Verse
38
विविक्तदेश आसीनो विरागो विजितेन्द्रियः ।
भावयेदेकमात्मानं तमनन्तमनन्यधीः ॥ ३८॥
VIVIKTA-DESHE AASEENAH
VIRAAGAH VIJITA INDRIYAH
BHAAVAYET EKAM AATMAANAM
TAM ANANTAM ANANYADHEEH
[Sitting in a solitary
place, freeing the mind from desires, controlling the senses, meditate upon the
One Self without a second, that boundless Being, with unswerving
attention.]
This
is the final lap of the journey. There is a fine distinction drawn between the
various states of consciousness reached upon the end of Nididhyasana. If we
take a magnifying glass and look at the actual ‘map’ of the area that is
travelled, we will see in finer detail what is broadly termed Samadhi.
An
acharya from Chinmaya mission takes an easy example to describe this verse,
thus:-
There
are distinct levels of Samadhi which may be identifiable to one who is a
serious practitioner. If we look at a map showing India, Mumbai may
be represented only as a dot called ‘Mumbai’. If we magnify this map many times
and look at Mumbai closely, we will see all the main routes into the city, the
suburbs as we approach the city, and then finally the main railway station at
which one has to get off. The word Samadhi is like Mumbai, and taking a closer
look at it we identify many more details within the topic of Samadhi.
The
two main distinctions are Savikalpa Samadhi and Nirvikalpa Samadhi. The former
is a ‘suburb’ that we reach before the main station. It is the stage when the
thoughts in the mind have been thinned out to a single thought. In Yoga this
could be any thought, as long as it is a single thought. In Vedanta that single
thought is called the Brahmakara Vritti, “I am Brahman”.
Savikalpa
is also described as absorption of the mind while in meditation. It is like
getting our first foot into the room of enlightenment. As one progresses
further through the suburbs, one gets closer to the main Terminus which in Yoga
is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
In
this stage, the single thought is maintained without any effort even out of
meditation, and continuously. It becomes the natural or Sahaja state in which
one dwells at all times, without a break. That is the state of realization.
Here
in this verse, more advanced practice of meditation is prescribed for the
person who wants to advance from the suburban station of Savikalpa Samadhi to
the final main station of Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
More
advanced practice means more intense and prolonged meditation with more
concentration. At this stage, all actions have to be given up, and the senses
have to be brought under 100% control. There should be zero disturbance. This is
the zero-tolerance zone of perfection. Only under these conditions can one
enter the non-dual state. The Four Obstacles in this Stage: 4 Ananyadheeh:
“unswerving attention”.
An
acharya identified four obstacles that arise to obstruct the meditator at this
very advanced stage. They are, in the order that they appear as one gets closer
to the goal:
i)
Laya – Sleep: the
mind feels an irresistible urge to slip into sleep while meditating.
ii)
Vikshepa – Restlessness:
the mind develops a tendency to suddenly revolt and become restless, despite
all the Abhyasa up to this point. It is just its nature.
iii)
Kashaya – Veiling: the
meditator confronts a ‘block’ of nothingness or darkness or a block of dirt
Vasanas, beyond which he finds it impossible to go. It just stands there before
him like an impenetrable wall.
iv) Rasaswada – Taste of Bliss:
when he does pierce this veil, the taste of the bliss is so great that he
simply remains ‘locked’ in the enjoyment of that taste, and refuses to go
further. The bliss of the state becomes an obstacle to move forward. This is
just to give us, as students of Vedanta, some idea of what one is faced with at
this penultimate stage of realization.
