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THE PRACTICAL DHARMA
The above are the different forms of dhyāna which lead to what is called nirvikalpa samadhi, the purest form of self-contemplation. In this state the necessity for thinking is replaced by the all-illumining, all-embracing kevala jñāna (omniscience), and the soul directly perceives itself to be the most glorious, the most blissful, the all-knowing and all-powerful being, and becomes absorbed in the enjoyment of its svābhāvik (natural) ānanda (happiness), free from all kinds of impurities and bonds.
We have already sufficiently described the nature of the pindastha dhyāna; the padastha need not be dwelt upon any longer in this book, since a knowledge of Sanskrit is necessary for its practising; but the rupastha and the rupātīta forms of contemplation deserve a word of explanation. Of these, the former, i.e., the rupastha, is the form of the bhakti-mārga (the Path of Devotion) par excellence, since it directly enables the soul to attain to the form and status of God. The form of the paramātman is first intellectually determined and then contemplated upon with unwavering fixity of attention, till it become indelibly fixed in the mind. This being accomplished, the ascetic now resorts to the fourth form of dhyāna, the rupātīta, and with its aid transfers the impress of the paramātman from his mind to the essence of his jīva or soul-substance, which, in obedience to the law—as one thinks so one becomes itself assumes that very form, manifesting, at the same tin in the fullest degree, the attributes of perfection and divinity, arising from the action of the concentrated point of attention on the matter of the nervous centres, as described before.
It will not be out of place here to point out the nature of the trouble which is sure to arise from a concentration of mind on an erroneous, or a fanciful conception of the divine form. Since the intensity of concentration tends to establish the soul-substance in the form of the object of contemplation, he who holds in his mind any ill-shaped, misconceived or distorted image of divinity would be throwing his soul into a wrong mould, the impress of which it would not be an easy matter to destroy.
This is not all, for the requisite degree of the intensity of concentration also is not possible where the mind is liable to be stirred or moved
