{"id":2178,"date":"2013-07-13T01:39:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2178"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:39:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:56","slug":"44-chapter-xxvi-samadhi-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga\/44-chapter-xxvi-samadhi-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","title":{"rendered":"-44_Chapter XXVI Samadhi.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChapter XXVI
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\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSamadhi
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI<\/font>NTIMATELY<\/b> connected with the aim of the Yoga of Knowledge which must always be the growth, the ascent or the withdrawal into a higher or a divine consciousness not now
\nnormal to us, is the importance attached to the phenomenon of Yogic trance, to Samadhi. It is supposed that there are states of
\nbeing which can only be gained in trance; that especially is to be desired in which all action of awareness is abolished and there is
\nno consciousness at all except the pure supramental immersion in immobile, timeless and infinite being. By passing away in this
\ntrance the soul departs into the silence of the highest Nirvana without possibility of return into any illusory or inferior state
\nof existence. Samadhi is not so all-important in the Yoga of devotion, but it still has its place there as the swoon of being
\ninto which the ecstasy of divine love casts the soul. To enter into it is the supreme step of the ladder of Yogic practice in Rajayoga
\nand Hathayoga. What then is the nature of Samadhi or the utility of its trance in an integral Yoga? It is evident that where
\nour objective includes the possession of the Divine in life, a state of cessation of life cannot be the last consummating step or the
\nhighest desirable condition: Yogic trance cannot be an aim, as in so many Yogic systems, but only a means, and a means not of
\nescape from the waking existence, but to enlarge and raise the whole seeing, living and active consciousness. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe importance of Samadhi rests upon the truth which modern knowledge is rediscovering, but which has never been lost
\nin Indian psychology, that only a small part whether of world-being or of our own being comes into our ken or into our action.
\nThe rest is hidden behind in subliminal reaches of being which descend into the profoundest depths of the subconscient and rise
\nto highest peaks of superconscience, or which surround the little field of our waking self with a wide circumconscient existence
\n  <\/p>\n

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\n  <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tof which our mind and sense catch only a few indications. The
\nold Indian psychology expressed this fact by dividing consciousness into three provinces, waking state, dream-state, sleep-state,  jā<\/font>grat<\/i>, svapna<\/i>, sus<\/font>upti<\/i>; and it supposed in the human being
\n.<\/i> a waking self, a dream-self, a sleep-self, with the supreme or
\nabsolute self of being, the fourth or Turiya, beyond, of which all these are derivations for the enjoyment of relative experience in
\nthe world. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf we examine the phraseology of the old books, we shall
\nfind that the waking state is the consciousness of the material universe which we normally possess in this embodied existence
\ndominated by the physical mind. The dream-state is a consciousness corresponding to the subtler life-plane and mind-plane
\nbehind, which to us, even when we get intimations of them, have not the same concrete reality as the things of the physical
\nexistence. The sleep-state is a consciousness corresponding to the supramental plane proper to the gnosis, which is beyond
\nour experience because our causal body or envelope of gnosis is not developed in us, its faculties not active, and therefore we are
\nin relation to that plane in a condition of dreamless sleep. The Turiya beyond is the consciousness of our pure self-existence or
\nour absolute being with which we have no direct relations at all, whatever mental reflections we may receive in our dream or
\nour waking or even, irrecoverably, in our sleep consciousness. This fourfold scale corresponds to the degrees of the ladder of
\nbeing by which we climb back towards the absolute Divine. Normally therefore we cannot get back from the physical mind
\nto the higher planes or degrees of consciousness without receding from the waking state, without going in and away from it and
\nlosing touch with the material world. Hence to those who desire to have the experience of these higher degrees, trance becomes
\na desirable thing, a means of escape from the limitations of the physical mind and nature. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSamadhi or Yogic trance retires to increasing depths according as it draws farther and farther away from the normal or
