Satyopanisad

[Guest guest]

Swami! Pranayama, breath control, some say, is important on the spiritual path.

Would you please tell us about it?

 

Pranayama, breath control, has to be undertaken in an exact and perfect way

under the care and guidance of a Guru. It leads to danger if it is done

imperfectly and irregularly.

 

There are chiefly three steps in pranayama or breathing exercise. The first one

is purakam, inhalation. The second is holding the breath or the air breathed in.

This is called kumbhakam, retention. The third stage is exhalation or recakam.

The important, point here is that, the time taken during all these three stages

must be equal. It means that the time taken for purakam must be the same as for

kumbhakam. Similarly, the time taken for kumbhakam must be the same as for

recakam.

 

In the human body there are shadcakras, six life sustaining points on the

vertebral column. The lowest is called muladhara cakra, fundamental, primordial

life sustaining point at the bottom. In pranayama, during the second step,

kumbhakam, holding the breath, kundalini starts moving upward being restless due

to the lack of supply of air across the sadcakras. On the top lies sahasrara

cakra, head region. There exists a jyoti, divine light surrounded by dalas,

petals. The sahasrara cakra is like a thousand petalled lotus flower. The petals

touch the central jyoti when one has asura sampatti, demonic qualities. If one

has daivi sampatti, divine qualities the jyoti starts touching the petals. Thus,

kundalini affects the human body during this course of sadhana. A living being

taking many breaths per day is short lived. A dog takes many breaths. So, its

life span is short. Snakes and mongooses take a few breaths per day. They live

long. The breathing exercise has an influence on the life span.