Swami Muktananda (1908-1982) wrote this autobiography over a 21-day period. He began his spiritual search early in life as a sadhu, a wandering yogi practicing meditation. Muktananda's initiation from his guru, Bhagawan Nityananda, came in 1947 when he experienced the inner transformation wrought by Kundalini Shakti. The author describes his visions while meditation, including one of the Blue Pearl. In the 1970s, Muktananda brought the Siddha Yoga tradition to the West. Before his death in 1982, he had written 40 books and established more than 600 meditation centers all over the world. Today his work is carried on by his spiritual heir, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda.
In this new edition of Play of Consciousness, which was first published in 1970, Swami Muktananda explains that the realization of God is only possible through a Guru: "He is the one who awakens the Inner Shakti Kundalini through shaktipat, who sets the divine Shakti in motion in man's body, who gives instruction in yoga, who bestows the ecstasy of knowledge and the joy of divine love, who teaches detachment in action and grants liberation in this very lifetime." The author also discusses the importance of meditation, spiritual practice, the dissolution of desire, mantras, and the path of love. Muktananda concludes: "The root of all attainments and of everlasting peace is the pleasing of the Guru." This volume lays out in all of its diversity and intensity the way of the Siddhas, or the perfected ones.
