________________
અધ્યાત્મતત્ત્વાલેાક.
[ ત્રી
Science of Yoga is directed to one end to teach man how to intensify the power of assimilation and thereby shorten the time for reaching perfection and the Raja-Yoga is the science which teaches us how to gain this power of concentration.
According to the Yogis, there are currents in the spinal column called Ida and there is a hollow canal called Sushumna running through the spinal chord. The left is Ida, the right, the Pingalā. The canal is closed at the lower end which is situated near what is called sacral plexus called Muladhar. Therein are centred all the sensations and there resides the coiled up energy of action called Kundalini and the aim of Pranayama is to rouse this coiled up power. When this Kundalini is roused and made to travel up the Sushumna canal, a tremendous reaction sets in. It is supersensuous and the mind in that state is called superconscious. The Kundalini travels from centre to centre until it reaches the metropolis of all sensations, the brain and the final result is the full blaze of illumination the perception of the true Self. The rousing of the Kundalini is the one and the only way to attaining divine wisdom, superconscious perception and the realization of the Soul. Along the Sushumna are ranged six plexuses, the reservoirs of occult powers. Their names are Muladhara, Swadhisthana, Manipur, Anahat, Vishuddha and Sahasrara. The energy which is stored up in the lowest has to be taken up to the highest. The first effect of the practice of Pranayama is that the
460
two nerve
Pingla and