Samadhi - Contemplation YS III - 3

Yoga Sutra III- 3 - TAD EVARTHAMATRA NIRBHASAM SVARUPA SUNYAM IVA SAMADHIH - Samadhi is the same meditation when there is the shining of the object alone, as if devoid of form.

Swami Satchidananda tells us that there is not much he can say about this one. "You will easily understand when you have a little experience. Meditation culminates in the state of samadhi. It's not that you practice samadhi. Nobody can consciously practice samadhi. Our effort is there only up to meditation." He tells that we can put all our effort into dharana and it becomes effortless in dhyana, knowing you are in meditation. "But in samadhi, you don't even know that . You are not there to know it because you are that. " Samadhi is when you become what you think. Swami Satchidananda informs us that in meditation there are three things: the meditator, the meditation and the focus of meditation. "In samadhi there is neither the object or the meditator. There is no feeling of 'I am meditating on that.' "

An scientific analogy is given of alkaline solution being poured into an acidic solution until ultimately there is no more acid solution, just alkaline. So think of the Lord as the alkali and you and He becomes one. "That's samadhi." Swami Satchidananda tells us that it's hard to put into words (about samadhi) and that if we keep working at it, we will know what samadhi is. He reminds us of the four samadhis previously mentioned in Yoga Sutra Book I:

• savitaraka samadhi - with form
• savichara samadhi- with idea
• sa-ananda samadhi - with bliss
• sa-asmita samadhi - with pure ego

"All these four still leave some parts of the mind with hidden desires. You are not completely free. The ideas in the mind are not completely roasted. They could still germinate again. That's why all these four are called sabija samadhi. " Bija means seed, so the sprouting tendency is still there. But once those seeds are completely roasted, they won't germinate. Then that is seedless samadhi (nirbija samadhi or nirvikalpla samadhi).

The commentary ends with us being informed that the burnt seeds (mental seeds) makes the difference between ordinary people and jivanmuktas (liberated beings). The jivanmuktas are living liberated people and that liberation is not to experience when you die. "When living, you should be liberated. Jivan-mukta: mukta means liberated, jivan, while living. That is the final state of samadhi."

"Samadhi is, in fact, much more than a perception; it is direct knowledge." - "How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood.

See related posts:

• The Eight Limbs of Yoga - YS II - 28, 29
• The Mind as A Crystal YS I - 41
• Savitarka Samadhi YS - I - 42
• Nirvitarka Samadhi YS I - 43
• Reflective - Super 0r Non- Reflective Samadhi
• Samadhis with Seed YS I - 46s YS ...
• Nirvichara Samadhi YS I- 47
• Samprajnata (Distinguished) Samadhi-YS I -17
• Asamprajnata or Non-distinguished Samadhi YS- I-18...
• Rebirth - YS I-19