Ramalinga Adigal had drawn up clearly the many milestones one has to encounter and move on, continuing the journey that brings one to the much-anticipated destination and kingdom of God. (Source: "An Introduction to the Philosophy of Ramalinga Swami" by Dr. C Srinivasan, published by Ilakkia Nilayam, Tiruchi, 1968.
- Ramalinga Adigal starts describing the journey beginning with humans who lead a mundane life without even a thought of its transient nature. They might pass by a place of worship but will never think of entering. He would not have the urge to even explore what is behind the high walls. He is happy with his life minus the thought of the divine, the world and all things upon it.
- Then one moves up the rung by becoming aware of the momentary nature of life. He becomes conscious of the world and its external objects. He takes his first step, coming into Sariyai.
- Then wanting to see the Lord, the seeking starts. He steps into Kriyai. He feels inseparable from the divine.
- Coming to Yogam, he wants only God. Once this desire is set aflame and burning in him the various veils covering the soul for generations are shed one after the other. The divine comes to cleanse the soul. A spontaneous love for God is felt at all times.
- Next, the Grace of the Lord befalls him and he enters a state of ecstasy. If earlier he chose to see God with forms and had gained earthly experiences, beyond this stage, God is un-manifested and he begins to have heavenly experiences.
- He moves to "taste" God. His Soul is charged with Divine Grace. He attains self-realization or Atma Darisanam.
- Next follows the state where he perceives God in the form of light. The Soul becomes saturated with compassion and love. He experiences the divinity within (Uyir Anubhavam). Henceforth the extent of achievement is dependent on the grace of Arutperunjhoti.
- He then enjoys Supreme Grace (Arul Anubhavam). The higher stages are heavenly stages and beyond human perception where the mind fails to conceive and all senses cease to function.
- Then the descent of divinity into the individual takes place. It is not over yet for the Supreme Grace flows and prepares the aspirant for the next stage.
- The body transforms into the Pranava Deham or body of Grace. Merging with Arutperunjhoti, the state of deathlessness or conquest of death is achieved. Hold the horses for the journey is still not over yet. There are still higher stages that Ramalinga Adigal hesitates to express.
And where do I stand in comparison I ask myself? Ah hah! I see myself on the 5th tier or rung of the spiritual ladder at stage 5. I have a long way to go.
Dr.C.Srinivasan explains further in detail each of these experiences.
- The Achievement of the Divine Life (Uyiranubavam)
This is the preliminary state in which the soul is to enjoy in full the real and natural happiness it is entitled to without any restraint. The Swami also, like others before him in the line of descent of saints, stated that one should get out of the bondage for being bound to the boundless God Supreme. In other words the soul has become divine and dwells in the Grace of the Supreme God.
Our very first task then is to become divine and one with Erai through divine pursuit, and seek the Grace of Erai.
2. The Experience of the Supreme Grace (Arulanubavam)
The soul of this plane of Paranatham dwelling in the Supreme Light of Grace in a blissful state and enjoying the sublime achievement and experience of the soul (Uyiranubavam) and having been endowed with the sanctified golden body, is subjected further more to the hold of the Supreme Grace fully and completely for the evolution of the next higher plane. This transcendent plane of experience of the Grace (Arulanubavam) is achieved by divine pursuit. The soul is to enjoy the Supreme Grace.
The divine soul is entertained bodily as a part and parcel of the Supreme Grace and is permeated through and through. It is enshrined in the Divine Grace as an ever-existing and omnipresent object. It is to be found within the plane of Parambaram. The profundity of the Grace Supreme is inconceivably pleasant. It exists pervading the universe as an inexplicable entity. This experience of the divine aspirant is known as the experience of the Supreme Grace (Arulanubavam). Words fail to explain the different aspects of this blissful stage. The body of the divine aspirant transforms itself into an incarnation of Grace. With Supreme Grace descending on us next we become one with Erai.
3. Experience of the God Supreme (Sivanubavam)
The third and the ultimate state of the aspirant is the complete realization of the God Supreme (Sivanubavam). This is the most sublime and the highest plane of the most auspicious Godhead (Suddha Sivam). This is the all-pervading, all-knowing, all-embracing Super-Being. It is only at this plane that complete realization and complete merging with God is accomplished.
Here and here alone the great realization “He thou art, thou art He, Ye enjoy in Him” is achieved. The Supreme combustion results in the inseparable monism of the highest order. This plane of transcendence soars higher and higher into the most superior Godhead. It is inconceivable, uninferable and unimaginable even by the heavenly powers and divine beings and deities of high order.
This sublime achievement of the aspirant culminates in the complete union with the Lord Supreme for the eternal enjoyment of Supreme Bliss for ever and ever after. The experience of the Swami at this plane have spontaneously and profusely overflown into many of his melting verses sung in ecstasy.
We look towards http://www.ramalinga.com for more translations of Ramalinga Adigal's songs of bliss and his experience or anubhuti.
"I have realized here the triple indestructible body of Sudha Deha (the pure physical body), a perpetual and blissful Pranava body (Pranava Deha) and an all-pervading and ever-growing or ever-prospering Knowledge-body of the divine Conscious Force (Gnana Deha) in order to make the play of self-giving of myself everywhere."
"The Lord revealed me the chain of Cause and Effect that are spoken of in the respective scriptures of the Vedas and Agamas. I have seen and realized Him here in the world and enjoy the Bliss. I have happily partaken of Amrita (of Bliss) in the Realm where there is neither day nor night (the Truth World of eternal Light)."
"I have discarded all the devious ways and taken to the good Path of Purity, Truth and Harmony, and joined the rank and file of Its Sangha or fellowship. The heavenly beings happily praise it as the Good Path, because it has a firm foundation."
"Oh my shy people of the world! Be careful to see that your heart remains vigilant and watchful without allowing it to indulge in wastefulness (wasting the opportunity). As the Lord has given me today Amrita of Bliss as food, know it to be the day which He has chosen for His manifestation here in the play of Knowledge and Perfection."
Swami Saravanananda has written an extensive explanation in his English transliteration of Ramalinga Adigal’s “Arutperunjhoti Agaval” published by Ramalinga Mission, Madras on Ramalinga Adigal gaining illumination of effulgence (Arutperunjhothi) in his body becoming a pure or golden body.
At whatever age the aspirant gains illumination or the effulgence enters in him or emanates from within, some remarkable changes take place in the body-frame. The Divine Light seems to change the very cell of the body, with the result, that they seem to function in the opposite direction. Consequently, the old body becomes middle aged, then to youth of eighteen years, to twelve years (pure body or Suddha Deham), to eight years and finally five years (Pranava body). After five years the body grows to the size of the universe to become casual body or a body of gnosis (Gnana Deham) which is the natural abode of the soul.
With the descent of sufficient Divine Light the psychic head begins to emerge. According to Vallalar, this psychic head (a crown or diadem of light) is made up of a special and highly refined type of brain called Omkar brain. As soon as it emerges, it draws more cosmic light; the more the light the greater the growth of the psychic head.
With the advent of the psychic head, more and more changes take place in the already purified body. The cells and thence the whole body begins to transcend the limits imposed on them by impure Maya (the grosser principle of nature) and try to break one more of its veils. The cells undergo alternate condensation and expansion for an unspecified period and the body slowly emerges out of its bondage and begins to grow. This expanding and ever prospering body, is called the subtle body or the body of Omkar or Pranava body.
Swami Saravanananda continues,
With this perfection (after his body had attained perfection) comes perfect knowledge. He (Vallalar) also seemed to have been bestowed with the third eye. This third eye enabled him to gain knowledge of the whole universe and all the individual beings contained in it. He assets that his knowledge penetrated and pervaded layer upon layer of the varied types of universes. With the functioning of the third eye, the transformation of the Pranava body is completed and the next and final stage of transformation into the Gnostic body (Gnana Deham) starts. As explained by Vallalar, the person whose third eye is active is verily God Himself because he can raise the dead into life and perform the fivefold primordial functions.
Swami Saravanananda adds that according to Ramalinga Adigal, it takes a long time to perfect the Pranava body; the minimum period required is twelve years and the maximum is 108 years.
The transformation of the Pranava body into a Gnostic body begins with the functioning of the third eye. With the advent of this eye, the body sheds whatever subtle impurities it possesses; consequently, it becomes nearly invisible. The third eye enabled Vallalar to have tier upon tier of divine experiences.
Slowly his body through the intensity of concentration of the mind begins to generate the flame of lapses, popularly known as psychic heat. Slowly the quantity of psychic heat is increased due to intense meditation and concentration on the universal effulgence. The extreme heat generated in the body produces smoke at first; this smoke gathers up in volume and escapes through the junction of the parietal bones of the skull (Brahma Randhra). During this period, the body and mind undergoes untold stress. Vallalar often mentions about the sufferings that he had undergone since he was twelve years old. The psychic smoke clears off and enhanced illumination results. This light (Tegas) is also called as the aura or nimbus.
