| 13. Holding erect
and still the body, the head and the neck, firm, gazing on the tip of his
noses without looking around ;An erect body may be in motion; hence the
qualification still. He is to gaze as ii were on the tip of his nose. Here
we have to understand the words as it were; for, the Lord means to prescribe,
not the very act of gazing on the tip of his nose, but the fixing of the
eyesight within (y withdrawing it from external objects); and this, of course,
depends on the steadiness of mind. If, on the other hand, the very act of
gazing on the tip of his nose were meant here, then the mind would be fixed
only there, not on the Self. As a matter of fact, the Yogin is to concentrate
his mind on the Self, as will be taught in vi. 25, Making the mind dwell
in the Self. Wherefore the words as it were being understood, gazing means
here the fixing of the eye sight within: |
