A devotee asked - "Please tell me about the significance of the word Samaadhi". Swami replied: Every word has its true meaning and that alone should be taken for practice. When the true meaning becomes inconvenient, people try to link a false meaning with the word, which is very much convenient to them in practice. Such false meanings form the false knowledge, which is propagated by false preachers. The preacher, who propagates the true knowledge alone, neglecting the reactions from the disciples, only is called as Satguru. The prefix word 'Sat' means the truth. It means that only the Satguru propagates the true knowledge. Satguru happens to be the human incarnation of God like Krishna, Shankara etc. God does not change the true knowledge since He does not aspire for any benefit from the disciples. The other Guru, a scholarly human being, propagates false knowledge to please the disciples to get some benefits from them in the form of money etc. (Guru Dakshina). In view of the above background, let us examine the true and false meanings of the word Samaadhi. The true meaning of this word 'Samaadhi' is effective and complete decision done by the faculty of intelligence. This word is divided into three parts. The first part is 'Sam', which means effective. The second part 'aa', which means complete. The third part is 'dhi', which means the intelligence. Mind debates the information received through physical senses. Intelligence concludes giving the final decision. Chittam, the faculty of memory, stores all the final concluded decisions. Ego is the feeling of basic individuality that forms the basis of all the knowledge. These four faculties are called as internal instruments (Antahkarnams). Therefore, the word 'Samaadhi' means the final decision, which is invariable under any circumstances. This refers to the unbreakable and invariable faith or confidence of a devotee in God as we see in the case of Prahalada, Gopikas etc. This true meaning is very much inconvenient to normal devotees, whose devotion changes very easily due to circumstances. Therefore, a false meaning is forced on this word, which is sitting in a place without any vibration and closing the eyes. Such a situation resembles the death and hence, this word is also used in the sense of final death. The false meaning is quite diagonally opposite to the true meaning. The true meaning is based on the quality of sattvam in which lot of the activity of analysis to conclude the right knowledge exists. The false meaning is based on the quality of tamas in which the climax of inactivity through deep sleep or death exists. The false meaning is selected by the people since it is very difficult to take determination to serve God and it is very easy to sit in a place without any vibration closing the eyes. Aim of Life is Service to Lord in Human Form Samaadhi is the final stage of yoga propagated by the sage Patanjali. Even the word yoga is associated with false meaning. Yoga means the fortunate union of the devotee with the contemporary Human incarnation. The unimaginable God can never be met. The energetic form of God like Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva etc., can also not be met since the energetic incarnation is meant for the upper world only. This yoga is in eight steps (Ashtanga Yoga). The first four steps involve the development of physical health and the latter four steps involve the development of mental health. Both these constitute the fitness for service to the God in Human form, whom you met. The best example attaining perfect fitness is Hanuman, who met Lord Rama and served Him. The entire yoga in the eight steps is given a false meaning in which you are able to attain the full fitness to enjoy the worldly pleasures. Yoga has become a subject of health science so that the human being after attaining perfect physical and mental health can succeed in all the worldly activities. The present yoga is like a dead body since the main aim of life, which is the service to the Lord in Human form, is lost. The Kundalini means the mind, which is the nervous energy travelling in the form of waves like a serpent. The false meaning given to this word is some special divine power. The true meaning of the word chakra is the hurdle like whirlpool in which if one is trapped cannot travel further. The chakra is the worldly attraction or bond with a specific area of the worldly life. The first chakra is Muladhara (earth) is the bond with the mother. The second chakra is Manipura (water) is the bond with father. The third chakra is Swadhishthana (fire) is the bond with the spouse. The fourth is Anahata (air) is the bond with children. The fifth is Vishuddha (space) is the bond with false preacher. The sixth is Aajnaa chakra (the mind) is the bond with angels in whom God does not exist. The seventh is Sahasraara existing on the top most head (intelligence) is the bond with money that is related to many worldly issues represented by many petals of a lotus flower. At the centre of this lies the God with whom the mind (kundalini) is expected to unite, which means that the mind is perfectly attached to God. Since two strong bonds (eeshanas) of spouse and children were already mentioned, the remaining third strong bond must be mentioned and this comes in the plane of God. The Veda says that you can attain God through sacrifice of money (Dhanena Tyagena...) alone and thus, a common plane exists between God and money. Money or wealth is the basis of all the worldly bonds. You can attain God by the sacrifice of wealth since it is the root of the world (Dhanamulamidam jagat...). The sacrifice of the wealth, which is in the form of butter to Lord Krishna, is the highest in the case of Gopikas. For all this sacrifice, the final decision and determination in practice is denoted by the word Samaadhi. All the chakras are worldly bonds in the true sense. In the false sense, chakras mean actual wheels of centers in the spinal cord, which are not seen by any surgeon so far in this world. The false preachers say that they can visualize these wheels after the awakening of the divine power called as kundalaini. This entire story is totally false and complete nonsense created by the false preachers to exploit the disciples in order to get some benefits from them. In fact, one innocent devotee after hearing the speech from Verabrahmendra Swami on yoga cut the body of his alive wife to see these chakras in the spinal cord. He could not find anything and his wife died! Therefore, you should always try for the meeting (Yoga) with the Satguru, who can guide you in the right direction through the true knowledge. The Veda says that God alone is the possessor of the True knowledge (Satyam Jnaanam Ananatam Brahma) and such true knowledge alone is the identification mark to recognize the true human incarnation. The responsibility of God lies only in giving the right direction. The responsibility of the disciple is to practice it and attain the result. It is again the false knowledge to think that God will help you through His power beyond preaching, which is not true. Hence, Lord Dattatreya is always called as Guru Datta. The Guru dakshina given by you to Him is only for the preaching of true knowledge and for nothing else. There is a false impression to think that God will lift you by His unimaginable power without your practical effort in implementing the preached knowledge in practice. It is very important to note that the three basic authorities to texts of spiritual knowledge i.e., the Veda, the Gita and the Brahmasutras do not mention this false concept of yoga and words like Kundalini, Chakra, Sahasraara etc., even once.
