Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya

KING JANAKA said:

Similarly, experience of casual samadhi in the absence of theoretical knowledge does not serve the purpose either. Just as a man, ignorant of the qualities of an emerald, cannot recognize it by the mere sight of it in the treasury, nor can another recognize it if he has not seen it before, although he is full of theoretical knowledge on the subject, in the same way theory must be supplemented with practice in order that a man might become an expert. Ignorance cannot be eradicated by mere theory or by the casual samadhi of an ignorant man.

Again, want of attention is a serious obstacle; for a man looking up at the sky cannot identify the individual constellations. Even a learned scholar is no better than a fool, if he does not pay attention when a thing is explained to him. On the other hand, a man though not a scholar but yet attentive having heard all about the planet Venus, goes out in confidence to look for it, knowing how to identify it, and finally discovers it, and so is able to recognize the same whenever he sees it again. Inattentive people are simply fools who cannot understand the ever-recurring samadhis in their lives. They are like a man, ignorant of the treasure under the floor of his house, who begs for his daily food. 

So you see that samadhi is useless to such people. The intellect of babes is always unmodified and yet they do not realize the Self.