8 Limbs of Yoga: Asana, Pranayama &

Pratyaha
By Sydney and Kevin Light

Patanjali’s 2300-year-old Yoga Sutra contains a progressive series of

disciplines, which chart a roadmap to the highest possible state of
human potential, God-Realization. This article is the second installment
of a three part series discussing the Eight Limbs of Yoga (ashta-anga-
yoga). It will present the third, fourth, and fifth angas; asana (physical
postures), pranayama (breath control), and pratyahara (sense
withdrawal).

Asana

Where does the body end and the mind begin? Where does the mind
end and the Spirit begin? They cannot be divided as they are all inter-
related and but different aspects of the same all-pervading Divine
consciousness.” B.K.S. Iyengar

In the practice of asana, the third limb of Patanjali’s eightfold path,

awareness of body and breath are melded to bring the mind under
control. Patanjali describes asana as the extension of the body through
relaxation, resulting in the expansion of consciousness. Asana provides
us with a training ground for meeting life’s challenges with composure.
Practicing asana also has profound health benefits, but that is just a
fortunate side effect of the spiritual journey.

A skin cell in our big toe knows how to become a skin cell in our big
toe. Our bodies have an instinctual intelligence, even at the cellular
level. Consciousness sees no boundary between body, mind or spirit.
Since they are just different levels on which we exist, we cannot affect
one without affecting all.

The practice of asana balances us both physically and energetically,

promotes muscle and joint flexibility and massages toxins out of our
internal organs. Each of the regions of our body where the seven
major energy centers, chakras, are found has an associated endocrine
gland. For example the ajna chakra corresponds with the pineal gland,
which produces melatonin, the hormone responsible for regulating our
biorhythms. Asana regulates our endocrine (glandular) system by
enhancing the flow of prana (life-force) throughout our body.

The entire asana practice is built around our spine, keeping it flexible
and strong so the sacred energy housed within can flow unimpeded. In
the Tantric tradition the third limb is designed to burn away all
impurities, perfecting the body into its adamantine (light body) form in
preparation for the increased flow of shakti, which accompanies the
state of enlightenment. Pranayama is the main technique used by the
hatha-yogin to draw the “serpent power” (kundalini-shakti) up the
spine’s central energetic channel (sushumna-nadi) to the crown
chakra, sahasrara.

Yoga, or union with the Divine, can only occur when our mind is
brought into the present moment. The human mind with its tendency
to get caught in illusion often races forward and backward in time. Our
bodies by their very nature can only exist in the present. This quality
makes the body an invaluable tool, a gateway into the Now. By coming
deeper into our body we come deeper into the present moment where
our perception is not clouded by an attachment to the past or an
anticipation of the future.

When practicing asana we utilize the other limbs of yoga to listen more
deeply to the body intelligence, looking inside and feeling the internal
lines of energy in a pose. Often it is simply the act of bringing our
consciousness to bear on a line of energy that allows it to fortify and
strengthen. By employing the natural expansive quality of our inhale
breath we can extend our body deeper into a posture while minimizing
the use of external muscular effort. The same inward focused
awareness can also be used to isolate places of resistance in our
bodies and psyche where energy is ‘stuck’, so that we can surrender
into them, exhale through them, and allow the contractions to melt
away. Surrendering our idea of how we think it should be, and allowing
things to take their natural course, is a key element in all paths of
yoga.

When we practice asana each movement is the furthest extension of

our breath, integrating body, mind and spirit. By breathing and moving
in synchronization with the utmost attentiveness, we allow our
consciousness to pervade uniformly into all aspects of our being. With
our mind in the present and our conscious breath and movement as
one, we have set the context for union, or yoga to occur.

Pranayama

Our breath, the embodiment of spirit in the physical realm, is the link
between our subtle (mind) and gross (body) levels of existence.
Taking control of the breath is the first step to having conscious
control over our mental and physical states. In the normal course of
our everyday existence breathing is an involuntary act. We retain very
little of the life-force (prana) contained in our breath. Pranayama, the
fourth stage of Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga, is the discipline of
consciously extending and controlling each breath so that we may
retain more of the prana it holds. By slowing our breath we also slow
both our mind and the rate at which we grow old. The yogi’s life is not
measured by how many years he or she lives, but by how many
breaths he or she takes.

