The Seven Valleys

The Great Avatar and Master Sri Rama Krishna stated that:

'' No matter who you are or what technique you employ, Meditation must take the aspirant across six different valleys or planes of consciousness, in order to reach the Seventh, the last.''

Describing his personal experience of Meditation Rama Krishna spoke:

''Come forth, O Thou Sword of Immortality, from this Thy Scabbard! I prayed; days, weeks, and months. At last over the embankment of this world Kundalini entered the waters of the first of the seven valleys.

A light utterly unknown, like another Sun, shone upon what I percieved. All the things of this Earth that I looked upon wore the vesture of Beauty. Everywhere I glanced, beyond and around, beauty and spirituality leaped out of matter like tigers from dark dens. Now I was aware that this was the home of the senses. The sight of so much wonder filled me with terrible appetites. 'Possess, Possess,' they cried. I was seized with an overpowering desire to taste and own all the beauty that lay about me. Just at that moment another cry broke out in me: 'Beware, beware of the sinister temptation of this valley!

No sooner heard than done. I set out to quicken my Meditation. I Meditated harder and prayed more intensely for release from the first valley. At the end of some months my prayers were answered. The world of the senses tempted me no more; slowly the first valley fell from my consciousness as the skeleton of its prey falls from the eagle's talons.

I entered the second valley Here I was not obsessed with the clawing material beauty of what I saw. The light in which the world appeared now was more refined, more subtle, and soothing. I felt happy here. Fragments of beautiful colours, shapes, and sounds haunted and sweetened my hours in this valley. I thought of relaxing my Meditation and staying there. Just then I was tempted to create life. 'Things of Sex'. For in the sublime light of the second valley, sex wears the appearence of beatitude and power. But no matter how it appears, the soul must resist its temptation. I set out to free my consciousness from the besetting beauty of sex. I heaped more fuel of devotion on the altar of God-Quest.

Thus I reached the third stage. In this valley I found that the sense of power that I had experienced before, in the second, had increased a hundredfold! Now I felt that I could take the Sun between the palms of my hands and crush it into a handful of burning dust. This sense of power must be resisted. It is nothing but a test of one's character. The instant I percieved the danger that beset me, I quickened my Meditation to the utmost. It had to be more powerful than the power that I had to resist. I prayed - oh! how I prayed - to be free of my sense of power. Like the fangs of the viper it held me. But my soul would not yield to it. I rose on the wings of Meditation higher and higher till height had no meaning for me. At that moment the serpent opened its mouth and fell from my side!

Now like an elephant hurtling through a fence I plunged on the valley of the Heart Centre. As if my heart had become a torch lit by the flame from God, light lit my soul over everything. Pebbles and stars - all sang with equal radiance a song of the Ineffable. In this fourth valley I felt wellnigh secure from temptation. Yet I kept a strict watch on myself. Though I was a chalice of Light, yet I felt suspicious.....of temptation. That feeling served me as a warning. Thus followed another long period of fasting, prayer, and meditation.

Fortunately this time I did not have to wait so very long. The light in my heart expanded. It flung a vast circle like a net of Suns around and beyond. And Lo! I had reached the next valley, the realm of Utterance. My thoughts and feelings, every pulse and each cell of me was illumined. Through my throat and lips poured words of wonder and Benediction. I praised the Lord all the time. Save of him I could not bear to speak. And if anyone spoke of possessions and pleasures, their words smote me like rods. It got to be so that if any of my relatives came to consult me on family matters I used to run away and hide myself in the woods of Panchabati.
I felt as though drowning in their presence. Only by leaving them could I find peace. In one way, this valley is not full of tolerance and love at all! One must transcend it.

That is why I flung myself into deeper and steeper Meditations yet. There was no peace or pleasure for me. 'Either find him face to face or take my life,' I counseled myself. As a tiger crouches in order to leap, so did I. I prayed, I waited, I watched. I must not give in to merely praising God. I must see him. So I sat couchant with prayers. Sudenly I percieved something ahead.

That instant I leaped - in a trice I was i the sixth, the valley of Turiya.
Here I was close to my Beloved. I could see and feel him in the next chamber. Only a thin transparent veil separated the soul from the self. At last I knew that I was in a room in the House of Oneness.

From the sixth valley it is not difficult to pass on to the seventh. There no word can enter, nor the chatter of human thought. Only your soul clad in silence can lift the veil that separates him from your embrace.''

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