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NOTE BY A PRACTICAL STUDENT
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and rises up to the head from the plexus above mentioned, thus causing a burning sensation all through the body. The fiery influence was therefore not due to the star, as thought by our brother.
He alluded to another stage when he describes how another light appeared first on the left side of the shoulder and then on the temples. I think this cannot really be another light, but that it was the same light that manifested itself in these different places. The above light came down to or appeared on the left side of the shoulder during inspiration, and then flitted up to the temples during cessation of breath when it (breath) was raised up within. All these fluctuations of Jyotis (the light) were due to the fluctuations of breath. Supposing one is able to hold his breath resolutely for a certain time, these fluctuations will cease, and the light will be visible like a steady burning light in a fixed place. The reason why the light was visible on the left side of the shoulder was that at the time of our brother's practice his breath was passing through his left nostril. It then seemed to be like sparks of fire around the head on account of the gastric fire (which was then aroused), commingling with the light above ; so that the burning sensation felt through the body, and the pile of fire around the head, were both due to the awakening of the gastric fire within.
Now the ensuing dizziness in the head and the consequent inability to think arise thus. According to the Upanishads, it is the fact that the central seat of manas or mind is in the middle of the two eyebrows. It is fixed
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