Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi (Kapila Sastriar)
Utterly Unique, Absolutely Profound
[My 5-star Amazon review (November 7, 2013) of “Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi” by Kapila Sastriar.]
Over the past four decades, I’ve read over 2,000 texts in the esoteric spiritual traditions, and “Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi” ranks among the ten best of these. I just re-read this little book for the fourth time, and again I’m blown away by its unique profundity.
The author of this book, Kapila Sastriar, a learned scholar, possesses deep understanding of the Self-realization process, and using select conversations with Ramana Maharshi, India’s greatest twentieth-century sage, he elaborates on Maharshi’s teachings, and presents a demystifying exegesis of the “mechanics” and “anatomy” of Self-realization, which culminates in the cutting of the Heart-knot.
In my book “Electrical Christianity,” I present what I call the Electrical Spiritual Paradigm (ESP), and it was Sastriar’s book that first awakened me to the electrical (or Ohms Law)-like nature of true spiritual practice.
According to Sastriar, in true meditation, “the ego yields to the pressure of the force of Self-consciousness… and “thus dissolves, being but the apparent [false] self. And the false or ego-‘I,’ which is “nothing but a formation in the consciousness of the Self,” is “reborn as it were into the real ‘I’ that has all along been signified by it.”
Chit-Shakti, the conscious force engendered by the practice of Self-inquiry (meditatively inquiring into one’s true nature) results in palpable pressure. And when the ego yields to this pressure, Chit-Shakti in effect morphs into Anugraha-Shakti (Grace, the descent of Divine Power into the Heart-center), which en-Light-ens the yogi, enabling him to shine as the real ‘I,’ the transcendental Self.
“Consciousness and force,” Sastriar explains, “are really in a relation of identity like light and its radiation.” After experiencing the reality of this, I began to think of spirituality in electrical terms, with conscious force (Chit-Shakti) being analogous to electromotive force (voltage), and the resulting Light-energy flow (Anugraha-Shakti) being analogous to electrical energy (amperage). Years later, thanks to “Sat Darshana Bhashya” and the early writings of Adi Da, who no doubt read Sastriar, I was able to formulate my Electrical Spiritual Paradigm.
Sastriar, who spent considerable time in the company of Maharshi, understands that Self-realization is literally a process of whole-bodily en -Light-enment. He understands that the subtle body (the vital-mental, or life-breath-mind-stuff, sheath), which stands between inconscient matter (the gross physical body) and Consciousness Itself (the Self) must be transformed by virtue of conscious force. He writes:
“Thus, as the subtle body develops, it absorbs in a larger measure the conscious force which eliminates or transforms the element of the inconscient (jada) in the subtle body, and [as earlier stated] the ego yields to the pressure of the force of Self-consciousness. As the ego thus dissolves, being but the apparent self, the immediate sense of ‘I’, it is reborn as it were into the real ‘I’ that has all along been signified by it. What really happens in this process of liberation is this. When, through the development of the subtle body in which it is firmly rooted posing as the Real self, this ego is stung by a sense of its own weakness and falsity, the wide-awake self-awareness of the Purusha, the spirit seated inside in the Heart, finds a true reflection in the subtle body, thus displacing the ego or transforming it into the pure ‘I’ (Shudddha Ahambhava). And in consequence of the birth of the pure ‘I’, the real soul, the subtle body undergoes a remarkable change making it a true vehicle of the soul so formed. Thus freed from the hold of the material body the subtle stuff becomes a true expression of individuaslity, faithful to the Original Self, and an individual centre to its supreme consciousness.”
According to Sastriar, upon Heart-awakening, “as the light of the lamp pierces through the enclosure of the chimney, this conscious light of life streams out from the Heart throught what in yogic parlance is call Amrita Nadi, Atma Nadi, Brahma Nadi or Mukhya Prana Nadi, and sweeping aside all obstruction, overpowers the body and permeates the environment and the world.”
And to emphasize that true Heart-awakening as at once Power as well as Presence, Sastriar quotes Maharshi: “Whoever sees knowledge (Jnana) as divorced from power (Shakti) such an one knows not.”
If you’re interested in an utterly unique and absolutely profound elaboration of Ramana Maharshi’s esoteric teachings regarding the Self (or Heart)-realization, do yourself a favor and get a copy of this book.
