“Samadhi is the highest state of meditation, where one can reach the level of absolute stillness and experience the pure consciousness.”
It is the state, where the mind is completely absorbed in one object of meditation, it is termed Samadhi. The mind identifies itself with the object of meditation. In Samadhi, there is neither meditation nor meditator. The meditator and meditated, the thinker and the thought become one or identical. The mind loses its own consciousness and becomes identical with the object of meditation. The meditator has dissolved his personality in the ocean of supreme consciousness, drowned and forgotten there till he merged with the higher self.
For the one who attained the state of Samadhi, There is no longer any individuality. Consciousness and self-awareness exists all the time, but not in the previous duality of “that is mine” and “that is yours”. The body lives on, but from now on the inner self remains with the Supreme Self. This means the end of all problems and pain, the end of suffering, of rebirth and death.
In consciousness there are different levels that one can experience. Deep sleep, dream consciousness, waking consciousness, supreme consciousness and cosmic consciousness.
In the deep sleep level of consciousness, we experience a state of temporary unconsciousness. In this level, the mind is free from all worldly thoughts and suffering. But when we awaken everything becomes same as earlier. The thoughts and worries return to the earlier state. One cannot determine outwardly whether someone is in Samadhi state. It’s the state, which one has to achieve and experience personally. For an observer it appears like, the person who is sitting in Samadhi like he is meditating or unconscious. As in sleep, physical sensations such as heat, cold, hunger, thirst, etc., are strongly diminished in Samadhi. The state of Samadhi, however, is in no way detrimental to the body. The Soul is always connected to the body, and is a witness to everything that occurs. Therefore, at any time one can return to “normal consciousness” just as one instantly awakens from a dream if touched or disturbed to. Even in Samadhi we cannot attain the cosmic consciousness, the final level can only be realized only after death. That means we will lose the mortal consciousness and becomes one with the entire Universe, with every atom, and this is not possible on the physical level. As soon as the Supreme Consciousness begins to expand towards Cosmic Consciousness the earthly existence draws to a close. The body is “taken off” like an old article of clothing, whether through illness or peacefully passing away.
In Yoga there are three techniques described, the practice and mastery of which will lead us to this Supreme state of consciousness – Concentration, Meditation and Samadhi.
In concentration we direct our consciousness towards a single object, withdrawing it completely from all other things. For this it is crucial that we focus our attention totally on a single point. Meditation is the next stage of concentration. Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness. This is the preliminary stage to Samadhi. One cannot learn meditation. When body and mind are correctly tuned and have become quiet and pure the meditative state occurs by itself – just as sleep overcomes us by itself when we go to bed in the evening. Samadhi is the Supreme Consciousness in which knower, knowledge and object of knowledge unite.
Basically one can differentiate two main types and levels of Samadhi and several sublevels comes under these major categories.
Unconscious Samadhi and Conscious Samadhi
As long as you are in the body, whatever liberation you attain, the body is a limitation. It is not complete liberation. When someone leaves their body in full awareness, then we call this Samadhi because he or she has shed the body. Samadhi and liberation occur in the Sahasrara Chakra, the “tenth door”. It opens when we follow one of the Yoga paths with perseverance.
“Once you transcend the mind as a limitation, time and space doesn’t exist for you. What is here is there, what is now is then. -Sadguru”
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By
Naveen Kumar
Conscious Dimension 