Kriya Yoga Pratyahara

STAGE 5 PRATYAHARA – SENSE WITHDRAWAL

Pratyahara is a series of breathing exercises and techniques that enables one to separate consciousness from sensual perception. Live above corporeal sense and correct it.

Purpose: Pratyahara enables one to separate the conscious mind from the bondage of the physical body and the instinctual drives. This marks a person’s ability to engage intelligence in decision making. The conscious mind becomes the central base of operation and is equipped to withstand influence. The Process

Sense withdrawal is an important phase in human development and has to be understood clearly. The term often used in the Yoga community is “detachment” and the advice is to be detached. However, this is misleading because in the early stage of development , we must be “attached” to “something” in mortal sense we all have desire. The key to this stage is found in the Yama, Brahmacharya “carrier of Brahman;” once we have internalized the Life Force in the physical body– so that, the physical body “desires” “nothing.” Then, from this vantage point we can lift ourselves out of the grips of duality and gain objectivity. This stage is the first phase in the process of human development.

Detaching the mind/body complex from the influence of the five corporeal senses is only half of the instruction. The important operation is the attachment to Spirit as the new symbol of validation. Spirit is invisible and intangible to the material senses but it is a very present source of sustenance. In the practice of Kriya Yoga one “acquires the taste” for the Omnipresence and relies on Spirit as the only Reality. The practitioner then cultivates a relationship with the Life Force the excusive symbol used in determining well being. Spirit becomes the sole source of Life. Remember like attracts like and as one draws from Truth and Wholeness, one becomes Truth and wholeness.