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

Therefore use your own minds, control body and mind yourselves, remember that until you are a diseased person, no extraneous will can work upon you, and avoid everyone, however great and good he may be, who asks you to blindly believe. All over the world there have been dancing, and jumping, and howling sects, who spread like infections when they begin to sing and dance and preach ; they also come under this heading. They exercise a singular control for the time being over sensitive persons, alas, often, in the long run, to degenerate whole races. Aye, it is healthier for the individual or the race to remain wicked than to be made apparently good by such morbid extraneous control. One's heart sinks to think of the amount of injury done to humanity by such irresponsible, yet well-meaning religious fanatics. They little know that the minds which attain to sudden spiritual upheaval under their suggestions, with music and prayers, are simply making themselves passive, morbid, and powerless, and opening themselves to any other suggestion, be it ever so evil. Little do these ignorant, deluded persons dream that, whilst they are congratulating themselves upon their miraculous power to transform human hearts, which jXDwer they think was p>oured upon them by some Being above the clouds, they are sowing the seeds of future decay, of crime, of lunacy, and of death. Therefore, beware of everything that takes away your freedom.

Know that it is dangerous, and avoid it by all the means in your power. He who has succeeded in attaching or detaching his mind to or from the centres at will has succeeded in Pratyahara, which means ''gathering towards," checking the outgoing powers of the mind, freeing it from the thraldom of the senses. When we can do this we shall really possess a character ; then alone we shall ha^•e made a long step towards freedom ; before that we are mere machines.

How hard it is to control the mind. Well has it been compared to the maddened monkey. There was a monkey, restless by his own nature, as all monkeys are. As if that were not enough someone made him drink freely of wine, so that he became still more restless. Then a scorpion stung him. When a man is stung by a scorpion he jumps about for a whole day, so the poor monkey found his condition worse than ever. To complete his misery a demon entered into him. What language can describe the uncontrollable restlessness of that monkey ? The human mind is like that monkey ; incessantly active by its own nature, then it becomes drunk with the wine of desire, thus increasing its turbulence. After desire takes possession comes the sting of the scorpion of jealousy of others whose desires meet with fulfilment, and last of all the demon of pride takes possession of the mind, making it think itself of all importance. How hard to control such a mind.

The first lesson, then, is to sit for some time and let the mind run on. The mind is bubbling up all the time.

It is like that monkey jumping about. Let the monkey jump as much as he can ; you simply wait and watch. Knowledge is power says the proverb, and that is true. Until you know what the mind is doing you cannot control it. Give it the full length of the reins; many most hideous thoughts may come into it ; you will be astonished that it was possible for you to think such thoughts. But you will find that each day the mind's vagaries are becoming less and less violent, that each day it is becoming calmer. In the first few months you will find that the mind will have a thousand thoughts, later you will find that it is toned down to perhaps seven hundred, and after a few more months it will have fewer and fewer, until at last it will be under perfect control, but we must patiently practise every day. As soon as the steam is turned on the engine must run, and as soon as things are before us we must perceive ; so a man, to prove that he is not a machine, must demonstrate that he is under the control of nothing. This controlling of the mind, and not allowing it to join itself to the centres, is Pratyahara. How is this practised ? It is a long work, not to be done in a day. Only after a patient, continuous struggle for years can we succeed.