Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya

The prarabdha of jnanis is still active and sprouts in the mind but only to be burnt up by the steady flame of jnana. Pleasure or pain is due to the dwelling of the mind on occurrences. But if these are scorched at their source, how can there be pain or pleasure? Jnanis of the highest order, however, are seen to be active because they voluntarily bring out the vasanas from the depth of the mind and allow them to run out. Their action is similar to that of a father sporting with his child, moving its dolls, laughing at the imagined victory of one doll over another, and appearing to grieve over the injury to another, and so on; so the many-minded Sages have pleasure or pain from work.

The vasanas not inimical to realization are not weeded out by the best class of jnanis because they cannot seek new ones to crown the old one out. Therefore the old ones continue until they are exhausted and thus you find among them some highly irritable, some lustful and others pious and dutiful and so on. 

Now the lowest order of jnanis still under the influence of their minds know that there is no truth in the objective universe. Their samadhi is not different from that of the rest. What is samadhi? Samadhi is being aware of the Self, and nothing else - that is to say - it should not be confounded with the nirvikalpa (undifferentiated) state, for this state of samadhi is very common and frequent, as has been pointed out in the case of momentary samadhis. 

Everyone is experiencing the nirvikalpa state though unknowingly. But what is the use of such unrecognized samadhis? A similar state becomes possible to the hatha yogis also. This experience alone does not confer any lasting benefit. But one may apply the experience to the practical affairs of life. Samadhi can only be such and such alone (sahaja samadhi is meant here).