Yoga Samadhi Limit
Yogeshwarananda gave information about samadhi duration times. It is crucial that a yogi aspire for, recognize and experience samadhi states. Samadhi is the highest of the eight segments of yoga practice. At least, as it is defined by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras.
Not attaining samadhi is the bane of a serious yogi. That served to end the career of many yogis, who heard descriptions of samadhi, practiced methods and yet did not attain it, or attained it momentarily, and did not recognize it.
Yogeshwarananda declared this.
There are many myths about samadhi. The fact is, however, that from this end of existence, from where one is as an atma limited coreSelf, one cannot dictate to existence as to how long samadhi will last, and as to if one will even have the ability to recognize it if it occurs. Know for sure, that samadhi will occur mostly as an involuntary state. It will happen to some yogis but they may not recognize it. Or they may not control the duration of it, whether it be for a moment or for a minute or longer.
After the death of the physical body, one cannot control the duration of samadhi in the hereafter condition. Ask this question of yourself, “How did I control my sleeping and waking hours when I was a newborn infant?”
That question is absurd for the very reason that the observing self was not positioned existentially to control that. Think of liberation. Many yogis aspire for that, but when asked to define that, hardly one of them can give a sensible description. They do not know what it is, and certainly even if they can assure their fanatical disciples about it, they cannot guarantee that they will attain what they consider it to be.
Samadhi? What is it?
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Yogeshwarananda declared: There are many myths about samadhi. The fact is, however, that from this end of existence, from where one is as an atma limited coreSelf, one cannot dictate to existence as to how long samadhi will last, and as to if one will even have the ability to recognize it if it occurs. Know for sure, that samadhi will occur mostly as an involuntary state. It will happen to some yogis but they may not recognize it. Or they may not control the duration of it, whether it be for a moment or for a minute or longer
Question: During breath infusion, I sometimes drift into samadhi for a few moments or a bit longer. How should that be handled? Also I noticed that the mind will automatically recite various mantras while in samadhi usually Om Namo Shivaya.
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The mind may or may not assume a particular mantra or particular state. It may also begin hearing and being absorbed in naad inner sound or in jyoti inner light. For instance, in a recent session of meditation, just after breath infusion, the psyche, the top part of the subtle body, was a room space in which a light filled it but with about four other lights present, and with the attention moving from one light to the other in like four corners of the space. That was spontaneous. It had a texture of supernatural bliss.
Again and again, I ask the student-yogis to keep a journal of the experiences. Then at some later date, these can be reviewed. Even as great as an ascetic as Buddha somehow noted his experiences in meditation.
I never heard that he wrote it down or kept notes but he did describe it to his principal disciples, who described it later and then it was written. If one has the memory like Buddha, then maybe there is no need to make written notations, except that by not leaving notes one indirectly deprives others from benefiting from one’s experience.
When during breath infusion, one drifts into a samadhi, one should focus into it and be aware of it, as to its texture, location, and duration. As soon as it expires or as soon as one finds the self to be removed from the plane of the samadhi, one should resume the breath infusion.
This is part of the reason why breath infusion and in fact inSelf Yoga™ is an individual practice. It is due to the fact that one must tally what happens in the individual psyche. Some other occurrence may be experienced by another yogi, even if he does the same posture and infusion rate at the same time as another student.
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