I began with a question that often arises when diving into Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: “You clarified Savikalpa and Nirvikalpa Samadhi. But what’s Sampragyat and Asampragyat Samadhi of Patanjali?”
The terms are seemingly different, yet the experiences they point toward feel similar. It sparked my curiosity: “But why these two types of terms for the same thing?”
What I understood is that Patanjali uses Sampragyat and Asampragyat in a technical and classical sense. Sampragyat (also called Sabeeja or Savikalpa) Samadhi has content—there’s an object, a seed, a thought form present. Asampragyat (also called Nirbeeja or Nirvikalpa) Samadhi is objectless, seedless. The mind has subsided fully. But why, then, did Patanjali choose both sets of terms—Sampragyat/Asampragyat and Savikalpa/Nirvikalpa? Wouldn’t that cause confusion?
It seems Patanjali used Sampragyat and Asampragyat primarily because he was presenting a systematic psychological model. Savikalpa and Nirvikalpa likely came into wider usage later in Vedantic and Tantric traditions. They’re not always used identically, but often interchangeably. That brought me to ask from myself: “Then why did he also use Savikalpa and Nirvikalpa, if I’m not wrong?”
Interestingly, it’s not explicitly Patanjali who uses Savikalpa/Nirvikalpa in the Yoga Sutras—it’s later commentators and overlapping traditions that brought these terms in. Sampragyat and Asampragyat are the original terms in the Sutras. Still, I asked, “Are both types of terms fully synonymous?”
Not always. Sampragyat Samadhi (Patanjali) emphasizes concentration with an object. Savikalpa Samadhi (Vedantic/Tantric) often includes the idea of subject-object awareness still being present. Means, savikalp is experiential and Sampragyat is methodical or procedural. Asamprajnata Samadhi (Patanjali) is total cessation, objectless. Nirvikalpa Samadhi (in some schools) can imply both no-thought and no-object, and sometimes even goes beyond Patanjali’s dualism. Let me clarify it little more. In some Vedantic and non-dual traditions, Nirvikalpa Samadhi goes beyond Patanjali’s dualistic view of isolating Purusha from Prakriti. It is not just the absence of thought or object, but the collapse of all duality—no subject, no object, no witnessing—only pure, indivisible Being remains. Here, even the distinction between void and shimmering consciousness dissolves, revealing that both arise from the same undivided Self. Then a line hit me deeply: “A pure isolation of Purusha from Prakriti (still dualistic).” I found this topic interesting and asked to have it clarified, expanded, and made into a layman-style blog post.
So how are both states experientially different? In Sampragyat/Savikalpa Samadhi, there’s deep peace, absorption, and bliss, but a subtle awareness of self and object remains. In Asampragyat/Nirvikalpa Samadhi, there’s no duality. Not even the awareness of awareness remains. It’s like being dissolved into Being itself. But how can that be? How is it possible being everything and nothing together?
And then another contradiction arose in me: “Void consciousness is dark and everything we feel is shimmering consciousness. How can both be the same?”
The insight came gently: the void (pure consciousness) appears dark because it is contentless—there’s nothing to reflect. But it is also the source of all shimmer, light, form, thought. The shimmer is Prakriti—mental waves, energy, vibration. The void is Purusha—silent witnessing presence. They’re not different substances; they’re two faces of the same ineffable mystery. Just like ocean is dark inside but its waves outside are shimmering.
This led me to question: “But how does this justify the dualistic view of Sankhya?” Sankhya posits two eternal realities: Purusha (consciousness) and Prakriti (matter/mind). They never become one. But Yoga, while grounded in Sankhya, introduces a twist: through practice, the boundaries blur experientially. Liberation is the knowing of distinction, but it often feels like union.
And this echoed with something very personal: “In my glimpse awakening I saw myself non-separate from the mental waves. It’s a Vedantic view but I reached it through Yoga that’s based on sankhya philosophy.”
This experience taught me that the boundary between Purusha and Prakriti is not a wall—it’s a veil that’s imaginary. A veil that thins with practice. My path began with Yoga, using techniques that dissolved this boundary. That puzzled me too. I asked: “But Yoga is Sankhya in philosophy, and you say it separates Purusha from Prakriti, not dissolves boundaries between them?”
Yes, philosophically Yoga leans on Sankhya, aiming for discrimination (Viveka) between Purusha and Prakriti. But in practice, the very tools it uses—deep concentration, stillness, Samadhi—can give an experience of unity. This unity isn’t against the scriptures—it’s just a higher experiential realization. It’s higher than base sankhya. Sankhya philosophy is only starting or learning tool. In practice it becomes unifying yoga.
Then I saw clearly: “This experience is the direct realization that Purusha and Prakriti are inseparable in their essential nature.” That’s why, in my awakening, I experienced it as a mixture of dark and light. The dark came from the void-like Self. The shimmer came from the mental waves. Both were not fighting; they were dancing.
And so here I am—not as someone who has “arrived,” but as one still walking. I haven’t realized Nirvikalpa Samadhi permanently. I haven’t achieved total stillness. But I’ve tasted. I’ve glimpsed. And these glimpses have left deep imprints. They’ve taught me that Yoga doesn’t just aim to isolate—it purifies so finely that we eventually transcend even philosophical boundaries.
This unfolding—this inner journey—isn’t about claiming realization, but honoring its hints. The truth isn’t in clinging to terms. It’s in what you see when thought drops and the shimmer of the void shines through.
Maybe that’s what Patanjali really meant all along.
Moreover, in practical life, I was practicing union of void or purusha with mind or prakriti with help of sharirvigyan darshan since years. And it helped a lot to reach this stage. It still works and balances expressions of void and mind in every step of life making both dancing together in equilibrium and creating the ultimate and liberating yin-yang union. This is like blissful moonlight where dark and light both are mixed. That’s why moonlight is revered most in scriptures and various religious wirships done in full moon. It’s shimmering meditation image in the mind that’s neither external light nor internal darkness but a blissful mixture of both.
Demystifying Kundalini 