Pranayama

“ He attains to the supreme, eternal Self, in whom is no closing of nostril nor gazing nor posture, and in whom is neither knowledge nor ignorance nor any nerve-current.
Closing, etc.-In the practice of pranayama or breath control, each nostril in turn is closed with a finer in order to breathe only with the other nostril. Gazing-fixing the eyes on a certain point to induce concentration. Posture-a particular way of sitting which allows the body to be most comfortable and yet conduces to the practice of mental concentration. ”

“ The Adhyâtma side is the vritti of Avidyâ. The Adhidaiva side is Íshvara. Life in Trilokî is conditioned by this triangle. The object of Târaka Brahmâ Yoga is to cross the Triptiti, to cross the three letters of Pranava. It is only in the fourth pâda of Pranava that he finds his resting place, that pâda being situated beyond the Trilokî.
The three manifestations of the Third Purusha in Jivas or individuals, may be said to relate to their different stages of evolution. Thus Prâna manifests itself only in the lower life kingdoms, the minerals and vegetables. ”

“ It is found in all things having life and as the occult philosophy teaches that life is in all things—in every atom—the apparent lifelessness of some things being only a lesser degree of manifestation, we may understand their teachings that prana is everywhere, in everything. Prana must not be confounded with the Ego—that bit of Divine Spirit in every soul, around which clusters matter and energy. Prana is merely a form of energy used by the Ego in its material manifestation. ”

“ By continuous meditation, he reaches the superior state of nirbikalpa samadhi, where he moves freely in the world and performs his outward duties without any loss of God-realization.
43-2: Sri Yukteswar used the word prana; I have translated it as lifetrons. The Hindu scriptures refer not only to the anu, “atom,” and to the paramanu, “beyond the atom,” finer electronic energies; but also to prana, “creative lifetronic force.” Atoms and electrons are blind forces; prana is inherently intelligent. ”

“ The swami went on, "You recall how often our blessed guru used to say: 'BANAT, BANAT, BAN JAI.' {FN26-6} So keep up KRIYA YOGA ceaselessly, and reach the divine portals quickly."
The body of Pranabananda, which had appeared so well and strong during my amazing first visit to him in Benares, now showed definite aging, though his posture was still admirably erect.
"Swamiji," I inquired, looking straight into his eyes, "please tell me the truth: Aren't you feeling the advance of age? As the body is weakening, are your perceptions of God suffering any diminution?" ”

“ My guru's blessings be on it."
A young lad sitting by my side ventured to ask the great yogi a question.
"Sir," he said, "shall I be a monk? Is my life only for God?"
Though Swami Pranabananda smiled gently, his eyes were piercing the future.
"Child," he replied, "when you grow up, there is a beautiful bride waiting for you." The boy did eventually marry, after having planned for years to enter the Swami Order.
Sometime after Swami Pranabananda had visited Ranchi, I accompanied my father to the Calcutta house where the yogi was temporarily staying. ”

“ Pruja-puti being gone, Bhugee-rutha, O Rama! with uplifted arm, without support, without a helper, immoveable as a dry tree, and feeding on air, remained day and night on the tip of his great toe upon the afflicted earth. A full year having now elapsed, the husband of Ooma, and the lord of animals, who is reverenced by all worlds, said to the king, I am propitious to thee, O chief of men! I will accomplish thy utmost desire. To him the sovereign replied, O Hura, receive Gunga! ”

“ In the Puranas, on the other hand, Yama, later called the child of the Sun, is the stern avenger of sin and the god of death and hell. The older conception of Yama, whom the Rig-Veda regards as the offspring of Vivasvat (the rising sun) and Saranyu (the dawn) , may be illustrated by the stanzas:—
"Worship Yama, the son of Vivasvat, with offerings. All men go to him. He takes men of virtuous deeds to the realm of happiness. He clears the way for many. ”

“ The King of Pengging consented and Bambang Kandilaras marched against Prambanan, but no weapon could harm Ratu Boko, who roared so dreadfully that the sound and his breath combined were enough to knock any human [72] foe down at a distance too far to distinguish a man from a woman or a giant from a waringin-tree. Bambang Kandilaras fled, reporting at Damar Moyo’s cave, and was commanded to try once more with the assistance of his brother Bondowoso. ”

