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

Sudhanshu Shekhar sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com
Fri Feb 2 06:16:09 EST 2024


Namaste Chandramouli ji.

What is the difference between akhanDAkArA-vritti (of BhAmatI and VivaraNa)
and nirvikalpaka samAdhi (of Patanjali Maharshi)?

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.

On Fri, 2 Feb, 2024, 4:40 pm H S Chandramouli via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste.
>
> I have not come across anywhere in Bhamati School or VivaraNa School that
> Nirvikalpa Samadhi of the type advocated by Sri Patanjali Maharshi is
> mandatory, or even recommended, for Realization as advanced by the Advaitic
> School. If anyone has come across such declarations, please provide the
> references.
>
> Regards
>
> On Fri, Feb 2, 2024 at 4:17 PM 'Bhaskar YR' via advaitin <
> advaitin at googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> > 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
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "advaitin" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> > email to advaitin+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
> > To view this discussion on the web visit
> >
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/advaitin/AM7PR06MB6581F87F0C6435D08C43D0F484422%40AM7PR06MB6581.eurprd06.prod.outlook.com
> > <
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/advaitin/AM7PR06MB6581F87F0C6435D08C43D0F484422%40AM7PR06MB6581.eurprd06.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer
> >
> > .
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>


More information about the Advaita-l mailing list