Upward Movement, Infinite Sky, Sushumna and Kundalini Awakening

This is an experiential inquiry into a striking observation from my own practice: the same signs that arise through yoga, pranayama and shirshasana—head pressure, an upward movement, freer sushumna flow, subtler breathing and deeper dhyana—can also arise through contemplation alone, by experiencing the Self as Ekarnava, the infinite sky-ocean. What makes this observation particularly interesting is that one route works through the body and breath, while the other works through consciousness and identification. The possibility that both may lead to the same underlying movement of energy is the central discovery explored in this post.

Upward Movement and Spiritual Awakening

Flying, rising, ascending, or moving upward is commonly associated with awakening, Samadhi, Self-realisation, enlightenment, and transcendence. Across spiritual traditions, upward movement often represents a movement beyond ordinary, earth-bound consciousness toward something higher, freer, wider, or divine. This does not mean that every experience of flying or rising proves enlightenment or Samadhi, but the symbolism is remarkably consistent. The direction itself seems to carry a deep spiritual meaning: from limitation toward expansion, from contraction toward freedom, and from ordinary identification toward transcendence.

The same pattern can be noticed in very different traditions. In the caduceus, the ascending serpents culminate in wings, which naturally invites an esoteric interpretation of rising consciousness, although historically the caduceus is associated with Hermes and cannot simply be declared to be a Kundalini symbol. The Emerald Tablet also speaks of ascending from earth to heaven and descending again, with the transforming movement associated with the wind. From a yogic perspective, this can be compared symbolically with prana, although that identification is a comparative interpretation rather than the original historical meaning of the text. Yogic traditions themselves contain much more direct imagery of Kundalini rising, prana moving upward, passage through the chakras and sushumna, and yogis flying or becoming capable of moving through the sky. These different images need not have a single historical origin to reveal a common symbolic pattern of vertical ascent and transcendence.

Why the Divine Is Called the One Above

This also makes expressions such as “Upar Wala,” the One Above, understandable as spiritual symbolism. If upwardness is repeatedly associated with heaven, higher consciousness, transcendence, awakening, and liberation, then “the One Above” can be seen as a simple expression of that ancient metaphor. “Above” need not mean a literal physical location. It can mean beyond ordinary consciousness, beyond ego, beyond limitation, or transcendent to the usual sense of self. At the same time, many mystical traditions ultimately say that the Divine is not merely above but also within. Thus the movement toward what seems higher may finally become a recognition of something that was never truly separate from the deepest Self.

My Experience of the Infinite Sky

My own experience has made this symbolism much more meaningful. I have noticed that when I contemplate the Self as infinite sky often with gaze at Agya chakra, instead of imagining myself as a small individual confined to a particular body and local identity, something changes in meditation. The mind seems less bound to this local identification. There is a feeling of becoming open, vast, and unbounded, as though the sense of self is no longer limited to one point in space. After this contemplation, the sushumna seems to flow more freely upward, accompanied by greater bliss, deeper dhyana, and a more effortless and subtle breath, sometimes approaching a naturally breathless condition. I also experience genuine pressure in the head, but it is not uncomfortable.

What interests me is that the upward movement does not feel like something I am forcing. It seems to become easier when the contraction of local identification is reduced. This suggests to me that the real obstruction may not simply be an energetic obstruction but the mind’s identification with a limited body-mind structure. When the mind is tightly identified with the local self, the flow through the sushumna seems less free. When identification becomes more spacious and unobstructed, the chakras also seem to become less obstructed and the energy flow becomes more natural.

Mind, Chakras, Prana and Sushumna

Within the yogic and tantric model, mind, attention, prana, chakras, and sushumna are closely connected rather than completely separate. My experience leads me to consider whether the state of the mind directly influences how the subtle system is experienced. Local identification seems to contract attention; that contraction may be experienced as restriction in subtle flow; when identification relaxes into an unbounded sense of being, the flow through the central channel seems to become clearer. In this sense, the mind may be directly connected with the chakras, not necessarily because the physical brain is mechanically opening or closing them, but because consciousness, attention, pranic movement, and subtle experience appear to interact within the yogic framework.

This is an interpretation of experience rather than a claim that a physically measurable tube inside the body is literally blocked. “Obstruction” may refer to psychological identification, habitual tendencies, energetic contraction, or a combination of these. What matters to me is the repeatable experiential relationship: greater inner openness seems to coincide with freer upward flow, greater bliss, subtler breathing, and deeper meditation.

Flying, Samadhi and Self-realisation

This also gives a more careful meaning to experiences of flying or upward movement in relation to Savikalpa Samadhi, Nirvikalpa Samadhi, Self-realisation, and enlightenment. Experiences of ascent, expansion, lightness, bliss, inner movement, or flying may accompany deep states of meditation and may be interpreted within a yogic framework as signs of transcendence. But the experience itself does not prove enlightenment, Self-realisation, or even Samadhi. In Savikalpa Samadhi, some subtle distinction between experiencer and experience may remain. In Nirvikalpa Samadhi, ordinary subject-object distinctions are described as falling away, making the language of “I am flying upward” less applicable.

Therefore, there is an important distinction between the experience and its interpretation. “I am flying upward” is an experience within consciousness. The deeper possibility is that even the separate experiencer becomes less distinct. That is much closer to the language traditionally associated with nondual realisation. The upward movement can therefore be understood as a recurring symbol or phenomenological motif of transcendence without making the simplistic equation that flying itself means enlightenment.

From Ascent to Boundlessness

The most interesting part of my experience is that the process does not finally feel like a small self travelling upward into a distant heaven. When I imagine the Self as infinite sky, the local sense of being confined to the body becomes weaker, and the upward movement seems to happen within that very boundlessness. In this way, the old images of wings, rising serpents, flying yogis, Kundalini ascending through the sushumna, heaven above, and the One Above can be understood as different expressions of a broad spiritual language of moving beyond limitation.

My experience does not establish that all these symbols historically mean the same thing, nor that every upward sensation represents enlightenment. But it does suggest a meaningful relationship between expansion of consciousness and the experience of upward flow. When local identification relaxes, the sushumna seems less obstructed, the chakras feel more open, bliss increases, breathing becomes naturally subtler, and dhyana deepens. For me, the important discovery is therefore not simply that “upward” is spiritual, but that when the mind becomes less locally identified and more like infinite sky, the whole inner movement seems to become freer.

A final practical distinction is important: naturally subtle or temporarily imperceptible breathing should not be deliberately forced or held. Likewise, painless head pressure should not automatically be taken as spiritual progress; if it becomes intense, persistent, or accompanied by significant physical or neurological symptoms, it should be treated as a bodily symptom rather than automatically given a spiritual explanation.

The Same Effect from Two Directions: Yoga and the Infinite Sky

A Puzzle About Sushumna, Head Pressure and Deep Dhyana

I think I have finally solved a puzzle that I had been observing in my practice for a long time. Practices such as yoga, pranayama, and even shirshasana can produce a certain pressure in the head, together with a sense of upward movement, freer sushumna flow, subtler breathing, and deeper, sometimes almost breathless, dhyana. What has become especially interesting to me is that a similar effect can arise without these physical practices. When I contemplate Ekarnava, the infinite sky-ocean, and experience the Self as vast and unbounded rather than locally confined to the body, a similar type of head pressure can arise, along with a feeling of upward movement, greater freedom in the sushumna, and deeper dhyana.
This makes me think that whether one holds the ear from one side or the other, the effect may ultimately be the same. In other words, the physical route and the contemplative route may be different means of producing a similar internal result. Yogic body manipulations, pranayama, and inverted postures may influence the system from the bodily side, while deep contemplation may influence it directly through consciousness and attention.

Rajyoga and the Direct Route

This also gives me a possible explanation for why Rajyogis can say that elaborate yogasanas and pranayama are not absolutely necessary for entering deep dhyana. If the essential process is not the physical manipulation itself but the gathering and upward movement of subtle energy, then it may be possible to reach the same state through contemplation alone. The Rajyogi may not need to manipulate the body extensively if the mind can itself become sufficiently concentrated, expanded, and detached from local identification to allow the upward movement through the sushumna.
This direct route may, however, be more difficult. The body can provide a kind of support or preparation, whereas contemplation requires the mind itself to become capable of producing the necessary inward concentration and expansion. Therefore, it seems to me that the two approaches need not be opposed. The physical practices can prepare and organize the system, while contemplation can take the process further without depending entirely on physical manipulation.

Energy Rather Than Pressure Is the Main Thing

This also changes how I understand the head pressure itself. The pressure may not be the actual goal or the essential phenomenon. It may simply be a symptom or indication accompanying the gathering or upward movement of energy. Yogic practices may bring this experience about through physical and respiratory means, while contemplation of the infinite sky-ocean may produce it through a direct change in consciousness and identification.

Therefore, I would not say that head pressure itself is the evidence of progress. The important thing is the underlying process that the pressure may accompany. If there is pressure without the corresponding sense of vitality, clarity, inwardness, or energetic movement, it may simply be a physical ailment and should not automatically be interpreted as spiritual activity. The pressure is secondary; what I call energy is primary in the yogic interpretation.

