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

Thus the rousing of the Kundalini is the one and only way to attaining Divine Wisdom, and super-conscious perception, the realisation of the spirit. It may come in various ways, through love for God, through the mercy of perfected sages, or through the power of the analytic will of the philosopher. Wherever there is any manifestation of what is ordinarily called super-natural power or wisdom, there must have been a Uttle current of Kundalini which found its way into the Susumna. Only, in the vast majority of such cases of super-naturalism, they had ignorantly stumbled on to some practice which set free a minute portion of the coiled-up Kundalini. All worship, consciously or unconsciously, leads to this end. The man who thinks that he is receiving responses to his prayers does not know that the fulfilment came only from his own nature, that he has succeeded by the mental attitude of prayer in waking up a bit of this infinite power which is coiled up within himself. Whom, thus, men ignorantly worship under various names, through fear and tribulation, the Yogi declares to the world to be the real power coiled up in every being, the mother of eternal happiness, if we know how to approach her. And Raja Yoga is the science of religion, the rationale of all worship, all prayers, forms, ceremonies and miracles.

CHAPTER V.

THE CONTROL OF PSYCHIC PRANA.

We have now to deal with the exercises in Pranayama. We have seen that the first step will be, according to the Yogis, to control the motion of the lungs. What we want to do is to feel the finer motions that are going on in the body. Our minds have become externalised, and have lost sight of the fine motions inside. If we can begin to feel them, we can begin to control them. These nerve currents are going on all over the body, bringing life and vitality to every muscle, but we do not feel them. The Yogi says we can learn to do so. How ? By taking up and controlling all these motions of the Prana, beginning with the motion of the lungs, and when we have done that for a sufficient length of time we shall also be able to control the finer motions.

We now come to the exercises in Praniyama. Sit upright ; the body must be kept straight. The spinal cord, although it is inside the vertebral column, is not attached to it. If you sit crookedly you disturb this spinal cord, so let it be free. Any time that you sit crookedly and try to meditate you are doing yourself an injury. The

THE CONTROL OF PSYCHIC PRANA.

three parts of the body must be always held straight, the chest, the neck, and the head, in one line. You will find that by a little practice this will come to you just as breathing. The second thing is to get control of the nerves. We have seen that the nerve centre that controls the respiratory organs, has a sort of controlling effect on the other nerves, and rhythmical breathing is therefore necessary. The breathing that we generally use should not be called breathing at all. It is very irregular. Then there are some natural differences of breathing between men and women.

The first lesson is just to breathe in a measured way, in and out. That will harmonise the system. When you have practised this for some time you will do well to join the repetition of some word to it, as " Om," or any other sacred word, and let the word flow in and out with the breath, rhythmically, harmoniously, and you will find the whole body is becoming rhythmical. , Then you will learn what rest is. Sleep is not rest, comparatively. Once this rest has come the most tired nerves will be calmed down, and you will find that you have never before really rested. In India we use certain symbolical words instead of counting one, two, three, four. That is why I advise you to join the mental repetition of the " Om," or other sacred word to the Pranayama.