Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 073

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM SAHANAVATU SAHANAVUBHUNAKTU SAHAVIRYAM KARAVAVAHAI TEJASVINAVADHITAMASTUMA VIDVISHAVAHAI OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIHI HARIHI OM OM YUGENA CHITTASYA PADENA VACHAM MALAM SHARIRASYA JAVAIDHYAKENA YOPAKAROTAM PRAVARAM MUNINAM PATANJALIM PRANJALI RANATHOSME I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar and of the body through medicine. Last week we had been discussing about pranayama. In this connection we had extensively discussed Swami Vivekananda's exquisite discussion on pranayama. What is pranayama? It is to control the prana and not merely breathing exercises. In this connection let us also recall this whole universe which we experience consists of two materials. One is akasha or matter, another is prana, the real life force. When these two come together and act upon each other the result is this whole universe that we see. What follows? Our body, our mind and our past, our present, our future. Everything is nothing but what tantrics call leela of the shakti. This is the play that goes on by the chit shakti, consciousness. Before we proceed further we have to bring a very important subject and that is what is the relationship between akasha, prana and consciousness? Because our whole Vedantic view is that we are pure consciousness. Each soul is potentially divine. Divinity means we are all children of immortal bliss, pure consciousness. So what is the relationship between pure consciousness, which is called chaitanya and prana and akasha? The relationship is consciousness for some unknown reasons, not only unknown but uncontrollable reasons. It is not in our power. It somehow divides itself. The infinity somehow divides itself as it were. Really it cannot because the concept of infinity is it cannot be divided as if it were divided into two, akasha and prana. And these two somehow they start interacting with each other. By whose power? By whose will? And how it happens? It is a mystery. Nobody knows. Don't ask questions. No answers expected. So somehow it comes. What is the essence of what we are talking is I am here today, you are here today. It is the play of our body and our mind. So why did we come here? Because we feel limited, bound. Don't you like to just fly like a bird, like a mosquito, take any form that you want? We have so much of limitation is there. How to overcome the limitation? If you have to define religion and so much controversy is going on about religion, whether religion is really good or evil, whether there are some religions which are better than the other religions. Every religion claims to be superior excepting Hindu religion. Only thing is they don't openly do missionary work. But inside if you ask, every Hindu definitely feels that his religion is far superior to every other religion on earth. The difference is in the expression. We are not missionaries but that idea is there. So what is religion? Religion is an attempt to remove the limitation gradually. So one day we become totally unlimited. This is the simple truth or to put it another way, what is spirituality? It is a journey from a lower state of consciousness to a higher state of consciousness. This is the simple and it is unstoppable. And so what should we do? Raja Yoga is one method. There are four yogas, remember? This is only one yoga. And by itself, independently, without depending upon any other yoga, it can lead us to the same goal. That's the greatness of Swami Vivekananda who had established all the four yogas independently of anything in this world. To summarize, everything is the play of prana. Simple example because I want all of us to understand again and again. So many of you are sitting here today and listening to me. Are all of you listening equally with concentration? First point. Second point. Are all of you understanding my talk exactly in the same way? Third point. How long do you retain? Our capacity to focus, our capacity to understand and our capacity to retain, all this depends upon what? Prana. Control of the prana. He who can control his prana, he can focus better and he can understand better and he can retain it better. And that is how transformation takes place. Swami Vivekananda's definition, pranayama, is not simply a breathing process. But taking the help of the breathing process, we control the movements of the lungs and any part of the body moves because of the prana. Through the movement, we get control of the prana. First externally, then we can get control of the mind. And at last, with the help of this body and mind, we become free. That was the essence of what we discussed. Now Swami Vivekananda goes into a little bit of detail, how this pranayama has to be practiced. We have to start from the beginning. And I do not remember whether I have told a story, he told in this Raja Yoga itself, how we can get control of the mind through the control of the lungs. There was a king and he had a minister, very wise, very intelligent. But somehow the king got angry with him and imprisoned him in a high tower with only one window open. Now the minister could look down through that window, but if he jumps, he can escape. But he will escape not only from the tower, but also from this world. But he was very intelligent. So his wife used to come every day and stand below. They used to have a talk and one day he gave a small hint to her. He