the gap -for sunil

[Guest guest]

It is a fact that man then first loses consciousness of the feet and then of the

lower part of his body until at last he is aware only within his head.

 

This is the crucial moment when the world which ordinarily filters through the

five senses into consciousness,disappears. Only after this does he suddenly

lapse into sleep. It is the pause here for a fraction of a second which has to

be detected by extreme vigilance.

 

The attention must be kept from straying and held so acutely that the bed,the

room and even the body become dulled to the point of obliteration.The student

should try to overcome the all round loss of consciousness,to conquer the

overpowering swoon which comes with sleep.

 

He cannot prevent sleep for Nature's habit must have her course,but he can

prevent the fall into ignorance of what is happening to him during the passage

into the new state. HE must try to keep his awareness and to mremain in it even

whilst his body and thinking faculty are completely at rest.

 

He must observe himself and be more than watchful against the tremulous coming

of sleep in that delectable borderland through which he passes,in those

fluttering fractions of a moment which time the passage from gross wakefulness

to profound slumber.

 

If this is the crucial moment when a man will lose this tiny seed of awareness

and fall into sleep as almost all men do,it is also the critical moment when

through advanced yoga practice he could enter into the Light itself.Those alone

who taken the trouble to practise these exercises are best entitled to say what

practical possibilities they contain or whether they will " work " or not.

 

But this pause between 2 states technically termed " the neutral point " ,is as

brief as a flash of lightning.If he succeeds in seizing and keeping hold of

it,he may pass from this stage into the pure Mind-the background of all his

conscious thought moments-and retain it as a mere glimmer of utter emptiness

throughout the night.

 

......The fourth state will come upon him unawares,that is he will not be

conscious of his actual entry into it. One moment he will be in the ordinary

wakeful state and the next moment he will be in the transcendental one.The

process of transition will take place in the sphere outside his own

consciousness.He will then discover himself to be in a new world of being.The

momentary consciousness has become a footprint which has led him to the hidden

self whence it originated.

 

Whosoever can succeed in this practice will find that the sublime beatitude of

the transcendental consciousness will be intermittently present throughout the

most feverish activities of the day and full so throughout the slumber of the

night.

 

The curious thing about the hidden observer is that it is very much awake when

we are very much asleep,as it is perfectly conscious when we are utterly

unconscious.

 

It is the " I " which is ever aware and consequently our real self.

 

It hovers in a sort of watchful self-contemplation,never losing hold on itself

and consequently never falling into the oblivion of ordinary sleep.