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

What has this Pranayama to do with spiritualism ? That is also a manifestation of Pranayama. If it be true that the departed spirits exist, only that we cannot see them, it is quite probable that there may be hundreds and millions living here that we can neither see, feel, nor

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touch. We may be continually passing and repassing through their bodies, and it is also probable that they do not see us or feel us. It is a circle within a circle, universe within universe. Those only that are on the same plane see each other. We have five senses, and we represent Prana in a certain state of vibration. All beings in the same state of vibration will see each other, but if there are beings who represent Prana in a higher state of vibration they will not be seen. We may increase the intensity of light until we cannot see the light at all, but there may be beings with eyes so powerful that they can see such Hght. Again, if the vibrations are very low, we do not see light, but there are animals that see it, as cats and owls. Our range of vision is only one plane of the vibrations of this Prana. Take this atmosphere, for instance ; it is piled up layer on layer, but the layers nearer to the earth are denser than those above, and as you go higher the atmosphere becomes finer and finer. Or take the case of the ocean ; as you go deeper and deeper the density of the water increases, and those animals that live at the bottom of the sea can never come up, or they will be broken into pieces.

Think of this whole universe as an ocean of ether, in vibration under the action of Prana, and that it consists of layer after layer of varying degrees of vibration ; in the more external the vibrations are less, and nearer to the centre the vibrations become quicker and quicker, and each range of vibration makes one plane.

Think of the whole thing as one circle, the centre of which is perfection ; the further you get from the centre the slower the vibrations. Matter is the outermost crust, next comes mind, and spirit is the centre. Then suppose these ranges of vision are cut into planes, so many millions of miles one set of xibration, and then so many millions of miles still higher, and so on. It is perfectly certain, then, that those who live on the plane of a certain state of vibration will have the power of recognising each other, luit will not recognise those above or below them. Yet, just as by the telescope and the microscope we can increase the scope of our vision, and make higher or lower vibrations cognisable to us, similarly, every man can bring himself to the state of vibration belonging to the next plane, thus enabling himself to see what is going on there. Suppose this room were full of beings whom we do not see. They represent certain vibrations in the Pr&na. and we represent other vibrations. Suppose they represent the quicker, and we the slower. Prana is the material of which they are composed, also of which we are composed ; all are parts of the same ocean of Prdna, only the rate of vibration diflcrs. If I can bring myself to the cjuickcr vibration this plane will immediately change for me ; I shall not see you any more ; you vanish, and they appear. Some of you, perhaps, know this to be true. All this bringing of the mind into a higher state of vibration is included in one word in \'oga — Samadhi. All these states of higher vibration, super-