Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

When the mind wants to put itself in touch with the external world they should begin
to function. When it decides to withdraw they should be able to withdraw with it, thus
breaking all connection with the world outside. This relation between the mind and the
senses has been likened very aptly to the relation existing between the bees in a hive
and the queen bee. The bees follow the queen in a body as it flies from one place to
another, and do not function independently of the queen.
Is this complete severance of connection with the world outside in the manner
indicated possible? It is not only possible but absolutely necessary if the higher stages
of the Yogic path are to be trodden. But in order that success may be attained the Yogic
life has to be adopted as a whole. All the different steps or component parts of Yogic
discipline are linked with one another and success in tackling any particular problem
depends to a great extent upon how far the other related problems, especially those
going before, have been mastered. If Yama and Niyama have not been practised suffi-
ciently and all emotional disturbances eliminated, if Asana and Pranayama have not
been mastered and the physical body brought under complete control, then surely, the
practice of Pratyahara is bound to end in failure. But if the whole of the Sadhaka's life
conforms to the Yogic ideal and all his energies are bent on achieving-his ultimate goal
then success must come sooner or later.
It should also be mentioned here that though Pratyahara appears to be a control
of the senses by the mind, the essential technique is really the withdrawal of the mind
into itself. It is a kind of abstraction so complete that the sense-organs cease to func-
tion. Any school boy who is intensely interested in a novel cuts himself off from the
outer world. Any inventor like Edison who is absorbed in a problem can forget the ex-
ternal world completely. But in all such cases, although a high degree of abstraction is
attained the abstraction is involuntary and there is something in the external world on
which the mind is concentrated. In Pratyahara the abstraction is voluntary and the
mind has no object of attraction in the external world. Its field of activity is entirely
within itself and the external world is kept out by the sheer force of will, as in Raja
Yoga, or by the supreme attractive power of an object of love within, as in Bhakti
Yoga.