Living in Mysore and attending a yoga therapy program, I have decided to write few lines about Pranayama.
So, I took this occasion to recollect my little understanding about this deep
science, according to my last studies based on two root texts of Hatha Yoga’s
tradition, the “Hatha Yoga Pradipika” written by Swami Swatmarama and the “Yoga
Sutras” composed by the sage Patanjali.
Since I was a child I used to hear my mother speaking about
prana, as “life force”, a kind of mystical energy flowing inside our body which
main aim is to keep us alive and conscious beings.
But it was only during my first hatha yoga course at Mumbai
Institute of Yoga that I was really introduced to the concept of pranayama.
I have been taught that Hatha Yoga, as described by the sage
Patanjali, is divided into eight steps, therefore it is called Ashtanga
(eight-limbed) Yoga. The first two steps yama and niyama, are related to our
moral conduct as a sentient beings, and personal observances. Based on those,
we can practice asanas, physical postures in order to prepare our body to pranayama’s
practice, often translated as “control of the breath”.
BKS Iyengar
, explains
very clearly the meaning of this practice:
“Hatha yoga texts emphasise the restraint of
energy, which can be more easily achieved than the restraint of the
fluctuations of the mind. A steady and mindful inbreath and outbreath minimises
the fluctuations and helps to stabilise the mind. Once this steadiness has been established through pranayama, the senses
can be withdrawn from their objects. This is pratyahara.
Pratyahara must be established before dhyana (concentration) can take place.
Dhyana flows into
dharana
(meditation) and dharana into samadhi.
The last three cannot be described, only
experienced.”
BKS Iyengar explains clearly how pranayama’s practice will
lead the practitioner to the last four steps of Ashtanga Yoga (pratyahara, dhyana, dharani and samadhi),
based on the idea that the prana is actually the intermediate link between
physical body and the mind. So, in order to control our wandering thoughts,
emotions, desires, and so on, would be very useful to learn how to control and
direct accordingly to our wish the energy that flows in our body. In another
words, if the energy can flow freely and without any blockages, we won’t be
slaves of our monkey mind anymore.
So, in the texts that I have studied and even accordingly to
my little experience, a practitioner needs to develop a quite good asanas
practice and an healthy body regarding the physical level, and good moral
discipline acquired by observing of yama and niyama rules, regarding the mental
and emotional level.
Only at that point, the practitioner would really feel the pure
and unselfish desire to go further, embracing the practice of pranayama. Actually,
my personal idea, is that only once yoga asana’s practice has reached a certain
level, pranayama’s pratice will flourish naturally and smoothly inside the
practitioner.
In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika
’s text in
the second chapter, we can find a proper description about when pranayama
should be practiced (according to ashtanga yoga system) and for which purpose.
(II.1) Thus being established in asana and having
control (of the body), taking a balanced diet; pranayama should be practiced
accordingly to the instructions of the guru.
(II.2) When prana moves, chitta (the mental force)
moves. When prana is without movement, chitta is without movement. By this
(steadiness of prana) the yogi attains steadiness and should thus restrain teh
vayu (air).
(II.3) As long as the vayu (air and prana) remains
in the body, that is called life. Death is when it leaves the body. Therefore,
retain vayu.
(II.4) The vital air does not pass in the middle
channel because the nadis are full of impurities. So how can the state of
unmani (deep concentration) arise and how can perfection or siddhi come about?
(II.5) When all the nadis and chakras which are
full of impurities are purified, then the yogi is able to retain the prana.
(II.6) Therefore pranayama should be done daily
with a sattwic state of mind so that the impurities are driven out of shusumma
nadi and purification occurs.
So, in these verses, it is said that only when our nadis are
totally purified we would be able to practice pranamaya successfully (according
to the texts we have 72,000 nadis in our body, energy channels that allow the
prana flow in our bodies). The idea beyond pranayama’s practice is to be able
to control our inner energy (prana), and directed it accordingly to our wish,
into the central channel running beyond our spine, called sushumma.
But of course, it is not only a merely physical (or
energetic) activity, the practice of pranayama involves first of all a very
strong and pure morality (“mind in sattvic condition”), based naturally on a
strong feeling of unselfishness. Unselfishness would arise naturally only
through the practice of yama and niyama. Though discipline, studying,
reflection and so on. So, it would be really interesting to point out at this
point, how actually the eight limbs of yoga, even if they are presented as a
gratuated path, are actually not separated one from each others, but actually
they have to be practiced all together, since the last ones are based on the
first ones.
What sages say is that it is only when the prana will run
through sushumma, that it would be possible for the practitioner to reach
higher state of consciousness and wisdom. In the texts it is also explained how
to direct the prana into the central channel, through the art of retention.
Why retention? Because it is only during the retention that
we can assimilate, store and eventually stabilized the prana.
In other word, according to my understanding, it is only
during the retention of the breath that the yogi can actually experienced the
non-duality between innner and outer, and really perceive that there is
actually no real difference between inside one’s body and outside one’s body.
This distintion is a mere concept and creation of our own mind. Stopping the
air movement in and out from our body, but still keep it alive, through the
storage of the prana, we might be eventually able to experience the
identification with the pure consciousness, and experience the emptiness of the
body and of the mind, changing our point of view, watching the inside from
outside, instead of watching the outside from a body or mind’s perspective
based on a wrong identification (with body or mind).
In the Yoga Sutras composed by Patanjali
we can
find few beautiful verses that explain further about Pranayama.
(I.34) The mind may
also be calmed by expulsion and retention of the breath.
(II.49) After
mastering posture, one must practice control of the prana (pranayama) by
stopping the motions of inhalation and exhalation.
(II.50) The breath may
be stopped externally or internally, or checked in mid-motion, and regulated
according to place, time and a fixed numbers of moments, so that the stoppage
is either protacted or brief.
(II.51) The fourth
kind of pranayama is the stoppage of the breath which is caused by
concentration upon external or internal objects.
(II.52) As the result
of this, the covering of Inner Light is removed.
In this last verse, Patanjali explains how eventually,
through the practice of pranayama, the mind becomes purified and the ignorance,
that is actually the root cause of all the pain that our ordinary human
existence experiences, would be gradually dispelled.
In other words, ultimate wisdom will arise, and once we
would be really able to “see”, and abide in our real essence, than we won’t be
anymore wondering in the endless samsara, that again it is just a state of an
impure mind.
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| Chakras and channels system |
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Prana channeling into the central channel (image from Tibetan tantric's practices)
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This paper embodies the research done by me as a part
of Yoga Therapist training 2016 held by Atmavikasa center of yogic sciences,
Mysore, India www.atmavikasayoga.in
Hatha Yoga Pradipika, commentary by Swami Muktibodhananda
(Bihar School of Yoga)
