Raja Yoga (the Yoga Sūtras with commentary) — trans. Swami Vivekananda (1896)

We do not know^ anything about our own bodies ; we cannot know. At best we can take a dead body, and cut it in pieces, and there are some who can take a live animal and cut it in pieces in order to see what is inside the body. Still, that has nothing to do with our own bodies. We know very little about them ; why do we not ? Because our attention is not discriminating enough to catch the very fine movements that are going on within. We can know of them only as the mind, as it were, enters the body, and becomes more subtle. To get that subtle perception we have to begin with the grosser perceptions, so we have to get hold of that which is setting the whole engine in motion, and that is the Prana, the most obvious manifestation of which is the breath. Then, along with the breath, we will slowly enter the body, and that will enable us to find out about the subtle forces, how the nerve currents are moving all over the body, and as soon as we perceive that, and learn to feel them, we shall begin to get control over them, and over the body. The mind is also set in motion by these different nerve currents, so, at last, we shall reach the state when we have perfect control over the body and mind, making both our servants. Knowledge is power, and we have to get this power, so we must begin at the beginning, the Pranayama, restraining the Prana. This Pranayama is a long subject, and will take several lessons to illustrate it thoroughly. We will take it part by part.

We shall gradually see what are the reasons for each exercise and what forces in the body are set in motion.- All these things will come to us, but it requires constant practice, and the proof will come by practice. No amount of reasoning which I can give you will be proof to you, until you have demonstrated it for yourselves. As soon as you begin to feel these currents in motion all over you, doubts will vanish, but it requires hard practice every day. You must practise at least twice every day, and the best times are towards the morning and the evening. When night passes into day, and day into night, it has to pass through a state of relative calmness. The early morning and the early evening are the two points of calmness. Your body will have a like tendency to become calm at those times. We will take advantage of that natural condition, and begin then to practise. Make it a rule not to eat until you have practised ; if you do this the sheer force of hunger will break your laziness. In India they teach children never to eat until they have practised, and worshipped, and it becomes natural to them after a time ; a boy will not feel hungry until he has bathed and practised.

Those of you who can afford it will do better to have a room for this practice alone ; do not sleep in that room, it must be kept holy ; you must not enter the room until you have bathed, and are perfectly clean in body and mind. Place flowers in that room always ;

they are the best surroundings for a Yogi ; also pictures that are pleasing. Burn incense morning and evening. Have no quarrelling, or anger, or unholy thought in that room. Only allow those persons to enter who are of the same thought as you. Then by and by there will be an atmosphere of holiness in the room, and when you are miserable, sorrowful, doubtful, or your mind is disturbed, the very fact of entering tiiat room will make you calmer. This was the idea of the temple and the church, and in some temples and churches you will find it even now, but in the majority of them the very idea has been lost. The idea is that by keeping holy vibrations there the place becomes and remains illumined. Those who can not afford to have a room set apart can practise anywhere they like. Sit in a straight posture, and the iirst thing to do is to send a current of holy thought to all creation ; mentally repeat : " Let all beings be happy ; lei all beings be peaceful ; let all beings be blissful." So do to the I'2ast, South, North and West. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make yourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make yourselves happy is to see that others are happ} . After doing that, tliose who believe in God should pray — not for money, not for health, nor for heaven ; pray for knowledge and light ; every other prayer is selfish. Then the next thing to do is to think of your own body, and see that it is strong and healthy ; it is the best instrument you have. Think of it as being as strong as