Sharanagati

(continues from the previous Monday)

 “A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogī [or mystic] when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything—whether it be pebbles, stones or gold—as the same.”[1]

Question of Kamen: When you were discussing the two types of vision – to see the stone as gold, the gold as stone – I was thinking that this is our vision as we are currently in maya. Now, if we go beyond maya, is there another vision and how it would look like?

Tirtha Maharaj: Yes, it’s gold and gold. Sometimes we see Black and White. Other times we see only Gold. And the greatest mystery is when all three are mixed.

But philosophically, there are five levels of reality according to our vaishnava thinking. One is what you perceive by your senses – this is the pratyaksha, what you see with the eyes. The second is the collective consciousness of all others, gained through the same instruments like senses, but in a collective way. The third one is like a hazy picture – impressions or intuition, or feelings – something coming from beyond matter. The fourth one is the transcendental realization or vision – this is adhokshaja, just beyond the ability of the senses. There you see no difference – there is no gold, no black, no white, nothing; just this unified layer of existence. Practically this is the sat platform, existence, Brahman. And then they say that on the fifth platform, which resembles very much the arrangement here on the planet Earth, but is fully transcendental, again that is variegated, diverse.

Maybe it does not mean too much for some of you today. But if you will perceive something unusual and if you know this gradation, you will know where to fit those impressions.

So black, white, golden… These are the ultimate colors.

[1] Bhagavad Gita, 6.8