हठयोग प्रदीपिका (योगी स्वात्माराम - ज्योत्स्ना टीका सहित सटीक)

10 HAṬHAYOGAPRADĪPIKĀ element arising from the body and its proclivities. The way to the higher path is now smooth and easy. But the ground is hard to tread and very few have the courage to go through it or the patience to persevere under repeated failures; so that nearly ninety-nine out of a hundred practitioners are frightened by the outlook and begin at the easiest and most practical point, i.e., Āsana and Prāṇāyāma. They imagine that the great and stupen- dous results laid down will follow the easiest physical processes in an inconceivably short time and take to them with avidity for some months. But not finding even a shadow of the glorious powers prophesied, they give up the whole effort. These escape lightly. But many commit serious mistakes in the processes and end their lives as maniacs or suicides. These do not realize the important fact that the tremendous powers are promised as a result of a course of Prāṇāyāma, only when it is practised by one who has perfected in himself the moral and the spiritual qualities included under Yama and Niyama. This point is beautifully brought out in the Yoga-vāsiṣṭha in the following story: A saṃnyāsin retired into the jungle and practised Prāṇāyāma for many years, but without realizing any of the powers foretold. He then went to a sage and reverently asked him to teach him Yoga. The sage told him to remain with him, and for the first two years met all his pupil's eager solicitations for instructions with ‘Wait’. Gradually, the saṃnyāsin grew accustomed to the situation and forgot to trouble his master any more for instruction. At the end of twelve years, the ṛṣi one day called to him his pupil and asked him to pronounce the syllable Om. When the saṃnyāsin came to the first letter, Recaka, or the process by which the air in the lungs is exhaled, set in naturally. When he finished the second letter, Pūraka, or the process of inhalation, set in. At the end of the third letter, Kumbhaka, or the process of retention, started. As a spark of fire catches in a field of sun-dried grass and the whole is in flame in a few minutes, so the pronunciation of the sacred syllable roused into activity the spiritual faculties that lay dormant hitherto in the pupil, and in a short time he had passed the initial stages of Pratyāhāra, Dhāraṇā and Dhyāna, and settled into the pure and elevated state of Samādhi.