PRATYAHARA

 

Pratyahara is withdrawal of the mind from sense objects. The attachment and detachment of the mind with the sense organs according to your requirement is Pratyahara. In other words, the abstinence of the sense organs from their normal pleasure or objects is called pratyahara. Pratyahara is the fifth element among the eight stages of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga. It is also the first stage of the six-branch yoga of the Buddhist Kālacakra Tantra, where it refers to the withdrawal of the five senses from external objects to be replaced by the mentally created senses of an enlightened deity. Pratyahara means drawing back or retreat. The word ‘Ahara’ means nourishment; Pratyahara translates as "to withdraw oneself from that which nourishes the senses". In yoga, the term Pratyahara implies withdrawal of the senses from attachment to external objects.

At the stage of Pratyahara, the consciousness of the human being is internalized in order that the feelings from the senses of taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell don't reach their particular centres in the brain and Pratyahara takes the practitioner to next stages of yoga, namely concentration (Dharana), meditation (Dhayana) and mystical absorption (Samadhi), being the aim of all yogic practices. The bringing of the mind back from its improper course is Pratyahara and the directing of the mind in a proper course is Dharana or concentration.

Pratyahara occurs almost involuntarily when we meditate as we are deeply engaged in the act of meditation. Precisely the mind is so focused, the senses follow it; it is not happening the other way around.

Pratyahara involves withdrawal of senses, or sensory inputs into our physical being coming from our five senses namely organs creating a sensory overload and hence holds back collection of the mind, as in Dharana, the next stage of yoga.

Control of our senses wants mastery over the flow of prana as that is what drives the senses. To stop the dispersal of precious vital energy of the body, we need to seek control over its flow and tone it. This is done through various exercises plus bringing the entire focus to a single point in the body. These two lead to the consequent two types of Pratyahara, the control of action or 'Karma Pratyahara', which involves not just control of motor organs, but also right action or work and Karma Yoga, surrender of every action to the divine and performing it as an act of service. This leads to the final form of Pratyahara — the withdrawal of mind or 'Mano Pratyahara', which is practised by consciously withdrawing attention from anything that is unpleasant and distracting for the mind by withdrawing attention from the senses and directing it inwards.

One of the most general exercises for Pratyahara is Pranayama, in which we involuntarily withdraw from the external and bring our focus inwards towards our breath, as link with the external senses and stimuli are all cut off progressively. Apart from Pranayama, another method that is used to aid in the development of Pratyahara is to concentrate on the point between the eyebrows. This spot is known as Aaggya Chakra or the third eye. Another common practice for inducing Pratyahara is to first reduce physical stimuli, then focus on one sense, such as hearing. The mind has a natural tendency to wander between the sensory inputs. In this state of affairs, as there are no longer any other noteworthy sensory inputs, when the mind gets tired of hearing, it is forced to turn inward. At the advanced levels, the currents which beat through the nerves and even the involuntary muscles are turned off by the practitioner.

Under normal conditions, the senses become our masters rather than being our servants. The senses entice us to develop desires for all kinds of things. In Pratyahara the opposite happens. We try to put the senses in their proper place, but not cut them out of our actions fully.

A person who is influenced by external events and sensations can never reach the inner peace and tranquillity. This is because he or she will waste much mental and physical energy in trying to suppress unwanted sensations and to intensify other sensations. This will ultimately result in a physical or mental imbalance, and will, in most instances, results in illness. For this reason, much of our emotional imbalance is our own creation.

Our senses seem to drag us around in the external world. They allow the world around us to come into our minds. Inputs from infinite objects in our external world are constantly occupying our sense organs, yet our attention remains restricted to a mere few at a time.

Withdrawing the senses does not imply just regulating the physical sense organs. Sense withdrawal is a mental function and whenever that mental function is drawn to the objects of the mind field, there is active engagement of the senses. It doesn't actually matter whether that mental object is coming from the outside or arising from the memory. It is this inner withdrawal of sensory attention to the mental objects that is the practice of Pratyahara.

The senses that are withdrawn in Pratyahara are called Indriyas, and involve both cognition and expression. There are five means of cognition and five means of expression and these are each aligned with the lower five chakras. It is exceptionally significant point to understand that senses or Indriyas signifies cognition and expression. There is an indwelling witness and an external world and we want to temporarily suspend all interaction (sensory and expression) with the external, so as to experience the depths of meditation. In addition to suspend external contact for the time being, we also want to temporarily suspend sensory contact with the images and impressions that arise in the mental field.

Sense withdrawal means that the senses cease to be engaged or connected to the objects happening in the mind. It does not mean the suppression, repression or stopping of those thoughts. They may naturally slow down or decrease to some degree, but the method itself is to break the contact, to finish linking with the thought patterns. This means allowing thoughts to flow without disturbance, while the senses are just not diverted into those thoughts.

The willingness or unwillingness to be open to this withdrawal is a major separating line between those who experience the depths of true meditation and those who merely achieve some degree of mere mental relaxation. The willingness or unwillingness to withdraw attention from sensory experience is a significant dividing point between those who submit themselves to true meditation and those who undergo no more than physical relaxation. If the mental habit is broken, the physical action part of the habit comes unsurprisingly as a consequence of the mental control. For meditation, provisionally breaking the link between the senses and their objects allows the attention to be able to focus and go inward. As the tendency of the senses towards the mental objects is mastered, there comes regulation in relation to the physical objects of the humankind as well.

The frequent practice of pratyahara at meditation time brings a comprehensive reduction of the tendency of the senses being drawn towards and into the objects of the mind field. As the tendency towards the mental objects decreases with practice, the degree of mastery increases to its highest level. The very principle of Pratyahara lies upon the fact that we do have the ability to control our ‘sensory input’.

In Pratyahara, the withdrawal of the senses is deliberate, while at the same time the mind has no purpose of attraction in the external world.