Yoga s

170 YOGA SŪTRAS
Commentary:
The practice of suppressing hunger and thirst is part of Hatha yoga. The
purpose of this is to get the life force to cease its independent activities. A
Hatha yogi endeavors to bring the life force under his control, not to stop it
from functioning but to cease its independent activities which are counter
productive to the aims of yoga. Thus, a yogi surcharges and subsequently
purifies the energy gyrating centers (chakras) one by one, beginning at the base
of the spine.
Some people feel that they can use rāja yoga to purify the chakras from the
top downwards, from the brow or crown chakra. Actually this cannot be done,
except in a person’s imagination. One has to do kuṇḍalini yoga by a vigor
practice like bhastrika prāṇāyāma. By charging the body with prāṇa and
pushing it down into the passages which are filled with apana, one causes
purification from the base chakra upwards. It takes a certain amount of
practice according to the extent of impurities.
A yogi does cause his hunger and thirst to be suppressed initially when he
sets out to control those urges, but over a time of practice, his subtle body
changes and the urges for solid and liquid food go away. This is because the
throat chakra become altered.
Of course a yogi can be degraded, because whatever low habits or vices he
acquired in the past, he can again take up in the future if he is not careful, or if
he is not transferred into a dimension where such sordid aspects are
unavailable.
Verse 32
kªmRnaf(a< SwEyRm!
kūrmanāḍyāṃ sthairyam
kūrma – tortoise, a particular subtle nerve; nāḍyāṁ – on the nadi or subtle
nerve; sthairyam – steadiness.
By the complete restraint of the mento-emotional energy
in focusing on the kurmanadi subtle nerve,
a yogi acquires steadiness of his psyche.
Commentary:
This has to do with being ready to enter samādhi, which is continuous
effortless linkage of one’s attention to a higher concentration force, object or
person. Unless one can keep his body in a steady pose, preferably the
padmāsana lotus posture, and also have the bodily urges like hunger quelled
completely, he cannot enter into samādhi. Śrī Patañjali brings this to our
attention at this point.
The kurmanadi is supposed to be located below the gullet. In other words if
one has not stilled the gross and subtle nerves in this area, one will not be able
to enter samādhi. When those nerves are stilled, the life force gives up its effort
to protect and overly maintain the lower part of the body, the part which is
lower than the neck. Unless the life force can be relieved from its creature
survival duties, it does not allow the person to enter samādhi.