But what has happened to yantra arid mantra? Why are we going back to Part Three?
Once the yogi has reached the fourth stage, he is all too apt to forget the technical requirements, which can lead him into the greatest difficulties. Again and again it must be emphasized: on the highest level of consciousness the inner fire must burn fiercely if the prana flow is not to cease (and with it the yogi's life). But the fire will only blaze when the flow of nectar is deviated, i.e. through khecari mudra. Thus once again high praise is bestowed on this mudra.
If no mention is made here of the shambhavi mudra, of mantras and yantras, we must not forget that these are inner events, while khecari mudra is a technical process. One cannot mix two fundamentally different concepts. Shambhavi mudra becomes significant only when khecari roudra has prepared the conditions for it and constantly renews them.
(51) When the outer breath ceases, the inner breath [prana production] also ceases. Prana current and mind current become passive when they reach their center of activity.
Human spirit is impelled only as long as it has a goal before its eyes. Once the goal is reached, the spirit remains there for a certain time. This period of abiding is usually the reason for man's striving at all. An artist often searches for the conflict of suffering in order to bring it into unity by resolving it in his work. To be "desirelessly happy" is possible only when an urgent desire is fulfilled, and relaxation thus induced--usually the calm before the storm of new tensions.
When the mind of the yogi returns to its own Self after its everyday sense-related activities it is relaxed, for with the subsiding breath during practice the active mind which lives from prana subsides as well.
The prana he needs is in the sushumna and is kept active there by the blazing flame of life. All life is concentrated there.
(52) When one thus practices control of breath day and night, the prana becomes more passive in the course of time and mind is naturally compelled to follow the same course.
For as soon as the prana becomes passive it unfolds its highest effectiveness in the sushumna; and as soon as mind is passive the real nature of the world of appearances is recognized.
(53) When the body is thus bathed in the nectar stream of the moon it becomes strong and hardy.
In other words, when the fire is burning fiercely enough there is no danger to life and limb.
(54) Place the mind in the shakti, [the manifesting power of nature, kundalini] and the shakti [as "lighf''] in the mind through meditation; then mind and shakti become one. Awa\en the shakti by listening to the mind "with ear in heart" and thus strive for the highest goal of samadhi.
To listen "with ear in heart" is the most crucial factor in the whole process of meditation. This is the true insight, the prerequisite of all Eastern methods of spiritual training. Nothing else is of as such decisive importance from the first step to self-realization up to the arousing of kundalini, the inner light on the highest level.
(55-56) The I [atman] alt in [empty] space, and empty the I (of conceptual being). When thus everything is empty [without lime and space] then the [dynamic] intellect hoi subsided. [Thus the yogi is] empty within and without like an empty pot in space
[akasha, ether], and also filed within and without like a pot in the ocean.A pertinent simile! An empty pot at the bottom of the ocean. Water inside and out. Is the pot empty or full? Empty yet full; full yet empty. He who has inwardly understood this simile has comprehended the essence of raja yoga. For it is emptiness-- though hard to grasp--which is the decisive factor in samadhi. But this is in no way a mortified spirit but a spirit that has been calmed. What this means, only he can understand whose mind has been completely absorbed in a great experience at least once.
(57-58) He should not think of external things; all personal thoughts he should give up also: abandon all subjective and objective thoughts. --The external universe [in its conceptual diversity] is a creation of our mind; so also is the world of imagination. When the idea has been abandoned that these projections of thought are permanent and mind is concentrated on that which is without change, oh Ram, eternal and certain peace has been reached.
(59) Mind concentrated on the atman becomes one with it like camphor with the flame, like salt with the water of the ocean.
Then there is no I of which thought is aware, for I and thought have been absorbed into each other, because thinking is no longer attached to the object or concept but experiences purely the contemplative state. It is the absorbed observer of a great game in which it participates, and which is no longer a strange event to be analyzed and criticized.
