Meditation: An experience beyond words

Q: When meditation happens, I lose awareness of my body. The breath then comes back to normal and after a while I feel quietude and bliss. Who is the one who knows what is happening – mind, intellect or sakshi (witness)?

A: It is me, the witness, who experiences having a body via the mind. Sleep is mostly an unconscious state for most people without any body awareness, but in meditation, when consciousness is at its peak, then too there can be absence of body awareness. However, this is not an unconscious experience. There is heightened awareness and this can be called Nirvikalpta. Here, the mind and intellect are absent so it is definitely not mind who knows this.

The sakshi knows whatever is happening; mind and intellect can only give words to what happened after the experience. Just as you cannot articulate the experience of the sweetness of jalebi(indian sweet), likewise the experience of samadhi can never be talked about. Whatever can be said about it will not be the truth as it is not possible to put the experience in words. Kabir called this state khumari – that unconsciousness which is actually a heightened consciousness.