One of my favorite books that I’ve read over the years was, “Autobiography of a Yogi”, by Paramahansa Yogananda. It is a classic book that was first written in 1946, and has been continually rediscovered by people all over the world for many years. Basically, it is one of the few books in English about the wise men of India, and it is written about yogis by a yogi.
You can find copies of this book in the following languages: English, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi; Kannada; Japanese; Arabic; Greek; Icelandic; Danish; Dutch; French; German; Italian; Portuguese; and Spanish. Because the book is very long, it would be too difficult for me to tell the whole story entirely, so I will just retell my favorite part in a brief exerpt.

Paramahansa Yoganada describes how it feels to have an experience in cosmic consciousness (advanced state of conscious awareness as a result of meditation) after being summoned by his spiritual teacher, Sri Yukteswar.

“He struck gently on my chest above the heart. My body became immovably rooted, breath was drawn out of my lungs as if by some huge magnet. Soul and mind instantly lost their physical bondage and streamed out like a fluid piercing light from my every pore. The flesh was as though dead, yet in my intense awareness, I knew that never before had I been fully alive. My sense of identity was no longer narrowly confined to a body but embraced the circumambient atoms. People on distant streets seemed to be moving gently over my own remote periphery. The roots of plants and trees appeared through a dim transparency of the soil; I discerned the inward flow of their sap.

“The whole vicinity lay bare before me. My ordinary frontal vision was now changed to a vast spherical sight, simultaneously all-perceptive. Through the back of my head, I saw men strolling far down Rai Ghat Lane, and noticed also a white cow that was leisurely approaching. When she reached the open ashram gate, I observed her as though with my two physical eyes. After she passed behind the brick wall of the courtyard, I saw her clearly still.

“All objects within my panoramic gaze trembled and vibrated like quick motion pictures. My body, Master’s, the pillared courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees and sunshine, occasionally became violently agitated until all melted into a luminescent sea; even as sugar crystals, thrown into a glass of water, dissolve after being shaken. The unifying light alternated with materializations of form, the metamorphoses revealing the law of cause and effect in creation.

“An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being. The dazzling light beyond the sharply etched global outlines faded slightly at the farthest edges; there I saw a mellow radiance, ever undiminished. It was indescribably subtle; the planetary pictures were formed of a grosser light.

“The divine dispersion of rays poured from an Eternal Source, blazing into galaxies, transfigured with ineffable auras. Again and again I saw the creative beams condense into constellations, then resolve into sheets of transparent flame. By rhythmic reversion, sextillion worlds passed into diaphanous luster, then fire became firmament.

“Suddenly the breath returned to my lungs. With a disappointment almost unbearable, I realized that my infinite immensity was lost. Once more I was limited to the humiliating cage of a body, not easily accommodative to the Spirit. Like a prodigal child, I had run away from my macrocosmic home and had imprisoned myself in a narrow microcosm.

“My guru was standing motionless before me; I started to prostrate myself at his holy feet in gratitude for his having bestowed on me the experience in cosmic consciousness that I had long passionately sought.

“You must not get overdrunk with ecstasy. Much work yet remains for you in the world. Come, let us sweep the balcony floor, then we shall walk by the Ganges.

“I fetched a broom; Master, I knew, was teaching me the secret of balanced living. The soul must stretch over the cosmogonic abysses, while the body perfoms its daily duties.”

Even after enlightenment. life goes on.