Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 10.1
॥
Devanāgarī
अथातः सम्प्रवक्ष्यामि समाधिं भवनाशनम् । समाधिः संविदुत्पत्तिः परजीवैकतां प्रति
Transliteration (IAST)
athātaḥ sampravakṣyāmi samādhiṃ bhavanāśanam | samādhiḥ saṃvidutpattiḥ parajīvaikatāṃ prati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अथ अतः सम्प्रवक्ष्यामिatha ataḥ sampravakṣyāminow I shall tell henceforth
समाधिं भव-नाशनम्samādhiṃ bhava-nāśanamabsorption, destroying existence
समाधिः संविद्-उत्पत्तिःsamādhiḥ saṃvid-utpattiḥabsorption is the birth of knowledge
पर-जीव-एकतां प्रतिpara-jīva-ekatāṃ pratiof the oneness of the highest and the living
Translation
"Now I shall tell, henceforth, absorption, destroying existence: absorption is the birth of knowledge of the oneness of the highest and the living."
Version
d7a3d0131db0 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The last khanda begins — on samadhi, the eighth rung; and from its very first line it announces its content: para-jiva-ekatam, "the oneness of the highest and the living." That is, before us will be an exposition of nondualist teaching in its pure form, and it must be examined with the fullest care and honesty. Let us first say something of the word samadhi itself, so the dispute is over substance, not over the name.
Sam-a-dhi means "a placing together, a union"; from sam-a-dha, "to place together." The Yoga-sutras define: "that same [contemplation], when only the object shines forth and one's own form is as if absent — is samadhi" (3.3). This definition deserves examination. It says svarupa-shunyam iva, "as if devoid of one's own form"; and the word iva, "as if," stands there for a reason.
Patanjali, then, is more cautious than our book: he does not say the contemplator vanishes, but says he as if vanishes, that is, ceases to notice himself. The difference between "vanished" and "ceased to notice himself" is, in my view, the whole difference in this dispute; and it is worth stating at once, for we shall have to return to it. A person absorbed in something to the point of self-forgetting — work, music, a beloved face — does not notice himself; but he exists, and afterward remembers what happened.
The Vaishnava side holds precisely to this understanding, and defines samadhi as unbroken occupation: the Bhagavatam says perfect concentration is that in which the mind is unceasingly occupied with the Lord. Not "the mind emptied," but "the mind occupied with one."