What is Self-Realisation?
We start off high up on the riverbank in great ignorance. Slowly, we wend our way down to the river. The goal is to reach the bottom of the river, where we receive complete Knowledge of Brahman without any ignorance at all, in nirvikalpa samadhi. With every step downwards, we realise a little more. This means that the heart, the gateway for Brahman in the jiva (the embodied soul) opens a little more, so a little more of the wisdom and bliss of Brahman is manifested. The highest realisations come in samadhi.
When we enter the water, we achieve ‘self-realisation’. We have to enter samadhi at least once to achieve this, but it is not always immediately noticeable because it could happen while we are sleeping, or it could last for just a fraction of a second. We would, however, eventually notice a certain amount of intuitive wisdom and bliss flowing out of our hearts. This is the point at which we escape from our karmas. To achieve this, the kundalini must reach at least the fourth chakra on the sushumna.
The mind is like a certain amount of soil in the jungle. The soil remains in place as it is held there by the roots of plants. However, if the roots are removed, all the soil gets washed away, just as the mind disappears when the karmas run out. If the mind disappears, the body falls away, and we go into mahasamadhi. There is a difference distinguished between death and mahasamadhi. Unrealised people, who identify themselves with the body, believe deep in their consciousness that their end has come, even if they believe intellectually that they are Brahman, and so are reborn in a new body. Such people are still bound by karma as they have not realised that the relative world, of which karma is a part, is unreal. A realised person, on the other hand, knows intuitively that the relative world is unreal, and so it cannot bind him. He identifies himself with Brahman, and therefore cannot die, is not reborn and merges with Brahman as a drop of water falling into the ocean, as for him,
The are two kinds of karmas; ones which are developing, like a seed with a sprout coming out of it, and ones that are still dormant, like a seed which has not sprouted. If you put a seed into the ground, it grows into a plant. However, if you fry it beforehand, it cannot. In samadhi, the fire of Knowledge, the karmas which have not yet begun to develop are fried, therefore they can no longer bear fruit. After this samadhi, no new karmas can get attached to the mind, so when the karmas currently developing run out, the mind falls away. We remain in the body after self-realisation for some time, because the karmas that have already sprouted cannot be cleaned up; we have to simply wait until their course is over.
The deepest realisation, the Realisation of the Supreme Self, or Brahman, is got in nirvikalpa samadhi, which we go into when the kundalini reaches the seventh chakra. No ignorance concerning our identity as Brahman thereafter remains, and one who has achieved this is called a ‘jivanmukta,’ one who is free while still in the body.