Secret Yogic Breathing Part 1/3

 To promote health to some extent deep breathing is very useful. It gives more oxygen to lungs to exchange with blood and thereby attach more oxygen into blood which nourishes innumerable cells of whole of our body.

Alternate breathing like Anuloma-Viloma and Nadi Shodhan, as the name itself suggests, it cleanses our channels.

While Kapalbhati or abdominal breathing moves our diaphragm and lungs together and help enhance lung capacity and remove more stale air out of the system by utilizing the whole lung capacity instead of a part of it as done by most of the people. A child at birth engages in abdominal breathing while as we grow older we forget it and start breathing through chest.

Breath retention, either inhaled or in exhaled position is an essential technique for calming of the mind. According to yogis real pranayam start with retention of the breath while earlier practices are only prelude to it. According to yogis the retention of the breath is for achieving Samadhi. There, they slowly increase the time of breath holding.

According to the yogis there are six centers of energy in our body and an individuals energy is struck up in any one of these and thus he or she will be reflecting attributes of that very energy center. Entire personality of the individual will be dictated by that very center and diseases faced will also be according to that. If our energy is struck up say in stomach, one will be selfish and face problems of that very part. We have also tested that if flow of energy is struck up in the specific areas of the brain for more than three  months then ailments get reflected in our physical body. This means that if by any method we are able to remove those blocked area and convert them to free flowing areas we can easily ward off the onset of diseases at the brain level itself and not let it enter our physical bodies.

There are many different forms of yoga which stress on one or the other aspect. It is like when we are moving, when one gets tired they stop and rest at a place. This resting at a place by someone may be due to lack of energy, lack of enthusiasm or lack of knowledge. In the wider perspective many people are held at the same point of evolution in their life. From childhood to old age they do not progress at all and in-fact wasted whole of their life. Thus various yogic method got developed due to local and individual notions. One common thread which binds all of them together is the continuously flowing river of Pran or life force.

In our bodies too, there are six different rest centers or power houses. We have to transcend them one by one and some times get struck in one of them for whole of our life. These can be Brain, Neck, Chest, Stomach, Cleansing or elementary area, Sex. In the normal sense of the creation, the movement takes from Brain to Sex organs but for evolution this has to reversed i.e. from Sex to Brain. One has to maintain balance of these centers to achieve the maximum benefits. For example overindulgence in the sexual activity will lead to imbalance, tantra has devised many ways to control this center. While in the center of heart, love and devotion is prevailing attributes and to maintain their balance bhakti yoga was developed. In the elementary canal area major requirement is cleansing, hatha yoga serves that purpose very much. While in the area of stomach, the requirement is food and nutrition and the required yoga is Karma yoga for better digestion. We should be moving and not lazy, hording things. Throat is the area of vocal chords and creativity. It provides us the space of chanting mantras to achieve the desired results. Yoga for it is Kriya yoga. Brain is the controller and seat of knowledge thus this center is developed with the help of Gyan Yoga or Samkhya philosophy. Here we transcend all duality and arrive at the only duality i.e. self and guru. At the top is the ultimate merger, where our self also is decimated and one realizes ‘Aham Brahm Asmi’. The yoga for it is Laya yoga. All these stations are transcended one by one and not in one go.  One has to swim in the main river and not in the tributaries and believe them to be the main river, which most of the people do. All our energies are flowing downwards , we have to arrest that movement  of direction and reverse it. Flowing downwards, we will never reach the goal which is the source and can only be attained by travelling in opposite direction. Medulla is the part through which these impulses travel.

The normal pranayams being practiced by general people are nothing but actual one is closely guarded by yogis. Non rhythmical and improper breathing leads to various diseases, pains and headaches etc. which can be cured by simply breathing in proper rhythm, in people..........concept from 'When I met a Yogi'.