---
type: Concept
bundle: yoga-darshana
bundle_version: "0.2.0"
id: samprajnata-samadhi
title: "Samprajñāta Samādhi"
iast: "Samprajñāta Samādhi"
devanagari: "सम्प्रज्ञातसमाधि"
description: "Cognitive absorption with an object, in four stages — not concentration, not trance."
darshana:
  - Pātañjala Yoga
  - Sāṃkhya
text_source: "YS 1.17-1.18, 1.41-1.46"
tags:
  - Yoga
  - Patanjali
  - samadhi
  - samprajnata
  - savitarka
  - savichara
  - sananda
  - sasmita
  - absorption
not:
  - term: "concentration"
    why: "concentration is the English for dhāraṇā (YS 3.1), not samādhi; samprajñāta samādhi is what dhāraṇā and dhyāna ripen into — the state where subject-object separation dissolves in the object of absorption"
    instead: "Keep Samprajñāta Samādhi untranslated; do not substitute the English term."
  - term: "trance"
    why: "trance implies a dissociative or hypnotic state involving reduced awareness; samprajñāta samādhi is heightened, refined awareness — more lucid than ordinary cognition, not less"
  - term: "enlightenment"
    why: "enlightenment is commonly used for the final liberation; samprajñāta samādhi is the approach to that liberation, still within Prakṛti, still with a Sattvic vṛtti present; the word \"enlightenment\" belongs more precisely to kaivalya"
  - term: "meditation"
    why: "meditation in English covers dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi; samprajñāta samādhi is specifically the consummated state beyond dhyāna, where the practitioner no longer maintains the object but merges with it"
  - term: "bliss"
    why: "ānanda is the third stage of samprajñāta samādhi but is not its defining characteristic; using \"bliss\" for samādhi generalizes one stage and often misattributes the experience to Puruṣa rather than a refined Sattvic vṛtti"
related:
  - /concepts/asamprajnata-samadhi.md
  - /concepts/samapatti.md
  - /concepts/chitta-vritti.md
  - /concepts/nirodha.md
  - /concepts/kaivalya.md
  - /concepts/sattva.md
  - /concepts/viveka-khyati.md
  - /concepts/dharana.md
timestamp: "2026-06-20"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Samprajñāta Samādhi — सम्प्रज्ञातसमाधि

**Not:** concentration, trance, enlightenment, meditation, bliss

The first range of absorptions in Patañjali's samādhi typology — *with* (*sam*) a cognitive content (*prajñā*), a seed-object that is known. Samprajñāta samādhi comprises four graduated stages, each more refined than the last, in which citta achieves such concentrated identification with an object that the ordinary subject-object split collapses. An extremely refined vṛtti remains, but it is a vṛtti in which knower and known are nearly indistinguishable. It is the immediate precursor to asamprajñāta samādhi, the "seedless" absorption.

## Etymology

- *sam* — together, fully, perfectly
- *prajñā* — wisdom; cognition; from *pra* + √*jñā* (to know)
- *samādhi* — complete *dhāraṇā* (binding); full placement; from *sam* + *ā* + √*dhā* (to place, to hold)
- *samprajñāta* — "fully cognized"; the state with a cognitive object present

The contrast with *asamprajñāta* (without cognition/object) is structural: one samādhi range retains an object (seed); the other does not.

## YS 1.17 — The Four Stages

*vitarkavicārānandāsmitārūpānugamāt samprajñātaḥ*

"Samprajñāta is accompanied by vitarka, vicāra, ānanda, and asmitā in their respective forms."

Vyāsa's commentary elaborates four distinct stages:

### 1. Savitarka Samādhi — साविर्तक (With Gross Deliberation)

- **Object:** gross, physical — a sound, form, or other manifest sensory object
- **Character:** citta takes the form of the gross object with complete concentration; deliberation (*vitarka*) is the cognitive function that grasps and holds the gross object
- **Residue of ordinary knowing:** association, naming, memory-coloring still mix with the pure perception
- **Nirvitarka:** when these associations are removed and the object alone shines without mental overlay, the state becomes *nirvitarka* — savitarka's purer form (YS 1.43)

