Published byAdvaita Ashrama, Kolkatta
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PREFACE

Since the dawn of history, various extraordinary phenomena havebeen recorded as happening amongst human beings. Witnesses arenot wanting in modern times to attest to the fact of suchevents, even in societies living under the full blaze of modernscience. The vast mass of such evidence is unreliable, as comingfrom ignorant, superstitious, or fraudulent persons. In manyinstances the so-called miracles are imitations. But what dothey imitate? It is not the sign of a candid and scientific mindto throw overboard anything without proper investigation.Surface scientists, unable to explain the various extraordinarymental phenomena, strive to ignore their very existence. Theyare, therefore, more culpable than those who think that theirprayers are answered by a being, or beings, above the clouds, orthan those who believe that their petitions will make suchbeings change the course of the universe. The latter have theexcuse of ignorance, or at least of a defective system ofeducation, which has taught them dependence upon such beings, adependence which has become a part of their degenerate nature.The former have no such excuse.

For thousands of years such phenomena have been studied,investigated, and generalised, the whole ground of the religiousfaculties of man has been analysed, and the practical result isthe science of Râja-Yoga. Raja-Yoga does not, after theunpardonable manner of some modern scientists, deny theexistence of facts which are difficult to explain; on the otherhand, it gently yet in no uncertain terms tells thesuperstitious that miracles, and answers to prayers, and powersof faith, though true as facts, are not rendered comprehensiblethrough the superstitious explanation of attributing them to theagency of a being, or beings, above the clouds. It declares thateach man is only a conduit for the infinite ocean of knowledgeand power that lies behind mankind. It teaches that desires andwants are in man, that the power of supply is also in man; andthat wherever and whenever a desire, a want, a prayer has beenfulfilled, it was out of this infinite magazine that the supplycame, and not from any supernatural being. The idea ofsupernatural beings may rouse to a certain extent the power ofaction in man, but it also brings spiritual decay. It bringsdependence; it brings fear; it brings superstition. Itdegenerates into a horrible belief in the natural weakness ofman. There is no supernatural, says the Yogi, but there are innature gross manifestations and subtle manifestations. Thesubtle are the causes, the gross the effects. The gross can beeasily perceived by the senses; not so the subtle. The practiceof Raja-Yoga will lead to the acquisition of the more subtleperceptions.

All the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy have one goal inview, the liberation of the soul through perfection. The methodis by Yoga. The word Yoga covers an immense ground, but both theSânkhya and the Vedanta Schools point to Yoga in some form orother.

The subject of the present book is that form of Yoga known asRaja-Yoga. The aphorisms of Patanjali are the highest authorityon Raja-Yoga, and form its textbook. The other philosophers,though occasionally differing from Patanjali in somephilosophical points, have, as a rule, acceded to his method ofpractice a decided consent. The first part of this bookcomprises several lectures to classes delivered by the presentwriter in New York. The second part is a rather free translationof the aphorisms (Sutras) of Patanjali, with a runningcommentary. Effort has been made to avoid technicalities as faras possible, and to keep to the free and easy style ofconversation. In the first part some simple and specificdirections are given for the student who wants to practice, butall such are especially and earnestly reminded that, with fewexceptions, Yoga can only be safely learnt by direct contactwith a teacher. If these conversations succeed in awakening adesire for further information on the subject, the teacher willnot be wanting.

The system of Patanjali is based upon the system of theSankhyas, the points of difference being very few. The two mostimportant differences are, first, that Patanjali admits aPersonal God in the form of a first teacher, while the only Godthe Sankhyas admit is a nearly perfected being, temporarily incharge of a cycle of creation. Second, the Yogis hold the mindto be equally all-pervading with the soul, or Purusha, and theSankhyas do not.

THE AUTHOR

Each soul is potentially divine.

The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controllingnature, external and internal.

Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, orphilosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free.

This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals,or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY

All our knowledge is based upon experience. What we callinferential knowledge, in which we go from the less to the moregeneral, or from the general to the particular, has experienceas its basis. In what are called the exact sciences, peopleeasily find the truth, because it appeals to the particularexperiences of every human being. The scientist does not tellyou to believe in anything, but he has certain results whichcome from his own experiences, and reasoning on them when heasks us to believe in his conclusions, he appeals to someuniversal experience of humanity. In every exact science thereis a basis which is common to all humanity, so that we can atonce see the truth or the fallacy of the conclusions drawntherefrom. Now, the question is: Has religion any such basis ornot? I shall have to answer the question both in the affirmativeand in the negative.

Religion, as it is generally taught all over the world, is saidto be based upon faith and belief, and, in most cases, consistsonly of different sets of theories, and that is the reason whywe find all religions quarrelling with one another. Thesetheories, again, are based upon belief. One man says there is agreat Being sitting above the clouds and governing the wholeuniverse, and he asks me to believe that solely on the authorityof his assertion. In the same way, I may have my own ideas,which I am asking others to believe, and if they ask a reason, Icannot give them any. This is why religion and metaphysicalphilosophy have a bad name nowadays. Every educated man seems tosay, "Oh, these religions are only bundles of theories withoutany standard to judge them by, each man preaching his own petideas." Nevertheless, there is a basis of universal belief inreligion, governing all the different theories and all thevarying ideas of different sects in different countries. Goingto their basis we find that they also are based upon universalexperiences.

In the first place, if you analyse all the various religions ofthe world, you will find that these are divided into twoclasses, those with a book and those without a book. Those witha book are the strongest, and have the largest number offollowers. Those without books have mostly died out, and the fewnew ones have very small following. Yet, in all of them we findone consensus of opinion, that the truths they teach are theresults of the experiences of particular persons. The Christianasks you to believe in his religion, to believe in Christ and tobelieve in him as the incarnation of God, to believe in a God,in a soul, and in a better state of that soul. If I ask him forreason, he says he believes in them. But if you go to thefountain-head of Christianity, you will find that it is basedupon experience. Christ said he saw God; the disciples said theyfelt God; and so forth. Similarly, in Buddhism, it is Buddha'sexperience. He experienced certain truths, saw them, came incontact with them, and preached them to the world. So with theHindus. In their books the writers, who are called Rishis, orsages, declare they experienced certain truths, and these theypreach. Thus it is clear that all the religions of the worldhave been built upon that one universal and adamantinefoundation of all our knowledge - direct experience. Theteachers all saw God; they all saw their own souls, they sawtheir future, they saw their eternity, and what they saw theypreached. Only there is this difference that by most of thesereligions especially in modern times, a peculiar claim is made,namely, that these experiences are impossible at the presentday; they were only possible with a few men, who were the firstfounders of the religions that subsequently bore their names. Atthe present time these experiences have become obsolete, and,therefore, we have now to take religion on belief. This Ientirely deny. If there has been one experience in this world inany particular branch of knowledge, it absolutely follows thatthat experience has been possible millions of times before, andwill be repeated eternally. Uniformity is the rigorous law ofnature; what once happened can happen always.

