137 päflhaWhile the Yoga that is taught in the
West usually concentrates on the learn-
ing of a variety of postures supposed to
be beneficial to health, Pantañjali says
that any posture can be taken that is
agreeable and allows a practitioner to
sit in meditation for a length of time.
The aim of Räja Yoga is neither self-
mortification nor physical exercise, but
the achievement of inner freedom. Some
YOGISfocus on the extraordinary facul-
ties connected with Yoga, such as mak-
ing oneself small like an atom or large
like a mountain, understanding the lan-
guages of all peoples and even of ani-
mals, reading other people’s minds,
making onself invisible etc., but the
Yoga Sütrasdiscourage the practitioner
from cultivating them. They are more of
a hindrance than a help on the path to
freedom. There are certain dietetic rules
to be observed as well: a yogi is to avoid
spicy food, everything pungent, sour or
salty. While the use of drugs, especially
bhaög(hashish), is widespread among
Yogis in India, Patañjali discourages
this practice. Kaivalyais a state of mind
that should be reached without any
involvement of foreign substances.
Breath control, präæäyäma, is a cen-
tral practice in Yoga. The Upani•ads
contain many speculations on präæa,
life breath, and controlling one’s breath
is an ancient and widely practised
method of purification. Some yogis suc-
ceed in controlling their breath to such
an extent that they can reduce the
metabolism to a point where it becomes
possible for them to be buried for days
or even weeks and emerge alive. The
Yoga Sütras do not encourage such
extraordinary feats, but they consider
breath control basic. Similarly, the ability
to withdraw one’s senses, pratyahära, is
essential. The senses, no longer occu-
pied with transmitting impulses from
the body, cease to hinder the mind from
functioning according to its own
‘mental’ mode.The central feature of Pätañjala
Yoga is samyama, ‘effort’, consisting of
the triad of dhäraæa–dhyäna–samädhi,
‘concentration–contemplation–trance’.
They are not seen as flowing from a
special ‘psychic’ capability but as result-
ing from strenuous effort. They com-
pletely interiorize consciousness and
separate self-consciousness from every-
thing that is not self, i.e. the body and
sense-objects. By applying the technique
to a number of dimensions of reality the
yogi both identifies with and transcends
each realm. The detail in which the
Yoga Sütrasdescribe the process is high-
ly technical and must be studied under
the guidance of an experienced teacher.
From a certain point onwards in the
practice of Yoga the process becomes
irreversible: kaivalya, complete intro-
version, becomes the ‘natural’ goal of
the practitioner’s mind. The state of
mind shortly before reaching the final
condition is defined as dharma-
meghasamädhi, ‘dharma-cloud trance’
in which the finite, elementary nature of
all things becomes experientially appar-
ent to the yogi. A kind of zero-time
experience precedes the entering into
timelessness. Kaivalyais described as
the spirit ‘finding its own true state of
nature’, the coming home of the soul
from the exile of involvement in the
process of material evolution.Patañjali (second century BCE)
A celebrated name, the reputed author
of a treatise on Yoga (Yoga Sütras), on
medicine (Carakasaƒhitä) and on
grammar (Mahäbhä•ya), healer of
body, mind and soul.päflha (‘reading’)
This applies especially to the reading of
a Vedic text. There are three päflhas:
samhitäpäflha (words read with sandhi,
rules for combining vowels and con-
sonants), padapäflha (words readEncyclo - Letter P 10/2/03 9:56 am Page 137