---
type: Concept
bundle: yoga-darshana
bundle_version: "0.2.0"
id: asamprajnata-samadhi
title: "Asamprajñāta Samādhi"
iast: "Asamprajñāta Samādhi"
devanagari: "असम्प्रज्ञातसमाधि"
description: "Objectless absorption in which all Prakṛtic cognition ceases and Puruṣa alone remains — not unconsciousness, not deep sleep."
darshana:
  - Pātañjala Yoga
  - Sāṃkhya
text_source: "YS 1.18, 1.51, 3.8"
tags:
  - Yoga
  - • Patanjali
  - samadhi
  - asamprajnata
  - seedless
  - nirodha
  - kaivalya
  - nirbija
not:
  - term: "unconsciousness"
    why: "unconsciousness is a state of reduced awareness; asamprajñāta samādhi is the opposite — the removal of all Prakṛtic cognitive content leaves only the pure witnessing of Puruṣa; it is maximum awareness with minimum Prakṛtic content"
    instead: "Keep Asamprajñāta Samādhi untranslated; do not substitute the English term."
  - term: "deep sleep"
    why: "Patañjali explicitly distinguishes sleep (nidrā) from samādhi; in sleep, Tamas covers citta and vṛttis continue at a Tamasic level; in asamprajñāta samādhi, Prakṛtic activity ceases through the highest Sattvic restraint"
  - term: "emptiness"
    why: "the state is not empty in the Buddhist śūnyatā sense; what \"remains\" is Puruṣa as pure witness; the absence is of Prakṛtic content, not of presence"
  - term: "nirvana"
    why: "nirvāṇa is a Buddhist technical term involving the extinguishing of the flame of saṃsāra; asamprajñāta samādhi is a Yoga Darśana concept within a dual ontology (Puruṣa and Prakṛti both real); the frameworks are structurally different"
  - term: "enlightenment"
    why: "asamprajñāta samādhi is the proximate cause of kaivalya; but kaivalya (permanent separation of Puruṣa from Prakṛti) is the liberation, not the samādhi itself"
related:
  - /concepts/samprajnata-samadhi.md
  - /concepts/nirodha.md
  - /concepts/samskara.md
  - /concepts/kaivalya.md
  - /concepts/purusha.md
  - /concepts/viveka-khyati.md
  - /concepts/parinama.md
timestamp: "2026-06-20"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Asamprajñāta Samādhi — असम्प्रज्ञातसमाधि

**Not:** unconsciousness, deep sleep, emptiness, nirvana, enlightenment

The "seedless" absorption — samādhi *without* (*a-*) a cognitive object (*samprajñāta*). The state in which all citta-vṛttis, including the most refined Sattvic modifications of samprajñāta samādhi, have completely ceased. Only the nirodha-saṃskāra remains; when it too is dissolved, what persists is Puruṣa alone — the condition immediately preceding or constituting kaivalya.

## Etymology

- *a-* — without, not
- *sam-prajñāta* — with full cognition / with an object of knowledge
- *asamprajñāta* — without the cognitive object; "cognition-absent"

Also called *nirbīja samādhi* — "seedless samādhi" — where *bīja* (seed) refers to the cognitive object-seed (ālambana) that sustained samprajñāta absorptions.

## YS 1.18 — The Structural Definition

*virāmapratyayābhyāsapūrvaḥ saṃskāraśeṣo'nyaḥ*

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

Three elements:

1. **Virāma-pratyaya** — the cognition (*pratyaya*) of cessation (*virāma*); the practitioner must hold the idea "let everything cease" rather than directing citta toward any object; this is the highest vairāgya applied even to viveka-khyāti's refined insights
2. **Preceded by practice** (*abhyāsa-pūrvaḥ*) — asamprajñāta is not achieved by simple effort; it follows the long development through samprajñāta absorptions
3. **Saṃskāra-śeṣa** — "saṃskāra-remainder"; in asamprajñāta, only the nirodha-saṃskāra remains; all vṛtti-saṃskāras have been burned

## YS 1.51 — The Destruction of the Nirodha Saṃskāra

*tasyāpi nirodhe sarvanirodhān nirbījaḥ samādhiḥ*

"When even that (the last saṃskāra) is restrained, all is restrained — seedless samādhi."