said, collect some number of small threads, silk threads, a length of silk thread and a bigger length, slightly thicker than that and another thread even thicker than that. Finally a very thick thread. Bring also a kind of worm, honey worm it is called. So bring that, it is very common in India. Bring it and put a bit of honey above its nose and point it towards my window. But tie that silk thread to that worm. So the worm, it got the scent of the honey and moved up. And when it reached the window, the minister caught hold of it and started pulling the silk thread to which slightly thicker thread was tied and after he pulled that up, ultimately he got hold of a bigger rope and through that way he escaped from that tower. This was the story of Swami Vivekananda. That means through the control of the movement of the lungs, ultimately we can reach the goal, God Realization or separating Prakruti from the Purusha. This is what he told. Now I am going to read what Swami Vivekananda had written before I come. Therein he explains very beautifully. But before I do that, there is some caution given by Swami Vivekananda as well as by others also. First, serious practice of pranayama should never be done unless there is an expert guide. Otherwise people can go mad or they can also develop a lot of serious bodily problems. I know personally few cases. One case definitely I know. A person read something about pranayama, went on practicing very seriously hours together and he developed a kind of ringing noise in his ears. At first he was extremely happy that he was hearing anahata dhwani. Then it became a nuisance. 24 hours it went on and he couldn't sleep and he phoned to me. I said, I don't know. We never practice these things. We never advise people accepting a very basic control of the breath. You better see a psychiatrist. I don't know what happened after that. But these things can happen. People can go mad. Or people can also develop certain types of powers. Great pranayama if one does quite seriously, sometimes what we call the jatharagni, the digestive power will become so virulent that anything that a person eats is going to be digested in a few seconds. I will give two examples. First example was in the life of Ramakrishna. You know at one time he developed terrible amount of hunger. Whatever he eats is digested within seconds and he was ravenously hungry and Ramakrishna prayed, Oh mother, I do not know anybody excepting you. What is this new disease you have brought upon me? Fortunately when Bhairavi Brahmani was there and she understood it. She said, Baba, there is a remedy for it. Get a huge room, fill it up with plenty of eatable materials, varieties. And she literally imprisoned him in that room for three days and said, whenever you feel like eating, whatever you feel like eating, eat. Within three days that disease was cured. Another is, there was one Swami Ramdas in South India called Anandarshanam. Some of our devotees also know it. So he was practicing pranayama. He was a very saintly character and he was very serious. Whatever he did, he did with great seriousness. So he somehow read about this without any guidance of a guru. He started practicing pranayama morning and evening hours together. And where he was living nearby, there was one old lady who used to make idli, dosa and sell. And he used to go and she used to give him some idli, dosa. He used to eat and come away. Whole day he would be free from hunger. So a few days after practice of this pranayama, one morning he went and she fed him masala dosas. Two or three like that. Usually one is very heavy enough. After eating he started back. It was about a mile or so. Halfway he felt ravenously hungry. So he went back running. He said I could not control. I had to run. He went back running and that lady was surprised. That was the first time she was seeing him for second helping. And again he ate and he started back with full stomach. Within a few minutes the whole thing was digested. Then the third time he ran back. Then he started thinking because his life will be ruined. That old lady's life will be ruined and he understood. It is the unbridled practice of pranayama. As soon as he understood that, he stopped that and then he became quite normal. So it should be done under expert guidance. This is the first precaution. Second, if one wants to take seriously to this particular yoga which is called Raja Yoga, one must practice continence. Remember Yama, one of the qualifications, conditions. What is Yama? Brahmacharya Vratam. A small, simple spiritual practice is absolutely fine. There is nothing wrong. But a serious spiritual practice, then one has to be very careful about it. So one has to practice continence. Third caution, do it slowly and regularly. Fourth, pranayama should be done only on an empty stomach, not on a full stomach. At least two hours before eating, two hours after eating should be done. In the beginning, do it only for a short period and increase it very very slowly. With this precaution, let me read what Swami Vivekananda had written in a particular chapter called The Control of the Psychic Prana, Psychic Prana and its Control. First, the breathing that we generally use should not be called breathing at all. It is very irregular. Then there are some natural differences of breathing between men and women. Let me comment on this. You know, Hindus advise that one should sit for prayer at what is called at the dawn and