Hindu Philosophy and Dharma -12

THE FIRST STEPS

RAJA YOGA is divided into eight steps. The first is Yama—
non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and nonreceiving
of any gifts. Next is Niyama — cleanliness,
contentment, mortification, study, and self-surrender to God.
Then comes Asana, or posture; Pranayama, or controlling
the vital forces of the body; Pratyahara, or making the mind
introspective; Dharana, or concentration; Dhyana, or
meditation; and Samadhi, or super-consciousness. The
Yama and Niyama, as we see, are moral trainings; without
these as the basis no practice ofYoga will succeed. As these
practices become established the Yogi will begin to realise
the fruits of his practice; without these it will never bear
fruit. A Yogi must not think of injuring anyone, through
thought, word or deed, and this applies not only to man, but
to all animals. Mercy shall not be for men alone, but shall
go beyond, and embrace the whole world.
The next step is Asana, posture; a series of exercises,
physical and mental, is to be gone through every day, until
certain higher states are reached. Therefore it is quite
necessary that we should find a posture in which we can
remain long. That posture which is easiest for each one is
the posture to use. For one man it may be very easy to think
in a certain posture, but this may be very difficult for
another. We will find later on that in the study of these
psychological matters there will wil a good deal of action
going on in the body. Nerve currents will have to be
displaced and given a new channel. New sorts of vibrations
will begin, the whole constitutions will be remodelled, as it
 
were. But the main part of the action will lie along the
spinal column, so that the one thing necessary for the posture
is to hold the spinal column free, sitting erect, holding the
three parts — the chest, neck, and head — in a straight line.
Let the whole weight of the body be supported by the ribs,
and then you have an easy natural posture, with the spine
straight. You will naturally see that you cannot think very
high thoughts with the chest in. This portion of the Yoga is a
little similar to the Hatha Yoga, which deals entirely with the
physical body; the aim of the latter is to make the physical
body very strong. We have nothing to do with that here,
because the practices are very difficult, and cannot be
learned in a day, and, after all, do not lead to any spiritual
growth. Many of these practices you will find in Delsarte,
and other teachers, such as placing the body in different
postures, but the object in these is physical, not
psychological. There is not one muscle in the body over
which a man cannot establish a perfect control; the heart can
be made to stop or go on at his bidding, and, in the same
way, each part of the organism can be made to work at his
bidding.
The result of this part of Yoga is to make men live long;
health is the chief idea, the one goal of the Hatha Yogi. He
is determined not to fall sick, and he never does. He lives
long; a hundred years is nothing to him; he is quite young
and fresh when he is 150, without one hair turned grey. But
that is all. A Banyan tree lives sometimes 5000 years, but it
is a Banyan tree and nothing more. So, if a man lives long,
he is only a healthy animal. One or two ordinary lessons of
the Hatha Yogis are very useful. For instance, some of you
will find it a good thing for headaches to drink cold water
through the nose as soon as you get up; the whole day your
brain will be nice and cool, and you will never catch cold. It
 
is very easy to do; put your nose into the water, and make a
pump action in the throat.
After one has learned to have a firm erect seat, he has to
perform, according to certain schools, a practice called the
purifying of the nerves. This part has been rejected by some
as not beloning to Raja Yoga, but as so great an authority as
the commentator, Cankaracharya, advises it, I think it fit that
it should be mentioned, and I will quote his own directions
from his commentary to the Svetacvatara Upanisad. “The
mind whose dross has been cleared away by Pranayama,
becomes fixed in Brahman; therefore Pranayama is pointed
out. First the nerves are to be purified, then comes the
power to practice Pranayama. Stopping the right nostril
with the thumb, with the left nostril fill in air, according to
one’s capacity; then, without any interval, throw the air out
through the right nostril, closing the left one. Again inhaling
through the right nostril eject through the left, according to
capactiy; practicing this three or five times at four intervals
of the day, before dawn, during midday, in the evening, and
at midnight, in fifteen days or a month purity of the nerves is
attained; then begins Pranayama.
Practice is absolutely necessary. You may sit down and
listen to me by the hour every day, but, if you do not
practice, you will not get one step further. It all depends on
practice. We never understand these things until we
experience them. We will have to see and feel them for
ourselves. Simply listening to explanations and theories will
not do. There are several obstructions to practice. The first
obstruction is an unhealthy body; if the body is not in a fit
state, the practice will be obstructed. Therefore we have to
take care of what we eat and drink, and what we do; lways
use a mental effort, what is usually called “Christian
Science,” to keep the body strong. That is all; nothing
 
further of the body. We must not forget that health is only a
means to an end. If health were the end we would be like
animals; animals rarely become unhealthy.
The second obstruction is doubt; we always feel doubtful
about things we do not see. Man cannot live upon words,
however he may try. So, doubt comes to us as to whether
there is any truth in these things or not; even the best of us
will doubt sometimes. With practice, within a few days, a
little glimpse will come, enough to give you encouragement
and hope. As one commentator on Yoga philosophy says:
“When one proof is realised, however little it may be, that
will give us faith in the whole teaching of Yoga.” For
instance, after the first few months of training and teaching,
you will begin to find you can read another’s thoughts; they
will come to you in picture form. Perhaps you will hear
something happening at a long distance, when you
concentrate your mind and try to do so. These glimpses will
come, just a little bit at first, but enough to give you faith,
and strength, and hope. For instance, if you concentrate your
thoughts on the tip of your nose, in a few days you will
begin to smell most beautiful fragrance, and that will be
enough to show you that there are certain mental percepitons
that can be made obvious without the contact of physical
objects. But we must always remember that these are only
the means; the aim, and end, and goal, of all this training is
liberation of the soul. Absolute control of nature, and
nothing short of it, must be the goal. We must be the
masters, and not nature; neither body nor mind must be our
master, and neither must we forget that the body is mind, and
not I the body’s.
A god and a demon went to learn about the Self from a
great sage. They studied with him for a long time, and at last
the sage told them. “Thou thyself art the being thou art
 
seeking.” Both of them thought that their bodies were the
Self. “We have got everything,” they said, and both of them
returned to their people, and said, “We have learned
everything that is to be learned; eat, drink, and be merry; we
are the Self; there is nothing beyond us.” The nature of the
demon was ignorant, clouded, so he never inquired any
further, but was perfectly satisfied with the idea that he was
God, that by the Self was meant the body. But the god had a
purer nature. He at first committed the mistake of thinking,
“I, this body, am Brahman, so keep it strong and in health,
and well-dressed, and give it all sorts of bodily enjoyments.”
But, in a few days, he found out that this could not be the
meaning of the sage, their master; there must be something
higher. So he came back and said, “Sir, did you teach me
that this body is the Self? If so, I see all bodies die; the Self
cannot die.” The sage said, “Find it out; thou art That.”
Then the god thought that the vital forces which work the
body were what the sage meant. But, after a time, he found
that if he ate, these vital forces remained strong, but, if he
starved, they became weak. The god then went back to the
sage and said, “Sir, do you mean that the vital forces are the
Self?” The sage said, “Find out for yourself; thou art That.”
The god returned once more, and thought that it was the
mind; perhaps that is the Self. But in a few days he reflected
that thoughts are so various; now good, now bad; the mind is
too changeable to be the Self. He went back to the sage and
said, “Sir, I do not think that the mind is the Self; did you
mean that?” “No,” replied the sage, “thou art That; find out
for yourself.” The god went back, and, at last, found that he
was the Self, beyond all thought; One, without birth or death,
whom the sword cannot pierce, or the fire burn, whom the
air cannot dry, or the water melt, the beginningless and
birthless, the immovable, the intangible, the omniscient, the
 
omnipotent Being, and that it was neither the body nor the
mind, but beyond them all. So he was satisfied, but the poor
demon did not get the truth, owing to his fondness for the
body.
This word has a good many of these demoniac natures,
but there are some gods too. If one propose to teach any
science to increase the power of sense of enjoyment, he finds
multitudes ready for it. If one undertake to show mankind
the supreme goal, they care nothing for it. Very few have
the power to grasp the highest, fewer still the patience to
attain to it, but a few also know that if the body be kept for a
thousand years the result will be the same in the end. When
the forces that hold it together go away the body must fall.
No man was ever born who could stop his body one moment
from changing. Body is the name of a series of changes.
“As in a river the masses of water are changing before you
every moment, and new masses are coming, yet taking
similar form, so is it with this body.” Yet the body must be
kept strong and healthy; it is the best instrument we have.
This human body is the greatest body in the universe, and
a human being the greatest being. Man is higher than all
animals, than all angels; none is greater than man. Even the
Devas will have to come down again and atttain to salvation
through a human body. Man alone attains to perfection, not
even the devas. According to the Jews and Mohammedans
God created man after creating man He asked the angels to
come and salute him, and all did except Iblis; so God cursed
him and he became Satan. Behind this allegory is the great
truth, that this human birth is the greatest birth we can have.
The lower creation, the animal, is dull, and manufactured
mostly out of Tamas. Animals cannot have any high
thoughts; nor can the angels, or Devas, attain to direct
freedom without human birth. In human society, in the same
 
