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Kundalini, The Mother of the Universe, by Rishi Singh Gherwal, [1930], at sacred-texts.com
The different practices of Dharana Yoga to control the mind power and attain success are stepping stones in Yoga.
Thru the power of Dharana Yoga, Yogis have proven that they can control every function of the body, such as heart action etc.; also controlling wild beasts, reptiles, etc..
Sending thought directions to one when he looses his way. I have been helped many times by my Master thru the power of Dharana Yoga, as once being lost in the mountains, and again when there was no food or shelter, he sent me telepathic messages directing me which way I should go, although he was hundreds of miles from the place where I was. The power of Dharana is the most wonderful of the wondrous.
Once when sitting by the Master in a small town, a chicken-hawk swooped down upon a small chicken. The little fellow
fought for his life. The mother hen did all she could by fighting and squalling, but that was not enough, the poor chicken was in the mouth of death. The Master looked up at the hawk once and the hawk and chicken came to earth. Then and there both were friendly, and remained in the company of each other for some time. It was a great joy for me to see a chicken and a hawk associating together peacefully—it was indeed heavenly.
At sunset my Master once again looked upon the chicken and the hawk; lo, at once the chicken ran to his mother, and the hawk flew in the air. That was all done by the power of Samyama.
What is Samyama and Dharana? It is of three kinds: gross, subtle and luminous. Mastery of mind and development of will, What is will? Yogis know will is power. It can do anything for you and will set you free. The Master said: "By will man may become a Deva (like God), or the opposite." The Bible says: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The difference between a human being and the Divine: man desires the God will, His will works. As long as man
desires, yet doubts his power, the doubt is the killer.
Make up your mind. Stick with the will, that you can do a thing, and it is then already half done. But when you doubt in yourself—that you can not, it will never be done. You develop the will and become like Brahma.
The Yogis open the inner eye by Dharana, and by opening the inner eye nature becomes like an open book. There is nothing hidden from them. They see their inner body as an ordinary man sees the outer body. They see how the different glands work; see the connection between the two bodies, the gross and the subtle; see where the Chakras are, see, the five Pranas and know how to gather them together to hold on one Chakra to open it. They know all.
Why do we not all see such things as the Yogis see? Because the Yogis have developed their inner eye and have made their mind a great faculty.
This can be compared to the great telescope. As the great telescope reveals the hidden secrets of the stars, so the inner eye of the Yogi reveals to him what he was, what is
[paragraph continues] God and where He is. Yogi found That (God) within himself.
Nothing is hidden from God; so nothing from Yogi. The scientists and others may call the Yogi whatever they wish, as very often Yogis are called fakes, etc. The blame is not with the scientists or scoffers, but is due to their ignorance, as they are ignorant of the blessed powers of the Yogi or the power that is hidden within every one.
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The following excerpt from the "San Antonio Light", of Marcia 2, 1930.—"American Magazine Section." This is a remarkable full page article, with complete illustrations.
"The distinguished New York nerve specialist, Dr. Frederick Tilney, declared in his recent book on the development of the human brain that this organ is still used to only a small percentage of its real capacity. Dr. Constantin von Economo, of Vienna, as distinguished in European neurology as is Dr. Tilney in the United States, has stated this belief even more definitely.
"Both these experts had chiefly in mind, their statements make clear, the intelligence of the human mind and its power to make correct judgments. They might have said virtually the same things, however, about the power of the will to control both mind and body.
"For generations these powers of the will have been well knows in special instances, like the fakirs of India or the religious fanatics who lie on beds of sharp spikes, who beat themselves in frenzy and yet feel no pain. Now scientific men are coming to the opinion that all human minds possess much these same powers of developed will. All that is necessary is that the latent power of the mind be appreciated and applied.
In a recent hospital case the patient, not wishing to take as anesthetic, merely went to sleep by will power, first telling the surgeon to go ahead. Other patients examined scientifically by the doctors turn out to have the ability of stopping the heart bat temporarily or of interrupting the normal pulse in the wrist, all by
the power of the will. Sight, hearing, smell and other senses may be either decreased or increased in sensitivity by will power. Determination, long supposed to be a useful virtue only in some kind of contest, turns out to be as valuable in man's contest with his own body as anywhere else.
