Page 291 - Complete Works of Dr. KCV Volume 1

the chasing thought, 'the quiet' amid the noise of the surroundings, a withdrawal of the senses of hearing from the outer world and also a slow giving up of desire for anything other than the 'quiet' itself. The experience of the 'silent mind' even when the objective mind is not completely stilled, is almost the first experience of the abhyasi. Normally this attainment takes quite a long time if it is striven after in the usual way by trying to control the pose, the breath, the checking of incoming thoughts and throwing out of the thoughts already within us etc.
Psychological experience of this silence is at first only subjective. In some cases psychologists would say that it is a kind of negative adaptation to the environment as happens in the case of school boys who have to listen to the class lectures, or write their essays, or speak, when the neighbourhood is full of all kinds of noise ranging from the tin-workshop and blacksmith to the modern entertainment's of radio songs, ribaldry, and the sound of the hoots of cars and lorries. One may thus be said to feel the silence of a place in dhyana also. But this is not really the experience of the silent-mind.
The experience of stillness as all pervading, and accom-panying us all through our works, is a different thing from negative adaptation. It is this that is experienced during transmission by the Guru when one has sought his help on life's journey. Out of this experience of the silent mind develops the experience of an omnipervasive presence-a presence that is very different from the constant fear that haunts most people not just the criminals and sinners.
Stillness, omnipervasiveness, and a spiritual dynamism awakening the individual to aspire for the highest experience, and therefore a sense of movement towards the highest and Ultimate, are almost the first fruits of the first transmission. The experience of the abhyasi is of course subjective. It is however common to all those who experience the transmission. The flow of some force or current all through the body is actually felt. It is subtle at the beginning. It appears also as if it is cleansing the whole system. Ancients called this process a kind of nadi-suddhi-a purification of the entire psychonic (nadi) system, which is subtler than the nervous system. In one sense the psychonic system cleans and clears both the nervous and the circulatory systems, as these two are all pervading in the organism.