Excerpt from the book Science of Religion (1924)
by Swami Yogananda
Now I have to enter into a little physiology, which will enable us to understand the method, at least in a general way. I must describe the work of the main centers and the electrical current that flows from the brain through these centers to the outer and internal organs and keeps them vibrating with life.
There are six main centers through which Pranic Current, Vital Current, or Life Electricity from the brain is discharged throughout the nervous system. These are:
Medulla-center
Cervical-center
Dorsal-center
Lumbar-center
Sacral-center
Coccygeal-center
The brain is the supreme electrical PowerHouse (supreme center). All the centers are connected with one another and act under the influence of the supreme center (brain cells).
The brain-cells discharge life current, or electricity, through these cells, which in turn discharge electricity to the different efferent and afferent nerves which respectively carry motor impulse and sensation of touch, sight, etc.
This electrical flow from the brain is the life of the organism (of its internal and external organs), and it is this electrical medium through which all our sensation reports reach the brain and cause thought disturbances.
The Self, if it wishes effectively to shut out the disturbing reports of bodily sensations (which are also the occasions of the rise of the thought-series), must control and concentrate the electrical flow and draw it back from the nervous system as a whole to the seven main centers (including the brain), so that by this process it may give the outer and internal organs perfect rest.
In sleep, the electrical conductivity between the brain and the outer organs is partially inhibited, so that ordinary sensations of sound, touch, etc., cannot reach the brain. But because this inhibition is not complete, a sufficiently strong stimulus from without restores this electrical conductivity and is reported to the brain, awakening the person. Yet always in sleep there is a steady electrical flow into the internal organs,–heart, lungs, etc.,–so that they keep on throbbing and working. As the control of life electricity in sleep is not complete, bodily sensations of discomfort, disease, or strong outside stimuli disturb it.
But through a scientific process of control, which is not here described in detail, we can simultaneously control the external and internal organs of the system in a perfect way.
That is the ultimate result of practice. But it will take long, long years to attain that perfect control.
As after sleep, which is rest, the outer organs are invigorated, so the internal organs, after rest, as a result of the practice of this scientific method, are greatly vitalized, and with the consequent increase in their working power life is prolonged.
As we do not fear to go to sleep, lest for the time being the outer organs remain inert, so we ought not fear to practice death, i.e., give rest to the internal organs. Death will then be under our control; for when we think this bodily house is unfit and broken, we shall be able to leave it of our own accord. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15, 26.)
We may describe the process thus: If the main telephone office in a town is permanently connected by wires with different parts of the town, men telephoning from those parts can always, even against the will of the authorities of the main telephone office, send messages to the central office through the medium of the electric current running along the connecting wires.
If the main telephone office wishes to stop communication with the different parts, it can turn off the main electrical switch and there will be no flow to the different quarters of the town.
Similarly, the scientific method teaches a process enabling us to draw to its central part–spine and brain–the life current distributed throughout the organs and other parts of the body.
The process, roughly speaking, lies in magnetizing the spinal column, which contains the seven main centers, with the result that the distributed life electricity is drawn back to the original centers of discharge and is experienced in the form of light.
In this state the spiritual Self can consciously free itself from its bodily and mental disturbances.
The spiritual Self is, as it were, being disturbed, even against its wish, by the telephone reports from two classes of people–gentlemen (thoughts) and low class people–(bodily sensations). In order to break connection with them it has only to draw away the electricity flowing through the telephone wires to the central battery of its house by turning off the switch (i.e., practice the fourth method), in order to enjoy relief.
Attention is the great director and discharger of energy. It is the active cause of the discharge of the electrical life current from the brain to the sensory and motor nerves.
For example, we drive away a troublesome fly by discharging, through the power of attention, the proper electrical current along the motor nerves, thereby producing the desired movements. I cite this to give an idea of the power by which the electrical flow of the system can be controlled and drawn back to its seven centers.
It is of these seven star-like centers and their mystery that we find mention even in the chapter on revelation in the Bible. St. John experienced these seven centers as seven stars while he was in the spirit. “The mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest, write them in a book.”–Revelation 1: 19, 20.
It should be noted that when I say the electrical flow of the body is controlled, I mean all electrical currents, whether flowing voluntarily or involuntarily.
In conclusion I wish to describe the nature of the states which emerge when the electrical flow is completely controlled.
In the beginning a most attractive sensation is felt in the course of magnetizing the spinal column.
But continued and long practice will bring about a state of conscious bliss which counteracts the exciting state of our body-consciousness. This blissful state has been described as our universal aim and highest necessity, because in it we are really conscious of God, or Bliss, and feel the expansion of our real selves.
The more frequently this is experienced, the more our narrow individuality falls away, the sooner the state of universality is reached, and the closer and more direct is our touch with what we know as God.
Religion is really nothing but the merging of our individuality in universality. Therefore, in the consciousness of this blissful state we ascend the steps of religion. We leave the noxious atmosphere of the senses and vagrant thoughts and come to a region of Heavenly Bliss.
We learn by this process what will be found to be universally true. When by constant practice the consciousness of this blissful state of our spiritual Self becomes real we find ourselves always in the holy presence of the blissful God in us.
We discharge our duties better, having an eye more for the duties themselves than for our “egoism” and the pleasure-pain consciousness rising therefrom. Then we can solve the mystery of existence and impart real meaning to what is known as life.