The-Magic-Of-Yoga

Yoga for Sore Bodies

2012-02-04T12:34:00.000-08:00

Being a diabetic, and having a high Sugar can make one's body sore and stiff, and then one does not feel like doing Yoga or any exercise.

But Yoga is there to help you in different moods, even when you are feeling lazy, but you need to have some time and inclination. Well if we do not have health, what else we will then have? So need to take out time and have inclination!

Here are 4 Extreme Stretches which work at Joint Levels, besides working on Muscles:

1. Vakrah Sushiiptah Aasan - Crooked Sleeping Position: Go into Vajraa Aasan, where you go on you knees first and then try to squat on legs, with your legs behind on your buttocks - and not side ways to buttocks - and then you use your hands side wise to bring your rest of the body and back into a plain sleeping position. Your thigh and calf muscles and joints at knees would get the stretches.

2. SaMyat UditPada -SarvaAnga-Hal Asan - Continuous Lifted Leg-Should-Stand-Plough Position. One has to have prior experience with Sarvangaa Asan (Shoulder Stand) and Hal Asan (Plough Position). Here you go into a sleeping position, and in continuous rocking swings, you first go into Udita Pada (Lifted Legs), Sarvangaa Asan (Shoulder Stand) and Hal Asan (Plough Position). One needs to make sure the Hands are behind and stretched and clasped together.

3. Ek Bhujaa LuT Aasan - One Hand Rolling Posture. This will work on your shoulder joints and bi-ceps/tri-ceps. Lie down you left side with your left hand stretching away and perpendicular to your body. Now try to roll over your shoulder and body, with the opposite side, right side shoulder joint, kissing the ground. Then repeat this for the Right side.

4. Vakra Trikona Aasan - Crooked Triangular Posture. Go to famous Reclining Vishnu Posture, or Trikona Aasan, the Triangular Handed Side Reclining Posture. Now in that position, without relenting any three sides of the joints, go further side wise facing down. You back muscles would get the stretches.

Sometime I would share the Lazy stretches, which one can even do in the Bed.

Seven Personality Types - My Theory of Personality Types

2011-10-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

A few times in my career I have been rubbed over MBTI training on Personality Types, and then at Cisco, I tried to confound the Instructor with Sigma 4Cr for the 4 Vedic VaRNaa Classes. But I did not find these things very sticking and having much practical values.

Then while talking to High School Friends, I found an interesting pattern and related to Kundalini Awakening Phenomenon, which I underwent 3-4 years back over time. Only experiencing and surviving it would make one realize what a potent force it is. It is Science's Dark Energy, Chinese Chi and Vedic PraaNaa (which was the basis for Indian Kalaari where warriors could touch a "chakraa" or a nervous plexus and kill people, and banned by Britishers as they could not comprehend this power, but taken up by the Shaolin Monks from an Indian Monk called Buddhi Raja).

There are 7 Major Nervous Plexus, a.k.a. Chakras, along the spine, and many minor ones. They are the hubs where the efferent and afferent nerves meet up. One can read on Internet but they are Mooldhaara (Sacral), Swaadishtha (Genital), Agni (Solar), AnanthakaraN (Heart), Visuddh (Throat), and Shasaara (Brain's Pineal/Pitutatry Axis). One day I will go deep into the subject in this blog.

In one of the Upnishads, the evolution of man is extoled towards virtuousness. One's own evolution towards this path is where one center of consciousness resides. So depending on where one's consciousness is, that subject belonging to the Chakra would like to be stimulated.

And sometimes the external energy can stimulate these chakras to phenomenon beyond most of the people experiences. Just imagine these Chakras start behaving like individual Hearts - and sometimes they defy the logic of Science and Material Beings. But now there is a lot of evidence to respect this phenomenon and Medical Science does acknowledge this but without any explanation.

What I found, that the "Fart Topics/Jokes" would appeal everyone. Then "Sex Jokes/Topic" would appeal most people. Then "Food Topics" would appeal to lesser people and "Emotional Topics" would appeal further less people. Then the Music, Songs and Arts topic would appeal to a very few - and the rarest of rare people, would only be excited with the Knowledge World.

In the Knowledge Path, there is still an evolution to be followed to cross the Body, Mind, Intellect and Ego Sheaths. It is very much the onion reflecting the evolution of the Sympathetic Stem, the Limbic System, and the Cortex but in reverse.

A Beautiful Picture Describing the Vibrations of Different Chakras One Feels

2011-08-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Someone sent me a link to her Picasa Album, and thic picture really describes what one feels at different Nervous Plexus Centers - the Body Vibrating in different combinations and permutations, harmoniously and disharmoniously, sometimes in resonance and sometimes not in resonance, and connected with a mystical outside Energy called Prana or Chinese Chi. In this sense, I see Tibetan Buddhist Monks more advance and aware of this Energy like the Chinese Shaolin Temple folks.

If you know your Quantum Physics, and Fourier Series Theorem, then all the "s", "p", "d" and "f" orbitals are nothing but 3-D sum components of a Zero'th or N'th state "s" Orbital, which is a Sphere! This would be a perfect resonance case but others would be cases of different combinations and permutations I have mentioned.

This energy's mystical experience has been described in Autobiography of an Yogi - an international best seller for many decades. I have some other experiences which I will share one day. You would not believe it if I say it now, unless you have experienced it yourself.

More pictures are available here.

https://picasaweb.google.com/114372563833321197394/ChakraHealing

Bio Telekineseis - Demonstrating Relativistic Effects and Space (Time) Modification by Energy/Mass

2011-07-31T13:28:00.000-07:00

These videos show the presence of Yogic Prana, Chinese Chi, and Science's mysterious Dark Energy. It is the Ether which Maxwell and Einstein knew it but was discounted by a MM experiment where the Gross was used to detect the Subtle. How can a fish net be used to catch or detect the thin air?

One can shift this energy to modify the Space-Time curvature around the space in different parts of the body. Some people would have this natural ability and some would develop this over the years by practising Yoga, Tai-Chi, Meditation, etc. Actually they are already tuned to their Energy or would get more tuned to it over the years.

The first part shows visible modifications, but when one takes a measurement scale, and measures the modification, the readings come equal! It is because the Scale itself has got modified in the Space-Time around two regions of hands.

If frame-by-frame shot was done from the prependicular direction, one would have also noticed the growing, which has not come so clear in this angle of shot. When I have done this with legs, it becomes very clear.

The second part paradox can be further explained like this. Take two identical measuring beakers, with measurement markings, fill it with two differnt Refractive Indices Liquids, to the same marked levels. Now take two identical scales, and insert them vertically. The immersed scale portions would visibly look the same but their readings would read the same!

In this sense, the Space around the two hands have been modifed to have different density of the Ether, the Prana, the Chi or Science's current Dark Energy.

Similarly, mass is nothing but an near-infinite step-up function of density increase in Space vicinity, and it would then modify the Space around it (or the Space-Time curvature or slop in the Phase Plot of 3D Space with 1D TIme).

Einstein came very close to understanding this, and said Mass modifies Space-Time Fabric's Curvature and is the cause of Gravity. It was his mathematical handle to explain the effect of Mass on the surrounding Etheral Space. Using the Ether model, one can still explain all the SR and GR findings.

There is a dichotomy between SR/GR and QM laws and no one has explained why the Atomic Clocks, which obey the QM laws, yield to the laws of GR? The connection is the Etheral Space which is same at Atomic and Universe Levels and same at Microscopic and Macroscopic levels in terms of its "communicative" nature. This can also explain the Quantam Entanglement Experiments.

The Goal of Yoga - Its Implication on Mental and Physical Health

2011-07-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः ॥२॥
yogaś-citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ 2

When you are in a state of yoga, all misconceptions (vrittis) that can exist in the mutable aspect of human beings (chitta) disappear. 2

My Comments:

Everyone reaches this movement in their "ah" movement of focus and concentration, where their breath stops for a movement - in their creative movements of painting, poetry, meditation, singing, etc. One also reaches that state in Deep Sleep State, called Turiya.

Breath asserts the Mind, and Mind asserts the Body's Metabology, and Body's Metabology asserts the Breath. The example is that of a charioter controlling the two steeds, and the two steeds controlling the Charioteer. Here the Body and the Breath are the two steeds and the Mind is the Charioteer.

There is state in Yoga called Kevla Kumbha, and Nirvikalpa Samadhi - it is the cessation of the breath. Not the Pranic Breath but the Oxygen Breath, and Prana's are more subtler than Oxygen and contribute to the Oxygen stuff.

I have reached Kevla Kumbha state for many years - almost since 10 years but it became better over the years. Sometimes it is easy and somtimes hard. My record time is 3 hours in Shanti Om, and 2 hours in some James' Bond or Bourne movie. Inbetween the Yoga Asanas, one also can do micro meditations and reach Kevla Kumbha. And in Shav Asan, this is what suppose to happen - you go into a powerful deep sleep state but it is not a Tamasic or Lazy Inductive state.

Lying down on stomach with breath full, and not letting your lungs collapse, I can do this for long. Sometimes in good sessions, I have also gone to deep sleep state. But one can do this in Sitting Position, with Air Locks in mouth, and no movement of diaphram, costal muscles, inter clavical muscles, thoriac muscles, and nasal muscles.

What I have found, that I also produce Nitric Oxide based gases, and sometimes towards pure Nitrogen and sometimes towards Sulphide, if I have overeaten, and the NO I have found helps cure my Auto Immune and High BP (there are other techniques also which I would discuss later). There seems to be some connection between Mind-Kidneys/Adrelanin Gland - Liver/Alminantary Canal - and Breath Axis.

NO is an important cellular messenger molecule involved in many physiological and pathological processes. Low levels of NO production are important in protecting an organ such as the liver from ischemic damage. Chronic expression of NO is associated with various carcinomas and inflammatory conditions including juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and ulcerative colitis. NO also dilates blood vessels and acts a Neuro Transmitter.

Fixing Your Cold and Virus Infection With Yoga

2011-04-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAzzv5ytXZQ

When stomach goes in (diaphram is up), make sure breathing is out.

When stomach goes out (diaphram is down), make sure breathing is in.

Keep doing Kapalbhati (Bhastrika is better) - it is like dry blowing your inner linings where the bugs multiply in ordinary PSI living. But with KB, you do not let them multiply.

I say 12 + 6 hours, because one does this over 12 hours in some form of intense madness, and 6 hours to recover because you loose voice in the process, which you need to recover!!

Drink lot of liquids, oranges, Vit C, and rest.

Because of Yoga, I do not get Virus/Cold for years, in last 10 years, I have got this twice, and fixed it. Last one was just 2 months back. It is an amazing experience, to walk into a Medical Facility, get Virus, and you are down in evening with Virus Infection and Fly Symptoms, and by next afternoon, you are back to normal.

I got reminded of this benefit today, when I heard a friend has got Cold and Flu.

It is very scientifically cured by not letting them multiply, as you flush the attackers with the help of your immune system, liquids, etc., and at the same time do not let them multiply, by doing intense Kapalbhati, which is like intense PSI blowing your inner linings dry!

The Second Biggest Miracle of My Life

2011-03-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

If one has not gone to Mt. Everest and witnessed and experienced himself/herself the majestic mountain, and not heard or seen about it from masses or mass media, it does not mean it does not exist.

Or if someone incredulously hears about it from a fellow few travelers, who have witnessed this before the world has understood and witnessed it in masses. Yogic experiences are like that...

I had gone through a hellish ride health wise in last 3 years. Before that, I went through an intense challenge of my life: recovering a son from a 40% Brain Loss, which led to poor health and me learning Yoga (and getting certified) to recover him.

It was part of Kundalini Awakening which can kill people and not understood by the modern western doctors, but recognized by the western science.

It can be triggered by intense stress, and/or combined with intense spiritual/yogic practices, and/or with blessing of the unknown.

I must have died many times in the process and giving my trust to the modern medicine was an ad mix of blessings and more sufferings. It leads to mis diagnosis and mis treatments, which my bills and hospital bills -- running into more than many hundreds of thousands - would vouch but ultimately I just stopped listening to these doctors when I had enough of it and was getting worse. Now I have given up most of the medicines for months. All my physiologically documented pain/erosion/inflammation of different body parts, internal and external, are almost gone.

But I am now back to my restored health - sometimes I feel 20 years younger and stronger - thanks to Yoga and diet of Vegetables, No Salt, No Sugar, Less Fat and Less Carbs - and daily rounds of Yoga, Excercise, Walk, or Elliptic.

Sometimes I feel I have more energy, stamina, strength, and flexibility than many youngsters. But it would be hard to believe for people who have seen me suffering over the years.

Needless to say, constant chanting of the Lord (Gayatri Mantra and Maha Mritunjaya Mantra) became a habit in this ordeal. The miracle happend when I realized I was too young to let this happen to myself and my family - and fought back.

This Person After Intense Yoga Got This Ability - Magnetism

2011-03-25T22:56:00.000-07:00

The person above, was doing a lot of Yoga, and later found this ability.

Please note that it is not the usual magnetism one is used to - as magnets do not attract steel or Aluminium, but the person in first video for sure is "attracting" Aluminium or Steel vessels. So it is basically modifying "space-time" or "ethereal space" to manipulate things.

What I have personally experienced:

1. Kleva Kumbha - Cession of Breath for Hours. Please note, the breath has two parts, the Prana part and the Oxygen part. Without Praana one can not sustain, and closing the nostrils shuts the entry of Praanas. But not breathing mechanically, by holding breath, creating locks, and no movements of any diaphragm (stomach), inter costal muscles (chest), clavical (collar), throaic (throat) and nasal (nose) muscles. Locks created are at tip and base of nose, at the top of mouth air cavity, and at diaphragm level. A lot of muscles are dormant and one is insensitive to the amount of control one can fine tune. Put it other way, breath has two orders of approximation, and major or first order is 99% which we are aware of and control. Yogis know about the remaining 1% and consider it the other way round in their path of involution of the material self and evolution of the spiritual self.

2. Momentary Defying of Gravity With Mind Control. Check Youtube on Yogic Flying. Kung Fu and Kalaari/Marmaar Masters (from where Kung Fu came through Buddhi Raja, the Indian Monk from Kerala who started Shaaolin Temple) master this to increase their body parts acceleration and exert more force - and sometimes defy the gravity. Watch Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. In advance stages, these Masters, can jolt your Chakras (subtle and praanic) or Nervous Plexus (material and EMF centers) to the extent that you may go unconcious or even die (watch Discovery Channel show on Martial Arts). The same concept is used in Praanic Healing, as well as Acupuncture and Acupressure.

3. Shifting of Space-Time on its own (Read article on Kundalini below).

4. Voluntary controls of Involuntary areas of body, e.g. Nervous Plexus, etc.

5. Telekinesis of Hands/Legs (growing one by 1 cms in few seconds but is a much deeper science and related to 3).

6. Shutting nostrils alternately without using Hands for AnuLoma ViLoma as well as both - by shutting central basal nose muscle, or one can say bilaterally.

Needless to say, the journey of the Unknown is Infinite, and the baby steps are just the beginning and reflection of the power of the Infinite.

What is Superior - Heart or Brain

2011-03-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

We have been taught that Brain is superior. I have read in scriptures that the seat of the soul is in the Heart. But I now think the Ancients are correct. In heart transplantation, one can carry a heart by itself in a ice pack box, but not a brain! That is a big proof that Heart is superior!! It can last without brain for sometime!! But brain can not last without heart giving blood supply of oxygen and nutritions. But Prana can sustain even Brain without Oxygen, which is what Yogis do (who go underground or underwater for weeks and hours).

Then my experiences in Kundalini awakening, the rising of the Energy made my heart (anantakarNa or anhata chakra, which means timeless causeless perpetual hub) also vibrate violently. It is one of the reasons once my wife saw my T-Shirt vibration but that time it was part of the HA issues.

Then I have one day felt the Anjana Chakra (forehead) vibrate. (There is a flap at the base the nose which also slowly flaps when one is holding breath but that is a mechanical part and not related to the subtle vibration).

Otherwise my lowers Chakras and other minor Chakras vibrate in different parts of the body. Sometimes they vibrate as individual or collective centers in Dissonance form, sometimes as co-ordinated centers in "zero" Resonance form, and sometimes in Resonance with the Outside Prana in interactive variations with the "Infinite" Prana.

Later, my Cardio of 65+ years told me, that people who are awakened to the "other side" experience this vibration and he had one patient 25 years back who had similar experiences.

Soul, Prana and Kundalini

2011-03-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

So what is Soul? What is Prana? What is Kundalini? Before I go there, Philosphy wise: Waves in Ocean come and go, but the Ocean stays. The Space before a jar was fabricated, was there, and once the jar is made, the Space is inside the jar. And when the Jar is destroyed, the Space is still there!

So the Individual soul - is something like that. It is the Jiva Atman of the Brahman/Param/Shiv Atman - or Super Soul.

The Universe is unaccounted of 74% of Energy by modern Science! So this is not an EMF Energy but people can manipulate the EMF and Gravity when they have Yogic Powers.

This is my research and experience, and also mathematically proven by modern science and me, but not so well understood by most: For now, just assume that waves travel in inversion - of mathematics, of algebra, and geometry. And it satisfies Laplacian and Wave Equations - for those who care to know the Scientific basis.

So Soul is the wave manifestation of this Infinite Pranic Energy which carries memories of past interactions - governed by laws of science and also the basis of consciousness, but survives physical bodies birth and death cycles. It is like a Fundamental Harmonic having Secondary Harmonics but they dying out and the Fundamental Harmonic Still there. Now repeat this iteration taking Individual Soul as Fundamental Wave and then Super Soul as the Fundamental Wave. So this is Scientific.

Soul is the wave of expression of Brahman Principle. Soul and Reincarnation have scientific basis, where data now points but western people have problems understanding it because of "ego centric" view of the material world.

Kundalini is the "inverse" of the Brahman (infinite) - hence represented as Knot and Naught (zero), but when it changes its phase, it becomes infinite and a tremendous Energy is released - like an nucleus exploding - and it kills most of the people. I had my awakening 3 years back, and can be triggered by tremendous stress, and combined with Yogic and Spiritual Practices.

So when the Brahman wave manifests itself as Soul and takes Physical Birth, the inverse of Brahman is manifested as Kundalini.

In this Sense, Kundalini is equated to Shakti - as Energy is the 1st phase of the Brahman principle in evolution of things.

And Brahman is the Shiv principle - the zero'th phase of the principle.

Controlling Cholestrol

2011-03-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Medications are necessary to control Cholesterol, but they also cause a lot of side effects. I am not saying give up your Simvastins but you can reduce their dosages by 1/4 as I have done, and my cholesterol has been in control.

The trick has been: (1) Walk and Walk (or Run and Run), which I do for 1 hour every day, (2) Kapolbhati Rounds till 1000 (some mixed with Bhastrika), (3) Yoga for 2 hours every Saturday and Sunday, and (4) complete cut down on eating Fried, Fatty, stuff, to the extent of eating a lots of Vegetables and Salad, and very little rice, like Chapaatis (Indian Tortillas) and Rice, and no Potatoes at all.

How To Get Rid of Migraine

2011-03-14T23:31:00.000-07:00

This has proven to work on 2 people so far - my son and his friend.

What I write is based on personal battles. Before I learnt Yoga and became a certified Teacher to help my son, for some 3 years in stretch, I had Migraines. Those days, I learnt that going out for fresh air helped.

Then my son battled with Migraines because of his history of the Head Injury. What I told him did work magically finally but in the beginning it did not work as well, as I was not sure of the correct method, and initially I would make him do Kapalbhati as well. But Anuloma-Viloma actually really works with some modifications.

So what you do is, go outside in fresh air, and do Anuloma-Viloma, but here you try to hold the breath as long as possible. Do it over 10 to 15 minutes. Have patience and your Migraine should go away.

If does not, you may want to consult doctor for issues like Bad Eye Sight, Glaucoma, Brain Tumor and other issues. Please make sure your are having adequate sun, lighting (to read), fresh air, water, nutrition, and good restful sleep.

Tension Migraines would benefit from the technique I have mentioned, and Meditation and Calming Techniques of Mind would also help here.

Please check for Anuloma-Viloma and Meditation techniques mentioned in the Blog.

How To Control Blood Pressure - And Slow Down Heart Beats

2011-03-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

I believe in doing everything to tackle this kind of problems, including taking BP medications, which are of many classes, and sometimes not all work, and if they work for sometime, they may stop working later on.

So a dumb reliance on them or complete abandoning of them are both not advisable. I have had 4 BP medications that did not help my High BP, and now I take a combination BP medication once in two days and rely on rest of things discussed here. Most of the time I have been to Doctor's office, the BP has come normal or below normal.

If you do slow breathing, one can bring down his or her High Blood Pressure. I have tried this with Anu Loma Viloma - Alternate Nostril Breathing.

In my experience, if you have done Kapalbhati or Diaphragmatic Breathing, then it becomes easier to control the breathing.

There are other kinds of breathing, like using Chest, which uses Inter costal Muscles, or using Collar Bones, which uses Clavical Muscles (by raising and lowering your collar bones you change the volume of the lungs and by Boyle's Law, you change the pressure inside the lungs which regulates the air intake and exhalation).

Then there are breathing techniques using Thoracic and Nasal Muscles but it is subject to one's training. Most of the people use Chest Muscles.

Think of the order mentioned as Gear 1 (Diaphragmatic), Gear 2 (Chest), Gear 3 (Collar Bones), Gear 4 (Thoracic) and Gear 5 (Nasal) of driving a manual stick shift car, with maximum power and control yielded by Gear 1.

In Anuloma Viloma, your Inhalation, Retention and Exhalation is in ratio of 1-4-2, and you take some magic number as 2, 3, or 4 for beginners and breathe in, retain and breathe out over count of 1 x 2 (3 or 4), 4 x 2 (3 or 4), 2 x 2 (3 or 4).

If you have done this over many years, like I have been doing for 10 years, there comes a stage, where you do not need to hold your hand up and use fingers to block alternate nostrils. One develops the control to voluntarily shut any nostril. This helps if you want to do this in public places or meetings, and do not want to be noticed.

