Dual Consciousness of the liberated Yogi (Jivanmukta) in Sahaja Avastha*
by Swami Chidananda
Sahaja Avastha*: Superconscious state that has become natural and continuous.
The supreme state of Asamprajnata Samadhi (Highest superconscious state where the mind and the ego-sense are completely annihilated.) entitles the Yogi to be called a Yogarudha (One who is established in Yoga) or one who has scaled the peaks of Yoga and becomes established in the highest pinnacle of Yoga. Such a Yogi is called a Yogarudha Siddha Purusha. He is also called a Jivanmukta (Liberated one). He is established in the consciousness of his Purushahood. (Purusha is the supreme Being) Therefore he is no longer bound; he is no longer within the bondage of Prakriti or Maya or Avidya or delusion or ignorance. In that state, the body continues to be as it was before, and the senses (Indriyas) have their activity (Cheshta) as before. The eyes see and the ears hear and the hands touch; the nose smells and the tongue tastes.
The Yogi is able to differentiate between salt and sugar; he is able to differentiate between hot and cold, between ice-cream and hot coffee. He knows: “This is a child, that is an old man; this is a woman, that is a man; this is a beast, that is a human being”. He is able to see all that. The Cheshta of the Indriyas continues, and yet, the Yogi being in Sahaja Avastha, is not in the least deluded by the same. He has no Moha (infatuation,false identification), no attachment, no desire.
In that state of Sahaja Avastha, he is not bound by desire, attachment or delusion. His consciousness is not qualified by identification with the various limiting adjuncts or Upadhis such as the senses, the Pranas, the sense-organs, the body, the mind and the intellect. He is therefore established in the full consciousness of his supreme isolated Purushahood, apart from Prakriti, distinct from Prakriti, independent of Prakriti. As such, he is unaffected and unafflicted by the modes of Prakriti. In short, he has regained his pristine status and has established himself in his own Svarupa (essential nature, Atman, Brahman). That is the fruit of Svarupa Avastha (State of being one with Brahman; resting in the Absolute Reality or Brahman).
In the Yogi who is thus established in Svarupa Avastha, Yoga has fulfilled its purpose. In the midst of Maya, the Yogi is established in a consciousness freed from Maya. He looks upon the world, sees everything going on in it, but knows them to be vanishing shadows having no ultimate reality. He experiences his body and the various states of his mind and intellect, but knows himself as supremely apart from them. He is a mere witness of the changing conditions and states of the Upadhis (limiting adjunct; instrument; vehicle: body, mind, intellect) and remains unaffected and unattached and apart from those Upadhis. And he knows that as long as the least Prarabdha Karma remains to be enjoyed by him, he will have to continue in the state of embodied condition.
In this state of Sahaja Avastha, the Yogi enjoys dual consciousness. He has the consciousness of the external names and forms. He also has the consciousness of the Svarupa (essential nature:Atman, consciousness) which is beyond all names and forms. And this consciousness of his inner Svarupa prevents him from falling into the delusion of the outer phenomena. In the midst of the waters of Prakriti, he swims on the surface, not drowning, not going in, not being engulfed by the water, but remaining on the surface.
The Yogi who is established in Sahaja Samadhi moves about in the world in a state of dual consciousness—consciousness of the Svarupa within and awareness of the multifariousness of the phenomenal Prakriti without. And at the end of the allotted span of life of his physical body, when the Prarabdha Karma (the portion of Sanchita Karma that determines one’s present life) is spent up and there is no more experience to be undergone, the Yogi gives up his body. Such a Yogi does not return to an embodied condition once again. This is the highest fruit of Yoga. And this is called Kaivalya, a state of liberation from the need to take rebirth once again, from the need to become embodied once again. This ultimate fruit of Yoga comes as the result of a diligent practice of concentration, meditation and Samadhi.
Read also:
Advaita - Nonoduality: Samadhi by Swami Chidananda
Brahman is realised by means of Nirvikalpa Samadhi
MEDITATION – REALIZATION – LIBERATION ...
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