Integrating Ancient Wisdom in Modern Life: Conflicts Drop
- Unless you come to know prana within yourself, you will not be able to know what God is. It is our Karma or deeds that give us life, what we live, and it is through pranayama that we attain that Karma which ultimately leads us to attain the blissful and healthy life.
- Puraka is a Sanskrit word that means “inhalation.” Together with kumbhaka (breath retention) and Recaka (exhalation), Puraka is a part of yogic breathing – a process of drawing in air that is supposed to be smooth and continuous.
- Pranayama has four sections: Inhalation known as Puraka; Pause after inhalation or holding of the inhaled air known as Kumbhaka; Exhalation is known as Rechaka; Pause after exhalation or suspension after the air is exhaled and before next inhalation begins, also known as Sunyaka.
- Yogas are basically concerned with your mental attitudes. Pranayama is linked between the body and mind. Another thing: asanas are bodily help. They are important, but they are only physical help. If your mind is in conflict then they will not be of much help, because body and mind are not two things really. One has to work with both the body and the mind. The body should be trained through Asanas, and the mind through Mindfulness, awareness. Practise of Pranayama, mindful of breathing, changes the breathing process. If you can become aware of your breathing, then you can become aware of your thought process; otherwise not.
- Awareness of the thought process will change the quality of the mind; Asanas will change the quality of the body. Pranayama will create a bridge between body and mind. Then the moment comes when your body and mind are one, without any conflict at all. When they are synchronised, you are neither body nor mind. For the first time, you know yourself as the self. You transcend. You can transcend only when there is no conflict.
- Pranayama has four sections: Inhalation known as Puraka; Pause after inhalation or holding of the inhaled air known as Kumbhaka; Exhalation is known as Rechaka; Pause after exhalation or suspension after the air is exhaled and before next inhalation begins, also known as Sunyaka. The energy generated through Puraka expands the practitioner’s consciousness and creates awareness, allowing more space for prana to flow freely.
- Asanas, Pranayama – through which energies can be made to flow inward. When they flow inward they become one, because at the centre there cannot be more than one. So the more energy goes inward, the more harmony there is. Conflicts drop. In the centre there is no conflict. There is an organic unity of the whole. That is why bliss is felt.
- When energy is going inward, one’s breath will begin to have a different quality. It will be relaxed, rhythmic, and harmonious. At this stage Yogi is ready for Pratyahara.
