4

YOGA EXPLAINED

GENERAL
i^mnT
YOGA EXPLAINED
by

F. YEATS-BROWN
Author of Bengal Lancer, etc.

With Illusi rations by

SHEILA DUNN

ft
SUSIL GUPTA (INDIA) LTD
CALCUTTA
 First Edition 1937
Second Edition 1951

2, Nayaratna Lanp PalpuH. a

 CONTENTS

Chapter pace

I. Explanatory ... ... \

IE Is Yoga for You? ... ... 13

III. History and Theory

V
... 29
t

EVE Principles and Practice ... 47

V. Miracles of the Creative Will ... 80

v/vi. Secret Doctrines ... ... 124

V VIE The Temple, of the Undistracted

Mind ... ... 136

Appendices

I. The Six Systems of Hindu

Philosophy ... 141'-

IE “The Vedic Gods as Figures of

Biology” ... 14r

III. Ramakrishna’s Trance ... 143

X'
 CHAPTER I

EXPLANATORY
It was at Rimini, in June 1933, that the events leading
to this book began.
My mind was at peace and burning itself mv body
a brick-red. When I read the papers, which was rarely,
I saw that there was serious tension
between Italy and
France, but war seemed far from that enchanted coast.
I had Rimini almost to mvself, for foreigners
were
few, and the Italian summer influx had not vet
begun.
At dawn I opened the shutters of my bedroom, watched
the sun rise across the blue waters of the
Adriatic, .sat for
an hour, sometimes two, cross-legged, absorbed’ in the
beaut) of the and the
world, meditative exercises of
^oga. After bieakfast I swam, then slept
or read the
Paradiso, roamed the countryside,
saw where Caesar
crossed the Rubicon, where St. Anthony preached to the
fish,where Paolo loved Francesca.
One morning, as I lay basking on the beach,
a page
Irom the hotel brought me a telegram whiVh
the even routine of my davs
1
-J J was imperative that
.
It tliau I J.
should leave at once and go to Digne, across the
Alps
^^^ere I was to lunch with a French ladv lama and
her
adopted son, a Tibetan.
With luck, and my fast car, I would be able to reacb-
Milan that ver)- afternoon. So I paid mv bill and hurried
Olt.

The Italians are the best

road-builders in the world
magnificent autosirade
I lay that night in the
"" outskirts of Milan and
t 1

Sorlr'’
I was up at dawn next day, and raced across the
 lenile plain of Piedmoni as 1 had over that of Lombardy
on the previous evening. Getting through Turin
delated lire a little, but
was soon cruising along at 1
a
hundred kilometres an hour on the
new strategic road
athich leads to the passes of Mont Genis, Sainte-Gene-
Ait've, and the Col de Sestrieres.
1 he day Avas dorious. C.lear
o ' sunshine gllULCU
glinted on
UII
•gieen fields, white oxen, the snowv
summits of the Alps
^
ahead.
In the foothills, however, my
pace diminished for
the load became crowded with
heavy trucks camino-
ammunition and soldiers’ bedding. Military engineei^
were widening the road. I passed a battalion of proudlv -

plumed bersaglieri. On village .walls and rock-faces i

read the legend Guenar’ and although I knew
peifectl) well that this referred not to impending hostil
ities. but to Italy s champion cyclist, it was obvious that
there was a state of tension in these parts.
This makes tvhat I did the more absurd. When I
had leached the pass, and parked the car bv the roadside,
and eaten a couple of oranges, I noticed a charming old
i
t belo\\ me. The place fascinated
me. I stared at it a long time. It looked rather like the
Castle of Gradara, where Francesca da Rimini and Paolo
Malatesta had sat, their young heads close, conning a
book, when their fatal love was born. Several times I
had meant to photograph Gradara, but it had always
lieen raining when I visited it. So now I look a snapshot
of this fort.
"WTat the connexion was I can't explain. Perhaps
there was none. Ansivav, the verv instant I clicked the
.'•hutter 1 heard the roar of a motorcvcle coming down

the road.
.\ policeman? No doubt a policeman. . . . What a '

fatuous fool I was! ... I strolled back sadly 4

to the car ^

\ Blackshirt scout drewup in a flurn- of dust. He

was a magnificent young man, six foot two, and broad
.in proportion. The fact that he had not shaved for
 about a week added to his menacing
aspect. “Where's
your passport?” he asked.
Fortunately I knowItalian well (in fact, as a child I
spoke Genoese better than English), so I apologized
pro-
fusely and did what I could to convince him I was not a
“P)’ him m\ camera as well as my passport.
destroy the films, ofcourse.” 1 said.
here^s one of the Duce’s birthplace at Predappio
whicli I would have liked to keep, but can’t
it be
helped.”
“I see you were born in Genoa,” said ihe scout
scowling. ’

Consul-General
ihere”^^^'*”^^'’
‘Have you done your military
senice?”
“My what? Fni'an Englishman

subiecf
subject, ’iVe "'"a '^r
argued about this for a little, theti
me he told
to turnout ray pockets.
“As you wish.”

bu, rammed ray

kiloraJra“ '? dra'Z" 'he

“,‘1"
detained This 7, ,
’
be
are not allowed
’
^ ^ ^
^
orders.”
“Certainly! ”

-
me
rn?Jrra“rao:^ji-
again not to stop on
the way.

division between
"^rteratn" mid fT' t
Tate, with a wave
of her wand ^ 1

aspect of the day.

I wished that I

r.srs"r"-"^
 YOGA EXPLAINED

passivit) of my friends at Digne, who would certainly

have been content to contemplate the scenery of the Alps,
instead of wanting to record it with a camera.
What would happen? How could I convince the
police of my innocence? I had influential friends in Italy,

but the last thing I uanted to do was to let them know

that I had been photographing the Franco-Italian fron-

tier.

As the scout had said, I was expected at the police

post. The road ^vas baned. Two carabinieri took me
in charge as soon as I stopped, and led me to an office.

I asked the police sergeant how long he thought I

would be detained. He smiled, spread his hands, shru^ed

his shoulders. A jovial fellow this~or wasn’t he? I

noticed now that he also was in need of a shave. He

listened to my apologies with a shrewd grin, but he didn’t

seem at all impressed. When I said that I was in a hurry,

and hoped to lunch with friends at Digne, he laughed,
and said that they would have to wait.

He now sat down at a t)-pewriter and inquired into

my ancestry. This proved a lengthy process. We had

put down the name of my parents, and the places and
dates of their birth, and were just spelling out the name

of m\' grandmother, when the Blackshirt who had arrest-

ed me arrived. He had reported to someone whom he

called the Captain. I tvas to be detained until further

orders.

My passport looked ominous. It had all sorts of out-

landish stamps upon it, for I had been visiting the Baltic

countries, and Russia. Unfortunately Russia: there was

the brand of Moscow!

Sir Austen Chamberlain might request and require

in tlie name of His Britannic Majesty that I should be

and be
allowed to pass freely, without let or hindrance,
e\ery assistance and protection of which I might
given

stand in need; but . . . here I was under arrest.

course. I would clear myself. But

Eventually, of

what a fool I would look in the eyes of my friends in

 UR 1 J

Rome and London! It wouldn’t even make an amusing

story. Here was I, a responsible journalist—for I was
responsible in those days, and had recently interviewed
the Duce—found snapshotting a fort, and arrested as a
spy! Minutes passed. Twenty minutes. Forty. An hour
passed while 1 tried to explain that my behaviour was
a mistake, a madness, the foolish impulse of a
moment.
Then I stopped talking. There is a meditative prac-
tice in Yoga called pralyahara, which is “sensewith-
drawal.” One makes one’s mind a made my
blank. I
mind a blank, because I had suddenly remembered how
golden silence can be.
Just what I did w'ill be described in its proper place
in these pages. It was no spell I wove, no magic I work-
ed in that little ofi&ce; merely I stopped arguing, sat loose
in the saddle of Fate, so to speak. Never before had I
lealized how well \oga works. It is common sense, of
course, to let the other fellow' do the talking when one is
in a difficult situation; but I believe there
was something
more than this in my attitude. I believe that the stillness
of pratyahara has a special attractive power. It brings
out the best in one’s companions.
The old sergeant looked at me as I sat there, and
started to think. While I had been talking, he had talked
back; now he was trying to help me.
‘‘You know that your camen is
liable to confisca-
tion?” he asked.
“Of coune.”
However, I don’t think confiscation will
be neces-
saiy, provided all the films are destroved. I’ll ask the
Captain.”
was speecUess now for another
I
reason. Fate had
*mrted again. So had the
Captain, as fat as I could
gather from our side of
the telephone.
“You should have told us it was ”
all a mistake said
the wrgeant, hanging
up the receiver.
“What else have I been saving?”
 VOGA explained
4

made all sorts of excuses.”

An)TAay. nmv may I go>”

»»uuie would have

been avoided!”’

Capu^ .igh. n„g „P ,0 sav he hadla^^hiflt

leftist? 7 Worttui W
« godTrLd^iih ita'drt^
' “died Digiie in u„e s„
dien I told them this sion, suggested that I had been
cxp.at.ng the m.sdeds
ol a fonner
incarnadon Tta
...av or raav no, be. Ore, a bottle of ChSteaunenrdu
‘o
.vX’ to boot”'’'*'
Next raon.i,jg. I decided
that I was ..o. vet read, to
..me of No, read, bv a long chalk.
Since then,
.owner, the tdea has been
germinating in mv mind.
Long before this-in l<)24.
1 think, after I had
given
..p soldtenng. but before I took to «Ti,ing-,he ch»ce»
and changes of my life had pitchfoAed me into the posi-
don of a theatrical manager. It was at the Tremont
leraple. in Boston. Massachusetts.
Standing bv the box-office of the
^
l emple one evening
ithe Temple is reallv a place of worship,
but it is occa'^
sionally rented out for
edifying entertainments, such as
those provided by mx' then
employer). I overheard an
alteration between the cashier and a gorbellied grey-
beard whp declared that the seats he had
reserxed for his
family had not been kept. The cashier said that there
Avas no record of the transaction: the complainant swore
there must be. Soon he xx'as panting, and his eves pop-
ping: he looked “mental.”
“Know w-bo he is?” said the cashier, after this highly
hvsterical old gentleman had strutted
awav. still sinlin?
 willi indignation, ‘
Ik's an cxpcn on ilic liiglici life.

A best-seller of nj)lirt.’'

For obvious reasons, the nieinor\ of the aulboi of

Paths to Peace. Power and and CoMiiie Rhvtinii J'lf nly.
(the titles are iniaginai\. but tlic books aic real. will>
immense cireulations) is with me now, as (inbaik iipmi I

the task of explaininu- '^'oga to the Western World.

1 shall soon be an old genthman ni\sel(, lor I am
/

filly, und full of ilu' liailtiis of ilic (Icsli. 1 am no ^uru.

no counsellor whose laUoii soul his j;isi and hi^h al)Ov(
icin ptation ,
bicatliin^ a purci air than dots tlu* <faniiion
run of niankiiul. On tlu conlrarv, the* talc (j1 iii\ woe-
and muddles would fill a inudi largei \f)Iume than ibis.
A much larger volmne. but one that will never b(
uriiten, for failure has an ugh face. Nor shall 1 aiunipi
a catalogue of successes. I have had successes ni niv life,
.some of which 1 can verv simerelv and dcfiniielv atiri
bute to Yoga, but 1 am
afraid that the reader niiglii con
sider them not sufli(ienih important to point mv moral,
which is that all of us —or ptacticallv all C)| us wotdd
.
•
more mental and plivsicar disc ipline.
I should clcarh like to write abcmi ni\ smcc-sscs. ko
theresomething comic about them, viewed in niros
is

pcct. I believe that I could make

an amusing book oui
of them. However, niv preseni object is to be rioi amu^
ing. but helpftti.
This is a volume of exposition lailier than adven
ture. So when I describe, as I shall, the power and peace,
the calmness and self-confidence,
to be found in \on-a f
^hal be well aware of how
far I fall short of mv^iwn
I eals; but aware
no one cxcejn invsclf can b(
also, as
of how much greater
wcmld have been niv shone omiri-
had It not been fen- this
ancient discipline.
Let me be clear at the outset that Yoga is not a reli
gion. shcxtld
have thought that the point
I
would urn
have needed emphasizing
for those who have read mv
pievious books, or who have studied the svstem for them
-selves, But apparenflv ii doe- need emphau'zing
 luoA iiXPLAINED

I still receive letters from more nr • j-

people ^vho tell me that they read
what I write

immeasurably superior
ih f i,^v^ to

" """
of a” ci;
™»-«io>i booV

The nord Voga is derived from the Sanskrit mi

..IS Hindu system of philosophic
meditation
and asce
ttcism designed to
elect the rennion
of the devotee's s™I
«h the universal spirit."
It is a discipline
whereby ™e
<]isciple attempts to hannonize
the rhythms of the^ Self
with those of the God it can apprehend, a God
who grows
greater as the human
method of self-realization, in
consciousness expands It \ a
which spirit and matter
are
-seen to merge in tlie universal. It is a system of mental
and physical training, concerned with postures
breath-
ings, exercises, meditations,
which claims to give you a
knowledge of Reality. It is a way of applying the facts
of the visible world to the
purposes of the invisible. It
IS a yoke under which we may, if we please, pass our
stubborn necks, in order to develop the powers of the
•whole man, and learn the truth about
life. Worship of
this Reality outside the
is Yoga system proper.
Yoga sets up no God or gods, neither does it deny
the existence of God. It is, I repeat, a method of physi-
cal and psychic culture. You may be a Christian, a
Buddhist, a Moslem, or a Hindu,
and yet a student of
Yoga. You may also be an atheist. If you are, and follow
ihe Yoga path seriously, you will probably
feel impelled
to establish a new religion.

Personally, I believe in Christ and in the World In-

visible. I know that Christ came from the East, and I
believe that His full teaching cannot be
understood with-
out reference to Eastern thought. I say “cannot be
understood/^ but indeed anything is possible through
grace. The philosophy of the Hindus may not appeal to
vou. Some eminent Christian doctors have told us fthe
 EXPLANATORY 'J

late Dr. Rudolf Otto, for instance) that these writings

throw a vivid light on the Gospel narratives, butwe need
not quarrel about the necessity for studying them. They
may not be necessary to you. Even so, you may still find
Yoga useful.

My religious views have nothing to do with this

book. Religion is the recognition of supernatural
powers, and the duty of man to yield allegiance to them.
Yoga is a means whereby we may attain to this recogni-
tion. It is die senant of religion, not its rival. Land-
scapes of the Heavenly City are many, painted by mystics
in all lands and in all ages; here we are concerned only
with certain methods of approach to that City, chiefly
through self-realization.
There is no easy road to knowledge of the true Self.
According to Indian ideas, aptitudes acquired without
effort are like money acquired without effort. Easy come,
easy go. Our convictions, like our capital, should
be the
result of work and service for the community, if they are
to bring us the dividends of happiness, this is Raia
•’

Yoga.*
For some reason — conceit, I dare say, for an arro-
gant young civilization like ours is loath to concede wis-
dom to its elders—an impression has been created that
Yogis are for ever contemplating
the tip of their noses,
the Incommunicable, or comparing
the macrocosm of the
Universe with the microcosm of their navels; for this is
not so, and a libel on Indian sv.stems of thought. Yogis
keep generally closer to the earth
than do the philoso-
phers of the West. They have rarely disassociated them-
selves from practical living, and are chieflv and charac-
teristically concerned with the study of the Self.
In fact, Yoga concerned with you, and you, if
is
I
may say so, will probably realize your true Self only
by
systmatic effort. Religious geniuses .
there are who
achieve self-realization in a
flash, but Indian guims, even

* The various systems of Yoga are described elsewhere.

 iiiorc than other teachers
re^arfl dnHrifi
dtost. Ttey believe i,; tofw “f

b« ,he towels, and c„„,i„„e

’,oTh:“S Z
^^bits of animals
fhp nake breathes, ^ how
how the tiger relaxes,
how the Hima
layan bear prepares
himself for hibernation.
The/ also
Jssected corpses. But above all
e aborate experiment
they undertook long
on living human bodies.
tr)'iug the
Z
ffect of vanous
positions and various
methods of breath-
S- The result of these
scientific experiments carried
out not for a few
decades upon mice and
guinea-pigs but

loga as It exists to-dav.

- t' •

There is no majic or mysterv

about the svstem (cer-
lam exercises are secret, some becatise thev are
daiKerous
others because thev are
incomprehensible without indivi!
dual teachtng), and no
act of faith is necessarv
in order
to set foot upon the
.taan Path. ,«ter von have
obtain-
ed control of vour limbs
and vour internal functions
you
exercise your nerves, your
imagination, and sour psychic
powers, progressing bv logical
bclf-knowledge.
steps to more and W
Ever)' form of \oga insists on puritv of the bodv as
n prior condition of
superconsciousness. Exm form of
Voga. The books on the subject published in the
West
slur over this important
matter. Thev make Wcessions
to the sloth of their readers,
whose mental as well as phy-
sical attitude well
is svmbolized b^ the chocolate-coated
pills theyswallow, to work while thev sleep.
Not so the
gurus by the Ganges, who insist that
there must be acti-
\ity within and without — not onlv an awareness of spirit
and an eager mind, but a lively skin and a clean blood
stream before you are worthy to stand in the
shrine of
*
the Temple.

Do you dislike and distrust this phvsital approach to

 EX1’I.ANAX()K\ li

the supeniatuval r Do you toi’oitlcr that it is a ihicai to

the creed you iollou'. and a co\eii attempt to sap the
foundations of vour belicl? If so. this book is not for
volt.
/
Vet the fact that vou are
•
readin<'-
O it. oracious Lad\.
< 7

sagacious Sir. leads me to hope am

poiniing out
tliat I a
path which alreadv exists, in some nnsterious fashion, in
vour mind's e\ . II so, we mav lolloxv it iO(>cihcr
W in
friendship.
I shall pre'iime. then, thttt m)U and I (and most ol
us in Europe America) fee! that we are
;nid not living
altogether rigliih. and that we ought i(> do soiticthiu"
about it (|uickl\. In the stteeis of am big titv in the
estern World vou m;i\ sec drooping bodies, drugged
eves, poisoned skins, bad teeth, more sick })eoplc than
httdthv. tmd tdl harried and hurried. Kxterntdlv e\er\
thing is up. IntcinalK evervihing is slowin
down.
Our luxuries hav- made us less hardw Comloriabh
cars, central hctiiing, subwtivs. the radio, liliiis. air-condi
lioning. modern medicine, have so saniiarv plumbing,
shcltcied tnid sweetened our lives, .and so deprived
them
ol the tonic struggle lor existence,
that we have become
ill oui own Avorld.
But wlhU, \oii ina\ aNk. of the million^ of uncnij)!o\'
cd, Ol tho^c below the margin ol Mih^istcncc, ol
those wlmse struggle for dccencv is as
hard, and perhaps
more ruthless, Itecause more impersonal, than
tha.t of a
gallev -slave chtiined to tut oar." Even these arc more
sheltered than thev used to be. God forbid that I should
suggest a lessening of assistance to them. Mv point is
that the tiverage of comfort has grcatlv risen durino- the
past twentv vears.
$ »

Not that comfort is bad in itself. It mav extend our

range, and vision, and capacitv. Rut it onlv a means
is
to a better life, not an end in itself, as so mtich of out
modern advertising insinuates. Our popular newspapers,
with their jazzed-up foreign news, their puerile “sensa-
tions. their enoi-mous advertising of nuxlicines to cure
i2 YOGA explained

ihe results of constipation— seem

to be conditioning us
to believe that tve need make
no effort to understand the
world we live in. or our own bodies.
We seem to be has
temng “to the pit common to all the
gieat cultures of
the past.”^
In spite of our many inventions, or
because of them
our nerves are wearing thin., Hysteria
increases. Our
lunatic asylums are being idled to
overflowing. We are
near a huge nenous breakdown. Too much of the
emphasis of ‘Western civilization has been on externals.
^Ve ha^e gone far along certain but in other res- lines,
pects we are children, baby minds placing
with the terri-
ble tO)s ise have made. To save ourselves we must learn
10 look inward. .Soon or late, and soon if we would avert
a catachsm, ^\e must find again the road to
self-know-
ledge tra^elled by the philosophers of India
for centuries
before ^ce began to think ourselves wise and powerful.
All this has been said before, with greater
emphasis
and more space than I can command. Calamity is close -

t
are agreed. More and more people are .

becoming aware of the danger. Everywhere, even in un- ^

likely places —among technicians, tvpists. mates of
tramp-steamers, prospectors, engineers, midshipmen, skill-
ed manual workers; practical people and worldly people;
indeed, nowadays more among such classes than among
the mystical-minded spinsters of my vouth who were
rcadv to run after any sloe-eyed stvami or pontifically
—
robed mahatma there is a desire to turn back to the
sources of our being, to seek again the centre of the maze
of Self, to regain that path to an iniur peace without
which we are lo'-t, and our conquests over matter useless.
Of rliis I have a thousand proofs.
I have made manv mistakes in mv life, but I cannot

be mistaken in thinking that Yoga interests people in

^ Dr Alexis Cfirrels in Mnn. thr TJrtlvfurn, a profound »nd

impfkftani Minch T l.ope all readers of this little book will
Btiidv.
 EXP1.ANA10K\

Europe and America, tor my Ictccrs prove it dail\. Men

and women are reading about Yoga eagerly, and think
ing about Yoga shrewdlv. it rather hkeicbilv. Thev want
to know what it is. ho^v it works, whether it could help
them in their dailv life. I his I can tell them.
4

And I am telling vou. reader, not as a teacher from

the eminence ot bliss attained, but as a fellow-tvavcllei
in the dust of the road to the Temple f)f the Undistracted
Mind.

CHAP IT. R II

IS YOGA FOR YOU?

The complexity of the Hindu philosophical sv>tem> ot
which the ^arious Yogas are a branch, is such that it may
well appal the 'Western student. You have \our life to
live. You have vour work, vour amusements, vour inter-
* • 4

ests; tvhv should

*
vou add to them an alien system of
* •

thought which seems to demand a great deal of effort

and to offer somewhat nebulous advantages?
The answer to this question vou can learn for vour-
self. In fact vou must do so. Books cannot bring it to
you. The answer will be realized in vour blood rtiihei
than understood bv \our brain. 4

The suggestion put fonvard. howcccr. is that the

I

system is not alien, but part of vour racial inheritance

and memory, that it is pleasant to studv. and that it is
rich in rewards.
Perhaps I should not use the plural;
the reward is one. though it has manv names, none of
them completely accurate; poise, serenity, awareness.
ihvthm.
0

vou to discover whether niv ti'seriion is cor-

It is for
rect. 'Vou can make a few simple experiments on your
self, to ascertain whether certain
positions and yvavs of
breathing give vou calm nerves, a dear brain, well-being,
yitalitw whether, in short, thev enable vou to
make the
 cflort oi ihinkiiio aloijo-
.omtwlnt n,?^

from iiuasion? '

P’^P^'Ous, and free

I do not -etmt lo beg this tiiiesiioii Itv sasino- that

'l>e ^og,s have never had
a chanee. Ti.cv ecu f have
nacle then- opportunities,
if thev had been
jnongh. But st^on'
tlte laet is that
and neve? there are not
i.ue been, a great many
true Yogis aniomr the
vast dodu
ation ot India. Indians talk of hrnhmacliana
IHinty), and the ^irtues (per^nal
of silence, and
selflessness am
these things chiefly
In
Ill th;
practised?
ihe ^\cs .
^\e are the \ogis, or rather
we rvere when
nowadays, to find that
which
vhich i"'
rs In/”ne must
lost return to the Vedas, to a\rvan
India, -where the old
tradition is preser\ed.
^oga, as I have said, not a creed, but a method
is
needs may conquer men and nations, while methods
' '1^’t.le mark, vet they mav profoundly
.
affect
le destinies of mankind. Our need lo-dav is for the
integi-ation of personalit^,
and this is the vert' subject
which \ooa is concerned.
Yoga is the slud^ of You. and
^ou must be clear
about what this means. Or rather,
vou must be as clear
as vou can, for no one
but a fully illumined saint can
realize all the implications of the Self.
“The study of You” sounds a slick phrase. Never-
ilieless il is an accurate one.
I am not trying to sell vou
a course m
charm, but simplv stating a fact. Yoga is con-
cerned Avith your blood and breathing,
vour bones and
anusdes, voiir sex-life, vour thoughts and'
hopes, and the
'ubtle forces that snnoiind and sustain vour
body.
^ ou must think first of vonrsclf. Your tine Self. *
 The task is neither so easy nor so simple as you may at

first imagine.
What is this You to which, or to whom, .you are

asked to give your attention? One hundred and eight

treatises in Sanskrit were written on the subject three or
four thousand years ago, and countless others since then,

in many languages. You may read whole libraries of

psychology, but you wdll not have any vivid realization

of the Self unless you take the trouble to acquire a much

more intimate feeling about it than words can give.
• Are you your body?^ Obviously you are more than
the physical body. The body is an envelope, containing
unknowm, or at any rate surprising, qualities; an enve-
lope that loses consciousness each night and w'akes to a
new world each morning, in varying moods. Is the real
You then to be found in sleep? Nc, for when you wake,
your thoughts connect with those of the day before.
Are
you the brain? Surely not, for the brain is liable to all
sorts of strange aberrations; besides, when you come to
think about it wdth the rather insufficient material at
your disposal (do not be imtated by
a sense of futility
which almost inevitably supervenes at
this stage), instinct
may tell you that the j^imanent Self, underlying all con-
tents of consciousness, is not to be found in any intellec-
tual process.

This instinctive feeling-realization, if it comes to

you, is strange and exciting. You are in search of some-
thing you cannot dehne, yet something which is of
supreme importance, at least to you.
Why cannot you define your
true Self? The reason
suggest, IS that it is inapprehensible through words’.
You can reach knowledge only by immediate
its
contact
m the same way as
you know some delicious fruit
by
astmg, but with this
difference, that the normal
senses

^ This IS all very elementary to

those who have studied mysti-
but I know by experience how strange such an introspective
inquiry appears
to a beginner.
 are not acle<|ualc to perceive the
true Self; (he illumina.
lion of (he .nvsdcs is reqnired,
and (l,e average indivi-
dual cannor use (his liglu. Tl.e
wiring for ii cxis(s but
u lies la(en( m vour body, perhaps for men of (he fn’(ure
Direct insight is not the prerogiitive of the
few: it
pii be used bv you, and by everyone alive. The Atman,
i.e., the true Self, is not in the least affected
bv the sheaths
in which it is encased. Sometimes, as in mental defi-
cients, you can sec its beauty shining
through strano-e or
° '

sombre forms.
“Seek and ye shall find.” Gleams of the
true Self
ai-e probably in your inemorv'. You
have seen them if you
have been in love, or hugelv happy, or absorbed
in some
masterpiece of art, or music, or literature. It has been
revealed to you when you forgot yourself: this is a pro-
found paradox, not of my invention.
Ob^iousI^ I ha\e not said the last word here (even
the last words of which I am capable) about this undying
spark, by whose light we may see the masks and illusions
of the world as they are. But I have said enough to
enable us to begin our experiments. I have said rather
more than the little maid of Israel said to Naaman’s
wife, when the commander-in-chief of the Svrian armv
was induced to visit Elisha. Let us o
Sfo toother to the
o
mystic Jordan.
you must choose the place of these experiments.
First,
This is important, for some places dissipate the subtle
neiwous energies, and others consene them. (Y"ou are not
asked to believe this, but merely to accept it for the
moment as a hypothesis.)
The room should be and if possible kept only
quiet,
for meditation and prayer. This is generally a counsel
of perfection. Some of us do not possess much privacy.
We must do the best we can. A retreat is a great help
in the early stages of meditation; later we must learn not
to lean on such luxuries, and make our own silence, and
our own harmony, whatever the outer din and discord.
A workroom is not good for the beginner in Y^oga,
 because I here has been uxj niuth pln.Mcal or mental
nctiMty there; better a bctlnxun. if no other suitable place
i' Most ^oga teachers recommend flowers
asailablc.
for
UHir vinciuan, and the bunting of incense;
but 1 find
the ph\sical presence of such sslnlxds
distracting. I like*
to imagine mv roses or tai nations
In Tugland I medi
late on the floor of tin IxdnMim. hxiking
at tree-tops.
Having chosen xoitr place, sou must keep to it and
not metlnatc elsewhere, during the initial
stages of'vour
cxpenmcnis
Fiidcasour to dicHise- a pleasant, but not too elis-
iracting siew. Mich as distant hills,
or the sky. looking to
the cast or to ilu tionli. but preferabK
to the cast. This
is iinpottant. because
mcilitation is ccnainlv easier when
facing these {xiiiiis of the eompass,
Win j cannot tell:
nor do I know win I sleep better
with mv head to the
north and nn feet to the vnith. but
it is so.
Fold a quill, or blanket, ami rover it
with silk or fur
fin India. ogn muallx h.ne a wooden platform
an inch
high, coxertd liisi uith a
hlankct. and then with a
Tin. to insulate them from
ictipiird
carih-eurrcnts.) .\s
lo fxviiion. sou must l>c
comfortable, and able to keep
'our spmc straight. 1 he Ixst
positions are the lotus scat
or the tnws legged scat, with
the weight of the bodv on
the left heel, h IS improbable, however, that either of
ihcsc OMiruiK will come naturallv
to xou: and for our pre-
sent purposes xvc must be comfortable, even at the cost of
cmcicno.
C.wfomhlc .md uarni.
AVear loo<c, conxenicni
lothcs. Sit as nrariv cross
legged as possible, in a posi-
ion of alcn aticMiiion Or sit in the s wastika po se which
is casih
learned. 'Miatexcr p<isition vou adopt, remem-
I ,

essential part of Yoga'

V
^oci m
will have to
without moving and without
sir
practices,
geitin-
cramp or conxiilsions. for six
or scAen minutes. \o pan
of yxi should mo\c
except xour ribs and exclids.
* ow we are neariv ready. If these instructions seem-
nigriingiv vcihose
Details arc abso

V.E
10 YOGA EXPLALNED

Jutely necessary. Without accuracy of method, you are

not likely to get satisfactory^ results from anything you do.
Other methods there are, of course, but the ones given
here have been tested by time and mellowed by tradi-
tion.

