A mind that is in a state of samadhi can happen any time. Some are born with it. Even in the mother’s womb they are aware of their real identity. There are those little yogis who are capable of extraordinary feats even as little children. Maharshi Patanjali says that it is not necessarily bequeathed as a gift from birth. It can be attained by practice too.
Some are born great. Some achieve greatness. Some have greatness thrust upon them. Samadhi is endowed by nature on some others at different stages of their lives. Samadhi here simply means equanimity of vision and a personal experience of connectedness with the Universe. It is a state where the mind is at complete rest even in the waking state and the understanding of the world, its people and situations is simply as it is and not as one wishes it to be. Often, our understanding is coloured by our mental impressions, likes and dislikes. For the mind of such a yogi, everything appears fresh and new just as it in the world outside. Never once does the sun appear wilted in the sky. Never once does the sky itself shrink like a crumpled piece of cloth. Never once does a healthy tree look sick. Never once does the free flowing water of a river straighten itself into a geometric proportion of a canal. Nature is always in a state of samadhi. The mind of a yogi in tune with that nature is also like that.
Samadhi is not or rather need not be some fantastic experience or imaginary expeditions of the mind. It simply means a working knowledge of the interconnectedness applied moment to moment.
There are, however, a large segment of people who are neither born with it nor hopefully wait for such an experience to happen. Those persons, Patanjali says, can reach the samadhi state of mind with shraddha —faith in a glimpse of truth that has been revealed to them and holding on to it. How does that faith come? Well the texts give us a time-tested experience of the possibility and the master who imparts that knowledge is also speaking from that truth alone. When the sadhaka has the firmness of mind to trust these two, then he is sure to achieve that state of mind. Veerya—dynamic energy and enthusiasm. Mere intensity of thought alone is not enough. One needs the strength to apply it into practice. Smriti—constant remembrance of the state of oneness and extending the periods of awareness of a glimpse of any experience that one may have had.
For instance, if one has tasted sugar, there is a remembrance of the taste and a hope to taste it sometime again. Samadhi can happen in very ordinary states of absorption—while eating a chocolate, while spending silent moments alone watching a gurgling brook, while intensely hugging someone dear to you or even while dozing off a wink in the classroom when everyone else is wide awake and listening. It is a state where you are not there, but the experience is.
(www.swahilya.blogspot.com)