The teachers of the science of Yoga, therefore, declare thatreligion is not only based upon the experience of ancient times,but that no man can be religious until he has the sameperceptions himself. Yoga is the science which teaches us how toget these perceptions. It is not much use to talk about religionuntil one has felt it. Why is there so much disturbance, so muchfighting and quarrelling in the name of God? There has been morebloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause, becausepeople never went to the fountain-head; they were content onlyto give a mental assent to the customs of their forefathers, andwanted others to do the same. What right has a man to say he hasa soul if he does not feel it, or that there is a God if he doesnot see Him? If there is a God we must see Him, if there is asoul we must perceive it; otherwise it is better not to believe.It is better to be an outspoken atheist than a hypocrite. Themodern idea, on the one hand, with the "learned" is thatreligion and metaphysics and all search after a Supreme Beingare futile; on the other hand, with the semi-educated, the ideaseems to be that these things really have no basis; their onlyvalue consists in the fact that they furnish strong motivepowers for doing good to the world. If men believe in a God,they may become good, and moral, and so make good citizens. Wecannot blame them for holding such ideas, seeing that all theteaching these men get is simply to believe in an eternalrigmarole of words, without any substance behind them. They areasked to live upon words; can they do it? If they could, Ishould not have the least regard for human nature. Man wantstruth, wants to experience truth for himself; when he hasgrasped it, realised it, felt it within his heart of hearts,then alone, declare the Vedas, would all doubts vanish, alldarkness be scattered, and all crookedness be made straight. "Yechildren of immortality, even those who live in the highestsphere, the way is found; there is a way out of all thisdarkness, and that is by perceiving Him who is beyond alldarkness; there is no other way."

The science of Râja-Yoga proposes to put before humanity apractical and scientifically worked out method of reaching thistruth. In the first place, every science must have its ownmethod of investigation. If you want to become an astronomer andsit down and cry "Astronomy! Astronomy!" it will never come toyou. The same with chemistry. A certain method must be followed.You must go to a laboratory, take different substances, mix themup, compound them, experiment with them, and out of that willcome a knowledge of chemistry. If you want to be an astronomer,you must go to an observatory, take a telescope, study the starsand planets, and then you will become an astronomer. Eachscience must have its own methods. I could preach you thousandsof sermons, but they would not make you religious, until youpracticed the method. These are the truths of the sages of allcountries, of all ages, of men pure and unselfish, who had nomotive but to do good to the world. They all declare that theyhave found some truth higher than what the senses can bring tous, and they invite verification. They ask us to take up themethod and practice honestly, and then, if we do not find thishigher truth, we will have the right to say there is no truth inthe claim, but before we have done that, we are not rational indenying the truth of their assertions. So we must workfaithfully using the prescribed methods, and light will come.

In acquiring knowledge we make use of generalisations, andgeneralisation is based upon observation. We first observefacts, then generalise, and then draw conclusions or principles.The knowledge of the mind, of the internal nature of man, ofthought, can never be had until we have first the power ofobserving the facts that are going on within. It iscomparatively easy to observe facts in the external world, formany instruments have been invented for the purpose, but in theinternal world we have no instrument to help us. Yet we know wemust observe in order to have a real science. Without a properanalysis, any science will be hopeless - mere theorising. Andthat is why all the psychologists have been quarrelling amongthemselves since the beginning of time, except those few whofound out the means of observation.

The science of Raja-Yoga, in the first place, proposes to giveus such a means of observing the internal states. The instrumentis the mind itself. The power of attention, when properlyguided, and directed towards the internal world, will analysethe mind, and illumine facts for us. The powers of the mind arelike rays of light dissipated; when they are concentrated, theyillumine. This is our only means of knowledge. Everyone is usingit, both in the external and the internal world; but, for thepsychologist, the same minute observation has to be directed tothe internal world, which the scientific man directs to theexternal; and this requires a great deal of practice. From ourchildhood upwards we have been taught only to pay attention tothings external, but never to things internal; hence most of ushave nearly lost the faculty of observing the internalmechanism. To turn the mind as it were, inside, stop it fromgoing outside, and then to concentrate all its powers, and throwthem upon the mind itself, in order that it may know its ownnature, analyse itself, is very hard work. Yet that is the onlyway to anything which will be a scientific approach to thesubject.

What is the use of such knowledge? In the first place, knowledgeitself is the highest reward of knowledge, and secondly, thereis also utility in it. It will take away all our misery. When byanalysing his own mind, man comes face to face, as it were, withsomething which is never destroyed, something which is, by itsown nature, eternally pure and perfect, he will no more bemiserable, no more unhappy. All misery comes from fear, fromunsatisfied desire. Man will find that he never dies, and thenhe will have no more fear of death. When he knows that he isperfect, he will have no more vain desires, and both thesecauses being absent, there will be no more misery - there willbe perfect bliss, even while in this body.

There is only one method by which to attain this knowledge, thatwhich is called concentration. The chemist in his laboratoryconcentrates all the energies of his mind into one focus, andthrows them upon the materials he is analysing, and so finds outtheir secrets. The astronomer concentrates all the energies ofhis mind and projects them through his telescope upon the skies;and the stars, the sun, and the moon, give up their secrets tohim. The more I can concentrate my thoughts on the matter onwhich I am talking to you, the more light I can throw upon you.You are listening to me, and the more you concentrate yourthoughts, the more clearly you will grasp what I have to say.

How has all the knowledge in the world been gained but by theconcentration of the powers of the mind? The world is ready togive up its secrets if we only know how to knock, how to give itthe necessary blow. The strength and force of the blow comethrough concentration. There is no limit to the power of thehuman mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power isbrought to bear on one point; that is the secret.

It is easy to concentrate the mind on external things, the mindnaturally goes outwards; but not so in the case of religion, orpsychology, or metaphysics, where the subject and the object,are one. The object is internal, the mind itself is the object,and it is necessary to study the mind itself - mind studyingmind. We know that there is the power of the mind calledreflection. I am talking to you. At the same time I am standingaside, as it were, a second person, and knowing and hearing whatI am talking. You work and think at the same time, while aportion of your mind stands by and sees what you are thinking.The powers of the mind should be concentrated and turned backupon itself, and as the darkest places reveal their secretsbefore the penetrating rays of the sun, so will thisconcentrated mind penetrate its own innermost secrets. Thus willwe come to the basis of belief, the real genuine religion. Wewill perceive for ourselves whether we have souls, whether lifeis of five minutes or of eternity, whether there is a God in theuniverse or more. It will all be revealed to us. This is whatRaja-Yoga proposes to teach. The goal of all its teaching is howto concentrate the minds, then, how to discover the innermostrecesses of our own minds, then, how to generalise theircontents and form our own conclusions from them. It, therefore,never asks the question what our religion is, whether we areDeists or Atheists, whether Christians, Jews, or Buddhists. Weare human beings; that is sufficient. Every human being has theright and the power to seek for religion. Every human being hasthe right to ask the reason, why, and to have his questionanswered by himself, if he only takes the trouble.

