During Tapas : A visit to the Sun

The Balayogi had been doing japa of the sun mantra for two hours daily for almost two years since his guru corrected the mantra Tapaswiji taught him. One night in the month of Kartika (October), 1954, the divine guru appeared on one of his periodic visits. He told the Balayogi that his japa of the surya mantra would soon bear fruit and that the god Surya would manifest before him in ten days. It was on the Kartika Poornima of 1954 that the Balayogi had sakshatkara of Surya and thereby gained siddhi of the world of the sun.

The divine guru appeared again the next night and, as he usually did, the Balayogi told him all that had happened the night before. Suddenly and on impulse, the Balayogi asked his guru to take him to the world of the sun as he wanted to see what it was like. The guru agreed and instructed the yogi to keep his eyes closed until he was told to open them. The Balayogi closed his eyes.

In no time at all the guru told him to open his eyes. The Balayogi found himself looking down upon a landscape very similar to that on earth. He saw mountains clothed in forests and cut by river valleys. He saw mountain peaks covered with snow. Soon he asked to be taken back and he was allowed to keep his eyes open for the return journey. The divine guru made the Balayogi sit in the palm of his hand, and they shot back towards earth with almost the speed of thought.

They had to pass through the blazing orb of the Sun. It was so intense that the Balayogi thought he would have been reduced to a cinder had it not been for the protection of his divine guru. Even with this protection, and even though the exposure to the fiery orb of the sun was for the briefest possible time, the Balayogi suffered intensely from the heat. To give his disciple relief the divine guru allowed every river he happens to cross.

After he completed his tapas, Swamiji described his experience of traveling to the sun and said, “It is possible in the state of samadhi to travel to the world of the sun and return alive. This is my own experience. Those who wish to accomplish this can do so by practicing dhyana.” But he cautioned those who seek only such experiences. “People should strive for atma jnana (wisdom of the soul). They should strive to know themselves and their true nature, which alone will bring peace to the world.”