Energy Everywhere

From this perspective, the idea that energy is present everywhere also becomes important. If the same underlying life-energy can support the functioning of the digestive organs in the gut, it is reasonable within the yogic model to consider that it can also support the functioning of the brain and the processes involved in contemplation. Each organ has its own natural work, and the same underlying energy is involved in sustaining those functions. The difference is in the particular work being performed, not necessarily in the existence of completely separate energies.

This gives a broader meaning to the experience. The energy that supports digestion does not have to be considered fundamentally different from the energy involved in breathing, movement, concentration, or contemplation. It may be understood as one life-energy expressing itself through different organs and functions according to their natural or destined work.

Two Routes, One Inner Movement

My present understanding, therefore, is that yoga, pranayama, shirshasana, and other bodily practices can help gather or redirect the system toward the head and central axis, sometimes producing head pressure and supporting deeper dhyana. But contemplation of Ekarnava, the infinite sky-ocean, can apparently produce a similar movement without the same physical manipulation. By expanding the sense of Self beyond local identification, contemplation itself seems capable of drawing the attention and subtle energy upward, with the same accompanying pressure and deepening of meditation.

This may explain why different yogic paths can arrive at similar states through very different methods. One begins more from the body and breath and moves toward consciousness; another begins directly with consciousness and allows the body and energy to follow. The first may make the process easier for some practitioners, while the second may be more direct but more difficult. For me, the most natural conclusion is not to choose one and reject the other, but to combine them: use yogic practices to prepare and balance the system, and use contemplation to directly expand consciousness and deepen dhyana.

The real discovery for me is that the same inner phenomenon can apparently be approached from two directions. The body can influence the movement of energy toward the head, and consciousness can influence the same movement through contemplation. The head pressure may appear in both cases, but the pressure itself is only a symptom. What matters is the deeper movement of energy, the freeing of the sushumna, the loosening of local identification, and the resulting deepening of dhyana.

Within the yogic framework, this makes the distinction between Hathyoga physical practice and Rajyoga less absolute than it first appears. They may simply be different ways of working with the same underlying relationship between body, breath, mind, prana, energy, and consciousness.

Shirshasana, Sushumna and Nondual Meditation: Balancing Stillness, Pranic Flow and Head Pressure in Worldly Life

Shirshasana has traditionally been regarded as a major or “top” asana because it reverses the body’s normal orientation and strongly changes bodily awareness. My experience has made me wonder whether familiarity with head-centered sensations may help during meditation, where awareness can sometimes become concentrated around the head. This should not be understood as a claim that increased intracranial pressure is desirable or necessary; the “pressure” I mean is an experiential sensation of fullness, heaviness or activity.

In shoulder stand and Halasana, I have noticed that small changes in position can markedly alter head discomfort. Slightly lifting the head or allowing the feet to touch a wall can change weight distribution and reduce the sensation. This shows me that posture, alignment, support and muscular effort strongly influence subjective experience. Discomfort, however, should not automatically be interpreted as spiritual progress; persistent, severe or unusual head pain deserves attention rather than spiritualization.

This becomes particularly relevant to my practice of nondual meditation, including what I call shavid or quantum darshan, especially during busy worldly days. Intense awareness can sometimes be accompanied by strong head sensations. Daily kundalini yoga postures and breathing exercises seem to complement this by conditioning the body and attention to controlled changes in posture, breathing, muscular effort and internal sensation. I find that this can make intense experiences less disturbing and increase my ability to remain present rather than react to every sensation.

I therefore see kundalini practice less as a search for dramatic energetic experiences and more as preparation, grounding and conditioning. Repeated exposure to controlled intensity may make unusual bodily and mental experiences feel less foreign, although this does not prove that every sensation is caused by kundalini energy.

Yoga and nondual meditation can consequently complement each other without requiring withdrawal from ordinary life. Yoga works through body and breath; meditation works directly with awareness. Work, responsibilities, conversation and stimulation become part of the practice when awareness is maintained amid them.

Most importantly, head pressure should never become the goal. Stronger pressure does not necessarily mean deeper meditation, stronger kundalini or spiritual advancement. The meaningful measure is greater clarity, steadiness and non-reactivity. If a posture causes discomfort, changing or stopping it is more sensible than forcing it. Persistent physical symptoms should not automatically be interpreted as awakening.

For me, Shirshasana and related practices are valuable not because they create a desired amount of pressure, but because they may help the body and attention become familiar with changing sensations. Daily yoga provides a grounding counterpart to nondual meditation: the busy world supplies stimulation, meditation reveals how awareness responds, and yoga disciplines the body, breath and attention. The deeper aim is therefore not greater intensity, but the ability to meet whatever arises—with steadiness, clarity and less reactivity. However, when there is enough stillness, nondual meditation in the midst of worldly activity becomes difficult. It feels almost like water cannot be both completely still and flowing at the same time: in one place there is stasis, while in another there is movement. How, then, can the two truly coexist?

Regarding head pressure, I also experience that a certain initial upward movement or “pumping” toward the head is needed to begin breathless meditation and initiate the flow through Sushumna. With the gaze turned upward and attention resting on the infinite, all-pervading sky as the Self, or Ekarnava, a rise in head pressure may arise together with bliss. This is not experienced as discomfort but as a positive sign of the meditation deepening.
However, if the pressure becomes uncomfortable, awareness can be lowered and expanded beyond the head. The sense of Self need not be extended only upward toward the infinite; it can also be expanded downward and sideways, in all directions. This reduces the head pressure while allowing the Sushumna flow to continue. Once established, the flow can sustain itself for roughly an hour, until, in my experience, the available prana becomes exhausted.

Spiritual Awakening and Self-Realisation: Mental Chaos, Nondual Meditation and Worldly Life

When Inner Calm Suddenly Meets Mental Rush

I have often wondered whether spiritual awakening and self-realisation can ever be accompanied by suicidal thoughts or deep depression. My own understanding became clearer when I looked back at something I experienced during my university days. I had become extremely calm and contained, and I was able to dissolve mental chaos quite easily. The inward movement was becoming natural to me. I was accustomed to silence, observation and the gradual disappearance of disturbing mental movements. Yet, near the end of that period, something unexpected happened. A sudden rush of recognition arose. Profession and family, which appeared to be ordinary parts of life, suddenly seemed to be creating chaos and opposing one another at the same time. It was not simply one particular problem; the whole structure of ordinary life seemed to reveal its contradictions together.
There were actually no clear-cut self-inflicting at that time. Rather, I had become somewhat reluctant about worldly growth. Perhaps this was partly an effect of my nondual philosophy and the way I was working with it. Desires were still there, but they were no longer experienced as cravings. Yet, as I could see in practical life, ordinary desires can be difficult to fulfil unless they become strong cravings in today’s materialistic world. People driven by intense cravings can easily move ahead of those whose desires remain moderate and intellectually restrained. From the outside, therefore, my condition could sometimes look like depression or a lack of ambition. From within, however, it did not necessarily feel like depression. I could feel that, in my own understanding, all was well.
There were also occasions when I realised how easily such a state could be misunderstood by others. Even a casual or playful remark about self-infliction, made perhaps as a kind of warning or expression of frustration, could backfire because people might understand it in a completely different sense from what was intended. That taught me an important practical lesson: never speak casually in such language, because others may attach a meaning to it that is entirely different from one’s own inner meaning. It is also possible that such a condition might have helped me in another way, by bringing more care or attention from people around me. Much depends on the society and the people one lives among. Some societies or individuals may treat a person who appears withdrawn, unsuccessful or vulnerable even more harshly, while others may recognise the difficulty and extend a helping hand. The same outward condition can therefore produce very different consequences depending on how people respond to it.
The experience nevertheless showed me something important. Even a person who has developed considerable inner calm, and perhaps has reached a profound state of awakening or self-realisation, can become temporarily destabilised when an unusually large movement of recognition and mental activity suddenly arises. Inner calm does not automatically mean that one has already learned how to integrate every possible contradiction of ordinary life. That integration may require another kind of training: learning to carry inner freedom into the full complexity of family, profession, desire, responsibility and the material world. Once a person has genuinely experienced and learned to navigate such complexity, it may leave a lasting resilience—perhaps even lifelong—so that the person can remain much less vulnerable to similar disturbances later, even if he eventually steps away from a demanding or struggle-filled life.

In a nutshell, self-inflictive, depressed, frustrated or hopeless moods may arise from unresolved emotions. Awakening and spirituality can help greatly in recognising, processing and resolving these emotions, but they also have their limits. When unresolved emotions accumulate faster than one’s capacity to clear them, the mind can become increasingly burdened and depression may arise. These unresolved emotions leave imprints, or what may be experienced as a kind of darkness over the self, creating a feeling of inner heaviness and even suffocation. In this sense, spiritual practice can help clear the darkness, but when the emotional load becomes greater than the person’s present capacity to process it, even a spiritually inclined person may become temporarily overwhelmed.

I have also observed another tendency in worldly life: a person who carries less mental or emotional baggage may sometimes appear more capable of carrying additional burdens. Others may therefore unconsciously shift some of their own burden onto him, seeking relief for themselves and creating an apparent balance of burdens. But in this process of taking and giving, the extra burden may sometimes become concentrated on the person who was already relatively free. What appears to distribute the burden equally can therefore have the opposite effect, leaving the awakened or inwardly developed person with a load that becomes unexpectedly difficult to lift.