The principle is that the NO, Nitric Oxide, acts as a Neuro Transmitter as well as Vascular Dilation mechanism. In simple terms, it helps carry signalling between different parts of the body and the brain, as well as dilate the "tensed" walls of the blood vessels, which helps reduce the High Blood Pressure.

It seems, if one reduces and regulates the Oxygen intake, by slowly intaking O2 and slowly exhaling CO2, there is a rise in NO in the system.

The only issue is to bring it into practice. Res-pirate works on the same principle.

Walking and Slow Exercising also brings down High Blood Pressure. Loosing Weight, getting rid of Salt in your diet also goes a long way.

Please do not worry about not getting Salt, as modern life style and foods, invariably would give you supply of Salt. From your side, you need to decide, what is more important: Your Life and Health or Your Taste Buds?

In Yoga, there is a theory, which says that the more you take less breath, the longer your live. It applies to the Heart Beats as well, and the both facts were recently scientifically validated.

It makes sense if one takes Body as a Rechargeable Battery whose cycles need to be kept stress free and cycles of charging and discharging kept to minimum.

How Mind Relaxation Works in Yoga

2009-10-26T07:19:00.000-07:00

I write this as someone who fails at times what I know - because of lack of practice - but when I get reminded of the benefits, in my own struggle, I feel I need to share the experience with rest of you who are struggling like me.

To some Happiness and Peace comes naturally like essence of scent to a scented flower, and to some, because of circumstances beyond their Control, Genetics, Environment, etc, it takes a lot more effort to achieve that. We should not mock why others are different and weaker, because Nature has not made everthing equal, and in ones own right, everyone has some strenght which no one else has!

When you do a physical exercise that raises your heart-beats, makes you breathe rapidly and/or deeply, it forms an "anti dote" towards your stress hormones.

So after you have jogged 2 miles very hard, you would notice that when you lie down in exhaustion, the most beautiful moments of your relaxation and temporary deep sleep happen.

Yoga has the same principle except it goes more deep into your core - the innermost beings of your mind and soul. Then it allows time for this to happen in subtle and prolonged way - like watching a movie and living it through its characters.

The tradeoff between a Western Style quick exercise and slow paced Yogic style needs to be chosen based on your inclination, availability of time, and also the need of your body and mind.

As one works one's way through Asanas, and allowing breaks, to rest so that breath and Heart beats slow down, one is suppose to do relaxation as well - by meditating which involves Auto Suggestion, Visualization and Patterninzation techniques (see some of my earlier postings, if I have commented on them).

So the repeated steps of doing this relaxations is a buildup of a crecendo of Total Relaxation, when after 1 or 2 hours of Yoga, one goes into Final Relaxation, which goes on like this.

You scan your body and Auto Suggest by saying to your mind and yourself that your different
parts of body are relazed. Move and shake your body part, and mentally scan. This way cover each and every part of your body from outside and inside.

After that visualize the most beautiful thing you know, be it God's face, Moon, Sun, Reflection of Moon in water, Sunrise, Mountains, Water-Falls, Ocean, or just the eyes of your beloved. And try to focus on them. It is Ok to get diverted but you can go back to doing Auto Suggestion and Patternization.

By Patternization, I mean just doing a montonous repeatitive pattern of thinking..like watching your breath go in and out, and slowly seeing it going from deep breathing to shallow breathing amd sometime you may see the "Aha" movement where breathing is almost gone. This is towards the Ekleva Kumbha - which can go for long and one needs to be real careful.

Patternization can be like tracing Aum with your Third Eye while you Inhale or Exhale. Or tracing "horizontal' 8, or the infinity sign overlaying the eyes of your beloved - be it Krishna's or Rama's eyes. It could be Christ or Buddha's eyes. Or you could even do this with the lips like a dipped "O". One can do this with Cross or even with a Crescent Moon. There is no tying of this Yoga business with any Religion. This is the truth open to all Humanity, and one can adhere to their Religious Symols if it helps promote Love, Peace and Harmony within and outside.

So what happens, when you are close to a Stressed out Maniac? And you do not have time to do Yoga or even Jog or do Pushups?

With this knowledge, you start with breathing deep and slowy. Specially exhale slowy and keep doing it. Slowy you would see that your breath has become shallow and you are getting relaxed. W haever is your objective, keep using the gist of that in some convenient form for Autosuggestion. And keep doing the same for the visualization.

Yes, I forget to do these things, but the same things when reminded, have helped me from fighting great odds.

Even you treat the world to be the Only Reality and to be TRUE for EVER, and do not comprehend the reality of the SuperSoul or Brahman, these things would help. And if you have the knowledge that you are part and parcel of the Brahman, like a child to his father and mother, you would be taken care of for Eternity, because your soul is Eternal!

God Bless You All.

Magic of Prana or Chi

2009-05-06T23:21:00.000-07:00

Nice Meditation Movie - Be What You Are - Be the Unique Expression of Brahman

2008-11-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

http://www.meditationmovie.com/movie.html

Chakras and Kundalani - The Best Explaination Video

2008-10-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

Background Videos

Meditation

First Principle - Mother of All Laws

Vibrations Have Shape

Science of Pranayama By Dr. Sivananda

Chakras and Kirillian Photography

2008-09-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

Total Mind

Prana and Healing

Pranic Healing

Sometimes it takes eons of lives of spiritual evolutions and involutions in a soul's journey to learn the secrets of the Mother Nature, and other times in hours of desperation, to save oneself from loosing all one has to go on with, and to avoid facing the doom, perhaps after seeing a series of knocks and blows in ones journey of life, that one surrenders to the higher levels of Consciousness and cries for the magic wand of knowledge to save oneself from the situation, and lo, the knowledge flows from the Akashic Sky - which goes by many names, called Total Mind, Universal Mind, and so on, and is shown to be scientifically true and connected to the Earth's Ionosphere, and who knows to higher levels of Cosmic Entities.

The same knowledge dawned to me in my flight to India when I was rushing to seek my son, who had lost 1/3 brain from 3 places, with a fall from a second floor, and had lost everything, including all blood, and whatever one thinks of, including life - as doctors did not want to even attend as it was a gone situation.

The other knowledge that dawned was the Secrets of Healing, through subtle levels - that now only the Science is accepting after some western doctors in LA has shown the difference it brings.

My only initiation was watching the 30 min show of Dr. Deepak Chopra, on PBS a night before, and little I knew that I was going to bootstrap from that little knowledge I had gained and would be challenged into a journey where there was no precedence and guidence from anyone. The modern Medical System is good in gross level of treatment, like surgery, etc. but when it comes to cognition, consciousness, life, and so on, it is far behind but catching up - thanks to work done by universities such as Princeton, Harvard, and so on.

The colors are true as the colors of the Functional MRI and PET MRI and indicate the Frequency Components after the transformation (like Fourier, Z and Laplace Transforms).

Easy Steps To Yoga - Swami (Dr.) Shivananda

2008-09-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

This covers the General Philosphy on Yoga as well as the Aasaans, PraNayama.

Easy Steps to Yoga - Upload a Document to Scribd

THE-SCIENCE-OF-PRANAYAMA - Swami (Dr.) Shivananda

2008-09-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

These books are gems, and I recall spending many weeks of co-ordination to get these books and a trip with my family and my mother to Sivananda at San Francisco, to get these books (one is on Kundalini).

People sometimes get turned off by the very mention of the words like "chakaras" and "naadis", and when they see the Kundalini Sign, the think of all this as some hocus-pocus stuff.

Every idea to be communicated needs some lexicon, some lexi-graphy, some archetype concept, and these symbols are from very ancient times, which we are not used to. If you do not believe me, try reading Ostrogodsky Theorem, which is nothing but Green's Theorem, published by MIR Publishers, Moscow (I read it when I was going to IIT). Or read Vector Calculus of 19th Century, and you would be lost and confused, thought the concepts are the same, and you may have already mastered the field. The issue is about what the brain is used to to in associating and parsing the symbols to derive the context and meaning. So these symbols are very scientific and reflect the same patterns found in 2D and 3D Standing Harmonics. Speak about the scientific know-how of the Ancients!

Modern Science is still playing catch up and just watch the videos on the "Chis". Places like MIT have only recently found the "magic of surprises" associated with this phenomenon. Just the think what a Vortex river can do to a swimmer and what Tornado Vortex does!

Chakras are nothing but the Energy Centres where we have the Medical Nervous Plexuses (where the afferent and efferent nerves meet - enter and exit like the planes in the Airport Hubbs, when one flies from Point A to Point B). The only difference is that the Plexusus one can see but Chakaras one can not see - Only advanced Yogis can feel sometimes their Energy Centers and can direct them, and very few advanced Masters can direct this to others and see and feel this Bio Energy. This is kind of a fundamental EMF energy, and I have seen a Yogi lighting a small LED Bulb at will.

Naadis are nothing but the same concept that run behind the nerves - as Energy Channels. Acu Pressure, Acu Puncture, Mar-mara of Ayurveda and Kaalri are having the same principle.

The Spiral (snake) Coils and the Main Shaft in the Kundaalni Symbol is nothing but the same symbol used by Modern Medicine. It is also the same symbol which was worshiped by the Ancients as Tree of Life and Shivalingam (Obelisk) Principle.

Only now the modern science is catching up. Beautiful things happen in Vortex point of Singularity - Big Bang, Black Hole, Super Conductivity, Embryo Formation, and so on. There are two coils to show the Downward Spiral Vortex ( broad to smaller spirals, from top to down) and the Upwards Spiral Vortex, (from big to small spiral from bottom to top). They symbolize the Positive and Negative Energy Fields, Heat and Cold, Male and Female Energies, or Prana and Apna.

The 7 Chakras correspond to the 7 Scales of the Mystery of the Harmonics, which is used everywhere - 7 Notes, 7 Days, 7 Planets, 7 Seers, and so on.

THE SCIENCE OF PRANAYAMA - Upload a Document to Scribd

Kundalini Yoga - Swami (Dr.) Shivananda

2008-09-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

The man who came to my visions for 1 year and guided me to his School of Yoga to help my son through Yoga. He was a Medical Doctor and a Scientist first - before he became a Renunciate - leaving all his wealth to his servants in Malaysia during 1940's.

I hardly knew the word Yoga and was directed by a Swami, from Bihar School of Yoga, in Coimbatore Ayurvedic Hospital, where my 2 kids and I were camping for 2 months.

Later I would realize that Dr. Shivananda, was Chinmaya's First Guru, and was also connected to Bihar School of Yoga.

My Kleva Kumbha initiations, had just started over the year2001/2, before I went to a Teacher's Training Camp in Austria from Sivananda, and there I learnt that my experiences were having some technical name - called Kleva Kumbha. It would take 4 years to get to a perfect state of Kleva Kumbha, and another years of practice to know its power and only know more deeper significances associated with it.

What is said in Gita about this, in Chapter 6, is true, and also confirmed by Harvard Medical School.

Yoga (Kundalini) - Upload a Document to Scribd

Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga - The Yoga of Meditation

2008-09-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

It is the classic on Raja Yoga - of controlling the mind and conquering of both, the Lower Individual Self and the Higher Self that is your basis and the basis for all of us and the Reality we see and the Reality we do not see, which are beyond our dimensions and may not be manifested.

Raja Yoga - Upload a Document to Scribd

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras - Aphorisms on Yoga

2008-09-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

The classic on Yoga, must read for a serious seeker of Yoga - the world of mysticism, bliss and peace.

Yogasutras of Patanjali - Upload a Document to Scribd

Mudras

2008-09-20T12:30:00.001-07:00

I have embedded this book because I am not an expert in the Mudras and still need to learn a lot but do know that how we hold our legs, hands, fingers, arms, have to do with how we feel and how they make us feel. Have you wondered why one cross legs himself or herself or cross arms himself or herself and so on.

The Meridians that transfer the Subtle Energy - which is part of the Subtle Body or the Causal Body - which is also called the KaRaNaa Shareer - lies deep inside the place where the nerves run. They can not be seen by us but by advanced Yogis, they can feel the PraaNas passing through these Merdian Channels, and some very advanced Masters, they can also feel and see the Causal Body of the others and its associated Aura.

For the non believers - just watch the videos on Chi.

MU DRAS YOGA in your HANDS - Upload a Document to Scribd

Chi - Qui/Ki/Qi-Gong - PraNa -

2008-09-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

Yoga Sutraas by Patanjali and Yoga Pradaapika talk about it.

This is very scientific and Western Science still has ways to go but thanks to work done by Harvard in last decade, on some monks, and soon followed by some other Universities of the West, this is getting accepted in the West.

Einstein said Mass Modifies 4D Space-Time, and the Space-Time Warping is the cause of Gravity. He did not get everything right, and Energy causes the warping of the Space-Time, and Gravity is not the caused by the Warping of the Space-Time, but by the Energy, which is fundamentally not as many as the Western Science says it is and still spending Billions to confirm some. But that is a separate topic, and I have a small experiment on self to demonstrate that the Energy modifies the Space-Time.

This knowledge has been maintained in the mountains of Tibet, China and India but lost in the valleys because it was banned by the Britishers as they could not comprehend it and thought this was a Black Magic.

There is no magic to it, and only a sincere seeker, with ego burnt, to mind to set the the Ultimate Reality, can realize this. There are no powers, but the surrender and tuning to that Reality like a "cleansed and fine-tune tuner"

I know many of you would be in disbelief, and that is your ego and a closed mind thinking. Seeing and experiencing is only the real believing.

Chi Qong - Same as Prana Energy

2008-08-21T00:08:00.001-07:00

Change your Mind Change your Brain: The Inner Conditions for Authentic Happiness

2008-08-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

Message is: "Know Yourself", "Who You Are", "What Is Your True Nature", "The Nature Of The Reality", and "Nullifying Your Self To Fill In The Infinite".

Mindfulness Stress Reduction And Healing

2008-08-07T12:48:00.000-07:00

The message is the same as of Yoga, Meditation, Pranayama, and Vedanta. Kevla Kumbha is the ultimate tool used in Meditation and Healing. I am using this to heal back my Auto Immune Disoder for the fourth time, but for the second time with more understanding on the healing, and each time, I am learning different variables that go into the play. The other driving point is getting into "Non Judging", "No Subject Object", "Being in Present", and "Accepting Every Problem as Opportunity For Some New Path of Discovery".

The Science of Pranayama

2008-08-04T23:06:00.001-07:00

The Science of Pranayama

Dr. Swami Sivananda

A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION Fourth Edition: 1998 (1,000 Copies) World Wide Web (WWW) Edition : 1999. http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/home.html
This WWW reprint is for free distribution © The Divine Life Trust Society
Published By THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY P.O. Shivanandanagar—249 192 Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh, Himalayas, India.

What is Pranayama

Pranayama (According to the Gita)

Pranayama (According To Sri Sankaracharya)

Pranayama (According to Yogi Bhusunda)

Control of Breath

Varieties of Pranayama

Three Types of Pranayama

The Vedantic Kumbhaka

Pranayama for Nadi-Suddhi

Mantra During Pranayama

Deep Breathing Exercise

Kapalabhati

The External Kumbhaka (Bahya)

Easy Comfortable Pranayama (Sukha Purvaka)

Pranayama for Awakening Kundalini

Pranayama During Meditation

Pranayama While Walking

Pranayama in Savasana

Importance and Benefits of Pranayama

Special Instructions

What is Pranayama

Tasmin sati svasaprasvasayor-gativicchedah pranayamah—“Regulation of breath or the control of Prana is the stoppage of inhalation and exhalation, which follows after securing that steadiness of posture or seat.”

This is the definition of Pranayama in the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali.

‘Svasa’ means inspiratory breath. ‘Prasvasa’ means expiratory breath. You can take up the practice of Pranayama after you have gained steadiness in your Asana (seat). If you can sit for 3 hour in one Asana, continuously at one stretch, you have gained mastery over the Asana. If you are able to sit from half to one hour even, you can take up the practice of Pranayama. You can hardly make any spiritual progress without the practice of Pranayama.

Prana is Vyashti, when the individual is concerned. The sum total of the cosmic energy or cosmic Prana is Hiranyagarbha who is known as the floating ‘Golden-Egg’. Hiranyagarbha is Samashti Prana. One match stick is Vyashti (single). The whole match box is Samashti. A single mango-tree is Vyashti. The whole mango grove is Samashti. The energy in the body is Prana. By controlling the motion of the lungs or respiratory organs, we can control the Prana that is vibrating inside. By control of Prana, the mind can be easily controlled, because the mind is fastened to the Prana, like the bird to the string. Just as the bird that is tied to a post by a string, after flying here and there, finds its resting place in the post, so also this mind-bird after running hither and thither, in various sensual objects, finds its resting place during deep sleep in the Prana.

Pranayama (According to the Gita)

Apane juhvati pranam pranepanam tathapare; Pranapanagatee ruddhva pranayamaparayanah (Gita, Ch. IV-29.). Others offer Prana (outgoing breath) in Apana (incoming breath) and Apana in Prana, restraining the passage of Prana and Apana, absorbed in Pranayama. Pranayama is a precious Yajna (sacrifice). Some practise the kind of Pranayama called Puraka (filling in). Some practise the kind of Pranayama called Rechaka (emptying). Some are engaged in the practice of Pranayama called Kumbhaka, by impeding the outward passage of air, through the nostrils and the mouth, and by impeding the inward passage of the air, in the opposite direction.

Pranayama (According To Sri Sankaracharya)

“Pranayama is the control of all life-forces by realising naught but Brahman in all things as the mind, etc.

“The negation of the Universe is the outgoing breath. The thought: ‘I am Brahman’ itself is called the incoming breath.

The permanence of that thought thereafter is the restrained breath. This is the Pranayama of the wise, while the pressing of the nose is only for the unknowing.” (Aparokshanubhuti, 118-120).

Pranayama (According to Yogi Bhusunda)

Bhusunda says to Sri Vasishtha: “In the cool lotus of the heart within this visible tenement of flesh composed of the five elements, there are two Vayus, viz., Prana and Apana, commingled in it. For those who tread smoothly and without any or the slightest efforts, the path of these two Vayus, will become the sun and the moon themselves in the heart—Akasa, and will rove in the Akasa and yet be animating and carrying their fleshy-tabernacle. These Vayus will go up and down to higher and lower states. They are of the same nature in the waking, dreaming and dreamless sleeping state, and permeate all throughout. I am moving in the direction of those two Vayus and have rendered nil all my Vasanas in the waking state lit unto those of the dreamless sleeping state. Divide a filament of the lotus-stalk into a thousand times and you will find these Vayus more subtle than that. Hence it is difficult for me to treat about the nature of these Vayus and their vibrations. Of these, Prana does ceaselessly vibrate in this body, with an upward motion, both externally and internally, while Apana having the same fluctuating tendency, vibrates both external and internal to the body having a downward motion. It will be beneficial if the Prana exhaled to the extent of 16 digits, is inhaled to the same extent. Only 12 digits are inhaled ordinarily. Those who have brought to experience—viz., the equalisation of Prana in exhalation and inhalation will enjoy infinite bliss.

“Now hear about the characteristics of Prana. The inhalation to the length of 12 digits of the Prana which has been exhaled, is called (the internal) Puraka (inhalation). This also is called the internal (Puraka), when Apana Vayu re-enters the body from outside without any effort. When Apana Vayu ceases to manifest itself and Prana gets absorbed in the heart, then the time occupied in such a state is (internal) Kumbha. Yogins are able to experience all these. When the Prana in the Akasa of the heart manifests itself externally (to the heart within) in diverse aspects without any affliction to the mind then it is called (the external) Rechaka (exhalation). When the externally fluctuating Prana enters the nose and stops there at its tip, then it is called the external Puraka. But when it is passing from the tip of the nose it goes down 12 digits. Then also it is called the external Puraka. When Prana goes arrested without and Apana within, then it is called the external Kumbhaka. When the shining Apana Vayu takes an upward bent within, then it is styled the external Rechaka. All these practices lead to Moksha. Therefore they should ever be meditated upon. Those who have understood and practised well all the external and internal Kumbhakas and others, will never be reborn.

“All the eight courses, I have given out before, are capable of yielding Moksha. They should be practised both day and night. Those who are associated with these practices smoothly and control their minds by not letting them run in other directions, will in course of time attain Nirvana. Such practitioners will never thirst after material pleasures. They will ever be in their uniform practice, whether walking, standing, waking, dreaming or sleeping.

“Prana, having flown out, will again be absorbed in the heart having run back 12 digits. Similarly will Apana be absorbed in the heart, having issued out of the heart and running back 12 digits to it. Apana being the moon, will cool the whole body in its passage. But Prana being the sun, will generate heat in the system and cook or digest everything in it. Will pains arise in one who has reached that supreme state, where the Kalas (rays) of Apana the moon, are drowned by Prana the sun? Will rebirth arise in one who has reached that powerful seat, when the Kalas of Prana, the sun, are devoured by Apana the moon? These will arrest at once the seven births of those who reach that neutral state where they find Apana Vayu consumed by Prana and vice versa. I eulogise that Chidatma, who is in that intermediate state, where Prana and Apana are absorbed in one another. I meditate ceaselessly upon that Chidatma, who is in the Akasa, directly in front, at the end of my nose, where Prana and Apana both become extinct. Thus it is through this path of Prana’s control, that I attained the supreme and immaculate Tattva, devoid of pains.”

Control of Breath

The first important step is to master the Asana of posture or to control the body. The next exercise is Pranayama. Correct posture is indispensably requisite for the successful practice of Pranayama. An easy comfortable posture is Asana. That pose is the best which continues to be comfortable for the greatest length of time. Chest, neck, and head must be in one vertical line. You should not bend the body either forwards or laterally, i.e., either on the right or left side. You should not sit crooked. You should not allow the body to collapse. You must not bend the body either forwards or backwards. By regular practice the mastery over the pose will come by itself. Fatty people will find it difficult to practise the Padma Asana or the Lotus Pose. They can sit on the Sukha Asana (comfortable pose) or Siddha Asana (perfected pose). You need not wait for practising Pranayama till you get full mastery over the Asana. Practise Asana and side by side you can practise Pranayama also. In course of time, you will acquire perfection in both. Pranayama can also be practised by sitting in the chair erect.

