Sahaja Samadhi — The Natural State
Sahaja Samadhi (natural absorption) is the highest state in Advaita Vedanta — the continuous recognition of Brahman that pervades all states without requiring deliberate practice or special conditions.
Sahaja Samadhi (Sahaja = innate, natural, easy; Samadhi = absorption) is distinguished from Kevala Nirvikalpa Samadhi (absorption requiring deliberate withdrawal from ordinary experience) by its continuity and naturalness. In Sahaja Samadhi, the recognition of Brahman is not a special state that comes and goes but the permanent natural condition — a continuous awareness of one's identity with Brahman that pervades waking, dreaming, and deep sleep without interruption. Ramana Maharshi's primary emphasis was on Sahaja Samadhi rather than Nirvikalpa Samadhi: 'Sahaja is the natural state of the Self. The Self is always self-evident. After Nirvikalpa Samadhi, one returns to ordinary consciousness. But in Sahaja, there is no return — because there was never any departure.' This is what Turiyatita (beyond the fourth state) refers to: not a fifth state beyond the four ordinary states, but the recognition that pervades all four states as their ground, requiring no special conditions.
Sahaja is the natural state of the Self — what the Self has always been. There is no coming to it, no going from it.
The tradition distinguishes Nirvikalpa Samadhi — a temporary, absorbed state from which one returns — from Sahaja Samadhi, the 'natural' state in which recognition of the Self is unbroken even while one walks, speaks, and acts; Ramana Maharshi held Sahaja to be the true goal, absorption that no longer needs to be entered or left.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi