Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

These stages represent, as has been explained already, the four distinct and distin-
guishable levels at which consciousness functions through the four subtler vehicles
and corresponding to the four stages of Gunas mentioned in II-19. It is also pointed
out in connection with III-5 that the higher consciousness functioning at those levels in
a state of Samadhi is quite different from the ordinary mental consciousness with
which we are familiar and is called Prajna. That is why Samadhi of this class is called
Samprajnata. All these four stages of Samprajnata Samadhi are comprised in Sabija
Samadhi as pointed out in I-46.
Why is Samadhi pertaining to these four stages called Sabija Samadhi? The clue
to this question lies in the meaning of the word Bija or seed. What is the essential form
of a seed? It is a conglomeration of different kinds of matter arranged in different lay-
ers, the outermost layer forming the protective and least essential part and the inner-
most layer or core forming the real or essential part of the whole set. So that, in order
to gtt at the essential part or real substance of the seed we have to tear open the differ-
ent layers one after another until we reach the core.
The general constitution of a seed described above will show at once the appro-
priateness of calling any Samadhi of the Samprajnata type Sabija Samadhi. Samyama
in Samprajnata Samadhi is always performed on some ‘object’ which is called a ‘seed’
because it has different layers of meaning, etc. covering an essential core which is the
reality of the object. We can come into touch with the different layers of the object or
‘seed’ by splitting it open, as it were, mentally through the technique of Samadhi. Each
successive stage of Samadhi reveals to our consciousness a different and deeper layer
of the reality of the object and by continuing the process of Samyama through the suc-
cessive stages we ultimately arrive at the innermost reality of the object. Each stage of
Samadhi lays bare only one layer of the total reality hidden within the object and the
process of penetration may have to be pushed in some cases through all the four stages
before the ultimate reality hidden within the object is revealed.
But though there are four stages in Sabija Samadhi and it may be necessary to
pass through all these four stages before the object on which Samyama is performed is
revealed in its totality, this does not mean that every object on which Samyana can be
performed is sufficiently complex to require going through all the four stages. Differ-
ent objects differ in their complexity or subtlety, some being more complex and having
more subtle counterparts than others as is explained in dealing with III-6. Patanjali has
not discussed systematically and in detail the different types of ‘seeds’ on which