YOGA
Samadhi- the state of thoughtless awareness
The Tribune, Saturday, December 29, 2005, Chandigarh, India
Jyoti Subramanian

Samadhi- the word evokes a mixed response from those who practice yoga. Like the proverbial out of reach fruit, the promise of this state is what makes serious yoga practitioners work harder. But the state of samadhi which is the eighth and final stage of Patanjali's ashtanga yoga supposedly happens without effort when the mind becomes motionless in dhyana, the seventh stage of yoga. The non-fluctuating mind then is said to dissolve into the state of samadhi. The stages of dharana, dhyana and samadhi cannot be separated from one another as one flows into the other and is a process of natural progression.

According to Patanjali, samadhi itself has many stages based on the subtle fluctuations of the by now very refined mind. Starting with the stage when the mind, though in an expanded state of awareness, is still conscious of the senses of perception, though memory still exists the distinction between the one perceiving, the object perceived and the perception is confused. When the memory becomes free of past impressions and though the image of the object perceived leaves a residue in the mind there is no awareness or words for it the yogi has achieved the first stage of sabeeja samadhi. Here the yogi unlocks secrets of all kinds in the realm of science and natural phenomenon and becomes a siddha.

As the brain keeps getting more refined now the process of yoga is nearing completion the yogi moves higher into the realms of samadhi experiences. The process of refinement continues and the yogi reaches beyond the ananda to the asmita samadhi when the insight that there is no differentiation between the practitioner and all humanity is realised. This state is also called the sarvikalpa samadhi.

Then comes the dharma megha samadhi which is likened to a waterfall of virtues that wash over the yogi in a cleansing stream before entering the nirvikalpa samadhi. In this stage all final remnants of individual consciousness is eliminated and there is complete freedom from karma. The yogi who crosses this stage goes beyond the laws of karma to attain the Kaivalya samadhi, the niranjan nirvana.

Thousands of words have been written about the states of samadhi, but as Yogiraj Siddhanath a Himalayan master succinctly puts it, "those who know say it not and those say know it not!" For words being the product of the mind cannot explain that which goes beyond the comprehension of the mind.