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can be karan, 'super-functional', it becomes possible to speak with every part of it. This may be understood through the metaphor of the lamp.
If a lamp is covered with a thick lid, not a ray of light will emanate from it to the world outside. But if a meshy cover is put on it, light would filter out through the meshes. And if the lid is taken of altogether, the lamp would spread around its full light. Similarly, if one's consciousness is thickly hooded, it becomes an obstruction to the diffusion of light because of the dense cover. The rays of light filter through a meshy cover. The psychic centres are like meshy-covers from which rays of knowledge come straining through the holes. To put off the covers means to make the whole body transparent like a crystal. In such a state, the screen is altogether dispensed with. The rays of knowledge emanating from the whole body freely spread all-round. But this requires long practice and intense devotion. Until the whole body becomes 'super-functional', one cannot attain to transcendental or supreme knowledge.
It is not that the psychic centres were unknown in ancient times. Various glands and knots recognised by the physiologists are nothing but these psychic centres. So are the chakras mentioned in the tantra-texts and hatha-yoga. In modern terminology, the electro-magnetic fields in various parts of the body may be treated as synonyms for the psychic centres, and their presentation as such will prove helpful in making the process of meditation more easily comprehensible in today's envi
ronment.
Generally, the psychic centres may be found in two conditions-inactive or dormant, and active or awakened. Some particular centre in a man may be spontane
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