Page 119 - Wisdom Unfurled

aloofness from prakriti knowing one’s real nature to be different from it and being rooted in one’s own nature-svarupe avasthanam.
There is another very popular version, namely the continuous anubhava of the state of satchidananda (existence consciousness bliss).
Vedantic schools on Realization
The advaitins hold that realization consists in the realization of the identity between the individual soul or self and the Brahman, the supreme Self, the transcendental Reality, the One without a second, Eternal, Changeless, Source and Substratum of all and of the nature of Knowledge, Bliss Absolute, Pure Consciousness through the Nirvikalpaka Samadhi experience. This experience is characterized by a loss of all distinction of knower, knowledge and object of knowledge. The individuality is lost altogether as illustrated in the example of the lump of salt dissolved in water which is no longer perceived to be distinct from water and cannot be separated from it. This experience leads to the destruction of the primal ignorance and the soul is released from the veils of Maya leading to the state of liberation. Further the soul experiences the transcendent Bliss of Brahman having recovered its real and primal nature which had been obscured by ignorance.
Incidentally the Raja yoga works do not mention Nirvikalpaka Samadhi at all but refer to Conscious or Samprajnata Samadhi and the Superconscious or Asamprajnata Samadhi, indicating respectively, the state in which the consciousness of the object of meditation persists though the meditator and the object of meditation are fused together and the state in which even the consciousness of the object of meditation is lost. However the Master states that the nirvikalpaka experience, though a yogic attainment can bring the aspirant only to a state of salvation, a temporary pause in the cycle of birth and death and not liberation which is a permanent cessation of the cycle. He says further that some sort of kalpana remains even in the nirvikalpakastate and the state of inertness acquired in that Samadhi experience can not be maintained continuously at least by the householders who have to attend to very many duties. The real state of Samadhi is that in which we remain attached with Reality pure and simple every moment, no matter if we are busy all the time with our worldly work and duties. This is Sahaj Samadhi, one of the greatest attainments and the very basis of nirvana (SS 335-6).
In another Vedantic school with a large following, the Vishishtadvaitic one, it is held that in the state of final release there is no annihilation of the self and its sense of individuality. According to Sri Ramanuja, the most illustrious propounder of this school, the struggle for release or realization would cease to have any meaning for a sensible person if it should happen that the person himself would be extinguished in that state. Who is there then to enjoy that