Bandha (pelvic lock).
Once the yogi’s focus is established on the gross level, subtle objects are chosen. The typical subtle objects used for pratyahara are the chakras. One starts by clearly visualizing the muladhara chakra; once attention is established there, one goes on to svadhishthana chakra, and so on. At this early point, you visualize only the following dimensions of the chakra: number of petals, color, and position (in case of the Muladhara, that would be four petals, dark red color, and a location near the tailbone). You have established proficiency in pratyahara when your focus during kumbhaka can be kept on the chakras, one after the other, without the senses grasping external objects.
DHARANA — CONCENTRATION
The ancient texts describe more than one hundred forms or techniques of dharana. They generally agree on the following point, however: dharana is practiced once proficiency in asana, pranayama, and pratyahara is gained and not before. Yogis achieve dharana once they can use willpower to focus on the chosen object. But because this concentration is powered by a willful effort, it may be frequently interrupted, much as an Internet connection is sometimes interrupted when you are using an old-fashioned dial-up connection.
Practically, dharana is done in the following way: You assume Padmasana, Siddhasana, Swastikasana, or Virasana and commence pranayama until breath retention (kumbhaka) is reached. Once in kumbhaka, you rest the mind on your chosen location, beginning with the base chakra (muladhara). Rather than just visualizing the chakra in its location close to the coccyx (tailbone) and stopping there, you concentrate now on a particular aspect of that chakra. The first aspect would be the solidity of the earth element (prithvi). You then go on to the Sanskrit letters that are associated with the four petals of this chakra — that is, va, sa, sha (retroflex), and sha (palatal). The next aspect may be the root syllable (bija akshara) of the base chakra, lang. After that you may concentrate on the subtle essence or quantum (tanmatra) of the chakra, which in the case of the base chakra is smell (gandha). At this point you may conclude concentration on the base chakra and go on to the water chakra (svadhishthana). It is not specified how many breath retentions one has to spend on each aspect of the chakra.
DHYANA — MEDITATION
Dhyana, or meditation, can flourish only once concentration is mastered. Whereas concentration relies on willpower, meditation occurs effortlessly. The difference between the two is like the difference between a dial-up Internet connection and a high-speed broadband connection. In meditation, there is a continuous flow of awareness from the meditator toward the chosen meditation object and a constant stream of information or data from the object to the meditator — very much like what occurs on an Internet connection with fast upload and download speeds.
Let’s assume that you have sufficiently practiced concentration and are therefore ready to embark on the exciting practice of meditation proper. I use the word exciting because once you have properly concentrated and thus “seen” the underlying truth of the various aspects of the chakra (that is, form, location, Sanskrit letters, root syllables, color, gross element, mandala, subtle essence), you can put them all together. At this depth of concentration, effort suddenly falls away and you get a direct line to the underlying reality of the chakra.
The fascinating opening that happens when you get to this stage is that you can “download” or “log on” to the deva, or divine form, that resides in or presides over each respective chakra (Lord Brahma for the muladhara chakra, for example).14 The view of the divine form instills you with confidence in your progress and devotion. The deva is a manifestation of its mantra, the root syllable. In fact, the chakra, the associated element, and the presiding divine form are all manifested by the mantra, which in itself was a part of the creation of the universe by means of sound or vibration.
In dhyana, due to the permanent “logging on” to the object of contemplation, you no longer switch your attention from one aspect of the chakra to another (location to color to number of petals to root syllable to gross element, and so on); instead, you become able to see them all together as an interconnected, reciprocal whole. For the base chakra, for example, the divine form (Lord Brahma) is understood as a psychological representation of the root mantra, and the root mantra as an acoustic representation of the Lord Brahma; at the same time, the Earth element is seen as a material representation of the Lord Brahma and the Lord Brahma as a divine or celestial representation of the Earth element; in addition, the sense of smell appears as a subtle representation of the Earth element, and the Earth element as the subtle equivalent of the sense of smell. The Earth element is also represented in the yantra (geometrical representation of the sacred) of the Muladhara, which is a square, and in the number of petals, which is four. All of these represent themselves in the microcosm of the human being on a subtle level as the muladhara chakra. This underlying reality at the foundation of dhyana needs to be deeply contemplated or spontaneously understood, whichever suits your temperament.
Unlike with asana and pranayama, it is difficult for an outside observer (that is, a teacher) to ascertain whether pratyahara, dharana, or dhyana have been attained. It is possible to quantify asana and pranayama — you can say that you practiced for two and a half hours and during that time you held eighty postures and forty breath retentions — but the practice of the inner limbs is not so easily measured.
SAMADHI — ECSTASY
Placing the innermost nesting doll of samadhi within the context and framework of the previous seven limbs is important; in Patanjali’s view it is with samadhi that yoga becomes really interesting. Patanjali devoted the overwhelming majority of his sutras to this final limb. Samadhi denotes a deep state of meditation or the culmination thereof. Its pronounced fruit is the revelation of deep reality as such. For this reason a good translation for samadhi is “ecstasy” rather than the more puritan “bliss” or the bland “absorption.” But the term ecstasy has its limitations also. It is derived from the Greek word ekstasis, meaning to stand beside oneself or be beside oneself (with joy). In samadhi, however, one does not stand beside oneself but rather deeply within oneself.15
The ecstasy of samadhi does not happen all at once. In samadhi we work through many substages, first using easy gross objects in meditation and later complex subtle objects. And once samadhi is mastered, we are met with a paradox. The final fruit of samadhi, liberation, is bestowed through complete surrender and divine grace and cannot be acquired by means of effort and willpower.
HOW INTENSE IS THE ECSTASY OF SAMADHI?
The great Rishi Yajnavalkya, the most prominent of the rishis (seers) of the Upanishads, explained the intensity of the ecstasy of samadhi thus:
Imagine the highest joy a human being is capable of experiencing through the combined attainment of wealth, power, and sexual pleasure. Multiplying this ecstasy by the factor of one hundred, we arrive at the ecstasy that can be experienced by those of our ancestors who have attained a heavenly existence. Multiplying their ecstasy by one hundred, we arrive at the level of ecstasy of the divine nature spirits known as gandharvas. Multiplying their ecstatic state again by one hundred, we arrive, according to Yajnavalkya, at the maximum ecstasy experienced by one who has attained a state of divinity by virtuous action (karmadevah). One hundred times greater than this state of ecstasy is that of one who has
