During a meditation in August 1993, Sri Chinmoy explained and demonstrated the high meditation states of Savikalpa and Nirvikalpa Samadhi at Aspiration-Ground, the meditation garden in Queens, New York where Sri Chinmoy often meditated with his students.

In savikalpa samadhi, for a short period of time you lose all human consciousness. In this state the conception of time and space is altogether different. With the human time you cannot judge; with the human way of looking at space you cannot judge. In that samadhi, for an hour or two hours you are completely in another world. You see there that almost everything is done. Here in this world there are many desires still unfulfilled in yourself and in others. Millions of desires are not fulfilled, and millions of things remain to be done. But when you are in savikalpa samadhi, you see that practically everything is done; you have nothing to do. You are only an instrument. If you are used, well and good; otherwise, things are all done. But from savikalpa samadhi everybody has to return to ordinary consciousness….

…In savikalpa samadhi there are thoughts and ideas coming from various angles, but they do not affect you. While you are meditating, you remain unperturbed, and your inner being functions in a dynamic and confident manner. But when you are a little higher, when you have become one with the soul in nirvikalpa samadhi, there will be no ideas or thoughts at all. Here nature’s dance stops. There is no nature, only infinite Peace and Bliss. The Knower and the Known have become one. Everything is tranquil. Here you enjoy a supremely divine, all-pervading, self-amorous ecstasy. You become the object of enjoyment, you become the enjoyer and you become the enjoyment itself.

Sri Chinmoy, from the book The summits of God-Life: Samadhi and Siddhi (1974)

When I filmed the meditation something strange happened with my camera. At the moment when Sri Chinmoy explained the meditation getting high, higher, highest, the colour of the recording faded away as if a high meditation could only be captured in black and white.  – Kedar Misani

Camera & Edit: Kedar Misani
Copyright: © 1993-2013 Sri Chinmoy