The Recipient Of Shaktipat
Ibn al-`Arabi gives us a hint as to how such an elevating influence feels to the
disciple when he is transformed. In the following passage, he describes what
happened to him early in his mystical career while he sat face-to-face in
tawajjuh with Abu Ya`qub al-Kumi. He reports two effects, a conscious experience
of trembling and a revelation from his dream that the shaikh's power emanated
from the brightness of his heart chakra:
I saw him in a dream on one occasion and his breast seemed to be cleft asunder
and a light like that of the sun shone out from it. . . . When I would sit
before him or before others of my Shaikhs, I would tremble like a leaf in the
wind, my voice would become weak and my limbs would shake (Ibn al-`Arabi, 1971:
70).
The American initiate of Tibetan Buddhism, Tsultrim Allione, describes
even more vividly the effect upon herself when, in her first interview with
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, they sat face-to-face in silence for forty-five
minutes. At first she waited in puzzlement for him to speak. Then it began to
dawn on her that something of quite a different order was occurring. It was only
much later that she grasped what it was:
Now I realize that what happened was some kind of mind-to-mind transmission, but
at the time I only knew that I had experienced something that was completely
beyond words and form. . . . It was an experience of space [8] that extended
outward without any reference back. This space was luminous and bliss-provoking,
a release, similar to, but beyond, sexual orgasm (Allione: 1986: xvii-xviii).
The German initiate of Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Govinda Anagarika, describes his
own experience of receiving shaktipat through a light touch from the hand of his
guru. Govinda perceived "a stream of bliss" traversing his whole being which he
felt vividly in his body, "so that all that one had intended to say or ask,
vanished from one's mind like smoke into blue air" (Govinda, 1988: 33). Some
years later he experienced an analogous elevating influence from the Great
Hermit at Gomchen, who had refused to meet him. He was told to wait overnight at
some distance from the hermitage in a "horribly cold and draughty wooden
rest-house":
But before I could fall asleep a strange thing happened. I had the sensation
that somebody took possession of my consciousness, my will-power, and my body --
that I no more had control over my thoughts, but that somebody else was thinking
them -- and that slowly, but surely, I was losing my own identity. And then I
realized that it could be none other than the hermit . . . due to the power of
his concentration and my own lack of resistance in the moment when I was
hovering between the waking and the sleeping state (Ibid., 101).
The eighteen-year-old Narendra, who became Ramakrishna's favorite disciple, was
frightened and repelled at his first meeting with the forty-five year-old saint.
Ramakrishna raved and wept in "anxious desire" and claimed that Narendra was the
reincarnation of the ancient sage Narayana. Narendra concluded that Ramakrishna
was a "monomaniac." In his second meeting, however, Narendra received shaktipat:
As I was thinking [Ramakrishna was about to create another embarrassing scene],
he quickly approached me and placed his own right foot on my body, and
immediately I had an unprecedented experience at his touch. As I looked, I began
to see that all the things in the room, with the walls themselves, were spinning
wildly and dissolving into somewhere. . . .terrible fear . . .this itself was at
the threshold of death. . . . [Finally Ramakrishna relented] and said, "Then
enough now, the work doesn't have to be done all at once. It will come about in
good time" (Kripal, 1995: 211).
An American student of yoga, D. R. Butler, describes his own first experience of
shaktipat, which took place in Upstate New York in 1973 when Butler was in his
mid-twenties and had already been studying yoga for five years. At a week-long
yoga retreat, Yogi Amrit Desai, who until that moment had been completely
unknown to the group, led them in a meditation.
The first thing I noticed was a wave of euphoria softly permeating my being. I
felt intensely happy. I didn't know the reason for the wonderful feeling but I
determined to relax and enjoy it.
Suddenly surges of energy -- like electrical charges -- streaked up my spine.
These gradually evolved into a steady current of hot energy flowing from the tip
of my spine to the top of my head. . . .
Brilliant colors swirled inside my head; I thought I would burst with happiness.
Nothing had ever felt so good! Suddenly a scream burst from the back of the room,
then another. In a few moments the place was a madhouse (Butler, 1990: 185).
Only after an extended outbreak of pandemonium did Desai halt the demonstration
and explain to the uninitiated students that what they had felt was shaktipat.
