The second is that, if you experience it, you cannot explain it, since it
is indescribable. If one tries to explain the state of samadhi itself, one
should suspect that he has fallen into the trap of dishonesty or self
delusion. The third is that even within samadhi, you can get stuck. Tra
ditionally there is a demarcation of different degrees or qualities of
samadhi. I will take them only as two categories. The first group, or
lower experiences, are known as sabija samadhi. Sabija means "with
seed." What this means is that although the experience of bliss is felt,
the seeds of desire remain in the ego as a future potential. Even after
the experience of samadhi, these seeds can sprout again and cause a re
lapse. The ego has not been entirely purified by the fire of the experi
ence. This particular point on the yogic journey, although so elevated,
is one of danger as it can become a wasteland in which the practitioner
gets stuck. This state is called manolaya, which means an alert, passive
state of mind. But in this context, it implies a complacency with what
has been achieved and a tendency to slacken efforts to complete the
final step of the journey. The yogi cannot rest on his laurels but must
press on to the higher states of samadhi in which even the seeds of de
sire are burnt out from the ego forever and can never sprout or trouble
him again. This is known as nirbija samadhi (seedless) in which the
feeling of bliss is not dependent at all even on a vestigial ego. This is
the bliss of the absolute void, of nonbeing transformed into the light
of being.
There is a story about this concerning the great nineteenth century
Bengali saint Sri Ramakrishna. He was a spiritual genius and from
early days slipped easily and unwittingly into a state of (seeded) sabija
samadhi. His particular devotion was to the goddess Kali, and in his
bliss he was in her presence, in a familiar and divine love. One day a
traveling Vedic monk, an ascetic, came by the temple where Ramakr
ishna was living and questioned him about his experiences. He sug
gested that Ramakrishna had the potential to go further and so told
II K S I Y 1'. N l; II I