“ The dwellers on Hiranyaloka are highly developed spiritually; all of them had acquired, in their last earth-incarnation, the meditation-given power of consciously leaving their physical bodies at death. No one can enter Hiranyaloka unless he has passed on earth beyond the state of SABIKALPA SAMADHI into the higher state of NIRBIKALPA SAMADHI. {FN43-1}
"The Hiranyaloka inhabitants have already passed through the ordinary astral spheres, where nearly all beings from earth must go at death ”

“ Ahmed departed with his coolie. When they reached the Chandni Chauk it was instantly apparent that something had happened which stirred public excitement. Crowds were pouring towards the palace, Hindus and Mohammedans together, their faces lit with joy. One man jostled the coolie, and his burden was thrown to the ground.
"Pig of a Purbiya!" cried Ahmed, seizing the man—a Pathan could not overlook such an insult—"what meanest thou to damage thus the goods of thy betters?" ”

“ It does not seem that the souls of the dead have (as in the epic) a stream Vaitaraṇī to cross, though it has been suggested that in X. xvii. 7 ff. Sarasvatī is none other than this river.
Though Yama is associated with gods, especially Agni and Varuṇa, and though there is an obvious reference to his connexion with the sun in the phrase "the heavenly courser given by Yama," still he is never called a god, and this fact lends the greatest probability to the view that he is what he seems to be, the first of men, the first also to die, and so the king of the dead, but not a judge of the departed. ”

“ Then the queen Karpúriká, having dismissed the warder, informed her father by the mouth of a slave of her desire to depart. And while the king, on hearing it, was coming thither, Naraváhanadatta thus reflected; " This Pránadhara is certainly the brother of Rájyadhara, whom he described as having run away from his native land through fear of his king." While he was thus thinking, the king quickly arrived, and that mechanic Pránadhara came with the warder, and said " I have ready-made a very large chariot, which will easily carry at this instant thousands of men." ”

“ It every now and then gives place to the east wind, which is not nearly so hot, but is so enervating that the hot wind is greatly preferred. During the day we sit under the punkah, a great wooden fan suspended from the roof with great flapping fringes. This is pulled by a coolie, sometimes in the adjoining room, but when it can be arranged in the verandah outside, who has in his hand a rope attached to the punkah, which is brought to him by a small aperture in the wall, through which a piece of thin bamboo is inserted to make the friction as little as possible. ”

“ She reverted to this legend some days afterwards, and told them to keep the names of Draupadi and Suparaka always sacred in their Gemót. "The one is an emblem of the experience of all of us. We strive for higher things, but are borne down by our besetting sin. The other is a lesson how the humblest may find grace." Porlor asked her what the Guru intended to convey when he said that Suparaka was Yama. "Yama, or Adam," she said, "was the first [Pg 259] man, and represents humanity. I think he intended you to understand that the faithful dog, like human beings, had a soul to be saved." ”

“ Over these five days Hindu deities preside, viz Mahiswara or Siva—Bisnu or Vishnu—Barahama or Brahma—Asri or Sri who is the goddess Lakshmi—and Kala who is also Yama, the Regent of death. All sorts of rebels to constituted authority generally have, or pretend to be provided with a Pancha-lima, with which they dupe their followers. Pancha is Sanscrit for five, C, 347 and Lima is also five in Malay, Sunda, and many other Polynesian tongues and the compound word seems therefore to be tautology, of which the uninitiated are not conscious. ”

“ A trace, perhaps, of scholastic influence may be seen in the purport of Parnapishtim's narrative to prove the hopelessness of man's securing immortality; and yet, while the theology of the schools may thus have had some share in giving to the tale of Parnapishtim its present shape, the problem presented by Gilgamesh's adventures is a popular rather than a scholastic one. Even to the primitive mind, for whom life rather than death constitutes the great mystery to be solved, the question would suggest itself whether death is an absolutely necessary phase through which man must pass. ”

