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On page 78 of ‘The Nothing and the Everything’, it states:
“If a man successfully performs a severe penance
such as Chilla-Nashini
(staying inside a circle for forty days and nights),
when he drops his physical body (dies)
this man attains the Indra state.
This means that a gross conscious man becomes Indra
and gains that subtle identity with the status (king),
the powers, the duties of that post (throne);
he has become the king of the gods (Zeus, Jupiter),
who rules 330,000,000 angels.
Being king of the angels is an experience of Alm-e-Kudasi
which is millions of times more blissful
than any experience in the second heaven of Alm-e-Ruhani.
Through his subtle body he consciously experiences
that bliss of being deified, and
holds that post while in a disembodied state.
For one epoch, which equals four cycles
(each cycle is about 26,000 years),
this human holds the post of Indra
and is very possessive of it.
Many times those men (ascetics) in the gross world
who are striving to attain the post of Indra
will have their penance disturbed by the individual
currently holding the throne.
The suffering penitents are actually disturbed by Indra himself who
sends all kinds of temptations their way,
from the most frightful to the most seductive,
to defeat the penance and have it stopped.
Those who fail to dethrone Indra
are overcome by their own fear during the penance.
Indra will do anything to keep his throne,
but despite efforts to stay in power
the individual holding the Indra post must leave it
after one epoch and again take a human body on earth.
That individual who was Indra progresses higher while incarnate,
still retaining his third plane subtle consciousness.
It is important to understand that this individual titled Indra
exists in his subtle body and inhabits the heavens
while disembodied, but cannot progress
in subtle consciousness until he incarnates again.
In other words Zeus must come down from Olympus,
Jupiter must abandon the abode of the gods
and become a man again
to advance higher toward the fourth plane.
There are 558 human beings on the third plane as saliks,
and even more as masts are absorbed in the heavens
between the third and fourth planes;
but only one holds the post of Indra.“
Chilla-nashini is an anciet spiritual practice of penance in the Persian, Semetic, and Indian traditions that is still performed to this day. In this ritual the ascetic attempts to remain in a circle without food, water, or sleep for forty days and forty nights. In Persian ‘Chilla’ means forty and ‘Nashini’ refers to the ascetic who completes the 40 day penance.
According to tradition, the ascetic draws a circle on the ground and sits inside the circle for 40 days and 40 nights. The circle serves not only to bind his resolve to complete the penance, but also serves as a clear indicator of Chilla-Nashini to any passing travelers.
If the travelers notice that the ascetic has crawled out of the circle, or breached its perimeter in such a way that clearly indicates his forfeiture of the 40 day penance, then they are permitted to rescue him. It is believed that those who attempt this ritual but do not succeed either die or suffer madness.
Moses, Jesus, Hafiz, and St. Francis are known to have completed the 40 day ritual penance of Chilla-Nashini. When St. Francis went to the middle east alongside the Crusaders in the 1200s, he learned about the 40 days fast from the Sufis. Upon his return to Italy, St Francis completes the ritual of Chilla-Nashini. Thereafter sometime before he died St. Francis was realized.
In my speculation, when Jesus entered Nirvikalpa Samadhi on the Cross, he died the ‘Real Death’, and thereby took over the post of Indra.