[My 5-star Amazon review (November 7, 2013) of “Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi” by Kapila Sastriar.]
Over the past four decades, I’ve read over 2,000 texts in the esoteric spiritual traditions, and “Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi” ranks among the ten best of these. I just re-read this little book for the fourth time, and again I’m blown away by its unique profundity.
The author of this book, Kapila Sastriar, a learned scholar, possesses deep understanding of the Self-realization process, and using select conversations with Ramana Maharshi, India’s greatest twentieth-century sage, he elaborates on Maharshi’s teachings, and presents a demystifying exegesis of the “mechanics” and “anatomy” of Self-realization, which culminates in the cutting of the Heart-knot.
In my book “Electrical Christianity,” I present what I call the Electrical Spiritual Paradigm (ESP), and it was Sastriar’s book that first awakened me to the electrical (or Ohms Law)-like nature of true spiritual practice.
According to Sastriar, in true meditation, “the ego yields to the pressure of the force of Self-consciousness… and “thus dissolves, being but the apparent [false] self. And the false or ego-‘I,’ which is “nothing but a formation in the consciousness of the Self,” is “reborn as it were into the real ‘I’ that has all along been signified by it.”
Chit-Shakti, the conscious force engendered by the practice of Self-inquiry (meditatively inquiring into one’s true nature) results in palpable pressure. And when the ego yields to this pressure, Chit-Shakti in effect morphs into Anugraha-Shakti (Grace, the descent of Divine Power into the Heart-center), which en-Light-ens the yogi, enabling him to shine as the real ‘I,’ the transcendental Self.
“Consciousness and force,” Sastriar explains, “are really in a relation of identity like light and its radiation.” After experiencing the reality of this, I began to think of spirituality in electrical terms, with conscious force (Chit-Shakti) being analogous to electromotive force (voltage), and the resulting Light-energy flow (Anugraha-Shakti) being analogous to electrical energy (amperage). Years later, thanks to “Sat Darshana Bhashya” and the early writings of Adi Da, who no doubt read Sastriar, I was able to formulate my Electrical Spiritual Paradigm.
Sastriar, who spent considerable time in the company of Maharshi, understands that Self-realization is literally a process of whole-bodily en -Light-enment. He understands that the subtle body (the vital-mental, or life-breath-mind-stuff, sheath), which stands between inconscient matter (the gross physical body) and Consciousness Itself (the Self) must be transformed by virtue of conscious force. He writes:
“Thus, as the subtle body develops, it absorbs in a larger measure the conscious force which eliminates or transforms the element of the inconscient (jada) in the subtle body, and [as earlier stated] the ego yields to the pressure of the force of Self-consciousness. As the ego thus dissolves, being but the apparent self, the immediate sense of ‘I’, it is reborn as it were into the real ‘I’ that has all along been signified by it. What really happens in this process of liberation is this. When, through the development of the subtle body in which it is firmly rooted posing as the Real self, this ego is stung by a sense of its own weakness and falsity, the wide-awake self-awareness of the Purusha, the spirit seated inside in the Heart, finds a true reflection in the subtle body, thus displacing the ego or transforming it into the pure ‘I’ (Shudddha Ahambhava). And in consequence of the birth of the pure ‘I’, the real soul, the subtle body undergoes a remarkable change making it a true vehicle of the soul so formed. Thus freed from the hold of the material body the subtle stuff becomes a true expression of individuaslity, faithful to the Original Self, and an individual centre to its supreme consciousness.”
According to Sastriar, upon Heart-awakening, “as the light of the lamp pierces through the enclosure of the chimney, this conscious light of life streams out from the Heart throught what in yogic parlance is call Amrita Nadi, Atma Nadi, Brahma Nadi or Mukhya Prana Nadi, and sweeping aside all obstruction, overpowers the body and permeates the environment and the world.”
And to emphasize that true Heart-awakening as at once Power as well as Presence, Sastriar quotes Maharshi: “Whoever sees knowledge (Jnana) as divorced from power (Shakti) such an one knows not.”
If you’re interested in an utterly unique and absolutely profound elaboration of Ramana Maharshi’s esoteric teachings regarding the Self (or Heart)-realization, do yourself a favor and get a copy of this book.