So far, then, we see that in the study of this Raja-Yoga nofaith or belief is necessary. Believe nothing until you find itout for yourself; that is what it teaches us. Truth requires noprop to make it stand. Do you mean to say that the facts of ourawakened state require any dreams or imaginings to prove them?Certainly not. This study of Raja-Yoga takes a long time andconstant practice. A part of this practice is physical, but inthe main it is mental. As we proceed we shall find howintimately the mind is connected with the body. If we believethat the mind is simply a finer part of the body, and that mindacts upon the body, then it stands to reason that the body mustreact upon the mind. If the body is sick, the mind becomes sickalso. If the body is healthy, the mind remains healthy andstrong. When one is angry, the mind becomes disturbed. Similarlywhen the mind is disturbed, the body also becomes disturbed.With the majority of mankind the mind is greatly under thecontrol of the body, their mind being very little developed. Thevast mass of humanity is very little removed from the animals.Not only so, but in many instances, the power of control in themis little higher than that of the lower animals. We have verylittle command of our minds. Therefore to bring that commandabout, to get that control over body and mind, we must takecertain physical helps. When the body is sufficientlycontrolled, we can attempt the manipulation of the mind. Bymanipulating the mind, we shall be able to bring it under ourcontrol, make it work as we like, and compel it to concentrateits powers as we desire.

According to the Raja-Yogi, the external world is but the grossform of the internal, or subtle. The finer is always the cause,the grosser the effect. So the external world is the effect, theinternal the cause. In the same way external forces are simplythe grosser parts, of which the internal forces are the finer.The man who has discovered and learned how to manipulate theinternal forces will get the whole of nature under his control.The Yogi proposes to himself no less a task than to master thewhole universe, to control the whole of nature. He wants toarrive at the point where what we call "nature's laws" will haveno influence over him, where he will be able to get beyond themall. He will be master of the whole of nature, internal andexternal. The progress and civilisation of the human race simplymean controlling this nature.

Different races take to different processes of controllingnature. Just as in the same society some individuals want tocontrol the external nature, and others the internal, so, amongraces, some want to control the external nature, and others theinternal. Some say that by controlling internal nature wecontrol everything. Others that by controlling external naturewe control everything. Carried to the extreme both are right,because in nature there is no such division as internal orexternal. These are fictitious limitations that never existed.The externalists and the internalists are destined to meet atthe same point, when both reach the extreme of their knowledge.Just as a physicist, when he pushes his knowledge to its limits,finds it melting away into metaphysics, so a metaphysician willfind that what he calls mind and matter are but apparentdistinctions, the reality being One.

The end and aim of all science is to find the unity, the One outof which the manifold is being manufactured, that One existingas many. Raja-Yoga proposes to start from the internal world, tostudy internal nature, and through that, control the whole -both internal and external. It is a very old attempt. India hasbeen its special stronghold, but it was also attempted by othernations. In Western countries it was regarded as mysticism andpeople who wanted to practice it were either burned or killed aswitches and sorcerers. In India, for various reasons, it fellinto the hands of persons who destroyed ninety per cent of theknowledge, and tried to make a great secret of the remainder. Inmodern times many so-called teachers have arisen in the Westworse than those of India, because the latter knew something,while these modern exponents know nothing.

Anything that is secret and mysterious in these systems of Yogashould be at once rejected. The best guide in life is strength.In religion, as in all other matters, discard everything thatweakens you, have nothing to do with it. Mystery-mongeringweakens the human brain. It has well-nigh destroyed Yoga - oneof the grandest of sciences. From the time it was discovered,more than four thousand years ago, Yoga was perfectlydelineated, formulated, and preached in India. It is a strikingfact that the more modern the commentator the greater themistakes he makes, while the more ancient the writer the morerational he is. Most of the modern writers talk of all sorts ofmystery. Thus Yoga fell into the hands of a few persons who madeit a secret, instead of letting the full blaze of daylight andreason fall upon it. They did so that they might have the powersto themselves.

In the first place, there is no mystery in what I teach. Whatlittle I know I will tell you. So far as I can reason it out Iwill do so, but as to what I do not know I will simply tell youwhat the books say. It is wrong to believe blindly. You mustexercise your own reason and judgment; you must practice, andsee whether these things happen or not. Just as you would takeup any other science, exactly in the same manner you should takeup this science for study. There is neither mystery nor dangerin it. So far as it is true, it ought to be preached in thepublic streets, in broad daylight. Any attempt to mystify thesethings is productive of great danger.

Before proceeding further, I will tell you a little of theSânkhya philosophy, upon which the whole of Raja-Yoga is based.According to the Sankhya philosophy, the genesis of perceptionis as follows: the affections of external objects are carried bythe outer instruments to their respective brain centres ororgans, the organs carry the affections to the mind, the mind tothe determinative faculty, from this the Purusha (the soul)receives them, when perception results. Next he gives the orderback, as it were, to the motor centres to do the needful. Withthe exception of the Purusha all of these are material, but themind is much finer matter than the external instruments. Thatmaterial of which the mind is composed goes also to form thesubtle matter called the Tanmâtras. These become gross and makethe external matter. That is the psychology of the Sankhya. Sothat between the intellect and the grosser matter outside thereis only a difference in degree. The Purusha is the only thingwhich is immaterial. The mind is an instrument, as it were, inthe hands of the soul, through which the soul catches externalobjects. The mind is constantly changing and vacillating, andcan, when perfected, either attach itself to several organs, toone, or to none. For instance, if I hear the clock with greatattention, I will not, perhaps, see anything although my eyesmay be open, showing that the mind was not attached to theseeing organ, while it was to the hearing organ. But theperfected mind can be attached to all the organs simultaneously.It has the reflexive power of looking back into its own depths.This reflexive power is what the Yogi wants to attain; byconcentrating the powers of the mind, and turning them inward,he seeks to know what is happening inside. There is in this noquestion of mere belief; it is the analysis arrived at bycertain philosophers. Modern physiologists tell us that the eyesare not the organ of vision, but that the organ is in one of thenerve centres of the brain, and so with all the senses; theyalso tell us that these centres are formed of the same materialas the brain itself. The Sankhyas also tell us the same thingThe former is a statement on the physical side, and the latteron the psychological side; yet both are the same. Our field ofresearch lies beyond this.

The Yogi proposes to attain that fine state of perception inwhich he can perceive all the different mental states. Theremust be mental perception of all of them. One can perceive howthe sensation is travelling, how the mind is receiving it, howit is going to the determinative faculty, and how this gives itto the Purusha. As each science requires certain preparationsand has its own method, which must be followed before it couldbe understood, even so in Raja-Yoga.

Certain regulations as to food are necessary; we must use thatfood which brings us the purest mind. If you go into amenagerie, you will find this demonstrated at once. You see theelephants, huge animals, but calm and gentle; and if you gotowards the cages of the lions and tigers, you find themrestless, showing how much difference has been made by food. Allthe forces that are working in this body have been produced outof food; we see that every day. If you begin to fast, first yourbody will get weak, the physical forces will suffer; then aftera few days, the mental forces will suffer also. First, memorywill fail. Then comes a point, when you are not able to think,much less to pursue any course of reasoning. We have, therefore,to take care what sort of food we eat at the beginning, and whenwe have got strength enough, when our practice is well advanced,we need not be so careful in this respect. While the plant isgrowing it must be hedged round, lest it be injured; but when itbecomes a tree, the hedges are taken away. It is strong enoughto withstand all assaults

A Yogi must avoid the two extremes of luxury and austerity. Hemust not fast, nor torture his flesh. He who does so, says theGita, cannot be a Yogi: He who fasts, he who keeps awake, he whosleeps much, he who works too much, he who does no work, none ofthese can be a Yogi (Gita, VI, 16).

