Page:Bengal Vaishnavism - Bipin Chandra Pal.djvu/34

Hindu Vedanteen says that man cannot in his natural state know or love God. The contem- plation of Brahman in truth and reality is possible only in that state of absolute yogic concentration called samadhi ; wherein the eye sees not its objects, the ear hears not any sound, the other senses cease absolutely to sense their objects, the mind thinks not and all contact and connection between our con- sciousness and this outer world of sights and sounds arc completely cut off. This state of samadhi is really - a state of negation. In fact, it is neither a state of consciousness nor uncon- sciousness. It is the state of what may be called pure being, which is equal to pure nothing in Hegelian thought. This pure being is undifferentiated consciousness, wherein all re- lations are cancelled, and therefore all know- ing and thinking, as we understand these terms, also cease. Bengal Vaishnavic thought also believes in that state of supreme concen- tration, wherein the outer sense-contacts cease as in samadhi, but this samadhi is not empty samadhi but it comes from the losing of our senses, our thought and our understanding and all our emotions in the realisation of the Lord. The familiar expression of this Vaish- navic samadhi is :