Tad evartham ̄ ̄atra-nirbhasa ̄ msvarÓ ̄upa- ́s ̄unyam iva sam ̄adhiÓh.
Meditative trance or sam ̄adhiis the same as meditation (dhyana ̄ ),
except that the mind shines with the light of the object alone, and is de-
void, so to speak, of its own nature.
YS 3.3Sam ̄adhiis by nature indescribable. It is commonly associated with other-
worldliness, but states of consciousness resembling its lower stages are
not as distant as one might assume. Iyengar says that sam ̄adhiis glimpsed
by a musician engrossed in playing music, or an inventor making a dis-
covery in a state of concentration devoid of egoism.^80 However, while the
first stages of sam ̄adhiinvolve ordinary (albeit ‘absorbed’) cognition, the
higher stages require prolonged effort, and constitute a ‘raptus’ (or rup-
ture of plane), characterized by Eliade as “a passage from being to know-
ing” leading finally to the fusion of all “modalities of being.”^81 The term
sam ̄adhiis translated as ‘absorption’ or ‘trance’ (from the Latin trans ̄ıre,
‘to go across’). ‘Trance’ denotes states of consciousness in which one is
detached from awareness of sensory stimuli.^82 Sam ̄adhiis a form of
trance, but not all trance is samadhi ̄. Hypnotic trance falls in the category
of vikÓsipta:states of mind that are distracted but occasionally steady.^83
VikÓsiptais one of the five states of mind listed in the Yoga-bha ̄Ósya:
- Wandering
- Forgetful
- Alternately steady and distracted
- One-pointed
- Restrained
YBh 1.1
Hypnotic trance is merely a provisional state of concentration, but the
trance state of samadhi ̄ is a sustained one-pointedness. Trance state is
characteristic of shamanic practice. However, while shamanic trance is
ecstatic—a journeying outside oneself to other regions of the cosmos—
“Yoga pursues enstasis, final concentration of the spirit and ‘escape’ from
the cosmos.”^84
The bh ̄aÓsyaon the Yoga-s ̄utra’sfirst verse says that Yoga is samadhi ̄.
After listing the five stages of mind, the commentator says:
That however, which in the one-pointed mind, fully shows forth an ob-
ject existing as such in its most perfect form, removes the afflictions,
loosens the bonds of karma and thus inclines it toward restraint, is said126 religious therapeutics