CHAPTER II
THE FIRST STEPS

Râja-Yoga is divided into eight steps. The first is Yama -non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, andnon-receiving of any gifts. Next is Niyama - cleanliness,contentment, austerity, study, and self-surrender to God. Thencomes Âsana, or posture; Prânâyâma, or control of Prâna;Pratyâhâra, or restraint of the senses from their objects;Dhâranâ, or fixing the mind on a spot; Dhyâna, or meditation;and Samâdhi, or superconsciousness. The Yama and Niyama, as wesee, are moral trainings; without these as the basis no practiceof Yoga will succeed. As these two become established, the Yogiwill begin to realise the fruits of his practice; without theseit will never bear fruit. A Yogi must not think of injuringanyone, by thought, word, or deed. Mercy shall not be for menalone, but shall go beyond, and embrace the whole world.

The next step is Asana, posture. A series of exercises, physicaland mental, is to be gone through every day, until certainhigher states are reached. Therefore it is quite necessary thatwe should find a posture in which we can remain long. Thatposture which is the easiest for one should be the one chosen.For thinking, a certain posture may be very easy for one man,while to another it may be very difficult. We will find later onthat during the study of these psychological matters a good dealof activity goes on in the body. Nerve currents will have to bedisplaced and given a new channel. New sorts of vibrations willbegin, the whole constitution will be remodelled as it were. Butthe main part of the activity will lie along the spinal column,so that the one thing necessary for the posture is to hold thespinal column free, sitting erect, holding the three parts - thechest, neck, and head - in a straight line. Let the whole weightof the body be supported by the ribs, and then you have an easynatural postures with the spine straight. You will easily seethat you cannot think very high thoughts with the chest in. Thisportion of the Yoga is a little similar to the Hatha-Yoga whichdeals entirely with the physical body, its aim being to make thephysical body very strong. We have nothing to do with it here,because its practices are very difficult, and cannot be learnedin a day, and, after all, do not lead to much spiritual growth.Many of these practices you will find in Delsarte and otherteachers, such as placing the body in different postures, butthe object in these is physical, not psychological. There is notone muscle in the body over which a man cannot establish aperfect control. The heart can be made to stop or go on at hisbidding, and each part of the organism can be similarlycontrolled.

The result of this branch of Yoga is to make men live long;health is the chief idea, the one goal of the Hatha-Yogi. He isdetermined not to fall sick, and he never does. He lives long; ahundred years is nothing to him; he is quite young and freshwhen he is 150, without one hair turned grey. But that is all. Abanyan tree lives sometimes 5000 years, but it is a banyan treeand nothing more. So, if a man lives long, he is only a healthyanimal. One or two ordinary lessons of the Hatha-Yogis are veryuseful. For instance, some of you will find it a good thing forheadaches to drink cold water through the nose as soon as youget up in the morning; the whole day your brain will be nice andcool, and you will never catch cold. It is very easy to do; putyour nose into the water, draw it up through the nostrils andmake a pump action in the throat.

After one has learned to have a firm erect seat, one has toperform, according to certain schools, a practice called thepurifying of the nerves. This part has been rejected by some asnot belonging to Raja-Yoga, but as so great an authority as thecommentator Shankarâchârya advises it, I think fit that itshould be mentioned, and I will quote his own directions fromhis commentary on the Shvetâshvatara Upanishad: "The mind whosedross has been cleared away by Pranayama, becomes fixed inBrahman; therefore Pranayama is declared. First the nerves areto be purified, then comes the power to practice Pranayama.Stopping the right nostril with the thumb, through the leftnostril fill in air, according to capacity; then, without anyinterval, throw the air out through the right nostril, closingthe left one. Again inhaling through the right nostril ejectthrough the left, according to capacity; practicing this threeor five times at four hours of the day, before dawn, duringmidday, in the evening, and at midnight, in fifteen days or amonth purity of the nerves is attained; then begins Pranayama."

Practice is absolutely necessary. You may sit down and listen tome by the hour every day, but if you do not practice, you willnot get one step further. It all depends on practice. We neverunderstand these things until we experience them. We will haveto see and feel them for ourselves. Simply listening toexplanations and theories will not do. There are severalobstructions to practice. The first obstruction is an unhealthybody: if the body is not in a fit state, the practice will beobstructed. Therefore we have to keep the body in good health;we have to take care of what we eat and drink, and what we do.Always use a mental effort, what is usually called "ChristianScience," to keep the body strong. That is all - nothing furtherof the body. We must not forget that health is only a means toan end. If health were the end, we would be like animals;animals rarely become unhealthy.

The second obstruction is doubt; we always feel doubtful aboutthings we do not see. Man cannot live upon words, however he maytry. So, doubt comes to us as to whether there is any truth inthese things or not; even the best of us will doubt sometimes:With practice, within a few days, a little glimpse will come,enough to give one encouragement and hope. As a certaincommentator on Yoga philosophy says, "When one proof isobtained, however little that may be, it will give us faith inthe whole teaching of Yoga." For instance, after the first fewmonths of practice, you will begin to find you can readanother's thoughts; they will come to you in picture form.Perhaps you will hear something happening at a long distance,when you concentrate your mind with a wish to hear. Theseglimpses will come, by little bits at first, but enough to giveyou faith, and strength, and hope. For instance, if youconcentrate your thoughts on the tip of your nose, in a few daysyou will begin to smell most beautiful fragrance, which will beenough to show you that there are certain mental perceptionsthat can be made obvious without the contact of physicalobjects. But we must always remember that these are only themeans; the aim, the end, the goal, of all this training isliberation of the soul. Absolute control of nature, and nothingshort of it, must be the goal. We must be the masters, and notthe slaves of nature; neither body nor mind must be our master,nor must we forget that the body is mine, and not I the body's.

