Fw: Vedic Pranayama

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Dear Sriman SribhAshyam :

 

adiyEn is releasing your most interesting mail

on Vedic PrANAyAmam to selected web pages ,

where Vaidhika anushtAthAs might benefit .

 

Thanks very much ,

V.Sadagopan

-

Sribhashyam

sgopan

Monday, February 21, 2005 4:27 AM

Vedic Pranayama

 

 

Neither a sharp sword, nor an infuriated serpent is so much killing, as anger

which resides in our own mind.

Ni une épée pointue, ni un serpent exaspéré ne sont autant meurtrier, que la

colère qui réside dans notre propre esprit.

 

Dear Sri Sadagopan,

Namaskaram.

I am late by a week.

The following is some indications on the two types of Pranayama we find in our

Vedic rituals. You may publish it in your web groups.

Respectful thoughts.

 

 

Vedic Pranayama

 

Sri T.K.Sribhashyam

 

It was in 1955 that I first heard of the technique of Vedic Prânâyâma. It

was at the time of my samâshrayanam by His Holiness Sri Abhinava Ranganatha

Parabramha Parakala Swamy. The next year, my father, during my Prathama

Upâkarma with Gâyatri hôma, my father, Sri T. Krishnamacharya explained to me

in detail the intricacies of the Vedic Prânâyama. While we were living in

Madras, many young bramhins, used to pay visit my father, the evening of their

upanayanam, to obtain his âshirvâdam. After blessing them with some dry

fruits and sugar candy he would to them the technique, the reason and the

importance of vedic prânâyâma.

 

Without going into all the technical details, I share with you all, my little

knowledge of the most important aspect of a veda samskâra: the prânâyâma in

nitya and vishesha karma.

 

 

 

Om bhu:, om bhuva:, om suva:, om maha:, om jana:, om tapa:, om satyam:;

 

Om tatsavithuhu varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyoyonah prachodaya-at;

 

Om âpo jyoti raso amrutham bramha bhurbhuvassuvar OM.

 

 

 

You all know that in any Veda Samskâra, you do Prânâyâma very often.

 

A Prânâyâma has a Puraka (Inhalation) through left nostril, kumbhaka (holding

of breath after inhalation) and a Rechaka through right nostril. During this

Prânâyâma, the Tripada Gâyatri is recited mentally. It is also called

(Vyahruthi Mantra).

 

For Prânâyâma, the Gâyatri mantra is divided into three pâdas:

 

First pâda: Om bhu:, om bhuva:, om suva:, om maha:, om jana:, om tapa:, om

satyam

 

Second pâda: Om tatsavithuhu varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyoyonah

prachodaya-at

 

Third pâda: Om âpo jyoti raso amrutham bramha bhurbhuvassuvar OM

 

The Gâyatri mantra has 24 akshara. If you apply the vedic chanting rules

specific to the Veda shâkha to which you belong to, you would take about 15 to

20 seconds for one repetition of Gâyatri.

 

During Puraka (through the left nostril), you recite mentally, the first Pâda

of Gâyatri; you hold the breath, reciting mentally the second Pâda of

Gâyatri; and during Rechaka (through the right nostril), you recite the third

Pâda of Gâyatri. Then you start your samkalpa.

 

In certain rituals you do three Prânâyâma, because the injunction would be

Trih prânânâyamya. In this case, the second Prânâyâma would start with

Puraka through right nostril, Kumbhaka and Rechaka through left nostril. The

third Prânâyâma would be same as the first one. The Prânâyâma time would

be (or should be) three times the time of one prânâyâma or say about

forty-five seconds.

 

On the other hand, the prânâyâma in a Gâyatri japa is different, since the

Gâyatri manta itself is :

 

Om bhurbhuvahsuvaha; om tatsaviturvarenyam bhargodevasya dhimahi; dhiyo yonah

prachodaya-at.

