When only the object shines forth and one’s own form seems to vanish, that is samādhi.

Artha is the object of meditation. Mātra means “only.” Nirbhāsa is shining, radiating. Svarūpa is one’s own form or nature. Śūnya is empty.

In samādhi, the meditator has become so absorbed in the object that they lose awareness of themselves as a separate entity. Only the pure experience of the object remains.

Patañjali says iva (as if) because the self does not really disappear—it only seems to vanish. Consciousness remains present but without the sensation of “I am meditating.”

This is the eighth and final limb of aṣṭāṅga yoga. But Patañjali will later distinguish between different levels of samādhi: with seed and without seed, with support and without support.

Samādhi is not unconsciousness or trance. It is superconsciousness: pure awareness without the interference of ego.