The practice of pranayama, the correct
breathing technique, helps to manipulate our energies. Most of us breathe
incorrectly (only thoracic ally not using our abdomen, thereby utilizing only
half of our lung capacity). Pranayama is a technique where in it re-educates our
breathing process, helps to release tensions and develop a relaxed state of
mind. It balances our nervous system, reduces the need for sleep and encourages
creative thinking. Increasing oxygen to our brain, improves mental clarity,
alertness and physical wellbeing.
It has been proved beyond doubt that
Pranayama is a very important means for preventing and curing many ailments.
Pranayama is the fourth part of the eight-fold Yoga described in the Yogasutra
of Patanjali.
Pranayama is
also mentioned in the Gita, which is, by far, the most popular book on yoga. But
a detailed account of how pranayama is to be practiced is not found in the Gita
or the Yogasutra. For that we have to turn to the texts of Hathayoga and to some
later Upanishads which are called Yoga-upanishads; These texts are of
approximately the fifteenth century AD, and later. It should not be concluded
from this that the techniques of pranayama have been known only for the last
five hundred years. Many direct and indirect references to pranayama, what it
car do, why it is practiced, and what its importance is, occur in Vedic
literature, in ancient Upanishads, Smritis, Puranas. and treatises such as the
Yogavasistha. This shows that acknowledge of pranayama and its practices was known
since the time of the Vedic rishis. But it seems quite certain that the practice
of pranayama was taught to very few. It was never widespread. Even the few who
learned it, followed it more as a part of religious observances than as a
discipline for the body and mind.
The credit for
making the practice of pranayama popular as a discipline in its own right and as
a means for maintaining the health of the body and mind goes to the followers of
Hathayoga. They gave it a place of great importance among the practices of
Hathayoga, and it was they who described various techniques of pranayama,
emphasizing the utility of each of them. Hathayoga is said to consist of four
main types of practices, namely, asana, pranayama, mudras, and nadanusandhana,
that is, being aware of the inner sounds. These four types of practices are
supposed to lead ultimately to the state of sarnadhi, which would bestow upon
the individual aspirant of yoga absolute knowledge, or self-knowledge, which in
its turn leads to emancipation or liberation from the cycle of rebirths.
Pranayama is
control of breath
In simple terms
pranayama may be called the control of the breath. Its essence lies in the
modification of our normal process of breathing. Breathing is an act in which we
take air from the atmosphere into our lungs, absorb the oxygen from it into our
blood, and expel the air again into the atmosphere together with carbon-di-oxide
end water vapor. This act of inhalation and exhalation is repeated every four
to five seconds. Thus normally we breathe about fifteen times every minute, each
time taking about 500 ml. of air into the lungs. So we inhale and exhale
approximately seven liters of air per minute. Every modification of this normal
breathing process would not count as pranayama. The normal breathing pattern
shows marked changes under various conditions. For instance, while we are
lifting or carrying loads, walking uphill, running, or doing any physical
exercise we breathe more rapidly and more forcefully. At high altitudes, in a
rarefied atmosphere our breathing becomes heavy. Its pattern changes with
emotional excitement and in the case of disorders such as asthma, tuberculosis,
bronchitis and other lung affections. Modification of breathing under these
conditions is brought about involuntarily and perhaps without awareness of it
unless there is difficulty in breathing. In fact we are hardly ever aware of the
fact that we are breathing.
Pranayama
consists of modifications of the breathing process which we bring about
deliberately and consciously. We can modify breathing in three different ways:
1.
By inhaling and exhaling rapidly, taking shallow breaths.
2. By inhaling and exhaling
slowly, taking long or deep breaths.
3. By stopping the act of
breathing altogether.
The first way of modifying
breathing is not usually included in pranayama proper, although it is sometimes
closely associated with it. The second and third ways mentioned above do belong
to the domain of pranayama. In fact, pranayama practice may very well be
summarized in these two ways.
