"Lord Krishna!" The glorious form of
the avatar appeared in a shimmering
blaze as I sat in my room at the
Regent Hotel in Bombay. Shining over
the roof of a high building across the
street, the ineffable vision had
suddenly burst on my sight as I gazed
out of my long open third-story
window. The divine figure waved to me,
smiling and nodding in greeting. When
I could not understand the exact
message of Lord Krishna, he departed
with a gesture of blessing. Wondrously
uplifted, I felt that some spiritual
event was presaged.
My Western voyage had, for the time
being, been cancelled. I was scheduled
for several public addresses in Bombay
before leaving on a return visit to
Bengal.
Sitting on my bed in the Bombay hotel
at three o'clock in the afternoon of
June 19, 1936-one week after the
vision of Krishna-I was roused from my
meditation by a beatific light. Before
my open and astonished eyes, the whole
room was transformed into a strange
world, the sunlight transmuted into
supernal splendor.
Waves of rapture engulfed me as I
beheld the flesh and blood form of Sri
Yukteswar!
"My son!" Master spoke tenderly, on
his face an angel-bewitching smile.
For the first time in my life I did
not kneel at his feet in greeting but
instantly advanced to gather him
hungrily in my arms. Moment of
moments! The anguish of past months
was toll I counted weightless against
the torrential bliss now descending.
"Master mine, beloved of my heart, why
did you leave me?" I was incoherent in
an excess of joy. "Why did you let me
go to the Kumbha Mela? How bitterly
have I blamed myself for leaving you!"
"I did not want to interfere with your
happy anticipation of seeing the
pilgrimage spot where first I met
Babaji. I left you only for a little
while; am I not with you again?"
"But is it you, Master, the same Lion
of God? Are you wearing a body like
the one I buried beneath the cruel
Puri sands?"
"Yes, my child, I am the same. This is
a flesh and blood body. Though I see
it as ethereal, to your sight it is
physical. From the cosmic atoms I
created an entirely new body, exactly
like that cosmic-dream physical body
which you laid beneath the dream-sands
at Puri in your dream-world. I am in
truth resurrected-not on earth but on
an astral planet. Its inhabitants are
better able than earthly humanity to
meet my lofty standards. There you and
your exalted loved ones shall someday
come to be with me."
"Deathless guru, tell me more!"
Master gave a quick, mirthful chuckle.
"Please, dear one," he said, "won't
you relax your hold a little?"
"Only a little!" I had been embracing
him with an octopus grip. I could
detect the same faint, fragrant,
natural odor which had been
characteristic of his body before. The
thrilling touch of his divine flesh
still persists around the inner sides
of my arms and in my palms whenever I
recall those glorious hours.
"As prophets are sent on earth to help
men work out their physical karma, so
I have been directed by God to serve
on an astral planet as a savior," Sri
Yukteswar explained. "It is called
Hiranyaloka or 'Illumined Astral
Planet.' There I am aiding advanced
beings to rid themselves of astral
karma and thus attain liberation from
astral rebirths. The dwellers on
Hiranyaloka are highly developed
spiritually; all of them had acquired,
in their last earth-incarnation, the
meditation-given power of consciously
leaving their physical bodies at
death. No one can enter Hiranyaloka
unless he has passed on earth beyond
the state of sabikalpa samadhi into
the higher state of nirbikalpa
samadhi. 1
"The Hiranyaloka inhabitants have
already passed through the ordinary
astral spheres, where nearly all
beings from earth must go at death;
there they worked out many seeds of
their past actions in the astral
worlds. None but advanced beings can
perform such redemptive work
effectually in the astral worlds.
Then, in order to free their souls
more fully from the cocoon of karmic
traces lodged in their astral bodies,
these higher beings were drawn by
cosmic law to be reborn with new
astral bodies on Hiranyaloka, the
astral sun or heaven, where I have
resurrected to help them. There are
also highly advanced beings on
Hiranyaloka who have come from the
superior, subtler, causal world."
