Samadhi (समाधिः)
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वितर्कविचारानन्दास्मितारूपानुगमात्संप्रज्ञातः ॥ १.१७ ॥[1]
Meaning: The concentration called right know-ledge is that which is followed by reasoning, discrimination, bliss, unqualified ego.
This Samadhi is divided into two varieties.
- Samprajnata
- Asamprajnata
The Samprajnata is of four varieites. In this Samadhi come all the powers of controlling nature.
- Savitarka
The first variety is called the Savitarka, when the mind meditates upon an object again and again, by isolating it from other objects. There are two sorts of objects for meditation, the categories of nature, and the Purusa. Again, the categories are of two varieties; the twenty-four categories are insentient, and the one sentient is the Purusa. When the mind thinks of the elements of nature by thinking of their beginning and their end, this is one sort of Savitarka. This part of Yoga is based entirely on Sankhya Philosophy. Egoism and will, and mind, have a common basis, and that common basis is called the Chitta, the mind-stuff, out of which they are all manufactured. This mind-stuff takes in the forces of nature, and projects them as thought. There must be something, again, where both force and matter are one. This is called Avyaktam, the unmanifested state of nature, before creation, and to which, after the end of a cycle, the whole of nature returns, to again come out after another period. Beyond that is the Purusa, the essence of intelligence. There is no liberation in getting powers. It is a worldly search after enjoyment in this life; all search for enjoyment is vain; this is the old, old lesson which man finds it so hard to learn. When he does learn it, he gets out of the universe and becomes free. The possession of what are called occult powers is only intensifying the world, and in the end intensifying suffering. Though, as a scientist, Patanjali is bound to point out the possibilities of this science, he never misses an opportunity to warn us against these powers. Knowledge is power, and as soon as we begin to know a thing we get power over it; so also, when the mind begins to meditate on the different elements it gains power over them. That sort of meditation where the external gross elements are the objects is called Savitarka.
Tarka means question, Savitarka with-question. Questioning the elements, as it were, that they may give up their truths and their powers to the man who meditates upon them.
- Nirvitarka
Again, in the very same meditation, when one struggles to take the elements out of time and space, and think of them as they are, it is called Nirvitarka, without-question.
- Savichara
When the meditation goes a step higher, and takes the Tanmatras as its object, and thinks of them as in time and space, it is called Savichara, with-discrimination.
- Nirvichara
When the same meditation gets beyond time and space, and thinks of the fine elements as they are, it is called Nirvichara, without-discrimination.
- Sananda
The next step is when the elements are given up, either as gross or as fine, and the object of meditation is the interior organ, the thinking organ, and when the thinking organ is thought of as bereft of the qualities of activity, and of dullness, it is then called Sanandam, the blissful Samadhi.
- Asmita Samadhi
In that Samadhi, when we are thinking of the mind as the object of meditation, before we have reached the state which takes us beyond the mind even, when it has become very ripe and concentrated, when all ideas of the gross materials, or fine materials, have been given up, and the only object is the mind as it is, when the Sattva state only of the Ego remains, but differentiated from all other objects, this is called Asmita Samadhi, and the man who has attained to this has attained to what is called in the Vedas “bereft of body.” He can think of himself as without his gross body; but he will have to think of himself as with a fine body. Those that in this state get merged in nature without attaining the goal are called Prakrtilayas, but those who do not even stop at any enjoyments, reach the goal, which is freedom.[2]
विरामप्रत्ययाभ्यासपूर्वः संस्कारशेषोऽन्यः ॥ १.१८ ॥[1]
Meaning: There is another Samadhi which is attained by the constant practice of cessation of all mental activity, in which the Chitta retains only the unmanifested impressions.
This is the perfect superconscious Asamprajnata Samadhi, the state which gives freedom. The first state does not give freedom, does not liberate the self. A person may attain to all powers, and yet fall again. There is no safeguard until the self goes beyond nature, and beyond conscious concentration. It is very difficult to attain, although its method seems very easy. Its method is to hold the mind as the object and allowing no thought to come into the mind, thus making it an entire vacuum. When one can really do this, in that moment one shall attain liberation. When persons without training and preparation try to make their minds vacant they are likely to succeed only in covering themselves with Tamas, material of ignorance, which makes the mind dull and stupid, and leads them to think that they are making a vacuum of the mind. To be able to really do that is a manifestation of the greatest strength, of the highest control. When this state, Asamprajnata, super-consciousness, is reached, the Samadhi becomes seedless. In that sort of concentration when there is consciousness, where the mind has succeeded only in quelling the waves in the Chitta and holding them down, they are still there in the form of tendencies, and these tendencies (or seeds) will become waves again, when the time comes. But when you have destroyed all these tendencies, almost destroyed the mind, then it has become seedless, there are no more seeds in the mind out of which to manufacture again and again this plant of life, this ceaseless round of birth and death. What one calls knowledge is a lower state than the one beyond knowledge. One must always bear in mind that the extremes look very much the same. The low vibration of light is darkness, and the very high vibration of light is darkness also, but one is real darkness, and the other is really intense light; yet their appearance is the same. So, ignorance is the lowest state, knowledge is the middle state, and beyond knowledge is a still higher state. Knowledge itself is a manufactured something, a combination; it is not reality.