In Bhagavad-Gita, the Immortal Song of Lord Krishna, you will find a beautiful description of seat and pose: “In a pure secret place by himself established in a fixed seat of his own, neither too high nor too low, with cloth, black antelope-skin and Kusa grass one over the other, there, making the mind one-pointed, with thought and the functions of the senses controlled, steady on his seat, he should practise Yoga for the purification of the Self, holding the body, head and neck erect, firm, gazing steadily at the tip of the nose without looking around” (Ch. VI—10,11, & 12).

Pranayama is the control of the Prana and the vital forces of the body. It is regulation of the breath. This is the most important step. The aim of Pranayama is the control of Prana. Pranayama begins with the regulation of the breath for having control over the life-currents or inner vital force. In other words, Pranayama is the perfect control of the life-currents through control of breath. Breath is external manifestation of the gross Prana. A correct habit of breathing must be established by the regular practice of Pranayama. In ordinary worldly persons the breathing is irregular.

If you can control the Prana you can completely control all the forces of the Universe, mental and physical. The Yogi can also control the Omnipresent manifesting power out of which all energies take their origin, whether concerning magnetism, electricity, gravitation, cohesion, nerve-currents, vital forces or thought-vibrations, in fact the total forces of the Universe, physical and mental.

If one controls the breath or Prana, the mind also is controlled. He who has controlled his mind has also controlled his breath. If one is suspended, the other is also suspended. If the mind and Prana are both controlled one gets liberation from the round of births and deaths and attains immortality. There is intimate connection between the mind, Prana and semen. If one controls the seminal energy, the mind and Prana are also controlled. He who has controlled his seminal energy has also controlled his Prana and mind.

He who practises Pranayama will have good appetite, cheerfulness, handsome figure, good strength, courage, enthusiasm, a high standard of health, vigour and vitality and good concentration of mind. Pranayama is quite suitable for the Westerners also. A Yogi measures the span of his life not by the number of years but by the number of his breaths. You can take in a certain amount of energy or Prana from the atmospheric air along with each breath. Vital capacity is the capacity shown by the largest quantity of air a man can inhale after the deepest possible exhalation. A man takes fifteen breaths in a minute. The total number of breaths comes to 21,600 times per day.

Varieties of Pranayama

“Bahya-abhyantar-stambha-vritti-desaa-kala
Sankhyabhih patidtishto deergha-sukshmah.”
Yoga Sutras—Chap. II, Sa. 50

Pranayama is regarded lengthy or subtle according to its three components, the external, the internal and the steady; the retention processes are modified by the regulations of space, time and number.

When the breath is expired, it is Rechaka, the first kind of Pranayama. When the breath is drawn in, it is the second, termed Puraka. When it is suspended, it is the third kind, called Kumbhaka. Kumbhaka is retention of breath. Kumbhaka increases the period of life. It augments the inner spiritual force, vigour and vitality. If you retain the breath for one minute, this one minute is added to your span of life. Yogins by taking the breath to the Brahmarandhra at the top of the head and keeping it there, defeat the Lord of death, Yama, and conquer death. Chang Dev lived for one thousand and four hundred years through the practice of Kumbhaka. Each of these motions in Pranayama, viz., Rechaka, Puraka and Kumbhaka, is regulated by space, time and number. By space is meant the inside or outside of the body and the particular length or the breadth and also when the Prana is held in some particular part of the body. During expiration the distance to which breath is thrown outside varies in different individuals. The distance varies during inspiration also. The length of the breath varies in accordance with the pervading Tattva. The length of the breath is respectively 12, 16, 4, 8, 0 fingers’ breadths according to the Tattvas—Prithvi, Apas, Tejas, Vayu or Akasa (earth, water, fire, air or ether). This is again external during exhalation and internal during inhalation.

Time is, the time of duration of each of these, which is generally counted by Matra, which corresponds to one second. Matra means a measure. By time is also meant how long the Prana should be fixed in a particular centre or part.

Number refers to the number of times the Pranayama is performed. The Yogic student should slowly take the number of Pranayamas to eighty at one sitting. He should have four sittings in the morning, afternoon, evening and midnight, or at 9 a.m., and should have thus 320 Pranayamas in all. The effect or fruit of Pranayama is Udghata or awakening of the sleeping Kundalini. The chief aim of Pranayama is to unite the Prana with the Apana and take the united Pranayama slowly upwards towards the head.

Kundalini is the source for all occult powers. The Pranayama is long or short according to the period of time, it is practised. Just as water, thrown on a hot pan shrivels upon all sides as it is being dried up, so also air, moving in or out ceases its action by a strong effort of restraint (Kumbhaka) and stays within.

Vachaspati describes—“Measured by 36 Matras, is the first attempt (Udghata), which is mild. Twice that is the second, which is middling. Thrice that is the third, which is the intense. This is the Pranayama as measured by number.”

The ‘place’ of exhalation lies within 12 Angulas (inches) of the tip of nose. This is to be ascertained through a piece of reed or cotton. The place of inhalation ranges from the head down to the soles of the feet. This is to be ascertained through a sensation similar to the touch of an ant. The place of Kumbhaka consists of the external and internal places of both exhalation and inhalation taken together, because the functions of the breath are capable of being held up at both these places. This is to be ascertained through the absence of the two indicatives noted above, in connection with exhalation and inhalation.

The specification of the three kinds of breath regulations, by all these three—time, space and number—is only optional. They are not to be understood as to be practised collectively, for in many Smritis we meet with passages, where the only specification mentioned with reference to the regulation of breath is that of time.

The fourth is restraining the Prana by directing it to external or internal object; “Bahyabhyantara-vishayakshepi chaturthah” (Yoga Sutras: 11,50).

The third kind of Pranayama that is described in Sutra 50 of the Yoga Sutras, is practised only till the first Udghata is marked. This fourth Pranayama is carried further. It concerns with the fixing of the Prana in the various lotuses (Padmas or Chakras) and taking it slowly, and slowly, step by step, and stage by stage to the last lotus in the head, where perfect Samadhi takes place. This is internal. Externally it takes into consideration the length of breath in accordance with the prevailing Tattva. Prana can be described either inside or outside.

By gradual mastery over the preliminary three kinds of Pranayama, the fourth kind comes in. In the third kind of Pranayama the sphere is not taken into consideration. The stoppage of the breath occurs with one single effort and is then measured by space, time and number and thus becomes Dirgha (long) and Sukshma (subtle). In the fourth variety, however the spheres of expiration and inspiration are ascertained. The different states are mastered by and by. The fourth variety is not practised all at once by a single effort like the third one. On the other hand, it reaches different states of perfection, as it is being done. After one stage is mastered, the next stage is taken up and practised. Then it goes in succession. The third is not preceded by measurements and is brought about by a single effort. The fourth is however preceded by the knowledge of the measurements, and is brought about by much effort. This is the only difference. The conditions of time, space and number are applicable to this kind of Pranayama also. Particular occult powers develop themselves at each stage of progress.

Three Types of Pranayama

There are three types of Pranayama, viz., Adhama, Madhyama and Uttama (inferior, middle and superior). The Adhama Pranayama consists of 12 Matras, Madhyama consists of 24 Matras and the Uttama occupies a time of 32 Matras. This is for Puraka. The ratio between Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka is 1:4:2. Puraka is inhalation. Kumbhaka is retention. Rechaka is exhalation. If you inhale for a period of 12 Matras you will have to make Kumbhaka for a period of 48 Matras. Then the time for Rechaka will be 24 Matras. This is for Adhama Pranayama. The same rule will apply to the other two varieties. First, practise for a month of Adhama Pranayama. Then practise Madhyama for three months. Then take up the Uttama variety.

Salute your Guru and Sri Ganesa as soon as you sit in the Asana. The time for Abhyasa is early morning 4 a.m., 10 a.m., evening 4 p.m., and night 10 p.m., or 12 p.m. As you advance in practice you will have to do 320 Pranayamas daily.

Sagarbha Pranayama is that Pranayama, which is attended with mental Japa of any Mantra, either Gayatri or Om. It is one hundred times more powerful than the Agarbha Pranayama, which is plain and unattended with any Japa. Pranayama Siddhi depends upon the intensity of the efforts of the practitioner. An ardent enthusiastic student, with Parama Utsaha, Sahasa and Dridhata (zeal, cheerfulness and tenacity), can effect Siddhi (perfection) within six months; while a happy-go-lucky practitioner with Tandri and Alasya (drowsiness and laziness) will find no improvement even after eight or ten years. Plod on. Persevere with patience, faith, confidence, expectation, interest and attention. You are bound to succeed. Nil desperandum—Never despair.

The Vedantic Kumbhaka

Being without any distraction and with a calm mind, one should practise Pranayama. Both expiration and inspiration should be stopped. The practitioner should depend solely on Brahman; that is the highest aim of life. The giving out of all external objects, is said to be Rechaka. The taking in of the spiritual knowledge of Sastras, is said to be Puraka, and the keeping to oneself of such knowledge is said to be Kumbhaka. He is an emancipated person who practises his Chitta thus. There is no doubt about it. Through Kumbhaka the mind should always be taken up and through Kumbhaka alone it should be filled up within. It is only through Kumbhaka that Kumbhaka should be firmly mastered. Within it, is ‘Parama Siva’. At first in his Brahmagranthi there is produced soon a hole or passage. Then having pierced Brahmagranthi, he pierces Vishnugranthi, then he pierces Rudragranthi, then the Yogin attains his liberation through the religious ceremonies, performed in various births, through the grace of Gurus and Devatas and through the practice of Yoga.

Pranayama for Nadi-Suddhi

The Vayu cannot enter the Nadis if they are full of impurities. Therefore, first of all, they should be purified and then Pranayama should be practised. The Nadis are purified by two processes, viz., Samanu and Nirmanu. The Samanu is done by a mental process with Bija Mantra. The Nirmanu is done by physical cleansing or the Shatkarmas.

1. Sit on Padmasana. Meditate on the Bijakshara of Vayu y:ö (Yam) which is of smoke colour. Inhale through the left nostril. Repeat the Bijakshara 16 times. This is Puraka. Retain the breath till you repeat the Bija 64 times. This is Kumbhaka. Then exhale through the right nostril very very slowly till you repeat the Bijakshara 32 times.

2. The navel is the seat of Agnitattva. Meditate on this Agnitattva. Then draw the breath through the right nostril repeating 16 times the Agni Bija rö (Ram). Retain the breath, till you count the Bija 64 times. Then exhale slowly through the left nostril till you repeat mentally the Bija letter 32 times.

3. Fix the gaze at the tip of the nose. Inhale through the left nostril repeating the Bija Yö (Tham) 16 times. Retain the breath till you repeat the Bija (Tham) 64 times. Now imagine that the nectar that flows from the moon, runs through all the vessels of the body and purifies them. Then exhale slowly through right nostril till you repeat the Prithvi Bija l:ö (Lam) 32 times.

The Nadis are purified nicely by the practice of the above three kinds of Pranayama by sitting firmly in your usual posture.

Mantra During Pranayama

The Mantra for repetition during the practice of Pranayama is laid down in the Isvara Gita: “When the aspirant holding his breath repeats the Gayatri thrice, together with even Vyahritis in the beginning, the Siras at the end and the Pranava, one at both ends of it, this is, what is called the regulation of breath.”

Yogi Yajnavalkya, on the other hand, declares thus: “The upward breath and the downward breath, having been restrained, regulation of breath is to be practised by means of the Pranava (!) with due regard to the unit of measure of the Mantra.

This repetition of the Pranava alone, is meant for the Paramahamsa Sannyasins. It has been declared in the Smritis, that ordinary contemplation is to be practised, through the inhalation and other stages of breath-regulation at one’s navel, heart and forehead, with reference to the forms of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva respectively. For the Paramahamsa however, the only object of contemplation has been declared to be Brahman. “The self-controlled ascetic is to contemplate upon the supreme Brahman, by means of the Pranava,” declares the Sruti.

Exercise No. 1

Sit on Padmasana. Close your eyes. Concentrate on Trikuti (the space between the two eye-brows). Close the right nostril with your right thumb. Inhale slowly through the left nostril as long as you can do it with comfort. Then exhale very very slowly through the same nostril. Do twelve times. This is one round.

Then inhale through the right nostril by closing the left nostril with your right ring and little fingers and exhale very slowly through the same nostril. Do twelve times. This is one round.

Do not make any sound during inhalation and exhalation. Repeat your Ishta Mantra during the practice. In the second week of practice, do two rounds, in the third week, three rounds. Take rest for two minutes when one round is over. If you take a few normal breaths, when one round is over, that will give you sufficient rest and you will be fresh for the next round. There is no Kumbhaka in this exercise. You can increase the number of rounds according to your strength and capacity.

Exercise No. 2

Inhale through both the nostrils slowly and gently. Do not retain the breath. Then exhale slowly. Do 12 times. This will constitute one round. You can do 2 or 3 rounds according to your capacity and strength and time at your disposal.

Exercise No. 3

Sit on your Asana. Close the right nostril with your right thumb. Then inhale slowly through your left nostril. Close the left nostril with your right ring and little fingers and open the right nostril by removing the right thumb. Exhale very slowly through the right nostril. Then draw the air through the right nostril as long as you can do it with comfort and exhale through the left nostril by removing the right ring and little fingers. There is no Kumbhaka in this Pranayama. Repeat the process 12 times. This will constitute one round.

Exercise No. 4

Meditate that the single letter, the Supreme light—Pranava or OM—is the origin or source of the three letters A, U and M. Inhale the air through Ida or left nostril for the space of 16 Matras (seconds), meditate on the letter ‘A’ during that time; retain the air for the space of 64 Matras, meditate on the letter ‘U’ during the time; exhale through the right nostril for the space of 32 Matras and meditate on the letter ‘M’ during that time. Practise this again and again in the above order. Begin with 2 or 3 times and gradually increase the number to 20 or 30 times according to your capacity and strength. To begin with, keep the ratio 1:4:2. Gradually increase the ratio to 16:64:32.

Deep Breathing Exercise

Each deep breathing consists of a very full inhalation, through the nose and a deep, steady exhalation also, through the nose.

Inhale slowly as much as you can do. Exhale slowly as much as you can do. During inhalation, observe the following rules:

1. Stand up. Place the hands on the hips, the elbows will be out and not forced backward. Stand at ease.

2. Lengthen the chest straight upwards. Press the hip bones with the hands in downward direction. A vacuum will be formed by this act and the air will rush in of its own accord.

3. Keep the nostrils wide open. Do not use the nose as a suction pump. It should serve as a passive passage for both the inhaled and the exhaled air. Do not make any sound when you inhale and exhale. Remember that correct breathing is noiseless.

4. Stretch the whole upper part of the trunk.

5. Do not arch the upper chest into a cramped position. Keep the abdomen naturally relaxed.

6. Do not bend the head far backwards. Do not draw the abdomen inwards. Do not force the shoulders back. Lift the shoulders up.

During the exhalation observe the following rules carefully:

1. Allow the ribs and the whole upper part of the trunk to sink down gradually.

2. Draw the lower ribs and abdomen upwards—slowly.

3. Do not bend the body too much forward. Arching of the chest should be avoided. Keep the head, neck and trunk in a straight line. Contract the chest. Do not breathe the air out through the mouth. Exhale very, very slowly without producing any noise.

4. Expiration simply takes place by relaxing the inspiratory muscles. The chest falls down by its own weight and expels the air out through the nose.

5. In the beginning, do not retain the breath after inhalation. When the process of inhalation is over begin exhalation at once. When you have sufficiently advanced in your practice, you can slowly retain the breath from five seconds to one minute according to your capacity.

6. When one round of three deep breathings is over, you can take a little rest, ‘Respiratory pause’—by taking a few normal breaths. Then start the second round. During the pause, stand still in a comfortable position with hands on hips. The number of rounds can be fixed according to the capacity of the practitioner. Do 3 or 4 rounds and increase one round every week. Deep breathing is only a variety of Pranayama.

Kapalabhati

‘Kapala’ is a Sanskrit word; it means skull. ‘Bhati’ means to shine. The term ‘Kapalabhati’ means an exercise that makes the skull shine. This Kriya cleanses the skull. So this is taken as one of the Shat-Karmas (six cleansing processes in Hatha Yoga).

Sit on Padmasana. Keep the hands on knees. Close the eyes. Perform Puraka and Rechaka rapidly. This should be practised vigorously. One will get perspiration profusely. This is a good form of exercise. Those who are well-versed in Kapalabhati, can do Bhastrika very easily. There is no Kumbhaka in this Pranayama. Rechaka plays a prominent part. Puraka is mild, slow and long (Dirgha). But the Rechaka should be done quickly and forcibly by contracting the abdominal muscles with a backward push. When you do Puraka, release the abdominal muscles. Some people naturally make a curve of the spine and bend their heads also. This is not desirable. The head and the trunk should be erect. Sudden expulsions of breath follow one another as in Bhastrika. To start with, you can have one expulsion per second. Gradually you can have two expulsions per second. To begin with do one round in the morning consisting of 10 expulsions only. In the second week, do one round in the evening. In the third week, do two rounds in the morning and two rounds in the evening. Thus every week, gradually and cautiously increase 10 expulsions to each round till you get 120 expulsions for each round.

It cleanses the respiratory system and the nasal passages. It removes the spasm in bronchial tubes. Consequently, Asthma is relieved and also cured in course of time. The apices of the lungs get proper oxygenation. Thereby they cannot afford favourable nidus (breeding grounds) for tubercle bacilli. Consumption is cured by this practice. Lungs are considerably developed. Carbon dioxide is eliminated in a large scale. Impurities of the blood are thrown out. Tissues and cells absorb a large quantity of oxygen. The practitioner keeps up good health. Heart functions properly. The circulatory and respiratory systems are toned to a considerable degree.

The External Kumbhaka (Bahya)

Draw the air through the left nostril till you count 3 OMs; throw it out through the right nostril immediately without retaining it counting 6 OMs. Stop it outside till you count 12 OMs. Then draw the breath through the right; exhale it through the left and stop it outside as before, using the same units of OM for inhalation, exhalation and retention. Do six times in the morning and six times in the evening. Gradually increase the number of rounds and the time of Kumbhaka. Do not strain or fatigue yourself.

Easy Comfortable Pranayama (Sukha Purvaka)

Sit on Padmasana or Siddhasana in your meditation room, before the picture of your Ishta Devata (guiding deity). Close the right nostril with the right thumb. Draw in the air very, very slowly through the left nostril. Then close the left nostril also with little and ring fingers of the right hand. Retain the air as long as you can comfortably do. Then exhale very, very slowly through the nostril after removing the thumb. Now half the process is over. Then draw air through the right nostril. Retain the air as before and exhale it very, very slowly through the left nostril. All these six processes constitute one Pranayama. Do 20 in the morning and 20 in the evening. Gradually increase the number. Have a Bhava (mental attitude) that all the Daivi Sampat (divine qualities), e.g., mercy, love, forgiveness, Santi, joy, etc., are entering into your system along with the inspired air and all Asuri Sampat (devilish qualities) such as lust, anger, greed, etc., are being thrown out along with the expired air. Repeat OM or Gayatri mentally during Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka. Hard-working Sadhakas can do 320 Kumbhakas daily in four sittings at the rate of 80 in each sitting.

This Pranayama removes all diseases, purifies the Nadis, steadies the mind in concentration, improves digestion, increases the digestive fire and appetite, helps to maintain Brahmacharya and awakens the Kundalini that is sleeping at the Muladhara Chakra. Purification of Nadis will set in rapidly. You will have levitation (rising above the ground) also.

(Note: Various Mantras and their benefits are described in my book “Japa Yoga”.)

Pranayama for Awakening Kundalini

When you practise the following, concentrate on the Muladhara Chakra at the base of the spinal column, which is triangular in form and which is the seat of the Kundalini Sakti. Close the right nostril with your fight thumb. Inhale through the left nostril till you count 3 OMs slowly. Imagine that you are drawing the Prana with the atmospheric air. Then close the left nostril with your little and ring fingers of the right hand. Then retain the breath for 12 OMs. Send the current down the spinal column straight into the triangular lotus, the Muladhara Chakra. Imagine that the nerve-current is striking against the lotus and awakening the Kundalini. Then slowly exhale through the right nostril counting 6 OMs. Repeat the process from the right nostril as stated above, using the same units, and having the same imagination and feeling. This Pranayama will awaken the Kundalini quickly. Do it 3 times in the morning and 3 times in the evening. Increase the number and time gradually and cautiously according to your strength and capacity. In this Pranayama, concentration on the Muladhara Chakra is the important thing. Kundalini will be awakened quickly if the degree of concentration is intense and if the Pranayama is practised regularly.

Pranayama During Meditation

If you do concentration and meditation, Pranayama, comes by itself. The breath becomes slower and slower. We will practise this Pranayama daily unconsciously. When you are reading a sensational storybook or when you are solving a mathematical problem, your mind is really very much absorbed in the subject-matter. If you closely watch your breath on these occasions, you will find that the breath has become very very slow. When you see a tragical story being enacted in the theater or a film-show, when you hear a very sad striking news or some glad tidings, when you shed tears either of joy or sorrow, or burst into laughter, the breath is slackened—Pranayama comes by itself. In those Yogic students who practise Sirshasana, Pranayama comes by itself. It is obvious from these examples that when the mind is deeply concentrated on any subject, the respiration slows down or stops. Pranayama is being done automatically. Mind and Prana are intimately connected. If you turn your attention to watch the breath on those occasions, it will regain its normal state. Pranayama comes by itself to those who are deeply absorbed in doing Japa, Dhyana or Brahma-Vichara (enquiry of Atman).