(60) Mind and object of contemplation have been absorbed in each other so that there is no longer any duality.
The great symbol of this union is the union in love of man and woman. Therefore the Upanisbads say: "The atman is as great as man and woman in close embrace." The bliss that ensues is neither I nor you, but the melting together of I and you in the mutual experience of the paramatman, the divine Self that is inherent in all that is created.
(61-64) The animate and the inanimate universe is a creation of the mind. in samadhi there is only oneness. When all sense perceptions are suspended there remains only the Absolute. --The great ancient seers experienced these various paths to samadhi, then taught them to others. --Salutations to the su-shumna, to the nectar-flow of the moon, to samadhi, and to
[the great cit Shakti], the power of absolute knowledge.
CHAPTER 15
NADA, THE INNER SOUND
the concept of prayer is well known. Here, however, we are not concerned with prayer but with mantra, though a certain relationship does exist between the two. Prayer is mostly expressed in the spontaneous, freely-chosen words of the devotee, while the mantra is bound not only in its sound but also in its intonation. In prayer the divinity is importuned; in mantra it is expressed. The prayer goes to the divinity; the mantra is an essential attribute of the divine, its "name." The prayer is a message bearer; the mantra is itself the message. The prayer is born in the mind; the mantra does not originate in the mind but it goes to the mind. Prayer contains the tendency that becomes clearly expressed in the mantra.
For example: every Christian prayer closes with an "Amen." "Amen" is in itself completely neutral until it is preceded by a prayer. In that case, "Amen" is the expression of all that the prayer implies. "Amen" is what makes a prayer a prayer; in fact it is the real prayer. The words that preceded it place it mentally and spiritually. "Amen" is the articulate power-potential of the divinity, the mantra. The mantra (in this example "Amen") is pure sattva principle. Everybody who enters a church, prays, participates in a ritual, or contemplates a sacred symbol experiences this sattva principle. Everything non-sattvic
has a disturbing influence and is immediately conspicuous. Thus we go to church festively dressed so as to attract the full measure of sattvic vibrations.
Just as the inward light is kindled by the image symbol, so also through the sound symbol the inner sound is awakened, the nada, the most subtle aspect of the mantra, the sound in the "ear of the heart."
(65) I now shall describe the practice of nada, as has been proclaimed by Gorakshanath, and as it is accepted even by those who are unable to realize Truth because they have not studied the shastras.
It is "the dissolution of image and concept" (laya) in a spontaneous experience which has from time immemorial been considered the highest spiritual process. It is also the goal of the highest yoga, and all paths of yoga culminate in laya.
(66) Lord Siva has shown innumerable paths to laya, but it seems to me that the practice of nada is the best of them all.
The reason for this is perhaps the fact that it seems easier to deal with the sound symbol than with the image, and that the inner sound is easier to produce than the inward light. The time has now come for the yogi to practice daily:
(67) He seats himself in siddhasana and assumes shambhavi mudra, listening to the inner sound that rings in his right ear,
And why not in the left car? Dakshina means "right" but also "good, propitious, capable." So it really says here "in the true ear," and this is the "car of the heart."
(68) Close ears, nose, mouth, and eyes, then you will distinctly hear a clear sound in the sushumna, which has been purified by pranayama.
The reader will perhaps feel impelled to make an experiment and to listen inwardly. Futile effort! He will hear nothing like this "sound." Why?
Would the yogi be compelled to go through three stages of hard practice if he only needs to close up his ears in order to perceive the inner sound? Are our nadis pure, is the flame, the source of higher life, ablaze? Is the symbol of the divine rooted in our being? Do we fulfill even the minimal requisites of deep religious devotion? Answer these questions before trying to listen to that which has from time immemorial been the mystic's most profound experience of God.
(69) All yoga practices contain four stages: introduction [aram-bha]. transition [ghata], attainment [paricaya], and perfection [nishpatti].
