neuroscience and meditation experiences

There is consistency in the kinds of experiences people have during meditation or when they have near death experiences. One of them is seeing yourself out of your body. Angular gyrus in the brain is responsible for balance and touch. The site http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/obe.html explains the link between out of body experience and angular gyrus.Weak  stimulation of the right angular gyrus caused the patients to report the feeling of 'sinking into the bed' as mentioned in Betty Eddings book 'embracing the light'.

Stronger stimulation caused out of body experience. One patient reported seeing herself lying in bed, from above, but only saw her legs and lower trunk." At other times she reported feelings of "lightness" and of "floating" two meters above the bed. 

These experiences are identical to those of meditators. My own very first experience of floating meters above was at the age of three or four. I never forgot that experience. I had my hair washed and wet when dad called us to meditate for a short period before having our breakfast. Being a little child, I first tried to open one eye to check what other siblings were doing and when I realised that nobody was playing games, I decided out of boredom to actually give it a go and started chanting. Within less than five to ten minutes, I was floating at least a meter above ground. It was a great experience but out of excitement I opened my eyes and was disappointed to see that I was firmly sitting on the ground.

Water like energy encompassed my body

In meditation, a few days ago - water like energy encompassed my body in a long triangle shape. I noticed that the crystal clear water was flowing from above my head. It started collecting in the shape of a triangle and had come up my knees and was not going into the ground. Generally speaking, water represents psychic energy.

A day or two before or after this experience I also saw a yellow light surrounding my head and upper part of the body. It was different from how I have seen colours during meditation.

On Sunday, I saw while at the temple, my dad was very happy and had a flower on his beautifully tied turban. He was smiling. I must be on the right path again. A few months ago he was very upset with me. His turban was not tied properly, was worried and had tried to remove certain emotions out of my body.

I know I was upset then and now I am on track.

Saint Kabir's meditation experience

The following Shabad is by Bhagat Kabeer Ji in Siree Raag on Pannaa 92, is similar to what Guru Nanak experienced and what Eddie expalins in her near-death experience, that I have mention in my older blogs.

Siree Raag, Devotee Kabeer Jee:

acharaj eaek sunahu rae pa(n)ddeeaa ab kishh kehan n jaaee ||
Listen, O religious scholar: the One Lord alone is Wondrous; no one can describe Him.

sur nar gan ga(n)dhhrab jin mohae thribhavan maekhulee laaee ||1||
He fascinates the angels, the celestial singers and the heavenly musicians; he has strung the three worlds upon His Thread. ||1||

raajaa raam anehadh ki(n)guree baajai ||
The Unstruck Melody of the Sovereign Lord's Harp vibrates;

jaa kee dhisatt naadh liv laagai ||1|| rehaao ||
by His Glance of Grace, I was lovingly attuned to the Sound-current of the Naad. ||1||Pause||

bhaat(h)ee gagan si(n)n(g)iaa ar chu(n)n(g)iaa kanak kalas eik paaeiaa ||
The Tenth Gate of my crown chakra is the distilling fire, and the channels of the Ida and Pingala are the funnels, to pour in and empty out the golden vat.
Vat = A large vessel, especially one used for holding in an immature state, chemical preparations for dyeing, tanning or the like.


this mehi dhhaar chuai ath niramal ras mehi rasan chuaaeiaa ||2||
Into that vat, there trickles a gentle stream of the most sublime and pure essence of all distilled essences. ||2||

eaek j baath anoop banee hai pavan piaalaa saajiaa ||
Something wonderful has happened-the breath has become the cup.

theen bhavan mehi eaeko jogee kehahu kavan hai raajaa ||3||
In all the three worlds, such a Yogi is unique. What king can compare to him? ||3||

aisae giaan pragattiaa purakhotham kahu kabeer ra(n)g raathaa ||
This spiritual wisdom of God, the Supreme Soul, has illuminated my being. Says Kabeer, I am attuned to His Love.

aour dhunee sabh bharam bhulaanee man raam rasaaein maathaa ||4||3||
All the rest of the world is deluded by doubt, while my mind is intoxicated with the Sublime Essence of the Lord. ||4||3||

http://www.sikhitothemax.com/page.asp?ShabadID=267

Gur shabadi gobind gajya

In Gurbani, some of the meditation experiences have been mentioned.