Prana, mind and Virya (seminal energy) are under one Sambandha (connection). If you can control the mind, Prana and Virya are controlled by themselves. If you can control Prana, mind and Virya are controlled by themselves. If you control the Virya by remaining as an Akhanda Brahmachari without emission of even a single drop of semen for 12 years, mind and Prana are controlled by themselves. Just as there is connection between wind and fire (light), so also there is connection between Prana and mind. Wind fans the fire. Prana also fans the mind. If there is no wind, fire or light gets steady. Hatha Yogins approach Brahman by controlling Prana. Raja Yogins approach Brahman by controlling mind.

In this Pranayama you need not close the nostrils. Simply close the eyes if you practise it in a sitting posture. Forget the body and concentrate. If you practise this during walking, just feel minutely the movement of the air that is inhaled and exhaled.

Pranayama While Walking

Walk with head up, shoulders back and with chest expanded. Inhale slowly through both nostrils counting OM mentally 3 times, one count for each step. Then retain the breath till you count 12 OMs. Then exhale slowly through both nostrils till you count 6 OMs. Take the respiratory pause or rest after one Pranayama counting 12 OMs. If you find it difficult to count OM with each step, count OM without having any concern with the steps.

Kapalabhati can also be done during walking. Those who are very busy can practise the above Pranayama during their morning and evening walks. It is like killing two birds with one stone. You will find it very pleasant to practise Pranayama while walking in an open place, when delightful gentle breeze is blowing. You will be invigorated and innervated quickly to a considerable degree. Practise, feel and realise the marked, beneficial influence of this kind of Pranayama. Those who walk briskly, repeating OM mentally or verbally do practise natural Pranayama without any effort.

Pranayama in Savasana

Lie down on the back, quiet at ease, over a blanket. Keep the hands on the ground by the side and legs straight. The heels should be kept together, but the toes can remain a little apart. Relax all the muscles and the nerves. Those who are very weak, can practise Pranayama in this pose while lying on the ground or on a bedstead. Draw the breath slowly without making any noise, through both nostrils. Retain the breath as long as you can do it with comfort. Then exhale slowly through both nostrils. Repeat the process 12 times in the morning and 12 times in the evening. Chant OM mentally during the practice. If you like you can practise the ‘easy comfortable posture’ also. This is a combined exercise of Asana, Pranayama, meditation and rest. It gives rest not only to the body but also for the mind. It gives relief, comfort and ease. This is very suitable for aged people.

Rhythmical Breathing

The breathing in men and women is very irregular. In exhalation the Prana goes out 16 digits and in inhalation only 12 digits, thus losing 4 digits. But if you inhale for 16 digits as in exhalation then you will have rhythmical breathing. Then the power Kundalini will be roused. By the practice of rhythmical breathing you will enjoy real good rest. You can control the respiratory centre that is situated in medulla oblongata and other nerves also, because the centre of respiration has a sort of controlling effect on other nerves. He who has calm nerves, has a calm mind also.

If the units of exhalation and inhalation are the same, you will have rhythmical breathing. If you inhale till you count 6 OMs, exhale also till you count 6 OMs. This is breathing in and out in a measured manner. This will harmonise the whole system. This will harmonise the physical body, mind, Indriyas and will soothe the tired nerves. You will experience full repose and calmness. All the bubbling emotions will subside and the surging impulses will calm down.

There is another variety of modification of rhythmic breathing. Inhale slowly through both nostrils for 4 OMs; retain the breath for 8 OMs (internal Kumbhaka); exhale slowly through both nostrils for 4 OMs; and retain the breath outside (external Kumbhaka) for 8 OMs.

Repeat the above process a number of times according to your strength and capacity. You can gradually increase the duration of inhalation and exhalation after some practice of 8 OMs and the period between breaths to 16 OMs. But never try to increase the duration until you are sure that you have power and strength to do so. You must experience joy and pleasure in doing the same. You should not feel any undue strain. Pay considerable attention to keep up the rhythm. Remember that the rhythm is more important than the length of breath. You must feel the rhythm throughout your whole body. Practice will make you perfect. Patience and perseverance are needed.

Surya Bheda

Sit on Padmasana or Siddhasana. Close the eyes. Keep the left nostril closed with your right ring and little fingers. Slowly inhale without making any sound as long as you can do it comfortably through the right nostril. Then close the right nostril with your right thumb and retain the breath firmly pressing the chin against the chest (Jalandhara Bandha). Hold on the breath till perspiration oozes from the tips of the nails and roots of the hairs (hair follicles). This point cannot be reached at the very outside. You will have to increase the period of Kumbhaka gradually. This is the limit of the sphere of practice of Surya Bheda Kumbhaka. Then exhale very slowly without making any sound through the left nostril by closing the right nostril with the thumb. Repeat OM mentally with Bhava and meaning during inhalation, retention and exhalation. Exhale after purifying the skull by forcing the breath up.

This Pranayama should again and again be performed, as it purifies the brain and destroys the intestinal worms and diseases arising from excess of wind (Vayu). This removes the four kinds of evils caused by Vayu and cures Vata or rheumatism. It cures rhinitis, cephalalgia and various sorts of neuralgia. The worms that are found in the frontal sinuses are removed. It destroys decay and death, awakens Kundalini Sakti and increases the bodily fire.

Surya Bheda

Ujjayi

Sit in Padmasana or Siddhasana. Close the mouth. Inhale slowly through both the nostrils in a smooth, uniform manner till the breath fills the space from the throat to the heart.

Retain the breath as long as you can do it comfortably and then exhale slowly through the left nostril by closing the right nostril with your right thumb. Expand the chest when you inhale. During inhalation a peculiar sound is produced owing to the partial closing of glottis. The sound produced during inhalation should be of a mild and uniform pitch. It should be continuous also. This Kumbhaka may be practised even when walking or standing. Instead of exhaling through the left nostril, you can exhale slowly through both nostrils.

This removes the heat in the head. The practitioner becomes very beautiful. The gastric fire is increased. It removes all the evils arising in the body and the Dhatus and cures Jalodara (dropsy of the belly or ascites). It removes phlegm in the throat, Asthma, consumption and all sorts of pulmonary diseases are cured. All diseases that arise from deficient inhalation of oxygen, and diseases of the heart are cured. All works are accomplished by Ujjayi Pranayama. The practitioner is never attacked by diseases of phlegm, nerves, dyspepsia, dysentery, enlarged spleen, consumption, cough or fever. Perform Ujjayi to destroy decay and death.

Ujjayi

Sitkari

Fold the tongue so that the tip of the tongue might touch the upper palate and draw the air through the mouth with a hissing sound C C C C (or Si, Si, Si, Si). Then retain the breath as long as you can without the feeling of suffocation and then exhale slowly through both nostrils. You can keep the two rows of teeth in contact and then inhale the air through the mouth as before.

The practice enhances the beauty of the practitioner and vigour of his body. It removes hunger, thirst, indolence and sleep. His strength will be just like that of Indra. He becomes the Lord of Yogins. He is able to do and undo things. He becomes an independent monarch. He becomes invincible. No injury will affect him. When you are thirsty, practise this. You will be relieved of thirst immediately.

Sitkari

Sitali

Protrude the tongue a little away from the lips. Fold the tongue like a tube. Draw in the air through the mouth with the hissing sound Si. Retain the breath as long as you can hold on with comfort. Then exhale slowly through both nostrils. Practise this daily again and again in the morning from 15 to 30 times. You can do this either on Padmasana, Siddhasana, Vajrasana or even when you stand or walk.

This Pranayama purifies the blood. It quenches thirst and appeases hunger. It cools the system. It destroys Gulma (chronic dyspepsia), Pleeha, inflammation of various chronic diseases, fever, consumption, indigestion, bilious disorders, phlegm, the bad effects of poison, snake-bite, etc. When you are caught up in a jungle or any place where you cannot get water, if you feel thirsty, practise this Pranayama. You will be at once relieved of thirst. He who practises this Pranayama regularly, will not be affected by the bite of serpents and scorpions. Sitali Kumbhaka is an imitation of the respiration of a serpent. The practitioner gets the power of casting his skin and enduring the privation of air, water and food. He becomes a proof against all sorts of inflammations and fever.

Bhastrika

In Sanskrit Bhastrika means ‘bellows’. Rapid succession of forcible expulsion is a characteristic feature of Bhastrika. Just as a blacksmith blows his bellows rapidly, so also you should move your breath rapidly.

Sit on Padmasana. Keep the body, neck and head erect. Close the mouth. Next, inhale and exhale quickly ten times like the bellows of the blacksmith. Constantly dilate and contract. When you practise this Pranayama a hissing sound is produced. The practitioner should start with rapid expulsions of breath following one another in rapid succession. When the required number of expulsions, say ten for a round, is finished, the final expulsion is followed by a deepest possible inhalation. The breath is suspended as long as it could be done with comfort. Then deepest possible exhalation is done very slowly. The end of this deep exhalation completes one round of Bhastrika. Rest a while after one round is over by taking a few normal breaths. This will give you relief and make you fit for starting the second round. Do three rounds daily in the morning. You can do another three rounds in the evening also. Busy people who find it difficult to do three rounds of Bhastrika can do one round at least. This also will keep them quite fit.

Bhastrika is a powerful exercise. A combination of Kapalabhati and Ujjayi makes up Bhastrika. Practise Kapalabhati and Ujjayi to start with. Then you will find it very easy to do Bhastrika.

Some prolong the practice till they get tired. You will get perspiration profusely. If you experience any giddiness stop the practice and take a few normal breaths. Continue the practice after the giddiness has vanished. Bhastrika can be done both in the morning and evening in winter. In summer do it in the morning only during cool hours.

Bhastrika relieves inflammation of the throat, increases gastric fire, destroys phlegm, removes diseases of the nose and chest and eradicates asthma, consumption, etc. It gives good appetite. It breaks the three Granthis or knots viz., Brahma Granthi, Vishnu Granthi and Rudra Granthi. It destroys phlegm which is the bolt or obstacle to the door at the mouth of Brahma Nadi (Sushumna). It enables one to know the Kundalini. It removes all diseases which arise from excess of wind, bile and phlegm. It gives warmth to the body. When you have no sufficient warm clothing in a cool region to protect yourself from cold, practise this Pranayama and you will get sufficient warmth in the body quickly. It purifies the Nadis considerably. It is the most beneficial of all Kumbhakas. Bhastrika Kumbhaka should be specially practised as it enables the Prana to break through the three Granthis or knots that are firmly located in the Sushumna. It awakens the Kundalini quickly. The practitioner will never suffer from any disease. He will always be healthy.

The number of exhalations or rounds is determined by the strength and capacity of the practitioner. You must not go to extremes. Some students do six rounds. Some do twelve also.

You can practise Bhastrika in the following manner. There is some slight change in the end. Having inhaled and exhaled quickly twenty times, inhale through the right nostril, retain the breath as long as you can do it comfortably and then exhale through the left nostril. Then inhale through the left nostril, retain the breath as before and then exhale through the right nostril.

Repeat OM mentally with Bhava and meaning throughout the practice.

There are some varieties of Bhastrika wherein one nostril only is used for breathing purposes and in another variety the alternate nostrils are used for inhalation and exhalation.

Those who wish to do Bhastrika for a long time in an intense manner should live on Khichdi, and take an enema or do Bhasti in the morning before starting the practice.

Bhramari

Sit on Padmasana or Siddhasana. Inhale rapidly through both nostrils making sound of Bhramara, the bee, and exhale rapidly through both nostrils, making the humming sound.

You can carry the process till the body is bathed in perspiration. In the end inhale through both nostrils, retain the breath as long as you can do it comfortably and then exhale slowly through both nostrils. The joy which the practitioner gets in making the Kumbhaka is unlimited and indescribable. In the beginning, heat of the body is increased as the circulation of blood is quickened. In the end the body-heat is decreased by perspiration. By success in this Bhramari Kumbhaka the Yogic student gets success in Samadhi.

Murchha

Sit in your Asana and inhale. Retain the breath. Do Jalandhara Bandha by pressing the chin against the chest. Retain the breath till you expect fainting and then exhale slowly. This is Murchha Kumbhaka as it makes the mind senseless and gives happiness. But this is not suitable for many.

Murcha Pranayama

Plavini

Practice of this Pranayama demands skill on the part of the student. He who practises this Plavini can do Jalastambha (solidification of water) and float on water for any length of time. Mr. ‘S’ a Yogic student can float on water for twelve hours at a stretch. He who practises this Plavini Kumbhaka can live on air and dispense with food for some days. The student actually drinks air like water slowly and sends it to the stomach. The stomach gets bloated a bit. If you tap the stomach when it is filled with air, you will get a peculiar tympanic (air) sound. Gradual practice is necessary. The help of one who is well versed in this Pranayama is also necessary. The student can expel all the air from the stomach by gradual belching.

Kevala Kumbhaka

Kumbhaka is of two kinds, viz., Sahita and Kevala. That which is coupled with inhalation and exhalation is termed Sahita. That which is devoid of these, is called Kevala (alone). When you get mastery in Sahita, then you can attempt this Kevala. When in due course of practice, the Kumbhaka subsists in many places without exhalation and inhalation and unconditioned by place, time and number—then that Kumbhaka is called absolute and pure (Kevala Kumbhaka), the fourth form of ‘Regulation of breath’. Such powers as that of roaming about in space unseen, follow this last form of Pranayama. In Vasishtha Samhita it is said: “When after giving up inhalation and exhalation, one holds his breath with ease, it is absolute Kumbhaka (Kevala).” In this Pranayama the breath is suddenly stopped without Puraka and Rechaka. The student can retain his breath as long as he likes through this Kumbhaka. He attains the state of Raja Yoga. Through Kevala Kumbhaka, the knowledge of Kundalini arises. Kundalini is aroused and the Sushumna is free from all sorts of obstacles. He attains perfection in Hatha Yoga. You can practise this Kumbhaka three times a day. He who knows Pranayama and Kevala is the real Yogi. What can he not accomplish in the three worlds, who has acquired success in this Kevala Kumbhaka? Glory, glory to such exalted souls. This Kumbhaka cures all diseases and promotes longevity.

Pranic Healing

Those who practise Pranayama, can impart their Prana in healing morbid diseases. They can also recharge themselves with Prana in no time by practising Kumbhaka. Never think that you will be depleted of your Prana by distributing it to others. The more you give, the more it will flow to you from the cosmic source (Hiranyagarbha). That is the law of nature. Do not become a niggard. If there is a rheumatic patient, gently shampoo his legs with your hands. When you do shampooing (massage), do Kumbhaka and imagine that the Prana is flowing from your hands towards the leg of your patient. Connect yourself with Hiranyagarbha or the Cosmic Prana and imagine that the cosmic energy is flowing through your hands towards the legs of the patient. The patient will at once feel warmth, relief and strength. You can cure headache, intestinal colic or any other disease by massage and by your magnetic touch. When you massage the liver, spleen, stomach or any other portion or organ of the body, you can speak to the cells and give them orders: “O cells! discharge your functions properly. I command you to do so.” They will obey your orders. They too have got subconscious intelligence. Repeat OM when you pass your Prana to others. Try a few cases. You will gain competence. You can cure scorpion-sting also. Gently shampoo the leg and bring the poison down.

You can have extraordinary power of concentration, strong will and a perfectly healthy and strong body by practising Pranayama regularly. You will have to direct the power of Prana consciously to unhealthy parts of the body. Suppose you have a sluggish liver. Sit on Padmasana. Close your eyes. Inhale gently till you count OM 3 times. Then retain breath till you count OM 6 times. Direct the Prana to the region of the liver. Concentrate your mind there. Fix your attention to that area. Imagine that Prana is interpenetrating all the tissues and the cells of the lobes of the liver and doing its curative, regenerating and constructive work there. Faith, imagination, attention and interest play a very important part in curing disease by taking Prana to the diseased areas. Then slowly exhale. During exhalation imagine that the morbid impurities of the liver are thrown out. Repeat this process 12 times in the morning and 12 times in the evening. Sluggishness of liver will vanish in a few days. This is a drugless treatment. This is nature-cure. You can take the Prana to any part of the body during Pranayama and cure any kind of disease, be it acute or chronic. Try once or twice in healing yourself. Your convictions will grow stronger. Why do you cry like the lady who is crying for ghee when she has butter in her hand, when you have a cheap, potent, easily available remedy or agent Prana at your command at all times! Use it judiciously. When you advance in your concentration and practice, you can cure many diseases by mere touch. In the advanced stages, many diseases are cured by mere will.

Distant Healing

This is known as ‘absent treatment’ also. You can transmit your Prana through space, to your friend, who is living at a distance. He should have a receptive mental attitude. You must feel yourself en rapport (in direct relation and in sympathy) with the man, whom you heal with this Distant Healing method.

You can fix hours of appointment with them through correspondence. You can write to them: “Get ready at 4 a.m. Have a receptive mental attitude. Lie down in an easy chair. Close your eyes. I shall transmit my Prana.” Say mentally to the patient: “I am transmitting a supply of Prana (vital force).” Do Kumbhaka when you send the Prana. Practise rhythmical breathing also. Have a mental image that the Prana is leaving your mind when you exhale; it is passing through space and is entering the system of the patient. The Prana travels unseen like the wireless (radio) waves and flashes like lightning across space. The Prana that is coloured by the thoughts of the healer is projected outside. You can recharge yourself with Prana by practising Kumbhaka. This requires long, steady and regular practice.

Relaxation

The practice of relaxing the muscles of the body will bring rest to the body and to the mind also. The tension of the muscles will be relieved. People who know the science of relaxation do not waste any energy. They can meditate well. Take a few deep breaths and then lie down flat on your back as in Savasana. Relax all the muscles of the body from head to feet. Roll on to one side and then relax as thoroughly as you can do. Do not strain the muscles. Roll on the other side and relax. This is naturally done by all during sleep. There are various exercises in relaxation, for the particular muscles of a particular part of the body. You can relax the head, the shoulders, the arms, forearms, wrist, etc. Yogins know the science of relaxation thoroughly. When you practise these various relaxation exercises, you must have the mental picture of calmness and strength.

Relaxation of Mind

Mental poise and calmness may be brought about by the eradication of worry and anger. Fear really underlies both worry and anger. Nothing is gained by worry and anger, but on the contrary much energy is wasted by these two kinds of lower emotions. If a man worries much and if he is irritable, he is indeed a very weak man. Be careful and thoughtful. All unnecessary worries can be avoided. Relaxation of the muscles reacts on the mind and brings repose to the mind. Relaxation of the mind brings rest to the body also. Body and mind are intimately connected. Body is a mould prepared by the mind for its enjoyment.

Sit for 15 minutes in a relaxed and easy comfortable position. Close your eyes. Withdraw the mind from outside objects. Still the mind. Silence the bubbling thoughts. Think that the body is like a coconut shell and you are entirely different from the body. Think that the body is an instrument in your hands. Identify yourself with the all-pervading Spirit or Atman. Imagine that the whole world and your body are floating like a piece of straw in this vast ocean of Spirit. Feel that you are in touch with the Supreme Being. Feel that the life of the whole world is pulsating, vibrating and throbbing through you. Feel that the ocean of life is gently rocking you on its vast bosom. Then open your eyes. You will experience immense mental peace, mental vigour and mental strength. Practise and feel this.

Importance and Benefits of Pranayama

“The illusory Samsaric Vasana that has arisen through the practice of many lives, never perishes except through the practice of Yoga for a long time. It is not possible on the part of one to control the mind by sitting up again and again except through the approved means” (Muktikopanishad).

“How could Jnana, capable of giving Moksha, arise certainly without Yoga? And even Yoga becomes powerless in securing Moksha when it is devoid of Jnana. So the aspirant after emancipation should practise (firmly) both Yoga and Jnana” (Yogatattva Upanishad).

“Tatah kshiyate prakasavaranam—Thence the covering of the light is destroyed” (Yoga Sutras—II-52). Tamas and Rajas constitute the covering or veil. This veil is removed by the practice of Pranayama. After the veil is removed, the real nature of the soul is realised. The Chitta is by itself made up of the Sattvic particles, but it is enveloped by Rajas and Tamas, just as the fire is enveloped by smoke. There is no purificatory action greater than Pranayama. Pranayama gives purity and the light of knowledge shines. The Karma of the Yogi, which covers up the discriminative knowledge is destroyed as he practises Pranayama. By the magic panorama of desire, the essence, which is luminous by nature is covered up and the Jiva or individual soul is directed towards vice. This Karma of the Yogi which covers up the Light and binds him to repeated births, becomes attenuated by the practice of Pranayama every moment and is destroyed eventually. The afflictions and sins constitute the cover according to Vachaspati.

Manu says: “Let the defects be burnt up by Pranayama.” Vishnu Purana speaks of Pranayama as an accessory to Yoga: “He who wants the air known as Prana by practice is said to have secured Pranayama.”

“Dharanasu cha yogyata manasah—The mind becomes fit for concentration” (Yoga Sutras, II-53). You will be able to concentrate the mind, nicely after this veil of the light has been removed. The mind will be quite steady like the flame in a windless place as the disturbing energy has been removed. The word Pranayama is sometimes used collectively for inhalation, retention and exhalation of breath and sometimes for each of these severally. When the Prana Vayu moves in the Akasa-Tattva, the breathing will be lessened. At this time it will be easy to stop the breath. The velocity of the mind will be slowly lessened by Pranayama. It will induce Vairagya.

If you can suspend one inch or digit of breath inside, you will obtain the powers of foretelling; if you can suspend two inches within, you will get the power of thought-reading, for suspending the breath for three inches, levitation; for four inches, psychometry, clairaudience, etc; for five inches, moving about unseen by anybody in the world; for six inches, the power of ‘Kaya Siddhi’; for seven inches, entering the body of another man (Parakaya Pravesa); for eight inches, the power to remain always young; for nine inches, the power to make Devas to work as your servants; for ten inches Anima, Mahima and other Siddhis; and for eleven inches, you will attain oneness with Paramatman. When through great practice the Yogi can perform Kumbhaka for full three hours, then he can balance himself on his thumb. He undoubtedly attains all kinds of Siddhis. Just as fire destroys the fuel, so also Pranayama destroys the bundles of sins. Pratyahara makes the mind calm. Dharana steadies the mind. Dhyana makes one forget the body and the world. Samadhi brings infinite Bliss, Knowledge, Peace and Liberation.

