Sri Ramakrishna in samadhi
Sri Ramakrishna would tell his devotees: “There is a stage beyond even Brahmajnana, After jnana comes vijnana.” (1)
Is Ascension beyond Brahmajnana, or seventh-chakra enlightenment? The Divine Mother, whom Sri Ramakrishna dedicated his life to, confirms it:
Steve Beckow: I’m trying to understand what level of enlightenment Ascension corresponds to and I think it’s beyond the normal seventh-chakra enlightenment [Brahmajana]. I think it is what is called — and I’ll make this clear to readers — sahaja [nirvikalpa] samadhi. Am I correct?
Divine Mother: Yes, it is beyond what you think of [as being] with your seven chakras. … We have emerged from the Third-Dimensional realm, which is that reference point for the [seven] chakra system, into the new. So yes, you are correct, in this question and in this statement. (2)
His biographer, Swami Nikhilananda, affirms that Sri Ramakrishna did ascend to Vijnana.
“In the [kevalya] nirvikalpa Samadhi [or Brahmajnana], Sri Ramakrishna had realized that Brahman [God] alone is real and the world illusory. By keeping his mind six months on the plane of the non-dual Brahman, he had attained to the state of the vijnani [ascended person], the knower of truth in a special and very rich sense, who sees Brahman not only in himself and in the transcendental Absolute, but in everything of the world. In this state of vijnana, sometimes bereft of body-consciousness, he would regard himself as God’s devotee, servant, or child.” (3)
His version draws on numerous descriptions from Sri Ramakrishna of what his sadhana or spiritual practice was like at this time:
“No sooner had I passed through one spiritual crisis than another took its place. It was like being in the midst of a whirlwind – even my sacred thread was blown away. I could seldom keep hold of my dhoti [cloth]. Sometimes I would open my mouth, and it would be as if my jaws reached from heaven to the underworld. “Mother!” I would cry desperately. I felt I had to pull her in, as a fisherman pulls in fish with his dragnet. A prostitute walking the street would appear to me to be Sita, going to meet her victorious husband. An English boy standing cross-legged against a tree reminded me of the boy Krishna, and I lost consciousness. Sometimes I would share my food with a dog. My hair became matted. Birds would perch on my head and peck at the grains of rice which had lodged there during the worship. Snakes would crawl over my motionless body.
“An ordinary man couldn’t have borne a quarter of that tremendous fervour; it would have burnt him up. I had no sleep at all for six long years. My eyes lost the power of winking. I stood in front of a mirror and tried to close my eyelids with my finger – and I couldn’t! I got frightened and said to Mother: “Mother, is that what happens to those who call on you? I surrendered myself to you, and you gave me this terrible disease!” I used to shed tears – but then, suddenly, I’d be filled with ecstacy. I saw that my body didn’t matter – it was of no importance, a mere trifle. Mother appeared to me and comforted me and freed me from my fear. (4)
We ordinary folk have to take our Ascension or Vijnana more slowly and gradually than he did – and we have the help of the rising energies.
Sri Ramakrishna would lecture on Vijnana:
“What is vijnana? It is to know God distinctly by realizing His existence through an intuitive experience and to speak to Him intimately.” (5)
Did not Archangel Michael tell us that at some near-future date (probably after the Wave of Love) we’d begin to see them and be able to speak with them?
“To know many things is ignorance. To know that God dwells in all beings is knowledge.
“And what is vijnana? It is to know God in a special manner, to converse with Him and feel Him to be one’s own relative.
“To know that there is fire in wood is knowledge. But to make a fire with that wood, cook food with that fire, and become healthy and strong from that food is vijnana.” (6)
The one who knows there is fire in wood is still in the Third Dimension. But the one who can make a fire with wood and cook has gone beyond.
If we can connect the dots among sages, in this case knowing that Vijnana is Ascension, we can take their teachings and blend the two together to get an ever-fuller and clearer map of heaven.
If I have time in the future, I’ll do a deeper search of Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings to see what else he has to say about his path to Ascension, the experience of Vijnana, and Vijnana’s nature.
Footnotes
(1) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 38, 288. [Hereafter PR and GSR.]
(2) Here is the rest of that discussion:
Steve: It’s wonderful to have that confirmed. Thank you very much, Mother.
DM: It is wonderful for us as well, you know!
Steve: Is it? How so, Mother?
DM: As we move beyond what you think of in your realm as emotion, that does not mean that the pervasive love and joy is not felt as we participate, witness, move and assist and beckon you forward.
Now, you understand that most people – and yes, you will do a good job of explaining – have no conception of what this [discussion] really means.
Steve: Well, you know that I have a website that discusses Sahaja Samadhi at length. And that’s from Sri Ramana Maharshi, more or less. If I take that material and present it to readers, would that be adequate?
DM: That will help. (“The Divine Mother: Come to Me as I Come to You – Part 1/2,” Oct. 17, 2012, at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2012/10/17/the-divine-mother-come-to-me-as-i-come-to-you-part-12/.)
The website is From Darkness to Light; see, for instance, https://goldengaiadb.com/index.php?title=E#Enlightenment_-_.284.29_Stages_beyond_God_Realization_.28Brahmajnana.29_-_Probable_declarations_of_Sahaja_Nirvikalpa_Samadhi_or_Vijnana and following.
(3) Swami Nikhilananda in GSR, 38.
(4) PR in Swami Chetanananda, ed. and trans. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him. St Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1990, 14-15. We don’t have to go through one-hundredth of a percent of the travail that he did.
(5) PR in GSR, 781.
(6) PR in GSR, 911.