Rupanugamat means literally to connect with the form of (a perceived, apparent, phenomenon)

Rupanugamat is the fundamental dynamic of yoga: the prerequisite of intimacy: whereby the split between perceiving subject and perceived object resolves. This takes place as a merging of the foreground perception and its shadow perceiver into the background field of awareness itself. The resolution of this split is not a function of effort. It is the effort of intent, however subtle or subliminal, that holds the split open.

Rupanugamat is mind relaxing totally into an apparent object. Samapatti is the culmination of rupanugamat wherein the perceiver, sense of personal self, also dissolves into the now foreground awareness. Subject and object become one by dissolving into each other as their projected separateness is seen through. It involves a dual, mutual movement of the so-called subject and the so-called object towards each other in a mutual embrace that dissolves their distinctiveness rendering both of them totally transparent as mental projections. This movement occurs only as a result of relaxation. Both subject and object have revealed their inherent unity:' become one' with each other.

When mind is engaged in effort of any kind it narrows the field of awareness down onto its object of interestactivity. This narrowing of the inherently unlimited field of awareness not only brings in to focus distinct objects of perception, but also brings into existence the sense of the separate perceiver or self. Only when the effort of specific perception is relinquished can the awareness within which subject and object dissolve re-emerge. This relaxation of perceptual activity happens spontaneously as a result of insight into the nature of this process, which process is the fundamental source of struggle and exhaustion.

Rupanugamat is the essential and fundamental application of intelligence/awareness necessary to effective yoga practice. It is an effortless moving of the full faculties of intelligence/awareness towards the object in its completeness that dissolves the distinction between them. It is mirrored by a movement of the projected phenomenon towards the mind from which it came in the first place.