The gift of Pranayama
I couldn’t name it.
It felt indescribable.
What had been missing before.
And what was now clearly present.
I viscerally felt it in each cell of my body.
Ease of being?
Wholeness.
And more.
Try as I might, I had no words for it.
In many ways, I still don’t.
In India, there is a story of an ancient magical herb named Sanjeevani.
In one of our most popular mythological stories called Ramayana, this herb is described as a life giving elixir that saved the main protagonist Rama’s younger brother Lakshmana from certain death.
I to date recall reading my comic book all fascinated as Hanuman, the son of God Vayu (Wind), the most ardent devotee of Rama flies to the snow-clad Dunagiri mountain range of Himalayas searching for this herb. When unable to recognize the plant, Hanuman lifts the whole mountain and brings it to the battlefield where Lakshmana is lying as the royal physician Sushena and others eagerly await his return.
Sanjeevani. संजीवनी
San — The one that bestows.
Jeevani — Life giving. Immortal. Eternal.
A restorer of life. The one that infuses life.
Pranayama has been my lived experience of Sanjeevani.
PRANAYAMA
Translated as Prana — Life force, Yama — Control, Pranayama is commonly defined as Breath control.
This interpretation is one I personally do not fully subscribe to as it can be incomplete and misleading.
Prana (Prah-nah, प्राण) = Life’s vital energy force
Ayama (Aa-Yamaa — आयाम — opposite of control) — Extending, Stretching, Expanding
An extending and expansion of the breath.
This is how I have more basically and more accurately experienced the practice of Pranayama.
I state this because when the mind looks at the translation as “control”, it may very likely approach and experience this practice in ways that don’t serve best.
In Sanskrit, the word for breath is the same as the word for Life — Prana.
The breath is a metaphor for this vital energy. A physical aspect or external manifestation of Prana.
When experienced from a feeling of fullness and wonder, Pranayama is a practice that deeply connects us to all the parts of the self through the simple act of breathing.
Done in a state of gratitude and reverence, this delicious, mystical, integrative experience leaves us anchored to and in our truest state of being.
THE WHAT
Pranayama is an integral aspect of yoga.
It is the fourth limb in Patanjali’s eight limb system of yoga. Described as a complete science, it allows one who practices it with dedication and devotion to live their most fulfilling life.
The practices of yoga are ways through which one can live their true nature.
The word yoga in Sanskrit is derived from the word yuj which means union.
Union with and of what?
There are many responses offered as answers to this question, and the practice of it may help one realize their own.
The physical expression of yoga — which Pranayama is a part of — is a very personal experience and journey.
There is much information out there for the satisfaction and the understanding of the mind.
Eventually, yoga for me, is a lived experience that can only be defined by arriving at it through our unique way of living and expressing it.
As a Kundalini Yogini, I am deeply called to the prana and meditation aspect of yoga.
While many see Patanjali as the Father of Yoga, the term yoga is much more ancient and was first found in the texts of Rigveda that are dated to be as old as approx 5000 BCE.
Nobody knows exactly how old the practice actually is and in many ways yoga is timeless.
A sacred knowledge said to have been realized and transmitted by the first yogi — Adiyogi (a symbol for consciousness) to the Saptarishis (7 holy saints) who meditated to receive it and later shared it with their world.
Yoga as a practice is relative.
It reveals itself perfectly with and to the consciousness that engages with it.
While today’s modern yoga practitioners tend to associate Yoga more with Patanjali Sutras and the performance of physical postures (asana), we see that the earlier recorded texts on yoga hardly mention postures/asanas and instead emphasize the pursuit of liberation through meditation and pranayama practices.
Yoga, in short, meets us where we are.
I personally resonate with this way of living the Yoga that is us.
Through breath and bandhas (internal energy locks) one can harness the power of Pranayama and experience the state of shunya or zero which is the gateway to our higher consciousness.
The cognized state of shunya helps us integrate all aspects of our human self while opening us to the highest part of our true divine Self.
अथ योगानुशासनम्॥१॥
Atha Yoganushanam
Being the Now.
Presence.
Is the lived discipline of yoga.
- Patanjali Yoga Sutras
THE HOW
As per Kundalini Yoga, breath awareness begins with recognizing breath as both the gross physical breath and as well as the subtle life force of the body and mind we call Prana.
This is so much more than a simple act of respiration.
From a deeper perspective, inhalation and exhalation are merely incidental.
From what the physical eye can see at the gross level, we breathe air into our lungs, and as the lungs contract, we exhale it out.
Patanjali, commonly known as the Father of Modern Yoga, emphasizes on the importance of pauses and the rest periods that occur after an inhalation seizes and before an exhalation begins.
Yogic Pranayama has four parts:
• Puraka: Inhalation.
• Kumbhaka: Pause after inhalation or retention of inhaled air.
• Rechaka: Exhalation.
• Sunyaka: Pause and suspension after exhalation.
The prana now through regulating our breath gets distributed to the whole body through different sets of nerve channels and reaches every cell in the body.
Prana is the driving force of all the functions of the body and as also noted in Chinese medicine, the root of all dis-eases eventually can be traced to an imbalance in the body’s energy flow.
In my experience, there is little else that may be as impactful as Pranayama when it comes to maintaining our physical, mental and emotional health.
Pranayama also helps activate the life force that lies in our Root/Mooladhara chakra as dormant potential energy called the ‘Pranashakti’ or ‘Kundalini.’
As we consistently practice with equanimous detachment and devotion, this Kundalini energy starts to automatically rise upwards in our spinal column towards the third eye point called Ajna Chakra.
