This is a kind of identification that takes place to someone in a state of intense yogic union with the Master especially through the path of love and bhakti. The consciousness expands and extends beyond the limits of the physical body, comes in contact with the events or the central event in the life of the Divine Master whom they love and then, through such a contact brings back into one’s own body something of the experience that the Divine Being underwent. It could be done and has been done with other yogis as well. Sri Ramakrishna would actually have stripes on his skin when a bullock was being beaten. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother would undergo certain difficulties by the act of absorbing the trouble of the disciples. The Mother carried the experience of Joan of Arc burning at the stake in this life whereas Sri Aurobindo carried over his neck the experience of guillotine that Danton underwent. Basically these are experiences related to the identification of one’s consciousness with the experiences embedded in the consciousness of the one they love and adore. The consciousness and its experience is never destroyed. It is only the body that dies.
Affectionately,
Alok da
