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After the four sutras on abhyāsa and vairāgya, two on abhyāsa, two on vairāgya. In this particular sutra number 17, Maharshi Patanjali describes and discusses about the samprajñāta samādhi. As we know that in the beginning, first two sutras, when we try to understand and define what is Yoga, we said that Yoga is not just joining, not just yoking. Yoga has to be taken in the meaning of the samādhau. And that samādhau, the samādhi state, the state of the samādhi of the citta, the state of samādhi on the way towards nirodhaḥ, praśānta-vāhitā , and that is the state is discussed, described, defined in this particular sutra. In this 17th, the discussion will be on samprajñāta samādhi. And the next sutra, the 18th, will be on the asamprajñāta samādhi.
Samprajñātaḥ it is. Samprajñātaḥ. That which is completely known in all its details. Jñātaḥ is one who knows everything. Just for understanding, somebody travels to a particular place and reaches a place, or when he returns, he knows all the details of travel, all the details of the place which he visited, and he knows everything of the entire journey. That knowing everything in detail, minute, then he is called as jñātaḥ. Samprajñātaḥ, completely, without missing any minute detail, that is samprajñātaḥ. That means, in this particular sutra, the hint and the discussion is that the consciousness, the mind, which is in the process of meditation, reaches somewhere, a particular stage. And not only the word samprajñātaḥ hints or gives that meaning, just before that, the word anugama, anugamataḥ. Anugama is following, accompanied. Somebody follows somebody. Somebody accompanies somebody. Somebody accompanies something. That accompanying, following is called anugama, anugamī, anugamataḥ. That means, this state of samprajñātaḥ is accompanied, is followed after, accompanied by, that is the meaning it conveys. And it is accompanied after, accompanied by, followed by, followed after, the four stages. The first stage is vitarka. The second is vicāra. The third is ānanda. And the fourth is (asmitā). These are the stages before the samprajñātaḥ.
If a person, a sādhaka, and the consciousness and the mind is in the state of samprajñātaḥ samādhi, it means it has gone through, it has passed through these four stages. And the first one is vitarka. Tarka is questioning. Vitarka is vinatarka, that is reasoning, rational thinking. Rational thinking of what? The rational thinking or the reasoning is, as the citta and the mind is going into a very deep stage, what was hidden, what was packed up, that starts coming out. It's like a pressure cooker or a pressure vessel, once you remove or open the lid, what is inside starts coming out. While it is coming out, there is a necessity, there will be this faculty of vitarka, which starts reasoning it, which needs to be reasoned about the direction, about the path, about the necessity. And that is the vitarka level. And as we understand that tarka is the question, and vicāra follows, ānanda comes, then (asmitā). That's why samprajñātaḥ samādhi is that which is accompanied by reasoning, reflection or rational thinking. Then bliss and a sense of pure being, that is the
वि॒त॒र्कवि॒चा॒रा॒नन्दा॒स्मि॒तारूपा॒नु॒ग॒मात् स॑म्प्रज्ञा॒तः ॥ १.१७॥
vitarka-vicārānandāsmitārūpānugamāt samprajñātaḥ ॥ 1.17 ॥
Samprajñāta samādhi is that which is accompanied by (anugamataḥ), reasoning, vitarka, vicāra, deliberating, reflection, bliss, ānanda, (asmitā). (Asmitā) is not ego, a pure being of ourself. A sense of pure being, our real nature. So this is the stages before that. So it is not a jump from one to the other. It is sequential, progressive movement. Sequential, progressive, serial nature is unfolding. This unfoldment of one stage further than the other stage. It's not that new things are happening. What is there is unfolded. What is there came into our knowledge. What was not in our knowledge earlier came into the purview of our knowledge. That is samprajñātaḥ.
That which was there but not known. That which was there but not came into our experience. Now it has come into the experience. And that has come as a natural unfoldment. And this natural unfoldment is (anugamataḥ). That is anugama. And the first one is (the vitarka). And these are the different stages which comes into the process before the samprajñātaḥ comes.
Swami Vivekananda beautifully explains this particular sutra. I quote. "Questioning the elements as it were that they may give up their truths and their powers to the man who meditates upon them. Again in the very same meditation when one struggles to take the elements out of time and space and think of them as they are. It is called as nirvitarka without questioning. When the meditation goes a step higher and takes the tanmātras as its object and thinks of them as in time and space. It is called savicāra with discrimination. And when the same meditation gets beyond time and space and thinks of the fine elements as they are. It is called nirvicāra without discrimination. The next step is when the elements are given up either as gross or as fine. And the object of meditation is the interior organ. The thinking organ. And when the thinking organ is thought of as bereft of the qualities of activity and of dullness. It is then called sānandam. The blissful samādhi. In that samādhi when we are thinking of the mind as the object of meditation. Before we have reached the state which takes us beyond the mind even. When it has become very ripe and concentrated. When all ideas of the gross materials or fine materials have been given up. And the only object is the mind as it is. When the sattva state only of the ego remains. But differentiated from all other objects. This is called asmitā samādhi. And the man who has attained to this has attained to what is called in the Vedas the bereft of the body." This is how Swami Vivekananda beautifully gives what happens, what is the deeper layers of the mind.