Awakening Does Not Mean That Mental Turbulence Will Never Return

This also changed the way I look at what is sometimes called spiritual purification. Daily cleaning of the mind does not necessarily mean that the mind will become progressively quiet without interruption. Sometimes suppressed thoughts, emotions, memories and contradictions may come into awareness together, often triggered by external conditions. After several calm days, a person may suddenly experience a great rush of thoughts and wonder why everything has become chaotic again. The contrast itself can produce exhaustion, hopelessness, anxiety or even depression-like feelings. But such a phase does not automatically mean that spiritual practice has failed. It can mean that the person has encountered more psychological material than he is presently able to process comfortably.

There is also an important difference between seeing thoughts and being overwhelmed by them. In a stable contemplative process, thoughts may arise without having the same authority over the person. During an overwhelming phase, however, thoughts can become repetitive, emotionally charged and convincing. In such a situation, trying to meditate harder or forcing the mind to become empty may not always help. A Sometimes the better direction is to reduce the intensity of inward practice, return to ordinary activity, maintain sleep and food, walk, remain connected with other people and allow the nervous system to settle. Spiritual practice should not becoms another form of struggle against the mind. For me, a nondual practice such as Sharirvigyan Darshan or Quantum Darshan, applied in practical life, may be one of the easiest and least stressful forms of meditation during such periods. Instead of demanding prolonged inward concentration or withdrawal from ordinary activity, it allows awareness to continue while one is living, working, dealing with family, fulfilling responsibilities and facing the ordinary chaos of life. In this way, meditation becomes less a separate exercise and more a natural way of living.

The Difference Between Spiritual Crisis and Self-Realisation

I do not think suicidal thinking should be regarded as a necessary stage of awakening. A profound spiritual experience can coincide with suicidal thoughts, but that does not make those thoughts a higher spiritual attainment. A person may be undergoing what is sometimes described as a spiritual emergency, where identity, meaning and perception change so rapidly that the psychological system becomes overwhelmed. At the same time, similar experiences can occur with depression, dissociation, mania, psychosis, sleep deprivation or other psychological conditions. Therefore, an extraordinary inner experience should not automatically be interpreted as purely spiritual.

For me, an important point is that realising that the ego is not the ultimate reality does not mean that the body or life should be neglected. Self-realisation is not about destroying ordinary life; it is about changing the way we identify with it. In fact, spirituality can make life more meaningful and stable by giving a person hope, connection and a deeper reason to live. But if spiritual struggle makes a person feel that life has lost all meaning, or that he cannot reconcile his inner experience with ordinary life, it can have the opposite effect. It is also practically clear that spiritual life cannot easily advance without some worldly support. The body needs food, shelter, health, rest and social security, while the mind also needs a reasonably stable environment. Spiritual practice therefore does not exist completely apart from worldly life. Some basic worldly support gives a person the foundation from which deeper spiritual work can continue.

Why an Inward Life Can Become Vulnerable to Sudden Chaos

Looking back, I think there is another important reason why such destabilisation can happen. A person who has become habitual of a very inward and calm life may become highly trained in dealing with mental movements that arise within that controlled environment, but may not be equally trained in living amid external chaos. He may know how to sit quietly, observe thoughts and dissolve inner disturbances, yet have comparatively little experience of simultaneously handling family demands, professional responsibility, friendly chaos, interpersonal conflict, uncertainty and other pressures of ordinary life.

Then, when an extraordinary amount of chaos suddenly arises, the person may be disturbed not because his inner practice was false, but because he had not yet developed enough experience of carrying that inner stability into difficult circumstances. Calmness in the absence of disturbance and stability in the presence of disturbance are related, but they are not exactly the same accomplishment.

Sharirvigyan Darshan as a Bridge Between Inner Life and Ordinary Life

This is where my experience with Sharirvigyan Darshan became important. Instead of trying to escape profession, family, body and ordinary responsibilities, I began living and working according to the principles of Sharirvigyan Darshan. For me, this worked wonderfully. It stabilised me and, surprisingly, did not slow spiritual progress. I felt that the pace of spiritual development became even faster than before, but I also realised that this way of living has its limits. As long as the body has enough energy, one can deploy that energy in both the worldly and spiritual realms together. With advancing age, however, a person naturally has to move more in one direction or the other. Therefore, the spiritual way may gradually become more suitable, although some worldly engagement is still necessary for life. Even then, whatever worldly activity remains can be combined with nondual contemplation, so that the two do not become completely separate.

I think the reason was that ordinary life itself became part of the training. Family, profession, relationships, bodily experiences, desires, responsibilities and social situations were no longer separate from spiritual work. They became the actual environment in which awareness had to function. Instead of learning only how to dissolve mental chaos in a quiet inward state, I was repeatedly exposed to the chaos of life and could use the same understanding to process it.

This creates a kind of training through repeated experience. A person first learns calmness in a quiet environment. Then he learns to retain that calmness while ordinary disturbances occur. With continued experience, he develops confidence that even when something extraordinary happens, mental chaos can arise without necessarily controlling or destroying him. The disturbance becomes familiar rather than frightening.

From Escaping Chaos to Learning How to Dissolve It

This, to me, is perhaps the deeper lesson. The goal is not to create a life in which chaos never appears. Such a life may provide calmness, but it does not necessarily prepare one for the unpredictable intensity of existence. The stronger stability comes when one can remain inwardly centred while life continues to move around him.

Sharirvigyan Darshan, as I experienced it, provided precisely this integration. Instead of separating spiritual life from worldly life, it allowed the two to operate together. I have seen many people leave the material realm in order to become more spiritual, but my approach was almost the opposite: I continued to engage with the material realm while carrying the spiritual realm along with it. I did not see family, profession and worldly responsibilities as obstacles that had to be abandoned. Rather, I tried to bring spiritual understanding into them.

I have seen, for example, a doctor leave his job to become a writer, filmmaker and director around a spiritual figure. My own path was different. I continued with my job while becoming a writer and even got awakening like a spiritual figure. I did not have to leave my professional life for spirituality instead it further grew with this unique nondual philosophy. To me, these things did not appear contradictory. I am not presenting this as an exaggeration or as an achievement to be compared with others; it is simply how I experienced what happened in my own life through this practical philosophy. It may also be that my profession did not carry the same level of responsibility as that of a doctor, whose decisions can sometimes directly affect whether a person lives or dies. Human life is more precious than animal life, and the emotional and moral weight of such responsibility can therefore be much greater. However, I feel that spirituality properly integrated into a physician’s profession should not itself do any harm. If anything, it can strengthen the value placed on human life and make the work more meaningful than when it is approached through purely worldly considerations. If difficulties still arise, they may be due to other factors working together rather than spirituality itself.

Of course, no philosophy or spiritual discipline can make a person completely incapable of being disturbed. Even a highly experienced practitioner can become overwhelmed by sufficiently extreme circumstances. The real achievement is different: disturbance becomes less frightening, less sticky and less capable of reorganising the whole personality around itself.

Thus my earlier experience and my later understanding fit together. I once learned to dissolve mental chaos mainly through inward calmness. Later, by living fully in ordinary life through Sharirvigyan Darshan, I learned something broader: one does not become truly stable by escaping chaos; one becomes stable by becoming experienced in remaining oneself while chaos moves through oneself. Later on, I again shifted from the struggle of active worldly life toward calmer meditation, but now with much better understanding and control. I had already experienced worldly life and its chaos closely, so the inward movement was no longer the same as before. It became a more informed and balanced return to calmness. This may be an important part of the two-way movement between mental purification and worldly engagement, where each strengthens the other and gradually leads toward genuine integration and self-realisation.

Quantum Verse and Nondual Living: Why Humanity Is Religion, Work Is Worship, Problems Are Teachers, and Household Life Is Sadhana

The Deeper Meaning of My Quantum Verse

In my Quantum Verse, I had written four simple thoughts: no religion is better than humanity, no worship is better than work, no problem is better than a teacher, and no hermit is better than householdship. Earlier, I saw these mainly as principles of life. Recently, through my own experience of working, learning and moving towards awakening and samadhi, I understood a deeper connection between all four. They are not really four unrelated statements. They can be understood as four practical expressions of a nondual way of living, especially when viewed through what I call Sharirvigyan Darshan and Quantum Darshan. Amazingly, I had made it as a spiritual fun for a magazine, but it turned a topmost lesson of my life later on.

No Religion Is Better Than Humanity

For me, humanity is greater than religion because humanity keeps spiritual knowledge connected with actual life. A belief, doctrine or religious practice can remain limited to thought or ritual, but humanity tests what we really understand by how we live and work with other beings. In that sense, humanity itself can become the most practical religion. It also has another important role: it prevents wrong working. When work is done without sensitivity to life and without a nondual understanding, knowledge can become mechanical, ego-driven or harmful. Humanity keeps the action grounded.

No Worship Is Better Than Work

The second statement became much clearer through my own experience. I did not discover that work is automatically worship. Work becomes worship only when it is done with a nondual mindset. Otherwise work can create bad habits, strengthen conditioning and make a person dependent on methods that may not suit the actual structure of the body and mind. This was important in my own journey. I did not stop learning from other people because I disliked teachers or believed that others had nothing to offer. Rather, I found that the people and methods available to me often did not work in the knowledgeable way that I considered necessary according to Sharirvigyan Darshan and Quantum Darshan. If I continued working through unsuitable methods, I could develop wrong habits through the very process of learning. So I felt it was better to learn and work largely by myself. It proved as a boon for me and I could grow as per my own will.

