Spiritual Message for the Day – Pratyahara by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Baba Times Digest© | 27 April 2015 09.18 EST | New York Edition
Pratyahara
Divine Life Society Publication: Yoga as a Universal Science by Swami Krishnananda
Sva-vishayasamprayoge chitta-svarurpanukara ivendriyanam pratyaharah: Such is the definition of Pratyahara given in a Sutra of Patanjali. Having detached themselves from their respective objects, and having assumed, as it were, the nature of the mind, when the senses stand in union with the psyche, it may be said that there is Pratyahara or an abstraction of the senses. The senses not only move towards their objects, but identify themselves with the same, assume the form of those objects, become the objects as it were, losing their own self-identity for the time being. The subject becomes the object for all practical purposes. A wrenching oneself away from this false identification with that which one is not and a return to one's own self – for the time being, the mind – is the process of Pratyahara. Pratyahara means the opposite process.
"Yada panchavatishtante jnanani manasa saha, buddhischa na vicheshtati tamahuh paramam gatim", says the Kathopanishad. The five senses and the intellect, together with the mind, stand steady, the intellect does not oscillate, and there is an integrated fixity of the total psyche, like the flame of a lamp which does not flicker in a windless place – such is the nature of this great achievement or attainment called Pratyahara.
Excerpts from: Pratyahara - Yoga as a Universal Science by Swami Krishnananda
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