Sunday, January 11, 2009

Asamprajnata or Non-distinguished Samadhi YS- I-18

Yoga Sutra I- 18 VIRAMA PRATYAYABHYASA PURVAH SAMSKARASESO'NYAH- By the firmly convinced practice of the complete cessation of the mental modifications, the impressions only remain. This is the other samadhi [asamprajnata or non-distinguished]

A definition from http://en.mimi.hu/yoga/asamprajnata_samadhi.html -Asamprajnata Samadhi supraconscious. The citta and the object of meditation are fused together. The consciousness of the object of meditation is transcended. All mental modifications are checked (niruddha), although latent impressions may continue.

In this commentary of this sutra, Swami Satchidananda continues to talk about samprajnata samadhi (distinguished) with all its four varieties should be practiced. He talks about how the buried seeds can still come up in the conscious mind and pull you back into worldly experience. It is only when all four stages are passed can one progress into asamprajnata samadhi where even the ego feeling is no longer present "and the seeds of past impressions are rendered harmless." He further says in this state, only consciousness is present and nothing else. This is the state of a liberated individual, a jivanmukti, and there is no more getting tossed or involved in worldly matters. It is not meant that the liberated person just goes away from the world or dies, but that it is one who lives and the same time is liberated.

Basically Satchidananda is saying we have to understand nature completely, then bring it under control, push it aside and become liberated. If one just attempts to renounce the world by going to a forest or cave and never being free from the nature that is not liberation. Nature will follow. There is no hiding anywhere. There is no other way than to understand it (Prakriti or Nature), handle it properly and then rising above it.

2 comments:

C. Om said...

Yes. The old ideas of a wise old hermit in the mountains is not the vision of a person who is shining his light into the world, but one of a person keeping it all to themselves.

bometernally said...

Totally agreed C.Om. It's like the saying one cannot go from A to Z without going through all the letters.