All about yoga’s eight limb: samadhi
“I am neither ego nor reason; I am neither mind nor thought,
I cannot be heard nor cast into words, nor by smell nor sight ever caught:
In light and wind I am not found, nor yet in earth and sky —
Consciousness and joy incarnate, Bliss of the Blissful am I.
Neither knowable, knowledge, nor knower am I, formless is my form,
I dwell within the senses but they are not my home:
Ever serenely balanced, I am neither free nor bound —
Consciousness and joy am I, and Bliss is where I am found.”
~ excerpt from Song of the Soul, sung by Sankaracharya
Contrary to the general modern-day approach to yoga, the perfection of asanas (poses) was never intended to be the goal of yoga. The ability to perform physical poses with agile gymnastic ability has possibly become the focal point of too many yoga aspirants who view “advanced” yoga in this very manner. Those who can bend their bodies into “pretzels” are often mistakenly considered to be further along the yogic path than those who can barely touch their toes. This misconception about yoga is certainly no true measure of an advanced yogi. Possibly, this way of measuring progress in yoga is influenced by today’s attitude to what it means to be “successful” in life. However, the body is merely the form in which we reside and cannot be the only perspective from which we measure our progress on the yogic path.
Yoga is not merely about being flexible on the physical level, although that certainly helps. What is of much more importance and value is the inner attitude you bring to the practice. As such, advanced yoga cannot be considered advanced if it fails to bring you closer to recognition of your true self. If you wish to measure your progress in any way, take a few moments to look back on your journey since the time you first started practising. Take a close look at how it has changed you from within; that is, your view on life, your ability to stay calm in situations where perhaps you would have once lost your cool in the blink of an eye, your centredness, your inner balance, your inner confidence and your sense of calm. Of course, there is no way to scientifically measure such changes, however you will know whether they have taken place within you.
Perhaps our obsession with form and our need to measure and see results in a way that we can ascertain our progress in physical terms have led us to place excessive emphasis on asanas, giving little or no importance to the other seven limbs of yoga about which Patanjali wrote. The eighth and final stage of yoga, according to Patanjali, is samadhi, or self-realisation. If yoga were to be goal oriented in any way, this would be the goal to keep in mind. As each wave rises and falls, merging with the ocean, so each individual soul is able to merge with supreme consciousness in the ultimate experience of deep meditation. This blissful state is one in which the sadhaka (student or practitioner) is free from the senses, free from pleasure and pain and free from the concepts of the mind that keep us bound to delusion and misery.
Samadhi is realising who you are, realising from the inner core of your being that you are not just the body or just the mind but so much more. As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living Organisation, says, “The Self is not just the mind-body complex. Neither the body nor the mind is the Self. Self is all-encompassing.” Samadhi is realisation of the self, of the divine consciousness within you. This realisation at the deepest level brings fulfilment and moves you towards a way of being that is free from the limitations with which most people live their day-to-day lives.
Meditation, or dhyana, Patanjali’s seventh limb of yoga, can take you to this state of being. Meditation removes the clouds that prevent us from seeing the sun and opens to us a whole new realm of reality. All the truths of life lie within us, but we cannot see them unless the clouds are removed to reveal the sun. Consciousness is infinite and yet we are unable to access it until the clouds are removed. Connecting with the infinite, supreme consciousness, you acquire a new way of seeing the world, your creativity blossoms and great ideas come from seemingly nowhere, adding spice, vitality and enthusiasm to your life. Your potential is limitless and through meditation you come to fully know and realise this, blossoming into your fullest potential in the expansive space of samadhi.
In samadhi, the ego (the “I” and the “me”) and all the concepts that have led us to believe we are separate from the world and from each other dissolve. The meditator and the meditation become one and, as this happens, the mental realm dissolves and expands beyond the limited mind. In this state the mind and intellect stop. It is said that on the night of the full moon when Buddha attained samadhi (nirvana), he found his radiant light embracing and encompassing all beings. He became aware of birth and death from a new level of awareness and of all the processes in creation. Travelling on all planes of existence, Buddha became aware of the nature of infinity and eternity. From this state of consciousness he was then able to bring others to enlightenment so that they could also be free from illusion and happy.
In the same way, Patanjali, from his personal experience, was able to map out the eight limbs of yoga as a path that seekers could take towards gaining an unobstructed and clear view of reality, or enlightenment. By practising any one of the eight limbs with dedication and commitment, the consciousness begins to expand and perceptions become more accurate and more subtle.
According to Swami Satyananda Saraswati, founder of the International Yoga Fellowship Movement, those who wish to attain the deeper states of consciousness must earnestly involve themselves in some form of sadhana (practice). For example, by purifying the mind through yoga and meditative practices, your awareness increases. Through such a process you come closer, step by step, to dissolving incorrect concepts in the mind, which, through habit, have coloured and clouded your awareness. Sadhana removes blockages in the mind that prevent you from being part of, and one with, the unobstructed flow of consciousness.
