Chapter 376 - Deep meditation (samādhi)

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Fire-god said:

1. The deep meditation [i.e., samādhi] is said to be that contemplation in which the consciousness alone appearing in its spiritual aspect, remains like the ocean of coagulated milk made immobile and ceases to be operative.

2. A yogin is said to be in deep meditation [samādhi] if he remains steady in contemplation with the mind deeply absorbed, like fire (kept) in a windless (place).

3-4. He does not hear or smell or see or spit out. Moreover, he does not feel the touch. His mind does not make any resolve. He does not think and remains like a log of wood without knowing anything. A person who is absorbed in the lord thus is stated to be in deep meditation.

5-10. Just as a lamp remaining in a windless (place) does not shake, this is said to be similar. For a yogin who is in deep meditation, contemplating himself as (lord) Viṣṇu, divine portents occur indicating success. The essential ingredient of the ear gets fallen. There would be pain in the teeth and the limbs. The celestials beseech that yogin with divine pleasures. The kings (approach) him with gift of land. The rich offer wealth. The Vedas and all other śāstras become manifest themselves. He gains mastery over the metres as well as poetry in abundance. Excellent medical recipes, medicinal herbs and all sculpture and other arts become known to him. The virgins of the world of Indra and qualities such as imagination (also come to him). (Lord) Viṣṇu gets pleased with one who discards these as grass.

11-12a. (Such a yogin) endowed with the wealth of powers such as aṇimā (becoming subtle like an atom) etc., after having imparted knowledge to the pupil and after having enjoyed the pleasures as much as desired and after having discarded the body, should abide in his self that is of the form of knowledge, bliss and Brahman.

12b-13. Just as a dirty mirror is not capable of knowing the self (i.e., the reflection of the self), so also the soul experiences pain in the body because it is connected with all (things). A person united with yoga does not experience the pain of all.

14. Just as the single ākāśa (space) becomes distinct in the pot etc., so also the single soul (remains) in many as the Sun (is reflected) in the reservoirs.

15. The Brahman, sky (ether), air, lustre, water and earth, the materials on earth, these worlds, this soul and the movable and immovable (objects) have all (come) from Him.

16-18a. Just as a potter (makes) a pot by the conjunction of clay, rod and the wheel and just as a person building a house makes a house with grass, earth and wood, so also the soul creates itself (its body) in different wombs making use of the materials (five elements) and combining them. (The soul) gets fettered by its (past) deeds, faults and ignorance by its own will.

18b-21. The (individual) soul is released (from bondage) by means of knowledge. A yogin does not fall sick because of his virtue. Just as a lamp is maintained (to burn) by the combination of the wick, base and oil, (so) (the body) also undergoes changes. The life goes away premature. Like a lamp the soul that is inside the heart, has many rays—white, black, tawny, blue, red, yellow and brown. A person who remains (firm) above all these, pierces the region of the Sun, crosses the world of Brahmā and attains the highest state.

22-23. One reaches the abodes of the celestials by means of the other hundred rays which are situated above. Those rays of different forms which are below have soft lustre. He moves around here by means of them for enjoying (the fruits) of (his past) deeds.

24-25. All the organs of sense, mind, organs of action, ego, the earth etc. (are known as) the kṣetra (‘field’). The unmanifest soul is said to be the knower of the kṣetra. The lord who is in all the beings is existent, non-existent, as well as both existent and non-existent.

26-27a. The intellect has its origin from the unmanifest. Then the ego and the (five elements) sky etc. come into being. They have twenty-one qualities. Sound, touch, colour, taste and smell are their characteristics.

27b-28. That (quality) which rests on a particular thing gets absorbed in that particular thing. Sattva, rajas and tamas are also stated to be its qualities. He wanders like a wheel being possessed by rajas and tamas.

29. The one who is without a beginning and the first is (said to be) the Supreme Being. That which is knowable by means (of knowledge) and the senses is said to be a modification (of that self).

30. The Vedas, Purāṇas, learning, Upaniṣads, verses, aphorisms, expositions and all other words are from Him.

31. Those who perform the agnihotra^[1] rite for progeny, pass through the path of the manes, the upavīthi and that of (sage) Agastya towards the heaven.

32-35a. Those who are given to charity and are endowed with eight qualities, the eighty-eight thousand sages, who kindle the household fire are born again as the upholders of virtue. They reach the celestial world by the path of the seven sages and the serpents. Only so many sages devoid of all beginnings remain in each one of the places endowed with penance, celibacy, discarding association and learning till all the beings get destroyed.

35b-36a. The study of the Vedas, sacrificial rites, celebacy, penance, restraint, earnestness, fasting and truth are the causes for (gaining) knowledge of the soul.

36b-40a. All those who adhere to truth have to practise profound meditation in this way only. It should be seen, thought about and heard by the twice-born. Those twice-borns who thus find (the truth) by resorting to the forest and meditation and are endowed with truth and extreme earnestness, will become united with pure white lustre in course of time. Then those people reach the celestial world, the Sun, lightning (and attain) the world of Brahmā. They are not reborn here.

40b-42a. Those men, who gain heaven by means of sacrificial rites, penance and gifts, reach the world of manes, the moon, the sky, air, water and earth through smoke, night, dark fortnight and the dakṣiṇāyana (the period when the Sun moves towards the south). They are again born here and again return.

42b-44. Those who do not know the two courses of the soul would become a serpent or a cricket, or a worm or an insect. The individual soul would become immortal bycontemplating the Brahman resembling a lamp in the heart. Even a householder who accepts wealth acquired in the right way, remaining steady in knowledge about the truth, getting delighted in (seeing) guests, who performs ancestral rites and speaks truth, would get release (from bondage).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

A short rite invoking Fire-god.