Ashtang Yoga 5

SAMADHI: The Yoga Vashishta describes a mind that is ready for the experience of Samadhi thus: Fed on (Shravan) concentrated listening to the teacher, (Mantra) , mind made peaceful   by Japa, and hushed into a blissful silence by (Dhyan) contemplation, such a mind is flight -ready for the final leap into God realisation. This is the eighth and the last stage of a yogi’s Sadhana, the ultimate goal of all his disciplines. A worldly man’s mental energies are so hugely employed in the external world where he endlessly runs, panting after ever slipping rewards of power, money, status, recognition and applause. How can he then ever aspire to still the death dance of the mind? Moving forward in life is not possible unless you wilfully reject and discard with determination the present condition. Shankara Bhashya describes the extreme peace of the minds that retire from the fruitless search for permanent  joy externally, that “their spiritual unfoldment is directly proportional to their success in retirement from mental engagements with the outer world. “