I suggest that you should devote twenty minutes a

day to the exercises which follow, for one week. The
time should alrvays be the same, preferably the morning,
before breakfast, but after vou are tvashed and dressed.
' 4

If this is inconvenient, try the hour before dinner, but

gentle yourself into the right mood by reading a good
book, or by taking a hot bath, followed by a cold or tepid
shower or a sponge-down. Don’t try' to meditate with
your mind full of worries. Dismiss dull care. Relax.
And, most important, please see that your bowels are

functioning regularly. We shall return to this subject;

for the present, you must be content with the flat asser-

tion that constipation is death and damnation to the

higher processes of thought.

At last we begin. Place your hands on your knees,
and sit still, looking eastwards (or northwards) slightly
above the level of your eyes.

This sounds simple, and it is; but you may find it

rather queer at first, rather queer and pleasant. You are

meeting your Self. It is worth cultivating. You have
to live with it. WTiy keep it at a distance, as a stranger,

when it is ready to guard and guide you? Give it the

benefit of your undivided attention for a minute, or half

a minute. Just be yourself. Let your thoughts flow on.

Watch them, unconcernedly, cynically if you like. They

are not really you.
As have already suggested, a true knowledge of the
I

leads to the highest point of Yoga; even a glimpse

Self
powers may bring to you a feeling of calm and con-
of its
fidence.
powers, in a minute, or
How may you glimpse these

in half a minute? I don’t know. M\ I know is that it

to a beginner, especially if he is not ex-

<often happens
 IS YOGA FOR YOU."

peeling too much. Don’t expect. Receive. Feel you

are a sponge, if you like, absorbing the Universal Cosmic
Consciousness. Let the seconds run on. Watch the
river of time passing by, while you sit serenely on the
bank. In so far as you do not identify yourself with the
current, you are beginning to realize the Self.
Concerning time: a watch is never allowed by gurus,
who reckon meditation periods by soundlessly repeated
mantras} However, I would recommended a watch to a
Western beginner, conveniently placed at his feet: its

little face will amuse him and the aeeping seconds will
induce a rhythm, But when you are in the full swing
of meditation — sas’. after a month’s practice— then to
watch an instrument would be a mistake. Even so. I

always look at my watch before and after my meditation,

and I am always, daily, surprised at the regularity with
which the exercises seem to accomplish themselves. Some-
times the thoughts that come to me are so new, so full
and satisfying, that 1 feel that hours must have passed;
yet the chronological time occupied in meditation
never
varies by more than a minute or two: what has varied has
been the intensity of my imagination.
Having sat thus quietly for some moments—mo-
ments to which yousoon look fonsard, as a hungry
will
man looks fonvard to a feast— thank Heaven for the
gift of life. Ask for blessings on your family, on vour
household, on all dependent upon you. Next, ask for
blessings on your friends and teachers, those who influ-
ence you and inspire you in your work
and play. Name
them, and thank God for them. Don’t
make out a long
catalogue of names, or strain the memory-
to think of
benefactors. Thank God for those whose names come
to the surface of your mind.
Finally, bless those who

^ Invocations in Sanskrit. There is no reason wliy there should

not be mmtroi in English.
I have made some for my personal use,
lint I would not presume to publish them.
 YOGA EXPLAINED

rse you. It is really quite easy to do, and it works

like magic, as do all Christ’s injunctions.
thank Heaven and thank God; if you
I write,
believe
in neither, you can still be glad that
you are alive ’ and
you can wish happiness to your enemies.
While asking
for blessings, try not to let extraneous
thoughts intrude. WTien thinking of Jane,
or John, you
may hnd the mind frisking off to other pastures, like
a
lamb on a Sussex salt. Bring it back kindly, and then
passon to Arthur or to -Wine. At this stage you needn’t
spend more than a minute or two at this exercise.
Now for a very simple pranayama, which is a Yogic
breathing.
O
Take three full, deep, slow breaths,
inhaling as
deeply as you can without strain, and then check your
breathing gently.
If this makes you giddy, stop once and breathe
at
naturally. You are probably auto-intoxicated, and, if
you are, you should not continue your Yoga practice
until )ou are better. Possibly you may be interested in
what I have to say later about health.
Normally, hoivever, you will find that on checking
your breath your heart settles down to a strong and
rhythmic beat. You will )'ourself feel strong and rhylJi-
mic, aware, in full enjoyment of your powers and per-
sonality. This sensation can be expressed in poetiy”^ and
in music, but in print it is almost impossible to describe.
T shall not attempt to do so, first, because unless you are
enterprising enough to try it for yourself you are not the
person for whom I am writing, and, secondly, because
an intellectual grasp of such a state of mind is a contra-
tliction in tenns: you are trying to tap a higher level of
consciousness than that of the intellect which observes
your moods. This part of the intellect is like the Eng-
lishman s idea of the babu: a patient slave, bound to
forms and precedents. We are dealing with the man
who makes decisions.
Do not hold your breathing for longer tlian you can
 IS YOGA FOR YOU?

comfortably restrain it. Breathing is a barometer of

health, but lung capacity varies greatly in individuals,
depending on their food and emotions. Thirty seconds
svill be enough for some people; others will be able to

accomplish sixty seconds, or even a minute and a half.

Let me again wam you not to make an heroic effort, and
not to think that by holding your breath for a long time
you will make quick progress. Misdirected enthusiasm
is more likely to give you a strained heart than increased

psychic powers. But if you are reasonable about pra)ia-

yama, you will do your heart a great deal of good. People
assert that this practice is dangerous. So it is, if you
don’t use your common sense; but then so is climbing
a mountain dangerous, or crossing a street.
While holding your breath, you must feel happy.
and enjoy the beauty of the world.
Here you may protest that this is impossible, or at
least contrary to reason. You may not be feeling happy,
happy.
and the world may
not be looking beautiful. It may be
raining or freezing. You may have a difficult day ahead,
or an agitating evening.
But isn’t the world always beautiful?
Snowflakes are
lovely. So is rain. Fog has a mysterious charm. As to
your personal troubles, look them up and down. These
unmannerly worries that have come whining and plead
ing for your attention could quite well have waited for
a quarter of an hour. At the moment you are busy witli
something else, namely, the intention of enjoying the
beauty of the world. What good can you do them, in-
stantly? Aren’t they behaving rather like spoilt children?
Man is bom and the world would be a
to trouble,
\ery duh place without it. Responsibilities and anxieties
will remain with you while you draw the breath
of life,
but they needn't butt in when they aren’t wanted. Send
them away through the trap-door of consciousness.
What they w'on’t go? But they luill, if you assert
if

your desire calmly and confidently. Of course, if they

remain disobedient and clamorous vniir TYiPilifntinn fnil«
 YOGA EXPLALXED

Do not try yourself too highly at first:

you should not
begin your experiment in Yoga when
you are in an un-
duly anxious state. But given normal health of mind
and body, you will find that the mind comes to
heel with
remarkable docility. It likes a master: it
is iinreascriable
only when pampered and fussed over.
Very scon it will
rise abo\e vexing trifles, and you
will be aware that your
tme life is larger than its personal aspects.
Restraint of breathing is a physical help
to such
aivareness. All sorts of things begin to happen in your
bod). The vagus nerv^e. controlling your heart-beat,
signals that the lungs need more oxygen. The telephone
exchange at the base of the brain” gets busy. Gland-
sentries takes measures of security. Taps are turned.
Muscles are tautened. The pulse accelerates, Sluggish
air-cells are roused to action. Funny little beasts like dol-
phins, which you can see in your blood stream through
a microscope, go diving about excitedly. No one knows
fully and completely what happens, but there follows a
quickening of life with increased activity in the sympa-
thetic nervous system. For some reason, which I do not
think anyone has ever attempted to explain, but which
anyone can experience for himself, this condition is
favourable to the exercise of the will.
Thus do you induce a mood by restraint of breath.
VVe cannot pause now to discuss the many and various
aspects of prannyama for we are concerned with results,
not theory, but I may as well anticipate two objections.
The first is that such waste of time when
self-absorption is

you might be out in the teeming, workaday world, follow-

ing the great and good Charles Wesley’s injunction:
Let us each for other care.
Each the other’s burden bear.
What about your own burden? Unless you some
times turn inward, your activities will probably be with-
out discrimination. By all means think of others during
most of the day, but give a little time also to yourself,
so that vour unselfishness mav be directed to useful ends.
 Again, you may feel that there is something artificial,,
perhaps unhealthy, in controlling your miiid by semi-
would you consider it wrong to
mechanical means. But
take a walk in order to clear your thoughts? Or to sleep

decision? Even’thing concerned with

over an important
well as earthly, mechanical and
the body is heavenly as
chemical as well as mental and spiritual.' Wise men tell

there no dividing line between dense

us to-day that is

and so the Yogis have always

matter and ethereal spirit;

Even a hiccup may be an interjection of the

declared.
Holv Ghost, demanding a better vehicle for His expres-
4 *

sion.
All these words have been required to describe one
minute, or half a minute, of breath retention. You have
taken, you may remember, three full, deep, slow
breaths,.

and checked your breathing gently.

When you can no longer easih restrain your desire
for oxygen, take five (instead of three) full, deep, slow
breaths, inhaling as deeply as you can without strain,
and then check your breathing gently.
Proceed to meditate as before.
Then take seven full, deep, slow breaths, and medi-
tate as before.
This threefold process constitutes one prannyamn.
Bv practising it for a few days you will acquire the feeling
that somewhere in an untellable middle space, between
the densest matter and the finest spiritual essence which
you can imagine, far off, yet closer than hands or breath-
ing, lives the Self that gave you being. But beware of
making this Self the solution of the cosmic riddle. It may
be the solver, but it is not the solution. “To denv the
7 •

God without is to destrov the

4
God within.’’-

1 A scientist has recently discovered a substance called prolactin

which causes maternal affection in small mammals. Given to male

tats, it causes them to cuddle their offspring.
2 Sir S. Radhakrishnan in Indian Philosophy, Vol. I. For a
Western student there are no books better than Radhakrishnan’s to
 ‘’lx or se\cn minutes
have
'om- nieditatio,,. Xo„ vou must rL "r? T'

a cross.
bodv ,0
Va.rn
maviti
'

.nud
Let Z
VO i
lA
Surrender vour
"f

'our mind to stillness

of Avell-being , Feel a itav^
and contentment comino- b-nm
UIHIlinpr-tips to the small 1“'
of vour back It is'A'd
™.S teelmg this relaxation,
compounded of hcaZtt 'i

- cn. ^Miichcan only describe, tentatiyely

1
as if a ba-tew
were being re-charged in
vour solar plexus
-Auer a minute or so of
<|uiei, sit u„ in vour
previous
I»sit,on. whatever ,t mav
have been, and hnagine
some-

Iin..gine .somethimr beautiful.

It mav be a horse or
" ''' (AAith me it usu'allv
rtZ 'AlA
ellovi loses, or a white carnation
is

between two
spilet ones.) .See tomb
it. it: or pat it. ride it, plav it
steer 1 , onve
the objeet of vour contemplatioti
it: enjov
-uid take a -en-tiotis as
well as an intellectual delight
in
Its particular
glories and qualiiies.
your powers of concentration
If
arc poor, you will
find that \our mind will jib
away from this apparently
pleas-int task like a jach mule. .She will not frisk as
ficfore. She may behaye peiTcrsely. or get
really yicious
Ho not be cruel to her. Shc'.s sensitiye to
your opinion
fait hough you may not think
so at the moment) but un-
liained. P,c fimi. and die will come
back to the object
of your desire. It^ is natural to
(ind difficulty in order-
ing the mind. If it cvere ea^y. eve might haye paradise on
earth.
haee passed nine or ten mimites in the ex-
I Ill's eve
creise of the creatiee will. Xoev eve must exercise the

dve 1 ini tl;o (5>fnre '.f llip Vedas and Upanishads and all that is

fie'ine and vital in their philosophies to day.

 body. (To exercise the body first is wrong, for the pulse
would be too active.)
Any exercise is good, provided that you like it and
do not overdo it. Only do exercises which you enjoy.
You must put rhythm into your activity, and there can
be no rhythm without joy.
Nearly all the modern setting-up exercises practised
in Europe and .America come from tire Yoga system,^ and
ivere taught on the banks of the Ganges and in the Hima-
layas thousands of years ago. There is nothing new under
the sun. Many a medieval guru could have managed a
beauty parlour, or trained a football team, or racehorses,
for that matter. They knew our secrets of make-up and
physical culture, and have left them on record.
In Chapter IV, ten Yoga exercises are given, with
comments on their suitability for age
and sex. Here I
find it difficult to be specific, as everything depends on the
individual. The chief point is that you should feel that
. your body is a friend. Do not exhaust your friend un-
duly, but on the other hand give rein to his wish for more
abundant life. He may exult in activity, or he may want
to stretch and rest. He is one of the people who go to
make up your personality, just as important as the mind-
aspects which you have been putting through their paces.
Now it is the turn of joints, muscles, heart, diaphragm.
Merely as a suggestion, here are half a dozen exer
cises
1. Stand erect, with the
about a vard apart.
feet
I.ock the fingers together, imagining you have an
axe in
your hands, and go through the motions of chopping
wood vigorouslv.
2. Sit down cross-legged
and glance sharplv about
the room, upwards, downwards, and
out of the corners
of your eyes, without moving the head. Now move the
head sharply to right and left. Then
make the head circle
on the neck, first clockwise and then counter-clockwise.
Each of these movements can be done about
a dozen times.
Be careful to see that your breathing is steady.
 40 yoga explained

0 . Stand erect, with the feet about a ^ard apart

and raise the arms to the
down smoothl^)^ and swiftly,
level of the shoulden. Ld
touching the left toe with
e right hand. Return to the original position.
Bend
down smoothly and swiftly,
touching the right toe with
the left hand. Do this
twenty times. Do not catch
4. your
breath as you bend down in
this or any other
exerdse.
The e)es should be wide open alert,
looking level, down
and back, according to the motions of the body. If you
can t touch your toes, go as near as you can without
undue effort.
5.
Laugh at yourself in the looking-glass, silently
you must keep up a reputation for
il
sanity, otherwise
out loud, and the louder the
better. Box at vounelf in a
mirror. Pretend you are a ballet dancer.
Behave like a
lunatic. Fling your arms and
legs about. See how limp you
can make yourself without actuallv falling down; finally
flop on the floor.

Sitting in any comfortable cross-legged

6. position,
grip the knees with the hands, and
give your body a
rotary, clockwise movement, drawing
in the muscles of
theabdomen as the body goes back, and pushing out the
abdomen as the body comes forward. This exercise is
not difficult to do, but it is useful to have a teacher to
demonstrate it at first. Plenty of will-power should be
put into the writhing motion. It is not suggested that a
beginner can make this exercise a substitute for all other

bodily activity, but an expert can do so, and I have seen

such a \ogi induce a profuse perspiration by a few
minutes of the laukiki-miidra.
Stand up and yawn. Stretch your fingers, and
toes, and limbs, and back, and neck. Feel as if every-
thing were getting longer. Behave like a cat waking.
These exercises sound modern, but they are all in

the Yoga tradition, and have been given to me by gurus

in the course of the past thirty years. I do them myself
in the morning (combined with a longish head-stand), for
1 find them more amusing, and therefore more possible
 IS YOGA FOR YOU? 27

to do regularly, than the average course of physical cul-

ture.

The systems of Homibrook and Muller are excellent,,

hoivever, and can be thoroughly recommended. Any kind

of exercise which gives flexibility to the spine; frees the

solar plexus, gives strength to the trunk muscles, or con-

duces to relaxation, is good Yoga.

Of coune, exercise out of doors is best of all, but
it may be impossible to make this a daily habit.
Eye exercises are important: we read too much for
the amount we think, and some of us relv too much on
spectacles.^

With regard to relaxation, ive must remember that

rest is a law of life as much as activity,- and that there
can be no success in any enterprise— physical, mental, or
spiritual —without rhythm, which is a cunning combina-
tion of energy' and ease. This is brought home to me,
as a writer, every' day; and in an effort to keep some parts
of me employed, while other parts attend to the job in
hand, I often smoke too much. Obviouslv this is a bad
way to uTite, but it is better than producing nothing.
I think there is a tendency, among leisured people,
to take the wTong sort of care of the body. The body is
a vehicle of consciousness which will take us far and
fast
into man'ellous country, provided we give it the
right
fuel and lubricants. But it is no use treating it like a
deliate piece of chinaware, or thinking it will last for
ever. The wise owner will use it so that it gives him the
maximum service. He should be able to anticipate ap-
proximately when it will wear out, barring accidents,
and anange accordingly. A few “vices,” provided they
are under the control of the will, may
do us some good.
(Unless w'e happen to be supermen; great responsibilities

1 Harry Benjamin’s Betitr Sight without Glasm is recom-

mended to the short-sighted.
2 L. E. Eeman s Self and Superman is interesting in this con-
ne.xion, especially pp. 51—189.
— no(.a i \n

”11
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K )
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lu' <itc I lu' ten !)i(l(U II 'Ik w bu .ul ,
.i ;i(! 'A - (
•
’IjlllK Ml i( I
1 b:.r
i'- ^ou ( 111 bt,' 1())(1 ()| Mtur '.(bb.it li', b >1 Mil \ ;
) t 11 !
((!('
)(1V \()II.

( '1 ”1 (11 u
1 I I 1 1 1 1 . I ) 1 1 1 I ( ' \s I 1 1 . \ 1 b( ( ! I 1 ! I b ! \ , 1 ! 1 n '

ilu' b(i(l\. \i)\\ ior llic bi't iwo iiiiiiii'(s (it run (Xi/iii
iiitiil. 'll down Cl 0 '-,-k”'4 (.(l ()iu(.' inoit. .oid umii.kI oi
(ihuiii” die Iiaiuk oii ilic kncc', pm duiii o\ ( i di: kiwc'.
W'f linprv-tip' hano down loo^, N. I Ik imiat w
lo adow- mauiktic tuvrcnl^ to flovc oio nf ii.iir bo(i\.
Ibiddlia -al like ibis, in what i> (albd die /o'

j.ui''h!nui. or ‘earil- w iinc'sjnq" podtim,. ^ o 1 t are

"voinulins;' "onic ol \om' neiwous eiteroii.', It n ( le'> to
ti'k. ’A'ldch entiptK.', (me knowo hukIi or wh\ Xo
aliouL die elec trie \> a\cs \vldtli cninnatt from the brain,
except that ihe\ exix,. tor tliev ha\c rcenith licen irKa-ur
ed. AnIccp or awake wc 'cnd out a ^uccc'don of :)tr\()UN
impulses: the rinthm \arics. but the Ka of rlic Self is
ne\er eutirel\ sdll. unless, perhaps, in the lieatihc 'late
known as <aii!a(}hi.

Breathe casih tmcl naturalh', -d'crr lr>i'Z '.our h'V- a'h f

!)\!ir)inli\ B\ this I mean that cam are to take r.oic of

ho\v coil arc breathing;.
W Do not trv to tilter vour ihvthm,
Simplv oli-'cne svhat it is
You mav fee! somethintr leaeintr cour bod\ be the
fintrer-. It mac be ‘'onb. imagination." 'Well, imagina-
tion is a harce. You arc not losing citalitv, d’ou are
gaining it. \Vhcn Yoti cannot reeticc unless cou gn.e.
con come to liawe a fcclintr-realizadon of these m-
d.escribable things, von will feel that the batterv of vour
spine is being discharged and replenishecl at the same
moment. Like all the sensations of superconsciou'ness,
it sounds down. Xo doubt
a little fairastic when cvritten
that is cvln so few people hace attempted to do so.
To recapiiulaie: vou contemplated vour Creator,
thanked Him lor the gift of life, asked for blessings on
vour friends. You perfonned a breathing-exercise. You
thought about something beautiul. YTu rested. '\ou in-
 HISTORY AND THEORY 21^

dulged in some mildly amusing physical activity. Now

you are sitting still again, perhaps wondering why I have
written so much about so little.

Persevere for a few days, for twenty minutes a day.

If, at the end of a week, you get no results, you will have
wasted only a couple of hours. But if, on the other hand ,.

you you have asked return to you,

find that the blessings
that the breathing-exercise clears your mind and brightens
your eyes, that the meditation gives you poise and con-
fidence, and that you are toned up and in tune with life,
then, and only then, you will want to pursue these experi-
ments further.
The exercises suggested are very simple to perform,
but their results are varied and complex.

CHAPTER III

HISTORY AND THEORY

Far from yoga being alien to our racial inheritance, the
language in which it was written is our own tongue’s
grandmother, Sanskrit. Words such as pitr (pater, father),
mataTj bhratar, duhitar, vidhava (widow) show our
family
relationship with the first explorers of the
Aryan Path.
Frorn manas, mind, comes our word mentality;
and rita,
one more example, is the abstract conception of
to give
right on which our systems of law and
ethics have been
founded.
Until recently it was believed that about four thou-
»nd years ago a primitive, stunted, unpleasant-lookine
Negroid people—the “original” inhabitants
of India—
was^conquered by a tall, fair-haired race from
the uplands
of Cmtral Asia. Such an invasion
certainly did occur
but the discoveries of Mohenjo-Daro,
in the Indus Valley’
have proved that a race existed in India
at that time whici!
was by no means backward in the
arts and crafts of dvili-
4
.
1
«' a
M *
themsdves
 YOGA EXPLAINED

art, that of %var. They were cultured, and apparently

fond of bathing; but they possessed no weapons, whereas
the blond invaders did, so the Indus Valley people passed
out of histoiY’, presumably defeated and enslaved.
—
The blond invaders Aryans, as it is convenient to
call them —
were a beef-eating, beer-drinking, horse-loving,
pastoral, and poetic folk. Having settled down in the
land where the five rivers of the Punjab issue from the
fifteen-hundred mile scimitar of the Himalayas, these
AiTans had leisure to cultivate the pleasures of the under-
standing, and they cultivated tliem to excellent purpose,
while their subjects tilled the land.
Their three earliest —
writings antedating all other
books in the tvorld except the Egyptian Book of the Dead
— are the Rig. Sama, and Yajur Vedas. The fourth Veda,
the Athana, is of later date.
The first and oldest Veda, the Rig (Rig means joy,
and Veda, knowledge), teaches that happiness is the aim
of existence, and contains the substance of the three
others. When it was composed no man knows, nor ever
Avill (one of the latest authorities places it between 2500
and 2000 b.c.), was memorized and handed down
for it

from teacher to disciple, and from father to son, for in-

numerable centuries before ivriting was invented. Every
\erse, word, and syllable, has been counted in order to
prevent interpolations; and such is the verbal memory of
the Brahmins that it is probable that the text has not been
varied since the second millennium before Christ.
The second Veda, the Sama, contains the chants to
be used in praise of joy, and is made up chiefly of extracts
from the Rig. Yajur Veda, consists of
The third, or
priestly ritual. or Athan’a Veda, deals with
The fourth,
and exorcism, for by the time it took
ghosts and goblins
thousand after the others, but
5 hape— perhaps a years
600 n.c.— the lofty monotheism of the
rcrtainly before
debased by contact with the natives of
.Ars'ans had been
rheir new home.
The chief early gods were Dyaus and Prithivi, the
 HISTORY .VsD THEORY 31

Bright One and the Broad One, heaven and earth.

Dyaus Pitr, the Heavenly Father, became the Greek Zeus

and the Roman Jupiter. Prithivi is more of a puzzle.
He is the earth, and his broadness suggests that his con-
ception may date from the time before the Ar)ans came
to India. Later, other gods usurp the places of tlie

Great Bright
O Ones. There is Varuna, the y
skv.
4 ^
‘‘he who
puts milk in the kine, wisdom in the heart, lightning-

in the clouds''; and his brother, Mitra, the sun (who as

Mithra became a rival of the earlv Christians); and an

abstruse •metaphysical goddess, Aditi. who is Time and
Space, the Infinite, '“the fate beyond the dawn”; and
Hiranyagarhha, “the golden child”; and Ushas, the
Dawn Maiden, to whom the grandest lyrical poem in the
Rig is addressed; and Agni. lire, latent in two pieces of
wood, whose friction produces the sacred flame; and
Indra, the overlord of heaven, who “contains all that
exists as the rim of a wheel contains the spokes.”
These earh Arvans thought far more like modern
•
o '

men ihaii did the philosophers of medieval times. Here,

for instance, is a hymn to the unseen and unknowable
God behind the world of appearances:

Death "was not known, nor vet immortal life

Night was not born, and day was not yet seen,
Airless He breathed in prima^valitv
It 4 /
I I

The One beyond whom naught hath ever been.

IVhence sprang this Universe? ^Vho gave it form?
What eye hath seen its birth? Its source who knows?
Before the world was made the gods ts’ere not;
Mho then shall tell us ivhence these things arose?
o
He who hath moulded and called forth the world,
M hether He hath created it or not;
Mho gazeth down on it fiom heaven’s heights. . .

He knoweth it; or doth He know it not?^

’ Hymn 129 of the Kig Veda, translated by Dr. F. W. Thomas

and qnoted by Dr. Paul Deussen in
OutVmti of Indian Philosophy.
 YOGA EXPLALXED

There we have the eternal question which men were

asking fifty, sixty, seventy centuries ago, and some of us
are asking still, We may never answer it, but in the
quest many barriers have been and shall still be levelled.
When the Vedas were first brought to Europe, educated
Indians believed that the British were barbarians, and
we thought the same of them. Now, knowing each other
better, tve are beginning to find out how much we may

learn from each other.

Out of the Vedas grew the Brahmanas and Upa-
nishads. The former are textbooks to guide the priests
through their rites; the latter, with which we are more
nearly concerned as students of Yoga, are treatises de-
signed for those tvho leave the world and explore the
mysteries of the Self in hermitages far from the life of
mankind.
Upanishad means “sitting together,” and refers to

the intimacy between a teacher and his disciple. The

central theme of the Upanishads is the pursuit of Reality,

and in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is the famous cry

of the mystic, which has rung down the ages: “Lead

me from the unreal to the real, lead me from darkness to

light, lead me from death to immortality.” There are

one hundred and eight Upanishads-. of which ten are the
oldest and mosi authoritative. They are supposed to
have been written between 1000 b.c. and 300 b.c.; but

nothing is known about their authors, whose studies of

the Self left nothing of themselves for posterity.

