Ritual

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