Showing posts with label prana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prana. Show all posts

Friday, 15 July 2011

Swami Sivananda on Pranayama

Source: Swami Sivananda’s book ‘Essence of Yoga’


Pranayama is an exact science. It is the fourth Anga or limb of Ashtanga Yoga. It is the regulation of breath or control of Prana.

Pranayama steadies the mind, augments the gastric fire, energises digestion, invigorates the nerves, destroys the Rajas, destroys all diseases, removes all laziness, makes the body light and healthy and awakens Kundalini.

Pranayama should be practiced when the stomach is empty. Be regular in your practice. Do not take bath immediately after the practice. Do not practise Kumbhaka or retention of breath in the beginning. Have only slow and mild Puraka (inhalation) and Rechaka (exhalation). Do not strain the breath beyond your capacity. Keep the ratio for Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka as 1:4:2. Exhale very very slowly.

Sit on Padma, Siddha or Sukha Asana. Keep the head, neck and trunk in a straight line. Inhale slowly through the left nostril and retain the breath according to the ratio, then exhale slowly through the right nostril. This is half process of Pranayama. Then inhale through the right nostril, retain and exhale through the left nostril. Do not retain the breath for more than one or two minutes.

Do 10 or 20 Pranayamas according to your capacity. Do not fatigue yourself. Increase the number gradually. You can go up to 16:64:32. This is Sukhapurvaka or easy comfortable Pranayama.

Practise Sitali in summer. This will purify your blood and cool the system too. Practise Bhastrika in winter. This will cure asthma and consumption. Repeat ’Om’ or ‘Rama’ mentally during the practice. Observe Brahmacharya and diet-control. You will derive maximum benefits and will quickly purify the Nadis or nerves.

Prana and mind are intimately related to each other. If you control Prana, the mind will also be controlled. If you control the mind, the Prana will be automatically controlled. Prana is related to mind, and through it to will and through will to the individual soul and through individual soul to the Supreme Soul.

Start the practice this very second in right earnest. Control the breath and calm the mind. Steady the breath and enter Samadhi. Restrain the breath and lengthen the life. Subdue the breath and become a Yogi, a dynamo of power, peace, bliss and happiness.




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Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Kundalini and Prana

Source: http://www.kundalini-shaktipat.com

Regulating Prana is often a major aspect of a Kundalini Awakening. The word “Prana” is a Sanskrit word from India, and means “the energy life force”. Every philosophy has its own word for the same thing. From China the word is “Ch’i” meaning “present in all matter”. The Greeks called this all-present life force “Pneuma”. Franz Anton Mesmer called it “Animal Magnetism”, and later recognized it as a “universal energy”.

All matter has an aura, an invisible luminous energy field. This invisible energy can be seen by clairvoyants, and photographed using Kirlian photography, which is based on an extremely high voltage creating a high electrical frequency field, and which allows this etheric body, or aura, to become visible when viewed on light-sensitive paper.

Every person has two “phantoms”, an etheric body, consisting of an inner aura that follows the contours approximately 4 to 6 inches out from your physical body, and an outer aura, which protrudes approximately 3 feet away from the body.

When we become sick it is due to a leak of pranic energy from the inner or outer aura. The amount of purity and the circulation of prana through our etheric body will determine the quality of our health, and also the quality of our emotional and mental well-being, including our thinking.


From the surface of the body are perpendicular etheric rays projecting outwards, towards the perimeter of the outer aura. These are your health rays and work as a force field to protect the whole body from germs and disease. Toxins and the bodies’ pollutants are driven out through these health rays. When a person is weak or sick, these health rays can droop and also become tangled.

With a healthy person, the health rays are clairvoyantly seen as fine bright white lines; but with a sick person, or someone with a lot of toxins in their body, these fine white lines or rays look greyish in appearance and are coarse rather than fine. Beyond these health rays, the aura, which is an inverted egg shape, is multi-coloured, and the colours change depending upon various influences including the physical, mental, and emotional states of the person.
Basically it is this etheric body that is the vehicle for pranic energy. You could say that this aura is the vehicle or container surrounding our physical body that holds and contains our consciousness.

Through clairvoyance and Kirlian photography it has been seen that clogged or dwindling areas of pranic energy appears in the etheric body prior to a disease of the physical body. It has also been seen that a man will still retain his etheric double, his inner aura after the amputation of a limb. Thus this is an explanation for phantom limb pain.

The more man starts to understand and to know about his own body, the more amazing and wonderful he realizes it is.

Only nature can heal itself. The human body can repair itself via the prana it breathes, via the prana from the food it eats, and the water it drinks. The body can also be healed by pranic energy directed by another person. Mesmer said that he could heal another person simply by his touch and by the direction of a flow of Universal energy.

There are four main types of prana that the human body absorbs. Air prana, breathed in, solar prana from the sun, and of course too much solar prana can be bad for us, causing sunburn and sunstroke. Ground prana, which is absorbed through the feet and especially by walking barefoot, or by lying on the ground and lastly, a certain amount of prana from the fresh food we eat and water we drink.

The easiest way to absorb extra pranic energy is from breathing exercises. This is a science in itself known to the Indian yogis for thousands of years and is called “pranayama”.


Certain breathing exercises may produce clairvoyant powers. These clairvoyant powers are derived from residues of the kundalini energy. The famous Indian monk Swami Vivekananda states in his own commentaries that all prayers and miracles are the direct result of kundalini energy and not from an external source.

The powers derived from pranayama are gained from the potency and strength of the thought behind the breath. Affirmations are more potent when they are focused on the outward breath. Another key here is in the aphorism, “Energy follows thought”.

Any form of yogic breathing is extremely powerful. In my opinion the technique and correct method is not as important as intention and moderation. This cannot be stressed enough. Intention and moderation. Pranayama, or yoga breathing cleanses the aura, the chakras, and the nadis, the energy channels. Once these are purified and cleansed it makes an easier passage for the kundalini.

I used to practice tree hugging. I had an old beech tree that I built a relationship with. I would approach the tree, hug it, and ask the tree for some of its surplus pranic energy. Trees are known for extruding vast amounts of prana, especially old pine trees. I would then sit under the tree and do very slow deep rhythmic breathing for around ten to fifteen minutes. My whole body would begin to tingle. I would visualize the pranic energy filling my chakras, filling my body, with pure white light. I practiced this for around two months. It was during this time I had spontaneous kundalini awakening. Could it be that a tree, an old beech tree was to become my biggest teacher in life. “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. Is this what happened for Buddha? (So I have heard)


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