My mind was now in such perfect
attunement with my guru's that he was
conveying his word-pictures to me
partly by speech and partly by
thought-transference. I was thus
quickly receiving his idea-tabloids.
"You have read in the scriptures,"
Master went on, "that God encased the
human soul successively in three
bodies-the idea, or causal, body; the
subtle astral body, seat of man's
mental and emotional natures; and the
gross physical body. On earth a man is
equipped with his physical senses. An
astral being works with his
consciousness and feelings and a body
made of lifetrons.2 A causal-bodied
being remains in the blissful realm of
ideas. My work is with those astral
beings who are preparing to enter the
causal world."
"Adorable Master, please tell me more
about the astral cosmos." Though I had
slightly relaxed my embrace at Sri
Yukteswar's request, my arms were
still around him. Treasure beyond all
treasures, my guru who had laughed at
death to reach me!
"There are many astral planets,
teeming with astral beings," Master
began. "The inhabitants use astral
planes, or masses of light, to travel
from one planet to another, faster
than electricity and radioactive
energies.
"The astral universe, made of various
subtle vibrations of light and color,
is hundreds of times larger than the
material cosmos. The entire physical
creation hangs like a little solid
basket under the huge luminous balloon
of the astral sphere. Just as many
physical suns and stars roam in space,
so there are also countless astral
solar and stellar systems. Their
planets have astral suns and moons,
more beautiful than the physical ones.
The astral luminaries resemble the
aurora borealis-the sunny astral
aurora being more dazzling than the
mild-rayed moon-aurora. The astral day
and night are longer than those of
earth.
"The astral world is infinitely
beautiful, clean, pure, and orderly.
There are no dead planets or barren
lands. The terrestrial
blemishes-weeds, bacteria, insects,
snakes-are absent. Unlike the variable
climates and seasons of the earth, the
astral planets maintain the even
temperature of an eternal spring, with
occasional luminous white snow and
rain of many-colored lights. Astral
planets abound in opal lakes and
bright seas and rainbow rivers.
"The ordinary astral universe-not the
subtler astral heaven of
Hiranyaloka-is peopled with millions
of astral beings who have come, more
or less recently, from the earth, and
also with myriads of fairies,
mermaids, fishes, animals, goblins,
gnomes, demigods and spirits, all
residing on different astral planets
in accordance with karmic
qualifications. Various spheric
mansions or vibratory regions are
provided for good and evil spirits.
Good ones can travel freely, but the
evil spirits are confined to limited
zones. In the same way that human
beings live on the surface of the
earth, worms inside the soil, fish in
water, and birds in air, so astral
beings of different grades are
assigned to suitable vibratory
quarters.
"Among the fallen dark angels expelled
from other worlds, friction and war
take place with lifetronic bombs or
mental mantric3 vibratory rays. These
beings dwell in the gloom-drenched
regions of the lower astral cosmos,
working out their evil karma.
"In the vast realms above the dark
astral prison, all is shining and
beautiful. The astral cosmos is more
naturally attuned than the earth to
the divine will and plan of
perfection. Every astral object is
manifested primarily by the will of
God, and partially by the will-call of
astral beings. They possess the power
of modifying or enhancing the grace
and form of anything already created
by the Lord. He has given His astral
children the freedom and privilege of
changing or improving at will the
astral cosmos. On earth a solid must
be transformed into liquid or other
form through natural or chemical
processes, but astral solids are
changed into astral liquids, gases, or
energy solely and instantly by the
will of the inhabitants.
"The earth is dark with warfare and
murder in the sea, land, and air," my
guru continued, "but the astral realms
know a happy harmony and equality.
Astral beings dematerialize or
materialize their forms at will.
Flowers or fish or animals can
metamorphose themselves, for a time,
into astral men. All astral beings are
free to assume any form, and can
easily commune together. No fixed,
definite, natural law hems them
round-any astral tree, for example,
can be successfully asked to produce
an astral mango or other desired
fruit, flower, or indeed any other
object. Certain karmic restrictions
are present, but there are no
distinctions in the astral world about
desirability of various forms.