at the dusk, Sandhya. Why is it? You do not need to do the experiment now, but anytime when you are free, say after breakfast, take your small finger and put it under your nose and breathe in and breathe out. You see, there are two nostrils. You will notice a difference that either the breath is coming more freely through the left nostril or through the right nostril. And sometimes very irregularly, if you have eaten stomach full of food, have you noticed what happens to your breath? As the level of food goes down, the level of the breathing also becomes shorter and shorter. There is a special name in Sanskrit for that. It is called Bhukta Ayasa. Bhukta Ayasa. Like you know, if you are climbing a hill, you breathe very fast. That is what happens. If you have, probably some of you have experienced, after eating too much, you can't even sleep. Why is it? Because for sleeping, your breathing must become very, very regular, like almost pranayama. Have you noticed it? When can you sleep or when a person is sleeping, especially when a person is snoring, you can see the regular rhythm of his or her breathing in or out. Have you noticed? The condition for good sleep is regular breathing. When a person has eaten too much and the breathing becomes irregular, then he cannot even sleep or rest properly. That is the truth. One has to be very careful about it. Then what happens? Swami Vivekananda tells, if you practice pranayama slowly, regularly and with seriousness for a short time, then he says, the first lesson is just to breathe in, in a measured way, in and out. That will harmonize the system. When you have practiced this for some time, you will do well to join the repetition of some word to it, such as OM or any other sacred word and let the word flow in and out with the breath, rhythmically, harmoniously and you will feel the whole body is becoming rhythmical. Then you will learn what rest is. Sleep is not rest comparatively. Once this rest has come, the most tired nerves will be calmed down and you will find that you have never really rested before this. This is the most wonderful comment. We all want to be calm and quiet. When you are very angry, the common folk wisdom tells, count to number 10. What happens when you count to number 10? Your anger is likely to cool down. But how to count? My Guru told me, I have to count down whenever I am angry. Before I retort, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. No, like pranayama, you count down slowly, rhythmically. You will see it has tremendous effect upon our nerves. So it is the same breathing. Next point Swamiji tells is, if we really want really, really good rest, then pranayama is one of the ways to do that. And one way to develop this regular breathing without practicing pranayama is to do japa regularly. Most of you have got mantra. Take the mantra and repeat it slowly and rhythmically. You do not need to worry about controlling your nostrils. Automatically, what Swami Brahmanandaji calls, kumbhaka will come, the effect of pranayama will come at that time. The first effect of this pranayama, what is it? You will get very good rest. The nerves become very calm and quiet. After practicing this first breathing for a few days, you take up slowly a higher one. Slowly fill the lungs with breath through the ida, left nostril. And at the same time, concentrate the mind on the nerve current. You are as it were, sending the nerve current down the spinal column and striking violently on that last plexus, the basic lotus, also called muladhara, which is triangular in form, the seat of the kundalini. Last class we discussed quite elaborately what is this kundalini. Refer to either your memory or forget about it. But we believe that all the samskaras that we have are compressed to an extraordinary degree. And where do they reside? Sometimes this doubt comes, where do they reside? Do they reside in the brain? No. Brain is a physical mechanism and it is a new brain. Every birth a new brain comes. Where is it? In a subtle body. And in the subtle body there are seven chakras. For the lack of a better word in English, I have to use the word chakra. You know seven chakras? Muladhara, Swadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara. Why is it called Muladhara? The root receptacle and there all the samskaras are lying there. Whatever we are doing right now in our life is a little bit manifestation of that Muladhara powers somehow going through the wrong nerve currents. To recall again, according to yogis, there are three pathways. Left side is called Ida and which is connected with the left nostril. Right side there is another nerve current which is called Pingala and which is related with the right nostril. And in between, exactly in the middle, there is another nerve current which is called Sushumna. Now in ordinary persons, the Kundalini, a little bit of it which is active, goes either through the left or right and it can go only up to the first three chakras and it creates a lot of havoc. That is what we call a life in this world, worldly life. But for a yogi, what should he do? And we are discussing the control of the breath. So what Swami Vivekananda says, slowly breathe in through one of the nostrils, close the left nostril, start with the right nostril or the other way around. Breathe in deeply, rhythmically, slowly. But while doing that, imagine the breath is going inside and imagine that it is going through the Sushumna nerve current