How do you know the Unknown? Punditt Maharaj used the strap-line “The Man Who Knows the Unknown” in his advertising. Precisely what this meant eluded me for some years, but eventually made sense, and it fitted in with his style of teaching. Punditt rarely discussed spiritual matters, preferring to talk about mundane things, such as what is on tv, sport, something on the news, etc, so I had to find a way of Knowing the Unknown.
Unknown, Unteachable
To known the Unknown means that you have not been tutored or shown, otherwise it would not be unknown, would it? The work of the Punditts is to uncover the Unknown, and make some of the Unknown available to others, depending on ability. It is always the same problem – how does a Master convey knowledge to the Student when there is a vast gap between experience, comprehension, and expression? Punditt preferred not to speak, but that did not stop nuances of body language to convey something. Learning to be a Punditt is a 24/7 activity, which means that spiritual experiences happen at any time of the day or night, no matter what the student is doing. In practical terms, it meant that whatever was going on in my head or awareness, I had to continue as if nothing was happening. There was none of “Wow, that was amazing!”, or “That was incredible!”. English insouciance helps greatly!
Before I met Punditt I had meditated since I was fourteen, not the usual interest of a teenager. I learnt Transcendental Meditation with my mother. When I left home at 16, I took more interest in TM, and ended up at Mentmore Towers for several years, learning the advanced TM Sidhi program. It is a long story, but I ended up in Brighton, still involved in TM, meditating for 3 hours twice a day. This went on for about five years, when I met Punditt, life changed.
TM is important because it gave me experiences of higher states of consciousness, and the Vedic knowledge, which helped me when I met Punditt and spent more time with him. Maharishi’s teaching on higher states of consciousness is very interesting, but misinterpreted by the TM movement (and it has got sidetracked on earning money, not raising consciousness). Transcendental Consciousness
During Transcendental Meditation, the mind settles down to earlier levels of thought until it transcends, goes beyond thought. This is Pure Being, but it takes the mind continued experience before it starts to accept this stage. In Transcendental Consciousness (TC), there is no experience, no awareness – the meditator knows he has been somewhere, but he does not know where. After a time, TC seeps into the other levels of consciousness, Waking, Dreaming and Sleeping, known as Witnessing. In the waking state, the Seeker experiences separation from his actions thoughts and feelings – he is witnessing. Lucid dreaming strengthens, and there is awareness continued in dreams. Awareness is also maintained in dreams. If you do not understand witnessing in sleep, you will think that you have not slept, and that you should be taking sleeping pills!
Cosmic Consciousness
When Transcendental Consciousness maintains 24/7 during waking, dreaming and sleeping, the seeker is in Cosmic Consciousness. The next stage is God Consciousness, when the seeker starts to see the creative process, manifestation from Pure Consciousness. The next stage is Unity Consciousness when you realise that you are part of the process.
Meditators in the TM Movement suffer from an inferiority complex, not believing they can reach the higher states of consciousness, because they are under the mistaken impression that they have to be like Maharishi! Of course, people have to be themselves. As the Bhagavad Gita says, it is impossible to tell the state of consciousness of a person by his actions. There is also that great saying, “Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment chop wood and carry water”.
So, what is this to do with knowing the Unknown? What does this knowledge do to help you if you do not meditate? What insights into the magical process can we learn?
The first thing to understand is that the four states TC, CC, GC and UC are seen as a learning process that can happen at any state of consciousness, and applied magically and spiritually. Understanding this process I hope will help you to understand the futility of modern western magical practice, when it comes to the Tree of Life and rituals such as creating a magical circle.
The Learning Process
We all start from what we know, and if evolution has kicked in, we move forward learning what we did not know. But, what if evolution merely means that we learn what we had forgotten or unaware of until now? How do we know if something is right? This question is particularly applicable to magical and spiritual practice, where the magician has to know when what he has done has ‘worked’, particularly when he has not done this magical action before, and there is no other authority to check against. To know the result is right, when the magician has not done this action before tells us that the magician has remembered the result – otherwise how would he know? The memory comes from the Unknown, and it is the work of the Punditts to know the Unknown.
How does this process work? Transcendental consciousness is analogous to being totally unaware of something – an idea, person, thing – anything. We go about our life blithely unaware of this thing. Then, we get an inkling. It might be mentioned by someone, a friend, or on tv, or the internet. We may not even notice the reference, but it is there, and it is possibly have an effect on us. Eventually this thing impinges on our consciousness. We do not understand it, and we do not know what it has to do with us, but it is there nevertheless. Have you ever walked down your local high street in town, and see a feature you have never noticed before? This feature has been there for perhaps a hundred years or more, so it is not new. You may well comment on this feature, but by the time you have walked down the high street several times, you are aware of it, but it arouses no particular thought – it is part of the scenery. This feature in the urban landscape has gone from unknown to the commented upon, to something you know is there. What has changed? The feature hasn’t changed, but you have. We have reached the point of Cosmic Consciousness. It is there, we are aware of it, but it has no use. God Consciousness enables us to use this feature. It might be that by going to this feature we meet new people, find a shop or some other place we would not have had otherwise, and we interact. We might even find an advantage from this knowledge, or we can manipulate to our advantage. This is God Consciousness. Once we have gone past the playing and manipulating stage, we do not have to think about it – it is part of us. This the Unity Consciousness stage.
My own life has many examples of this fourfold process. For example, living in Brighton I was unaware that Punditt Maharaj lived down the road. I had inklings that I should move on, but I did not know how to do this (TC). Then I met him, and he became part of my life (CC). Eventually I began to learn how Punditt did his work (GC), and ultimately the work of Punditt became my whole life (UC). Similarly, experiences with Spirits work the same way. I had not heard of the Goetia until some time after I met Punditt, as a result of my research into references books to find answers to the spiritual experiences I was going through (TC). Then I began to see the occasional spirit (CC); after a time I learnt how to work with them (GC), and now they are a permanent part of my life (UC). Furthermore, I have helped others to see and work with the Goetia. This new knowledge will be forthcoming.
While the Unknown is Absolute, it is always relative to us. We have a relationship to the Unknown, which is different depending on our state of consciousness and evolution. The Genius of the Punditts is to help the Aspirants to build their own self-consciousness.