Our many Sun Flowers

The Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa Upaniṣad explicitly describes five forms of inner space. A related Nātha transmission preserved in the Yogataraṅgiṇī/Nityanāthapaddhati gives a closely related but not identical list—excellent evidence that we are dealing with a family of contemplative traditions rather than one frozen system. The Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa sequence is:

1. आकाश ākāśa space / inner sky

Described as darkness internally and externally. Not “darkness” in the sense of something to be fearful of. Rather: formlessness before appearance.

2. पराकाश parākāśa parā + ākāśa “higher/beyond-space.”

It is described through imagery comparable to the fire of dissolution (kālānala).   Here the apparent emptiness begins to reveal tremendous potency.

3. महाकाश mahākāśa mahā / great ākāśa “great space.”

It is characterised by immense luminosity.

So consciousness moves from:

Darkness → intensity → luminosity.

4. सूर्याकाश sūryākāśa sūrya / sun ākāśa “solar space.”

The text compares it with the brilliance of the sun.   Not merely light— but awareness recognising itself as illumination.

5. परमाकाश paramākāśa parama supreme ākāśa “supreme space.”

This is described as an indescribable luminosity, all-pervading and characterised by unsurpassed bliss.   Here we are no longer really mapping “something inside the body.” The map has opened into consciousness itself.

6. But there is another five-vyoma tradition. This is particularly important for our realisation

The Nityanāthapaddhati material quoted in the Yogataraṅgiṇī gives:

आकाश — ākāśa, पराकाश — parākāśa, महाकाश — mahākāśa, तत्त्वाकाश — tattvākāśa, सूर्याकाश — sūryākāśa and associates them with colours/appearances such as white, red, smoky, blue and lightning-like luminosity. 

Notice the slight difference. The Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa has:

ākāśa → parākāśa → mahākāśa → sūryākāśa → paramākāśa

whereas this Nātha-associated transmission gives:

ākāśa → parākāśa → mahākāśa → tattvākāśa → sūryākāśa.

That variation is extremely valuable. It tells us not to manufacture a supposedly universal “five-vyoma chakra chart.” But to explore ourselves more and then realise what is within and without from our own understanding rather than agreeing to an external commercial created imagary.

7. A pañca-vyoma meditation

This can become an exquisite meditation without attempting the more advanced mudrā/prāṇa techniques attached to these traditions.

Sit in: सिद्धासन siddhāsana a comfortable meditation seat. Let the breath become natural. Close the eyes. Become aware of the ordinary physical body. Then begin to notice the आकाश ākāśa space within the body. Become aware of darkness behind the closed eyes. Don't create anything. Rest in darkness

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पराकाश parākāśa gently notice whether the darkness possesses energy, movement, warmth or subtle luminosity. Don't force an experience. Simply rest in the experience and notice.

महाकाश mahākāśa allow awareness to become larger than the boundaries of the body. Rather than: “I am inside my body,” experiment gently with: “The sensations called body are appearing within awareness.” Notice how this changes our perspective.

सूर्याकाश sūryākāśa allow a sense of luminosity to arise naturally. Not necessarily visual light. Awareness itself can be understood metaphorically as that by which experience becomes “known.”

परमाकाश paramākāśa Finally relinquish every visualization. No lotus. No chakra. No body map. No inside. No outside. Simply: awareness resting as awareness.

8. The map now becomes extraordinary

Its subsequent teaching turns toward piṇḍa-saṃvitti knowledge/realisation of the body in which the microcosm is understood in relation to the macrocosm. Its presentation explicitly places the worlds and cosmic structures within the yogic body.   So the deeper trajectory could be expressed as:

body → sacred body → subtle body → cosmic body → space → consciousness.

Or more poetically perhaps:

First we discover the sacred places within the body. Then we discover the space within those places. Then we discover that the space is not contained by the body.  The lotus is within, the support is within, the heavens are within, and then the distinction between within and without begins quietly to disappear.

∞