\nwaking state and enters into degrees of consciousness less and less communicable to the waking mind, less and less ready to <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\treceive a summons from the waking world. Beyond a certain
\npoint the trance becomes complete and it is then almost or quite impossible to awaken or call back the soul that has receded into
\nthem; it can only come back by its own will or at most by a violent shock of physical appeal dangerous to the system owing
\nto the abrupt upheaval of return. There are said to be supreme states of trance in which the soul persisting for too long a time
\ncannot return; for it loses its hold on the cord which binds it to the consciousness of life, and the body is left, maintained indeed
\nin its set position, not dead by dissolution, but incapable of recovering the ensouled life which had inhabited it. Finally, the
\nYogin acquires at a certain stage of development the power of abandoning his body definitively without the ordinary phenomena of death, by an act of will,\u00b9<\/font>or by a process of withdrawing the pranic life-force through the gate of the upward life-current  (udā<\/font>na<\/i>), opening for it a way through the mystic brahmarandhra<\/i>
\nin the head. By departure from life in the state of Samadhi he attains directly to that higher status of being to which he aspires. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn the dream-state itself there are an infinite series of depths; from the lighter recall is easy and the world of the physical senses
\nis at the doors, though for the moment shut out; in the deeper it becomes remote and less able to break in upon the inner
\nabsorption, the mind has entered into secure depths of trance. There is a complete difference between Samadhi and normal
\nsleep, between the dream-state of Yoga and the physical state of dream. The latter belongs to the physical mind; in the former the
\nmind proper and subtle is at work liberated from the immixture of the physical mentality. The dreams of the physical mind are an
\nincoherent jumble made up partly of responses to vague touches from the physical world round which the lower mind-faculties
\ndisconnected from the will and reason, the buddhi<\/i>, weave a web of wandering phantasy, partly of disordered associations from
\nthe brain-memory, partly of reflections from the soul travelling on the mental plane, reflections which are, ordinarily, received <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\u00b9<\/font> 
\nicchā<\/font>-mr<\/font>tyu<\/i>.  
\n  <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\twithout intelligence or coordination, wildly distorted in the reception and mixed up confusedly with the other dream elements, with brain-memories and fantastic responses to any sensory
\ntouch from the physical world. In the Yogic dream-state, on the other hand, the mind is in clear possession of itself, though not
\nof the physical world, works coherently and is able to use either its ordinary will and intelligence with a concentrated power or
\nelse the higher will and intelligence of the more exalted planes of mind. It withdraws from experience of the outer world, it
\nputs its seals upon the physical senses and their doors of communication with material things; but everything that is proper
\nto itself, thought, reasoning, reflection, vision, it can continue to execute with an increased purity and power of sovereign
\nconcentration free from the distractions and unsteadiness of the waking mind. It can use too its will and produce upon itself or
\nupon its environment mental, moral and even physical effects which may continue and have their after consequences on the
\nwaking state subsequent to the cessation of the trance. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo arrive at full possession of the powers of the dream-state,
\nit is necessary first to exclude the attack of the sights, sounds etc. of the outer world upon the physical organs. It is quite possible
\nindeed to be aware in the dream-trance of the outer physical world through the subtle senses which belong to the subtle body;
\none may be aware of them just so far as one chooses and on a much wider scale than in the waking condition: for the subtle
\nsenses have a far more powerful range than the gross physical organs, a range which may be made practically unlimited. But
\nthis awareness of the physical world through the subtle senses is something quite different from our normal awareness of it
\nthrough the physical organs; the latter is incompatible with the settled state of trance, for the pressure of the physical senses
\nbreaks the Samadhi and calls back the mind to live in their normal field where alone they have power. But the subtle senses
\nhave power both upon their own planes and upon the physical world, though this is to them more remote than their own world