“The
they arc either
tnily great have no middling ledge:

or utterlv unknown.”^
for only
^Ve in Europe ha\e studied the Upanishads
a hundred and fifty years. That is a short time in the
history of thought : hardly long enough to dispel the idea
began with the Greeks. Already, how-
that civilization
made a profound impression on the best
ever thev have
the world, and have led to the establishment of
minds of'

1 Thomas Hardy in A P«iV of Blue Eyes*

 HISrORV AND THEORY 33

several new branches of scholarship, such as compara-

tive philology and comparative religion.
was in the year 1783^ when Sir William
It
Jones
went to Calcutta as a puisne judge of the Supreme
Court
of Bengal, tliat the treasures of Sanskrit
literature were
discovered for the Western world.' Up to a point. Sir
^V illiam s Sanskrit teacher was willing
and .sympathetic
but there were times when the pundit became
silent, or
met his pupil’s inquiries with polite evasions.

f'S- 1 . a.’ Murlij cross-leoyed

as in a position
of alert
attention.

nission of the existence of

some Sanskrit plays and
untually he prevailed up„„
a Brahmin friend ,o
give

dia 1, im teacher began to translate,

he understood that
^ “‘''''“O- -x'
1. is
) sTe
,
ke 1 those of Cortes, surveyed
'I''’'

a virgin sea. He
1 xVctually, the first translation of a Sanskrit wt.rk was th,-

s due t him as well as to Ma.v

Muller, Sir Wilkiam Jones, H. ^
on und ? a
understanding the people he ruled.
r?4 YOGA EXPLAINED

was amazed at the

sweep and splendour and sophistica-
tion of this play, for he had come upon the work
of Kali-
dasa, the Indian Shakespeare, of whom Goethe was
later
to write:
Wouldst thou the year’s young blossoms and the
fruits of its decline.
And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured,
pastured, fed
Wouldst thou the Earth and Heaven itself in one
sole name combine,
I name thee, O Shakuntala, and all at once is said!
Goethe was not alone in his praise, for Shakuntala
was soon translated into every European language. The
whole world took note of a new literature. Here was a
fifth-century Indian, a contemporary of Hengest and
Horsa, who marked not the dawn but the zenith of a cul-
ture hitherto unknown.
Sanskrit texts and translations followed one anodier
quickly. The epic of the Mahabharata is eight times
longer than the Iliad and Odyssey combined. The other
epic, the Ramayana, contains 24,000 verses. In the
Mahabharata is embodied the Bhagavad Gita, which
has been termed the Bible of the Hindus. was written It

about 400 B.C., and there is a parallelism, sometimes

actually verbal, between its teachings and those of the
New Testament. It is one of the great poems of the
world, and, with the Aphorisms of Patanjali (about

200 B.c.) contains the best and loftiest exposition of Yoga

teachings. Both books are by unknown authors, for the
Aphorisms although codified by Patanjali, are older than
his day.
Indians anticipated most our discoveries in the
of

Middle Ages. Much of the credit given by Gibbon to

the Saracens for enlightening Europe is really due to the

They invented chess, decimals and fables. Our

Hindus.
numerals are not Arabic, but Aiyan. The decimal system

known to Ar)a-Bhatta (a.d. 476) and fully ^fcribed

was
by Bhaskaracharya (a.d. 1 14) long before it a
 HISTORY AND THEORY 35

the writings of the Arabs and Graeco-Syxians. The value

of 71 and the method of alculating the area of a circle
were known in India nearly a thousand years before they
were discovered in Europe in the fifteenth century, and
an Indian mathematician proved that x jo = infinity
five
centuries before we came to the same conclusion.

All this goes to prove that the literature of the

Arpns is worthy of our respectful attention. But how
much of it, you may ask, is necessary to read in order
to learn The answer is that none of it is
Yoga?
neces-
sary'. Books may be valuable but they are never
indis-
pensable. Abraham Lincoln read little but the Bible.
What learning bad John Keats?
As in golf, koga, practice under expert guid-
so in
ance is worth more than theory'.
Why, then, do I attempt to write down what is best
whispered into individual ears? Very briefly
’
I must
explain what I am explaining.
This book is not for those who are already on the
royal road to sef-knowledge.
It is written for the legion
of the lost who are looking for a teacher. I can tell them
how to begin, or at any rate one of the ways of begin-
ning to look for the Self.
After that they must find
another guide. There is no
need to go to India for him.
I our teacher— a choice

when you
of teachers maybe —will come
are ready to recognize him and understand his
message. This is itself a mystic truth.

^ of Creative
urn^
Will. We j
do not know how our thoughts
influence the
future but a day will come
when all mankind will admit
that they do, and that
“knock and it shall be opened to
you IS a scientific statement.
We have to learn to
'0 him who sits
with folded hands.
 36 lOGA EXPLAINED

These conditions are impossible

to fulfil in Europe and
America. We must adapt our
methods to suit our cir-
cumstances. But beware of anyone
isho is eager to in-
struct you or expectant of
rewards: the true guru seeks
no profit for himself, and does not
feed you until you
have an appetite for knowledge.
A word of caution must be entered here. Certain
breathings and certain meditations
have stimulating
effects, and put us within the
circuit of a powerful force
akin to electricity or gravitation, Yogis
call it prana.
Before attempting to meddle with this
force, or to
balance ourselves on the flying trapeze of
superconscious-
ness, we must know at least something of what we are
doing. You wouldn’t touch a live wire without rubber
gloves. So with \oga. \ou must know some theory
before it is safe to practise.
What I am about to explain will need your patience
and attention. The terms will be unfamiliar, and the
ideas strange. \ou may object to my description of a
sleeping serpent in )our pelvis, to nebulous lotuses
un-
known to anatomy, and to spinal impulses that no
Western doctor has been able to discover. If so, I am
soiT)’. I could have "written
book without using a
this
single Sanskrit term, but if I had done so I should
merely have had to substitute new^ names for the old ones.
Believing as I do that something mysterious happens in
my spine and in other parts of my body when I think and
act in a certain way (mysterious only because as yet un-
explored), I find it simpler to
Kundalini rises
say that
through the lotuses to meet Lord Siva, rather than to
describe an untellable experience in words of my own
invention.
be necessary, therefore, for the reader to make
It will

the best he can of the chakras, nadis, ida, pingala, the

royal road of the shnsliumna, and the rest. They are
only convenient names to clothe a very definite and prac-
tical theory. A great deal of bosh has been w'ritten about
the dreaminess of the Indian mind: it is a vei^' clear
 mSTOKV AM) IHliORV 37

mind, /
as a inalti oi fad, aitiuaic
^
and ina'dicinatic al,

but concerned with \aliics wliich arc not al\va\'5 ours. It

aims generally at a s)iulicsis, tvhcrca^ we. in spile of out

\auiUed practicality, are inclined to sitciul an inordiiiaic

o on analyses
cnergv ^ ^
which lead us onl\ iiuo a bo<>
o
ol

words.
You are not a^ked to l)el!cwe itnpli(iilv in ihe iheori(s
which follow. Fake ihcin or leave them, but if vou lake f

ihein seriously eon will probably -ucceed in making \oui

mind do more or less what you want. I ^ik'ocm
O that con ^ I J ,

should treat ilum as sou do a radio set, with respect, but

pragmatically. Xobodv asks \ou to l)ow down and wor
: btiL I do ask you to be earefnl and to think what \ou
are doing.
o

a
1>''-S>ini.ibly luxe, bv now-
ihc body IS not llic whole Self, nnd al-o ilut certain
tons am ceii.nn bicailiiiytis infliteme the niind, we
aie now asked to assume di.it the veliicic of this influence
 HISTORY AND THEORY 39

instead of a descent of spirit into matter, wc bring the

gross up to the subtle.

2. Two or three inches above the muladhara chakra,

where Kundalini, the serpent-goddess, sleeps, comes tlie

svadisihana chakra (the “wheel of one’s own place’’),

opposite the genital organs. It is the controller of sexual

desire, and may be said to correspond to the hypogastric

plexus.

3. Next we come to the manipura chakra ( the

“many-rayed wheel”), opposite the navel, which is con-
cerned with the functions of digestion, and may be said to
correspond to the solar plexus. This chakra is known as
the City of Gems, and also as the Lotus of Joy. When
Kundalini can be brought to it, the Yogi obtains powers
of healing.

4. On a level with the heart is the anahat chakra

(the 6.“soundless-sound wheel”), controlling the respira-
tion, which may be said to correspond to the cardiac
plexus. When Kundalini can be brought to it, the Yogi
obtains powers of clainoyance and clairatidience.

5. Behind the throat is the visuddha chakra (the

“wheel of purity”), controlling speech, which may be said
to correspond to the phar)'ngeal plexus. This chakra
is known as the Lotus of Purification. When Kundalini
can be brought to it, the Yogi can live as long as he
pleases.

Between the root of the nose and the base of the

skull,with branches leading to the space between the
eye-
brows, is the ajna chakra (the “partial-knowledge
wheel”),
which may be said to correspond to the cavernous plexus
of the autonomic nervous system. This chakra is known
as the Whwl of Command, t.e., the helm of the body,
because to it, according to the Yogis, come messages from
the outer world, carried by the afferent or sensory nerves,
and from it go the impulses which control the unconscious
mechanisms of the body, by the efferent or motor nerves.
It is also the place where the
“eye of Siva.” or the “third
 ^ye.
n.ay be
and
he l.iNt and
" prnbjblv the
highest
cortical I, ,‘,,r "
(< ntir ri ;

chaku,

f«m of a dot (tide

,„,v be !hc olic 1 ' "'’r'’
'‘'>'™saia). and aecende
t.itl, l|„„
suarded bv six doore.
Me cm
(an
'
ud!
u a 1
.tfford to
'(niholi.in of the leave '»h
ancient ^ - ilu
^noKled.e of v.hat
haonen
'‘-not;.b
Itis cnoiio;h
(or™V:r„.
for our niim :';d
'^'''"? fonvoluiions
''™-olutic,n
represent carions
relasin5-sni'tTO,!"f'TdIe''‘
tal circnits of the
'anous clectri
bodv Thr •

fonjunctions of mechanical
S'z::;: :',r :S; r
1 .
•s.st -™:r:'sz.,Z.-';,;:
i*i^uiuni) SUD<
''ran b.
•

«„h 1
^
t
„s oKn
r\Xk*r^
sphere of aetivitv
'\ith retjard to
the three rr>rr- r.f
ire «n.ra,„ncb called jfni^fiurnnais
r03cl
i»? f , , it is thp rO\3i
of lll(? ooci\, tKo
uic Hnr]\' ct\^
the spinal i
1

marrow. On each ^'de nf n

I

it: tSjfzs-
euxrenrs
currents as
lows f Trah ng the analogy ofel ,
tol
brl-

man
eleciricitv, we find that
can1 ’‘'rnn
send a riirr^,^f
current onlv along a .1

wire but
restores no wires to send her
trentendous ottrents ^
nature

u. h tt eompeds us to use it.”,This was said long Wore

continues: “The columns^of sen-
sLv "'^‘"rV
'P'""' c«cd are the ida and
'uL ^ "c
thrf n
the main channels
afferent and efferent currents travel.
V
But why should not the mind send
news without anv
^sire, or react without anv wire?
AVe see this is done in

( Id Haja loga, Advaita Ashrarea, Mavavati,

Almora. U P..
India.
 nature. The Yogi says that if you can do this, you have
got rid of the bondage of matter. do you do it? If How
you can make the current pass through the shushumna,
the canal in the middle of the spinal column, you have
solved the problem. The mind has made the network of
the nervous system, and has to break it. so that no wires
will be required. Then alone will all knowledge come to

fig. 3 Let ycur thoughts flow on.

.
atrh them. They are iv<t

really you.

This, then, the body in its Yogic aspect. Only a

is
few further definitions are essential:
Pram has sometimes been called the “breath of life.’'
It is more than that, just as pranayamamore than is
breathing: the art of
it is absorbing prana and using its
vibrations to obtain a knowledge of
the true Prana self.
is the universal cosmic
energy-, the “infinite,
omnipresent,
manifesting power of the universe,” by ’ivhich
the worlds
were made; the stuff on which we live,
whatever that may
be. Nobody has seen or analysed it. It is the manifesting
power which changes the original matter
of the Universe
into suns and spermatozoa.
It enters vour bodv chieflv
by breathing (there are other avenues)
and although it is
not air, it is an energy with which
air is charged.
The Atnian is the true Self, the Universal Cosmic
Consciousness, whose realization consists of
feeling as well
 YOGA EXPLAINED

as knowledge. It is
only fully comprehensible
to those
vho have had experience
of samadhi (see below).
The Jwa IS the Self inman, the Enjoyer, That
las
which
consciousness. The phrase “Tat tvam
fl«”-“That
''' identification of the Jiva with
the aZu^
is defined in the Ox/ord
as “illu-
sion which is an insufficient explanation,
and the sup-
por ing references are a
hundred years old. Chamberfs
Dictionary does no better
with: “an illusive appearance
especially of a celestial maiden personifying the active
will of the creator of the universe.”
Radhakrishnan thus
explains this difficult term
in his Indian Philosophy:
the principal categories of the world of experience,
time, space, and cause, are self-contradictory'. They are
relative terms, depending on their constituetnts. They
have no real existence. Yet they are not non-existent.
The world is there, and we work in it and through it.
^V-e do not knoiv and we cannot know the why of this
world. It is this fact of its inexplicable
existence that is
signified by the word ‘Maya.’ ’
In short, we may con-
ceive niaya to be the aspect of creation
in its Becoming,
the mysterious flux in which we move.
ysinma and samadhi are synonyms for “beatitude.”
Dictionary' definitions to the effect that they
mean “the
extinction of the individuality and absorption into the
supreme spirit” are technically con-ect, but the emphasis
should be on the absorption rather than on the extinction.
Literally nircana means “blowing-out” (of the devils of

egotism, and the inrush of the knowledge of the true

Self), and entirely united with the Universal Cosmic Con-
sciousness, caught up to God, the state of paranirvana is

reached (the “great liberation”) from which there is no

return.
The seven svstems of Youa
/ o are:’
1. Hatha Yoga, which is concerned in its initial

stages with the phvsical body, and with the piercing of the
nervous centres abovementioned. It is the svstem with
 HISTORY ANT) THEORY 45

wliich I am best acquainted, and which, in my opinion,

is best suited to Western man and woman. (See below,
however^ regarding the inter-relation of the various sys-
tems.) Adepts of Hatha Yoga assert, it seems
to me with
reason, that their samadlii is more complete than that
obtainable through other Yogas, for it involves the union
of the powers of the body as well as of the
mind with the
Divine Life.
2. Bhakti Yoga is the path of love and devotion,
followed by the numerous Vaishnava sects
in India. (^Vor
shippers of Vishnu in his avatar as Krishna,
the cowherd
bom of a virgin.) It is the most popular of all the Yogas,
and is often practised with Mantra Yoga.
3. Mantra Yoga is the cult of the Name of Krishna,
the science of vibrations, bv which certain invocations lead
the Self into the knowledge of the Divine
Life. To a man
disciplined as I was in mv early vears, the self surrender
of this path not easv.
is Moreover it requires a musical
ear, and I am practically tone-deaf. I cannot, therefore,
write of it with first-hand knowledge: but
it is an import-
ant Yoga and one which
^
should be explored bv
musicians.

4. Karma Yoga is the path of senice through

action
or the philosophy of icork,
which should especially appeal
to those who are immersed
in the world’s affairs' Yo<ns
have always recognized that the
mystic life does not neces-
sarily require withdrawal
from the world.
5. Jnana Y’oga is the path of intellectual aspiration
or devotion supported by
reason. It exercises a power-
ful appeal to some
M^estem minds. St. Ignatius of Loyola
nught be desCTibed as a Jnana Yogi, and St. Francis of
Assisi as a Bhakti Y’ogi.
6. Raja Yoga
a smthesis of Bhakti. Karma,
is
and
jMna Yogs, such as that followed
bv the orders of
Christian Chivalrw
^ 4

7. Lay^riya Yoga is a secret path,

concerned with
the union of the sexes
as symbolical of the union
'of the
Jim with the Atman.
 yoga expl^lned

Akhough we have been

accustomed in the West tn
draw dist,nct.ons between
the various systems
o£ Yo^

the D^ers If Th
" I ,
of

lope of the disciple, a:;

-ho U-fver.
-ralTolm-
The steps, or stages of Yoga, are
more or less the
same tn all its branches. They blend into
each other
the systems do, but none
of the steps can be
altogether
disregarded. In the East, as in the West,
students are
tempted to neglect the first two
stages (positions and ex-
trcises),but in the East no teacher will
allow a novice
to practise pranayama until
he has acquired the necessary
strength and suppleness by asana and mudra,
nor even
to practise these positions and
exercises until he has first
acquired yaga-niyama, i.e., the right mental attitude
towards them.
Some teachers say that there are eight steps
in Yoga
(Buddha defined them as right views, right aspirations,
right speech, right behaviour, right livelihood, right
effort, right mindfulness, right concentration); other
teachers hold that there are only six steps;
but the gene-
rally accepted number is seven:
1. \ama-niyama, or right views, includes harmless-
ness, truthfulness, continence, poverty, cleanliness, con-
tentment, austerity, study, self-surrender, in short, the
best moral precepts of all lands and
Knowledge ages.
begins with the will, and there must be a desire for Yoga
before it can be assimilated or achieved. Those who
dabble in it from curiosity, or who attempt to take short
cuts, will get nothing but a headache or a heart-attack.
Right thought must precede right action. Yoga should
not be practised for selfish ends. It can be so practised,
however, when the adept, possessed of power without
virtue* becomes a danger to his community, or even to
the world; hence gurus are careful to test the character of
 111^5 1()K\ AM) IMlj'RV ir>

their pupils, soinetiuics Im Ntai^, i)C‘l(nc' allow iiij; thciu

to enter the Path.
2. Asana and iiiudia ate jjO'iitioiis and tAnaises
During meditation, as we ha\c seen, there i‘ a(li\ii\ in
the subtle as trell as in the jthvsieal bodx. It is nece-s.iiA
that the spinal coltunn shoidrl be straight, and that the
whole body should be in a state of altiiitive but unsirain
«

cd expectancv. This tan hardlv be adiitttd wiiliom

practice. In most Yogas the
position that is most comfortable is the best. Xot so in
Hatha Yoga, in ;diich the student must (()niri\( during
his apprenticeship to make the best positions as (omfort
able as he can. Often this involves periods of atiite dis
comfort, I used to erv with pain during a long sitting
inpadmasana, but now that mv joints are freer I know
that those tears were not wasted.

/•///. 4 . ''Strilrh. hl;i a rut."

3. Pranarama the rhvthm of the

is intake of the
vital force. Lung power has ^ery little to do with real
prauayama. which is the control of the prana, but for
the
practical purposes of the beginner, pranayama
exercises
deal with the breath: and it is only through
right breath
46 VOGA EXPLAINJEID

mg that satisfactory results

are achieved
of common observation It k ^

^ood lungs.
that most
^ lod thioV
mirtkers have

word moaning of the

is "“if
powers of the m 'nd so th
vol^fons?' may be
tree from the thraldom
of the

word^ hmden^ng
is or“"'f-a- T''^ T“'"®
musces of the m
"„d"®mttst“ be eLtcSd’t'eTalk
dear new brain-tracks through the
ju^le of conscious-
6. D/^-aua is meditation, .vhen the perceptions
burn
"" '^-mdlcss place, illuraming
the Self in

/. Samadhi is the isolation of the tme Self from the

^eils of mflvfl It
emancipation, ecstasy, bliss of the
IS
Icnowledge of Reality. Those who have
read thus far
need not be told again that a full definition
of sainadhi
IS beyond the posver ofsvords.

I hope, reader, that your

time has not been wasted.
If you are a normal Western
individual, you will have
Avanted to knoiv about these names and
categories. You
Avould never have been content to study Yoga
without a
plan before you; and being of the West mvself, I
agree
A\ith Aoui desiie for order and logic. Woreover, the
•ArAan sages Avho originally CAolved these processes agreed
Avith us. It was only after they had made the plan, codi-
fied the system, that they realized that Yoga Avas not
a
science, but an art, and that the incalculable factor of
individuality knOAVs no laAVs.
One of the Avisest young men I knoAv. a true mystic,
and a true Yogi, has never read a book on Yoga, and has
never followed any fixed system. His name "is Krishna-
rnurti.
 CHAPTER IV

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

UXDOUBTEDLY MY Yogi frieiids would be horrified by the

experiments suggested in Chapter II. No guru would
permit breathing-exercises to be undertaken until he had
studied the mental and physical make-up of his pupils,

and until he had given them suitable exercises in flexi-

bility and nervous control. But people in the West are
accustomed to engage in adventures light-heartedly. My
method was designed to break down (I think without the
slightest danger) the prejudices that must exist against
any system of thought which does not begin and end
with the brain. Yoga begins with the nenes and ends
with an aspect of consciousness which
is far beyond the

average processes of cerebration; therefore

the ground we
have to travel is unfamiliar, and I wanted the reader to
find his bearings before explaining
theories which might
otherwise have been stupefying in their
strangeness.
Now, before we can begin our practice, we should
clearly understand that an essential part of
ynma-niyamn
is right diet, and a thorough
purification of the body.
“Food discrimination is essential to still the restless
mind, says Sri Ramana Maharishi of Tiruvannamalai,
one of the greatest of living gurus.'
In India, wheie food is simple,,
and has always been
simple, the gurus of old. legislating
for a young, virile,
largely agricultural people,
were not required to consider
the distended stomachs and
vitamin-deficiencies of an
urban population. The following are
the only directions
giten in the Tantra Sanhita for
the Yoga student:
“In the beginning the student should
avoid much
travelling, wine, women, warming himself by the fire,

' The Maharishi died in 1951 .

 VGGA EXPLAINED

and all self-indulgence.

He should eat nce, barley^ad,
cans, peas, and fresh green vegetable*
’•
Basil^^gestible,
agreeable, and cooling
foods may be eaten according to
<lesire, and bitter, acid, salt,
pungent and roasted things
are tc be avoided.

"Half the siotnach should

be filled with food
one-
quaricr with water, and
one-quarter should be kept
^ empty
^ ^
-tor piactistng
pranayaim.
"He who practises Yoga without moderation
in diet
tncurs \anous diseases,
and obtains no success.
"Bclore beginning his
breathing^xercises he should
lake a little milk and clarified
butter; and he should eat
twice dailv, at noon and in
the evening. Regulating
his
life in this wav, let him practise pranayama.
But the prana cannot move in the nerves so long
as they are full of impurities.
How then can pranayama
be accomplished?
‘The purification of the nerves is of two sorts; a
physical process and a menial process.”
The mental process here referred to is a breath-
itig exercise, described elsewhere. The physical process
consists of thirteen ven- complicated cleansing-exercises,
which include directions for vomiting, for purifying the
frontal sinus, and for swallowing several yards of thin
cotton cloth in order to cleanse the stomach from
phlegm.
•In their desire for purity, it wtxild seem that the sages of
the Lpanishadic time advocated various practices tin-

Milled to this age; though ver> much in line with Dr.

.Mexis (.arrel s dictum that ‘‘if we could wash a man
free from his poisons there is no reason why he should
not live indefinitely.” Two of these purifications, how'-
t'ver, mav be
t
briefly described:
.

Jala ba^ti is the common two-quart enema. The

imihnd recommended in the Yoga Tantra Sanliita,

which consists in sitting waist-deep in a pond or stream,

and relaxing the rectal sphincters until the water flows
inio the large intestine bv force of gravity, cannot be
fnllowed in the ^Vcst for obvious reasons, nor is it fol-
 PRINCIPI.E AND PRACTICE 49

lowed in India, as a niaitcr of fact, in these days of

douches. But modem ouius do not look teiih fa\(mr on
high irrigation as distinct from the enema, for they
consider hot water flowing through the bowel in a con-
tinuous current is too drastic a treatment. Half a Qallon
of tepid tvater. without salt or disinfectants, should be
allotred to run slowly into the large intestine, and the
contents retained for four or five minutes, dttrimr which
time it can reach all parts of the bowel; it is then
ejected, and the process repeated, if nccessarv.

I’i'J. 5 . mm, jvel nmetliimj hu.iiuj the hod;. In, the Ungers."
The i,upil i, .<ho,n, in the Lotu.< Seat.
;m<lmasana\ hat any ram fart-
^hle position ran he adapted.
The hands are in hhami-pradhana'
‘

the -earth-uitnessing gesture;’ ’

often seen in statues of Buddha

Tins book is not a medical treatise, but I would

emphasize the fact that the enema
has been employed
for twenty centuries or more
with good results, and that
It IS an almost necessary
preliminary to the Hatha Yo<r.i
 50
VOGA explained

s}stciii and desirable in the other<: ^ TK>ic

spring cleaning by logic

standards.
t 15 ®

fmm'lri! r'‘""
“"* ‘>"“8 ““ “tins back

r, ™ of

Jala neh is ivashing of the throat and nose. It i»

one in two tvays. Tepid water (either plain, or with
lemon-jnice)' is drunk
through the mouth and
expelled through the nose.
The
reverse process consists in
drinking water through the
nose and expelling it through
the mouth.
These purilications-enema and
nasal douche-are
not only healthful in themselves;
thev also have a pro-
found psychological effect as '
anyone who follotvs the
directions in this book can prove for himself.
My own experience with regard to diet and inner
purification is one of thousands— hundreds
of thousands
—of similar stories.
^Vhen I returned to London in 1919. after having
been a prisoner of war in Turkey.
I was a wreck, men-
ially and physically. I had some obscure infection of
fe\er. My liver had swollen over mv ribs. A specialist
in Harley Street prescribed calomel in small doses, three
I swallowed the stuff obediently^ and grew
worse, and worse, and worse.
Often I thought I was going to die, and sometimes

' Directions for taking an enema may be obtained in a pamphlet

published by Hf alth for AU Matjazinc, London. The process is also

described in Fa^tina for IhoUh by Bernard Macfadden. of

Cirilizatlon by Sir William Arbuthnot Lane is recommended as the*

best simple explanation of how the bowels work, and what happens
when they faU down on their job.
 PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE 51

I wanted to do so. But something inside me knew

better.
One fine morning I was travelling down to
spring
Putney on a bus, to go sailing on the Thames. I had
eaten a large breakfast of bacon and eggs and marmalade,
which I didn’t want, but i\hich my hostess (who thought
I didn’t eat enousrh)
O insisted ^tould fortify me for the
'

day.
Presently I began to feel ^ery uncomfortable. Some
obscure argument must have been going on for some
lime between, my unconscious mind and my gorged and
poisoned body. At last the crisis came. I sweated, felt
faint, aware something was being liquidated inside.
Outwardly weak, inwardly I was aware of a gathering
sirensth,
O and I had time to be amused by the contrast
5

between the sallow little citizen on the bus top and

what he was about to do. . . . My whole soul was
y

in revolt against
O o ill when the sun
the absurdity of being V

was shining. ...

Of course, it was undignified to
conduct these discussions tcith myself in public, but . . .

It couldn’t be helped. I was extremely sick. My

soul had revolted as well as my stomach, with a violence
that brought up more than my breakfast and pills, for
I was also free of mv death-wish, and mv belief in medi-

cities.

never looked back. Literally. ^Vhat happened on

I
the bus I don’t know. It drove awav, with its indignant
passengers, leaving me at the Chelsea Town Hall, feeling
very light-hearted.
^ o
For the next two days I ale nothing but acid fruit,
which tasted simply delicious. Until I tried a raw lemon,
I had no idea how my body craxed for
its healing juice.
Then I went to a nature-cure practitioner, who gave me
xvater treatments, and suggested a diet that did not clog
my system. Soon I was well.
The follower of Yoga
not bound to avoid meat,
is

or to eat any particular foods, or to adopt any particu-

lar kind of diet. Most Yogis are vegetarians, but by no
 V

2 VOGA EXPLAINED

means all. I would earnestly recommend Dr ’

books to the Western
student of Yom and T m i
that I have submitted
A Neiu Health F
Better Bodies, etc., to a distinguished
Yogi in'^Indir who
'*
facts This T “”™PP<>««1 by scientific

know
that his recommendations
have the great advantaee
of making me feel well
when I follow them, and thatls
*
enough for me.
"hf' one likes while piactis-
c Yonrfl’
imr loga^ It IS advisable, when learning the
especially
reat ing-exercises, to
abstain from much meat, or much
sugar or
except in the smallest
salt,
should wines or spirits be
quantities. Nor
taken in the earlv stages
(especially spirits: die healthiest wine for
me is hock)
for alcohol has an effect somewhat
similar to that of
pranayama in increasing the absorption
of oxygen; in
fact. It IS easy enough to get drunk on accelerated
breathing. At
even tea and coffee are not
first,
advis-
able. but after a month or
two of practice, the student
can indulge in moderate amounts
of stimulant. Smok-
ing, curiously enough, seems to have no bad effect as
far as Yoga is concerned.
While avoiding fads, we must be careful to avoid
the equal absurdity of thinking we can eat what we like.
Why should we be able to eat what we like, when
Nature has prescribed inexorable laws for
our behaviour
in other respects?
Here is a
true in every material circumstance,
stor)',
though the particulars have been disguised for
obvious
reasons. A girl of twenty, exceptionally clever, and
doing well at London University, but so neurotic
that
she was always having nervous breakdowns, was
sent to
a well-known psychoanalytic institution in the
country,
to be analysed. I asked her about her diet. She told
me the old story: the doctors there weren’t cranks; she
could eat what she liked, just plenty of good, nourishing
(i) The n laster switchboard, or higher'
brain.