The result of constant practice of this higher concentration is that all old tendencies of restlessness, and dullness, will be destroyed, as well as the tendencies of goodness too. It is just the same as with the metals that are used with gold to take off the dirt and alloy. When the ore is smelted down, the dross is burnt along with the alloy. So this constant controlling power will stop the previous bad tendencies and, eventually, the good ones also. Those good and evil tendencies will suppress each other, and there will remain the self, in all its glorious splendour, untrammelled by either good or bad, and that self is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. By giving up all powers it has become omnipotent, by giving up all life it is beyond mortality; it has become life itself. Then the self will know it neither had birth nor death, neither want of heaven nor of earth. It will know that it neither came nor went; it was nature which was moving, and that movement was reflected upon the self. The form of the light is moving, it is reflected and cast by the camera upon the wall, and the wall foolishly thinks it is moving. So it is the Chitta constantly moving, manipulating itself into various forms, and we think that we are these various forms. All these delusions will vanish. When that free self will command then whatever it desires will be immediately fulfilled; whatever it wants it will be able to do.[2]
श्रद्धावीर्यस्मृतिसमाधिप्रज्ञापूर्वक इतरेषां ॥ १.२० ॥[1]
Meaning: To others (this Samadhi) comes through faith, energy, memory, concentration, and discrimination of the real.[2]
तत्र शब्दार्थज्ञानविकल्पैः संकीर्णा सवितर्का समापत्तिः ॥ १.४२ ॥[1]
Meaning: Sound, meaning, and resulting knowledge, being mixed up, is (called Samadhi) with reasoning.
Sound here means vibration; meaning, the nerve currents which conduct it; and knowledge, reaction. In the different Samadhis that are called Savitarka or “with reasoning,” there is duality of subject and object, which results from the mixture of word, meaning, and knowledge. There is first the external vibration, the word; this, carried inward by the sense currents, is the meaning. After that there comes a reactionary wave in the Chitta, which is knowledge, but the mixture of these three makeup what we call knowledge. In all the meditations up to this we get this mixture as object of meditation. The next Samadhi is higher.[2]
स्मृतिपरिशुद्धौ स्वरूपशून्येवार्थमात्रनिर्भासा निर्वितर्का ॥ १.४३ ॥[1]
Meaning: The Samadhi called without reasoning (comes) when the memory is purified, or devoid of qualities, expressing only the meaning (of the meditated object).
When the word “cow” is pronounced, it enters through the ears and a wave is produced in the Chitta. That wave represents the idea of the cow, the form or the meaning as it is called. That apparent cow that is known is really the wave in the mind-stuff, and that comes as a reaction to the internal and external sound-vibrations, and with the sound, the wave dies away; that wave can never exist without a word. When one only thinks of the cow, and does not hear a sound, the sound is made by oneself faintly in the mind, and with that comes a wave. There cannot be any wave without this impulse of sound, and when it is not from outside it is from inside, and when the sound dies, the wave dies. What remains as the result of the reaction is knowledge.
These three are so closely combined in our mind that we cannot separate them. When the sound comes, the senses vibrate, and the wave rises in reaction; they follow so closely upon one another that there is no discerning one from the other; when this meditation has been practiced for a long time, memory, the receptacle of all impressions, becomes purified, and we are able clearly to distinguish them from one another. This is called “Nirvitarka,” concentration without reasoning.[2]
एतयैव सविचारा निर्विचारा च सूक्ष्मविषया व्याख्याता ॥ १.४४ ॥[1]
A process similar to the preceding is applied again, only, the objects to be taken up in the former meditations are gross; in this they are fine.[2]
ता एव सबीजः समाधिः ॥ १.४६ ॥[1]
Meaning: These concentrations are with seed.
These do not destroy the seeds of past actions, thus cannot give liberation, but what they bring to the Yogi is stated in the following aphorisms.[2]
निर्विचारवैशारद्येऽध्यात्मप्रसादः ॥ १.४७ ॥ ऋतंभरा तत्र प्राज्ञा ॥ १.४८ ॥ श्रुतानुमानप्रज्ञाभ्यां अन्यविषया विशेषार्थत्वात् ॥ १.४९ ॥[1]
Meaning: The concentration “without reasoning” being purified, the Chitta becomes firmly fixed. The knowledge in that is called “filled with Truth.”The knowledge that is gained from testimony and inference is about common objects. That from the Samadhi just mentioned is of a much higher order, being able to penetrate where inference and testimony cannot go.
Even after reading all the Vedas, one does not realise anything, but when their teachings are practised, then one attains to that state which realises what the Scriptures say, which penetrates where reason cannot go, and where the testimony of others cannot avail.[2]
तज्जः संस्कारोऽन्यसंस्कारप्रतिबन्धी ॥ १.५० ॥ तस्यापि निरोधे सर्वनिरोधान्निर्बीजः समाधिः ॥ १.५१ ॥[1]
Meaning: The resulting impression from this Samadhi obstructs all other impressions. By the restraint of even this (impression, which obstructs all other impressions), all being restrained, comes the “seedless” Samadhi.
The goal is to perceive the self. It cannot be perceived because it has got mingled up with nature, the mind and the body. The different waves (vruttis) that arise in the Chitta and cover the self make the self get mingled up with different identities like the nature, mind or body itself.
The real nature of the Soul is not perceived until all the waves have subsided; so, first, Patanjali teaches us the meaning of these waves; secondly, the best way to repress them; and thirdly, how to make one wave so strong as to suppress all other waves, fire eating fire as it were. When only one remains, it will be easy to suppress that also, and when that is gone, this Samadhi of concentration is called seedless; it leaves nothing, and the Soul is manifested just as It is, in Its own glory. Then alone we know that the Soul is not a compound, It is the only eternal simple in the universe, and, as such, It cannot be born, It cannot die, It is immortal, indestructible, the Ever-living Essence of intelligence.[2]