During Yogic Samadhi, the flame of the Yogagni (fire of Yoga) extending from navel to the head melts the Amrita in the Brahmarandhra. The Yogi drinks this with joy and ecstasy. He can remain without food and drink for months by drinking this Yogic nectar alone.

The body becomes lean, strong and healthy. Too much fat is reduced. There is lustre in the face. Eyes sparkle like a diamond. The practitioner becomes very handsome. Voice becomes sweet and melodious. The inner Anahata sounds are distinctly heard. The student is free from all sorts of diseases. He gets established in Brahmacharya. Semen gets firm and steady. The Jatharagni (gastric fire) is augmented. The student becomes so perfect in Brahmacharya that his mind will not be shaken even if a fairy tries to embrace him. Appetite becomes keen. Nadis are purified. The Vikshepa is removed and the mind becomes one-pointed. Rajas and Tamas are destroyed. The mind is prepared for Dharana and Dhyana. The excretions become scanty. Steady practice arouses inner spiritual light, happiness and peace of mind. It makes him an Urdhvareto-Yogi. Advanced students only will get all the other Siddhis mentioned above.

The mind of a man can be made to transcend ordinary experience and exist on a plane higher than that of reason known as superconscious state of concentration and get beyond the limit of concentration. He comes face to face with facts which ordinary consciousness cannot comprehend. This ought to be achieved by proper training and manipulation of the subtle forces of the body so as to cause them to give, as it were, an upward push to the mind into the higher regions. When the mind is so raised into the superconscious state of perception, it begins to act from there and experiences higher facts and higher knowledge. Such is the ultimate object of Yoga, which can be achieved by the practice of Pranayama. The control of the vibratory Prana means to a Yogi, the kindling of the fire of supreme knowledge, the realisation of the Self.

Special Instructions

1. In the early morning, answer the calls of nature and sit for the practice. Practise Pranayama, in a dry well-ventilated room. Pranayama requires deep concentration and attention. It is always better to have the practice in a steady sitting posture. Do not keep anyone by your side to avoid distraction of your mind.

2. Before you sit for Pranayama practice, thoroughly clean the nostrils well. You can take a small quantity of fruit-juice or a small cup of milk or coffee even before the practice. When you finish the practice take a cup of milk or light tiffin after 10 minutes.

3. Have one sitting only in the morning during summer. If there is heat in the brain or head, apply Amla oil or butter on the head before you take your bath. Take Misri Sherbat by dissolving sugar candy in water. This will cool your whole system. Do Sitali Pranayama also. You will not be affected by the heat.

4. Strictly avoid too much talking, eating, sleeping, mixing with friends and exertion. “Verily Yoga is not for him who eateth too much, nor who abstaineth to excess, is addicted to too much sleep nor even to wakefulness” (Gita VI-16). Take a little ghee with rice when you take your meals. This will lubricate the bowels and allow Vayu to move downwards freely.

5. “Mitaharam vina yastu yogarambham tu karayet, Nanaroga bhavettasya kinchid yogo na sidhyati—Without observing moderation of diet, if one takes to the Yoga practices, he cannot obtain any benefit but gets various diseases” (Ghe.S. Chap. V-16).

6. Perfect celibacy for six months or one year will doubtless enable you to acquire rapid progress in the practice and in spiritual advancement. Do not talk with ladies. Do not laugh and joke with them. Shun their company entirely. Without Brahmacharya and dietetic regulations if you practise Yogic exercises, you will not get maximum benefit in the spiritual practices. But, for ordinary health you can practise mild exercises.

7. Be regular and systematic in your practice. Never miss a day. Stop the practice when you are ailing seriously. Some people twist the muscles of the face when they do Kumbhaka. It should be avoided. It is a symptom to indicate that they are going beyond their capacity. This must be strictly avoided. Such people cannot have a regulated Rechaka and Puraka.

8. Obstacles in Yoga: “Sleeping in day time, late vigil over night, excess of urine and faeces, evil of unwholesome food and laborious mental operation with Prana.” When one is attacked by any disease, he says that the disease is due to the practice of Yoga. This is a serious mistake.

9. Get up at 4 a.m. Meditate or do Japa for half an hour. Then do Asanas and Mudras. Take rest for 15 minutes. Then do Pranayama. Physical exercises can be conveniently combined with Asanas. If you have sufficient time at your disposal, you can have it after finishing all the Yogic exercises and meditation. Pranayama can also be performed as soon as you get up from bed just before Japa and meditation. It will make your body light and you will enjoy the meditation. You must have a routine according to your convenience and time.

10. Maximum benefit can be derived if Japa also is done during the practice of Asanas and Pranayama.

11. It is always better to start Japa and meditation in the early morning at 4 a.m., as soon as you get up from bed. At this time the mind is quite calm and refreshed. You can have good concentration.

12. Vast majority of persons waste their precious time in the early morning in answering the calls of nature for half an hour and washing their teeth for another half an hour. This is bad. Aspirants should try to defecate within 5 minutes and cleanse their teeth within 5 minutes. If the bowels are constipated, have vigorous practice of Salabha, Bhujanga and Dhanur Asanas for 5 minutes as soon as you get up from bed. If you are habituated to answer the call of nature, late, you can do so after finishing the Yogic exercises.

13. First do Japa and meditation. Then you can take to Asana and Pranayama exercises. Then finish the course of practice by another short sitting in meditation.

14. AS there is always some drowsiness when you get up from bed, it is desirable to do some Asanas and a little Pranayama for five minutes just to drive off this drowsiness and to make you fit for meditation. The mind gets one-pointed after the practice of Pranayama. Pranayama, though it concerns with the breath, gives good exercise for various internal organs and the whole body.

15. The general order of doing Kriyas is: First do all Asanas, then Mudras, then Pranayama and then Dhyana. Since the early morning time is suitable for meditation, you can follow this order: Japa, Meditation, Asanas, Mudras and Pranayama. This is a better way. You can follow the order which is suitable to you. After doing Asanas, take rest for five minutes and then begin Pranayama.

16. Some Hatha Yogic books interdict cold bath in the early morning. Probably the reason may be that one may catch cold or develop any complaint of the lungs, if he takes cold bath at 4 a.m. particularly in cold places like Kashmir, Mussoorie, Darjeeling, etc. There is no restriction in hot places. I am always in favour of cold baths before one starts the Yogic practices as it is refreshing and stimulating. It drives off drowsiness. It brings in equilibrium of circulation of blood. There is a healthy flow of blood towards the brain.

17. Asanas and Pranayama remove all sorts of diseases, improve health, energise digestion, invigorate the nerves, straighten the Sushumna Nadi, remove Rajas and awaken Kundalini. Practice of Asanas and Pranayama bestows good health and steady mind. As no Sadhana is possible without good health and as no meditation is possible without a steady mind, Hatha Yoga is of immense use for Dhyana Yogins, Karma Yogins, Bhaktas and Vedantins as well.

18. The maintenance of the body is impossible without Asanas or any kind of physical exercises or activities. Even an orthodox Vedantin is an unconscious Hatha Yogi. He practises some kind of Asana daily. He practises Pranayama also unconsciously because during meditation, Pranayama comes by itself.

19. Whenever you feel uneasy, depressed or dejected, practise Pranayama. You will be at once filled with new vigour, energy and strength. You will be elevated, renovated and filled with joy. Do this and try. Before you begin to write something, an essay, an article or a thesis, do Pranayama first. You will bring out beautiful ideas and it will be an inspiring, powerful and original production.

20. Be regular in the practice. Regularity in the practice is very necessary if one wants to realise the maximum benefits of Asanas and Pranayama. Those who practise by fits and starts will not derive much benefit. Generally people practise for two months in the beginning with great enthusiasm and leave off the practice. This is a sad mistake. They always want a Yogic teacher by their side. They have got the effeminate leaning mentality. They are lazy, torpid and slothful.

21. People do not want to remove Mala (impurity) by selfless service and Vikshepa by Yogic practices. They at once jump to awaken the Kundalini and raise Brahmakara Vritti. They will only break their legs. Those who attempt to awaken the Kundalini by Asanas and Pranayama, should have purity in thought, word and deed. They should have mental and physical Brahmacharya. Then only they can enjoy the benefits of awakening the Kundalini.

22. Sow the seed of spirituality in your young age. Do not waste Virya. Discipline the Indriyas and mind. Do Sadhana. When you become old, it will be difficult for you to do any rigid Sadhana. Therefore be on the alert during your teens; you will see for yourself in a short time the particular benefits you derive from particular kinds of Sadhana.

23. When you advance in spiritual practices, you must observe strict Mouna (vow of silence) for 24 hours continuously. This must be continued for some months also. Everyone should select a course of few exercises in Asana, Pranayama and meditation according to one’s temperament, capacity, convenience and requirement.

24. It is quite possible for a man to practise celibacy, albeit there are various sorts of temptations and distractions. A well-disciplined life, study of scriptures, Satsanga, Japa, Dhyana, Pranayama, Sattvic and moderate diet, daily introspection, and enquiry, self-analysis and self-correction, Sadachara, practice of Yama, Niyama, physical and verbal Tapas, all will pave a long way in the attainment of this end. People have irregular, unrighteous, immoderate, irreligious, undisciplined life. Hence they suffer and fail in the attainment of the goal of life. Just as the elephant throws sand on its own head, so also they themselves bring difficulties and troubles on their own heads on account of their foolishness.

25. Do not shake the body unnecessarily. By shaking the body often the mind also is disturbed. Do not stretch the body every now and then. The Asana should be steady and firm as a rock when you do Pranayama, Japa and meditation.

26. You must find out for yourself according to your health and constitution what sort of dietetic regulation will suit and what particular Pranayama will exactly help you. Then only you can safely proceed with your Sadhana. First read all the instructions of the various exercises given in this book from the beginning to the end. Clearly understand the technique. If you have any doubts, just ask any Yogic student to demonstrate and then practise it. This is the safest method. You should not select any one of the exercise at random and begin to practise it in a wrong way.

27. In all the exercises I have suggested Mantra ‘OM’ as the time-unit. You can have your Guru Mantra, Rama, Siva, Gayatri or mere number as the time-unit according to your inclination. Gayatri or OM is the best for Pranayama. In the beginning you must observe some time-unit for Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka. The time-unit and the proper ratio comes by itself when you do the Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka as long as you can do it comfortably. When you have advanced in the practice, you need not count or keep any unit. You will be naturally established in the normal ratio through force of habit.

28. For some days in the beginning you must count the number and see how you progress. In the advanced stages, you need not distract the mind in counting. The lungs will tell you when the required number is finished.

29. Do not continue the Pranayama when you are fatigued. There must be always joy and exhilaration of spirit during and after the practice. You should come out of the practice fully invigorated and refreshed. Do not bind yourself by too many rules (Niyamas).

30. Do not take bath immediately after Pranayama is over. Take rest for half an hour. If you get perspiration during the practice, do not wipe it with a towel. Rub it with your hands. Do not expose the body to the chill draughts of air when you perspire.

31. Always inhale and exhale very slowly. Do not make any sound. In Pranayamas like Bhastrika, Kapalabhati, Sitali and Sitkari, you can produce a little mild or the lowest possible sound.

32. You should not expect the benefits after doing it for 2 or 3 minutes only for a day or two. At least you must have 15 minutes daily practice in the beginning regularly for days together. There will be no use if you jump from one exercise to another everyday. You must have a particular exercise for your daily Abhyasa, which you should improve to a high degree. Other exercises of course, you can have for occasional practice along with the daily exercise. You must have Bhastrika, Kapalabhati and ‘Easy Comfortable Pranayama’ for your daily practice; and Sitali, Sitkari, etc., can be practised occasionally.

33. The Puraka is otherwise known as ‘Nissvasa’ and Rechaka is known as ‘Uchhvasa’. The mental process in Kevala Kumbhaka is called ‘Sunyaka’ form of breath regulation. Steady, systematic practice and gradual increase of Kumbhaka is known as ‘Abhyasa Yoga’, swallowing of air and living on this air alone is known as ‘Vayubhakshana’.

34. The author of Sivayoga Dipika describes three kinds of Pranayama: Prakrita, Vaikrita and Kevala Kumbhaka. “If the Prana is in the form of breath inhaled and exhaled, on account of its natural quality of going out and coming in, the Pranayama is known as Prakrita. If the Prana is restrained by the threefold means of throwing out, taking in and stopping the breath in accordance with the rules prescribed in the Sastras, it is called Vaikrita or artificial. But with great men who have risen above these two kinds of restraining breath, the sudden restraining of the vital currents directly (without inspiration and expiration), is Kevala Kumbhaka. Prakrita Pranayama belongs to Mantra Yoga. Vaikrita belongs to Laya Yoga.”

35. “That is called Kumbhaka (cessation of breath) when there is neither expiration nor inspiration and the body is motionless, remaining still in one state. Then he sees forms like the blind, hears sounds like the deaf and sees the body like wood. This is the characteristic of one who has attained quiescence.”

36. Patanjali does not lay much stress on practice of different kinds of Pranayama. He mentions: “Exhale slowly, then inhale and retain the breath. You will get a steady and calm mind.” It is only the Hatha Yogins who developed Pranayama as a science and have mentioned various exercises to suit different persons.

37. “Spread a tiger-skin or a deer-skin or a fourfold blanket. Over this spread a piece of white cloth. Then sit for the Pranayama practice facing the North.”

38. Some would take the order as exhaling, inhaling and retaining; others as inhaling, retaining and exhaling. The latter is more common. In Yajnavalkya, we find the different kinds of breath regulation mentioned in the order of Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka; whereas, in Naradiya text we have them in the order of Rechaka, Puraka and Kumbhaka. The two are to be regulated as optional alternatives.

39. A Yogi should always avoid fear, anger, laziness, too much sleep or waking and too much food or fasting. If the above rule be well strictly practised, each day, spiritual wisdom will arise of itself in three months without doubt; in four months, he sees the Devas; in five months he knows or becomes a Brahmanishtha; and truly in six months he attains Kaivalya at will. There is no doubt.

40. A neophyte should do Puraka and Rechaka only without any Kumbhaka for some days. Take a long time to do Rechaka. The proportion for Puraka and Rechaka is 1:2.

41. Pranayama in its popular and preparatory form may be practised by every one in any posture whatsoever, sitting or walking; and yet is sure to show its benefits. But to those who practise it in accordance with the specific methods prescribed, fructification will be rapid.

42. Gradually increase the period of Kumbhaka. Retain for 4 seconds in the first week, for 8 seconds in the second week, for 12 seconds in the third week and so on, till you are able to retain the breath to your full capacity.

43. Common-sense or Yukti should be used throughout your practice. If one kind of exercise is not agreeable to your system, change it after due consideration or consultation with your Guru. This is Yukti. Where there is Yukti, there is Siddhi, Bhukti and Mukti (perfection, enjoyment and salvation).

44. You must so nicely adjust the Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka that you should not experience the feeling of suffocation or discomfort at any stage of Pranayama. You should never feel the necessity of catching hold of a few normal breaths between any two successive rounds. The duration of Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka must be properly adjusted. Exercise due care and attention. Matters will turn to be successful and easy.

45. You must not unnecessarily prolong the period of exhalation. If you prolong the time of Rechaka, the following inhalation will be done in a hurried manner and the rhythm will be disturbed. You must so carefully regulate the Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka that must be absolutely comfortable and perform not only one Pranayama but also the full course or required rounds of Pranayama. Experience and practice will make you alright. Practice makes one perfect. Be steady. Another important factor is that you must have efficient control over the lungs at the end of Kumbhaka to enable you to do the Rechaka smoothly and in proportion with the Puraka.

46. Suryabheda and Ujjayi produce heat. Sitkari and Sitali are cooling. Bhastrika preserves normal temperature. Suryabheda destroys excess of wind; Ujjayi phlegm; Sitkari and Sitali bile; and Bhastrika all the three.

47. Suryabheda and Ujjayi must be practised during winter. Sitkari and Sitali must be practised in summer. Bhastrika can be practised in all seasons. Those persons whose bodies are hot even in winter can practise Sitali and Sitkari during winter season.

48. Goal of life is self-realisation. “This is brought about by means of the subjugation of the body and the senses, the service to a good Guru, the hearing of Vedantic doctrine and constant meditation thereon” (Niralamba Upanishad). “If you are really sincere and if you wish to have a quick, sure success, you must have a systematic routine for Asana, Pranayama, Japa, Meditation, Svadhyaya, etc. You must be very careful in keeping up Brahmacharya. Effective means to control the mind are the attainment of spiritual knowledge, association with the wise, the entire abdication of all Vasanas and control of Prana” (Muktikopanishad).

49. Once again I will tell you that Asana, Pranayama, Japa, Dhyana, Brahmacharya, Satsanga, solitude, Mouna, Nishkama Karma are all absolutely necessary for spiritual attainments. One can hardly obtain perfection in Raja Yoga without Hatha Yoga. At the end of Kumbhaka you should withdraw the mind from all the objects. By gradual practice you will be established in Raja Yoga.

50. Some students who are studying Vedantic books think that they are Jnanis and they ignore Asanas, Pranayama, etc. They also should practise these, till they are perfect in Shat-Sampat of the Sadhana-Chatushtaya—Sama, Dama, etc.,—the preliminary qualifications of Jnana Yoga.

51. Do not hesitate. Do not be waiting to get a Guru who will sit by your side and watch you daily for a long time. If you are sincere, regular and systematic and if you follow rules and instructions of this book very carefully, there will be no trouble at all. You will undoubtedly get success. Slight errors may crop up in the beginning, it does not matter. Do not unnecessarily be alarmed. Do not give up the practice. You will yourself learn how to adjust. Common-sense, instinct, the shrill inner voice of the soul will help you in the path. Everything will come out smoothly in the end. Start the practice this very second in right earnest and become a real Yogi.

OM Santih, Santih, Santih!

Yoga Components

2008-07-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

Some people say Yoga is "not that and this" but a "Gym has all this!"

Yoga has following components:

a. Stretching
b. Cardiovascular
c. Weight Bearing
d. Muscle Toning and Strengthening
e. Flexibility Improvement.
f. Self Massaging

Besides that Yoga has Meditation, between and during Aasanas, between PraNaayaamas, and at the end of Yoga Session. Yoga is not only Physical, it is also a Mental, Emotional and Soul-level exercise.

The only thing is that Yoga needs time and slowing down of mental pace and body clock as part of the regime. Once you discipline yourself towards that, it is like getting a Milion Dollar Massage and going to Hawai on a vacation!

Doing Yoga is fresh air and open space, specially in morning, with the Nature and softness of grass with the Morning Dew, has its own benefits.

Yoga utilizes the principle of opposites, like Forward Bend followed by Backward Bend, and symmetry and anti symmetry, like Right Extention/Flexion/Adduction/Abduction balanced by the Left pairing Extention/Flextion/Adduction/Abduction to counter-balance, and create push-and-pull forces.

Stretching - Muscles and body tissues as such have a tough time discharging toxins, and that is one reason, why drinking a lot of water helps. When one stretches, the tissues get squeezed like a soaking wet towel, and the rate of excretion of the body waste from the tissues accelerates. Also the tissues burn energy in the process, and Heart Beat also increases to keep up with the fresh need of nutritional supplies. It also "strokes" the cells, and nerve endings, that increases the production of endorphins (like Morphine), which makes the body feel less pain and more pleasure. This also improves the Blood Circulation, as the vascular volume increases in the stretched part and that leads to Heart beating faster to supply more energy. Then there is a massaging effect also, which is good for the tissue's "well being".

Cardiovascular - In Yoga, the Heart is gently nudged to beat faster over a long time, off and on, and it builds an endurance that is more practical to life. Jogging and fast-paced exercises are good but they maximize one parameter only, that is the heart-beat - and perhaps at expense of increased production of Lactic Acid and soreness of body muscles. Besides the heart-beats increasing in Stretching, in Surya-Namaskar Aasan (Sun Salution), Paschim-Othan Aasan(Forward Stomach Bend) and inverted poses like Sheersh Aasan (Head Stand), Sarvanga Aasan (Shoulder Stand) and Hal Aasan (Plough), it also increases either beacuase of Lung's capactity being restricted, like in Forward Stomach Bend, or in Plough, or 1/3 of Body's Blood being pumped extra into the Heart, making the heart Expand, like in during Inverted Exercises. Besides that a mere physical energy required to do some Aasans paces up the heart slowly. During Aasanas, one is suppose to relax and capture back his or her normal breath and heart beats. Expansion of Heart with extra 1/3 Body Blood makes the heart Flexible and avoids plaque building up in Heart Muscles and in its Veins/Arteries. It is like a "Baloon Angio" Effect and similar effect is observed in Aasans and Stretches for others parts of bodies' vein and arteries.

Weight Bearing - In Yoga, one makes the body a Gym, and uses it to do weight lifting. Examples are Head Stand, Salabh Aasan (Scorpion), and many other Aasans. It may look very simple, but it is very subtly tough. Like doing the Kaga Aasan (the crow) one will know what focus, and weight bearing one needs to do.

Muscle Toning and Strengthening - Muscle Flabbing happens with aging and lack of exercises. In Yoga the principle of Opposites and Symmetry/Anti Symmetry is exploited for this. In fact, one can remove wrinkles and improve eye-sight as well, and get rid of Asthama. But having a faith and positive attitude is very important followed by discipline (which is hard to keep with the rat-race fast paced life style we lead). This also helps in old age related sickness and ailments. Muscles are equally important as the Skelton Frame.

Flexibility - Modern Science has established that the Degree of Flexibility is one of the indicators for Physical Wellness. If one goes to a Proactive Wellness Program as part of Health Insurance, one will notice that they also talk about this. In Chinese, there is a saying, the more Flexible you are, the more Alive you are! In Urdu, there is a saying, "Murda Kya Khaak Mudaa Karte He", or "What!, Dead can hardly move!!".

