{"id":956,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=956"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:34","slug":"46-samadhi-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20\/46-samadhi-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","title":{"rendered":"-46_Samadhi.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n  Chapter XXVI<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span>Samadhi<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n                    I<\/font><\/span><\/b>NTIMATELY<\/font><\/span> connected with the aim of the
\nYoga of Knowledge which must always be the growth, the ascent or the withdrawal
\ninto a higher or a divine consciousness not now normal to us, is the importance
\nattached to the phenomenon of Yogic trance, to Samadhi. It is supposed that
\nthere are states of being which can only be gained in trance; that especially
\nis to be desired in which all action of awareness is abolished and there is no
\nconsciousness at all except the pure supramental immersion in immobile,
\ntimeless and infinite being. By passing away in this trance the soul departs
\ninto the silence of the highest Nirvana without possibility of return into any
\nillusory or inferior state of existence. Samadhi is not so all-important in the
\nYoga of devotion, but it still has its place there as the swoon of being into
\nwhich the ecstasy of divine love casts the soul. To enter into it is the
\nsupreme step of the ladder of Yogic practice in Rajayoga and Hathayoga. What
\nthen is the nature of Samadhi or the utility of its trance in an integral Yoga?
\nIt is evident that where our objective includes the possession of the Divine in
\nlife, 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
\nsystems, but only a means, and a means not of escape from the waking existence,
\nbut to enlarge and raise the whole seeing, living and active consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nimportance of Samadhi rests upon the truth which modern knowledge is
\nrediscovering, but which has never been lost in Indian psychology, that only a
\nsmall part whether of world-being or of our own being comes into our ken or
\ninto our action. The rest is hidden behind in subliminal reaches of being which
\ndescend into the profoundest depths of the subconscient<\/span>
\nand rise to highest peaks of superconscience<\/span>, or
\nwhich surround the little field of our waking self with a wide
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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circumconscient<\/span><\/span> existence of
\nwhich our mind and sense catch only a few indications. The old Indian
\npsychology expressed this fact by dividing consciousness into three provinces,
\nwaking state, dream-state, sleep-state, jāgrat<\/i><\/span>, svapna<\/span>, suşupti<\/i>; and it supposed in the human
\nbeing a waking self, a dream-self, a sleep-self, with the supreme or absolute
\nself of being, the fourth or Turiya, beyond, of which all these are derivations
\nfor the enjoyment of relative experience in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

If we examine
\nthe phraseology of the old books, we shall find that the waking state is the
\nconsciousness of the material universe which we normally possess in this
\nembodied existence dominated by the physical mind. The dream-state is a consciousness
\ncorresponding to the subtler life-plane and mind-plane behind, which to us,
\neven when we get intimations of them, have not the same concrete reality as the
\nthings of the physical existence. The sleep-state is a consciousness corresponding
\nto the supramental plane proper to the gnosis, which is beyond our experience
\nbecause our causal body or envelope of gnosis is not developed in us, its
\nfaculties not active, and therefore we are in relation to that plane in a
\ncondition of dreamless sleep. The Turiya beyond is the consciousness of our
\npure self-existence or our absolute being with which we have no direct
\nrelations at all, whatever mental reflections we may receive in our dream or
\nour waking or even, irrecoverably, in our sleep consciousness. This fourfold
\nscale corresponds to the degrees of the ladder of being by which we climb back
\ntowards the absolute Divine. Normally therefore we cannot get back from the
\nphysical mind to the higher planes or degrees of consciousness without receding
\nfrom the waking state, without going in and away from it and losing touch with
\nthe material world. Hence to those who desire to have the experience of these
\nhigher degrees, trance becomes a desirable thing, a means of escape from the
\nlimitations of the physical mind and nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Samadhi or
\nYogic trance retires to increasing depths according as it draws farther and
\nfarther away from the normal or waking state and enters into degrees of
\nconsciousness less and less communicable to the waking mind, less and less
\nready to receive a summons from the waking world. Beyond a certain
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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point the trance becomes
\ncomplete and it is then almost or quite impossible to awaken or call back the
\nsoul that has receded into them; it can only come back by its own will or at
\nmost by a violent shock of physical appeal dangerous to the system owing to the
\nabrupt upheaval of return. There are said to be supreme states of trance in
\nwhich the soul persisting for too long a time cannot return; for it loses its
\nhold on the cord which binds it to the consciousness of life, and the body is
