(91-92) The sharp iron prong of nada can effectively curb the [elephant] mind when it wants to gambol in the pleasure garden of the sense-objects. --When the mind has been divested of its fickle nature and has been fettered by the ropes of the inner sound, then it reaches the highest state of concentration and remains still, like a bird that has lost its wings.
(93) He who wishes to reach the mastery of yoga should renounce all his [restless] thoughts and practice with carefully concentrated mind the dissolution [of the world of senses] in nada laya.
In a concert, in the cathedral or in the poet's word, the "sound" is always there where an immortal spirit has dipped into the deepest sources of life.
(94) The inner sound [the bindu] is like a trap to capture the gazelle [the mind]; like a hunter, it kills the animal [conceptual thought].
Every word of every language has this inner sound. We hear it readily in the words of our own language which are to us more than sheer letter formations. But when we want to learn a foreign language--and the mantra in a sense belongs to a foreign language--then we have to start with the audible sound
until one fine day the inner sound of the new words manifests itself. Conceptual thought then becomes superfluous. As long as one has to think about a foreign word, the inner sound is missing. We have adopted many "foreign words" whose inner sounds we have learned to hear and that have a meaning for us that cannot be expressed in our own language. The Japanese word "harakiri" tells us more than the word "suicide," the Chinese word "kowtow" more than the words "to bow." These are not words that stand for something; they have become iden-tical with clearly defined concepts.
(9!-96) The inner sound is like a bolt on the stable door that keeps the horse [conceptual thinking] from roaming about, Therefore the yogi should daily practice concentration on this nada. --Mercury distilled with sulphur becomet solid and divested of its active nature. It becomes capable of rising into the air. Similarly, the mind it made steady by the influence of nada and becomes united with the all-pervading Brahman.
Brahman is 0m (Aurn), and this is kala, nada, and bindu; Siva is the aspect of Brahman as destroyer. He who destroys concepts and liberates the Absolute. Siva, the dark aspect of Brahman, appears terrifying only to those who are afraid they will lose the world of concept, not suspecting that beyond this world there is eternity.
(97) When the mind [free of concepts] comes to know, it does not run toward the ringing sound [in the physical ear] like a [curious] serpent.
This is the famous characteristic of the wise man: lack of curiosity, because he experiences greater things within himself. Only he who is not self-sufficient seeks fulfillment in things. He who is inwardly poor seeks wealth in the relative world.*
(98-99) The fire that burns a piece of wood dies out when the wood has been consumed. So also the mind when it remains concentrated on nadam (and does not search for new fuel) gets absorbed in it. --When the fourfold mind (antakharana) has been attracted by the sound of bells etc., like a gazelle, a skillful archer can hit it with his arrow.
The Upanishad says: "Prana is the bow, atman the arrow, Brahman the target. He who carefully aims at the target becomes one with it." Atman and Brahman become one.
(100-102) The absolute consciousness [caitanya] cognizes the nada-sound in the heart while the antakharana [mind] becomes one with caitanya. When this has happened in samadhi
[para-vairagya] all modifications dissolve and become abstract thought. This is the pure atman, free from all external adjuncts [upadhis]. --Space [akasha] exists only as long as the sound is heard [by the physical ear]. In soundlessness atman and Brahman are one [paramatman]. Whatever is manifested as sound [in the heart or in the ear] is a power of nature [shakti]. The state of dissolution [laya] of conceptual thought is beyond all form. It is divine [paramesvara].As we have now ascertained, there is no real difference between the "inner light" (kala) as described in the previous chapter and the inner sound (nada) because in essence they are united by
*This is the only case where Ricker's translation deviates from the literal translation of the text, which reads: "The mind is like a serpent; forget* ting all its unsteadiness by hearing the nada, it does not run away anywhere" (Pancham Sinh, of. dt' p. 164). --Trans.
bindu, the sense. All three powers (kala, nada and bindu) in absolute form are Siva; in their active power they are shakti. Siva and Shakti are one as the inseparable cosmic lovers: energy and matter are one as source of the world.
Our imaginary human creator now has everything that he needs: energy and matter in all their aspects. The gross material aspect as sound and light; the subtle aspect as inner sound and inner radiance; the causal aspect as the divine experience of samadhi where there is no longer any difference between the three realms, where they once more are what they have eternally been: Siva, the aspect of dissolution of Brahaman.
(103) All hatha yoga practices serve only for the attainment of raja yoga. He who is accomplished in raja yoga overcomes death.
To "overcome death" does not mean to become immortal, for what is the body? It means power over all that which escapes consciousness at the time of death. Samadhi is more closely related to death than sleep. He who has reached the inner vision of samadhi will meet death with clear understanding of what awaits him. He has control over the state after death and the way to rebirth.
