Yogi and mystic Sadhguru, looks at what the state of

samadhi is, and explains the eight kinds of samadhi, as

well as the state of Mahasamadhi, the ultimate goal of
the spiritual seeker.
The word samadhi has been largely misunderstood. People think
samadhi means some death-like situation. The word samadhi
literally means sama and dhi sama meaning equanimity and dhi
meaning buddhi or the intellect. If you reach an equanimous state
of intellect, it is known as samadhi.
The fundamental nature of the intellect is to discriminate you
are able to discriminate between a person and a tree only because
your intellect is functioning. This discriminatory quality is very
important for survival. If you want to break a stone, you have to
discriminate between the stone and your nger otherwise you will
break your nger. So discrimination is an instrument which
supports and executes the instinct of survival present in every cell
of the body.
If you transcend the intellect you

Once you transcend

the mind as a
limitation, time and

become equanimous. This does

not mean you lose the ability to
discriminate. If you lose the
discriminatory intellect, you will
become insane. In a samadhi

space doesnt exist

for you. What is here
is there, what is now
is then. .

state, your discriminatory

intellect is perfectly in shape but
at the same time you have
transcended it. You are not
making a distinction you are
simply here, seeing life in its true
working. The moment you drop
or transcend the intellect,
discrimination cannot exist.

Everything becomes one whole, which is the reality. A state like

this gives you an experience of the oneness of the existence, the
unication of everything that is. In this state there is no time or
space. Time and space is a creation of your mind. Once you
transcend the mind as a limitation, time and space doesnt exist
for you. What is here is there, what is now is then. There is no
past or future for you. Everything is here in this moment.
The whole aspect of spirituality is to go beyond that
discrimination, beyond the survival instincts, which is for the
physical. Samadhi is a certain state of equanimity where the
intellect goes beyond its normal function of discrimination. This
in turn, loosens one from his physical body or there is a space
between what is you and your body.

The eight kinds of samadhis

Samadhis are of dierent varieties. When you are living in the
body there are eight samadhis available to a human being. Of

these eight, they have been broadly categorized as savikalpa:

samadhis with attributes or qualities samadhis that are very
pleasant, blissful, and ecstatic and nirvikalpa: samadhis that
are beyond pleasant and unpleasant, they are without attributes
or qualities. Those who go into nirvikalpa samadhi states are
always kept in protected states because their contact with the
body becomes very minimal. The smallest disturbance, like a
sound or a pinprick, would dislodge them from their body. These
states are maintained for certain periods to establish the
distinction between you and the body. It is a signicant step in
ones spiritual evolution, but still not the Ultimate. The samadhis
by themselves have no great signicance in terms of realization.
Many of Gautama the Buddhas

The samadhis by
themselves have no
great signicance in
terms of realization.

disciples went into very long

meditations. They did not come
out for years. But Gautama
himself never did so because he
saw it is not necessary. He
practiced and experienced all the
eight kinds of samadhis before
his enlightenment and discarded
them. He said, This is not it.

This is not going to take you any closer to realization. It is just

moving into a higher level of experience and you could get more
caught up because it is more beautiful than the current reality.

If the goal is set, if you have made realization the top priority in
your life, then every thing else which doesnt take you one step
closer is meaningless. Let us say you are climbing Mount Everest.
You will not take one step sideways because every ounce of energy
is needed. If you have to transcend your own consciousness, you
need every ounce of what you have and even then it is not
enough. So, any action that we perform, we dont want it to be a
sidewinder.

Mahasamadhi
As long as you are in the body, whatever liberation you attain, the
body is a limitation. It is not complete liberation. When someone
leaves their body in full awareness, then we call this
Mahasamadhi because he or she has shed the body.
Mahasamadhi is a dimension where you transcend discrimination
not just experientially but also existentially. There is no such
thing as you and the other. Right now, there is you and the other;

it is a certain level of reality. In a

To put it in
traditional terms,
you become one
with God or one
with everything.

samadhi state, you go beyond

that discrimination and in your
experience you are able to see the
oneness of the existence.
Mahasamadhi means you not
only see it that way, you have
become that way totally
discrimination is nished. That
means individual existence is
nished. Who you are does not

exist anymore. The life that is functioning as an individual life

right now becomes absolutely universal or cosmic or boundless.
To put it in traditional terms, you become one with God or one
with everything.
When I say one with God, it does not mean going and joining
someone somewhere. It is just that your individual bubble is over.
To use an analogy, right now your existence is like a bubble. A
bubble that is oating around is very real but if you burst it,
where does the air inside the bubble go? It just becomes one with
everything, isnt it? It is completely dissolved. When we say one
with everything, this is what it means. Nothing will be there. You
will not be there. When we say mukti, it means you are free from
existence. When I say you are free from existence, I am not
talking about existence as a quantity which you are free from. You
are free from your own existence your existence is nished.

When we say mukti or nirvana or moksha, this is what it means

freedom from the very burden of existence. Thats ultimate
freedom because as long as you exist, you are bound in one way or
another. If you exist in a physical way, it is one kind of bondage.
If you leave the physical body and exist in some other way, there
is still another kind of bondage. Everything that exists is ruled by
some law. Mukti means you have broken all laws and all laws can
be broken only when you cease to exist.
Nirvana is a more appropriate

Death exists only to

one who has no
awareness about
life. There is only life,
life and life alone.
But Mahasamadhi
means the real end.

word because nirvana means

non-existence. When there is no
existence, you are even free from
freedom because freedom is also
a certain bondage. So you are free
from your very existence. All
discrimination between what is
you and what is not you is
nished.
For someone to be able to do this
taking this life and throwing it
out without injuring the body it
needs tremendous energy.

Mahasamadhi is a state where one willfully drops the body. The

cycle is over. There is no question of rebirth, it is complete
dissolution. You can say this person is truly no more.

Life just shifts from one level to another. In reality there is no

such thing as death. Death exists only to one who has no
awareness about life. There is only life, life and life alone. But
Mahasamadhi means the real end. This is the goal of every
spiritual seeker. Ultimately, he wants to go beyond existence.

Editors Note: Check out Mystics Musings for more of Sadhgurus

wisdom and insights. Not for the faint-hearted, this book deftly guides
us with answers about reality that transcend our fears, angers, hopes,
and struggles. Sadhguru keeps us teetering on the edge of logic and
captivates us with his answers to questions relating to life, death,
rebirth, suering, karma, and the journey of the Self.
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