Self Massage - Internal and External Organs get the massage and stimulated, which is good for the Body as confirmed by the Modern Medicine. At the end of a Yoga Sessions, people often go to sleep during Meditation, because they feel so good, and if not then, after a few hours and specially after a hot shower. It is advisable though that one does not have bath after a Yoga session for a few hours, and has a shower before a Yoga session.

Finally Pranayama, helps one improve Meditation and other aspects of life like Ablutions.

Lotus Therapy

2008-05-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

Lotus Therapy
BENEDICT CAREY

Published: May 27, 2008
The patient sat with his eyes closed, submerged in the rhythm of his own breathing, and after a while noticed that he was thinking about his troubled relationship with his father.

Jim Ross for The New York Times

ANXIETY AID Zindel Segal, a psychologist, demonstrating meditative therapy.
“I was able to be there, present for the pain,” he said, when the meditation session ended. “To just let it be what it was, without thinking it through.”

The therapist nodded.

“Acceptance is what it was,” he continued. “Just letting it be. Not trying to change anything.”

“That’s it,” the therapist said. “That’s it, and that’s big.”

This exercise in focused awareness and mental catch-and-release of emotions has become perhaps the most popular new psychotherapy technique of the past decade. Mindfulness meditation, as it is called, is rooted in the teachings of a fifth-century B.C. Indian prince, Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha. It is catching the attention of talk therapists of all stripes, including academic researchers, Freudian analysts in private practice and skeptics who see all the hallmarks of another fad.

For years, psychotherapists have worked to relieve suffering by reframing the content of patients’ thoughts, directly altering behavior or helping people gain insight into the subconscious sources of their despair and anxiety. The promise of mindfulness meditation is that it can help patients endure flash floods of emotion during the therapeutic process — and ultimately alter reactions to daily experience at a level that words cannot reach. “The interest in this has just taken off,” said Zindel Segal, a psychologist at the Center of Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, where the above group therapy session was taped. “And I think a big part of it is that more and more therapists are practicing some form of contemplation themselves and want to bring that into therapy.”

At workshops and conferences across the country, students, counselors and psychologists in private practice throng lectures on mindfulness. The National Institutes of Health is financing more than 50 studies testing mindfulness techniques, up from 3 in 2000, to help relieve stress, soothe addictive cravings, improve attention, lift despair and reduce hot flashes.

Some proponents say Buddha’s arrival in psychotherapy signals a broader opening in the culture at large — a way to access deeper healing, a hidden path revealed.

Yet so far, the evidence that mindfulness meditation helps relieve psychiatric symptoms is thin, and in some cases, it may make people worse, some studies suggest. Many researchers now worry that the enthusiasm for Buddhist practice will run so far ahead of the science that this promising psychological tool could turn into another fad.

“I’m very open to the possibility that this approach could be effective, and it certainly should be studied,” said Scott Lilienfeld, a psychology professor at Emory. “What concerns me is the hype, the talk about changing the world, this allure of the guru that the field of psychotherapy has a tendency to cultivate.”

Buddhist meditation came to psychotherapy from mainstream academic medicine. In the 1970s, a graduate student in molecular biology, Jon Kabat-Zinn, intrigued by Buddhist ideas, adapted a version of its meditative practice that could be easily learned and studied. It was by design a secular version, extracted like a gemstone from the many-layered foundation of Buddhist teaching, which has sprouted a wide variety of sects and spiritual practices and attracted 350 million adherents worldwide.

In transcendental meditation and other types of meditation, practitioners seek to transcend or “lose” themselves. The goal of mindfulness meditation was different, to foster an awareness of every sensation as it unfolds in the moment.

Dr. Kabat-Zinn taught the practice to people suffering from chronic pain at the University of Massachusetts medical school. In the 1980s he published a series of studies demonstrating that two-hour courses, given once a week for eight weeks, reduced chronic pain more effectively than treatment as usual.

Word spread, discreetly at first. “I think that back then, other researchers had to be very careful when they talked about this, because they didn’t want to be seen as New Age weirdos,” Dr. Kabat-Zinn, now a professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Massachusetts, said in an interview. “So they didn’t call it mindfulness or meditation. “After a while, we put enough studies out there that people became more comfortable with it.”

Lotus Therapy
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One person who noticed early on was Marsha Linehan, a psychologist at the University of Washington who was trying to treat deeply troubled patients with histories of suicidal behavior. “Trying to treat these patients with some change-based behavior therapy just made them worse, not better,” Dr. Linehan said in an interview. “With the really hard stuff, you need something else, something that allows people to tolerate these very strong emotions.”

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Get Health News From The New York Times » In the 1990s, Dr. Linehan published a series of studies finding that a therapy that incorporated Zen Buddhist mindfulness, “radical acceptance,” practiced by therapist and patient significantly cut the risk of hospitalization and suicide attempts in the high-risk patients.

Finally, in 2000, a group of researchers including Dr. Segal in Toronto, J. Mark G. Williams at the University of Wales and John D. Teasdale at the Medical Research Council in England published a study that found that eight weekly sessions of mindfulness halved the rate of relapse in people with three or more episodes of depression.

With Dr. Kabat-Zinn, they wrote a popular book, “The Mindful Way Through Depression.” Psychotherapists’ curiosity about mindfulness, once tentative, turned into “this feeding frenzy, of sorts, that we have going on now,” Dr. Kabat-Zinn said.

Mindfulness meditation is easy to describe. Sit in a comfortable position, eyes closed, preferably with the back upright and unsupported. Relax and take note of body sensations, sounds and moods. Notice them without judgment. Let the mind settle into the rhythm of breathing. If it wanders (and it will), gently redirect attention to the breath. Stay with it for at least 10 minutes.

After mastering control of attention, some therapists say, a person can turn, mentally, to face a threatening or troubling thought — about, say, a strained relationship with a parent — and learn simply to endure the anger or sadness and let it pass, without lapsing into rumination or trying to change the feeling, a move that often backfires.

One woman, a doctor who had been in therapy for years to manage bouts of disabling anxiety, recently began seeing Gaea Logan, a therapist in Austin, Tex., who incorporates mindfulness meditation into her practice. This patient had plenty to worry about, including a mentally ill child, a divorce and what she described as a “harsh internal voice,” Ms. Logan said.

After practicing mindfulness meditation, she continued to feel anxious at times but told Ms. Logan, “I can stop and observe my feelings and thoughts and have compassion for myself.”

Steven Hayes, a psychologist at the University of Nevada at Reno, has developed a talk therapy called Acceptance Commitment Therapy, or ACT, based on a similar, Buddha-like effort to move beyond language to change fundamental psychological processes.

“It’s a shift from having our mental health defined by the content of our thoughts,” Dr. Hayes said, “to having it defined by our relationship to that content — and changing that relationship by sitting with, noticing and becoming disentangled from our definition of ourselves.”

For all these hopeful signs, the science behind mindfulness is in its infancy. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which researches health practices, last year published a comprehensive review of meditation studies, including T.M., Zen and mindfulness practice, for a wide variety of physical and mental problems. The study found that over all, the research was too sketchy to draw conclusions.

A recent review by Canadian researchers, focusing specifically on mindfulness meditation, concluded that it did “not have a reliable effect on depression and anxiety.”

Therapists who incorporate mindfulness practices do not agree when the meditation is most useful, either. Some say Buddhist meditation is most useful for patients with moderate emotional problems. Others, like Dr. Linehan, insist that patients in severe mental distress are the best candidates for mindfulness.

A case in point is mindfulness-based therapy to prevent a relapse into depression. The treatment significantly reduced the risk of relapse in people who have had three or more episodes of depression. But it may have had the opposite effect on people who had one or two previous episodes, two studies suggest.

The mindfulness treatment “may be contraindicated for this group of patients,” S. Helen Ma and Dr. Teasdale of the Medical Research Council concluded in a 2004 study of the therapy.

Since mindfulness meditation may have different effects on different mental struggles, the challenge for its proponents will be to specify where it is most effective — and soon, given how popular the practice is becoming.

The question, said Linda Barnes, an associate professor of family medicine and pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine, is not whether mindfulness meditation will become a sophisticated therapeutic technique or lapse into self-help cliché.

“The answer to that question is yes to both,” Dr. Barnes said.

The real issue, most researchers agree, is whether the science will keep pace and help people distinguish the mindful variety from the mindless.

A variety of meditative practices have been studied by Western researchers for their effects on mental and physical health.

Tai Chi

An active exercise, sometimes called moving meditation, involving extremely slow, continuous movement and extreme concentration. The movements are to balance the vital energy of the body but have no religious significance.

Studies are mixed, some finding it can reduce blood pressure in patients, and others finding no effect. There is some evidence that it can help elderly people improve balance.

Transcendental Meditation

Meditators sit comfortably, eyes closed, and breathe naturally. They repeat and concentrate on the mantra, a word or sound chosen by the instructor to achieve state of deep, transcendent absorption. Practitioners “lose” themselves, untouched by day-to-day concerns. Studies suggest it can reduce blood pressure in some patients.

Mindfulness Meditation

Practitioners find a comfortable position, close the eyes and focus first on breathing, passively observing it. If a stray thought or emotion enters the mind, they allow it to pass and return attention to the breath. The aim is to achieve focused awareness on what is happening moment to moment.

Studies find that it can help manage chronic pain. The findings are mixed on substance abuse. Two trials suggest that it can cut the rate of relapse in people who have had three or more bouts of depression.

Yoga

Enhanced awareness through breathing techniques and specific postures. Schools vary widely, aiming to achieve total absorption in the present and a release from ordinary thoughts. Studies are mixed, but evidence shows it can reduce stress.

Stress - And Yoga/Meditation can Help It

2008-01-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

Adapted from Hindu.

The role of stress in just about everything Stress, to put it bluntly, is bad for you. It can kill you, in fact. A study now reveals that stress causes deterioration in everything from your gums to your heart and can make you more susceptible to everything from the common cold to cancer. Thanks to new research crossing the disciplines of psychology, medicine, neuroscience, and genetics, the mechanisms underlying the connection are rapidly becoming understood, says eurekalert press release.

The first clues to the link between stress and health were provided in the 1930s by Hans Selye, the first scientist to apply the word “stress”— then simply an engineering term— to the strains experienced by living organisms in their struggles to adapt and cope with changing environments.

One of Selye’s major discoveries was that the stress hormone cortisol had a long-term effect on the health of rats.

Cortisol has been considered one of the main culprits in the stress-illness connection, although it plays a necessary role in helping us cope with threats. When an animal perceives danger, a system kicks into gear: A chain reaction of signals releases various hormones — most notably epinephrine (“adrenaline”), norepinephrine, and cortisol — from the adrenal glands above each kidney.

These hormones boost heart rate, increase respiration, and increase the availability of glucose (cellular fuel) in the blood, thereby enabling the famous “fight or flight” reaction.

Because these responses take a lot of energy, cortisol simultaneously tells other costly physical processes — including digestion, reproduction, physical growth, and some aspects of the immune system — to shut or slow down.

When occasions to fight or flee are infrequent and threats pass quickly, the body’s stress thermostat adjusts accordingly: Cortisol levels return to baseline (it takes 40-60 minutes), the intestines resume digesting food, the sex organs kick back into gear, and the immune system resumes fighting infections.

But problems occur when stresses don’t let up —or when, for various reasons, the brain continually perceives stress even if it isn’t really there.

Stress begins with the perception of danger by the brain, and it appears that continued stress can actually bias the brain to perceive more danger by altering brain structures such as those which govern the perception of and response to threat. Prolonged exposure to cortisol inhibits the growth of new neurons, and can cause increased growth of the amygdala, the portion of the brain that controls fear and other emotional responses.

The end result is heightened expectation of and attention to threats in the environment. Stress hormones also inhibit neuron growth in parts of the hippocampus, a brain area essential in forming new memories. In this way, stress results in memory impairments and impairs the brain’s ability to put emotional memories in context.

Think of it this way: Too much stress and you forget not to be stressed out.

These brain changes are thought by some researchers to be at the heart of the link between stress and depression — one of stress’s most devastating health consequences — as well as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Although when we think of stressors we might think of big things like abuse, illness, divorce, grieving, or getting fired, it is now known that the little things — traffic, workplace politics, noisy neighbors, a long line at the bank — can add up and have a similar impact on our well-being and our health.

People who report more minor irritants in their lives also have more mental and physical health problems than those who encounter fewer hassles. And recent research shows that PTSD may be the result of stressors adding up like building blocks, remodeling the plastic brain in a cumulative rather than a once-and-for-all fashion.

But the best known of stress’s health impacts are on the heart.

The idea that stress directly causes coronary heart disease has been around since the 1950s; although once controversial, the direct stress-cardiac link is now well-documented by many studies. For instance, men who faced chronic stresses at work or at home ran a 30 percent higher likelihood of dying over the course of a nine-year study; in another study, individuals reporting neglect, abuse, or other stressors in childhood were over three times as likely as nonstressed individuals to develop heart disease in adulthood.

Adding insult to injury, stress may even have a selfperpetuating effect. Depression and heart disease, for example, are not only the results of stress, but also causes of (more) stress. Consequently, the chronically stressed body can appear less like a thermostat than like a wailing speaker placed too close to a microphone — a feedback loop in which the stress response goes out of control, hastening physical decline with age.

Growing evidence shows that our sensitivity to stress as adults is already “tuned,” so to speak, in infancy. Specifically, the amount of stress encountered in early life sensitizes an organism to a certain level of adversity; high levels of early life stress may result in hypersensitivity to stress later, as well as to adult depression.

A history of various stressors such as abuse and neglect in early life are a common feature of those with chronic depression in adulthood, for example.

At McGill University in Montreal, Michael J. Meaney and his colleagues have studied mother and infant rats, using rat maternal behavior as a model of early life stress and its later ramifications in humans. The key variable in the world of rat nurturance is licking and grooming. Offspring of rat mothers who naturally lick and groom their pups a lot are less easily startled as adults and show less fear of novel or threatening situations — in other words, less sensitivity to stress — than offspring of less nurturant mothers.

The same thing is true of offspring of naturally less nurturant mothers who are raised (or “cross-fostered”) by more nurturant ones. By the same token, low-licking-and-grooming rat mothers are themselves more fearful than the more nurturant rat moms; but again, female offspring of those non-nurturant mothers foster-parented by nurturant mothers show less fear and are themselves more nurturant when they have pups of their own.

This indicates that the connection between maternal nurturance and stress responsiveness is not simply genetic, but that fearfulness and nurturance are transmitted from generation to generation through maternal behavior.

The vicious cycle of stress hormones biasing us to perceive more threat and react with an increased stress response might seem like some kind perverse joke played by nature — or at least a serious design flaw in the brain. But it makes better sense if we take the brain out of its modern, urban, “civilized” context.

The stress response is a necessary response to danger.

For animals, including most likely our hominid ancestors, behavioral transmission of individual differences in stress reactivity from parents to offspring makes sense as an adaptation to fluctuating levels of danger in the environment.

Animals raised in chronically adverse conditions (e.g., high conflict, material deprivation) may expect more of the same in the near future; so in effect, the maternal treatment of offspring attunes them to the level of stress they may expect to encounter in their lives. As such, a response that seems baffling and counterproductive in a modern, civilized context may make more sense in the context of our distant evolutionary past.

Even depression has been theorized as playing an adaptive role in certain contexts.

The inactivity, lack of motivation, loss of interest in pleasurable activities like sex, and withdrawal from social relationships experienced by depressed people closely resemble “sickness behavior” — the energy-saving lethargy activated by the immune system in response to infection.

In a natural setting, the hopeless attitude of depression may be the most adaptive for an organism infected with a pathogen: The best strategy for survival is not to expend energy fruitlessly and become exposed to predators, but to hunker down, hide from threats, and direct energy to immune processes where it’s needed.

And it turns out that baboons suffer from depression and other stress-related disorders, just like people do. According to Stanford neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky, who has studied stress in baboon troops, it is the relative safety from predators and high amounts of leisure time enjoyed by some primates — including humans — that has transformed these useful biological coping mechanisms into a source of pointless suffering and illness.

Besides heart disease, PTSD, and depression, chronic stress has been linked to ailments as diverse as intestinal problems, gum disease, erectile dysfunction, adult-onset diabetes, growth problems, and even cancer. Chronic rises in stress hormones have been shown to accelerate the growth of precancerous cells and tumors; they also lower the body’s resistance to HIV and cancer-causing viruses like human papilloma virus (the precursor to cervical cancer in women).

The great challenge in stress psychology — and the necessary precursor to developing interventions against stress’s harmful effects — has been understanding the mechanisms by which thoughts and feelings and other “mental” stuff can affect bodily health.

For many years, it was believed that the main causal link between stress and disease was the immune suppression that occurs when the body redirects its energy toward the fight-or-flight response. But recent research has revealed a far more nuanced picture.

Stress is known to actually enhance one important immune response, inflammation, and increasingly this is being seen as the go-between in various stress-related diseases.

Ordinarily, inflammation is how the healthy body deals with damaged tissue: Cells at the site of infections or injuries produce signaling chemicals called cytokines, which in turn attract other immune cells to the site to help repair it. Cytokines also travel to the brain and are responsible for initiating sickness behavior. Overactive cytokine production has been found to put individuals at greater risk for a variety of aging-related illnesses.

Cytokines may be an important mediator in the relationship between stress and heart disease. When the arteries feeding the heart are damaged, cytokines induce more blood flow, and thus more white blood cells, to the site. White blood cells accumulate in vessel walls and, over time, become engorged with cholesterol, becoming plaques; these may later become destabilized and rupture, causing heart attacks.

Cytokine action also has been implicated in the link between stress and depression. People suffering from clinical depression have shown 40–50 percent higher concentrations of certain inflammatory cytokines. And about 50 percent of cancer patients whose immune responses are artificially boosted through the administration of cytokines show depressive symptoms.

The close connection between inflammation and both depression and heart disease has led some researchers to theorize that inflammation may be what mediates the two-way street between these two conditions: Depression can lead to heart disease, but heart disease also often leads to depression.

Sleep may be part of this puzzle too, as disturbed sleep, which often goes with anxiety and depression, increases levels of proinflammatory cytokines in the body.

Not everyone responds the same way to stress. Personality traits like negativity, pessimism, and neuroticism are known to be risk factors for stress-related disease, as are anger and hostility.

In the late 1950s, Friedman and Rosenman identified a major link between stress and health with their research on the “Type A” personality: a person who is highly competitive, aggressive, and impatient. This personality was found to be a strong predictor of heart disease, and later research clarified the picture: The salient factors in the relationship between the Type A personality and health are mainly anger, hostility, and a socially dominant personality style (for example, tending to interrupt other people while they are talking).

When negative emotions like anger are chronic, it is as if the body is in a constant state of fight or flight.

There is now evidence that another trait associated with success-striving in the modern world — persistence — may also lead to health problems in some circumstances. When goals are not readily attainable, the inability to detach from them may produce frustration, exhaustion, rumination on failures, and lack of sleep. These in turn activate harmful inflammatory responses that can lead to illness and lowered immunity.

Studies also have shown that optimistic people have lower incidence of heart disease, better prognosis after heart surgery, and longer life.

The effects of a positive attitude on immunity were shown in a study by Sheldon Cohen, Carnegie Mellon University, and his colleagues, in which individuals were exposed to a cold virus in a laboratory setting and watched over six days. Those with a positive emotional style were less likely to develop colds than were individuals with low levels of positive affect. Positive affect was also found to be correlated with reduced symptom severity and reduced pain.

Personality and environmental factors are not the whole story when it comes to stress.

The next frontier of stress research is the rapidly growing field of behavioral genetics. Modeling the interaction of genetic and environmental influences is no longer a matter of weighing the relative input of nature and nurture. The two intertwine in subtle and complicated ways, with environments affecting gene expression, and vice versa, throughout life. Thus, the current watchword is “stress-diathesis” models, in which environmental stressors have varying impact on individuals due to preexisting inherited vulnerabilities.

One major advance in this area was the discovery by Avshalom Caspi, University of Wisconsin, and his colleagues of a link between stress sensitivity and a particular gene called 5HTTLPR. Findings suggest certain genetic makeup seems to increase the risk for a serious illness through the mechanism of increased sensitivity to stressful occurrences.

Nathan Fox, University of Maryland, and his colleagues subsequently reported that children with two short alleles of the 5HTTLPR gene, whose mothers also reported receiving low social support, were more likely to show behavioral inhibition (fearfulness and a tendency to withdraw) at age 7. Those receiving high support did not show the tendency, and those with the long alleles but receiving low support also appeared “protected” by their genetic makeup.

Genetic predisposition to stress sensitivity may in some cases become a self-fulfilling cycle. Fox and colleagues found that some very behaviorally inhibited children were regarded by their mothers as hard to soothe and received less care and sensitivity as a result; this in turn tuned up the child’s sensitivity to stress. In the model Fox and colleagues propose, genetically influenced temperament in early childhood influences the quality of caregiving children receive, which in turn shapes a child’s attention bias to threat.

But look on the bright side: The newly refined science of stress could lead to new drug therapies that can control stress or inhibit its effects on health. Also, depression and anxiety are not only results of stress, but also causes, and existing therapeutic and medical treatments for these conditions can help change how people perceive threats, put their life challenges in context, and cut stressors down to manageable size. The cycle doesn’t have to be vicious, in other words.

What’s more, the confirmation that the mind directly affects the body can work as much in our favor as it does to our detriment, as the personality-and-stress research above indicates.

As Carol Dweck, Stanford University, has argued, personality is mutable. In theory, if our outlooks and beliefs about ourselves can be changed, so can our vulnerability to life’s slings and arrows. Relaxation techniques such as meditation and yoga, for example, have been confirmed to quell stress demons.

Even if you are a determined workaholic glued to your cell phone or a fearful and angry urban neurotic, stress-reduction methods are readily available to cope with stress in the short term and even alter perceptions of stressors in the long term. The bottom line: Stress is not inevitable.

Current Research on Stress:

At the University of Chicago, APS President John Cacioppo and Louise Hawkley have studied the health effects of social isolation, an increasingly common malady in the modern world. Among their findings are that lonely older adults show more arterial stiffening and higher blood pressure than their nonlonely counterparts and that the association between loneliness and blood pressure increases with age.

