SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam’s Enlightenment Experience of 360 Degrees Vision

This excerpt is the Atma Pramana of SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam’s personal enlightenment experience in the book, Bhagavad Gita Decoded where He vividly describes the moment he had the 360 degree vision through His awakened Third Eye. With the Third Eye awakening, He was able to see beyond his physical two eyes, but through His Third Eye vision within, around, and encompassing Him.

“The Divine Eye, Divya cakṢu

Next, what happens when you have the experience?

Kṛṣṇa’s words:

na tu māṁ śakyase draṣṭum anenaiva sva-cakṣuṣā I

divyaṁ dadāmi te cakṣuḥ paśya me yogam aiśvaram II 11.8

‘Arjuna, you cannot see Me with these ordinary eyes. You need the divine eye, the third eye, divyacakṣu. To see My Cosmic form, I give you the divine eye.’ What is this divine eye? Let me tell you my experience that happened when I was twelve years old. During that age, I used to do a particular meditation, or rather I used to play with a technique given to me by a master. When I was about ten years old the great Master Annāmalai Swamigal, disciple of Rāmaṇa Maharṣi, first taught me the technique of exploring to see where thoughts originated.

Once when I visited him with my parents, he was addressing a group of seekers and was saying, ‘We are not the body, we are ātman, the spirit. No pain or suffering touches us.’

I wondered how this could be, for if my mother beat me, I could feel the pain! (In India, if kids were mischievous, they would be roundly beaten, you could not call 911!) To experiment, I went home and cut my thigh with a knife to see if I had pain or not. I bled profusely. Naturally, it not only hurt me, but I had to be taken to the hospital for the wound to be stitched, with more scolding from my mother! I had both pain and suffering. I wondered why this Swami had taught us such a thing as ‘no suffering or pain’!

Experimenting on others was easy. Arjuna was intelligent. After understanding everything, he started killing others; he never experimented on himself! I approached the Swami and related what had happened to me. First he asked me, ‘Did I ask you to go and cut yourself?’

He then made a profound statement that transformed my life.

He said, ‘You may have pain and suffering now, but do not worry. Your attitude of analyzing and searching for the truth, your courage to experiment with truth, will liberate you from all pains, so go ahead!’

He then advised me to start searching for the source of my thoughts. Of course, at that age I was only irritated by his comments and my attention was on the fruits and sweets that devotees had brought him. I was hoping he would give me some in consolation! Honestly, I neither understood nor was convinced of what he said.

However, after a few days I began to playfully and casually try out the technique of trying to see the origin of my thoughts. I did not do this with any expectation or idea. All I knew was what the Swami had told me — that I would go beyond pain or suffering if I did this technique. I had no concept of God, Brahman, ātman or jñāna.

One evening, at the foothills of the sacred Arunachala hill, I was sitting on a rock known locally as pavala kundru, the Coral Rock, trying out the same technique with eyes closed. I had fallen into deep meditation.

After some time, suddenly something opened, something seemed to happen inside my being, a feeling of being pulled or sucked inside.

The next moment it was as if a door had opened inside me, and I had complete 360-degree vision, both laterally and vertically. I could see on all four sides — the temple that was behind me, the hill that was in front of me, and the city that was on my left and right. I could see vertically too — the sky, the rock on which I was sitting, again the temple behind me.

For normal people who have only a maximum of 120-degree vision, I know this is very difficult to comprehend. All I can do is promise solemnly that it did happen! No other intellectual explanation is possible. Not only was I able to see all around, I was also able to feel that whatever I was seeing was Me. Whether they were plants or rocks or the city or the hill, whatever I could see, I felt they were all just Me. The experience was so intense and ecstatic that it was more than three or four hours before I opened y eyes. I felt feverish with bliss and this mood continued for three days.

But after this I was overtaken by a fear that there was something wrong with me. I thought a ghost had possessed me and I decided never to go to that rock again. I even began to avoid that route, which I normally took.

I related my experience to an elderly Sannyāsi, Mata Vibhudānanda Devi (Kuppammal), who was my mentor. She held my hand and seeing the energy, exclaimed, ‘You are not possessed by any ghost. You are possessed by God!’

She encouraged me to continue with meditation but I never dared to do so for the next six months and was even afraid to close my eyes!

I also related my experience to a close friend of mine. I told him about my 360-degree vision and my not knowing what was happening to me, etc. He did not believe me until I proved it to him by telling him about an ant climbing up the tree behind me, and correctly telling which side of the coin that he hid in his hand was exposed. He ran away from me in terror!

He came to the the ashram and said to one of the ashramites, ‘I was the first person to receive energy darśan from him, but I missed it!’

But despite the fear I experienced, the whole body was bubbling with joy and ecstasy.

So welcome was the feeling, that I had a small temptation to go to the rock again. I never really understood what had happened. A year later another enlightened person gave me the explanation; the seeking, however, started after this experience. Nine years of penance followed. All this penance was in order to have this experience again. When it did come the next time, both body and mind were ready and the experience stayed within my being.

The vision of 360 degrees is what Kṛṣṇa means by divyacakṣu, trinetra, divine eye or third eye, also called ājñā cakra. When this eye opens you will see 360 degrees not only in the horizontal but in the vertical dimension too. You will see the whole Existence as You and experience it as You. This experience is what Kṛṣṇa calls Cosmic consciousness.

I felt that everything I saw around me was living, just as how we feel our living bodies, expanding the body consciousness to the Universal consciousness. When you feel the whole Universe as you would your own body, it can be called a cosmic experience. Unfortunately, we do not feel alive even within our own bodies!

Just as I was frightened when I had my first experience, Arjuna too was frightened when he started seeing Kṛṣṇa’s cosmic form. In such instances, a living Master is required for help and guidance.

I am often asked this question, ‘Who was your Master?,’ to which I reply, ‘Arunachala.’ Arunachala, the sacred hill of Tiruvannamalai, my birthplace, is a living Master. For a premature baby to survive, it must be put into the incubator. Similarly, Arunachala is the incubator for the Enlightened person-to-be. The energy of Arunachala takes care just by your being near it.

‘Let me give you the third eye, to enable you to experience the Universal consciousness.’

You need to understand that after this verse, neither Kṛṣṇa nor

Arjuna speaks. Suddenly, it is Sañjaya who is speaking. After the first chapter in Bhagavad Gītā until now, there is no word from Sañjaya. But here it is he who is speaking. This is a symbolic representation. Arjuna is unable to speak because he is in the ecstatic experience.

Kṛṣṇa does not speak because his voice is beyond audibility. His voice is in the Cosmic frequency, which is not audible to us. So Sañjaya interprets.”

-Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism JGM HDH Nithyananda Paramashivam— (Bhagavad Gita Decoded)