Samadhi (samādhi): Absorption, the Eighth Limb, and Its Several Grades
समाधिsamādhi
Written and reviewed by The Kriya Yogi · Updated 24 September 2026
Samadhi means 'putting together' or 'absorption' — the eighth and final limb of Patanjali's path, in which the meditating mind becomes so absorbed in its object that the sense of a separate perceiving self recedes.
In short
- Samadhi combines sam ('together, completely') and ā-dhā ('to place, put'), giving a literal sense close to 'placing together' or 'complete union/absorption'.
- Patanjali (Yoga Sutras 3.3) describes samadhi as dhyana in which only the object shines forth, as if the meditator's own form (as a separate perceiver) is absent.
- The Yoga Sutras describe several distinct grades and kinds of samadhi across chapters 1 and 4, notably samprajnata (with cognitive support) and asamprajnata (without it), and samadhi is treated as the goal explored across the whole text, not a single uniform state.
- Chapter 4 (Kaivalya Pada) treats the culmination of the path as kaivalya, 'aloneness' or liberation — related to, but a distinct technical term from, samadhi itself.
- Modern casual usage sometimes treats 'samadhi' loosely as a synonym for a pleasant or blissful meditative feeling; the text describes something more specific and structurally defined than a mood.
Derivation
Samādhi combines the prefix sam-, "together" or "completely," with a form of the verb ā-dhā, "to place" or "to put." Its literal sense is close to "putting together," "placing completely," or "composing" — from which the extended technical sense of "absorption" or "unified concentration" develops: the mind's contents, ordinarily scattered, are placed together, unified, around a single object.
Patanjali's definition
Samadhi is the eighth and final limb. Sutra 3.3 describes it as continuous with dhyana but further deepened: tad evārtha-mātra-nirbhāsaṃ svarūpa-śūnyam iva samādhiḥ — "that same [dhyana], when only the object shines forth, as if empty of its own form [as a separate perceiving act], is samadhi." The sense of a distinct perceiver, standing apart from what is perceived, is described as receding, so that essentially only the object of meditation remains present to awareness.
Not one single state — the text describes several
It would misrepresent the Yoga Sutras to treat "samadhi" as naming one single, uniform experience. The text distinguishes multiple grades and kinds across its four chapters. In the first chapter, it discusses samprajnata samadhi — absorption still accompanied by some form of cognitive content or support (further subdivided by the nature of that support) — and asamprajnata samadhi, a subtler state without such cognitive support, arising after the deliberate cultivation of even samprajnata samadhi's contents has itself been let go. The text also discusses samadhi attained "with seed" (sabija) versus "without seed" (nirbija), referring to whether latent impressions remain. This granularity matters: popular writing that treats "samadhi" as a single finish-line state flattens a good deal of the text's own careful distinctions.
Samadhi and kaivalya
The Yoga Sutras' fourth chapter is titled the Kaivalya Pada, "the chapter on aloneness [or liberation]." Kaivalya — the isolation or aloneness of pure consciousness (purusha) from the fluctuations of the mind (prakriti) — is presented as the ultimate aim the whole eight-limbed path serves, closely related to but a technically distinct term from samadhi itself: samadhi names the meditative absorption; kaivalya names the resulting liberated condition the text treats as the path's final goal.
Modern usage and where it drifts
In casual modern usage, "samadhi" is sometimes used loosely for any deeply pleasant, blissful, or peak meditative experience — a usage that captures something of the flavour of absorption but loses the text's more structural, specific claims about the recession of the sense of a separate perceiver and the several distinct grades it describes. It is fair to treat a genuinely deep, sustained meditative absorption as pointing toward what the text is describing, while being honest that a brief pleasant feeling during meditation is not automatically equivalent to the specific, carefully graded states the Yoga Sutras name.
Common misunderstandings
A frequent error is treating samadhi as a single, uniform "enlightenment" experience achieved once and for all; the text describes multiple grades, with and without cognitive support, with and without seed, forming a graded structure rather than one flat destination. Another is conflating samadhi directly with kaivalya; the text treats them as closely related but distinct — one a meditative attainment, the other the liberated condition that attainment serves. A third is assuming samadhi is primarily about feeling blissful; the definition given in 3.3 is about the structure of awareness (object alone remaining, apparent absence of the separate perceiving self), not primarily about emotional tone.
Where this is practised on the site
The texts section works through the Yoga Sutras' treatment of samadhi across all four chapters in full, including the samprajnata/asamprajnata and sabija/nirbija distinctions. The breathing guides describe the preparatory concentration practices (dharana, dhyana) the text presents as leading toward it.
Where this is practised here
Questions people ask
+ What does samadhi mean?
+ Is there only one kind of samadhi?
+ Is samadhi the same as enlightenment or kaivalya?
References
- Patanjali, Yoga Sutras, chapters 1, 3 and 4 (Kaivalya Pada).
- Mallinson & Singleton, "Roots of Yoga" (Penguin Classics, 2017) — a scholarly anthology tracing the textual history of these terms.
Educational content, not medical advice. Check with a doctor before starting new practices if you have a health condition or are pregnant.