Pratyahara

Pratyahara is the fifth stage of Ashtanga Yoga that comes after Pranayama. We have done Asana to make our body strong to sit for long periods and we have done Pranayama to give us energy that we should start to direct upwards. The first stage that leads us into the higher stages of Yoga is Pratyahara. The idea of Pratyahara is to create an apparatus to help turn us inwards

Prati means to go against and ahara means food. Our physical body is food and is known in Yoga as our food body so Pratyahara means to go against our food body. We need to control ourselves so that we are not ruled by our food body�.ultimately our senses. Our senses have a big hold over us and they can disturb us when we try to do things. How much control do our senses have over us? How entrenched in our senses are we? We must realise the power that our senses have over us and not delude ourselves otherwise.

The sensory world is actually illusory as nothing in reality (if we look at physics) is solid. Everything vibrates and therefore nothing stays the same. Everything will pass (people, time, belongings, fun etc) and so therefore we should create detachment. We need to be able to detach ourselves from our senses and not be ruled by them. Detachment or Vyraghya is very important in the spiritual life, we have to be able to let go of everything and not hold onto anything other than Sat � the ultimate truth, the only thing that does not change. Detachment does not mean that you will be cold. You still love and enjoy life you just realise that nothing belongs to you. It helps us to live wisely whereas attachment blocks wisdom.

So the basis of Pratyahara is to control our senses so that we can be undisturbed to do other things like the higher or inner aspects of Yoga. Until we have learnt to control our senses we will be able to go no higher. In fact Pratyahara is what most people are trying to do when they say they are meditating.

Pratyahara is learning not to be disturbed by sounds, thoughts, feelings, vision and so on. Vision is easy to control as we can close our eyes but how can we close our ears and skin? How can we learn to concentrate (Dhyana the stage after Pratyahara) when we can hear cars or birds or the phone ringing? Or what about sensations on the skin like your hair tickling your face or even mosquito�s around your ankles? How can you even begin to concentrate if these things disturb you?

Ideally we want to master the senses so that we can use them consciously and enjoy them when appropriate. We should have refined senses and take good care of them but we must be careful not to become absorbed and locked up in them.

Pratyahara is a way of living where you are not affected by outside stimulus in our lives. We should learn to restrain our sensory impressions on a day to day basis and also higher our pain threshold so that we are able to tolerate discomfort to distance ourselves from every day mishaps. This will enable us to be less distracted by our senses until we eventually gain total control of our senses so that we can concentrate (Dharana).