The steadiness of prana is known as samadhi. Just by knowing that, in few moments the prana becomes steady and brings you to a space where you are completely hollow.

 

Patanjali tells you to become like a crystal, which is solid but allows light to pass through it totally. Though you exist with a body, in the state of samadhi you are not there at all. In other words you can live as though you don’t exist.

 

When you are with the Self, you are just with the just the self — steady, blissful and joyful and when you are with your senses, you are so totally in the senses.

 

The samadhi that you experience during activity is sabheej samadhi. Have you noticed a child? His eyes do not flitter here and there. They are steady. A child stares at things and there is depth in the eye of a child. This indicates the soul, how steady and stable it is. Your eyes are the window to see the world. If someone is very ambitious or greedy, their eyes will indicate that. If a person is kind and compassionate, the eyes will reflect that.

 

When I say eyes, I do not mean just the physical eyes but the face, the behavior, the senses, appearance, walk, words, your entire life reflects what you are deep inside.

 

This is the job of the senses. They tell you about the world and tell the world about you. The soul in you reflects the dignity in you. This is sabheej samadhi. Do you get it? You look at the mountain and the mountain reminds you of the self, of the consciousness.

 

You look at the ocean and the ocean reminds you of consciousness. Your mind is steady, your senses are steady. Steadiness is dignity. Steadiness is strength and steadiness is dispassion. You can experiment this. For a few moments you keep your body steady and keep your eyes steady and you will see almost immediately that the mind becomes steady and the breath comes to a standstill. This is when time stops, death stops, and immortality begins. Before time swallows you, before this earth gulps you, you wake up, and you swallow time.

 

Samadhi is a state of mind in which you can stay for a million years.

 

Every experience of your senses becomes complete. Have you observed your feelings when you are happy? You feel you are expanding. And what happens when you are sad, uptight or sorrowful? You experience tightness, reduction, isn’t it? Also when we feel expanded, our awareness is expanding, we tend to fall asleep. And when we want to have keenness of awareness, we seem to be more uptight, not relaxed.

 

Samadhi is a state of mind where you are sensitive to others feelings too. When you become sensitive to the world, nature becomes sensitive to you and listens to you. How can this happen? What is the condition? We will explore this in the next Sûtra.

Yathapimatha Dhyanatvad ‘‘or by meditating as per your choice’’ There are many different types of meditations. You can take on whichever suits you, whichever you love. Take one path and go into one path. All ways are good, but, you take one way and go deep into it without criticizing others.

 

Paramanu Parama mahatvanthayoranyah  ‘‘Then the minutest atom, to the greatest and the infinite comes under your purview’’

 

The nature loves you, starts supporting you. When earth shakes for few seconds, you know how much disaster happens. You exist in this planet because earth is steady. Once in a while earth shakes and it throws you off your place, a few seconds can make your life stand still for many days. Any type of natural calamity, whether floods or torrential rain or scorching heat disturbs life. You can be at peace when nature is at peace, when nature is steady, when nature doesn’t behave in a funny manner. Few years ago, in the middle of the summer in Sahara desert there was snowfall. And in the same year, you also have read in the papers the usually cold England was so hot. Winter months & the day became so hot, never heard of before, first time in the century. Once in a while nature shakes, but your senses are shaking every day. When the senses are shaky, it is unable to behold the Lord within. It disturbs the peace in you. Like nature when it is steady, there is peace, when your senses are steady, there is peace. Meditation can happen when there is harmony in nature and there is harmony in your senses. If your eyes are going all over the place, the mind is not in a meditative state. Is your breath steady? Is the prana going smooth and normal or going haphazard? When your senses are steady, your soul also becomes peaceful, your being, your spirit inside you becomes steady.

 

Instead of realizing that joy is the nature of self, the senses see joy in the objects that are outside That is when the senses shake. Senses are the bridge, one side is the object and the other side is the Self. When senses think pleasure is coming to me from the objects or more pleasure will come from the object, they shake. Even during the few minutes when the senses shake, they become tired and they become unable to enjoy or experience joy. Are you getting what I am saying? I had been to a Blind school in Bangalore; they sang bhajans for half an hour with all their heart. It was so powerful because there was no distraction for them, they didn’t have to look here and there. It was as though they were singing from a very deep meditative state. There whole being was in those songs. Because the eyes were steady already, there was no way for the eyes to move here and there. The same eyes which you think guide you and bring you light can shake you and bring you darkness too .It is also the same with ears. See, some time people switch on the radio and every five minutes they go on moving the tuning, keep on tuning to different stations. Their entire time would be spent in tuning, little bit from here, little bit from there, may be a better song will be played in that station, they will change the band ! Same could be true for some people with the the sense of smell. They put this perfume on and then use the other one.

 

When the senses are steady, then the prana, which is shaking inside you also becomes straight. Those of you who are introduced to Pranayama, you would have noticed when you do pranayama see how your prana becomes steady. And all those moments when you are feeling not so good, when you are unhappy or when fear is there, observe the prana. These states are nothing but indications that the prana is shaky. And samadhi is steadiness in prana.