Everything is vibrant with God's
creative light.
"No one is born of woman; offspring
are materialized by astral beings
through the help of their cosmic will
into specially patterned, astrally
condensed forms. The recently
physically disembodied being arrives
in an astral family through
invitation, drawn by similar mental
and spiritual tendencies.
"The astral body is not subject to
cold or heat or other natural
conditions. The anatomy includes an
astral brain, or the thousand-petaled
lotus of light, and six awakened
centers in the sushumna, or astral
cerebro-spinal axis. The heart draws
cosmic energy as well as light from
the astral brain, and pumps it to the
astral nerves and body cells, or
lifetrons. Astral beings can affect
their bodies by lifetronic force or by
mantric vibrations.
"The astral body is an exact
counterpart of the last physical form.
Astral beings retain the same
appearance which they possessed in
youth in their previous earthly
sojourn; occasionally an astral being
chooses, like myself, to retain his
old age appearance." Master, emanating
the very essence of youth, chuckled
merrily.
"Unlike the spacial, three-dimensional
physical world cognized only by the
five senses, the astral spheres are
visible to the all-inclusive sixth
sense-intuition," Sri Yukteswar went
on. "By sheer intuitional feeling, all
astral beings see, hear, smell, taste,
and touch. They possess three eyes,
two of which are partly closed. The
third and chief astral eye, vertically
placed on the forehead, is open.
Astral beings have all the outer
sensory organs-ears, eyes, nose,
tongue, and skin-but they employ the
intuitional sense to experience
sensations through any part of the
body; they can see through the ear, or
nose, or skin. They are able to hear
through the eyes or tongue, and can
taste through the ears or skin, and so
forth.4
"Man's physical body is exposed to
countless dangers, and is easily hurt
or maimed; the ethereal astral body
may occasionally be cut or bruised but
is healed at once by mere willing."
"Gurudeva, are all astral persons
beautiful?"
"Beauty in the astral world is known
to be a spiritual quality, and not an
outward conformation," Sri Yukteswar
replied. "Astral beings therefore
attach little importance to facial
features. They have the privilege,
however, of costuming themselves at
will with new, colorful, astrally
materialized bodies. Just as worldly
men don new array for gala events, so
astral beings find occasions to bedeck
themselves in specially designed
forms.
"Joyous astral festivities on the
higher astral planets like Hiranyaloka
take place when a being is liberated
from the astral world through
spiritual advancement, and is
therefore ready to enter the heaven of
the causal world. On such occasions
the Invisible Heavenly Father, and the
saints who are merged in Him,
materialize Themselves into bodies of
Their own choice and join the astral
celebration. In order to please His
beloved devotee, the Lord takes any
desired form. If the devotee worshiped
through devotion, he sees God as the
Divine Mother. To Jesus, the
Father-aspect of the Infinite One was
appealing beyond other conceptions.
The individuality with which the
Creator has endowed each of His
creatures makes every conceivable and
inconceivable demand on the Lord's
versatility!" My guru and I laughed
happily together.
"Friends of other lives easily
recognize one another in the astral
world," Sri Yukteswar went on in his
beautiful, flutelike voice. "Rejoicing
at the immortality of friendship, they
realize the indestructibility of love,
often doubted at the time of the sad,
delusive partings of earthly life.
"The intuition of astral beings
pierces through the veil and observes
human activities on earth, but man
cannot view the astral world unless
his sixth sense is somewhat developed.
Thousands of earth-dwellers have
momentarily glimpsed an astral being
or an astral world.
"The advanced beings on Hiranyaloka
remain mostly awake in ecstasy during
the long astral day and night, helping
to work out intricate problems of
cosmic government and the redemption
of prodigal sons, earthbound souls.
When the Hiranyaloka beings sleep,
they have occasional dreamlike astral
visions. Their minds are usually
engrossed in the conscious state of
highest nirbikalpa bliss.
