October 2024 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Pranayamas
Srivatsa Ramaswami
October 2024 Newsletter from Srivata Ramaswami-Pranayama-s
I guess this is my 200th Newsletter. Many thanks to Ross Smith for creating this facility some 16 years back and to many of my yoga friends who have subscribed to this.
My book “Samkhya Karika” of Iswarakrishna written mainly for Yoga practitioners is due to be published on May 6, 2025. The editing and typesetting is complete. I understand it may be preordered in USA. Here are the links
.jpeg?part=0.2&view=1)
Inner Traditions Publisher webpage https://www.innertraditions.com/samkhya-karika
Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/samkhya-karika-srivatsa-ramaswami/1146037935
Amazon USA
I guess it may be pre ordered through Amazon UK for those interested in Europe
Pranayama-s
Hatayoga practitioners mostly practice asanas, many of them. Some Hatayoga practitioners practice pranayama also. Old school Hatayoga teachers used to stress the importance of pranayama/Kumbhaka in a comprehensive hatayoga practice.What are the main aspects of hatayoga breathwork? The mechanics of pranayama are well described by Hatayogis. The four aspects of breathing viz., recaka or exhalation, puraka or inhalation and breath holding after exhalation (bahya kumbhaka) and breath holding after inhalation (antah kumbhaka) are separated and attention paid. The hatayogi mindfully controls all the four aspects of breathing. She/He would alter the time duration for each aspect, the place in the respiratory tract to control the breath, the number of rounds the procedure to be repeated and also the number of such sittings per day.
Then there is the question of what is the goal of Hatayogi. It is the union (yoga) of ‘ha’ and ;Ta’ or prana and apana,Prana in general is the inward life force and apana is the outward force. When the union of these two takes place there is a brief cessation of the prana activity.
But is it merely union of prana and apana or something more than that.What hatayogi’s pranayama procedures do is to cleanse the nadis or the pathways for prana movement and also the purification or the suddhi of the life force itself. Further Pranayama especially deep recaka or exhalation and long bahya kumbhaka or breath holding after exhalation would facilitate employing the mudras particularly the bandhas effectively.
The Hatayogi’s pranayama leads to the next step called the mudras. These are usually practices done within the body. What do the mudras do? They direct the united prana achieved by pranayama to traverse through a nadi that hitherto remained blocked. Blocked by what ,they call it Kundalini. This procedure of directing prana through the Sushumna is facilitated by the mudras, especially the bandhas. The yogi after cleansing the prana and the nadis would sit down in a perfect asana with a straight back, Using the bandhas the hatayogi facilitates the interaction between the agni or fire tatva in the body and the air tatva or prana. The activated agni with the help of the blowing prana would disturb the dormant Kundalini which is pictured to be blocking the entry point of the sushumna nadi which ordinarily is inaccessible. Once the kundalini is awakened it goes through the sushumna and merges with the Siva tatva in the Sahasrara, The united prana force moves along merrily through the sushumana going through the different chakras and affording different experiences to the Hatayogi. Having facilitated movement of prana through the Sushumna the Hatayogi lives a yogic life very different from the nonyogic life for whom the prana moves scattered through various nadis. When ordinary people die the prana is said to leave the body through one of the nine ports (nava dvara) and it is said to lead to different future births. Exit through some ports is considered more favorable than the others.
For non yogis the sushumna is blocked and the pranas traverse through the other nadis and engage in outward activities. However since the consummate hatayogi is able to traverse prana through the sushumna the yogi’s life is entirely different from that of non yogis. Ultimately when the time comes to leave the body, the yogi remaining in a seated yogic asana performs several deep pranayamas and at the end of one final deep recaka or exhalation maintains bahya kumbhaka and directs the life force prana through the sushumna and experiences extraordinary events .Finally the prana or life force is said to leave the body breaking through the brahma randhra (fontanel) moves upwards and merges with the jagat prana or the universal life force. It may be interesting to note the contrast between the passing away of non yogis compared to hatayogi. While the prana for ordinary mortals exits through one of the ports or dvaras, for the hatayogi it goes out through brahma randhra. Interestingly while the vedantins talk about the union of jivatma or individual soul (consciousness) with supreme soul or paramatma (universal consciousness) (samyogo yoga uchyaye jivatma paramatmanoh), the hata yogis consider union or yoga between individual life force or prana with universal life force or jagatprana as yoga
Rajayogis also practice pranayama. What is the role of pranayama in the Rajayoga scheme. Hatayoga as we have seen is union (yoga) of prana and apana and ultimately union between prana and jagatprana. Then what is Rajayoga?
Rajayoga is generally referred to as Royal yoga as if it is the higher yoga. The word Raja comes from the root “raajr” meaning like a lamp to throw light on (raajR diptau) . Throw light on what? It is to show what one is ignorant of. According to Samkhyas and Rajayogis one is ignorant of the real nature of one's own Self. And this Rajayoga is said to help to “know oneself”. So you may call Rajayoga as Yoga of enlightenment. Here the term yoga is not used in the sense of union but absolute peace or samadhi/samadhana. So to achieve that goal what is the role of Pranayama?
While Hatayoga is somewhat mechanical, Raja Yoga deals with the mind or citta and its transformation. According to Samkhya the mid region of the universe–the world we are in, is rajasic. Most human beings are predominantly rajasic,between getting up in the morning and going to bed most people keep working with very little or no contemplation about the nature of Atman. There are some who are born satvic but they are few and far between. Even Satvic people may not pay attention to atma jnana but engage in dharmic activities or become renunciates or with yogic discipline achieve supernatural powers.
Adhyavasāyobuddhirdharmojñānam. virāgāiśvaryam |
sāttvikametadrūpam. tāmasamasmādviparyastam —Samkhya karika
Here the Samkhyas aver that a satvic mind (buddhi) is necessary for understanding and realizing the truth especially about the nature of Atman.
But most are born rajasic and develop more and more rajasic samskaras due to functioning in a rajasic groove.
Knowledge as Atma knowledge is acquired in three levels. Knowing about a thing as Atman through books, authentic lectures (sruta pragnya) are called knowing through hearing or indirect knowledge. This is possible even for rajasic mind. If the mind or buddhi is little more satvic, it can settle down and analyze the information indirectly and may become convinced. This they call it as anumana pragnya. However direct experience or spiritual knowledge is possible for an unwavering satvic buddhi. But how to attain that high quality satvic mind?
The goal of Rajayoga is to afford Buddhi’s direct perception of the Atman. As we have seen that since most aspirants lack a dominant satvic Buddhi, it has to be acquired. So the Rajayoga provides firstly the means to make one’s buddhi predominantly satvic and that is provided by ashtanga yoga a sub discipline of Raja Yoga.
The theory is that the way to bring out the dormant satva is to weaken the dominance of the other two non yogic gunas viz., rajas and tama. It is done in two stages by the ashtanga yogi. The yogi first reduces the intake of rajas and tamas from the outside world by the strict diligent observance of yamas and niyamas. Then by a regular practice of asanas the yogi is able to reduce the dominance of systemic rajas. “Asaneana rajo hanti” asanas weaken rajas. Then by an appropriate practice of pranayama the yogi is able to reduce the dominance of tamas. Patanjali clearly states that one of the benefits of pranayam is the weakening of tamas. “Tatah kshiyate prakasa avaranam” prakasa would be satva and avarana here would be tamas. So the Rajayogi practices pranayama preceded by asana so that rajas and tamas weaken and the mental space (cittakasa) vacated by rajas and tamas is filled by satva. Patanjali also mentions that this would also make the yogi fit for the first step of meditation (samyama) called dharana. So pranayama plays an important role in making a Rajayogi fit for Rajayogi. Over a period of time by this practice the yogi develops satvic samskara and that makes it a lot smoother to go ahead with antaranga sadhana or the satvic practice of yoga.
References of prana and pranayama can be found in many very old Indian texts including the vedas. Since vedas are mantras the pranayama mentioned in the vedas and also other texts like smritis which are aligned to the vedas also contain pranayama with mantras. Pranayama done with mantras are called samantraka pranayama, Hatayogis and Rajayogis practice pranayama without mantras when it is known as amantraka pranayama. Of course some rajayogis who follow iswarapranidhana may use the pranava (OM) even in pranayama as it is mentioned in the yoga sutras
Japa yogis, bhakti yogis and some sanyasa yogis practice pranayama with mantras. Since japa and bhakti are towards a particular deity they use the mantra related to the deity while doing pranayama before they start the actual japa or the puja ritual. The most well known japa is Gayatri japa. Gayatri is considered the mother of all mantras and considered next only to Pranava. So even today thousands of people who do gayatri japa precede it with a stint of mantra pranayama.Mantra pranayama consists of three parts, the vyahriti, the gayatri and then the siras. Usually gayatri japa like many rituals start with a sankalpa or resolution. It is starts with achamana for internal purification, then ganapati stotra followed by a solitary pranayama and then the sankalpa when the performer resolves to a certain number of gayatri japa, say 32, 64, 108 or even 1008. Then after doing nyasa of rishi the sage, the meter and the deity one would do samantraka pranayama.
The samantraka pranayama is done first inhaling through one nostril and then while holding the breath (antah kumbhaka) one would silently chant the pranayama mantra once. There are some practitioners who would chant the pranayama mantra three times (thrif pateth) and then exhale through the other nostril like in nadishodhana.
This pranayama is mentioned in several texts including Krishnamacharya’s yoga rahasya.
Here is the pranayama mantra that can be found in mahanarayana upanishad of yajur veda
ॐ भूः ॐ भुवः ॐ स्वः
ॐ महः ॐ जनः ॐ तपः ॐ सत्यम्
ॐ तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ।
ॐ आपो ज्योती रसोऽमृतं ब्रह्म भूर्भुवस्सुवरोम् ॥
Om Bhuuh Om Bhuvah Om Svah
Om Mahah Om Janah Om Tapah Om Satyam
Om Tat-Savitur-Varennyam Bhargo Devasya Dhiimahi
Dhiyo Yo Nah Pracodayaat |
Om Aapo Jyotii Raso[a-A]mrtam Brahma Bhuur-Bhuvah Suvar-Om ||
There are other mantras used in bhakti yoga. Siva bhaktas before chanting the siva mantra may do a few times of pranayama. During antah kumbhaka or breath holding after inhalation they may chant “shiva shiva” mantra 16 times and then exhale. Some sanyasins or some rajayogis use pranava or OM during pranayama. They may chant Om for a few times when they hold the breath before starting to meditate with pranava. Some break the pranava into its constituents as in Mandukya upanishad. So while inhaling they may contemplate on the waking state experience during breath holding contemplate on dream experience and while exhaling on deep sleep and then during a short stay in bahya kumbhaka they would contemplate on pure OM representing the whole consciousness free of the three states of experience. Some visualize brahma with four heads while inhaling as the creator of the universe then during breath holding they would contemplate on Vishnu the sustainer of the Universe and finally during exhalation they would contemplate on the three eyed Siva the final absorber of the universe and during a short stint of bahya kumbhaka they may contemplate on Brahman as pure consciousness
Sankaracharya in one of his works would say that there are innumerable pranayamas. Various smritis and puranas contain several pranayama practices.