Sensual Compulsion in Pratyahar Practice
Pratyahar practice is the fifth stage of the eight featured ashtanga yoga. It is practiced by many students as meditation but according to Patanjali, meditation or samyama are the three highest stages of yoga which are above pratyahar.
Generally, pratyahar is sensual energy withdrawal, where the pursuing energy which normally courses out of the psyche goes into reverse and is retracted into it. When making attempts at meditation a student should know which stage of the practice, he/she is based on, if it is retraction of sensual interest, forceful application of interest to a particular objective, momentary spontaneous application of interest or continuous spontaneous application.
Once the student recognizes the state of mind, he/she can apply accordingly during the meditation session. This brings order to the mind and assures completion of practice. If for instance the student finds that initially the mind is in a state of self-absorption with no interest in pursuing things which are external to the psyche, the student would not do pratyahar practice which has to do with withdrawing the mind from objects outside the psyche. Otherwise if the student does not note this, he/she may become spaced out in the session drifting from state to state like a rudderless ship on a sea.
Besides the preliminary pratyahar practice which is the effort to retract sensual interest, there is the calibration of the natural interest of the self. For instance if the self uses the body of a cow, it will find that its scanning energy is invested more in its nostril then in its eyes where even if a vegetation has a recognizable shape, still because it does not smell in the approved way by the nostril, it feels that the item is not edible. In the human species, the same self may use the eyes more than the nostrils to judge what is foodstuff, so that even if something has a suspicious smell, it may still be eaten if the eye gives approval.
This means that when doing pratyahar, the yogi/yogini must know the influence of each sense and the percentage of sensual energy which that sense appropriates. This means that more retraction may be applied to a more assertive sense as compared to another sense which only has a mild easily withdrawn interest.
Students who do not master pratyahar sensual energy withdrawal and who are disinclined to checking the sensual interest cannot attain very high meditative states. This is because such yogis have a psyche which is not self-analytical, where those students are forced to accept the preferences of the sensual energies (kundalini) because he/she has no way to become objective towards the senses.
This is not a criticism of those students but rather it is an observation of their psychic condition. Each of the living entities has varying of psyche formats. Each requires individual prescriptions and tailored methods for fine tuning the inSelf Yoga™ practice. Yoga is a fulltime engagement. As a part-time practice it will not yield the required proficiency.