Self-Learning Does Not Mean Rejecting Teachers

My approach was not complete isolation. I took help whenever it was genuinely needed, but I kept it to the minimum necessary. The important point was that I did not want to become dependent on others. I wanted to understand the work directly and discover how it actually functioned through my own observation and experience. This distinction matters to me now: self-learning is not anti-teacher. It means refusing to make the teacher a substitute for one’s own seeing. A teacher can point, explain or correct, but the actual understanding still has to become one’s own.

No Problem Is Better Than a Teacher

This also changes the meaning of the third line. A problem can become a teacher when we do not merely ask someone else to remove it but investigate why it exists, what it is showing and what it requires us to understand. In that sense, the problem itself can expose weaknesses in our knowledge and working. It can teach us more directly than an external explanation because we have to encounter the principle in actual life. This is why I now see the statement not simply as praise of teachers, but as a reminder that learning can come through the very difficulty we are trying to solve.

Nature as the Greatest Teacher

This experience also led to another meaning that arose naturally for me. If nonduality is maintained, nature itself can become the best teacher. Nature does not teach through dependence. It shows processes directly through the body, mind, environment and the relationships between them. When one observes without separating oneself completely from what is being observed, learning becomes more direct. A teacher may explain a principle, but nature continuously demonstrates it. Therefore, the highest form of learning may not always be learning from a person; it may be learning to see what is already happening. Together, nature is nondual and it likes a nondual person, bhola or innocent like shiva.

No Hermit Is Better Than Householdship

The fourth line also becomes deeper in this framework. Household life is not necessarily opposed to spiritual development. It keeps knowledge in contact with work, relationships, responsibility and ordinary human situations. A hermit may reduce external distractions, but household life can test whether nondual understanding actually works in the middle of life. If a truth is valid only in isolation, its practical value remains limited. Householdship therefore becomes a kind of living laboratory where knowledge has to function through action rather than remain an idea.

My Experience of Work and Awakening

My own path gave these statements their present meaning. I began working in my own style because I did not want to acquire unsuitable habits from working methods that did not fit the understanding I had developed through Sharirvigyan Darshan and Quantum Darshan. I still accepted help when necessary, but kept dependence low. I continued this self-directed way of working, and according to my experience it worked: I experienced awakening and movement towards samadhi. That experience made me see that work can truly become worship, but only when the work is performed from nondual understanding. Without that foundation, simply working hard does not make work spiritual.

The Four Statements as One Principle

I now see the four lines as different expressions of one principle. Humanity gives the right relationship with life. Work gives the right relationship with action. Problems give the right relationship with learning. Householdship gives the right relationship with ordinary existence. But all four require the same foundation: nondual understanding. Without that foundation, religion can become dogma, work can become conditioning, teachers can become objects of dependence, and renunciation can become escape. With it, humanity becomes religion, work becomes worship, problems become teachers, nature becomes a source of direct learning, and household life itself can become a field of spiritual practice. This is the deeper meaning that my own experience has recently added to my Quantum Verse.

राज हठ

न मन्दिर, न मठ,
सबसे ऊपर राज हठ।

क्यों क्या पूछे जनता व्यर्थ,
राजा का बस एक ही रथ।
राज-अहं ही जीत गया,
भाड़ में जनता-समूह गया।

माने जो पद उसे मिले
जो मुकरे उसपे चले लट्ठ।
न मन्दिर, न मठ,
सबसे ऊपर राज हठ।

जनता करे कहाए अधर्म
राजा करे तो महान धर्म।
उलटे काम भी सीधे बनें,
राज-हठ में नियम तनें।
झूठ कहे तो नीति बने,
सच कहे तो गीति तने।

लुच्चों के संग कैसा मेल
कैसा गठजोड़ कैसा गठमठ।
न मन्दिर, न मठ,
सबसे ऊपर राज हठ।

लोकतंत्र का नाम धरे,
राज हठ ही काम करे।
जन की इच्छा जाए हार,
ताज कहे तो सब स्वीकार।

नाकाम जमावड़ा
नाकाम इकट्ठ।
न मन्दिर, न मठ,
सबसे ऊपर राज हठ।

Transliterated version

raaj hath

Na mandir, na math,
Sabse upar raaj hath.

Kyon kya poochhe janta vyarth,
Raja ka bas ek hi rath.
Raaj-aham hi jeet gaya,
Bhaad mein janta-samooh gaya.

Maane jo pad use mile
Mukre uspe chale latth.
Na mandir, na math,
Sabse upar raaj hath.

Janta kare adharm kahaye,
Raja kare to dharm kahaye.
Ulte kaam bhi seedhe banen,
Raaj-hath mein niyam tanen.
Jhooth kahe to neeti bane,
Sach kahe to geeti tane.

Luchchon ke sang kaisa mel
Kaisa gathjod kaisa gathmath.
Na mandir, na math,
Sabse upar raaj hath.

Loktantra ka naam dhare,
Raaj hath hi kaam kare.
Jan ki ichchha jaaye haar,
Taaj kahe to sab sweekaar.

Naakaam jamaavda,
Naakaam ikatth.
Na mandir, na math,
Sabse upar raaj hath.

तुम्हरो भजन राम को पावै

तुम्हरो भजन राम को पावै।
वानर की गति, मनुष्य का ध्यान,
दोनों के संग बने हनुमान।
न केवल वानर, न केवल नर,
दोनों मिलकर हुए एक स्वर।
डाली से डाली, वन से वन,
चलता रहता उसका तन।
टिके रहना रीत नहीं, पर
गति में भी कोई प्रीत नहीं।
फल मिला तो फल ही खाया,
पत्ता मिला तो पत्ता पाया।
कच्चा या फल पका हुआ,
भेद न देखा, काम हुआ।
गले में डाले स्वर्णहार,
क्षण भर पहने वह श्रृंगार।
फिर सहज ही उसको छोड़ दिया,
मन भीतर जैसे मोड़ लिया।
एक डाल छूटी, दूजी थामी,
किसी एक डाल की जगह न मानी।
जितना मिला, उतना ही लिया,
पकड़ा नहीं, आगे हो लिया।
दृष्टि न बांधी एक दिशा में,
देखा जग को हर दिशा में।
क्षण-क्षण बदली उसकी राह,
फिर भी न कहीं जमाई चाह।
यही गति जब मानव धारे,
उसमें जागें विवेक हमारे।
चलना केवल भटकना न हो,
कर्म हो, फिर भी बंधना न हो।
मन जब वस्तुओं में न फंसे,
इच्छा मन को बार-बार न कसे,
जब हाथ करे, पर मन न धरे,
तब अज्ञान को भीतर शक्ति हरे।
बिखरी शक्ति भीतर आए,
ध्यान का दीपक स्वयं जलाए।
जिस छवि को पहले बुलाते थे,
वह मन में स्वयं ही ठहर जाए।
बैठो तो साथ, चलो तो साथ,
जागो तो भी रहे वही बात।
ध्यान न केवल आसन में हो,
जीवन के हर क्षण में हो।
धीरे-धीरे चंचलता थमे,
मन अपने ही केंद्र में जमे।
बाहर गति काम करे,
भीतर चेतना विश्राम धरे।
यहीं समाधि की राह खुलती,
यहीं मन की थकान है ढलती।
जहां न खोज, न कोई काम,
वहीं विश्राम का नाम है राम।
राम केवल नाम नहीं,
भीतर एक धाम कहीं।
जहां चेतना अपने में ठहरे,
बाहर से मानो गूंगे बहरे।
इसीलिए यह वचन महान,
जिसमें छिपा साधना-विज्ञान।
“तुम्हरो भजन राम को पावै,”
हनुमत से राम बन जावै।।
हनुमान गति, हनुमान कर्म,
समर्पण का हनुमान धर्म।
हनुमान शक्ति, पर उसके पार,
कर्म हो पर बिन अहंकार।
यह बात है केवल पढ़ी नहीं,
सोच को लेकर गढ़ी नहीं।
दादागुरु की संगति में रहकर,
वर्षों देखा उनको जीकर।
उनमें गति थी, पकड़ नहीं,
कर्म था, भीतर जकड़ नहीं।
सादगी थी, और गहरा ध्यान,
जीवन में जागा वही विधान।
चाहकर नहीं मैंने अपनाया,
संग ने धीरे-धीरे सिखाया।
जो गुण उनमें सहज समाए,
अनजाने भीतर उतरते जाए।
कर्मयोग ने राह दिखाई,
अद्वैत दृष्टि ने गांठ खुलवाई।
गतिशीलता बनी साधना,
हनुमान की रामाराधना।
सात्त्विक जीवन, सरल विचार,
धीरे-धीरे हल्का भार।
ऊर्जा बाहर कम बिखरी, तो
ध्यान में ही भीतर निखरी।
हनुमान तब अर्थ में आए,
देव नहीं, ये पथ दिखलाए।
वानर ने जो बाहर दिखाई,
शक्ति वही नर-भीतर आई।
वानर पकड़ता, छोड़ देता,
मनुष्य भी बंधन तोड़ देता।
वानर चलता, रुकता नहीं,
मानव भी पहुंचे कहीं से कहीं।
वानर के गुण स्वयं साधना नहीं,
मानव-मन बिन वे अराधना नहीं।
प्रकृति ने जो बाहर दिखाया,
मानव ने उसे भीतर उठाया।
गति से कर्म, कर्म से ध्यान,
ध्यान से होए आत्मज्ञान,
जब सब खोजें शांत हो जाएं,
तब भीतर राम खुद दिख जाएँ।
इसलिए हनुमान से राम तक
अनेक नहीं, एक ही मर्म है।
एक छोर पर जागा कर्म,
दूसरे छोर पर शांत धर्म है।
हनुमान हैं चलती शक्ति,
राम हैं उस शक्ति की मुक्ति।
हनुमत हैं जागृत प्राण,
राम उनका परित्राण।
इसलिए केवल पूजा मत करना,
उनकी गति को जीवन में धरना।
कर्म करो, पर भटको नहीं,
जगत में रहो, पर अटको नहीं।
ऊर्जा को मत व्यर्थ बहाना,
उसे ध्यान में भीतर लाना।
मन को धीरे हल्का करना,
राम को उसके कंधे पे धरना।
तब शायद भेद खुल जाए,
खुद ही कोई गुनगुनाए—
“तुम्हरो भजन राम को पावै,”
हनुमान जियो, राम मिल जावै।
वानर की गति, मनुष्य का ध्यान,
दोनों के संग बने हनुमान।
उससे मन राम में थमे,
जीवन अपने घर में जमे।

