Part I: Chapter II / II – (v)

Pratyahara or Sense Control – Withdrawal and Abstraction

This means withdrawal of the senses from the sense-objects. This mind is rendered pure by practice of yamas, niyamas and pranayama, while pratyahara gives supreme mastery over the senses. The control of the senses, therefore, is the primal factor in the yogic science.

Unless the sense steeds are controlled and checked in their mad career in the fields of enjoyment and pleasure, the mind cannot possibly be stilled. The senses have, therefore, to be withdrawn from the sensory plane and protected from taking in all outer impressions and influences. Visual perception and audition are the two main inlets from which we derive no less than 88 to 95 per cent of our impressions, and the remaining five per cent or so come from the other senses. Thus, it is of paramount importance to close down the sluice-gates of the eyes and ears to prevent the outer floodwaters from entering and inundating the lake of the mind.

To shut the mind resolutely against the onslaughts of the senses, it is necessary for the student of yoga to retire for some time every day into the Monastic Cell of his heart, for it is a matter of common experience that muddy water becomes clear of itself if it is allowed to stand for some time.

One can practice pratyahara (control of senses as a preliminary to attaining a state of reverie or sensory withdrawal) through discrimination and discernment. With the knowledge of the true values of life, we come to disregard the unhealthy and unworthy food in which otherwise the senses indulge, and thereby come to control the mind-stuff.

It is tantamount to dislocating the sense traffic in the world by dynamiting the fields of illusory pleasures with the power of discrimination. Pratyahara is very essential for achieving success in yoga. With the senses inverted, a yogin can work for the consciousness within him. By its practice, the mind becomes purified, grows strong in self-reliance, and is enabled to lead a strictly austere life.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, we have:

Let him hold all these (senses) in constraint and concentrate upon me; for he who has his sense instruments under his sway has wisdom abidingly set.

Chapter II:61

The above five factors – yamas, niyamas, asanas, pranayam and pratyahara – constitute a preparation for progress in yoga. They are but accessories to, and not the main elements of, the yogic system. They help in purifying the body, the pranas, the mind and the indriyas.

Now we come to the direct internal aids to yoga. These are three in number, viz., dharna, dhyan and samadhi, which constitute Antarang Sadhna or inner discipline.