PRATYAHARA

9th February, 2012

It is possible that Pratyahara or the withdrawal of one’s senses from the outer world is more an act of the mind than of the senses themselves.

As V.S.Ramachandran, one of the world’s most renowned neurologists proves through his unique and numerous examples in the book- ‘Phantoms In The Brain’, perception is a function of the brain rather than only of the senses. He states that the eyes may act as the instrument of perception but the act of perception is indeed done by one of the visual centres in the brain. Hence, according to his research both of these, the instrument as well as the centre in the brain are required to be functioning in accordance with one another for the perfect act of perception to occur.

Patanjali stated years ago in the Yoga Sutras, in much more detail and with much more clarity, hundred-fold of what modern science is now fumbling to uncover. Anyway, I’ll leave the rest of the explanation to the book itself for this write-up is not so much about the brain as it is about the more subtle ‘mind’. And more importantly it is not so much about the mechanism of perception as it is about the mechanism of non-perception.

I sat down one of these mornings after my asana practice to do my pranayama practice. I began comfortably with an even ratio of inhale and exhale, with no agitation in the mind and a nice, stable breath. My pranayama seemed to be going well. Then, I began to hear an argument between two of my family members- my mother and my grandfather. As is common in most Indian households, the argument was both loud and clear enough for the entire neighbourhood to hear and understand. Maybe this is what makes us the overly empathic beings that we are; we always know what’s going on in each other’s lives!

My breath continued to go on, my count of the inhale exhale began to become a little shaky but carried on mechanically, but my mind was with the argument. I could actually see ‘in my mind’s eye’, as is the much-used term, what was going on downstairs between my mother and my grandfather. The entire scene along with the minute details of my mother’s and my grandfather’s expressions, began to play in my mind like a movie. And of course the most beautiful thing about all this was that my eyes were closed.

Suddenly, I became aware of my mind’s wanderings and tried to bring it back to the moment. I focussed back on my breath and my mind went blank. I began floating in the world of pratyahara for a brief few seconds until I could tether my mind no longer. And back it went to its movie-watching.

But then it struck me, that just because my eyes were closed, it did not mean that my sense of sight was withdrawn. My imagination still had the gift of that sense. And that’s when for the first time I understood the real meaning of pratyahara. When there is any external stimulation for any of the senses, it is not so much the sense organs that we have to control, as we have to the mind.

This also seems to be the reason why Pratyahara is given so much importance by Patanjali in the process of ‘citta vrtti nirodah’. Maybe because even if we were put in a dark room where we could not see anything, where we had ear muffs to prevent any external sound to reach our ears, or had our nose clipped so that we could not smell any enticing odors, we would still need to lay a firm hold upon our mind. The vrittis, namely, Pramana- right knowledge, Viparyaya- wrong knowledge, vikalpa- imagination, nidra- sleep, or smriti- memory, could still all operate through the mind and summon up sensations that do not exist at that moment. Even sleep cannot be complete pratyahara for even in that state we feel very real sensations through dreams. And anyway, sleep is an state of the mind when we are not aware of even our conscious selves, leave alone our real inner selves.

So, while I used to feel earlier that if I could resist talking to anybody for a day, or resist eating my favourite food for a week, I would be well on my path to perfecting Pratyahara, now I am humbled by the thought that this would be just a tiny pebble of a stepping-stone towards it. For the real disciplining is in silencing the mind in the first case and not even thinking about food in the second case, while I simultaneously try to control my senses.