Pranaym and breathing

Pranaym is not, as many think, something about breath. Breath has very little to do with it. Breathing is a part of the exercises through which we get to the real Pranayam. Pranayam means
the control of Pran, the intangible energy of life.

As per the oldest treatise 'Yog Sutra' by Patanjali, Pranayam is the fourth stage of Yog that comes after Yam, Niyam, Asan, ie only after purifying the body and the mind and maintaining a healthy body by diet and exercise, one is trained to increase, control and direct the Pran for higher meditation.

However, as said above, it comes after mental and physical purification through Yams and Niyams of compassion, contentment, surrender to god, celibacy, truth, a virtuos life style and abstinence ie the path of a yogi with a very high energy level.

There are many types of Pranayam:
Quiet Breathing , Deep Breathing , Fast Breathing, Nadi Shuddhi Pranayam, Anulom- Vilom,Suryan Bhedan Pranayam, Ujjayi Pranayam, Bhramari Pranayam, Pranayam from Hatha Yoga- Surya Bhedan, Bhasrika, Ujjayi, Shitali, Sitkari, Bhramari,Murchha & Plavini Pranayam.

As seen above the practices of Pranyam is meant for use by Yogis for higher purposes.

However for Good health and a relaxed mind, good breathing throughout the day is absolutely necessary.

Still, looking around we do not see anybody having a visible breathing ie chest or stomach movememt except for children,  who need much more oxygen.

So, basically we are breathing just enough to survive, resulting  in low stamina, fatigue,  wet gain in long run,  frequent sickness, forgetfulness, stress, anxiety,  anger,  an internalized mind,  less awareness and so on.

However,  at higher levels of breathing one can actually find and enjoy much higher intelligence,  active mind,  externalized mind, high awareness,  high productivity, success and a healthy body, way beyond one could imagine.

Good breathing means optimized breathing. At a lower rate of intake "Hypoentilation" develops resulting fatigue, depression, low body temp amd sicknesses develop. Excess intake rate results in "Hyperventilation " resulting in dizziness. 

Both are not good for health. Therefore we need the breathing at an optimized rate at which sufficient oxygen is taken with sufficient time for absorption by the lungs.

This optimized rate for routine life has been found to be 4-2-4-2 or 6-3-6-3 for most people, while it can go beyond for advanced practitioner.
One should discover and set into a breathing rhythm that suits him best.

So, to enjoy health, happiness and success we must remind oursleves to
1. develop and adopt good breathing practices throughout the day, as much as we can.
2. Clothes, innerwear, belt, tie etc loose enough to not affect chest or diaphragm movement
3. Ventilation - esp in AC room and Car- Most AC used today use nil or negligible fresh for less load on compressor or less energy consumption.
Result -Sleepiness esp in cars.
While we should use recirculation option for a small time, a small ventilation should be available.  It changes the air quality and freshness experience altogether.
4. Snoring is bad for breathing and fatal in very long run. My post on snoring is available.
5. An early and light dinner followed by a walk or motion ensures good breathing during sleep buy allowing diaphragm movement. Also reduces risk of Asthma by reducing GERD.
6. Sleep 7-8 hrs mandatory, as body consumes much air during REM sleep for repair, recovery growth and immunity.
7. Sufficient water intake

Keep Breathing your way to Good health and Happiness!

The actual Capital: Youth

The only treasure of Life- Youth!

Our Body is the greatest of our treasures as well as the the greatest capital. Whatever be the size of your inheritance,  the value of the body is thousand time higher.

This body (including the mind) is at its peak of performance for learning, for thinking, for idea-ting, for hard work, for fighting disease and for maintaining health at the peak of Youth (15-25 years). From the peak the performance and health goes downhill till the final stop.

This is the time, which one should capitalize on for his success. Anyone who wants to achieve the pinnacle and make his own mark in life, must start early.
First the goal has to be set and path has to be chalked out, with guidance from seniors,  most of all parents beacuse no one cares more for you.

Then, every hour of every day has to be used to inch towards the goal. These few years are not only the foundation for the rest of the life they also decide how the rest of the life would be. The deeper u dig, the stronger and higher your tower would rise and vice versa.

Unfortunately,  this fact is never dwelt upon mostly by the young. In fact it can safely be said that those who ended well mostly started well at their youth. It was the investment of these years,  dedication of these years to their future, the fruits of which they harvested and benefitted other, too till the very end.

Now, the path of youth is full of distractions and deviations. Mostly it starts with friends and leads to wastage of this precious unsalvagable treasure. I have seen people deviating too far from their goal by bad choice of friends and now bound to remorse and guilt.

Remember, only you yourself can be your true friend and  the next is your parents. The rest will pass on to their destinies leaving remorse behind. Therefore the choice of friends must be thoughtful and then rather than being swayed by their temptations, one should do the duty of the true friend by leading them up the right path.

