transformation is samadhi parin ̄ ama ̄. Then follows ek ̄agrat ̄a parin ̄ama,
where arising and subsiding cognitions are the same. In the third trans-
formation, nirodha parin ̄ama, the citta-vÓrttisor ‘mind-waves’ are sup-
pressed between the arising and cessation of impressions [YS 3.9–12].
With nirodhaestablished, and having thus entered nirbj ̄ıa samadhi ̄ ,
the yogin attains the highest sam ̄adhi: dharma-megha-samadhi ̄. Megham
means ‘cloud,’ and dharma-megha-samadhi ̄ is sometimes translated as
‘cloud of virtue,’ suggesting the pouring forth of rains of goodness, but
this is a figurative interpretation. V ̄acaspati explains dharma-megha-
sam ̄adhias “the stage when all other thoughts cease to exist, then he be-
comes possessed of constant discriminative knowledge” [TV 4.29]. Based
on V ̄acaspati’s clarification, we might take dharma in its meaning of
‘thing or object’ and surmise that the dharma-cloudrefers to a state
wherein external stimuli and internal samskÓ ̄aric impulses are nullified for
the yogin, and pure consciousness is experienced, similar to the way
things become invisible in thick fog. From the higher knowledge or
prajñ ̄a attained in dharma-megha-sam ̄adhi, the yogin realizes the distinc-
tion of puruÓsafrom prakÓrti, and is thence liberated, kevali.^91 A j ̄ıvan-
mukta, one ‘liberated in life’ has enlightened understanding of his own
consciousness as part of the all-embracing puruÓsa.
The claim that liberation is healing in Yoga is supported by the pola-
rity of vyadhi ̄ , illness, and samadhi ̄ , conceived in terms of its integrative
qualities. Vy ̄adhi, the disintegrative condition of illness, is the first and
foremost of the nine obstacles to the integrated state of samadhi ̄ [YS
1.30]. The word yoga in its sense of ‘yoking’ itself signifies integration:
sam ̄adhi—whose nature and means of attainment is integration—is the
fruit of Yoga practice and the means to liberation. Yoga seeks to counter-
act psychophysical disintegration, a basic form of which is ill-health.
More significantly, Yoga seeks to remedy the dis-integrated state of the
mind, so the yogin becomes reintegrated with the primordial power of
consciousness that is her true Self-nature.
A number of determinants of psychophysical health are thematic in
yogic religious liberation. For example, a chief determinant of health,
freedom from pain, warrants the interpretation that the overcoming of
suffering resulting from the kle ́sas—afflictions affecting the soul as well
as body/mind—is part of attainment of health in an ultimate, spiritual
sense. Self-identity is another determinant of health in its ordinary mean-
ing, and is also integral to yogic liberation. By naming establishment in
Self-nature as Yoga’s aim [YS 1.3], the Yoga-s ̄utrasat their very outset
ground the claim that Yoga permits the realization of health in an ulti-
mate sense. The concept of integration funds the distinction between
one line long
130 religious therapeutics