After Union With God, From http://www.ramalinga.com
... the full Union with God in body and soul (deathless body) takes place when the Most High Lord accepts the absolute surrender of the disciple. These great saints saw a Column of Light rising above the Sahasrara up to the Divinity. In one who realizes the Golden Deathless Body an indissoluble bond is established with the Divinity through this Column of Light. Till this moment, one must make an effort ascending to the Divinity, later having to descend again to the physical level, nevertheless on having been settled the Column of Light one does not need to continue doing this effort, but from this time the Divinity descends on oneself. The Column of Light starts to be formed in the states previous to the full Realization of Golden Body.
The one in whom the Column of Light is settled enjoy the continual experience on the Divinity, who, on having descended, resides in one's own Heart (as shining Sun) and fills with Himself the whole Being gradually, even the physical body (which, cell by cell, is completely transmuted up to becoming divine). At first the above mentioned experience has not the same intensity all the time. Moved by His great Compassion, God takes the maximum care of the possible after effect in the physical body and that's why He is alternating the intensity to manifest Himself as Divine Light. Some times His resplendence is very soft whereas in other occasions It becomes the most intense, seeming that one is going to be melted in It. This experience on God fills the Self with Divine Love and Compassion, which overflow from the Heart as a river flowing endlessly towards the other beings.
Little by little, God is increasing by degrees the intensity of Light and one is becoming accustomed to it, until the time comes when God manifests Himself wholly. Then the Column of Light shines from beginning to end with Its entire splendor. It isn’t visible, except in very rare occasions. This Column of Light is truly the embodied Divine Jothi, which burns constantly so that the Divine Light radiates coming to all the beings. This is the Full God's Manifestation in the Earth.
There was no longer the body, no longer any sensation; there was only a Column of Light rising from the place where is ordinarily the base of the body up to the place where is ordinarily the head, to form there a disk of Light like that of the moon; then from there the Column went on rising up to very far above the head to break into an immense Sun, dazzling and multi-colored, from which fell a rain of Golden Light covering the whole earth.
Then slowly the Column of Light descended forming an oval of living Light, awakening and setting in motion, each in a particular way, according to a special mode of vibration, the centers which were above the head, at the place of the head, the throat, the heart, in the middle of the belly, at the base of the spine and still lower. At the height of the knees, the ascending and the descending currents joined together and the circulation thus became in a way uninterrupted enveloping the whole being in an immense oval of living Light.
In an interesting article in the net, its source I cannot recall now, the author of the article relates these experiences from the perspective of the various Kosas and labels them as saints, sages, buddhas, siddha, jeevanmukta and avatar.
As an individual begins to be liberated from the influence of the mind-stuff, the divine attributes of the atman or self manifest in the very subtle sheath of bliss (Anandamaya Kosham) that surrounds the soul (atman.). When the transformation of that very subtle part of the being has been given fully to the divine, the individual becomes literally a beacon of bliss-light. Simply being in the presence of such a being is uplifting. Such an elevated individual is often acknowledged as a saint.
Anyone whose spiritual practices have thus resulted in the awareness of the divine working through them has already begun the transformational process and surrendering of the sheath of the intellect (Vinjnanamaya Kosham). When the analytical or intellectual component of the being is fully informed by the divine light attributes we may through the divine grace be in a position to recognize such a being as the Sage that they are. Such an individual is truly a muni or one who has had their accumulated experiences and knowledge enlightened by the higher deeper aspects of self. Such Sage has digested and integrated the informed divine light into the analytical aspects of the being.
As the intellect undergoes this transformation, the mental sheath (Manomaya Kosham), associated with the senses, and is similarly transformed. Of course, this individual is fully aware of the divine as the prime mover. Since the ego has been given to the divine, every action related to the senses is observed and understood to be none other than the indwelling god or goddess doing the experiencing and enjoying. Such a Buddha can enjoy all the senses without fear of confusion or being lost spiritually in them. For the great tantric who have attained to this state, conventional rules which guide and provide stability, safety, and structure are irrelevant.
As the divine light descends into the sheath of energy (Pranayama Kosham) the entity becomes a Siddha in the truest sense of the word. As defined in the Upanishads, a Siddha is one who has progressed from the exalted ‘state of freed while living’ (Jivanmukta) to ‘supremely free with full power over death’ (Paramukta). This state is referred to in Siddhantha literature as Soruba Mukti or Soruba Samadhi. This Paramukta will rarely retain the transformed physical frame and when so, remains as an avatar. The physical body of the Siddha glows with the fire of immortality.