Hanuman as Monkey God: The Deeper Meaning of “Tumharo Bhajan Ram Ko Paave”

Hanuman as the Symbolic Union of Monkey and Human

The line of the Hanuman Chalisa, “Tumharo bhajan Ram ko paave,” has always appeared to me as one of its most amazing and insightful statements. Its simple meaning is that through devotion to Hanuman, one attains Ram. But when I look at Hanuman not only as a religious figure but also as a symbol, the line opens into a much deeper meaning. Hanuman is a monkey god, and I see this expression literally as a blend of the characteristics of the monkey and the human. Neither the monkey alone becomes this god nor the human alone. The combination becomes Hanuman.

The monkey side of Hanuman represents a peculiar set of characteristics. A monkey is highly active and does not seem comfortable remaining idle for long. Even when it has no obvious work, it may begin moving, climbing, shaking a branch, looking around, or changing its position. It lives high on trees and naturally moves through open space. Its food can be seen, symbolically, as simple and sattvic: fruits, leaves, sprouts and other natural things. It is also constantly moving its attention. It does not usually fix its gaze or mind on one thing for a long time. It looks here, there and everywhere, changes position, wanders from one place to another and does not remain psychologically fixed in one object. This gives an impression of great activity combined with detachment.

I am using these qualities as spiritual symbolism rather than making a scientific claim that monkeys literally have no rajas or tamas. The point is what these visible characteristics can represent when a human being consciously embodies them. A monkey appears light-bodied, mobile, active and relatively free from the heavy kind of attachment through which human beings become fixed in possessions, places and objects. It may quarrel at times, of course, but symbolically it suggests an existence based much more on movement and immediate action than on prolonged fixation.

When Monkey Characteristics Enter a Developed Human Mind

This becomes especially interesting when the same characteristics are embodied by a human being. Human consciousness has the further capacity for sustained meditation, self-observation, discrimination and inner transformation. My understanding is that constant activity, detachment and sattvic living free a large amount of mental energy that otherwise remains occupied in attachment, possession, unnecessary thought and psychological fixation. That energy becomes available for meditation.

Then something remarkable can happen: the meditation image can become continuously present in the mind. It is no longer necessary to make a great effort every time to bring it back. It begins to express itself and shine almost constantly. After awakening, that established meditation becomes the basis for resting in samadhi. In this sense, the mind that was once continuously moving can finally arrive at a state of perfect rest.

This is where I connect Hanuman with Ram. I understand Ram not merely as a historical person or external deity, but also as a state of being, a state of rest. The word itself can be associated with resting or delight, and the historical Rama can then be understood as the godly person who perfectly embodied that state. Thus the symbolism becomes very beautiful: Hanuman represents dynamic activity without attachment, while Rama represents perfect rest.

Why “Tumharo Bhajan Ram Ko Paave” Is So Deep

Seen in this way, “Tumharo bhajan Ram ko paave” means devotion to you makes get Rama, becomes much more than a simple devotional promise. Hanuman is not the final destination who keeps the devotee attached to himself. He is the bridge to Ram. The devotee begins with Hanuman, with his strength, activity, devotion, purity and freedom from attachment, and through that devotion consciousness gradually moves toward Ram, the state of inner rest.

Bhajan here also need not mean only singing devotional songs. It can mean remembrance, contemplation, love, surrender and living in the consciousness represented by Hanuman. The highest quality of the true guru is similar: he does not keep the disciple dependent upon himself; he leads the disciple beyond himself to the ultimate.

This makes the progression almost experiential: Hanuman, devotion, transformation of consciousness, and finally Ram. The servant becomes the doorway to the Master.

The Monkey Can Express the Outer Characteristics, but the Human Can Realize Their Inner Effect

There is also an important difference between an actual monkey and a human being who embodies monkey-like qualities. A monkey can naturally express movement, activity, non-fixation, simplicity and detachment through its behavior, but its brain does not have the same developed human capacity for abstract meditation and deliberate spiritual self-transformation. The monkey therefore expresses the outer characteristics, but little, if any, of their deeper inner effect.

A human being can take these same qualities and turn them inward. Activity combined with detachment can reduce psychological entanglement. Sattvic living can simplify the mind. Non-fixation can reduce possessiveness. All this can release mental energy for dhyana. When meditation becomes stable, the meditation image can become spontaneous, and that spontaneous dhyana can mature into awakening and samadhi.

This is why, for me, Hanuman is not merely a theory or philosophy. It resembles something I have directly experienced in life.

My Own Experience of Becoming Like Hanuman Through Association

These characteristics were strongly present in my Dadaguru. He was, in my experience, almost like Hanuman himself: extraordinarily active, detached, simple, meditative and inwardly free. I did not consciously decide to imitate him. I simply lived in his company and absorbed the atmosphere and way of living for years.

I found these same characteristics gradually appearing in myself. The result was awakening and dhyana. In this sense, the symbolism became a living experience. What I am describing is therefore not simply an intellectual theory about monkeys, humans and gods. It is my attempt to understand something that actually happened in my life.

Later, karma-yoga and the non-dual philosophy of Sharirvigyan Darshan became a kind of medium for amplifying tendencies that were already present in small form. The philosophy strengthened activity, detachment, non-duality, sattvikata and meditation, and these in turn strengthened spiritual development.

The Monkey as a Natural Symbol of Non-Duality and Detachment

Some very simple monkey behaviors also become meaningful in this symbolic reading. A monkey does not necessarily make the elaborate distinctions that human beings make. It can take both raw and ripe fruit as food without building a philosophy around the difference. It can use an ornament and then throw it away. The famous image of a monkey being given a golden necklace captures this beautifully: it may know how to wear an ornament and use things with its human-like hands and arms, yet it can soon drop the object as though it has no lasting interest in it.

That is why I find the monkey an unexpectedly powerful symbol of detachment and even non-duality. It can use the world without becoming permanently fixed in it. It can move constantly without needing to possess every place it visits. It can handle objects without making them the center of its identity.

When such qualities become conscious in a developed human being, however, they can do something the monkey cannot do by itself: they can produce sustained meditation, awakening and samadhi. Then the monkey-like activity reaches its opposite end in Rama-like rest.

For me, this is the deeper meaning hidden in “Tumharo bhajan Ram ko paave.” Hanuman is the embodiment of activity, purity, devotion and detachment; Ram is the state in which consciousness finally rests. The monkey gives the outer symbolism, the human gives it conscious direction, and the awakened state gives it its final meaning. In that sense, Hanuman truly becomes the bridge from restless movement to perfect rest, from worldly activity to dhyana, and from dhyana to Ram.

Hanuman Ansh: The Hidden Spiritual Symbolism Behind Neem Karoli Baba’s Miracles

Watching Hanuman Ansh Through a Spiritual Lens

Friends, I went today to the theatre to see the blockbuster movie Hanuman Ansh. The emotions in the movie are powerful, but what interested me even more was how many of the apparently miraculous events can also be understood as symbolic expressions of inner spiritual experiences. I do not feel that every event has to be forced into either a literal miracle or a fictional story. Some may have been experienced as extraordinary events, while at the same time carrying a deeper psychological and yogic meaning.

One scene that particularly affected me was the freedom fighter eating halwa-puri. On the surface it is only a simple meal, but emotionally it becomes almost an ultimate expression of hunger and satiety. Hunger is one of the most basic limitations of the body, and the satisfaction that comes from food can communicate relief, dignity and joy without requiring elaborate words. The simplicity of the scene is precisely what gives it such emotional strength.

Baba Standing in Cold Water and the Symbolism of Kundalini

Another scene showed Baba standing in water and remaining in samadhi for an extended period. My own feeling while watching it was that the cold water could symbolically represent a powerful stimulus to the body, with the resulting inward movement being portrayed through yogic language as energy rising from Muladhara through Sushumna. In the traditional Kundalini understanding, the awakening and upward movement of Shakti is associated with the transformation of consciousness and deeper states of meditation.