 

 

 

This Gâyatri japa can be recited mentally with or without prânâyâma. If you

do japa with prânâyâma, then the prânâyâma would be:

 

During Puraka, you recite one Gâyatri, during kumbhaka, you recite 1, 2, 3 or 4

Gâyatri and during rechaka, you recite 2 Gâyatri mantra. The prânâyâma

technique would be: Puraka, left nostril; kumbhaka; rechaka, right nostril;

puraka through right nostril; kumbhaka; rechaka through left nostril and so on.

The last rechaka would be through left nostril, since you will have to do a

prânâyâma for the Upasthâna samkalpa for which the first inhalation would be

left nostril where you use the first technique indicated above. As to the

number of prânâyâma, it would be “yatha shakti†i.e., according to your

capacity.

 

The time you would take for one Gâyatri mantra would be 7 seconds.

 

 

 

So, the Gâyatri mantra used in Prânâyâma is different from the Gâyatri japa

mantra, while the former is a vyahruthi, the latter is Gâyatri Mantra.

 

 

 

Our human existence is comprised of body, mind and soul (sharîra, manas or

chitta and âtma). Manas or chitta includes the mind, intellect and the ego.

 

In a Prânâyâma, Puraka purifies the body, Kumbhaka the mind and rechaka the

soul. Just as the entire universe is included in the 7 meters of Gâyatri

(Gâyatri, anushtup, bhruhati, pankti, trishtup, jagat and chandas), so too, our

existence by the triad of sharîra, manas and âtma.

 

The aim of the vedic Prânâyâma is to purify, at each section of a Samskâra

our body, mind and the soul. This is the reason why in any Vedic ritual,

âchamana, Nyâsa, Prânâyâma and Samkalpa come very often.

 

It is to make the soul transcend the 7 worlds (the first pâda of Gâyatri) that

we recite it during Puraka, so that this contemplation removes the hindrances

that the sharîra imposes on the soul (shârîraka aparâdha). Then we recite

the second pâda during Kumbhaka to clear the mind, intellect and the ego of all

their attraction towards the world of experience (prakruthika dosha) and during

Rechaka, we recite the third pâda of Gâyatri which is our prayer to Gâyatri

to make us one with the Supreme (aikathva). With this purified body, mind and

the soul that we should conduct our hôma, yajna or yâga or any vedic

samskâra.

 

Man is unstable by nature and so consciously or unconsciously loses the purity

of his body, mind and the soul. He is attracted by the physical sensations,

fascinated by the sense data and implicated in self-sense. This is the reason

why âchamana, Prânâyâma and Samkalpa are done very often in our vedic

rituals. In others words, it is to protect us from these attractions that

Prânâyâma is introduced after almost every 20 or 30 minutes of a ritual

including adhyayana? This is also the reason why âchamana, Prânâyâma and

Sankalpa are done if we move out from the vedi or if we talk of subjects outside

the frame of a ritual or when human emotions are put forth.

 

By the bye, have you counted the number of âchamana, Prânâyâma and samkalpa

you do in a sandhya vandana?

 

Incidentally, when you are sitting facing the east (purva abhi muka), God is in

front of you (Purva) while your Pitru are at your right (Dakshina), Prajâpathi

is at the west (Paschima) and the rishis are at your left (uthara). Compare this

with the 4 types of arghya offered (especially in upâkarma). In your right hand

you have these 4 divine beings. The space between the index and the little

finger; that between the index and the thumb; that between the wrist and the

little finger and space at the base of the palm. In the centre of the palm,

which is equivalent to hrudaya is the place of agni as well as Atma. (Remember:

our elders tell us not to “open the closed fists of a sleeping child, nor to

‘read’ the lines of the their palms)

 

In your yajnopavitha, the three sutra (cotton “threadsâ€) represent devamsha,

pitru amsha and rishi amsha. Each thread is woven with three cotton threads.

The knot is “bramha granthiâ€. In a vedic samkalpa, as in Gâyatri japa, you

keep this knot between the two palms, the back of the left palm placed on the

right thigh.

 

When you do any Prânâyâma, your Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka are the means

through which these divinities bless us through the common mantra of Gâyatri.

Hence, a vedic Prânâyâma is accompanied by Gâyatri.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May God bless you. Que Dieu vous bénisse.

 

T. K. Sribhashyam