By Jonathan Rosenthal
©Jeffrey Vock
Pranayama (control of Prana through breath) is the
main focal point for managing
thoughts and actions, according to The Science of Pranayama by Swami Sivananada.
Even before I
started practicing yoga, I found
that inhaling deeply, holding
my breath as long as is comfortable,
and exhaling very
slowly was the
most effective technique to regulate my thoughts and actions
in moments of indecision and doubt.
“Before he eats, before he drinks, before he resolves to do anything, Pranayama should be performed first and then the nature of his determination should be
clearly enunciated and placed
before the mind.” - Swami Sivananda.
Prana, however, is not solely breath. Breath contributes to prana,
but not all prana is derived from breath.
Swami Sivananda
says, “The Prana may be defined as the
finest vital force in everything
which becomes visible on the physical
plane as motion
and action, and on the mental
plane as thought. The word Pranayama, therefore, means the restraint of vital
energies.” This
seems to suggest
that prana is fed by the needs of air, water and food and then directed towards the vayus, like thoughts and actions. Prana is hard to conceptualize, and therefore visualize and manipulate directly.
Perhaps the control of breath is a starting
point to control prana. According to Swami Sivananda, “If you control the flywheel (the prana) you control the wheels (the other organs).” Similarly, Sri Dharma Mittra says, “the attention is a magnet
for prana.” Perhaps combining control of breath with the guidance of attention
allows one to indirectly manipulate prana.
Breath is the most compulsory need for survival. It
is impossible to
survive without breath for the amount
of time one can survive without
food and water. This is why controlling
the breath is such an important tool, both in and out of yoga. Returning to this basic need shatters the illusion of all the other “needs
(e.g. fears, desires, doubts)” - almost like throwing a wrench at a triangular enclosure of mirrors that reflect and deceive you
endlessly.
Fears and doubts are no match for
Pranayama. By removing the focus from these ungrounded anticipations and placing the focus on the most basic and
essential need, Pranayama shatters the mirrored labyrinth of imaginary and
illusory needs.
I imagine that all “needs”
are really illusions. We are not really hungry, it is the
body that is hungry; we are not cold, it is the body that is cold. In fact, Swami
Sivananda describes Pranayama
techniques that eliminate needs like hunger, thirst, and sleep
and these same techniques can even cool or warm the body - sitkari and sitali are cooling,
suryabheda and ujjayi are warming, and bhastrika restores normal temperature. Further, sitkari and sitali
both trump hunger, thirst, and sleep. All of these
seem to suggest
that pranayama is a practice mainly used to shatter the illusion of needs.
It is interesting
that Swami Sivananda advises specifically to avoid straining
while doing Pranayama: “Some people twist the muscles of the face when they do Kumbhaka (breath retention). It should
be avoided. It is a symptom
to indicate that they are going beyond their
capacity.”
If practicing Pranayama becomes
a need in and of itself,
it has become an illusion extraordinaire. This is much like a drug given in excess quantity
that then becomes
a poison. In pursuing
Pranayama as a need in and of itself,
the practitioner has only replaced an unnecessary “need” with a new
one.
Pranayama should be practiced each and every
day, but
it is not the end of the world to miss a day; Pranayama should be practiced not as a need in and of itself, but as a technique that, by focusing on the only real need,
prana, shatters the illusion of the others.
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