Part I: Chapter II / II – (vi)

a) Dharna as a Form of Yoga – Mansik Yoga

Fixity of attention is the essential primary element in the internal yoga sadhna, and its importance cannot be overrated.

When the senses are stilled, the mind is at rest, and the intellect wavers not – that, say the wise, is the highest state.

Katha Upanishads II:iii-10

It is because of the fact that it occupies a pivotal position in the system, that it is regarded by some as a form of yoga by itself, and they give it the name of Mansik or mental yoga (the yoga of self-absorption).

Most of the students devote themselves wholly and solely to the strict observance of yamas and niyamas only, and as such hardly make any headway on the Path of yoga proper, which aims at self-realization and God-realization. Those who do go ahead a little, do not get further than yogic postures (asanas, mudras, and bandhas), and are preoccupied with body building processes and muscular development, making them the sole aim of all their endeavors. They confine themselves to the physical culture aspect of yoga, so as to defy disease, senility and an early death.

A few fortunate souls who progress to pranayam make it the be-all and the end-all of the yogic sadhna and like a tortoise (taking pleasure in contracting their pranas in the Brahmarendra) spend most of their time in their shell in yoga nidra, regarding inertness as the highest form of samadhi. All these are but means to the higher purposese of yoga and should be practised as such. The goal of yoga is self-realisation by a regular process of self-analysis and withdrawal as may enable one to rise above the body consciousness into higher cosmic and super-cosmic consciousness.

True yoga is a natural process with no artifice in it. It should be readily intelligible and easy to practice. But for lack of proper teachers, well-versed in the theory and practice of yoga, it has become a burdensome thing and an intricate affair, too difficult to understand and still more difficult to practice. Today, life has grown too complex to allow any man the leisure and the opportunity to master all the branches of yoga (each of which has grown more specialized with the passage of time), and then to proceed to the final goal. The result is that aspirants begin to mistake this or that branch of yoga as the ultimate, and fritter away their energy in its pursuit, content merely with the acquisition of physical power or magical potentiality.

In actual experience, the mind in a state of sushupti (or deep slumber) does come to coincide in some measure with the lower blissful plane (anand) and the lower cognitive plane (vigyan), for on waking up, one carries with him into consciousness the impression of the undisturbed and unalloyed bliss enjoyed in the deep sleep. But this is an involuntary experience in the pind or the sensory plane and not one consciously acquired at will. With a proper understanding and practice of the real sadhna, one can boldly lift the veil and have a dip in the front of bliss on a spiritual level, whenever he may like, and may remain internally in contact with the life-current itself, which is the very source of true bliss and happiness. Just as by pranayam, one can contact the pranas with the mind, so in the same way by pratyahara and dharna, one can contact the mind-plane with the plane of cognition in the higher spiritual centres above.

The term pratyahara means restraint, and hence it denotes restraining the mind-stuff and the senses from flowing out into the world and running about in search of sense pleasures from sense objects. But this is hardly possible unless the senses and the mind are provided with something akin to, or more pleasing than, the worldly objects, which may serve as an anchor to keep the senses and mind fixed within. This is called dharna, which means to accept, from the root 'dharna' and to be engrossed and absorbed therein. Pratyahara and dharna go together; for on the one hand the mind is to be weaned away from the worldly pleasures without, and on the other hand, is to be provided with something more attractive within.

The yogins, while sitting in some asana, first control the navel plexus and then drawing the pranas to the heart plexus, bring them to coincide with the mind-plane, after which, by various practices like tratak on some higher centre, they try to invert the mind and make it recede. The first part is called pratyahara and the second, of recession and absorption in the higher centre, is called dharna.

The mind, by sheer force of habit extending over ages upon ages, has acquired a tendency to run after pleasures. The pleasures of the world may be categorized into five classes as follows:

1. Rup and rang, or beautiful forms, designs, and colours which may attract the eye.

2. Shabd or melodies, tuneful and enchanting, as may capture the ear.

3. Ras or delectable victuals and viands as may captivate the palate.

4. Gandh or fragrant scents as may directly appeal to the olfactory sense.

5. Sparsh or physically pleasing sensations as come from touch.

In walking state with the senses alert, one enjoys the physical aspects of the pleasure as enumerated above. In a dream state, which is more or less a reflex of the astral or subtle, one enjoys sound the most, for in that state it has a direct appeal to the mind. In the dreamless and deep sleep state, which is a reflex of the causal or seed state, one gets cognition of deep absorption.

