14. The Numb Limb

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The Yoga sutras as propounded by Patanjali Maharshi is the base for the Yoga system of philosophy. This was later named as Raja Yoga. The system has 196 aphorisms (sutras) divided into 4 chapters. In the second chapter (Sadhana Pada), the 8 limbed Yoga (Ashtanga Yoga) is proposed. The term ‘Ashtanga Yoga’ is quite popular everywhere, but only few are aware about the details of the 8 limbs. The eight limbs are: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.

Among these eight limbs, only Asana, Pranayama and to some extent Dhyana are quite popular and the rest are simply ignored by modern Gurus. The first wrong notion about Ashtanga Yoga is that they are eight steps. Because of this notion, modern people think that if they can bend their body like a rubber toy, they can ignore the previous steps of Yama and Niyama. But these eight are not steps, they are limbs. All the eight have to be practiced simultaneously to reap the benefits. Then somebody may ask “How do I practice Samadhi directly?”. The answer is as follows.

In your 6^th standard, you studied Mathematics, Science, English etc. In your 7^th standard, you again studied Mathematics, Science, English etc. Why did you study the same subjects again? Then you will say that the topics were different. And in some cases, even if the topics were same, the coverage will be more. As we proceed into higher classes, we go deeper into the subjects. So subjects remain the same, but the depth increases. In the same way, a beginner also practices the same eight limbs as a master of Yoga. No difference in the subjects, but only in the depth differs. So, even a beginner can actually practice Samadhi at a very superficial level, details of which I would like to present in a dedicated post later. Another argument that follows is that we cannot afford to study just one or two subjects thoroughly and ignore the rest. Even if we get 100 in Asana and Pranayama and a 0 in Pratyahara, Dharana etc, we will remain where we are, without progress. All the 8 subjects are to be studied and practiced together.

The first two, Yama and Niyama are moral and ethical values.

Yamas – Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacharya (continence) and Aparigraha (non-accumulation).

Niyamas – Shoucha (cleanliness), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (austerity), Swadhyaya (self study), Ishwara Pranidhana (surrender to the almighty).

But even they can be viewed from a different perspective. For e.g. please refer to the post ‘Convolutions Compiled’ where the usually ignored aspect of Satya is presented – being truthful to ourselves. Similarly please refer to ‘The Upturned Priorities’ to have a glimpse of ‘Aparigraha’ (non-accumulation of wealth) and ‘Santosha’ (contentment). ‘Tapas’ – never die attitude, is perhaps very well presented in ‘The Big Boost’ and ‘The Non-cooperation Movement’. The need and struggle of 'Brahmacharya' is discussed in 'The Strong Weakness' and 'The Non-cooperation Movement'.

So, instead of explaining Yamas and Niyamas separately, I thought we will discuss these as and when the need comes in between certain posts, same as how we have already done in the earlier posts. Also, as we proceed in this post and the next posts on Raja Yoga, we will notice how interlinked and inseparable these 8 limbs are. In this post I wanted to highlight one particular limb which is happily forgotten by everyone.

There is one limb of Raja Yoga which is all the time ignored by everybody – Pratyahara. The only thing told about this limb is ‘Control your sense organs’ and nobody talks about the ‘how’ of it. On one hand Asana and Pranayama are greatly explained with books after books and on the other hand, just one sentence is available for Pratyahara! How can we afford to do this for one whole subject of the whole course? Will you study one whole book for English, and just one sentence for Mathematics? So, I had to do some self study (Swadhyaya!) as no faculty is available for teaching this particular subject.

Before we explain Pratyahara, let us first understand the basic concept of Prana and Pranayama. Consider two people having a particular sweet dish. One person may be enjoying the taste of that item very much and expressing his happiness. Another person may be simply eating without making any big fuss, he neither likes it nor hates it. Now, what is the difference between the two people? In scientific terms, energy expenditure was very much same – both used their hands to take the sweet, both used their teeth to chew and both swallowed. So, in terms of the activity, there was hardly any difference. Then how do we explain the different experiences of the two? To explain that we introduce a new term ‘Prana’. The first person spent more Prana and bought more experience, the second person spent less Prana and hence bought less experience. So, although the activity is exactly the same, experience may vary depending on how much Prana we spend. In even simpler terms, the first person lived more (bought more sensual experience) and the second person lived less (bought less sensual experience) when eating the sweet dish. In fact, we usually use this phrase “Live your life to the fullest” which simply means that ‘Spend your Prana as much as possible to buy as much sense experiences as possible’.

