I am sharing this because it is so unusual to hear a Master speak about such things that cut across a materialist view of reality.

BINDU AND NAADA (LIGHT AND SOUND)

Maharshi was reading G. U. Pope’s translation of Tiruvachakam and came across the stanzas describing the intense feeling of bhakti as thrilling the whole frame, melting the flesh and bones, etc. He remarked:

“Manickavasagar is one of those whose body finally resolved itself in a blazing light, without leaving a corpse behind.”

Another devotee asked how it could be.

Maharshi said (that) the gross body is only the concrete form of the subtle stuff – the mind. When the mind melts away and blazes forth as light, the body is consumed in that process. Nandanar is another whose body disappeared in blazing light.

Maj. Chadwick pointed out that Elisha disappeared in the same way.  He desired to know if the disappearance of Christ’s body from the tomb was like that.

M.: No. Christ’s body was left as a corpse which was at first entombed, whereas the others did not leave corpses behind.

In the course of conversation, Maharshi said that the subtle body is composed of light and sound and the gross body is a concrete form of the same.

The Lecturer in Physics asked if the same light and sound were cognisable by senses.

M.: No. They are super-sensual. It is like this:

Isvara (Universal) –> Gross form –> Universe
Jiva (Individual) –> Gross form –> Individual body

Isvara (Universal) –> Subtle form –> Sound and Light(Nada, Bindu)
Jiva (Individual) –> Subtle form –> Mind and Prana

Isvara (Universal) –> Primal form –>Atma (Self) (transcendental)
Jiva (Individual) –> Primal form –> Atma (Self) (transcendental)

They are ultimately the same.

The subtle body of the Creator is the mystic sound Pranava, which is sound and light. The universe resolves into sound and light and then into transcendence – Param.

See also – Sant Dnyāneshwar (or Sant Jñāneshwar)