One has, therefore, to draw himself within to the heart center by means of tratak on different elemental colours connected with ether, air, fire, water and earth, and they will grow in enchanting refulgence. By regular practice, the yogins acquire supernatural powers and capacities to taste all five pleasures mentioned above in their subtle form from a far distance. These powers come naturally with the coincidences of pranas with the mind.

The practice of pratyahara and dharna can be still further developed with the help of tratak, until one can move and recede inwards and upwards from the heart center to the thyroid or throat centre (kanth chakra) and thereby contact the cognitive plane. This movement from a lower centre to a higher one results from the practice both of pratyahara, which enables one to leave the centre below, and of dharna, whereby one takes hold of and gets absorbed in the next higher centre. This process continues until one reaches aggya chakra, which is located behind and between the two eyebrows, the headquarters of the soul as it functions in the physical world in the waking state.

As the sensory currents collect together and gather at this centre, and one, forgetting about himself, rises above body-consciousness, there dawns in him by degrees, the inner spiritual light, which with great absorption or dharna grows into greater effulgence. With perfection in dharna or complete absorption at this stage, all the centres down to the mul chakra or guda chakra at the rectum, become lumino.

In this connection, we may here refer to the physiology of the yoga system. The cerebro-spinal system in the mainstay of the body. The spinal column in yogic terminology is called Meru or Brahm Danda. According to the Shiva Samhita, there are in the human system as many as 350,000 nadis, and out of these, the following ten play an important part:

1. Ida: Starting from the lowest plexus (guda chakra), on the right side of spinal column, it extends spiral around the sushmana and goes as far as the left nostril.
   
   
2. Pingala: Starting from the same chakra on the left side of the spinal column, it extends spirally as far as the right nostril.
   
   
3. *Sushmana or Sukhmana: Is the central nadi in between ida and pingala runs through the spinal column from end to end, from guda chakra to the great aperture – Brahmarendra, behind the eyebrows.
   

   * (This section is adjusted to the First Edition of 1961;
   Editor’s Note 2011.)

4. Gandhari: Comes to the left eye, after rising from the front of the central nadi.
   
   
5. Hastijivha: Comes to the right eye, after rising from the rear of the central nadi.
   
   
6. Pushpa: Comes to the right ear from the central nadi.
   
   
7. Yashvini: Comes to the left ear from the central nadi.
   
   
8. Alambhush: Stretches to the root of the arms.
   
   
9. Kuhu or Shubha: It goes down to the tip of the generative organ.
   
   
10. Shankhni: It goes down to the rectum.

The first three, the Ida, Pingala and Sushmana, are the most important. The ida and pingala, before entering into the base of the nostrils, cross each other and are known as gangliated cords.

The third one, the sushmana or sukhmana, or the central nadi, passes through the spinal column and runs through six plexuses or centres as follows:

1. *Muladhara, Basal Plexus – with a four-petalled lotus, extending on four sides. In it opens the nether end of the sushmana.
   
   
2. Svadhishtana, Hypogastric Plexus – with a six-petalled lotus, extending on four sides beside one below and the other above.
   
   
3. Manipuraka, Solar Plexus – with an eight-petalled lotus, with four additional sides in between the original four sides.
4. Anahata, Cardiac Plexus – with a twelve-petalled lotus. It is a lotus of the unstruck sound as the name denotes.
   
   
5. Vishuddha, Pharyngeal Plexus – with a sixteen-petalled lotus being an all-pervasive etherial lotus. It is a center of great purity as the name indicates.
   
