Question: About two and a half years ago I had an experience. I lost the consciousness of myself and all I could see was a yellow light with golden rays. After I came back to myself I felt extremely happy and thrilled. I have always wondered what that light was.

Sri Chinmoy: The light that you saw was not yellow. It was actually golden, a luminous golden colour, which comes from the supermind. There are many planes of consciousness connected with the mind and many which go far beyond it, like the supermind. I will mention them very briefly.

First, there is the physical mind, which gives the individual the capacity to deal mentally, in a concrete way, with the material world around him. Above that is the intellectual mind, which gives one the ability to deal with ideas and concepts as such. The intellectual mind can function on an abstract level. Next is the intuitive mind. The intuitive mind often functions with pure intuition. It sees the inner truth of something immediately and directly, without the use of the human intelligence. It has the eye of truth, and it touches the inner truth of things with no intermediate help.

Above the intuitive mind is the illumined mind. This mind is permeated by the soul's light and is a very illumined and spiritual form of mind. Above this is what is termed the overmind. At this stage, the mind as we know it is not used at all. This is a plane of consciousness in which the cosmic gods live and function. Beyond that is the supermind, where the golden light which you saw came from. In the Vedas, the supermind is known as the Vijnana Loka.

After the supermind there are only three planes of consciousness. These are Sat, Chit and Ananda. These three states of consciousness are interrelated and at a certain point they merge. Creation itself starts with Sat-Chit-Ananda. Immediately below this is the supermind. The golden colour like a disc or a sun comes from the supermind. You had a very high experience and it came from that plane. It did not touch the physical plane or your physical body, although you saw it with your physical eyes.

When the light of the supermind actually touches the earth plane, it changes its colour and is suffused with a reddish hue, which is the colour of the material world. Then you see the combination of the gold and the red as a luminous, golden red.