way, too much wealth, or too much poverty, is a great
impediment to the higher development of the soul. It is from
the middle classes that the great ones of the world come.
Here the forces are very equally adjusted and balanced.
Returning to our subject, we come next to Pranayama,
controlling the breathing. What has that to do with
concentrating the powers of the mind? Breath is like the flywheel
of this machine. In a big engine you find the flywheel
first moving, and that motion is conveyed to finer and
finer machinery, until the most delicate and finest
mechanism in the machine is in motion in accordance. This
breath is that fly-wheel, supplying and regulating the motive
power to everything in this body.
There once was a minister to a great king. He fell into
disgrace, and the king as a punishment, ordered him to be
shut up at the top of a vey high tower. This was done, and
the minister was left there to perish. He had a faithful wife,
however, and at night she came to the tower and called to her
husband at the top to know what she could do to help him.
He told her to return to the tower the following night and
bring with her a long rope, a stout twine, a pack thread, a
silken threat, a beetle, and a little honey. Wondering much,
the good wife obeyed her husband, and brought him the
desired articles. The husband directed her to attach the
silken thread firmly to the beetle, then to smear his horns
with a drop of honey, and set him free on the wall of the
tower, with his head pointing up. She obeyed all these
instructions, and the beetle started on his long journey.
Smelling the honey before him he slowly crept onwards and
upwards, in the hope of reaching it, until at last he reaches
the top of the tower, when the minister grasped the beetle,
and got possession of the silken thread. He told his wife to
tie the other end to the pack thread,, and after he had drawn
 
up the pack thread, he repeated the procedure with the stout
twine, and lastly with the rope. Then the rest was easy. The
minister descended from the tower by means of the rope, and
made his escape. In this body of ours the breath motion is
the “silken thread,” and laying hold of that, and learning to
control it we grasp the pack thread of the nerve currents, and
from these the stout twine of our thoughts, and lastly the
rope of Prana, controlling which we reach freedom.
We do not know anything about our own bodies; we
cannot know. At best we can take a dead body, and cut it in
pieces, and there are some who can take a live animal and
cut it in pieces in order to see what is inside the body. Still,
that has nothing to do with our own bodies. We know very
little about them; why do we not? Because our attention is
not discriminating enough to catch the very fine movements
that are going on within. We can know of these only as the
mind, as it were, enters the body, and becomes more subtle.
To get that subtle perception we have to begin with the
grosser perceptions, so we have to get hold of that which is
setting the whole engine in motion, and that is the Prana, the
most obvious manifestation of which is the breath. Then,
along with the breath, we will slowly enter the body, and that
will enable us to find out about the subtle forces, how the
nerve currents are moving all over the body, and as soon as
we perceive that, and learn to feel them, we shall begin to
get control over them, and over the body. The mind is also
set in motion by these nerve current, so, at last, we shall
reach the state when we have perfect control over the body
and mind, making both our servants. Knowledge is power,
and we have to get this power, so we must begin at the
beginning, the Pranayama, restraining the Prana. This
Pranayama is a long subject, and will take several lessons to
illustrate it thoroughly. We will take it part by part.
 
We shall gradually see what are the reasons for each
exercise and what forces in the body are set in motion. All
these things will come to us, but it requires constant practice,
and the proof will come by practice. No amount of
reasoning which I can give you will be proof to you, until
you have demonstrated it for yourselves. As soon as you
begin to feel these currents in motion all over you, doubts
will vanish, but it requires hard practice every day. You
must practice at least twice every day, and the best times are
towards the morning and the evening. When night passes
into day, and day into night, it has to pass through a state of
relative calmness. The early morning and the early evening
are the two points of calmness. Your body will have a like
tendency to become calm at those times. We will take
advantage of that natural condition, and begin then to
practice. Make it a rule not to eat until you have practised; if
you do this the sheer force of hunger will break your
laziness. In India they teach children never to eat until they
have practised, and worshipped, and it becomes natural to
them after a while; a boy will not feel hungry until he has
bathed and practised.
Those of you who can afford it will do better to have a
room for this practice alone; do not sleep in that room, it
must be kept holy; you must not enter the room until you
have bathed, and are perfectly clean in body and mind.
Place flowers in that room always; they are the best
surroundings for a Yogi; also pictures that are pleasing. Burn
incense morning and evening. Have no quarrelling, or
anger, or unholy thought in that room. Only allow those
persons to enter who are of the same thought as you. Then
by and by there will be an atmosphere of holiness in the
room, and when you are miserable, sorrowful, doubtful, or
your mind is disturbed, the very fact of entering that room
 
will make you calmer. This was the idea of the temple and
the church, and in some temples and churches you will find
it even now, but in the majority of them the very idea has
been lost. The idea is that by keeping holy vibrations there
the place becomes and remains illumined. Those who
cannot afford to have a room set apart can practice anywhere
they like. Sit in a straight posture, and the first thing to do is
to send a current of holy thought to all creation; mentally
repeat: “Let all being be happy; let all beings be peaceful; let
all beings be blissful.” So do to the East, South, North and
West. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself.
You will find at last that the easiest way to make yourselves
healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way
to make yourselves happy is to see that others are happy.
After doing that, those who believe in God should pray—not
for money, not for health, nor for heaven; pray for
knowledge and light; every other prayer is selfish. Then the
next thing to do is to think of your own body, and see that it
is strong and healthy; it is the best instrument you have.
Think of it as being as strong as adamant, and that with the
help of this body you will cross this ocean of life. Freedom
is never to be reached by the weak; throw away all
weakness; tell your body that it is strong; tell your mind that
it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.

HE PSYCHIC PRANA

ACCORDING to the Yogis there are two nerve currents in the
spinal column, called Pingala and Ida, and there is a hollow
canal called Susumna running through the spinal cord. At
the lower end of the hollow canal is what the Yogis call the
“Lotus of the Kundalini.” They describe it as triangular in
form, in which, in the symbolical language of the Yogis,
there is a power called the Kundalini coiled up. When that
Kundalini awakes it tries to force a passage through this
hollow canal, and, as it rises step by step, as it were, layer
after layer of the mind becomes open, all these different
visions and wonderful powers come to the Yogi. When it
reaches the brain the Yogi is perfectly detached from the
body and mind; the soul finds itself free. We know that the
spinal cord is composed in a peculiar manner. If we take the
figure eight horizontally (¥) there are two parts, and these
two parts are connected in the middle. Suppose you add
eight after eight, piled one on top of the other, that will
represent the spinal cord. The left is the Ida, and the right
the Pingala, and that hollow canal which runs through the
centre of the spinal cord is the Susumna. When the spinal
cord ends in some of the lumbar vertabræ, a fine fibre comes
down, and the canal is even in that fibre, only much finer.
The canal is closed at the lower end, which is situated near
what is called the sacral plexus, which, according to modern
physiology, is triangular in form. The different plexuses that
have their centres in the spinal cord can very well stand for
the different “lotuses” of the Yogi.
 
The Yogi conceives of several centres, beginning with the
Muladhara, the basic, and ending fvwith the Sahacrara, the
thousand-petalled lotus in the brain. So, if we take these
different plexuses as representing these circles, the idea of
the Yogi can be understood very easily in the language of
modern physiology. We know there are two sorts of actions
in these nerve currents, one afferent, the other efferent, one
sensory and the other motor; one centripetal, and the other
centrifugal. One carries the sensations to the brain, and the
other from the brain to the outer body. These vibrations are
all connected with the brain in the long run. Several other
facts we have to remember, in order to clear the way for the
explanation which is to come. This spinal cord, at the brain,
ends in a sort of bulb, in the medulla, which is not attached
to the bone, but floats in a fluid in the brain, so that if there
be a blow on the head the force of that blow will be
dissipated in the fluid, and will not hurt the bulb. This will
be an important fact as we go on. Seconly, we have also to
know that, of all the centres, we have particularly to
remember three, the Muladhara (the basis), the Sahacrara
(the thousand-petalled lotus of the brain) and the
Svadhisthana (next above the Muladhara). Next we will
take one fact from physics. We all hear of electricity, and
various other forces connected with it. What electricity is no
one knows, but, so far as it is known, it is a sort of motion.
There are various other motions in the universe; what is
the difference between them and electricity? Suppose this
table moves, that the molecules which compose this table are
moving in different directions; if they are all made to move
in the same direction it will be electricity. Electric motion is
when the molecules all move in the same direction. If all the
air molecules in a room are made to move in the same
direction it will make a gigantic battery of electricity of the
 room. Another point from physiology we must remember,
that the centre which regulates the respiratory system, the
breathing system, has a sort of controlling action over the
system of nerve currents, and the controlling centre of the
respiratory system is opposite the thorax, in the spinal
column. This centre regulates the respiratory organs, and
also exercises some control over the secondary centres.
Now we shall see why breathing is practised. In the first
place, from rhythmical breathing will come a tendency of all
the molecules in the body to have the same direction. When
mind changes into will, the currents change into a motion
similar to electricity, because the nerves have been proved to
show polarity under action of electric currents. This shows
that when the will evolves into the nerve currents it is
changed into something like electricity. When all the
motions of the body have become perfectly rhythmical the
body has, as it were, become a gigantic battery of will. This
tremendous will is exactly what the Yogi wants. This is,
therefore, a physiological explanation of the breathing
exercise. It tends to bring a rhythmic action in the body, and
helps us, through the respiratory centre, to control the other
centres. The aim of Pranayama here is to rouse the coiledup
power in the Muladhara, called the Kundalini.
Everything that we see, or imagine, or dream, we have to
perceive in space. This is the ordinary space, called the
Mahakaca, or great space. When a Yogi reads the thoughts
of other men, or perceives super-sensuous objects, he sees
them in another sort of space called the Chittakaca, the
mental space. When perception has become objectless, and
the soul shines in its own nature, it is called the Chidakaca,
or knowledge space. When the Kundalini is aroused, and
enters the canal of the Susumna all the perceptions are in the
mental space. When it has reached that end of the canal
 
which opens out into the brain, the objectless perception is in
the knowledge space. Taking the analogy of electricity, we
find that man can send a current only along a wire, but
nature requires no wires to send her tremendous currents.
This proves that the wire is not really necessary, but that
only our inability to dispense with it compels us to use it.
Similarly, all the sensations and motions of the body are
being sent into the brain, and sent out of it, through these
wires of nerve fibres. The columns of sensory and motor
fibres in the spinal cord are the Ida and Pingala of the Yogis.
They are the main channels through which the afferent and
efferent currents are travelling. But why should not the mind
send the news without any wire, or react without any wires?
We see that this is being done in nature. The Yogi says if
you can do that you have got rid of the bondage of matter.
How to do it? If you can make the current pass through the
Susumna, the canal in the middle of the spinal column, you
have solved the problem. The mind has made this net-work
of the nervous system, and has to break it, so that no wires
will be required to work through. Then alone will all
knowledge come to us — no more bondage of body; that is
why it is so important that you should get control of the
Susumna. If you can send the mental current through that
hollow canal without any nerve fibres to act as wires, the
Yogi says you have solved the problem, and he also says it
can be done.
This Susumna is, in ordinary persons, closed up at the
lower extremity; no action comes through it. The Yogi
proposes a practice by which it can be opened, and the nerve
currents made to travel through. When a sensation is carried
to a centre, the centre reacts. This reaction, in the case of
automatic centres, is followed by motion; in the case of
conscious centres it is followed first by perception, and
 
secondly by motion. All perception is the reaction to action
from outside. How, then, do perceptions in dreams arise?
There is then no action from outside. The sensory motions,
therefore, are coiled up somewhere, just as the motor
motions are known to be in different centres. For instance, I
see a city; the perception of that city was from the reaction to
the sensations brought from outside objects comprising that
city. That is to say, a certainmotion in the brain molecules
has been set up by the motion in the incarrying nerves,
which again were set in motion by external objects in the
city. Now, even after a long time I can remember the city.
This memory is exactly the same phenomenon, only it is in a
milder form. But whence is the action that set up even the
milder form of similar vibrations in the brain? Not certainly
from the primary sensations. Therefore it must be that the
sensations are coiled up somewhere, and they, by their
acting, bring out the mild reaction which we call dream
perception. Now the centre where all these residual
sensations are, as it were, stored up, is called the Muladhara,
the root receptacle, and the coiled up energy of action is
Kundalini, the “coiled up.” It is very probable that the
residual motor energy is also stroed up in the same centre as,
after deep study or meditation on external objects, the part of
the body where the Muladhara centre is situated (probably
the sacral plexus) gets heated. Now, if this coiled-up energy
be roused and made active, and then consciously made to
travel up the Susumna canal, a tremendous reaction will set
in. When a minute portion of the energy of action travels
along a nerve fibre and causes reaction from centres, the
perception is either dream or imagination. But when the vast
mass of this energy stored up by the power of long internal
meditation travels along the Susumna, and strikes the
centres, the reaction is tremendous, immensely superior to
 
the reaction of dream or imagination, immensely more
intense than the reaction of sense perception. It is supersensuous
perception, and the mind in that state is called
super-conscious. And when it reaches the metropolis of all
senstations, the brain, the whole brain, as it were, reacts, and
every perceiving molecule in the body, as it were, reacts, and
the result is the full blaze of illumination, the perception of
the Self. As this Kundalini force travels from centre to
centre, layer after layer of the mind, as it were, will be
opened up, and this universe will be perceived by the Yogi in
its fine, or course, form. Then alone the causes of this
universe, both as sensation and reaction, will be known as
they are, and hence will come all knowledge. The causes
being known, the knowledge of the effects is sure to follow.
Thus the rousing of the Kundalini is the one and only
way to attaining Divine Wisdom, and super-consious
perception, the realisation of the spirit. It may come in
various ways, through love for God, through the mercy of
perfected sages, or through the power of the analytic will of
the philosopher. Wherever there is any manifestation of
what is ordinarily called supernatural power or wisdom,
there must have been a little current of Kundalini which
found its way into the Susumna. Only, in the vast majority
of such cases of supernaturalism, they had ignorantly
stumbled on to some practice which set free a minute portion
of the coiled-up Kundalini. All worship, consciously or
unconsciously, leads to this end. The man who thinks that
he is receiving responses to his prayers does not know that
the fulfilment came only from his own nature, that he has
succeeded by the mental attitude of prayer in waking up a bit
of the infinite power which is coiled up within himself.
Whom, thus, men ignorantly worship under various names,
through fear and tribulation, the Yogi declares to the world to
 
be the real power coiled up in every being, the mother of
eternal happiness, if we know how to approach her. And
Raja Yoga is the science of religion, the rationale of all
worship, all prayers, forms, ceremonies and miracles.

THE CONTROL OF PSYCHIC PRANA

WE have now to deal with the exercises in Pranayama. We
have seen that the first step will be, according to the Yogis,
to control the motion of the lungs. What we want to do is to
feel the finer motions that are going on in the body. Our
minds have become externalised, and have lost sight of the
finer motions inside. If we can begin to feel them, we can
begin to control them. These nerve currents are going on all
over the body, bringing life and vitality to every muscles, but
we do not feel them. The Yogi says we can learn to do so.
How? By taking up and controlling all those motions of the
Prana beginning with the motion of the lungs, and when we
have done that for a sufficient length of time we shall also be
able to control the finer motions.
We now come to the exercises in Pranayama. Sit upright;
the body must be kept straight. The spinal cord, although it
is inside the vertabral column, is not attached to it. If you sit
crookedly you disturb this spinal cord, so let it be free. Any
time that you sit crookedly and try to meditate you are doing
yourself an injury. The three parts of the body must be
always held straight, the chest, the neck, and the head, in one
line. You will find that by a little practice this will come to you
just as breathing. The second thing is to get control of the
nerves. We have seen that the nerve centre that controls the
respiratory organs, has a sort of controlling effect on the
other neves, and rhythmical breathing is therefore necessary.
The breathing that we generally use should not be called
breathing at all. It is very irregular. Then there are some
natural differences of breathing between men and women.
 The first lesson is just to breathe in a measured way, in
and out. That will harmonise the system. When you have
practices this for some time you will do well to join the
repetition of some word to it, as “Om,” or any other sacred
word, and let the word flow in and out with the breath,
rhythmically, harmoniously, and you will feel the whole
body is become rhythmical. Then you will learn what rest is.
Sleep is not rest, comparatively. Once this rest has come the
most tired nerves will be calmed down, and you will find
that you have never really rested. In India we use certain
symbolical words instead one, two, three, four. That is why I
advise you to join the mental repetition of the “Om,” or other
sacred word to the Pranayama.
The first effect of this practice will be that the face will
change; harsh lines will disappear; with this calm though
calmness will come over the face. Next, beautiful voice will
come. I never saw a Yogi with a croaking voice. These
sighns will come after a few months’ pracitce. After
practising this first breathing for a few days, you take up a
higher one. Slowly fill the lungs with breath through the
Ida, the left nostril, and at the same time concentrate the
mind on the nerve current. You are, as it were, sending the
nerve current down the spinal column, and striking violently
on that last plexus, the basic lotus, which is triangular in
form, the seat of the Kundalini. Then hold the current there
for some time. Imagine that you are slowly drawing that
nerve current with the breath through the other side, then
slowly throw it out through the right nostril. This you will
find a little difficult to practice. The easiest way is to stop
the right nostril with the thumb, and then slowly draw in the
breath through the left; then close both nostrils with thumb
and forefinger, and imagine that you are sending that current
down, and striking the base of the Susumna; then take the
 
thumb off, and let the breath out through the right nostril.
Next inhale slowly though that nostril, keeping the other
closed by the forefinger, then close both, as before. The way
the Hindus practice this would be very difficult for this
country, because they do it from their childhood, and their
lungs are prepared for it. Here it is well to being with four
seconds, and slowly increase. Draw in four seconds, hold in
sixteen seconds, then throw out in eight seconds. This
makes one Pranayama. At the same time think of the
triangle, concentrate the mind on that centre. The
imagination can help you a great deal. The next breathing is
slowly drawing the breath in, and then immediately throwing
it out slowly, and then stopping the breath out, using the
same numbers. The only difference is that in the first case
the breath was held in, and in the second, held out. The last
is the easier one. The breathing in which you hold the breath
in the lungs must not be practised too much. Do it only four
times in the morning, and four times in the evening. Then
you can slowly increase the time and number. You will find
that you have the power to do so, and that you take pleasure
in it. So, very carefully and cautiously increase as you feel
that you have the power, to six instead of four. It may injure
you if you practice it irregularly.
Of the three processes, the purification of the nerves, the
retaining the breath inside and keeping the breath outside,
the first and the last are neither difficult nor dangerous. The
more you practice the first one the calmer you will be. Just
think of “Om,” and you can practice even while you are
sitting at your work. You will be all the the better for it.
One day, if you practise hard the Kundalini will be aroused.
For those who practice once or twice a day, just a little
calmness of the body and mind will come, and beautiful
voice; only for those who can go on further with it will this

Kundalini be aroused, and the whole of this nature will begin
to change, and the book of knowledge will be open. No
more will you need to go to books for knowledge; your own
mind will have become your book, containing infinite
knowledge. I have already spoken of the Ida and Pingala
currents, flowing through either side of the spinal column,
also of the Susumna, the passage through the centre of the
spinal cord. These three are present in every animal;
whatever has a spinal column has these three lines of action,
but the Yogis claim that in ordinary mankind the Susumna is
closed, that action there is not evident, while in the other two
it is evident, carrying power to different parts of the body.
The Yogi alone has the Susumna open. When this
Susumna current opens, and thought begins to rise through it,
we get beyond the senses, our minds become supersensuous,
superconscious, we get beyond even the intellect, and where
reasoning cannot reach. To open that Susumna is the prime
object of the Yogi. According to him. along this Susumna
are ranged these centres of distribution, or, in more
figurative language, these lotuses as they are called. The
lowest one is at the lowest end of the spinal cord, and is
called Muladhara, the next one is called Svadhisthana, the
next Manipura, the next Anahata, the next Vicuddha, the
next Ajna, and the last, which is in the brain, is the
Sahacrara, or “the thousand petalled.” Of these we have to
take cognition just now of only two centres, the lowest, the
Muladhara, and the highest, the Sahacrara. The lowest one
is where all energy becomes stored up, and that energy has
to be taken up from there and brought to the last one, the
brain. The Yogis claim that of all the energies that the
human body comprises the highest is what they call “Ojas.”
Now this Ojas is stored up in the brain, and the more the
Ojas is in a man’s head, the more powerful he is, the more
 
intellectual, the more spiritually strong will that man be.
This is the action of Ojas. One man may speak beautiful
language and beautiful thoughts, but they do not impress
people; another man speaks neither beautiful language nor
beautiful thoughts, yet his words charm. That is the power
of Ojas coming out. Every movement coming from him will
be powerful.
Now in all mankind there is more or less of this Ojas
stored up. And all the forces that are working in this body,
in their highest form, become Ojas. You must remember
that it is only a question of transformation. The same force
which is working outside, as electricity or magnetism, will
become changed into inner force; the same forces that are
working as muscular energy will be changed into Ojas. The
Yogis say that that part of the human energy which is
expressed as sex energy, in sexual functions, sexual thought,
and so on, when checked and controlled, easily becomes
changed into Ojas, and as this lowest centre is the one which
guides all these functions, therefore the Yogi pays particular
attention to that centre. He tries to take up all this sexual
energy and convert it into Ojas. It is only the chaste man or
woman who can make the Ojas rise and become stored in the
brain, and that is why chastity has always been considered
the highest virtue, because man feels that if he is unchaste,
spirituality goes away, he loses mental vigour, and strong
moral stamina. That is why in all of the religious orders in
the world that have produced spiritual giants you will always
find this intense chastity insisted upon. That is why the
monks came into existence, giving up marriage. There must
be perfect chastity in thought, word and deed. Without it the
practice of Raja Yoga is dangerous, and may lead to insanity.
If people practice Raja Yoga and at the same time lead an
impure life, how can they expect to become Yogis?

PRATYAHARA AND DHARANA

THE next step is called Pratyahara. What is this? You know
how perceptions come. First of all there are the external
instruments, then the internal organs, acting in the body
through the brain centres, and there is the mind. When these
come together, and attach themselves to some external thing,
then we perceive that thing. At the same time it is a very
difficult thing to concentrate the mind and attach it to one
organ only; the mind is a slave.
We hear “be good” and “be good” and “be good” taught
all over the world. There is hardly a child, born in any
country in the world, who has not been told “do not steal,”
“do not tell a lie,” but nobody tells the child how he can help
it. Talking will never do it. Why should he not become a
thief? We do not teach him how not to steal; we simply tell
him “do not steal.” Only when we teach him to control his
mind do we really help him. All actions, internal and
external, occur when the mind joins itself to certain centres,
which centres are called the organs. Willingly or
unwillingly it is drawn to join itself to the centres, and that is
why people do foolish deeds and feel misery, which, if the
mind were under control, they would not do. What would be
the result of controlling the mind? It then would not join
itself to the centres of perception, and, naturally, feeling and
willing would be under control. It is clear so far. Is it
possible? It is perfectly possible. You see it in modern
times; the faith-healers teach people to deny misery and pain
and evil. Their philosophy is rather roundabout, but it is a
part of Yoga into which they have somehow stumbled. In
 
those cases where they succeed in making a person throw off
suffering by denything it they have really taught a part of
Pratyahara, as they have made the mind of the person taught
strong enough to refuse to take up the record of the senses.
The hypnotists in a similar manner, by their suggestion,
excite in the patient a sort of morbid Pratyahara for the time
being. The so-called hypnotic suggestion can only act upon
a diseased body and a clouded mind. And until the operator,
by means of fixed gaze or otherwise, has succeeded in
putting the mind of the subject in a sort of passive, morbid
condition, his suggestions never work.
Now the control of the centres which is established in a
hypnotic patient or the patient of faith-healing, for a time, is
utterly reprehensible, because it leads to ultimate ruin. It is
not really controlling the brain centres by the power of one’s
own will, but is, as it were, stunning the patient’s mind for a
time by sudden blows which another’s will delivers to it. It
is not checking by means of reins and muscular strength the
mad career of a fiery team, but rather by asking another to
deliver heavy blows on the heads of the horses, to stun them
for a time into gentleness. At each one of these processes
the man operated upon loses a part of his mental energies,
and, at last, the mind, instead of gaining the power of perfect
control, becomes a shapeless, powerless mass, and the only
goal of the patient is the lunatic asylum.
Every attempt at control which is not voluntary, not with
the controller’s own mind, is not only disastrous, but it
defeats the end. The goal of each soul is freedom, mastery,
freedom from slavery of matter and thought, mastery of
external and internal nature. Instead of leading towards that,
every will current from another, in whatever form it comes
to men, either as direct control of my organs, or as forcing
me to control them while under a morbid condition, only
 
rivets one link more to the already existing heavy chain of
bondage of past thoughts, past superstition. Therefore,
beware how you allow yourselves to be acted upon by
others. Beware how you unknowingly lead another to ruin.
True, some succeed in doing good to many for a time, by
giving a new trend to their propensities, but at the same time,
they bring ruin to millions by the unconscious hypnotic
suggestions they throw around, rousing in men and woman
that morbid, passive, hypnotic condition which makes them
almost soulless at last. Whosoever, therefore, asks anyone to
believe blindly, or drags mankind behind him through
controlling it by his superior will is an injurer to humanity,
though he may not have intended it.
Therefore use your own minds, control body and mind
yourselves, remember that until you are a diseased person,
no extraneous will can work upon you, and avoid everyone,
however great and good he may be, who asks you to blindly
believe. All over the world there have been dancing, and
jumping, and howling sects who spread like infections when
they begin to sing and dance and preach; they also come
under this heading. They exercise a singular control for the
time being over sensitive persons, alas, often, in the long
run, to degenerate whole races. Aye, it is healthier for the
individual or the race to remain wicked than to be made
apparently good by such morbid extraneous control. One’s
heart sinks to think of the amount of injury done to humanity
by such irresponsbile, yet well-meaning religious fanatics.
They little know that the minds which attain to sudden
spiritual upheaval under their suggestions, with music and
prayers, are simply making themselves passive, morbid, and
powerless, and opening themselves to any other suggestion,
be it ever so evil. Little do those ignorant, deluded persons
dream that whilst they are congratulating themselves upon
 their miraculous power to transform human hearts, which
power they think was poured upon them by some Being
above the cloud, they are sowing the seeds of some future
decay, of crime, of lunacy, and of death. Therefore, beware
of everything that takes away your freedom. Know that it in
dangerous, and avoid it by all the means in your power. He
who has succeeded in attaching or detaching his mind to or
from the centres at will has succeeded in Pratyahara, which
means “gathering towards,” checking the outgoing powers of
the mind, freeing it from the thraldom of the senses. When
we can do this we really possess a character, then alone shall
we have made a long step towards freedom; before that we
are mere machines.
How hard it is to control the mind! Well has it been
compared to the maddened monkey. There was a monkey,
restless by his own nature, as all monkeys are. As if that
were not enough, someone made him drink freely of wine,
so that he became still more restless. Then a scorpion stung
him. When a man is stung by a scorpion he jumps about for
a whole day, so the poor monkey found his condition worse
than ever. To complete his misery a demon entered into
him. What language can describe the uncontrollable
restlessness of that monkey? The human mind is like that
monkey; incessantly active by its own nature, then it
becomes drunk with the wine of desire, thus increasing its
turbulence. After desire takes possession comes the sting of
the scorpion of jealously of others whose desires meet with
fulfilment, and last of all the demon of pride takes
possession of the mind, making it think itself of all
importance. How hard to control such a mind!
The first lesson, then, is to sit for some time and let the
mind run on. The mind is bubbling up all the time. It is like
that monkey jumping about. Let the monkey jump as much
 
as he can; you simply wait and watch. Knowledge is power
says the proverb, and that is true. Until you know what the
mind is doing you cannot control it. Give it the full length of
the reins; many most hideous thoughts may come into it; you
will be astonished that it was possible for you to think such
thoughts. But you will find that each day the mind’s
vagaries are becoming less and less violent, that each day it
is becoming calmer. In the first few months you will find
that the mind will have a thousand thoughts, later you will
find that it is toned down to perhaps seven hundred, and after
a few more months it will have fewer and fewer, until at last
it will be under perfect control, but we must patiently
practice every day. As soon as the stream is turned on the
engine must run, and as soon as things are before us we must
perceive; so a man, to prove that he is not a machine, must
demonstrate that he is under the control of nothing. This
controlling of themind, and not allowing it to join itself to
the centres, is Pratyahara. How is this practices. It is a long
work, not to be done in a day. Only after a patient,
continous struggle for years can we succeed.
The next lesson depends on this. After you have
practiced the Pratyahara for a time, take the next step, the
Dharana, holding the mind to certain points. What is meant
by holding the mind to certain points? Forcing the mind to
feel certain parts of the body to the exclusion of others. For
instance, try to feel only the hand, to the exclusion of other
parts of the body. When the Chitta, or mind-stuff, is
confined and limited to a certain place, this is called
Dharana. This Dharana is of various sorts, and along with
it, it is better to have a little play of the imagination. For
instance, the mind should be made to think of one point in
the heart. That is very difficult; an easier way is to imagine
a lotus there. That lotus is full of light, effulgent light. Put
 
the mind there. Or think of the lotus in the brain as full of
light, or of the different centres in the Susumna mentioned
before.
The Yogi must always practice. He should try to live
alone; the companionship of different sorts of people
distracts his mind; he should not speak much because to
speak distracts the mind; nor work much, because too much
work distracts the mind; the mind cannot be controlled after
a whole day’s hard work. One with such a determination
becomes a Yogi. Such is the power of good that even the
least done will bring a great amount of benefit. It will not
hurt anyone, but will benefit everyone. First of all it will
tone down nervous excitement, bring calmness, enable us to
see things more clearly. The temperament will be better, and
the health will be better. Sound health will be one of the
first signs, and a beautiful voice. Defects in the voice will be
changed. This will be among the first of the many effects
that will come. Those who practice hard will get many other
signs. Sometimes there will be sounds, as a peal of bells
heard at a distance, commingling, and falling on the ear as
one continuous sound. Sometimes things will be seen, little
specks of light floating and becoming bigger and bigger, and
when these things come, know that you are progressing very
fast. Those who want to be Yogis, and practice very hard,
must take a little care of their diet at first. Those who want
to make very rapid progress, if they can live on milk alone
for some months, and cereals, will find it an advantage. But
for those who want only a little practice for every day
business sort of life, let them not eat too much, but otherwise
they may eat whatever they please.
For those who want to make faster progress, and to
practice hard, a strict diet is absolutely necessary. As the
organisation becomes finer and finer, at first you will find
 
that the least things throws you out of balance. One bit of
food more or less will disturb the whole system, and then
you will be able to eat whatever you like. You will find that
when you are beginning to concentrate, the dropping of a pin
will seem like a thunderbolt going through your brain. The
organs get finer, and the perceptions get finer. These are the
stages through which we have to pass, and all those who
persevere will succeed. Give up all argumentation and other
distractions. Is there anything in this dry intellectual jargon?
It only throws the mind off its balance and disturbs it. These
things have to be realised. Will talking do that? So give up
all vain talk. Read only those books which have been
written by persons who have had realisation.
Be like the pearl oyster. There is a pretty Indian fable to
the effect that if it rains when the star Svati is in the
ascendant, and a drop of rain falls into an oyster, that drop
will become a pearl. The oysters know this, so they come to
the surface when that star shines, and wait to catch the
precious rain-drop. When one falls into the shell, quickly
the oyster closes it and dives down to the bottom of the sea,
there to patiently develop the drop into the pearl. We should
be like that. First hear, then understand, and then, leaving all
distractions, shut our minds to outside influences, and devote
ourselves to developing the truth within us. There is the
danger of frittering away our energies by taking up an idea
only for its novelty, and then giving it up for another that is
newer. Take one thing up and do it, and see the end of it,
and before ou have seen the end, do not give it up. He who
can become mad upon an idea, he alone will see light.
Those that only take a nibble here and there will never attain
anything. They may tittilate their nerves for a moment, but
there it will end. They will be slaves in the hands of nature,
and will never get beyond the senses.
 
Those who really want to be Yogis must give up, once for
all, this nibbling at things. Take up one idea. Make that one
idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let
the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body
be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone.
This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual
giant are produced. Others are mere talking machines. If we
really want to be blessed, and make others blessed, we must
go deeper, and, for the first step, do not disturb the mind, and
do not associate with persons whose ideas are disturbing.
All of you know that certain persons, certain places, certain
foods, repel you. Avoid them; and those who want to go to
the highest, must avoid all company, good or bad. Practice
hard; whether you live or die it does not matter. You have to
plunge in and work, without thinking of the result. If you
are brave enough, in six months you will be a perfect Yogi.
But, for others, those who take up just a bit of it, a little of
everything, they get no higher. It is of no use to simply take
a course of lessons. Those who are full of Tamas, ignorant
and dull, those whose minds never get fixed on any idea,
who only crave for something to entertain them—religion
and philosophy are simply entertainments to them. They
come to religion as to an entertainment, and get that little bit
of entertainment. These are the unpersevering. They hear a
talk, think it very nice, and then go home and forget all about
it. To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance,
tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean,” says the
persevering soul. “At my will mountains will crumble up.”
Have that sort of energy, that sort of will, work hard, and
you will reach the goal.

DHYANA AND SAMADHI

WE have finished a cursory review of the different steps in
Raja Yoga, except the finer ones, the training in
concentration, which is the aim, the goal, to which Raja
Yoga will lead us. We see, as human beings, that all our
knowledge which is called rational is referred to
consciousness. I am conscious of this table, I am conscious
of your presence, and so forth, and that makes me know that
you are here, and that the table is here, and things I see, feel
andhear, are here. At the same time, there is a very great
part of my existence of which I am not conscious—all the
different organs inside the body, the different parts of the
brain, the brain itself; nobody is conscious of these things.
When I eat food I do it consciously, when I assimilate it I
do it unconsciously, when the food is manufactured into
blood it is done unconsciously; when out of the blood all the
different parts of my body are made, it is done
unconsciously; and yet it is I who am doing this; there
cannot be twenty people in one body. How do I know that I
do it, and nobody else? It may be urged that my business is
only in eating the food, and assimilating the food, and that
manufacturing the body out of food is done for me by
someone else. That cannot be, because it can be
demonstrated that almost every action of which we are
unconscious now can be again brought up to the plane of
consciousness. The heart is beating apparently without our
control; we none of us here can control the heart; it goes
onits own way. But by practice men can bring even the heart
under control, until it will just beat at will, slowly, or
 quickly, or almost stop. Nearly every part of the body can
be brought under control. What does this show? That these
things which are beneath consciousness are also worked by
us, only we are doing it unconsciously. We have, then, two
planes in which the human mind is working. First is the
conscious plane; that is to say that sort of work which is
always accompanied with the feeling of egoism. That part of
mind-work which is unaccompanied with feeling of egoism
is unconscious work, and that part which is accompanied
with the feeling of egoism is conscious work. In the lower
animals this unconscious work is called instinct. In higher
animals, and in the highest of animals, man, the second part,
that which is accompanied with the feeling of egoism,
prevails, and is called conscious work.
But it does not end here. There is a still higher plane
upon which the mind can work. It can go beyond
consciousness. Just as unconscious work is beneath
consciousness, so there is another work which is above
consciousness, and which, also, is not accompanied with the
feeling of egoism. The feeling of egoism is only on the
middle plane. When the mind is above or below that line
there is no feeling of “I,” and yet the mind works. When the
mind goes beyond this line of self-consciousness it is called
Samadhi, or super-consciousness. It is above consciousness.
How, for instance, do we know that a man in Samadhi has
not gone below his consciousness, has not degenerated,
instead of going higher? In both cases the works are
unaccompanied by egoism? The answer is, by the effects,
by the results of the work, we know that which is below, and
that which is above. When a man goes into deep sleep he
enters a plane beneath consciousness. He works the body all
the time, he breathes, he moves the body, perhaps, in his
sleep, without any accompanying feeling of ego; he is
 
unconscious, and when he returns from his sleep he is the
same man who went into it. The sum-total of the knowledge
which he hap before he went into the sleep remains the
same; it has not increased at all. No enlightenment has
come. But if a man goes into Samadhi, if he goes into it a
fool, he comes out a sage.
What makes the difference? From one state a man comes
out the very same man that went in, and out of another state
the man becomes enlightened, a sage, a prophet, a saint, his
whole character changed, his life changed, illumined. These
are the two effects. Now the effects being different, the
causes must be different. As this illumination, with which a
man comes back from Samadhi, is much higher than can be
got from unconsciousness, or much higher than can be got
by reasoning in a conscious state, it must therefore be superconsciousness,
and Samadhi is called the super-conscious
state.
This, in short, is the idea of Samadhi. What is its
application? The application is here. The field of reason, or
of the conscious workings of the mind, is narrow and
limited. There is a little circle within which human reason
will have to move. It cannot go beyond it. Every attempt to
go beyond is impossible, yet it is beyond this circle of reason
that lies all that humanity holds most dear. All these
questions, whether there is an immortal soul, whether there
is a God, whether there is any supreme intelligence guiding
this universe, are beyond the field of reason. Reason can
never answer these questions. What does reason say? It
says, “I am agnostic; I do not know either yea or nay.” Yet
these questions are important to us. Without a proper answer
to them, human life will be impossible. All our ethical
theories, all our moral attitudes, all that is good and great in
human nature, has been moulded upon answers that have
 
come from beyond that circle. It is very important,
therefore, that we should have answers to these questions;
without such answers human life will be impossible. If life
is only a little five minutes’ thing, if the universe is only a
“fortuitous combination of atoms,” then why should I do
good to another? Why should there be mercy, justice, or
fellow feeling? The best thing for this world would be to
make hay while the sun shines, each man for himself. If
there is no hope, why should I love my brother, and not cut
his throat? If there is nothing beyond, if there is no freedom,
but only rigorous dead laws, I should only try to make
myself happy here. You will find people saying, now-adays,
that they have utilitarian grounds as the basis of all
morality. What is this basis? Procuring the greatest amount
of happiness to the greatest number. Why should I do this?
Why should I not produce the greatest unhappiness to the
greatest number, if that serves my purpose? How will
utilitarians answer this question? How do you know what is
right, or what is wrong? I am impelled by my desire for
happiness and I fulfil it, and it is in my nature; I know
nothing beyond. I have these desires, and must fulfil them;
why should you complain? Whence come all these truths
about human life, about morality, about the immortal soul,
about God, about love and sympathy, about being good, and,
above all, about being unselfish?
All ethics, all human action, and all human thought, hang
upon this one idea of unselfishness; the whole idea of human
life can be put in that one word, unselfishness. Why should
we be unselfish? Where is the necessity, the force, the
power, of my being unselfish? Why should I be? You call
yourself a rational man, a utilitarian, but, if you do not show
me a reason, I say you are irrational. Show me the reason
why I should not be selfish, why I should not be like a brute,
 acting without reason? It may be good as poetry, but poetry
is not reason. Show me a reason. Why shall I be unselfish,
and why be good? Because Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so says so
does not weigh with me. Where is the utility of my being
unselfish? My utility is to be selfish, if utility means the
greatest amount of happiness. I may get the greatest amount
of happiness by cheating and robbing others. What is the
answer? The utilitarian can never give it. The answer is that
this world is only one drop in an infinite ocean, one link in
an infinite chain. Where did those that preached
unselfishness, and taught it to the human race, get this idea?
We know it is not instinctive; the animals, which have
instinct, do not know it. Neither is it reason; reason does not
know anything about these ideas? Whence did they come?
We find, in studying history, one fact held in common by
all the great teachers of religion the world ever had; they all
claim to have got these truths from beyond, only many of
them did not know what they were getting. For instance, one
would say that an angel came down in the form of a human
being, with wings, and said to him, “Hear, oh man, this is the
message.” Another says that a Deva, a bright being,
appeared to him. Another says he dreamed that his ancestor
came and told him all these things. He did not know
anything beyond that. But this thing is common, that all
claim either that they say angels, or heard the voice of God,
or saw some wonderful vision. All claim that this
knowledge came to them from beyond, not through their
reasoning power. What does the science of Yoga teach? It
teaches that they were right in claiming that this knowledge
came to them from beyond reasoning, but that it came from
within themselves.
The Yogi teaches that the mind itself has a higher state of
existence, beyond reason, a super-conscious state, and when
 
the mind gets to that higher state, then this knowledge,
beyond reasoing, comes to a man, metaphysical knowledge,
beyond all physical knowledge. Metaphysical and
transcendental knowledge comes to that man, and this state
of going beyond reason, transcending ordinary human
nature, sometimes may come by chance to a man who does
not understand its science; he, as it were, stumbles into it.
When he stumbles into it, he generally interprets it as from
outside. So this explains why an inspiration, or this
transcendental knowledge, may be the same in different
countries, but in one country it will seem to come through an
angel, and in another through a Deva, and in another through
God. What does it mean? It means that the mind brought
the knowledge by its own nature, and that the finding of the
knowledge was interpreted according to the beliefs and
education of the person through whom it came. The real fact
is that these various men, as it were, stumbled into this
super-conscious state.
The Yogi says there is a great danger in stumbling into
this state. In a good many cases there is the danger of the
brain being destroyed, and, as a rule, you will find that all
those men, however great they were, who have stumbled into
this super-conscious state, without understanding it, grope in
the dark, and generally have, along with their knowledge,
some quaint superstition. They open themselves to
hallucination. Mohammed claimed that the Angel Gabriel
came to him in a cave one day and took him on the heavenly
horse, Harak, and he visited the heavens. But, with all that,
Mohammed spoke some wonderful truths. If you read the
Qur’an, you find the most wonderful truths mixed with these
superstitions. How will you explain it? That man was
inspired, no doubt, but that inspiration was, as it were,
stumbled upon. He was not a trained Yogi, and did not know
 the reason of what he was doing. Think of the good
Mohammed did to the world, and think of the great evil that
has been done through his fanaticism! Think of the millions
massacred through his teachings, mothers bereft of their
children, children made orphans, whole countries destroyed,
millions upon millions of people killed!
So we see in studying the lives of all these great teachers
that there was this danger. Yet we find, at the same time,
that they were all inspired. Somehow or other they got into
this super-conscious state, only whenever a prophet got into
that state by simple force of emotion, just by heightening his
emotional nature, he brought away from that state some
truths, but also some fanaticism, some superstition which
injured the world as much as the greatness of the teaching
did good. To get any reason out of this mass of incongruity
we call human life we have to transcend our reason, but we
must do it scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we
must cast off all superstition. We must take it up just as any
other science, reason we must have to lay our foundation, we
must follow reason as far as it leads, and when reason fails,
reason itself will show us the way to the highest plane. So
whenever we hear a man say “I am inspired,” and then talk
the most irrational nonsense, simply reject it. Why?
Because these three states of the mind—instinct, reason, and
super-consciousness, or the unconscious, conscious, and
super-conscious states—belong to one and the same mind.
There are not three minds in one man, but one develops into
the other. Instinct develops into reason, and reason into the
transcendental consciousness; therefore one never
contradicts the other. So, whenever you meet with wild
statements which contradict human reason and common
sense, reject them without any fear, because the real
inspiration will never contradict, but will fulfil. Just as you
 
find the great prophets saying, “I come not to destroy but to
fulfil,” so this inspiration always comes to fulfil reason, and
is in direct harmony with reason, and whenever it contradicts
reason you must know that it is not inspiration.
All the different steps in Yoga are intended to bring us
scientifically to the super-conscious state, or Samadhi.
Furthermore, this is a most vital point to understand that
inspiration is as much in every man’s nature as it way in the
ancient prophets. These prophets were not unique; they
were just the same as you or I. They were great Yogis. They
had gained this superconsciousness, and you and I can get
the same. They were not peculiar people. The very fact that
one man ever reached that state will prove that it is possible
for every man to do so. Not only is it possible, but every
man must, eventually, get to that state, and that is religion.
Experience is the only teacher we have. We may talk and
reason all our lives, without ever understanding a word of
truth, until we experience it ourselves. You cannot hope to
make a man a surgeon by simply giving him a few books.
You cannot satisfy my curiousity to see a country by
showing me a map; I must have actual experience. Maps
can only create a little curiousity in us to get more perfect
knowledge. Beyond that, they have no value whatever. All
clinging to books only degenerates the human mind. Was
there ever a more horrible blasphemy than to say that all the
knowledge of God is confined in this or that book? How
dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him into
the covers of a little book! Millions of people have been
killed because they did not believe what the books say,
because they would not see all the knowledge of God within
the covers of a book. Of course this killing and murdering
has gone by, but the world is still tremendously bound up by
a belief in books.
 In order to reach the super-conscious state in a scientific
manner we have to pass through these various steps that I
have been teaching you in Raja Yoga. After Pratyahara and
Dharana, which I taught you in the last lecture, we come to
Dhyana, meditation. When the mind has been trained to
remain fixed on a certain internal or external location, there
comes to it the power of, as it were, flowing in an unbroken
current towards that point. This state is called Dhyana.
When this power of Dhyana has been so much intensified as
to be able to reject the external part of perception, and
remain meditating only on the internal part, the meaning,
that state is called Samadhi. The three—Dharana, Dhyana
and Samadhi—together are called Samyama. That is, if the
mind can first concentrate upon an object, and then is able to
contiune in that concentration for a length of time, and then,
by continued concentration, to dwell only on the internal part
of the perception of which the object was the effect,
everything comes under the control of such a mind.
This meditative state is the highest state of existence. So
long as there is desire no real happiness can come. It is only
the contemplative, witness-like study of objects that brings
us to real enjoyment and happiness. The animal has its
happiness in the senses, the man in his intellect, and the God
in spiritual contemplation. It is only to the soul that has
attained to this contemplative state that the world has really
become beautiful. To him who desires nothing, and does not
mix himslf up with them, the manifold changes of nature are
one panorama of beauty and sublimity.
These ideas have to be understood in Dhyana, or
meditation. We hear a sound. First there is the external
vibration, second, the nerve motion that carries it to the
mind, third, the reaction from the mind, along with which
flashes the knowledge of theobject which was the external
 cause of these different changes from the ethereal vibrations
to the mental reaction. These three are called in Yoga,
Cabdha (sound), Artha (meaning), and Jnana (knowledge).
In the language of physiology there are called the ethereal
vibration, the motion in the nerve and brain, and the mental
reaction. Now these, though distinct processes, have become
mixed up in such a fashion as to become quite indistinct. In
fact, we cannot now perceive any of these causes; we only
perceive the effect of these three, which effect we call the
external object. Every act of perception includes these three,
and there is no reason why we should not be able to
distinguish between them.
When, by the previous preparations, the mind becomes
strong and controlled, and the power of finer perception has
been attained, then the mind should be employed in
meditation. This meditation must begin with gross objects
and slowly rise to finer, then to finer and finer, until it has
become objectless. The mind should first be employed in
perceiving the external causes of sensations, then the internal
motions, and then the reaction of the mind. Whenit has
succeeded in perceiving the external causes of sensations by
themxelves it will acquire the power of perceiving all fine
material existence, all fine bodies and forms. When it can
succeed in perceiving the motions inside, by themselves, it
will gain the control of all mental waves, in itself or in
others, even before they have translated themselves into
physical forces; and when he will be able to perceive the
mental reaction by itself the Yogi will acquire the knowledge
of everything, as every sensible object, and every thought, is
the result of this reaction. Then will he have seen, as it were,
the very foundations of his mind, and it will be under his
perfect control. Different powers will come to the Yogi, and
if he yields to the temptations of any one of these the road to
 
his further progress will be barred. Such is the evil of
running after enjoyments. But, if he is strong enough to
reject even these miraculous powers, he will attain to the
goal of Yoga, the complete suppression of the waves in the
ocean of th emind; then the glory of the soul, untrammelled
by the distrations of the mind, or the motions of his body,
will shine in its full effulgence. And the Yogi will find
himself as he is and as he always was, the essence of
knowledge, the immortal, the all-pervading.
Samadhi is the property of every human being—nay,
every animal. From the lowest animal to the highest angelic
being, some time or other each one will have to come to that
state, and then, and then alone, will religion begin for him.
And all this time, what are we doing? We are only
struggling towards that stage’ there is no no difference
between us and those who have no religion, because we have
had no experience. What is concentration good for, save to
bring us to this experience? Each one of the steps to attain
this Samadhi has been reasoned out, properly adjusted,
scientifically organised, and, when faithfully practised, will
surely lead us to the desired end. Then will all sorrows
cease, all miseries; the seeds of actions will be burned, and
the soul will be free for ever.

RAJA YOGA IN BRIEF

THIS is a summary of Raja Yoga freely translated from the
Kurma Purana.
The fire of Yoga burns the cage of sin that is around a
man. Knowledge becomes purified, and Nirvana is directly
obtained. From Yoga comes knowledge, knowledge again
helps the Yogi. He who is a compound of both Yoga and
knowledge, with him the Lord is pleased. Those that
practice Mahayoga, either once a day, or twice a day, or
thrice, or always, know them to be gods. Yoga is divided
into two parts. One is called the Abhava, and the other
Mahayoga. Where one’s self is meditated on as zero, and
bereft of quality, that is called Abhava; the Yogi, by each
one, realises his Self. That in which one sees the Self as full
of bliss and bereft of all impurities, and one with God, is
called Mahayoga. The other Yogas that we read and hear of,
do not deserve one particle of this great Brahmayoga, in
which the Yogi finds himself and the whole universe as God
himself. This is the highest of all Yogas.
These are the steps in Raja Yoga. Yama, Niyama, Asana,
Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, of
which, non-injuring anybody, truthfulness, noncovetousness,
chastity, not receiving anything from another,
are called Yama; it purifies themind, the Chitta. By thought,
word, and deed, always, and in every living being, not
producing pain is what is called Ahimsa, non-injuring. There
is no virtue higher than this non-injuring. There is no
happiness higher than what a man obtains by this attitude of
non-offensiveness to all creation. By truth we attain to
 
work. Through truth everything is attained; in truth
everything is established. Relating facts as they are; this is
truth. Not taking others’ goods by stealth or by force is
called Asteyam, non-covetousness. Chastity in thought,
word, and deed, always, and in all conditions, is what is
called Brahmacharya. Not receiving any present from
anybody, even when one is suffering terribly, is what is
called Aparigraha. When a man receives a gift from another
man, the theory is that his heart becomes impure, he
becomes low, he loses his independence, he becomes bound
and attached. The following are helps to success in Yoga.
Niyama, regular habits and observances; Tapas, austerity;
Sradhyaya, study; Santela, contentment; Saucham, purity;
Icvara pranidhana, worshipping God. Fasting, or in other
ways controlling the body, is called the physical Tapas.
Repeating the Vedas, and other Mantrams, by which the
Sattva material in the body is purifies, is called study,
Sradhyaya. There are three sorts of repetions of these
Mantrams. One is called the verbal, another semi-verbal,
and the third mental. The verbal or audible is the lowest,
and the inaudible is the highest of all. The repetition which
is so loud that anybody can hear it is the verbal; the next one
is where only the organs begin to vibrate, but no sound is
heard; another man sitting near cannot hear what is being
said. That in which there is no sound, only mental repetition
of the Mantram, at the same time thinking its meaning, is
called the “mental muttering” and is the highest. The sages
have said that there are two sorts of purification, external and
internal. The purification for the body is by water, earth, or
other materials; the external purification, as by bathing, etc.
Purification of the mind by truth, and by all the other virtues,
is what is called internal purification. Both are necessary. It
is not sufficient that a man should be internally pure and
 
externally dirty. When both are not attainable the internal
purity is the better, but no one will be a Yogi until he has
both. Worship is by praise, by memory, by having devotion
to God.
We have spoken about Yama and Niyama; next comes
Pranayama. Prana means the vital forces in one’s own
body, Yama means controlling them. There are three sorts of
Pranayama, the very simple, the middle, and the very high.
The whole of Pranayama is divided into two parts; one is
called filling, and the other is called emptying. When you
begin with twelve seconds it is the lowest Pranayama; when
you begin with twenty-four seconds it is the middle
Pranayama; that Pranayama is the best which begins with
thirty-six seconds. That Pranayama in which there is first
perspiration, then vibration of the body, and then rising from
the seat and joining of the man’s soul with great bliss is the
very highest Pranayama. There is a Mantram called the
Gayatri. It is a very holy verse of the Vedas. “We meditate
on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe;
may He enlighten our minds.” Then Om is joined to it, at the
beginning and end. In one Pranayama repeat three Gayatris.
In all books they speak of Pranayama being divided into
Rechaka (rejecting or exhaling), Puraka (inhaling), and
Kumbhaka (restraining, stationary). The Indriyas, the organs
of the senses, are acting outwards and coming in contact
with external objects. Bringing them under the control of the
will is what is called Pratyahara; gathering towards oneself
is the literal translation.
Fixing the mind on the lotus of heart, or on the centre of
the head, is what is called Dharana. When remaining in one
place, making one place as the base, where the waves of the
mind rise up, without being touched by the other waves—
when all other waves have stopped—and one wave only
 rises in the mind, that is called Dhyana, meditation. When
no basis is necessary, when the whole of the mind has
become one wave, “one-formedness,” it is called Samadhi.
Bereft of all help from places and centres, only the meaning
of the thing is presesnt. If the mind can be fixed on one
centre for twelve second it will be a Dharana, twelve such
Dharanas will be a Dhyana, and twelve such Dhyanas will
be a Samadhi. The next is Asana (posture). The only thing
to understand is to hold the body straight, leaving the body
free, with the chest, shoulders, and head straight. Where
there is fire, or in water, or on ground which is strewn with
dry leaves, or where there are wild animals, where four
streets meet, or where there is too much noise, or too much
fear, or too many ant hills, where there are many wicked
persons, Yoga must not be practiced in such places. This
applies more particularly to India. When the body feels very
lazy do not practice, or when the mind is very miserable and
sorrowful, or when the body is ill. God to a place which is
well hidden, and where people do not come to disturb you.
As soon as you do not want people to know what you are
doing all the curiousity in the world will be awakened, but, if
you go into the street and want people to know what you are
doing, they will not care. Do not choose dirty places.
Rather choose beautiful scenery, or a room in your own
house which is beautiful. When you practice, first salute all
the ancient Yogis, and your own Guru, and God, and then
begin.
Dhyana is spoken of, and a few examples are given of
what to meditate upon. Sit straight, and look at the tip of
your nose. Later on we will come to know how that
concentrates the mind, how by controlling the two optic
nerves one advances a long way towards the control of the
arc of reaction, and so to the control of the will. These are a
 few specimens of meditation. Imagine a lotus upon the top
of the head, several inches up, and virtue as its centre, the
stalk as knowledge. The eight petals of the lotus are the
eight powers of the Yogi. Inside, the stamens and pistils are
renunciation. If the Yogi refuses the external powers he will
come to salvation. So the eight petals of the lotus are the
eight powers, but the internal stamens and pistils are the
extreme renunciation, the renunciation of all these. Inside of
that lotus think of the Golden One, the Almighty, the
Intangible, He whose name is Om, the Inexpressible,
surrounded with effulgent light. Meditate on that. Another
meditation is given. Think ofa space in your heard, and in
the midst of that space think that a flame is burning. Think
of that flame as your own soul, and inside that flame is
another space, effulgent, and that is the Soul of your soul,
God. Meditate upon that in the heart. Chastity, noninjuring,
pardoning everyone, even the greatest enemy, truth,
faith in the Lord, these are all different Vrittis. Be not afraid
if you are not perfect in all of these; work, and the others
will come. He who has given up all attachment, all fear, and
all anger, he whose whole soul has gone unto the Lord, he
who has taken refuge in the Lord, whose hart has become
purified, with whatsoever desire he comes to the Lord He
will grant that to him. Therefore worship Him through
knowledge, or worship Him through love, or worship Him
through renunciation.
“He is my beloved worshipper, he is my beloved Bhakta,
who is not jealous of any being, who is the friend of all, who
is merciful to all, who has nothing of his own, whose
egotism is lost: he who is always satisfied; he who works
always in Yoga, whose self has become controlled, whose
will is firm, whose mind and whose intelligence are given up
unto me, know that he is my beloved Bhakta. From whom
 comes no disturbance, who never becomes the cause of
disturbance to others, he who has given up excessive joy,
grief, and fear, and anxiety. Such a one is my beloved. He
who does not depend on anything, pure, active, giving up all,
who does not care whether good comes or evil, never
becomes miserable; he who is the same in praise or in blame,
with a silent, thoughtful ,ind, blessed with what little comes
in his way, homeless, he who has no home, the whole world
is his home, steady in his ideas, such a one becomes a Yogi.”
There was a great god-sage called Narada. Just as there
are sages among mankind, great Yogis, so there are great
Yogis among the gods. Narada was a good Yogi, and very
great. He travelled everywhere, and one day he was passing
through a forest, and he saw a man who had been meditating
until the white ants had built a huge mound round his body,
he had been sitting in that position so long. He said to
Narada, “Where are you going?” Narada replied, “I am
going to heaven.” “Then ask God when He will be merciful
to me; when I will attain freedom.” Further on Narada saw
another man. He was jumping about, singing, dancing, and
said, “Oh, Narada, where are you going?” His voice and his
gestures were wild. Narada said, “I am going to heaven.”
“Then, ask when I will be free.” So Narada went on. In the
course of time he came again by the same road, and there
was the man who had been meditating till the anti-hills had
grown round him. He said “Oh, Narada, did you ask the
Lord about me?” “Oh, yes.” “What did He say?” “The
Lord told me that you would attain freedom in four more
births.” Then the man began to weep and wail, and said, “I
have meditated until an ant-hill has been raised around me,
and I have four more birth yet!” Narada went to the other
man. “Did you ask my question?” “Oh, yes. Do you see
this tamarind tree? I have to tell you that as many leaves as
 
there are on that tree, so many times you will be born, and
then you will attain freedom.” Then the man began to dance
for joy, and said, “I will have freedom after such a short
time.” A voice came, “My child, you will have freedom this
minute.” That was the reward for his perseverance. He was
ready to work through all those births, nothing discouraged
him. But the first man felt that even four more births must
be too long. Only perseverance like that of the man who was
willing to wait æons will bring about the highest result.

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

(Continued...) 

(My humble Thankfulness to  H H Sri Chandrasekharendra Mahaswami ji,  Hinduism online dot com Swamijis, and Philosophers com  for the collection)

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