Part II
Among varieties of Naad may be mentioned: the singing of the words “Radhe Govinda Jai Radhe Govinda”, the kind or music that can be heard during worship with five lamps burning on the same stand and waved before a Deity in various ways; the fanfare of a grand trumpet; the ‘Soham’ Naad, the Naad of drum and of gong made of bell-metal, the Naad of stringed musical instruments; the Naad that says, ‘Kun Kun’, ‘Guru Guru’, ‘Jai Guru’, the Naad of a song, the buzz of the bumble bee, the music of Khola (a double-faced barley-shaped drum played with hand) the music of a tabor and so on. Add to that the exquisitely enchanting song of ‘Guru-Guru’ coming, as it seems, from the far off heights of heavens, the naad that hisses as “Si Si”, the Naad which sounds exactly as the jingle of anklets on the feet of a little dancing child—how infinitely sweet it is words fail to describe.

One never can express the immeasurable, incalculable, inconceivable, ineffable ecstasy of joy that Naad gives while it is being listened to. Thus in the form of various Naads, does Shiva, of light all compact, appear. He is Atman. He comes only to receive the seeker into his bosom. The mind endures as long as Naad remains, after which comes “Manonmani” stage, when the body grows stiff as a log and the yogi loses all sense of heat or cold, weal or woe, esteem or scorn. He goes beyond the pale of the three states called waking, dream and deep, dreamless sleep. By Jyoti and Naad is achieved the purification of the Sukshma deha. As the karana deha is chastened, one cultivates the realisation of the idea that “all is You” (i.e. God), the realisation that may be summed up in the words: “As specta­tor, you permeate all things and I have come to you for refuge”. This is enough to do away with the illusion of duality. Jada Samadhi, Chaitanya Samadhi go on automatically. The long and the short of it is that so long as you have language to use and a mind to brood with, you have to hold fast to that supreme Mantra, “I have come to you for refuge”. This by itself shall set everything right. This is how one comes to feel absolutely secure. A deep peace wells up from within. It is bliss and joy all over. Jai Sitaram! Jai Sitaram! Jai Sitaram!!!

Says Sri Shankaracharyya in Prabodha Sudhakara:
Jadyapi gaganam sunyam tathapi jaladamritamshu rupena
Chataka chakora Namno dridha bhava puratyasham.
Tadvad bhajatam pumsam, drik-vang-manasomagocharopi Harih.
Kripaya phalatyakasmat Satyanandamritena vipulena. 256-57

Though the sky is void yet as cloud it fulfils the chataka’s hope and as moon it gratifies the chakora; such is the potency of firm faith! Although inaccessible to sight, speech and thought. God does gratify the devotees out of His unaccountable grace, appearing in visible form, embodying profound truth and ineffable joy. Ram Ram! Jai Guru!
Ramdas. Well, Crazy father! If the body does in fact split, how can it function again?
The Crazy Man. Though the Crazy dear splits it continually, as she goes up and comes down, the karma of the previous birth holds up the body. When perfection is realised and the way of sushumna cleansed once and for all, then during samadhi no trace of physical existence remains. The Crazy darling is totally merged.

Ramdas. Thank you, father! I am much heartened by what you say. I was afraid that I had contracted a disease.

The Crazy Man. Jai Sitaram! Not you alone, but many other men, blest with Siddha Yoga, often mistake spiritual symptoms for disease and undergo medical treatment. A young seeker wondering why his limbs should apparently be numbed, and feeling something creeping near the spinal cord, consulted a physician who suspected that it would develop into Pthisis. One day as the vital breath got into “sushumna” an utter exhaustion seized him and he supposed that his end was near. His anx­ious father ran frantically about for medicine to prevent heart-failure. The gentleman had varied experience of transcendent light and enjoyed transcendent tastes on the tongue. Yet he thought that his health was being impaired by japa and abandoned it. If his head shook and body shivered, that was not due to disease but the result of yoga. Vision of light is no hallucination but genuine perception. Only after consulting the Shastras could the youth bring himself to believe it.
Look again at this case of a female aspirant. Admitted to Siddha Yoga, she came to have many experiences such as a creepy sensation along the spine, the mouth gaping wide or looking distorted, the eyes assuming weird expression, something unusual and disquieting going within the chest. She of course took all these as symptoms of neurosis and got very nervous and had with difficulty to be comforted with the assurance that it was not a case of disease at all but a form of yoga. Yet another woman seeker practising spiritual exercise for a pretty long time, came to be similarly afflicted: she felt out-of-sorts, complained of something abnormal going on within the chest and had fits of fainting. Medicine could be of no avail. Subsequently it came to be known that the so-called disease was really a case of yoga.

A seeker had an attack apparently of dyspepsia. Many were the doc­tors consulted. But the disease would not respond to medicine. He was very much run down; would often wonder whether he was actually alive and remained often steeped in a sort of intoxication. The poor man was beside himself with anxiety. As advised by his Guru, however, he took to a course of “havishya”—a diet, that is, of sun-dried rice without curry or condiment. That cured him. Jai Sitaram.

It is the duty therefore of a seeker to inform the Guru of anything unusual that may happen after initiation and then to follow the Guru’s instruction.

Spiritual symptoms, big or small, do happen in most cases, but they go unheeded, with the result that (spiritual) progress is arrested. The seeker should take note of every reaction. Until some manifestations follow initiation (as for example, a thrill of joy, shivering of the body, the hairs standing on end, occasional changes in tone of voice or expression of the eye), it is to be concluded that the Mantra has not been instilled with life, that, in other words, the kundalini has not been awakened. In that case, resort should be to the Guru and proper steps taken so that the Mantra may be activated. It is the chosen deity who comes as Guru and resides as the Mantra. When the Mantra attains fulfilment, it dis­solves in the deity.

Mantra siddhya devatayam vidhaya manaso layam

Triputi nashato yogi samadhimadhigachchati

Mano Mantrasttha devo jayate prathamam prithak

Tatah parasparam tattaj-jnane leenam prajayate.

Dhyeya dhyatri dhyanarupa triputi valayo bhavet

Imam avastham samprapya Sadhakesu prajayate.

Romodgamah stabdhata cha tathanandashroo varshanam

Kramena cha mano leene Samadhih kila jayate.

Samadhina bhavatyashu krita kritya hi Sadhikah

Mahabhavop labdhar hi Mantra yogentimam phalam.

Attaining to the—fulfilment of the Mantra, the yogi dissolves his mind in the deity and, merging distinction of the subject, object and relation between them (or apprehension of object by subject), he achieves samadhi. First comes knowledge of mind, Mantra and the Deity; at last the Mantra swoons into the Deity. The moment this is achieved the three factors of the subject, that meditation and the act of meditating come to be extinguished. Once this stage is reached, sattvika bhavas (e.g., hairs standing on end, shedding of tears in joy etc. etc.) emerge. The seeker arrives very soon at final gratification through Samadhi. The supreme aim of Mantra yoga is the attainment of Mahabhava (grand psychic state), with the awakening of Kundalini, every form of yoga comes to be intimately realised; no branch of it remains unknown. Jai Sitaram.