\nleft, maintained indeed in its set position, not dead by dissolution, but incapable
\nof recovering the ensouled<\/span> life which had inhabited
\nit. Finally, the Yogin acquires at a certain stage of development the power of
\nabandoning his body definitively without the ordinary phenomena of death, by an
\nact of will,\u00b9 or by a process of withdrawing the pranic<\/span>
\nlife-force through the gate of the upward life-current (udāna<\/i><\/span>), opening for it a way
\nthrough the mystic brahmarandhra<\/i><\/span>
\nin the head. By departure from life in the state of Samadhi he attains directly
\nto that higher status of being to which he aspires.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the
\ndream-state itself there are an infinite series of depths; from the lighter
\nrecall is easy and the world of the physical senses is at the doors, though for
\nthe moment shut out; in the deeper it becomes remote and less able to break in upon
\nthe inner absorption, the mind has entered into secure depths of trance. There
\nis a complete difference between Samadhi and normal sleep, between the
\ndream-state of Yoga and the physical state of dream. The latter belongs to the physical
\nmind; in the former the mind proper and subtle is at work liberated from the
\nimmixture of the physical mentality. The dreams of the physical mind are an
\nincoherent jumble made up partly of responses to vague touches from the
\nphysical world round which the lower mind-faculties disconnected from the will
\nand reason, the buddhi<\/i>, weave a web
\nof wandering phantasy<\/span>, partly of disordered
\nassociations from the brain-memory, partly of reflections from the soul
\ntravelling on the mental plane, reflections which are, ordinarily, received without
\nintelligence or coordination, wildly distorted in the reception and mixed up
\nconfusedly with the other dream elements, with brain-memories and fantastic
\nresponses to any sensory touch from the physical world. In the Yogic dream-<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 <\/span>icchā-mŗtyu<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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state, on the other
\nhand, the mind is in clear possession of itself, though not of the physical
\nworld, works coherently and is able to use either its ordinary will and
\nintelligence with a concentrated power or else the higher will and intelligence
\nof the more exalted planes of mind. It withdraws from experience of the outer
\nworld, it puts its seals upon the physical senses and their doors of communication
\nwith material things; but everything that is proper to itself, thought,
\nreasoning, reflection, vision, it can continue to execute with an increased
\npurity and power of sovereign concentration free from the distractions and unsteadiness
\nof the waking mind. It can use too its will and produce upon itself or upon its
\nenvironment mental, moral and even physical effects which may continue and have
\ntheir after consequences on the waking state subsequent to the cessation of the
\ntrance. <\/span><\/p>\n

To arrive at
\nfull possession of the powers of the dream-state, it is necessary first to
\nexclude the attack of the sights, sounds etc. of the outer world upon the
\nphysical organs. It is quite possible indeed to be aware in the dream-trance of
\nthe outer physical world through the subtle senses which belong to the subtle
\nbody; one may be aware of them just so far as one chooses and on a much wider
\nscale than in the waking condition: for the subtle senses have a far more
\npowerful range than the gross physical organs, a range which may be made
\npractically unlimited. But this awareness of the physical world through the
\nsubtle senses is something quite different from our normal awareness of it
\nthrough the physical organs; the latter is incompatible with the settled state
\nof trance, for the pressure of the physical senses breaks the Samadhi and calls
\nback the mind to live in their normal field where alone they have power. But
\nthe subtle senses have power both upon their own planes and upon the physical
\nworld, though this is to them more remote than their own world of being. In
\nYoga various devices are used to seal up the doors of the physical sense, some
\nof them physical devices; but the one all-sufficient means is a force of
\nconcentration by which the mind is drawn inward to depths where the call of
\nphysical things can no longer easily attain to it. A second necessity is to get
\nrid of the intervention of physical sleep. The ordinary habit of the mind when
\nit goes in away from contact <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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with physical things is
\nto fall into the torpor of sleep or its dreams, and therefore when called in
\nfor the purposes of Samadhi, it gives or tends to give, at the first chance, by
\nsheer force of habit, not the response demanded, but its usual response of
\nphysical slumber. This habit of the mind has to be got rid of; the mind has to
\nlearn to be awake in the dream-state, in possession of itself, not with the
\noutgoing, but with an ingathered wakefulness in which, though immersed in
\nitself, it exercises all its powers. <\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nexperiences of the dream-state are infinitely various. For not only has it
\nsovereign possession of the usual mental powers, reasoning, discrimination,
\nwill, imagination, and can use them in whatever way, on whatever subject, for
\nwhatever purpose it pleases, but it is able to establish connection with all
