Consciousness becomes blasted, as it were, with an excess of Light. In the Vendanta books it is said that after the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi the body drops off like a dry leaf. Only those who are born with a special mission for the world can return from this height to the valleys of normal life. They live and move in the world for the welfare of mankind. They are invested with a supreme spiritual power. A divine glory shines through them. (27)
This paper depicts facts of similarity between Ramakrisna’s nirvikalpa samadhi experience and mine. The paper is food for thought for our ongoing evolution in understanding Universal principles. The reader needs to read the aforementioned feature article of this blog, WORDS ARE TRAPS, and my biography, to further understand what I went through to experience nirvikalpa samadhi. My undergoing of nirvikalpa samadhi has made me realize that many saints from all traditions have undergone the same transformation and/or transfiguration. I describe my experience as a locked door being opened and I achieved what is called God Realization. In this realization, the visionary knows and sees God as Spirit, that is, the visionary knows and sees God as pure consciousness or the mind of God or Brahman. I was graced with the ability to see where and how others are obstructed from this pure consciousness that lies dormant in us and is waiting to explode. I have the ability to help people uncover and remove the obstructions to our Absolute Supreme Pure Consciousness that is inside us. We are part of God or the Great Spirit and these words are attempts at labeling the Absolute as far as we know about the Absolute. Thus far in our evolution a person who has undergone nirvikalpa samadhi retreats from the world and has no strong worldly concerns. A man of God-realization transcends the idea of worldly duties…(39) In the future this condition will become more worldly as humanity puts more emphasis on the Spiritual. The Spiritual will meld with the material as is presently happening.
Ramakrishna who is referred to as the Master lived in India from 1836 to 1886. Romain Roland described Ramakrishna’s utterances as the consummation of two thousand years of the spiritual life of three hundred million Hindus. For the first time in the world’s history the words of a profit who is reverenced in India as belonging in the spiritual line of Krishna and Buddha and is being recognized in the west as a compeer of Christ…(Cover)
He purifies the mind and the senses by appropriate meditations…He awakens the different spiritual centers of the body and invokes the Supreme Spirit in his heart.(11) Jesus said: Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God. A state of bliss consciousness ensues and will generally stay that way if one controls her environment and circumstances. Character development needs to be the priority as going through the locked door is just the beginning. It is not possible for most people to understand this condition and its’ state of orientation. You have to get there. This is why we are admonished not to judge others. Being raised Christian, I know that Jesus was a seed planter for the worlds development.
Methods For Ramakrishna’s Development
He told them about his own realizations and explained to them the essence of his teachings, such as the necessity of renunciation, sincerity in the course of one’s own course of discipline, faith in God, the performance of one’s duties without thought of results, and discrimination between the Real and the unreal.(45)
The Necessity of Renunciation
I renounced the everyday world of most people for four years in my pursuit of being a professional stand-up comedian. I became non-attached. I cut off undesirable friends who I knew would distract me and attempt to hold me back from my goal. I would not answer the phone. I did not have aspirations of marriage or even for having a mate or girl friend during this time. I quit smoking tobacco and drinking. My skills of concentration were highly honed and sharpened. I meditated. I contemplated. I made a clear heart-mind-body connection. I studied subjects that I wanted to study, like nutrition, and I went to college. I took up what is called “the path of deliberate rigor.” I became a full-time runner. I honed my juggling skills. I took up hatha yoga. I realized that the Spirit of God talked to me through my intuition when I breathed during the yoga asanas and also while running. I was fully honest with myself about myself. The Sisters of St. Agnes taught me to be honest with myself. I started acting in plays and performing stand-up comedy. I was Self-actualizing, and in Self-actualizing I was realizing myself and my connection to others. I was obsessed with my goal and I purely loved what I was doing. I experienced a full-blown kundalini arousal that came out of nowhere and my life was forever changed.
Sincerity In The Course of One’s Own Course of Discipline
I was honest with myself about everything. Jesus said, “The truth will set you free” John 8:31-32 ESV. I weeded out crazy fantasies that I had. I caught all of my delusional thinking and got rid of it. I became in touch with reality because in my case I knew that I needed to in order to have the confidence of a performer with integrity. Through this character development my vibrations became higher and I attracted many important and well to do friends. I was totally sincere in what I was doing and this is why I reverted back to telling myself the total truth.
Faith in God
I considered myself a spiritual wanderer in the beginning of my four year discipline adventure. In a moment of utter despair I asked God to give me strength and boy did I eventually get it. I realized some time later that when I asked God to give me strength that I was surrendering to God and I did not even know it. I had given up my ego and asked God to take over and the Spirit took over for me. “Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened” Matt. 7:7. This is how I realized that Jesus (the word) was trying to instill higher consciousness in us and this was also realized by Ramakrishna.
The Performance Of One’s Duties Without the Thought of Results
I was out there for the pure love of what I was doing. I doggedly tried and I started surprising myself. I just went out almost every night and I performed stand-up. It was fun even if I had to go back to the drawing board. I considered it a challenge and I was competing against myself. I was different than some of the other comedians who were competing with me and would steal some of my jokes. When I first got to the big city I thought that everybody was like me and I learned that was not the case. Finding this out about people was extremely educational for me. I did not care. I loved what I was doing and I was doing multiple disciplines that made me love myself. These experiences honed my intuition and I realized that people are generally like this until they practice true character development.
Discrimination Between the Real and the Unreal
All of the aforementioned disciplines and experiences of adventure led me to break through the koan from Zen – WORDS ARE TRAPS. I popped it. I achieved what I have termed Super Intuition. I became enlightened. Because I broke through the koan I realized that my truth telling led me to realize that I had been psychologically conditioned to believe things that were not true and I straitened myself out. I entered the state of non-duality. I saw things as they were and how they are now. I no longer quickly censored my thoughts with some kind of conditioning or bias. The inside of me became the same as the outside of me. I no longer distorted what I saw and I no longer distorted reality in my communication with others. I realized that others are just like me in the sense that they may not realize what they are doing in their states of dishonesty. Dishonesty is what binds us and is what is meant by original sin. Much of the wrong that we do stems from the ignorance or naivety of us not understanding that we have to be truthful in order for us to resurrect the pure conscious Spirit that we possessed when we were born.
The Universal principle of telling ourselves and others the truth is one of the master keys for us to unveil the pure God Consciousness within us. These are Ramakrishna’s methods but they are also my methods as I by accident through the love of what I was doing put these Universal principles to work and so can you. Give in and surrender to the Great Spirit and do not be afraid to take some time off and you can find your Self.
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, copyright, 1942, By Swami Nikhilananda, New York, Ramakrishna Vivekananda Center 1969
WORDS ARE TRAPS 