The flow of life force

The practise of yoga includes asanas, meditation, and pranayama. Yoga guru Surakshit Goswami explains the importance of pranayama, which cleanses our 72,000 blood vessels

Stabilising the flow of life force in our blood vessels is called pranayama. It is made up of two words, prana and ayama.

Prana is the breath or life force without which no one can survive. Ayama means stabilising or expanding the prana. The process of inhalation and exhalation begins at birth and ends with death. By practising pranayama, one can control the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation. Prana energy resides in the body and keeps body and mind fit. It is the basis of all activities of the body and mind.

Prana is of five types. These are

• prana,
• apaan,
• samaan,
• vyaan, and
• udaan.

Pranayama is a scientific method of controlling the breath, leading to better health for mind and body. Prana or life force should be controlled in the same way as lions, elephants or tigers are tamed – gradually and with patience.

Life force, when controlled under compulsion, has a negative impact. By doing pranayama in a wrong way, you can suffer from hiccups, breathing ailments, cough, headache, pain in the eyes, ears and fever. A natural cleanser Pranayama cleanses all the body’s 72,000 blood vessels, besides curing diseases of the body and mind. It helps you slim down and radiate vigour. In the process, your mind is filled with happiness and your kundalini power is awakened. Just as fire purifies gold, so pranayama purifies and cures ailments of the sense organs.

In yogic discipline, it is believed that an ailment occurs in an organ when the circulation of life force in that organ gets imbalanced and disorganised. Pranayama, therefore, ensures optimum circulation of life force in every part of the body and helps to eradicate disease.

The magic eight Hathyog Pradipika describes eight types of pranayama.

These are

• suryabhedan,
• ujjaayi,
• sitkaari,
• shitli,
• bhastrika,
• bhraamari,
• moorcha and
• plaavini.

According to Hathyog, before doing these pranayamas, the blood vessels of the body should be cleansed by nadhishodhan pranayama. This plays an important role in preventing and curing diseases and in keeping a person healthy. Pranayama is usually done after doing the asanas. You begin with nadhishodhan pranayama, also called anulom-vilom, as it cleanses the blood vessels and makes the three main naadis of the body supple.

Celebrating life with yoga

Yoga guru Surakshit Goswami says that practising yoga regularly keeps the body, sense organs, mind and life force free of ailments

Life is a celebration and should continue to be so for as long as we live. With time, in fact, it should become even more pleasurable.

This ongoing celebration is not an external phenomenon but an internal one. In fact, it is a state of mind where everything appears blissful. However, our fickle nature makes us act according to whims and fancies, and while flitting from one thought to the next, the mind often becomes attached to unnecessary things. One wonders if the mind is fickle because we are so influenced by physical desires that our mind is always wavering and is in turmoil. The mind appears happy so long as things happen according to desire. It becomes sad and perturbed the moment life takes a sudden turn and if our wishes are not fulfilled. It then alternates between sukh and dukh. Rise above materialism But true happiness and peace does not lie in material things. Happiness and peace will continue to elude us if we remain unduly attached to material things. This fact is even more important once we realise that it is the state of our mind that controls physical health. A mind that wanders and causes tension and despair leads to sickness and ill health in the body. But how does one reign the mind and establish a communion with the inner self to manifest love, compassion, equality and bliss?

This is the state of dhyaan or meditation and is the beginning of yoga. Yoga has been practised since ages to heal physical and mental ailments. One must practise yoga regularly with a master’s blessings. Yoga fuels happiness According to Maharshi Patanjali, the basis of yoga lies in curbing certain traits of the mind like ego and attachment. A yoga practitioner gradually accepts inevitable actions, or the highs and lows that are part of his destiny. The practice expands horizons and spurs you on to positive thoughts. It helps fill you up with feelings of affection and compassion towards everyone and all confusions and doubts clear. Your face radiates with happiness and you develop integrity of mind. As you continue to practise yoga, even adverse conditions fail to perturb you – yoga then makes your whole life a celebration.

Yoga works wonders on mind, body

Yoga expert Umesh Dwivedi says that yoga is excellent both for the mind and body. It is also suitable for all ages, but beneficial only when done regularly

Yoga is very good for older people as it is mild and gentle. But with old age, come several limitations and by the time we are old, we have already developed ailments and caused damage to the body. Starting yoga, early, is therefore a good idea. It keeps you fit through life and even as you age, you are still flexible enough to continue intermediate and advance level of asanas. It is also good to start young as the younger generation is now prone to physical and mental diseases because of sedentary lifestyles. Yoga is not only asanas, but pranayama and meditation too. Yoga begins with physical action, but gradually, cognitive, mental, and reflective actions are integrated into yoga practise. Normal exercise deals with mostly isotonic muscle activity whereas yoga focuses more on isometric activity. Yoga changes the brain Yoga also brings neuroanatomical changes and balances irregularities of the brain’s neuron movements and of the endocrine system responsible for hormonal secretion. Yoga works on both mind and body, and gives importance to breathing with changes of posture in asanas. In yoga, results are a trifle slow, but this is because when you first start yoga, you first have to decondition the body and mind that might be wrongly conditioned for years. Muscle, bones, nerves and organs, therefore, take time to adapt to the new routine. Pranayama also increases ventilatory capacity of the lungs, and oxygen, then, reaches all parts of the body. Results, however, come only after regular practice of yoga. Dietary changesYoga helps in weight loss and cures many autoimmune and psychosomatic ailments, but diet change is a must. Without dietary changes, there is no way that yoga can help. Diet directly affects the mind and body. Yoga is more of a lifestyle than a therapy. It should form a part of your life, just as you do bathing and brushing daily as a preventive action. Many people think that yoga just twice or thrice a week is enough, but in reality, body conditioning (muscle stretching, massaging of organs, and breathing patterns) require continuous practice so that required levels of health and strength are maintained.