The word samadhi literally means, sama meaning equanimity and dhi meaning budhi or the intellect. The fundamental nature of the intellect is to discriminate – you are able to discriminate between a person and a tree only because your intellect is functioning. This discriminatory quality is very important for survival. If you want to break a stone, you have to discriminate between the stone and your finger otherwise you will break your finger. So discrimination is an instrument which supports and executes the instinct of survival present in every cell of the body. The execution of this instinct happens mainly because of the intellect.
If you lose the discriminatory intellect, you will become insane. In a samadhi state, your discriminatory intellect is perfectly in shape, but at the same time you have transcended it. A state like this gives you an experience of the oneness of the existence, the unification of everything that is. The whole aspect of spirituality is to go beyond that discrimination, beyond the survival instincts, which is for the physical. Samadhi is a certain state of equanimity where the intellect goes beyond its normal function of discrimination. This in turn, loosens one from his physical body or there is a space between what is you and your body.
There are various types of samadhis, which for the sake of understanding have been classified into eight forms. Of these eight, they have been broadly categorized as savikalpa samadhis with attributes or qualities, which are very pleasant, blissful, and ecstatic. And nirvikalpa samadhis that are beyond pleasant and unpleasant, they are without attributes or qualities. Those who go into nirvikalpa samadhi states are always kept in protected atmospheres as their contact with the body has become very minimal. The smallest disturbance, like a sound or a pinprick would dislodge them from their body. These states are maintained for certain periods to establish the distinction between you and the body. It is a significant step in one’s spiritual evolution, but still not the Ultimate. The samadhis by themselves have no great significance in terms of Realization.
When we say Mahasamadhi, we are talking about a dimension where you transcend discrimination – not just experientially but also existentially. There is no such thing as you and the other. Right now, you are sitting here and there is you and the other; it is a certain level of reality. In a samadhi state, you go beyond that discrimination and in your experience you are able to see the oneness of the existence. Mahasamadhi means you not only see it that way, you have become that way totally – discrimination is finished. That means individual existence is finished, who you are does not exist anymore. The life that is functioning as an individual life right now becomes absolutely universal or cosmic or boundless. To put it in traditional terms, you become one with God or one with everything.
When I say one with God, it does not mean going and joining somebody somewhere. It is just that your individual bubble is over. To use an analogy, right now your existence is like a bubble. A bubble that is floating around is very real but if you burst it, where does the air inside the bubble go? It just becomes one with everything, isn’t it? It is completely dissolved. When we say one with everything, this is what it means. Nothing will be there, you will not be there. So when we say mukthi, it means you are free from existence. When I say you are free from existence, I am not talking about existence as a quantity which you are free from. You are free from your own existence – your existence is finished.
So when we say mukthi or nirvana or moksha, this is what it means – freedom from the very burden of existence. That’s ultimate freedom because as long as you exist, you are bound in one way or another. If you exist in a physical way, it is one kind of bondage. If you leave the physical body and exist in some other way, there is still another kind of bondage. Everything that exists is ruled by some law. Now mukthi means you have broken all laws and all laws can be broken only when you cease to exist.
Nirvana is a more appropriate word because nirvana means non-existence. When there is no existence, you are even free from freedom because freedom is also a certain bondage. So you are free from your very existence. That’s what Mahasamadhi means. All discrimination between what is you and what is not you is finished. This is the goal of every spiritual seeker. Ultimately, he wants to go beyond existence.
