Many a time, when meditating we can experience very sublime and profound states of being - such as extraordinary peace, love, acceptance or very expanded states of awareness. These sublime states of experience can be either interpreted in keeping with our own subjective interpretation or it can be assimilated in keeping with our knowledge of traditional Vedanta, acquired at the feet of our perceptor. The problem with our own interpretation, is that what we interpret is usually only as good as we know. And what we know may be only our opinions which may not be based on truth which is seeing things as they are. That is why we have such a plethora of spiritual ideas and concepts, and whole philosophies created, which are really interpretations of the people who had such expanded states of mind.
So my Guru Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati always said experience (spiritual or mundane) is to be assimilated in keeping with Shastra- knowledge.
So when we have expanded states of mind, in which we appear to experience non-conceptual awareness, or even a sense of limitless awareness, its good to still maintain our viveka and ask what is satyam in this experience of expansion and what is mithya.
Why?
Because we can mistake a state of mind for moksha and that would be pure superimposition only. In traditional Vedanta, consciousness is absolute - it is unchanging. It does not evolve. What evolves (if we must use that word) or matures is the antahkarna, not the limitless consciousness that one essentially is. So when one has these sublime states of mind, one can revel in that state and also recognize that it is in the formless, unconditional limitless consciousness that one is, that this state of mind is illumined and enlivened and maybe even reflecting the essential nature of changeless consciousness. It is the recognition of oneself as changeless, limitless consciousness that confers moksha.
Om Tat Sat