So, money buys objects and Prana buys experiences. Even if the object is the same, experiences bought from it may vary depending on Prana expenditure. And when there is no Prana (dead body), object becomes useless. Then, Pranayama, as the name suggests is regulation of Prana. So, straightaway it becomes evident that breathing practices alone cannot become Pranayama. Regulating breathing is one way of regulating Prana, but cannot be the whole of Pranayama. Pranayama probably means regulation of lifestyle itself – food, speech, sleep (how much, how, what, where and when) along with breath regulation. Then, food moderation, fasting, observing mouna (silence), regulating sleep hours all come under Pranayama along with breathing practices. Pranayama seems like finance management of Prana by controlling all the external activities of the body.

Now let us see what Pratyahara could be. As a practice of Pranayama, suppose I have decided to cut down my food. I am having 3 meals a day with no cow-like-munching in between. But I am continuously munching inside my head! My old habits are still very strong and at 11 in the morning I want to munch some snacks, at 4 in the evening I want to eat some junk. But I am forcefully controlling and suppressing. This will not last long. I may hold for a week or two, then I will again go back to munching whenever I see food. So, until the impressions are cleared from the head, external practice becomes difficult. But the mental impressions get cleared only when we practice in our activities. This is our old enemy – the vicious vortex – which has to be broken and made into a virtuous vortex. So, we have knotted inter-dependency - between external practice and mental impressions. We already saw that regulation of the former is Pranayama. The regulation of the latter forms Pratyahara – controlling the impressions in the mind by regulating the inputs through the senses. When both are practiced together, they complement each other, and the vicious vortex slowly gets transformed into a virtuous vortex (as explained in 'The Big Boost').

Suppose you are in a mall and have 10 Lakh rupees with you, and nobody to question you. Now you go crazy. You don’t know what to buy and what not to. You go on grabbing and purchasing things after things, without questioning yourself whether you really need it or not. And then you come home with a truckload of things and dump them all in one room. The next day suppose again you get 10 Lakh rupees and you bring another truckload of items and dump it in that room. Now, you do not know which item to use and what to unpack. They are just there in a disorderly manner, occupying space and looking messy.

Till now it was only a hypothetical situation but now we change the tracks into reality. The money that you spent was actually your Prana. The items were not actually bought with money, but bought with your Prana and impressions were stored in your head. You looked at a hundred items, grasped them all and stored all of them with desires attached in your head. This way you went on spending Prana, purchasing the reflection of the items and storing them all in the room of your mind. Your mind now has become a dump yard. All items are just there but you don’t know what to think first and what to think next. The moment you sit quietly without any activity, all the impressions are going to perform a parade in your head. Each item will perform a march-past in front of you saluting at you and smiling at you! How can you possibly practice ‘Dhyana’ (meditation) with all this garbage in the mind? Impossible!

Pratyahara is stopping this very collecting and storing of unnecessary information through your senses. And that is what the word literally means ‘Reversed Food’ i.e. the food of the senses. No doubt this is an ongoing project. We have to begin regulating what we see, what we talk, what we hear, what we eat etc. And even if we see/hear/talk/eat, we should not drool over it and make the impression very strong in the mind. Just as you meticulously plan your money expenditure, start regulating and restricting the Prana expenditure even in the smallest activity. So, Pratyahara is actually a subtler Pranayama. Pranayama was controlling the grosser activities, and Pratyahara is controlling the subtler information flow itself. As we saw earlier, more than the activity, the experience bought from the activity is our focus. Seeing itself does not cause any harm, but madly desiring for everything that we see makes us spend more Prana and grab reflections of whatever we see throughout the day. The moment desire starts sprouting you ask yourself the question ‘Do I really need it?’. ‘Wants’ are greedy, but ‘Needs’ will be genuine requirements.

Pratyahara and Pranayama go hand in hand. As a result, slowly and gradually we have to cut down sense pleasures one by one. But rest assured, you will see significant progress within one year if you start today. For e.g. if you are watching 2-3 movies in a week, cut it down to one movie. After 2-3 months cut it down further to 1 movie in 10 days and so on. Similarly, gradually taper off the number of times you eat out, number of times you munch junk in a day etc. There will be so many of them to be tapered off and will vary from person to person. It has to be done in such a way that the mind does not recognize that there has been some change. Suppression never wins, nor does free venting. The only feasible solution is gradual withdrawal. ‘The Big Boost’ post deals with this process in detail.

As mentioned earlier, ‘Living the life to the fullest’ by enjoying sense pleasures without limits is a gateway to misery. And mastery over senses by moderating the sense pleasures is a stepping stone to something greater. When Pranayama and Pratyahara are practiced this way, automatically mind becomes clean and orderly (Shoucha). Thoughts are not scattered here and there nor are they dumped in a heap. All the thoughts are systematically arranged and you can precisely take out what you exactly want with ease. Meditation becomes automatic and Samadhi becomes spontaneous, as it really should be.