Vision of the Lotus Field (archives)

VISION OF THE LOTUS FIELD (archives)

by Igor Kufayev

The following was an extract from the letter written to HH Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during those earlier years of transformation. In that letter I’ve described in great detail some of the experiences I went through. Here are some of them.

MAHALAKSHMI

…One day resting after a particular intense ‘yogic flying session’, I went deep into Samadhi with awareness, in that the boundless field of Space opened up, darker than the black night’s sky. In that total transparent blackness something began to appear, almost as a cluster of distant stars, but not quite. As the mass of shimmering specs of light grows bigger, they’ve become more and more recognizable as the tiny lotus buds. At that time the flowers were all at a gracefully arranged distance from each other. The whole field was rotating majestically and there was no end to the sight, the field was infinity personified. 

Slowly some of the flowers began to open. Very slowly, the field kept rotating. One particular lotus grew bigger and bigger, and approached in my direction. As the petals gently unveiled its inner treasure, a sight of indescribable beauty opened up. Everything was light with supernatural glow. Inside that lotus—which by now I’ve realized was also rotating—a tiny and most perfect figure became visible… The words are flat and pale to describe the beauty that flower contained. 

Inside of the flower was a female figure of utmost splendor. Exquisite in all its detail, perfect in shape and of lashing colour. A pallet beyond the range of earthly pigments, the figure was standing erect majestically, seemingly wrapped in layers of air-like colorful fabrics, saris of sort. The figure and the lotus-base beneath her was growing bigger. I was completely bewildered and lost all awareness of the surroundings so strong was the otherworldly experience.

Somehow I knew, almost immediately, this was not just memory of anything previously experienced. The figure was never seen by me in the physical realm in pictures. She was Beauty personified… She was the Maha-Lakshmi – the Goddess Herself! 

Maha-Devi gained monumental proportions, and I was compelled to worship her feet or rather the base of the flower on which she was standing. Suddenly many flowers appeared, and I was making a pile made of rose petals and peonies at Her feet. The Devi was wearing many garlands of unseen before flowers, as I’ve moved a little closer, the scent of flowers became so intoxicating – I’ve lost consciousness… 

On regaining the vision of the splendor again I simply prostrated on the ground in front of the Deity, facing down with tears pouring down my face. The Goddess didn’t utter a word. She was beyond the humanly expressions and just lowered Her long slanted eyes in my direction… Oh, God! What these eyes were saying without a single word worthy of thousand scriptures put together! At least that’s how it felt at that moment! Her unwavering gaze made me realize, the initiation is taking place…

Then, She raised her hand as if in a gesture of giving a boon… I’ve asked for nothing but Liberation. She was pleased or so it seemed and everything gently faded away… I have awakened… 

* * *

When I got up I couldn’t open my mouth, I couldn’t speak for a long time. It felt as if speaking would amount for the sacrilege of beheld beatific vision. Feeling stunned for several days, I’ve realized something has happened, something was revealed within my own consciousness and that I would no longer see reality the way I used to. Why? I could not say…

The obviousness of Hindu-like experience was perplexing, bearing in mind I had no cultural background to invoke that. Later I’ve learned that there are some archetypal forms—literally structuring the subtler layers of our consciousness—which were revealed deep within my own. The Lotus Field itself was not just a random space within my imagination, but the manifestation of a finer fabric of consciousness (later named) Field of All Potentialities as the Matrix of creation or Maha Shakti, if speaking in Tantric lore…

DURGA – ‘THE FORT’

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi called these Energies Pure Impulses of Creative Intelligence. These Impulses are known as Shaktis, Devatas, Goddesses, as universal powers of Absolute. I did have direct cognition of some of these impulses later on in my Sadhana. Just to say half a year later, again while resting after a morning practice, I’ve heard a heavenly voice right behind my head singing a verse in Sanskrit. It was totally out of this world and of an unsurpassable beauty and softness. The intuition sparked – Saraswati! That day opened an almost obsessive desire to verse. During that phase I ‘devoured’ Holy Scriptures for breakfast, lunch and dinner…

The year after, riding a Lion, Durga stormed my meditation, armed with many weapons in her many arms – almost as depicted in classical Indian art but rawer, more fearsome. The vision was inside the golden ellipse, coalesced in golden light, it was more real than the physicality of the space I was in at the time. Durga, literally means ‘the inaccessible’, the Devi is considered to be one of the most powerful manifestations of Shakti in her manyfold forms, and the one which ‘holds the ground of creation’, hence at times referred to as ‘the fortress’! My Samadhis became unshakable no matter where, when or how I tended to Silence.

These archetypal visions don’t have to be clad in saffron-saris to be identified as truly divine revelations, for every meditator would behold the form unique to their inner worlds and sacred imagery of their ancestral lines. That being said, the iconography of Classical Indian Art is based not so much on the imagination of its artists but on the inner visions beheld by its Rishis deep in meditative absorption. 

What are these visions meant to signify? Do they have any real meaning other than being signposts that our journey is unfolding in an auspicious way and going in a right direction? There is a growing disregard (even contempt) for these kinds of experiences among certain spiritual guides, I feel it is important to distinguish between experiences born of imagination and those signaling the dawn of Celestial perception. Beyond the beatific feeling of pure bliss these visions kindle, it is the realization of a subtler structure—directly experienced as refinement of one’s own perception—is what these experiences are really about.

To borrow Sanskrit terms, this is a realization of pure tattvas and tanmatras which gives rise to the elementary order and the perceptual power on the level of the organs (of cognition). The visions of deities are then followed by a progressive refinement of perception, when our physiology is being attuned towards celestial sound, form, sight, taste and scent of a subtler strata (of creation) beyond the ordinary senses. This is what bridges the gap between the seer and the seen, and fills it with light of greater awareness. This is what makes God and Unity realization an actual possibility present in Human Consciousness… 

Yet to invoke these deities and be guided by them, we need to nourish the goddesses in our body so that satisfied they’ll be willing to reveal their identity and a true form by unveiling that of our own…

– Igor Kufayev – Tashkent, Uzbekistan. January 2002 

Images: involuntary hand gestures (mudras) during meditation sessions with Igor Vamadeva during week-long live Immersions. Courtesy of Flowing Wakefulness.