Nirvakalpa Smadhi - Nerve vacuum of deep sleep is not the same as the 3 1/2 Kundalini experience

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Dear Atmachaitanya,

 

When someone practices ashtanga yoga of Patanjali, it is quite possible that

they will find that when they go to sleep, their awareness will continue

unbroken throughout. This experience is known as "nerve vacuum," and is not the

same as Kundalini.

 

Kundalini is pure awareness that emanates through the body mechanism in the area

of the Kandal, the Sahasrara and the Hrdayam and is also beyond (i.e., 3 1/2).

With the knot of the Hrday Granthi being sundered, the inward flow of energy

increases to such an extent that the energy/consciousness fills the body and is

drawn up the sushumna from the Kandal and down from the Sahasrara until the

distinctions of separateness between the consciousness in the body field (Atman)

and the universal consciousness (Brahman) are entirely dissolved. This process

is also known as tapas.

 

All this to say that while one can practice yoga and come to a very pure state

in which one becomes aware of the normal function and experience of the body and

mind and pranas in deep sleep - known as nerve vacuum, the experience is not the

same as a the recollection of one's Self, which would be an experience in which

the Hrdayam begins to pulsate as a Singularity that dissolves the link between

the "I" and the images appearing within the all-pervasive and single "I as I."

 

This is why Kundalini Yoga is known as the Totality of Being. But then it

depends on what people think Kundalini Yoga is, as one can see that for many it

is only the awakening of the Shakti in the Kandal, which is only one part of the

3 1/2 aspects, as though in chanting AUM, one used only the first sound of Ah at

the base of the spine and not the other 2 sounds Oh and Mm and the 1/2 unstruck

sound.

 

Hearing (Sravana) is the first stage of Self Realization. When the mind has

become pure enough to reflect the Self, then the Self recollects Its inherent

Truth and begins to dissolve the notion of an identity between the sense of "I"

and the images and thoughts and sensations appearing in the mind.

 

This is also seen in the words of Christ: "The eye (seer) is the Light of the

body. Therefore, when thine eye be single, thy whole body will be filled with

Light."

 

The "seer" is the Self recognizing Itself as "single."

 

In every Religion, this is the practicality of the experience behind the much

debated words, words which quite often bind the mind into a state of conjecture

and not inversion to reflect the Self.

 

Regarding Patanjali, it would seem that he would also have had the Non-Dual

experience, as he mentions that one should meditate either at the crown

(Sahasrara) or the "self-effulgent light in the heart" (Hrdayam).

 

--

 

Message: 4

Sun, 16 Dec 2001 20:23:29 -0000

"atmachaitanya108" <stadri

Re: Importance of Samadhi in Advaita Vedanta

 

Dear Kaushal42,

Thank you for your thought provoking post. This topic is definitely not

"trivial", but of great significance to all those who are trying to grasp the

teachings of Advaita Vedanta, especially as expounded by Sri Shankara. For, 'If

the attainment of Samadhi is central to the experiential verification of

Vedanta', then all sincere seekers should immediately begin the practices of

Patanjali's ''Ashtanga Yoga', or Kundalini Yoga, or any other type of so called

'Yoga' which claims to result in the of attainment of a state in which all

distinctions subside, all duality vanishes, all subject and object phenomena

merge, i.e.; The state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. The seeker should also realize

that the mere study of the Upanishads can only result in an 'indirect knowledge'

or 'intellectual conviction' about the nature of Reality, and without the

'Direct experience of Reality',which can only be had in the Nirvikalpa State,

Liberation can never be attained.

 

This also implies that 'the real Guru' is the one who has himself already

attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi, for without that attainment, he too would only have

a indirect knowledge of Reality. And that Guru should teach the seeker the

means, the 'Yoga', by which he can too can attain the Nirvikalpa Samadhi state,

and thereby get the Direct experience of Reality, and thus attain Liberation.

 

It should also be noted that almost every modern Advaita Vedantin, i.e;

Paramahasa RamaKrishna, Swami Vivekananda (and all other Ramakrishna Monks),

Swami Shivananda, Swami Chinmayananda, Ramana Maharshi, etc., etc., have all

thought, without exception, the necessity of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. And it is not

only these modern Advaita Vedantins, for we see these same teachings being

propagated by all 'post-Shankara' ancient Advaita Vedantins (with the sole

exception of Sureswaracharya), starting with Vichaspati Mishra's Bhamiti

School,where, when commenting on Brahma Sutra 2-3-39, he explains the word

'Drashtavya' (To be seen) as if it were a passage from Patanjali, and concludes

that it means that "Atman is 'to be seen' by means of Samadhi". And the author

of the Vivarana(the commentary on Padmapada's Panchapadika),and founder of the

'Vivarana School', Praksatman, offers an explanation for the apparent

inconsistency that one who has already had the experience of the Non-Dual Atman

still continues to perceive the manifold world. His explanation is that the

Experience of the Non-Dual Atman is only in the Yogic trance of 'Asamprajnata

Samadhi', while the perception of duality is due to the defect engendered by the

Prarabdha-Karma,the Karma whose effects are still fructifying and can subside

only after the body drops! All other writers on Vedanta, (Vimuktaman, Chitsuka,

Sri Harsha, Anandabodha, Vidyarana, Sarvajnatma, etc., up to our own times) also

follow in the footsteps of these two 'way-showers', and seem to think that the

experience of Vedantic truths are reserved for adepts in Patanjali Yoga.

 

The truth of the matter, at least according to Sri Shankara, is quite

different,for he clearly states that:

 

'THE ATTAINMENT OF SAMADHI IS OF NO MORE VALUE THAN THE ATTAINMENT OF DEEP

SLEEP, YOU GO INTO IT IGNORANT AND YOU COME OUT OF IT IGNORANT'

 

What this actually means is that it is not a matter of attaining a state in

which all duality is merged, for everyone, without exception, has that

experience without any effort at all in the state of deep sleep. What is

required, however, is the Knowledge that 'how I was in Deep sleep , or

Nirvikalpa Samadhi, is how I am right now', and this knowledge only arises from

the teaching of the Upanishads and not from going to sleep or attaining

Nirvikalpa Samahdi.

 

The very best proof that Nirvikalpa Samadhi is utterly useless for the

attainment of the Knowledge of the Non-Dual Self, is that Maharishi Patanjali

himself,having attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi, proclaimed THE TRUTH OF DUALITY not

Non-Duality!!

 

That ignorant person who thinks he has been passing through the states of

walking ,dream and deep sleep, and then at a particular time 'attained' the new

state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi,and then came out of it, is not a knower of the Self

of the Upanishads, the Self which is unchanging,beyond time and space,and

eternally free from all 'states'.

 

The subject of necessity of Nirvikalpa Samadhi, is one which every serious

student of Advaita Vedanta must come to terms with. My understanding of Shankara

Vedanta is that it is NOT dependant on the 'private, individual, mystical

experience of Nirvikalpa Samadhi, A state which has been attained only by a few,

but rather that, the Truths of Vedanta are based on Sarva Loka Anubava(the

experience that is common to all people,at all times,and all places,and that by

merely examining your own everyday experience,without reliance upon any mystical

state of Nirvikalpa, one can come to realize that his true Self is

Nitya-Shuda-Budha-Mukta Svabavah - (Having the Nature of being Eternally Pure,

Eternally Conscious and Eternally Free).

 

That this topic deserves much more investigation than the brief presentation

made above is obvious. However, I would like to see what the other learned

Vidvans have to say regarding this subject before pursuing it in further detail.

 

Hari Om

Atmachaitanya