"The Indian fakirs, long supposed by many people to be merely cheats and liars, but now recognized by scientific men as possessing unusual powers of mental control of the body, are still perhaps the best examples of what the will can do to bodily machinery. Not long ago one of these fakirs, Tahra Bey, gave in London an exhibition to which numerous medical men were invited. Forty physicians and scientists sat on the stage of the theatre where the exhibition was given. All were permitted to examine the fakir during the demonstrations. Trickery was virtually impossible and experts agree that none was used.
"Some of Tahra Bey's demonstrations were familiar ones of stage hypnotists. Throwing himself into a trance-like state, he made his body quite rigid. The stiff body was then laid on a series of sabres, not fully sharp but still edged enough to be uncomfortable. A large stone was laid on the fakir's rigid chest and was pounded with a sledge.
"Brought out of his rigid condition, the fakir then thrust hat pins through his cheeks, and through folds of flesh on chest and arms. A penknife similarly thrust through a fold of flesh produced a bleeding wound, or a bloodless one, whichever the fakir suggested and announced in advance. Like his predecessors in India, Tahra Bey then lay down on a bed of six-inch nails driven point upward through a wooden door and reclined on this remarkable couch while an assistant weighing about 160 pounds stood for several minutes on the fakir's chest.
"After this demonstration the fakir's back, examined by some of the physicians present, showed distinct marks of the points of the nails but no blood was shed and the fakir claimed to feel no pain. That the hat points and knives were actually thrust through the flesh and that some of these wounds actually did not bleed as they would have done in normal bodies, was also attested by the medical committee.
"No claim was made by this particular fakir of anything supernatural in his performance, nor is any such claim in the least justified. That anyone can accomplish very much the same feats with
some training and a strong enough will is proved by the fact that many persons have done so; notably a Parisian sceptic named Paul Heuze, who disbelieved the supernatural claims of some of the earlier fakirs and managed, it is said, with but one rehearsal, to duplicate the feats of lying on the bed of nails and of thrusting pins and knives into his flesh without causing pain or drawing blood.
"Last year there was prominent in Berlin a still more remarkable example of this kind of bodily control by will power; a miner named Paul Diebel who similarly was able to thrust knives into his body, to cut himself without bleeding and even to allow arrows to be shot into his chest without apparent harm. One of Diebel's tricks which attracted great attention was an apparent ability to bleed at will from his skin, as well as to prevent bleeding.
"One theory held by physiologists is that the living cells which make up the nerves and which ordinarily are in contact with each other so that nerve messages can pass, withdraw a little at their points of contact so that the nerve path is broken. The diagrams of the Hindu fakir on this page illustrate the process. Apparently an effort of the will sometimes can accomplish this breaking of the nerve circuits, much as can be done by drugs like cocaine, which are used as anesthetics. In both instances the nerve break means, that no messages of pain or other sensations can pass to the brain. Control of the will over the flow of blood is equally well established by scientific evidence. Dr. A. S. Hyman, of New York City, has published accounts of three patients who were able by efforts of their will completely to stop the pulse in the wrist; the pulse which a physician usually feels when he wishes to count the rate of the heartbeat. An East Indian physician, Dr. Vasant G. Rele, has described similarly and at length the characteristics of an Indian holy man whose abilities In similar directions were examined by a committee of physicians in Bombay.
"This Yogi was able, the physicians found, to stop the pulse beat in either arm for more than two minutes. The pulse in his temple on either side could be stopped similarly. Even the heart of this man stopped beating for six seconds by the physician's watch, when ordered to do so by the owner's will.
"What happens in the case of the Yogis, fakirs and others who can control bleeding or pulse beats is, the scientists believe, that these nerves, not ordinarily subject to control by the mind, are trained by long practice and efforts of the will to respond to voluntary orders.
[paragraph continues] Much the same thing happens when people train the muscles of their scalps to obey orders from nerves now feeble and unused, so that these people can move their ears a little as man's animal ancestors used to do.
"Even life and death may be affected by the will. Major H. E. Smith, Assistant Police Commissioner of the Gold Coast Colony, in Africa, recently reported an instance in which a highly intelligent native willed himself to die as a result of a quarrel and supposed witchcraft. Even on his body alter death European physicians could discover no reason whatsoever for death or even for illness.
