tattvāvabodho bhagavan sarvāsātṛnapāvakaḥ prokttaḥ samādhiśabdena na tu tūṣṇīmavasthitiḥ (62/8)
PARIGHA asked:
O king, all actions that are performed by one who is firmly established in equanimity are productive of joy, not those done by others. Are you established in that state of supreme peace in which no thoughts or notions arise in your mind, and which is known as samādhi?
SURAGHU replied:
Holy sir, please tell me why only that state of mind which is free from thoughts and notions is called samādhi? If one is a knower of truth, whether he be engaged in constant action or in contemplation, does his mind ever lose the state of samādhi? No. The enlightened ones are forever in samādhi, even though they engage themselves in the affairs of the world. On the other hand, one whose mind is not at peace does not enjoy samādhi by merely sitting in the lotus posture.
Knowledge of truth, Lord, is the fire that burns up all hopes and desires as if they are dried blades of grass. That is what is known by the word samādhi — not simply remaining silent! That is known as the state of samādhi in which there is eternal satisfaction, clear perception of what is, egolessness, not being subject to the pairs of opposites, freedom from anxiety and from the wish to acquire or to reject. From the very moment of the dawn of self-knowledge, the state of samādhi becomes permanent in the sage. He neither loses it nor is it interrupted, even for a moment. Even as time does not forget to move on, the man of self-knowledge does not forget the self. Even as a material object is forever material, the sage of self-knowledge is forever a sage of self-knowledge.
Hence, I am always awakened, pure, at peace within myself and in a state of samādhi. How can it be otherwise? How can there be anything other than the self? When at all times and in all ways the self alone is all in all, how can there be a state other than samādhi? And what can be termed samādhi?
PARIGHA said: Surely, O king, you have attained total enlightenment. You shine, radiant with bliss, with peace, with sweetness and with purity. In you there is no ego-sense, desire or aversion.
SURAGHU continued: O sage, there is indeed nothing which is worth desiring or renouncing. For as long as these things are seen as objects, they are nothing but concepts, percepts and notions. When nothing is worth acquiring it follows that nothing is worth renouncing. Good and evil, great and small, worthy or unworthy, are all based on the notion of desirability. When desirability has no meaning, the others do not arise at all. There is truly no essence in all that is seen in this world — the mountains, the oceans, the forests, the men and women and all the objects — hence there is no desire for them. When there is no desire, there is supreme peace at heart.