Patanjali Yoga Sutra - III - 3

Contemplating well to merge

Tadevarthamathra Nirbhasam Swaroopa Shunyamiva Samadhihi||

When the object of focus, concentration and meditation begins to merge, then the state of Samadhi is said to be reached. Take an example of climbing a flight of stairs to reach the terrace. At first you get accustomed to the steps and focus on it as you climb. That is Dharana. Then as you climb, you have achieved a state of ease and a mind that can afford to be within and contemplate - i.e. Dhyana. Once you begin to contemplate on a statement of truth or the Pranava Mantra, you feel as if you have lost your own name and form and only the contemplation remains. That is arriving at the terrace of Samadhi. The yogi and a Shaivaite saint Sadasiva Brahmendra Saraswati has written a commentary on the Patanjali Yoga Sutra explains Samadhi as Samyak Aadheeyate Ekagrikriyate Yat Manaha Saha Samadhi - That mind which delves well and deeply after becoming completely integrated is Samadhi. - Swahilya Shambhavi

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

Patanjali Yoga Sutra - 21

Mild, moderate or intense?

Mridhu Madhya Adhimatrathvat Tatah Api Viveshaha


Intensity is the key to reaching the goal of Samadhi. Just as reaching to any target in our day-to-day life, the intensity of our effort matters. Intensity here is not to be confused with speed. It is the focussed conscious effort that is thrown into the practice which generates the heat of Tapas. That dissolves the being and removes the mental barrier that comes in between the inner and outer consciousness.


I had an experience of intensity at a recent meditation programme in which I participated on duty as Editor/Columnist of the Spirituality and Fitness pages for The New Indian Express. I was among 2000 participants gathered at the Anna University grounds and was simply breathing chaotically for about 10 minutes. It was so intense that the simple act of breathing in and out caused profuse sweating in a very short while.


Intensity generates heat. Heat burns and destroys. At the end of the process of burning, there is just the remnant ash which gets easily dissolved and the consciousness shines through in its brilliance. - Swahilya Shambhavi (swahilya.soulmate@gmail.com)

Patanjali Yoga Sutra 19

The need to practise

Shraddha Virya Smriti Samadhi
Pragnya Poorvaka Itaresham



Some are born great. Some achieve greatness. Some have greatness thrust upon them. There are some who are born with the experience of Samadhi very early in age. Samadhi is endowed by nature on some others at different stages of their lives. Samadhi here simply means an equanimity of vision and a personal experience of connectedness with the Unverse. It is important that Samadhi is not or rather need not be some fantastic experience or imaginary expeditions of the mind. It simply means a working knowledge of the interconnectedness applied moment to moment.


There are however a large segment of people who are neither born with it nor can they hopefully wait for such an experience to happen. Those persons, Patanjali says, can reach the Samadhi state of mind with Shraddha - faith in a glimpse of truth that has been revealed to them and holding on to it, Veerya - dynamic energy and enthusiasm, Smriti - constant remembrance of the state of oneness and extending the periods of awareness of a glimpse of any experience that one may have had.


For instance, if one has tasted sugar, there is a remembrance of the taste and a hope to taste it sometime again. Samadhi can happen in very ordinary states of absorbption - while eating a chocolate, while spending silent moments alone watching a gurgling brook, while intensely hugging someone dear to you - a state where you are not there, but the experience is.


(Trekkers' progress: An arduous climb up Parvathamalai.)
(Articles on health, fitness, spirituality including two columns About You, and Zenith on April 28 and May 1 issues on Expresso - Page -6 in the epaper of The New Indian Express)

Patanjali Yoga Sutra - 19

Merging with nature

Bhavapratyayo Videhaprakritilayanam

Prakritilaya or becoming one with nature or its elements. It is a state of being where the consciousness is able to experience a state of oneness with a stone, a mountain, a tree, a flowing river or flowers. The unifying experience happens between the individual and nature. This happens most to poets like William Wordsworth who sang of host of golden daffodils

This Samadhi sometimes happens without an effort at any age of life. This is a glimpse of the experience of an evened out intellect which leaves its separate state of existence and merges with the bliss that already exists in the Universe.

As I walked up to the origin of the Ganga once in Gomukh, culminating in a spiritual journey, the last lap of the trek was intensely difficult. It was through the nooks and crannies of the rocks and boulders, slippery soft sand and tiny rivulets that I had to take. All exhasted with a parched throat, I sat down on a rock, well into the bank of the mighty Ganga, gushing out of the Gomukh cave. After watching the river for a while, I closed my eyes. It may have been a few minut

es or over a quarter of an hour - I do npot know. There was no voices of my co-trekkers, nor even the roar of the river that I heard. When I opened my eyes, a local resident was telling me to move out of there as the river might swell erratically. Even as I close my eyes now and recollect my experience, I know it was a glimpse of Prakritilaya Samadhi, when the individual merges with nature.

Photo: Waters of the Mandakini gushing past the temple at Kedarnath in the Himalayas.

(Vignana Bhairava Tantra, Tirumandiram, Bamboo Wisdom, swahilya.soulmate@gmail.com)