Friend, whether to seed your youth for a harvest of happiness,  prosperity and succes for all life or to throw away the seeds by the roadside for a starved life, the choice has to be made by you, but make it thoughtfully, because later on inspite of all remorse, guilts wishes and prayers, time does not roll back.

The farmer who misses the seeding season can only blame himself throught long hungry winter nights.

The Concert of the Body!

The concert of our body!

Our bodyis like a unimaginably and incalculably evolved and complex machine with all macro and micro systems working in tandem 24/7. All organs working perfectly in Symphony always. The pulse rate, heart rate, body temp, digestion all working at the same speed always. Even the speed of actions, speech and thoughts also works in the same harmony. The mind as well. This is the Concert of the body and the mind.

And the Maestro of the Concert is Sir "Breath".

The speed of the breathing can be manipulated to speed up or slow up the body to meet the requirement of the occassion, whether it be relaxation or Exertion.

Nowadays stress keep up almost always at the higher side of the equilibrium.
Being forever on the high, results later on in life as 'adrenal fatigue', reulting in weight gain, fatigue, depression and the beginning of a hundred diseases such as sugar, bp, heart issues even cancers.

Therefore the body's equilibrium, known as 'Homeostasis' should be brought down to a lower level of exertion, its natural level.

The easiest way to do it is control breath by 'Deep Breathing '.  The deep and slow breathing with a pause between in-out and out-in restores the natural state within few minutes.
Now the body is relaxed and calm, out of the "Fight or flight mode". Now awareness, observations, thoughtfulness and intelligence increase, one step towards happiness.
In this state we do not react, but we respond with thought, resulting in much better results with much less effort. The result is Success.
The tweak is also very helpful before a speech, interview, negotiation, wherever anxiety etc is common.

So when feeling anxiety, anger, stress, fear and tension always remember to deep breath.
The best way to deep breath is 6-3-6-3.
As explained earlier, 6 second inhale, 3 pause, 6 exhale and 3 pause.
Do it in a silent atmosphere and see immediate results.
Wish you a Happier life!

Yog: Doing it the right way!

Yog is the best and most effective way of good health and we Indians are the.most privileged people due to the early exposure to Yog. Still, while a good number of people have adopted yog in their lives, very few of them  are found reaping the wonderful benefits of Yog in their lives. Are we doing it right? Let us find out.

What is Yog?
Yog is not an set of exercises, but a complete package of steps to take a person to his final goal of Self-realization .

The earliest treatise of Yog is 'Yog-Sutra' of Patanjali.
The very first line of Yog-Sutra says, "Yogashchittavrittinirodh" i.e. Yog is the way to free mind from its nature and the nature of mind is memories, ego, emotions etc.

The Yog is said to be Ashtanga Yog, I.e. Of 8 stages.
A person evolves through these 8 stages to the final goal.

The eight stages are as follows,
1. Yama (Principles or moral code)

Ahimsa -  non-violence in word action or thought
Satya - Truthfulness
Asteya - non stealing, honesty, integrity
Brahmacharya -  Celibacy
Aparigah -  non-hoarding or non
possessiveness

2. Niyam (Personal Disciplines)

Shoucha - Purity of body and mind
Santosh - Contentment
Tap - Endurance
Swadhyay - Self study
Eshwar Pranidhan - Surrender to God.

3. Asan: postures to heal, strengthen the body and the energy paths

4. Pranayam
Strengthening and control of Pran (energy) through breath

5. Pratyahar (Withdrawal of Senses)
The preparatory stage to Dharna

6. Dharana (Concentration on Object)
Concentration of mind on one object or thought.

7. Dhyan (Meditation)
With drawing mind from all external objects and Focusing it
on one point and meditating on it.

8. Samadhi (Salvation)
State of Super bliss, joy and merging individual
consciousness in to universal consciousness. Union
between Jivatman and Paramatman. Union of Shiva and
Shakti in Sahasrar Chakra (the top of the head). Realizing the Bramhan (pure consciousness) or Realization of God is the ultimate achievement of Human Birth.

So friends, now that we understand the full glory and scope of Yog, we also see that the procedures that we follow also need improvement.

Yam being tge first stage is also the foremost and the first Yam of non violence is of the utmost importance.
As long as we carry anger, hate, envy and complaints towards almost each and every one we know, the stage of Pratyahar or beyond is closed to us and even Asans and Pranayam will not heal the body as the root causes keep existing.
A mind full of issues will face the same issues even with closed eyes, theofore it is much more important to resolve all these issue before we seriously go forward in the journey of Self discovery.
In Zen they say, " In the journey of the world, everyday we pick up something, in the journey of Self-realization, everyday we drop something."
Anger, the first thing to be dropped can only be dropped by compassion and compassion can not enter the mind, till the mind space is cleared by cleaning the issues and grievances we hold, which can only be done by forgiveness. I have already written detailed articles on forgiveness on this blog.

