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INTRODUCTION
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Today,
for quick travel, the material world presents us the Railway, Steamers,
Aeroplanes and so forth, but the Yogins claim that by Yogic culture the weight
of the body can be so reduced that it can fly over the space to any distance in
an instant. They can prepare a magic ointment, which when applied to the soles
of the feet, gives them power to traverse any distance on earth within a very
short time. By the practice of Khechari Mudra, by applying the elongated tongue
to the posterior nasal openings they can fly in the air. By keeping a magic
pill in their mouth they can also move in space to any place in the twinkling
of an eye.
When we are anxious to know the welfare of our own relations in a distant or
foreign land, we take recourse to writing letters sending ordinary or urgent
cables. But the Yogins claim that they can, by meditation (Dyana), know
anything that happens in other parts of the world by a projection of the mind
or by mentally travelling the distance which is only a matter of few seconds.
Yogi Lahiri, whose Samadhi is still in Varanasi, travelled to London to see the
state of health of his superior’s wife. For hearing a friend at a long distance
the material world presents us with telephones and wireless receivers, but the
Yogins claim that through their Yogic power, they can hear anything, from any
distance, even the voices of God and other invisible beings in the firmament.
Today when a man is suffering from a disease the material world presents us
with doctors, medicines, injections and so forth, but the Yogins claim that by
a mere glance or by simple touch or by recitation of Mantras, not only the
diseases can be cured but also life can be given to a dead man. |
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These
Yogins by persistent effort in concentration get different Yogic powers that
are known as ‘Siddhis’. Those who acquire these Siddhis, are known as Siddhas.
The process through which they obtain Siddhis, is called Sadhana. Pranayama is
one of the most important Sadhanas. Through the practice of Asana, you can
control the physical body and through Pranayama, you can control the subtle,
astral body or the Linga Sarira. As there is an intimate connection between the
breath and nerve-currents, control of breath leads to the control of vital
inner currents.
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Pranayama
occupies a very important place in Indian religion. Every Brahmachari, and
every Grihastha also, has to practise it three times every day morning, noon
and evening in his daily worship during Sandhya. It precedes every religious
practice of the Hindus. Before he eats, before he drinks, before he resolves to
do anything, Pranayama should be performed first and then the nature of his
determination should be clearly enunciated and placed before the mind. The
facts of its preceding every effort of the will is a surety that, that effort
will be crowned with success and the mind will be directed to bring about the
desired result. Here I may refer to the feat of memory, practised by the Hindu
Yogins, under the name of concentration on one hundred things. ‘Satavadhana’,
wherein one hundred questions are put to a Satavadhani or the concentrator in
rapid succession by different persons; some testing the verbal memory of the
performer; others testing his power of mental calculation; again some others,
trying to test his artistic skill, without giving him, any time for committing
the questions to have been put to him. The performer begins, by reproducing the
questions, in any order, in respect of those questions, with their answers.
This is generally done in three or more turns, in each turn giving only a
portion of the answer to each of the questions and then continuing from where
he left off in the next turn. If the questions are of the nature of
mathematical problems whose solutions are required, he delivers the answers
along with the problems, having solved them mentally.
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This
faculty of concentration of mind is often exhibited not only with reference to
the intellect but also with reference to the five senses. A number of bells may
be marked differently and the sounds may be allowed to be studied and made
mental note of with the mark given to it. A number of objects of similar shape
and colour which are likely to cause deception to the eye of an ordinary man
may be shown once to the ‘Avadhani’ with their marks. While he is attending to
other things, if a bell were to be struck or one of the objects suddenly
exhibited before his sight, he will at once mention the mark of the bell or the
number of the object shown. Similarly his keenness of touch is also put to the
test. Such feats of memory are due to the training which they receive from the
daily practice of Pranayama.
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The
Prana may be defined as the finest vital force in everything which becomes
visible on the physical plane as motion and action and on the mental plane as
thought. The word Pranayama, therefore, means the restraint of vital energies.
It is the control of vital energy which tingles through the nerves of persons.
It moves his muscles and causes him to sense the external world and think his
internal thought. This energy is of such a nature that it may be called the vis
viva of the animal organism. The control of this force is what is aimed
at by the Yogins by means of Pranayama. He who conquers this, is not only the
conqueror of his own existence on the physical and mental plane, but the
conqueror of the whole world. For, the Prana is the very essence of cosmic
life, that subtle principle which evolved the whole universe into its present
form and which is pushing it towards its ultimate goal. To the Yogi the whole
universe is his body. The matter which composes his body is the same that
evolved the universe. The force which pulsates through his nerves is not
different from the force which vibrates through the universe. The conquest over
the body does, therefore, mean to him the conquest over the forces of nature.
According to the Hindu Philosophy the whole nature is composed of two principal
substances. One of them is called the Akasa or ether and the other, Prana or
energy. These two may be said to correspond to matter and force of the modern
scientists. Everything in this universe that possesses form or that has
material existence, is evolved out of this omnipresent and all-pervasive subtle
substance ‘Akasa’. Gas, liquid and solid, the whole universe, consisting of our
solar system and millions of huge systems like ours and in fact every kind of
existence that may be brought under the word ‘created’, are the products of
this one subtle and invisible Akasa and at the end of each cycle return to the
starting point.
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In
the same way, all the way of forces of nature that are known to man;
gravitation, light, heat, electricity, magnetism all those that can be grouped
under the generic name of ‘energy’, physical creation, nerve-currents, all such
as are known as animal forces and thought and other intellectual forces also,
may be said to be the manifestations of the cosmic Prana. From Prana, they
spring into existence and in Prana, they finally subside. Every kind of force
in this universe, physical or mental can be resolved into this original force.
There can be nothing new except these two factors in some one of their forms.
Conservation of matter and conservation of energy are the two fundamental laws
of nature. While one teaches that the sum total of Akasa forming the universe,
is constant, the other teaches that the sum total of energy that vibrates the
universe, is also a constant quantity. At the end of each cycle the different
manifestations of energy quiet down and become potential: so also the Akasa
which becomes indistinguishable: but at the beginning of the next cycle the
energies start up again and act on the Akasa so as to involve the various
forms. Accordingly, when the Akasa changes and becomes gross or subtle, Prana
also changes and becomes gross or subtle. As the human body is only a microcosm
to a Yogi, his body composed of the nervous system and the internal organs of
perception represent to him, the microcosmic Akasa, the nerve-currents and
thought-currents, and the cosmic Prana. To understand the secrets of their
workings and to control them is, therefore, to get the highest knowledge and
the conquest of the universe. |
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He who
has grasped this Prana, has grasped the very core of cosmic life and activity.
He who has conquered and controlled this very essence, has not only subjected
his own body and mind but every other body and mind in this universe. Thus
Pranayama or the control of Prana is that means by which the Yogi tries to
realise in his little body the whole of cosmic life, and tries to attain
perfection by getting all the powers in this universe. His various exercises
and trainings are for this one end.
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Why
delay? Delay means so much of additional suffering and misery. Let us increase
the speed, struggle harder until we succeed in bridging over the vast chasm of
time. By doing proper Sadhana let us attain the goal at once in this body,
right now in this very moment. Why not we get that infinite knowledge, infinite
bliss, infinite peace and infinite power, now alone?
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The
solution of the problem is the teaching of Yoga. The whole science ‘Yoga’ has
this one end in view, to enable man to cross the ocean of Samsara, to increase
power, to develop knowledge and to attain immortality and eternal bliss.
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Vijai Kumar Lunia
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