the aspirant should not make a beginning with only a few simple practices and gradu-
ally extend the area of his endeavour until he has mastered the preparatory lessons.
There is one word in this Sutra whose significance should be noted. This is
Ksina. This word means ‘attenuated’ or ‘weakened’. It does not mean ‘annihilated’ or
completely ‘dead’. In performing Samyama in Sabija Samadhi there is always a ‘seed’
present in the mind. So the mind cannot be said to be without Vrtti or modification. It
is only when Nirbija Samadhi is practised that the mind becomes without Vrtti. It is
true that in the ultimate phase of each of the Vitarka, Vicara, Ananda and Asmita
stages of Samprajnata Samadhi the partial truth which shines forth through the mind
can hardly be called a Vrtti in the ordinary sense. Still, we cannot say that the mind is
present in an unmodified condition for the light of the partial truth as explained above
still colours the mind. The change from the ordinary condition of the mind in which all
kinds of transformation are continually taking place to the condition in which only one
object continues to occupy the mind is called Samadhi Parinama in III-11 and the final
state reached in the transformation can best be described as one in which the Vrttis of
the mind have become Ksina. But it should be obvious that this does not mean com-
plete annihilation or disappearance of the Vrttis as suggested by some commentators.
- Savitarka Samadhi is that in which knowledge based only on words, real
knowledge and ordinary knowledge based on sense perception or reasoning are present
in a mixed state and the mind alternates between them.
In dealing with the first three Sutras of Section III the three purely mental proc-
esses of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi have been explained in detail. In I-41 the es-
sential nature of Samadhi has been discussed. But it is necessary to note that the word