Sutra I. 44 Etayaiva savicara nirvicara ca suksma-visaya vyakhyata

Commentary: Where vitarka describes the thought processes and contemplations that become attached to gross/coarse physical objects, the world of form (such as pictures, sounds, lights, etc.), external events, or our experiences framed in an objectified dualistic world, vicara is differentiated, as it connotes the subtle or non-externalized objects of thought itself, thought processes, and even the most inner workings of the mind. Here the thinking process is an object, the awareness process is an object. The energy processes are objects of awareness. This is akin to the yogic practice of antar dharana (focusing of the inner and subtle processes) except that here, the savicara processes are not consciously brought into being rather they are on automatic. By becoming aware of these we can notice how they arise and eliminate them (nirodha). So here Patanjali now describes the thought processes that become attached to the more subtle objects of thought and boundaries such as concepts, conceptual frameworks, beliefs, ideas, the conceptional process itself, cognitive function, etc. Not that he says that we should focus on these, but rather that we should go beyond such fixation by letting them go. Nirvicara is akin to the cessation of even the arising of the first word in a thought process -- to even the urge to think itself. This creates the stillness where the energy is no longer distracted and dissipated into any objectification process -- it is the stillness that invites the innate light.

An example: The mind is thinking to itself, "there is no mind, there is no mind, Siva is All -- All is Siva". This is still savicara samapatti, because there is still an object and fixation and thus a limitation is produced by the thought process. In order to enter into the more complete and wholesome samadhi such thought processes (even the most subtle) still must be purified so that one can know THAT which is greater than even the most subtle -- greater than any or all the words -- THAT which is simultaneously all Inclusive Universal Eternal and Non-dual.

Here Patanjali is simply delineating the graduated stages of meditation from coarse fixations, to more subtle, to the most subtle, and eventually free from any objective fixation whatsoever -- Infinite Mind. These higher samapattis (nirvitarka and nirvicara) are stages leading to samadhi (inseparable spiritual identification in All Our Relations as the universal holotropic unbiased reality.