There is one more condition to be
fulfilled if any breathing modification is to be called pranayama. That is
regarding the posture. Pranayama is practiced in a sitting posture. There are
about half a dozen postures available for this purpose. They are called
meditation postures, because they are very suitable for meditation. The most
renowned among them is Siddhasana. The simplest and most comfortable and less
strenuous is Swastikasana. Padmasana is the one which is most recommended
traditionally for pranayama. We shall describe these postures in detail in a
later chapter. It may be enough to mention here that pranayamais defined by
Patanjali as a modification of breathing in a sitting posture which is steady
and comfortable. Such a posture is an essential part of pranayama.
Thus pranayama
is a complex act in which after assuming a suitable posture the student inhales
and exhales slowly, deeply, and completely, and also stops the breath.
Inhalation in pranayama is called parka, which literally means ‘the act of
filling’; Exhalation is called recheck, meaning ‘the act of emptying'. Retention
of breath is called kumbhaka Kumbha means a water pot. Just as a water pot holds
water when it is filled with it, so in kumbhaka the breath is held after filling
the lungs. Actually, kumbhaka can be practiced in two ways. We can hold the
breath in after a puraka, or we can hold the breath out after a rechaka. The
first variety is recommended much more in traditional books. It is called
abhyantara kumbhaka or antah-kumbhaka. The second variety of kumbhaka is called
babyakambhaka.
How did pranayama
originate
Howsoever we define pranayama,
that is to say, whether we make kumbhaka an indispensable part of it or not, one
essential feature of pranayama according to any definition, is, that it involves
a control of breath. Breath is called prana in Sanskrit. Prana also means the
soul. In the word pranayama prana does not mean the soul, but the breath The
association of these two meanings of the word prana is obviously quite close.
Breath and life go together. When any living being dies, breathing stops. This
close association between breath and the soul attracted the attention of the
ancient Aryans more, because they believed in a cycle of rebirths, until the
soul became emancipated by attaining moksha or mukti.
This is called the belief in
transmigration of the soul. This belief is very clearly expressed in the
following slakes of the Bhagavadgita:
``Just as one throws away old
clothes and takes new ones, so, too, the soul, i.e., the dweller in the body,
leaves old bodies and enters into new ones." (Gita: II.29)
"Whosoever is born is sure to
die, and one who dies is sure to be born again. This cycle is unavoidable. Hence
it is no use being unhappy about it." (Gita: Il.27)
The observation that so long as
one is breathing one is living, and that when the breath stops life comes to an
end, accompanied by the belief that the soul transmigrates from birth to birth,
must have played an important role in the initial ideas about pranayama. Our
ancients first came to see that for the preservation of life we must preserve
breath, and preserving breath entails two things, i.e., breathing slowly, and
then not breathing (for a short time) at all. This idea was further strengthened
by the belief that the length of one's life is to be measured not in terms of
days or years, but in terms of how many times one is destined to breathe. From
the fact that the stoppage of breath and the end of one's life coincide, our
ancients probably conceived the idea that when the number of breaths one was
destined to take was exhausted, one could not live any longer. This idea is
conveyed even today in phrases like 'breathing one's last,' for indicating
death.
The idea that the breaths of
everyone of us are numbered, that our life-span is dependent on how many times
we shall breathe in a given life, and that, as a consequence of this fact, we
must reduce the number of breaths so as to live longer— this idea was
responsible for the origin of pranayama. We have this idea clearly mentioned at
several places in the ancient texts on pranayama. For instance, it is declared
in the Gorakshapaddhati (I.93), that
"Due to fear of death even
Brahma, the Lord of creation, keeps on practicing pranayama, and so do
manyyogisand minis. Hence it is recommended that a student of yoga must always
control his breath."
In the same manner the
Hathayoga-pradipika (II.39) says,
"All the gods including Lord
Brahma became devoted to the practice of pranayama because they were afraid of
death. We the mortals should follow the same path and control the breath."