\nthe 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
\nmeans open to the subtlety, flexibility and comprehensive movement of this
\ninternalised mind liberated from the narrow limitations of the physical outward-going
\nsenses. It is able first to take cognizance of all things whether in the
\nmaterial world or upon other planes by aid of perceptible images, not only
\nimages of things visible, but of sounds, touch, smell, taste, movement, action,
\nof all that makes itself sensible to the mind and its organs. For the mind in
\nSamadhi has access to the inner space called sometimes the cidākāśa<\/i>, to depths of more and more subtle ether
\nwhich are heavily curtained from the physical sense by the grosser ether of the
\nmaterial universe, and all things sensible, whether in the material world or
\nany other, create reconstituting vibrations, sensible echoes, reproductions,
\nrecurrent images of themselves which that subtler ether receives and retains.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is this
\nwhich explains many of the phenomena of clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc.; for
\nthese phenomena are only the exceptional admission of the waking mentality into
\na limited sensitiveness to what might be called the image memory of the subtle
\nether, by which not only the signs of all things past and present, but even
\nthose of things future can be seized; for things future are already
\naccomplished to knowledge and vision on higher <\/span><\/p>\n

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planes of mind and their
\nimages can be reflected upon mind in the present. But these things which are exceptional
\nto the waking mentality, difficult and to be perceived only by the possession
\nof a special power or else after assiduous training, are natural to the
\ndream-state of trance consciousness in which the subliminal mind is free. And
\nthat mind can also take cognizance of things on various planes not only by
\nthese sensible images, but by a species of thought perception or of thought
\nreception and impression analogous to that phenomenon of consciousness which in
\nmodern psychical science has been given the name of telepathy. But the powers
\nof the dream-state do not end here. It can by a sort of projection of
\nourselves, in a subtle form of the mental body, actually enter into other
\nplanes and worlds or into distant places and scenes of this world, move among
\nthem with a sort of bodily presence and bring back the direct experience of their
\nscenes and truths and occurrences. It may even project actually the mental or
\nvital body for the same purpose and travel in it, leaving the physical body in
\na profoundest trance without sign of life until its return.<\/span><\/p>\n

The greatest
\nvalue of the dream-state of Samadhi lies, however, not in these more outward
\nthings, but in its power to open up easily higher ranges and powers of thought,
\nemotion, will by which the soul grows in height, range and self-mastery. Especially,
\nwithdrawing from the distraction of sensible things, it can, in a perfect power
\nof concentrated self-seclusion, prepare itself by a free reasoning, thought,
\ndiscrimination, or more intimately, more finally, by an ever deeper vision and identification,
\nfor access to the Divine, the supreme Self, the transcendent Truth, both in its
\nprinciples and powers and manifestations and in its highest original Being. Or
\nit can by an absorbed inner joy and emotion, as in a sealed and secluded chamber
\nof the soul, prepare itself for the delight of union with the divine Beloved,
\nthe Master of all bliss, rapture and Ananda.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the
\nintegral Yoga this method of Samadhi may seem to have the disadvantage that
\nwhen it ceases, the thread is broken and the soul returns into the distraction
\nand imperfection of the outward life, with only such an elevating effect upon that
\nouter life as the general memory of these deeper experiences may pro- <\/span><\/p>\n

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duce<\/span><\/span>. But this
\ngulf, this break is not inevitable. In the first place, it is only in the
\nuntrained psychic being that the experiences of the trance are a blank to the
\nwaking mind; as it becomes the master of its Samadhi, it is able to pass
\nwithout any gulf of oblivion from the inner to the outer waking. Secondly, when
\nthis has been once done, what is attained in the inner state, becomes easier to
\nacquire by the waking consciousness and to turn into the normal experience,
\npowers, mental status of the waking life. The subtle mind which is normally
\neclipsed 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
\nsubtle bodies as well as in his physical body, to be aware of them and in them,
\nto use their senses, faculties, powers, to dwell in possession of supra-physical
\ntruth, consciousness and experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nsleep-state ascends to a higher power of being, beyond thought into pure
\nconsciousness, beyond emotion into pure bliss, beyond will into pure mastery;
\nit is the gate of union with the supreme state of Sachchidananda out of which
\nall the activities of the world are born. But here we must take care to avoid
\nthe pitfalls of symbolic language. The use of the words dream and sleep for
\nthese higher states is nothing but an image drawn from the experience of the
\nnormal physical mind with regard to planes in which it is not at home. It is
\nnot the truth that the Self in the third status called perfect sleep, suşupti<\/i>, is in a state of slumber.
