Samadhi

Samadhi is the eighth and the last step of Ashtanga Yoga or the eight Limbs of Yoga. When one can concentrate on to something to the extent of the mind being one with the object, then the state of Samadhi is attained. Attainment of Samadhi is also the state which is regarded as the peak of achieving Samyama, which includes the three-tiered meditation practice which includes dharana and dhyana The level of concentration is so high that the mind and the object merges and that brings in the true meaning of Samadhi. The personal identity disappears completely and the merges with the divine entity and that is the state of Samadhi. In this state the person doesn't looses his/her own personality but is able to free himself from the bondages of the worldly ties and emotional hang ups.

Samadhi, makes the yoga practitioner realize the concept of identity without differences and a liberated soul from the worldly ties and gains an identity of its own kind. By practicing Samadhi, one gets to fall back to the unconscious from where the conscious mind first emerges. The final stage in Samadhi starts at the point and time where the soul is freed from the worldly ties.

As is said, with the dharana and dhyana there are four and three meditation process that are to be strictly followed by a practitioner but here in this stage, all these processes gets unified and not only it becomes one with the object of concentration but acts as a part of it.

Samadhi can be further divided into two stages:

• Samprajana-samadhi: in this stage of Samadhi the state is such where object-consciousness is still present.
• Asamprajana-samadhi: this stage is also referred to as the nirbija Samadhi or the nirvikalpa-samadhi where there is the consciousness of the object is fully snapped.

The most important point that is to be noted about the Samadhi yoga is that its whole process lies upon the fact of suppressing mental fluctuations to enable it to pass through samprajnaa-samadhi and asamprajnata-samadhi. In this state the Self remains in its full apparent identity.