Those who wished could leave the room. About half did so. Then Desai resumed his
transmission with even greater intensity.
My body was filled with a brilliant white light and I allowed myself to be
absorbed in it. I felt that my life as I previously had known it literally came
to an end. My ego identity became meaningless; there was no time; past and
future did not exist. All that existed was pure light and pure bliss. I was
content to remain in this state forever.
When I opened my eyes again I noticed that my body had bent forward; my forehead
was touching the floor (Ibid., 187).
Muktananda's reception of shaktipat from his guru, Nityananda, is described in
too much detail to be summarized (Muktananda, 1978: 64-71). Suffice it to say
that it included all the elements we have seen, including the transferal of a
cloak and pair of sandals from the guru's own body. Muktananda describes with
greater economy several instances in which he conferred shaktipat on someone
else. There is an intriguingly inadvertent element in each of them. In one case
an airline officer begs to be allowed to clean Muktananda's bathroom. His
request having been granted, the officer had hardly begun when he fell into a
stillness and sat in meditation for four hours. Subsequently, the officer
reported, people who entered his own meditation room would enter immediately
into unexpectedly deep states of meditation (Ibid., 144).
Nityananda intended to initiate Muktananda; Amrit Desai deliberately created
chaos among unprepared students; and Ramakrishna, despite his tendency to spend
extended periods of time completely out of his mind in divyonmada, knew exactly
what he was doing in conferring shaktipat on the ambivalent young Narendra.
Nevertheless, it is clear that not a few instances of elevating influence occur
autonomously, quite to the surprise and amazement of the individual through whom
the conferral takes place. In the following example Swami Rama makes it clear
that, in his experience, a genuine shaktipat initiation originates from an
impersonal source over which he himself has no control.
One day [my master] told me that a swami would come the next morning and that I
was to touch him on the forehead, thereby initiating him in shaktipat diksha. I
protested, saying that I had no such power to arouse the kundalini in another
person. But he said to me, "Don't you know, it is not you acting. You are just
the instrument of a higher power. Let the power work through you."
. . . Suddenly I found my arm being raised. It was not at all under my control.
I touched the swami and he remained in samadhi for several hours. . . . There
may be someone to whom I wish to impart this experience, but nevertheless I
cannot. Yet with a few rare individuals I feel such a strong impulse that I
cannot resist (Rama, 1990: 41).
Guy Claxton, an English disciple of Irina Tweedie (whose spiritual autobiography
will be discussed shortly), inadvertently conferred shaktipat on a neighbor who
had been hounding him for instruction in the techniques of meditation. Claxton
refused him six times before deciding the man was serious. However, he got no
further than the initial instructions for relaxing the body when: I felt a rush
of psychophysical energy seemingly enter my body from beneath and explode out
toward him. My speech became slurred and my eyelids got heavy, but I kept my
eyes focused on him. As the wave of energy hit him, he visibly jerked back,
looking at me fearfully. Then a second wave passed through me, and again he
startled. By the time a third rush of energy reached him, he was in deep
meditation. I felt a force field connecting our bodies, and while I stayed in
meditation, he too remained meditating (Feuerstein, 1991: 133). [9]
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 01:56:17 -0000
From: "hermeticscience" <hermeticscience@yahoo.com>
Subject: Shakti Pat
Shaktipat
To be a savior and win disciples rather than perpetrators is founded upon the
reality of mutual participation. Sanskrit has a word for the mutual influence
which elevates: shaktipat. Shakti-pata means "descent of power" and refers to
the "transmission of psychospiritual energy (shakti) from the adept to the
disciple" (Feuerstein, 1990). Shaktipat may be conferred by a touch, the
bestowal of an article of clothing, a word, a glance, or even a thought. Often
it is used in the phrase shaktipat diksha, "initiation (diksha) by the descent
of power." Yeshe initiated the seven rapists through the act of intercourse they
believed they were forcing upon her when the energy of her raised kundalini
elevated their lust and opened their higher chakras through the inductive force
of shaktipat.
[In shaktipat diksha] the master directly transmits his energy to the student to
remove the final obstacle, awakening the sleeping serpent and leading her upward.