\nThe sleep self is on the contrary described as Prajna<\/span>,
\nthe Master of Wisdom and Knowledge, Self of the Gnosis, and as Ishwara, the Lord
\nof being. To the physical mind a sleep, it is to our wider and subtler
\nconsciousness a greater waking. To the normal mind all that exceeds its normal
\nexperience but still comes into its scope, seems a dream; but at the point
\nwhere it borders on things quite beyond its scope, it can no longer see truth
\neven as in a dream, but passes into the blank incomprehension and non-reception
\nof slumber. This border-line varies with the power of the individual
\nconsciousness, with the degree and height of its enlightenment and awakening.
\nThe line may be pushed up higher and higher until it may pass even beyond the
\nmind. Normally indeed the human mind cannot be awake, even with the inner
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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waking of trance, on the
\nsupramental levels; but this disability can be overcome. Awake on these levels
\nthe soul becomes master of the ranges of gnostic thought, gnostic will, gnostic
\ndelight, and if it can do this in Samadhi, it may carry its memory of
\nexperience and its power of experience over into the waking state. Even on the
\nyet higher level open to us, that of the Ananda, the awakened soul may become
\nsimilarly possessed of the Bliss-Self both in its concentration and in its cosmic
\ncomprehension. But still there may be ranges above from which it can bring back
\nno memory except that which says, \u201csomehow, indescribably, I was in bliss,\u201d the
\nbliss of an unconditioned existence beyond all potentiality of expression by
\nthought or description by image or feature. Even the sense of being may
\ndisappear in an experience in which the word existence loses its sense and the
\nBuddhistic symbol of Nirvana seems alone and sovereignly justified. However
\nhigh the power of awakening goes, there seems to be a beyond in which the image
\nof sleep, of suşupti<\/i>, will still
\nfind its application.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such is the
\nprinciple of the Yogic trance, Samadhi, \u2013 into its complex phenomena we need
\nnot now enter. It is sufficient to note its double utility in the integral
\nYoga. It is true that up to a point difficult to define or delimit almost all that
\nSamadhi can give, can be acquired without recourse to Samadhi. But still there
\nare certain heights of spiritual and psychic experience of which the direct as
\nopposed to a reflecting experience can only be acquired deeply and in its
\nfullness by means of the Yogic trance. And even for that which can be otherwise
\nacquired, it offers a ready means, a facility which becomes more helpful, if
\nnot indispensable, the higher and more difficult of access become the planes on
\nwhich the heightened spiritual experience is sought. Once attained there, it
\nhas to be brought as much as possible into the waking consciousness. For in a Yoga
\nwhich embraces all life completely and without reserve, the full use of Samadhi
\ncomes only when its gains can be made the normal possession and experience for
\nan integral waking of the embodied soul in the human being.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
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  Chapter XXVI   Samadhi                       INTIMATELY connected with the aim of the Yoga of Knowledge which must always be the growth, the ascent or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","wpcat-20-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956","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=956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}