This view is just the opinion of one teacher, and does not represent the vastness of Hinduism. Lots of other schools see it very differently. With the vastness of Hinduism and Hindu thought firmly in mind, the reader should consider this. To present it as fact when it is actually opinion is a disservice to the reader. To declare a mystical teaching like kundalini as 'false' isn't in the spirit of Hindu Solidarity. A better approach is to offer your teacher's teachings up as 'differing views' rather than fact. Fortunately, this particular forum isn't very active. Other forums where you've been proselytizing are more direct in responses.
What is fact and what is mere imagination can only be decided based upon direct experience. Kundalini as a concept has always been shrouded in mystery. There are of course, many differing views about what the Kundalini actually represents. I do not disagree with this. However, while some would keep the concept of the Kundalini open to discussion in the absence of solid evidence, many others have fixed it as a means to achieving mystical powers. A simple Google search for the term Kundalini Yoga will get you thousands of results. Many of these webpages offer quick and easy ways to 'open up the kundalini' and 'balance the chakras'. But of course, this is done for a certain fee. This is where many people, caught by the lure of easy and quick progress (false in nature), end up shelling out their money for false teachings that only eat up their time. Maybe someone, somewhere really knows the actual, mystical truth about the Kundalini and is wise enough not to share it with overly ambitious beginners. Let me try to give the reasons as to why I've shared this post. Not too long ago, I used to be pretty intrigued by the Kundalini. The only reason I was interested in the concept was for the mystical powers that I could possibly gain by 'raising the Kundalini'. Over course of time, I kind of realized that the fundamental basis of the spiritual path is simply to develop selflessness with respect to God. Developing unconditional love to God without expecting absolutely anything in return is the highest quality, as exemplified by the most intense devotee of the Lord in the history of Hindu scriptures, namely Hanuman. Hanuman is said to be the possessor of all the ashta siddhis. But at no point of time did He desire for these powers. His only desire was to serve the human form of the Lord, namely Rama. This is the climax of devotion. It is said that God Himself becomes the servant of such a mad devotee. God will grant the highest fruit(s) to such a devotee, although the devotee himself/herself has no other desire but to serve the Lord. In this way, the Lord reciprocates the attitude shown by a devotee, approaches him in exactly the way he worships the Lord. Ravana was also an immense devotee of Lord Shiva. He sacrificed all of his heads to the Lord. But his devotion was only expressed to gain some superpowers from the Lord; it was only artificial and with some end goal in mind. The hunter Kanappa, on the other hand, plucked out his eyes for the sake of God. Kanappa's sacrifice however, had no ulterior motive; it was done out of pure love (Bhakti). The same is the case with Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, who was ready to jump on a sword and kill Himself. He wanted to kill Himself only to get a vision of the Divine Mother Kaali, whom He was madly in love with. Ultimately, instead of helping one focus on developing such unconditional love or Bhakti, the generalized concept of the Kundalini often fosters the innate greed and ambition existing in any human being. That's why the Swami's teachings made sense to me. He simply aims to tackle this endless ambition of all souls right at the root.
And so do hundreds of other Hindu lineages and teachers, each with its own beautiful methodology. No one sampradaya, school, iniversalist leaning, or staunch traditionalist speaks for all of Hinduism.
There are eight limbs(Ashta-Anga) of Yoga for preparing the body and mind for meditation, and this meditation is designed to realise the Paramatma, the Lord within the Heart. Samadhi: the eighth limb, sometimes translated as trance. Samadhi is a state of deep loving absorption in trance meditating on the Supreme Person. It is no longer an artificial power of concentration that keeps one meditating but a spontaneous affection whereby it is impossible not to be thinking of the Supreme. There are 2 kinds of samadhi or states of absorption in the Supreme. One is in a trance-like state where one is relishing his loving relationship with the Supreme and there is no awareness of the surrounding world. This is the type commonly achieved by the Ashtanga Yogi who is aiming their concentration and meditation on the Supreme Person. There is a more active Samadhi, still being a state of deep absorption in loving relationship with the Supreme, but able to be experienced while acting in the world, with every action performed for the pleasure of the Supreme.