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Samadhi as the Soul Game of Identity and Difference

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Following Patanjali we have said that Yoga is samadhi. And that the Yoga of Knowledge, the Ñana (Gnana or Jnana) Yoga, would then be “being the Consciousness of Samadhi”, which is a Consciousness of Bliss (Chidananda Rupa). Let's focus our Buddhi mind on samadhi for a moment.

Sankaracharia, one of the great teachers of Hindu Advaita Vedanta, speaks of two types of samadhi: savikalpa (subject to differentiation) and nirvikalpa (not subject to differentiation).

Savikalpa samadhi is the conscious state of “mind of Bliss” in which the Subject and the objects of knowledge maintain their own identity and difference from one another. With an example. Suppose you contemplate a rose and its beauty intoxicates you so much that your Soul transforms its configuration and you enter a state of absorption in Beauty. In this state of samadhi, you are intermingled with the rose, but the different identities of the rose and you are maintained. As Sankaracharia says, in this state, “there are faint traces of ego consciousness, such as the idea of “I and mine,” as well as the impression of “what we like and what we don't like.” At the same time, there is an understanding of the Atman as the unchanging witness, the only one who is the seer and perceiver of the consciousness of the "I", and of one's likes and dislikes.”

The difference between you and the rose is formed in your mind by the difference between its corporeity and yours. In this form of savikalpa samadhi, you are aware of that difference. There is also a more subtle form of savikalpa samadhi that occurs when we no longer contemplate objects of the senses, such as the rose, but rather the rose is transformed into an emotion now free of the plant that produced it, the molten emotion of color, perfume, freshness, light and joy, for example. The samadhi that corresponds to this formless imaginal rose, to this rose that shows me its archetype, is still savikalpa samadhi, but it has a new quality. In this contemplative bliss, something more than your Soul is revealed, your “I Am” becomes transparent. If we let ourselves go in that contemplative direction, we will end up being indistinguishable from the rose. This is nirvikalpa samadhi, a state of mind in which there is neither identity nor difference, in which there are not distinctions.

In this sense, samadhi is the play of your Soul and your Spirit, the dance of Encounter and Unveiling. It begins as savikalpa and transforms into nirvikalpa, to reach Maha Samadhi with the last breath of your Volitional Soul.

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