Patanjali Yoga Sutra - 42

When forms, ideas and meanings still exist....

Tatra Shabdarthagnana

vikalpaihi Sankeerna Savitarka Samapattihi

The various meditative practices leads us to a certain state of Samadhi or absorbtion called Savitarka. It is a conditional state of absorbtion. You meditate on an object or thought. Soon every other thought, emotion or object, except the one you are meditating upon - leaves your awareness temporarily. Like, when you watch a movie in the theatre, you almost forget the world outside, whether it is sunny or raining and during gripping scenes, you even forget the people sitting just next to you. But still, the mind is not totally quiet. It is conditioed by what you see - the name and form and your prior knowledge about the form and its associated meanings within. It is a state of Samadhi, but there is still the doubting and questioning mind that is active. - Swahilya Shambhavi.

Picture: The clouds are bright with sunshine above the city of Paris, but the city is shrouded by the clouds. Even though there is a glimpse of truth, it is only a conditioned vision. (Pic. Swahilya)

Patanjali Yoga Sutra - 41

Crystal clear

Ksheene vritteh abhijatasya manehe grheetru grihana grahyeshu tatstha tadanjanata samapattihi

There is a point of time during the sadhana, or spiritual practices, when all the thoughts that kept rising like incessant waves on the ocean of consciousness ebb outh a state of pure tranquility, the mind becomes like a pure cryst

al which simply reflects the colours of objects that surround it.

In this state of Samadhi, the one who is trying to comprehend an object of meditation, the process and means of comprehension and the object of comprehension dissolves its difference and everything just remains a unified field of consciousness - one without a second.

As an example, I narrate here my experience of such a state when I went to the Himalayas for the first time with a group led by Swami Akshara.

After all the arduous trek from Gangotri to Chirwasa and on the next day to Bhojwasa and on the third day to Gomukh on a pony, I had to climb rocks boulders and walk through soft sand and rivulets to finally sit on a stone washed by the gushing Bhageerathi, which flows out of a cave shaped like the face of a cow and hence the name Gomukh, or cow-face.

My energies were thoroughly exhausted in the trek when I sat down on the rock beside the ice-cold waters. There was a while I don't know how long when I did not exist - nor did the rock or the people and voices around or the river. I opened my eyes when a ponyman tapped me to say it was not proper to sit there as the river might swell any moment without a warning. That was a moment of absorbtion - I realise now with gratitude to my Guru. - Swahilya Shambhavi (swahilya.soulmate@gmail.com) Pic: Quartz Crystal Hanuman