Pranayama: how much ever talking about it won’t do justice to this arcane science of breath control. This article is yet another attempt to convince sadhaks on its immense benefits. Even though achieving mastery in Pranayama takes lifetimes of dedicated sadhana mostly in solitude under tutelage of a Guru who realized it, a consistent daily practice of this reaps immense benefits irrespective of Yoga path we follow or where we live.
Breath is a very fine thread that we possess liaising our physical body to our subtler life-forces. Breath also indicates our state of mind where we tend to have shallow and frequent breaths when agitated/restless and, slower and deeper breaths when relaxed. Scientists relayed that best moments of their inventions often spring forth when they loose identity of themselves while ruminating on one thought and, their breath becoming almost non-existent during those brief moments.
Humans breath about 15 times a min but longer living animals like Tortoise and Elephant breath only about 5 times a min. Regulation of breaths not only decrease our mortality rate but also helps us gain control of our Kundalini thereby unleashing siddhis that could digress any sadhak. Surrendering to Guru in this Yoga path is a must as they can sense and alert Disciple before they tread down wrong aisle.
To give a perspective of how much an accomplished Yogi has control over their Kundalini, below is an excerpt from Srimad Bhagavatam (canto 4 chapter 4 sloka 25) that describes how Sati discarded her body after being insulted by her father Daksha prajapati. This depicts mata Sati’s mastery over her body's gross and subtle elements through sadhana:
Translation: She sat in required Asan and then through Pranayama she combined her Prāna and Apāna airs and placed it at her navel chakra (manipura) in equilibrium. Then she raised her Udāna life force, mixed with intelligence, slowly to her heart (anahata). Then she raised this life-force through her throat and placed it between her eye-brows (ajna).
Next sloka continues: she began meditating upon on her husband Shiva's lotus feet and invoked Air and Agni elements within her body. Yoga-agni she invoked burned her body.
In Beginner's course week 4 and 5, we discussed our 5 life forces (prāna, apāna, vyāna, udāna and samāna) mentioned in these slokas and, that advanced Upsakas use higher gates among the 10 to exit their bodies whenever they want.
That so much potential can be unlocked by controlling a simple and inconspicuous act as breathing attests to our utter-reliance upon external sense pleasures when we ourselves have a whole universe within us beyond reach of senses attainable only through Sadhana. For this reason, daily Nadi Shodana pranayama with moola mantra japa is recommended for Sri Vidya upasakas in addition to Advanced Sri Yantra pooja interspersing it to help relax and maintain our focus upon Divine Mother’s feet through-out its elaborate pooja vidhi.
Sri Matre Namah 🙏🏼
(Shiva-Sati image courtesy: www.deviantart.com/bhargav08/art/Shiva-Sati-664486847)
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