THEME PAPER OF NATIONAL SEMINAR

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VARIETIES OF YOGIC EXPERIENCE

Yogic experience is often prepared by means of three processes: pursuit of religious practices, pursuit of ethical experience; pursuit of aesthetic experience; pursuit of philosophical contemplation; and pursuit of free inquiry. Yogic experience is centred on the search and of contact with the reality or realities beyond the body, life and mind; aspiration for that experience and decisive resolution to pursue persistently and constantly that experience in its multifarious stages and forms and arrival at stabilisation of yogic states of consciousness that are marked by increasing status of equality (samattavam) and development of faculties of intuition, of revelation, inspiration and spontaneous discrimination between reality and appearances. Definition and description of yogic experiences and definition and description of states of realisation will also be considered.

The concept of second birth in yogic experience will also be described.

Statement of varieties of yogic experience, not only at different stages of yogic practice but also at higher summits of yogic realisation. As a result, there is the question of distinguishing between penultimate realisations and ultimate realisations. There is also the question of integral realisation.

This will be followed by a brief historical survey in which emphasis will be laid on yogic experiences which have led to the development of specialised systems of yoga, various religious cults, and practices. Decisive yogic experiences of the founders of religion and yogic systems will be described.

Central theme of yoga is that of ignorance, human bondage, liberation and perfection. In this connection, different conceptions of ignorance will be examined. The question of origin of ignorance, if any, will especially be examined.

Experiences in the field of ignorance: ignorance does not suspect itself; awareness of ignorance; experience of bondage, and intensity to attain liberation from bondage.

Preliminary experiences in yoga: quiet, calm, tranquillity, silence, and peace. Also the experiences of faith, presence of the invisible, tapsya of aspiration, tests of sincerity, experiences of higher intervention in life situations; and preliminary practices of truth, kindness, self-control, simplicity, contentment, purity, renunciation, and extremes of asceticism and middle path.

Major problems and experiences of the processes of purification, concentration (meditation, contemplation and cultivation of witness consciousness) and sudden experiences of silence, joy, knowledge, power, and contact or union with higher states of consciousness or with the Divine.

Central experiences of yoga, which are connected with the liberation from the human bondage:- equality and annihilation of ego, state of desirelessness; abiding silence, and experience of timelessness and spacelessness; experience of cosmic consciousness, experiences of nirvana; state of sthitha prajna; realisation of the Self in all; of all in the Self becoming all; realisation of nearness to the Divine, all intimate relations with the Divine and realisation of permanent union with the Divine; experience of the turiya state as distinguished from the states of ordinary waking, yogic, dream, and yogic sleep; states of samadhi, waking samadhi, and entry into the higher planes of superconscient; permanent attainment of ashta siddhis; experiences of vijnanamaya and anandamaya; plenary supramental vision and realisation of the supreme.

In delineating the above experiences, the following ideas and questions will be discussed:

It is sometimes held that ignorance pertains only to the individual and if so, the question is as to what is the nature of the individual and how it comes to fall into ignorance or acquires ignorance. Closely connected with this question is methodology of removal of ignorance and the claim that yoga is an effective method for removal of ignorance needs to be examined. In this connection, certain central phenomena need to be defined such as the phenomena of ego, memory and self-experience. Relevant questions are also related to reality and unreality of egoistic consciousness and the way in which the egoistic consciousness produces dualities in human experience, particularly in the experiences of error, suffering, falsehood and evil.

There will be a need to describe what in yogic parlance is called knowledge, jnana or paravidya. There is the concept of sevenfold ignorance and sevenfold knowledge and this concept needs to be elucidated.

Different concepts of liberation need to be distinguished from each other and there is a need to determine what exactly is the meaning of liberation and whether in the state of liberation the individual as distinguished from ego, survives. If the individual does not survive, a question may be asked what is it that was bound earlier and what is that gets liberated and what that enjoy liberation and immortality.

The concept of immortality needs also to be elucidated.

The distinction between jivan mukti and videha mukti needs to be brought out and theory regarding the accounts of liberation to be discussed. A further question is whether after obtaining liberation any further yoga is required or practised, if so, its aim beyond liberation. This could be followed by the discussion of the ideal of perfection, which is closely connected with the problems of the contribution that yoga can make not

only to the highest welfare of the individual but also to the highest welfare of the collectivity. In this connection, questions that need to be discussed are:

1. The distinction between liberation and perfection;
2. Elements of perfection;
3. Processes of attainment of perfection;

Finally, since perfection is related not only to the liberation of the individual from the imperfection of the physical, vitality, and mental nature (prakriti), but also the liberation of the nature from its own limitations, and since this involves the process of transformation of nature, it will be necessary to determine the nature and process of transformation as also the nature of transforming power that requires to be awakened and made operative by special processes of yoga. Discussion on this extremely important issue should also be undertaken.

Another aspect that is related to the varieties of yogic experiences is connected with the experience of a number of difficulties and obstacles, and a number of dilemmas and uncertainties. Yoga passes through the period of darkness and light, through dawns of new awakening and periods of dwelling and the sunlight of the spirit. Yoga is conceived as a vast field of exploration, free from dogmas, rituals and ceremonies by a psychological process of expansion of consciousness, deepening of consciousness, heightening of consciousness and by a process of ascent and descent of consciousness. It is an exploration of a huge ocean of consciousness, and one needs to chalk out with clarities in respect of the geography of the continents of the Spirit so as to be able to identify the place and value of different experiences.

For accomplishing the above task, it will be necessary to collect authentic states of various yogic experiences and they need to be placed in some kind of a systematic form. This will imply also the study of the psychology of consciousness which operates in varieties of yogic experiences.