A god and a demon went to learn about the Self from a greatsage. They studied with him for a long time. At last the sagetold them, "You yourselves are the Being you are seeking." Bothof them thought that their bodies were the Self. They went backto their people quite satisfied and said, "We have learnedeverything that was to be learned; eat, drink, and be merry; weare the Self; there is nothing beyond us." The nature of thedemon was ignorant, clouded; so he never inquired any further,but was perfectly contented with the idea that he was God, thatby the Self was meant the body. The god had a purer nature. Heat first committed the mistake of thinking: I, this body, amBrahman: so keep it strong and in health, and well dressed, andgive it all sorts of enjoyments. But, in a few days, he foundout that that could not be the meaning of the sage, theirmaster; there must be something higher. So he came back andsaid, "Sir, did you teach me that this body was the Self? If so,I see all bodies die; the Self cannot die." The sage said, "Findit out; thou art That." Then the god thought that the vitalforces which work the body were what the sage meant. But. aftera time, he found that if he ate, these vital forces remainedstrong, but, if he starved, they became weak. The god then wentback to the sage and said, "Sir, do you mean that the vitalforces are the Self ?" The sage said, "Find out for yourself;thou art That." The god returned home once more, thinking thatit was the mind, perhaps, that was the Self. But in a shortwhile he saw that thoughts were so various, now good, again bad;the mind was too changeable to be the Self. He went back to thesage and said, "Sir, I do not think that the mind is the Self;did you mean that?" "No," replied the sage, "thou art That; findout for yourself." The god went home, and at last found that hewas the Self, beyond all thought, one without birth or death,whom the sword cannot pierce or the fire burn, whom the aircannot dry or the water melt, the beginningless and endless, theimmovable, the intangible, the omniscient, the omnipotent Being;that It was neither the body nor the mind, but beyond them all.So he was satisfied; but the poor demon did not get the truth,owing to his fondness for the body.

This world has a good many of these demoniac natures, but thereare some gods too. If one proposes to teach any science toincrease the power of sense-enjoyment, one finds multitudesready for it. If one undertakes to show the supreme goal, onefinds few to listen to him. Very few have the power to grasp thehigher, fewer still the patience to attain to it. But there area few also who know that even if the body can be made to livefor a thousand years, the result in the end will be the same.When the forces that hold it together go away, the body mustfall. No man was ever born who could stop his body one momentfrom changing. Body is the name of a series of changes. "As in ariver the masses of water are changing before you every moment,and new masses are coming, yet taking similar form, so is itwith this body." Yet the body must be kept strong and healthy.It is the best instrument we have.

This human body is the greatest body in the universe, and ahuman being the greatest being. Man is higher than all animals,than all angels; none is greater than man. Even the Devas (gods)will have to come down again and attain to salvation through ahuman body. Man alone attains to perfection, not even the Devas.According to the Jews and Mohammedans, God created man aftercreating the angels and everything else, and after creating manHe asked the angels to come and salute him, and all did soexcept Iblis; so God cursed him and he became Satan. Behind thisallegory is the great truth that this human birth is thegreatest birth we can have. The lower creation, the animal, isdull, and manufactured mostly out of Tamas. Animals cannot haveany high thoughts; nor can the angels, or Devas, attain todirect freedom without human birth. In human society, in thesame way, too much wealth or too much poverty is a greatimpediment to the higher development of the soul. It is from themiddle classes that the great ones of the world come. Here theforces are very equally adjusted and balanced.

Returning to our subject, we come next to Pranayarna,controlling the breathing. What has that to do withconcentrating the powers of the mind? Breath is like thefly-wheel of this machine, the body. In a big engine you findthe fly-wheel first moving, and that motion is conveyed to finerand finer machinery until the most delicate and finest mechanismin the machine is in motion. The breath is that fly-wheel,supplying and regulating the motive power to everything in thisbody.

There was once a minister to a great king. He fell intodisgrace. The king, as a punishment, ordered him to be shut upin the top of a very high tower. This was done, and the ministerwas left there to perish. He had a faithful wife, however, whocame to the tower at night and called to her husband at the topto know what she could do to help him. He told her to return tothe tower the following night and bring with her a long rope,some stout twine, pack thread, silken thread, a beetle, and alittle honey. Wondering much, the good wife obeyed her husband,and brought him the desired articles. The husband directed herto attach the silken thread firmly to the beetle, then to smearits horns with a drop of honey, and to set it free on the wallof the tower, with its head pointing upwards. She obeyed allthese instructions, and the beetle started on its long journey.Smelling the honey ahead it slowly crept onwards, in the hope ofreaching the honey, until at last it reached the top of thetower, when the minister grasped the beetle, and got possessionof the silken thread. He told his wife to tie the other end tothe pack thread, and after he had drawn up the pack thread, herepeated the process with the stout twine, and lastly with therope. Then the rest was easy. The minister descended from thetower by means of the rope, and made his escape. In this body ofours the breath motion is the "silken thread"; by laying hold ofand learning to control it we grasp the pack thread of the nervecurrents, and from these the stout twine of our thoughts, andlastly the rope of Prana, controlling which we reach freedom.

We do not know anything about our own bodies; we cannot know. Atbest we can take a dead body, and cut it in pieces, and thereare some who can take a live animal and cut it in pieces inorder to see what is inside the body. Still, that has nothing todo with our own bodies. We know very little about them. Why dowe not? Because our attention is not discriminating enough tocatch the very fine movements that are going on within. We canknow of them only when the mind becomes more subtle and enters,as it were, deeper into the body. To get the subtle perceptionwe have to begin with the grosser perceptions. We have to gethold of that which is setting the whole engine in motion. Thatis the Prana, the most obvious manifestation of which is thebreath. Then, along with the breath, we shall slowly enter thebody, which will enable us to find out about the subtle forces,the nerve currents that are moving all over the body. As soon aswe perceive and learn to feel them, we shall begin to getcontrol over them, and over the body. The mind is also set inmotion: by these different nerve currents, so at last we shallreach the state of perfect control over the body and the mind,making both our servants. Knowledge is power. We have to getthis power. So we must begin at the beginning, with Pranayama,restraining the Prana. This Pranayama is a long subject, andwill take several lessons to illustrate it thoroughly. We shalltake it part by part.

We shall gradually see the reasons for each exercise and whatforces in the body are set in motion. All these things will cometo us, but it requires constant practice, and the proof willcome by practice. No amount of reasoning which I can give youwill be proof to you, until you have demonstrated it foryourselves. As soon as you begin to feel these currents inmotion all over you, doubts will vanish, but it requires hardpractice every day. You must practice at least twice every day,and the best times are towards the morning and the evening. Whennight passes into day, and day into night, a state of relativecalmness ensues. The early morning and the early evening are thetwo periods of calmness. Your body will have a like tendency tobecome calm at those times. We should take advantage of thatnatural condition and begin then to practice. Make it a rule notto eat until you have practiced; if you do this, the sheer forceof hunger will break your laziness. In India they teach childrennever to eat until they have practiced or worshipped, and itbecomes natural to them after a time; a boy will not feel hungryuntil he has bathed and practiced.

