[Advaita-l] Question on Samadhi

[Ravishankar Venkatraman]

All,

I do not know whether this has been discussed in the list before, but would 
like to ask you all.

We know the different types of samadhi.

How can we know whether someone is experiencing a particular state?

If you take the case of Sri Sadasiva Brahmendra, there are stories telling 
us that he was sitting on the banks of a river in deep meditation, when the 
floods carried him away to another location, and in another instance he had 
no knowledge of someone cutting off his hand. He is also attibuted to some 
miracles, in which he transported some kids through yoga siddhis to a 
far-away place and back for witnessing some fun-fair.

To me it looks like that He was in nirvikalpa samadhi when he was carried by 
the floods, and in sahaja samadhi when he was playing with the kids.

Was He in a state of sahaja samadhi or nirvikalpa samadhi or both?

Assuming that an individual is very accomplished to get to different stages 
of samadhi, which one is considered to be best by our Acharyas?

Thanks,
Ravi

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