### 2. Savicāra Samādhi — सावीचार (With Subtle Reflection)

- **Object:** subtle — a tanmātrā (subtle element), a guṇa, the sense organs themselves
- **Character:** citta turns to subtle objects that cannot be perceived by ordinary senses; *vicāra* (reflection, investigation) is the cognitive function applied to subtle objects
- **The time/space problem:** gross objects are bounded by time and place; subtle objects are present at all times and places; savicāra must navigate this
- **Nirvicāra:** *nirvicārasamādhau adhyātmaprasādaḥ* (YS 1.47) — "In nirvicāra samādhi there is clarity of the innermost self"; the approach of pure Sattvic transparency

### 3. Sānanda Samādhi — सानन्द (With Bliss)

- **Object:** the sense organs and their ānanda-quality (the bliss of the Sattvic functioning of mind-sense)
- **Character:** citta's object is no longer external or subtle-elemental but its own inner quality of clarity and luminous joy
- **Note on ānanda:** this is not Vedāntic *ānanda* (ānanda as Brahman's nature); this is a refined Sattvic quality of citta — an extremely refined vṛtti of luminous experience; it is still Prakṛtic

### 4. Sāsmitā Samādhi — सास्मिता (With Pure I-Am-ness)

- **Object:** asmitā — the bare sense of individuated being; pure ego-sense without any content; the thinnest possible I-AM
- **Character:** citta has absorbed even the sense organs; only the bare feeling of existing-as-this-one remains; the Prakṛtic equivalent of the final veil before Puruṣa-recognition
- **The subtlest seed:** this asmitā-vṛtti is the last saṃskāra before asamprajñāta; dissolving it requires the highest vairāgya (dispassion even toward viveka — YS 3.51)

## Samāpatti and Samprajñāta (YS 1.41)

Patañjali uses the term *samāpatti* (cognitive coincidence) to describe the mechanism of samprajñāta:

*kṣīṇavṛtterabhijātasyeva maṇer grahītṛgrahaṇagrāhyeṣu tatsthatadañjanatā samāpattiḥ*

"When modifications have become thin, samāpatti is the coloring of citta with the character of the grasper, grasping, and grasped — like a clear jewel resting on a colored surface."

See [Samāpatti](samapatti.md) for the full treatment.

## YS 1.18 — The Transition to Asamprajñāta

*virāmapratyayābhyāsapūrvaḥ saṃskāraśeṣo'nyaḥ*

"The other (asamprajñāta) is preceded by the practice of the cessation-cognition; only the saṃskāra-residue remains."

When even the sāsmitā-object is released through the highest vairāgya, the samprajñāta absorptions give way to asamprajñāta: an absorption with no object-seed, where only the nirodha-saṃskāra remains before that too is dissolved.

## Cross-References

- [Asamprajñāta Samādhi](asamprajnata-samadhi.md) — the seedless absorption that follows; the dissolution of the final vṛtti
- [Samāpatti](samapatti.md) — the coincidence-process that is the mechanism of samprajñāta
- [Dhāraṇā](dharana.md) — the single-pointed binding of citta that matures into dhyāna and then samādhi
- [Nirodha](nirodha.md) — the cessation that samprajñāta approaches and asamprajñāta fully realizes
- [Sattva](sattva.md) — the Guṇa that must predominate for samprajñāta to be accessible
- [Viveka-Khyāti](viveka-khyati.md) — the discriminative wisdom that ripens in nirvicāra samādhi; the content of the final prajñā before asamprajñāta
- [Kaivalya](kaivalya.md) — liberation; what follows when even asamprajñāta's nirodha-saṃskāra is dissolved

## Audience Metaphor

Samprajñāta samādhi is like the moment when a master craftsperson working with clay no longer knows if they are shaping the clay or the clay is shaping them — the subject-object gap collapses into the activity itself. The four stages are four depths of this collapse: first with a gross object (vitarka), then with a subtle object (vicāra), then with the feeling-tone itself (ānanda), then with the bare sense of being (asmitā). In each stage the craftsperson disappears a little more. Asamprajñāta is when even the clay disappears.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali](/references/yoga-sutras.md) 1.17-1.18, 1.41-1.46
2. [Yoga Bhāṣya of Vyāsa](/references/yoga-bhasya.md) on YS 1.17
3. [Tattvavaiśāradī](/references/tattvavaisharadi.md) of Vācaspatimiśra on YS 1.17
4. Vyāsa's four stages: vitarka/vicāra/ānanda/asmitā
