Samādhi, as presented in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, is the culminating limb of the eightfold path of yoga and the mature fruit of meditative discipline. It is described as a state of complete absorption in which the mind becomes utterly still and the object of meditation alone shines forth, as though the mind itself has receded. In this condition, the usual distinctions between meditator, the act of meditating, and the object of meditation are transcended, giving rise to a unified field of awareness. Yoga itself is defined as the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind, and samādhi is the experiential fulfillment of that definition, where the seer abides in its own nature.

Within this framework, Patañjali distinguishes between two broad modes of samādhi: saṃprajñāta and asaṃprajñāta. Saṃprajñāta samādhi is a form of absorption in which a clear, discriminative awareness remains, oriented toward an object. It unfolds through progressively refined engagements with gross and subtle objects, involving stages such as savitarka and nirvitarka (with and without discursive reasoning on gross objects) and savicāra and nirvicāra (with and without subtle reflection on more subtle objects. In these states, there is still some trace of cognitive structure—an object, a mode of knowing, and a subtle sense of “I-ness”—even though they are greatly purified and unified.

Asaṃprajñāta samādhi, sometimes characterized as seedless samādhi, is described as a higher and more radical stillness. Here, all cognitive activity and all explicit objects of attention fall away, and the mind is devoid of manifest mental modifications. Only the most subtle impressions remain, and even these are on the verge of dissolution. Because no new “seed” is being sown for further mental activity, this state is intimately connected with the exhaustion of karmic tendencies and the dawning of complete freedom.

Samādhi does not stand alone; it arises organically from the prior limbs of the path—ethical discipline, bodily posture, regulation of breath, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, and meditation. When concentration (dhāraṇā) becomes steady and unbroken, it matures into meditation (dhyāna), and when meditation deepens into total absorption, samādhi is said to occur. Through repeated immersion in these states, a stable discriminative insight into the difference between pure consciousness (puruṣa) and the field of nature (prakṛti), including the mind itself, becomes firmly established. The culmination of this process is kaivalya, the isolation or standing-alone of pure awareness, which the tradition understands as complete spiritual liberation.