• Author's introduction: Illumination

Chapter I: Consciousness, Siddhi (God-realisation) and Infinity

• Question: What is Consciousness?
• Question: What is the difference between human consciousness and divine consciousness?
• Question: Could you please speak briefly about the different states of consciousness.
• Question: Would you please explain the seven higher worlds?
• Question: How can we tell which plane of consciousness we are in?
• Question: When you meditate, sometimes your eyes shift back and forth sideways very rapidly. Why do they do that?
• Question: What does God-realisation really mean?
• Question: When you speak of seeing God face to face, what is your conception of God? Is He some being?
• Question: What part of man achieves realisation?
• Question: I have read that realisation is not an achievement but a discovery.
• Question: Is realisation a fairly common experience during any single generation of human beings? In India, for example, are there many realised spiritual Masters?
• Question: There are some paths which speak of the goal as enlightenment, and there are other paths which speak of the goal as God-realisation. What is the difference between enlightenment and God-realisation?
• Question: What is the relationship between realisation and the law of karma?
• Question: What is the difference between seeing God and realising God?
• Question: When a person reaches the state where he achieves union with God, does his emotion or feeling of aspiration become so intense that it automatically expresses itself in terms of words?
• Question: Even if they are words of praise and oneness with God?
• Question: After a person realises God, does he still act like an ordinary human being?
• Question: How can one recognise a God-realised spiritual Master?
• Question: When we reach liberation, does the physical body change?
• Question: Is there any difference between liberation and realisation, or are they absolutely identical?

Chapter II: The great pilgrimage: human transformation

• Question: Can a human being know the Infinite?
• Question: But you are not infinite.
• Question: Do you believe that a human being can realise God and become one with Him here on this material plane, which is so ignorant and dark?
• Question: What about the teachings found in some Western religions that one can see God only after death, if one has been good and goes to Heaven?
• Question: Do we have to remove all materialistic goals in order to realise God?
• Question: Is technology acting as a hindrance to God-realisation?
• Question: Is it possible to have complete knowledge and wisdom of God in one lifetime?
• Question: If a seeker does not realise God in this lifetime, does this mean all his efforts will be lost?
• Question: Is it proper to have a motivation for achieving realisation, such as the desire for liberation? Is this a proper motivation?
• Question: Is there a specific way to accelerate realisation?
• Question: How do you achieve perfection?
• Question: Could you speak on the role desire plays in the movement towards God-realisation?
• Question: I have recently become your disciple, and I was wondering if it would help my progress if I kept thinking about my Goal of God-realisation.
• Question: Once a seeker becomes advanced, do all the obstacles to God-realisation vanish and does his realisation become a certainty in this incarnation?
• Question: When I think of all the failings and undivine qualities in myself and my fellow disciples, illumination seems a million miles away.
• Question: Can we actually feel our realisation coming, or does it appear spontaneously and unexpectedly?
• Question: How do you know that there is such a thing as realisation, and how do you know when you are realised?
• Question: After a disciple has realised God, will he always serve you in the inner world?
• Question: Most of the time during my meditation I find myself walking inside a spiral. Does this have any relationship with inner realisation?
• Question: Could you elaborate on the difference between experience and realisation in the spiritual life?
• Question: Are all our experiences transitory?
• Question: What about an experience we had in the inner world, such as an experience during meditation? Do we remember this consciously?
• Question: So after one realises God, he remembers all his experiences?
• Question: Is the experience of the Beyond calm or excited?
• Question: Who is the Unmanifest?
• Question: Can a seeker live in vast expansion of mind, or is this possible only for a realised soul?
• Question: Are the kinds of experiences that Yogis have different from those ordinary people get in life?

Chapter III: Samadhi and Bliss: the inner universe

• Question: Once you said that transcendental Delight is one of the divine qualities not manifested on earth. Why is that?
• Question: Do children sometimes experience this kind of Delight?
• Question: Is there a difference between the realisation of one Master and the realisation of another?
• Question: What is the lower samadhi?
• Question: Is the turiya consciousness a form of samadhi? Is it in any way related to sahaja samadhi?
• Question: Could you speak a little more extensively about the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi?
• Question: What is the difference between samadhi and God-realisation?
• Question: In the highest state of samadhi when you look at other human beings, what kind of consciousness do you feel in them?
• Question: For how long can a realised soul remain in savikalpa samadhi?
• Question: I understand that a liberated soul can prolong his stay in the physical world for twelve or fifteen days even while he is in nirvikalpa samadhi.
• Question: Will a Master know beforehand if he is to leave the body during samadhi?
• Question: Could you explain the difference between samadhi of the heart and nirvikalpa samadhi?
• Question: Is there anything higher than nirvikalpa samadhi?
• Question: If a Master is in sahaja samadhi all the time, which is the highest form of samadhi, is it a sort of conscious descent when he goes into nirvikalpa samadhi?
• Question: If a Master is in sahaja samadhi all the time, does that mean nirvikalpa samadhi is not fulfilling to him?
• Question: When you bring down Peace and Light to us, do you have to go into nirvikalpa samadhi?
• Question: Do you teach your disciples any specific technique for attaining samadhi?
• Question: As you evolve spiritually, does your meditation become longer, and does it change its focus or orientation?
• Question: If meditation gives you such a marvellous feeling, why don't you stay in your highest meditation twenty-four hours a day? Why do you come here and give a lecture, for example?

Chapter IV: The illumined Master: messenger from the beyond

• Question: Is a liberated soul the same as a spiritual Master who tries to help humanity?
• Question: Does every person who realises God become a spiritual Master?
• Question: If someone has realised God, why would he want to leave the higher Bliss and come down into the darkness of the earth to help others?
• Question: Won't a person lose his realisation if he comes down from the realisation-tree and has to face the darkness and ignorance of the world?
• Question: Does a realised Master who chooses to help suffering humanity lose anything by doing so, especially since humanity is so reluctant to accept his wealth?
• Question: When a Master brings down more light, peace and bliss than those meditating with him can absorb, what happens to it?
• Question: I once read that a Master will come down to help humanity in this world, and then he will continue helping from other worlds. Is this true?
• Question: Why is it so difficult for a realised Master to be accepted by the world?
• Question: Among those Masters who decide, after realisation, to go out into the world to help humanity, why do some accept large numbers of disciples while others do not?
• Question: Why do some spiritual Masters go out into the world to increase their following?
• Question: Once you said that when a seeker reaches the highest realisation, automatically spiritual manifestation comes. Would you explain to me what you mean by that kind of manifestation?
• Question: What is the difference between revelation and manifestation?
• Question: Can a spiritual Master who tries to reveal the highest truths be compared in some ways to a poet who tries to express and reveal artistic truths?
• Question: Why is it that realised Gurus sometimes seem to defy the scriptures and accepted rules in what they say and do?
• Question: There were a number of spiritual Masters who used to smoke and drink. How did they realise God?
• Question: Do spiritual Masters usually take birth in very spiritual families?
• Question: What is the difference between a Yogi and an Avatar?
• Question: Was Vivekananda an Avatar?
• Question: How do you personally know whether someone is realised or partially realised?
• Question: Am I correct in saying that the Buddha is one of those who advocated a kind of escape from the world?
• Question: What is nirvana?
• Question: Is there any difference between nirvana and nirvikalpa samadhi?
• Editor's introduction to the first edition