The final sequence:
1. Samprajñāta samādhi burns vṛtti-saṃskāras and builds the nirodha-saṃskāra
2. Asamprajñāta samādhi uses the virāma-pratyaya to dissolve even the nirodha-saṃskāra
3. When the nirodha-saṃskāra is gone, no vṛttis can arise from any source
4. This is nirbīja — truly seedless

## The "Burned Seed" Principle

Vyāsa uses the image of *dagdhabīja* — a fire-scorched seed — to describe what happens to saṃskāras dissolved in asamprajñāta samādhi. A seed scorched in fire retains the appearance of a seed but cannot germinate. Similarly, the saṃskāras dissolved in asamprajñāta samādhi cannot generate future vṛttis, even if the practitioner returns to ordinary waking activity.

This is what distinguishes asamprajñāta from even the deepest stages of samprajñāta: in samprajñāta, vṛttis can resume; in asamprajñāta, the seeds of the deepest vṛttis (abhiniveśa, asmitā, residual avidyā) are permanently disabled.

## Asamprajñāta and Kaivalya

The relationship between asamprajñāta samādhi and kaivalya (liberation) is one of the most carefully articulated points in the Yoga Bhāṣya:

- **If asamprajñāta is sustained** — kaivalya follows because there is no longer any mechanism by which Puruṣa can be mistakenly identified with citta; the identification-conditions have been removed
- **If asamprajñāta is interrupted** — because the practitioner is still embodied and Prakṛti continues operating — the practitioner re-enters samprajñāta or ordinary cognition, but the burned saṃskāras are gone and the path to kaivalya is shorter
- **The practitioner who achieves asamprajñāta is called a** *jīvan-mukta* (liberated while living) in some traditions, though Patañjali's own language focuses on kaivalya as the post-asamprajñāta condition

## YS 3.8 — Asamprajñāta as "External" to Saṃyama

*tadapi bahiraṅgaṃ nirbījasya*

"Even that (dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi — saṃyama) is external to the seedless (asamprajñāta)."

This is Patañjali's precise location of asamprajñāta in his system: the three inner limbs (dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samprajñāta samādhi) together constitute *saṃyama* — the total contemplative engagement with an object. But even this sophisticated inner practice is "external" to asamprajñāta, because asamprajñāta has no object at all.

## Cross-References

- [Samprajñāta Samādhi](samprajnata-samadhi.md) — the seeded absorptions that precede and prepare asamprajñāta
- [Nirodha](nirodha.md) — asamprajñāta is the full realization of nirodha; the state where cessation is complete
- [Saṃskāra](samskara.md) — the seeds that asamprajñāta dissolves through dagdhabīja
- [Viveka-Khyāti](viveka-khyati.md) — the discriminative wisdom of nirvicāra samādhi; the final vṛtti to be released before asamprajñāta
- [Puruṣa](purusha.md) — what remains when citta's modifications fully cease; the pure witness in its own nature
- [Kaivalya](kaivalya.md) — liberation; the permanent condition following the full dissolution of asamprajñāta's conditions

## Audience Metaphor

Asamprajñāta samādhi is the moment when a fire that has been burning through a stack of logs finally consumes the last log. The fire (nirodha-practice) has been burning through saṃskāra-logs for many sessions of samprajñāta samādhi. When the last log — the nirodha-saṃskāra itself — is consumed, the fire goes out. There is no more fuel. This is not the darkness of cold ash; it is the pure light of Puruṣa no longer hidden behind the smoke of citta-activity.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali](/references/yoga-sutras.md) 1.18, 1.51, 3.8
2. [Yoga Bhāṣya of Vyāsa](/references/yoga-bhasya.md) on YS 1.18 and 1.51
3. [Tattvavaiśāradī](/references/tattvavaisharadi.md) of Vācaspatimiśra on the seed/seedless distinction
4. Vyāsa on dagdhabīja (burned seeds) in YS 3.9
