Thus, we are unable to form a logically consistent conception of

Perfect Existence, Perfect Life, Perfect Consciousness and Perfect Bliss on

the basis of our imperfect experiences in the psycho-physical planes of our
phenomenal existence, struggling life, empirical consciousness and sorrowridden
pleasure; but still we cannot altogether deny the ideal-reality of such
Perfect Existence Life Consciousness Bliss and the possibility of Its
being experienced, in as much as This is at the root of our phenomenal
Similarly the idea of Perfect Ananda, in which there is no distinction
and relation between the enjoyer and any object of enjoyment and no
psychological process, appears to be self-contradictory; but this is the
ultimate Ideal of our joy-seeking life and we can never rest fully satisfied
till this Ideal is realised,
and bliss to the Absolute Reality, since these are all borrowed from our
phenomenal experience and necessarily imply relativity and limitation and
change. Some even refuse to app)y the category of existence to the
Absolute, since the concepts of existence and non-existence also are
mutually related and they also are borrowed from phenomenal experience.
Hence the Absolute is negatively conceived by many acute thinkers as
indefinable in terms of existence and non-existence, as above all intellectual
conceptions, as beyond tbe possibility of all positive experience and mental
imagination; but this absolutely indefinable and inconceivable Absolute is
nevertheless presupposed necessarily as the background of all phenomenal
existence, all empirical life and consciousness, all duality and plurality and
relativity and causality, all our experience and thought. Living and moving
and having our actual being in the phenomenal world-order, within which
all our experiences and thoughts are as a matter of course confined, we can
never say or know or even think what the character of the Absolute
Reality is.
evolutionary conscious living existence and seems to irresistibly urge us
on towards self-transcendence at every stage till perfection is reached.
Philosophical speculation of the intellectualist truth-seekers cannot
reach any certainty ,with regard to the positive reality of this infinite
eternal differenceless relationless supra-mental supra-intellectual Absolute
Existence-Life-Consciousness-Bliss. They generally grope in the dark and
arrive at various mutually-conflicting conclusions. Some become agnostic,
holding that the Absolute must exist, but can never be known or even
conceived. They even refuse to apply the concepts of life, consciousness
(d) Above logical conception :
Enlightened Mahdyogis are not much interested in the question as to
whether Absolute Sat-Cid-Ananda Perfect Existence-ConsciousnessBliss is a logically self-consistent intellectual conception or not. They do
not entangle themselves in any tarka or logical argumentation with other
schools of philosophers with regard to the precise definition of the nature
of the Absolute Reality. They readily admit that the Absolute Reality is
beyond the scope of formal and empirical logic beyond the range of our
speech and thought. (Yato Vfao nibartante aprapya manasd saha). They
53
are fully aware that whenever people will try to form an intellectual idea
about the nature of the Absolute Reality on the basis of their normal
experience and logical reasoning and with the help of common language,
they are sure to miss the Reality, arrive at mutually conflicting opinions
and quarrel with one another. (Anye bhedaratd vivdda-vikald Sattatwato
vancitdh}. They know that what is above space and time, above
duality and relativity, above subject-object relation, cannot be a direct
object of thought to any thinking subject and cannot therefore be truly

described in terms of any qualifying attributes or distinguishing characteristic

s
or any of the common concepts of the understanding.

While admitting the futility of our empirical thought and speech and
logical understanding as means to the true knowledge of the Absolute
Reality, the enlightened Mahdyogis do not accept the agnostic view, the
view of despair. They take their stand on illumined experience, the
direct experience of the transcendent plane. They speak with authority
about the Absolute Reality on the strength of supersensous supermental
superintellectual super-empirical spiritual experience attained in the highest
state of Samddhi, in which the character of the empirical consciousness is
completely transformed, in which the empirical mind and intellect are
perfectly purified and refined and unified and liberated from all the
limitations of the psycho-physical organism, in which the whole being of
the conscious subject transcends the empirical plane and becomes perfectly
free from all spatio-temporal conditions, all subject-object relations, all
duality and plurality and relativity. It is in this transcendent plane that
the Absolute Reality is directly experienced, not as object of experience,
but as perfectly self-luminous Experience Itself. The true Soul of all
experience is unveiled in this Absolute Experience.
As the result of the all-round discipline and purification and refinement
of the body, the senses, the vital forces, the mind and the intellect,
and the continued practice of deep concentration and meditation, as well
as the subtle operation of the Immanent Spiritual Ideal, the empirical
consciousness gets rid of all limitations and rises to the plane of Absolute
Experience and realises the Absolute Truth. But so long as the psychophysical
organism continues, the forces of the lower planes which are