Gur shabadi gobind gajya

Hukami Varsan Lage Meha

Bin Badal Barkha Hoi

Damani Damke

Amrit nam boond mukh pai

Amrit nam chale jap nala

First vibration of the word makes the thundering noise?
The lightning happens within.
Then with His Hukam /order, the rain starts to pour.
Then comes the Amrit/ drop of nector from the palate.

I had heard that some people get scared and stop doing meditation. I couldn't understand then what was scary about meditation. Its years later when I have started meditating, I saw the lightning. Yes I was scared, but not of the lightning but not that it was happening but rather the fact that I knew that I wasn't ready to receive.
I had read that it can go sideways through Ida or Pingala nadis instead of the desired path - sushmina nadi which gives enlightenment. I did stop serious meditation for the next few days to pacify the energy. This is when I came across the article which mentioned that you can't stop it. If you try to stop the energy once activated, you can get sick or worse die. I had read the you should never try to call for the kundalini to happen and should never hurry. I think I was desperate last Jan to experience something and due to my deep desire, it opened.

Gurbani says,
Sahaje hee sach samaya

Sahej mile so mil rahe.

This indicates that to stay connected forever, it must happen slowly. Now that the kundalini has settled down, I feel desperate for expereinces that do not involve kundalini. When will I experience the following?

Gur shabadi gobind gajya

Hukami Varsan Lage Meha

Bin Badal Barkha Hoi

Amrit nam boond mukh pai

Amrit nam chale jap nala

I want these experiences now. I have been waiting for too long. Guru Nanak Dev Ji, give me what you gave to Guru Arjan dev ji, Guru Ram Das ji, Guru Amar Das ji and other gurus. I keep coming across these lines of gurbani that tell me clearly what these Gurus expereinced and loved, cherished and wanted more of. They keep saying that in their shabads. Why can't people read and understand that Gurus are sharing their meditation experiences with us in these shabads?

Misunderstood Shiva and Shiva nagari mentioned by Guru Nanak

Based on my personal experience during a meditation session, I believe that the Hindu God shiva is grossly misunderstood. I will first explain my experience and then with refrence to a website giving probable meanings associated with shiva and the items he carries, I will try to explain what the real meaning, as I now believe is.

My experience

I had the most impressive and confusing experience ever. I firmly believe in Guru Nanak and the Sikh religion that he started. I do not have the slightest doubt that he can ever lead me astray about anything. So in my meditation, when I was yearning to see the formless God, I prayed to Guru Nanak to show me what he saw. The next minute Ifirst saw Guru Nanak, a 65 year old Sikh man, with a white round turban and white robe looked like a kurta from the neck, on my right hand side. Then Guru Nanak moved in the background to show me what he saw. I saw someone sitting in meditation pose far away on a mountain. I noticed the hair tied up, resembled the perfect temple dome. Since I have seen Hindu calendars of Shiva in India, I associated this figure as Shiva. As I am not a Hindu, I questioned Guru Nanak, "I asked you to show me what you saw. This is not what I want to see. I am a sikh, I do not intend to change my religion". I probably was trying to spell it out just in case Guru Nanak has misunderstood me just because I am meditating. Guru Nanak stopped me right there and indicated to become quiet and said thats exactly what I am showing you, just see. I realised that I was arguing with Guru Nanak! How foolish of me. I became quiet to see whatever he was showing me without judging and analysing. I will have time for that later.

Then that far away shiva came closer and I saw a very beautiful big eye with pink shaded outline of the eye. It was truly beautiful. Then my mind said, "Hey, its not angry at me!"According to myth, when shiva opens his third eye during meditation, beacuse it was disturbed, he burns everything in his way. Then I realised that it is not angry, on the contrary, its very pleased with me. While I was admiring it, I saw two rays of light came out of the eye. I have mentioned the rest of experience in an earlier post.