"Inhabitants in all parts of the
astral worlds are still subject to
mental agonies. The sensitive minds of
the higher beings on planets like
Hiranyaloka feel keen pain if any
mistake is made in conduct or
perception of truth. These advanced
beings endeavor to attune their every
act and thought with the perfection of
spiritual law.
"Communication among the astral
inhabitants is held entirely by astral
telepathy and television; there is
none of the confusion and
misunderstanding of the written and
spoken word which earth-dwellers must
endure. Just as persons on the cinema
screen appear to move and act through
a series of light pictures, and do not
actually breathe, so the astral beings
walk and work as intelligently guided
and coordinated images of light,
without the necessity of drawing power
from oxygen. Man depends upon solids,
liquids, gases, and energy for
sustenance; astral beings sustain
themselves principally by cosmic
light."
"Master mine, do astral beings eat
anything?" I was drinking in his
marvelous elucidations with the
receptivity of all my faculties-mind,
heart, soul. Superconscious
perceptions of truth are permanently
real and changeless, while fleeting
sense experiences and impressions are
never more than temporarily or
relatively true, and soon lose in
memory all their vividness. My guru's
words were so penetratingly imprinted
on the parchment of my being that at
any time, by transferring my mind to
the superconscious state, I can
clearly relive the divine experience.
"Luminous raylike vegetables abound in
the astral soils," he answered. "The
astral beings consume vegetables, and
drink a nectar flowing from glorious
fountains of light and from astral
brooks and rivers. Just as invisible
images of persons on the earth can be
dug out of the ether and made visible
by a television apparatus, later being
dismissed again into space, so the
God-created, unseen astral blueprints
of vegetables and plants floating in
the ether are precipitated on an
astral planet by the will of its
inhabitants. In the same way, from the
wildest fancy of these beings, whole
gardens of fragrant flowers are
materialized, returning later to the
etheric invisibility. Although
dwellers on the heavenly planets like
Hiranyaloka are almost freed from any
necessity of eating, still higher is
the unconditioned existence of almost
completely liberated souls in the
causal world, who eat nothing save the
manna of bliss.
"The earth-liberated astral being
meets a multitude of relatives,
fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, and
friends, acquired during different
incarnations on earth,5 as they appear
from time to time in various parts of
the astral realms. He is therefore at
a loss to understand whom to love
especially; he learns in this way to
give a divine and equal love to all,
as children and individualized
expressions of God. Though the outward
appearance of loved ones may have
changed, more or less according to the
development of new qualities in the
latest life of any particular soul,
the astral being employs his unerring
intuition to recognize all those once
dear to him in other planes of
existence, and to welcome them to
their new astral home. Because every
atom in creation is inextinguishably
dowered with individuality,6 an astral
friend will be recognized no matter
what costume he may don, even as on
earth an actor's identity is
discoverable by close observation
despite any disguise.
"The span of life in the astral world
is much longer than on earth. A normal
advanced astral being's average life
period is from five hundred to one
thousand years, measured in accordance
with earthly standards of time. As
certain redwood trees outlive most
trees by millenniums, or as some yogis
live several hundred years though most
men die before the age of sixty, so
some astral beings live much longer
than the usual span of astral
existence. Visitors to the astral
world dwell there for a longer or
shorter period in accordance with the
weight of their physical karma, which
draws them back to earth within a
specified time.
"The astral being does not have to
contend painfully with death at the
time of shedding his luminous body.
Many of these beings nevertheless feel
slightly nervous at the thought of
dropping their astral form for the
subtler causal one. The astral world
is free from unwilling death, disease,
and old age. These three dreads are
the curse of earth, where man has
allowed his consciousness to identify
itself almost wholly with a frail
physical body requiring constant aid
from air, food, and sleep in order to
exist at all.
"Physical death is attended by the
disappearance of breath and the
disintegration of fleshly cells.
Astral death consists of the
dispersement of lifetrons, those
manifest units of energy which
constitute the life of astral beings.