Of course, this should be understood as a yogic interpretation rather than as an established physiological explanation. Cold water produces strong bodily and autonomic responses, whereas science has not demonstrated that such responses are literally Kundalini moving through Sushumna. Still, as a symbolic reading of the scene, the connection is meaningful: the body is exposed to an intense experience while awareness appears to become increasingly inward and absorbed.

The Prison Lock as Liberation From Limited Identification

The events that appear miraculous in Baba’s life can similarly be understood as symbolic. When the prison lock opens by itself and Baba wanders outside, I see something more than simply a miraculous opening of a physical lock. The prison can represent the limited identification of consciousness with the body, personality and circumstances. The opening of the lock can therefore symbolize the breaking of that limitation.

Baba walking out of the prison becomes an image of consciousness moving beyond confinement into something much vaster. If this is connected with samadhi, the symbolism becomes even deeper: the body may remain in the world, but awareness is no longer experienced as confined to the ordinary boundaries of individual identity. The movement is from prison, to locked identity, to the opening of the lock, to freedom and finally to the vastness of existence.

The Serpents Around Baba and Awakened Kundalini Shakti

I also remembered the account in which a devotee saw Neem Karoli Baba covered with hooded snakes while he was in samadhi. To me, this too can be understood as a powerful representation of awakened Kundalini Shakti. The serpent is one of the oldest symbols associated with Kundalini in Indian yoga. Therefore, seeing serpents surrounding a yogi absorbed in samadhi can naturally be interpreted as the devotee perceiving the immense Shakti associated with his spiritual state.

We cannot know from such an account whether actual snakes were physically present, whether the devotee experienced a visionary perception, or whether the experience was influenced by familiar spiritual symbolism. But the symbolic meaning remains striking: serpent, Kundalini Shakti, awakening, ascent of consciousness and samadhi all come together in a single image.

The Train That Would Not Move and the Power of Guilt

Another event has an equally interesting psychological interpretation. Baba was pushed out of a train, but afterward the train would not start. This can be seen symbolically as the train of life itself stopping after an innocent person has been wronged. The person may have thought that he had simply removed an unwanted passenger, but suddenly the entire movement of the train comes to a halt.

It resembles the way guilt can stop the inner movement of a person. An innocent person is hurt, conscience becomes disturbed, guilt arises, and the normal momentum of life is interrupted until there is recognition and remorse. In this sense, what we reject or hurt outwardly can become an obstruction within ourselves. The story is therefore not merely about punishment; it can also represent the power of innocence, compassion and spiritual presence to interrupt the unconscious momentum of the ego.

Miracles, Telepathy and the Traditional Yogic View of Siddhis

There may also be other events in Baba’s life that appear telepathic or clairvoyant. I do not think we should automatically dismiss such accounts. In the traditional yogic framework, extraordinary perceptions and abilities, called siddhis, are described as possibilities arising from profound concentration and samadhi. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, particularly the Vibhuti Pada, discusses such capacities.

At the same time, not being disproved is not the same as being scientifically established. Modern science has not established telepathy, teleportation or clairvoyance as reliable supernatural abilities, and individual stories can have different explanations. So I would leave the question open rather than making an absolute claim. A spiritual account may be interpreted literally by a devotee, symbolically by a contemplative, psychologically by a modern reader, or perhaps, in some cases, as an extraordinary phenomenon that we do not yet understand.

The important point in yoga is also that siddhis are not themselves liberation. Even when such abilities arise, attachment to them can become another distraction from samadhi and realization. The purpose of spiritual practice remains freedom, not the acquisition of extraordinary powers.

The Child Who Wanted to Reach God

Perhaps the most touching part for me is the story of how Baba’s spiritual search was inspired in childhood. When people told him that his deceased mother had gone to God, he apparently took the statement with the directness of a child. If his mother had gone to God, then he too wanted to go there. This desire became strong enough that he eventually left home in search of yoga and the means of reaching that state.

There is something profound in this simplicity. He did not begin with complicated theories about chakras, Kundalini or enlightenment. He began with longing: if there is a place called God, I want to reach it. From that simple question came the search for yoga, renunciation, spiritual practice and eventually samadhi. It reminds me that the deepest spiritual journey may begin not with philosophy but with an intense longing to know what lies beyond ordinary existence. I still remember my childhood, when my family tried to console me after my elder sister was gone, telling me that she had gone to God. As a child, I accepted those words with a simple heart, imagining that she had only gone somewhere beyond my reach.

The Essence of Tantra in a Few Words

Another thing that struck me was the simplicity of the instruction given to the child Baba by his guru: to leave dhyana at the Ajna chakra and place it at the Muladhara chakra. The deeper implication is that this can establish strong dhyana at the Ajna chakra by itself, without continuously forcing attention there. To me, this is perhaps one of the most basic and complete essences of Tantra expressed in an extraordinarily few words. The teaching does not need a long philosophical explanation; a simple direction contains an entire method, which the practitioner can discover through practice. Teaching Tantra in such simple and little words is itself amazing.

The Psychology of the Bahelia Scene

One scene is particularly profound from a psychological and spiritual point of view. A Bahelia, meaning a bird-catcher or fowler, is shown catching birds and imprisoning them. When Baba asks him why he does this, the Bahelia gives a surprisingly philosophical answer. He says, in effect, that just as nature has imprisoned human beings and entangled them in troubles, he is simply doing the same to the birds. It also helps him earn bread and butter for his children.

This is remarkable because the Bahelia does not even believe in God. Yet, at some deeper level, he feels that something is trapping human beings and making them suffer. Since he sees himself as a victim of this mysterious force, he feels justified in reproducing the same pattern with the birds—imprisoning them because he himself feels imprisoned.

Baba then completely changes his perspective. Instead of allowing him to blame God or nature for his suffering, Baba points him toward his own actions. Baba asks him why he had beaten his wife when she was pregnant. The implication is profound: it is not God or nature that is arbitrarily entangling a person; one’s own actions can become the very cause of one’s bondage and suffering.

The Bahelia had been looking outward for the cause of his troubles. Baba makes him look inward. What he experienced as an external force imprisoning him could actually be the consequence of his own actions. Thus, the scene transforms the idea of “I am being imprisoned by nature” into “I may be bound by what I myself have done.”

The psychological transformation that follows is equally beautiful. When Baba reveals details of the Bahelia’s past that he could not ordinarily have known, his disbelief begins to break down. He develops faith in Baba and eventually becomes one of his principal devotees.

The scene therefore works on a very subtle psychological level. Baba does not simply tell the Bahelia to believe in God. He first breaks his habit of projecting the cause of his suffering onto the outside world and brings his attention back to his own life and actions. That inward turning becomes the beginning of his transformation.

The symbolism is especially powerful: the bird-catcher himself feels caught. He imprisons birds because he feels imprisoned by life. Baba shows him that the real trap may not be nature at all—it may be the bondage created by one’s own actions.Seeing the

The Symbolism of the Germinating Seeds

Another beautiful incident occurs when Baba’s wife becomes annoyed by his long periods away from home, absorbed in deep dhyana and samadhi, and by his apparent lack of attention to family life. She asks him what he actually gains from spending so much time in meditation and samadhi.

Baba does not answer her verbally. Instead, he extends his tongue, places a few grains of seeds on it, and, within moments, they germinate and grow into tiny seedlings or plants. His answer is symbolic rather than literal: this is what he gains through such intense spiritual practice—extraordinarily rapid spiritual development.

The symbolism is simple yet profound. Under ordinary conditions, a seed takes time to germinate, grow, and eventually become a plant. In the same way, an ordinary human life may involve a gradual process of inner development through experience, relationships, worldly responsibilities, and spiritual practice. But Baba’s life of exceptionally intense meditation and samadhi is portrayed as accelerating that process dramatically—as though a seed that normally takes a long time to become a plant could mature in moments.

Thus, without explaining anything in words, Baba gives his wife a visual answer: the time spent in deep meditation is not simply time taken away from life; for him, it is a means of accelerating the growth of consciousness.

Miracles as a Language of Inner Experience

After watching Hanuman Ansh, I therefore feel that the miraculous stories surrounding Baba can be approached on several levels at once. The chana-puri scene expresses the bodily movement from hunger to satiety; the cold water and samadhi can suggest the inward movement of energy; the opening prison can symbolize liberation from limited identification; the serpents can represent awakened Kundalini Shakti; the stopped train can represent conscience and guilt interrupting the momentum of life; and the accounts of telepathic or clairvoyant perception can be considered in the context of the traditional yogic descriptions of siddhis, while leaving their literal interpretation open.

For me, this makes the story more meaningful rather than less miraculous. What appears outwardly as a miracle may also be a language through which an inner spiritual event is being communicated. The physical story, the devotional interpretation, the symbolic meaning, the psychology of consciousness and the possibility of extraordinary yogic experience do not necessarily have to cancel one another. They can exist together, allowing us to watch the life of a yogi not merely as a collection of miraculous incidents, but as a possible symbolic map of the movement from bodily limitation toward freedom, expanded awareness and the divine.