\nof being. In Yoga various devices are used to seal up the doors of the physical sense, some of them physical devices; but the one all <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\t\t\tsufficient means is a force of concentration by which the mind is
\ndrawn inward to depths where the call of physical things can no longer easily attain to it. A second necessity is to get rid of the
\nintervention of physical sleep. The ordinary habit of the mind when it goes in away from contact with physical things is to fall
\ninto the torpor of sleep or its dreams, and therefore when called in for the purposes of Samadhi, it gives or tends to give, at the
\nfirst chance, by sheer force of habit, not the response demanded, but its usual response of physical slumber. This habit of the mind
\nhas to be got rid of; the mind has to learn to be awake in the dream-state, in possession of itself, not with the outgoing, but
\nwith an ingathered wakefulness in which, though immersed in itself, it exercises all its powers. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe experiences of the dream-state are infinitely various. For not only has it sovereign possession of the usual mental powers,
\nreasoning, discrimination, will, imagination, and can use them in whatever way, on whatever subject, for whatever purpose it
\npleases, but it is able to establish connection with all the worlds to which it has natural access or to which it chooses to acquire
\naccess, from the physical to the higher mental worlds. This it does by various means open to the subtlety, flexibility and comprehensive movement of this internalised mind liberated from the narrow limitations of the physical outward-going senses. It is
\nable first to take cognizance of all things whether in the material world or upon other planes by aid of perceptible images, not only
\nimages of things visible, but of sounds, touch, smell, taste, movement, action, of all that makes itself sensible to the mind and its
\norgans. For the mind in Samadhi has access to the inner space 
\ncalled sometimes the cidā<\/font>kāś<\/font>a<\/i>, to depths of more and more subtle ether which are heavily curtained from the physical sense by
\nthe grosser ether of the material universe, and all things sensible, whether in the material world or any other, create reconstituting
\nvibrations, sensible echoes, reproductions, recurrent images of themselves which that subtler ether receives and retains. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt is this which explains many of the phenomena of clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc.; for these phenomena are only the
\nexceptional admission of the waking mentality into a limited <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\t\t\tsensitiveness to what might be called the image memory of the
\nsubtle ether, by which not only the signs of all things past and present, but even those of things future can be seized; for things
\nfuture are already accomplished to knowledge and vision on higher planes of mind and their images can be reflected upon
\nmind in the present. But these things which are exceptional to the waking mentality, difficult and to be perceived only by the
\npossession of a special power or else after assiduous training, are natural to the dream-state of trance consciousness in which the
\nsubliminal mind is free. And that mind can also take cognizance of things on various planes not only by these sensible images,
\nbut by a species of thought perception or of thought reception and impression analogous to that phenomenon of consciousness
\nwhich in modern psychical science has been given the name of telepathy. But the powers of the dream-state do not end here. It
\ncan by a sort of projection of ourselves, in a subtle form of the mental body, actually enter into other planes and worlds or into
\ndistant places and scenes of this world, move among them with a sort of bodily presence and bring back the direct experience
\nof their scenes and truths and occurrences. It may even project actually the mental or vital body for the same purpose and travel
\nin it, leaving the physical body in a profoundest trance without sign of life until its return. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe greatest value of the dream-state of Samadhi lies, however, not in these more outward things, but in its power to open
\nup easily higher ranges and powers of thought, emotion, will by which the soul grows in height, range and self-mastery. Especially, withdrawing from the distraction of sensible things, it can, in a perfect power of concentrated self-seclusion, prepare itself
\nby a free reasoning, thought, discrimination, or more intimately, more finally, by an ever deeper vision and identification, for
\naccess to the Divine, the supreme Self, the transcendent Truth, both in its principles and powers and manifestations and in its
\nhighest original Being. Or it can by an absorbed inner joy and emotion, as in a sealed and secluded chamber of the soul, prepare
\nitself for the delight of union with the divine Beloved, the Master of all bliss, rapture and Ananda.
