Importance of Pranayama and rules:

Pranayama is one of the most important practices in all forms of Yoga. By practicing Pranayama, the Yogi is able to control the nervous system and therby obtains gradual control over Prana or vital energy, and the mind.

To breathe means to live and to live means to breathe. Every living thing depends upon breathing and cessation of breathing is cessation of life itself. From the first cry of the infant to the last gasp of a dying man there is nothing but a series of breaths. Yogis count life not by numbers of years but by number of breaths. We constantly drain our life force or pranic energy by our thinking, willing, acting, etc. Every thought, every act of will, or motion of muscles uses up this life force and in consequence constant replenishing is necessary, which is possible mainly through breathing alone.

Just as oxygen is carried through the blood stream to all parts of the body, building up and replenishing, so is the prana carried to all parts of the nervous system.

If we know that Yogis get most of their energy from the air, then the importance of proper breathing is readily understood. Whoever practices breathing regularly and systematically can feel in his own body this great effect of absorption of prana or energy.

When one inhales, he is taking in prana and storing it in various nerve centres, especially in the solar plexus. The more prana one can take in, the more vitality he will possess. In the practice of pranayama, mind plays a great part and it is important to observe consciously everything that takes place in the phenomenon of breathing.

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Yogis declare that the correct habit of breathing, with natural diet, would regenerate mankind and the modern diseases such as blood pressure, heart disease, asthma, tuberculosis etc, would be only medical names in the dictionary. In addition to the physical benefits derived through breathing, Yogic teachings further show that through pranayama man's will power, self-control, concentration power, moral qualifications, and even his spiritual evolution can be increased.

Anuloma Viloma (Alternate Nostril Breathing):

The important starting exercise for every yoga student is the alternate nostril breathing known as Anuloma Viloma Pranayama.

The reason for doing alternate breathing is that the breath alternates between 2 nostrils. You can easily find this out by placing your palm near the nostrils. One of the nostrils will always be partially blocked, and the flow of air in and out of the lungs will be mainly through but one of the nostrils. If a person is in normal health the breath will alternate approximately every hour and fifty minutes. This normal period of breath alternation is established only when one has perfected pranayama, starting with AV. In the vast majority of persons this change of the breath from one nostril to the other varies a great deal owing to such conditions as unnatural living habits, wrong diet, diseases and the lack of proper exercise.

All these wrong habits of living have some effect on the breath, diverting it from its normal flow. According to yoga, the breath in the right nostril is said to be hot, while the flow from the left is cool. Therefore, symbolically, they named the right nadi (astral nerve) as sun breath or pingala, and the left nadi as moon breath or ida.

The energy that flows through the sun breath or pingala nadi produces heat in the body which is catabolic, efferent, and acceleratory to the organs of the body; while the energy of the moon breath in ida nadi is cooling and anabolic, efferent and inhibitory to the body organs.

When the breath continues to flow in one nostril for more than 2 hours, it is a symptom of derangement caused by excess of heat or cold. So if the pingala is more active, the heat of the body increases and there will be mental and nervous disturbances. When the ida is more active, the metabolic activity of the body becomes low, thus producing cold and lethargy and a suspended mental activity.

This alternating breathing exercise is mainly for the purpose of maintaining equilibrium in the catabolic and anabolic processes in the body, and for purifying the nadis (astral nerves). According to the yogis, when breath flows more than 24 hours in one nostril without changing, it is a warning that some illness is at hand. The longer the flow of breath in one nostril, the more serious the illness will be. This is because the ganglia of some particular nerve centre are being overworked by the abnormal flow of breath, which moves in a particular centre for a longer than normal period of time.

Copyright 1960, 1988 by the Julian Press, Inc.: The Complete Illustrated Book Of Yoga - Swami Vishnudevananda

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