"But if a strong will can stop a fakir's heartbeat at will, make him bleed or not bleed at will, certainly it can keep anybody from yielding to weakness or crime."
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How do Yogis develop that power? I am sorry this cannot be explained in a book. It can only be taught to those who are seeking truth, not to the faithless. But I will explain as much as can be given in any book.
First I will give the idea of Samyama from Katha Upanishad: "The Wise should sink the Speech into Mind. Mind should sink into Intellect. Intellect should sink into Self. The Self should sink into the Great Self. The Great Self should sink into Eternal Peace (Self-God).
First. Lips should close, ears should open.
Second. Mind should stop wandering about.
Third. Thoughts should he suppressed, the Intuition should be developed.
Fourth. Intuition should be suppressed
and Ego should be felt.
Fifth. Ego should be merged, blended into the Great Self.
The Great Self into Self Peace." (God—Universal Soul).
The above reference is to the practice of Yoga known as Samyama.
What the Yogi gains by Samyama. "The direct perception gives the Yogi the right meaning, the inspiration gives him the word, the intuition gives him the right conclusion and discrimination saves him from error." The Yogi sees the truth face to face.
Any one can develop the above power by daily practice of Yoga. "But man can become aware of things which the senses can't grasp, Budhigrahyam atiudriyam (the reason or intellect) The proof of this you can get daily, when the Yogi's power is developed. This fact that man can see with his Budhi (intellect), the truth about a thing he has never seen or known before, is enough to destroy the materialistic idea of thought.
"What is knowledge? In what does it consist? We must distinguish between knowledge in itself and the means of knowledge. Again, among the means we must distinguish between the instruments and the
operations performed with the instruments.
"By Knowledge we means awareness, taking a thing into active consciousness, into our Chaitanyam. But when we say, taking it into our Chaitanyam. what do we imply? Whence do we take it? The European says from outside, we say from inside, from Chaitanyam itself. In other words, all knowledge is an act of consciousness operating on something in the consciousness itself. In the first place everything we know exists in Parabrahma, that is, in our indivisible, universal self-existence. It is there, but not yet expressed, not vyakta. Then it exists in pure Chit (the essential consciousness of the Spirit), which is the womb of things as an idea of form, name and quality. It has name, form and quality in the Karana or Mahat, the casual, typal and ideal state of consciousness. Then it gets the possibility of change, development or modification in the Sukshma, the subtle, mental or plastic state of consciousness. Finally it gets the actual change, development, modification or evolution in the Sthula, the material or evolutionary state of consciousness. In the Karana there is no evolution, nothing ever changes, all is eternal.
[paragraph continues] The Karana is Satyam. In the Sukshma all is preparation of change; it is full of imagination or anritam, therefore it is Swappa, not really false, but not immediately applicable to the Karana or Sthula. In the Sthula all evolves. It is partial sat-yam developing by the turning of old Satyam developing by the turning of old sattion, and the turning of new anritam into new satyam, which is called creation. In the satyam, which is called creation. In the Karana there is no creation, no birth, no death, all exists for ever—the only change is from type to type, from fulfilment to fulfilment.
"Therefore to know is really to be conscious of the thing in any or all of these three states. The knowledge of the Sthula is science. The knowledge of the Sukshma is philosophy, religion and metaphysics. The knowledge of the Karana is Yoga. When a man knows the Sthula, he knows it with his senses, that is, with the Manas, he knows the Sukshma with reason of the inspired intellect, he knows the Karana with the Jnanam or spiritual realization. Therefore complete knowledge consists of three operations, first, objective
[paragraph continues] Upalabdhi or experience, secondly, intellectual statement of your understanding of the thing, thirdly, subjective Upalabdhi or spiritual experience. The scientist begins from the bottom and climbs if he can, to the top. The Yogin begins from the top and descends for perfect proof to the bottom. You are not scientists, you are sadhaks. Therefore, when you speak of knowledge you must understand the process; you realise a thing by subjective experience, Bhava, then, think about it and formulate your experience in Artha and Vak, the combination which forms thought; you verify or test your experience by physical or objective experience.