When we are meditating. When we are handling our mind for meditation on a particular object. The object is there. That's why it is samprajñātaḥ. That is another reason. That samprajñātaḥ is based on pratyaya. Pratyaya means an object and experience of the object. There cannot be an experience without an object. Any experience has an object. May be external or internal. If it is a thought, thought is pratyaya. So samprajñātaḥ has pratyaya. But as beautifully Swamiji explained it. Just from the object level to its components level, constituent level. Then into its qualitative level. Then beyond that just the mind itself. Then the asmitā level. That is how the progress goes deeper. And when we say there is a tarka. There is savitarka and nirvitarka. With reasoning and without reasoning. Similarly vicāra has with deliberation and without deliberation. Similarly nirvicāra. Savicāra and nirvicāra. Then with ānanda and asmitā it is.
So all these six types, six stages, six dimensions, six layers, which are very deeper in the progressive unfoldment of the meditative mind. Finally when it reaches into the samprajñātaḥ. It is a very important Sutra. When we have an overall outlook of the samādhi, in Patañjali Yoga Sūtra, we find that Patanjali handles samādhi at different various Sutras and different pādas. The three stages of meditation leading to samādhi. Were discussed in the third chapter Vibhūti Pāda. First four Sutras use that. Then the samprajñātaḥ and asamprajñātaḥ samādhi, in this particular chapter 17 and 18 Sutra. Then what are the essential processes involved. In samīja samādhi we find it in the 41st Sutra of this same chapter. Then the different phases of samīja samādhi were discussed. From the 42nd Sutra to the 50th Sutra of the same first chapter in the Samādhi Pāda. And what are the techniques of nirbīja samādhi, were discussed in the 51st Sutra of the same first chapter. And the third chapter 8th Sutra. Then the fourth chapter Kaivalya Pāda 26, 27, 28 and 29 Sutras. They handle with nirbīja samādhi.
And what are the three kinds of transformations which are involved in the samādhi. We find them in the Vibhūti Pāda 9, 10, 11 and 12 Sutras. This is how Patanjali covers clearly specifically samādhi in various Sutras in the Yoga Darśana. And this particular Sutra of the samprajñātaḥ samādhi which we have seen corresponds to the four stages of the guṇas. About which we discuss again in the 19th Sutra. And as it is said that anugama is associated or accompanied so the Sutra broadly means that the four successive phases. Or the four successive stages of samprajñātaḥ samādhi are accompanied by various functions and activities of the mind. Which are denoted by vitarka, vicāra, ānanda and asmitā respectively. So when the consciousness of the Yogi leaves one plane. That is the plane of vitarka and enters into the plane of vicāra. Pratyaya is there. So the pratyaya the object in the plane of vitarka again savitarka samprajñātaḥ, nirvitarka samprajñātaḥ, so savitarka samprajñātaḥ pratyaya is there, nirvitarka samprajñātaḥ pratyaya will be there. Then after leaving that plane. The consciousness of the Yogi goes into the second. That is savitarka, nirvitarka. Then savitarka, nirvitarka planes, stages, but there is also pratyaya again there. But before the mind enters from this one plane to the other plane. Even within the sub-planes there is a void, there is a blankness. We cannot say blank, it is pūrṇatā. And that voidness, that silence state is well hinted as asamprajñātaḥ. And that is where the characteristics of the pratyaya. So from one pratyaya before the unfoldment. And entering into the second pratyaya which will be a different one, that gap is the asamprajñātaḥ. So in asamprajñātaḥ as we will understand it later. There is no pratyaya. Between two pratyaya stages you find the asamprajñātaḥ samādhi. And beautifully the tradition says and experienced Yogis explain, and expose and explain that in that particular stage, when the planes of pratyaya changing comes one has to wait. But an alerted, a concentrated mind keeps on in alert, in a state of attentiveness. To enter into the higher dimensions of plane, higher dimensions, higher stages. When we say higher it is not upper. When we say higher it is deeper. That is how asamprajñātaḥ samādhi has been discussed by Maharishi Patanjali. And we shall wrap it up saying that samprajñātaḥ samādhi of the 17th Sutra is accompanied by vitarka, vicāra, ānanda and asmitā, and that accompanied is the anugamataḥ. And after trying to understand the intricacies of samprajñātaḥ samādhi, let us understand the next Sutra for asamprajñātaḥ samādhi. The 18th Sutra of the Samādhi Pāda.
Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ.
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः||
To Be Continued..
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These are transcription of session delivered by Vice-President of Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra, Sri M. Hanumantha Rao Ji.
Audio Link - https://youtu.be/-n_-Bgg-ZPs?si=kZkqBSrATf6KIYon
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
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