What is the difference between meditation and yoga nidra?

Although the practices may be similar, the concept of yoga nidra and the concept of dhyana or meditation are poles apart. Yoga nidra is part of pratyahara: withdrawal of sensory perceptions, developing internal awareness, reducing external awareness. There are four states of mental awareness and concentration: pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. In the practices of pratyahara, yoga nidra being one of them, we begin the process of rediscovering our faculties and our mind. There are many different techniques of pratyahara along with yoga nidra such as antar mouna and japa. In pratyahara we withdraw the external awareness and look within. We learn how to step from one room into another room. After we have knowledge of the dissipated tendencies of the mind through the practices of pratyahara, we try to fix our mental attention at one particular point. Then this process becomes dharana, which means simple concentration. Right now, we may be practising dharana because I am concentrating on speaking and you are concentrating on listening.
However, in meditation there is total identification between myself, my mind and my mental faculties. When we say, “I am going to practice meditation”, it is not right. Meditation is a state of mind, it is not a practice. It is a state where the mind is fully focused and all the faculties are brought together. Take light, for example; from an ordinary bulb, light is dissipated, but if by some means we can concentrate the light into one point, it takes the form of a laser beam. Similarly, when the faculties of the mind, which are dissipated in all directions, are brought to a point, then that is meditation or dhyana.

In this state of meditation you will learn how to use this combined force for your psychological and spiritual evolution. This process eventually culminates in the state of samadhi. You have the ability to step into one dimension of life which is external, and another dimension of life which is internal, and to use creativity in both these areas. Perfect balance, total and homogeneous awakening of the human personality, when all dormant centers of the brain are fully awakened, when there is no distinction between conscious, subconscious and unconscious, and when there is only one frame of consciousness within you; this is known as super consciousness or samadhi. Dhyana is a state prior to that. If you are going to sit in a meditation pose and go within, do not say, “I am going to meditate”, because meditation is not a practice, but a state of mind, and yoga nidra is a practice which helps us develop this state of meditation.

From the book “On the Wings of the Swan, Vol 1”, pg. 139-140, Sw. Niranjanananda Sarswati

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Difference between meditation and yoga nidra

What is the difference between meditation and yoga nidra?

Although the practices may be similar, the concept of yoga nidra and the concept of dhyana or meditation are poles apart. Yoga nidra is part of pratyahara: withdrawal of sensory perceptions, developing internal awareness, reducing external awareness. There are four states of mental awareness and concentration: pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. In the practices of pratyahara, yoga nidra being one of them, we begin the process of rediscovering our faculties and our mind. There are many different techniques of pratyahara along with yoga nidra such as antar mouna and japa. In pratyahara we withdraw the external awareness and look within. We learn how to step from one room into another room. After we have knowledge of the dissipated tendencies of the mind through the practices of pratyahara, we try to fix our mental attention at one particular point. Then this process becomes dharana, which means simple concentration. Right now, we may be practising dharana because I am concentrating on speaking and you are concentrating on listening.
However, in meditation there is total identification between myself, my mind and my mental faculties. When we say, “I am going to practice meditation”, it is not right. Meditation is a state of mind, it is not a practice. It is a state where the mind is fully focused and all the faculties are brought together. Take light, for example; from an ordinary bulb, light is dissipated, but if by some means we can concentrate the light into one point, it takes the form of a laser beam. Similarly, when the faculties of the mind, which are dissipated in all directions, are brought to a point, then that is meditation or dhyana.

In this state of meditation you will learn how to use this combined force for your psychological and spiritual evolution. This process eventually culminates in the state of samadhi. You have the ability to step into one dimension of life which is external, and another dimension of life which is internal, and to use creativity in both these areas. Perfect balance, total and homogeneous awakening of the human personality, when all dormant centers of the brain are fully awakened, when there is no distinction between conscious, subconscious and unconscious, and when there is only one frame of consciousness within you; this is known as super consciousness or samadhi. Dhyana is a state prior to that. If you are going to sit in a meditation pose and go within, do not say, “I am going to meditate”, because meditation is not a practice, but a state of mind, and yoga nidra is a practice which helps us develop this state of meditation.

From the book “On the Wings of the Swan, Vol 1”, pg. 139-140, Sw. Niranjanananda Sarswati