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In recent decades, western medicine, after experimentation, has come to recognise and use the health-giving and invigorating effects of what is called voluntary respiration. Yoga teaches and practises pranayama, ascribing to it indisputable educative, regulative and spiritual value. Wladimir Bischler, in Chapter 14 of The Forms and Techniques of Altruistic and Spiritual Growth, says that medical science has now reconciled itself to some of the methods borrowed from the orient and studied the multiple effects of correct voluntary respiration. He has detailed the multiple effects of it not merely on the lungs but on the whole metabolism of the human body. He has said that spire therapy, the name he gives to the method, opens new and broad horizons to medicine, to hygiene and to therapeutics. He has ended by saying that investigations of modern science have only confirmed the empirical intuitions of the oriental sages and philosophers.

Pranayama, as an essential ingredient of yogic discipline, might well bestow a number of benefits other than mental and spiritual. But the main aim of Yoga is self-realisation, communion of the self with the Self; the exercise of pranayama involves the control of the mind and of the whole of human consciousness, which is the basis of all cognition and awareness. A human being consists of his body, his life, including all biological activities, and his mind, which is the seat of what we call the ego - the ‘I’, and all cerebral activities centred round the ‘I’. The goal of Yoga is to empty the whole of one’s basic power of consciousness of all memory, ideation, sensual urges and desires and try to be aware of pure consciousness, as a spark of the cosmic energy itself, which is of the nature of the self-conscious principle of Supreme Intelligence. For a person who wants to tread the path of Yoga, his first effort will have to be to cease to identify himself with the body-life-mind complex completely and to look upon those three elements as tools for transcending the ego, in order to identify his inner being with the pure, unmixed powerof consciousness whose very nature is all-peace, harmony and creative joy.

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Sri Iyengar, impelled by nature and driven by circumstances, learnt Yoga the hard way at the feet of his guru Sri Krishnamacharya. Sri Iyengar has been himself a teacher of Yoga, and a good task-master at that, all the time. What he speaks and writes about Yoga is like an abundant overspill from all his rich and meaningful personal experiences. The demonstration lecture on ãsanas that he gave in Bombay last December on the occasion of his sixty-first birthday, with his daughter Geeta and son Prashanta, was a marvellous revelation of his control over every nerve and muscle of his supple body. Hundreds of his disciples from abroad witnessed the performance and wondered how he retained such plasticity arid vigour at that age. To him it was child’s play, a mere routine. One of his close disciples remarked that he has trained his body ‘to twist, to twine, to turn, to bend, to wriggle, to pull, to flex’ and much besides!
It is but logical that one should expect from Sri Iyengar an equally exhaustive and instructive book on Pranayama, which is the next step in Yoga, namely, the science and art of breath-control. Though there are several yogas practised, such as hatha-yoga, raa-yoga, jnana-yoga, kundalini-yoga, mantra-yoga, laya-yoga and so on, basically and in essence Yoga is a scientific and systematic discipline for a successful organisation of all the energies and faculties of the integral human being with a view to attaining the highest ecstatic communion with the cosmic reality or God. Breath-control is helpful in every one of the yogas mentioned above. All the texts on Yoga as well as the experience of ages testify to the fact that breath- control is an important factor in the control of the mind as well. However, breath-control, that is pranayama, is not merely deep-breathing of breathing exercises, normally a part of physical culture. It is something far more, involving exercises which affect not only the physical, physiological and neural energies but also the psychological and cerebral activities, such as memory-training and creativity. Sri Aurobindo, the sage and seer of Pondicherry, has recorded that after practising pranayama he could compose and retain in his memory about two hundred lines of poetry, while earlier he could not handle even a dozen.
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I believe that this treatise, drawn from ancient, classical Indian texts, will provide illuminating guidelines to the reconciliation of various practices of medicine from acupuncture to touch and sound therapy to the mutual and reciprocal benefit of them all. It will also teach us to respect those elements which we have treated with such contempt - air, water and light - without which life cannot survive. With this book, Mr Iyengar, my guru in yoga, has added a new and greater dimension to the life of the people of the West, urging us to join our brothers of every colour and every creed in the celebration of life with due reverence and purpose.
Yoga is nothing but the total experience of
human life; it is a science of the integral man!’
The science and art of Yoga, as presented by Patanjali centuries before Christ, begins by moral and other precepts for physical, vital and mental health, potency and purification. It proceeds to postures - asanas, which influence the aspirant beneficially through the neurophysiological system and the endocrine glands. Sri Iyengar has dwelt with them in his book Light on Yoga in such a thorough and detailed manner, with about six hundred photographs, that there is scarcely any other work on that subject so encyclopaedic, precise and lucid. The book gives the complete theory of Yoga and treats the subject of asanas fully, with a peep into pranayama.
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Pranayma  is the movement of air which is said to determine life on earth, the same service that he has rendered to the physical features of hatha yoga. He has moved into a more ethereal, subtle aspect of our very existence. He has placed in the hands of the layman a book which contains, in some respects, more information, more knowledge and more wisdom in a more integrated way than is available to our most brilliant students of conventional medicine, for it is a medicine of health and not of sickness, it is an understanding of spirit, body and mind that is as healing as it is invigorating. Not only can the individual be restored to wholeness but the whole progress of a lifetime is seen in powerful perspective. He teaches us in line with the ancient Indian philosophy that life is not only dust to dust, but air to air, that, as with the process of fire, matter is transformed into heat, light and radiation from which we may gather strength. But strength is more than the transformation of matter into other forms of matter, it is the transformation of the whole cycle of air and light into matter and back again. In fact, it completes Einstein’s equation of matter and energy and translates it into the human, the living incarnation. It is no longer an atomic bomb, it is no longer the explosion of the atom, the harnessing of matter, it is the irradiation of the human being with light and power, the very sources of energy.