(a)
(3)
The control-room of motor activi-
ties, or lower brain.

The broadcasting station, or'

pharyngeal plexus.

(4)

The respiratory centre, or the heart.

(5)

(6) The digestive centre, or the aiolar

plexus.

(7)

The generative centre, or the hypo-

gastric plexus.

The eliminatoiy centre, or thO*

pelvic plexus.

tAe spine is tAe core of a dynamo.’”

 VI

Her inmblc Has

iikniaJ ami ilirv ner^ I

rciii^inccl siv w*-ai i

'•«c IcjrnttI dui tinn-

hci iuui.»>.

v;c,, !. ':::;,t ,r,,;,r

^
-
•" > — n>i ... ... ,l,„. .1,. uMurncl .,uUk,
<«.«! 'V„h
i.. '.i\ n™,r r,"'"
'hi'
ii ..c - I h d '.n h.M
,o h iIk .mcndj.KP,.f a iriiiM,f n,ir»
lu nurst mailt a
Hiipiising d.Mtnen,
Hit patirm
"f '>«.l 1.0. g.) inlo *,a,K
I, die had a gn-M hyj; iapew„nn.
she wa* puited Mhen
cer talks
nc.er'lalk
'
of’"s<h.«.phrniia
ol ,
i’'’*''*' '“"''hKl. \,m die
or the (Fdipu,
complex;

.“l»lc'fcncc as she knew

r-. about the
mcorem. ^nc would have l>een
deal of unhappiness.
Heniv TV*T W I'ka-tf
CNpcriencts. CoDt\s
Cope
somewhat similar to
lore strious will scrse
to point a moral. I
with hie permission, not to
deerv the m«h-
cal professton (after all,
,.e have the doctors we
r\itf « ^
deserve)/ ^
IM i
iiic nope mat they a.

will do good.
“The
foundation of mv illnesses,
writes Cope, *
was laid during mv \ounger davs.
: m
as I can well
einempcr mat my parents were firmly
convinced that
the more onethe stronger one becomes, and so I.
eats,
along with the rest of the farailv. had
to have mv share
heaped

1 The article appeared in f&r All. November 1936. and

permiwofi
 PRINCIPI.E ANO PRACllCL

meat and vegetables at dinner-iinie, a lil)cral supply ol

cakes, bread (white), and pastry at tca-tiine, and alway^
a nice tasty supper to ensure a good night’s rest.
‘‘Mind you, I am going l)ack nearl) twenty year>;
but it is surprising, even in these enlightened days, that
the majority of people still feed in this way. ‘You 7?n/.v/
eat to keep up your strength,’ is their (inn conviction.
Most people, 1 find, experience the greatest dilhculty in
altering their habits of eating. l)ut i( they would realize
that it is just a tussle between their desires and common
sen,sc, they would probalily lind it easier to get a gri]) ol
themselves.
“WYll reared on food such as I have described. b\
the time I reached mv majority I was troubled cviili
practicallv every complaint under the sun. and so lor a
<iOod number of vears I had to rel\ on the familv doctor
to give me temporarv relief. I became sick of the sigln

of medicine. 1 drank of the famous \\hite bismuth

mixture. This ^vas to put a new (?) coat on mv stomach.
the doctor told me. It used to be followed bv a brownish /

coloured liquid for clearing me out. On top of these

came an iron tonic, intended to whip up nn lazy organ-
ism.
“For vears I followed the abo\ e-outlined routine of
medicine drinking regularly, so that it will not be clifli
cult to imagine the chronic state I was in. My emplov-
ers were tired of mv continuallv bcimr awav from work
- o
through illness. The climax arriced, though, cchen.
under the burden of this treatment I found mvself sittinoo
•

up ill bed one night with a terrific burning pain in m\

inside. I can best describe this pain bv likening it to
someone singeing all the interior of mv stomach with a
torch.
‘‘The shock was so violent that I can remember
jumping down the stairs, without. strange to relate,
causing harni to myself, and rolling round the floor of
the dining-room. Here 1 was found later bv mv rela-
tives. I was unconscious, and I lay in a pool of blood.
 k\Vl ^l\Kl>

I li.ul exp nciK (

(1
fx.ih h.ivx i i, *
<l(Hl(»r V\,is stih fdi* III
* tjiiuK
.
I
^ nhuuiruiclv I

(oi I
‘’f’K.iKui <M. '''''
iM.iurniu < ,s( „hI ui. ,k /
visit
'h(T(forf.
MIC It ( I

' '
'OMiiI I,1 ,hhI aiiaiM
•^^cuIllall\ ilK .l.Mnr arnvial at ten o,|<Hk the
vvi.h
, ,1,
- --
nr^;:™
,
RUd, for ., lo
l< jrnol in,in .imvfil
•in
a <1. ..her laiipnn; |„. ,„l,l ,„e ,h.„
,
I ha.l l.h „ ,.tr„v
•>rc. hilt that lu w.Mihi hriNc nu- in h.^fat
'
.l unHrr I.h^er
vation.
“Vou will uali/c the ^tatc in
tion th.H
I ishcti I men
the ainhulatifc was sent for
at 11 a.in and .
at three oVhxk in the
afteni.HMi I was ,>„ ,be operating-
tal>le. hcin. operated upm for prfora.ed d.KMlenal
Ulcers. I had a \eie rtnioie < hance of pnllini; thmujrh.
lai the ()p?ratnio-thcatrc I (.verhead some nurses talking
l.iev said thev felt M.rre for me. as the doctor had told
one of them that not ten per cent, of the eases that
reached the stage I was in sursivee! \fean\shile the
pain was terrific, and so I resigned
nivself to the inevit-
able. I am told the visit to the operating-theatre was o|
three or four hours' duration. I was
soaked in chlorrrform
to such an extent that it was two or
three davs before I
could sense my bearings.
“^Vhen eventualK did pull round. I found that I
I

could onlv move m\ head and arms. The bed was propped
up half-chair height, and an incision was made at the
bottom of the abdomen to drain the
surplus fluids, etc
A nurse visited me twice a day to insert a paimp and draw
miss a beat when I saw her
comincr.
o
“I well remember one night after the lights wtre
 PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE 57

out, lying there, racked with pain, listening to the

chureh bells ringing. Gradually everything appeared to
be going black. All pain seemed to leave me, too. What

7s,^. Frotn tap to bottom the “wheels" or “lotuses" are

.t.' . v.
V -

The Sahasrara Chakra , or thousand-petallec

corresponds with the cerebral cortex, sea
o£ ihe hi^er (facidtles. Its symbol is a lotus of infinih
 r

yoga explained

or “lesser-knowled«re
This corresponds bius”
with the naso-dliarv
0 t e nose, leading
to the medulla,
plexus fi£ \
governing the am°
m a .wo-leaved lotus,
fot at’this
poi„rhrapd li^a"
before", uaUnr"" «*er

(3) The VMi,l,1/ia

Chakra, or the “lotus
of purity”
rhts corresponds with
the pharyngeal plexus
at the throat

leaved’toir
™
C/ifli-ra, or the “lotus of the
/hf
of voice
the inaudible.” situated at the heart. I'his
corres-
ponds with the cardiac
plexus, said by the Yogis
to give
powers of clai^oyance and
clairaudience. Its symbof is
an antelope, in a twelve-leaved lotus.
^

Chakra, or “many-rayed
.•f lotus”
Jtuated at the navel. This
corresponds with the solar
^ ^ a ten-leaved lotus.
Chakra, or “lotus of one’s
thi ^rif- own
place. I his corresponds with the hypogastric
plexus
.governing the sexual organs.
Its symbol is a dragL in
a six-leaved lotus. ° ’

(/) Ihe Muladhara Chakra, or “root-support lotus.”

This coiTesponds with the pelvic or sacrococcygeal
plexus, governing the functions
of elimination. Its sym-
bol is a lingam contained in
a triangle, in a four-leaved
lotus.

The Sushiimna Nadi is the spinal cord, shown by

the central line in the illustration.

Ida is the left vertebral chain of the sympathetic

nervous system. It is called the feminine or moon
channel.

Pingala
the right vertebral chain of the sympathe-
is

tic nervous system. It is called the masculine," or sun

•channel.
 PRIXCil’U: AND PR-\CTICE 59^

a relief! I believe I was just ‘on my way,’ because the

next thing I knew, a nurse was smacking my face agi-
tatedly, and shouting ray name.
“As the weeks dragged along slowly. I was allowed
to sit up in bed and take some milk pudding, meat
gra\7, etc. When eventually I did get back on my legs,

I found I walk with the aid of two

was compelled to
sticks. I could not straighten my body up; but after
about four months of convalescence I was able to resume
work.
“Wrong methods of feeding soon brought a return
of the internal disturbances,and within eighteen months
of coming out of hospital. I was asking my doctor if I
was going to be troubled again. He replied that I ought
to be thankful to be walking about. ‘I never expected
to see you come into mv surgerx’ again. he told me, and
so, after swallowing a few more bottles of medicine, I
decided to consult the specialist once more.
“When I saw him, I asked point-blank if there was
any cure for me. He replied: *You will never be
entirely horn the trouble.' This he attributed to
free
my having allowed my organism to reach such a poor state.
“You can imagine how I felt on coming out of that
consulting-room. I wandered round the torvn seriouslv
considering ho\v to put an end to it all. little thi
Prondence was guiding, my steps, and that knowledg
light were iust round die comer. A health-food
had just opened, and I found myself looking in the
window. I saw there a little book called Get Back to
Nature, written by Reddie Mallett. I purchased it, went
to the nearest park, and devoured that book. The whole
idea the author was to remove causes of disease a
thing I h;d never heard of before, and as a start he recom
mended a those days* fast. I was determined to practise
this new philosojdiy, and on the way home I decided tc
start the very next day.
“What I told my people the news, it nearly caused
 60 VOGA EXPLAINED

a Civil war. ‘Hncy going Uiree whole days without

food! they remarked; and I
could tell by the Lpressions
on then taces that they felt
pretty confident of
drawing
my insurance money the following week.
“They ultimately realized it was a
waste of time
_
diking, and left me alone, but they could not get
over
the shock of me taking notice of a paltry
shilling book
'vntten by a nobody, when I had just paid five guineas
to a man with numbers of letters after his
name. As for
myself, though, I must say that
I slept better that night
feeling at long last that I had
something to work on that
seemed reasonable.
“Accordingly, therefore, I started my first fast. The
first day was certainly very trying. Attempting to sup-
press a desire seems to stimulate it. and for the first time
I realised what a hold these habits of ours have.
terrible
It was difficult to suppress the pangs of hunger
but I
managed to struggle through without eating anything, in
spite of everybody telling me what a fool I was.
he next day the desire for food was not so
I
keen,
and on the third day I felt as light as a feather.
In fact
I began to wonder why people
bothered about eating at
all; it did not seem necessary. I was free from pain, and
really began to look fonvard to the next day instead of
dreading it. ^Vas I grateful? Mere words could not ex-
press my feelings at having discovered at long last the
secret of permanent health.
“I fasted for a fortnight, and then lived chiefly on
fruit and vegetables for a considerable time. Further
books
on Nature Cure were purchased, until to-day I find I can
manage very nicely on two meals a day, and I am really
'alive’; safe in the knowledge that I will never require
the assistance of another doctor. (Barring accidents, of
course.)

“Time has travelled quickly since all this happened,

and it is now over eight years since I took a pill or any
medicine, proof positive that a natural way of living is

the only way of obtaining and retaining lasting health.”

 PRIXCiri h AM) l'R\(.ll( i; (.1

Cope'.^ tliliicultics will) l)is l.iniil\ aic l\pi(.il.

A simple diet (avoiding meal foi' imiame, nr slaidics
such as brc.id and ])olaU)e^) will geiuiallv meet will)
opposilion Irom friend-, and ieiaii\is. So will .niv
attempt to last, or even to miss a intal. This is (urions,
when one relleets how rarelv ihe hahiis ol one'-, friends
and relati\es have led to anv marked or aboundin'*' wdl
being in themselves. Vet it is getieiallv useless to
. . .

enter into dictetie elisetissions. l-.Namjtle is the most ])ower

fill of arguments.

Fyj. 8 . Lranuvg fh' L-t>,s sv,,/,

0 Jn
j,.,

t HU},

After \ania-ni\ama come ns'om-

_ .ntd madras posi-
tions and exercises. It is convenient to take ihe,se two
steps together.
Onh a feu a.nd andyns neeil be Ic.trned, l)iit
soine are c.\<eniiai, irhalrxrr dranrh nf I oga is to he
shidied.
The bogus monists who feel du-v are one with
the
eagle and the white ant.
,he Whitman t-nd water oan-
62 YOGA EXPLAINED

theists, the mystagogues who slop about on sofas think-

ing they are thinking, are the lunatic fringe of Yoga.
Be suspicious of people who are impractical: they are
not true followers of the Path.
Every Yoga system concerned with the body as a
is

microcosm of the Universe, but some kinds involve

more specific physical exercises than do others. For the
sake of clearness I shall not enter into
these differences
m detail; the method here given is the
one which expe-
rience has convinced me is the best for Western
people.
The old books say that there are 84,000 positions
and exercises. We
need consider only a dozen, and we
can make good progress in Yoga with even fewer.
For meditation there are three useful positions. Of
these the best and the oldest position is:

1. Padmasann. or the lotus seat, in which Buddha

is usually depicted in his statues. Place the right foot
on the left thigh, and the left foot on the right thigh,
with soles of the feet upturned. The hands are either
placed on the lap, with palms uppermost, the right hand
upon the left, or they may be hanging dowTi loosely
from the knees, with finger-tips pointing to the earth.
As soon as padimsana can be assumed without dis-
comfort, its calming effect on the mind will be notice-
able. One feels firm, securely based, curiously comfort-
able.

Although mans of us in middle age are stiff and

rheumatic, the position is one that is well within the com-

rvell worth the effort necessaiy to acquire it. Men would

not have sat like this for thousands of years unless the
benefits were considerable. No one could accuse Buddha
of being a formalist, yet traditionally he meditated in
no other posture.

There is a psychological as well as a physiological

purpose in this position, as there is in most asanas. The
esoteric explanation is that the extremities of the gross

body—feet, hands, genitals— are gathered to one point,

 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE 63 .

wliae their currents of nervous energy intermingle,

leaving the subtle body free to communicate writh the
brain through the vertebral column. Exoterically^ the
pressure of the insteps on the femoral arteries causes a

change in the circulation. (Does the arrest of the circu-

lation cause a greater supply of blood to the brain?)
Knees and ankles are rendered flexible, driving out “the
germs of disease” which my old guru used to say “live
in the joints.” Moreover, there is a stretching and loos-
ening of the whole pelvic apparatus.
Most boys and girls can do this asaiia without any
special effort. Older people take time to learn, varying
with their age and habits; once they have loosened up,
they should never again be troubled with lumbago. You
may notice—I have often done so — that easy padmasana-
sitteis have naturally quick and flexible minds.
A —
month’s practice of a minute or two a day —
should be enough to enable the average adult to learn
padmasana thoroughly. He should proceed as follows;
Bring one leg into the right position upon the
thigh, while the other leg remains extended. Do this
several times, with each leg, so that the ankles are sup-
pled and the hip joints freed. When both legs have
been thus exercised, and not until then, the
attempt
should be made to bring the left foot over
the right.
This is the point of difliculty, and it should
be remem-
bered that the left footmust always pass over the right
when the latter is already in position, and not vice
versa.

la. Sifshcpadnuisonti (head-lotus-stand) is a variant

of the above, and consists in standing on the head while
in Padmasana. While this is really a mudra (exercise)
rather than an asana (position), the terms are inter-
changeable. Rele says that an asaua is concerned
(Dr.
with limblocks below the waist,
and a mudra with those
above them, but this distinction
causes further confu
Sion). Some Yogis meditate regularlv in this
position;
the beginner will probably
find it difficult enough to

Y.E.—
 64 YOGA EXPLAINED

concentrate Avhen he is right side up. As a physical

exercise, however, most men find sirshapadmasana
is
Jiiost stimulating and enjoyable. not recommended It is
to women, unless of ver\ athletic physique.
2. The second position for meditation is siddha-
-Satia, or the pose of the siddhus, i.e.,
the spiritually en-
lightened. In this position the student sits cross-legged,
.placing his left heel under the perineum, and the right
foot above the left leg, with heel close to the genitals,
and sole upturned. I do not find this seat comfortable’
for the whole iveight of the body rests on the left heel’.
But it is a famous old (iso}ia much in favour among
Hatha Yogis, and the student should know of it and try
it for himself.
Some teachers recommend that while in this posi-
tion the axis of vision should be crossed, i e., that the
student should direct his gaze to the tip of his nose.
Others recommend that he should turn his eyes upwards
and inwards, and imagine that he is looking at a spot
Between his eyebrows; I do not recommend either of
These practices to Western students: like the dangerous
Irafaka-kriya (gazing at the early morning sun), they are
best left alone unless thev can be done under the advice
«

of an experienced guru. (With due care, davvmlight is

wonderfully good for the eyes.)

3. The third position for meditation is swastika-
T,ana, or the swastika do not know why this seat
seat. (I

is so named in the Yoga Tantra Sanhita.) The student

draws his legs together, with his shins along the floor,
and sits on his heels. This is a simple position, and
easily learned. Its effect on the mind is most soothing.
7’he reader may ask ^vhy he cannot meditate in a
•chair, or lying on a sofa. I do not know the reason, but
1 know that the most atisfactory results are to be ob-
tained on the floor, with folded legs, just as it is better
to kneel than to sit in Christian prayer. Once the
method is mastered, however, special p(.>sitions are seen
to be crutches that can be discarded, Patanjali, the
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACIICE 65

great codifier of Yoga, has toicl us iliat \vc may meditate

in any position which we find comfortable.
We come now to seven positions ?.i.d exercises which
are not for meditation, but which are desimied to stimu
o
late the endocrine glands and to give ihe body poise and
flexibility.
4. Sirsliasaiia: The head-stand has many names,
and has been practised in many ways both in the East
3nd in the ^Vest. For a beginner it is recommended that
the exercise should be practised in three stages:

9. Lpontinfj tho Lotus Seat, second positiioi. The point

dijjl.ultij is getting the left jo'4 over thr right shin.

First, place a
cushion near a wall, so that if you lose
your balance you may find support. Sit
down on your
heels in front of the cushion, and
bend down so that
your head touches it, while vou are still
sitting on your
heels. Your hands should be on either side of
your
ead uith elbows up. This is the
preparatory position.
Aow part your knees, and work them up
vour arms
until they rest on your elbows.
You are now actually
standing on your head, although your
legs are not ex-
tended. You cannot overbalance in this position, and
(i() YOGA EXPL.\INED

therefore you should feel safe: but, of course, you mayt

experience a giddy feeling. If so, desist^ then try again.

^Vhile thus inverted, move your centre of gravity

slightly forward (i.e., towards the wall, raise your legs
ofl your knees and lift them slowly up, and up, and up,
in three motions, until they are fully extended. If you
should lose your balance Avhile doing this, there is always
the friendly wall. Go on raising your legs slowly until

they are straight above your head.

Do not, at first, hold the sirshtisana for more than
a few seconds. Then stand up and look at yourself in
the glass. You may be surprised at your colour. After
a few days you may also be surprised at the improvement
in your complexion!
Anyone of either sex in average health can stand on

his or her head with great benefit to the whole system

(the sirshasana is a feature in an internationally known
beauty-culture course), but naturally you will use your
common sense and go slowly. Invalids, sufferers from

high blood-pressure, and those over the age of sbety

should consult a doctor before attempting the exercise.

However, do not be persuaded by anyone that sirshmm

is unnatural or dangerous. It is good for you, provided
delight
vou are in normal health. Monkeys and children
So do and I am past fifty. So
in being upside-down. I,

will you, if you give it a fair trial.

a throbbing the jaw, or

At first you may feel in

symptoms of congestion will

eyes, or neck. Soon these
rested, and so will your
diminish. Your legs will feel

Stagnant blood will be dispersed. Your whole

back.
revitalized.
body will be toned up, refreshed,
sirshasana for hours; but
In India. Yogis remain in
to attempt the prac-
do not advise any Western student
I
a few minutes. Five minutes is
tice for more than
minute will work wonders for jaded
limit, but even one

perform bicycling motions with your

You can
your ankles. Anolher
wiggle
while in sirshasana, or
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE G7

variation consists in the position of the hands:

\ou inav
forehead.
interlock your lingers and place them at
the

By doing so, you will find that a cushion is not needed,

for the weight of your body will be bonie by your fore-

head, which rests on your hands. \ou may also vary

the part of the head on which you stand, diifiing from

the forehead to the top of the skull.

As soon as the position comes easily with the moral

support of a wall, dispense with the wall. Arrange a

quilt or mattress in the centre of your room on which to

tall, if fall vou must. (If vou do. vou will merely base

turaed a somersault.) To avoid falling, bring up one leg

first, followed slowly by the other, for while vour legs
remain open, scissor-wise, you cannot overbalance. Part

of tlie benefit of sirshasana is the sense of poise it gives

vou. In fact, it is the most enjoyable of all phvsical-cul-

ture exercises; but vou will hardly believe this until vou
f * *

have tried it for vourself.

AVlien vou stand right side up, you may feel faint

for an instant because the blood which has drifted to

your head is now being quickly drained awav. Bttt how
well vou will feel a few moments afterwards! I know
an attorney in New York who locks his office door atid
indulges in sirshasami whenever he is tired or about to
tackle a difficult case. He calls it washing:
o his brain.
which is exacth what it is.

5. The pasclnmottasaua, or the "posterior stretch-

ing pose.” is really a modification of the head-stand,
although it is always considered to be a separate position.
Instead of balancing vour bodv on the skull, vou balance
it on the nape of the neck.
Lie fiat on vour back, then raise vour legs and bodv
(helping yourself with your hands) until vou are resting
on the back of your head, back of your neck, and shoul-
ders. The more perpendicular you are. the more benefit
you will derive from this position. Shake your legs and
make your body quiver. Ihis exercise is performed by
athletes in training, especially prize-fighters, and it is
 68 VOGA EXPLAINED

valuable in enriching the supply

of blood to the
elands

alion ,n the caro id arteries

and forces the blood into
those supplying the thiToid.
The pmchimottasam is
easier to do indifferently than the head-stand,
but not ’ so
easy to do well.
6. Tht dhanmasana, or bow position
(also called
sarvangamna, or the plough-pose), can be done
from the
posterior stretching pose”
by canning your legs over
)our head until they touch the floor
behind you. The
knees must be kept straight. The
arms should be at the
sides,on the floor.
This position must not be hurried. Your
spine may
be in one of two positions, either
upright, or sharply
cuned. If upright, your head will be some
distance from
your knees. Ifcuned, your head should almost touch
your knees. Both forms of dhanurasana are highly bene-
ficial in stretching the vertebral column. Until the spine
stiffens, you can dodge old age. This is an exercise par-
ticularly valuable to women.
From this position return slowly to lying flat on your
back. Put down your vertebral column joint by joint,
feeling it stretch as you do so. Here, again, is a
sovereign
method of blunting the paivs of Time.
Janusir-asana. or the knee-head pose, is per-
7.

formed while sitting on the floor, by stretching both legs

in front of you (the knees being kept stiff) and grasping
the toes with the hands.
Pull your body forward until the head touches the
knees. This well-known exercise is the Yogic prescrip-
tion for constipation, especially when combined with
uddiyanabandha.

^
In Lmirpr af Larfje I described these exercises as ^arranga-
Mona A. and B. I have changed the names to others which also

have the authority of the Tantras, iu order to avoid confusion,

and have altered and improved the order of the exercises given in
mv former book.
 69^
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

bhujangasana or cobra pose (also called

8. The
snake pose), a great restorer of vitality,
nagasana, or is

flexing the spine, and massaging the kidneys and supra

renal glands.

10 . Pupil in Sirshapadmasana, the Head-lotus-position, show-

ing an altcrnatne position of the hands.

Lie flat on your face, with your hands on either side

of your chest. Press up, so that the
upper part of the
body is arched back, but from the na-\'el to the toes keep
it in contact with the floor. Press vour chin towards
your chest, so that your neck muscles stand out. Keep
your eyes looking parallel to the floor. Remain in this
position for several minutes, feeling a strain in the small
of the back and in the neck.
 we 1 as the upper part of the body
only supported in the
«, lt The L’ >'
region of the navel
'^riinion of the
sists in 1
bhujangasana con-

o dtTr"]® f ’
salabhasana, and then holding the
*e bcnly backwards^nd
I onra df pnoted
ui warns, ol^^ot d on the
navel,
^ is of any
rn interest— to an un-
conquerable personal aversion
all Its forms. Hatha Yoga
to the bhujan.asana
I
teachers tell me diat this a
go^ reason why I should practise
is
it, since evidently I
weakness or deficiency; never-
1
^
^ followed their
advice

flying-up restraint ”
1 ^ notf academically
T1 rT 11 *

recognized as an a.iana or mudra

for
It one of several muscular controls,^
IS
but it is an ker-
cise which should at
least occasionally be
practised. It
consists in raising the diaphragm
and contracting the
abdominal muscles until everything
under your ribs is as
hollow as you can make it. “He
who practises this with-
out ceasing,” say the sages,
“conquers death. By this
process, the prana is led into
the shushumna [i.e. the
Mtal energ)' stimulates the cerebro-spinal nenous
system] and moves constantly therein. Of all the bandha^ ’
this is the best.”
Do not neglect the uddiyanabandha.
It is a very
simple and satisfactory exercise, and gives tone to the
abdominal wall.
10 . The iaukiki niiidra consists of a I.1UCKW15C
\JL clockwise mo-
UlU-
.
V ^ i » • ^
lion of the belly, giving the maximum
exercise possible
lo the abdominal muscles by
drawing them in (as in

Others are the jalonu’fiarahandha^ which consists

in contract-
ing tlie throat and placing the chin on the chest, and the tnula-
in which the anal sphinders are alternately contracted and
celaxed. These are not for beginnei's.
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACIICE 71

uddiyanubaiidha) ^vhen the body goes back, forcing them

to the side when the body goes to the ^ide, and pushing
them out as the bodv conies forward. I he head should
t be allowed to loll on the neck in rhythm with these ab
dominal movements, which somewhat resemble the cat:-
/

can dance. Any amount of energy can be put into this

mudra, until, if he be sufficiently earnc'.t. sweat pours
from the tense and twistingo bodv of the student.
These ten exercises are more than need lie mastered
for any Yoga but the Hatha, and Hatha ^'oga cannot be
learned without a fully qualihed teacher. Thev are here-
set down in the hope that the students will irv them,
and experiment with them, afterwards 'electing those
that suit him best.
I do them all occasionallv, except the cobra poso,
but I do none of them regularh except tlie head-stand.
For meditation T use either the lotus seat, or else I simplv
cross my legs under me. Xo particular asana or mudra
or bandha is essential, but all of them are beneficial, and
allare well designed to de\elop the trunk muscles witli-
out straining the hean.
At least a month should be spent in studving amna^
and mudras. for ten or fifteen minutes a dav, before
attempting the more exciting parts of Vogti.
\ou will find, I think, that these exercises are more
amusing than those you have learned in the AVest. More-
over, the sense of flexibiiitv and balance which
vou will
gain will be invaluable in further Yoga practice. Thev
are a preparation for breathing-exercises, as the
latter are
for nerve control, mind control, meditation,
and the
journey’s end. . . .

Undoubtedly the best time

prana\ama is the for
early morning, but unfortunately, if
vou are a Western
man or woman, that is probablv the lime when vou will
have to keep your eye on the clock. However,
all life is
a matter of compromises and adaptations.
A good plan is to divide your time into two periods.
In the morning you can devote a quarter of
an hour to
 72 VOGA L\V

one breathing exercise, followed by some physical acti-

vit), according to the scheme suggested in Chapter II
but you will -now know more
asanas and mudr^ and
you will soon know more ways of
pranayawa. In the
evening, if you can, give another
quarter of an hour to
pranayama. The evening period may
be elastic and ex-
tensible, but the morning session
should be fixed and
regular.
There are many kinds of pranayama (some gurus
have their own private method) but it is unwise to experi-
ment with complicated breathings unless one is sitting
at the feet of a qualified teacher.
Three well-known and
pranayamas are the cleansing, the rhythmic,
well-tried
and the droning breaths:
1. The bhastrika pranayama,
or “cleansing breath”:
You are seated comfortably, on fur or silk, facing east
and north: take eleven, or twenty-one, deep and rhyth-
mic inhalations, bending the body forward as the breath
is being expelled, and keeping
the spine straight during
the inhalations.* T here should be no pause between in-
halation and exhalation. Having reached the eleventh
or the twenty-first breath, restrain your breathing gently,
and send down the prana to Kundalini in the tnuladhara
chakra. Send the prana down gentlv, as with a verv light
hammer-tap.
Again let me remind you that lung-capacity varies
greatly with the individual. If you can hold your breath
for a minute, you are doing well. If for two minutes,
very well. Do not strain.
As soon as )ou can no longer hold your breath com-
fortably, inhale and exhale as before, eleven or twenty-
one times, and restrain your breathing gently.
Repeat this process a third time, and you have com-
pleted a bhastrika pranayama.