Those of you who can afford it will do better to have a room forthis practice alone. Do not sleep in that room, it must be keptholy. You must not enter the room until you have bathed, and areperfectly clean in body and mind. Place flowers in that roomalways; they are the best surroundings for a Yogi; also picturesthat are pleasing. Burn incense morning and evening. Have noquarrelling, nor anger, nor unholy thought in that room. Onlyallow those persons to enter it who are of the same thought asyou. Then gradually there will be an atmosphere of holiness inthe room, so that when you are miserable, sorrowful, doubtful,or your mind is disturbed, the very fact of entering that roomwill make you calm. This was the idea of the temple and thechurch, and in some temples and churches you will find it evennow, but in the majority of them the very idea has been lost.The idea is that by keeping holy vibrations there the placebecomes and remains illumined. Those who cannot afford to have aroom set apart can practice anywhere they like. Sit in astraight posture, and the first thing to do is to send a currentof holy thought to all creation. Mentally repeat, "Let allbeings be happy; let all beings be peaceful; let all beings beblissful." So do to the east, south, north and west. The moreyou do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find atlast that the easiest way to make ourselves healthy is to seethat others are healthy, and the easiest way to make ourselveshappy is to see that others are happy. After doing that, thosewho believe in God should pray - not for money, not for health,nor for heaven; pray for knowledge and light; every other prayeris selfish. Then the next thing to do is to think of your ownbody, and see that it is strong and healthy; it is the bestinstrument you have. Think of it as being as strong as adamant,and that with the help of this body you will cross the ocean oflife. Freedom is never to be reached by the weak. Throw away allweakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind thatit is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.

CHAPTER III
PRANA

Prânâyâma is not, as many think, something about breath; breathindeed has very little to do with it, if anything. Breathing isonly one of the many exercises through which we get to the realPranayama. Pranayama means the control of Prâna. According tothe philosophers of India, the whole universe is composed of twomaterials, one of which they call Âkâsha. It is the omnipresent,all-penetrating existence. Everything that has form, everythingthat is the result of combination, is evolved out of thisAkasha. It is the Akasha that becomes the air, that becomes theliquids, that becomes the solids; it is the Akasha that becomesthe sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, the comets; it is theAkasha that becomes the human body, the animal body, the plants,every form that we see, everything that can be sensed,everything that exists. It cannot be perceived; it is so subtlethat it is beyond all ordinary perception; it can only be seenwhen it has become gross, has taken form. At the beginning ofcreation there is only this Akasha. At the end of the cycle thesolids, the liquids, and the gases all melt into the Akashaagain, and the next creation similarly proceeds out of thisAkasha.

By what power is this Akasha manufactured into this universe? Bythe power of Prana. Just as Akasha is the infinite, omnipresentmaterial of this universe, so is this Prana the infinite,omnipresent manifesting power of this universe. At the beginningand at the end of a cycle everything becomes Akasha, and all theforces that are in the universe resolve back into the Prana; inthe next cycle, out of this Prana is evolved everything that wecall energy, everything that we call force. It is the Prana thatis manifesting as motion; it is the Prana that is manifesting asgravitation, as magnetism. It is the Prana that is manifestingas the actions of the body, as the nerve currents, as thoughtforce. From thought down to the lowest force, everything is butthe manifestation of Prana. The sum total of all forces in theuniverse, mental or physical, when resolved back to theiroriginal state, is called Prana. "When there was neither aughtnor naught, when darkness was covering darkness, what existedthen? That Akasha existed without motion." The physical motionof the Prana was stopped, but it existed all the same.

At the end of a cycle the energies now displayed in the universequiet down and become potential. At the beginning of the nextcycle they start up, strike upon the Akasha, and out of theAkasha evolve these various forms, and as the Akasha changes,this Prana changes also into all these manifestations of energy.The knowledge and control of this Prana is really what is meantby Pranayama.

This opens to us the door to almost unlimited power. Suppose,for instance, a man understood the Prana perfectly, and couldcontrol it, what power on earth would not be his? He would beable to move the sun and stars out of their places, to controleverything in the universe, from the atoms to the biggest suns,because he would control the Prana. This is the end and aim ofPranayama. When the Yogi becomes perfect, there will be nothingin nature not under his control. If he orders the gods or thesouls of the departed to come, they will come at his bidding.All the forces of nature will obey him as slaves. When theignorant see these powers of the Yogi, they call them themiracles. One peculiarity of the Hindu mind is that it alwaysinquires for the last possible generalisation, leaving thedetails to be worked out afterwards. The question is raised inthe Vedas, "What is that, knowing which, we shall knoweverything?" Thus, all books, and all philosophies that havebeen written, have been only to prove that by knowing whicheverything is known. If a man wants to know this universe bit bybit he must know every individual grain of sand, which meansinfinite time; he cannot know all of them. Then how canknowledge be? How is it possible for a man to be all-knowingthrough particulars? The Yogis say that behind this particularmanifestation there is a generalisation. Behind all particularideas stands a generalised, an abstract principle; grasp it, andyou have grasped everything. Just as this whole universe hasbeen generalised in the Vedas into that One Absolute Existence,and he who has grasped that Existence has grasped the wholeuniverse, so all forces have been generalised into this Prana,and he who has grasped the Prana has grasped all the forces ofthe universe, mental or physical. He who has controlled thePrana has controlled his own mind, and all the minds that exist.He who has controlled the Prana has controlled his body, and allthe bodies that exist, because the Prana is the generalisedmanifestation of force.

How to control the Prana is the one idea of Pranayama. All thetrainings and exercises in this regard are for that one end.Each man must begin where he stands, must learn how to controlthe things that are nearest to him. This body is very near tous, nearer than anything in the external universe, and this mindis the nearest of all. The Prana which is working this mind andbody is the nearest to us of all the Prana in this universe.This little wave of the Prana which represents our own energies,mental and physical, is the nearest to us of all the waves ofthe infinite ocean of Prana. If we can succeed in controllingthat little wave, then alone we can hope to control the whole ofPrana. The Yogi who has done this gains perfection; no longer ishe under any power. He becomes almost almighty, almostall-knowing. We see sects in every country who have attemptedthis control of Prana. In this country there are Mind-healers,Faith-healers, Spiritualists, Christian Scientists, Hypnotists,etc., and if we examine these different bodies, we shall find atthe back of each this control of the Prana, whether they know itor not. If you boil all their theories down, the residuum willbe that. It is the one and the same force they are manipulating,only unknowingly. They have stumbled on the discovery of a forceand are using it unconsciously without knowing its nature, butit is the same as the Yogi uses, and which comes from Prana.

The Prana is the vital force in every being. Thought is thefinest and highest action of Prana. Thought, again, as we see,is not all. There is also what we call instinct or unconsciousthought, the lowest plane of action. If a mosquito stings us,our hand will strike it automatically, instinctively. This isone expression of thought. All reflex actions of the body belongto this plane of thought. There is again the other plane ofthought, the conscious. I reason, I judge, I think, I see thepros and cons of certain things, yet that is not all. We knowthat reason is limited. Reason can go only to a certain extent,beyond that it cannot reach. The circle within which it runs isvery very limited indeed. Yet at the same time, we find factsrush into this circle. Like the coming of comets certain thingscome into this circle; it is certain they come from outside thelimit, although our reason cannot go beyond. The causes of thephenomena intruding themselves in this small limit are outsideof this limit. The mind can exist on a still higher plane, thesuperconscious. When the mind has attained to that state, whichis called Samâdhi - perfect concentration, superconsciousness -it goes beyond the limits of reason, and comes face to face withfacts which no instinct or reason can ever know. Allmanipulations of the subtle forces of the body, the differentmanifestations of Prana, if trained, give a push to the mind,help it to go up higher, and become superconscious, from whereit acts.

