Day 16
In vichara, there are all the experiences - smell, sight, visions, taste or sounds. When you meditate, all experiences and thoughts - observing the thoughts that come and go. There are two states of mind that surface in you often. One is a thought which disturbs you and the other is a thought that does not disturb you, but that which just hovers around in your consciousness and you are aware of it.
You are in samadhi you are in an equanimous state of mind. At the same time, there are thoughts hovering. It is a part of meditation. Thoughts exist and experiences exist. This is a second type of Samadhi, or awareness. The third is ananda which means a blissful state. Have you noticed that after you do Kriya, you are in a different space?
When you sing bhajans, you are in a different space of Samadhi. This mind is still elevated. The consciousness is still elevated and equanimous but it is in ecstasy. The samadhi is ecstasy. This is also a meditative state. This is a meditative state in which you are in ecstasy, and then there is a meditative state in which you are with some experiences, some thoughts, some ideas or some feelings hovering around.
There is a third such state in which you have an irrefutable and logically understanding of creation. So, there are three such states. Now, the fourth state is amtangum samadh. This is really the deep experience of meditation, wherein you do not know anything. There is just awareness that 'you are.' You just know 'you are' but you do not know who, what or where you are.
Nothing else is known but the experience of 'I am' - 'I am present.' This is fourth state is Samadhi, or meditative state. All these four are called, saat, which means that there is consciousness in all this. There is an outflow of awareness throughout.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS
