Pratyahara - Retraction Of The Senses

Many spiritual leaders have suggested their own paths for their followers. One such path which is very methodical and logical is Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga. Patanjali, the great ancient exponent of Raja Yoga, wrote that the path to enlightenment embraces eight stages. This eight-limbed approach, known as Ashtanga Yoga is not to be mistaken as a step-by-step approach but a multidimensional approach in which all eight limbs are practiced simultaneously. 

The 8 fold path consist of the following:

1. Yama
2. Niyama
3. Asana
4. Pranayama
5. Pratyahara
6. Dharana
7. Dhyana
8. Samadhi

I have covered Yama, Niyama in earlier blogs and in this blog I will covere Pratyahara. I will leave it to the reader to refer the numerous documentation available on Asana and Pranayama. 

This limb of Ashtanga Yoga deals with the preparation to meditation. Pratyahara means drawing back or retreat. The word ahara means "nourishment"; pratyahara translates as "to withdraw oneself from that which nourishes the senses." In yoga, the term pratyahara implies withdrawal of the senses from attachment to external objects.

When we came into this world we came with a basic defect. Rather than being focused inward to understand our true purpose of this existence, we focused outward to enjoy the sense objects of this dream world. As I have covered earlier, desire for objects of this world is unending and is as much a cause for misery as it is for temporary happiness when acquired. Hence every scripture talks about the need to give up desires. But this is easier said than done. In this phase of Astanga Yoga we are asked to withdraw, the analogy being a tortoise withdrawing into its shell to protect itself. So, what is being said is that we should withdraw internally to protect us from the desires.

So, how do we withdraw? Does it help to withdraw from the world and go to a dark cave where the sense organs cannot find any sense object to desire? Just because I move away does not mean I have gone away from desires. Without a proper training of the mind, any attempt to withdraw can lead to serious withdrawal symptoms which may be worse than going after the object of desire. 

Can I be in this world and ensure my sense organs and action organs are prevented from reacting to objects of desire? We have read in The Adventures of Ulysses by Homer about a set of sirens singing so well that anyone listening would be suicidally prone to jump ship and go to them. Ulysses had himself tied with chains to the ship whereas his crew covered their ears when their ship passed by the sirens.  He heard them sing and was strongly tempted to jump, but was held back by the chains. Do you think such a solution will help us withdraw from the outside objects?

So, what is the way out? To understand the withdrawal process, we need to understand the out seeking process and trace backwards. When we see an object of desire like a flower, jewelry etc. with our sense organ, the eye, a signal is sent to the Mind. The mind is like a clearing house getting all these signals, but not knowing what to do. Should I pluck that flower or not? Should I buy that jewel or not? The mind goes to the Intellect for guidance. If the intellect is pure, it will make a well reasoned decision and tell the mind what to do and that in turn tells the action organs what to do. 

There is one missing element here still. Why is it that someone can get attracted to drinking by seeing an advertisement for liquor and it does not affect me in the least? Why is it that a new book attracts me whereas it does not have any impact on my friend? The question is why do we desire what we desire? The answer to that is our hidden desires accumulated over several births which have created a pattern in our Identity and since, out of ignorance of our true self, we have identified with the Ego which has dethroned the Soul, we as a separate entity are impacted by our accumulated desires. These give rise to related thoughts which create desire in the mind when sense organs sense those objects.

The intellect has for its guidance either of 2 entities. It can take the guidance of the pure effulgent Soul or the impure Ego which has dethroned the soul. So depending on what is guiding the intellect, the decision conveyed to the mind will differ.

Now that we have a model, let us come back to withdrawal. The sense organs need to move away from sense objects. The mind has to be guided by the intellect, which in turn should ensure it is not clouded by emotions of the mind, but by the effulgence of the Soul. The intellect also should sharpen its focus internally and realize that it has to unite with the Soul and not be swayed by the Ego. This completes the withdrawal process and leads a seeker on the path of Divinity. 

All the above is fine to read and admire.  But how is this put into practice? We will cover that in the subsequent step called Dhyana.