and forcibly striking, giving a hammer blow to the Muladhara so that the power there is awakened. Then do the same thing with the other nostril. Go on doing it. How many times? Do not do it more than four or five times in the beginning. Slowly you can increase it 15, 16 or whatever it is there. So this is the first pranayama. Swami Vivekananda says it is safe and it has immense benefits like calming the nerves etc. and it helps a person progress in spiritual life. Then the second, Swami Vivekananda says, then hold the current there for some time. Imagine that you are slowly drawing that nerve current with the breath through the other side. Then slowly throw it out through the right nostril. This you will find a little difficult to practice. What is the difference between the first and second? First you breathe in to the fullest limit. Three conditions. Slowly, rhythmically and to the full of the lungs. While doing that, imagine that this breath, this air is travelling through the middle path called Sushumna and imagine that as though you are dropping a heavy weight and then it is falling on the Kundalini. Having done that, do not breathe. Just hold that air inside for a few seconds and then throw it out slowly and rhythmically and deeply until you feel the lungs have completely become empty through the other way and at the same time use your imagination, somehow the Kundalini is slowly rising. This is the second pranayama. Swami Vivekananda says, It is well to begin with 4 seconds and slowly increase. Draw breath in 4 seconds. Hold in 16 seconds. Then throw out in 8 seconds. What is the count? 4, 16 and 8. What is the rationale behind this counting? Again, when you go out, you count. You just sit there and then you breathe in and count how much time it took to fill up your lungs. Breathe out. Count how much time it took you to breathe out. You will always notice, breathing in takes very fast. Breathing out takes double that time. The only thing is, what normal people like us, what we do, we breathe in and breathe out. We don't retain the breath. The whole pranayama means controlling prana, movements. In pranayama, these three processes are there. Breathing in, holding the air there and breathing out. These have particular names. Puraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka. This Kumbhaka means retaining the air. This retainment of the air again has got two types. Holding the breath, the air inside the stomach and holding the breath outside our body. We follow. Breathe in and do not do anything. Just hold the air inside. This is called inner Kumbhaka. Then what happens? You breathe out and then don't breathe in. After breathing out, don't breathe in immediately. Count for some time, maybe 4 seconds or 10 seconds and wait until you feel a longing for breathing in. Then slowly. Now second time when you are doing it, be very careful because we are short of oxygen. So what is our tendency? To breathe in as quickly as possible. In pranayama, that should be avoided. That's why start with a shorter duration. 4 seconds, 16 seconds keep the thing and then 8 seconds throw it out. After some time when the lungs get accustomed, then start the other one also. So 16, 8 and at least 8 seconds keep the and do not breathe for 8 seconds. That word second is not a very right word. You can say count, 8 counts. 1, 2, 3, 4 or Om, Om, Om, Om. Whatever it is, in the beginning you have to count. But this is a beautiful normal procedure. Swami Vivekananda doesn't give anything more than that because for most people that serves well any other purpose. Why did Swami Vivekananda tell? Because there are hundreds of ways of doing pranayama. There are books, especially there is a book by one B.K.S. Iyengar. He has written The Yogic Science of Pranayama. He was one of the most popular personalities who did this. So why is it that Swami Vivekananda did not encourage? Because in the Ramakrishna order, we do not encourage too much of pranayama because so many people have become insane. Or sometimes when the kundalini gets aroused, another problem comes. If their lust, anger, etc. is not controlled, they come out with tremendous force. So many people fall there. Now another thing we have to understand, there are so many teachers who are coming from India and here many people are also gullible. Let's say most of the things they teach are nothing but breathing exercises. For them yoga means breathing exercises. Why did not Swami Vivekananda encourage this pranayama? If you read our literature, if you talk to our Swamis, you see that except for basic pranayama, we do not encourage people to go about it. What is the reason for that? The reason is because Ramakrishna's teaching. What is this Ramakrishna's teaching? God can be realized easily through the practice of devotional path. All the pranayama, etc. are a little bit of help. Definitely my Gurudev, Swami Yukteswaran, used to tell to every one of his disciples that before you sit for meditation, you practice a little bit simple pranayama as we have discussed and that will be very helpful. The next breathing is slowly drawing the breath in and then immediately throwing out slowly and then stopping the breath out using the same numbers. If you recall, 4 countings. Breathe in, 16 countings. Keep it inside the stomach. 8 countings, throw it out. This is one variety of pranayama. The other variety of pranayama is, Swami Vivekananda says, is slight variation. You draw in the breath and for how much time? 4 counts. Then immediately throw out the breath. How many counts? 