Pratyahara contd(Med 78)

Pratyahara contd(Med 78)
Swami Chidananda
Mind is the instrument for the attainment of the supreme fruit of Yoga. Mind that is filled with impurity is an obstacle to Yoga; but that very same mind, when it becomes refined, when the mala (impurity) is removed, when the faculty of oscillation (vikshepa) is arrested, it becomes the means of Yoga.
If the mind is linked with the sense-objects, the senses go to the objects. When the mind is reposed in your ideal, it keeps the mind always busy, and the temptations do not draw it out. Even when things impinge upon the senses, the senses do not convey them to the mind. A man may see, but he may not look. A man may hear, but he may not listen. He touches but does not feel. This way the contact of mind is gradually cut off. The mind then becomes withdrawn into itself, where it is given a background upon which it can rest, and that background is your ideal. The background that is given to the mind makes the mind introverted and the senses lose their urge to move towards their objects. A withdrawal is effected and the withdrawal prepares the mind for concentration. Before fixing the mind you have to gather it from other objects. This process of gathering the mind is called ‘Pratyahara’. The rays of the mind are cetralised and brought together. Pratyahara is roughly translated as withdrawal.
From this purpose, you remove the senses form the sense-objects. Herein comes the need for isolation, because you do not find so many objects. At one stroke you lessen the flow of senses towards objects by going into seclusion.
Pratyahara straddles both the outer world of sense objects, and inner world of the mind and its thinking process. One would expect that the objects out of sight would be out of mind also, but they are not. They are very much in the mind; they come up from within. Why? Because you have been constantly taking the impressions of those objects into your mind. When you sit for you’re your daily dhyana, the mind begins to roam into various directions and think of numerous objects. You have to be firm. As and when the mind goes out towards external thoughts, you have to bring it back again, and direct it towards the object of meditation. As day after day you go on making this abhyasa of pratyahara, your mind gets the habit of inwardness. Then the objects do not have the power to draw out the senses.