In the yoga sutras Patanjali delineates three sutras in particular, dharana (focus), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (transcendence). Together Patanjali terms them as samyama, a method for invoking knowledge of the object of focus, to know the very essence of the object.
Example: by lending focus (dharana) to say, the quality of friendliness we may travel into finer layers (dhyana) of friendliness until we transcend (samadhi) friendliness.
The internal experience of such an act would be to know the object so completely that we adopt the essence of that object, in this case the quality of friendliness.
Another thing is happening during this exercise. We are going beyond the object and experiencing samadhi. However, the experience of samadhi is flavored by the entryway in which we came. Its samadhi but it tastes like some version of friendliness.
So outwardly, we immerse ourselves in friendliness and in someway take on that quality of friendliness. But inwardly, we transcend with the flavor of the object, in this case friendliness.
At this fine layer of awareness the object, friendliness, looks and feels like a colored mist, for me its light green. This mist is actually the veil of maya, illusion, flavored as friendliness. Know that this is the view from the material world.
From the world of the transcendent, Patanjali terms it, savichara, samadhi with seed as opposed to samadhi without seed, nirvichara. Perspective does matter.
A term that encompasses both may better be, ritam bhara prajna, intelligence filled with truth. In this layer of awareness we know the object in its true and perfect form. The blueprint form, its vedic form as such it can be understood as both/neither simultaneously as subtle material or nothingness. If you’re in an upbeat place its glorious beyond glory. If you’re not, its zero, nothingness. If you’re feeling harmonious its both glorious and zero. If you’re feeling non-harmonious its neither or total negation. As maturation of consciousness development sets in, your awareness will grow beyond alteration of the options, into simultaneity of the options. It’s no wonder many enlightened people are looked at as nuts. :) In many cases you become a party 🎉 of one. :)
Let’s get back to this element of the experience of subtler layers. Frankly, it’s much easier to follow.
So as we experience finer states of the object we transcend samadhi with seed, savichara, and go into samadhi without seed, nirvichara. This is a state of atma or brahman. In knowing this we come to realize that following any object to its purest state will deliver us to brahman. And by doing this exercise with object after object one can stitch together brahman, as it were. This is the essence of the Brahma Sutras.
What this also is, is the discovery of a path to brahman consciousness. In chapter 4 v 25 it states, "Some yogis perform yagyas (sacrifice) to the gods. Others offer sacrifice to the fire of Brahman". The offering of sacrifice to the "fire of Brahman" uses the god as an avenue to Brahman. By doing the yagya like this both the god is satisfied as well as Brahman. The main reason there is worship to any god is so we may select a relative perfect form/vehicle in which to travel to Brahman. This is the main purpose of a mantra.
Note, that in the same way we use a sutra to experience finer levels of the object and arrive at samadhi with a specific flavor by using a mantra or name of a god or goddess we will also find samadhi to be flavored with the essence of that mantra/god.
As one moves forward in their own consciousness development at some point this phenomenon is naturally recognized and we find ourselves using the mantra less because its not pure enough. We innately desire to experience brahman without the flavor of something else so we drop the training wheels. At this stage of our consciousness development we can arrive at brahman without aids, without seeds, solely by itself/ourself. We recognize in ourselves that we are brahman and everything we perceive is brahman and brahman alone is.
Mantra meditations and Patanjali sutra exercises have served to deliver us to the goal. As such we lose the appetite for them. We respect their royal standing and honorably bow to them but we move past them to pure direct experience of brahman without these filters, or flavors.
Do we now enter brahman with some other kind of filter? Yes, but that filter now is our own nature. Brahman has become personalized. Its our Brahman. We own It. It owns us. Looking at this from either way it ends up being the same. Lending value to the concept of "sameness". An appropriate description. Sameness in all directions.