suppressed during the period of the practice of Samddhi, but are not
totally destroyed or radically assimilated, bring the empirical consciousness
down again and again to the mental and intellectual and sensuous planes,
the planes of time, space, causality, and relativity. From Nirutthdnada&
a the consciousness comes down to Byutthdna-dasd. In these lower
planes, however, the light of the. SamSdhi-Experiece is clouded, but not
Jost. The empirical consciousness, while descending to the plane of
54
relativity, carries with it some sweet and blissful memory of the Absolute
Experience and the spiritual enlightenment attained therein. As a
consequence the enlightened Yogi's outlook on the world of objective
experiences is thoroughly transformed. He looks upon everything, within
and without, from the standpoint of the Truth of the Absolute Experience.
He cannot of course give any accurate description of the Absolute
Experience or the Absolute Truth realised in that transcendent plane, nor
can he form any perfect mental or intellectual conception of that
Experience or Truth. But still he is absolutely certain that that Experience
is the all-comprehending all-uniting all-explaining perfect Experience and

that the Truth realised therein is the Absolute Truth.

Enlightened Mahayogis, while authoritatively asserting the Absolute
Truth on the strength of their Experience (Anubhava), never try to
dogmatise the Truth in terms of the categories of mental understanding or
intellectual reflection. As it has been noted, they do not often attach
much importance even to the most fundamental categories, such as

existence and unity. The Absolute Truth is spoken of by Mahayogis sometimes

as Sat, sometimes as Asat, sometimes as Sunya, sometimes as neither
Sat nor Asat. Sometimes they decry those who quarrel about unity and
duality as ignorant.
Adwaitam kecld icchanti dweltam icchanti capare
Param tattwam na bindanti dwaitd-dwaita-bilakshnam
(Avadhuta Gita)
Some uphold adwaha (non-duality) and others uphold dwaita
(duality); they do not realise the Ultimate Truth, Which is distinct from
and transcends both dwaita and adwaita.
In the book Amanaska Gorakhnath says,
Bhava-bhdva-vinirmuktam nasotpatti-vivarjitam
Sarva-samkalpanatltam para-brahma taducyate.
Gorakhnath says that the Absolute Truth Which is realised in the
highest spiritual experience is above the concepts of bhava (existence) and
abhava (negation of existence), absolutely devoid of origination and
destruction, and beyond the reach of all speculations and imaginations,
and That is called Para-Brahma. In the fourth verse of the first lesson of
Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati (already quoted) the great Yogdcharya has

described Para-Brahma as without any name, without any form, without

any ego, without any causality or activity, without any self-manifestation
or any internal or external difference. Gorakhnath along with other
enlightened saints asserts th^t Para-Brahma or the Absolute Spirit,
55
though empirically indescribable, unknowable and even unthinkable, is
perfectly realisable in the state of Samadhi, in which the empirical
consciousness rises above all relativity and becomes one with Brahma.
Pakshapdta-binirmuktam Brahma sampadyate tadd, -the enlightened Yogi
then becomes perfectly identified with Brahma and free from all pakshapdta
(partisanship, meaning adherence to any particular intellectual view).
He then ceases to be an exponent of any particular philosophical viewpoint
in opposition to other rival view-points based on the experiences of
the lower planes. Thus the philosophy of Gorakhnath and the Siddha-

Yogi-Sampraddya came to be known as Dwaitd-dwaita-vilakshana-vdda and

Pakshapata-binirmukta- vdda .
For the guidance of truth-seekers however the adoption of intellectual
concepts is inevitable. Sat, Cit and Ananda, being the most fundamental
concepts for indicating the nature of the Reality sought for
by all truth-seekers, are adopted by the Mahayogis, while imparting
lessons to them. Though Sat, Cit and Ananda are not experienced
as distinct characteristics of the Absolute Reality (Pafa- Brahma) in the
Absolute Experience; it is in these terms that the superempirical undifferentiat
ed
self-existent self-luminous self- fulfil led nature of the Absolute
Reality can be most approximately indicated in the mental and intellectual

planes. In the intellectual plane the concepts of Sat, Cit and Ananda
appear to be distinct from each other, indicating different aspects or
qualifications of Reality; in our normal experience we find things which
exist without Caitanya or dnanda and conscious beings without dnanda;
but perfect existence involves perfect consciousness and bliss, and in the
transcendent Experience there is really no distinction between Sat, Cit and
Ananda. The Yogi-Guru has beautifully addressed the Absolute Reality
as Sat-Cit-Ananda-Murti, i.e. One Who reveals Himself as Sat, Cit and
Ananda. He cautions the truth-seekers against misconceiving that

Existence, Consciousness and Bliss are revealed in the transcendent state

as separate and distinct glorious characteristics of the Supreme Spirit.
The perfect Character of the Supreme Spirit, as transcendentally realised
in the highest Samddhi-experience, is interpreted as Perfect Existence,
Perfect Consciousness and Perfect Bliss, though there is no distinction
among them in the nature of the Absolute Spirit. Sat-Cit-Ananda is
regarded as the highest form of self-manifestation of the Formless and
Manifestationless One, as Brahma, Siva, Paramdtmd, Parameswar