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Date Posted: 13:22:54 03/20/06 Mon
Author: H - 17 Feb 2006
Subject: Sri Aurobindo's early Pranayama experience (II)
In reply to: H - 17 Feb 2006 's message, "Sri Aurobindo's early Pranayama experience (I)" on 13:21:17 03/20/06 Mon


4-1-1939

Sri Aurobindo: When I was doing Pranayama I used to feel the breath concentrated in the head. My skin began to be smooth and fair. The women of our family noticed it first, as they have a sharp eye for such things. And it was at that time I began to put on flesh. Formerly I was frail and thin. Then I noticed something unusual in the flow of my saliva. It was that substance perhaps that gave the change of colour and the other things. The Yogis say some sort of amrita, flows down from the top of the brain that can make one immortal.

An American at darshan time looked very closely and minutely at me, for he saw some light around me. He wanted to make sure whether it was any physical light. When he found that it was not, he began to think me some kind of Mahatma.

P: I know of a sadhu cutting again and again the membrane under his tongue to enable the tongue to reach inside and get that flow of amrita. He turned insane afterwards.

Sri Aurobindo: Oh, that is Khechari Mudra. He perhaps got the wrong flow. Barin [Sri Aurobindo's brother] was approached by some of these sadhus and promised all sorts of things if he did that practice by cutting the membrane under the tongue. He said, "I am not going to do it." They coaxed and coaxed him but failed to persuade him. Then they sneered at him, "Bengali coward!" He replied, "Bengali or no Bengali, I am not going to do it!" (Laughter)

(Then the conversation went back to Tibetan occultism and how Europeans are taken up by such things and not by spirituality.)



5-1-1939

Sri Aurobindo: Then I began to practise Pranayama – in 1903 [sic!]. A Baroda Engineer who was a disciple of Brahmananda [of Ganganath/Chandod] showed me how to do it and I started on my own. Some remarkable results came with it. First, I felt a sort of electricity all around me. Secondly, there were some visions of a minor kind. Thirdly, I began to have a very rapid flow of poetry. Formerly I used to write with difficulty. For a time the flow would increase; then again it would dry up. Now it revived with astonishing vigour and I could write both prose and poetry at tremendous speed. This flow has never ceased up to now. If I have not written much afterwards, it was because I had something else to do. But the moment I want to write, it is there. Fourthly, it was at the time of the Pranayama-practice that I began to put on flesh. Earlier I was very thin. My skin also began to be smooth and fair and there was a peculiar new substance in the saliva, owing to which these changes were probably taking place. Another curious thing I noticed was that whenever I used to sit for Pranayama, not a single mosquito would bite me, though plenty of mosquitoes were humming around. I took more and more to Pranayama; but there were no further results.

It was during this time that I adopted a vegetarian diet. That gave lightness and some purification. […]

When I went to Bengal for political work my Pranayama became very irregular. As a result I had a serious illness which nearly carried me off. Now I was at my wit's end. I did not know how to proceed farther and was searching for some guidance. Then I met Lele in the top room of Sardar Majumdar's house. […]


5-1-1939 [alternative version of same talk noted down by another disciple]

Sri Aurobindo: I began Pranayama – breathing exercises – in about 1905. Engineer Devdhar was a disciple of Brahmananda. I took instructions from him on Pranayama and started on my own. I practised Pranayama at Khasirao Jadhav's place in Baroda. The results were remarkable: I used to see many visions, sights and figures. (2) I felt a sort of electric power round my head. (3) My powers of writing were nearly dried up, but after the practice of Pranayama, they revived with great vigour. I could write both prose and poetry with a flow. That flow never ceased since then. If I have not written afterwards it is because I had something else to do. But the moment I want to write, it is there. (4) My health improved, – I grew stout and strong and the skin became smooth and fair and there was a flow of sweetness in the saliva. I used to feel a certain aura round the head. There were plenty of mosquitos there but they did not come to me.

I used to sit more and more in Pranayama but there were no more results. It was at this time that I gave up meat-diet and found a great feeling of lightness and purification in the system. […]



7-1-1940

N: You must have been doing some Yoga.

Sri Aurobindo: All I was doing was pranayama for 2 years and the only result of it was good health and a lot of poetry. As that didn't satisfy me, I went in search of people who could help me.



10-3-1943 [correcting some mistakes made in a Marathi biography published in 1935]

Sri Aurobindo: About Swami Hamsa I don't remember his name. It was in the Gaekwad's palace that he gave two or three lectures. I was invited. But it is not true that I went and saw him. At that time I was not interested in Yoga. I did not ask him about Pranayama. I learnt about Pranayama from the engineer Deodhar who was a disciple of Brahmananda.

… [Swami Hamsa] was a Hatha Yogi and Sri Aurobindo attended his lecture in the palace on invitation. He did not meet him at his place.



---------------------------------------------------------


I remember when I first began to see inwardly (and outwardly also with the open eye), a scientific friend of mine began to talk of after-images – "these are only after-images"! I asked him whether after-images remained before the eye for two minutes at a time – he said, "no", to his knowledge only for a few seconds; I also asked him whether one could get after-images of things not around one or even not existing upon this earth, since they had other shapes, another character, other hues, contours and a very different dynamism, life-movements and values – he could not reply in the affirmative. That is how these so-called scientific explanations break down as soon as you pull them out of their cloudland of mental theory and face them with the actual phenomena they pretend to decipher.

19-2-1932


After four years of pranayama and other practices on my own, with no other result than an increased health and outflow of energy, some psycho-physical phenomena, a great outflow of poetic creation, a limited power of subtle sight (luminous patterns and figures, etc.) mostly with the waking eye, I had a complete arrest and was at a loss. At this juncture I was induced to meet a man without fame whom I did not know, a Bhakta [Lele] with a limited mind but with some experience and evocative power. […]

May, 1932


By the way, what is this story about my four or five hours' concentration a day for several years before anything came down? Such a thing never happened, if by concentration you mean laborious meditation. What I did was four or five hours a day pranayama – which is quite another matter. And what flow do you speak of? The flow of poetry came down while I was doing pranayama, not some years afterwards. If it is the flow of experiences, that did come after some years, but after I had stopped the pranayama for a long time and was doing nothing and did not know what to do or where to turn once all my efforts had failed. And it came not as a result of years of pranayama or concentration, but in a ridiculously easy way, by the grace either of a temporary Guru (but it was not that, for he was himself bewildered by it) or by the grace of the eternal Brahman and afterwards by the grace of Mahakali and Krishna. So don't try to turn me into an argument against the Divine, that attempt will be perfectly ineffective.

22-1-1936


[…] I said clearly that the pranayama brought me nothing of any kind of spiritual realisation. I had stopped it long before. The Brahman experience came when I was groping for a way, doing no Sadhana at all, making no effort because I didn't know what effort to make, all having failed. Then in three days I got an experience which most Yogis get only at the end of a long Yoga, got it without wanting or trying after it, got it to the surprise of Lele who was trying to get me something quite different. […]

24-1-1936

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