Supplement to
The Gnosticon

Limitations of the Yogic Samadhis

Note: The following is Part Seven of an updated version of "Bubba Free John and Swami Muktananda: A Confrontation of Dharmas", originally published in The Dawn Horse magazine, Volume 2, Number 2 (1975). Links to further readings from the published Writings of Avatar Adi Da Samraj are also included following the article.

In His Writings and recorded Talks, Avatar Adi Da has greatly elaborated on the points He raised in His conversation with Swami Muktananda, regarding Yogis, Jnanis, and the Realization of Amrita Nadi (or Atma Nadi) as the Ultimate Form of Reality.

Avatar Adi Da carefully distinguishes between the "experiential" path of the Yogis, the introversive path of the Jnanis, and His own "Radical" Reality-Way that Stands Beyond all such seeking for "experience" or turning away from "experience".

In February 1973, six months before His visit to India, Avatar Adi Da Samraj spoke to His devotees about the limitation of Yogic forms of Samadhi and visionary "experience", such as those taught by Swami Muktananda:

The Yogic Samadhis are essentially trance conditions. They are remarkable mental states, but they are temporary and only forms of "experience". Their content might be sublime, but they must be understood. Beyond such phenomena there is the Realization of Truth.

In a certain period of My "Sadhana-Years"-Submission, I passed through a period of trance Samadhis, and occasionally (even now) some manifestation of this kind occurs.

When they first occurred years ago, they were very delicious, very interesting. They were the beginning of Yogic phenomena — visions, movements into other planes, seeing fantastic "worlds", moving out of this realm of conscious awareness altogether.

However, it became very clear that not anything was gained by the "experience" itself, not anything was ultimately changed. Rather, a kind of craving developed as a result of these phenomena. Thus, it was very significant for Me to pass though these events, because they are the goals of the Yogic search — but I saw that they made no difference whatsoever.

In the highest states of Yogic Samadhi, I realized that I was in exactly the same condition as I was in any other ordinary state. In seeing the so-called "ultimate Divine" visions, I realized I was in the same state that I was when walking down the street looking at a building.

Such visionary "experience" does not mean anything. The seventh stage Realizer does not care whether he or she has a vision. In fact, visions are like flies. They are an annoyance when you live and function in the Condition of Truth.

That is why I am Born in the human plane — to Communicate the Way of Truth from the Disposition of Truth. All others communicate from the "point of view" of phenomena of various kinds — secondary illuminations, "experiences". The Truth has nothing whatsoever to do with such phenomena.

Next: Ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi
and Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi