we have evolved from the animal state? No. There is a change in intrinsic character.
There is a transformation of quality. The human is different from the animal in the
intrinsic structure itself, and not merely in the extrinsic expansion of sensory
perception or egoistic affirmation.
Likewise is the transformation from the human to the higher levels of yoga, which
are the stages of the ascent to the divine. We are becoming—we are going to
become—divine, in different stages. So, we may say that every stage is a new
encounter with a qualitative transformation of the personality, a condition with
which we cannot compare anything in this world. There is nothing here with which
we can compare that state of experience.
If we start comparing, we will be speaking like the frog in the well which had a talk
with the frog that came from the ocean. “The ocean is so big! Much bigger than the
well,” said the frog from the ocean. The frog that was in the well, which had never
seen anything wider than the well, asked, “How big is this ocean?” “Oh, very big!” “Is
it so big?” asked the frog in the well, expanding its body, swelling it. “Is this how big
the ocean is?” “Now, what is this that we are talking about? It is not like that,” said
the ocean frog. “It is very big!” The well frog swelled still further. Stouter it became,
expanded its muscles and said, “So big? The ocean is so big?” “No, no! It is not like
that,” said the frog from the ocean. “It is much bigger than what we are thinking!” “Is
it as big as this well, at least?” asked the well frog. “Oh, much bigger!” said the ocean
frog. The well frog was confused and said, “What is this? What are we talking about?
I cannot understand!” The frog in the well could not appreciate anything bigger than
the well. What is the ocean? It could not imagine it.
Likewise is our puny understanding of the higher achievements of which yoga
speaks. We have subtle peculiarities in our nature, and that particular weakness is
what is to be subjugated and sublimated in yoga. This has been mentioned again and
again in the sutras of Patanjali, in various manners, various ways, at different stages.
Though there are many stages which each individual has to experience, each for
oneself, adepts have classified them into certain groups. The language of the system
of Patanjali tells us that there are four important conditions of utter transformation;
and these are given specific names in the Yoga Shastras.
When one steps over the ordinary human level and places one’s feet on the next
higher level, that condition is called prathama kalpita. It is a peculiar term which
implies an experience of a first form of enlightenment. The first enlightenment that
comes through yoga is called prathama kalpita. The next stage of enlightenment is
called madhu bhumika, which literally means ‘very sweet, like honey’. Very exquisite
is the experience, very delicious; that is what the word ‘madhu’ actually means here—
madhu bhumika. The third transformation is called prajna jyotis. There is a flash of
the supernal light of the purusha, or the Absolute. We begin to enter into the daylight
of the Eternal. And the last stage is supposed to be the borderland of the communion
of the individual with the Absolute, the Universal. That is called atikranta
bhavaniya, which surpasses all comprehension. No thought can understand or
imagine what it is. Even the highest stretch of imagination cannot conceive what it is.
Therefore, it is designated as atikranta bhavaniya.
Now, the teachers of yoga tell us that there are very great dangers which one has to
face at certain stages of this ascent. These dangers come from the activity of the