^ RtchaJca is the technical name for expiration; furaka for

inspiration; kumhakha means the restraint of breath; $un}fala ii

the period of emptiness between one breath and another.

 r (.>

rRIXCIPLLS \.\u PRACnCI /J

The rate of inhalation sliotild be slow at (ir.it .

but it

may be quickened after some practice: liu- quicker it is,

the quicker the pulse will be when the breach is retained,

and the keener the sensations experienced, up lo a certain

point. But sensations are only iiicidenial. Voiir olcject

1 111(1 iljifil: till // i[ thiijh.

is to calm your mind, \\hat vou \cill feel depends on

your mood at the moniem. and on what vou ate \esier-
dav.i

1 Allliough tbe experience is n.,t reducible to \v,,rds 1 hive

made an attempt at describing it in The Live^^ of a hUn,,,,! Lancer
(p._277). I may summarize l:ere as follows : First a sense of suffo.
catmn, as if something lead caught you by the throat then mana
;

mobilizes the armies of the blood there is a struggle

;
between
opposing forces, “a descent into hell, a search of Orpheus for his
bride”; then light conquers
dark. Following this comes a ‘> 111 si- -,

cal balancing” and “an apprehension iintellable. . . AYith my Angel

took wings of wonder
and traversed continents and worlds,
and
seemed to reach the last stars,
beyond thinking, wi.ere mind is not,
and where that nothing
out of which came sometlimg seems almo.sk
clutchable."
 PRINCIl’LES AND PRACTICE

See the tree-tops in their livery of spring, their glory ol

summer, their autumn russet, die iraceiy of branchcN
against a winter sky. Enjoy the world as God has made
it.

2. Pranavajapa pmiiayama, or “rhythmic breath"'

(literally “life-force-homage”), consists in breathing to the
rhvthm of 1:4:2. \ou inhale for, sav..
that is to sav,
5 seconds, retain the breath for 20 seconds, and expel it
in 10 seconds. This must be done through each nostril
alternately.
your meditation position, with the kft hand,
Sit in
palm uppermost, resting as usual on die lap. Your right
hand is raised to your nose, with the thumb blocking the
right nostril. (It does not press against the nostril, but
corks it, from underneath.) The first and second linger.^
rest on the bridge of the nose. The third finger is used
to block the left nostril in the same way as the thumb
blocks the right nostril. The little finger is idle.
Free your left nostril, and breathe in through it for
fil e seconds.
Now both nostrils for twenty seconds, retain-
close
ing the breath. Breathe out through the right nostril for
ten seconds.
Immediately this is completed, breathe in agt:in
through the same nostril for five seconds.
NW close both nostrils for tweniv seconds, rctainino-
”
the breath.
Now breathe out through the left nostril for ten
seconds.
This completes one prana\ama. YVithout any
pause
breathe in through the left nostril for five
seconds, and
continue as before.
After a few minutes of pranavajapa
a sense of suffo-
cation may be felt. ^Vithin reason,
you must persevere
for you wiU soon find that
your head clears, and thai
your whole body feels alert and aware.
If the cx^gen-lack
persist, however, you have made
too high a demand on
your lung power, and you must reduce
vour breathino
 ,6 "iCJ'-A L\1>1

’Juilun io. sa\. li;^p!i al (.11 S vhoikU'

,
icicit-
IiDU, anil 1 stcoiuU' cxpii.uioii. Un ili, .^ilicr liaiul, y)ii
]nay Ictl ilia; \uu (an Jo moic Jian
ai'id in
iJkU c“\c)it \i)u c.in L\!(ii(! ihn iJoJiin Lo ii wiiidi ;

1 liiid U) he the luitoeo ir.n vuiiabh' lov a beginner in

gi '( H a b
)< i lat' e m
1 ibis \ on \\
1 1
u ni g^ e; n (
.
>n \ c s
< 1 1 1 1 1 > t i 1 c’ 1

in al! pjobabi ! i!\ . Alter iweine \Lars, niv bc-i lime is

onl\‘ JH: beiiitnc, abbougii a longer riudim \kOul(l
be jJO'sibie. 1 slioiild iic gin lo Jeel un.' ondorta.ble after
a (|uarfer ol .111 li(mr.
\\iiate\u' r.ue \ou ilec ide upon, do noi (ban"e it if
p<>''sii)le. ill ibe loiU'e ot ibe sinimg lor if ,1 q it

Will tlisiur!) \(>ui ttimiulc. 'lou iMC uj)

\hv mind wiili ilu- (orcl ol the hreath/' j'o do ti;is ctTcc-
I i\el\ \ou ( aiiooi allow an\ 'iilt-c ril iciAin oiicl) as would
l)e implicit in a cliaii_u.c.‘ t)l r!i\ihnij Inu inu>i adopt a
inood sunciukr.
of Ii is noi ])o>sil)lc lo undciwiand with-
out MO lander, Ab !ono a^ an incliuaiion to critici^'-ni
romaiiis ai ilu ( c in i c < d ( onsc iousness, \ aai c aiinnt do
iusii(.e !o ibi' jrt n ma in whieh \our mind (to
( htiiigc ibe meiap'bor) flott;-. on tbe tide of ibe o.'.can of
the I'm ('nat ions, and is (arried up to 'lie bcatli of ilie
Self.
^'ou 'boidd pel form punur ija. fia or at -
f let.st ten
minutes at a siietth. Half an hour is laeiter. It is, there-
fore. ;t breathing -iiiialile lor laeople \eitla leisure. But
avlu ^Itou'ld eon lie tied to time wnatever e'our engaae-
o o
ments? W'bai is to prcoi lu \onr getting i
p half an hour
earlier?
I lu-t e \eill ( ome moment ]n o!).udv after about
a —
li\c minutes of this bia-.uhing —
when eon trill feel rest-
less, i'lie both rvill lollnw the mind. ind both t\'ill

(/bjett to tile steadiiuss of mental self-con frol. Keep still,

hocveccr, itn' i>re'enih the meioel aeill pass.

I
Presentlv you ^ ^

a\ill be mot imdc

ten;;/ you :ri!! jeel
to if ycu u'ere

prownto: tulirr, anil the ihought-fonns mtssing before vour

amo uuOiU -s will oc clear and 'liavp.
To wa:< li a hx k would he inro!! lenient during (
 PKINCIPI ! S AM) PK \LI1CE

pranavajapcK so vou iiuist udopt a latc >.1 (uuiuiiig that

Kill be the equivalent ol a uuniiKr ot '‘Cct-nds, or,

better, you should repeat the Sanskrit s\llable Aiiiud

Sav Auni soundlesslv, *
i’eeliiii>
KTf
as vou breathe
4
in that vou y
/

are acquiring success and sclf-coiurol, ihai uhile you

retain vour breath you arc absorbing and digesting piwia
for the purposes of vour jiva, and that as vou rcathe out t

you are eliminating fatigue and failure ;:nd the poisons

of wrong
o desire.

To touin in fives requires no nieina! lUoii and there

fore docs not disiract the aiieniion. hath set of iixe repe-
titions tan be ree()rded 1)\ trookin^ the liiP^ei^ (•! the left

Ja\ti\ Mild (if tiiiiity [y ludJ t>y Auin

1 t .'I ; tin.* Father.
Son, and }]"]} (diost; BraiuVei. \i-linii. and Siva, the * loativc,
SQst^ining. and lopiodiK-Uvf pi inciplos iMith. and
; death;
being, nature, and luvoimng: the Ijnwn. the knowor, and thf
knowing. Hindus consider it a //-crO,/ la ^a,iod v.Mrd. evt^ca-
tive of pc-uau') and assort that its r-ietiti-n can clinn^e the rate
of molecular vibration in the human b.-dy, hike tlie
seat. It has been used for many tiiou.'-reid? year,, ^11 over
..f India,
from the Caves of Elephanta to the Fdack Pagoda, and from
Amarnath to Lapt Comorin. The w.'i'd pr* nounc.a]
is: ‘
Oni.”
 YOGA EXPLAINED

hand; you go beyond twenty, some gurus rtcommend

if

that you should “place the figure to be remembered

in
the space between the eyebrows.”
Some teachers recommend that instead of three
stages ia pranayama there should be four: inspira-
this
tion, rerention, expiration, and emptiness, in the follow.
ing proportions respectively, 1:4:1;1
ii-i:!:!, or sometimes
1:4:2: 1. These methods can be tried without danger,
but my old guru disapproved of a period of emptiness,
which he said tras unnatural for the lunes.
o
There are more complicated ways of doing the
pranavajapa (one of which is described dsewhcre),
whose object is chiefly to accustom the body to long
periods of breath-suspension. One of the alleged results
of these breathings is that “the air in the lungs is forced
into the alimentary canal.” This is not in fact possible,
but some effect is produced on the pyloric valve in the
stomach, facilitating the passage of air swallowed. Swal-
lowing air in gulps, like a 'wind-sucking horse, is a prac-
tice Western doctors consider foolish, if not tctuallv
dangerous^ but some gurus advise it, especially for those
with a tendency to consumption, maintaining that it dis-
infects the bowels. 1 ha\e tried it, and think the intesti-
nal ventilation may be good for certain people; hcwever,
I do not recommend it to a beginner.
3. Bhramarai prnnayama, “the beetle droning
or
breath,” is not difficult to do, but it is not easy to des-
cribe, and the instructions in the Yoga Tantra Sanhita
are not explicit:
“At past midnight in a soundless place, let the Yogi
practice puraka and kumbakha, closing the ears with the
hands.
“Performing the yoni rniidra, let him expel the air
buzzing sound like that of a
sloivlv and slowly, with a
beetle. Let him place his mind in the centre of this sound.

By knowledge of 'So ham’ arises.”

so doing,
am and a formula for
“So ham” means “I that,” is

of the jiva with the Atman.

the mental identification
 PRIXCIPLLS AND PRACTICE 79

The orthodox performing the yoni ,iiudra is

^vay of
to dose the ears with the thumbs, the eyes with the in-
dex fingers, tlie nostrils with the second fingers, and the
upper and lower lips with the third and little lingers res-
pectively. I find this uncomfortable: I get good result';
bv merely stopping my ears with my index fingers, and
closing my eyes.
Purse the lips and bring the tognue forward to touch
the front teeth. By expelling the air, “slowly and
slowly,’’ with a droning sound, you will find that a
vibration is starred in the mouth and tarried eventtiallv
through the bones in your head to your whole skeleton.
Keep up the droning noise as long as you can. Wfith
practice you will be able to maintain it for two or c\eu
three minutes before drawing breath. Directly your lungs
are entirely emptied of air. take a full deep breath and
begin again.
The brahmaiai must be continued for at least halfan
hour toproduce the right effect, and practised every day
for at least a month. Its vibrations go deep into the tissues.
and increase tlie resonance and activity of the wholc-
bodv.
Now we know we need of the physical methods
all that
of \oga. There are other postures, more complex
breath-
ings, but we have learned enough for
a life-time of medi-
tation.
Ahead of us, upon the Path, “between the motintains
and the morning star.” gleams the Temple of the Undis
tracted Mind.

Y.E. —
 CHAPTER V

MIRACI.ES OF THE CREATIVE WILL

To ii.WE shoricned these preliminary instructions

’.voiild liave been impossible. I have tried to do so,

but I cannot, in ^piie of having had considerable e.vpcri-

cnee in the art of condensation. No results are possible

ill am branch of Yogi without careful attention to details,

and tile detaiU which have been given here arc not easily

a\ailable elsewhere; so I have decided, deliberately, that

I must be categorical, even if I am dull.

As to the pictures (this is not an apology, but an

explanation). Miss Dunn s \ogini, whose lissom figure

has been an iinpiration to me during the tedium of routine

(.xplanations, was not able to subject herself to the con-
convincing
tortion of the laukikinntdra-<,he did not seem

in that cxerci'C— so I had to do it myself. I know I look

writing on the ping-pong table of my study, but

awful,
snapdiots must remain, for they convey my
thoie four
larger photographs were taken by a pro-
meaning. The
me good. The fact that I had eaten
fessional and seem to

posing for them gives me a

a hcariv breakfa^t just before
appearance, but then I am fifty and
Mimcwhai gorged
being an athlete. All that I claim
make tio pretence to
healthv for rav age; and that,
is that I am mpplc and
accidenI^ and thanks to being born of healt y
iiarriim
practice of Yoga, I sha
pan tin, a." well to the regular
mv head in the lotus pose
pmbaiih Mill be smiiding on

Yoga, .n save already

tve have
,.a, Degin ,0 die poini at til.ich

nliittlioiit 10 plunging i» mellm rfJ-ol

III,-

ton-cioit-ncsi mlhom Saving

.piinollioanl of
Y
thev are that our
e
Aiinll have also outlined:
us "idi pls'-sical
-,v,,v of life lills
The Laubiki-mudra, Grip the knees, give the body a rotary,

clock-wise movement.
14
 MIRACLES OF THE CREATU E WILL SI

acid end-products of combustion, and with a IuiiiIkt of

fear- and un-atiNficd desire. We must learn to eliminate
these ashes of our misdirected energies. ihc'C iiagedics of

our thwarted wills, and to do this requires :'clf reali<aiion.

So now the Mheel comes full-circle_ and we return to ;i con-
sideration of the Self.

Ihe remaining stages of our journey aie all vuper

physical, in the limited sense that there is no oiiiward and
risible action. In-ide the skull, however, ihere is attic ii\,
spirit c.ninot iiKuiitest in a \oid. E\ery time \<c uh* our
trtative will— except in its highest fonn—chemical and
.'Icctiical changes occur in the bodv. . Thought-traii'fcr
nice, for instance, is just as earthly as a smack in ilm
ace, although its impact is more subtle.

iU"t a tliC UOxi5inn\ J t. \ •

82 YOGA EXPLAINED

which I ha\e already described merge into a single system

designed to give flexibility and awareness to the Yogi^ so
now the four mental processes form one whole. They
are:
(a) Praiyahara, nerve control, or the gathering to-

gether of the outgoing potvers of the mind; called abstrac-

t ion by the Christian mystics.
(b) Dharana, mind control, or the strengthening of

the faculties of attention and perception; called concen-

tration in the West.

(c) Dhyana, meditation proper, is a stillness, or ex-

pectancy, without egotistic taint, in which the mind ap-

prehends the Universal Cosmic Consciousness. It is some-

times called contemplation in the West.

Samadhi, emancipation, ecstasy, bliss, illumina-
(d)

tion, in which the Soul coramuniates with her Lover, as

of the Cross said, “lip to lip, not through
visions,
St. John
.” These are big words, to
similitudes, or figures. . .

We shall not discuss samadin

describe a big experience.
can only confuse the high and neces-
at length, for words
secret experience of those who have known the
sarily

fascination of the fathomless

Absolute.
each soul must go alone. But
those deep
Into waters
Self, in the daylight of
upon the simpler aspects of the
meditate at length. They are
cvcrv dav the reader raav
been written
the pith of this book. What has already

enable you to dig down into

^^as bv wav of preparation,
to

“the root undying, whence hath

vourself and discover

sprung whatever is.'’ .

when he sees himself

IVhose eye does not brighten

do not prick rvhen he hear, h.rf

prim? Whose cars
little practical attenhon do wepv to
lliscnssed? Yet how
this Self, which is so often hungr,' for
,

^ nothing morbid aboat

There need be

^
evil ‘
Introspection is
tion of the Self.
fantasia, daytom rf
rselTes to brood, weave'
which we are too
underuke, or
ments which we dare not
 MIRACLES OF THE CREATIN E WILL

lazy to undertake. Serious mystics are never dreamy or

Nothing but good can come out of self-
unpractical.

knowledge and the recognition of our place, powers, and

possibilities in the world. Knowledge of, the Self in me
will make me smpathetic to evenone I meet; it is the
basis of brotherhood and of business success, as well as the
foundation of all personal development.^
Now Samkara, Buddha, Rapila, and Patanjali all held
contradictoiy- views of the Self. Nor do Western philoso-
phers agree among themselves. If we attempt to read even
a tithe of what clever men of East and West have had to
say about the problems of personality, we shall spend
years in libraries, becoming learned, but probably not
wise. Better by far it will be to pursue our previous
methods of practieal experiment.
We
began by taking nothing for granted but by now
we may assume that the Self has been recognized as at
least a useful friend. Indeed, we must make this assump-
tion if we want to get results. A cold, intellectual curio-
sity to know what lies behind the fleeting pageant of our
senses Mill not lake us far. .Ardour and energs’ we must
bring to our inquiry', and why not} The rewards of suc-
cess should be physical and immediate, as M'ell as spiritual
and more remote.
Aoga (to recapitulate) teaches you to make the best of
yourself, tshich means that it should improve vour com-
plexion, or your earning capacity, or your
swing m golf (if
not instantly, at least with reasonable rapiditv).
as well as

* Mr. Dale Carnegie makes tliis point in Bow to Fin Fritrak

and Influence People. This excellent book-for it is excellent, in
spite of the ridicule poked at it by those who have not read it and
those whe have seen it misnsed—needs no recommendation in the
United States, for it has been a best seller there, but in the
British
Isles it is not sufficiently well known. I have met Mr. Carnegie.
and I know that he what he preaches with great success!
practises
Thwe IS a technique in winning friends
and influencing people, a
legitimate and sincere technique,
which consists in a realization of
tbe Self in others.
84 VOCA EXPLALNED

leading you by gradual stages to illumination.

So let us
go fonvard on the Path with faith and fenour!

“pratvahara"’ or abstr.\ctiox

In the long" processes of creation which went to the

making of Homo sapiens, the nenes were evolved before
the brain. The brain is merely part of the nervous system.
It seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that if we would
control our thoughts we must
some censorship over exercise
the messages coming to us from the outside world and pass-
ing through the thalamus, our central cerebral telephone
exchange. We must see that this office is swept and
garnished. no use trying to think before we have
It is

learned to feel; and there must be a mental as well as a

physical purgation before sve can see ourselves as we really
are.

The purpose of prahahara is to get rid of the super-

ficial idea that the Perceiver in you is the same as that

which is perceived. To a Western mind, this often opens

out a new brain-track, and the student is warned, if he

has passed the age of adolescence, that this is never a
pleasant process. Everyone resists new ideas, but unless
and until he grasps this one. dhorana will be difficult.

When you base a feeling-realization of the unity

which underlies all phenomena (how complicated this

sounds! Monism, the essence of simplicity in itself,

needs mans words when it appears in public), you will

(ome to see that in truth the Perceiver is the same as that

which is perceised. But then you will also know that

neither fills the whole horizon of consciousness and that

sour eves are no measure of the Creator’s power. As the
enchanting Sa’adi said: “If the bat cannot discern the

dav, is that the fault of the sun?” For the present, you
must cease to identifv yourself with phenomena. A child’s
dentbt,
whole world goes black when it has to visit the
our will soon be over. You Know
but you know that y
pair,

toothache, or any other trouble. You are

that you are not
a sense apart. All the great masters
voursclf, something in
 MIRACLES OF THE CREATIVE WILL 85-

of mysticism, in the West as in the East, are agreed that

abstraction is cramping
necessary to free the ego from the
obsessions which prevent concentration. You must not
identify yourself with the pageant of your senses.
However, if you are already a success in any walk of
life, the idea of abstraction will not be new. You will
know good work is done with the heart rather than
that
with the head. No doubt there must be mental or physi-
cal effort, planning, cooperation, but the
enterprise,
“something more” which makes for success comes always
from a faculty above reason. You will value this sixth
sense (for the thalamus would seem to be the seat of in-
tuition, as well as a telephone exchange) that chooses the

Fig. 14 . Learning to stand- on the head, third position.

exact word, the suitable man, or the right moment. You-

willhave met die censor who sits in your brain,
sorting
out the true news from the false.
86 YOGA EXPLAINED

The work of the world is done by intuition far more

ihan by intellect; and it is intuition which is well re-
warded, not cleverness. Pratyahara will begin to give it

to you.
\Ve need not discuss how the nerves and intuition
are linked, nor define the latter, and differentiate it from
intellect. Intuition often seems miraculous, but it is

never so. If some superintelligence had been in posses-

sion of all the facts a day before the Titanic stru^ the
iceberg—movement of ice-floes, speed and course of ship
— that disaster could have been predicted to the minute.

Theories are not material to our purpose, in so far as we

are trvino to make the best of ourselves. Therefore make
o;

a trial of pratyahara, and see if it works, first re-reading

what has been said on pages 42 and 43 regarding places

and methods.
Half an hour should be devoted to the morning exer-

cises (if you cannot make this time by self-sacrifice or in-

genuity, you must defer your quest of Yoga to another

life!), and it would be desirable also to keep one or two
evenings a week for silence and self-knowledge. Make an
appointment with your fascinating Self! Do not be

afraid of becoming a hermit or an egotist. On the con-

trarv the resultant integration of your personality will

bring you abounding happiness. Also it will increase the

good you can do in the world, and will make you popular
among vour fellows. .A self-collected individual gathers

his kind about him, for 4

like attracts like.

should be arranged as
The morning exercises

follows:
(a) Ten minutes for preliminars' prayer, meditation,

as outlined in Chapten II and

and breathing exercises,
IV.
(b) Ten or fifteen minutes of pratyahara.
Five or ten minutes of physical exercise.
(c)
student advised to
With regard to (a) and (c), the is

from the materials already

draw up his own schedule
meditations^ and breathings, once
jriven. The prayers,
 WH.L 87
MIRACLES OF THE CREATIVE

for a Aveek at a time

carefully
sealed should be followed
.khout change, but the physical

however, one should remember

availabl];
mind, and that suppleness
the
body IS a redection of
applies also to the subsequent
necessan- to both. This
practice of dhnrana and dhyaua.
training.
Xmin
Tight-
essential in mental
Recrularitv is
muscles ever)' da\
wkers have to exercise their
rope
base to practise four times
they
and if they miss a lesson
Tins applies also, mUi
occasion.
as long on the next
learning to balance the mind.
added force, to
perfonned in any comfortable
Pratyahara can be
but padmasam and mddhasana aie
cross-lecr<^ed position,
or mav be open, and
the bes? The eves may be closed,
gurus recommend
Manv speci-
directed slightly upwards.
pratyahara, but others hold
breathing-exercises for
fic

that artificial control of the breath at this

think rightly,
inadvisable, for the student must become unaware
sta<^e is
recommended to breathe
of his body. You are therefore
imagining, if you like, that the
easily and naturally,
vour blood stream
world’s vitality-^ranfl-is entering
Whether you imagine it or
with ever)' breath you draw.
that is what the Yogis claim is
happening.
not,
’The object of pratyahara is sense-withdrawal, that is

isolation of the Self from the messages received

to say, the
gateways of perception. Detach yourself
by it through tire

(Later, in dhyam, yqu will similar!)

from sensations.

detach yourself from thoughts.) Diminish the impulses

continually streaming in through the sense-organs.

Do not, however, make a violent effort to shut out

the world. You will, indeed, begin to see and hear racxre

acutely, but do not allow these sharper sounds and

vivider sights to affect you.

Sounds and sights reach your brain over the afferent
nerves; that is not inevitable you can stop them vsith
—
practice—but even if they gate-crash into consciousness

it is in your power to see that their babble and bun

 88
VOGA explained

combe are not passed on to

the efferent nerves
o actton, or to the cerebral which lead
cortex, where the
faculties are enthroned. higher
u'gner

von Qo, no animal

)ou can shift its consciousness
™ and hear more than

outer worid to the inner.

from the
You can. Do so. and vou wiU
’ sensations make ripples in
the
t'he pool of your
mmd. but that there is a stillnesiin the
'
unniffled
unniffled. Tl
Thus ''“P P°“‘
willl'
you enter into Silence.
Listen to a dock ticking,
then do not listen. Refuse
o hear the ticking. You will
find, and perhaps this
will
be >our first realization of the
immense part that imagin-
anon plays in your life, that you can hear the clock or
not, as you wish. ’

Dr. Alexis Carrel tells of a horrible experiment

hereby the double chain of the
sympathetic ganglia was
extii-pated from a living cat. It
continued to live in good
health as long as it remained in
its cage; but it was not
capable of a free existence. In the struggle
for life it could
no longer call on heart, lungs, and glands
to make special
efforts: it had lost its power of integration, of mobilizing
the neiA'ous system. Many
of us, through ceasing to com-
mand our nenes. have lost touch with our
visceral con-
sciousness, and become like this poor cat.
You should listen to your visceral consciousness, for
it is rarely wrong. Hence the need for silence, but of
course you
cannot expect to achieve complete outer
silence immediately. Ten minutes a dav
is a very' short
period in which to alter the habits of a lifetime.
you K
could devote one whole dav in the week to being mute,
you would be well rewarded Mr. Gandhi never talks on
Mondays, and finds, as men have found through the ages,
that silence has a high spiritual value. He disclaims
the
title of Mahatma, bur India persists in believing him to
be a sainL
One summer
holidav in Italy, six of us, three men
and three women, agreed to stop talking for twenty-four
 THE CREATINE WILT.
MIRACIXS 01‘

our CKperuncnt to the

hours. We e.splainecl
not be oliended l)> out lack
household, so that it should
cat noilnug but brc.ul and
of response, and tve decided to
out on a stdebo.yd. lit the
cheese and fruit, to be laid
the sun. sailed. 1 tnvards
morning we bathed, basked in
and Chianti, las in hannnntks
noon «e lunched on ligs

Fig. 15 . J^he Hciul Stands Sir$hasana^ iimd liosition.

under the shade of palms, awoke refreshed, brewed lea,,

went for separate and silent ^valks. Towards evening, as
we sat sipping our vermouths^ looking out over one of
 YOGA EXPLAINED

the most gorgeous views

in ail the world there came m
fage, ^
accustomed to beg for
dog, a friend of
ourstm
scraps. At once he noticed
hat there tvas something
strange in our
atmosphere He
ing and wngghng up to each of us in
turn. He sensed I
think an unaccustomed air of peace
though he was also
^ htt le startled, not being
a righly Solved dog
We ta ked about
day of silence for a week
this
after-
'uuls, and one of us
determined to enter a
Trappist re-
treat at the first opportunity. (He has not done s^o^ how-

Da)s of silence are difficult to

arrange in normal con-
citions,but one can make one’s
own semi-silence, by
octermining not to speak unless
spoken to, and even then
return the shortest answer consistent
^
The effects of this on one’s acquaintances
with courtesy.
are sometimes
startling— like the dog, they are
quick to feel a strange
atmosphere—but the serious student
of Yoga must so
contr^^e that he does not attract
especial attention. None
the less, he may reflect upon this
elegant saying of the
Grand Lama of Sa-kya: “L'/ie talkative
parrot is shut up
in a cage; other birds
fly about freely.”
Hojo Tokiniuni, the Japanese hero who made
the
hordes of Kublai Khan retreat, used to spend hours in
abstraction. The tea ceremony of Japan is pure Yoga,
designed to empty the mind of worries and
enable it to
concentrate on essential matters: it was so used
by war
lords as well as by Zen philosophers.
The calm, impersonal stillness of pratyahara is very
delightful. At first you may feel a little lost. Remain
-confident, however. Do not attempt at this stage to make
your mind a blank. Let ideas come, but do not treat
them with the awe that some people accord to what passes
in their minds for thought.
o
Abolish the transcendental idea of mind. Learn to

live, instead of being lived. Your unconscious self is

radiating power from the solar plexus, and your mind is

 power from the brain. Integrate the two.
radiating
but both are means for its expres*
Neither °is the real Self,
sion.
Hold the idea that your body is always wanting
something, but that it can quite well t\ait on your con-
\enience. \our bodv is part of the Self, a deal and desii

whose reasonable wants must be satisfied, but

able part,
’the master. Before beginning pratyahara read
it is not

passage from Balzac, and, if it appeals to ^ou.

over this
allow its meaning to remain somewhere in tlie back-

ground of your consciousness;

I walk to and fro upon the earth as though it wca-e

the garden of a house that belongs to me.

\Vhat men call troubles, sorrow, ambition, dis-

appointments, hope, and love, are to me but ideas, which

I use in reverie, instead of feeling them and allow'ing

them to blast mv life. 1 dramatize them, I explain them.

4

I read them bv an inward light and sight.

