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of the discipline may even abandon the search. The next stage is<br />
one of reintegration, a harbinger of a new creative birth - a state<br />
before psychic actualization slowly begins to dawn.<br />
The second stage, which is anticipatory to the final stage, may be<br />
called self-actualization. It is a stage when the aspirant begins to<br />
apprehend that awareness is not inseparable from other aspects of<br />
experience: he is a part of the totality of which he is a centre. This is<br />
a state of equanimity of samayana, the state of emptiness, of mental<br />
tranquility, serenity, imperturbability, self-restraint, accompanied<br />
by a cessation of cognitive, cognative and volitional function. At<br />
this level, the sadhaka is 'centred' or 'balanced', always at ease.<br />
Nothing in life is too great or final to move him, since he is no<br />
longer at the mercy of opposing sense-reactions.<br />
Self-actualization may also be manifested in the attainment of<br />
supernatural powers, or siddhis, such as duplicating one's body at<br />
will, walking on water, etc. The lives of some of the famous tantric<br />
Natha saints give glowing descriptions of their superhuman occult<br />
powers. In all cases the attainment of siddhi is considered to be a<br />
lesser grade of enlightenment. Ramakrishna always used to warn<br />
his disciples not to become siddhai and deprecated and implicitly<br />
decried it: 'If asceticism can teach you after twenty years only to<br />
walk on water better pay the boatman and save your time.'<br />
The physiological symptoms of self-actualization may be<br />
perceptible in the adepts of Kundalini-yoga. The ascent of the<br />
Kundalini as it pierces through the chakras is manifested by certain<br />
physical and psychical planes of awareness. In the preliminary<br />
stages the body trembles and the yogi can feel the explosion of<br />
psychic heat passing like a current through the Sushumna.<br />
Ramakrishna describes his own experience of the leaps and bounds<br />
of this phenomenon as 'hopping', 'pushing up', 'moving', 'zigzag'.<br />
As the Kundalini ascends further other signs of awakening<br />
begin to appear. The yogis describe how, at first, a number of<br />
auditory experiences of inner sounds are had, in which the sounds<br />
heard interiorly resemble some of the sounds of the external<br />
environment such as the sound of a waterfall, the humming of<br />
bees, the sound of a bell, a flute, the tinkling of ornaments, etc. In<br />
such experiences, the head may become giddy and the mouth fill<br />
with saliva, but the aspiring yogi must go further till he can hear<br />
the innermost, unstruck subtle sound or nad identified with inner<br />
silence. Along with these there may be many sensory reactions of a<br />
visual nature. The yogi may, in his closed-eye-perception,<br />
visualize a variety of forms such as dots of light, flames,<br />
geometrical shapes till all of these in the final state of illumination<br />
Vaishnava symbol of Lord<br />
Chaitanya. Bengal, c. 18th<br />
century. Brass.<br />
193