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

Now in all mankind there is more or less of this Ojas stored up. And all the forces that are working in the body in their highest become Ojas. You must remember that it is only a question of transformation. The same force which is working outside, as electricity or magnetism, will become changed into inner force ; the same forces that are working as muscular energy will be changed into Ojas. The Yogis say that that part of the human energy which is expressed as sex energy, in sexual functions, sexual thought, and so on, when checked and controlled, easily becomes changed into Ojas, and as this lowest centre is the one which guides all these functions, therefore the Yogi pays particular attention to that centre. He tries to take up all this sexual energy and convert it into Ojas. It is only the chaste man or woman who can make the Ojas rise and become stored in the brain, and that is why chastity has always been considered the highest virtue, because man feels that if he is unchaste, spirituality goes away, he loses mental vigour, and strong moral stamina. That is t2 KAJA YOGA.

why in all of the religious orders in the world that have produced spiritual giants you will always find this intense chastity insisted upon. That is why the monks came into existence, giving up marriage. There must be perfect chastity, in thought, word and deed. Without it the practice of Raja Yoga is dangerous, and may lead to insanity. If people practise Raja Yoga and at the same time lead an impure life, how can they expect to become Yogis ?

CHAPTER VI.
PRATYAHARA AND DHARANA.

The next step is called Pratyahara. What is this ? You know how perceptions come. First of all there are the external instruments, then the internal organs, acting in the body through the brain centres, and there is the mind. When these come together, and attach themselves to some external thing, then we perceive that thing. At the same time it is a very difficult thing to concentrate the mind and attach it to one organ only ; the mind is a slave.

We hear " be good " and " be good " and " be good " taught all over the world. There is hardly a child, born in any country in the world, who has not been told " do not steal," " do not tell a lie," but nobody tells the child how he can help it. Talking will never do it. Why should he not become a thief ? We do not teach him how not to steal; we simply tell him "do not steal." Only when we teach him to control his mind do we really help him. All actions, internal and external, occur when the mind joins itself to certain centres, which centres are called the organs. Willingly or unvv-illingly it is drawn to join itself to the centres, and that