Page 139 - Wisdom Unfurled

and also on Samadhi. His concept of concentration allows flow of thoughts to be there in meditation. But this flow has no effect on the mind and the abhyasi is unable to recall most of them at the end of the session of meditation. When the abhyasi does meditation by taking up the thought of divine light in the form of sankalpa (subtle idea) without any imposed resolve or effort and proceeds with it without enforcing any artificiality or imposition, he is able to experience the state of non-concentration concentration better known as absorption. This concept will be welcomed by all sadhakas with sincere gratitude. Meditation thus practiced leads to a state of absorption or state of Samadhi. Thus the popular Patanjali sutra yogaschittavritti nirodhah (yoga is the restraint of mental modifications) loses its significance for the practicants of PAM as the state of absorption is still possible with flow or non-cessation of thoughts. The journey of the aspirant can start in the real sense only after yoga or union with the divine which the divine itself has to perform through the agency of a competent master firmly established in the highest realm of the divine. Yoga can not be equated to a mental state however exalted it may be. The practicants of PAM experience the silent mind automatically due to the divine influx of Pranahuti and also imperience the state of ‘nothingness’ with simple awareness at least for some time in their day to day meditations all due to the connection or yoga established with the divine through the Master. Thus yoga precedes the state of silent mind here.
Samadhi- Its Types
The Master has mentioned three stages in Samadhi or the state of absorption. The first of these is wherein a man feels lost or drowned. His senses feelings and emotions are temporarily suspended in a way that they seem to be dead for the time being. He resembles a man in a dead slumber, unconscious of everything.
In the second the man though deeply concentrated at a point does not feel actually drowned in it. It may be described as a state of consciousness in an unconscious state. Apparently he is not conscious of anything but consciousness is present still within him though only in a shadowy form. A practical example is a man deeply absorbed in some thought walks on the road but does not collide with any person or object while he is yet unconscious of anything else does not see anything or hear any voices. In this state of unconsciousness he unknowingly attends to the necessities and as occasion demands. The state of consciousness creates little impression on the mind.
The third is the highly extolled sahaj samadhi, the finest state of absorption in which the man while being busy with his work, his mind being absorbed in it but in the innermost core of his heart he is settled on the Real Thing. With his