Mircea Eliade YOGA IMMORTALITY AND ... - Brihaspati.net

understand that involve no new physiological techniques. Thus it seems that the yogi who
begins one of them (the concentration, for example) is maintained within its limits with
difficulty and it happens to slip, against his will, in the "meditation" or "stasis". This is
why these three exercises yogis have a name common to the three samyama (Vacaspati
Mis-ra, ad Vyasa, III, 1),
The "concentration" (Dharana, from the root dhr, "gird, keep oppressed-mido") is
actually a ekagrata, a "fixation on a single point, but whose content is strictly notional
(See note II, 3). In other words, Dharana, and is thereby distinguished from the ekagra-ta,
whose only goal is to stop the flow psychomental and "fix it in one point," dharana make
that "fixing" in order to understand . Consider the definition expressed by Patanjali:
"fixing the mind on one point (desabandhaccittasya Dharana, Yoga-Sutra, III, 1.). Vyasa
states that the concentration is usually on" the center (cakra) of the navel, the lotus the
heart, in the light of the head at the tip of the nose or the lan-gauge or in any foreign place
or object "(ad YS III, 1). Vacaspati Misra adds that you can get without dhardna help of
an object on which to focus attention.
Commenting on the Yoga-Sutra, I, 36, Vyasa was already talk of the merger "the lotus of
the heart," for which came to an experience of pure light. Do not forget this detail: the
"inner light" discovered by the concentration in the "lotus of the heart". The experience is
already attested in the Upanishads, and always in relation to the encounter with the Self
(Atman). The "light of heart" was exceptionally fortunate in all post-mystical method
Hindu Upanishads. A purpose of the text of Vyasa, describes long-Vacaspati Misra mind
the lotus of the heart: it has eight petals and is situated, his head down, between the
abdomen and chest: he must turn left (head up) holding his breath (recaka) and focusing
on the intellect (citta). In the center of the lotus is the solar disk and the letter A, and that
is the center of the waking state. Above, the moon disc with the letter U, is the sleep
center. Higher still is the "ring of fire" with the letter M: the middle of deep sleep.
Finally, above this latter is in-cnertra the "highest circle, whose essence is the air" is the
center of the fourth state (Turiya, "cataleptic"). In the latter lotus, more exactly in its
pericarp, is located the "nerve (nadi) of Brahma" facing upwards flowing into the circle
of the sun and the other circles: there begins susumna called nadi, which also crosses the
outer circle. There's the center of the citta, by concentrating on this very point, the yogi
gets citta consciousness (ie conscious of consciousness).
We followed as closely as possible the text of Vacaspati-Misra, with the risk of boring
the reader. But it is a "physiological gia mystical" or "subtle" of "organ" that reveal its
existence solely in the course of the years of meditation and yogic concentration. This
problem will stop us sit down again when pre-meditative techniques of Tantrism, then we
will have an opportunity to demonstrate the relationship between "subtle organs", the
mystical lyrics, and states of consciousness. However, it is im-portant to note now that
the classical yoga tradition, represented by Patanjali, knew and used the schemes of the
"mystical physiology" called to occupy an important place in the his-tory of Indian
spirituality.
In his treatise on Yoga-sara-Samgraha (ed. C. Jha, p. 43), Vijnana Bhiksu cites a passage
from Isvara-gita, according to which the duration of Dharana extends the length of time
occupied by twelve pra-nayama . "The time required for concentrating the mind on an
object (Dharana) equals the time occupied by twelve pranayama" (ie controlled by twelve
breaths, and holds equal-days). Extending a dozen times this concentration on one object,