Pranayama

Health and Happiness - Dr Dwarakanath

The main concern of the seeker is to restrain the senses so that they will not run like unchecked horses without reins. Shankara prescribed fourfold Sadhana- practice to control and restrain the unbridled horses in us. The four folds are Pranayama- control of breath, withdrawal of senses, discrimination and Meditation. The sadhakas- seeker should not feel despair if results are slower. We the seekers should continue the efforts till we reach the ultimate goal. The mind is the seat of all thoughts and activities, so, we have to be on the alert to keep the mind free from all kinds of negative thoughts. The intelligence should ever be alert and guard the mind, as only the intelligence is bestowed with the discriminatory powers between good and bad, true and false, permanent and impermanent, reality and appearance, etc. Prana- the life force consists of five distinct modifications. They are: praana (perceptions and reception of things into the subjective life), apaana (rejection of things and responses), vyaana, (the digestive system), samaana (the circulatory system), and udaana (the capacity to lift ourselves from our present state of understanding to a nobler and better peak of thought on the mount of knowledge). 

Regulation of all these five qualities of Prana is called Pranayama. Pranayama is a system of much regulated exercises of breath. This can be achieved only through sustained and sincere practice, for sufficiently long time. The learning and understanding the technique must be under the direct supervision of a Guru. 

After learning from a Guru, mastering the technique to its atmost perfection can be done with our effort. We the Sadhakas must control the mind from wandering away through the sense organs (pratyaahaara). A discriminative intellect should be developed to distinguish between nitya (eternal) and anitya (impermanent).  It is possible through constant and scientific thinking. To achieve this, we have to undertake Japa, a kind of training to balance the mind. The Japa is a simple looking technique but has a profound affect on our mind and its thinking process itself, again, this is a practice, must be initiated by a Guru.  As the mind gets tamed, viveka- intellect develops the subtler meanings and deep imports of declarations manifests. As we proceed in this path, withdrawing our mind at will without much difficulty, from all sense-objects, will become possible. We reach a state of relative thoughtlessness (Samadhi). It is a kind of systematic and regular training, as it is just impossible to force the mind, crush the instincts and the passions, etc. We cannot force the mind. It will create suppression, deformity and abominable ugliness of personality. We have to be careful in our systematic and regular training to reach the ultimate reality. Suppression is not natural and going against nature will not take us to reality! Yoga and Shankara have proven this! 

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