It is onlv the master of the house who can
use this

inward light and sight. ^Vithout it. you are a prey to

voiir moods and emotions; with it, you ha^e purpose and
direction in your life, and can call upon great reserves

of power.
Do vou remember vou carried,
that heavv suitcase
because there was no one else to do so? Those stairs you
climbed, because vou were in a huirv? That danger
#
^ •

from which you ran like a sprinter? ^Vhen you sat up all
night, talking to a friend, you were too excited and happy
to listen to the messages of your nenes. So also at that
dance, when the hours Hew by on winged feet, and on
that joumev when interest banished sleep, the Master
Self was in command.
Conversely, at some dull dinner party on a hot sum-
mer night, or during some stuffy speech, you wTre hardly
able to keep vour eves open. Your body drifted, for the
Self w’as bored and had left the helm.
Your nerves tell you, perhaps, that you need four
meals a dav, or a cup of tea at eleven, or a cocktail
^J2 \OGA EXPLAINED

before dinner. Isn’t this foolishness, really? Sociable

foolishness, perhaps, and harmless if you don’t take it
seriously, but nonsense none the less. Do you think food
and drink make vitality? Surely not! Surely they only
call out your own reserves of strength.

You are much stronger and cleverer than you think.

If you are a normal man or woman, your heart and your

lungs and your brain and your muscles could do three

times tire work you ask of them, easily, almost without
effort, and certainly without danger. Nature has provided
us with great factors of safety, just as a good engineer
allows a margin for overloading on bridges and cranes.

Perhaps only once in a life-time shall we be required to

mobilize all our inner powers, but they are there, ready

for an emergency. Especially is this so with the brain.

Hower er hard we rvork it, we can hardly overtax its

powers. ^Vorry does that, not work.

“Ihis is very vague,” you say? Not a bit of it! Sit

down and see for yourself whether it is vague. You will

feel quite soon that your mind gathers itself together,

frees itself from the tyranny of the nerves, acquires a

sense of poise and certainty. You will also discover that

your Unconscious is no devil, but your guardian angel.

'Erust it. It really will work for you while you sleep, solve

problems, sort out facts, knit “the ravell’d sleave of

care,” and become “the chief nourisher of life’s feast.”

Gladstone always shed his problems at nighty and

manv another great man has been able to do the same.

All confused thinking, and most conflicts —from pnvate

quarrels to great wars—are due to a long neglect of the

Unconscious, which has impaired the faculty for rest in

men or nations, and rendered them as fretful as the

Thane of Cawdor.
But this practice of repose should not be continued
long by a beginner, for it may lead to quiescence and
too
to laziness of mind. Probably a week of
pratyahara—

seven periods of tfn to fifteen minutes each—is enough in

the initial stages of Yoga training.

 MIRACIJS <>l lin. (KrAIiXl. WII

pratiite diould never be

On the other hand, the
seems at lir't rather negative and
omitted, even if it
Calm the mind \ou mud, h'forr engaging in
nebulous.
conrenluition. Negleeiing to do so otien
icrious spells of
progress ol Western students l)ecause the next
retards the

Fig. 16 . Tht Pasekirnottasana, or “fosh rior-stretrliing pote."

practice (Concentration) often brings with it very grea

sexual stimulation, and unless this can be sublimated th
learner flounders in the quicksands of physical desire.
 One might hunting on in unbacked hone
us well g»>
as tn to coiuentralc with a mind clouded by deure
.As the womb surrounds
. .

The babe unlxirn, v) is the world of things

Foiled, soiled, enclosed in this desire <4 ftt-sh.
The wise tall, caught in it; the unresting foe
It is of wiMloni, wearing countless forms,
Fair and dticittul, subtle as a flame*

The right usulis of sour practice should be;

(a) Calmness. f
(b) Belter sleep and relaxation
(c) A
keener jov in life.
(d) hcighlcncd awarcne^s.
A
and mental courage, of the kind
(e) More phssical
of which W. K. Flenlcv wrote:
It matters not how strait the gate.
How charged with punishments the scroll.

1 am the master of mv fate:

I am the captain of my soul.
symptoms may occur; you mas Iiecome
Some adverse
you have acquired pss-
undulv self-contideni and believe
these effects are not dangerous.
chic posvers. Fortunately
brain power, but it
Abstraction svill not increase your
prepare you for further pro-
svill mind and
purge your
gress.
To recapitulate:
vou can
dav—or if
^IL lUl ICll
down
o
that mental
1
' •
^
m«
that pass
and watch the thoughts than
while resting. You are big^r
which vou discern
there ^ arc
thoughts. You have all the time is.
sour i earing
mind. Desires will come. 5on>«ii^
more than
come, but deny their
uMv masks. Let them
Until the mind is stilled, there
an be no
ar^e not You. Tbc
the

1 The Song Ctlertial. bv Edwin Arnold.

 MIRACLES OF THE CREATI\'E WILL 95

world. This is a hard saying, but you will find that it

applies to all activities, and especially to those of sex.

Review your thoughts as they pass, and review the

Reviewer. Do not try to stop the engine of your mind by
main force. (Later you will know how to manage the
ignition switch, but for the present just let the engine go
on ticking over.) You will find that there is a division in

yourself, a duality, a differentiation between the thoughts

and the Thinker, which is a dawning consciousness of
the true Self. Single out your thoughts and note that
there is a gap between them. These gaps are a foretaste

of samadhi.

Be still, and know the Self.

Know that you are fixed and poised in a world of

ceaseless change, and that, whatever the outside world
may do, you are in possession of a citadel which cannot
he stormed or starved into submission, for you arc sup-
porting the attackers as well as the garrison within.

"dharana” or concentration
“Without the power to dictate to the brain its task,
and to ensure obedience, true life is impossible. Mind
control is the first element of a full existence,” says
Arnold Bennett in a little volume packed with wit and
wisdom.*
If every man-child were to be taught dharana he
would know (among other things) how to accumulate
gold and gear; and if every girl-child knew its secrets, she
would possess the magnetism so necessary' to social suc-
cess. Of course, if everyone knew how to concentrate,
competition would be keener, and superficially no one
would be any better but the foundations of the only
off;

workable Utopia would be laid.

Dharana is easier to describe than pratyahara be-
cause our businesses and most of our games are schools
for concentration. At least ten minutes a day for one

' How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.

Y.E.—
week should be devoted to each of the following three
stages:
(a) Concentration on limbs and organs in the body.
(b) Concentration on simple objects.
Concentration on complex objects.
(c)

The same general method should be followed as that

jecommended for pratyahara, allowing three weeks of
dharana to one of pratyahara; but I am conscious ol a
in thus suggesting a rigid allocation of
certain absurdity
reader’s time, for abstraction, concentration, and
the
contemplation must necessarily blend into each other.

Rational inclination and common sense are safe guides

upon these mental frontiers, provided the body is supple

Nevertheless, it is advisable to know
and well balanced.
routine for sharpening the tools of
the traditional Indian
consciousness.
limbs and organs of the body.
(a) CoJicentration on
and as far as possible even an
Avoiding tension,
all
mind with benevolent interest
effort of will, hold the

upon your hands, your feet, or some other chosen part of

vour anatomy. i i

condition, send your thought

If you have a diseased
sufficiendy confident
there your thought
If about it is

meticulous and overaMious vnu

and courageous, not loo
about a physical conditioi
will be healed. Never worry
do!) See your troube
(How easy to write, how hard to
can, and send to i the
clearly and calmly as you
as leave
health and wholeness; then
creative affirmations of
it alone.
not occur to
God knows what
suit
is

your convenience,
best for you.
but miraculous things ^
and your thought
""’TlteerTtl^er in a Jungle,
tiger will love yo«-
friendly, the
about it is bold and So ato
Yogis do tame tigen.
is not fantasy,
but fact.
in the fastnesses o >
tame the wild beasts
vou may jung es
the industrial
body, or those you may meet in

If you
'

your right hand for three minutes.

“’"consider
 MlRAC:l.i;.S CM- ( K1AH\ F. WII L ‘17

coucciiiraie properly )ou soon be able lo isolate it

will
in vour imagination troin the rest of \()nr body. Very
likelv YOU will feel a prickling in the palm.
Consider your left hand for three minutes. Now
consider the sense c:)f touch in both vour hands for four
minutes, completing ten minutes of concentration on the
subject. Think how all the senses arc dej^endent on
touch. Seeing and hearing are functions of the brain
dependent on vibrations impinging on vour body. Vour
skin is tiot the envelope of the Self; xour anatomical
frontiers are far wider; von can extend voursclf as far as
/ ,

>our creative will can reach. Link voursedf to mankind.

1 hink also how \ou can prevent pain Iroin reaching

consciousness. Realize this bv pinchin« You
1 O ^(:)ur linger.
o •

can make yourself feel the pain acutelv bv fixing vour

attention on it. or you can disregard its pulsations and
remain indifferent to them. Gi\en sufficient intensitv of
concentration, you can be burned at the stake with a
prayer on your lips; or nc'ui can train \our touch to the
speed and delicacv of a blind man reading Braille.
T his selectivity is only a small part of the functions
of the creative will. It can alter your body completelv,
'Sometimes in sti'ange wavs.
Do you remember how St. Francis of Assisi praved to
98 YOGA EXPLAINED

feel the pain of the Crucifixion in his own flesh—it was

in 1224, under a beech tree near La Verna—and how his
hands and feet were marked, and a spear-thrust appeared
in his side? Men saw those wounds, although he tried to

hide them. They existed, Persons alive to-day bear simi-

lar stigmata.
Concentrate upon the solar plexus for at least one

period of ten minutes. (The parts of the body on which

a matter of personal
I would concentrate—but this is

choice— are my two hands, my solaj plexus, ray heart,

two ears, ray bowels.) ^Vithout

my two feet, iny nose, ray

particular medical knowledge, you can become con-

any
of the capital importance of the “wheel of many
scious
plexus— in the united states of your
lays”— the solar
Merely
body. Do not bother about anatomical details.

your midriff, and you will feel there

keep your mind on
a sense of relaxation and
well-being.
^

again, your heart, so patiendy doing its

Consider,
what the job It is keeping you alive,
job. Never mind is.

and enough. Let your mind rest m

that YOU know, it is

but without undue cariosny.

vour heart, affectionately,
a wise parent, mix younelf
You do not, if you are
games. You can live m
continually in your cliildren’s
with them. If you inter-
being
your children by merely
sometimes you break a mag c
play,
fere directlv in their

spell. So with these exercises. Do not ti^- to tell

|0
ight aj^d s ght.
by your inward
Im anything. Enjoy it

first one foot, then the other

Eniov also vour feet,

happiness
a whole world of

^
There is

nc^v. You lee, are

;:;is Mail ame„d.

your a^ntton. As
also repay
He nose and ears will

pHtctise the
enjoyanenynd
ileuS (eenness. You an
smells at any ime
sounds and
the inhibition of
dav.
 MIRACLES OF CREATIVE WILL 99

Think also—if you like— of the stream of food pass-

down the eleven million miles of human guts on

ing
earth, so curiously being converted from death to life,

from vegetables to beatific visions, from cereals to scrub-

bing doorsteps. See your own part of tliis river

of resur-

rection, draining the country of your body, nourishing it

with it’s vital essences. Those who axe always frightened

about the movement of the stream, alaimed at droughts,
inducing floods by artificial means, can never be healthy.
Your body’s wisdom is great; trust your bowels, give
them pure food, and be sure that they will dispose of it
well. Make your mind see this happening, to the exclu-
sion of all other outside influences.
However, do not spend too long on these isolations
(a week is enough) and do not concentrate on the brain,
the lungs, the eyes, and certain other complex organs,

unless there is a weakness in them which you want to

remedy or a disease you hope to heal.

(b) Concentration on simple objects.
An Indian woman was going to draw svater at a well.
Suddenly she screamed and fell down in a fit, for she had
seen a cobra. (This is an old story, as true to-day as it

was when I first heard it from my guru twenty years

ago.)

Her brother came out of the house, thought she had

been attacked by a thief, shouted for the village con-

stable.

Passers-by started running in all directions, crying:

“Ware thief!” A washerman’s donkey bolted, scatter-

ing the clothes which its owner was bringing from the
river. A zemindar’s elephant took fright, charged trum-
peting through the streets, upset booths, banians’ shops,
sweetmat stalls. A boy climbed a tree to see the fun,
fell off, broke his arm, yelled as if he were being murder
ed. Soon the whole village was in an uproar.
Eventually a brahmin, bolder than the others, or
with better eyesight, went up to the supposed snake,
I0() v»x;a km'iaimji

and found iliul ii wa> only a rop#: a hannlcsN,

length ot rope, lying by the Mcllliead.
Much of out public and piivate alarm is of this kind

Our impressions are inadequate, hiuried, (olound In

fear. We ought to cullivaie our faeultics of jHreeption

Now concentration on coiurcte objeeis docs jnsi

this: il enables us to see rightly, increases out <»bi((ti

vilv. corrects the herd instinct created b\ nia's amuse

i

inenis and mass [rropaganda. It is a pth to jrcaee, and

it is also great fun, for it creates a harmoiis that rea(ts

not onlv on our own surroundings but goes out into the
world, svorking out incalculable destinies of g(K»d.

Ideas are dsnamite: thev arc also short wasc radia

tions rangingthrough unknown immensities of time and

space. Few of ns have realized our respotisibilitics for
shaping opinion and influencing events b\ our thought:
but all of us. all the lime, arc sending out and rcteiving
vibrations beyond our senses.

Some very extraordinary experiments have rerentlv

reprd to the power
been made by German scientists in

sounds, called supersonic waves. These

of inaudible
scientists, un
high-Frequency currents, according to the
infusoria, tear algae apart, loosen the protoplasm
destroy
“Red bhxxl corpuscles are
in the cell-walls of plants.
other hand the influence of such
also dstroyed; on the
seems to be quite different; in some
waves on bacteria
appears to be an agglutination and a decrease
cases there
the opposite is true.
in violence, whereas in others
the marked production of hat
Another important fact is

frictional forces. This particular

bv these waves, due to
future form the basis of the appliation
effect may in the
has been shown that ^ese
of supersonics to medicine. It

waves can cause a pronounced

heating the m
bone-

marrow.” ,
vibrations produced out ot
We are learning to use
w
our skulls run wild. Let
box. But the waves out of

learn to harness them. ^ ot ^

objects is part jwm
Concentration on concreie
 MIRACLES OF CRLATIN E WILL

and the better you do it the more

dailv work and play,
successful you are. However capable \ou are, you would
alwavs benefit by more objectivity. No one is perfect. No
time he gives an extra ten or fifteen
one will waste his if

minutes a day to the technique of thinking.

.Summon a flower before lOur mind's eye. and con-

in detail. Vou need not be a botanist, but

sider it
observe how much better mui can enjoy it by
affectiomiie

analvsis rather than bv indiscriminate appreciation.

Generalized admiration butters no par>nips. \ou mtist

be intimate and personal to arouse that glow, to meet

that response which rewards one for so much of the bit-

terness of living— and this applies to more than flowei>.

»
Vou know, if you have ever lo\cd. that this refers to the
opposite sex.

Consider the petals of a \ellow ctirnation. Look into

their heart, where scent seems to blend with shape.
Touch, with the imagination, ever so softlv. their lelvety
texture, their glorious colour and fragi'ance. Obsetae
the stem, with its small, lovelv leaves: think how the
carnation transmutes the mould of earth into the glorv
of its upturned face.
Let your love go out to the carnation. Or to a but-
tercup. a daisy, a ladvbird a fireflv. . Ten minute'’
clear thinking about anything vou admire on God’s green
502 YOGA explained

earth may enlarge the horizons of your consciousness

by
a thousand miles.

not a matter of the form of the object, nor

It is
of
the place it occupies, but of your own vitality and
angle t ^

of vision. The
heauty of the world, whether you live » ^
in the Bay of Naples or in Hammenmith Broadway, ^
can
always be summoned by the seeing eye. You need only
“lay hold on life” in order to summon this man'ellous
pageant, this royal procession of the Creative Will. It

is there, within, not at Palm Beach or upon the Cote

d’Azur, but “closer than hands or breathing,” waiting
to obey the evocation of your vital centres.

“By whatever path men come to me,” says Sri

Krishna in the Bhngavad Gita, “even so I welcome them.

For the path men take from every side is also mine!”
From every side! Concentrate on the beauty of a Sibe-
rian tiger, if you like, or a star-sapphire, or an apple-tree
in flower, or the taste of China tea, or wild strawbenies.
^
Choose anything vivid and exquisite which gives you
^"
pleasure, the simpler the better; it is better during this
'

week to concentrate on a jewel rather than a view, a

flavour rather than a meal, a thing rather than a person.
More subjects for concentration than you can
manage in a week will come readily to mind. Neverthe-

less you should keep at least two out of our seven periods
to the cultivation of memory. This, of course, is a ridi-

rulously short time to devote to such an important matter,

but perhaps it will be enough to whet your appetite for

further experiment.
In (ulti\ating the garden of vour mind, remember
by
that a new idea can come fonvard in thought only ,

linking itself to something already in the garden.

Your
|
patches
mind is an enormous, scattered pleasance with
Everything that has ever happened to you
is
of jungle.
there, but sou cannot find your way about among the

the uncultivated parts unless you

rubbish and tangle of

establish landmarks. . , .t .

familiar if you
You must relate the unfamiliar to the
 MIRACLES OF CREATU E WILL 103

would have a good memory. Many books have been

written about the association of ideas by similarity and
diversity, etc.; a little pamphlet by Ernest Wood is

one of the best.'

Begin by memorizing some room which you remem-

ber well. Go round it clockwise, seeing in your mind’s
eye the sofa, the portable type-writer on the floor, the
pouf by the radio set, an engraving of Landseer’s stag, a
radiator a Persian carpet, a table, a wastepaper basket,

the fireplace, a standard lamp, a cupboard, a tall-boy,

and so on.

See these objects clearly in their order. You will

probably be able to remember twenty objects quite easily;
with a little practice this can be extended almost inde-
finitely. For instance, sou can remember the four cor-
ners of the picture^ or the four comers of the carpet,
and all the objects on your svriiing-table. Similarly, you
can remember not one room, but all the rooms in your
house, with their contents. This is not half so difficult
as it sounds.
Having now fixed a number of familiar objects in
your mind, associate them with the unfamiliar things
which you wish to remember, such as a shopping-list, or
the points in a speech which you have to make.
Suppose that this afternoon you are going to your
market town for the following purposes:
To buy sealing-wax, sugar, string, tea, oats, lettuce,
carrots

To change your books at the library';

To call on the plumber;
And to pay a bill at the dairy.
Here are ten things to remember. To begin with,
I would change their order slightly, thus: carrots and
lettuce; string and sealing-wax; oats, sugar, and tea-
library; dairy; plumber,
1 Memory Traimng, Adyar Publishing
House, Madras. Tiie
soggestions given here are based
on Mr. Wood’s ideas, but I am
responsible for certain modifications.
104 YOGA EXPI AIXED

Put these objects upon the familiar

objects in your
room. The carrots and lettuce go on your
sofa, where
they look so absurd that you cannot
fail to remember
them. (This sounds childish, but it works!)
String and
sealing-wax go on the type writer. Oats, sugar, and tea
go on the pouf, because you can imagine yourself sitting
on the pouf eating porridge with your tea! (Ridiculous,
yes; that’s why it will stick in your mind!) The books will
go on the radio set. Landseer’s stag will remind you of
a cow. (You might, however, have called the dairy
“milk,” and included it by association with oats, sugar,
and tea. In that event, picture would have reminded
you of plumber because both begin with a p; or because
of some similarity between the stag and the plumber.)
Obviously the radiator recalls the man who mends
it.

All this sounds complicated, and as if you were giv-

ing your mind double the necessary w'ork. Rut your mind
does not object to w'ork, it likes to get a grip ('ii some-
thing; what exhausts it is functioning in vacancy.
You may consider I have chosen particularly easy
objects to remember, but this is not so. A few experi-
ments will convince you that you can link anything with
anything. Generally one link is enough; thus; pouf,

puffed wheat, oats. The maximum is three; thus sofa,

invalid, diet, vegetarianism, carrots and lettuce.

Once you have visualized tyyenty or a hundred fami-

liar objects, you wdll practically never need a notebook.
Moreover, you can select the objects to be remembered in
any order to suit your convenience. 4\Tien you reach the

shopping district you may buy the string and sealing wax
first; then on each side of them, in your mind’s eye. will’

be the canrots and and the

lettuce, oats, sugar, and tea.

If you happen to meet the plumber first, you can always

work back to the picture, radio set, pouf, typewriter,

sofa.

By such means as the above mentioned, Y(^ per-

form astonishing feats of memory. The system can be

 MIRACl.KS Ol- C.KI ATlVi: Wil l.

qiiotaiioiis, the heading's of a

used for remeinbcring
speech, or the points to he answered in a debate
experienec of a
Wood quotes the interesting

Polish mnemoicehnist Major Beniowasky, who lised in

Vilna during the earlv \ear.> of the nineteenth eentury.

Although Beniowasky was always gifted with a good

niemorv, he foundJ *
when he was a young student of ihir-
J

teen ^
that he was a failure at botanv. A

Twice a week ilic studcius went lo the Botanical

Gardens where they lound llowers and shrubs labelled
* 4

with metal disks whose uuinbcrs referred them to a cata-

logue: No 1779, Vulemna officinalis, etc. Beniowasks
found it tiresome to look up these big numbers and to re-
member the spelling of the names. “I was peculiarly
vexed and broken hearted,” he writes, ‘‘because I came
to the garden tired out bv other studies. I had a ftill

dozen copybooks under my arm, and a very old catalogue

with loose leaves. When voii add to these enciimbraiKcs
an umbrella in mv left hand, a pen in my right,
an ink.
bottle dangling from my waistcoat button, and the heart
of a spoiled child in my breast, you will have an idea of
my embarrassment.”
His landlady and her daughters, who were inquisi
,

five about the students passing by their parlour window

306 YOGA EAPfAlNED

gave him a due as to how he could circumvent his difiB-

culties.

“Who is that extraordinary' fish?” asked one of the

-girls, pointing to a pupil hurrying by. Beniowasky
answered that the boy’s name was Fisher, and imme-
diately, amidst girlish laughter, he had a l>rain wave.
When he returned to the Botanical Gardens next
day he came aaoss a small angular plant whose designa-
tion had constantly baffled him. Now he knew what to
do. He wrote down its number, and then “roof covered
with snow.” because that was what its petals suggested.

In a few minutes he had thus nicknamed about twenty

-plants. Wlien he looked at them he immediately re-

membered what he had christened them, and when he

looked at his notebook their appearance jumped up
brightly in his imagination.
“The only thing that remained to be done,” con-

tinues Beniowasky, “was to know how learned people

named the plants. This business I settled in a few

minutes. I placed my catalogue comfortably on the

table, looked for No. 978, and found Achilaa mille-

folium: this made rise before my mind the picture of an

‘eagle mth a thousand feathers’ and to this I added

^roof covered icith snow.’ The connecting link is

obvious.”

To recapitulate:
concentrating
You have strengthened your mind by
•on simple objects which delight your imagination, say,

on five successive days. Then for two

five such objects
by visualiz-
periods you have exercised your memory,
first

room and associating them with

ing the objects in your
an unfamiliar list of things; and secondly by remember-
which you have clothed in fancy
ing a group of facts
you vividly instead of
dress, so that they strut before

lying, dry as dust, between the covers of a book.

keep your memory kennelled in a note-
If you always
Trust it, take it
book. it will develop a tricky temper.
 MIRACLES OE CREATIVE WILL 107

and you will hnd that it becomes

off the leash, give it air,

a faithful friend.

(c) Concentralion on complex objects.

arbitrary. use to distin-
'rhe word complex is I it

from
guish the previous objects and figures we considered
the pople and problems of the present exercises.
arc We
reaching a borderland where definitions and
instructions,

are of little avail; 1 suggest specific subjects, of

growing

complexity, only in order to round off this survey. Some

of them are inexhaustible, others require months of
study. Glancing at each of them for a quarter of an
hour will illumine only the outlines of the Yoga country;
thereafter you must remember the counsel of the dying
’

Buddha to his disciples: “Be ye lamps unto yourselves 1

My suggestion is that you should employ your

allotted time as follows:

(i) casting the mind back,

(ii) casting the mind foiw'ard,
(iii) helping a sick person by thought power,
(iv) considering love,

(v) considering duty,

(vi) considering pain and evil,
(vii) considering the Creator.
Afterwards, when you have found a teacher, he wilt

tell you where your weaknesses lie^ and what parts of the-

mind you should develop. If you are alone, you will

probably choose a subject you enjoy. This is right and

proper, but give your preference to simple matters. The
more you learn of anything, the more your powers of
attention will develop, and the more vividly you will see

that any little minnow caught in the mesh of matter iv

really a leviadian in seas you cannot sound.

(i) Casting the mind back.
This can be made a nerve-racking and mind-defeating
process by insisting (as some teachers do) that you should
remember every small detail of your actions yesterday.
Avoid this; think cheerfully over the general aspect of the
immediate past, and do not be dismayed at your failures.
JOS YOGA EXrLAlNKD

To err is human: those whoimagine they are

faultless are generally inhuman as well as incompetent.
‘Great men are always ready to admit their errors.
Lord NuiTicId told me once that he didn’t like to be
surrounded by people who never do wrong, for experi-
ence had Vaught him that no one was infallible, and that
.men who didn’t take risks had no initiative.
When interviewed Signor Mussolini, he confessed
I
that he had made a great many mistakes in his life; he
repeated this in English after asserting it emphatically in
Jtalian. He
was learning English at the time. I noticed
that he avoided the usual Latin fault of speaking each
word in staccato fashion (English, of course, is spoken in
mouthfuls), and waded gaily into a stream of sentences
from which he was not alwavs able to extricate himself.
4

But his method has been successful. He has learned to

speak English while carrying all his immense burdens.
If the early pioneers of flying had been afraid of
making mistakes, they would never have left the ground,
for the scientific experts of their day said it was impossible.
Think of your mistakes, then, with respect, while observ-
ing how you might have done better. Act out the scene,
or scenes, in the light of your afterknowledge and cast
your mind back, beyond yesterday, to the causes that led
TO your error.
Review your successes in the same rvay, and during
(he same meditation. Don’t allow your mind to remain
rapt before any raountainpeak or valley. Keep her mov-
ing. If you have determined to revierv the events of yes-
teixlay, do that, neither more nor less. Similarly, if you
have determined to review the events of the past week,
materialize the whole past week before your inward eye.
Note where the mind wants to stray off the path, or argue
with her rider, as the ass did with Balaam, when she saw
the angel of the Lord standing in the vine-arched way.
Such divagations from your theme can be explored
another time, indeed should be explored, for you may
obtain valuable information, but at the moment keep the
mind lioni waiidtring or loiicring. Balaam, you \vi

remember, did nol \icld readilv 4

lo his ass.

(ii) Casliit^ the jiiiiul foriuard.

This, also, strangely enough, is tonsidered in 't'oga

as a task for the memory. Starling, sav, Irom an inti-

dent of yesterday, develop the situation as it may tin-

fold. Consider the jirobabilities, and see them as if on a
stage. Play the part iirst in one way, then in another. 'J o
anticipate failure would be idiocy. In this aetiiijr you
cannot fail. See >,ottrself accomplishing the task what-
ever it is., with brilliance, for bv .
doing
Cj
so vou j
will be

Fiij. 20. VV/f llhu'jdnfjo.'^ana, or cobra

bringing into action the latent powers of your mind at

the appropriate moment, yoti will be surrounding your-
self with an atmosphere of success. And that, of course,
is yotir native atmosphere. No one teas meant to be a
failure in this world.
While vou are thus thinking
' o forward, some worrv '

may come into the foreground of )our mind. Try to ptit

it in its right perspective, which may or may not
be the
foreground
bulks big, obscuring the landscape, see whether it
If it

be a bragg-art Avorry. swollen with its own conceit, which

will collapse with a pinprick of humour, or a kick of
ilO YOGA EXPLAINED

common sense. Some worries yield, others not, for the

Self admits that they are reasonable. It is reasonable to
be anxious, for instance, if someone you love is ill;

reasonable, but not helpful. A worry of this kind, if it

cannot be denied out of existence, will always disappear

for a lime, when asked to do so by the Creative Will; and
as you will see below it is necessary to abolish anxiety
before you can help the sick.

Sometimes you tvill find thought-forms repeating

themselves continually without elucidating a situation.

Your mind is then like a tired man who cannot sit still.

^Vhen this happens, force your thoughts to a conclusion,

no matter what. You don’t have to act immediately.
Defened judgment is good, but beware of the tempta-
tion of turning your back on facts. When facts trouble

^ou look them in the face and come to a decision, then

put them aside (they will go. once you have passed judg-
ment on them) until the following day, when you can
change your mind again, if you like. Go on changing
your mind, if absolutely necessary, but avoid indecision
iietween whiles: there is nothing more exhausting.
Concentration is trulv a cure-all for difficult situa-
4

tions, because if it does not show' you a way out, it will

at least convince you that what can’t be cured must be

endured. It is astonishing what you can bear w'ith a

grin, once you know that there is no escape.

