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

PR AN A. .y

conscious vibrations of the mind, are grouped in that one word, Samadhi, and the lower states of Samadhi give us visions of these beings. The highest grade of Samadhi is when we see the real thing, when we see the material out of which the whole of these grades of beings are composed, and that lump of clay being known, we know all the clay in the universe.

Thus we see that this Pranayama includes all that is true of spiritualism even. Similarly, you will find that wherever any sect or body of people is trying to search out anything occult and mystical, or hidden, it is reallv this Yoga, this attempt to control the Prana. You will find that wherever there is any extraordinary display of power it is the manifestation of this Prana. Even the physical sciences can be included also in Pranayama. What moves the steam engine ? Prana, acting through the steam. What are all these phenomena of electricitv and so forth but Prana ? What is physical science ? Pranayama, by external means. Prana, manifesting itself as mental power, can only be controlled by mental means. That part of the Pranayama which attempts to control the physical manifestations of the Prana by physical means is called physical science, and that part which tries to control the manifestations of the Prana as mental force, by mental means, is called Raja Yoga.

CHAPTER IV.
THE PSYCHIC PKANA

According to the Vof^is there are two nerve currents in the spinal column, called Pingala and Ida, and there is a hollow canal called SusumnA running through the spinal cord. At the lower end of the hollow canal is what the Yogis call the " Lotus of the Kundalini." They describe it as triangular in form, in which, in the symbolical language of the Yogis, there is a power called the Kundalini coiled up. When that Kundalini awakes it tries to force a passage through this hollow canal, and, as it rises step by step, as it were, layer after layer of the mind becomes open, all these different visions and wonderful powers come to the Yogi. When it reaches the brain the Yogi is perfectly detached from the body and mind ; the soul finds itself free. We know that the spinal cord is composed in a peculiar manner. If we take the figure eight horizontally (oo ) there are two parts, and these two parts are connected in the middle. Suppose you add eight after eight, piled one on top of the other, that will represent the spinal cord. The left is the Ida, and the right the Pingala, and that hollow canal which runs through the centre of the spinal

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THE PSYCHIC PRANA. ^g

cord is the Susumna. Where the spinal cord ends in some of the lumbar vertebrae, a fine fibre comes down, and the canal is even in that fibre, only much finer. The canal is closed at the lower end, which is situated near what is called the sacral plexus, which, according to modern physiology, is triangular in form. The different plexuses that have their centres in the spinal cord can very well stand for the different "lotuses" of the Yogi.

The Yogi conceives of several centres, beginning with the Muladhara, the basic, and ending wdth the Sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus in the brain.. So, if we take these different plexuses as representing these circles, the idea of the Yogi can be understood very easily in the language of modern physiology. We know there are two sorts of actions in these nerve currents, one afferent, the other efferent, one sensory and the other motor ; one centripetal, and the other centrifugal. One carries the sensations to the brain, and the other from the brain to the outer body. These vibrations are all connected with the brain in the long run. Several other facts we have to remember, in order to clear the w^ay for the explanation which is to come. This spinal cord, at the brain, ends in a sort of bulb, in the medulla, which is not attached to the brain, but floats in a fluid in the brain, so that if there be a blow on the head the force of that blow will be dissipated in the fluid, and will not hurt the bulb. This will be an important fact as we go on. Secondly, we have also to

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