Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (6.1): Nirvāna-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 25 - On Samādhi

Vasistha said- Hear Rāma, when the bird had said so far, I interrupted him and said; tell me, O ancient seer, how and what is the nature of the course of vital airs.

Bhuśunda replied- How is it, O sage! that you who know everything, should propose this question to me as if it were ingest, but as you ask as this of me, I must tell you all I know about it.

The vital breath, O Brāhman! is a moving force by its nature, and is always suomotu in its own motion, and pervades both in the inside and outside of bodies which its animates.

The apāna or the emitting air also is a self motive power, and in its incessant motion; and is both within and without the living body, in its downward or receding direction.

It is good for living beings to restrain these vitals breaths both in their waking and sleeping states, and now hear me tell you, O learned sage, how it is to be effected for their best gain.

The internal vital air (prāna), extends from the lotus like heart to the crevice in the cranium, its effort to come out ¹, is termed by the wise as recaka or exhaled air. ²

The meeting of breaths at the distance of twelve inches from and below the nostrils, is called the puraka or inhaling- breath. ³

It is also called Puraka, when the breath passes from without, and enters within the inner apāna without any effort, and fills the inside from the heart to the cerebrum.

When the apāna air has subsided in the heart, and prāna breath does not circulate in the breast, it is called the Kumbhaka state, and is known to the yogis only.

All these three sorts of breaths, are perceived at the place from where the apāna takes its rise, and this is at the distance of twelve inches below on the outside of the tip of the nose.

Hear now, O great minded sage! what the clear minded adepts have said, respecting the natures of the ever continuative and effortless ⁴ breathing.

Know sir, that the air which is inhaled from the distance of twelve inches on the outside of the tip of the nose, the same receives of its own nature the name of puraka or that of another.

As the outer part of a pot planied in the earth appears to sight, so the apąna breath stretching to the distance of twelve inches just opposite to the tip of the nose in the air on the outside, is perceptible to the yogi, and is called Kumbhaka by the learned.

The exhaling air which rises from the heart, and extends to the tip of the nose, is styled the
primary and external puraka breath by (

) the adepts in Yoga practice.

There is another ⁵ external puraka air known to the wise, which takes its rise from the tip of the nose, and extends to the distance of twelve inches outside of it.

After the prāna breath sets outside the nostrils, and before the apāna breath has yet its rise, this interval of the entire abeyance of both, is known as the state of perfect equalization, and termed the external Kumbhaka.

The air which breathes out in the heart or pulsates within it, and without the rising of the apāna breath; is styled the external recaka in the Yoga system; and its reflection confers perfect liberation to man.

And this rising at the distance of twelve inches, in another kind of it and called the strong recaka.

There is another kind of puraka, which is on the outside of the apāna; and when it stretches to the inside of the navel within, it is known under the names of Kumbhaka &c.

The intelligent man who meditates by day and night on the octuple nature, and course of the prāna and apāna or the inhaling and exhaling airs, is not doomed to be reborn any more in this miserable earth.

I have thus related to you the various courses of the bodily airs, a restraint of which in the waking and sleeping states of man, as also in his states of sitting and waking, is productive of his liberation.

Though these are very fleeting in their natures, yet they are restrained by the good understanding of man, even when he is employed in his work or is in his act of eating.

The man that practices the Kumbhaka or suppression of his breathing within himself, cannot be employed in any action; but must remain calmly in this act of suppression, by giving all external thoughts and actions. ⁶

A few days practice of this Yoga, by abnegation's of all outward objects from the mind, enables a man to attain to the state of his soleity, or his unity with the sole entity of the Deity.

Intelligent men have no fondness for worldly things, but bear an aversion to them as a holy Brāhman has against the sweet milk contained in a flask of skin. They remain regardless of visible objects, with his eyes closed against them, as a blind man takes no heed of outward appearances.

They are in possession of all, which is the sum total ⁷ of what is to be had as the best gain; and whether they are awake or asleep or walking or sitting, they never lose sight of that true light which leads them to the other world.

Those who have obtained the knowledge of the course of his breathing, have got rid of all delusion and rest in quiet within themselves. ⁸

And whether the intelligent people are employed in busy life, or sit inactive at home; they are always quiet and at rest by following the course of their respiration: ⁹.

I know, O Brahman! the exhaling breath, to rise from its source of the lotus like heart, and stretch to the distance of twelve inches out of it, where it sets or stops. ¹⁰

The apāna or inhaling breath is taking in from the same distance of twelve inches, and is deposited in the cup of the lotus situated in the human heart.

As the prāna respiration is exhaled out in the air, to the distance of twelve inches from the heart, so the inhaled air of apāna is taken into the breast, from the same distance of the open sky.

The prāna or exhaling breath runs towards the open air, in the form of a flame of fire, and the inhaled breath turns inward to the region of the heart, and goes downward like a current of water.

The apāna or inhaled breath is like the cooling moon light, and refreshes the body from without; while prana respiration resembling the sunshine or a flame of fire, warms the inside of the body.

The prāna breath warms every moment the region of the heart, as the sunshine inflames the region of the sky; and then it horrifies the atmosphere before it, by the exhalation of breath through the mouth.

The apāna air is as the moonlight before the moon, and being inhaled inward, it washes the sphere of the heart as by a deluge; then it refreshes the whole inside in a moment.

When the last digit of the moon like apāna or inhaling breath, is swallowed by the sun of the prāna or exhaling breath; it meets with the sight of supreme spirit, and has no more any cause of affliction.

So also when the last portion of the sun-like prāna or exhaling breath, is swallowed by the moon like apāna or inhaling breath; then there ensues the same visitation of Brahmā in the inside, and the soul is emancipated from further transmigration in this world. ¹¹

The prāna or exhaling breath assumes the nature of the solar heart, both in the inside and outside of the body; and afterwards it becomes and remains as the cooling moonlight. ¹²

The prāna expiration forsakes its nature of the cooling moon, and turns in a moment to assume the nature of the hot sun, that dries and sucks up everything before it.

As long as the prāna exhalation is not converted to the nature of the moon, after forsaking its polarity, it is so long considered as unconditioned by time and place, and freed from pain and grief. ¹³

He who sees the seat of his soul in the mind situated within his heart, and at the confluence of the sol-luni prāna and apāna breathing in the Kumbhaka or retained breath, is no more subjected to be reborn and die. ¹⁴

He verily sees the soul in its full light, who beholds this bright sun shining in the sphere of his heart, in conjunction with the rising and setting moon-beams apāna in his mind.

This light never fades nor grows faint at any time, but dispels the darkness of the heart, and produces the consummation- Siddhi of the meditative mind.

As the dispersion of outward darkness presents the world to view, so the disappearance of inward obscurity gives out the light of the spirit before the mental sight.

The removal of intellectual darkness, produces the liberation of the soul, and shows the rising and setting sun of the vital breath vividly to view.

When the moon of the apāna or inspired breath, sets in the cavity of the heart, the sun of the prāna or expiatory breathing, rises immediately to gush out of the same.

The apāna or inhaling breath having set in the cell of the lotus like heart, the exhaling breath of prāna rises at the very moment to come out of it, as the shadow of the night being dispersed from sight, the bright sun of the day ushers his light.

As the prāna expiration expires in the open air, the inhaling breath rises and rushes in a moment; just as the light having fled from the horizon, is succeeded immediately by deep darkness.

Know ye intelligent men, that the apāna breath becomes extinct, where the prāna comes to born; and the prāna respiration is lost, where the apāna takes its rise.

When the prāna breathing has ceased and the apāna has its rise, it is then that one supports himself upon the Kumbhaka retained air, and does not depend on two other passing breath.

On the extinction of apāna, and the rise of the prāna breath, one relying on the Kumbhaka air which is deposited within himself, is exempted from his pain and sorrow.

By depending on the recaka breath, and practising the suppression of Kumbhaka breath, at the great distance of sixteenth inches from the apāna: a man has no more to be sorry for anything.

By making the apāna a receptacle of recaka, and filling the prāna in the inside, and finding himself filled with the puraka all within his body, a man has no more to be born on earth.

When a man finds the perfect tranquility of his soul, by subsidence of both the prāna and apāna within himself; he has no longer to sorrow for anything whatever.

When a man reflects his prāna breath to be devoured by the apāna air both within as well as without himself, and loses his thoughts of time and space, he has no more any cause for sorrow.

He who sees his prāna breath devouring the apāna air, both within and without himself, together with his sense of space and time, has no more his mind to be reborn on earth.

When the prāna is swallowed up by the apāna, or the apāna by the prāna, both in the inside and outside of the adept; together with his thoughts of time and place.

At this moment the Yogi finds his prāna to set down, and his apāna to rise no more, and the interval between the two, is common to all animals though it is known to Yogis alone.

The Kumbhaka taking place of itself on the outside, is known as the divine state, but when it happens to occur in the inside, and without any efforts on the part of the adept, it is said to be the state of the most supreme. ¹⁵

This is the nature of the divine soul, and this is the state of the supreme intellect, this is the representation of the eternal spirit, and one attaining to this state, is never subject to sorrow.

Like fragrance in the flower, there is an essence end welling within the vital breath also, and this is neither the prāna or apāna, but the intellectual soul which I adore. ¹⁶

As taste indwells in the water, so is there an essence immanent in the apāna; and this neither the apāna nor the not apāna, but the intelligent soul which I adore.

There is at the end of the extinction of prāna, and beyond the limit of the exhaustion of apāna, and situated in the interval between the extremities of both of these, which I ever adore.

That which forms the breathing of breath, and is the life of life, what is the support and bearer of the body, is the intellectual spirit which I ever adore.

That which causes the thinking (power) of the mind, and the cogitation of the understanding; as also the egotism of egoism, is the intellectual soul, which I have learnt to adore.

That which contains and produces all things, which is all ¹⁷ itself; and what is changed to all at all times, is that mind which I adore forever.

What is the light of lights, what is holiness and the holy of holies, and what is unchangeable in its nature, is the intellect which I adore.

I adore that pencil of pure intellectual light, which rises at the juncture of the setting of the apāna and springing up of the prāna breath. ¹⁸

I adore that intellect which trolls on the tip of the nose, at the point where the prāna sets in, and the apāna has not yet taken its rise.

I adore the intellect which rises at the time when both the prāna and apāna breaths have stopped, and when neither of them has taken its rise.

I adore that intellect which appears before the Yogi, and supports him at the point which he has reached unto upon the setting of the prāna and apāna breaths, both within and without himself.

I adore that intellect which is force of all forces, and rides in the car of prāna and apāna breaths, and when both of them are compressed in the heart of the yogi.

I adore the lord intellect, which is the Kumbhaka breath in the heart, and the apāna Kumbhaka on the outside; and a part of the puraka left behind.

I adore the essence of that intellect, which is attainable by reflection of the breathing, and which is the formless cause of our intelligence of the natures of the prāna and apāna breaths, as also the motive principle of their actions.

I adore the essence of that intellect, which is the cause of the causes, and the main spring of the oscillations of vital airs, and giver of the felicity derived from the vibrations of breath.

I adore that prime and supreme Being Brahmā, who is worshipped by the gods bowing down before him, who makes himself known to us by his own power, and who is, by the particles of vital breaths, under the name of Spirit.

Footnotes

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