Excerpts Chapter 25
THE MEDITATION BOOK:
SAMADHI
The difference between samadhi and God-realisation
Question: What is the difference between samadhi and God-realisation?
Sri Chinmoy: Samadhi is a realm of consciousness. Many people have entered into samadhi, but realisation comes only when we have become one with the highest Absolute. We can enter into some samadhis without realising the Highest.
Entering samadhi is like knowing the alphabet, but realisation is like having a PhD. There is no comparison between samadhi and realisation. Samadhi is a state of consciousness in which one can stay for a few hours or a few days. After twenty-one days usually the body does not function. But once one has achieved realisation, it lasts forever. And in realisation, one’s whole consciousness has become inseparably and eternally one with God.
There are three stages of samadhi: savikalpa samadhi, nirvikalpa samadhi and sahaja samadhi. Savikalpa samadhi is an exalted and glowing state of consciousness, whereas realisation is a conscious, natural and manifesting state of consciousness. When realisation dawns, the seeker enjoys freedom from the human personality and human individuality. He is like a tiny drop of water which enters into the ocean. Once it enters, it becomes the ocean. At that time, we do not see the personality or the individuality of the one drop. When one realises the highest Truth, the finite in him enters into the Infinite and realises and achieves the Infinite as its very own. Once realisation has taken place, a Master can easily enter into savikalpa samadhi. Nirvikalpa samadhi, too, is not difficult for a God-realised soul to attain. Only sahaja samadhi, which is the highest type of samadhi, is a problem, even for the very highest God-realised souls.
The experience of nirvikalpa samadhi
Question: Could you speak a little more extensively about the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi?
Sri Chinmoy: I am trying my best to tell you about this from a very high consciousness, but still my mind is subtly expressing it. In nirvikalpa samadhi we have no mind. We see the Creator, the Creation and the Observer as one Person. There the object of adoration and the person who is adoring become totally one; the Lover and the Beloved become totally one. We go beyond everything, and at the same time we see that everything is real. Here in the ordinary world I will say you are unreal and you will say I am unreal because of our different opinions. But in nirvikalpa samadhi we go beyond all differences; there the mind does not function at all.
When we enter into nirvikalpa samadhi, the first thing we feel is that our heart is larger than the universe itself. Now we see the world around us, and the universe seems infinitely larger than we are. But this is because the world and the universe are now perceived by the limited mind. When we are in nirvikalpa samadhi, we see the universe like a tiny dot inside our vast heart.
In nirvikalpa samadhi there is infinite Bliss. There is nothing in comparison to the quantity, not to speak of the quality, of that Bliss. Bliss is a vague word to most of us. We hear that there is something called Bliss, and some people say they have experienced it, but most of us have no firsthand knowledge of it. When we enter into nirvikalpa samadhi, however, we not only feel Bliss, but we grow into that Bliss.
The difference between nirvana and nirvikalpa samadhi
Question: Is there any difference between nirvana and nirvikalpa samadhi?
Sri Chinmoy: Let us take nirvana and nirvikalpa samadhi as two tallest mansions. Other mansions are next to nothing in comparison to these two mansions. If you climb up the nirvana-mansion, there is no way to come down, or you do not feel the necessity of coming down to offer what you have received to the world. There is no link with the earth-consciousness. In nirvana you notice the extinction of earth-pangs and the end of the cosmic dance. Nirvana is flooded with infinite Peace and Bliss. From the point of view of Absolute Truth, nirvana is the Goal of goals to the seekers who do not want to take any more part in God’s manifested creation. Of course, if the Supreme Pilot wants an individual seeker of the absolute Truth to go beyond nirvana and enter into the world for earth-transformation and earth-perfection in a divine way, He sends him down. He feels that that particular instrument of His is supremely indispensable for transforming the Supreme’s birthless transcendental Vision into His deathless universal Reality.
When you climb up the nirvikalpa samadhi-mansion, there is a way to climb down if you want to. But if you stay there for a long period of time, then you totally forget that there is a way to come down. Nirvikalpa samadhi throws illumination flood into us and makes us feel that there are higher worlds far beyond this world of ours. Further, it reveals itself to the seeker as a connecting link between this world and other high, higher, highest worlds, and it offers him the road to go beyond it and enter into the ever-transcending Beyond.