There are three kinds of samadhi. One samadhi is called savikalpa samadhi. There, thoughts come and go, but you are not affected. Thoughts, like flies, go this way and that way, but nothing happens to the mind. Then there is nirvikalpa samadhi. Nirvikalpa is infinitely higher. In nirvikalpa samadhi there is no iota of thought — nothing, absolutely nothing. There you can have your highest meditation. The third samadhi is called sahaja. That is the most difficult samadhi: to maintain the highest consciousness when you are in the hustle and bustle of life. I do not think the Supreme has given that samadhi to more than twenty spiritual figures. They can be in the highest consciousness. Far beyond nirvikalpa samadhi they can go. There have been very few selected souls since the beginning of Creation who could maintain the highest consciousness and at the same time cut jokes, mix with human beings and do anything else.
Again, I do not think more than twenty people have attained to sahaja samadhi. Perhaps even when I say twenty I am exaggerating. Many, many spiritual figures did not reach that height, because it is much, much higher than nirvikalpa samadhi. If you are in nirvikalpa samadhi, you cannot mix with people, cut jokes and do all kinds of ordinary things. Again, there have been a few who could remain in the highest and at the same time maintain their earthly consciousness and enjoy humour and ordinary activities. That is sahaja samadhi.
When you see me joking with you, please do not feel that I have come down to my lowest level to be with you. No, no, no! Some disciples think, when I am cutting jokes or chatting with people, “Oh, Guru has descended. He has descended — otherwise, how could he be joking like this?” Believe me, I do not descend. Out of His infinite Compassion and infinite Bounty, God has given me the capacity to maintain my height. And this capacity I got at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram — not here in America, and not in Chittagong.
When I am joking, you can also enjoy the joke to your heart’s content — no harm; but do not forget what I have said. You can either enjoy, or you can dive deep within, but do not forget that my highest and the human life, the Heavenly consciousness and the earthly consciousness, always go together.
Very, very few Masters have had this capacity over the years. Those few were in the highest, sahaja samadhi; others were in nirvikalpa samadhi, and others in savikalpa samadhi. Even in savikalpa samadhi there is a thought-current. Thoughts are coming, flowing like waves, but one is not affected. It is like the surface of the ocean, where we can see waves and billows. How powerful they are! Sometimes they are frightening, destructive. But at the bottom of that ocean it is all silence; silence reigns supreme. The same consciousness that is at the bottom of the ocean is pervading the surface consciousness.
Only when you are in your deepest, highest meditation will you know that your Master is not the body. All the spiritual Masters since the beginning of Creation have told their disciples that the Master is not the body. Inside the body of the Master there is Something, there is Someone. Please maintain that consciousness.
40. 3 January 2006, Kuantan, Malaysia↩
From:Sri Chinmoy,Not every day, but every moment: illumining questions and answers, comments and talks, Agni Press, 2013
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ned