The Infinite Spiritual Journey: Walking the Path of the Self

 

Spiritual practice is often romanticised as peace, light and bliss. The reality is less polished and far more intense. The inner journey is an endless exploration of consciousness, and in the beginning it can be confusing, deeply emotional, and sometimes downright unsettling.

Many new practitioners start their sadhana (spiritual practice), encounter a few strange experiences, get scared, and quit. Not because anything “wrong” is happening, but because what is happening is new, unfamiliar and beyond the usual logic of the mind.

This journey is, at its core, a journey into your own Self. As the mind and body begin to respond to deeper awareness, they throw up sensations, sounds, lights and emotions that don’t fit into everyday categories — but they are very real.

This article walks through some of those early experiences and how to relate to them, without panic and without fantasy.

Early Mysterious Experiences in Sadhana

At the start of sincere practice, mind and body begin to open to subtler layers of reality. What follows are examples of experiences many practitioners report — not as superstition, but as inner phenomena that carry their own logic.

Subtle Movement of Life-Energy

During meditation, you might suddenly feel a soft breeze or a light flow of air — even when doors and windows are closed. There is no fan, no open window, yet it feels as if something has moved through the space.

This is described as the movement of subtle life-energy, or pranic force. The body is still, the room is still, but the energy is not. Awareness becomes fine enough to register this movement, and what was always present begins to be noticed.

Inner Light, Colours and Forms

With eyes closed, you may see intense light, colours, shapes or patterns. Sometimes it may feel like a bright flash, sometimes like shifting designs or a soft, glowing field.

These are signs of the meeting of mental waves and energy. The mind is not just thoughts; it is also vibration. When attention turns inward, these vibrations interact with subtle energy and present themselves as inner light and form. They are not “hallucinations” in the casual sense; they are real experiences of the inner field of consciousness.

The Beginning of Inner Sound (Naad)

Another common experience is hearing sounds in deep quiet: a bell, the hum of “Om,” a vibration, or a cricket-like high-pitched tone emerging without any external source.

This is the beginning of inner sound, or naad. As consciousness turns inward, it begins to hear deeper layers of its own movement. The outer world has not suddenly become louder; rather, inner listening has become more refined.

Sensations of Vibration, Heat, Cold and Flow

The body might start to tremble slightly. You may feel shivers, goosebumps, waves of warmth or a sudden coolness in specific areas. These aren’t always due to external temperature changes.

These sensations often indicate that energy is entering a particular energy centre (chakra) and beginning to flow. The system is reorganising itself at a subtle level. It may feel unusual, but it is part of the internal adjustment process.

Emotional Release and Sudden Tears or Laughter

In the middle of practice, tears can start flowing for “no reason.” Sometimes spontaneous laughter, sometimes an intense burst of emotion with no clear story attached.

This is not breakdown; it is cleansing. Old impressions and conditioning (sanskaras) start burning away. The heart is being purified, and the emotional body is releasing what it has held for years. The mind may not always know why it is crying or laughing — but the system knows what it is releasing.

Strange Body Perceptions and Micro-Movements

You might notice twitching in an eyelid, a shoulder jerking, fingers moving involuntarily, or a sharp, needle-like sensation at certain moments. At times you may feel your own body becoming enormous, or suddenly very tiny, even though physically nothing has changed.

These are shifts in body-awareness as energy moves through different regions. The nervous system is being engaged in new ways. Sensitivity increases, and the mind’s map of the body stretches, compresses, and rearranges.

All of these can be disorienting when they first appear. The important question is what to do when they happen.

What to Do When These Experiences Arise

The biggest mistake is to either glorify these experiences or be terrified by them. Both reactions pull you away from the real work of sadhana.

1. Do Not Be Afraid — Just Observe

Fear blocks the very energy that is trying to move. When something unusual happens — light, sound, vibration, tears — the reflex is often to tense up, open the eyes abruptly, and panic.

Instead, the instruction is simple and direct: do not be afraid. Watch. Let the experience unfold and pass. Treat it like a passing cloud, not a threat. The body is safe; the mind is reacting because it has no past reference for this. Your job is not to fight it, but to witness it.

2. Stop Comparing Your Journey with Others

Every soul has a different journey because every set of karmic impressions is different.

What someone else saw or felt — a particular deity, a specific vision, a very dramatic experience — is their inner movie, shaped by their past actions and conditioning. It is not a universal checklist.

If you start comparing your experiences with someone else’s, you are setting yourself up for either ego (“I had more powerful visions”) or inferiority (“Why is nothing happening to me like them?”). Both are distractions. The path is not to match someone else’s story; it is to stay true to your own unfolding.

3. Stay with the Experiencer, Not the Experience

This is the crucial point. Experiences will come and go: light, sound, sensations, emotions. They are temporary phenomena. The one who is not coming and going is the one who is watching it all.

The guidance is clear: stay with the experiencer, not the experience. Keep the attention gently on the sense of “I” — the witness, the one who knows “something is happening”.

Experiences rise, peak, and fade. The witness remains. That witness-consciousness is the real practitioner, the real seeker. The more you rest in that, the less you get tossed around by whatever appears.

Fear as the First Test of the Inner Call

When the universe calls someone inward, it rarely begins with comfortable reassurance. The first gate is often fear.

When deeper layers of reality start to open, the mind feels its control slipping and responds with resistance, confusion, and anxiety. This is not punishment. It is a test. The call is: will you turn back at the first sign of the unknown, or will you sit through it and see what lies beyond?

Those who cross this initial wave of fear move from mere “experiences” to genuine contact with truth. The journey shifts from chasing phenomena to abiding in direct knowing. Fear is not the enemy; it is the threshold.

Breathing the Infinite, Hearing the Unspoken

Every breath contains a universe. Every pause between words holds an unspoken mantra.

As awareness deepens, this is no longer poetry — it becomes direct perception. The ordinary rhythm of inhalation and exhalation is seen as a doorway. Silence is no longer empty; it vibrates with subtle meaning.

The one who truly hears this inner mantra realises that life is not just a string of passing moments. It is a reflection of the infinite, appearing through changing forms. The body lives for a short while; the witness of breath, sound, light and emotion belongs to the timeless.

Walking On

The early phases of sadhana are powerful, messy, and often confusing. Strange sensations, unexpected emotions, and unusual perceptions are not proof that something has gone wrong; they are signs that something deep has begun.
  • Do not run. Do not cling. Do not compare.
  • Watch, stay with the one who is watching, and let the journey unfold.
The path is not about collecting experiences. It is about recognising the infinite that has always been watching them — through every breath, every silence, and every lifetime.

C. P. Kumar
Energy Healer & Blogger

Amazon Books by C. P. Kumar: https://amazon.com/author/cpkumar/
YouTube Channel of C. P. Kumar: https://www.youtube.com/@cpkumar2022
Spiritual and Social Books by C. P. Kumar: http://cpkumar.lovestoblog.com/bookmarks.html


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