It may be noted that various systems of yoga themselves describes psychological elements in their fields of experience, and there is sufficient clarity in these descriptions so as to arrive at clear conception that distinguishes one experience from another or else one level of experience as distinguished from another level of experience. Some important examples of individuals who have passed through yogic experiences can also be studied. Even the comparative study is possible in this field based upon a close study of various systems of yoga and also various systems of synthesis of yoga.

In delineating the psychological aspect of yogic experiences, we have to keep in mind the complex system of psychology that enables us to enter into the depths of varieties of yogic experiences. This relates to the following issues:

• Distinguishing features of the yogic experience so as to distinguish that experience from philosophical reflection, moral endeavour, artistic perception, poetic expression, and experiences of piety, charity, and similar religious emotions, which may be a prelude to but not yet be what may properly be called yogic experience.
• Psychology of conversion and the psychology of what is called in yoga, figuratively, the second birth.
• Preliminary exercises of purification, renunciation and concentration, including exercises of yama, niyama, shravana, manana, and smarana, etc.
• Psychology of faith in the yogic domain as distinguished from faith in the domain of credal religions.
• Psychology of preliminary experiences of quietude, tranquillity, calm, silence, peace, submission, resignation, endurance and various states of equanimity, and experiences of the attitudes of witness consciousness and the consciousness of separation of what is called in Samkhyan terminology purusha from prakriti, etc.
• Psychology of important stages of Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga.
• Psychology of central experiences of the states which are named in the Indian expressive terms, Atman or Brahman, Purusha and Ishwara as distinguished from those of Maya, Prakriti and Shakti.

• Psychology of the experiences of the inmost soul, psychic being or chaitya purusha, or the Upanishadic angustha matram, and experiences of annamaya purusha, pranamaya purusha, manomaya purusha, vijnanamaya purusha and anandamaya purusha.
• Psychology of cosmic consciousness, of consciousness of oneness and of the Self that is both static and dynamic kshara and akshara and also of purushottama.

There are also a number of experiences, and there is also complex system of psychology that enables us to enter into the depths of varieties of yogic experiences. This relates to the psychology of chitta and ahamkara, the psychology of manas and buddhi, and the psychology that pertains to the Tantric system of experiences relating to different Chakras that determine and control various levels of consciousness that are relevant to physical, vital, mental and higher levels. There is the psychology of the surface consciousness as distinguished from the psychology of the subconscious and the unconscious as also distinguished from subliminal consciousness, psychic consciousness and superconscient levels of consciousness. There is also the psychology that distinguishes between the sense-mind and intellectual mind and also that which distinguishes between the pure intellectuality and dynamic intellectuality and externalising intellectuality; there is also the psychology that distinguishes between pure intellectuality and intellectuality that is ruled by vital desire, which can be called mental-vital, and intellectuality which is subject to the predominance of the physical senses or that which can be called mental-physical. In other words, there are psychological conditions where the physical overlaps with the vital and the vital overlaps with the mental, and each combination has its own psychological characteristics. All this large wealth of psychological knowledge which has been developed in India through out the ages beginning with the Vedic times to the present day constitutes a vast field, which needs to be studied with clarity, since it will facilitate the psychological

understanding of different levels of yogic experiences and their practical applications in the outer life.

It is also to be noted that Indian psychology is quite varied and psychological functionings described in one system of classification do not necessarily correspond with the psychological functionings described in another classification. These also need to be brought out.

Moreover, new terminology has been continuously developed in Indian psychology. For example, the concept of adhyasa, although present in a certain way right from the early stages, became much more explicit and distinctive through the writings of Shakaracharya. Various concepts of the state of Nirvana can also be discerned in psychological terms and one can see that this word has been used in different senses in different epochs. The statement of psychology of sthita pragya is a distinctive contribution of the Bhagavadgita, which was not so clearly stated in earlier systems of psychology. But Bhagavadgita places this concept in great relief and clarity. Similarly, when we come to the integral psychology of Sri Aurobindo, we have not only new terms but new concepts, and also more intricate and complex analyses of various states of consciousness that distinguish the levels of the inconscient, subconscient, conscient, intra-conscient, circum-conscient, the subliminal, the psychic, and the superconscient with its gradations of the Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, Overmind and Supermind. This vast psychological knowledge needs to be expounded, if we are to do justice to the theme of yoga.

In the integral psychology of Sri Aurobindo, we have new concepts of transformation and the psychology of psychic transformation, spiritual transformation and supramental transformation. This entire system of transformative yoga, when explored, brings out the wealth and the knowledge of various states of consciousness and their corresponding powers not only for individual perfection but also for collective perfection.

An important question which will receive attention in this volume will be that of the conflict of the claims and counterclaims in regard to the validity of yogic experiences as also relating to the ultimate validity of one experience as against other experiences or ultimate validity of one set of experiences as against similar claim in regard to another set of yogic experiences. This question derives its importance from the argument that is sometimes raised that if there are claims and counterclaims in regard to the validity of one or one set of yogic experiences against the claim of the validity of another set of yogic experiences, all the yogic experiences run the risk of being invalid. The question is whether this argument can cogently or authentically be replied, and if so, what can be the nature of that reply.

An important question which will receive attention in this volume will be that of the conflict of the claims and counterclaims in regard to the validity of yogic experiences as also relating to the ultimate validity of one experience as against other experiences or ultimate validity of one set of experiences as against similar claim in regard to another set of yogic experiences. This question derives its importance from the argument that is sometimes raised that if there are claims and counterclaims in regard to the validity of one or one set of yogic experiences against the claim of the validity of another set of yogic experiences, all the yogic experiences run the risk of being invalid. The question is whether this argument can cogently or authentically be replied, and if so, what can be the nature of that reply.