Concentration & Meditation - Vedanta

48 Swami Bhajananandadescribed as the male or solar current. Normal mental life — consciousand unconscious — is maintained by the energy suppliedby these currents, a part of which is also used up in physiologicalactivities. A major cause for the drain of prana is sex. It is impossibleto make the mind calm or practise intense meditation aslong as sex is active. When brahmacharya — celibacy — is observed,more psychic energy gets stored at the base, more energyis made available for higher mental life and more energyflows into the brain. This extra energy, which is transmuted sexenergy, is called ojas. It imparts a new retentive and graspingpower to the brain known as medha. More important, it adds tothe spiritual reserves of the aspirant and ultimately enables himor her to gain supersensuous perception. 37Granthis or KnotsThe ida and the pingala go up spirally, alternating from left toright and from right to left, forming a loop around each chakra.They originate from the common centre of muladhara at the baseof the spine, but at the top their ends are free. However, there arethree points called granthis or knots where they seem toanastamose or conjoin. These knots, which act as barriers to thefree flow of prana, represent three levels of psychophysical life.The first knot is below the navel and is called brahma-granthi.When the flow of energy is restricted to this region, instinctivedrives like hunger, thirst and sense pleasure dominate the mind.The second knot is below the heart and is called vishnu-granthi.This is the region of the emotional life of man. The third knot isbelow the eyebrows and is called rudra-granthi. This is the areaof intellectual activity.When lower desires and appetites become strong, prana getsas it were short-circuited at the first knot, and very little energyreaches the higher centres. When the mind becomes restless itusually activates the lower centres first. Even when a persondoes not consciously indulge in sensual pleasures, a restlessmind is enough to rouse the lower centres, especially thesex-center. If one wants to be freed from the attack of lowerthoughts, the first step is to attain a deep calmness of mind. A37. For Swami Vivekananda’s views on this see The Complete Works of SwamiViviekananda (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1978), vol. 6, pp. 130-31.