Thanks, this narrative is a really nice personal voice. Recounting a time it is also good insight in to something not much spoken about, personal illumination. Especially Maharishi's personal experience with it. Jai the Jagad Sat Guru, -Buck Das in the Dome
AEGTC, Seeligsburg, Switzerland 1976: "Maharishi, these experiences I've had over the past six months have been glimpses of enlightenment for me. I had a tremendous awakening experience before I started TM, but due to the circumstances, I feel a little shy about telling it in the group." I then sent him a thought message that I would relate my "experience" and not the "circumstances." Maharishi paused for a moment to think about what I'd just said. "It'll be all right to tell it," he said finally, in a thoughtful sort of way. "Maharishi, you've said that for every state of consciousness there is a separate, corresponding state of reality. Waking state has its reality, dream state has its reality, and deep sleep is another reality." "Yes." "You've taught us that transcendental consciousness is a fourth state of consciousness?a fourth reality that is the underlying reality of all life." "Yes." "And you've taught that cosmic consciousness is a higher state of reality, because one never loses consciousness of the transcendent even during waking, dreaming and sleeping." "Yes." "You've also said that God consciousness and unity consciousness are even deeper states of reality; so we have all these states of consciousness and all these states of corresponding realities." Maharishi said "yes" this time in a somewhat impatient way, as if to convey, "Get to the point, where are you going with this?" I'd been feeling an almighty power rise up inside of me as I asked Maharishi each one of these questions, because I was consciously setting him up? To refute all that he had just said. I knew he knew the truth, but I wanted him to come out with it in a way he had never done before. It was time for us to stop playing around like little children at his feet, and elicit from him the real truth. A great rage suddenly ripped through my chest, burning the lie in my heart. I wanted Maharishi to kill it right then and there, for all time. "Maharishi, in the experience of wholeness I had before I started TM, what you've just said that basically reality is different in different states of consciousness, is a total lie! What I experienced one night five years ago, is that there is only one reality, has always been one reality, and will forever be one reality! EVERYTHING ELSE IS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL LIE!" "YES! YES! YES!" Maharishi loudly proclaimed. With each "YES," his fist came down on the table, "Bang, Bang, Bang!" Never had I seen him respond so powerfully. It was as if the "Hammer of God" was slamming that table. He then exclaimed loudly, "This is real wholeness! I don't want to hear anything but experiences of real wholeness! Continue with your experience." "What I discovered in my experience, Maharishi, was that the personality I know as Jay Latharn is a complete, fictitious lie. There is only one Being, God. Everything else, even the 'reality' of God consciousness, is an illusion. It's just like Shankara said." "Now this is the real experience of wholeness!" Maharishi proclaimed excitedly. "What happened is that I had an experience in which I went through all of the states of consciousness. When I hit cosmic consciousness I closed my eyes to meditate and witnessed creation in the flow of soma out of the bindu point between my eyes. Everything shot out of that point, in stereo?whatever came out on the left came out on the right. I saw the mechanics of creation. It was the most amazing sight I ever saw. After that I started having celestial perception with my eyes open." I then briefly explained the major points of my experience the jewels I'd seen in the ceiling and how things were constructed of light rays created from God's mind?how I walked and moved through a cosmic plasma that erased the force of gravity, etc. Maharishi was paying close attention to what I was saying, and having his attention on me like this was like having God Almighty bum the lie right out of my heart. The longer I held his attention, the more enlightened I got. Yes, lie had closely followed rny progress for the past six months and given me a lot of attention, but this moment was the greatest I'd ever had with him. I continued relating to Maharishi the progressive stages of my awakening; how I had felt the presence of God in everything and how everything I perceived became the "artwork of the Creator" (Maharishi's descriptive words for sensory experiences in the state of God consciousness). I told him of my insights into God revealing to man the blueprints for a more comfortable life on earth throughout the centuries, and how I went from God consciousness into Unity Consciousness and perceived