1.36. Or the state of sorrowless Light

Hey, a Sutra I can comment on! I was not a big fan of the last one, but as one of my good friends pointed out, it might be good to use other translations. I have been using the one from

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yogasutr.htm

for continuities sake. So here we go again.

Have you seen those spots in the darkness after you close your eyes? Science calls this biophotonic light and has it's own theories on it:

http://scienceline.org/2014/12/why-do-we-see-colors-with-our-eyes-closed/

These lights have a deeper meaning in Yoga. In fact, they form one of the cornerstones of Kriya Yoga called the Jyoti Mudra. Mystically speaking, those lights are considered a reflection of the third eye chakra. According to Yoga, if you practice the Jyoti Mudra (Jyoti means light in Sanskrit) a practitioner can get the blobs to form a circle of light that looks like a golden iris. Once this form can be held without effort, the meditator tries to consciously move through the iris.

Yoga states that this is the doorway through which the soul passes upon death, or the tunnel of light which we pass through on our way to the afterlife.

I have done the Jyoti Mudra for many years and I can tell you, at least, that the golden iris exists . I have never been able to hold it without effort for more then a minute or so. At one point, I had the iris become a three dimensional tunnel. In another case, the door opened to visions of multicolored lights in the forms of DNA strands. I was high as s kite at that point, so does that even count?

I do not suggest practicing the Jyoti Mudra on it's own. When I used to do it, it was part of a full meditation routine. It's a nice compliment to it though. Paramahasa Yogananda has a great article about it here:

http://www.yogananda.com.au/pyr/pyr_eye1.html