As we purify our Body-Mind with advanced practices such as Bandhas and Mudras, energy redirects and now powerfully flows through channels that influence higher consciousness preparing the yogi for the awakening of the Kundalini Shakti.
तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम्
Tada Drashtuh Svarupe Avasthanam
- Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1:3
Thus through the recognition of our true Self we realize/see with clarity what we are and what the true nature of Life is.
BENEFITS OF PRANAYAMA
Optimum health is one of the basic benefits of Pranayama.
Briefly put, these are 3 ways this practice impacts all the bodies of our being.
1. Healthy Body — Optimal functioning of the body so it’s not just that you don’t experience ill health but you experience a body-mind that radiates total vitality.
2. Focused Mind — A peaceful and alert mind that can perceive with clarity.
3. Expanded Spirit — Connects you to the subtler aspects and the whole of you.
Physical Benefits
1. Strengthens the Lungs and Heart
2. Improves Oxygen absorption
3. Purifies Blood.
4. Activates organs so they function optimally
5. Regulates the Autonomous Nervous system.
6. Builds and maintains immunity
7. Increases vitality
8. Preserves body’s health
Mental Benefits
1. Eliminates stress
2. Tones and nourishes the brain.
3. Quietens thought waves
4. Neutralizes negative emotions
5. Increases lightness of heart
6. Helps with concentration
7. Clears conscious and subconscious imprints
8. Helps us feel peaceful and at ease.
9. Ignites inner confidence.
10. Activates the positive and neutral mind.
Spiritual Benefits
1. Helps deepen into meditation and attain Samadhi
2. Releases energy blocks
3. Awakens and purifies our Chakras (Energy centers)
4. Expands awareness
5. Helps attain a transcendental state of consciousness
6. Awakens Kundalini Shakti
7. Activates our electro-magnetic auric field.
THE TIMES AHEAD
As per the Kundalini yoga lineage, we have now transitioned from the Piscean to the Aquarian Age. It’s an evolutionary time where we are moving from one significant phase to another.
I think at some level we are all already recogizing that our way of being and what has worked for us till now, will not work for us in the times ahead.
The Piscean Age was all about knowledge and information and therefore, living through the conditioned mind was naturally the most common way of being and doing.
Aquarian age is the age of experience.
An age that invites us to realize our true identity and live through the Self sensory system as dynamic Presence.
The one skill/knowing these times ahead will ask of us is Self-trust.
Know thyself.
These are times where we all are now invited to awaken and align with our true Self so we can be co-creators in the manifestation of the next level of consciousness.
This simply means we need to actively recognize the powerful role we play in our growth and journey through the act of surrendering all that we are not.
In some ways, one may say, mental learning of concepts won’t hold as much importance as it does today.
Instead, we will be called to navigate the uncharted waters of life using our full-bodied intuition.
We will be all invited to recognize and play our unique role in the co-creation of what is to come ahead.
And this is where Pranayama plays a significant role in preparing us.
As we clear our bodies and open to our expanded awareness we will now be able to see more than what simply meets the eye.
With our bodies being clear channels, discernment and flow will now be our natural states of being allowing us the traverse our journeys with clarity and synchronicities like never before.
“Yoga is the art of living our unique aligned life. “
THE INVITATION
I recognize that all the Yoga material that we study today are texts that have been translated and passed down for ages through humans that held different levels of consciousness and understanding.
Originally Yoga was a sacred oral tradition transmitted from teachers to students so as to preserve its purity and sanctity.
The written form — considered a lower form — of transmission came around much later and as expected much has been lost in translation.
The teachings of Vedas and Yoga are all very nuanced and are hidden beneath layers of symbolism that can beyond a point only be intuitively deciphered.
The purpose of yoga is to transform oneself so one can see things as they really are. And what anyone may perceive or discern will naturally be relative to their level of consciousness.
The map is not the territory.
My approach to yoga is more a “out of the mind” exploration so I can uniquely experience for myself what it may be for me.
It’s the very reason I tend to lean more towards direct experience of it vs. spending time on in-depth theoretical study or memorization of the scriptures or sutras.
My exploratory orientation, one may also say leans more towards being forward/future facing (no surprise being an Aquarian!) rather than coming completely from what is and/or has been.
Of course, there is a balance we strike here for ourselves.
We are consciousness.
And therefore, I believe we all have direct access to all that exists and maybe desired in any given moment.
Through the gift of Pranayama, each devoted practitioner holds the possibility to access the direct portal that contains all forms of original knowledge.
What is needed is revealed to us in perfect divine time or/and as aligned we get to it.
The more open and all-in we are, the deeper we will go.
The more we ground and integrate ourselves in our bodies, the more these channels and pathways will open to serve our highest intention.
The more we embrace all aspects of ourselves as they come to light, the more we will perceive what was unperceivable before.
There’s nothing really to do but just to allow what is already in process.
“The only thing to become and be is what we already are — an allowing.”
I see this practice as an unerring pathway of sorts through which we can access, clarify, harness and live the sovereign and sacred Life that we sense in our deepest moments.
So, are you ready?
It’s an exciting time, and I feel beyond blessed to have this opportunity be able to explore, play and journey this with all of you.
May our experience be one of deep listening, aligning, allowing, responding and celebrating!
With the intention that as a collective this practice help us connect, live, express and share the Sanjeevani that we are.
I look forward to seeing you all.
“Yoga is a state of being: the practice, a path of self mastery.”
Note — Pranayama sessions start at the https://mysteryschool-memberscircle.com/ from July 27th 2021 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.