Gathering of transcendental sound/light (nāda/jyoti samāhāra)

In the effort to achieve chit akash access in meditation, one may practice first the technique of sound collection / naad absorption. It may take months or years to become stabilized in this where no matter where one is, under whatever influence, one can reach naad and become totally immerged or totally focused on its resonance within the psyche.

The wonderful thing about naad practice, and this is wonderful for those who hear naad easily and naturally, is that it is overpowering, such that the yogi does not have to create a focus on it. It pulls the self, which makes it all the better for the self, which has difficulty maintaining deliberate focus for any length of time.

Spot application of deliberate focus is easy for the core-self but not continuous focus, because the self finds that when it tries for continuous focus, that effort repeated fails because of the natural un-focusing of the attention which takes place and which disengages the self from the objective.

Srila Yogeshwarananda gave me the jyoti samāhāra light gathering/collection process to practice as the next step after being situated in naad focus consistently. The problem with this practice is that unlike naad, mental light is not compelling except occasionally. The aspect of light which is compelling may last for split seconds only. The compelling lights do not remain for more than seconds during meditation.

If the compelling lights remained for a while, instead of for moments, it would be easy to focus as it is for naad but that is not the case.

Anyway as things are, the yogi must endeavor to gather or collect light during meditation. Srila Yogesh gave this method:

·       Do a full session of breath-infusion, extracting all heavy astral energy from the subtle body.

·       Sit to meditate immediately after.

·       Focus become emerged in naad sound resonance.

·       Hold the core-self in naad focus. Then look to the frontal part of the subtle head.

·       Gather some of the light which is there. Hold that light which you gathered.

·       If you find that the light collected seemed to disappear or to become dissipated, gather some more light. Do this repeatedly but slowly without any jerky or erratic movement. Be sure to maintain the focus on naad. If you lose naad focus, re-establish that. Then gather light again. Do this repeatedly.

Srila Yogesh assured that this method will in time cause the student to be located in chit akash. How long would this take?

He said that it varies according to the deepness of the meditation. For some they will not realize chit akash even in a lifetime but nevertheless they should practice. He stated that the reason for failure is materialistic influence which deletes insight focus.