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

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Venkatraghavan ji

Many thanks for sharing the write-up. Very beautifully presented.

My understanding of akhanDAkArA-vritti is as under:-

There are two AV:-

1. prArabdha-rUpa-pratibandhaka-vishishTa-akhanDAkArA-vritti (AV1) -- this
is the general connotation of akhanDAkArA-vritti.

Chaitanya-reflected-in-AV1 removes two out of three shakti of avidyA,
namely shakti-which-causes-the-illusion-of-reality-in-world and
shakti-which-enables-artha-kriyA-kAritva-in-world. However,
chaitanya-reflected-in-AV1 is incapable of removing the third shakti of
avidyA, which is also known as avidyA-lesha and is
shakti-which-gives-birth-to-objects-which-are-cable-of-appearing-as-pratyaksha.


2. prArabdha-rUpa-pratibandhaka-rahita-akhanDAkArA-vritti (AV2) is called
charma-vritti. It is also akhanDAkArA-vritti. However, since there is no
pratibandhaka in the form of prArabdha, the chaitanya-reflected-in-AV2
removes even the third shakti i.e. avidyA-lesha.

As per my understanding, akhanDAkArA-vritti does not have non-self as its
vishaya. Shuddha Atman cannot be vishaya of vritti being avishaya. The fact
of not having non-self as vishaya is itself termed as having Atman as the
vishaya of akhanDAkArA-vritti. In simple terms, a mind without any trace of
any thought of world is akhanDAkArA-vritti. Basically thoughtless mind.

This is what is generally understood as samAdhi or nirvikalpaka samAdhi.

Now, without akhanDAkArA-vritti, avidyA cannot be removed. AV1 removes the
first two AkArAs of avidyA whereas AV2 removes even third.

AV1 this leads to jIvanmukti whereas AV2 leads to videhamukti.

Thus, it appears to me that samAdhi in the form of akhanDAkArA-vritti is a
necessary condition for jIvanmukti.

As I understand from your write-up, even after AV1 removing two AkArAs of
avidyA, since prArabdha-rUpa-pratibandhaka remains, it will not immediately
lead to jIvanmukti but manonAsha and vasanakshaya will be required and
samAdhi will be needed for that.

This appears to be perfectly acceptable.

However, since tattva-jnAna also required akhanDAkArA-vritti which is not
possible without samAdhi, I think even tattva-jnAna would necessarily
require samAdhi.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.