Deep Dive: Seven Types of Samadhi in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

[00:00:21]Since you clicked on this deep dive video,  you probably already know about Patanjali, the great rishi who wrote the Yoga Sutras which  is the foundational Sanskrit text on meditation.

[00:00:37]In this text, Patanjali summarizes various  yogic teachings that were already considered ancient at the time of his life, about 2000  years ago. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali identifies seven different types of samadhi, seven  distinct states of meditative absorption. Since samadhi is sought by so many spiritual seekers,  it might be really helpful take a close look at the Yoga Sutras and try to understand the  unique qualities of each type of samadhi.

[00:01:19]Patanjali's text is extremely terse,  and its subject matter is quite subtle, so it's usually studied along with a Sanskrit  commentary or bhashya that's attributed to Vyasa. But even Vyasa's commentary is confusing  in many places, so it becomes necessary to use the subcommentaries of Vachaspati Mishra and  Vijnana Bhikshu as well. I had to study all this a number of times before I could clearly  understand Patanjali's teachings and use them in my personal practice of meditation. That study and practice forms the basis for this video, First, I'll explain the conceptual  framework that Patanjali uses to describe all seven types of samadhi. Then, I'll explain each  one of them in an experiential manner, based on my own practice, so that you can use these teachings  to deepen your own practice of meditation.

[00:02:42]The Yoga Sutras have four parts or padas. The  first one is aptly named the samadhi pada. And, in the first few sutras, Patanjali gives a brief  but extremely profound definition of samadhi.

[00:03:01]He begins, atha, now, yoga-anushasanam, these are  the traditional teachings on the topic of yoga.

[00:03:12]Here, the commentators on this text are quick to  point out that the word yoga, in this context, does not mean union, as it often does. They refer to the verbal root from which the word yoga is derived which has several different  meanings. The commentators all say, yuj samadhau, the root yuj is used in the sense of samadhi. So,  yoga here, means samadhi. But the word samadhi itself is highly nuanced. In addition to its  conventional meaning, it also means collected, concentrated, well-placed, and these meanings  point to the fact that your mind must be fully controlled to reach the state of samadhi. Then Patanjali defines yoga as citta-vritti-nirodhah, the restraint or  cessation of vrittis, which are the activities of your mind, citta. Those vrittis include all  your mental activities like thoughts, emotions, and perceptions. So, the practice of yoga is  to restrain those vrittis, to control them, and ultimately, to make your mind perfectly  silent, free from all mental activities.

[00:04:49]In the next sutra, Patanjali says, tada, then,  when you have reached the highest of the seven kinds of samadhi, then, drashtuh svarupe, in  your own true nature, avasthanam, you will abide, you will abide in your own true nature as pure  consciousness. Later in the text, Patanjali describes this state as kaivalya, which literally  means onlyness. Kaivalya is a state of isolation in which you remain utterly free from any contact  whatsoever with worldly sources of suffering.

[00:05:39]After giving this brief definition, Patanjali then  expands on it. First, he defines five different kinds of vrttis. Then he explains how those  vrittis can be restrained and eliminated through abhyasa and vairagya. Abhyasa means practice,  specifically, the practice of concentrating your attention and making your mind one-pointed,  completely focused on an object of meditation.

[00:06:16]Vairagya means dispassion or detachment. It  means to completely withdraw your attention from all worldly objects and experiences. Then, Patanjali names and defines each of the seven kinds of samadhi. He puts them in two  categories, which he calls samprajnata samadhi and asamprajnata samadhi. You might be more  familiar with the terms savikalpa and nirvikalpa, but Patanjali himself doesn't use these terms,  for technical reasons that we need not discuss here. Samprajnata samadhi is a state of being  absorbed in a particular object of meditation.

[00:07:10]The Sanskrit term for this object is alambana,  which means something that you hang on to, a support, a support for your practice of  meditation. For example, you can use a mantra, or a mental image, or your own breath  as an alambana, the mental object on which you concentrate your attention. The counterpart to samprajnata samadhi is asamprajnata samadhi, which is a state of  absorption that does not involve the use of an alambana, no mantra, no mental image, not  even the sound of om. Just pure absorption, without any object whatsoever. This is the  highest of the seven types of samadhi described by Patanjali. It will be easier to understand  this state if we discuss the others first.

