Sambodhi

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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Shantilal M. Desai
draws not only the psychic energies but also all the mental tendencies from their going outward to the objects of senses and thus draws-in all the senses too and stabilizes them in the inner calm of the Self. Here he begins to feel stability of the Self more solidly and entrenching himself on this firm foundation he draws in the psychic energies at a time and stores them as it were in that inner solidality. Patañjali does not rest with mere such statement of withdrawal of the senses in the inner resting place but also describes new formation or the change in the nature of the senses. He says that in Pratyābāra, the senses begin to change in the likeness of true nature of the Self. This description too is not a make-believe but an experiential hard truth open to all sādhakas if the conditions of Pratyābāra are fulfilled.
The meanings of both Sthirā Drşti and Pratyāhāra are almost the same but Patañjali's short and sweet and grand sūtra expresses and sheds light on the process of sublimation on all planes in the description of Pratyāhāra. Sublimation is a psychological process recognised even by Freud but the concept is not clear even to the present growing Humanistic psychology. It is a matter of great satisfaction that humanistic psychology has begun to explore the field of inner experience but it has not reached the stage wherefrom it can shed light on the most important concept of sublimation. Freud had a meagre idea of sublimation and it was beyond his area of psychoanalysis because of the very fact that sublimation is the process not of analysis of the psyche but the synthesis of the psyche. I shall discuss this process in the third lecture but suffice it to say here that the process of pratyahāra is the process of sublimation and by that alone can one get the key of the supreme act of sublimation. It is sublimation of man's nature at all stages and planes that is necessary today and that alone can show him the method of psychosynthesis.
Kānta and Dharana
The next stage is Kāntā according to Haribhadra and he equates it with Dhāraņā of Patanjali. Haribhadra is fully conscious that the descriptions of different Dęstis or the stages of the speedy personality growth of the Sādhaka is a continous process and that is why he states that in Kāntā Dșsti the process uptil now continues further on. There is real concentration at this stage of the process and the Sādhaka does not feel any pleasure in anything else. This is a very true description of the work done in the process of Kāntā Dșsti. The Sadhaka's conduct becomes completely pure and the mind is fiixed on the religious truths, he stays in the inner stability with pleasure and without any wavering and so he is free from delusion.