OM, baby!

Transcendental and Krishna consciousness: experiencing the eternal self: Bhagavad Gita truths
excerpted from OM, baby! a pilgrimage to the eternal self, by Jack Haas


I suppose it was this immense intent and determination of mine, as well as Krishna's benevolent descent upon my consciousness, which soon took me out and away farther than I could ever have imagined- for such a distance cannot be imagined, because it goes far beyond everything, including imagination.

This transcendent exodus began on the train as my soror and I departed Calcutta, while I was tearing myself away from the energetic constraints of the dark Mother, heading south towards a mountain renowned for its cosmic communion with the ever-free Father- Mt. Arunachala.

On that train ride I slowly but undeniably became untangled from the Mother's clutches, and therefore became assimilated into absolute, liberation consciousness. At least this is what I called it at first, for I had never experienced such a tremendous release from all that is.

I had floated out of this paradigm, out of humanity, out of the world, and had entered a subtle consciousness which goes far beyond anything that exists. Anything. For there is nothing which exists which is as subtle as this non-existent, liberated consciousness. It is pure awareness, nothing more, and it is not bound by anything within this realm or any other.

I had been taken across the great divide by Krishna himself. I had received the benediction of transcendental consciousness. I was now outside of all that is, was, or will be. I was free.

It was an incredible experience to receive this initiation while humming southward on a crammed and noisy Indian train. It was truly incredible to be a part of such a profane, involved, manifested milieu which existed on that train, and yet to be totally apart from it as well. I had entered the subtle realm of eternal, transcendental awareness, and suddenly all the words that I had read years earlier in the Bhagavad Gita, and the Uddhava Gita- in which Krishna expounds the actuality of this transcendent realm, which is beyond everything that exists, no matter what- made sense, and I realized that I had arrived in the unbound place of which he was talking.

I knew then that in order to get there you have to take all things that exist in any realm, visible or invisible, physical or metaphysical, obvious or obscure, material or mental, and, enclosing them into a singular event, step outside of that event altogether; in doing so you become the subtle, transcendent consciousness which lies outside of the one event of all that is. You have to let go of everything to go beyond everything. This is detached peace.

Nothing but conscious clear space and peace lies beyond all realms, beyond all ideas and understandings, beyond self and source, beyond being and non-being, for beyond everything is the realm of eternal, transcendent consciousness.

To enter transcendental consciousness is to become the tranquil, reactionless space. To get to that liberated space you cannot associate yourself with the plane of manifestation, nor with the mind, nor with any spirit of force, no matter what, for liberation consciousness is not in any way related to worldly or even otherworldly actions or non-actions; it is absolutely independent of all realms.

Whereas this plane embodies all dualities that are yet one- the invisible and visible, male and female, good and evil, etcetera- transcendental consciousness is beyond all duality, and cannot be compared, or related to anything, however sacred or profane.

Neither can transcendental consciousness be apprehended by the senses nor the mind, for it is absolute, inviolable, effortless, identitiless awareness.

In order to get there, as I have said, you have to let go of everything. You have to let all of manifestation be, and you have to penetrate through and beyond it, for transcendental consciousness is far more subtle than any form of manifestation or thought. Beyond self and source lies this liberated, eternal awareness.

This liberation is different than enlightenment, because enlightenment is caught up in the idea of wisdom, of understanding; but with the attainment of liberating, transcendental consciousness you don't necessarily understand anything, and yet you are free.

Transcendental consciousness is peace, and is a peace unlike any peace in the relative field, for it is not associated with nor mirrored by unpeace. Transcendental peace is absent of all qualities; it is a nothingness that yet is.
This is the realm of unity, of oneness, which is beyond anything that is composed of definition, duality, or opposition.

The mind and the eyes inherently divide and fragment the world which lies before us, and therefore cannot be used as tools to realize the One. The One, subtle, eternal, transcendental consciousness lies neither within nor without. It is apprehended only when anything that can be thought of or experienced is released.

As the self emerges out of form, out of the duality of existence and non-existence, of life and death, it enters the timeless space of eternity.

I look back now on earlier years along my path, and see how this transcendental consciousness was attempting to come through to my awareness by penetrating the thick cloud of my unwitting dilemmas.

In fact, as a young man I would often 'liberate' my paradigmatic consciousness by inwardly acknowledging to myself a de-affirmation of this human paradigm; I would do this through a subtle method, by consciously perceiving that reality is "not-I, and, not-this".

Although I never experienced anything, at that time, like I was experiencing now, somewhere in the dark recesses of my eternity I knew that I had to go beyond everything in order to be aware of my true, subtle, immortal nature.

Krishna had granted me an immense boon by assisting my attainment of transcendental consciousness. And yet, perhaps I was destined to arrive at this liberating awareness at some point anyway, because I had often categorically stated many times in the past that I did not want to come back to this plane nor this paradigm, ever again. I had become incredibly discontented and bored with the whole mad show, and I wanted to be done with it once and for all. I wanted to leap off of the cyclic wheel of becoming, only I did not know how. But now it had happened. I had become liberated through my blind ambition not to be sucked back into the dark Mother's great gravity. Krishna had heard my call, and had carried me into the vast reaches of the eternal void of awareness. I had attained eternal, omnipresent, transcendental consciousness.[1]

To become eternal is to awaken to that which is beyond anything bound to time. To go beyond time is to go beyond becoming. To go beyond becoming is to be, but not in the sense of anything that has a being, for this eternity is a subtle awareness which ought never be compared nor confused with any partiality, any thing, or any event. Only the negation of all that is will offer a glimpse of that which cannot be negated.


[1] In fact, I had unconsciously documented the growing seed of this subtle, transcendental consciousness in some of the art pieces I had produced over the years. My mandala The Tree of Life, shown at the beginning of this book, is a perfect example; I now know that the two eyes present in behind the main design represent the subtle, eternal, unbound awareness of which I am speaking. Many of my earlier drawings contained such eyes, though I had no clue that these were subconsciously representing the subtle awareness that is beyond all form and thought.
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