[00:08:16]Each of the six kinds of samprajnata samadi  is based on the particular kind of alambana that's used as an object of meditation. The first  kind of alambana is physical or sthula. Mantras are considered physical because they're made  of sounds. Mental images are also considered physical because they're based on physical  things. To become fully absorbed in meditation on a physical alambana is called savitarka  samadhi. This state is the lowest of the seven types of samadhi that Patanjali describes. To become fully absorbed in meditation on a subtle or sukshma alambana is called savicara  samadhi. Subtle, here, means non-physical, and a subtle alambana is something that's made of  the of five subtle elements, the sukshma bhutas, which are said to be precursors of the physical  elements that make up the world in which we live.

[00:09:38]These subtle elements are part of an ancient,  prescientific world view that's often hard to understand from a modern perspective.  Here's one way to understand them.

[00:09:52]Today, we know that mass and energy are  related. That's what Einstein expressed in his famous equation, E=mc2. Based on this  equivalence of mass and energy, a modern way to interpret the subtle elements might be to think  of them as different kinds of energy, energy that gives rise to the existence of physical  things, matter, like subatomic particles.

[00:10:27]In this way, a subtle object of meditation  could be understood as the energy or creative force because of which a particular physical  thing exists. Here's an example. The sounds of a mantra can be used as a physical  alambana, as we discussed before. So, the energy or creative force because of which those  sounds exist can be used as a subtle alambana, the type of alambana required for savicara  samadhi. I'll explain this in a more experiential way in the second part of this video. Ok. So far, we have discussed how savitarka and savicara samadhi are states of meditative  absorption in physical and subtle objects respectively. So then, what is the object  of meditation for sananda samadhi? Well, Patanjali himself doesn't address this  issue in the Yoga Sutras. So, it's left to the commentators, who explain it like this. Sananda literally means samadhi accompanied by ananda, bliss. When your mind gains a sufficient  depth of absorption while meditating on a subtle alambana, then bliss naturally arises,  producing the state of sananda samadhi.

[00:12:13]Note here that bliss itself is not the alambana  for meditation, but rather, bliss is the result of absorption in a subtle alambana. According  to the commentators, the alambana in this case is the mind itself, the buddhi, which is  said to be made of subtle elements.

[00:12:41]Next, we come to sasmita samadhi. Asmita literally  means I-ness, so sasmita samadhi is a state of absorption in your own sense of I-ness. You can  think about it as meditation on the meditator.

[00:13:02]I-ness is often called ahankara in Sanskrit, and  it's usually associated with all the features that make you an individual person, features like your  age and gender, your role as a father, mother, son or daughter, or as a doctor, an engineer,  or a homemaker, along with your personality traits like being loving and compassionate. But the I-ness that's used as an object of meditation to reach the state of sasmita samadhi  is highly refined. It's completely stripped of all those personal features. It's just the basic  sense or feeling of I-ness. Sasmita samadhi is the highest of the six kinds of samprajnata  samadhi, and it's the gateway that leads to asamprajnata samadhi. I'll explain all this in a  more experiential manner in the next part of this video. I'll also explain the states of nirvitarka  and nirvicara samadhi, which are the counterparts to savitarka and savicara samadhi. In meditation, before you can reach even the lowest state of samadhi, you first have  to completely withdraw your attention from the world around you. In that state of total  detachment, your field of experience is limited to the activities of your mind, restricted to  your vittis. You can think of those vrittis as being like waves in your mind, waves that  come and go in your field of experience, rising and falling like waves in the ocean. According to advaita Vedanta, experience occurs when the pure consciousness that is your  essential nature assumes the form of an object. Let me explain. In your mind right now,  pure consciousness has assumed the form of my image and the sound of my voice. So, vrittis can  be considered to be like waves of consciousness, waves that collectively form  your field of experience.

[00:16:03]So, whatever alambana you choose to meditate  upon will arise in your field of experience as waves of consciousness. If you meditate on  a mantra, then the sound and meaning of that mantra will arise as waves of consciousness.  At first, when you just begin to meditate, those waves are likely to be unsteady. They might  become stronger or weaker, faster or slower. Also, other kinds of waves might arise, like waves  in the form of distracting thoughts or physical sensations like itching and discomfort. But, as  your state of meditation grows deeper and deeper, those waves of distraction will gradually weaken,  and eventually, they'll fade away altogether.

[00:17:08]Then, only waves in the form of your alambana will  remain present in your field of experience.

