concentration, meditation and samadhi have been defined in a single word by the
author of the sutras—samyama. He does not use any other word hereafter. Only the
word samyama is used, which is a figure to explain the union of the meditating
consciousness with anything whatsoever. Whenever there is a union of the
meditating principle with the object that is chosen, that condition is called samyama.
Patanjali goes on speaking about samyamas of various types, by which he means the
identity which one establishes with the various objects that are taken up for that
purpose. We can do samyama on anything. We can do it on a watch, on a human
being, on a mountain, on the sun, moon and stars—or on anything, for the matter of
that. The consequence immediately following from samyama on anything is
supposed to be a complete knowledge of the object on which we are doing samyama,
and also a complete mastery over it; we control it thoroughly, root and branch, when
the samyama is performed. If we do samyama on a person, that person is simply in
our pocket forever, and that person can no longer exist independently. He is us, only
existing in another form. Likewise, we can perform samyama on various objects.
These are all wondrous results which Patanjali describes in the various aphorisms
which he gives at the end of the Vibhuti Pada.
Trayam ekatra saṁyamaḥ (III.4), says the sutra. All three put together—dharana,
dhyana and samadhi: concentration, meditation and communion—are signified, all
three together, in a single term called ‘samyama’. If samyama can be performed on
anything, then one is a master of yoga. Until that stage is reached, one is still a
preparatory student on the path of yoga. It is very difficult to do samyama on
anything because, as it has been already pointed out, samyama is the union of
oneself with that on which one is doing samyama. We have never become one with
anything in this world at any time, up until now. We are always separate. We have
always stood aside in respect of everything in the world.
Now we are trying to live a new kind of life. We are entering into a new realm
altogether, and a new world is being opened before us. A world of samyama will be
there instead of the world of isolated objects, of mere social contact and relationship.
Samyama is the opposite of contact, the opposite of social relationship of any kind.
In social relationship or external contact, there is only an apparent harmony between
oneself and the other; there is no real harmony. There is a counterfeit harmony that
is brought about by the adjustment of our outer personality with the outer
personality of other things, persons, etc. But in samyama it is not like that. We are
not trying to contact anything, nor are we going to establish any relationship with
anything—we are going to become that thing. This is something horrifying for an
ordinary psychologist to understand or conceive. To become a thing is samyama.
We can become even a pinhead, not merely a large object; and to the extent we are
master over it, we have a complete insight into it. We have an intuition, as they call it.
Samyama is the intuition that we gain over the object of samyama—a power that we
gain over the object of samyama to such an extent that the object of samyama ceases
to be an outside object. It is only an appendage to our being. It is our own limb, as it
were; it is we ourselves appearing outside. If this technique of samyama could be
employed in respect of larger and larger groups of objects, what will happen to the
meditating consciousness? It will become larger and larger in the quantity as well as
the quality of its being. Slowly there will be a tendency of man to become superman.
A superman is nothing but an individual who has transcended the limitations of
ordinary human individuality. Instead of being located within the walls of this six-