Mystical Experiences

[continued from part one...]

MM: In our Orissa, the pothi of Achyutananda Das have been found in many places. You might be knowing in which places those have been gotten?

AM: Aagyan. One is in our Kakatapur. Bhagavana Misra at Surat. Now he is in Puri. It is with him. Bisi Ratha of Sakigopal, he has one. There is another man called Kalandi Misra of Kalia Gorada, a place of Sakigopal. It is with him. Another one is near Balakati. I have not gone there, only heard it from the people.
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The sacred oracle (tamra pothi) of Achyutananda Das is a series of blank copper pages. Once a questioner has asked his questions, the answers mystically appear engraved on the blank pages. The following is an interview recorded Wednesday July 29, 1992 between Manamohan Mahapatra (MM) and Pandit Amareswar Mishra (AM), the reader of the oracle, explaining how he came to possess it.
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In that little town under the foothills of the western ghat in Kerala, there was just one real building which was a small temple with a tile roofing. The temple was surrounded by huts and shanties. When I arrived, there was a competition going on in the market place between two tantrics who had selected an onlooker from the crowd to be their medium. They had him standing stiff as a bamboo in trance. One tantric pointed a stick at him and said “lay down” he fell flat! The other pointed and said “get up” he rose up straight without bending a limb! ...

When we met again, the tantra master was much more forthcoming. I was greeted with a warm embrace and invited to relax under the banyan tree. I sensed that I now belonged. In an awed voice I asked him, "What was it that I saw?"

He chuckled at my neophyte's excitement. "So, you were impressed?" I nodded. "You saw Mohini, a demoness from the underworld. ...

After three and a half years in Kerala I was transferred back to Tamil Nadu, to work under the rather severe chief accountant of the Salem branch, Mr. S. Venkata Subrahmanian. As it is common usage for educated English-speaking Tamils to be addressed by the first initials of their names, he was known to one and all as SVS.
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The Chandogya Upanishad relates how Indra, king of the devas, and Virochana, king of the demons, both became students of the science of self-realization under Brahma. Brahma, to test them first, told them that the self was what they saw when they looked into a mirror or a pan of water. Virochana believed and went back to become a guru, teaching this to the other demons, who also believed; but Indra had second thoughts and returned to receive the true knowledge of the self as soul.
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"If you want to become a high priest of humbug, fine - but you are surely not going to do it on company time!"

The chief accountant, SVS, a spartan, no-nonsense company functionary with a schoolmaster's mien and sense of metaphor, was addressing me with volume control turned up for the benefit of everyone else in the office. He'd had it up to the eyes; it was time to put his foot down.

I continued sketching my picture of Dattatreya as if I hadn't heard him. ...

It was the end of June, 1974. As per a recent agreement with the workers' union, the company was to dispense a semi-annual cash bonus along with this month's regular pay allotment.

Our department's job was to do the calculation of each employee's bonus percentage. But two of our men had gone on leave. SVS was in a fix - how would all this work be finished before payday, tomorrow?
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The first welcome I got upon my arrival at Sai Baba's ashram was from a large group of ragged beggars sitting outside the front gate. Past them, flocks of well-off people crowded into the compound; that meant Sai Baba was here now. I viewed this scene with decidedly mixed feelings.

"He is supposed to be God", I considered, "and his followers say he has the power to remove misfortune, disease and poverty - so why are these beggars loitering here just outside his own house? And if his disciples are really so blessed, why don't they do something more for these poor people than just give them a few coins?"
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A day or so later I asked my friend to take me around the village. We went to the Chitravati river, but since it was the dry season there was no water, just a sand channel.

On a rocky mound near the riverbed stood a tamarind tree from which Sai Baba is said to have magically plucked mangos and other fruits during his youth. I clambered up the rocks and sat beneath it. At the time I was not aware of the significance Sai Baba's followers attached to this tree; I only happened to go there because it looked like a suitable spot for meditation. I sat in the lotus pose, and my friend sat next to me. With closed eyes I visualized Lord Rama, God's avatar as the prince who defeated the demon Ravana.
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Astral Journey and the Astral Body

You first separate yourself from the body; then you identify yourself with the mind, and then you function on the mental plane, with this fine body just as you do on this physical plane. Through concentration, you rise above the body-consciousness; through meditation, you rise above mind; and finally through Samadhi, you realize your spiritual nature. These are three important exercises of Antaranga sadhana in the achievements of Kaivalya, the final beautitude.
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Sometimes, during meditation, you will get very powerful and dazzling lights, bigger than the sun. They are white in color. In the beginning, they come and disappear quickly. Later on, they are steady and they become fixed for ten to fifteen minutes according to the strength and degree of concentration. For those who concentrate at the Trikuti, the light appears in the forehead; while for others who concentrate at the Sahasra Chakra, the light manifests itself at the top of the head. The light is so powerful and dazzling sometimes that you have to withdraw yourself from looking at it and break the meditation.
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Various kinds of lights manifest during meditation owing to concentration. In the beginning, a bright, white light, the size of a pin's point will appear in the forehead in Trikuti which corresponds tentatively to the Ajna Chakra of the astral body. When the eyes are closed, you will notice different colored lights such as white, yellow, red, smoky, blue, green, mixed color, flashes like lightning, like fire, burning charcoal, fire-flies, the moon, the sun and stars. These lights appear in the mental space, Chidakasha. These are all Tanmatric lights.
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During the course of meditation, one day you will feel that you have separated yourself from the body. You will have immense joy mixed with fear; joy in the possession of a new light, astral body; and fear owing to the entry in a foreign, unknown plane. At the very outset, the new consciousness is very rudimentary in the new plane, just as in the case of a pup with newly opened eyes on the eighth or tenth day on the physical plane. You will feel that you have a light air body and perceive a rotating, vibratory, limited, astral atmosphere with illumination of golden lights, objects, beings, etc. You may feel that you are rotating or floating in the air and consequently there is fear of a fall.
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The following event took place in 1992 in the city of Coimbatore in South India, and it involves the mystical appearance of Srila Prabhupada, who entered samadhi on November 14, 1977 in Vrindavana, India. The first account is given by Mr. Kannan, in whose house the appearance of Srila Prabhupada took place. The second account is given by his wife, Purnima. Mr. Kannan is a disciple of Swami Shantananda, the guru of the 'Shiva Family', a religious organization based in South India. His guru, Swami Shantananda, is a direct disciple of Swami Shivananda, the founder of the Divine Life Mission. 'Hare Krishna swamiji' is a disciple of Srila Prabhupada to whom the vision occured.
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