Just like práńáyáma, pratyáhára yoga is not complete in itself. Práńáyáma, you know, is a practice to control the movement of the vital energy of a particular body: Práńán yamayatyeśah práńáyámah [“The process of controlling the váyus, or energy flows in the body, is known as práńáyáma”]. It is the process by which the movement of vital energy is controlled by a spiritual aspirant. But práńáyáma should always be associated with bindu dhyána, that is, meditation on a particular point. If práńáyáma is not associated with bindu dhyána, it will affect self-restraint. Práńáyáma will make the mind restless. Similarly, pratyáhára yoga – here the actual English term is “withdrawal” – should always be associated with dhárańá.

The difference between dhyána [meditation] and dhárańá [concentration] is that dhyána is something stationary; that is, the object is a stationary one in the case of dhyána. In the case of dhárańá, the mind moves along with the object; that is, there is a dynamic force behind dhárańá. And dhyána, although sentient, has no movement in it. In the sphere of – rather, in the arena of – spiritual practice, pratyáhára has very much importance, because in the primordial phase of sádhaná, one will have to withdraw one’s mind from the physicalities of the universe.

Now in pratyáhára yoga, what are you to do after withdrawing all your propensities from the objective world, from the physicalities of the world? To where are these mental propensities to be directed? If the mental propensities are withdrawn, but are not guided to some other point, what will happen? Those withdrawn mental propensities will create internal disturbance in your mind, will create disturbance in your subconscious and unconscious strata. It is dangerous. Sometimes it so happened in the past, and may happen in the future, that if a spiritual aspirant, without the guidance of a strong guru, tried or tries to practise pratyáhára only from reading books, there would be some danger. So whenever you are withdrawing your mental propensities from different objects, you are to guide those collected propensities into some moving object, moving within the realm of your mind.

And what is that moving object? That moving object is your citta – your objectivated “I” feeling. The citta is moving. The citta is something moving. So these withdrawn propensities are to move towards the citta and not towards external objects. They stop moving towards external objects, but they start moving towards the internal citta. That is the thing.

If the propensities are withdrawn, but not goaded towards the citta, then there will be a dangerous reaction. I think you have understood. That is why it has been said, Yacched váun manasi prájiṋah – “What are intelligent spiritual aspirants to do? They are to goad their mental propensities to the citta.” Here the word váun represents the external movement of the propensities. Then manasi + prájiṋah – that is, “those withdrawn propensities are to move towards the citta.” Prájiṋah váun manasi yacchet.

Tad yacched jiṋána átmani. The citta, after consuming those withdrawn propensities, also moves. It moves within the mind, not toward any external object – not toward an external elephant, but toward the elephant created within your mind. Tad yacched jiṋána átmani – “and the citta, along with the withdrawn propensities, is to be guided towards the ahaḿtattva, the doer ‘I’, the owner ‘I’ – the ‘I do’ feeling that is subject to the ‘I’ having a direct objectivity.”⁽¹⁾ Here this doer “I”, although not in movement, still has the full potentiality of movement. It can move. It may move. It can partly transform itself into the done “I”. So it has the potentiality. So that citta, that is, the done “I”, is to be directed towards the doer “I”, the ahaḿtattva. Not the feeling “I exist,” but the feeling that the “I” that exists is now able to do something. This is the ahaḿtattva.

Jiṋánamátmani mahati niyacchet. Now this jiṋána átmá, or aham, has also got potentiality, so the mutative principle is very prominent in it. That doer or mutative principle is also a binding fetter, a tethering agency. So “one will have to withdraw this jiṋána átmá, this ahaḿtattva, into the mahattattva” – jiṋánamátmani mahati niyacchet. Mahati means “within the mahattattva”. And what is the mahattattva? The mahattattva is the feeling “I exist.”

Now in this pure “I” feeling there is hardly any movement, because it is a creation of the sentient principle. But you know, although the sentient principle cannot give any specific figure, any boundary line, still it is a sort of bondage, and because there is bondage there is fight within and without. You are doing something. Is there no fight, is there no movement? Although there is no figure, there is fight, there is movement.

So jiṋánamátmani mahati. [The mahattattva] is almost free from bondage, but there is still bondage. Suppose a very good man is harshly rebuking an immoral person for having insulted him. Is that unfair? No, no, it is not unfair. It is called sentient anger. Anger is static; but sometimes it may be sáttvika, it may be sentient. And that type of anger is sentient anger – sáttvika krodha in Sanskrit.

Tad yacchecchánta átmani. “Now this pure ‘I’ feeling, ‘I exist’” – where all your propensities, along with the citta, and the citta along with the ahaḿtattva, and the ahaḿtattva along with the mahattattva, form one strong unit of movement – “is also to be withdrawn and merged into that Cognitive Principle.” And that Cognitive Principle is free from all bondages. And that is the Paramágati, that is the Supreme Goal of human existence.

Footnotes

(1) The “I” having a direct objectivity (also known as the “done ‘I’”) is the citta. –Eds.