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Siva-Sakti, illustrating Siva and<br />
Sakti as the embodiment of<br />
universal energy, Kundalini, in the<br />
centre of his body. Himachal<br />
Pradesh, c. 18th century. Gouache<br />
on paper.<br />
194<br />
dissolve into an inner radiance of intensely bright pure light in<br />
which the yogi has the sense of being immersed into a blaze of<br />
dazzling flame.<br />
An altered state of consciousness differs from our ordinary<br />
perception of reality. First, the illumined yogi has a holistic<br />
perception of reality which he directly apprehends through the<br />
inherent harmony in unity of all things, together with various<br />
sensory reactions. Second, his ascent from one level of consciousness<br />
to another alters a normal dimension of linear time-experience<br />
as a constant flow of events sequentially organized as past, present<br />
and future into an experience which transcends time and in which<br />
all events simultaneously exist in the 'infinite present'.<br />
The last stage of psychic ascent culminates in illumination or<br />
unity-mergence. The psyche, having traversed a long and winding<br />
road, now enters a new domain. The aspirant becomes totally<br />
integrated within himself, having cast aside all illusions and<br />
delusions. There is no ambiguity in his life. He is merged with the<br />
object of his worship, slowly dissolving all the grosser elements of<br />
his personality into a subtle constancy for final abandonment. This<br />
stage is characterized by an experiential realization of what the<br />
classical Hindu tradition (including tantra) calls Sat (Being), Chit<br />
(Consciousness), Ananda (Bliss), the triad of substances of Siva-<br />
Sakti in union. If we take a mundane view of these concepts, these<br />
three may appear as separate substances. But in an 'altered' or<br />
'metamorphosed' state of consciousness, such as that lived by one<br />
who has realized, they form a tri-unity, each submerging into one<br />
single unified experience. In our ordinary experience we dissociate<br />
the object of pleasure from the person who experiences it. Thus a<br />
painting is different from the painter, a poem is distinct from the<br />
poet, music is separated from the musician; but in altered states<br />
these distinctions are abolished - the painter becomes the painting,<br />
the poet the poem, the musician the music, the sadhaka the very<br />
essence of the bliss of union characterized by Sat-Chit-Ananda.<br />
One who has attained these transformations has no more desires.<br />
All external aids become symbols of phases and forces. They are no<br />
more than 'links' in different parts of the whole, and all the means<br />
that we require to reach the ultimate goal, however high, lie<br />
within us: 'What need have I of an outer woman? I have an inner<br />
woman within myself When roused, she (Kundalini, the 'inner<br />
woman') shines like 'millions of lightning flashes' in the centre of<br />
the sadhaka's body. He then thinks that he himself is shining like<br />
everything that is reflected. He looks upon the entire objective<br />
world that is reflected as surging within him. He then neither