Dr Ananda on Pratyahara, the missing link in Modern Yoga

[@harindersingh4322]

Every ancient discipline has foundational principles, rare are those who are able to stand on this foundation & expand on the philosophy to suit practical understanding for present times. The 18 senses mentioned here arise from practical experience, not mere thought. This concise explanation says a lot & is food for not only thought but food for practice. Kudos Dr. Swami Gitananda Giri & Dr. Ananda. 🙏🙏🙏

[@ISCMofSriBalajiVidyapeeth]

Thank you so much for your kind words that motivate us further. Gratitude and blessings

[@ChhaviTrivedi]

If you find yourself listening to this video by sheer luck/co-incidence, consider yourself one of the luckiest/most blessed on the planet. For the way has been found. It is here. It is here. It is here.

[@Royalroadtotheunc]

Thank you. Perhaps the video found me! Blessings.

[@ringostarr9481]

So well explained. Thank you so much for this video. It's given me a greater understanding and insight of Yoga

[@paulasmith3540]

Love this teaching!💕 Thank you Sir. So much yoga...so much time🙏

[@nikhiltrivedi4695]

I am thankful for this wonderful information

[@DibyenduDe]

This is brilliant. It opened my eyes and cleared wrong understanding from my mind. Thank you for enlightening.

[@rashmikabra529]

Namaste Sir! I chanced upon your video while looking for some explanation on tanmatras, rather logical explanation. And I feel blessed that I came across your video. Thank you for guiding us. Grateful!

[@neerjagargthakur8163]

Very well explained. Was lucky to hear the knowledge. Thank you sir. 🙏🙏

[@lightmystic3792]

Thanks for making it clear 🙏🏽

[@sharmagub5433]

Best vedio providing tools and guidance for practicing pratyahara ..sir we r obliged.

[@vijaychinnasamy]

Namaste Sir. Thank you for sharing. I found these to be most useful for my Sadhana... Looking forward to your series.

[@ranjitks2]

Indeed. It's a mlssing link ,..your advices would be a great help for all who seek...light ..

[@bangaloredragon8]

Brilliant!

[@sumitamukherjee5989]

Thank you so much for sharing. Pranam and big Salute to you.

[@K.g.2510]

You really should write a book nobody explain like you, your explanations are like the water of a high montain's lake absolute purity absolute transparency thank you so much

[@YogacharyaDrAnandaBhavanani]

thank you so much. Dr Ananda's books can be accessed on icyer.in and all his papers and writing on ResearchGate and Academia

[@K.g.2510]

thank you for answering and for the imformation , I an 76 years old and I am sad no more of my human brothers of the same age do know and above all practice pranayama,everyday with dedication and faith it could change so many lives for the better and empty half of the world's hospitals:-) @@YogacharyaDrAnandaBhavanani

[@YogacharyaDrAnandaBhavanani]

@@K.g.2510 woww, so happy for you! Such an inspiration for so many.

[@TirumalaInugunta]

Thanks Sir, would like to meet you.

[@deolalmahabir8750]

I am of the same opinion. and place a great emphasis on Pratyahara.

[@samyukthayoga2964]

Excellent video sir , I will be always waiting for your videos, plz keep on making videos

[@YogacharyaDrAnandaBhavanani]

thank you so much

[@anilabenshah1006]

Excellent explanation. Thank you for clarifying it -the missing link..

[@AndreaPetrosillo]

Thank you. Wonderful teaching!

[@ramareddykarri1]

🙏🙏🙏

[@patience_passion]

🙏

[@vijaysomannavar626]

Pratyahara: But how does the transition from outside to inside happen practically ? So as to understand the practical aspect of the transition let's first look at who I am and how I am connected to the external world. Who am I ? To answer this question let's take an example of my own life story. Here is my autobiography... When I was born, my mind was just a platform/ tool with empty data with seeds of kleshas or karma samskaras (prarabdha karma). The body was of a specific prakriti with specific level of vata, pitta and kapha. Then came the life force with series of events (experiences) teaching that baby what life is (parents, relatives, family friends, society as a whole).. The baby doesn't know anything other than what was taught by the life force through the events (experiences) in the society. Based on those experiences the mind's synthesis and intellect developed. There was the body performing its activities, the mind thinking and with emotions developed. There also developed an identity that locked itself identified with the experiences, behaviours, doer-ship and attributes of the body-mind as it's own. Over a period of time there developed the memory of experiences, synthesis, intellect and a solid identity. The tender baby with no mental contents has got transformed into a powerful machine with strong identity, capacity to synthesise the data and make decisions with its own set of opinions, ethics etc. But these opinions, ethics, intelligence etc were formed by the life force itself through the events (experiences), there is no decision maker or the doer other than the life force (the life force itself created by karma-samskaras). How exactly is this machine running ? The machine (body-mind) is programmed (or pre conditioned) by the life force (karma samskaras) through the life events and experiences. Here are some examples... Events (experiences) Vs Reactions (Responses) 1. Something good happens - the machine becomes happy and desires for repeat events 2. Something bad happens - the machine becomes unhappy and desires to avoid such events 3. Appreciation - The machine becomes happy with an added ego/ identity 4. Blame - The machine becomes unhappy 5. Success - The machine becomes happy with an added ego/ identity 6. Failure - The machine becomes unhappy 7. Expected things happen smoothly - The machine becomes comfortable 8. Expected things do not happen - The machine becomes uncomfortable In all these cases the life events (experiences) and also the reactions (responses) are infact dictated by the karma samskaras. In this way the experiences and responses moment to moment are pre-determined and are happening in a pre-programmed way... There is no doer !! I am not the doer !! Infact there is no "I"... It is just a false (illusionary) identity. If I am reading this article it is because of the dictation of the life force itself to do so, everything in the world has perfectly collaborated to make it happen. This is true with every experience and response moment to moment. There are no coincidences. Neither the experience nor the response is under the control of the body-mind. This is the maya and there is an illusionary identity "I" trapped in itself by identifying with this body-mind (and doer-ship), experiencing the world created by karma-samskaras (prarabdha karma)... intellect and mind working according to the trigunas and the sense desires. It appears like there are just the machines with illusionary "I" everywhere experiencing this world and responding based on the karma-samskaras and moving around as per the trigunas (and tridoshas) but prisoned by the maya What is the way out ? The only way out is moving IN... The Pratyahara. As long as there is desire based mental identity (the state mentioned in sutra#1.4) one is trapped in the samsara. To come out of the desire based identity one needs to develop the awareness of external experience and the response inside. No need to wish for or expect desirelessness, just the awareness of desire will take care of. Here are some of the examples... Experience (Outer world) Vs Response (pre-programmed) Vs Awareness (Pratyahara) 1. Appreciation --> happiness - There is awareness of sensations of happiness + ego and desire to continue to have that experience 2. Giving advice to others --> satisfaction, happiness - There is awareness of sensations of happiness + ego and the desire to communicate 3. Knowledge/ information --> Communicating it to others - There is awareness of the desire to communicate to others 4. Correcting someone --> There is awareness of desire to correct someone (part of ego) 5. Blame --> unhappiness - There is awareness of unhappiness and desire to avoid the experience 6. Helping others/ performing seva --> satisfaction - There is awareness of satisfaction + ego and the desire for recognition/appreciation 7. Something may go wrong --> Anxiety, irritation --> There is awareness of anxiety, unhappiness and there is awareness of desire for specific results 8. Success --> happiness --> Awareness of happiness and awareness of desire for identity Over a period of time "Response" will also become awareness based instead of pre-programmed. The key question is... To move to the state of Pratyahara Am I willing to loose identity and desires ? Desire is a powerful weapon in the hand of Maya which makes us think it is on our side, but infact it is deployed by Maya on our side to defeat us and stop us from realising the truth. Allama Prabhu, the 12th century mystic gives a good analogy of the desire... The body-mind feels thirst (desire)... to quench the thirst it goes on drinking water... it swallows the water from all the seven oceans !! but still its thirst is not quenched, it is not satisfied... Infact no desire has ever satisfied anyone in the world... it is a trap where in the more one tries to satisfy the desire the more it grows. The same is true with identity as well. No worries even if there is no willingness for now to loose identity and desires, the awareness combined with viveka takes care of it over a period of time. The viveka (of avidya, asmita, raaga, dwesha, abhinivesha) does develop over a period of time in the field of Pratyahara (looking inside) Here are some of the pointers from various Gurus that are all pointing to the same... Pratyahara is the gateway for Para vidya that helps experience these pointers and transcends apara vidya (scriptural, professional, intellectual knowledge... which is of not much help other than getting some information intellectually and some motivation) 1. Patanjali - Tada drashtuh swarupe awasthanam - Abide in one's true nature 2. Ramana Maharshi - Abide in the self. To dissolve the ego he gives a very effective tool of enquiry "Who am I ?" 3. Nisargadatta Maharaj - Be aware of "I amness". Being aware of I amness is the Guru. Though "I amness" is false it is the only thing that comes to the awareness of mind until it gets transcended on its own. Once I amness is transcended there appears "I am" (Brahman). 4. Basavanna - Awareness itself is the Guru (Arive Guru), walk in the path of your own awareness. Action is an end in itself and is the bliss, not the fruits of action (kayakave kailasa) 6. Ashtavakra - You are the awareness itself 7. Buddha - Establish oneself in the awareness 8. Umamaheshwari ji - Be in contact with anandamaya kosha. Pratyahara is pre-requisite to realise "Brahman is the only truth and everything is Brahman" This is the reason Buddha said "Once you realise how perfect (Brahman) is this world, you will tilt your head and laugh at the sky" Om Shri Gurubhyo Namah 🙏🙏

[@keshavswami8106]

Namastey Sir! Now this is excellent as always. thanks for sharing sir. where can I get all your videos from ?

[@ISCMofSriBalajiVidyapeeth]

kzbin.info

[@ISCMofSriBalajiVidyapeeth]

kzbin.info

[@deolalmahabir8750]

Another term for Pratyahara is Sparsha Yoga

[@desiputtar89]

Sir, please explain Indic/Dharmic ideas in Hindi because they are best understood in Hindi. English is good for app development, business management, corporate environment, and adminstrative purposes but not good for understanding spiritual ideas.

[@ramareddykarri1]

🙏🙏🙏