At physical death a being loses his
consciousness of flesh and becomes
aware of his subtle body in the astral
world. Experiencing astral death in
due time, a being thus passes from the
consciousness of astral birth and
death to that of physical birth and
death. These recurrent cycles of
astral and physical encasement are the
ineluctable destiny of all
unenlightened beings. Scriptural
definitions of heaven and hell
sometimes stir man's
deeper-than-subconscious memories of
his long series of experiences in the
blithesome astral and disappointing
terrestrial worlds."
"Beloved Master," I asked, "will you
please describe more in detail the
difference between rebirth on the
earth and in the astral and causal
spheres?"
"Man as an individualized soul is
essentially causal-bodied," my guru
explained. "That body is a matrix of
the thirty-five ideas required by God
as the basic or causal thought forces
from which He later formed the subtle
astral body of nineteen elements and
the gross physical body of sixteen
elements.
"The nineteen elements of the astral
body are mental, emotional, and
lifetronic. The nineteen components
are intelligence; ego; feeling; mind
(sense-consciousness); five
instruments of knowledge, the subtle
counterparts of the senses of sight,
hearing, smell, taste, touch; five
instruments of action, the mental
correspondence for the executive
abilities to procreate, excrete, talk,
walk, and exercise manual skill; and
five instruments of life force, those
empowered to perform the
crystallizing, assimilating,
eliminating, metabolizing, and
circulating functions of the body.
This subtle astral encasement of
nineteen elements survives the death
of the physical body, which is made of
sixteen gross metallic and nonmetallic
elements.
"God thought out different ideas
within Himself and projected them into
dreams. Lady Cosmic Dream thus sprang
out decorated in all her colossal
endless ornaments of relativity.
"In thirty-five thought categories of
the causal body, God elaborated all
the complexities of man's nineteen
astral and sixteen physical
counterparts. By condensation of
vibratory forces, first subtle, then
gross, He produced man's astral body
and finally his physical form.
According to the law of relativity, by
which the Prime Simplicity has become
the bewildering manifold, the causal
cosmos and causal body are different
from the astral cosmos and astral
body; the physical cosmos and physical
body are likewise characteristically
at variance with the other forms of
creation.
The fleshly body is made of the fixed,
objectified dreams of the Creator. The
dualities are ever-present on earth:
disease and health, pain and pleasure,
loss and gain. Human beings find
limitation and resistance in
three-dimensional matter. When man's
desire to live is severely shaken by
disease or other causes, death
arrives; the heavy overcoat of the
flesh is temporarily shed. The soul,
however, remains encased in the astral
and causal bodies.7 The adhesive force
by which all three bodies are held
together is desire. The power of
unfulfilled desires is the root of all
man's slavery.
"Physical desires are rooted in
egotism and sense pleasures. The
compulsion or temptation of sensory
experience is more powerful than the
desire-force connected with astral
attachments or causal perceptions.
"Astral desires center around
enjoyment in terms of vibration.
Astral beings enjoy the ethereal music
of the spheres and are entranced by
the sight of all creation as
exhaustless expressions of changing
light. The astral beings also smell,
taste, and touch light. Astral desires
are thus connected with an astral
being's power to precipitate all
objects and experiences as forms of
light or as condensed thoughts or
dreams.
"Causal desires are fulfilled by
perception only. The nearly-free
beings who are encased only in the
causal body see the whole universe as
realizations of the dream-ideas of
God; they can materialize anything and
everything in sheer thought. Causal
beings therefore consider the
enjoyment of physical sensations or
astral delights as gross and
suffocating to the soul's fine
sensibilities. Causal beings work out
their desires by materializing them
instantly.8 Those who find themselves
covered only by the delicate veil of
the causal body can bring universes
into manifestation even as the
Creator. Because all creation is made
of the cosmic dream-texture, the soul
thinly clothed in the causal has vast
realizations of power.