In this universe there is one continuous substance on everyplane of existence. Physically this universe is one: there is nodifference between the sun and you. The scientist will tell youit is only a fiction to say the contrary. There is no realdifference between the table and me; the table is one point inthe mass of matter, and I another point. Each form represents,as it were, one whirlpool in the infinite ocean of matter, ofwhich not one is constant. Just as in a rushing stream there maybe millions of whirlpools, the water in each of which isdifferent every moment, turning round and round for a fewseconds, and then passing out, replaced by a fresh quantity, sothe whole universe is one constantly changing mass of matter, inwhich all forms of existence are so many whirlpools. A mass ofmatter enters into one whirlpool, say a human body, stays therefor a period, becomes changed, and goes out into another, say ananimal body this time, from which again after a few years, itenters into another whirlpool, called a lump of mineral. It is aconstant change. Not one body is constant. There is no suchthing as my body, or your body, except in words. Of the one hugemass of matter, one point is called a moon, another a sun,another a man, another the earth, another a plant, another amineral. Not one is constant, but everything is changing, mattereternally concreting and disintegrating. So it is with the mind.Matter is represented by the ether; when the action of Prana ismost subtle, this very ether, in the finer state of vibration,will represent the mind and there it will be still one unbrokenmass. If you can simply get to that subtle vibration, you willsee and feel that the whole universe is composed of subtlevibrations. Sometimes certain drugs have the power to take us,while as yet in the senses, to that condition. Many of you mayremember the celebrated experiment of Sir Humphrey Davy, whenthe laughing gas overpowered him - how, during the lecture, heremained motionless, stupefied and after that, he said that thewhole universe was made up of ideas. For, the time being, as itwere, the gross vibrations had ceased, and only the subtlevibrations which he called ideas, were present to him. He couldonly see the subtle vibrations round him; everything had becomethought; the whole universe was an ocean of thought, he andeveryone else had become little thought whirlpools.

Thus, even in the universe of thought we find unity, and atlast, when we get to the Self, we know that that Self can onlybe One. Beyond the vibrations of matter in its gross and subtleaspects, beyond motion there is but One. Even in manifestedmotion there is only unity. These facts can no more be denied.Modern physics also has demonstrated that the sum total of theenergies in the universe is the same throughout. It has alsobeen proved that this sum total of energy exists in two forms.It becomes potential, toned down, and calmed, and next it comesout manifested as all these various forces; again it goes backto the quiet state, and again it manifests. Thus it goes onevolving and involving through eternity. The control of thisPrana, as before stated, is what is called Pranayama.

The most obvious manifestation of this Prana in the human bodyis the motion of the lungs. If that stops, as a rule all theother manifestations of force in the body will immediately stop.But there are persons who can train themselves in such a mannerthat the body will live on, even when this motion has stopped.There are some persons who can bury themselves for days, and yetlive without breathing. To reach the subtle we must take thehelp of the grosser, and so, slowly travel towards the mostsubtle until we gain our point. Pranayama really meanscontrolling this motion of the lungs and this motion isassociated with the breath. Not that breath is producing it; onthe contrary it is producing breath. This motion draws in theair by pump action. The Prana is moving the lungs, the movementof the lungs draws in the air. So Pranayama is not breathing,but controlling that muscular power which moves the lungs. Thatmuscular power which goes out through the nerves to the musclesand from them to the lungs, making them move in a certainmanner, is the Prana, which we have to control in the practiceof Pranayama. When the Prana has become controlled, then weshall immediately find that all the other actions of the Pranain the body will slowly come under control. I myself have seenmen who have controlled almost every muscle of the body; and whynot? If I have control over certain muscles, why not over everymuscle and nerve of the body? What impossibility is there? Atpresent the control is lost, and the motion has becomeautomatic. We cannot move our ears at will, but we know thatanimals can. We have not that power because we do not exerciseit. This is what is called atavism.

Again, we know that motion which has become latent can bebrought back to manifestation. By hard work and practice certainmotions of the body which are most dormant can be brought backunder perfect control. Reasoning thus we find there is noimpossibility, but, on the other hand. every probability thateach part of the body can be brought under perfect control. Thisthe Yogi does through Pranayama. Perhaps some of you have readthat in Pranayama, when drawing in the breath, you must fillyour whole body with Prana. In the English translations Prana isgiven as breath, and you are inclined to ask how that is to bedone. The fault is with the translator. Every part of the bodycan be filled with Prana, this vital force, and when you areable to do that, you can control the whole body. All thesickness and misery felt in the body will be perfectlycontrolled; not only so, you will be able to control another'sbody. Everything is infectious in this world, good or bad. Ifyour body be in a certain state of tension, it will have atendency to produce the same tension in others. If you arestrong and healthy, those that live near you will also have thetendency to become strong and healthy, but if you are sick andweak, those around you will have the tendency to become thesame. In the case of one man trying to heal another, the firstidea is simply transferring his own health to the other. This isthe primitive sort of healing. Consciously or unconsciously,health can be transmitted. A very strong man, living with a weakman, will make him a little stronger, whether he knows it ornot. When consciously done, it becomes quicker and better in itsaction. Next come those cases in which a man may not be veryhealthy himself, yet we know that he can bring health toanother. The first man, in such a case, has a little morecontrol over the Prana, and can rouse, for the time being, hisPrana, as it were, to a certain state of vibration, and transmitit to another person.

There have been cases where this process has been carried on ata distance, but in reality there is no distance in the sense ofa break. Where is the distance that has a break? Is there anybreak between you and the sun? It is a continuous mass ofmatter, the sun being one part, and you another. Is there abreak between one part of a river and another? Then why cannotany force travel? There is no reason against it. Cases ofhealing from a distance are perfectly true. The Prana can betransmitted to a very great distance; but to one genuine case,there are hundreds of frauds. This process of healing is not soeasy as it is thought to be. In the most ordinary cases of suchhealing you will find that the healers simply take advantage ofthe naturally healthy state of the human body. An allopath comesand treats cholera patients, and gives them his medicines. Thehomoeopath comes and gives his medicines, and cures perhaps morethan the allopath does, because the homoeopath does not disturbhis patients, but allows nature to deal with them. TheFaith-healer cures more still, because he brings the strength ofhis mind to bear, and rouses, through faith, the dormant Pranaof the patient.

There is a mistake constantly made by Faith-healers: they thinkthat faith directly heals a man. But faith alone does not coverall the ground. There are diseases where the worst symptoms arethat the patient never thinks that he has that disease. Thattremendous faith of the patient is itself one symptom of thedisease, and usually indicates that he will die quickly. In suchcases the principle that faith cures does not apply. If it werefaith alone that cured, these patients also would be cured. Itis by the Prana that real curing comes. The pure man, who hascontrolled the Prana, has the power of bringing it into acertain state of vibration, which can be conveyed to others,arousing in them a similar vibration. You see that in everydayactions. I am talking to you. What am I trying to do? I am, soto say, bringing my mind to a certain state of vibration, andthe more I succeed in bringing it to that state, the more youwill be affected by what I say. All of you know that the day Iam more enthusiastic, the more you enjoy the lecture; and when Iam less enthusiastic, you feel lack of interest.

