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said samādhi to be of four types - 1. with rational thoughts, attachment related bliss, and concentration, 2. with attachment related bliss, and concentration, 3. with bliss and concentration, 4. with singular concentration.
EIGHT LIMBED YOGA OF YOGA PHILOSOPHY
The disciplining of the activities and attitudes of mind is called yoga. The consequence of this disciplining is said to be stabilization within the self, and it is achieved through practice and detachment. There are three stages of yoga – savikalpa (with ambiguity), nirvikalpa (without ambiguity), and nirjiva (absence of all activities of life). At the Savikalpa State of yoga the discerning attitude is absent. This is the beginning. At the nirvikalpa level the discerning attitude is achieved. With the practices of this level the aspirant rises above all desires, ambitions, attachment, and aversion of indulgence in activities related to interaction of man and nature. He attains a level where there is total absence of desires. This is the final level called nirjīva. This level is also called Asamprajñāta yoga and Dharma Megha Samādhi. This nirjīva samādhi is the ultimate goal of yoga. The other means of attaining this nirjīva samādhi is union with God through deep meditation. This facilitates knowledge of soul and obliterates the intervening gap.
The five afflictions including lack of knowledge cause all. miseries. All actions done under influence of these get accumulated in the mind as saṁskāra (karmic-programming in modern terms). The name given to this aggregate of samskāras is karmāśaya. As long as these afflictions exist one has to take births and die in various genuses. To the discerning, all happiness and misery suffered as a consequence of merit-karma and demerit-karma is misery only. Therefore, in order to achieve complete absence of sorrows it is necessary to fully uproot these afflictions. The means of doing that is discerning knowledge, which in turn is acquired through practicing the eight steps of yoga. The eight steps are – yama, niyama, āsana, prāņāyāma, pratyähära, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi. Yama includes the five vows including ahiṁsā (the Jain great vows). Niyama includes cleansing, contentment, austerities, self-study, and devotion for God. To sit with ease is āsana. To stop exhalation and inhalation is prāņāyāma (this sheds the Jñānavaraṇa karma). To shift from extroversion to introversion is
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