8 counts. And then keep the air out. That means do not breathe. For how many counts? 16, 16 counts. 4 into 4. 4 into 2. That is the count. Variation. Swami Vivekananda says, the inner kumbhaka is much easier than the outer. Here he says, the only difference is that in the first case the breath was held in and in the second held out. The last is the easier one. Do it only 4 times in the morning and 4 times in the evening. That means 4 times only breathe in and keep it and then breathe out or the other way round. Then you can slowly increase the time and the number. You will find that you have the power to do so and that you take pleasure in it. There is a tremendous pleasure because our mind becomes absolutely calm and quiet. So here is a caution. The first pranayama, it is called rhythmic breathing. Just breathe in and breathe out. Three conditions. Slowly, rhythmically, the air must be filled up to the bursting point of our lungs. Similarly, when you throw out the breath, you throw out also so that the lungs, there is not slightest quantity of air in the lungs. And at the same time, there is one precaution is there. I am telling you something very practical. Most of us, when we are breathing, we exert our nostrils or this part of our body rather than our lungs. You see? Because many of us do not observe it. But if you observe it, you will find that it is much better to make movements with the stomach because there are certain muscles outside the lungs. They should be exercised. This part should be totally relaxed. This is very important. When you do the simple pranayama, see that the stomach falls up and down. One way to do this, to learn this is you lie down on a mat in Shavasana. Of all the asanas, which is the most difficult asana? Shavasana. People don't believe it. After all, you know you are lying down. That is the easiest thing to do. No. There are two conditions are there. First of all, you have to become like a Shiva. Shiva means corpse. What is corpse? It means you are totally relaxed like a corpse. Do you find emotions in a corpse? No. That way. The second point you have to observe is you must lie down on a mat where there is no pillow or any such thing and you must be totally alert. Sometimes what happens is the only time when we really practice Shavasana is at the time of sleep. That's why you start with the good intention of practicing pranayama. Lie down on the mat. After a few times you will see you enter into deep Samadhi state. That should not be done. Alertness, complete relaxation and then complete total alertness. Just let me pass a remark with this. You know in this country so many yoga teachers teach asanas, yoga asanas. The invariable condition is when a person practices one particular asana and takes up the second type of asana, it is a condition he must practice for a few seconds, at least a minute, Shavasana because philosophy is too deep. I will not go into it. Every movement of our body has an effect upon certain parts of our body. So if we do a particular asana, it exerts its power on particular limbs of our body and it has its effect. Simple example I am giving, there is one asana called Mayura asana. Mayura means peacock. So when a person practices this Mayura asana, his digestive power will definitely increase. You can try that one. But of course there are other conditions out there. Yoga asana itself will not do. Pranayama is there. Then what is called Mudradharana is there. So many other conditions are there. We will not go into that. But simple pranayama, every day if you practice, at least for five minutes before meditation, it makes a person very alert, very relaxed and also the mind becomes focused. This is what we are going to come. Now aphorism 49, Patanjali is talking about pranayama. He doesn't talk much about pranayama. There are only one or two aphorisms are there. When a person becomes established in asana, we have dealt with that. Just to recall to our mind, how do we know that we have become good at asana? That means the dualities like heat and cold, happiness and unhappiness, pain and pleasure, they do not trouble us much. The body becomes very calm and quiet even by the practice of asana. And incidentally, we also told asana means varieties of asanas are there. Of the best, what is that asana? Padmasana, Sukhasana, etc. are there. So Padmasana is considered by the yogis as one of the greatest. When one is established, becomes almost a master of this asana, then pranayama has to be attempted. What is pranayama? Controlling shvasa and prashwasa. What is shvasa? Breathing in. What is prashwasa? Breathing out. When we control it, how do we control? According to certain given measurements, then that is called pranayama. Again to remind us, pranayama is not control of breathing. Through the control of breathing, control of the motion of the lungs and that motion is the effect of prana. Ultimately, it is the control of the prana. Swami Vivekananda says, when the posture has been conquered, then this motion is to be broken and controlled and thus we come to pranayama, the controlling of the vital forces of the body. Prana is not breath, though it is usually so translated. It is the sum total of the cosmic energy. It is the energy that is in each body and its most apparent manifestation is the motion of the lungs. This motion is caused by prana drawing in the