As discussed in the post Taming the Monkey Mind, the mind in contemplation can focus its awareness on many different objects – be they gross or subtle, within the body or without. In this post, we will cover one more method called Videha Dharana(fixing the awareness outside the body) which has been briefly mentioned in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and elaborated by Sri Anirvan in his book Inner Yoga. As we see below, what is noteworthy is that Sri Anirvan’s description of the transformation bears resemblance to some changes in body consciousness that were noted in exchanges between Sri Aurobindo and his disciples.
Outline of the Method
Sri Anirvan begins his description of videha dharana as follows
There is another kind of dharana, which Patanjali calls videha dharana, fixation outside the body. It belongs to the Jnana yogins, those who practice the Yoga of Knowledge. The essential idea behind it is to convert the five physical elements into their nonphysical yogic qualities. To do this nonphysical dharana, it is necessary to have knowledge of two things first: first, a clear understanding of the physical elements or qualities (bhutas); second, a thorough knowledge, gained through self-observation, of the developments and changes that occur in the body-consciousness (deha-bodha). [1]
He is referring to the following verse on bhutajaya (mastery over elements) in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
(sthula svarupa suksma anvaya arthavattva samyamad bhuta-jayah)
By samyama on the five forms of the elements (bhutas), which are gross form, essence, subtleness, interconnectedness, and its purpose, then mastery over those bhutas is attained.
Patanjali Yoga Sutras 3:45
The basic outline of this method is that one imagines that the body has become solid like the earth (i.e. imagine that the microcosm has become like the macrocosm, hence the name Videha Dharana or fixing the mind on externals). With progress in contemplation, the body begins to feel fluid like water, then heated like fire and at the end, it becomes expansive like the air. In the final stage of what is traditionally called liberation or enlightenment, the body feels void as the ether. The description which follows is relevant to what is called the Spiritual Transformation in Sri Aurobindo’s terminology.
Similarity between descriptions of changes in consciousness
In what follows, we will juxtapose passages from Sri Anirvan’s description with Sri Aurobindo’s descriptions of the transformation. One can identity the following correspondence between the two.
•Sri Anirvan’s Earth body corresponds to Sri Aurobindo’s description of the body becoming rigid due to withdrawal of consciousness from the surface personality.
•Sri Anirvan’s Water body corresponds to Sri Aurobindo’s description of the body feeling void after general emptying of the superficial movements of worldly life.
•Sri Anirvan’s Fire body corresponds to Sri Aurobindo’s description of the awakening of the Kundalini which heats up the body.
•Sri Anirvan’s Air body corresponds to Sri Aurobindo’s description of the body expanding into cosmic consciousness.
Earth body
This is Sri Anirvan’s description
While sitting in an asana(yoga posture), I begin by imagining that my body has solidified and turned to stone. My body has become one with the earth upon which I am sitting; it is like an anthill or a hump of earth. When this feeling develops, the sensation is one of utter stability and stillness in the body. This is the yogic counterpart of solidity or firmness. When it appears in the body consciousness, the finer, subtler qualities of that consciousness can be felt; at a certain point one even loses awareness of the gross body and feels as if another body has come into existence within oneself. [1]
And this is Sri Aurobindo’s description of a similar transformation which occurs when consciousness starts to withdraw within and the body begins to feel rigid like the earth.
This inward movement takes place in many different ways and there is sometimes a complex experience combining all the signs of the complete plunge. There is a sense of going in or deep down, a feeling of the movement towards inner depths; there is often a stillness, a pleasant numbness, a stiffness of the limbs. This is the sign of the consciousness retiring from the body inwards under the pressure of a force from above, – that pressure stabilising the body into an immobile support of the inner life, in a kind of strong and still spontaneous Àsana. [2]
The feeling of coldness of the body in the first is one of the signs – like the immobility and stiffness of Y’s experience – that the consciousness is withdrawing from the outer or physical sheath and retiring inside. The crystallisation was the form in which he felt the organisation of an inner consciousness which could receive at once firmly and freely from above. The crystals at once indicate organised formation and a firm transparence in which the greater vision and experience descending from the higher planes could be clearly reflected. [2]
Water body
This is Sri Anirvan’s description of the body becoming fluid after attaining rigidity.