The gigantic will-powers of the world, the world-movers, canbring their Prana into a high state of vibration, and it is sogreat and powerful that it catches others in a moment, andthousands are drawn towards them, and half the world think asthey do. Great prophets of the world had the most wonderfulcontrol of the Prana, which gave them tremendous will-power;they had brought their Prana to the highest state of motion, andthis is what gave them power to sway the world. Allmanifestations of power arise from this control. Men may notknow the secret, but this is the one explanation. Sometimes inyour own body the supply of Prana gravitates more or less to onepart; the balance is disturbed, and when the balance of Prana isdisturbed, what we call disease is produced. To take away thesuperfluous Prana, or to supply the Prana that is wanting, willbe curing the disease. That again is Pranayama - to learn whenthere is more or less Prana in one part of the body than thereshould be. The feelings will become so subtle that the mind willfeel that there is less Prana in the toe or the finger thanthere should be, and will possess the power to supply it. Theseare among the various functions of Pranayama. They have to belearned slowly and gradually, and as you see, the whole scope ofRaja-Yoga is really to teach the control and direction indifferent planes of the Prana. When a man has concentrated hisenergies, he masters the Prana that is in his body. When a manis meditating, he is also concentrating the Prana.

In an ocean there are huge waves, like mountains, then smallerwaves, and still smaller, down to little bubbles, but back ofall these is the infinite ocean. The bubble is connected withthe infinite ocean at one end, and the huge wave at the otherend. So, one may be a gigantic man, and another a little bubble,but each is connected with that infinite ocean of energy, whichis the common birthright of every animal that exists. Whereverthere is life, the storehouse of infinite energy is behind it.Starting as some fungus, some very minute, microscopic bubble,and all the time drawing from that infinite store-house ofenergy, a form is changed slowly and steadily until in course oftime it becomes a plant, then an animal, then man, ultimatelyGod. This is attained through millions of aeons, but what istime? An increase of speed, an increase of struggle, is able tobridge the gulf of time. That which naturally takes a long timeto accomplish can be shortened by the intensity of the action,says the Yogi. A man may go on slowly drawing in this energyfrom the infinite mass that exists in the universe, and,perhaps, he will require a hundred thousand years to become aDeva, and then, perhaps, five hundred thousand years to becomestill higher, and, perhaps, five millions of years to becomeperfect. Given rapid growth, the time will be lessened. Why isit not possible, with sufficient effort, to reach this veryperfection in six months or six years? There is no limit. Reasonshows that. If an engine, with a certain amount of coal, runstwo miles an hour, it will run the distance in less time with agreater supply of coal. Similarly, why shall not the soul, byintensifying its action, attain perfection in this very life?All beings will at last attain to that goal, we know. But whocares to wait all these millions of aeons? Why not reach itimmediately, in this body even, in this human form? Why shall Inot get that infinite knowledge, infinite power, now?

The ideal of the Yogi, the whole science of Yoga, is directed tothe end of teaching men how, by intensifying the power ofassimilation, to shorten the time for reaching perfection,instead of slowly advancing from point to point and waitinguntil the whole human race has become perfect. All the greatprophets, saints, and seers of the world - what did they do? Inone span of life they lived the whole life of humanity,traversed the whole length of time that it takes ordinaryhumanity to come to perfection. In one life they perfectthemselves; they have no thought for anything else, never live amoment for any other idea, and thus the way is shortened forthem. This is what is meant by concentration, intensifying thepower of assimilation, thus shortening the time. Raja-Yoga isthe science which teaches us how to gain the power ofconcentration.

What has Pranayama to do with spiritualism? Spiritualism is alsoa manifestation of Pranayama. If it be true that the departedspirits exist, only we cannot see them, it is quite probablethat there may be hundreds and millions of them about us we canneither see, feel, nor touch. We may be continually passing andrepassing through their bodies, and they do not see or feel us.It is a circle within a circle, universe within universe. Wehave five senses, and we represent Prana in a certain state ofvibration. All beings in the same state of vibration will seeone another, but if there are beings who represent Prana in ahigher state of vibration, they will not be seen. We mayincrease the intensity of a light until we cannot see it at all,but there may be beings with eyes so powerful that they can seesuch light. Again, if its vibrations are very low, we do not seea light, but there are animals that may see it, as cats andowls. Our range of vision is only one plane of the vibrations ofthis Prana. Take this atmosphere, for instance; it is piled uplayer on layer, but the layers nearer to the earth are denserthan those above, and as you go higher the atmosphere becomesfiner and finer. Or take the case of the ocean; as you go deeperand deeper the pressure of the water increases, and animalswhich live at the bottom of the sea can never come up, or theywill be broken into pieces.

Think of the universe as an ocean of ether, consisting of layerafter layer of varying degrees of vibration under the action ofPrana; away from the centre the vibrations are less, nearer toit they become quicker and quicker; one order of vibration makesone plane. Then suppose these ranges of vibrations are cut intoplanes, so many millions of miles one set of vibration, and thenso many millions of miles another still higher set of vibration,and so on. It is, therefore, probable, that those who live onthe plane of a certain state of vibration will have the power ofrecognising one another, but will not recognise those abovethem. Yet, just as by the telescope and the microscope we canincrease the scope of our vision, similarly we can by Yoga bringourselves to the state of vibration of another plane, and thusenable ourselves to see what is going on there. Suppose thisroom is full of beings whom we do not see. They represent Pranain a certain state of vibration while we represent another.Suppose they represent a quick one, and we the opposite. Pranais the material of which the: are composed, as well as we. Allare parts of the same ocean of Prana, they differ only in theirrate of vibration. If I can bring myself to the quick vibration,this plane will immediately change for me: I shall not see youany more; you vanish and they appear. Some of you, perhaps, knowthis to be true. All this bringing of the mind into a higherstate of vibration is included in one word in Yoga - Samadhi.All these states of higher vibration, superconscious vibrationsof the mind, are grouped in that one word, Samadhi, and thelower states of Samadhi give us visions of these beings. Thehighest grade of Samadhi is when we see the real thing, when wesee the material out of which the whole of these grades ofbeings are composed, and that one lump of clay being known, weknow all the clay in the universe.

Thus we see that Pranayama includes all that is true ofspiritualism even. Similarly, you will find that wherever anysect or body of people is trying to search out anything occultand mystical, or hidden, what they are doing is really thisYoga, this attempt to control the Prana. You will find thatwherever there is any extraordinary display of power, it is themanifestation of this Prana. Even the physical sciences can beincluded in Pranayama. What moves the steam engine? Prana,acting through the steam. What are all these phenomena ofelectricity and so forth but Prana? What is physical science?The science of Pranayama, by external means. Prana, manifestingitself as mental power, can only be controlled by mental means.That part of Pranayama which attempts to control the physicalmanifestations of the Prana by physical means is called physicalscience, and that part which tries to control the manifestationsof the Prana as mental force by mental means is calledRaja-Yoga.