God looking back at me in every object that came within my primary line of vision. "Everything I looked at seemed to disappear. It was as if every object I looked at became a mirror with the Ancient Knower staring into the depths of my soul. Objects were transformed into the Mind of God. It was as if holes of Reality were being cut into the celestial heavenly world I had ascended to in God consciousness. The experience grew until I woke up. I realized Jay Latham was a fictitious lie, had never existed, and that there was only One Being, One Mind. Time ceased to exist, because it was a lie too. "That is called `the Great Awakening,"' Maharishi said, excitedly. "This is the true experience of wholeness." "Maharishi, the experience of non-duality was so strong that my intellect burned up. For my whole life I've always seen everything as distinctly different from everything else. In this experience, my intellect reversed its role and perceived everything to be the same. I could look at another person and see only my Self looking back at myself. I looked at the wall and saw my Self looking back into my soul. There was nothing left to learn; I'd come to the end of knowledge and learning. The knowledge of Only One burned like blue fire in my body. That knowledge was so final, so obliterating to everything I'd ever known that I wanted to drop my body. "You'd already dropped the body at that time," Maharishi interrupted. "The body is dropped in Brahman Consciousness." "But I couldn't function at all. The knowledge was so great, so annihilating, that I was flat on my back." Up to this point Maharishi was visibly excited about my experience. He knew that I knew , or had known, the final truth about reality. And now I knew that he was the reality because he confirmed my experience with total conviction. I had never doubted my experience because Brahman Consciousness is what Maharishi calls "self-validating knowledge." It can't be taught; it can only be experienced; I'd read about it in the book, Love and God, that Maharishi wrote, so I knew of his own realization. But as a disciple on the path, verbal confirmation by the true Master is not only important, it is inherent in the Vedic Tradition of India that Maharishi comes from, because it plays such a vital role in the disciple's life. Since I'd had only a temporary experience of reality, it was thrilling for me to speak with Maharishi like this. Maharishi had confirmed and verified that I had had a genuine vision of the goal." Now I saw Maharishi in a whole new light, beyond the master-disciple roles we normally took. He usually looked at me, lovingly, as a grandfather looks at a grandchild. But now, after I had revealed to him that I had an experience of seeing through the lie, he looked at me gratefully. When I said that I as "flat on my back," he went into a soft reverie and very tenderly confided to me something of his own personal awakening, something none, of us had ever heard before. "It's only like that for the first couple of days. One is flat on the back for that time. But then, after a few days one begins to do little things, move around some. And then, as time passes, one does a little bit more and a little bit more. After some weeks or months, one can function fully in Brahman Consciousness and that is the greatest experience of all." He was laughing when he finished saying this. We were all moved to hear Maharishi share his personal experience with us you could have heard a pin drop in the room. No one was struggling anymore - the competition for attention was momentarily suspended. Everyone was holding their breath to see what would happen next." Work cited: 'Galaxy of Fire' By Jay Latham Sunstar, 2000 p. 258-263. On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 7:42 AM, Richard Williams <punditster@... mailto:punditster@...> wrote: Galaxy of Fire: Journey to an ancient spiritual world. "Why is he here? How did he get in? The men were all clean shaven and had their best suits on. Worst of all, there couldn't have been more than fifteen Westerners, all total; the very top of Maharishi's Western organization, all there by personal invitation from Maharishi himself, and all sitting in the front row in full view of the main entrance. So much for "blending in." Behind the Westerners sat hundreds of exuberant brahmin boys whom Maharishi was instructing in the Vedas. The few ladies I saw were the top administrators of Maharishi's "Thousand Headed Mother Divine Course." I sat down directly in front of Maharishi who was sitting about fifteen feet away on his dais. To his left, and above him on his own dais was the present Shankaracharya of Jyothirmath, the spiritual "pope" of North India, Sri Swami Vishnudevananda. To his left, sitting on an even higher dais, was Guru Dev's successor (appointed by Guru Dev himself, in his will), Shri Swami Shantanand Saraswati Maharaj, retired