   
6. Aggya, Cavernous Plexus – with a two-petalled lotus. It is also called Ajna Chakra, meaning the centre of command.

Besides the above plexuses, there is the Antehkaran – consisting of chit, manas, buddhi and ahankar –, with a lotus of four petals, thus making in all 52 petals corresponding to the 52 letters of the alphabet in Sanskrit, the mother of all languages. We have, however, to rise above all Akhshras to a state beyond the Akshras which is called Neh-akhshra para which is eternal and every-abiding and of which Kabir says:

The three lokas and the fifty-two letters are one and all subject to decay, but the Eternal and the Everlasting Holy Word is quite distinct from them.

Kabir

* (This section is adjusted to the First Edition of 1961;
Editor’s Note 2011.)

Each of the two plexuses together (see chart in the next subchapter) make a granthi or a tie and these are: Brahma Granthi, Vishnu Granthi and Shiva Granthi.

The path of the yogins as described above is concerned with meditation at these six centers, beginning from the lowest and gradually rising from one to the next higher by means of pratyahara and dharna as already explained. In this process, one, by hatha yoga, also calls to his aid the kundalini shakti, or the great serpentine power lying dormant in three and a half folds in the vagus nerve, in a coiled state like a serpent. This latent energy or power is awakened with the help of pranayam.

A yogin tries to collect together all the vital airs in the body at the centre of the naval plexus and in this process awakens the latent power as well. From the Ajna Chakra he takes hold of the anahat sound and reaches Sahasrar, the highest heaven of the yogins. It is quite a long, tedious, and difficult path.

At each of the centres, one has to work hard for years before one can successfully subdue and pierce through it and ascend to the next higher center. One cannot take to this arduous discipline without a strong and robust physique, capable of withstanding a sustained a strenuous effort for a long time.

As a preliminary step, a yogin has to cleanse the Augean stables with herculean strength and for this, recourse is to be had to hatha-yoga-kriyas, or exercises like dhoti, basti, neoli, gaj karam and vajroli, etc., with a strict diet control. Again, for the control of the mind, he has to take to pranayam or well-regulated breathing exercise such as puraka, kumbhaka, rechaka and sunyaka, all of which requires great care, attention and skill, under the guidance of an adept.

The yoga process, as described above, is fraught with innumerable difficulties. It is a process akin to that of controlled death, a forcible extraction not only of the spirit current from one centre to the other, but of the pranas as well, which makes it all the more difficult. It actually follows the process of dying, being the reversal of the life current as it descends from centre to centre, in the process of creation.

In the death process, the earth element rises up from guda chakra to the indri chakra and gets dissolved in the water there, thus rendering hands and feet lifeless. When the water elements rises up to the nabhi chakra, it is transformed into a vaporous state by the fire at the naval region and the generative organ gets paralyzed; next the fire element itself gets extinguished in the air element at the heart plexus, rendering the region below the heart stark cold.

As the air element gets etherialized at the kanth, the seat of the ether, it renders the heart and the pulse motionless. (It may be pointed out that under this system, heart failure does not mark the end of life but only precedes it.)

Even in the practice of the Sehaj yogic system, one has to traverse and to follow through exactly the same process, except that the second method is natural, while the first method is deliberate and controlled and therefore extremely difficult to perform. Each of the tatvas in turn gets merged in its source; the anna in the pranas, the pranas in the manas, the manas in the vigyan and the vigyan in the kanth plexus. (It may be mentioned that the Vaishnavites and Kabir Panthies wear tulsi leaves and the Shaivites wear shiv-ling around the neck, to remind themselves of the kantha chakra which they set up as their goal.)

Instead of this difficult reverse process of yoga from the basic plexus backward and upward to Sahasrar, the region of the thousand-petaled lights, how much easier it would be to ignore the pranas alone (as we do in our everyday life), collect the sensory current at the  ajna chakra, where we always are in our awakened state, and move upward straightaway with the help of the Sound Current (to which the yogins gain access after a hard-won battle over the six ganglionic centres in the pind or body to reach Sahasrar) that has a magnetic pull, too difficult to resist, when the soul rises above body consciousness under the guidance of some able and fully competent living Master, capable of awakening within us the life-impulse.