The above short story from the Talmud has been the subject of many a lengthy commentary over the centuries, and it has often been used as a warning of the dangers surrounding the mystical path. I, too, have an interpretation of what happened.
BEN 'AZZAI CAST A LOOK AND DIED - Buried deep within each of us is a strong desire to merge once again with the Ain Sof. Our physical bodies, though, help form a barrier between us and the immensity of the Infinite, and this dulls our awareness of the latter and helps keep the desire to merge suppressed. However, there can be moments when we touch so deeply upon the mystery that we would gladly drop our physical garment in order to rejoin with this ocean. Such is what I believed happened to Ben 'Azzai, and thus it is written in the Torah that "No man may look upon Me and live. (Exodus 33)" Ben 'Azzai relinquished all and merged prematurely with the top of the Tree of Life.
BEN ZOMA LOOKED AND BECAME DEMENTED - Mysticism is generally a strong right brain experience, and for this reason, it must always be balanced by the rationality of the left brain. How often have we seen the unfortunate consequences of those who have claimed to have heard the exlusive voice of God? People have started Holy Wars, died for comets, and become raving lunatics all in the name of their own revelations. For most of us, our inner revelations must always be taken with a grain of salt. Otherwise, Ben Zoma won't be the last person to go meshuggah over religion. Ben Zoma lost his balance and became stuck on the right side of the Tree.
AHER MUTILATED THE SHOOTS (became a heretic) - Just as Ben Zoma got lost in the right side of the Tree, so did Aher get equally lost in the rationality of the left side of the Tree. This is a subtler trap, and one for which we are all easy prey. Logic, unfortunately, can only take us so far, and if all that we allow in our lives is the world of logic, then a larger experience is denied to us. Great logicians and mathematicians such as Cantor and Godel have shown us that some things cannot be conceived and that there are truths that lie beyond what we can prove. However, when logic becomes our god, then there is no God, and the Unity is divided into two.
RABBI AKIBA DEPARTED IN PEACE - To survive a strong encounter with the mystical, one must be balanced and well established in the harmony of Tiferet. One needs a strong ego to avoid the temptation to surrender before one's time to the Unknowable, and one needs balance between rational thought and holistic thought in order to see the truth and to not get swayed too much by one direction or the other. Only then may one enter the garden in peace and depart in peace.