Guru Nanak's shabad on page 901 of Guru Granth Sahib ji in Raag Ramkali reads, line 8, Shiva nagari meh asan audhu, alakh agam apari.

Guru Nanak made it very clear in the MoolMantra that the God he talks about and sang the praises of is a formless God. Then what does Shiva Nagari meh asan means? According to Hindu facts on the website http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Shiva#encyclopedia

Shiva is the god of the third eye. I was meditating on the third eye at that time after reading the first chapter of the book opening the third eye by Samuel Sagan. I recommend this book to everyone interested in meditation without any religious jargon or baggage.

All the symbols mentions in the website as linked to Shiva have a symbolic meaning like the snake, a symbol of kundalini energy which I felt rising and hissing like a snake upto my neck, in another session. Then I couldn't figure out where it should go afterwards. I sang all day that day. May be because it rested in the neck area. As is the nature of the energy, a couple of days later this energy went back in the base. The nine snakes that shiva is shown to wear is infact the energy points where the energy resides in everyone's body. Read some articles on meridians and pressure points and you will find out.

So shiva is basically the energy of the third eye. Once the third eye is opened, naturally it will help the throat chakra open as it is the one next to it. The colour of the throat chakra is Blue, hence the blue neck of the Shiva depicted in the paintings. So shiva bhaktas should really meditate on the third eye rather than do idol worship of a human figure shiva. The symbols have a deeper meaning than the physical objects. I am sure the serious bhaktas would know all this anyway. As much as I would love to paint what I saw, I think the paintings lead the ignorant ones astray. Without the personal spiritual experience, its very hard to tell in words the serenity and beauty of the formless.

So Guru Nanak has advised us to meditate on the third eye in his words "Shiva nagari meh asan audhu."

Another website mentioning the symbols worn by shiva http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/festivals/mahashivratri/

My understanding again is very different of these symbol, based on my meditation experiences. The River ganga flowing from Shiva's head is a symbol of the Pranic energy that flows like a river, gushes from above into your body. If you had the experince of this energy, you will agree with what I am saying.

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23rd June, 2010

I discussed my experience of Guru Nanak showing me something with Baba Thakur Singh ji yesterday. I am so glad that he clarified to me that I misunderstood God's nirgun saroop with Shiva. Thakur Singh ji said that God wears a white turban. The moment he said that I recalled the image I was shown by Guru Nanak. His head was the same shape as the dome of a Sikh temple. I then tried to remember the other things that would ensure me that it was not Shiva. This prompted me to remember that I didn't see all those things that are shown on a Shiva's calendar - the snake around his neck, the three edged sword -trishool, or any other things that would indicate that he was Parvati's husband shiva, the father of the elephant head lord Ganesh.

May be Hindu mythology has degraded God's Nirgun Saroop and created this mythical God Shiva who has a wife and a son etc, which does not exist. If that is true then someone truly mislead the Hindu people, while whoever first invented those symbols of snake etc was trying to explain the stage when a person is ready to see God's Nirgun Saroop. To be ready to see that image a person's kundalini should have risen upto the neck, revealed by the symbol of snake around the neck.

Its clear to me that without the perfect Guru I wouldn't have been able to see God in his Nirgun Saroop. I now understand why Guru asked me to not argue, just see and said that he is showing me exactly what I asked him to show. I had asked him to show me the formless God. In that experience straight after the Nirgun Saroop, I then was able to see the third eye, one dot that turned into two rays and then developed in to one triangle and then another bigger triangle appeared followed by the light coming out of my temples onto my hands etc. The whole thing probably would have gone for nearly 40 days, if I wasn't disturbed by the family. What a pity, it didn't happen that way. I am sure its not family's fault but predestined as I hadn't done my share of meditation to be able to see the whole show. But the Guru took pity on me as I was desperate and showed me enough to help me believe in him and God. Now I must work on my meditation so I can have my 40 day experience.