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Stage 4

Close your eyes and sit in a steady posture. Mentally relax yourself by auto suggestion, awareness of self, by the feeling of peace, happiness and bliss. Start rhythmic breathing.

Breath in and out from the navel.

Be aware of the different centers through which your breath passes, right from the nose to navel, and from navel to nose. 

Rhythmic, peaceful and relaxed breathing.

Now, so with the ingoing breath and ham with the out- going breath. But the form of your consciousness Will be a continuity of sohamso.

So merging in ham and ham merging in so making an endless circle.

Prolong the vibrations of ham and join them with the vibrations of the ingoing so.

Prolong the vibrations of so and join them with ham.

The latter part of hamjoins the early part of so and becomes a continuous circle of sohamso.

Now stop this practice and empty your mind, Create blankness.

Focus your consciousness on any of the centers of meditation. Remove all thoughts

Again after some time start the endless circle of sohamsoham. At the end of a practice of half an hour or an hour, heighten your imagination of peace and rest. Feel mentally: There is happiness and peace’.

All these practices of ajapa are mental, not verbal,

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Count one with the ingoing breath. Count one with the outgoing breath. Count Iwo with the ingoing breath. Count two with the outgoing breath. Go on counting like this till four When you come to five be alert, Txy to maintain undistracted awareness. Feel that you are definitely counting five.
Say mentally: l am aware of five with the ingoing breath and I am aware of five with the outgoing breath’. Then go on counting till nine.
Again, when you come to ten, be alert Maintain fullest awareness that you are counting ten. Repeat this whole process a couple of times. Now start rhythmic and deep breathing. Absolutely peaceful, prolonged and relaxed breathing. Practise mindfulness all throughout the process of breathing. Introspect neither on soham nor upon hamso, but with the mgoing breath upon the individual so, and with the outgoing breath on the individual ham.
Do not be aware of either soham or hamso.
Just feel so with inhalation and the upward movement of consciousness in the psychic passage, and ham with exhaIa tion and the downward movement in the psychic passage. Individual so and individual ham.
When this practice is over, create a mental vacuum. Localize your consciousness at any center of meditation. Again start breathing consciously and continue the practice of itidividual so and individual ham for a month or so,

