The next Sûtra is Smrutiparishuddhau swaroopashoonyevarthamatranirbhasa nirvitarka . Savitarka Samadhi is when there is an idea, a thought, while Nirvitarka Samadhi is when the intellect is purified and the memory becomes clear. You know, often your memory is clogged.

 

Try this simple exercise. Just ask anyone to narrate a movie they have seen five years ago. They will not be able to give you dialogues and you’ll probably find that the whole story is all mixed up. Simple things do not stay in your mind. Reliving memory itself is an exercise that is not very easy.

 

Go back to the past, you will find that you have a lot of things mixed up. What did you do in January three years ago? You know, you read the newspapers everyday spending a lot of time with it yet you probably will not remember most of what you have read. People do not really remember things. Our memory is short-lived.

 

But what happens when you sit down to meditate? All these old images keep coming up. Why do they come up? They come up to leave you and go. When they have all gone, the memory become pure and in that state you really become aware of who you are. How were you when you were a child? You were so blissful irrespective of what you had and what you didn’t have!

 

A child doesn’t need a reason to smile or laugh. That is an indication that memory is pure. When consciousness expands free from the clutches of memory, it’s what I call a pure memory. So, as you practise this type of Samadhi (Savitarka Samadhi), a moment comes where you are simply there where there is no hovering thoughts, ideas or feelings. That is when you experience moments of thoughtlessness. In that state, you just have the awareness of “I am’’ without any thought or feeling.

 

Glimpses of this Nirvitarka Samadhi you get in deep meditation. And as you continue the practise, it stabilises and becomes more and more obvious.

 

Ethayaiva savichara nirvichara cha sookshma vishaya vyakyaatha  is the next Sûtra.

 

Like Savitarka and Nirvitarka, there is Savichara and Nirvichara which is more subtle than Tarka. What is the difference between Tarka and Vichara? Tarka is the logic where your clear ideas are being spoken whereas faint feeling is also included in Vichara and that is why it is subtle.

 

Sookshma vishayatvam Chaalingaparyavasanam is the next Sûtra. This means that they continue for ever in the material or relative universe. Whenever you identify something that is its sign. As long as name and form are present, the relative material universe extends and as it extends to the subtler this continues.

 

Tha eva sabeeja samadhihi is the next Sûtra and it is called Sabeeja Samadhi. Here Patanjali Maharishi is taking you to the finer and finer aspects. This is difficult to understand if you don’t have an experience of quiet mind.

The next Sûtra is Tatra shabdarrtha jnanavikalpaihi Sankeerna savitarka samapattihi.

 

In this type of Samadhi, there is a little debate, a few thoughts flit about here and there, but those thoughts do not disturb the harmony. There are certain thoughts that do not throw you off balance. There are certain thoughts that help you come to a steady or calm state of awareness. In Savitarka Samadhi, there are also some thoughts or discussions.

 

The next Sûtra is Smrutiparishuddhau swaroopashoonyevarthamatranirbhasa nirvitarka.

 

In this state of mind, no debate exists, the memory is purified (ceases to exist) and there is a pure void in which there is a feeling of nothingness.

 

In this type of Samadhi, you are not aware of anything. You just know that you are and that is it. This is meditation with the eyes closed. When your eyes are closed, you simply know that you are, but you do not know where you are, what you are, who you are. There is just an “aabhas” or a feeling that you are nothing more than your existence. This is known as Nirvitarka Samadhi.

 

Finer and finer aspects of this are other types of Samadhi.

 

The series on Patanjali’s yogasûtras continues

The Sûtra this week is Ksheenavrutterbhijatasyeva manergrahetrugrahana grahyeshu tatsthatadanjanata samapathihi  meaning “On making the modulations of the mind powerless and on becoming like a transparent crystal, the mind, which holds the senses of the objects, in spite of being engaged in the world, all the three (mind, sense and object) are in a state of harmony or Samadhi”.

 

When the consciousness which grabs or holds, the object which it holds and the senses through which it holds, are in harmony, it is called Samadhi. Do you get this point? For example, the ears are the instruments through which you hold the sound. So your ears, sound and origin of sound, are connected. They all become keen and crystal clear.

 

When can this happen? This happens when your mind is not immersed in regret, anger, anticipation, proof, wrong knowledge, fantasy, sleep and memory. You know, when you look at a mountain, you don’t just look at a mountain; you say “Oh! This is beautiful”, and then it does not stop there, “Oh this is like the Alps, this is like the Himalayas”. Immediately, something is added to it. So you are not seeing as it is, but you are seeing it through comparison or memory. That is no Samadhi.

 

There is an old story that in a desert, a man had toiled to make a sunflower garden. The King had heard about it and since it was supposed to be beautiful, he thought that he would go and see it. When he went there he saw only one sunflower. The gardener had removed all the other flowers.

 

The king said, “What is this? I have heard a lot about your garden. And now I see only one flower!” The gardener said, “See, this flower is for you! When there are many flowers, you will compare. Just to make it easy for you to look at the flower, I removed everything else.

Your calculating mind will start, this is bigger, this is bigger, that is bigger. This one has blossomed, that one has blossomed.” Now, the king had no choice but to look at the one flower!

 

When there is no feverishness, even though you are engaged in the activities of the senses, there is steadiness. Do you see what I am saying? For example, if you are eating food and you taste every morsel as it moves gracefully through you throat, it is good. Otherwise you are stuffing your food and it is like a stampede. The more anxious you are, the more nervous you are, the shakier you are, the faster and more you eat. Have you noticed this? This is not Samadhi.

 

Steadiness in spite of being in a sensory activity is Samadhi.