I found this in an article today, I thought that some of you may be interested in what it has to say. It is the part of the transcript of a radio interview given in Florida, USA, by Swami Sarveshwarananda Giri, Baba is his master, Paramahansa Hariharananda. Interviewer- That brings me to my next question..... The breathless state known as nirvakalpa samadhi. What is it? Swami Sarveshwarananda- Nirvakalpa Samadhi is the highest state of God-realisation, which manifests in the body of the realised Master through some definite physiological signs. It is described as the highest ecstatic communion with God, in which the ego is completely and permanently dissolved. At this stage, the adept can only perceive God in everything. There is no difference between outside and inside, between others and self anymore. It manifests as a suspension of biological activities, too: at that time the heart beat and the breath stop completely. I have observed my own Master in this state and many of our disciples have seen Baba in this state also. Interviewer- So how do you know He is still alive? Swami S.- What is really baffling to the medical community is that Baba has been examined by countless doctors and hospitals and put on EEG’s, EKG’s and hooked up to so many machines - because it defines what science knows about life. Interviewer- Is this information documented? Swami S.- Yes, there is documentation from hospitals in Europe and at the time when Baba is in this state, then medical science will declare that it is clinical death! Because there is no breath (you may put a mirror under his nostrils and nothing will show,) there is no movement of the heart (the EKG will show a completely flat response,) and there is no mental activity what-so-ever (the EEG will show that all the lines are completely flat.) There is not even the faintest biological or metabolic activity, and yet the body does not stiffen up. There is no rigor mortis-the body remains supple and warm and radiant, radiant with light. The Master can remain in this state for a matter of minutes, hours, days, months or years. If you read for instance the pioneering book “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda which really launched Kriya Yoga in the Western consciousness, you will see many of these things described. Interviewer- There must be some kind of benefit to Baba when He practices this technique - do you know what it is - what is happening to His heart? Swami S.- It is something very mysterious and no one can understand what is happening at that time. We have asked Baba repeatedly what happens during that time and He says “I am engrossed in the light I am not aware of anything else - pure light of God.” Nirvakalpa Samadhi has two aspects: it can be happening spontaneously by the grace of God - all of a sudden - and this has happened to Baba. He was uttering a prayer and when He mentioned God’s name He was wrapped into this ecstasy, what we call the ‘rapture’ in Christian terminology. His consciousness dissolved and there was no heart beat at all, no breath. no pulse. But Baba is even a rare Master than that, because He can enter into this state at will. This is taken from the book mentioned, “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda. One of the Gurus of Paramahansa Hariharananda. Paramahansa Yogananda entered Mahasamadhi (a Yogis final conscious exit from the body) in Los Angeles, California, on March 7, 1952, after concluding His speech at a banquet held in honour of H.E. Binay R. Sen, Ambassador of India. The great world teacher demonstrated the value of yoga (scientific techniques for God-realisation) not only in life but in death. Weeks after His departure His unchanged face shone the divine lustre of incorruptibility. Mr. Harry T. Rowe, Los Angeles Mortuary Director, Forest Lawn Memorial-Park (in which the body of the great master in temporarily placed,) sent Self-Realisation Fellowship a notarised letter from which the following extracts are taken: “The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramahansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our experience..... No physical disintegration was visible in His body even twenty days after death..... No indication of mould was visible on His skin, and no visible desiccation (drying up) took place in the bodily tissues. This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one.... At the time of receiving Yogananda’s body, the Mortuary personnel expected to observe, through the glass lid of the casket, the usual progressive signs of bodily decay. Our astonishment increased as day followed day without bringing any visible in the body under observation. Yogananda’s body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability. “No odour of decay emanated from His body at any time.... The physical appearance of Yogananda on March 27th. just before the bronze cover of the casket was put into position, was the same as it had been of March 7th. He looked on March 27th. as fresh and as unravaged by decay as He had looked on the first night of His death. On March 27th. there was no reason to say that His body had suffered any physical disintegration at all. For these reasons we state again that the case of Paramahansa Yogananda is unique in our experience.” So what do you think?
Seems just like moksha, nirvana, or enlightenment. It seperates you from all the things fed to you (reality). The Philosophy goes that all of our 5 senses are fed to us, and it isn't the true reality. When one becomes one with reality beyond our 5 senses, beyond anything physical, thats when they achieve moksha. Completely free.
I didn't know anything about this Baba guy. Very interesting. I found this. http://www.sathyasai.org/intro/message.htm It seems to be Buddhism but with God left in to help people get started.
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Wrong Baba. Baba is a (Hindu?) word that means Father, close enough too, it's very common for Swami's ect. to be called Baba by there disciples. The Saint talked about here is Paramahansa Hariharananda. http://www.kriya.org/ Will give you a little information. I did remember, though I'm not sure how accurate this is, it was a while ago that I read 'The Tibeten Book of Living and Dying" but I think in that the writter tells a story of His own Gurus death in which His body was in a state of incorupability for 6 months or so, and it shone with a luminosity that was so bright is could be seen at night time some distance from the Monastery where His body was being kept. "Remarkably, the experiences of the Catholic mystics parallel the yogic experiences of Divine sound, light, vibration, and ultimately reaching the breathless stage. The following are excerpts from the guide to the mystical life, called Interior Castle, written by St. Teresa: “My head sounds just as if it were full of brimming rivers, and then as if all the water in those rivers came suddenly rushing downward; and a host of little birds seem to be whistling, not in the ears, but in the upper part of the head, where the higher part of the soul is said to be; I have held this view for a long time, for the spirit seems to move upward with great velocity… “Returning now to what I was saying.... For when He means to unite with this soul, it loses its power of breathing, with the result that, although its other senses sometimes remain active a little longer, it cannot possibly speak... when this profound suspension lifts a little, the body seems to come partly to itself again, and draws breath, though only to die once more, and, in doing so, to give fuller life to the soul.”" If you do read the site this might make a little more sense, if you don't already know. It doesn't so much belong here, a bit out of context but I like it. If you want to know any spefics about Baba or Kriya Yoga I might be able to help a little.