\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\t\t\t For the integral Yoga this method of Samadhi may seem to
\nhave the disadvantage that when it ceases, the thread is broken and the soul returns into the distraction and imperfection of
\nthe outward life, with only such an elevating effect upon that outer life as the general memory of these deeper experiences
\nmay produce. But this gulf, this break is not inevitable. In the first place, it is only in the untrained psychic being that the
\nexperiences of the trance are a blank to the waking mind; as it becomes the master of its Samadhi, it is able to pass without any
\ngulf of oblivion from the inner to the outer waking. Secondly, when this has been once done, what is attained in the inner state,
\nbecomes easier to acquire by the waking consciousness and to turn into the normal experience, powers, mental status of the
\nwaking life. The subtle mind which is normally eclipsed by the insistence of the physical being, becomes powerful even in the
\nwaking state, until even there the enlarging man is able to live in his several subtle bodies as well as in his physical body, to be
\naware of them and in them, to use their senses, faculties, powers, to dwell in possession of supraphysical truth, consciousness and
\nexperience. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe sleep-state ascends to a higher power of being, beyond
\nthought into pure consciousness, beyond emotion into pure bliss, beyond will into pure mastery; it is the gate of union with the
\nsupreme state of Sachchidananda out of which all the activities of the world are born. But here we must take care to avoid the
\npitfalls of symbolic language. The use of the words dream and sleep for these higher states is nothing but an image drawn from
\nthe experience of the normal physical mind with regard to planes in which it is not at home. It is not the truth that the Self in the
\nthird status called perfect sleep, sus<\/font>upti<\/i>, is in a state of slumber.
\nThe sleep self is on the contrary described as Prajna, the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge, Self of the Gnosis, and as Ishwara,
\nthe Lord of being. To the physical mind a sleep, it is to our wider and subtler consciousness a greater waking. To the normal
\nmind all that exceeds its normal experience but still comes into its scope, seems a dream; but at the point where it borders on
\nthings quite beyond its scope, it can no longer see truth even as  
\n <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\t\t\t in a dream, but passes into the blank incomprehension and non-reception of slumber. This border-line varies with the power of the individual consciousness, with the degree and height of its
\nenlightenment and awakening. The line may be pushed up higher and higher until it may pass even beyond the mind. Normally
\nindeed the human mind cannot be awake, even with the inner waking of trance, on the supramental levels; but this disability
\ncan be overcome. Awake on these levels the soul becomes master of the ranges of gnostic thought, gnostic will, gnostic delight, and
\nif it can do this in Samadhi, it may carry its memory of experience and its power of experience over into the waking state. Even on
\nthe yet higher level open to us, that of the Ananda, the awakened soul may become similarly possessed of the Bliss-Self both in its
\nconcentration and in its cosmic comprehension. But still there may be ranges above from which it can bring back no memory
\nexcept that which says, “somehow, indescribably, I was in bliss,” the bliss of an unconditioned existence beyond all potentiality of
\nexpression by thought or description by image or feature. Even the sense of being may disappear in an experience in which
\nthe word existence loses its sense and the Buddhistic symbol of Nirvana seems alone and sovereignly justified. However high the
\npower of awakening goes, there seems to be a beyond in which the image of sleep, of
\nsus<\/font>upti<\/i>, will still find its application.
\n.<\/i> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSuch is the principle of the Yogic trance, Samadhi, \u2014 into
\nits complex phenomena we need not now enter. It is sufficient to note its double utility in the integral Yoga. It is true that up
\nto a point difficult to define or delimit almost all that Samadhi can give, can be acquired without recourse to Samadhi. But still
\nthere are certain heights of spiritual and psychic experience of which the direct as opposed to a reflecting experience can only be
\nacquired deeply and in its fullness by means of the Yogic trance. And even for that which can be otherwise acquired, it offers
\na ready means, a facility which becomes more helpful, if not indispensable, the higher and more difficult of access become the
\nplanes on which the heightened spiritual experience is sought. Once attained there, it has to be brought as much as possible
\ninto the waking consciousness. For in a Yoga which embraces <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\t\t\tall life completely and without reserve, the full use of Samadhi
\ncomes only when its gains can be made the normal possession and experience for an integral waking of the embodied soul in
\nthe human being.   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>527<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter XXVI   Samadhi   INTIMATELY connected with the aim of the Yoga of Knowledge which must always be the growth, the ascent or the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","wpcat-46-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}