Whilst in meditation you may be aware that you are practising concentration. In samadhi there is no such conscious awareness. You do not remain aware of your own existence, to the extent that the mind appears to no longer be functioning. Gradually, concentration is broken more frequently until the consciousness changes completely and moves into a void. In that void you remain unaware of yourself and of the process of concentration.
According to BKS Iyengar, samadhi is the end of the sadhaka’s quest. At the peak of meditation, when samadhi is reached, you move into a state where the body and senses are relaxed, as if you were asleep, and you lose consciousness of the ego and the breath. Paradoxically, the mind remains alert as if you were awake and yet you are simultaneously beyond any normal state of consciousness, having transcended to a heightened state of awareness that is difficult to describe to those who have not experienced meditation. Yoga means “yoke” or “union”, and in this state there is complete union and harmony, with no distinction between body, mind and spirit.
Contrary to our usual daily state of consciousness, in samadhi there is no fluctuation in the emotions. The senses become tranquil and still and the mind then follows suit. The practitioner is freed from worldly thoughts and cares and the mind no longer fluctuates erratically between past and future, neither remembering nor planning. This state of samadhi is the ultimate goal of the yogi and gives depth on all levels of existence.
Many people will feel that reaching the state of samadhi is not something they can achieve in their lifetime. However, samadhi can be attained by anyone. It is not merely something for a limited number of unique individuals but is available to anyone with a strong enough urge to attain it. The depth of silence, the depth of meditation, no-one can know unless they have experienced the self. What beautiful wealth we all possess in the self that we have not explored. Every human being can go into that depth of meditation.
Many people think that in order to attain this level of consciousness they will need to abandon their worldly responsibilities in exchange for a simple yogi lifestyle. This concept is just one of the many that prevents us from expanding beyond our limitations. In truth, it often happens in the reverse order: we can attain samadhi while living in and being of this world. Often, however, those who attain it initially feel the urge to renounce all possessions, considering them useless, before realising again that there is nothing wrong with having possessions so long as you have the knowledge and wisdom about where to place them in relation to other priorities. Put simply, it is possible for anyone from a businessman to a family man to reach samadhi.
Contrary to popular belief, it is said that once samadhi is reached the practitioner becomes extremely active and powerful and able to work hard for days on end without tiring, without the use of medicines. At the same time, such a person, while loving and compassionate, becomes dispassionate in the face of either sorrow or joy, remaining centred irrespective of external circumstances. Whether there is death or birth, loss or gain, insult or praise, this person is full of indescribable serenity, disturbed and shaken by nothing, ever cheerful and blissful, peaceful and joyful and able to face life’s storms with a calm and balanced mind.
In samadhi the words of the Bible come to life: there is peace that passeth all understanding. In fact, no matter how hard anyone tries, no words can truly come close to conveying this indescribable state of bliss and peace. Departing from the material world, the practitioner merges with the eternal and becomes open to an enormous wealth of wisdom, the depth of which can only be expressed through profound silence.
Many people have become attached to their identification; they think in terms of “I am this.” Ancient seers suggested a method for detaching from such identification. Ask yourself “Who am I?” Whether you think you are intelligent, foolish, rich, poor, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, male or female et cetera, all these identifications will limit you from knowing who you are and prevent you from experiencing the bliss of uniting with the Divine.
Various religions advocate God being someone or something that exists beyond us. Many believe that they are subservient to the Divine, that they are inferior to the Divine’s wisdom and omniscience. Yoga teaches that when samadhi is reached, ignorance dissolves and an understanding of how things really are emerges. Samadhi is union with the Lord, with the Divine, and the realisation that “I am that.” Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says, “When you pray, to whom do you pray? You pray to yourself. In prayer the mind goes to its source, the Self. God, the master and the Self are the same.”
It is an ancient thought that creation and creator are not separate. In the same way that waves are not separate from the ocean and cannot exist without the ocean, God is not separate from us. God, the Divine, Universal Consciousness or whatever you wish to call it, is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. In other words, it knows everything, can do everything and is present everywhere. Like a pot made from clay, the pot is the universe and the clay is God. To put it another way, think of the dancer as the Divine and the dance as creation. The dancer can exist without the dance but the dance cannot exist without the dancer. Similarly, the Divine can exist without creation but creation cannot exist without the Divine. Samadhi is the realisation of this at the deepest level, the experience of it within your innermost being.
Meggan Brummer has recently become a mum and is currently discovering how to remain healthy, happy and sane though mamma-hood. You can read more about it on her blog, megganmamma.wordpress.com.