It is like a death, in that everything you percieved as "you" has vanished. Physically, it feels really good! Your body literally feels light as a ghost, like you are hardly even there, walking about 2 inches off the ground. The initial shock doesn't last, like jumping into cold water, you get used to it.
Just a note, to whoever mentioned Sai Baba: http://skepdic.com/saibaba.html He's a fraud, and a liar.
Who does it feel good to? You? I thought you said that the 'you' has dissolved. This is something that puzzles me when people claim their 'ego is completely dissolved': how do you remember the experience, if 'you' did not exist during it? Ah, yes, the brain is a very interesting object. Tweak it's sense of self-recognition and physical boundaries (as found in the angular gyrus), and you forget who you are while still experiencing things. No need for unnecessary mysticism.
I have read some books on samadhi. anyways I think you do not understand/don't see the hidden potential of samadhi state - you can be in this state for hundreds or thousands of years! (that is if the temperature doesn't change and stays at about 4C) btw- such conditions are in mountain and underground level caves! I assume that such ancient people could be found in some caves in China/India/Tibet. anyways- disturbing them isn't a good idea, but samadhi is a way towards true immortality. I think much much more serious study should be done
Good question! O.K., not everything you think of as you dissolves, your body is still there, in fact, your thought remains, too, yet somehow you are no longer identified with it, you feel detached, like you are floating above your mind, which is operating normally. You can entertain the ego, like considering the other side of an argument which you don't really believe, but it no longer traps you in it. I think we need an ego, if only to know where to put food. I don't know if anyone can adequately describe the sensation. I don't mean to suggest that I'm anyone special, the overwhelming feeling was that I had been an incredible fool, looking to find something that was already there, not that it is something, it may be the absence of something.
theERK: I don't feel completely comfortable in critizing people, all veiw pionts are relevent, you have a piont, imagination is one of the most dangerous aspects of a spiritual life, perhaps the only danger, and you are right to be skeptical, but there are many scientist that have been frauds, and so on (perhaps that is why, I can't come up with decent arguements) but this doesn't discount science, the scientific process, or scientist as a whole. I have a different view as to what happens in Samadhi than spidergoat, but there is realy nothing to say about it. My main piont is that just saying that Samadhi is something that occurs totaly in the brain, or because of, doesn't address the issues that I raised in the opening of the thread. I don't ask you to trust the first piece of information I gave, but consider it, it was done in the presence of certified doctors, in a European hosptial. One of Paramahansa Hariharananda's Swami/Disciples holds a PHD in an branch of Neuroscience and Biology and held a faily high position in this feild, I'm sorry I can't give more details. But that aside, the letter written by the Diriector of the Los Angeles Mortuary (in 1952) has been published as a part of Autobiography of a Yogi ever scince, an extremily popular book of this genre, based soley on this I think it's safe to say it's an authentic testomony, which could be the result of some occurence that is in no way of miraculous origns, though I must also note that Paramahansa Yogananda acctualy spoke of this state, and that is was possible to stay this way for hundreds of years (Avatar-though I've never heard anything about temperature, and don't beleive it's important.) It's one thing to talk about this, and another to do it. If there are any theories as to why and how something like this could occur, I'd like to hear those too. I don't think that Samadhi has anything to do with mental function at all, that it goes completely beyond the mind, ego, or anything that has form, (this being Nirvakalpa Samadhi-the highest, of which there are distinct stages.) The evendence if it cannot be explained in any other way supports this, so if you will discount the expreince itself as being devine, I think it's also neccesary to disprove at least the above testemonies. Something that will probably not occur hear. Having said that, you didn't acctualy say that you disbeleived Samadhi to be experince of the devine, but only questioned an aspect of spidergoat's post, if I've made an incorrect asumption I appologise.
samadhi is a state in which a person has such a control over his mind that is able to control his body to such a level that is able to stop his metabolism I wouldn't talk about any divinity here, though it is above simple, stupid humans, as we all are
Nirvakalpa Samadhi is said to be the highest experience of God that a person can have in this world, according to the yogic tradition of India. This is what I was talking about as being divine, the experience, the control of various organs is not, obviously, but there was no brain function at all at during the time Hariharananda's metabolism stoped, so if He was using His mind to control it, and the other physiological processes including His brain, then the mind must be able to operate independently of the body, even if Hariharananda wasn't continuosly governing the state of the now officaily dead organism, He was able to reinitiate the functioning of it. Still it is only divine if it is some sort of a bi-product of union with God (the true meaning of the word Yoga). There have been stories of such things as this occuring before, people waking up in funeral homes ect. this is different to these cases in at least one way, Yogis can enter and come out of this state as willed, and sometimes seemingly at random, while/because of singing devotional songs or even glancing at grafiti depicting sexual union. I can see that I didn't realy make this clear in my last post. Though this state is not reliant apon the complete suspention of bodily function, Disciples in Inida will often force feed their Masters, some accounts have them soiling themselves "like children." There is realy no way I guess that you can verrify the divinity of this experience than to experince and be able objectively verrify these experiences. Which is I guess why I opened this thread, that and its truly amazing.
