman. This route is that which belongs to kala-cakra. It is difficult. Further the accounts of the beginning of the susumna are not identical. Some hold that it begins with the heart and takes one to the Brahma-randhra through which the soul leaves the body on attaining liberation.

Starting with the heart into which the divine thought is placed (pranahuti), the abhyasi is started on his spiritual journey in the pinda-pradesh and heart region as mentioned in the Efficacy of Rajyoga. The journey takes one to the point of the atma and then to point of devotion, and to fire-point, and vayu or point of air (which is identical with throat). Whereas the cakras or the tantras are placed in the rear, these pointers are all in front. Then the journey takes one to the point at the top of the forehead called the cit-lake. Lake of the Cit or mind - which may be said to be in the Brahmanda region of the body corresponding with the cosmic mind or cosmic consciousness. This is of course the most important part of the journey sufficient for purposes of non-return to this life in ignorance. One who has gone upto that state has no rebirth. One may then continue his spiritual journey even after death without having to come down to the earth or the body of the human being. For most religions this attainment is enough. However this is not the goal. One has to go to the centre-beyond the Ksobh- for one yet remains within the region of the Mind.

The mind region is crossed with the help of the transmission of the Guru who guides the path and removes the obstacles till one is able to draw the primal force from the Ultimate or God. When one enters the region beyond the Mind, one steps into the glorious illuminated region of the ksobh and passes on towards that from which the ksobh arose. These are terrains or regions whose descriptions are beyond our language - though they are not beyond experience or anubhava. God is realised and one lives and moves and has his being in Him. Since God is infinity one has no end of being in Him. Sri Ramachandra speaks of these in his Towards Infinity. They are new presentations and may be said to have broken new ground in spiritual anubhava.

One passes beyond philosophy to religion, beyond religion to spirituality (mysticism), and beyond it to Reality as it is in Itself - in its Infinity,

The self-realisation claimed by Sri Ramchandra's Rajyoga is the realisation of one's natural state in the Ultimate. All the knots brought about during the process of creation become loosened and there is the experience of the continuous presence and pervasion of the Infinite One is in tune with reality in its purest state.

Usually all religion, philosophy and spirituality are considered to be escapist phenomena- since the individuals following these paths seek to get out of the concrete and worldly activities. Disinterested action, detached action, aloofness and solitude are degrees of renunciation of life as man knows it. Man seeks to escape from the hurry burry of life because of the confusion and conflict that rages within it. The solution of man's ills seems to lie outside society and human relationships. Renunciation as a way of life counselled by the majority has been found to be impracticable as those who go out of it find ways and means of returning to it. Instead of being able to take man out of life they seek to return to life itself and embrace all the discarded values in the name of renunciation of God. Therefore the alleged pessimism of philosophy or religion finally turns out to be a renunciation of faith in philosophy and religion. Though for sometimes all seem to augur well the deepest pessimism sets in as things do not change even by changing the thoughts about them.

Attempts have been made and are being made to make the ideas of human perfection or perfectibility work. So too the ideals of liberty equality and fraternity in terms of the world of our life are sought assiduously to be put into execution. Leaving alone the cost of these experiments, the immense misery generated by these beliefs is immense. Mystics have claimed that the ideals could be brought into the human practice, both individually and socially. Religious institutions had struggled to incorporate these ideals but found themselves confronted by the development of emergence of hierarchical positions and levels which abridge the ideals, and practically end up in defeating them. Normalcy of the spiritual life has disappeared because these are imposition from without and not growths from within- be they mystic transformers or utopians or religious leaders. The institution that places reliance on an external technique or institutional organisations is bound to lose naturalness. It may be culture, it may be civilisation, it is not true to the inner reality that is and that was striving to find its own natural activity from its own primordial purity and perfection. Diving evolution is possible only with the help of the Divine. It may be suggested that lesser levels of life could be attained with the help of lesser forces than the Divine and the Ultimate. God then is the only means available to man to reach upto the highest levels. Even the godliest personality could only lead upto it, because he also is moving more and more towards that Godhead or is immanent in that Godhead. Explanations of avatar-hood pertain only to the Divine Ultimate and cannot be assumed by every one. Avatar is like the Descent of the ultimate out of His own supreme beneficence, and cannot be compared to the emergence in evolution of the highest open to man or the Isvara who has come to that point after having shed off his ignorance. For most individuals then, the normal course of development is through the living contact with the Divine Thought force brought about by the Guru who has been endowed with this capacity, and enabled to discharge this function.

Though for all purposes a liberated man in Sri Ramchandra's Rajyoga is like any other human being he is seen to be one who has his centre in God, and in none other. The world is seen by him to be also governed by the same Deity or centre, intimations of which are open to him if needed for his own work of God, for God. Simplicity marks his nature and bearing, spontaneity stamps his every movement. Ananda and calm pervade all his atmosphere and the divine vibrations radiate from him to everything and every one. He moves unconsciously of his own attainment but becomes immediately aware of the supreme directions of the Centre.

It is here we find that the language of communication is of the transcendent order - flashes or spots or suggestion (dhvani). Spiritual language is in a sense obscure to the ordinary man but not certainly to the enlightened person endowed with spiritual audition or contact with God. Such may well be the sruti or sabda which has self-evidence and luminosity within itself. When it is stated that the Sruti of Veda is infinite, it means that no limit can be placed on the extent of the Veda which has infinite branches - all having their roots in the Infinite one attains that summit by the grace of the Infinite and becomes a real Rishi.