So friends, see the wonder of Yog by following the correct path with forgiveness being the very first step.

Heaven and Hell!

Where lies the Heaven, Where lies the Hell?

If Mind is happy then this same world is heaven,
If Mind is unhappy then this same world is Hell!

Be happy, make this world your Paradise.

The Richest man!

Once I met the richest man of the world. I asked him, "How much do you have?"
He said, "Enough."

The story of Adam and Eve: another interpretation

The story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Paradise of Eden or the "Original Sin" is no doubt the most well known story of all times. While it is universally accepted that their expulsion was on account of the disobedience to God's word, a deeper scrutiny unravels an altogether different message, a coded message.

Recall the picture. It shows the first male and first female standing under a tree, one on each side. Sometimes they are shown holding the forbidden fruit, while satan is shown to be present in form of a snake to lure them. The sanke is shown coming down the tree. The fruit which was their folly, their fall from the divine to the humane, from the immortal to the mortal, from bliss to pain, hunger, thirst and so on.

Now let us try a different view. Let us recall the oriental knowledge of 'Kundalini'. The kundalini is the immense untapped energy, shown as a coiled snake, which when unlocked and channelized to the highest 'chakra', opens the door of divinity for the humans. The door to bliss and immortality.
There are said to be three channels of energy, 'Ida', 'Pingala' and 'Sushumna'. Ida starting on left side is the feminine, Pingala on the right side is the masculine, and sushumna is the middle path to the divinity.
So, to summarize,  the energy of the snake when taken upwards through the middle path of sushumna makes a human divine.
In my post on The interpretation of the form of Shiva that we worship is also shown in this light.
The same message is being given in the story of Adam and Eve in the reverse way. Here also a male and female on sides of a tree, which symbolizes the spinal cord holding the tree like brain, while a snake is shown coming down. The message is the downward movement of the energy of kundalini metamorphosing the divine to the human.

So, the Oriental says that the Rise of the snake( kundalini)  gives the divine knowledge while,
The biblical story gives the same message in the reverse way, that the coming down of the snkae locks the divine knowledge and subjects the immortal blissful divine to humanity and the perils of hunger, lust, mortality and sorrow.

A wonderful example of the unity of the most guarded knowledge!

P.S. - 'Caduceus' is the symbol of the medical profession world over. It is said to be the staff held by greek god 'Hermes'. Hermes was also said to be first teacher of the Alchemy. Now, take a look at caduceus, which seems to be telling the same story symbolically. More on this later.

Adam and Eve: A different interpretation!

The story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Paradise of Eden or the "Original Sin" is no doubt the most well known story of all times. While it is universally accepted that their expulsion was on account of the disobedience to God's word, a deeper scrutiny unravels an altogether different message, a coded message.

Recall the picture. It shows the first male and first female standing under a tree, one on each side. Sometimes they are shown holding the forbidden fruit, while satan is shown to be present in form of a snake to lure them. The sanke is shown coming down the tree. The fruit which was their folly, their fall from the divine to the humane, from the immortal to the mortal, from bliss to pain, hunger, thirst and so on.

Now let us try a different view. Let us recall the oriental knowledge of 'Kundalini'. The kundalini is the immense untapped energy, shown as a coiled snake, which when unlocked and channelized to the highest 'chakra', opens the door of divinity for the humans. The door to bliss and immortality.
There are said to be three channels of energy, 'Ida', 'Pingala' and 'Sushumna'. Ida starting on left side is the feminine, Pingala on the right side is the masculine, and sushumna is the middle path to the divinity.
So, to summarize,  the energy of the snake when taken upwards through the middle path of sushumna makes a human divine.
The same message is being given in the story of Adam and Eve in the reverse way. Here also a male and female on sides of a tree, which symbolizes the spinal cord holding the tree like brain, while a snake is shown coming down. The message is the downward movement of the energy of kundalini metamorphosing the divine to the human.

So, the Oriental says that the Rise of the snake( kundalini)  gives the divine knowledge while,
The biblical story gives the same message in the reverse way, that the coming down of the snkae locks the divine knowledge and subjects the immortal blissful divine to humanity and the perils of hunger, lust, mortality and sorrow.

A wonderful example of the unity of the sacred and guarded knowledge!

The balanced Universe!

For past 2000 yrs of recorded history, Everyday we have been seeing new and new prophets of doom. A nuclear World war 3, Y2K, 2012, the Judgement Day just round the corner, population explosion, meteorites, global warming etc.
In fact the history of the world is filled up with failed prophecies of disaster every few decades.

A Quntum Mind!

Only a Quantum mind can solve the mysteries of Life and the world and can easily sift the true from the untrue from the continuous invasion of his mindspace.

A quantum mind does not either accept or reject any theory or opinion even if it from a Nobel laureate. It has  a major area of no judgement in between and puts all new theories into the same. As he broods over it he mooves it closer to acceptance or rejection area till he finally accepts or rejects it.