Page 55 - Wisdom Unfurled

Stages on the path of Realisation
The highest point of approach or the final goal of life is a state of complete negation, nothingness or zero. I have tried to indicate this in the diagram.
The concentric circles drawn round the centre roughly denote the different spiritual spheres we come across during our progress. Beginning our march from the outermost circle, we proceed towards the Centre, crossing each circle to acquire the next stage. It is an immensely vast expanse.
We take up the heart – which is the nucleus – for meditation, and go on with it till the goal is attained. There are five points or sub-centres in this heart region which we pass through in the course of our journey. At each point, the following four conditions are felt, in this order:
1. A peculiar state all over, awakening within the mind a consciousness of the Divine Force pervading all over.
2. A Divine State prevailing everywhere, absorbed with its remembrance.
3. Neither the feeling of the divine force nor that of remembrance, but only a feeling of negation.
4. Everything gone. No impression upon the heart, not even that of existence.
These four conditions are experienced in every region and at every point. Under the Sahaj Marg system of spiritual training, everyone passes through them; though perhaps only the more sensitive ones are able to feel all the conditions in their minutest details. These conditions go on getting more and more rarefied as we proceed through the various sub-centres from the lowest to the highest.
When we cross the fifth point, our passage towards ajna chakra (cavernous plexus) becomes straight. The condition at this point is peculiar. From this point, the energy, which we consume, is diverted towards the lower regions. During our journey to this point, the major condition, which one experiences, is a feeling of something like shadowy darkness. This is only a clue to show that we have finally to go beyond light. Its real nature pertains neither to light nor darkness but to a dawn-like colour.
After crossing the fifth circle of the heart region one enters the mind region. The eleven circles of this region depict the various stages of egoism. The condition gets subtler and finer as one progresses through them. There are innumerable points and knots in each of these circles. In the ordinary course, it would require a whole lifetime for going from one point to the next but for