This chapter is really about Pranayama, but it starts with a popular story from Hindu mythology. The story is of a great war between the gods and the demons. The demons were becoming a threat to the gods as they gained strength and power. The story is about how the gods tricked the demons to help them churn the ocean to free the ambrosia, or nectar of immortality.
The story is too long to re-type. If you’d like to read it, click here. All of the elements in the story are symbolic. The ocean represents the human body, Mount Meru, which is the what they used to churn the ocean, is our spinal cord. A serpent was used to wrap around the mountain to twist and turn it to create the churning. The serpent represents the ida and pingala nadis, the two channels of energy that spiral around the spinal cord and create our life force. The churning represents the breath which cleanses the body of poison and feeds it with nectar. It represents the victory of all that is pure over that which is vile and impure, or the victory of the gods over the demons.
“In order to experience the nectar generated by the process of breathing and to partake its life-giving energy, we practice pranayama. In Pranayama, we churn the ocean of the human body, stirring up its five elements, five sense organs, five motor organs, the mind, intellect and the ego. The physical body is a cauldron of opposing tendencies. It houses virtues as well as vices, divine urges as well as wanton desires. It is the Prakriti (our solid matter) that engulfs the Purusha or the Soul. Through the techniques of Pranayama, we seek to discard our vile tendencies and strengthen the godly ones.”
Prana is an ever active, all-pervasive source of energy. It manifests in a human being as physical, mental, sexual, intellectual, emotional, creative, egoistic and spiritual energy. In the material world it manifests as heat, light, gravity, magnetism and electricity. Prana controls every cell, organ, heartbeat, action and every function in the body.
Pranayama is to Ashtanga Yoga what the heartbeat is for a living organism. As respiration is vital to existence, Pranayama is vital to yoga practice. The very word Prana indicates the flow of life energy. Ayama means to spread, expand, enlarge or stretch, as well as to control or regulate. Thus, Pranayama implies the channeling of the vital life force.
The ancient yogis believed that you were born with a fixed number of breaths and when you used up your supply, that was the end of your life. Pranayama is not just breathing exercises. The word Prana means the flow of life energy. The word Ayama means to spread, expand, enlarge or stretch as well as to control or regulate. Thus Pranayama implies channeling the vital force of life to enhance and maybe even prolong life. To achieve this, one must employ certain breathing techniques and utilize the respiratory muscles in a particular way. The practice of asana clears internal space within the body. Pranayamic breathing makes optimal use of this space.
Pranayama involves consciously expanding and prolonging the actions of inhalation and exhalation. Between the intake and expulsion of breath there are a few moments of an involuntary pause. There are four aspects of the breath that we work with in Pranayama: inhalation, retention after inhalation, exhalation and retention after exhalation.
Pranayama involves receiving the life force energy from the universe, absorbing and assimilating it within, thereby cleansing the body and surrendering the excess so that it again, merges with the universal energy.
Ordinary breathing occurs involuntarily at a physical level. Pranayamic breathing is deliberate and disciplined. When prana is well regulated, it disciplines and pacifies the body, mind, intellect and ego and guides them towards the soul.
The practice of Pranayama cleanses the body, mind, and intellect while generating enthusiasm, strength and vitality. Pranayama brings about a complete transformation in consciousness, elevating it to the level of concentration, meditation and enlightenment (the 6th, 7th & 8th limbs of yoga). In studying the different types of Pranayama, the consciousness moves progressively from the gross to the refined to the extremely subtle.
Because of this movement from the gross to the subtle, we first have to learn to train our bodies through asana practice. The practice of Pranayama cannot begin until the ability to control the body, through asana, is perfected.
In this blog, I paraphrased and edited (for brevity) this chapter. If you’d like to read the entire chapter, you can find it here.