All descriptions of the liberated state are couched in superlatives of pleasure or bliss that has no taint of misery or even potentialities of it. It is here that we are given experiences of the higher or brighter worlds till one reaches the pinnacle of indescribable unlimited glory. We are promised the Kingdom of God- with all his sovereign source perfections, or nearness to the Divine person, or ultimately union with that condition which is beyond the lights of the sun, moon and even fire that is beyond. One may not speak of his being there or not being there after such a culmination of union (sayujya). There are indeed quite a variety of descriptions on the puranas and mythologies pertaining to the existence of lower worlds and higher worlds. But all the conception of worlds would fall into two categories, created worlds and the uncreated worlds, and so the liberated ones and those who are eternally free remain in the uncreated worlds or world merged in the subtlest nature of Being or God in His transcendence or uncreating poise. The worlds created comprising all the levels of experience or Ksobh (Manas) ranging from the lowest to the highest are ultimately bound to be withdrawn from manifestation during pralaya. The goal of man is to pass beyond all these fourteen worlds of creation.

Though those who go upto Brahmanda or the Region of the Pure mind do not return to individual creation, yet they have also a long way to go before they could be in the Uncreate or Nitya world-which is in no less a realm of mind at all.

Sri Ramchandraji calls attention to this and holds that one can enter into that Nitya or Uncreate Region or State or Being even when one is residing in this created world or earth; and living within this body experience the transcendental reality in all its infinite glory. This is truly the state of the Divine which is seen in created worlds and in the Uncreate. To be the same within and without, beyond and beneath, is the Nature of the Brahman in His highest nature. This is realisation of Freedom in its final form. All other freedoms are restricted and limited ones which reveal farther shores of the Infinite. To one who has reached the Centre which is infinity in a different indescribable senses there are certainly no problems.

The modern discovery that the Ultimate particles of matter are really waves has led to considerable amount of speculation in the field of experience. A wave behaves according to the laws of waves normally but would as well behave like particle and follow the laws of particles. Therefore it is suggested that the proper mode of describing the ultimate entities would be wavicle. In a moving world this seems to be most likely an explanation.

Whether the ancients knew it or not it is clear that they conceived a particle as a dravya, something that is in flowing condition, a kind of wave rather than just a liquid. That it later was made to mean the substance that is permanent or unmoving is due to the fact that when a wave is arrested it tends to rotate round itself and becomes a particle which is the nucleus. Atoms are in this state of self-rotating particles and have been conceived as granthis or knots, which are repositories of power or energy. The break up of an atom means to make it begin to flow or become a wave and this can be done when a particle or atom is made to move rapidly-as they put it with the speed of light so that it tends to disintegrate and uncoil itself. This conversion of particles into waves is the process of tapas. But this too must be reconsidered in the light of the statements that all creation was originated by tapas (heating). This reveals the flowing out of the central energy from the Centre but which as it meets with different resistance's goes on forming particles (wave-nuclei) of differing densities or grossness, each containing more and more of these nuclei. Swedenberg also intimates this process in his works. Atoms he says are knots of energy. The doctrine of the Spanda in Indian science has also this implication. Sri Ramchandraji also mentions that each knot is a centre or nuclei of energy which also functions as reservoir of power for further evolution, the higher knots providing as supply bases for the lower. The technique of drawing power or energy lies in drawing out the energy by appropriate sadhana or thought force and utilising it either for operating on the lower centres or knots either to loosen them so that they could be led further down or to lead them up so that it could gather more and more energy for the ascent. This double action system seems to be provided in the very structure of the atom-anu-dravya concept of particles.

There are suggestions that the whole of the original primal energy does not get converted into nuclei but only just a fragment - anupramana or infinitesimal portion of it so much so we find that the lower or grosser form just circles or rings on the subtler, or alternatively the subtler forms the rings limiting the gross which appear to be condensations of the subtler and subtler to form grosser and grosser central nuclei. Philosophers have sometimes adopted the one view or the other view. Actual experiences should be able to show which theory applies and at what levels. As one thinker suggested, God explores all possibilities and rejoices in the diversity of experiments, which have created the manifest diversity that we have been made to experience. No one theory seems to fit in all facts, but all theories claim to explain the divine mystery that remains mysterious.

Creative play may be all such, but it must be clear also that at any stage if one wishes to get the replenishment from the higher he ought to know whether it is to be found in his centre or to be found outside his nuclear sheath. It is just possible that one has to explore and implore in order to get this storage of energy that leads to liberation from the bonds of the rings surrounding one's nuclear sheath or remove the rings which prevent one form going to his heart. Man may be placed midway between the rings-and therefore he has to consider both the possibilities and both go out and go inwards in order to arrive at that double replenishment by which he can freely act in the inwards and in the outer world.

Therefore the discovery that the Divine is both outside one and inside one pervading all (antarbahisca tat sarvam vyapya Narayano stithah). Further that He is the infinitesimal and the infinite or rather infinitesimal of the infinitesimal and infinite of the infinities (anoraniyam mahatomahiyan).

Whether we can offer the above explanations for the spiritual texts of experience above cited or not would depend on the verifiability in one's sadhana of the transformations of energy or force from level to level, from one field to another field, thanks to the rings and knots which have been created for regulating and preserving and controlling automatically the levels of spiritual force that has become all these particles and dravyas, anus and granthis.