breath and is what we seek to control in pranayama. We begin by controlling the breath as the easiest way of getting control of prana. Number 50 bahya-abhyantara-sthambha-vrittihi desha-kala-sankhyaabhihi paridrishto-dirga-sokshmaha So this pranayama, this control of the powers of the prana, the movements of the prana, it is divided into certain categories. Its means breathing, modifications are either external or internal or motionless, regulated by place, time and number, either long or short. Let us discuss briefly about this. The three sorts of motion of this prana are one by which we draw the breath in. Pranayama is to breathe in. Are we not breathing? Are we not doing pranayama then? Is it called pranayama? We are doing prana. We are not doing ayama. What is ayama? Regulation, control. Have you noticed when a man is agitated, his breath comes in? When a man is angry or possessed by a desire, tremendous this breathing in and out goes. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed a person who has heard a bad news? What happens? His breath comes in, very long breath, as though he has no desire to breathe in or breathe out. Very slow, very long breath comes out. These are the three sorts of Vivekananda or Yogacharya style. What is it? Breathing in a regulated way, retaining the breath in a regulated way and breathing out in a regulated way and the variation of retaining the breath inside is either internal or external. These are the Vahya Abhyantara Stambha Vrittihi. External, internal, retaining the breath and throwing out. And the third action is when the breath is held in lungs or stopped from entering the lungs. These again are varied by place and time. What is meant by place and time? Now place, place means Desha. What is the Desha? There are two interpretations are given. One interpretation is, you know, you can make a small experiment. Put your hand here and breathe out. Do you see it? Do you feel the breath? Bring it nearer. You come nearer and at some point you will see small. Do you see that? You put it at a distance, you won't feel at all. You put it very near, you will feel it immediately. Now you will have to practice it in such a way. Slowly you can take your hand further and further from the nostril and if you have regulated it, you will feel a fine breath and the breath also has got another function. Do you know that? What is it called? When there is a cold air, when we are breathing in, it changes the temperature of the air. It is a wonderful thing. Many things probably you do not know and when you are breathing out, what happens? It becomes cooler. So that is why there are some animals, they can live in very cold climates and the scientists, you know what they found out? Their nostrils are very wide so that they take a great amount of oxygen inside but because it is wide, oxygen has to go through the nostrils. It has the function of regulating the temperature of the air so that when it goes inside, it won't create unnecessary turbulence. What a wonderful mechanism God has given and we are not even aware of that. This is a wonderful science by itself. So how do these animals control? Because they have thick fur. But what about this air that goes in? Terribly cold air. Have you seen in winter season when you breathe out, what comes out? You know almost like steam comes out. Have you noticed? Yeah. That is not our subject really here but what is important is place. So first interpretation of control of pranayama with regard to place means how far you are able to throw. Is it 3 inches? Is it 6 inches? Is it 12 inches? etc. This is called Desha. But most important is according to Yogi, there are different psychical points are there. When you are breathing in, you have to remember that earlier Swamiji's instruction you think that you are forcibly striking your Mooladhara with the breath we are breathing in. Air with we are breathing in. According to that, where do you want to focus your mind? You want to focus it on the Mooladhara or on Anahata at the heart chakra or on Vishuddha etc. This is called Desha. These two interpretations. One is how far you can throw the breath out. Another is where you are keeping your mind. Which part of the body you are thinking. Now let me slightly elaborate it here. According to the Vyasa Bhashya, the whole body is a wonderful mechanism. What happens to a person who could control his breath so that he knows where he is focusing his breath or he is imagining the air is retained inside the body. He says, the illustration given is, I will come to the illustration, that when a yogi advances in this what is called system, then he feels that particular part of the body it becomes as though that air is spreading all around that part of the body. What is the use of that? Naturally the question comes. A particular part of the body is very hot. Then through your concentration you imagine your breath is going to that particular part. You will feel like ants when an ant crawls on any part of our body. What happens to us? Do we become aware of it? Like that the yogi becomes aware of his breath spreading and if it is hot he can cool it. And if it is cold he can warm it. Make it warm. See how many wonderful things you do. In connection with this let me narrate one story. It was in Belur Mutt. Swami Brahmanandaji was there and it was terribly hot. Swami Brahmanandaji along with one disciple was sitting in the veranda and Swami Brahmananda was feeling very