हठयोग प्रदीपिका (योगी स्वात्माराम - ज्योत्स्ना टीका सहित सटीक)

10 HAṬHAYOGAPRADĪPIKĀ
element arising from the body and its proclivities. The way to
the higher path is now smooth and easy. But the ground is hard
to tread and very few have the courage to go through it or the
patience to persevere under repeated failures; so that nearly
ninety-nine out of a hundred practitioners are frightened by the
outlook and begin at the easiest and most practical point, i.e.,
Āsana and Prāṇāyāma. They imagine that the great and stupen-
dous results laid down will follow the easiest physical processes
in an inconceivably short time and take to them with avidity for
some months. But not finding even a shadow of the glorious
powers prophesied, they give up the whole effort. These escape
lightly. But many commit serious mistakes in the processes and
end their lives as maniacs or suicides. These do not realize the
important fact that the tremendous powers are promised as a result
of a course of Prāṇāyāma, only when it is practised by one who
has perfected in himself the moral and the spiritual qualities
included under Yama and Niyama. This point is beautifully
brought out in the Yoga-vāsiṣṭha in the following story:
A saṃnyāsin retired into the jungle and practised Prāṇāyāma
for many years, but without realizing any of the powers foretold.
He then went to a sage and reverently asked him to teach him Yoga.
The sage told him to remain with him, and for the first two years
met all his pupil's eager solicitations for instructions with ‘Wait’.
Gradually, the saṃnyāsin grew accustomed to the situation and
forgot to trouble his master any more for instruction. At the end
of twelve years, the ṛṣi one day called to him his pupil and asked
him to pronounce the syllable Om. When the saṃnyāsin came
to the first letter, Recaka, or the process by which the air in the
lungs is exhaled, set in naturally. When he finished the second
letter, Pūraka, or the process of inhalation, set in. At the end of
the third letter, Kumbhaka, or the process of retention, started.
As a spark of fire catches in a field of sun-dried grass and the whole
is in flame in a few minutes, so the pronunciation of the sacred
syllable roused into activity the spiritual faculties that lay dormant
hitherto in the pupil, and in a short time he had passed the initial
stages of Pratyāhāra, Dhāraṇā and Dhyāna, and settled into the
pure and elevated state of Samādhi.