The aspirant's meditation, in its higher flights, does often bring to him a sense of expansion and freedom, as well as the joy and illumination of the higher planes; but, neither the sense of expansion and freedom, nor the joy and illumination which he experiences are abiding in their duration, because, in most cases, when the aspirant comes down from his exalted state of meditation, he is again what he was, viz., an ordinary person who is caught in the unyielding shackles of sanskaric limitations.

The incompleteness of the different Samadhis of the aspirant may be illustrated by the story of one Yogi from Gwalior. This Yogi was very greedy; but through yoga, he had mastered the art of going into Samadhi. One day he sat opposite to the palace of the Rajah and, before going into Samadhi, thought "I must have a thousand rupees from the Rajah." Then he went into Samadhi and remained in that state for full seven days. During this period he took no food or drink, but sat only in one place, completely wrapped up in trance-meditation. People took him to be a saint; and when the Rajah came to know about him, he also went to have his darshana. The Rajah went near the Yogi and happened to touch him on his back. But that light touch was sufficient to bring down the Yogi from his Samadhi; and as soon as he woke up from his trance-meditation, he asked the Rajah for a thousand rupees.

Just as a prisoner who looks out of the window of his prison and gazes at the vast expanse of the sky may get lost in the vision of unlimited space, the aspirant who enters into trance-meditation, may temporarily forget all his limitations while he is immersed in the light and bliss which it brings. But, though the prisoner may have forgotten the prison which holds him, he has not really broken through it; in the same way, the aspirant who is absorbed in trance-meditation has lost sight of the chains which hold him to the world of illusion; but he has not really broken through them. And, just as the prisoner again becomes conscious of his bondage, as soon as he turns his gaze to his immediate surroundings, the aspirant becomes conscious of all his failings, as soon as he comes down to the normal consciousness. The ascending forms of trance-meditation may bring to the aspirant increasing occult powers; but they do not bring to him the unending state of knowledge and bliss, which is continuously accessible, in the Sahaj Samadhi, to the Siddha who has attained final emancipation by breaking through the chain of Maya.