"A soul, being invisible by nature,
can be distinguished only by the
presence of its body or bodies. The
mere presence of a body signifies that
its existence is made possible by
unfulfilled desires.9
"So long as the soul of man is encased
in one, two, or three body-containers,
sealed tightly with the corks of
ignorance and desires, he cannot merge
with the sea of Spirit. When the gross
physical receptacle is destroyed by
the hammer of death, the other two
coverings-astral and causal-still
remain to prevent the soul from
consciously joining the Omnipresent
Life. When desirelessness is attained
through wisdom, its power
disintegrates the two remaining
vessels. The tiny human soul emerges,
free at last; it is one with the
Measureless Amplitude."
I asked my divine guru to shed further
light on the high and mysterious
causal world.
"The causal world is indescribably
subtle," he replied. "In order to
understand it, one would have to
possess such tremendous powers of
concentration that he could close his
eyes and visualize the astral cosmos
and the physical cosmos in all their
vastness-the luminous balloon with the
solid basket-as existing in ideas
only. If by this superhuman
concentration one succeeded in
converting or resolving the two
cosmoses with all their complexities
into sheer ideas, he would then reach
the causal world and stand on the
borderline of fusion between mind and
matter. There one perceives all
created things-solids, liquids, gases,
electricity, energy, all beings, gods,
men, animals, plants, bacteria-as
forms of consciousness, just as a man
can close his eyes and realize that he
exists, even though his body is
invisible to his physical eyes and is
present only as an idea.
"Whatever a human being can do in
fancy, a causal being can do in
reality. The most colossal imaginative
human intelligence is able, in mind
only, to range from one extreme of
thought to another, to skip mentally
from planet to planet, or tumble
endlessly down a pit of eternity, or
soar rocketlike into the galaxied
canopy, or scintillate like a
searchlight over milky ways and the
starry spaces. But beings in the
causal world have a much greater
freedom, and can effortlessly manifest
their thoughts into instant
objectivity, without any material or
astral obstruction or karmic
limitation.
"Causal beings realize that the
physical cosmos is not primarily
constructed of electrons, nor is the
astral cosmos basically composed of
lifetrons-both in reality are created
from the minutest particles of
God-thought, chopped and divided by
maya, the law of relativity which
intervenes to apparently separate the
Noumenon from His phenomena.
"Souls in the causal world recognize
one another as individualized points
of joyous Spirit; their thought-things
are the only objects which surround
them. Causal beings see the difference
between their bodies and thoughts to
be merely ideas. As a man, closing his
eyes, can visualize a dazzling white
light or a faint blue haze, so causal
beings by thought alone are able to
see, hear, feel, taste, and touch;
they create anything, or dissolve it,
by the power of cosmic mind.
"Both death and rebirth in the causal
world are in thought. Causal-bodied
beings feast only on the ambrosia of
eternally new knowledge. They drink
from the springs of peace, roam on the
trackless soil of perceptions, swim in
the ocean-endlessness of bliss. Lo!
see their bright thought-bodies zoom
past trillions of Spirit-created
planets, fresh bubbles of universes,
wisdom-stars, spectral dreams of
golden nebulae, all over the skiey
blue bosom of Infinity!
"Many beings remain for thousands of
years in the causal cosmos. By deeper
ecstasies the freed soul then
withdraws itself from the little
causal body and puts on the vastness
of the causal cosmos. All the separate
eddies of ideas, particularized waves
of power, love, will, joy, peace,
intuition, calmness, self-control, and
concentration melt into the
ever-joyous Sea of Bliss. No longer
does the soul have to experience its
joy as an individualized wave of
consciousness, but is merged in the
One Cosmic Ocean, with all its
waves-eternal laughter, thrills,
throbs.
"When a soul is out of the cocoon of
the three bodies it escapes forever
from the law of relativity and becomes
the ineffable Ever-Existent.10 Behold
the butterfly of Omnipresence, its
wings etched with stars and moons and
suns! The soul expanded into Spirit
remains alone in the region of
lightless light, darkless dark,
thoughtless thought, intoxicated with
its ecstasy of joy in God's dream of
cosmic creation."