You might be blind, for instance, or crippled.

Would this crush your joy in life? Not if you are brave.
One of my best friends, who used to be a magnificent
athlete, was stricken with arthritis, fiften years ago.
He
tells me that it has made no difference to his real happi-

ness, and he proves it by his gaiety and fortitude.

Cast your mind foncard also to the distant future.

(All this, of course, you cannot do in one period.) You

know as well as Shakespeare that

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth.

And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow’.
Do not turn vour back on this fact. Why be afraid
 MIRACLES OF CREATIVE WILL 1 1

of time? Itbound to pass, but you can still be youth-

is

ful, if you will, by keeping, your mind alert and your

spine flexible. Beauty treatments are more needed for

the mind than for the body. Those pathetic disguises
that deceive no one^ such as lifted faces without expres-
sion, are worn by those who bas e not faced old age men-

ially. Women of fifty can be as attractive — as many living

examples bear witness, and hundreds of characters in his-

tory—as women of twenty, given inward as well as out-

ward health.
Our attitude towaads our middle years, and the
decline of life, is generally wrong. We do not go down to
the grave, but up, if we Even if ive
believe in religion.
don’t, it is common sense and common knowledge that
we enjoy ourselves more and more as we shed our egotism,
ambition, fears, and learn to cultivate the pleasures of
friendship. You can snap your fingers at old age when
you see bogy' plainly .

Look ahead in other ways One of the most capable

women I know does her Christmas shopping in October.
Concentrate on ideas that will turn to your material
advantage, and you will find that if you are sufficiently
indifferentabout them they will come crowding to your
help. \ou will meet a friend, read something in the
newspaper, follow a ’‘hunch,” and discover that you
have been fortunately guided. These things are not
chance: they are the consequences of detachment and
clear sight, acquired through the habit of concentration.
Decide also, as objectively as you can, w'hether your
expectation of life is ten, or twenty, or thirty or forty
years; and determine how to make the most of this living-
capital. You are not eternal. Plan
to make the best of
the precious years.
(iii) Helping a sick person by thought-power.
Since your mind can influence your body, it can also
influence the bodies of others. If you have no sick friend,
practiseon someone who needs more happiness.
It is
good for you to help othen. Be humble
about it. You

Y.E.—
312 YOGA EXPLAINED

will not be able to help your friend at first, but you will
help yourself greatly from the moment you begin wish-
ing him well.
Picture your subject as visidly as you can_ and ad-
dress to him the thoughts that you wash to impress on his
mind. Do not attempt to control his will, but fill your
mental image of him with ideas of confidence and suc-

'Cess.

Guard against tension, for it prevents the currents

of prana flowing through you to him. You are not help-
ing the Universal Cosmic Consciousness by frowning, or
stveating or making yourself uncomfortable. Relax. Relax
so fully that if a bomb dropped in your neighbourhood
you would not jump up for ten seconds after the ex-
plosion.
Surround your friend with the guartfan angels of
your thought. See him well, and happy, and doing the
things he loves. Do not try to coerce him. Send out
vibrations to soothe and calm his mind. His healing,

like your healing, comes from within.

Have you ever seen a faith-healer at work? The
•genuine ones wmrk on the pattern set for us by Christ. I
saw one who treated a butcher for a septic thumb. It was
greatly swollen a splinter of bone from some animal
:
had

set up a gangrenous infection. The butcher was ill, and

frightened, and full of faith. The healer looked at the

That was all. She neither touched it, nor

swelling.
uttered any outw'ard prayer. Under my eyes, I saw the

swelling burst, and the splinter emerge. The motive

pow’er which forced this bone out of that
thumb came
butcher, but he would never have
certainly from the
mobilized it for himself. A woman’s eyes did that, or

'Christ shining through them.

I do not insist on Christ. Neither, I think, would
the butcher’s faith, which
Christ. The virtue was in

made him whole.

(iv) Considering love.
Wlien I advised you to concentrate on anything you
 MIRACLES OF CREAllVE WILL

admire on God’s green earth, did you think of how

your

beloved would enlarge your horizon by a

thousand

miles? I did. Those you love are surrounded by a

powerful magnetic held in your consciousness. Devoiion

member of your family, or to some friend, is an
to some
easier subject on which to concentrate than abstract loves
and far more dangerous; but we will take the dangerous
path, for it leads to fair horizons by the way.
Hardy has said somewhere that “a man in love selling

up his brains as a gauge to his position, is as one deter-

mining a ship's longitude from a light at the mast-head.

All Yoga confirms a light at the mast-head.” All Yoga

confiims this; your brain is never a true guuge to your

position; you must use an inward light and sight com-

pounded of faculties still nascent in mankind. They are

the only ones by which we can safely steer.

rocM to and fr.o.

Do not shut your mental eyes and merely dream of

the beloved. If you do, you will be bogged in the mud
of meiuon'. Instead, bring fonvard in your mind the
image of your heart’s desire. Go over the qualities of
form, motion, face, speech. See as clearly as you can what
n't YUUA EXPLAINED

it is that stirs you. Thank God you are stirred. It is

good to love.

(Be grateful by the way, during some other period

of concentration, to all those whom you have ever loved,
no matter what you may think of them now, or how they
have treated you since your times of happiness. Love is
a divine memory. Make room for it in your life.)

Think of Avhy you love. Probably you don’t exactly

know. You can say only that you feel a magic in that
presence, a spell that evokes a desire to serv'e. to sacrifice,

to worship. What is it that has invested this body with

its transcendent qualities? The same bread and meat
have gone into it as into other men and women. Most
of the mystery was in the grocer’s shop a few days ago.
This does not detract from his magnetism, or her magic;
on the contrar}', the thought of the miraculous transform-
ing power of lose will only enhance the picture of the
beloved in your mind’s eye.
You may assert, indignantly, that you were not
thinking of the body, but of the mind. But the mind is

also dependent on beer and beef steak, or their equival-

ents. Be bold. See dearly. Seeing clearly, you need

surrender no jot or tittle The world is more

of romance.

wonderful than know; and the more we know of it,

the more readily we come to the mood of true w'orship;
The angels keep their ancient places;—

Turn but a stone, and start a wing!

’Tis ye. ’tis your estranged faces.

That iniss the many-splendoured thing.*

You can build up your love by these means, for it is

psychic law that courage and dear sight

a well-known
exercise a magnetic attractive power.
necessary, you can demolish the hurtful
Also, if

effects of a hopeless love by the same means. To give

glorious privilege; if it is not returned, do not

love is a

greatest, simplest
1 From “In No Strange Land,”
the last,

Doem written by Francis Thompson.

 MIRACLES OF CREATIVE WILL 115

despair, but do not dote. There is nothing more ex-

asperating to the object of your devotion than servile
adoration that cannot be returned. Visualize this fel-

low-creature who is wrecking your life. It is not her

fault, or his fault, but your fault, that you have allowed
your^f to get into a dithering, brain-sick state. Be
cruel, to be kind to yourself. Fill your mind with other
thoughts and interests; once you have recovered from a
spell of unrequited love you will be a far stronger and
more sympathetic person.
There is a good deal of a selfishness in most love.

Recognize this in yourself, fully and sincerely, because it

may save you much unhappiness afterwards. To be

attractive you must be sympathetic, and you cannot be
sympathetic if you are so beglamoured and bemused by
your devotion that there is no room for the other’s per-
sonality.

Some cynical poet once sent me the following lines’

TO AN IDEALIST
1 cannot look above
Or glance beneath my feet,
Or round me, but your love
Encircles me complete.

So high it cannot hear.

So wide it cannot touch;
If I should disappear
If wouldn’t matter much!

See youKelf in the clear light of the detachment you

have acquired, and love the other person by that illu-
mination. Remove the fantasies from your mind , espe-
cially the fantasy called “the biological imperative.”
Desire may spoil everything, even physial pleasure,

r
I was the iiterary editor of the Spectator at the time. Dnfor-
Innately I have lost track of the author, and hope that he oi
she will for^ve me for using hie or her verses without permission.
116 YOGA EXPLAINED

let alone higher satisfactions, unless controlled by

all
the
Creative Will. Who does not know this in practice?
No passion was fulfdled without an opposite polarity.
Cultivate the clarity of mind which seems to be indiffer-
ence (though it may glow white hot beneath the surface),
if you would enjoy the finest flowers of the senses.

But do not linger in the Garden of Kama while

schooling your feet upon the Yoga path. Continence is

necessary to concentration. Sexual love is a minor aspect

of the bliss experienced by a fully illumined nature.
Such a nature is androgynous, experiencing in itself the
passion of both man and woman on a superphysical plane.
The planes affect each other. Induced currents pass
between them. Without chastity there can be no progress
at this stage of Yoga, when new thought-channels are
opening in the mind.
It is probably peedless to say that this injunction has

no part or lot with body-hating cults. Desire and devo-

tion are horses of the sun, but they /
must be ridden with
the curb of the Creative Will.
(v) Considering duly.
Turn from the beloved to consider someone you do
not love; someone, perhaps, whom you once loved, and
with whom you are still compelled to live. Here you
enter one of the many paths of duty. The more intimate

the relation, the more need for the Creative Will to adjust

the conflicts which must occur (not always, but, alas, how
often!) between those brought together by marriage or
family relationship. Nine times out of ten, concentration

will discover anfrom the thicket of such troubles.

exit

Whatever the reasons for a lack of harmony, the

partly yours, for you have been
fault must be at least

prevent the disturbance of your vibrations. Do

unable to
that
your part. “Forgive, if ye have ought against any:

vour Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your

trespasses.” (St. Mark, xi, 25.) Do not rasp through
of jealousy, nor sling the
boomer-
friendship with the file
 CRLAriN E WILL 117
MIRACLtS 01

icluriis so inconveniently on
in<T of marital advice, which
O
coiir own head.
von “simply can’t stand that
When you sav that
inviting a criticism of yourself.
fellow Smith,” you arc

reasonably dislike Smith, but if you really find

Vou may
then he has thrown you off your balance.
him unbearable,
emotions that anrone should feel arc love
The only acute
and joy. .

Consider where \oiir diitv lies, towards your ncigii-

bour and towards yourself, txaminc especially an\ cii-

cumstances which excite sou. Examine them critically,

in the moonlight of leason.

not under the tropical sun of
what sou can do about them, and do it
indignation. See
you should, but remember that to act dis-
if vou drink

effcctirelv, linking the natural to

passionately is to act

the supernatural.

Fi;/. 22. I'he Uddiyanulihamiii. nr "fJiiing up in uhnf,.

th‘ ahdonund muschi arr rriutracted, and the diaphragm raised.

(vi) Considering pain and evil.

The devil is a dangerous dish to set before the stu-

dent. but you should taste of him during one of youi

meditation periods. (Later, you may return to him occa
 118 VOGA KXPLAINED

sionally, but in yom meditations give beauty a

prepon
dmnee over ugliness ot at least six to one.) I)o^„„,
entirely negicet the devil.
Considering him sharpens
die
senses, like a little garlic in
if»nrf» nmin
a salad. To quote^
^ Hardv
once again:
*

If a way to the better there be,

It exacts a lull look at the

worst.
^Vhen I engage in this rather sombre exercise I think
of lepers, or a dying kitten. These are the worst’ sights I
•have encountered worse than death.
:
(Why should death
be shocking? It comes to us all.) Your own problems of
evil you must discover for yourself, out of memory.
Ihe lepers I saw by the light of a rainy full moon, at
a bridge of boats across the Ganges.
There they sat, rows
of them, shockingly humble, some with
flattened features
difficult to recognize as human,
others extending shape-
lessstumps of hands, begging for alms. It was midnight.
1 was the only traveller. They clustered round
me, be-
seeching me to help them, with high, thin voices. The
Ganges flotved by us swiftly in the moonlight, swollen by
the recent rain, proud, gorgeous, indifferent to human
life. I had no money, not an anna, could give them
nothing.
1 he kitten 1 found on a road in Garden City, Long
Island. It had been run over by a car. Both hind legs
were crushed. It was a beautiful tabby, with pale amber
eyes, mewing vers' softly. When I dressed its injuries it

stopped complaining. Its courage and common sense

were astonishing.
Two days later it seemed doing well, and I had to
leave it for twenty-four hours, while I went to report an
international polo match for the London Times. On ray
return, it tvas apparently dying. I thought it had lost

hope. There were maggots in its wounds. The vet to

Avhora I sent it told me that it should be chloroformed,

and I allowed him “to put it out of its pain,” as he ex-

pressed it, in his kind, euphemistic way. Now I know !

was wTong. The poor beast wanted to remain with its

 MIRACLES OF CRFATIVE WILL 119

pain, and I am told that niaggois arc an effort of Nature

to disinfect wounds. I am sure that I could have saved
that kitten’s life.

Sometimes the reasons for suffering seem clear, but

other agonies are past our limited understanding. I do
not know why God allows leprosy, or hydrophobia; nor
why, when there is so much beauty in the world, there
should be its opposite. But if we blame God for suffer

ings and ugliness, we must also praise Him for beauty;

and no sane man will dispute that there is more of the

latter than the former m the world.
As I wrote this, sunbathing in a garden, a marvel-

lous black insect alighted on my paper, and immediately

flew off again, to one of the billion worlds beyond my
knowledge. I had only a glimpse of its smart long wings,
and the polished jet of its body, with a glittering blue
undercarriage. It may have been one of those deplorable
aeatures who eat their husbands, or it may have been
the industrious queen of an ant tribe, looking for a place
to establish her colony. Whatever her business, she was
very brisk and busy about it, and reminded me that I am
not the only peebble on the infinite beach of life. Ihe
world could do quite well without me, or any of ray kind.
The organization of our intellect excludes us from
the knowledge of reality, but not from the knowledge of
our nescience. In that we seem to have evolved beyond
other animals. Or is this only .seeming? But enough of
the devil ! If you have incarnated him once, on some fine
morning, in some concrete fonn that makes you shudder,
you will have achieved sufficient mental purgation.
(vii) Considering the Creator.
Ifyou have an Ishta Devata (a personal deity), you
will have also the whole literature of Christian mysti-
cism, ‘ or the Upanishads, or the Baskets of Buddhism, or
the Suh poets for your guides.

^ The Spiritual Exercises oj St. lijnatim correspond to the

dharana and dhyana stages of Yoga.
 120 VOGA EXPLALN'ED

I do not, however, recommend at this stage a con-

itant or even a frequent
fixing of the mind on the Most
High^ whose aspects, by whatsoever name men call
Him
are far beyond human comprehension. In
the next stage"^
dhyana, you will pass into the
silence where you may hear
the niusic of life eternal,”
and realize what Evelyn
Underhill calls ‘a clear image of
the Transcendent Fact
within which all other facts are held.”i
Meanwhile
some opinion concerning the Creator
sou must have’.
Formulate that opinion, whether it be
religious, agnostic
&
or materialistic.
Here I am on difficult ground, for I svould not offend
the susceptibilities of the reader, svho
may belong to one
of Churches svhich hold that certain dogmas are
the
necessary to salvation. It may be essential that a
man
should hold a particular view of God in order to reach

. ^j you must pray that oihers^

may see the light in the same way. It is a reasonable view,
and satisfying in its clear-cut soliditv. Personally, how-
ever, I cannot accept it.

As a monist. a Christian raonist who believes that

Christ taught monism I shrink horn the simile of those
Christian mystics who insist upon the seizure of the Soul
bv her Lover. The imagery is lute wiien rightly under-
stood, but too often the Lover has been anthropomor-
phized. God is a spirit, seen in as many wavs as there are
living creatures. That is my view. I hold with Viveka-
nanda that “variation is a sign v-f life and must be there.

I pray that religions may multiply so that at last there

will be as many sects as there arehuman beings, and each'
one will have his own method, his own individual method
of thought.”

Fine words these, and apt for my personal meditation.

“Open ever)' window in the heart.” Let the breath*

1 Practical My?lifi^m. This little book by Evelyn Underhill,

altliough ansjTnpathetic to my approach, will light the later stages-

of the Yoga path for the Westein student.

 i2l
miracles of creatisx will

through the house of Nour body.

of the Creative Will
the end of our exercises in con-
We have come, here, at
been travel
centration to a point towards which we have
seeking the Seif, you will have lost
liner for some time. In
informed with a more abundant lite.
the'^old self, become

i .
dhvana’’ or CONTEMPLAI ION

In dhyann the movement of the mind is less sub-

in the personality of the thinker,

stantial, less involved
movement, however, but
than in dharami. There is still

thought, closer to the Universal Mind.

it is subtle beyond
bevond bodily sense, a strange eoitntr\
We are in a region
but alreadv recognl/;dde as
if we come to u suddenly,
Reality to us who have trodden the Path thus lar.

Fi(/, 23 . The Yoni nmdra in irlnch the orifices of the head are
closed by the fingers.

By physical means {asfDia, mudra, pranayntna) and

 122 YOGA EXPLAINED

by the abstiaction of thought

from the tyranny of the
ipratyahara), we thawed
the ice of egotism. Bv
ahaiana we stiUed the waters
of the mind, allowing
the
sun of the true Self to shine
upon their surface. By the
light of that sun, and
in that stillness, we have
come to
see that our boundaries
stretch out and out
cloud hank
upon cloud bank, horizon upon
horizon, until it is im-
possible to distinguish where the waters end and sky
begins, for the true Self
embraces all cosmos. Here life is
One. The ice of matter has been
transmuted into water,
and has been etherealized into the yet finer essence of
vapour; yet it is the same ice, the same water, at a differ-
ent temperature, nearer the fiery heart of life.
In dhyana \\t li\e in the stream of the spirit know-
’
ing that
The elements, the conscious life, the mind,
The unseen vital force, the nine strange gates
Of the body, and the five domains of sense:
Desire, dislike, pleasure and pain^ and thought
Deep woven, and persistency of being:
I'hese all are wrought on matter by the Soul!
All’s then Godl
The Brahm. the ghee and grain
sacrifice is

.Are Brahm, the fire is Brahm, the flesh it eats

Is Brahm, and unto Brahm attaineth he

Who in such office meditates on Brahm,

The records of the Western mystics contain ample
accounts of contemplation. There is, first, the enlarge-
ment of consciousness beyond “the I, the Me, the Mine,”
to the facts of a wider existence, vivider and more real
than that of your limited self, There is, secondly, a rea-
lization in yourself of the Overself, the power which sup-
ports and sustains creation. Up to this point we have
come, by the humble physical paths of our Yoga practice.

The third stage of Christian contemplation corresponds

to dhyana, svherein we open the mind to Reality.
Our directions can be brief, for we are dealing now
with forms and movements that slip through the mesh of
 MIRACLKS OF CRFA1I\F WILL 12:i

words, however woven. \\'e most loucli, taste, hear, see,

smell with faculties outside our world; vet I am not supr-
gesting anything unnatural, or supernatural. Every
cvclone has its centre of calm, and everv human being has
an unruffled pool within the mind, without which he
could not exist. To reach these waters of life vou must 4

not travel, for you would be travelling awav from the

true Self; vou must lealize the Self bv inhibiting the con-
scions powders of the mind.
How shall I describe this act — for it is still action, in
spite of its quiet —so strange and hard to tell in language?
Specifically, there is nothing on which you should medi-
tate.
Sit as before, and
without seed ofcontemplate
thought
o without taint of egotism.
? o This sounds conirars
to reason, but if vou have followed me thus !ar sou will
bt able to hold your mind for ten minutes, or for fifteen
minutes, in a condition of absolute awareness, vet with- #

out a trace of thought.

O Something ^5
will be mo\ ing
O in vour d

mind, but it will not be thought, but awareness of the

Jiva. (Even this vanishes in samadhi)
Do not admit the exi.slence of which \ou knew in
pratyahara, nor the co)iscioiisne<is of which vou knew in
dharana. Listen, instead, to the stillness of the true Self;
watch for it. aw’ait it.

while sitting thus wiihoiu anv attachment.

It is now’,

S
w
^ are known as the annJint
sounds. 'They are. in the order in ivhich ihev will prob-
ably come, a faint noise like the squeak of a small ani-
mal (“chini. chini’'). distant bells nearer bells, a flute,
cymbals, a drum, double-drums, thunder. The sounds
seem to anchor you to bliss, but presently thev die out
and are heard no more. You will now’ have entered the
silence of w’hich you had a foretaste in pratyahara.
At times you may see pinpoints of lights, or balls of
fire. You may also experience twitchings in your limbs,
or feel a burning sensation in the spine, especially w’hen
Kundalini pierces the manipura chakra. Such manifes-
 iA*!
YOGA EXPLAINED

nations need not interrupt

your practice. They are harm-
less and will pass. Or they may not appear at all They
aie not marks of power, but
fairly common idiosyncra-
sies. A symptom which is almost invariably present
however, is that your skin will improve
in texture and
vitality. Many
times have I seen the skin of a
guru shin-
ing in the dark. I have no doubt
that a halo is more
than a symbol: it is a fact, a thing seen.
While practising dhyana, telepathic powers
develop,
if they happen to be innate in the individual.
Whatever
your faculties,they will be strengthened and developed.
and you will gain an inner happiness that nothing
again
can ever wholly disturb.
This condition is difl&cult to achieve, and to sustain.
Perhaps, during this week, a pageant of sensations will
troop across your mind, unbidden and unrestrainable.
You may not achieve dhyana in a week, or twenty weeks,
•even though you may have spent six months in prelimi-
nary practice.
But soon or late you will obtain a glimpse of it,

which will give you great encouragement. When that

moment comes, you will know that you have made con-
tact with the source of Universal Mind, and that you
Bave the promise of something better than paradise after
death, for you will know that heaven is here and now.

<

. CHAPI ER VI
/
V y
SECRET DOCTRINES

Krishna Chaitanya was a* Yoga student on the banks of

the Nerbudda River, seeking enlightenment. He went to

a famous guru named Ramacharya, and asked to be ini-

tiated into the Kingly Wisdom and Kin^y Mystery.
Ramachary a told him that he would have to achieve
ekagrata, one-pointedness, and su^ested that he should
conoentrate on the mntra “Om Namo Bhagpvate

Vasudevaya”—“l worship the holy name of Vasudeva.”

 SECRET DOCTRINES 125

Krishna Chaitanya went away and attempted to con-

centrate on this mantra for several days^ but soon he
returned to the guru and complained that Vasudeva
meant nothing to him, and that he could not fix his
attention on the god. Xhereupon the guru suggested
that he should sit in padmasana, contemplating the flute
and lotus feet of Lord Krishna.
Krishna Chaitanya went away, tried to concentrate
on the flute and lotus feet of Lord Krishna for several
weeks, then he returned to his guru and complained that
padmasana was uncomfortable, and that flute and feet
meant nothing to him.
Thereupon Ramacharya suggested that his pupil
should think of a member of his family. For instance,
surely he would not find it difficult to concentrate
on his
father.
Krishna C.haitanya wenc away and tried to
concen-
trate on his father for several months,
then he returned
to the guru and complained that
his father was a ter-
rible man:^ he was so frightened of
him that when he
tried to think of him his thoughts were immediately^ dis-
persed.
Thereupon Ramacharya asked Krishna
Chaitanya
what he loved best in the world, next to
himself?
Krishna Chaitanya thought for some
time, and at
last he said that his buffalo was the
centre of his affec-
tions. Thereupon Ramacharya recommended
him to
meditate on his buffalo.
Chaitanya went atvay and meditated
u on his
buffalo for several years. He did not return. At last
Ramacharya iv^nt in search of him.
at his pupil s hut he
men
he arrived
called on him to come out.
Krishna Chaitanya. “I’m a buffalo
u
and horns have grown on my head!”

described the intensity and patience

with
ich Yoga IS studied by its genuine
practitioners in
126 YOGA EXPLALNED

India, partly because I know Western readers would

never emulate them, and partly because, although there
are many true Yogis, for evers' one of them there are a

thousand impostors, India is a land of honest piets’, but

it is also a land of slick and shameless fraud.

The famous rope trick I have never seen, and hrst-

hand witnesses of it are not many, but it is as certain as

anything can be that it is not “miraculous.” Sometimes

the rope which is thrown up has a hook at its upper end,
tvhich is passed over the branch of a tree, hidden from
the audience by smoke or twilight. At other times two
ropes are used, one of which is stiffened by a bamboo

core. Occasionrdly. perhaps, h\-pnotic suggestion is

employed.
The basket trick, in which a boy in a wicker cage is

apparently transhxed by a sword, is done either by mirrors,

which the boy is
a false bottom, or bv the position in
basket. It is an illusion which has been
placed in the
performed by Western conjurers, but in
many times
cries and bleeding (this from a bladder
India the boy's
under his arm) provides a harrowing
which he carries

and unforgettable spectacle.

Rangoon. Ills
A remarkable Yogi died recently in
Swami. In December, 1934 he
name was Narasingha
Calcutta University before Sir C V
gave an exliibition at
people, dunng which
Raman and other distinguished
sulphuric acid, nitnc acid and
he drank lethal doses of
on the palm ^is hand,
carbolic acid, laying them first

In arc
tvith his tongue.
and then licking them up
,

Rangoon, where he several times swal-

1935. he went to
poisons of suicides.
lowed the favourite
without any ill s.

aramme of potassium cyanide,

however. One night he
" often,
He did this once too broken
none the tvorse for eating
svent home apparently
nails, as well as drinking
re^
gl"s and halfdnch
visitors until midnight, omit
and sat talking with some
canal by passing severa
his alimentary
ting to cleanse
anus, as
one stream from mouth
to
2tl of water in
 SECRET DOCTRINES 127

was his usual custom. Presently he complained of a

stomach-ache; then his right leg became paralysed. He
was removed to a hospital and died twelve hours later.
Concerning levitation, I am nowadays entirely scep-
tical. At one time 1 believed that I could alter my'
weight by about two and a half pounds by certain breath-
ing-exercises,
O ^ ^44
but now, twentv vears later, I am sure that
I was overcredulous in mv vouth.
7

As to mahatma who-
float out of windows and transport themselves over
hundreds of miles without employing normal means of
locomotion, I feel, as do the majority of educated Indians,
titat such alleged phenomena tend to cast discredit on
the realities of Yoga.
Much more astonishing, .to my mind, is the perform-
ance of Babu Bisuddhanan Dhan. which I have described
in another book. He asserts that he can bring sparrows
back to life after they have been strangled, and that he
can produce any odour he desires out of nothing. I have
never seen him resuscitate sparrows, but on the occasion
of ray visit to him at Puri he was apparently able to
produce various scents out of thin air.
He sat practically naked holding a
in a plain chair,
piece of cotton wool in his left hand and a magnifying-
glass in his right; Mr. Lowell Thomas. Mr. Harry Clease,
and I watched him closelv, and failed to discover how he
managed to impregnate the room wdth the successise p>er-
fuines of attar of roses, musk, sandalwood, heliotrope,
flowering bamboo, and nicotine plants. The scents never
clashed. They came and went at his bidding, as we
asked for them. I do not know how this happened, and
since I do not believe that anv of the highly respectable
merchants in his company srere accomplices, I am forced
to the conclusion that
he hypnotized us, collectively', to
imagine odours which did not exist. Concentration can
objectify thoughts for the thinker: some people may' have
the power of impressing these thoughts on others:
certainly what we experienced admitted of no
denial by
the senses.
128 UIC.A tvn \IMD

Kiicwalkmg 1 haM nlicn 'Ctn in Inilu. bul gtiuulK

,U night, imci>pcrHxl with di^play^ of nauKhgiii^

jugglers .111(1 lighting cltpluiits. At suih paruw. »*h.u

with the ilaiknt'ss and the eHitii of making tonserMUnii

which one s host when one s mouth is lull of linu leases

and beulinu, it is diltMull to adopt a detached atliiudi,

the gardens of a I.oihIoii suburb. I 'an

but this scar, iii

the business tackled sciciitifualls

Ahmad Hussain, a Moslem from (aiwnporc, who is

'tiKxi at the end of a irtmli "u

a conjurer b\ profession
Dr. Dribbell's lawn
tion of .\llah during
at Carshabon, insoking the pi-oi
his tiansii ol iieiuh consisting—
.i

There was no doubt about the fire which

red-hot cinders.

our host had so kindly allowed to be made his lawn m

b\ Inc broad, and fifteen inches
It twelve
was feet long.
oak logs and top-dressing of charcoal
deep; four tons of
and its heat was such that I could
had been burned in it.
not stand within six feet of its lee side, A thermo-co^ile

charcoal gave a reading of lOW-T,.

laid on the glowing
must have been even hotter,
and tlie oak-coals beneath
passed mcr the trench burst into flames
A wooden rake
seemed impossible that any human being
immediately. It

walk over those coals unscathed.

could
however. For a moment be
Ahmad Hussain did so.
before him. while the mny
praved,with cupped hands
coat and his white )odh-
wind fluttered his flowered silk
down boldly into the trench.
pur breeches: then he stepped
One, two, three, and he was
over.
present examned tbc
Immediaielv the two doctors
>sere
feet, and look their temperature^
soles of his

was greatly impressed^

and thev were unburned.
1
feet
not ahvavs what they
'But things are
half a century of cxpenencc
>hould have known after

this world of illusions.

forward. I fell
Two volunteers now came
. • Thp fpat looked even more oangenH"
 SECRET DOCTRINES 121)

than before, for the wind had fanned the embers to a

white heat.
The hrst volunteer, a clieerful, sturdy, redhaired

undergraduate from Cambridge^ completely untroubled

by nerves, took three firm quick steps along the trench,
just as conlidently as Ahmad Hussain had done. His
feet were not burned.

