Commentary on the Panchadasi: 24. Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Thursday 19, February 2026, 05:15.
BOOKS
UPANISHAD 
Commentary on the Panchadasi: 24. 
Chapter 1: Tattva Viveka – Discrimination of Reality.
Mantras 44-55
Mantras - 51- 55 
SWAMI KRISHNANANDA
Post-24.

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Discourse 6

Chapter 1: Tattva Viveka – Discrimination of Reality

Mantras - 54-65

54.

Tābhyāṁ nirvicikitse'rthe cetasaḥ sthāpi tasya yat, eka tānatva metaddhi nidi dhyāsana mucyate (54). 

When the ideas that we have gathered through hearing and studying from a preceptor are made to enter our feelings by deep reflection on the same, and when these ideas that have become practically part of our nature by way of deep investigation—when concentration and reflection become inseparable from us—we become absorbed in them to such an extent that we think only these ideas. Our very outlook changes in terms of these ideas, and the whole world is envisioned by us in terms of these noble ideas only. Nididhyasana is this condition where knowledge acquired through study and hearing, and made one-pointed by reflection and investigation, becomes part of one's nature by delving into one's own heart and making the knowledge a part of one's being. This leads to deep meditation.

In the meditation process, the consciousness of the meditator absorbs itself wholly in the object of meditation. Here in this case, Brahman, the Universal Reality, is the object of meditation. The consciousness of the individual extricates itself from its encasement in the body, moves in the direction of the Universal Being, absorbs itself in it, and endeavours to be conscious only of it and nothing else.

In this stage of initial practice, the factors of meditation are threefold: the meditator, the object meditated upon, and the process of meditation. There is also a fourth factor prior to the direct act of meditation—namely, the elimination of unnecessary thoughts from the mind. There are thoughts that are not conducive to the meditation process, such as internal impulses which are trying to gain access to the objects outside, or the problems of life, or many other entanglements in which one is involved. They are not connected with meditation at all; they are extraneous thoughts. Social and physical conditions, and psychological repressions may intrude into the process of meditation. They have to be carefully brushed aside by a whole-souled onslaught of consciousness on the Universal Being.

The love of the Universal Being will be a good panacea for the ills of the sense organs wanting the pleasure of sense objects. “When you have a greater joy, why do you want a lesser joy? When you have a permanent joy, why do you want an impermanent joy? When you have a real joy, why do you want a false joy?” If we thus instruct the senses and the mind, the extraneous thoughts will wither away and die out. Then starts meditation with the threefold consciousness of the meditator, the object of meditation, and the process of meditation.

55.

Dhyātṛ dhyāne pari tyajya kramād dhyeyaika gocaram, nivāta dīpa vaccittaṁ samādhi rabhi dhīyate (55). 

When, like a flame of a lamp placed in a windless place, conscious-ness flickers not and deviates not from the point of concentration on the Universal Reality, and transcends the triple awareness of the meditation process, the object of meditation and the meditator, then the idea of oneself as meditator, and meditating as the process, is transcended. The absorption is so intense that the consciousness is aware only of the object, so that the aim has become part and parcel of the consciousness meditating. The aim is realised. That is to say, the Universal becomes our experience. Our aim is universality. When consciousness identifies itself with universality, which is the object of meditation finally, we exist as universal experience. This is samadhi.

56.

Vṛtta yastu tadānīm ajñātā apyā tmago carāḥ, smaraṇā danu mīyante vyutthi tasya samut thitāt (56). 

Samadhi does not necessarily mean a sudden, abrupt merger into the Absolute. It takes place gradually, as we find it described in the sutras of Patanjali. There are five or six stages or degrees of samadhi, and in the earlier stages of samadhi, one does not actually merge with the Absolute. Due to the predominance of the cosmic sattva guna in the mind of the meditator, there is an experience of universality. But, after all, the sattva guna also is only a guna. It is a property of prakriti. So as long as we are involved in the qualities of prakriti, we have not totally merged with the Absolute.

It is like seeing the Absolute through a clean glass. We are seeing the total Universal through a transparent medium. We are seeing it, of course. It is as good as being it. Yet there is a glass pane, as it were, preventing us from actually merging with it. Therefore, after this kind of samadhi where the experience is through the sattva guna of prakriti, there is a rising up from samadhi; utthana it is called. We will not always be merging. We will wake up when the stirring of sattva is caused by rajas prakriti, which is also there but is submerged. In deep samadhi, the powerful universal sattva drives down the impulses of rajas and tamas. But how long will they remain inside? They wait in ambush; they are living underground, and after some time they slowly create a disturbance which causes the awakening of the person from samadhi, and one remembers that one was in the state of samadhi.

Smaraṇā danu mīyante: In the state of actual samadhi, there is no thought process. There is no remembering that we are in the state of samadhi, and so on. For example, we are awake now, but do we go on remembering and thinking that we are awake? It is so spontaneous that there is no need of thinking that we are awake. It is a part of our nature, so we do not need to think it. Similarly, thought is not there in samadhi, there is no conscious operation of the psyche; but when we wake up from samadhi, we will have a memory of it. The memory is caused because of the presence of the mind in the state of sattva. If the mind were not there at all, absolutely, there would be no coming up. We would have attained absolute liberation, videhamukti. But the sattva guna persists in the lower kind of samadhi which is known as savikalpa or samprajnata, as the case may be. The awakening is caused by the rajas principle; and the memory of having had the experience of samadhi is caused by the sattva quality of prakriti, which was the means or the medium through which the samadhi was experienced. We can remember that we had a good experience, just as we have a memory that we slept yesterday.

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Next
Manram-57: Vṛttī nāma nuvṛttistu prayat nāt pratha mādapi, adṛṣṭā sakṛda bhyāsa saṁskāra sacivād bhavet 
Continues

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