Shankaracharya of Jyothirmath. These two sat under the gold and red umbrella of the Shankaracharya, on the throne-like chairs of their position. Surrounding them were about fifty of the most illustrious looking orange-clad swamis I'd ever seen. This was the top of India's spiritual tradition in the flesh. The stage area was surrounded by hundreds of lights (candles, oil and ghee lamps) which are traditionally ]it for Diwali. The scene was a blaze of spiritual light. As I was sitting down Marc looked up at me with an inquisitive, raised eyebrow and silently conveyed, "What in the hell are you doing here ... what's with the beard and the dhoti, are you completely out of your mind?" The other Westerners were also checking me out, having, of course, immediately recognized me. I didn't even want to know their thoughts. All I could think was "God, when you fulfill a desire you really go all out. Since this is probably the last time I'll see Maharishi for not being properly invited, I must thank you for the fabulous send-off." I drank in the whole scene. I'd stepped into the ageless, fiery world of the Swami Order of Lord Shankara. A Sanskrit puja was underway in which Maharishi was the deity. A couple of old pujaris were chanting, with one making offerings to Maharishi splashing Ganges water on him, adorning him with green leaves, offering incense, light from ghee lamps, etc. It reminded me of a silent film I'd seen of Maharishi's master, Guru Dev, in which he was worshiped as Shankaracharya in similar fashion. This was a great honor for Maharishi, and demonstrated in the most symbolic way possible that he was held in highest esteem by the present Shankaracharya Order; with both the reigning and retired Shankaracharyas of Jyothirmath in attendance. They obviously regarded Maharishi as the most enlightened disciple of their own guru, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati (Guru Dev). I had heard that Swami Vishnudevananda was supporting Maharishi and his movement in recruiting Indians for the mass group practice of the TM-Sidhi program. Maharishi always generates a feeling of eternality and transcendent silence around him that is the most profound I've ever felt, but I had experienced this most often in the context of large gatherings of Westerners in Europe. In the midst of his own people, including the most illustrious of the Swami Order itself, the feeling was deeper, more natural, because the land and its spiritual history supported it. This was the "Whole Thing, the Real Thing" as Guru Dev used to say. If this were to be my last sight of the master, I had picked the right night. I felt God smiling on. For the entire evening, Maharishi remained in samadhi, eyes closed. That doesn't mean he was completely lost to the world, though, because at one point I felt as if he were "scanning" me checking me out with his inner vision. He's far too powerful to not have his attention felt by his teachers. I felt him look right through me, my organs, subtle body, mind, everything. While this was going on, I tried to send him the telepathic message: "Lord Shiva got me in here as a boon." If Maharishi was upset about my being here, it was his own fault-he was the one who taught me, in person, the highly effective techniques for locating transcendental consciousness and fulfilling desires through That. I was living proof of his own success this night. I'd gotten through his carefully selected, highly effective human shield and then been delivered at his feet as a VIP. That is the power of the Lord. The deep velvety-red umbrellas of Swami Vishnudevananda Saraswati and Swami Shantanandji Saraswati, embroidered with large gold Sanskrit letters, were obviously very old. To me, they represented the cosmic umbrella that one gets under for spiritual protection when initiated by an enlightened guru into the ancient tradition of the Sanatan Dharma. Each umbrella was imbued with the deep spirituality of ancient India?and great men of cosmic consciousness. I was mesmerized by the rare darshan (sight) of Swami Shantanand Saraswati. He must have been in his eighties at the time, but still had the wrinkle-free face of a baby. The glow on his face was more pure, more translucent, than I had ever seen on any human being before. He looked like the transcendent personified. He remained seated in deep meditation the entire evening. He never moved, never opened his eyes. He looked serene, breathless, in his all-time natural state of cosmic consciousness. From his whole body he radiated powerful waves of love. He was a sensory feast to behold, seated in the highest position in the room on his "throne" chair that was placed directly underneath what looked like the same umbrella that Guru Dev had sat under as Shankaracharya. The man had a pure white halo that encircled his whole body." Source: "Galaxy of Fire" by Jay Latham Sunstar, 2000 p. 550-553. O