The other volunteer took tour steps instead of three,

and burned himself slightly. But these two men proved
to me—moreover, even more conclusive results were
secured at a subsequent test — that anyone can come
through this ordeal if he believes he will be safe. There
is nothing in it at all. except self-confidence and courage.
Self-confidence and courage! Sometimes these quali-
ties produce quasi-miraculous results. ... I have
seen Rutai dervishes in Hyderabad^ ,
driving skewers
through their tongues, cheeks, arms, and into the top of
their heads, without batting an eyelid.
Except for the absence of bleeding there is no mys-
tery about what they do : anyone can put a skewer through
his cheek or his forearm —so I am assured, although
nothing would induce me to try —without much hurting
himself, provided that he knows the right places to punc-
ture.

A Coptic Christian of my acquaintance, named Tahra

Bey, gave some curious private exhibitions of similar
practices in London about ten years ago.
“liou don’t feel pain if you don’t think about it,”
he explained to us, after a doctor had transfixed his
tongue with two surgical needless. “La douleur esl une.
opinion.’' Wounds can be quickly healed by speeding
up the heart-beatsand increasing the temperature, when
these mechanisms are under your conscious control.
\csterday I saw a little girl who had fallen down and
scratched her arm. She didn’t stop playing but went
on running about, so that her abrasions healed quickly.
That was a natural instinct. I do the same with the
injuries inflicted on me in the course of
these exoeriments
130 yoc;a explained

. . . , My body really belongs to me,” he continued.

“Heart, bowels, nerves, they do what I will. I can raise
my pulse rate to 140 beats a minute^ and I can slow down
to 40, and become comatose like a hibernating bear.”

Tahra Bey had a powerful neck, deep lungs, a poised

rhythm in his walking; he reminded me of Yogis I had
seen in Rishikesh.
Thought-reading was one of his experiments. He
used the body of a hypnotized assistant as an amplifier:
the assistant placed his hand on the head of the person
whose thoughts tvere to be read, and Tahra Bey held the
assistant’s other hand. A doctor was one of his subjects.

Tahra Bey instantly repeated the name of the Derby

favourite on which the doctor had concentrated. With

it seemed
other subjects he w'as not invariably successful;
could tune in to some brain waves better than
that he

to others.
Now thought-reading is a mystery-, in spite of the fact

you may have seen it done by hundreds of your

that
friends. do they do it? They cannot tell you.
How
M. Joad suggests that it is a nascent
Professor C. E.

force, trying to find its way into con-

power of the life

“chinks in the armour of matter,’"

sciousness through

in order that it may have a fuller knowledge of itself.

That seems reasonable to me.

Duke University have not
Dr. Rhine’s experiments at
reasearch workers; but it is a
been confirmed by other
every-day experience that the perception
matter of almost
mav occur without the
of the thought of another
penon
usual sensory processes. Almost
aid of the
where these things have been
In India and Tibet,
telepathy and clairvoyance are ac-
studied for centuries,
and are considered as signposts shwmg
cepted as proven,
moving. Other
direction in which humanity
is
the
taming wild animals, (n)
siddhis, or powers, are:
(i)

conquest of old age,

the
understanding animals, (iii)

(v) the power to sum-

(iv) superphysical sexual control,
 SERECT DOCTRINES 131

mon elementals, (vi) performance of the kali-inudra, or

“death-trance.”
To the reality of the latter siddhi Tahra Bey bore
convincing witness. He pressed the pneumogastric nerves

on each side of his neck, turned the tip of his tongue

back into his throat, and almost instantly became dead

to all outer seeming. I examined him closely and could

detect no respiration or pulse; nor could the more expert

spectators do so, some of whom were Harley Street doc-

tors. We laid him in a coffin, filled it with sand, let him

.ctay there for ten minutes.

Ten minutes is longer than a man of even abnormal

lung power can hold his breath. I have no doubt that
Tahra Bey was in the “death-trance.” It has been done
for centuries in India, and is still being done. Last year
I saw two samadhswdmis, as they are called, who had
been in kali-mudra for twenty-two days and seven days
respectively; both trances had been controlled by doctors
and witnessed by literally thousands of people.
When Tahra Bey was disinterred, his face had as-

sumed the earthy hue of death. Even so must Lazarus

have looked to the witnesses of his raising. Here was a
roan of the same faith, and possibly, an exponent of the
same Yoga, w'hich was already old in the days of Christ.

As soon as Tahra Bey’s eyes were opened, he gave

a horrifying gasp —horrifying because it seemed to come
from a corpse —and turned, and left us. .After the kali-

mudra no Yogi permits himself to be touched for some

time.
Before this exploration of the borderlands that
lie between life and death, the aspirant undergoes many
special preparations and purifications. Some of the
dhauties have already been described; the student also
learns to open the pyloric valve in his stomach at will and
to pass large quantities of water through his alimentary

tract, aswas the practice of Narasingha Swami, Further,

the fraenum of his tongue is cut, little by little, until the
tongue is long enough to turn back and block the nasal
ir>2 Y0C;A EVF( AIMi)

passages in the ihioai I'his geneiall\ i.ikcN about three

years to aecoiiiplisli.
Ali ihe sccvct praelites are (oncernecl wiili
Rundalini, the Serpent Power, who noi-t l)e awakenrt!
before tlie higher tan he inanircNted. Merc is a
hieathinti-exerci'c(gixen nierelv as a nniiter ol iintresi,
^ o '

of coarse) v.hercbv Yogis are said to he able “to walk on

water." (I ha\e seen a swanii delivering a lecture while

floating almost breast-high, as supported if bv an air

cushion, and. in fact, his intestines weiv inllaierl.)
Close the left nostril and exhale through the right
until the lungs tire empty. Inhale agriin imme-
nostril
diatelv through the right nostril until the lungs are
filled.

As .soon as the breath is restrained send (v/nui down

to Kimdalini with a sharp tap.

Hold the Ineath for 100 seconds.

Exhale through the right nostril, to Jinlf the rapacity
again immediaielv through the
of the lnng^\ and inhale
right nostril. Send prana clown to Kimdalini as before,

subsequent restraints of breath. Only

in this and in all

hicenping occurs, which is a dangerous svmptom.

cease if

Elold the breath tor 100 seconds.

right nostril, as
Exhale and inhale through the
above.
Hold the breath for 100 seconds.
through the right nostril as
Exhale and inhale
above.
Hold the breath for 100 seconds.
used
the right nostril in these four inspira-
is
(Only
lungs are never deflated
tions anei expirations, and the
For the next five minutes
more than half their capacity.
alternate nostrils are used.)
Exl^ale through the left nostril
an eighth of to
through the left
and inhale again
capacity of the lungs,
nostril. . ,

through the right nostril

• Immediately exhale again
of the capacity of the lungs, and inhale
to an eighth
ao^ain through the right nostril.
 133.
SERECT DOCTRINES

exhale through the left nostril to an

Immediately
the lungs, and inhale again
eighth of the capacity of
through the left nostril.

with alternate nostrils for five minutes.

Continue thus
minutes in what is known as
Now sit quiet for five

that making the breath as shallow and gentle

nishta is,

not inhaling or exhaling more than an

as possible,
capacity of the lungs, using both nostrils
eighth of the
simultaneously.
mshta, repeat the
After sitting for five minutes in
exercise, substituting the left nostril
whole of the above
for the right. That is to say, begin by closing the right

nostil, and exhaling through the left, until the lungs

Inhale again immediate!)’ through the left

are empty.
nostril until the lungs are filled, sending down prana
with a sharp tap. Hold the breath for 100 seconds, and
so on, doing four inspirations and expirations
with the

left nostril, and then five minutes’ breathing with alter-

nate nostrils.
Again sit in nishta for five minutes.

The above have taken more than half

exercises will

an hour, during which time the lungs will have only once
been emptied of their residual air.

Now close the left nostril, and exhale for an eighth

of the capacity of the lungs through the right nostril.

Without inhaling, close the right nostril and exhale

an eighth of the capacity of the lungs through the left

nostril.

Close the left nostril and exhale an eighth of the

capacity of the lungs through the right nostril.
Continue these exhalations through alternative

nostrils until all air has been expelled fxom the lungs,
ending with the right nostril.

Now perform nddiyanabandha, at the same time

holding the breath as long as possible. This is a great
strain on the heart. Some students also perform
the jaladhara mudra, which consists (as far as it

is a visible mudra) in contracting the throat and placing

 ;134 yoga explained

the chin on the chest. Other students perform the asivini

mudra which consists of contracting and relaxing
® the
-anal sphincters.
This constitutes one complete pranayama
exercise,
ihree such exercises will occupy
about two and a half
hours; and an aspirant of kali-mudra
will do twelve
pana-yamas a day, six in the morning, and
six at night.
During these ten hours he will avoid bright
sunlight
exercise, and the company of his
fellows. At dawn he
^vill stare at the risen orb
without winking {trataka) and
he will eat only at midday and midnight,
generally only
milk and fruit.
By such means the mind is ‘'tied with the cord
of
the breath, and unable to rove in the
world of sense-
objects. Meanwhile Kundalini, feeling suffocated, will
rise upwards through the shushumna nadi,
and prana
Vfill struggle in the throat and nose,
trying to escape; at
last it grows tired “and enters the alimentary canal.”
AVhen it does this, the aspirant feels “a stinging sensation
like a scorpion.” The heat of his body is likely to in-
crease greatly; he should not rvipe off the sweat, but rub
it back into his skin.

Obviously air cannot enter the alimentary canal

direct from the Nevertheless this practice of shal-
lungs.
low breathing always precedes the swallowing of air, by
which the intestines are inllated.
In Hatha Yoga much importance attached to what
is

is called the dominant nostril, for it is believed that the

individual breathes more strongly through one nostril than

another, changing the flow every four hours. It is be-
lived that if a child is conceived when both parents are
breathing through the right nostril, it will be a male; if
through the left, a girl; if through different nostrils, the
offspring may be of either sex.
In order to change the flow of the breath, you either
ipress some hard object under the right armpit, when the
breath will begin to flow through the left nostril (and
"vice versa), or you lie down on your left side, place the
 StRECT DOCTRINES 135

and tickle the right ankle at the

right leg over the left,

to the big toe; this will change the

smew which leads

from the left nostril to the right.

breathing
Spiritualism is little practised in India, but some

Yogis are supposed to be able to animate corpses.

Hatha
this rite, called slvd-saihana ^ aie
Those who engaged in
Yogis, even of the
looked upon with disfavour by other
Hatha Yoga school.
corpse for siva-sadhana is not
To find a suitable

one can be animated, sucli as the

easy, for only a healthy

body of a person who has lately died by violence. Owing

to climatic conditions in India the
death must have occur-

red ivithin a few hours—twenty-four at most—before the

begining of the experiment. The hierophant and his

subject must be alone: the best time is the dead of night.

The magician draws a yantra (amystical diagram) round

the corpse, lies down face to face with it, breathing prana
into its nostrils, puts milk and grain on its lips, turns it

over with various incantations, and finally —for the

foregoing processes have taken an hour or more-he seats

himself astride its spine, and repeats a secret mantra which

brings the body to life.

The first signs of animation do not occur in the body

itself, however, but in its neighbourhood, where sounds
like muffled drums are heard. Presently the head twists
round, the eyes open, the corpse struggles to rise. It can
move, but can never speak. If now the magician allows
the body to escape him. it will begin to dance. Some-
times such an elemental will exhibit an increasing vita-
lity and go on dancing faster and faster, with its tongue
protruding; the only way then to stop its hideous sara-
band is to bite out its tongue. Sometimes, again, the
elemental will collapse within a few minutes. The magi-
cian is generally satisfied when he has proved his power
by making the subject’s eyes open, and the limbs twitch.
The chief gurus of the Hatha Yogis are loath to dis-
cuss the subject^ but I gather that no claim is made that
a “soul” is brought back to the body. I have not seen
i:ui » VfM 4IMI>

the rite imseli. an<l iloiiWi orr doing mi; the opjioitu
iiiiN for animal iiiy lMma(!a^^ mu*‘i Ik
»otj>M'k No
(loiil)i the (usioiii aiost in the v*hcn hngN ¥rre at I

laige, tho"e cxiraordinaiN professional stranglers, ssho

foinbined rcligioio exert i^es with the iminltr ol trasellers
La\nkrt\a i^ atmiltcT hramh of ^ '»ga not tlist lose d to
alien escs. On this j>ath a man anti a wtiman tniei the
arcana of Natuie together Sexual dtsire a leHrtiHin t«f i-'

ihf power h\ which the world wa» made aird Knndalmi

is its bodilv rc])rcscniati\e throtigh Her the creation of
;

mental as well as phssical lonns is jKissiblc hits the I

spirits of the sexes meet. 'O that there is one spirit

balanced on the ilucshold ol the creative im|Mdsr. which
rides viciorioush cner earth and water, aixl air. and
stars, and suns, and galaxies — all man s ftmteixing of
name, form, ti’ne, spate, anti ransalion — so that it. this

single spirit, becomes one with the Universal Mind In

this given the right conditions tif lc»vr and

journeving.
there
iindcjrstancling and ph'sical control of high order,
no individtral can fnllv achieve alone
i'^ a revelation that
Rut the right conditions must exist The parti-

husband and wife. 1 his shendd

cipants in Loyahriyn are
prevalent about this ^(^.1
dispose of manv absurd ideas
not a path recommended to
Nevertheless this is
practices described in this chap-
average people. All the
be approached witli caution.
tCT should

CHAl’TKR Vll

THE UNDISTRACTED MIND

THE TENfPlE OF
after vsriting the foregoing chapters
I vv.^s iNTERRUPitn
Austria and to Spam. Now,
hv ioumevs to
them, after a period
mental growth. I feel
of what
that
I

I have
believe to have
dealt with a vast subject
could squeeze the honev
^
in too mechanical a wav-as it I

into convenient cartons.

of a living philosophy
 temple of LXDlSTR.\CrED MIND

should have witten more, if only to

Undoubtedly I

the physical approach to mysti-

explain why I consider

important; nevertheless I cannot now expand

cism so
been at considerable pains to compress, so I
what I have
which I might have
shall add here some afterthoughts
woven into the text.
Yoga is much more subtle than it seems from my
I ha\'e tried to bring its practices down to
descripSons.
reasons, but in doing so I have deprived
earth, for obvious
essential quality. If you are musical, and
them of some
and rhythms of India, you will
understand the tones
know what I mean. There is something in that music,
that our cars can catch only-
and in the music of Yoga,

after a long spell of listening.

in particular, with regard to the three

This is so,

kinds of meditation of which I have treated. You will

find only the skeleton of them in this book: habilimcnts^

of flesh must be supplied by you, according to your cir-

cumstances and convenience, choosing among the many

suggestions and neglecting perhaps as much as three-

quarters of them. Especially in concentration you must

avoid focusing the mind on too many things. A month’s

steady thought on one subject will show you unsuspected

subtleties and overtones, and strengthen your thought-
power much more than an equal time devoted to the con-
sideration of thirty things.

I have taken the greatest care in this book not to

popularize Yoga, but to present it as a system which

requires effort to be understood. This is in accordance

with Indian tradition, and it is also the essence of the

matter. “The masses” did not exist when Yoga was
evolved, /
and it is not for them. Every /
man and wmman
in the British Empire might be sitting in padmasam,
breathing beatifically, yet the masses would not be con-
cerned, for each individual would be finding his own
way to the Temple of the Undistracted Mind. Only the
elect may enter the Path; an aristocracy not of birth but
of enterprise and energy. I am not concerned to make
138 V(X,A IXPl AJ.Nf D

\oga easy, for ^tllknowltdge is never cas\; but I have

tried to make it eoniprelicnsiblc.
Methods of self-knowledge are many, and if we
study than, as some of us have done in recent years,
not
as theories to be analysed but as disciplines to'be
lived,
we hnd that they all lead to the same goal. But in the
\Vcst people are jealous about their systems, and claim
for them divine authority. Now nusiicism of some kind
wc all need, in order to satisfy that hunger for Reality
which exists in everv human being but the methods we
can choose for ourselves. 1 here is no mvsterv about ravs-
/ / t

ticism, no necessity to suspect it of sinister motives on

the other. It is only in India, thoughtful, tolerant India,

where Buddha was allowed to preach heresy for eighty
sears, and died, uncrucified an honoured teacher, that a
really scientific attempt has been made to co-ordinate and
practise all the w'ays by which man has tried to find the

saving grace within himself. New ways may be discovered,

with our new knowledge. I believe they will be. But first

we must go back to India, to find that which is lost. We

must “plume ourselves with the wings of the Himalavan
eagles.”
It is a far cry from the wooded heights of the Hima-
lavas to the bald, low Downs of Sussex, but both are

thresholds to the Temple of the Undistracted Mind,

spring-boards from which thehuman spirit can range
into lands unpossessed by Mammon. ... I am walking
from the Devil’s Dyke above Brighton to the enchanted

city of Arundel, glorying in being alive, and free from

good to have finished, although I enjoyed

this book. It is

(he writing of it more than of any other tvork of mine. It

is good to be walking here —better than being in the

Himalayas even,, where the Vedic gods hold sway.

better to be walking here than doing
Yoga
Yes, it is

my bedroom, much better. Not for a moment

exercises in
Yoga as good as long dow
do I suggest that any kind of is

However I can s spend eight

exercise in the open air.
 TE-MPLT. OF UNDISTRACTED MIND m
houK of every day on the South Downs, and I don't want

to. I like my work: hence the exercises.

As 1 go towards Steyning, on this misty, wistful

afternoon with the M'eald on my right and the untram-

melled sky above me, 1 am going back, also, to the vanish-

ed England of the megalith-builders, and to that of the

Celts,who ousted them fi\'e centuries before Christ was

bom. The Celts won England because they discoi ered iron.
Eventually they were conquered, like the Neolithic men
before them. Below me stretches one of the roads of
Rome. . . .Will aftermen look doim from heights like
these, not on our “ribbon developments.'’ for they will
die of their own poisons, one hopes, but on some of our
good building, likely to endure, the spire of Chichester,

for instance— and mourn the passing of our civilization?

“Yes, they built well at first. But not for long. They
perished in the Air Age!”
An)’way, the Downs will endure. Not that they are
eternal, still, I daresay they look much the same as they
did a million years ago, their green blending subtly with
the blue of sky and sea.

All delicate days and pleasant, all spirits and sorrows

are cast,
Far out with the foam of the present that sweeps to
the surf of the past.
Here is the life of men long dead, and serenity, and
an aloofness from the insane desires of speed. Here the
earth breathes, the sun moves, tides come and go, the
seasons change; May is almost over, and gives her beauty
to the summer, with eyelids trembling; two butterflies
are mating, a dead rabbit lies in the path, lapwings wail,
and sheep with curiously patrician faces are bleating to
their lambs. Life flow's down the stream of time, feeding
on itself, impermanent yet indestructible, and I with it,

to new pastures of bread and cheese and beer.

God’s bonk 1^ nAt liV^ mino* If Ic /'rtr»fi

nuous revelation, a going-on, like this walk. Where is

ray last year’s body? And my next dav’s? When all that
140 YOGA EXPLAINED

exists is tlius changed, and renewed,

froni age to age, from
instant lo instant^ why should anyone cling to the
idea
of personal survival? Surely the distinction between the
creature and Creator is at be a stepping-stone across the
river of appearances? We
never remain the same self for
two moments together, so tvhat do we want Avith an ever-
lasting continuance?
Body and soul, 1 am sick of separateness! My body
lias grown out of this land, and ivhen my samudhi comes
I shall possess my soul in peace, amidst all .this mellow-
ness and almost languid beauty which blesses the English
country and the English blood.
We
have been to a far country together, reader, and
seen some strange things Avhile searching for the Face of
the True Sun, which Christ called the Kingdom of
Heaven and declared we must find within ourselves.
We have considered the new' faculties which are in
the w'omb of time, indeed in the w'orab of women at this
hour, to lead the tvorld forw'ard to unknown adventures,
y

even though sometimes its footsteps slip in blood. For a

little while our minds have met and mingled. Who
knows what avenues of perception have been opened by
us, or willbe opened, and what powers have been releas-
ed through us, in forms beyond imagining? We have not
explored samadhi, that state of everythingness in rvhich
every place is Here, and every time is Noav^ because I do
not know the way to it, but everything else in Yoga we
have discussed.
Even samadhi, in this gentle springtide, when the
Body’s bliss is quickened with the sea wind in my face,
and the swell of the hills before me. . . . But no! We
must go our ways. I shall drink your health at Steyning.

Your ver^' good health!

 I

APPENDIX 1

i
THE SIX SYSTEMS OF HINDU PHILOSOPHY
I
The oldest system of Hindu philosophy is Samkhya
(“numbering”), in which material phenomena are classi-
fied under twenty-four heads. Its founder, Kapila^ drew
a distinction between spirit and matter, and was an
agnostic
The c econd system, called Yoga, was founded by
Fatanjali. development of the Samkhya system,
It is a
and has been described as an effort of self-concentration,
to see tlie soul as it looks wdien it is abstracted from mind
and matter.
The third system is called Nyaya. It teaches that the
highest aim of human an attainment of a right
life is

understanding of the relations between the soul of an

and the life around him, Nvava means standard or uni- 4 4

versal principle.
The fourth system is the Vaishesika. It teaches that
liberation is the reward of right thinking.
The fifth system is the Mimamsa. It is concerned
with logic, and the interpretation of Vedic texts and
rituals.

The sixth system is the Vedanta^ which means “the

end of vision.” It is a metaphysic of intuition, con-
cerned with the doctrine of the Self and the not-Self, and
inquiries into the aim of all knowdedge.

. APPENDIX II

“THE VEDIC GODS AS FIGURES OF BIOLOGY”

Lv AN interesting monocr.\ph with the above title
(obtainable from Messrs. Taraporevala, Bomba v). Dr.
Vasant Rele advances the theory that the descriptions of
142 YOGA EXPLAINED

the Ar)'an gods, as given in the Rig Veda and other

Vedas, represent the different centres of activity in the

brain and spinal cord of the human body, or_ as he puts

it, that they refer “to that portion of the Absolute em-
bodied in us as the ne^r^•ous system.”

The ancient Indian anatomists were compelled to

corpses and—
exercise the greatest secrecy in examining
according to Dr. Rele— they disguised their
knordedge of
parts the names and attributes of
the body by giving its

In Savitar, “the Quickener of the World,”

Dr.
deities.

Rele sees the efterent nervous impulses. The Asvins,

the world,” who

“Heavenly Twins who peiAade all

swiftness of thought,’’ and

“ride a car which has the
filled with honey,” are the myelinated
whose “skin is

and sympathetic nerv'ous sys-

nerve-hbres of the central
“the goddess with seven sons,” “the sup-
tems Aditi.
“whose aid invoked from sunrise
porter of all men,” is

cer^cal cortex
to sunset,” is the Rolandic area of the
conscious centres of activity ot
which controls the seven
eves, nostrils, ears, and tongue.
the head, trunk, limbs,
therefore her aid is not in-
(In sleep she lies quiescent,
.he thaLmus. Usha,
“the hgh. oWe
low.) is
perpetually,
of life,” “revolving
Yvorld and breath
of mortals,” is the vagus nerve
“wasting awav the life

which governs cardiorespiratory the

in all creation Indra,
of consciousness to rise
sun tcvo
the side of his mother, who grasps
god bomthrough
juic^,
drinks three lakes o
founi heavens and

enfol^eni of the “oraUr^be

formed during .he

L tunc, ions of .he

cerebrojnal

unintCHgihi.
"eS ul man orherwise
 as possible, the Vedic riMs
passages in the Vedas, as if, is

we do about the neivous system—not-

knew more than
connexion between breathing and cerebration.
ably the
may be discoveries atvaiting Sanskrit scholars
Then there
with physiologists and psycho-
working in conjunction

logists.

APPENDIX 111

RAMAKRISHNA’S TRANCE
divine
Of samadin, “ihe sleepless sleep,” in which the
little has been
energy' (lows through the illumined soul,
The poets have best reported it, but
said in the text.
an account by the late editor of the Lahore
here is

Tribune, which describes one of Sri Paramahansa Rama-

krishna’s Q-ances. The time is a summer ensuing the year

1881; the place is a stream yacht belonging to one of the

mahatma’s friends, on the Hooghly River, near Calcutta.
‘‘He was speaking first of his exercises in medita-

tion,” writes Nage'ndianalh Gupta,’ “and described how

he pictured himself as a Brahmini duck calling for its

mate across the river, or again, as a kitten mewing for its

mother. After speaking in this strain for some time he

suddenly pulled himself up and said with the smile of a
cliild: ‘Everything about secret Sadhaiia should not be
told.’

“He explained that it was impossible to express in

language the ecstasy of divine communion when the

human soul loses itself in the contemplation of the Deity.
Then he looked at some of the faces around him and
spoke at length on the indications of cliaracter by psysiog-
nomy. Even' feature of the human face tvas expressive of
some particular trait of chai-acier. The eyes were the most

* My quotation is from Pruhiiddha Bharaia (Awakened India)

for February 1936. This ex^ilent publication is obtainable from
the Ramakrishna Mission. Beiur Math. Calcutta.
144 YOGA EXPLAINED

important, but all other features, the forehead, the ears,

the nose, the lips, and the teeth were helpful in reading
of character. And so the marvellous monologue went on
until the Paramahansa began to speak of the NirSkara
(formless) Brahman. ‘The manifestation of the Formless
has to be realized.’ he t
said.

“He repeated the word Nirakara two or three times

and then quietly passed into samadhi, as the diver slips

into the fathomless deep. While the Paramahansa re-

mained unconscious, Reshub Chunder Sen explained

that recently there had been some conversation between

himself and the Paramahansa about the Niiakara
Brahman.
“We intently watched Ramakrishna Paramahansa in
samadhi. The whole body relaxed and then became
slightly rigid. There was no twitching of
the muscles or^

his hands lay in

nerves, no movement of any lunb. Both
his lap with the hngers lightly interlocked. The sitting

absolutely motionless.
posture of the body was easy but
was slightlv tilted up and in repose. The eyes
The face
The eyeballs were
were nearly but not' wholly closed.

otherwise deflected, but they were fixM,

not turned up or
outer objects to the brain.
and conveyed no message of
beatific and indescnbable smile,
The lips were parted in a
the white teeth. Ttoe was some-
disclosing the gleam of
smile which no photograph w
thing in that wonderful
ever able to reproduce. ^

for several minutes at the

-We eazed in silence
Tndokya
the Patamahansa, and then
motionless form of
apostle of Keshub Chnnde
Sanjal, the singing
Nath
Sen’s chuk, sang a h™„ to the

As the mnsic ssrdled m tolume

drum and cymbals.
Pammahansa “ he
if he were in
rpH jhese

people?, he slappea uie '"P

!,nd eri^^'Go dolilBW<M««'

‘N^one *1
\ . '
<T /
 ERRATA

Page 19, Line 10 For ‘recommended’ read recommend

,, 32, „ 30 For ‘they are either or utterly un-

known’ read they are either famous
or etc
,, 37, „ 1 For ‘mater’ read matter.
,, 42, „ 17 For ‘constitueints’ read constituents.

„ 44, ,, 16 For ‘yaga niyama’ read yaraa niyama.

„ 98, ,, 34 For ‘sweetmat’ read sweetmeat.

,, 99, „ 32 For ‘you’ read your.

,, 100, „ 26 For ‘dstroyed’ read destroyed.

,, 102, ,,
6 For ‘heauty’ read beauty.

„ 103, ,,
9 For ‘Landseer’s’ read Landseer.

„ 107, „ 7 For ‘pople’ read people.

„ 110, „ 31 For ‘fiften’ read fifteen.

,, 143, „ 16 For ‘stream’ read steam.