Black Hole and the Human Self: Imprints, Detachment, Yoga and Liberation

The idea began with a simple question about black holes: is there any evidence that a black hole disappears more quickly than expected? The answer is that there is still no direct observational proof that an ordinary astrophysical black hole is actually evaporating and dying through Hawking radiation. Hawking evaporation is a theoretical prediction, not yet a practically demonstrated fact for real astronomical black holes. Small black holes are theoretically expected to evaporate much faster as they become smaller and hotter, while large black holes should lose mass so slowly that their lifetimes are enormously longer than the present age of the universe. This distinction between theoretical prediction and practical proof became important for my own intuition. I feel that a black hole should also ultimately die rather than remain forever. Yet I do not mean only the physical black hole. I began to see the black hole as a possible metaphor for something much closer to human existence: the self.

The Human Self as a Structure of Imprints

My intuition is that the human self is not necessarily an independent physical substance. It can be understood as a structure formed from worldly experience, memory, identification, conditioning and repeated psychological impressions. In this sense, the self is built from what it has experienced and retained. It imitates the experienced world through accumulated imprints. The more deeply these experiences are identified with and stored, the more stable and substantial the self appears to become. When the self is strongly imprinted by the gross physical world, the black hole becomes an interesting symbolic comparison: both can be imagined as structures that accumulate and concentrate what enters them. I do not mean that a physical black hole is literally a human self or that modern physics has established a connection between black holes and consciousness. The comparison is philosophical rather than scientific. What interests me is the similarity between accumulation and dissolution.

Imprint Formation and Imprint Dissolution

The self can then be viewed through two opposing processes: the formation of new imprints and the dissolution of previous ones. If imprint formation is greater than imprint dissolution, the accumulated structure of self remains stable or becomes stronger. If both processes are roughly equal, the self remains comparatively stable without major transformation. But when imprint dissolution exceeds imprint formation, the accumulated structure gradually becomes lighter and weaker. This gives a simple way of understanding the movement toward liberation. Liberation, in this framework, is not merely having fewer experiences. It is the reduction of the total accumulation of psychological impressions.

This distinction is important because preventing new impressions and dissolving old impressions are not the same thing. A person may isolate themselves from the world and thereby reduce new imprint formation. Fewer worldly contacts mean fewer opportunities for fresh conditioning. But if previously accumulated impressions are not being dissolved, those old impressions simply remain. Isolation may produce quietness, but quietness by itself is not necessarily liberation. When the person returns to ordinary life, old conditioning may still reactivate. The storehouse has not disappeared merely because nothing new has been added to it.

Detachment as Prevention of New Imprints

There is another way to prevent new imprint formation: remaining in the world while becoming detached from identification. Instead of withdrawing from experience, one continues to live, work, relate and encounter pleasure and pain, but does not allow every experience to become another layer of psychological identity. Pleasure need not become an insistence that it must be repeated. Insult need not become a permanent story of “I was insulted.” Success need not become a definition of “who I am.” Experience can arise and pass without being appropriated. In this sense, isolation reduces the input, whereas detachment reduces the imprinting mechanism itself. The world continues to provide experience, but experience increasingly fails to become new conditioning.

This seems more radical because the world itself becomes the field of practice. One does not need to escape life in order to prevent new imprints; one learns to experience without accumulating identity. Eventually, even deliberate detachment may become unnecessary if witnessing becomes sufficiently established. Experience can simply arise, be known and pass without leaving a strong psychological residue.

Yoga, Samadhi and the Dissolution of Old Imprints

Yet even perfect detachment would not by itself complete the process. If no new impressions are formed while old ones remain untouched, the old structure persists. Therefore something more is required: the dissolution of previously accumulated imprints. This is where practices such as yoga, deep meditation, witnessing and samadhi become important within this model. Existing conditioning is brought into awareness without identification, and through repeated non-attachment its psychological force can gradually diminish. Thus there are really two complementary movements: detachment prevents the creation of new conditioning, while deep yogic practice dissolves conditioning that has already accumulated.

The relationship can be expressed very simply. If imprint formation is greater than dissolution, the self becomes more conditioned. If formation and dissolution balance each other, the self remains relatively stable. If dissolution becomes greater than formation, the total conditioning steadily decreases. The ideal direction is therefore not merely to stop adding new impressions but to allow the old ones to disappear as well. Liberation requires both processes working together: less new imprinting and greater dissolution of existing imprints.

The Self as a Black-Hole Analogy

This is where the black-hole analogy becomes meaningful for me. A black hole can gain mass when matter and energy enter it. It can theoretically lose mass through Hawking radiation. If the inflow is greater than the outflow, the black hole grows. If the outflow eventually becomes greater than the inflow, its mass decreases and it moves toward evaporation. The same pattern can be used metaphorically for the self. New experience identified with becomes new psychological imprint, just as incoming matter adds to a black hole. Witnessing, detachment and deep yogic dissolution act like the opposite movement. If new imprint formation is greater than dissolution, the self grows in psychological density. If dissolution exceeds new imprint formation, the accumulated self becomes progressively lighter.

This also clarifies why simply avoiding the world is insufficient. If matter stops entering a black hole but nothing causes its existing mass to leave, the black hole does not disappear merely because inflow has stopped. Likewise, if new impressions are prevented but old impressions are never dissolved, the self remains. Existing conditioning has to be released. Therefore preventing imprint formation and dissolving previous imprints are not competing methods but complementary necessities within this model.

From Conditioned Self to Unimprinted Awareness

The final possibility is what I would call the unimprinted self. As new imprint formation approaches zero and the existing accumulation continues to dissolve, the self becomes progressively less conditioned. The world may still be experienced, but experiences no longer become deeply embedded as identity. The process can therefore be understood as a gradual movement from a heavily conditioned self toward an increasingly pure and unimprinted state.

There is, however, a deeper question at the end of this process. If all accumulated identification finally dissolves, is what remains really a purified self, or is it awareness without the separate structure that previously called itself “me”? Perhaps the stages are better understood as conditioned self, purified self, and finally the disappearance of the separate self-structure. In that sense, the death of the self is not necessarily the destruction of consciousness. It may mean the dissolution of the structure that had identified consciousness with a personal accumulation of experience.

This gives a simple definition of liberation: not freedom from the world itself, but freedom from the world continually becoming psychological imprint and from those imprints continually becoming self. Experience can continue, but it no longer has to become identity. New accumulation declines while old accumulation dissolves. The self becomes less dense, less reactive and less dependent on what it has stored. Like the black hole in the metaphor, what matters is not merely that something stops entering, but that what has already accumulated is progressively released. In this sense, liberation is the point at which dissolution consistently exceeds accumulation, until the constructed, imprinted self approaches its own disappearance.

Smaller Imprints, Faster Liberation: Why Meditation in Childhood May Matter

There is an interesting parallel between black-hole evaporation and the gradual dissolution of psychological imprints through meditation. A smaller black hole is theoretically expected to evaporate faster as its mass decreases, because its temperature rises and its rate of mass loss increases. In a similar way, it may be possible to think of a meditator as progressing faster toward liberation once the accumulated structure of worldly imprint has already become smaller. This is a philosophical analogy, not an established scientific equivalence, but the parallel is striking.
It may also help explain why meditation is traditionally encouraged from childhood. A child has had less time to accumulate deep worldly conditioning and identification. If meditation, spiritual companionship and a supportive environment begin early, the formation of new impressions may be reduced while existing impressions are comparatively few. In that sense, the inner “mass” that has to be dissolved is smaller from the beginning.
My own experience gives me a personal example of this possibility. Meditation began in my childhood through close association with a spiritual guru and through the environment at home. This early foundation continued to influence me and was followed by an awakening experience during adolescence. Yet complete dissolution did not occur at that stage. The needs and attractions of worldly life continued to create new impressions and prevented the process from reaching its full conclusion.
Traditional accounts sometimes describe exceptionally early liberation. Shukadeva, for example, is portrayed in Indian spiritual tradition as being liberated while still very young. Whether such accounts are taken historically, spiritually or symbolically, they fit naturally into the idea that a person who begins with fewer accumulated worldly impressions may reach deep realization more quickly.
There may also be another important similarity. In black-hole physics, the evaporation rate becomes greater as the black hole becomes smaller. In meditation, once a practitioner has become sufficiently familiar with meditation and a significant portion of accumulated conditioning has already dissolved, progress may also become easier and faster. Earlier experiences of inner clarity can strengthen confidence, reduce fear of the unknown and make deeper meditation more natural. The meditator no longer approaches the process as something completely unfamiliar; familiarity itself becomes a support for further dissolution.
Thus the process may have an accelerating character: less accumulated imprint → easier meditation → greater dissolution → greater confidence → deeper meditation → still less imprint. In this sense, childhood meditation may provide an especially favorable beginning because the psychological structure that has to be dissolved is still comparatively small. The analogy with an evaporating black hole therefore suggests an interesting possibility: as the accumulated imprint becomes smaller, the movement toward complete freedom may itself become progressively faster.

Deep Dhyana, Self-Realization and Nondual Awakening: How Witnessing Dissolves Inner Imprints

Deep Dhyana as a Window into the Actual Self

It seems to me that during deep dhyana we are able to live, even if only temporarily, in the experience of our full structure of self, together with its actual state of development. This is not merely an idea about ourselves or a mental image of who we think we are. It is experienced in a subtler and more essential form. At other times, worldly distractions occupy our attention so completely that this deeper structure is forgotten. We continue to live, act and think, but we remain largely outside our actual form. In this sense, I have described the dhyana state as a kind of window into our real being, and ordinary life outside that window can feel almost like a state of existential death. This does not mean physical death or that the self ceases to exist. It means that the deeper dimension of oneself, which becomes directly accessible in deep dhyana, becomes functionally absent from ordinary awareness.

