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પ્રકરણ, ]
SPIRITUAL LIGHT.
Notes-Having set forth the vows (Yamas ), regulations (Niyamas), various postures (Asanas), restraint of breath (Pranayama) and the withdrawal of senses from their objects (Pratyāhāra) in the previous Drashtis as means for the purification of the mind, the author describes now Dharana in the sixth Drashti. When the covering, which obscured knowledge, etc., is attenuated by the practice of the preliminary means, attention becomes steady and fixed.
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Bhagvana Patanjali's definition of Dharana prescribes the fixing of attention on one place, i. e., by abstracting it from all others. Mind must be applied to some object either in the body or outside the body and should continue to keep itself in that state. Attention must be fixed externally on some material object representing divinity and internally on seven plexuses, etc.. Bhagvana Hemchandracharya recommends fixing attention on the navel, heart, the tip of the nose, forehead, eyebrow, palate, eyes, face, ears and head, etc.. When the mind becomes thoroughly localized on one of them it advances further on the path of Yoga.
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One special feature to be noted is the primary importance of something external on which the attention is to be fixed; otherwise the beginner cannot proceed further. He must begin concentrating on it until his mind becomes firmly fixed on it.
The subject is so abstruse that it requires repeated instructions from a learned and pious teacher (Guru),else the very practice tends to ruin the beginner. ind 517
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