FINALLY! – Dhyana and Samadhi
Beyond Dharana, the focus of the mind toward one point or action, the practice of yoga becomes ever more internalized. As we focus the mind toward one thing, all the familiar aspects of “I” and “doing” and “time” are still in play. Beyond that, when Dhyana (meditation) happens, the sadhaka no longer experiences time. And beyond that, in Samadhi, the yogi no longer experiences “I”.
BKS Iyengar only briefly describes these two last limbs of yoga within the Introduction to Light on Yoga. It is extremely difficult to capture the final experiences of yoga in words. “Meditation” is not something we “do”, despite the numerous methods that many of us practice. In Dharana, we work to establish an unbroken focus of consciousness, which is what most meditative practices are teaching us to do. Only “When the flow of concentration is uninterrupted, the state that arises is dhyana (meditation).” Dhyana is a blissful state free of time where the mind is engulfed by the object focused upon.
Even in this blissful stage of Dhyana, we must not develop attachment. To continue toward the final state of yoga, samadhi, the ultimate freedom, union with one’s Divinity within, and complete clarity of consciousness, a practitioner must keep the faith and devotion in practice. “At the peak of meditation, (the yogi) passes into the state of samadhi, where the body and senses are at rest as if in sleep, faculties of mind and reason are alert as when awake, yet is beyond consciousness…no sense of ‘I’ or ‘mine’”.
BKS Iyengar gives in the Samadhi portion of the Introduction to Light on Yoga an explanation used by sages about how we might view this experience. We practice all the previous limbs of yoga to gain knowledge and understanding of the many layers of our being. As we become observant and discerning of ALL of Nature and what makes up our individual selves, we may begin to piece that Nature apart, severing all attachment to all the pieces of who we “think” we are. The ever changing transient Nature (Prakrti) is not the internal eternal Truth of pure consciousness (purusa). As practitioners we may repeat “Neti! Neti! – ‘It is not this! It is not this!’” at every stage. Only when we let go of the final layer, realizing that we are not even “I”, “me”, and “mine”, do we fall into the great union, beyond duality and beyond ever changing Nature into the vastness of the eternal Divine. What that means for any one of us is the great mystery, but you will find many who try to explain it, including the entire fourth chapter of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In trying to describe it to my mother, I came up with the metaphor of plucking petals off a flower – you can pluck and release petal after petal and even with one petal left there would still be “flower”. It is only when that last petal is let go of that “flower” no longer exists.
Iyengar ends his Introduction by sharing the “Song of the Soul” by Sankaracharya, a sage and scholar from the 8th century CE. I found an online page of the translation here.
In closing, this rereading of The Introduction to Light on Yoga has struck me over and over with how BKS Iyengar clearly might have thought this would be his one and only chance to share the entirety of the practice of yoga with the world. Despite the many following books that he wrote on the subject, this short 53 pages shows the great devotion and faith that he wanted to convey was necessary at the very heart of yoga. Forty-eight years have passed since the first publication of Light on Yoga in 1966, and BKS Iyengar passed away in 2014. So much evolved and transpired over those years in his own understanding of yoga-asana through his practice and his observation of practice by others. But, in my opinion, Light on Yoga remains just what it suggests, a bright beam of light that guides any practitioner toward the knowledge of yoga.