uncomfortable. Then he said, let us meditate on the Himalayas. And he started meditating on the Himalayas. Of course the disciple could not do it at all. After some time, few minutes, Swami Brahmanandaji said, you feel my body. And this disciple touched the body of Maharaj. You know how he felt? He was touching a block of ice. Another incident. Just now I remembered. Swami, Khandanandaji was roaming in the Himalayas and once he met a lama. You know, Buddhist monk is called lama. And the lama was sitting naked and everywhere the whole mountain was frozen with ice, thick blocks of ice. But where that lama was sitting, the ice was melting and then water was flowing. Then Khandanandaji was surprised because he was a great soul but we never go into these things, you see. So he asked, how are you able to do it? He said, there is one yoga asana and if you practice it with some particular type of pranayama, then your body emits so much of heat that all the surrounding, not only you will not feel the cold, all the surrounding area starts melting because of the heat. And it is true. Have you noticed, when a person is in a highly tensioned state of mind, have you felt that person's body? What happens, do you know? It becomes very hot, very warm even to the touch. When we get fever, our body becomes warm. Why does the body become warm? Because fever is a sign of some internal problem. So it is trying to keep up the prana. That is the simple purpose. A yogi can meditate and keep the breath on a particular part of the body, within his body and that particular part of that body feels the effect of that air and it can either cool or warm or wonderful things can happen. This is the basis of also what is called pranic healing. Have you heard about it? This is the basis of the pranic healing. Send prana to a particular part of the body which is diagnosed as having a problem. Chinese have also discovered there are two nerve currents falling. One is called yin, another is called yang. And what happens when this is not flowing properly, that part of the limb of the body becomes ill, sick or diseased. But how to cure? You send the prana equally. You repair that like a clogged sewage pipe. Like that you clear the clogging and it becomes normal again. What a wonderful thing it is. By place, it is meant that the prana is held to some particular part of the body. That is what Swami Vivekananda takes the second meaning. Hold the breath in some particular part of the body. By time, it is meant how long the prana should be confined to a certain particular part of the body. And so we are told how many seconds to keep on motion, how many seconds to keep on other. The result of this pranayama is awakening of the kundalini. To summarize, what did we discuss now? First of all, pranayama must start with simple control of the breath, which is with three conditions. Slowly, rhythmically, deeply, until there is no place in the lungs for breathing in. And also breathing out, even the slightest stale air should not be kept back. And further, the muscles surrounding the lungs must be violently exercised and not other part of the body. That is the first. Second, he also told us, 4 counts to breathe in, 16 counts to keep it in, and 8 counts to throw it out. And this can be increased into, if it is 8 counts to take it in, how many counts to keep it inside? 32 counts. And how many counts to throw it out? 16 counts. So this can be done in two ways. One is, keep the air inside for 32 counts, or do not breathe for 32 seconds. It is called bhajya kumbhaka, external kumbhaka. Practice slowly. And what happens? Just like when we practice yama and niyama, there are some results, beneficial results that accrue to that. So also through the practice of pranayama. What was the first thing we discussed if you remember? The body and the mind become absolutely well rested. Swamiji claims that only after practice of pranayama, we really know what real rest is. Nerves become very calm. This is the first result. What is the second result? It helps in our spiritual practice, through the awakening of the kundalini. But awakening of the kundalini must never be done, unless our mind is somewhat controlled through the practice of yama, niyama and asana. Sutra 51, we will discuss it very briefly. The fourth type of pranayama is restraining the prana by directing it either to the external or internal objects. This is the fourth sort of pranayama. Prana can be directed either inside or outside. This is a variation of what we had already discussed. But Vyasacharya, he gives in his commentary and says, this fourth type of kumbhaka must never be attempted even to be practiced, unless we become masters of the first inner type of kumbhaka, retaining of the breath. Slowly, slowly we have to start. What happens if we are masters of pranayama? Here Patanjali Rishi comes and says, first thing that happens is the body and the mind become absolutely clean, pure and proper instruments for progress in spiritual life. First result. Second result, he says, all the impurities that are covering the manifestation of our true knowledge of what we are, they will become slowly melted. That means it helps us to discover what is reality and what is not reality. In other words, our discriminating power will become. Third result, he says, this helps us in obtaining the power of concentration. And this we will discuss in our next class. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.