In middle-aged and older adults (but not young adults), loneliness is associated with higher levels of epinephrine in the blood, and lonely people of all ages show elevated levels of cortisol. By desensitizing the mechanism whereby cortisol turns off more cortisol production, the social isolation frequently experienced by older adults may hasten physical decline. Lonely individuals of all ages also have poorer sleep than nonlonely people and therefore get less of sleep’s essential restorative benefits.

Humans and other social animals particularly seek the company of others when facing threats — both for safety and for social support. The general affiliative response — what Shelley Taylor, UCLA, has called “tending and befriending.” Oxytocin rises during times of separation or disrupted social relations. Just as the familiar “adrenaline rush” of epinephrine induces the familiar fight-or-flight reaction, it is oxytocin that causes us to desire company and social togetherness.

It may be especially important in females, reflecting their different reproductive and survival priorities from those of males — i.e., caregiving (tending offspring) and lessening social tensions through friendly overtures (befriending).

'Stress, Neurodegeneration and Individual Differences' by Robert Sapolsky

Hyperbaric Pure Oxygen Therapy and Yoga

2008-01-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

Hyper - Means More
Bar - Means Pressure
Ic - Suffix for Adjective

Oxygen, in moderation like all other things that the body needs and consumes, is the elixir of life and the one of the most important ingredients needed for cell metabolism (if not convinced - to sustain growth, repair, defense mechanism and supply energy for different functional systems, like Skeletal, Muscular, Digestive, Immune, Nervous, Autonomous, Endocrine, Sympathetic, Para-sympathetic, Lymphatic, Reproductive, Excretory, Respiratory, Vision, Hearing, Tasting, Smelling, Tasting and Touch Senses and associated Motor Controls).

Wish someone had told me this 11 years back, when my son had a head injury where he lost 1/3 brain from 3 places (Glascow Coma Scale was 3 - which means technical death). Luckily I was told to teach him Yoga/Pranayama, which I did for last 7 years.

Feel sick of the so called practising doctors, specially in the US, who cage themselves in their limited speciality and their limited domain of second-hand knowledge taught till they become a licensed doctor, with no willingness to learn newer things, do research, be open and expand their knowledge - and more concerned ONLY with making MAXIMUM money (of course not all doctors are like that).

Spread the word please. Yoga has something close to this called Kapalbhati, Bhastrika and Sheersh Aasan or Head Stand (but not meant for people with head injury till blood vessels heal, clot removed, and swelling/edema is gone, and people with Heart, Blood Pressure, Hernia, Pulmonary, Middle and Inner Ear, Vertigo, Dizziness, and Eye/Retina/Glucoma issues should be careful).

I cured my severe Auto Immune Disorder for last 11 years, with some special advanced Pranyanma, breathing exercises, (combination of Kapalbhati and Kleva Kumbha - cessation of Mechanical Inhalation and Exhalation AND not Metabolic Breathing, but I would write more in detail later as I am still researching) and told some experts, but they refused to promote studying my approach or me. I had even tried Radiation and Chemo Therapy options for some years.

The last option was to use Biologics (which are noting but targeted amino-acids and proteins which combine with some part of biochemicals and cells in the body) but with no assurance for cure and risk of more and intense flareups and with side effects.

The Drug Companies would make approx $24K per patient per year on Biologics to treat Cancer,Tumors and other Auto Immune Issues. Then the Professional Sports Cheer Leaders (we should know what is the main criteria for this profession) turned Sales Reps working for these medical companies, visit these doctors, panning all kind of incentives and services (as per CBS 60 minutes or ABC 20/20) to push out all cures for all known and unknown diseases (heard of Shaking Leg Syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder, Hyper Activity, Yellow Nails Syndrome (because of some bacteria under the nails), Growling So mach Syndrome, Excess Flatulence Syndrome (I see it coming), Restless Sleep Syndrome, and so on. You name any problem, and the promise to cure you is with them - with all listed side effects for which you need more cure and medicine!

A self perpetuating cycle for rest of your life and mind-set setting in the cultural tone of a modern society. A belief perpetuated over years that you can do any thing crazy, like sleep little, eat junk, canned, preserved, ready-made and unhealthy foods, stress out, consume toxins, live an unhealthy life style, live in recirculated air heating/cooling systems and not take fresh air next to plants and trees in the day time, do not exercise, be worried, and not happy and content, and expect to live healthy years based on their medicines!

Then they fund academic research to self-promote their products and shutting down alternate and better approaches pushed by the puritan and altruist researchers and doctors, which may be relatively free, but which would hurt the sales of their products.

Where it could be used:

a. Burn and Skin Graft Patients
b. Healing obstinate wounds, specially people with Diabetes.
c. Traumatic Head Injury
d. Cerebral Palsy
e. Stroke Patients
f. Viral/Bacterial Infections, specially of Pulmonary track
g. Gangrene and other flesh eating bacterial infections.
h. Autism
i. Dementia
j. Anemia
m. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
n. Gas Embolism and Decompression Sickness (trapped air/gases in parts of body)
o. Osteomylitis (bacterial bone marrow infection)
p: Skin Disorders

The list goes on.

How does it work:

a. Saturates Red Blood Cells oxygen transport capacity

b. Use Blood Plasma to transport extra oxygen

c. Increases Stem Cells production in the Bone Marrow, as per some research (Stem Cells become differentiated into different type of cells and are an important factor for the repair and growth process).

d. Increases Oxygen Pressure Differential and Oxygen Saturation, which increases Osmosis caused Osmotic Pressure across cell membranes in lungs and others parts of body, and thus increasing Oxygen transportation and delivery efficiency. And perhaps because of increased oxygen pressure (molecules are more dynamic and colliding with each other and hence getting loosely coupled at molecular and atomic levels - notice the sea side air being different), transient Oxygen Radicals are formed, which help the Cell Metabolism and Nervous System Conductivity, because of Increased Ionic Potential across cell membranes and synapses. Please note like Oxygen and other chemicals, Radicals are also useful for body, otherwise a lot of Biochemistry and Metabolism will not work.

e. Improve and help growth of blood vessels, and eventually other tissues, specially in brain.

f. Dead/Inactive/Dying Cells may revive - specially Gallic Cells in the Brain as per some paper.

For more info:
http://www.harchhyperbarics.com/
http://www.ihausa.org/
http://www.emedicine.com/plastic/topic526.htm

Eight Limbs in Astanga Yoga

2007-11-07T23:43:00.001-08:00

I am still a practising student of Yoga and feel unfit to speak some of these things but for the sake of completion I am posting this.

Yoga is, according to Patanjali, "ChittoVritti Nirodhah", meaning cessation of mind modifications - mental tossing. But one can not control the mind, if one has not mastered control over his body! So this is very important that one has control over body as well, and for that a healthy body is very essential.

Once someone has learnt to control his mind, he masters control over his involuntary and autonomous metabolic functions! But before that, one has to learn to control his voluntary system!

Imagine, you can command yourself to sleep, to excrete, to urinate, to pass gas, to lower Blood Pressure, to get rid of your headaches and migraines! Why it is important to pass gas, excrete and urinate at will - atleast to some effect! Any waste product should not be retained for long in the body as it acts like toxins to the body, causing harmful effects.

In fact modern medicine and science is slowly realizing that the ancients wisdom of Yoga has direct medical benefits based on scientific principles. But not all is yet realized by them, as Yoga was a lost science till Dr. Sivananda revived it and made it famous throughout the world 60 years back! Still I feel that not many people have yet realized its powers, including so called many Yogis. This is because there is so much you can do and learn based on your personal experimentation!

One can cure diseases like Insomnia, Apnea, Blood Pressure and even some immune disorders, as I have cured all of them to most extent- though I suffered the Sleep Disorders for last 35 years, Immune Disorder for last 11 years, and Blood Pressure hitting 215/115 and not coming in control with 3 medications! Most of the diseases are present in the body because the natural cycle and the balance of the microcosm system in the body has gone awry. This can happen because of the imbalance in environment we live in, improper balanced food we eat, too little or too much sleep, emotional instability, mental stress and agitation, spiritual disconnect and lack of adequate exercise.

So the eight steps are for some very important reasons, are spelled out by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra. Without a character and an ethical and moral framework, one can not achieve the maximum benefits of Yoga.

1. Yama - Restraints

a. Ahimsa - Non Violence and Non Injury at Physical, Mental, Emotional level. Hear nothing Negative, say nothing Negative, and speak nothing Negative. Negative energy inside and outside is as harmful as sitting in a radioactive room! Yes it is easier said than done, but one must always strive! I am guilty of it and not feel justified in mentioning it. But over years, I see this makes you a better person, more calmer, more at peace and more happier and contended.

b. Satya - Truth-full-ness, Non Telling of Lies - Science has shown that the brain has to work harder when one lies! You burn your fuel and pollute your system twice than what is required!!Yes the modern society is not conducive to this value system and encourages you to lie. So try to find your balance!

c. Brahmacharya - Chastity, Sublimation of the Sexual Energy. Like Hunger, Thirst, Mind Oscillations, one has a tough time controlling sensual desires, specially when a provocation happens at sensory levels. The idea here is to keep this to minimal and not be crazy, possessive or carried in sway about it.

d. Asteya - Non Stealing, Non Covetousness, Lack of Jealousy. We do not want out conscience to be haunting us - that is if you have a conscience! Some of us may have a conscience surrounded and built on false values, result in all justifications!!

e. Aparigraha - Non accepting of gifts or bribes in exchange of expected favour or services to be returned. Basically this reduces anxiety and expectations - like one doing one's duty without the ego of "I", without attachment to the outcome and having expectations, and as a service to the Divine.

2. Niyama - Observations

a. Saucha - Purity Internal and External, which is part of body hygiene, environmental cleanness and lack of pollution, and purity of mind.

b. Santosha - Contentment. If we are not contended, we are unhappy and angry, which is not good for the body and mind. We get tied to a very narrow perspective and forget that all that is here, good or bad, shall also pass! There is nothing permanent and at end everyone dies here and leaves! That is why identification with the Soul or First Principle, and not with Body, Mind, Intellect and Ego helps, and one sees the Eternity in the Self. Please see my posting on Atom and Atma.

c. Tapas - Austerity. We should not ask a lot for ourselves from the environment and others. If everyone says, "I want more and more", we can see the limited resources of the nature being challenged and destroyed, and conflicts arising. Man is the biggest beast who has killed most of the animals on the planet and ruining the planet earth for his selfish gains. It looks like we are on an inevitable collision course with the inevitable - that I am afraid is going to be unthinkable and indigestible for most of us - as we are ruled by the same power hungry people and nations, who want "more and more".

d. Swaadhyaa - Self Study on Scriptural Knowledge. This does include books of knowledge in any field that benefits mankind, the Nature and the Self.

e. Ishwara-Pra-Ni-Dhaana - Surrender to the Divine. In Gita it says that when one is equipoise in heat and cold, in happiness and sorrow, among foes and friends, and in fortunes and misfortunes is a realized person. This comes when one stops identifying with the Body, Mind, Intellect and Ego and identifies himself with the Divine Principle - the Self or the Brahman. Become like "a leaf in the wind" or "a fish in the universal aquarium", where it does not matter where you are, as you always part and parcel of the Divine Principle in whatever form you are!! Please see my posting on Atom and Atma.

3. Pranayama

Control of Vital Life Energy through different breathing exercises mentioned in Yoga. This is a field by itself and one will learn new things as one practices this over time. The Anatomy Of Metabolic Respiration, The Anatomy Of Mechnical Respiration, and Kapal Bhati Steps And Its Medical Benefits.

4. Aasana

Different postures and locks which create pressure points, stretch and massage different parts of the body. Pressure points help stimulate nervous plexus centers, or chakras and also has a "squeezing effect" on different parts of the body in disposing waste deposits, speeding up excretion of gastric juices, harmones, and neuro transmitters. Stretching helps blood rush in and increasing blood flow, hence improving cellular metabolism and also exercising the cardio-vascular and the respiration system. Please see my post on Anatomy Of Metabolic Respiration.

5. Pratyahara - Withdrawl

This is for the spiritual seekers who want to experience the Essential Truth - The First Principle, that goes by many names, The Divinity, God, Brahman, Shiva, etc. What it means is that one has to evolute by involution as part of his evolutionary growth, by involution of his mind from the sensory world to the inner world of the soul. In order to conquest the Senses, Body, Mind, Intellect and Ego and feel eternally Peaceful, Happy and Blissfull, one needs to withdraw till one masters control over Mind, and then can still operate in the Material World. It is also called Uparatii.

6. Dharana - Concentration

This is single minded focus on any material, mental, emotional or spiritual object. It could be Sound, Picture, Smell, Some Positive Thought, Longing for Lord or Soul, Mantra, AUM, or any spiritual object of admiration, like Cross, Star of David, etc. In Tantra, Yantra, Tantra, Mantra, and Mandala are employed.

Breathing plays a very important part in this step. Sometimes the intensity of the mind is so strong in positive direction of achieving this goal, that it automatically happens. Sometimes, one has to use Pranayama to control the mind, and transcend the mind. It is very rare and difficult to transcend the mind without breath control unless one has such a wonderful longing and desire of the object of focus that it happens by itself.

All creative efforts, like Painters, Singers, Dancers, Thinkers, Scientists, Philosophers get this moment unconsciously in their "Ah" moment. Among the spiritual seekers, this is called the Rapture moment, where one experiences

7. Dhyana - Meditation

This is a very advance stage where one has transcended the mind, has perfect control over it, is beyond sorrow and happiness, is equipoise among friends and foes, takes success and failures, pleasant and unpleasant with same positive attitude. He is in constant remembrance of the First Principle - The Lord, and it need not be with eyes closed, though very difficult.

One can do open eye meditation by looking at presence of the same First Principle in all the forms and shapes, and animate or inanimate. Some people, can tune in to their breath, and feel the breath come in and go - and do a silent chant mentally saying "So Ham" - "I Am That", the First Principle. Note that when you breath in, the sound "So" is naturally made, and when you breath out, the sound "Ham" is naturally made.

People who have reached the Kevla Kumbha stage, which itself has many degrees of advancement, they can constantly retain and hold their breath - it does not mean that they are not taking oxygen, but they are taking minimally that comes in contact with the nostrils, without the diaphragm, chest, collar, throat or nostrils doing any inhalation or exhalation. In a very advance stage, one may just sense the subtle current of the air, like a whirl-pool of inward and outward motions, more like circulatory ones, at the tip of the nose, or in middle of the nose or in the upper nose, near the third eye. Some practitioners may develop some flap which would open and close when a "molecule" of air is allowed to flow in beyond in their meditation.

8. Samadhi

This is for the Spiritual Seekers who believe in the constant and repeating cycle of Death and Dirth and want to get liberation from this cycle. This is called "Moksha".

This seems to be Vikalpa and Nirvikalpa Samadhi. The earlier one is with the thought and the later one is without the thought. Vikalpa Samadhi is also called Sahita Samadhi - or added Samadhi.

This stage is all text book knowledge to me and I do not know anything about this stage.

While the sequence of the steps are important, it does not mean that one has to get a 100% mastery in one step and then go the next step.

There is nothing like a "black" and "white" demarcation, and this journey is iterative and running along many parallel tracks.

The Magic Bullet Breathing Exercise - Kapal Bhati - Steps And Its Medical Benefits

2007-11-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

Whatever is transcribed here is based on personal analysis and research, and not endorsed or found in any standard texts. So buyer of this information is subject to Caveat Emptor and I hold no liability to anyone claiming to have been misled by the information published herewith. Please do not copy this information without prior written permission.

Kapal Bhati is one of the most powerful Pranayamas. Till I get time to demonstrate it, please check some video by Ramdev or by someone in Youtube.

Still I would note down the steps to do this Pranayama.

1. Sit in Padmaasan, Sukha, Siddha or Vajra Aasan - cross-leg-ed or Lotus Posture and make sure your back is as straight as possible. There should be no forward looking curvature of the spine and the stomach should be free to move without any obstruction. Vajra Aasan is the best as it keeps the spin straight and backwards, and keeps the stomach loose from any constraints.

2. Do not use any chest, neck or nose muscles to do the breathing. This would be difficult in beginning but try to make a conscious effort. Over time this would become a second nature with practice.

3. Try to expand your stomach/belly slowly as much as you can and see the air rush in slowly. This would be the inhalation part. In Kapalbhati this is suppose to happen when one focuses on contraction, which is for exhalation.

4. Then contract your stomach/belly slowly as much as you can and see the air rush out slowly. This would be the exhalation part.

5. Over the time, try to increase the pace between the expansion and the contraction of the stomach/belly. This is difficult in the beginning but over the time this would become easy.

6. Please make sure that the contraction is done in a sudden jerk and the expansion is done slightly slowly. Exhalations should be relatively faster and Contractions should be relatively slower. Later the combination of the pace of the expansion and the contraction can be varied with practice.

7. Some people would find the contracting of tummy/stomach first easier, and then expanding it loose. So they can throw the air out and contract their stomach/belly first and then relax or expanding the stomach/belly muscles to let the air in, and repeat this cycle. Others would find the expansion of the stomach first easier, and that would be the ideal way to start, as mentioned in steps 3 and 4. In a continuous cycle of breathing in and out, it does not matter which comes first, breathing in with the contraction of stomach or breathing out with the tightening of stomach.

8. Make sure you do not raise your collar bones or move your spine go forward and backward in this process of the exhalation and the inhalation.

9. Do 25 in rapid cycle, then hold air as long as you can - with or without nostrils closed with right hand thumb and index finger - as part of Antariya Kumbha, and close your eyes and focus on your stomach. Slowly raise this cycle to 50 rounds and then to 100 rounds, and later on to 500 rounds. Later after some years, one may be able to continuously do 1000 rounds in one cycle and then hold his breath for longer time. Without closing nostrils, it is easier to hold breath for longer time but their is more benefit of holding breath with the nostrils closed.

Do Not:

1. Wait for 1 hour after food before doing Kapal-bhati - at least not very hard but may try slowly and see if there is any burning or painful sensation in the upper digestive tract.

2. If there is any heart or chest pain, please do not do this. Heart, Brain Trauma, and Hernia Patients should be very careful and pay special attention when doing this exercise.

3. Patients with digestive disorders should be careful and make sure they they do not hurt themselves.

4. Pregnant women should NOT do Kapal-bhati.

5. Menstruating women should consult their doctor before doing this, specially in early days of heavy bleeding as one may loose a lot of blood. They can try doing this as later part of their period, and it should help get rid of dead tissues and cleanup the uterus.

6. If you had a recent surgery please do NOT do this exercise.

7. If you are taking any medication that you think affects your breathing, respiration, blood circulation, metabolism, kidneys, liver, spleen, gall-bladder, cardio-vascular and nervous system, please consult your doctor.

8. People with Pulmonary, Middle and Inner Ear, Vertigo, Dizziness, and Eye/Retina/Glucoma issues should be careful.

Most of the time it is my opinion that individuals are fine if they listen to your body and notice any first sign of warning or protest from the body, before continuing in the path of doing anything that you think may hurt you. You are your best judge.

Medical Benefits:

1. Loose belly and make the stomach flat and taut.

2. Food is digested fast as gastric juices are mixed well with the food - like cooking - and assisting Peristalsis of organs in the digestive track.

3. Feces is passed fast.

4. Flatulence is cleared.

5. Urination happens fast.

6. Internal organs like Liver, Kidneys, Spleen and Gallbladder are massaged - helping stimulation of the organs as well as cleansing of toxic.

7. Increased Oxygen Level which helps increased energy levels and metabolism rate.

8. Fat and Cholesterol is burnt faster because of increased metabolism.

9. Increased Osmotic Pressure acts like a blast cleansing process, where toxins in blood are burnt.

10. Skin is cleared up of toxic and one can feel that skin is oozing out some gases - like the feeling in perspiration but with more intensity.

11. Some people may feel that their body is electrified and going through involuntary jerks. Later they can direct these jerks consciously with their thoughts with practice.

12. Helps in singing as one's capacity to hold and blow air improves - helping in maintaining a pitch and not needing as many pauses to take breath. Wondered how Shankar Mahadevan does a breath-less singing?

13. Because of "storage" effect, blood is more richer in oxygen, and one can hold one's breath for longer time, which helps swimming.

14. Respiratory Tract infections, like Cough, Cold, Bronchitis, Influenza and Tuberculosis get treated as the stress cycle of intense oxygenation and intense oxygen deprivation kills bacterial and viral infections. One can get rid of cold and infection, but land up with lost voice for a day!

14. Skin starts glowing and becomes clearer, smooth and shiny. Their is a radiance on the face which is what meant by the word "Kapal Bhati", the Face-Shine literally.

15. When one does Kapalbhati very fast, one can come to a resonance frequency of the stomach and the alimentary canals tract that suddenly the stomach will collapse on itself and one will not be able to exert any more pressure or force on the stomach muscles for those seconds, just like when an earthquake comes, the earth becomes a wave of liquid or powder particles, and it can not bear any thing solid, which causes so much of structural damage, besides shearing and swaying forces. So all the dirt and fat accumulation inside the linings of the alimentary canal would be cleaned up. The next day when one passes the stool, one would notice something "liquid fat" droplets. The same principle is used for cleaning surfaces, de-greasing, de-painting, and dentists use Ultrasound scalpel to clean teeth and at the same time create pressured water spray.

Also, see my article on Hyperberic Oxygen Therapy (coming soon) and based on this finding, apparently some newer benefits that I can think of are:

a. Stem Cells count goes up in the bone marrow.
b. Healing becomes faster
c. Bacterial and viral infections are cured
d. Newer blood vessels are formed, specially around the damaged areas in the brain and other parts of the body.
e. Stress does also leads to damages in the brain tissue, besides other complications, and research has found that by increasing ATP (Adenosine Tri Phosphate) metabolism, important for aerobic energy production, the damages can be prevented. Since oxygen is an important part of the equation, increased levels of Oxygen delivery alleviates the harm. Please see my posting on Stress (Stress And Yoga Mmeditation Can Help It and the video referenced there.

