“In Sūtra 1.10 Patañjali defines Nidrā as a
Citta Vṛtti or, a specific type of cognition, one
where Tamas is the object, to the point where
the mind’s link with external stimuli is cut off.
How do we discern between states such as
Pratyāhāra as a disengagement, or Samādhi,
where one is as if empty of one’s own character,
and what is seen as the experience of Tamo Nidrā?”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 10

“Prāṇāyāma leads to this. Pratyāhāra,
to see without the senses distracting or pulling the mind,
and Dhāraṇā –
To see without the mind losing itself,
because of colouring or expectations.
Dhyānam arises out of this.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 49

“Pratyāhāra –
To see without the senses distracting or pulling the mind.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

“Pratyāhāra is a process that encourages us
to explore the means by which we can learn
to step out of the flow of the river of the senses.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

“Pratyāhāra is the absence of a link
from the mind with the senses,
rather than the absence of a link
from the senses with the mind.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

“Pratyāhāra is the ability of the Manas
to resist the dance of the senses.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

“Pratyāhāra is not feeding the tendency of the Citta
to automatically form a positive, negative, or neutral
identification with whatever stimuli the senses present to it.
From that, we can begin to understand how their external gathering
activities stimulate our conscious and especially, unconscious choices.
From this, we can begin to understand how the impact
of this sensory knowing can lead us to travel in different directions
and trigger different levels of response, often without us being really
conscious of how deeply their input stimulates our psychic activities.
From these responses, there will be the inevitable re-actions,
again quite possibly unconscious and multilevelled,
according to our psychic history in terms of our memory,
habit patternings and deeper memory processes.
From those initial insight, we can begin to understand
and interact in how we can resist unconsciously slipping
into the trance states that can so often culminate with
the  Kleśa manifesting fully in the entrancing dance of
Udārā Rāga, or Udārā Dveṣa, or Udārā Abhiniveśa,
the potent and profligate children of Avidyā.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

“The Dasa Indriya or ten senses of experience and action,
whilst seen as belonging to the Bāhya Aṅga or five external limbs
in the eight limb Aṣṭa Aṅga Yoga of Patañjali,
are also the gateway to the Antar Aṅga or three internal limbs.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

“Pratyāhāra means withdrawing from that on which we are feeding.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga Chapter Eleven Page 152

“Pratyāhāra does not mean we look at an object and say.
‘We are not going to look at that object’.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga Chapter Eleven Page 153

“If we are completely absorbed in the breath in Prāṇāyāma,
automatically there is Pratyāhāra.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga Chapter Eleven Page 153

“Amongst other roles Ujjāyī
is a breathing technique that
can facilitate the ability to remain
in the doorway of awareness,
neither going in and introverting, when
tempted by the manoeuvring of the mind,
nor going out and extroverting, when
tempted by the shimmering of the senses.”
– 108 Yoga Practice Pointers

“Don’t get stuck on the sticky.
Learn Prāṇāyāma.
Learn Pratyāhāra.
Learn Nādānusandhāna.
Learn Adhyayanam.
Learn Dhyānam.”
– 108 Yoga Practice Pointers

Links to Related Posts:

• Reflections on TKV Desikachar’s Teaching and Svatantra……