[00:17:20]Gradually, those waves will grow increasingly  strong and steady. And then, when your attention is fully concentrated, you will reach the state of  one pointedness, the state called citta ekagrata, when your citta, your mind, is narrowly focused  on eka agra, on one point. In this state, the waves in your field of experience become  perfectly steady, motionless, like a like a wave in the ocean that's frozen in time, when  captured in a photograph. This is the state of absorption that Patanjali calls savitarka  samadhi, which is the first and lowest of the seven kinds of samadhi he describes. Notice that in this state of samadhi, your mind is not perfectly silent. In fact, your mind is quite  active. It's intensely concentrated on your chosen object of meditation, your alambana. This state  is often compared to the flow of oil that's being poured very slowly and carefully from one vessel  into another. When that flow is perfectly steady, it looks completely motionless, like ribbon of  oil that's suspended in the air, even though oil is constantly flowing inside that ribbon. A modern example of this state of one-pointedness is a laser beam. Ordinary light is said to be  incoherent because it randomly scatters in all directions. But the light of a laser is coherent,  that is, all of its light waves are perfectly uniform. Each wave has exactly the same shape and  direction. As a result, the light of a laser is highly concentrated and narrowly focused, and that  makes it good metaphor to describe samadhi.

[00:19:56]Now, what about the counterpart to savitarka  samadhi, the state that Patanjali calls nirvitarka samadhi? Well, savitarka samadhi is said to  be relational. That means, it involves certain relationships or associations. In particular,  the alambana on which you meditate is associated with a name, a form, and a meaning. It also has  some kind of personal significance to you.

[00:20:33]Savitarka samadhi is like looking at a picture of  your mother. When you see her face, your mind will naturally bring up her name, her personality,  and your memories of her. Nirvitarka samadhi, on the other hand, is like looking at a  picture of someone else's mother. Only her image will arise in your mind, nothing else,  because you have no relationship with her.

[00:21:04]Nirvitarka samadhi is non-relational.  That means, in this state, you are no longer aware of the name, form and meaning  of your alambana. You remain fully aware of its presence in your field of experience, but  without making any kind of mental associations.

[00:21:33]Next, we come to savicara samadhi, which is  the state of absorption while meditating on an alambana that is subtle or non-physical,  unlike a mantra or mental image. Suppose, while meditating on a mantra, you gradually shift  your attention away from the sound of the mantra, and towards the source of that sound, towards the  very vibrations that produce the sound in your mind. Those mental vibrations can be considered  to be the subtle form of the mantra.

[00:22:20]When your attention is fully concentrated  on those vibrations and your mind reaches the state of one-pointedness, ekagrata, then the  subtle form of the mantra will remain fixed in your field of experience, without changing, like  a photograph of a wave in the ocean. That state of absorption is savicara samadhi, absorption  in a subtle or non-physical alambana.

[00:22:56]The counterpart to savicara samadhi is nirvicara  samadhi. In meditation, the transition between these two states is exactly the same as the  progression from savitarka to nirvitarka samadhi, which we discussed before. The only difference is  in the alambana that's used. Here, you meditate on a subtle object instead of a physical one. As  you progress from savicara to nirvicara samadhi, you will lose awareness of the name, form and  meaning of the subtle alambana, but you will remain fully aware of the alambana itself. Now, the transition from nirvicara samadhi to sananda samadhi is not hard to understand  conceptually, but from an experiential standpoint, both of these states are really difficult to  achieve for most meditators. As the state of nirvicara samadhi deepens, the limitlessness and  fullness of your true nature as pure consciousness becomes expressed in your field of experience  as feelings of bliss. As we discussed before, this bliss is not the alambana on  which you meditate, but rather, it's the result of sananda samadhi. Then, sananda samadhi leads to sasmita samadhi, the highest state of absorption that  uses an alambana. As its name suggests, the alambana for sasmita samadhi is asmita  or the feeling of I-ness. As we saw before, your sense of I-ness is generally associated  with the features of your body, your personality, your roles in life, and much more. But by the  time you reach this lofty state of absorption, your ego will have become completely  refined, stripped of all the usual kinds of identification with your body, your personality,  and so on. All that remains in the field of your experience then is simply the awareness of  being a conscious being, nothing else.

[00:25:51]And here, I'm afraid that we have to conclude  our discussion, because we have reached the limit of what can be described with words.  In all six kinds of samprajnata samadi, some kind of alambana is used. The nature of  those alambanas and the results of meditating on them is what we have been discussing so  far. But now, we come to asamprajnata samadhi, the seventh and highest state of absorption.  That state that does not involve an alambana at all, so how can we describe it in a meaningful way?  Patanjali himself describes how asamprajnata samadhi is reached, and he explains the results  of reaching it. But he does not describe how that state feels because it cannot be described  with words. If words can't fully describe the taste of a juicy mango, then how can they possibly  describe the feeling of asamprajnata samadhi?

[00:27:12]Nevertheless, we have been able to discuss  many important aspects of samadhi here, and I hope this discussion will help you  in your ongoing practice of meditation.