Maha Samadhi: Antardhyana (Realizing the Absolute)

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Samadhi is the transcendental experience of completeness and fullness devoid of all duality and the end of all relative existence. It is the culminating point in the spiritual quest and the fulfillment of human destiny. One who has realized Samadhi becomes silent, wise and illuminated and blessed with eternal contentment and perennial joy. For the rare one who sees the all pervading tranquil blissful atman there remains a feeling of having attained all that was ever to be known and life is guided by the realization that one self pervades everyone and everything.

Maha Samadhi; Antardhyana is compiled from the teachings of two yogic masters Swami Sivananda Saraswati and Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Their remarkable insights come from their personal direct and everlasting experience of the absolute. This exceptional book is an inspiration to all those who seek to understand this experience.

We present an extraordinary thesis on the ultimate of yogic life the state of Samadhi. This unique collection of spiritual discourses illuminates the subject of Samadhi from the rare perspective of the direct personal experiences and profound insights of two enlightened masters our gurus Swami Sivananda Saraswati Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

Samadhi is the culminating point in the spiritual quest. This quest is an ancient one. It is not a quest given to humankind to realize the transcendental consciousness to reach that point of evolution where all our earthly karmas are finished with. The external experiences that we have in the relative world through the eyes the ears and the other senses is not the highest knowledge there are deeper forms of experience that this. The senses mind and intellect are finite instruments they cannot penetrate into the heart of the ultimate truth and attain transcendental knowledge.

In order to experience the ultimate reality one has to transcend these boundaries, because god is beyond the limited finite mind. If we know how to turn our mind from the outer world to the inner world this inner realm will lead us to the expansion of consciousness. When consciousness expands and becomes one with totality or God it is called Samadhi and it is only within the experiences of Samadhi that we will come to know the infinite facets of existence within us. It is only through Samadhi that we can realize the knowledge of the eternal by which everything is known.

Every great guru has had the highest experience of Samadhi and in India for thousands of years these gurus have revealed the mystical truths about this state. They have spoken of Samadhi as the fulfillment of man’s vision and destiny and explained how for one who has had this experience nothing of worldly life is needed anymore because Samadhi is the wealth of all wealth. They have described Samadhi variously as an extraordinary moment that may come in the life of an individual when the ego is completely fused and lost as the direct and everlasting experience of absolute consciousness as the end of all relative existence as union with god where the individual soul merges with the mighty supreme soul and becomes highest consciousness supreme peace and infinite and as indescribable bliss boundless joy and love for all.

These teachings unfold the experience of Samadhi as one of fullness and completion of the human personality. They describe Samadhi as an evolutionary process where consciousness undergoes a graduated sequence of experiences which change and move progressively in continuity each stage of evolution fusing into the next. Our exceptional authors categorize and classify in finest detail the various experiences the consciousness undergoes as it moves from where the awakening begins to the point where the state of Samadhi becomes stable. They include accounts of Samadhi experiences and give full descriptions of the states of the jivanmuktas the liberated sages who are established in the highest transcendental divine knowledge and live in the world with an abiding realization of the secret oneness of existence.

Both swami sivananda and swami Satyananda say that although the seed of Samadhi is already in everyone it is only through gradual accomplishments in the practice of sadhana that the aspirant will be able to enter the domain of Samadhi and develop that seed into a fully grown tree. In this respect emphasize the necessity of practicing a regular sadhana of traditional yogic techniques so as to break through the barrier of illusion that separates the aspirant from union with the Divine. They stress that the aspirant must not only receive the appropriate direction and encouragement for sadhana from an accomplished teacher, but must also learn how to give proper expression to the spiritual power generated through their practices so as to utilize that energy in a positive and uplifting way.

Aspirants are particularly advised never to shun the active life and to always integrate their sadhana with the essentials of karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga and jnana yoga. It is also explained that although many aspirants have fantastic experiences during their practices which they mistake for samadhi, none of them are absolute because ‘someone’ is experiencing them. As long as there is experience and experience, there is ego, and where there is ego, there cannot be the experience of samadhi. The reader is certain to gain an understanding that the practices for samadhi are dealing with the evolution of consciousness, and thus appreciate that the attainment of samadhi should definitely take more than a lifetime.

The teachings on samadhi in this book are conveyed in various ways. Many judicious technical descriptions and definitions of samadhi are given, all clearly explained and often illustrated by references to various scriptures, yet there are also sections where the insight on samadhi is expressed as if it were pure poetry. These teachings describe, discuss and compare the experiences of samadhi in the various branches of the yogic science, as well as in the systems of Tantra, Vedanta and Samkhya. But the reader is called upon to remember that it is the same consciousness which is undergoing the samadhi experience, although the approach and expression may differ.

We hope that the explanations, perspectives and relations on samadhi presented in these pages will help to remove much of the erroneous intellectual speculation and misunderstanding that surrounds the subject.

This book is an inspiration to all who seek to understand the experience of the absolute. It is offered in veneration to Swami Satyananda Saraswati who attained maha Samadhi at midnight on 5th December 2009.

In the words of Swami Satyananda. It is only in Samadhi that all the highest purities of peace light, bliss and estasy appear. No amount of enjoyment in life can equal this rare experience. Whether you call it emancipation sahvation darshan, enlightenment nirvikalpa Samadhi, advaita anubhuti the non dual experience, moksha, nirvana shoonya or kavivalya, kundalini awakening or God realization or union with god or absolute experience it’s all the same. There are many, many other names for the experience of Samadhi. It has no name and it has every name. It is beautiful it is splendid. It is the last door which opens into the temple of unimaginable bliss. It is the final goal and ultimate purpose of human existence.