This is valid for yoga in general, for the individual systems as shown by the division of our text, as well as for each specific practice; in fact for all things in life. There is great psychological insight in this sentence. May we learn that the third step, the attainment, is not the last.
(70-71) In the first stage [arambhavastha], when the heart chakra [brahma granthi] is pierced, we hear tinging sounds ti^e jewels in the space of the heart in the center of the body. As soon as these sounds become audible in the [interior] void, the yogi becomes god-like, radiant, healthy and fragrant. His heart becomes the void.
The sound which in the region of the throat was still sound, has now penetrated to the heart and there meets prana. A feeling rises like a deep happy breath and fills the heart, and the inner sound of the mantra falls like a golden dewdrop on this budding happiness. Everything that was beneficial on the technical path of the asanas is achieved in one moment of real experience, for:
(72) In the second stage prana and nada become one, and [this one] enter[s] the middle [heart] chakra. The asanas become effective now and divine wisdom arises.
Union is accomplished and the chalice with its golden pearl-- that pearl which will later expand into a whole new world-- extends upward toward higher spheres. What does it mean to grow upward? Why should we raise a lower sphere rather than simply go from the lower sphere into the higher?
We remember that the inner sound of the mantra is to emanate from one of the chakras. The sound then takes on the vibration frequency of the respective chakra; it becomes the principle that the chakra represents.
In order not to underestimate the value of this practice, we must remember an earlier practice that related to the physical aspect of sound, the audible sound in bhramari kumbhaka. (Part Two, 67) After the nadis were purified, the sound of a humming bee was produced. This happened, and the sound grew to a rumbling roar that made the world tremble. It was one of the first great experiences of hatha yoga.
At that time we knew no more than what we heard. Now, this impressive sound, created with the aid of the personal mantra, is not projected into space, but directed inward to a chakra; and this is our present situation,
(73) When the vishnu granthi in the throat is pierced [by the vibrations] it is a sign that divine bliss [brahma ananda] will follow. In the sound box of the throat chakra [ati shunyata] there a complex sound arises, like that of a big drum.
This is the subtler aspect of the rumbling and roaring that we came to know in the bhramari kumbhaka, the effect of which is here even more impressive.
(74) On the third stage a sound like that of a mardala [a different kind of drum] is perceived, in the space between the eyebrows. With this the vibrations enter into the great void [maha shunyata, i.e. sushumna], the seat of all the siddhis.
This too we have encountered in its gross physical form in the bhramari kumbhaka, but since now the sound is not produced by the vocal cords it is purely mental and that means more profound. It is not easy to find an example of this in our arsenal of religious experience) as a certain inner devotion and prayer are prerequisites. Still even the sober modern man will be no stranger to experiences under the spell of music.
"Arise!" the angel calls out to Mohammed in the desert, and the sound symbol of the warning angel's voice is the sound of bells, and thus prayer, or, on a higher level, revelation, becomes passionate joy. The prescient sound of bells is the preliminary to the revelation of the angel; prayer is the ecstatic revelation. Prayer lives in the heart chakra, revelation in the throat chakra.
(75) Having overcome the blissful slate of the mind he experiences the happiness that arises from cognition of the atman. Then he is delivered of all faults, pains, old age, disease, hunger, and tiredness.
Greater than happiness is equanimity. Happiness is the goal of man, equanimity is the divine goal. Immutable are the gods
alone. Humanity swings like a pendulum between desire for happiness and enjoyment of happiness. He who voluntarily renounces his happiness and nevertheless remains happy can no longer be measured by human standards (although not always by divine ones either).