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Brahmacharya - The awareness of higher reality

I have covered 2 aspects of Yama in my earlier posts - Satya or truthfulness and Ahimsa or Non violence. Today, I take up another aspect of Yama - Brahmacharya.

To a typical Hindu, the word Brahmacharya conjures different images. For the traditional Hindu, Brahmachari means a young male who has got his initiation to the holy world through a ceremony called Yajnopaveetham and is now ready to receive the Vedic knowledge. Another common daily meaning of Brahmachari is a male who is celibate. More often that not, Brahmacharya is associated with celibacy. A celibate is supposed to stay clear of any passionate physical activities. This is not true of the Hindu world alone. Celibacy is valued as a virtue in many other religions. But have we not seen the impact of forced celibacy? There are enough reports about child abuse and many other worse acts done by those claiming to be celibate. So, how can Brahmacharya be one of the Yamas of Astanga Yoga? To a skeptic of Indian spiritual thought, this is sufficient to proclaim the hollowness of the philosophy.

Let us try and understand the meaning of the term in the context of the Astanga Sadhana.  Brahmacharya (/ˌbrɑːməˈtʃɑːrjə/; Devanagari: ब्रह्मचर्य) literally means "going after Brahman (teacher, guru [1])". So, anyone pursuing the goal of going after Brahman is a Brahmachari. This is irrespective of whether the person is man or woman, is celibate or not etc. We will see soon, how the pursuit of Brahman leads not just to celibacy, but much more.

Let us use our 3  fundamental principles: 

a. Brahman is the ultimate Reality or Truth or God. 

b. There is nothing other than Brahman.

c. Since the only reality is Brahman, we are nothing but Brahman. But because of Maya, we assume we are the puny individual.

The only purpose of human life is the pursuit of Brahman and realizing the Truth and becoming the Truth. Now, how does the pursuit of Brahman square up with concept of celibacy? Let me tell a story and then we will proceed.

A thief was caught and brought before the king. The king told the thief he will give a challenge to the thief. If he passes the challenge he would be free to go. Else, he would be punished. At night he was taken to a dark room and at the far end of the long room was a small light and there was a narrow wooden plank across the room. The thief was given a small candle. The challenge was that the thief had to walk across the plank ensuring the candle would not be blown off and if he reached the far end, he would be free. The thief totally focused on the candle and carefully minding his step so that he would not fall off, started walking. As the wind blew, his only focus was to ensure that the candle would not be blown. He moved slowly step by step and finally came to the other end. The king received him and took him back to the room which was still slightly dark and asked the thief to observe what was around . The room was full of gold and diamonds. In pursuing the goal of freedom, the thief had simply not even observed the things that he craved so much for. 

It goes to show that when focus is on a particular thing that is important in our life, the less important things are not even missed or observed. There is no need for a affirmative action to be taken to not be attracted by other things. If I am a serious student preparing for my exams, i will not be bothered by a movie of my favorite star. If I am  a tennis player training for the Wimbedon, I will not even be tempted by that delicious calories filled sweet. 

In exactly the same way, once we realize the futility of the glossy world and are trying to find a higher meaning, for some of us, the higher concept of Brahman surely appeals and if we are serious in that pursuit, we become Brahmacharis and as a matter of habit, we are not distracted by the flashy illusion based objects of the world. It is this concept of Brahmacharya that is part of the Yamas of Astangayoga sadhana.

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The Truth About Truth

I have briefly introduced readers to the 8 fold path in my earlier blog. Today I will briefly touch on the first of those and specifically focus on one of the key requirements underlying the first step.

The first limb, yama, deals with one's ethical standards and sense of integrity, focusing on our behavior and how we conduct ourselves in life. Yamas are universal practices that relate best to what we know as the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The five yamas are:

1. Ahimsa : nonviolence
2. Satya: truthfulness
3. Asteya: nonstealing
4. Brahmacharya: continence
5. Aparigraha: noncovetousness

In this blog I want to focus on the aspect of Satya or Truthfulness. Every religion talks of being truthful. The questions related to truth are whether one should tell the truth all the time or is it acceptable to lie at some times? Is there something called a transactional  truth and an absolute truth? To analyze the first question I would like to try and build a model to help in analyzing. As covered in detail in earlier blogs, we as a living entity are composed of  (i) Gross body consisting of the 5 action and 5 sense organs; (ii) Subtle body consisting of the Mind, which houses emotions, gets signals from the sense organs and directs the action of the action organs and the Intellect which is able to conceptualize and decide; (iii) Causal body consisting of our innate desires which causes us to take a particular body to fulfill our desires.

Let me use the structure above to build the model to analyze Truth. Let's say I am a lone bystander waiting to cross a road. In front of me i notice a car pulling back and as it does, it knocks down a 2 wheeler and speeds off. Soon a man comes and asks me me if I saw what happened. Since I had seen what happened I tell him the details. Let us see the above using the model. My eyes saw something and conveyed the signals to my mind. My eyes, by themselves do not know what happened. The mind gets the signal and the mind also does not know what has happened or who is wrong. It checks with the Intellect. The intellect, through past experience and/or training knows it is an accident and who is responsible and tells the Mind accordingly. The mind then tells the mouth to tell what happened. All these happen so fast, we do not realize the interaction of sense organs (eyes), the mind, the intellect and the action organs (mouth) in the whole process. 

Now let me change the situation slightly. Instead of the car driver being an unknown person, assume it is my best friend who knocks down the two wheeler and speeds off. Now, if i am asked what happened, would I as easily blurt out the truth or say, I do not know, which is a lie? Let us use the same model as above. In this case, though the intellect has told the Mind what has happened, the mind because of its emotion of love towards my best friend, instructed the mouth to tell a lie. So, an act of the mouth where the mind has overpowered the intellect has resulted in a lie.

Let me take another situation. I am walking on a lonely street and suddenly I notice a lady running towards me and in the distance, i notice couple of men running towards me. The lady tells me that they are trying to snatch her jewelry and goes and hides behind a wall. The men come up to me and ask if I have seen a woman and describe her. Should I be truthful and tell them where she is hiding or should i tell a lie and say, I dont know. Now it depends on whether I believe the woman told me the truth. If the woman had told me a lie and had really stolen the jewels from a shop, truthfully I will have to reveal where she is. Else, if she was telling the truth, i will have to tell a lie and protect her. Now, the sense organs cannot determine the truth/false of the situation and neither can the mind. It is up to the Intellect to make its best guess and based on that it will tell the mind and the mind will instruct the mouth accordingly. So, even if I do not reveal the woman, but later on it turns out she was really a thief, I have not told a lie because my mind was fully under the control of the Intellect  and Intellect is the final arbiter.

Now comes a question, is the Intellect always right? This is like asking if the mirror always reflects? The mirror reflects perfectly when it is clean. If there is a bit of dust on it, a mere wiping with a wet cloth will clean it and it will reflect perfectly. If it has got stained,  a more rigorous cleaning is needed to make it reflect properly. But none of this takes away from the fact that the very nature of a mirror is to reflect and it is only extraneous things that may have caused it to cease to reflect and with right effort at removing the dirt, will cause it to reflect properly again. In exactly, the same way, the very nature of the Intellect is purity, truthfulness, ability to discriminate, make proper judgement etc. Similar to a mirror, the Intellect may appear to be failing in its function due to accumulated dirt of emotions, greed, anger, attachments etc. In the same way as the mirror could be cleaned, the intellect can be sharpened and cleaned through study of scriptures, being in company of saintly people etc. When the mind is under the control of such an intellect, it will always ensures that the action organ tells the Truth.

The above discussion pertains to transaction based truth where the concept of a relative truth comes into discussion. But then what is absolute truth? That which was true yesterday, is true today and will be true tomorrow is absolute truth. That which is true in waking state, dream state and in deep sleep taste is absolute truth. The absolute truth is something that is subtler than the Intellect too and hence Intellect cannot sit in judgement of this truth. This absolute truth is nothing but the fact that we in reality are nothing but the Brahman or Consciousness or Truth or Divine Light. Due to a massive ignorance, we believe that we are measly human beings and that is the biggest "lie " we are telling ourselves.

In conclusion as part of being Truthful in the context of Yama, the first step of Astanga principle,  is to ensure that any action of the action organs be done as directed by the mind which is under the control of a well developed Intellect. Secondly it is critical to remain focused on the Absolute Truth and work towards achieving it, which is finally the aim of the Astanga process.


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The 8 Step Path To Eternal Happiness - Ashtanga Yoga

Let me start this post with defining the purpose of human life. Is it just to acquire wealth, procreate, gain position, own big houses, cars, yachts etc ? One may say yes to all of above. But if we take a step  further and ask ourselves why we need all above. The answer would be , I need them because they make me happy. If we go further, do we need happiness for one hour, day, week etc, the obvious answer is we need eternal happiness. For most of my readers, the source of eternal happiness is known to be internal since we are the very embodiment of Peace and Happiness. However, by our wrong identification with our body, mind and intellect, the Divine Soul within which is pure and forever happy associates itself with feelings of sadness, pain etc and appears to be seemingly sad. So, the route to eternal bliss is not some far fetched road, but a road within our own hearts to discover our true self.  All this sounds good in an intellectual discussion, but is of no practical use to a seeker of the Infinite happiness. 

I can tell a budding boy the greatness of being a top seed tennis player and show him all the dreams. But that is just a pie in the sky. If I am serious about guiding him, I should show him the path to become a top seed player. I have to tell the boy about nutrition, about the type of bats, the techniques to play, the type of mental determination needed, the type of exercise needed etc. I also have to tell him how to progress from junior league to state league  to national to international league. 

In exactly, the same way, a seeker of Infinite Bliss needs instructions on how to prepare for the journey and how to progress on the journey. Many spiritual leaders have suggested their own paths for their followers. One such path which is very methodical and logical is Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga. Patanjali, the great ancient exponent of Raja Yoga, wrote that the path to enlightenment embraces eight stages. This eight-limbed approach, known as Ashtanga Yoga is not to be mistaken as a step-by-step approach but a multidimensional approach in which all eight limbs are practiced simultaneously. 

The 8 fold path consist of the following:

1. Yama
2. Niyama
3. Asana
4. Pranayama
5. Pratyahara
6. Dharana
7. Dhyana
8. Samadhi

The 8 fold path is actually broadly categorized under two major headings:

• Refining our personalities, gaining mastery over the body, and developing an energetic awareness of ourselves

• The first 4 stages fall under this category

• Controlling the senses, the mind, and attaining a higher state of consciousness.

• The last 4 stages fall under this category

In this article, I am covering what each of the 8 stages mean. 

1. Yama, deals with one's ethical standards and sense of integrity, focusing on our behavior and how we conduct ourselves in life. 
2. Niyama, the second limb, has to do with self-discipline and spiritual observances. 
3. Asanas, the postures practiced in yoga, comprise the third limb. 
4. Pranayama consists of techniques designed to gain mastery over the respiratory process while recognizing the connection between the breath, the mind, and the emotions
5. Pratyahara,  the fifth limb, means withdrawal or sensory transcendence. It is during this stage that we make the conscious effort to draw our awareness away from the external world and outside stimuli.
6. Dharana, or concentration is the process to slow down the thinking process by concentrating on a single mental object: a specific energetic center in the body, an image of a deity, or the silent repetition of a sound.
7. Meditation or contemplation is the stage where the mind has been quieted, and in the stillness it produces few or no thoughts at all.
8. Samadhi, is a state of ecstasy when the practitioner has reached his ultimate goal and realized ultimate bliss.  

 In subsequent posts, I will go deeper into them.

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Please buy and read any of these books which are available on Amazon.com.


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

The Spirit of Spirituality