The first inner body to appear is the apya sharira, the liquid, fluid or, literally, the water body. It feels like the body of an adolescent boy. This fresh young body, says a Vaishnava poet, has a grace that seems to be flowing through the sky. When this water body appears, rasa chetana arises, a deep enjoyment and felicity of consciousness. The quality of suppleness also arises, and the body loses its rigidity. The mind too seems to melt and flow; as a result one can easily enter into and experience the feelings of others. This condition may be called the melting movement of the mind. Yet even in the melting condition, the earth principle of solidity is maintained. One has a feeling as of waves playing upon a rock. It is not really so difficult to have this feeling while sitting in an asana. On the one hand the body is stable and motionless, on the other it is relaxed and at ease; the feelings of firmness and fluidity are experienced together at the same time. Note, however, that it is important to retain the feeling of firmness, for otherwise, with the appearance of the fluid body there may be a pervasion of the enjoyment in the consciousness. The Upanishad speaks of the earth as the foundation: “The earth is my footing”; this secure foundation or pillar must never be allowed to loosen. Indeed, all the qualities of the elements must be kept in control. They will appear and develop their play, but always one must remain an unmoved witness. Keep this in mind at all times. [1]
And this is Sri Aurobindo’s description of the body beginning to feel empty when the surface movements have been tranquilized. This is a preparatory stage before the awakening of the Kundalini.
Emptiness usually comes as a clearance of the consciousness or some part of it. The consciousness or part becomes like an empty cup into which something new can be poured. The highest emptiness is the pure existence of the self in which all manifestation can take place.
Emptiness is a state of quietude of the mental or vital or all the consciousness not visited by any mind or vital movements, but open to the Pure Existence and ready or tending to be that or already that but not yet realised in its full power of being. Which of these conditions it happens to be depends on the particular case. The Self state or the state of pure existence is sometimes also called emptiness, but only in the sense that it is a state of sheer static rest of being without any contacts of mobile Nature. [4]
Fire body
This is Sri Anirvan’s description
If this witness consciousness is maintained, then after the water body, the taijasa sharira or fire body will appear. The water will, as it were, catch fire. This has been described by a vedic rishi as the appearance of fire out of water. “Whence,” he says, “has appeared this child of light on the bosoms of the water maidens? This child of light is indeed the Youth!” When this fiery body appears, the mind seems to be radiant, blazing; the body seems to be filled with Yoga-fire. The domain of the earth, the realm of form, extends up to this point. [1]
This is an exchange between Sri Aurobindo and his disciple Nagin Doshi on the Kundalini fire (Yogagni) which pulses through the body.
Nagin: The Fire around the body continues. It has enveloped the being like an armour. But what is its effect in the body? – a fiery intensity in the cells and the pores. Can ‘this be true? The mind refuses to believe it.
Sri Aurobindo: It can very well be true. [5]
Air body
This is Sri Anirvan’s description of the body becoming as air.
Beyond it, through the expansion of the fire body, the vayavya sharira or air body appears. As a vedic rishi says, the fire in the individual becomes universal. It is this aerial body which is the vehicle, the container, and the carrier of the cosmic consciousness. Here form becomes formless, and all that remains is an all-pervading sense of conscious energy (shakti). Afterward, this energy becomes still and motionless; then air is transformed into ether (akasha), energy into being, body into the bodiless. Patanjali calls this condition mahavideha dharana; in it the mind is fixed in the ether and there is no awareness of body. [1]
Patanjali refers to Mahavideha Dharana in the Yoga Sutras 3:44
bahih akalpita vrittih maha-videha tatah prakasha avarana ksayah
When the formless thought patterns of mind are projected outside of the body, it is called maha-videha, a great disincarnate one. By samyama(concentration) on that outward projection, the veil over the spiritual light is removed.
(Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras 3:44)
Corresponding to this, we have the following exchange between Sri Aurobindo and his disciple Nagin Doshi on the mind, vital and physical expanding into cosmic consciousness.
Nagin: It also happens that when the experience is of a voidness I feel the whole body to be as light as cotton-wool.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes. it becomes like that. In the end you feel as if you had no body but were spread out in the vastness of space as an infinite consciousness and existence – or as if the body were only a dot in that consciousness. [6]
References
1.Sri Anirvan, Inner Yoga, pp 27-31
2.Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Experiences of Inner and Cosmic Consciousness, p 992
3.Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Experiences of Inner and Cosmic Consciousness, p 1028
4.Sri Aurobindo. Letters on Yoga, Experiences and Realizations, p 919
5.Nagin Doshi, Guidance from Sri Aurobindo, p 58
6.Nagin Doshi, Guidance from Sri Aurobindo, p 64
http://auromere.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/videha-dharana-fixing-the-mind-outside-the-body/
PanchaTattva Dharana : contemplation on the five elements
Posted on March 23, 2010 by Sandeep
This post supplements a previous post Videha Dharana : fixing the mind outside the body, which discussed a method called Videha Dharana as per Sri Anirvan. The method is drawn from the Upanishads and can also be called PanchaTattva Dharana or contemplation on the five (pancha) elements (tattva) – namely earth, water, air, fire, ether. There is a similar technique in the Tantra texts called Bhuta-Shuddhi which is also outlined here.
(Note: For those who practice Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, I must add that this method in not found anywhere in their works. The method is being outlined here purely for the sake of knowledge.)
The basic idea behind this method is to simulate the cleansing of the five elements that occurs when the Kundalini rises through various Chakras in the body. To each of the five elements (earth, water, air, fire, ether), one can associate
•a Tanmatra (subtle essence of that element) and the corresponding sense (sight, smell, taste, touch, sound).
•a region of the body and/or a Chakra
•a colour
•a geometric figure and
•a cosmic or elemental power.
During meditation, these associations are employed as visual aids to gently guide the mind into deeper stages of contemplation. For each of the five elements, these associations are listed below.
Pancha-Tattva Dharana in Upanishads
We find this method discussed in the Darsana Upanishad, which is one of the Yoga Upanishads. In each case, it stresses that one must concentrate on the element which is OUTSIDE the body, not inside.
Now I will tell you about the five types of Dharana (holding steady – a stage in meditation – here we try to hold on what we are mediating upon without wavering). In the sky which is in the middle of the body, Dharana of the sky outside should be made. Similarly in the breath, Dharana of air outside should be made. In the fire in the stomach, Dharana of the fire outside should be made. In the fluid aspects of the body, Dharana of the water outside should be made. In the earthy aspects of the body, Dharana of the earth outside should be made. Sage, also it is necessary to chant the pancha bhootha mantras viz., Ham, Yam, Ram, Vam and Lam. It is said that this very great Dharana destroys all sins. [1]
This method has also been discussed in the book Dharana Darshan by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati of the Bihar school of Yoga. I shall only provide a brief outline here because I don’t want to violate the copyright. Refer to the book for the copious details that I have omitted. According to the book, the method can be practiced in three ascending levels : Conscious, Subconscious, Unconscious. One begins contemplation with the Earth element and ends at the Ether element.
1. Pritvi/Earth
Correspondence for this element: it’s figure is the square, it’s space is between the knees and the toes, the sense is smell and the colour is yellow.
Conscious: Experience the space which pervades the entire body from the top of the head to the tips of the toes. Experience the sthulakasha. the space throughout the body. Develop total awareness of the space which pervades your whole body. Within this space become aware of prithvi tattwa, the earth element, which is related with the sense of smell. Bring your awareness to the sense of smell. Observe all the smells that are in the environment right now.
Subconscious: Feel the body becoming heavy like the earth. Create the feeling of your body sitting inside the earth. Become one with the earth.
Unconscious : Visualize the corresponding diety. See the book for details!
2. Apas/Water
Correspondence for this element: the figure is the Moon, the space is between the navel and the knees, the sense is taste, the colour is silver.
Conscious: Feel the space pervading the entire body. Now focus your attention on apas tattwa, the water element. Taste is the tanmatra which is related with the water element. Bring your attention to the taste which is in your mouth right now. Be aware of this taste. Dwell on various tastes.
Subconscious : Imagine yourself sitting in a mountain stream underneath a waterfall. Above you is water, below you is water. Visualize the water and become fluid like the water.
Unconscious: Visualize the corresponding diety. See the book for details!
3. Agni/Fire
Correspondence for this element: the figure is triangle, the space is between the navel and the heart, the sense is sight, the colour is red.
Conscious : Form/Sight is the sense associated with this element. In this state, conduct extensive visualizations of various landscapes. See each form or scene as clearly as you can, bringing as much detail into it as possible.
Subconscious : Imagine sitting inside a fire. Feel the intense heat. Become the heat.
Unconscious : Visualize the corresponding diety. See the book for details!
4. Vayu/Air
Correspondence for this element: the figure is hexagon, the space is the heart Chakra, the sense is touch, the colour is grey-blue.
Conscious: Touch is the sense associated with the air element. Become aware of touch. Feel the touch of your clothes against your skin, your hands resting on your knees. Imagine you are stroking a cat. Feel the soft, smooth, silky fur of the cat as you stroke it. Then change to stroking a dog. Feel the different texture, the rough. wiry hair of the dog.
Subconscious: See yourself within this space and become aware of a gentle breeze blowing. Feel the wind touching your skin. The wind is growing stronger. Feel the wind blowing all around you, filling up the whole space. Feel the wind on your back, against the front of your body. Feel the wind above you and underneath you. There is nothing butwind all around you, making you lighter and lighter. The wind is emptying your body of weight. You are becoming weightless.
Unconscious: Visualize the corresponding diety. See the book for details!
5. Akasha/Ether
Correspondence for this element: the figure is circle, the space is between the eyebrows and the crown Chakra, the sense is hearing or sound, the colour is colorless or black.
Conscious: Sound is the sense associated with this element. For the next few minutes become aware of the different sounds all around you. Centre your whole awareness on sound.
Subconscious: Feel as if you are floating through space. Your body is light, weightless and floating through the vast, inky black space. As you float through the dark space become aware of asteroids passing by. Become aware of the stars scattered through the darkness, bright, twinkling points of light. As you continue to float through space see the moon and the sun. Feel yourself merging into the space in which you are floating, becoming one with the space. Experience akasha tattwa, you are akasha tattwa.
Unconscious: Visualize the corresponding diety. See the book for details!
Bhuta-Shuddhi in Tantra
A similar method has been described in the Tantra texts and here are a couple of references on it. The first is from a book by Georg Feuerstein.
…This esoteric process is the basis for the bhuta-shuddhi ritual in which the elements are visualized as being purified through their progressive absorption into the divine Shakti. This practice is done prior to visualizing oneself as one’s chosen deity (ishta-devata – personal God) and doing ritual worship. The earth element governs the area between the feet and the thighs; the water element has authority over the area between the thighs and the navel; the fire element rules the zone between the navel and the heart; the air element is reigns over the section between the heart and the forehead; the ether element governs the area above the forehead. The practitioner visualizes earth dissolving into water, water into fire, fire into air, air into ether, and then ether into the higher principles (tattva) until everything is dissolved into the Goddess power itself.
Thus the yogin starts out as an impure being (papa-purusha) and through the power of visualization recreates himself as a pure being, a worthy vessel for the divine Power. Through the kundalini process, this visualized pure body-mind then becomes actuality, for the ascent of the serpent power through the axial pathway of the body recapitulates the mental process of bhuta-shuddhi, literally changing the body’s chemistry. Through repeated practice of kundalini-yoga, the Tantric adepts succeed in speeding up the vibration of their body permanently, leading to the creation of the much-desired “divine body” (divya-deha).[2]
The British orientalist, Arthur Avalon, discussed the same technique in his book Shakti and Shakta. This is an excerpt.
Bhutasuddhi, an important Tantrik rite, means purification of the five “elements” of which the body is composed, and not “removal of evil demons,” as Professor Monier-William’s Dictionary has it. Though one of the meanings of Bhuta is Ghost or Spirit, it is never safe to give such literal translations without knowledge, or absurd mistakes are likely to be made. The Mantramahodadhi (Taranga I) speaks of it as a rite which is preliminary to the worship of a Deva.
Devarca yog yata-praptyai bhuta-shuddhim samacaret.
(For the attainment of competency to worship, the elements of which the body is composed, should be purified). The material human body is a compound of the five Bhutas of “earth,” “water,” “fire,” “air”, and “ether”. These terms have not their usual English meaning but denote the five forms in which Prakriti the Divine Power as materia prima manifests Herself. These have each a center of operation in the five Cakras or Padmas (Centers or Lotuses) which exist in the spinal column of the human body (see A. Avalon’s Serpent Power where this matter is fully described). In the lowest of these centers (Muladhara), the Great Devi kundalini, a form of the Saguna Brahman, resides. She is ordinarily sleeping there. In kundalini-yoga, She is aroused and brought up through the five centers, absorbing, as She passes through each, the Bhuta of that center, the subtle Tanmatra from which it derives and the connected organ of sense (Indriya). Having absorbed all these, She is led to the sixth or mind center (Ajña) between the eyebrows where the last Bhuta or ether is absorbed in mind, and the latter in the Subtle Prakriti. The last in the form of Kundali Shakti then unites with Shiva in the upper brain called the thousand-petalled lotus (Sahasrara).
In Yoga this involution actually takes places with the result that ecstasy (Samadhi) is attained. But very few are successful Yogis. Therefore, Bhutasuddhi in the case of the ordinary worshipper is an imaginary process only. The Sadhaka imagines Kundalini, that She is roused, that one element is absorbed into the other and so on, until all is absorbed in Brahman. The Yoga process will be found described in The Serpent Power, and Ch. V. 93 et seq. of the Mahanirvana gives an account of the ritual process. The Sadhaka having dissolved all in Brahman, a process which instills into his mind the unity of all, then thinks of the “black man of sin” in his body. The body is then purified. By breathing and Mantra it is first dried and then burnt with all its sinful inclinations. It is then mentally bathed with the nectar of the water-mantra from head to feet. The Sadhaka then thinks that in lieu of his old sinful body a new Deva body has come into being. He who with faith and sincerity believes that he is regenerated is in fact so. To each who truly believes that his body is a Deva body it becomes a Deva body. The Deva body thus brought into being is strengthened by the Earth-mantra and divine gaze (Divyadrishti). Saying, with Bijas, the Mantra “He I am” (So’ham) the Sadhaka by Jiva-nyasa infuses his body with the life of the Devi, the Mother of all. [4]
References
1.Darsana Upanishad http://www.celextel.org/108upanishads/darsana.html (Accessed 21 Mar 2010)
2.Georg Feuerstein : Kundalini: Awakening the Serpent Power. http://www.yoga-age.com/articles/kundalini.html (Accessed 21 Mar 2010)
3.Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati. Dharana Darshan. (ISBN-13 978-8186336304 – amazon.com link)
4.Arthur Avalon. Shakti and Shakta http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas26.htm (Accessed 21 Mar 2010)
Filed under: Spiritual practice, Upanishads | Tagged: arthur-avalon, meditation, Niranjanananda, sadhana, sri-anirvan, tantra, Upanishads,
http://auromere.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/panchatattva-dharana-contemplation-on-the-five-elements/
Please see http://www.purna-yoga.ru/en/practice-antahkarana.php for Antahkarana
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