Stress is a primary cause of aging and illness. Most of the stress we

experience in our daily lives comes from an overload of mind-noise
(chitta vrtts). Yogis control the breath in order to have peace of mind
(chitta-shanti). Our thoughts are inseparably linked to our breath.
They occur in a ‘rolling’ process, similar to the way the ocean’s waves
continually break on the shore. We cannot completely stop our
thoughts from coming. However, by slowing our breath we can slow
the frequency with which our thoughts occur, effectively reducing the
level of background mind-noise.

Breath is the key to the transformation, which we can experience

through the science of yoga. The yogi uses the breath as a vehicle,
riding the breath with their awareness down inside the body to explore
all the subtleties of the associated movements and sensations. This
helps to draw our senses inward (pratyahara) while calming the
nervous system and clearing the mind in preparation for meditation
(dhyana). Conscious breathing allows our perception to surpass where
our five senses can take us so that we may have direct contact with
the most eternal part of ourselves, our soul. It is through the breath
that the changes and healings, which occur during the yoga practice,
are able to penetrate beyond our most surface, physical being, into
our energetic, emotional and spiritual aspects.

Pratyahara

Pratyahara, the fifth ‘limb’ of the eightfold path, is the action of

withdrawing our senses from the outer world and focusing them
inward. The ancient hatha-yoga text, Goraksha-Paddhati, uses the
following analogy to describe pratyahara; ‘As the tortoise retracts its
limbs into the middle of the body, so the yogin should withdraw the
senses into one’s self.’

All of the spiritual masters who laid down footprints for us to follow
directed us inward on our path to oneness. “The temple of God is
within you.” -Jesus of Nazareth. “Know Thyself.” -Socrates. “Know
thyself and all else will be known.” -Sri Ramana Maharshi. Early
Christianity, as expounded in the Gnostic Gospels, is based on the
tenet, ‘To know oneself at the deepest level is to simultaneously know
God.’ Pratyahara, the act of exclusively focusing our powers of
perception inward, is essential to gaining the knowledge of which the
great ones speak.

When practicing pratyahara we use our imagination and intuition to

look inside, beyond where our eyes can see, and listen inwardly to the
silence, which exists in the space between our thoughts. It is in this
space of pure potentiality between our thoughts where union is
achieved, and it is from this space that all creativity flows. By
searching the silence and the stillness we set up the context for
meditation (dhyana) to occur, allowing our senses to adapt and focus,
so that we may perceive at a more subtle level. The process is not
unlike stepping into a dark room out of a bright sunny day, and then
waiting for our eyes to adjust to the lower level of light so that we may
see.

Consider our physical embodiment as if it were an ocean. When we

observe from the perspective of our mind, we are observing from the
surface of the ocean, wrought with turbulence and waves caused by
our senses and desires. When practicing pratyahara we pull our point
of view way down beneath the surface, where we are surrounded by
vast blue stillness (sama). From this serene depth we continue to see
the waves as tiny ripples, but from some distance away so that they
have no power to sway us. This viewpoint is the second attention, or
witness state. To observe from here is to see from the perspective of
what Buddhists call the ‘heart-mind.’

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Sri Krishna explains to Arjuna how the mind can
be brought under control through constant practice (abhyasa) and
freedom from desire (vairagya). The entire yoga practice is a discipline
whereby we shift and endeavor to maintain our perspective so that we
are witnessing the present moment from the clarity of the heart-mind
as opposed to observing through the distortion of our thoughts and
senses. There is freedom in this discipline, freedom from being run by
the mind.

Our mind, that magnificent tool which can lead us to liberation, can
also be our greatest obstacle if not brought under control. “The mind
makes a good servant, but a lousy master.” -Rama Krishna.
Withdrawing our powers of perception allows us to disengage the
external; however, those same senses should then be actively brought
to bear on our inner world, tuning ourselves to be receptive to ever
more subtle levels of existence beyond the physical.

A precious gift has been preserved and passed down to us through the
ages: the science of transformation we know as yoga. The Eight
Limbs, when practiced together offer a system, a methodology by
which each of us can gain direct experiential knowledge of God. The
answer to our deepest questions and longings can be obtained through
the art of listening at this most profound level.

“The entire Universe is condensed in the body, and the entire body in
the heart. Thus the heart is the nucleus of the whole Universe.” - Sri
Ramana Maharshi

Sydney and Kevin Light are Santa Monica based yoga teachers and co-
founders of BhaktiWare.com. Reach them at CoaleLightYoga.com

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