One who is functioning on a higher level may sometimes unconsciously influence
those around him in the same way that a magnet influences metal objects in its
proximity. . . . As a magnet influences a particular metal, such a teacher
influences those who are prepared. . . . In shaktipat the influence is conscious
and extremely intense. Through a look, touch, or thought the master transmits
his own power to the aspirant, who is suddenly transported into a realm of
blissful divine consciousness (Rama, 1990: 39).
Generally the transmission of shaktipat is understood to take place through the
heart chakra of master and disciple, for the anahata is above all the locus of
sublime unity between individuals. The transmission inspires expansion, love,
and the sense that one stands above "the surface of the earth." It is a
"spiritual" transferal, but it takes place "from body to body" (Silburn, 1987:
87). It "enhallows" (Feuerstein, 1989: 27) the disciple along the three
dimensions of mystical experience we have emphasized: physiology, emotion, and
imagination. Sometimes the recipient enters directly into dhyana or samadhi and
remains there for an extended period of time. "After shaktipat, meditation
becomes natural, and takes place without strain or striving" (Desai, 1990: 75).
It is often described as a "divine" transmission, for it is based in the guru's
capacity for becoming one with the cosmos, "the infinite realm of illumination"
(Silburn, 1987: 87). The disciple experiences the master "as a spiritual reality
rather than as a human personality" (Feuerstein, 1989: 26).
As might be expected, Vimalananda has a number of provocative things to say
about shaktipat, and many of them suggest a reciprocity between master and
disciple not emphasized elsewhere. Indeed, he implies that shaktipat is but a
spiritual and elevating form of the mutual influence which obtains between all
individuals, even in profane consciousness. True shaktipat requires genuine
connection with and solid experience of impersonal, divine realities. Because
the guru will be an expert in this field, the burden of converting mutual
influence into an elevating transmutation of the disciple lies with the master.
For example: "A guru always wants to make his disciple into his own guru. The
Self, the Absolute Reality, is the true guru" (Svoboda, 1994: 279). This implies
not only that the guru has to be able to see beyond appearances and is not
fooled by the disciple's personal and neurotic limitations. The disciple, too,
is an embodiment of the divine -- analogous, perhaps, to the saying of Jesus,
"As you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 25:40).
Elsewhere Vimalananda suggests that the mutual influence which elevates the
disciple can also diminish the saint's spiritual power. This claim, too, is
reminiscent of words ascribed to Jesus when a woman afflicted with a hemorrhage
was healed upon touching the hem of his garment: "And Jesus, perceiving in
himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the
crowd, and said, `Who touched my garments?'" (Mk 5: 30). Vimalananda's statement
is more sobering:
A true saint is the embodiment of his deity and the energy emanating from him is
the energy of that deity. By touching a saint's feet you collect a little of
that energy, which purifies your own consciousness and makes it more subtle. The
saint loses some of his own peace of mind by this which is uncomfortable for the
saint; this is how many saints go bad (Svoboda, 1997: 262).
Because mutual influence works both ways, the one who is elevated may diminish
the more spiritually advanced. On a more ordinary level, I have encountered this
phenomenon in some of my patients who are "energy healers" and massage
therapists. They often find themselves depleted or made ill by patients who seem
to leave their offices in an improved state of bodily and mental health. I have
also found that the level of my own consciousness can be lowered and my habitual
sense of having a coherent self temporarily fragmented by an interaction with a
poorly integrated patient who clearly seems to have benefited from our exchange.
Finally, Vimalananda suggests that if we pay attention to how the presence of
another person subtly changes our consciousness, we can arrive at an assessment
of the other person's spiritual state. This is particularly helpful when we find
ourselves before a naked Sadhu who has all the trappings of spirituality but may
be a charlatan:
Sit quietly and don't say much; listen, and try to keep your mind blank. If when
you sit near him you find yourself forgetting the things of the world and
becoming more peaceful, then he is a good saint; his halo is quieting your mind.
If not, run away! (Svoboda, 1994: 267).
Muktananda emphasizes the sexual foundation of shaktipat when it dawns on him
that the reason he had to struggle with a bewildering and humiliating
manifestation of overwhelming sexual desire was to turn him into an urdhvareta,
[4] one in whom the "sexual fluid" rises and becomes "the source of the power to
give Shaktipat" (Muktananda, 1978: 32, 99). Sexual arousal, transmuted on the
subtle plane to kundalini, makes one an initiate by transforming his own being
and giving him the power to transform "other beings, indeed, the entire universe,
through his limitless powers" (D. G. White, 1996: 272). D. G. White summarizes
the Tantric doctrine of shaktipat as it appears in scriptures written between
the tenth and fourteenth centuries. Here we encounter a magical flavor, even a
literal physicality, which many later sources eschew.
