What is samadhi ?

The word ‘samadhi’ has been largely misunderstood. People think it means a death-like situation. The word literally means ‘sama’ and ‘dhi’. ‘Sama’ means equanimity and ‘dhi’ denotes ‘buddhi’. If you reach that kind of equanamous state of intellect, it is known as ‘samadhi’. What it means by equanamous state of intellect is this: only when the intellect is functioning, you are able to discriminate between one thing and the other. The discrimination that this is this and this is that is there only because the intellect is functioning. The moment you drop the intellect or transcend the intellect, this discrimination does not exist. Now everything becomes one whole, which is a reality.

Everything just becomes one whole. In this state, there is no time and space. You may think the man had been in samadhi for three days. For him, it was just a few moments – it just passes off like that. Lifetimes can pass off like this.

There are legends where it is said that there have been yogis who lived up to 400-500 years and that some of them are still alive. This 400-500 years – is such a thing possible? Theoretically, it is possible. Whether there is such a person or not, is not the point, but it is definitely possible. This 400-500 years is according to your calculation. For him, it might have been just a few minutes.

If you want to understand these things, you have to pull yourself out of the world. Staying in this world, whichever way you look at it, you cannot understand, because you are bound by time and space. When there is no time and space there are no physical quantities. This world, as you understand it today, as you see it today, as you experience it today, is a complete falsehood. It seems to be there, but it is not really there. It just seems to be there, including yourself, just seem to be there.

Now the whole struggle is to see that it is just nonsense. The whole thing is just an illusion. What it means by ‘maya’ is just this. It just seems to be there. Today your physics is proving it beyond any doubt that there is no such thing as matter in existence. Everything is relative. It just seems to be there but not there. But it is so real, isn’t it? It seems very real. Who is going to believe this story that it is not there?

It is there, very much there. The whole existence, the many forms of creation, can you say it is not there? It is very much there. It is there only as long as the intellect is there. The moment you dissolve your intellect, everything dissolves into one.

Extracted from the book ‘Mystics Musings’ – Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

SOURCE : CHENNAI ONLINE 

LINK :http://archives.chennaionline.com/health/yoga/2004/01samadhi.asp 

LINK:http://www.ishafoundation.org/ 

"Looking at death"

Today you are here, and everything is so real - you, your wife, your child, your property, your work, your ideas, your ego - everything is so real. Today you are here, appearing so real. Tomorrow morning, if you are dead, what will happen to you? Where are you? Where did you go? Your body is a nuisance. Once you are dead, would anybody want to keep your body? Even the most loved ones in your family, if he or she dies, will you keep the body in your bedroom? Like Sankara says, “Bharya Bibyathi Tasmin Kaye.” It means, “Tomorrow if you die, that person who loved you very much or who seemed to love you, even she will be scared of this one (the body).”

This is only a body, so don’t get attached. 

You do know that if we bury you here, you become earth. If we burn you, immediately the results are there for you to see. If we bury you, it takes a little longer. But what happens to you? So, it needs probing. It needs looking at. Definitely, needs to be looked at, isn’t it? Because this man who is here today, so real, tomorrow if he can suddenly evaporate and disappear, it is your business to know, because it is going to happen to you also. Definitely, it is everybody’s business to know, isn’t it? So, that’s where the first step is.

The first step is, you start looking at death; then you become spiritual. If you start looking at your own death, you will definitely become spiritual; there is no other way. Unfortunately, today, in society, you avoid the word death itself. Even children cannot use that word. You say “Rama, Shiva.” But the word “death” is banned at home, because you are scared. Just the word, the reminder, scares you. Many people are scared to even see a funeral passing by in their streets because it reminds them of their own death. Whatever you may shut yourself off to, are you really going to shut off death?

Once you are in physical form, there are certain laws, because the whole physical matter have to be under a certain law. The very creation happens with a certain basis. How long the life of the body extends depends on various factors - there are many karmic factors, there are physical factors and energy factors. And there is another thing, the ultimate thing, that the time is over. There is no business for that being to be here anymore. It is finished.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

SOURCE :CHENNAI ONLINE 

LINK :http://archives.chennaionline.com/health/yoga/2004/07yoga08.asp

LINK :http://www.ishafoundation.org/