Course XL - Teaching 10: “SAHASRÂRA”

Verse 39

“When actions of an ascetic are good in any senses by serving at the lotus feet of his Master, then he will see the form of the Great Soundless Voice above the Carotid Wheel, having always at the plot of his hand the Flower of the Word’s Power. The Great Soundless Voice, which is the place where the element Air dissolves, is the half of the God Shiva, with form of a plow; he is still and quiet, grants favors, dissipates fear, and unveils Pure Intelligence.”

Commentary

This Verse is transient and does not belong to Âjnâ or to Sahasrâra.
An ascetic that has experienced ecstasy achieves spontaneously noble actions of this kind in the world by influence of this ecstasy. This is called service at the lotus foot of the Guru.
A disciple becomes like his Master by contacting the soul of the Master. He feels inclined to good works, like his Guru, and then he sees over the Âjnâ-chakra the form of Mahânâda, place where the activity of being ends up and its potentiality does not exist any longer.
An ascetic acquires the habit of acting charitably driven by his spiritual vision; so, his action becomes live power, Siddhi of the Word, which is fruit of the spiritual power.
Vayû dissolves in Mahânâda, the Great Soundless Voice; love has reached the ending of the Path: love is love.
Mahânâda is the half of the God Shiva, with form of a plow, action, and work: the other half, which is not described, is the invisible potential part.

Verse 40

“The lotus of thousand petals is over all these lotuses, as much big as small, at the place in which is a Cord with its ramified channels as a whole, from head to anus, and under the Emanation. This lotus –shining and whiter than the Full Moon– has his head downward. It enchants. Its ramified filaments have the color of the young Sun. Its body is voluminous, with letter starting from A, and it is absolute bliss.”

Commentary

Sahasrâra is the only center over and above all the rest, being at the same time free and receiving the current of all at its center.
Shakinî-Nadi, the main Cord along with all its channels converges on the place under Visarga, a passage through which the divine emanation, the Spirit, enters one’s being.
The beauty of this center is unequalled; it resumes the beauty of all other centers.
According to the text, its body is luminous, with letters starting from A and passing through the entire scale; it is absolute bliss.
It is very white, but its center is golden, surrounded by twelve main petals, and later, exactly like petals of a flower, they are more and more numerous and eventually are one thousand radiations approximately. Those scales adorning the headdress in statues of the Buddha, mean the Coronary Wheel. The headdress of Pharaohs wanted to mean the same, like the habit of Christian women entering the temple with their heads covered, and the Jewish ceremonial preventing from services held with the head uncovered.
This wheel, with is petals, is downward, especially when we meditate or are in state of passive mysticism, like in the case of the Buddha meditating. But when this wheel works and pours spiritual powers, then its petals raise and form a wonderful hallo that is quite similar to those petals adorning the head of Byzantine Christs. In this case, his white color becomes shining like the Sun and, according to the spiritual work developed, becomes multicolor and forms only one synthetic color. Its only form is the Luminous Point, and its characteristic letters: OM and A.
This substance settles at the pineal gland, in the physical body.

Verse 41

“The Full Moon is in this center, with no mark of a hare, and resplendent like on a cloudless sky. It pours its beams in abundance, and is humid and cold like nectar. The Triangle is in the circle of the Moon, shining constantly like a lightening, and the Great Void shines in the Triangle; this Void is secretly served by all Gods.

Commentary

Full Moon with no mark of a hare denotes a liberated man, possessing human experience, but being free of causes.
The Triangle –mind, energy and matter– is in the hallo formed by beams of the Full Moon, Chandra Mandala, which shines like a lightening and energy emanated from being. And the Great Void in this Triangle, the highest spiritual part of man.

Verse 42

“The subtle Point remains quite hidden and one reaches it after hard effort: this Point is the main root of liberation and manifests the purest ecstasy. Here is the God known to all as the Highest God. He is the Eternal God and the Spirit of all beings. The male God and the female God unite in Him, and He is the Sun destroying the darkness of ignorance and deception.”