The guru, having entered the body of his disciple (whose kundalini has been
awakened) unites with that kundalini within the disciple's body and subsequently
raises it from the disciple's lower abdomen up to his cranial vault. The form
the guru takes as he courses through his disciple's body may be that of a drop (bindu)
of seed or speech. In many descriptions of this operation, the guru is said to
exit the disciple's body through the mouth and thus return back into his own
body through his own mouth (Ibid., 312).
White makes it clear that this is fundamentally a sexual process, albeit with
gender "polarities reversed": "given that it is a feminine kundalini which
awakens, stiffens, rises, even rushes upwards towards the cranial vault, the
cavity that is the place of the passive male Siva" (Ibid., 320).
Although the Hindu doctrine of shaktipat is distinguished by the fullness of its
descriptions, the reality of mutual influence is also well known in Sufism,
where elevating influence is often described as "perfecting" an "imperfection"
in the disciple. Probably the most common practice is that the shaikh who
recognizes such an opportunity for elevating a disciple invests himself with a
special article of clothing, the mantel (khirqa), and by meditation places
himself in the mystical state of consciousness he wishes to induce in his
disciple. Then he ceremoniously removes the khirqa from his own body and places
it on the body of the disciple, transferring the desired state at the same time
(Wilson, 1993: 144). In her biography of Ibn al-`Arabi, Claude Addas cites
several references from "The Greatest Shaikh" attesting to the "immediate
transformation" that is produced in the disciple by means of the khirqa (Addas,
1993: 145). A passage from Ibn al-`Arabi's Revelations at Mecca [5] is very
explicit:
So it is when the masters of spiritual states perceive some imperfection in one
of their companions and wish to perfect that person's state, they resort to the
custom of meeting with the person alone. The master then takes the piece of
clothing he is wearing in the spiritual state he is in at that particular moment,
removes it and puts it on the man whom he wishes to guide to perfection. He then
holds the man closely to him -- and the master's state spreads to his disciple,
who thereby attains to the desired perfection (Addas, 1993: 146).
Jalaluddin Rumi's practice of baring his breast when in an ecstatic state of
divine love and pressing it against the chest of a disciple (Schimmel, 1978:
217) not only dispenses with the article of clothing as a necessary element but
also seems implicitly to acknowledge the Hindu doctrine that mutual influence is
in some sense a bodily transfer with sexual implications and that the bodily
locus of mutual influence is associated with the heart chakra. Rumi speaks of
the saint who knows with the heart and leads the disciple with his heart:
[The gnosis of the heart [6]], is one of the distinguishing features of the
mystical leader. He is a lion, and the thoughts of others are like a forest
which he can easily enter. . . . [H]e discovers in the unpolished stone the
wonderful figures which people see in the polished mirror. That is why he can
show the novice the path which leads him best towards self-realization and
approximation to God, calling the figures out of the stone "heart" (Ibid.,
315-6).
Sufism also speaks of the intense concentration of master and disciple upon one
another [tawajjuh] that brings about "spiritual unity, faith healing, and many
other phenomena" (Schimmel, 1975: 366). By tawajjuh, the master "enters the door
of the disciple's heart"; and through his "knowledge of things that exist
potentially in God's eternal knowledge, he is able to realize certain of these
possibilities on the worldly plane" (Ibid., 237). From the side of the disciple,
it is said that he "passes away" or that his ego-personality has been "annihilated"
in the master (fana' fi'sh-shaikh), who, in his turn has already been
annihilated in the Prophet Muhammad. By this means, the shaikh "becomes the
Perfect Man and thus leads his disciples with a guidance granted directly by God"
(Ibid., 237). This doctrine of the passing away (fana') of one's ego so as to
discover one's greater self (baqa') through the relationship with one's shaikh,
directly parallels the Hindu notion of shaktipat, whereby ego gives way to atman
through the transforming influence of the guru. [7]
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