“ The one in the Gilgamesh epic, where the hero is told of the plant of life, succeeds in finding it, but as he is about to eat the 'food' loses his grasp upon it. The exertions of man are in vain. True, there is Parnapishtim, a mortal who with his wife has obtained immortal life. He is the exception that proves the rule. Moreover, it is Bel, and not Ea, who places Parnapishtim 'at the confluence of streams,' there to live forever, and Bel does this as a proof of his pacification, a kind of indemnity offered to Ea for having destroyed the offspring of the god of humanity. ”

“ Another account of the origin of this worship is contained in some of the other puranas: At the time of a universal destruction of the world all the gods are absorbed in what is called akashu; the linga alone remains. The puranas, therefore, say that as all the gods except the linga are absorbed in the akashu, he who worships the linga, obtains the unbounded merit of embracing all the deities at once. From these stories, temples innumerable have arisen in India, and a Siva linga placed in each of them, and worshipped as a god. ”

“ The Fujinami were followers of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism. Their conspicuous devotion and their large gifts to the priests of the temple were held to be causes of their ever-increasing prosperity. The dead Fujinami, down from that great-great-grandfather who had first come to seek his fortune in Yedo, were buried at Ikégami. Here the priests gave to each hotoké (Buddha or dead person) his new name, which was inscribed on small black tablets, the ihai. One of these tablets for each dead person was kept in the household shrine at Tokyo, and one in the temple at Ikégami. ”

“ Eitel (p. 173) says:—“Yama was originally the Aryan god of the dead, living in a heaven above the world, the regent of the south; but Brahmanism transferred his abode to hell. Both views have been retained by Buddhism.” The Yama of the text is the “regent of the narakas, residing south of Jambudvipa, outside the Chakravalas (the double circuit of mountains above) , in a palace built of brass and iron. He has a sister who controls all the female culprits, as he exclusively deals with the male sex. ”

“ Hearing the words of the gods, the divine Bruhma replied to these affrighted ones, stupified with the Yuma-like power of these youths: The wise Vasoo-deva, the great Madhuva, who claims the earth for his spouse, that divine one, residing in the form of Kupila, supports the earth. By the fire of his wrath he will destroy the sons of the king. This piercing of the earth must, I suppose, be perceived by him, and he will (effect) the destruction of the long-sighted sons of Sugura. ”

“ Ahura Mazda, therefore, will realize his Fravashi or Spenta Mainyu, when Angra Mainyu, the father of imperfection, will perish and the world will be a new world, a better world, a perfect world, an ideal world.
During the lifetime of the individual, his Fravashi accompanies him to this earth. When a child is born its Fravashi that has existed from all eternity now comes down to this earth as the higher double of the child's soul. The soul is the ego proper, the real I-ness. Every individual soul is accompanied by its Fravashi. ”

“ The Kāṭhaka, one of the most remarkable and beautiful of the Upanishads, treats the question of life after death in the form of a legend. Nachiketas, a young Brahman, visits the realm of Yama, who offers him the choice of three boons. For the third he chooses the answer to the question, whether man exists after death or no. Death replies: “Even the gods have doubted about this; it is a subtle point; choose another boon.” After vain efforts to evade the question by offering Nachiketas earthly power and riches, Yama at last yields to his persistence and reveals the secret. ”

“ And Emma, seeing her, became wroth, and said to her: 'You have been a wicked woman, and have scorned the teaching of the Buddha. All your life you have passed in destroying the lives of silkworms by putting them into heated water. Now you shall go to the Kwakkto-Jigoku, and there burn until your sins shall be expiated.' Forthwith she was seized and dragged by demons to a great pot filled with molten metal, and thrown into the pot, and she cried out horribly. And suddenly Jizo-Sama descended into the molten metal beside her, and the metal became like a flowing of oil and ceased to burn ”

“ Ahmed had no reasonable excuse for declining the invitation, and Dilasah went away well pleased.
But later in the day there came to Ahmed an old Hindu scribe who had settled in the village years before. In all considerable Pathan villages there were a few men of Hindu race—low-caste men, who plied petty trades among the Mohammedans in the hope of making money. This man had been protected once by Ahmed against the rabble of the village when he had unwittingly given them offence. He came to the tower as soon as it was dark, and being admitted to Ahmed's room, said—
"Hazur, I come to warn you. ”