(76) After the vibration has pierced the last k(not
[the agna chakra], the forehead's center [of consciousness], it rises to the divine place. With this the fourth stage sets in, where one hears the sound of the flute and the vina.Let us stop analyzing. Our experience does not suffice to understand the meaning of the sound of the flute of Krishna, or the vina of the divine messenger, Narada. Those who have experienced this high state have become teachers from whose lips flowed the Vedas, the Eddas, the Avestas, the Sermon of the Mount, the Koran. The sounds now grow ever more subtle, yet more powerful. They are sounds that proclaim the Eternal Wisdom of God, the power of Ultimate Truth undisturbed and unimpeded by the word. Nothing is understood, everything known. The gates of the Kingdom of Heaven fly open, the eternal light is manifest) the music of the spheres rings out.
(77-83) When the mind becomes unified, this is raja yoga. The yogi, now master of creation and destruction, becomes one with God. --Whether or not you call it liberation, here is eternal bliss. The bliss of dissolution [laya] is obtained only through raja yoga. --There are many who are merely hatha yogins, without the k(nowledge of raja yoga. They are simple practi-cers who will never reap the [real] fruits of their efforts. --1 believe that concentration on the space between the eyebrows is the best way to reach samadhi in a short time. For those of small intellect this is the easiest means to attain to raja yoga.
The state of dissolution [laya] arising from the [inner sound] nada creates this spontaneous experience. --[All] yogis who have reached the state of samadhi through this concentration on nada have experienced a bliss in their hearts that surpasses all description and can be known only by a god. --The silent ascetic, having closed his ears, listens [attentively] to the sound in his heart until he attains the state of oneness with all [samadhi]. --The power of inner sound gradually surpasses the external sounds. Thus the yogi can overcome the weakness of the mind and reach his goal in 15 days.
The power of the internal sound, its meaning as an audible designation of our personality, is a thousand times stronger than the logical combination of the sounds of letters which has really no meaning at all. The pronouncing of the name-word is purely inner sound.
Now the mantra is that name which is the common property of both the jivatman and the paramatman (the self and the Self).
At first it is separateness that impinges upon our ears. There is still an I and a Thou, the one who perceives and the one who is perceived: the dynamic mind is active. In the inner sense, however, all separative tendencies, all sound-conditioned differentiations cease according to the degree of their inner refinement, i.e. the degree to which they sink and become one with the static mind. The mantra becomes the true name.
At the beginning of an acquaintance a name only tells us who the person is. Later on it stands for the sum total of what the person is, what we have experienced with that person. The name then does not merely speak of the "Thou," but equally of the "I" and its relationship to "Thou."
(84-85) During the initial stage of practice various strong sounds are audible, but as progress is made they become more and more refined. --At first they sound like the roaring of the ocean or like thunder, like kettle drums, or trumpets. Then they become more and more subtle until they sound like flutes and harps, like the humming of bees. In this way one hears them in the center of the body.
In Bhramari kumbhaka the yogi's ears may ring. In shambhavi mudra his physical ears are deaf, but the ear in the heart hears the fortissimo of inner prayer. So Lao-tzu says:
The multiple colors blind the eyes The multiple sounds deafen the ear
Therefore the sage cultivates his person And does not crave to see.
Too Te Ching. 12
(87-89) Even as the loud sounds [still] ring out, one should concentrate on the subtle sound [in the heart]. --One may well let the attention swing between these two sounds, but the mind should never be allowed to wander to external objects. --The attention turns naturally to the sound that has the strongest attraction.
Do not become impatient! If you are again and again captivated by the roaring sound in the physical car then the watchword is practice and wait. Maturation brings perfection. Tone is outside, the ringing sound is inward. The tone releases the ringing sound, and that sound is fuller and purer than any that the ear can absorb. Consciousness directs itself to where it can expect the ripest fruits. No need here for thought. Who would ever comprehend music with the intellect? The mind resembles the bee, for:
(90) Just as the bee who drinks the flower's honey is not concerned with its scent, so also the mind, when absorbed in sound, does not care about the pleasure-bound senses.
The scent attracts the bee who forgets it while sucking the honey. The senses attract consciousness which, in nada, the experience beyond the senses, forgets them.
(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.