Haribhadras Yoga Works and Psychosynthesis

SR No.: 001262
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S A Desai
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1983
Total Pages: 106
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Yoga
File Size: 7 MB

Page 71

Haribhadra and Psychosynthesis
Patanjali describes this stage only in four words and says that Dharana is the holding of the mind in the Deśa. Now Deśa can be interpreted in more than one way. The very word Desa suggests stability. It is the inner stability of the Self that is meant here but it can mean the fixation of the mind on any object of concentration also. The word Bandha too is suggestive of the stabilization of the mind. The mind now begins to rest in an easy style on the inner self-stability.
62
One practical instance can shed more light on this stage than any comments thereof. Ramana Maharshi was a symbol of the great Vedio Rsis of ancient India. His life was an open book and he was one of the greatest savants of this century who only gave up his physical life in 1950. I had the good fortune to visit him and sit in his benign presence and talk to him on more than one occasion. There is one experience related in his biography that when as the runaway lad he went to Tiruvallamalaya he used to sit in front of the temple and meditate. But the urchins all around did not allow him to do so and they began to pelt him with stones on him. Ramana, the young chap hardly about sixteen years thereupon went to underground the temple-cellar and began to meditate. The place was unused and there were insects too. Now instead of the urchins the insects began to attac. his legs and blood began to ooze from their bites. But Ra ana was quite unaware of these highly disturbing physical pains because he was steadfast in his inner self-stability and very much engrossed in the joy of the elixir of inner life. Such is the joy, the supreme joy of the concentration due to Dhyana. It is truly the existential and experiential joy.
Prabha and Dhyana
+
The stage of Prabha is the same as Dhyana of Patanjali according to Haribhadra's description of the process of speedy evolution of Sadhaka's personality. The main features of this stage are the inner feeling of complete calm, correct inner position, intense liking of concentration, conquest of sex, detachmend in actions and calm and steady inner flow of the psychic energies and bliss.
Dhyana too is described by Patanjali in four words. It is the same process of Dharana but the intensity is very great and the concentration is far greater. The concentration becomes one-spotted and the inner stability increases. The inner joy becomes the inner Rasa by repetitive or concentrative process of Dharaṇā. Haribhadra as we have already mentioned before, talks of Dhyana-Rasa and Rasa signifies intense interest and joy. by carvana of the inner Bhava. It is the bliss of the inner self and it