Key to turn the senses inward

Pratyāhāra is, as though, the imitation by the senses of the mind by not coming into contact with their objects.

Pratyāhāra is withdrawing the mind from sense objects. Withdrawal of the mind means withdrawal of the sense organs also. But the sense organs are such that you cannot keep them bound for long. You have to keep them engaged, otherwise they will revolt. 

So,  Sage Patañjaḷi gives a solution. Turn them inward and make them imitate whatever they were doing outside. The eye should be made to ‘see’ the light inside. The ear should hear the inner voice. The tongue should be trained to taste the nectar, as it were, coming from inside. Still, these are difficult. 

So, the bhakti saint gives an easier solution. You do not have to take the trouble of turning anything inside. Let the sense organs function from outside as usual. But let them be engaged in the service of God. Let the eye see his forms in the temples. Let the ear hear the songs dedicated to him; let the tongue sing in praise of him; let the nose smell the flowers that have been offered to him; let the hands be engaged in worshipping him. Thereby the limbs are kept engaged in spiritual activities and the mind is also involved in thinking about the Lord. By doing so, pratyāhāra is also achieved. 

“Merge the speech in the mind, it means all the organs of action and of knowledge have to be brought under perfect control of the mind. It means the detainment of the organs from their natural tendency of going outside or to their objects and the taking of an inward journey into the mind.”

The Śvetāśvataropaniṣad also talks about controlling of the sense-organs by the mind and also to enter the heart.

Let us look at a simple example of how Pratyahara operates and feels.  In a classroom, the teacher will be speaking quite aloud so as to be heard by everybody. But a particular student might be thinking of something else in the mind and so the words of the teacher would not have registered in his mind. With the ears open, he still does not hear what is said. His ears are shut to the external world temporarily. In pratyāhāra, we practice this consciously. The eyes and ears are open to the external world, but what is seen or heard will not be registered in the mind. The sense organs are withdrawn from the external world and turned inward. 

Is it practically possible? Where and how do we begin?

The first thing that we have to do in the practice of withdrawal is to stop impulsive actions. When an impulse occurs, spend a few minutes to analyse the impulse and then act accordingly. 

Similarly, let us say, somebody has insulted us. The immediate reaction is to retort back or fight. But if we analyze the options, we should clearly see it is not going to help us in any manner but rather inflame the situation. We have successfully withdrawn unnecessary words. So pratyāhāra is not running away from sense objects but reserving the right within us to choose the best of several options available. It is a method to resolve conflicts both outside and inside. The conflict resolution lies within us. As we go on resolving our conflicts, they will dwindle and disappear, the moment they appear.

The success of pratyāhāra lies not in thinking about the resolution but in the resolution itself. Whenever there is a question before us, we should stop thinking about the question and think of the answer. Some people take to vices thinking that they give them solace. 

For example, taking to alcohol will not solve the problems we have. It will only aggravate. More harmful than the alcohol itself is the urge to resort to it impulsively. That has to be stopped. So pratyāhāra is not just meant for yogins. It is a useful practice in day-to-day life for a common man. It stops the tendency to escape from the problems. It gives the courage to face them and solve them.  

Pratyāhāra has many modes. For example, we have karma pratyāhāra which is not just controlling the urge for actions but controlling the desire to attain the fruits of actions. We have prāṇa pratyāhāra which exists in saving the vital prāṇa śakti. The objective here is to conserve it and harmonize it.

We have mano pratyāhāra which is consciously withdrawing the attention from anything that is unwholesome and directing it inward.

The yogic purpose of pratyāhāra is to quieten the mind so we can begin to concentrate.

Pratyāhāra is built brick by brick through yama, niyama, āsana, and prāṇāyāma, then utilized in dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi.  It is the fifth petal of yoga, also called the “hinge” of the outer and inner quest.  It is the pivotal movement on yoga’s path.

Sri Iyengar says that in Sanskrit, pratyāhāra literally means “to draw toward the opposite.”  The normal movement of the senses is to flow outward and this limb is concerned with going against that grain, a difficult reaction.

Pratyāhāra is mano-vṛtti nirodha, it directly works from the mind like a pneumatic tool to cut its outgoing habits by changing its direction to penetrate inwards towards the core.

Pattabhi Jois says in Yoga Mālā that yoga is a path we step into and that will lead us towards unveiling the Self.  Likewise, Iyengar also taught that pratyāhāra helps the mind to acquire knowledge of the Self.

When at the stage of pratyāhāra, the aspirant requires stable and intense self-study because the ego takes pride even in this controlled mind.  At that point, the mind has to direct the energy towards concentration (the next step) or fall for the ego’s uprising. There lies the difficulty in pratyāhāra.

Pratyāhāra is meant for maintaining, sustaining, and retaining what is gained through the previous limbs.

Pratyāhāra is a saṁskāra—a culture on the mind. 

Pratyāhāra undoubtedly is very difficult, as it has to be firmly established on āsana and prāṇāyāma which discipline the organs of action, perception, and mind.

Pratyāhāra is making friends with the mind. This is the exact process that Yoga applies to the mind. Normally, we do not make the mind our friend, rather, we try to suppress and subdue the mental activities.

If we try to meditate now, we will sit down very quietly and firmly and will try to stop all the mental activities. We will be disturbed if the mental activities do not stop, and will not try to follow the mental activity. In pratyāhāra, we try to make friends with the mind by observing its normal functions and activities, by observing how far the mind can extend itself and how it reacts to different situations and circumstances.


Summary: JKYog India Online Class- Patanjali Yog Sutra [English]- 17.10.2024