[Advaita-l] [advaitin] What is Samadhi?

[Bhaskar YR]

Can you summarize what exactly you finally understand what is involved in Self Realization and is samadhi - required for it, etc.

praNAms Sri Sada prabhuji
Hare Krishna

I reckon these two observations from Dennis prabhuji's article would suffice to understand his perspective on samAdhi.  And being a follower of Sri paramArthAnandaji I hope you too would agree with him.

//quote//
 whereas what I would call 'traditional' Advaitins believe that Shankara's teaching was that it is self-ignorance that obscures our understanding of the truth and that only self-knowledge can remove it. Thus, one of the key issues around the topic of neo-Vedanta is that of experience versus knowledge.

But the most convincing argument for not including nirvikalpa samAdhi (in the Patanjali sense) as part of advaita is one I heard recently from Swami Paramarthananda. He argues that Patanjali, having written about this in his yoga sutras, and being regarded as the highest authority in the yoga philosophy, must obviously himself have experienced nirvikalpa samAdhi. Consequently, if its result is as has been argued by the neo-Vedantins, then Patanjali should be the greatest Advaitin ever. And yet his philosophy claims that there are many Atmans and that the world is real. So one has to conclude that his experience of nirvikalpa samAdhi led him to dualism and not non-dualism! Swami Paramarthananda's last word on the subject is that we can happily be liberated without nirvikalpa samAdhi!

//Unquote//

If I am right not only bhAmati vehemently insisted the mandatory experience of 'yOga school type samAdhi' even in vivaraNa school too this non-dual practical experience advocated. Though as per this school the jnana of I am brahman devoid of any duality (nishprapancha etc. ) is the result of shAstra vihita vedAntavAkya shravaNa.  After the vAkya jnana dawns  the qualified jnAni ( he is mere qualified seeker of mOksha at this stage) has to continue to practice both the vedAnta vAkya shravaNa and vAkya janita jnana over and over again and over a period of time he would become aparOksha jnAni and he will be considered as custodian of direct intuitive knowledge.  But even for this aparOksha jnAni there is prArabdha and avidyA lesha hence he would continue to see the duality of world when he is not in asaMprajnAta samAdhi.  And for him, on certain occasions he would get the practical and 'literal' experience of Atmaikatvam.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar