Pratyahara. Withdrawal of the Senses

When you fully master this level, you become independent from the 5 senses: hot or cold, pain or pleasure, hunger or thirst, beautiful or ugly. Pratyahara is step number 5 in Patanjali Yoga Sutras. Pratyahara in Sanskrit means “rejection, to avoid specific thought, avoidance.”

Imagine a turtle. When he hides, he pulls inside his head, hands, and legs. Same here. When thought comes, you learn to pull inside your senses. You learn to keep distance between your senses and sense objects. Another example. Imagine an octopus. Our senses always try to reach and realize thoughts that come to our mind.

For example. Come and have a thought to eat a cookie. And we always go and do it (because we associate ourselves with that thought).

Another example. Come, emotion of anger. That we want to shout at somebody. And we sometimes do it. It’s a problem for us and for other people.

Why pratyahara is important in our life

1) Because we almost don’t live in the present moment. Our mind is always rushing, searching for something. Our mind is attached to memories, feelings, fantasies, fears, we always think about the past or future.

2) We get tons of useless information in life that we accumulate subconsciously, and our mind try to process it. It doesn’t allow us to be in the present moment.

3) By satisfying your senses, you become a hostage. Eyes want to see, ears want to hear, tongues want to taste, and others.

4) The more we satisfy senses, it becomes a habit and strongly affects our life. Create samskaras, and we suffer because of that.

5) Our real true consciousness by nature is pure and free from impurities.

Benefits of pratyahara

Pratyahara helps you to control your sense organs, feelings, and emotions by taking control over them. You get stability of mind. By doing this, you can direct your time, energy, and resources to higher virtues, goals.

How to practice pratyahara

1) Understand that you are not thoughts (separate that thoughts and you are not the one).
2) Learn to focus for longer periods on breathing or body parts. Pranayamas can help you. Some yoga masters recommend pranayamas.
3) You hear a clock ticking, you don’t hear it. It depends on your concentration.
4) When you have a stable mind, you can practice longer meditation.

Please remember that it’s not about retracting yourself from life. It’s about gaining the ability to control your senses, to separate you from negative thoughts, emotions that lead to suffering. And gain much more energy to use for sharing knowledge and helping others.

Always remember to keep balance in everything by changing ourselves to the better side.