but, with increasing publications and dissemina-
tion of the teaching, the church has expanded to
other areas, including Hawaii, Canada, and New
York. As of 1980, two Dharmasalas, formally
organized groups of church families, were in exis-
tence—one in Flushing, New York, and the other
in San Francisco, California. Following the pat-
terns of the American church structure, members
of the Dharmasala work together to strengthen
their lives through education, religious obser-
vance, shared culture, and economic cooperation.
Their organization is overseen by a senior group
of elders and a council on ministries.
A core group of church members formed in
Alaveddy, Sri Lanka, the site of Subramuniyas-
wami’s first ASHRAM. The ashram serves the Sri
Lankan community through its children’s school
of religion, English classes, courses in Shaivite
culture, and a full-fledged religious and cultural
center for adults. At present, the church has mem-
bers in many countries, including England, Mau-
ritius, Canada, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, South
Africa, and Australia. The entire church member-
ship now is made up of approximately 70 percent
born Shaivites and 30 percent converts.
Further reading: Hinduism Today (1979–present); Sat-
guru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Siva:
Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism (Concord, Calif.:
Himalayan Academy, 1993); ———, Loving Ganesa:
Hinduism’s Endearing Elephant-Faced God (Kapaa,
Hawaii: Himalayan Academy, 1996); ———, Merging
with Siva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Metaphysics (Kapaa,
Hawaii: Himalayan Academy, 1999).
samadhi
Samadhi refers to the highest state of concentra-
tion and absorption in YOGA; the term in used
in various yoga traditions. In some systems it is
accompanied by a trance, whereby the yogi is
completely detached from any external stimuli.
Samadhi is a technical term in the yoga of PATA N-
JALI, describing the next stage for the adept
after concentration skills (dharana) have been
developed and deep involvement in MEDITATION
(DHYANA) has been achieved.
There are two levels of samadhi: samprajnata
samadhi, in which the yogi is still aware of a
degree of worldly differentiation, and asampra-
jnata samadhi, in which there is a full realization
of the self, or PURUSHA, and its consciousness, and
there is no involvement in worldly differentiation.
Samprajnata samadhi is said to retain the “seeds”
of awareness of the external world of differentia-
tion, while aprajnata samadhi is said to be “seed-
less”: it no longer engenders thoughts tied to the
external world. Neither of these states can be pre-
cisely described, because both take consciousness
beyond language into indescribable realms.
Samprajnata samadhi is seen by Patanjali to
have four steps. At the savitarka step the adept can
look directly into the essence of real things, but
only at the gross level. This step is still bound by
conventional understandings, such as that time is
divided into past, present, and future.
The second step is nirvitarka. At this point,
conventional understandings, verbal and logical
associations, cease. One transcends the cognitive
or perceptive act itself, and one’s consciousness
meets directly with true reality. However, this
meeting is still at a gross and not a subtle level.
At the third or savichara level consciousness is
able to go beyond the surface of reality to its sub-
tle level. One is still, however, bound by a certain
residue of time and space (not as a felt experience,
but as categories). Experience at this subtle level
engenders the fourth step in this type of sama-
dhi, the nirvichara level, in which consciousness
descends into the very essence of the real world,
no longer mediated by “concept.”
Beyond the fourth stage of samprajnata samadhi
is true asampranjata samadhi, in which concept is
lost completely; there is a direct realization of the
consciousness power of the self, with no limita-
tion. This is sometimes also called dharma-megha-
samadhi. Here one becomes completely aware that
the self and its power of consciousness are not thesamadhi 377 J