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TJE PRACTICAL PATH. 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 jñana (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 svabhåvik (natural) ananda, free from all kinds of impurities and bonds.
We have already sufficiently described the nature of the pindastha dhyana ; 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 rupâtita forms of contemplation deserve a word of explanation. Of these, the former, i.e., the rupastha, is the form of the bhakti-márga, par excellence, since it directly enables the soul to attain to the form and status of God. The form of the paramâtman 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 dhyana, the rupâtita, and with its aid transfers the impress of the paramâtman from his mind to the essence of his jiva or soul-substance, which, in obedience to the law-as one thinks so one becomes-itself assumes that very form, manifesting, at the same time, 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. The transference of the conception of paramátman from the mind, or intellect, to the soul-substance is beautifully allegorised,
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