In the Gheranda Samhita, samadhi is presented as the seventh and culminating limb of a sevenfold yoga, the crown of a carefully graded discipline. It arises only after the practitioner has passed through bodily purification and strengthening, the stabilization of posture, the regulation of breath and subtle energies, and the progressive interiorization of the mind through withdrawal of the senses and meditation. Samadhi is thus not an isolated technique but the natural flowering of a life shaped by the preceding limbs, where body, breath, and mind have been steadily refined and harmonized.

The text portrays samadhi as the complete absorption of consciousness, in which the individual self merges with the supreme reality and all dualistic distinctions fall away. In this state, mental modifications cease, and the usual triad of meditator, act of meditation, and object of meditation collapses into a single, unified awareness. The mind becomes utterly still and one-pointed, absorbed so deeply in the chosen object of meditation that ordinary bodily and sensory awareness no longer asserts itself. What remains is pure consciousness, characterized by peace, bliss, and the direct realization of one’s deepest nature.

This realization is described as a union with the highest principle, often expressed as identity of the individual self with the ultimate reality, bringing freedom from sorrow, fear, and bondage. Samadhi is thus both a state and a fruit: it is the highest form of yogic absorption and at the same time the gateway to liberation from the cycle of birth and death. The Gheranda Samhita presents this attainment as the “king” among yogic states, where knowledge is no longer conceptual but immediate, and where the practitioner abides in unshakable serenity and joy beyond the opposites of pleasure and pain.