(104-114) Mind is the seed, pranayama the soil, dispassion
[vairagya] the water. Out of these three grows the tree that fulfills all wishes. --Through assiduous practice of concentration on nada, all sins are destroyed, and mind and prana become dissolved in absolute consciousness [niranjana, the absolutely spotless, devoid of all gunas]. --During samadhi [unmani avastha, the mindless state] the [material] body becomes like a log. The sound of the conch and of the big drum pass by his [physical] ear [for the ear in his heart is tuned to subtler sounds]. --The yogi is free from all states [avasthas, conditioned states], from all thoughts. He is like one dead. And yet he is master of death, of his fate, and his enemies. His senses have died away; he (nows not himself or others. He is one who it liberated in this lifetime [jivanmukta], when his mind is neither awake nor asleep, and when he is free from remembering and forgetting. He does not live, and yet he is not dead. --He is impervious to heat and cold, to pain and bliss, to honor and insult. --He seems to be sleeping, and yet he is awake. inhalation and exhalation have subsided. [He is in jagra avastha.] --Weapons cannot harm him [i.e., his now manifest real being], no human power can overcome him. He is beyond curses [through mantra] and charms [yantra]. --But as long as prana does not enter the sushumna and reach its highest goal at the crown of the head [the bramaradhra], as long as the absolute is not manifested in samadhi, [as long as the bindu does not come under control by restraint of breath,] as long as the I does not become one with the it, so long are those who talk about dissolution in Brahman mere babblers and prevaricators.EPILOGUE
when I review what I could gather from the few hidden saints I met in India my impression is twofold. The state of enlightenment, the state that precedes sainthood, is positively the greatest and most desirable goal of all. One still is a human being, but no longer a victim of nature; natural laws still prevail, but impose no burdens. One still has needs, but is not dependent on them. One feels and acts, but one does not act due to feelings; the aim is always to be in tune with cosmic harmony rather than to give satisfaction to the ego. The Truth of absolute harmony which includes the creatures and the Creator: that is the sign of enlightenment, absolute humanness. But the saint of the last stage is beyond everything human. He is a single sound that does not blend into a harmony of any kind, for he already occupies a higher plane of existence, one through which the enlightened one passes only at the time of death, or rather after death, when his individuality is dissolved. A man who begins to outgrow worldly conditions will be reborn into the level of existence he has reached. The saint of the highest stage passes through this condition in his inner consciousness before his earthly death, because he has succeeded in freeing himself from everything that binds others to the world. Again and again I had the impression, and saw it confirmed from many sides, that the enlightened one represents the most perfect human being, while the saint on the highest level could in many respects no longer be measured by human standards: obvious omniscience paired with the symptoms of insanity, but nevertheless with the distinguishing signs oi a genius. Phenomenal manifestations such as complete renunciation of sleep and food; suspension of all natural functions such as growth of hair on the head, perspiration, elimination; complete absence of signs of age, combined with the proverbial siddhis, the miraculous powers which nobody has a right to doubt. Even today one may be fortunate enough to meet siddhas in South India in whom all these phenomena are united. These few areliving proof that saints of the highest level are not legendary figures.
The reader who now concludes (quite understandably) that despite his desire for the power of a siddha, the practise of yoga is not for Western man, is like a student who abandons the university because he has heard that genius borders on insanity, and he no longer wants to attempt to become a genius.
There are today in India thousands of yogis and hundreds of masters. There are perhaps a few dozen who have realized the highest level of raja yoga, and approximately half a dozen saints on the highest level.
Should we not at least make a beginning and take a few steps toward mastery? For the danger of developing too little yoga and becoming a victim of our inadequate world is far greater than that of becoming an unearthy superman.
RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER READING
General
eliadE, miRcEa. Yoga: Immortality and Freedom.
London, 1958.
mishRa, rammuRti & Fundamentals of Yoga. New York, 1971. shastRi, haRi pRasad. Yoga. London, 1970.
hatha yoga
Iyengar, B. K. Light on Yoga. London, second edition, 1970. vithalDas, yogi. The Yoga System of Health. New York (paper edition), 1957.
raJa yoga
mishRa, rammuRti S. Textbook, of Yoga Psychology. New York, 1971. woods, jamES hauGhton. The Yoga System of Patanjali. Delhi, 1966.
hatha yoga and raJa yoga
IyaNGaR, nivasa. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika of Yoga Swami Svatmarama.
Adyar, 1949.
kuvayalananda, swamI.Pranayama. Bombay, 1966. sinh, pancham. Hatha Yoga Prodipika. Allahabad, 1915. yogashakti, PARIVAJIKA ma. The Science of Yoga: Commentary oN Gherand Sambita. Bombay, 1966.