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constant thought-flow is called meditation (Dhyāna). It is indicated here by Sankara that when Dhyāna is practised for a long period daily and constantly—every word is important
—for a long period of years (Ciram), daily (Nityam) and constantly (Nirantaram -he gets established in Godconsciousness, and thus attains the Nirvana state.
The word Nirvāna means 'blown out'. Modern physics tells us that the rip of a candle flame, though apparently solid and steady, is constituted of independent flickerings at a great frequency. Just as the pictures thrown on a screen in a film-show are constantly changing, yet because of the frequency, we gain the conception of a continuity, so too, we apparently recognise a solid flame tip in a burning candle. This example is often quoted in Yoga Šāstras to explain the mind in man which seems to be a substantial factor, though created by the frequency and continuity of the individual thought-waves. In one who has realised his own Self and has transcended his mind, there is no more any thought arising; and this state is indicated by the term Nirvāna, the state of Self-realisation.
This Moksa-condition can be in two stages, just as before sleep we have a period of dosing, followed by a deepsleep-state. During the dosing period we are conscious that we are 'going to sleep' and that our conceptions and perceptions of the outer worlds are being slowly and steadily dazed away from us; and the deep-sleep-state is the period when we are neither conscious of the outer world or even of ourselves.
Similarly, in meditation also we come to a dusky period of awareness, wherein we are conscious of ourselves nearing the Transcendental, and that state of Samādhi, where the last traces of Ego still linger is called 'Savikalpa Samadhi'. The Ego-less moment where the subject alone revels in his own glory, when the Yogi experiences t Infinite Bliss of Pure Existence, that state of mind is called 'Nirvikalpa Samādhi'. That is the experience of God-hood, and after this Iswara darśan, there is no falling back into the values and impulses of the lower life any more.
