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VEDANTA
tinction (vikalpa) of knower, act of knowing, and object known becomes dissolved-as waves vanish in water, and as foam vanishes in the sea. Properly, savikalpa samādhi should deepen into nirvikalpa. The consciousness of being a subject with certain sublime predicates should dissolve, and the two terms of the vision then deliquesce in each other-now truly One-without-a-second, without predicates, without attributes, and ineffable. The only possible grammar to render the experience and bliss of this degree of samadhi is silence.
Four states of mind stand as obstacles to the attainment of nirvikalpa samādhi. The first is laya, the obstruction of deep dreamless sleep. Instead of passing on to Turiya, the "Fourth," the mind lapses into unconsciousness, and the candidate mistakes this melting (laya) for that of the mergence in the Self. Deep sleep supervenes when the spontaneous activity of the introverted mind (citta-vṛitti) fails to grasp and hold to the changeless Total Onc.175
The second, and opposite, obstacle is vikṣepa, distraction. The oscillation of the mind cannot be brought to the single-pointedness that leads in the end to samādhi. The mind persists in its normal wakefulness, being distracted by sense-impressions, and so is scattered. Images, ideas, and reminiscences take shape in it through its elementary propensity to become transformed into everything proffered either by the senses or by memory and intuition. Thus remaining a receptacle of transitory floating contents, the candidate is said to be "dispersed" (vikṣipta). Vikṣepa is the attitude of the mind in daily life. Though urged to concentration, the faculties cannot be brought to rest. 176 According to the Yoga-sūtras this involuntary state must be overcome by a deliberate, relentless effort of concentration before any progress whatsoever can be made along the way of yoga practice.
The third obstacle, blocking the way to the changeless Total
175 Vedantasära 210. 176 lb. 211.
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