Prana & Mind – the Yoga Vasistha

The book “The Supreme Yoga” is the teaching of the sage Vasistha imparted to Sri Rama. It contains true understanding about the creation of the world i.e. the world is nothing but the play of consciousness. the Yoga Vasistha is the greatest help to the spiritual awakening and direct experience of Truth. Vasistha demands direct observation of the mind, its motion, its notions, its reasoning, the assumed cause and the projected result. The book is a translation into English by Swami Venkatesananda of Divine Life Society, Rishikesh India. The article is primarily based on it.
 
There are the two seeds for the tree - the mind, which carries within it innumerable notions & ideas and the movement of prana (life-force). Prana is the vehicle for the mind, when the prana takes it the mind goes. Total dedication to one thing, restraint of prana and the cessation of the mind – if one of these three is perfected, one attains the supreme state.
 
In this body, the prana is indistinguishably united with the mind. In fact, the consciousness that that tends towards thinking on account of the movement of prana, is known as the mind. Movement of thought in the mind arises from the movement of prana: and movement of prana arises because of the movement of thought in consciousness. They thus form a cycle of mutual dependence, life waves and movement of current in water.
 
By restraint of prana, the mind becomes quiescent. When the mind abandons the movement of thought, the appearance of the world illusion ceases. The movement of prana is arrested at the moment when all hopes and desires come to end in one’s heart through the earnest practice of the precepts of the scriptures and sages, and by cultivation of dispassion in previous life-spans or through endeavouring to practise contemplation or meditation and reaching a stage of devotion to a single truth in a single-minded way.
 
Mind, Prana & Consciousness -
The mind appears to be intelligent and active only because of the inner light of consciousness. ignorant people misfortune the movement of life-force to be the mind: but in fact, it is nothing more than the prana or life force. By the control of the life-force the mind is also restrained; even as the shadow ceases when the substance is removed, the mind ceases when the life force is restrained. The life force is restrained by the following means: by dispassion, by the practice of Pranayama (breath-control), by the practice of enquiry into the cause of the movement of the life-force, by the ending of sorrow through intelligent means and by direct knowledge or experience of the supreme truth. When the mind is stilled, illusion ceases.
 
Effortless Breathing -
The movement of prana is also arrested by the effortless practice of breathing, without strain, in seclusion, or the repetition of the sacred ‘OM’ with the experience of its meaning, when the consciousness reaches the deep sleep state. The practice of exhalation, when the prana roams in space without touching the limbs of the body, of inhalation, leading to the peaceful movement of prana, and of retention, bringing it to a standstill for a long time, all lead to the arrest of the movement of prana.
 
Meditation -
Likewise the closure of the posterior shared by the tip of the tongue as the prana moves towards the crown of the head, the practice of meditation where there is no movement of thought, nose, the entering the prana into the forehead through the palate and upper aperture, the fixing of the prana at the eyebrow centre, the sudden cessation of the movement of thought, or cessation of all mental conditioning through meditation on the space in the heart centre over a long period of time, all these lead to this arrest of the movement of prana.
 
During the practice one may use as a focus of attention the eyebrow centre, the palate, the tip of the nose or the top of the head (twelve inches from the nose); thus, the prana can touch the uvula, the movement of prana will be restricted.
 
He whose mind is firmly established in peace through the practice of yoga has the right vision of the truth.
In the course of time, in his mind there arose the wish, ‘Let me drop this embodiment’. He went to a mountain-cave and seated himself in the lotus posture, with his eyes half closed. He closed off the nine apertures of the body, by pressing his heel against the rectum etc. He withdrew the senses into his heart. He restrained his life-force (prana). He held his body in a state of perfect equilibrium. He pressed the tip of the tongue against the root of his palate; his jaws were slightly parted from each other. His inner vision was directed neither inward nor outward, neither above nor below, neither in substantially nor void. He was established in pure consciousness and he experienced pure bliss within himself. He had reached the consciousness of pure being, beyond the state of bliss. His whole being had become absolutely pure. 
The state of mind which is free from thoughts and notions is called samadhi? The state of samadhi in which there is eternal satisfaction, clear perception of what is, egolessness, not being subject to the pairs of opposites, freedom from anxiety and from the wish to acquire or to reject.