Over a period of time, one would find that one has developed a lot of Muscle control over Abdominal Muscles and also between the Eyes and inside the Nostrils and Thoriac Passage. Some may call it "awake-ning"of "local Chakaras" but whatever it may be called, it helps one accelerate the excretion of feaces faster and voluntarily. One can literally churn the Alimentary canal with different Pectoral Muscles Combinations. It is my observation, that after one thinks that one is done with the business of ablution, there is 40% more matter left to be excreted sometimes! This is why Pranayama is also called a Kriya or Cleansing Exercise.

In another form of Pranayama, it is my observation, that one can literally vaporize ones solid waste into voluntary flatulence discharges. Perhaps this is one of the reasons, that some of the Yogis bodies have not decomposed very rapidly in comparison to other normal people - and hence busting the myth of "divine" intervention.

The Anatomy of Mechanical Respiration

2007-11-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

The breathing in and breathing out is what is called here Mechanical Respiration. As human nature is, we take this as granted and do not give much thought to it but is one of the most wonderful systems not well understood by most of the people.

Lets see how does the breathing happen. From nostrils, the air gets filtered by hair and passes into upper nasal pharynx cavity to larynx mouth cavity to wind pipe to trachea to bronchial tree on each side to alveolar sacks. On its way it passes the vocal chords, thyroid glands and ventilates sinus cavity above nose. The respiratory system is part of thoracic cavity and separates from abdominal cavity by diaphragm, which is attached to lungs. and plays an important role in breathing.

So how does the Oxygen rich air flow in? The Boyle's Law states that PxV=RT, which means if we increase the volume of lungs, pressure will reduce inside lungs and air will be sucked by itself from outside.

Nature has provided following levers, in order from maximum leverage to minimal leverage, to do the breathing:

a. Diaphragm - when it moves down, or when stomach is expanded, air rushes in. Only babies use this and one can see their bellies going up and down when they are sleeping. But as they start to walk, this habit is lost. It is used very minimally when doing things strenuous.

b. Intercostal Muscles - lungs are attached to the rib cage via these muscles and by expanding chest, the air flows in.

c. Interclavicle Muscles - muscles attached to the collar bones and lungs which can be exercised when lifting one's shoulder, though very subtle movement of air happens, and one may not sense it if not made sensitized to air flows in the respiratory system.

d. Thoracic Muscles - by contracting and expanding, near vocal areas, one can also breath and is used in strenuous exercises.

e. Nasal Muscles - by contracting and expanding muscles in the nose, one can also breath, though people may not have much control unless these muscles are developed.

It is clear that we hardly exercise all muscles to maximize breathing or do anything consciously to use some of the muscles. To maximize metabolism, one can employ all knobs and to minimize metabolism, one can only use the nostril, at least theoretically! Once metabolism is in control, heart, mind, brain, etc., are all in control!

Please note in the thoracic cavity, there is a thymus gland, which is part of the lymphatic system, and connected via the largest lymphatic vessels called thoracic duct, complemented by right lymphatic duct. Breathing plays an important part in controlling the flow of lymphocytes from Thymus and plays a crucial role in Immune System. Thymus controls the production of T-Cells which play an important part of the immune system.

The lymphatic system has three interrelated functions: (1) removal of excess fluids from body tissues, (2) absorption of fatty acids and subsequent transport of fat, as chyle, to the circulatory system and, (3) production of immune cells such as lymphocytes (e.g. antibody producing plasma cells like T-Cells and B-Cells) and monocytes.

Breathing has 4 parts: (1) Inhalation - Purnika, (2) Inner Retention - Antriya Kumbhka, (3) Exhalation - Rachika, and (4) External Retention - Bahriya Kumbhka.

Permutation and combination of the four parts of the breathing components, along usage of different muscles in the respiratory system, and passage locks developed during the course of Yoga training, and Aasanas make an important part of Pranayama.

As discussed earlier, the systematic and conscious control of breathing can be used to control the mind and the metabolism of the body. It is rigorously can be used in Meditation and control of Mind.

The ultimate in Pranayama and Kumbhaka is called Kevala Kumbha, where one suspends the mechanical breathing in and out, with helps of mechanical, aasan and pressure locks, but only sustaining himself with natural ventilation and exchange of oxygen in nostrils. There are many degrees of it, depending on mental state, posture, place and time. This can be used to transcend Mind and is the goal of Raja Yoga.

Over the years of Yoga practice, one develops control of locks to aid in this process. Please be advised, do not try this without guidance as death and damage can result. A lot of magic powers have been mentioned by texts on this aspect, but I do not know about them, except of some calming, healing and meditative powers. Even if one has mastered this, please make sure that you allow your body to recover after doing this Kumbha, before doing any activity, like walking or getting up, as you may faint or pass out.

In Geeta in Chapter 6, On Meditation, and other chapters too, it is mentioned that one should do Metitation by suspending the Apnaa and Pranaa and the interpretations given by most of the famous translators is true and subject to their personal experiences - and in one journey one may experience all of them. References: (1) Kevala Kumbha and (2) Dr. Sivananda on Kevala Kumbha. Apnaa is the downward movement of the Life Forces and Pranaa is the upward movement of the Life Forces - and the two are having a grosser representation in the Inhalation and Exhalation Process.

Geeta says:
Apane juhvati pranam pranepanam tathapare; Pranapanagatee ruddhva pranayamaparayanah (Gita, Ch. IV-29.). Others offer Prana (outgoing breath) in Apana (incoming breath) and Apana in Prana, restraining the passage of Prana and Apana, absorbed in Pranayama. Pranayama is a precious Yajna (sacrifice). Some practise the kind of Pranayama called Puraka (filling in). Some practise the kind of Pranayama called Rechaka (emptying). Some are engaged in the practice of Pranayama called Kumbhaka, by impeding the outward passage of air, through the nostrils and the mouth, and by impeding the inward passage of the air, in the opposite direction. Reference: Geeta on Kevala Kumbha - Translation by Dr. Sivananda.

Pranayama, Asta-Anga Yoga, Kundulani Yoga, Asta-Anga Yoga and Hatha Yoga

2007-10-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

It would be a good to first clarify some of the terms one often hears often but gets confused.

Yoga means to yoke with the Divine - the First Principle of your existence! Actually Yoke is nothing but goes back to the word Yoga. "K" and "g" are Guttural sounds and "a" and "e" can be confused in transliteration of sounds from one language to another language. Yoga basically aims to having zero mental modification - calming of the mind and transcending of the mind - and touching the core of your existence - the Soul or the First Principle.

Pranaa-yama means control of life current, since the word "yama" means control and the word "pranaa" means "life current". This life current is what makes up the sum total Physiological, Psychological forces, etc., of which we know some of them, like breath and respiration, metabolism, mind, etc.

It is one of the important steps of Yoga Philosophy of India, in realization of one's Self! In a way it is complementary to the Philosophy of Vedanta. The prior is a practical approach and the later is a theoretical approach.

Vedanta is a theory on meta-physics on Consciousness and what constitutes a Self and helps one stretch his or her identification with microcosm of Body, Senses, Mind, Ego and Intellect to the macrocosm of Universal Presence and Manifestation of the Consciousness called Brahman, which means which is ever growing present and stronger First Principle on which all other Scientific and Material Laws hold true. It is that summum-bonum of all existences, animate or in-animate. This philosophy helps individual see the Unity in the Plurality and the Eternity of the Self.

Yoga is a very ancient Philosophy and has been found its presence as far in time as around 3000 BC, and as far flung as in Aum In Crete And America and Aum Sign In America! Please see my postings on Aum in Crete and Aum in America. In recorded History it was first outlined and documented by Pannani, which is called as Asta Anga Yoga.

Asta Anga Yoga has following eight steps: (1) Yama, (2) Niyama. (3) Aasans, (4) Pranayama, (5) Pratihaar. (6) Dharna, (7) Dhyana and (8) Samadhi. Yama is ethical and moral conduct and Niyama is practice and observations. Pranayama we know. Dharna is basically a "single minded flow of thought on an object, thought, sound, smell, visualization and tactical senses". For now we will not go into details of these words. Dhyana is basically loosing of the "I" or "Ego" principle which one experiences in a deep sleep state but here one is awake! Samadhi is basically nothing but a conscious slow and volunteered death in a belief for the total liberation and the merging with the Brahman to get one self out of the cycle of Life of Births and Deaths - as per the Hindu Philosophy of Reincarnation of Soul according to the Karma Theory.

Kundalani Yoga is nothing but an extreme form of Pranayama where one experiences a Physiological and Psychological Metamorphosis recorded by Western Medical Science also. It is said to be a double edge sword, and if not properly followed under the guidance of a learned and experienced Guru, one can loose one's self to a permanent insanity!

Hatha Yoga is nothing but a physical preparatory steps focusing on Asans and some Pranayama mainly, lesser than Kundalini Yoga, to reach Raja Yoga, which is Total Mind Control. So it is a subset of Astanga Yoga with more practical aspects.

The Mind is compared to a Charioteer, and the two Horses are Breath and Metabolism, which form the 3 legs of a stable stool called Body. Usually Mind becomes slave to thoughts and desires, conscious or unconscious, and hijacks the metabolism and the breath. So when one is angry for some reasons, his mind is very agitated, blood pressure, pulses and heart beats are high, and breath is very heavy and forceful. But when one is lost in the serenity of something creative, like painting, music, singing, writing, and even some focused, like the thinking of great thinkers, the breath almost stops and metabolism comes to its lowest operating point. Need less to say the prior is associated with stress and co-related to high levels of Cortisol (a form of Harmone produced in Adrenal Gland on top of kidneys) and stress related diseases touching all aspects of body. The biggest nerve complex is Vagus nerve arising from brain which touches most of internal organs, and diseases of these organs if the stress persists for long time without any abatement. Then the brain's endocrine system is also affected in a complex chain and feedback cycle, The cardiovascular, the lymphatic, the para sympathetic and the sympathetic systems are also affected. Body needs endorphins for its well being and well keep, besides other neuro-transmitters like Serotonin, which controls the moods, energy level, thoughts, sleep cycle, and the physiological process like hunger and sexual drive.

So the theory of Pranayama says that through the breath control, one can control the mind and metabolism! There is nothing new to people who have read Dale Carnegie's books on Art of Public Speaking and Don't Worry, Start Living, and Lamas classes for prenatal care. The Art of Leaving focuses on this aspect. At Harvard Medical School, and in one Nova show, they showed Tibetans Monks doing meditation, and controlling their brain waves and their body physiology. In fact they were are in snow, almost naked, and their bodies were covered with wet clothes, and then they showed steam coming out of their bodies!

Tantra Yoga has many parts, including touching parts of Kundalani Yoga, Vedanta in form of Kashmir Shaivism, and to the grosser form of Sexual Union Principle, found popularized in the West without much of understanding, and which is the basis of Khujaroah Temples, besides the Magic, Toxication and the Non Veg Part. More on this some other time!

The Anatomy of Metabolic Respiration

2007-10-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

Human brain always abstracts a complex process and only when one dwells into an area, does the complexity and intricacies of an area is revealed. It is like doing a research or a meditation on a subject. Without much ado, lets dwell into the science of respiration.

When we say Metabolic Respiration, we do not mean the mechanical respiration that transpires in pulmonary passage from nose and mouth to lungs. Here the metabolism process is of two types: (1) Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen Exchange between Blood and Lung's Alveolar sacks, where Pulmonary Vein's Capillaries and Pulmonary Artery's Capillaries make a passage like a two trees meeting on top of each other over branches of each other - one root and trunk is the Pulmonary Vein representation and the other root and trunk is the Pulmonary Arterial representation, and (2) Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Exchange between blood and cells over a capillary mesh of arteries and veins all over the body.

The exchange of chemicals between blood and cell membrane happens because of osmosis which is dependent on: (1) Chemical Density Potential Difference, (2) Electric/Ion Potential Difference , (3) Pressure Potential Difference and (4) Permeability - which is a function of previous factors in a complex feedback cycle. If the cell has a lot of deposits of impurities, the cell can become less permeable.

In breathing , where Carbon Dioxide rich blood - the blue blood in veins - pumped from the Heart to Lungs via Pulmonary Artery, gives out its CO2, and the same blood now absorbs O2 in the lungs and Oxygen rich blood is returned to the Heart via Pulmonary Vein. After reaching the Heart, in the right side Atrium, the red blood is pumped to different parts of the body via Arota and its arteries. The oxygen rich blood now reaches cells and the O2 is delivered via the cell membrane along with other food nutrients necessary as fuel for the cell to metabolize and generate energy for the cells to ensure their functionality. Like all muscles tissues need this to provide motor and locomotive functions. The oxygen is carried in a compound Iron compound called Hemoglobin, which gives the red color to the blood in artery. The Vacuoles in the cell are the food and waste storage units and the Mitochondria is the energy generator for the cell.

There are two types of metabolism: (1) anabolism which provides energy by converting complex molecules into simple molecules via two pathways and (2) catabolism which consumes energy to make complex molecules for growth and regeneration of cells.

Cellular Respiration are of two types: (1) Aerobic, where Glucose with Oxygen is broken down into Water, CO2 and Energy and (2) Anaerobic, where Glucose without Oxygen is broken down into Lactic Acid, which happens when someone exercises beyond a point - due to the lack of oxygen in proportion to the energy required during an exercise.

In Anabolism, the first pathway, Glycolysis, requires no Oxygen and is referred to as Anaerobic Metabolism. In lower forms of organisms, Glycolysis is the only method for harnessing energy. The second pathway is called the Krebs cycle, also called Citric Acid Cycle, occurs inside the mitochondria. In the Kerbs cycle, Carbohydrate/Glucose, Protein/Amino-Acids and Fatty Acid/Lipids/Glycerides are broken into waste products and energy. The waste side products are Urea, Lactic Acid, Water and Carbon Dioxide, which are discharged by a cell into the blood stream. Also, when cell metabolises nutrients into Energy, Water, Salt and Urea are also discharged as sweat. This process is called Perspiration, and is also a skin cleansing and nourishing process.

The carbon-oxide rich blood - the blue blood - now is carried back to the heart via veins to the left side atrium of the heart, from where the blood is pumped to the lungs, via Pulmonary Artery. In the lungs the Pulmonary Artery blood dislodges Carbon Dioxide and Pulmonary Vein blood gathers Oxygen, thus completing a cycle of Cardiac-Pulmonary Circulation.

The blood which is still rich in other waste products, like Lactic Acid, Urea, and water is carried to Kidneys from the Heart and here the filteration happens to extract the excess water and other wastes.

Some key points to take are: (1) increased oxygen level means increased energy level - provided nutrients are available, (2) the brain is the most demanding and sensitive consumer of this energy, except when one is exercising or jogging where muscular system demands a lot of energy, and (3) breathing, respiration, and perspiration play a key part in cleansing of the body.

Welcome to Yoga World

2007-10-01T22:52:00.000-07:00

Is Yoga a religion, a philosophy, a way of life, a way of physically exercising the body, a way to relax your body, a way to quiet-en your mind, a way to nourish your soul, a way of new thinking, a way to heal yourself, or a way to keep yourself healthy. Or is it just the ultimate cool fad that is the in-thing to talk about? The later statement should be just left as unanswered but the first question, with all answers are definitely true.

Before I say anymore, Yoga, Pranayama and Meditation techniques have been scientifically validated at Harvard Medical School and some other leading American, European and Indian medical institutions. So this should be enough to quiet-en all the disbelievers.

To an uninitiated it is hard to believe, and to someone having some positive impression, it is a subset of the all the above mentioned, and most probably more so at the grosser level. But to an advance practitioner of Yoga, it is a thing that can only be experienced. The journey for which has barely begun for me, but magically some insights and experiences have come to me, which I wanted to share with the rest of the folks. Hence I am penning down my thoughts.

Yoga may be a way to achieve many amazing powers though promised by Patanjali. I do not know about it but I know some amazing things that can be done, which an average person would not believe. For example, people who do Kung Fu, Karate, and Kalari, an ancient Indian Martial Art from Kerala, from which Kung Fu and Karate has derived, use a form of Pranayama, breath control, along with Dharna, a single pointed focus and meditation, to channel-ize their energies in their strikes.

Budhhist Monk Budhhi Raja, went to China in 500 AD, and established the temple of Shaolin, where he developed Kung Fu to defend himself from attacks from the soldiers of the local King. This was based on Kalari but adapted to local situation. One should go and see a Kung Fu Show by the Shaolin Temple Monks, or tricks performed by the Kerela Kalari Folks, then they would realize that some of things they do are really amazing and supernatural. I saw one in San Jose in 1998 much before I became a Yoga Practitioner and a Yoga Teacher.

In Discovery Channel, many years back, there was a show, where US Cops, were learning Karate combined with Karali techniques. There was this frail looking woman, and three cops were holding her, one from back and two from the sides. The fourth cop would come then and strike her with a long wooden rod on her stomach and then on her neck - needless to say that it was with a lot of force. First the demonstration came on her stomach, and she was all smiling during the blow and nothing happened to her. This was not surprising as I could also stand this since my boxing days in school. The trick is to tighten the stomach muscles and hold the breath, which is also part of Pranayama. The second demonstration came on her neck. The moment the blow was struck, she was all fine, and in a flash, she all collapsed and crumpled on the floor. I was shocked and so were the other participants. Then the most amazing thing happened. The next second she was all smiling, standing, and when repeatedly asked if she was OK, she kept answering positively that she was all fine. I still do not know what trick she used!

Acupressure and Acupuncture also go back to Yoga and have the same principles. In fact the other use of Karali is in treatment of patients, and is a lost science of Ayurveda. It is like the Touch Healing you see in some church gatherings on Television.

For me learning Yoga was a necessity to help my son, who had a head injury and had lost 1/3 brain from three places. At that time, as if there was a divine intervention, I got a visit from a swami in Coimbatore Ayurveda Dharamshala, where I was staying for 8 weeks to get my son treated, after some of his 5 surgeries, along with my daughter. I only knew naught of Yoga and Pranayama was a strange world that did not make any sense to me. There a swami passed by our cottage and I approached him just to see any new knowledge and guidance could be derived from the meeting to heal my son. He asked his assistant to teach us Pranayama, and the same evening she came but to be frank, I did not learn anything and my children also came with blank memory of the short training they had.

The same trip, while visiting my mother in Kanpur, I went to my neighbor’s house and their his daughter, whom I had seen as a little baby when I was in IIT, showed me a book. This book was on Pranic Healing by a western educated doctor from Los Angles who was talking about Chakras, subtle energy centers located over Nervous Plexus centers, where the nerves come, meet and depart like a hub, with Sanskrit like names. For me this was a first introduction to the subject and most intriguing but to a desperate seeker of knowledge to get some help to cure and recover his son, this was a skeptical window to some hope. He was using Pranic Healing in the hospital in LA and validated that it was helping his patients and this knowledge was shared among his colleagues. Kundalini Yoga has this aspect of focus on Chakras, and has also been recorded by modern medicine to be a phenomenon which they can not understand. Actually Pranic Healing was kind of used by me in recovery of my son during his Coma, inspired by some mythological stories of Shiva, a Mughal king's story on recovery of his son when all doctors had given up, and hearing some talk by Dr. Deepak Chopra the night before in the US when on the same day in India he would fall. In hind sight, Positive Thinking, Invoking the Divine Mind, Controlling of Pranas, Mass Prayers and Touch Healing are all connected and the same. Harvard University did publish a research on affect of Mass Prayers on sick and dying patients. Now there are many medical doctors all over the world who have turned to Pranic Healing, Yoga and Meditation to help the sicks. In fact Acupressure and Acupuncture is also connected with all this, as also mentioned before when discussing on Yoga.

Yoga is not a miracle and I am yet to experience a lot of benefits, but whatever I have experienced is good enough for me to talk about. I have been able to almost cure an auto immune disease which is incurable by Western Medicine, and I tried Radiation, Chemo, and many Ayurvedic treatments.

People often say, Yoga is not as good as some weight bearing exercises or some cardio-vascular aerobic exercises, which is not true. Yoga, has: (1) Stretching, (2) Weigh Bearing, (3) Cardio-Vascular/Aerobic, (4) Asans for Acu Pressure/Acu Puncture, (5) Breath Mastery and (6) Mental Meditation. Instead of going to a gymnasium and doing things on expensive machines, in Yoga one makes the body a machine and does exercise with all the benefits derived from the machine, but much more and with more meaningful benefits. Please mind Yoga is not there to build a body like Schwarzenegger!

The difference between Yoga and any western exercises is like the difference between a "love making" and "mechanical sex". Between and during doing Yoga, one is also meditating and relaxing.

The only draw back of Yoga is that it takes a long time but is very rewarding and relaxing. It is like being forced to take a vacation and rejuvenating yourself. Then one can incorporate some of the Pranayama techniques during other activities, and while sitting and just before sleeping!

So Yoga can help in the following things:

a. Weight Loss
b. Stress Management
c. Calming of Mind
d. Depression and Anxiety Disorders.
e. Back Problems, Spondylosis, and Nerve Pinching Issues
f. Muscle Aches
g. Joint Pains
h. Arthritis
i. Toning of Body
j. Blood Pressure
k. Auto Immune Disorders
l. Skin Diseases
m. Improve Running Stamina and Speed
n. Improve Swimming Stamina and Speed
o. External and Internal Massage of Organs
p. Improve Meditation - Dharna
q. Transcending of Mind - Dhyana
r. Anti-ageing and slowing of Ageing Process
s. Increased production of Endorphins - a morphine like neuro transmitter in the body for the felling of wellness and well being.
t. Improved Eye Sight
u. Singing
v. Apnea,
w. Insomnia
x. Flexibility
y. Respiratory Disorders and Infections
z. Improve Immunity
A. Cholesterol Reduction
B. Respiratory Infections and Disorders, like Cold, Influenza, Tuberculosis, Asthma and Bronchitis.
C. Straightening of Spinal Chord helping Posture and Height.