Higher realizations are not condensed forms; they are subtle forms. They are pranic forms. Pranic form is not matter. Yogis in their deep experience realized this pranic form, in the form of devata or devi. All ancient religions and belief systems of the world were following nature. They used to commune with the spirits of nature. In the 1970s, a book was published, the Findhorn Project, about a project that happened in England. The whole idea was beautiful. People could commune with the spirits of trees, fruits, flowers, vegetables and the environment and talk to them. They followed their advice and guidelines; they asked them what was required by them. In this book people expressed that they were able to see with their own eyes the spirits of nature and talk to them. You cannot do that. They did it, as their mind was less cluttered in the 1970s than what it is in the 2020s.
You have to understand that de-cluttering of the mind is essential to have any type of spiritual or higher experience. You cannot have a spiritual or higher experience with a cluttered mind. Every day the situation, the environment, the systems clutter the mind more. They divert our attention to what is happening outside, making us feel that what is happening outside is more important than what I am thinking or feeling inside. This is a big challenge for spiritual life and spirituality today. How can one become aware of what is happening inside and be practical on the outside? A person who can do that is a yogi. By de-cluttering the mind you allow new stuff to fill the mind. When you focus on filling your mind with the new, pure and positive stuff, then it is that which you will have and experience. Therefore, during the vedic period and the period of tantric practices, people with simple meditations were able to have darshan of different spirit forms, the devis, the devatas. They realized that some were nature spirits, some were elemental spirits and some were different type of spirits.
There is a whole hierarchy. Just as the soul is in each one of us and there is a hierarchy in that too, after all an ant also has a soul. You think of soul as your soul, yet you do not mind swatting a mosquito. If God swats you, what will you do? The soul is there and there is a hierarchy of souls from an ant to an elephant. In the same way, there is a hierarchy of spirits, from a blade of grass to the Holy Trinity to the Cosmic Power. People have that experience. Shintoism, all the nature religions of the past like the Druids, the Celts, the Incas, Aztecs, Mayans and the Chicos, the Egyptians, Greeks, Japanese, Chinese, Asians, Indians and Africans developed an awareness of this spiritual dimension by connecting with the spirit world, which is the pranic world.
This spirit world of the positive, benevolent forces is invoked with mantras. In Findhorn, people used to chant mantras, sitting before a plant, a tree, a flower or a fruit. After that came the research on the effect of music on plants, on animals and on how sound vibrations can affect and alter the perceptions of the human brain. From the 1970s to the 1990s, many different investigations were conducted, yet while investigations were opening different doors for us, our mind was distracted by the material world. So, it did not matter much and only remained as information and got lost, as such. The truth is that mantras are vibrations that affect the pranic dimension. It is through mantras that these forces are invoked.
If you take two magnets and you bring them closer, at one point you will start feeling the attraction that they have. Maybe they are three inches apart, but you will begin to feel the pull. If the magnet is bigger, it can be further away. You will feel the pull. You are creating an energy field with the chanting of mantras and that energy field is pulling the cosmic energy field. The attraction is there. Therefore, many times you experience the power of the mantra as something different, ‘The environment is different here. I feel happy. I feel very content, peaceful and vibrant. Something is different.’ Paramahamsaji has spoken so many times during the Sat Chandi Mahayajna of the role of mantras in invocation. The point is that everything is pranic. There is nothing mental, intellectual or material in this experience.
We have divided the nine days of Navaratri into three-day periods, starting with Kali, Durga, coming to Lakshmi and then Saraswati. Some people have asked about it, saying that normally Saraswati comes first, then Lakshmi and then Durga. In the sequence of creation, preservation and destruction, this is true. In our sadhana, the need is to break down the tamasic barriers and that can only happen with the grace of Durga. Durga is the energy that fights with the negative, destructive, limiting powers. You know how powerful Durga mantras are. The thirty-two names of Durga is an intense mantra. The focus and the purpose of that is to stop the negative from making us negative.
The negative will be there, yet we will not become negative. The heat is there and we will sweat it out. You do not have to run in. It is raining and we will get wet. We can tolerate it and we do not have to run in. The negative is there, we will see and experience it, yet we will not be affected by it. Eventually you will avoid the influence of the negative. First, you clear the ground. Clearing and preparing the ground for plantation is the Durga component. That is clearing of pranas and cleaning of manas both.
Lakshmi is getting all the right things together – the compost, the water, the nitrogen, whatever is required for having a good farm which will produce the best produce and the right seeds. What seeds are you going to plant in your garden? Are they going to be weed or flowers? Make a decision first. If you are going to plant negative seeds, do not expect positivity. If you are going to plant positive seeds, remain aware of the negative that is going to come to overpower and smother the positive. Weeds grow faster than the seed that you plant. Sometimes the weeds can smother the seed that you have planted. So, get the right seed, give the right care and protection. Create the right environment, plant the seed and then wait. The Saraswati effect will happen. Saraswati represents all that is connected with wisdom, knowledge and the mastery of arts and skills.
Saraswati is not only a material but also a spiritual power. Her vehicle, the swan, is not an ordinary bird. In the spiritual traditions of the country, the swan has been given the same status as discrimination. Swan is discrimination. Mythologically, it can separate, water and milk if they are mixed together. The swan can drink milk and leave the water. That is the mythological understanding. The swan represents total discrimination and wisdom which becomes the launch pad for our spiritual evolution.
Spiritual evolution is not realizing ‘Who I am?’, but ‘What I can do for my fellow beings.’ The realization of ‘Who I am’ will happen automatically and you do not have to propagate that. Swami Sivanandaji never propagated who he was. Swami Satyanandaji never propagated who he was. We know that they knew who they were. Swami Sivanandaji knew who he was, Swami Satyanandaji knew who he was. We announce globally who we are. If there is this global announcement of who you are, you are still confined to the dimension of desires, lokeshana.
Wisdom is following the correct, the right path which leads to the realization of your nature and your connectedness with all other life forms. The vibhu element of God is realized. The purpose of Navaratri is a personal time of transformation which we are conscious of and which we consciously use to change our tamasic vrittis to attain sattwic vrittis.
23 October 2023, Progressive Yoga Vidya Training, Ganga Darshan, Munger