Why the Ancient Teaching About the World and the Soul Becomes Clear in Experience

This makes me think that what the ancient sages said about the world being different from the soul, and about worldly life making us blind to the soul, may be pointing to an experience rather than merely presenting a strange metaphysical theory. In theory, such statements can easily be misunderstood. They may sound as though the physical world is unreal or that the soul is some mysterious supernatural object hidden somewhere inside us. In practical experience, however, the distinction can become much clearer. The world does not necessarily destroy or remove the soul. Rather, our attention becomes absorbed in sensory experiences, thoughts, desires, reactions, identities, memories and external objects, and therefore we forget the deeper structure of our own being. Dhyana reverses the direction of attention. When the outward movement becomes sufficiently quiet, what was previously obscured can become directly apparent. Thus the contrast is not simply between a false world and a true soul, but between world-directed consciousness in which the self is forgotten and inwardly gathered consciousness in which the self becomes perceptible.

The Soul as the Complete Intrinsic State of Being

I do not see the soul as something special or as an additional supernatural substance added to a person. By soul I mean one’s own complete state of being as it exists in itself, without something foreign being newly added to it from outside. Yet this does not mean that the self is completely devoid of external influences. The self bears the imprints of everything it has experienced. These experiences, however, are not necessarily present within the self in the same gross and differentiated form in which they were originally encountered. Experientially, they may exist in a subtle, consolidated and relatively undifferentiated form. Therefore, the self is not an untouched thing standing apart from all experience. It is a being in which experience has been assimilated into a deeper structure. We can say self gets colored according to what it has experienced till date. In deep breathless dhyana, it is same eternal self but it is not pure rather it is individualised by experiential imprints.

From Gross Experience to Subtle Imprint

This gives a different meaning to the distinction between self and non-self. A gross experience that has not yet become assimilated into the subtle structure of the self can appear foreign or non-self. It is something occurring to us from outside in its gross, differentiated form. When experience becomes imprinted and assimilated, however, it becomes part of our own subtle experiential structure. It is not like something physical adheres to self as nothing can stick to void, the true nature of self. Yes, its experience gets somewhat distorted and this distorsion is according to the extent and nature of the external experiences. It is like a illusion. Just as, after revolving round and round for some time, the world around may seem to revolve for a while when we stop, though the world itself has remained stationary as before, similarly, after prolonged experience of the external world, our own self may appear different and foreign, though in reality it remains the same pure own form as before. The movement can therefore be understood as gross experience becoming an imprint, the imprint becoming subtly consolidated, and the consolidated impression becoming part of the self. In this sense, what is non-self is not necessarily everything that originates outside the body or mind. Rather, it is what has not yet been assimilated into one’s own deeper structure of being or pure self form. Everything we experience is, in some sense, our own self, because we can never experience anything other than what becomes present within the self. No physical thing can literally be attached to the self as something separate and then experienced as part of it. For the self to experience something fully, it has to take the form of that experience itself. Yet this self has become partitioned through experience. When an experience exists only as a mental pattern or as a gross external impression, it is experienced as non-self or as something foreign. But when that experience becomes deeply imprinted and assimilated as a change in the feeling and structure of the self, it is no longer experienced as something separate; it has become the self itself.

This may also explain why, after moderate drinking, a person can sometimes experience a temporary sense of joy or relief, as though the outer distractions have been reduced and one comes closer to a feeling of oneself. But what becomes accessible is not necessarily the pure self; it is still the self carrying all its accumulated imprints. Alcohol may temporarily weaken the ordinary mental activity through which worldly distinctions and distractions are maintained, making the underlying feeling of self seem clearer. Yet it does not remove the imprints. In fact, after heavy worldly involvement, experiences that might otherwise have gradually dissolved through witnessing can become more deeply impressed or carried forward as further conditioning. Thus the temporary relief may give the impression that the road has become clearer, while the underlying burden has not actually been removed. It may simply have been carried forward to be released later. Witnessing, in contrast, allows impressions to arise and dissolve without adding the same kind of further burden, so that the self can gradually become lighter, clearer and less partitioned. Actually, the mental noise that arises after worldliness is there to dissolve the imprint of that worldliness through witnessing. The imprint of worldliness has already been registered on the Self. This mental noise arises as a process through which that imprint can be dissolved, particularly when it is witnessed without interference. It is as though the fresh imprint is still loosely fixed and can therefore be released through awareness and witnessing.

If this mental noise is forcefully suppressed by will, continuously drowned out by further indulgence in the world as a means of forgetting it, or suppressed through the consumption of some substance, the opportunity for its dissolution is prevented. Instead of allowing the freshly formed, loosely fixed imprint to be erased through witnessing, such actions may reinforce or preserve it. With time, the imprint can become more deeply fixed and therefore much more difficult to remove. Daily yoga helps to shed fresh imprints from self as soon as they are formed easily. By this self gradually become lighter, clearer and less partitioned because, as the burden of accumulated imprints is shed, the darkness created by those imprints gradually diminishes. The self becomes clearer and begins to correspond more closely with the shimmering, undivided character of the external world as it is directly experienced. What had seemed divided between self and world becomes less sharply separated, not because the self becomes something new, but because the accumulated obscurations that made it appear separate are gradually released. Once this process reaches its full extent, the separation between self and the experienced world becomes completely nil. There is no longer a sense of the self standing apart from what is experienced. In that moment, there may be a glimpse of nondual awakening—a direct self-realisation in which the self is experienced without the partition that ordinarily separates it from the world. This is not the creation of a new self, but the recognition of the same self after the accumulated imprints and obscurations that made it appear separate have fallen away. However, the glimpse of awakening may fade after a few moments. The self then seems to regain its previous imprinted structure, although often in a somewhat lighter form. In my understanding, the sudden glimpse occurs through a strong upward movement of kundalini, which temporarily breaks through the accumulated structure and reveals the nondual state. But a glimpse is not the same as complete purification. If the self has been accumulating impressions through countless experiences over an enormously long period, their complete dissolution may require decades of meditation and witnessing. Awakening therefore need not be regarded as the end of the journey. It can instead be understood as a road marker: a brief direct glimpse of the destination that confirms what lies beyond the accumulated structure, while the remaining work is the gradual clearing of the imprints that still obscure it.

Witnessing Dhyana and the Release of Worldly Imprints

This also explains what seems to happen during witnessing dhyana. The self contains accumulated impressions, and these impressions can arise into consciousness as thoughts, memories, images, emotions, sensations or impulses. When they arise and are simply witnessed, without identification, fresh attachment or resistance, they can pass away. The self is then no longer continually burdened by them in the same way. Dhyana becomes not merely a method of observing thoughts but a process through which accumulated worldly imprints can gradually be released. With their release comes a sense of becoming clearer, lighter and purer. Purification, in this understanding, does not mean adding something new to the self. It means removing or releasing what has accumulated and obscured the self’s own intrinsic nature.

From Purification to the Pure Self of Liberation

The process can therefore be understood as a gradual movement from worldly experience to subtle imprint, from subtle imprint to witnessed thought or feeling, from witnessing without identification to release, and from release to increasing clarity and lightness. The deeper self does not have to be created through this process. Rather, what obscures it is gradually reduced. This gives liberation a particularly simple meaning: liberation may not be the creation of a new or extraordinary self, but the gradual removal of whatever prevents the already-existing self from being experienced in its own completeness. The final state could therefore be described as the true or pure self of liberation, in which accumulated worldly formations no longer obscure one’s intrinsic being.

The Dhyana Window and the Possibility of Continuous Awareness

Seen this way, the dhyana window may be only the beginning. At first, there may be a strong difference between deep dhyana and ordinary waking life. In dhyana, the deeper structure of being becomes clear, and for some time afterward, as an aftereffect of the practice, accumulated impressions may arise into awareness and be released to dissolve. Outside dhyana, however, worldly impressions and distractions again tend to dominate awareness, covering the deeper structure once more. Repeated witnessing may gradually disburden the self and reduce identification with these formations. The possibility then arises that the clarity experienced inside dhyana can increasingly remain present outside it. This is because shimmering world supports clearer self outside too. Spiritual development would therefore not simply mean repeatedly entering a special meditative state, but gradually carrying the recognition of one’s intrinsic being into ordinary life. The dhyana window could eventually become less of a temporary window and more of a continuous way of being.

This also gives a more precise meaning to the old idea that the world blinds a person to the Self. The problem is not necessarily the existence of the world but our absorption in its gross, differentiated experiences. The self carries the subtle impressions of experience, while ordinary consciousness is continually occupied with the experiences themselves. Deep dhyana allows attention to move beyond this gross level and encounter the subtler structure in which one’s accumulated experience has already been consolidated. Witnessing then allows those formations to arise and pass without renewed identification. Gradually, what remains becomes clearer, lighter and less burdened. Whether this final pure self should be understood metaphysically as an independent spiritual reality is a further philosophical question. The immediate experience, however, is simpler: through deep dhyana, one can experience a dimension of oneself that is normally forgotten, and through sustained witnessing, one may gradually become less obscured by what has accumulated upon it. In this sense, liberation can be understood as not becoming something else, but finally becoming fully present as what one intrinsically is.