"For instance you see a man. You want to know what he is, what he thinks and what he does. How does the scientist or the material man do it? He watches the man, he notes what he says, what are his expressions of speech and face. what are his actions, what sort of people he lives with, etc. All this is objective. Then he reasons from his objective experience. He says—"The man says this or that, so he must think so and so or he must have such and such a character; his actions show the same," his face shows the same, and so he gees on reasoning. If
he dies not gets all the necessary facts, he fills them up from his imagination of from his memory, that is his experience of other men, of himself or of human life as read of in books or heard of from other people. He perceives, he observes, contrasts, compares, deducts, infers, imagines, remembers and the composite result he calls reason, knowledge, fact. In reality he has arrived at a probability, for it is impossible for him to be sure that his conclusions are correct or anything indeed correct in his thought, except the actual observation, perceptions of his eye, ear, nose, touch and taste. Anything beyond this the material man distrusts. Nothing is true to him except what he observes with his senses or what agrees with his sensory perceptions.
"Now what does the Yogin do? He simply puts himself into relation with the thing itself. Not with its form, name or quality but with itself. He may never have seen the form, heard the name or had experience of the quality, but still he can know the thing. Because it is the thing itself and it is in himself and one with himself, that is in the Mahakarana in a man. There all meet the Atman and are so entirely one with the Atman that by merely
being in contact with it, I can know everything about it. Few Yogins reach that state. But all the same, even in the Karana I can put myself in relation with the thing and know it by Bhava. I put myself, my soul, into relation with the soul of the man I study or the thing I study; Prajna in me becomes one with the Prajna in him or it. How do I do this? Simply by becoming passive and facing him or it in my Buddhi. If my Buddhi is quite pure or fairly purified, if my Manas is shanta, then I get the truth about him. I get it by Bhava, by spiritual or subjective realization.
"Then I have to make the thing I have got clear and precise. To do that I must state it intellectually to my mind, that is. I must think about it. I have these ideas I am telling you in myself as unexpressed knowledge; they shape themselves in words, Vak, and take on a precise meaning, Artha. That is thought. Most people think vaguely; half expressing the thing in an imperfect Vak and a partial Artha. The Yogin must not do that. His thoughts must express themselves in clear and perfect sentences. He may know a thing without thinking it out, but if he thinks, he must think dearly and perfectly.
"The Yogin reasons when necessary, but not like the man of science. He sees the thing with his prophetic power interpreting the truth into thought; the pratyaksha gives him the Artha, the inspiration gives him the Vak, the intuition gives him to right conclusion about it, the right siddhanta, the Viveka guards him from error. Behold the truth by these four simple operations perfectly thought out. If he has to argue, then the intuition gives him the right arguments. He has not to proceed painfully from one syllogism to another as the logician does.
"Finally, he verifies his knowledge by the facts of the objective world. He has seen the truth about the man by merely looking at him or at the idea of him; he has thought it out clearly and now he compares his idea with the man's action, speech etc. Not to test his truth; for he knows that a man's action, speech etc. only partially express the man and mislead the student; but in order to see how the truth he knows from the Karana is being worked out in the Sthula. He trusts the man's objective life only so far as it is in agreement with the deeper truth he has gained by Yoga.
"You see the immense difference. The
only difficulty is that you have been accustomed to use the senses and the reason to the subordination and almost to the exclusion of the higher faculties. Therefore you find it difficult to make the higher faculties active.
"If only you could start from the beginning, with the Bhava, the Atmajnana, how easy it would be! That will yet happen. But first, you have to get rid of the lower Buddhi, of the Indriyas in the manas, and awaken the activity of the higher faculties. They will see for you, hear for you, as well as think for you.
First, then, get your sankaras right. Understand intellectually what I have told you and will yet tell you. Then by use of the Will, keep the reason, imagination, memory, thought, sensations sufficiently quiet for the higher Buddhi to know itself as separate and different from these lower qualities. As the higher separates itself and becomes more and more active, the lower, already discouraged, will become less and less active and finally trouble you no more.
Therefore Will first, then by Will, by Shakti, the Jnanam. First Kali, then Surya.
[paragraph continues] I shall explain the various faculties when I have finished with the rest of the system."
From "Yogic Sadhan"
By Master Arabinda Ghose.