There are 5 states of Mind:
1. Dull/ mudham
2. Restless/ ksiptam
3. Preoccupied/ viksiptam
4. Concentrated/ ekagram
5. Closed/ niruddham
1. Dull/ mudham - Mind remains dull and inactive owing to a preponderance of tamas.
It may be caused by physical factors like fatigue or disease.
But more often it is caused by the conflict of emotions, depression, spiritual dryness, building up of tension in the unconscious.
2. Restless/ ksiptam - Mind is totally under the sway of the senses.
It flits aimlessly like a butterfly.
This is the predominant state of mind in children and those who lead a purely sense-bound life.
Meditation is NOT possible in these 2 states of Mind.
3. Preoccupied/ viksiptam: Mind remains active but not restless.
This is the predominant state of mind in scientists, artists, philosophers, scholars.
This condition is brought about by the prevalence of both rajas and sattva in more or less equal measure.
4. Concentration/ ekagram: Mind remains calm, concentrated & free from mental automatisms.
Will is free from the hold of desires & the buddhi or intuition is awake.
It is a state in which sattva predominates.
in this state alone, higher spiritual experience becomes possible.
5. Closed/ niruddham: In the previous state, vrittis/ waves of the mind, are only restrained, here mind remains completely closed.
Mind ceases to be mind.
No vritti & hence no experience arises in the mind.
Samskaras (latent impressions) alone remain in the unconscious depths.
Although meditation is not possible in 1st 2 states of mind, however, it is not contraindicated.
Since the practice of meditation takes a long time, even when the mind is unable to focus in such states, there's a result to be cultivated by continuous practice of sitting for it.