02/12/2025
When I asked my teacher, Pattabhi Jois, to explain to me what pratyāhāra was, he pointed to a wall and asked:
“What is this? What do you see?”
“A wall?”
“Then you must practice pratyāhāra until you can see not just a wall, but God.”
Yeah, but how do you practice it? Chanting God’s name, chanting a mantra like śrī kṛṣṇaḥ śaraṇaṁ mama is a good way to practice pratyahara and transcend the mundane thoughts and attitudes that the chitta vṛttis exemplify. Mantras have the power to cut through the discursive mind stuff, allowing the light of reality to shine through. Pratyāhāra purifies your perception of reality and helps you to experience the presence of God everywhere and in everyone. The true crisis in our world today is not social, political or economic. Our human crisis is a crisis of consciousness, an inability to directly experience our true eternal divine blissful nature within us, and an inability to recognize this nature in everyone, including other animals, trees, rivers—as well as in all things. The practice of pratyāhāra provides a practical means to remove avidyā , the ignorance within us that deceives us into thinking that we are a supreme species and the world, and all Earthlings must either be conquered, enslaved or made to bend to our will or whim, or it is a place to be avoided all together if we want to awaken spiritually.
Pratyāhāra ultimately awakens us to the direct experience of reality by refining our perception of it. It is a daily practice that can be done while you are awake, dreaming or sleeping. It is a powerful transformational practice of giving and remembering. Awakening to the remembrance of the divine through mantra is a pratyahara practice. Krishna in the Bhagavad Gīta gives us a few more practical suggestions that involve seva, lovingly offering all our actions to God first before we partake. The yogi doesn’t go anywhere without God, doesn’t enjoy anything without God. The yogi invites God to come with them everywhere they go, whether it’s to dinner or to a show.
December 2025 FOTM
Pratyahara – Healing the Disease of Disconnection
by Sharon Gannon
