प्राणायामः

Pranayama joins two Sanskrit words. Prana is the vital force that animates living beings, and ayama means extension or regulation. The word is often loosely rendered as breath control, but its aim is wider. It is the conscious guiding of the life-force through the breath, so that the body steadies and the mind grows still.

The breath is the visible vehicle of prana. When the breath is hurried or broken, the mind is restless, and when the breath is slow and even, the mind settles. This simple observation lies behind the whole practice.

Patanjali names pranayama as the fourth of the eight limbs of yoga in Yoga Sutra 2.29. He defines it in 2.49 as the regulation of the movement of inhalation and exhalation, to be taken up once a steady posture has been won. Sutra 2.50 adds that the breath is regulated in three phases, which are the outer movement, the inner movement and the suspended pause. It is also measured by place, time and number, and it becomes long and subtle.

Sutra 2.51 speaks of a fourth kind of pranayama that goes beyond the outer and the inner. Sutra 2.52 says that through it the veil over the inner light is thinned. Sutra 2.53 completes the thought by saying that the mind becomes fit for concentration. In Patanjali's plan, then, pranayama prepares the way to the later limbs of withdrawal of the senses, concentration and meditation.

Svatmarama wrote the Hatha Yoga Pradipika in the fifteenth century, and its second chapter is devoted to pranayama. The text opens in verse 1.1 with a salutation to Adinatha, a name of Shiva, who taught the discipline. Verse 2.2 says that when the breath moves the mind moves, and when the breath is still the mind is still. This is the classical statement of the link between breath and thought.

Verse 2.44 lists eight kinds of kumbhaka, or retention, which are Surya Bhedana, Ujjayi, Sitkari, Sitali, Bhastrika, Bhramari, Murccha and Plavini. The chapter also gives guidance on purifying the nadis, the subtle channels of the body, before these are attempted. It warns that the practices bring health when done properly and bring illness when done wrongly, so the teacher's guidance matters.

The Prashna Upanishad, in its third question, explains that life-force acts in the body in five forms. Verse 3.5 places prana in the eyes, ears, mouth and nose, and apana in the organs of excretion and generation. It places samana in the middle of the body, where it distributes the food offered into the digestive fire. Verse 3.6 says that vyana moves through the vessels of the body. These are said to number one hundred and one chief channels, each with a hundred branches, and each of those with seventy-two thousand smaller ones. Verse 3.7 says that udana rises upward and leads the departing soul at death.

Later yoga manuals describe the five by their regions. Prana is felt in the chest and heart, apana in the lower abdomen, samana at the navel, udana in the throat and head, and vyana throughout the body. These are guides for attention, not separate organs, and a student does not need to feel them all to benefit from the breath.

The Gita also knows pranayama. In verse 4.29, Krishna lists among the forms of sacrifice those who offer the outgoing breath into the incoming and the incoming into the outgoing, holding the flow of both. This shows that breath practice was understood early as a form of offering, not only as a bodily exercise.

Nadi Shodhana, or alternate nostril breathing, is the gentle practice that balances the left and right channels, called Ida and Pingala, and prepares the mind for stillness. Bhramari, the humming bee breath, uses a low hum on the exhalation and is a calming practice for restless days. Ujjayi, the victorious breath, makes a soft sound in the throat and gives steady focus. Sitali and Sitkari are cooling breaths taken through the curled tongue or the teeth, used to ease heat and irritation.

Pranayama should be relaxed and never forced. It should not cause dizziness or strain. Beginners and older people do well to begin with slow, natural breathing into the abdomen and gentle Nadi Shodhana without long retention. Anyone with a heart, lung or blood-pressure condition should consult a doctor and, ideally, learn from a qualified teacher.