Commentary

But all these divine ecstasies are not the main ecstasy; they superpose each other like very subtle tissue paper. An ascetic goes through these ecstasies to the ecstasy of liberation.
After the ascetic goes through the ecstasy of feminine and lunar aspect, called Chandra Mandala, where he enjoys secretly diverse ecstasies of the Seven Rays along with all Suras or Gods, he settles on a unique point at the Great Voidness: Bindu Shûnya that, if it is not liberation, becomes the root of it, and his ecstasy becomes extremely lasting, Nirvana-Kalâ, since he enjoys a paradisiacal period, Amâ-Kalâ. Here his ecstasy is of the Highest and Unique Personal God, Parama Shiva, who is Spirit and soul of all beings, not the ecstasy of the Seven Rays. Rasa and Virasa –Shiva and Shakti, God-man and God-woman unite in Him. He is the Sun of the unique knowledge, which destroys the dark variability that is ignorance and deception.

Verse 43

”The Lord pours a constant and abundant current of essence like nectar and instruct the ascetic of pure mind about certain knowledge through which he understands the Unity of the Spirit and Great Spirit. The one who is the ever-flowing current and scatters bliss of any form, which is known by the name of Avis Suprema, permeates all things like a lord.

Commentary

A constant and abundant current is established between the soul and God after a perfect ecstasy. And God becomes the Master, the Bhagavân instructing his Yati constantly; this is the name of an ascetic of pure mind. But just as a couple that is in love can speak only about their love, so God can communicate a soul that which has to do with Him and with the soul exclusively –understanding of the Unity– and not varied knowledge. Paramâtmâ and Jivâtmâ, God and the soul, are one and the same thing; one drop of water is exactly like all other drops of water of the ocean. One beam of light is the whole light; one soul, Jivâtmâ, is microcosmically an exact image of Paramâtmâ, the union of all souls. When One knows the value of the Unity, knows not only all things, but also permeates all of them and does so as Lord, as owner and knower. His knowledge is like a continued current giving the true bliss, bliss of the Spirit, emanated from the Highest Spirit, Hamsah-Parama or Parama-Hansah.

Verse 44

“Devotees of Shiva call it the Abode of Shiva; devotees of Vishnû call it Parana-Purusha; other, the place of Vishnû and Shiva. Those people that are full of passion for the lotus feet of the Mother, call it the Excellent Abode of Goddesses; and other Great Sages call it the Pure Place of Matter-Spirit.”

Commentary

The Hindus feel that the Unique God has three different aspects, namely, Brahma, Vishnû and Shiva. But there are theological discussions, sustained and continued by diverse sects about the source of one of the three divine aspects of the Most Holy Hindu Trinity.
Shaivas recognize Shiva as the First Emanation and call Abode of Shiva that abode where one achieves the ecstasy of the Unique God; also Vaishnavas call Parama-Purusha, ecstasy of Vishnû, the Great Spirit.
Those who give supremacy to Hari-Hara, union of Vishnû and Shiva, call it Abode of Hari-Hara.
Devotees of the female aspect of the divine, call it Excellent Abode of Devîs. Great Mouni Sages call it place of ecstasy, where one perceives the pure Spirit, Purusha; o the essence of nature, Prakriti.

Verse 45

“The one who has tamed his mind and has known this Place, as the man par excellence, is not born any more at this Wandering, because nothing can tie him to the three worlds. He has tamed his mind and has achieved his purpose; so, he possesses the power to do everything he wishes and to avoid everything that is against his will. He is ever moving toward the Eternal. His word –in prose or verse– is pure and sweet.”

Commentary

Ecstasy of God is root, beginning of liberation, not liberation.
An Initiate –held as man, the most excellent man among men, not as one among men– stops being dragged any longer by the Wandering in the wheel of incarnations and is not tied any more to the law of becoming, Samsârâ-Karma; on the contrary, he tends to a perfect, complete ecstasy; according to the Verse, “he is ever moving toward the Eternal”, toward Brahman.
He can achieve totally his wishes, but his aim is only one and his aim has been entirely achieved, so his wishes are unattractive because they would be opposite to his will that is entirely directed to God.