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Stage 2
During the first practice of ajapa you introspected on so with the ingoing breath and ham with the outgoing breath.
Now, in the second practice, reverse the whole emphasis of the process.
Introspect on ham while exhaling and sowhile inhaling. Ham is the introspective sound vibration of the outgoing prana as it descends in the psychic passage. Sois the introspective sound vibration of the ingoing prana as it ascends in the psychic passage.
There should be no pause between hamso throughout. After the ajapa of ham.so, become blank. Do not think of anything Take your consciousness either to ajna chakra or anahata chakra.
There should be total awareness of the center of meditation. Do not put any pressure on the center, sImply concentrate your mind there.
The process of deep breathing, relaxation, total awareness and so on will be the same in this second practice of hamso as in the practice of soham.
One may practise this hamso for a month, After achieving success in it, turn to the third stage.
Stage 3
In the first practice of ajapa, you formulated your consciousness in the pattern of soham.
In the second practice you reversed it to hamso. Now we come to the third practice.
Relax yourself mentally.
The relaxation can be achieved successfully by auto-suggestion and by awakening awareness of 1 am’.
If one has tensions, there is another method of relaxation through counting.
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PRACTICE
Stage I
Relax yourself physically and mentally. Make yourself as light and relaxed as possible. Put aside for a while all your worries and problems.
Feel calmness and serenity, peace and bliss, complete mental relaxation before you start the practice of ajapa, Feel that you are sitting comfortably.
Begin breathing as above.
Be conscious of every ingoing and outgoing breath. The ingoing breath goes up from the navel to the throat and the outgoing breath goes down from the throat to the navel region.
No automatic breathing, but conscious, deep and relaxed breathing.
Do not produce any sound while breathing. Feel the two streams of breath. lntensifr the awareness of prana. Now add soham to this.
As the prana rises with inhalation, feel the vibrations of so, and as the prana descends with exhalatinn, feel the vibrations of ham.
Continue to breathe in and out, and try to synchronize soham with it.
So sounds during inhalation and the ascending of the prana in the psychic passage.
Ham sounds during exhalation and the descending of the prana in the psychic passage.
Maintain unceasing awareness of the prana and the man tra, Now centralize your consciousness either between the eyebrows (ajna chakra) or at the heart (anahata chakra). Stop thinking.
Centralize your awareness. Create a vacuum. Set aside all thoughts.
Simple awareness of a particular center should be maintained.
Continue breathing consciously in and out.
Start soham with the ingoing and outgoing breaths as usual.
Continue this practice for some time.
Practise this first stage of ajapa for a month. After you perfect
it, go to the second stage.
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Outline of practice of Ajapa jap
Sit in a comfortable posture. Relax.
Start deep breathing.
Then join so with the ingoing breath and ham with the Outgoing breath.
Feel that von are introspecting on soham.
There should be no mental pause between so and ham.
There should be continuity.
After ham pause a little.
Breathe in with so, breathe out with ham.
There should be continuous awareness of the ingoing and
outgoing breaths and of soham.
After some time stop ajapa and go into shoonya.
Take your mind to the place in between the two eyebrows
(bhrikuti) and concentrate on ajna chakra at the eyebrow center.
You can also meditate on the hridaya cholera (heart center) if
you like.
Think of nothing. Just become blank like shoonya.
Whatever thoughts come to you, keep on removing them.
Only think of blankness.
Let this continue for a couple of minutes.
After that, again start ajapa.
In ajapa. first there Will be concentration on the two streams of breath followed by the synchronizing of wham. You can adjust any other mantra you like with the breathing process.
There is misunderstanding about the soham mantra, Soham does not merely mean I am that’. So is the introspective sound of the ingoing breath, while the vibrations that are created on the outgoing breath are like ham. At any rate, solzam merely indicates the complete circuit of introspection upon the two breaths. You need not think at all of the literal meaning of the word soham.
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The most important point in ajapajapa is that first of all you have to breathe in and out consciously and not automatically. Automatic breathing goes on at night also It is not ajapa. You must consciously notice every ingoing and outgoing breath. Like a watchman, watch the continuous and unceasing consciousness of the two breaths
You must also observe how far the breath is going in. When you breathe in, the abdomen should rise first, then chest Breathing out, relax chest then abdomen. Lie down and feel as if you are going to sleep. You should breathe like a person who breathes deeply in sound sleep. After continued practice your breathing will be complete, systematic and proportionate. The normal rate of inhalation and exhalation is fifteen times a minute for each, In one hour, nine hundred breaths and in twenty-four hours 21,600 breaths are drawn. A person who has perfected ajapa will do 21,600 rounds ofjapa per day.
As and when the concentration becomes deep, the breathing will become slow. Instead of fifteen rounds, you will do ten rounds a minute. In ajapa you make the breath as long and as deep as when you are snoring. Longevity is increased by doing so because the entire system becomes absolutely calm and steady, thereby expending less prana.
Now we come to the technical side of ajapa. There is no other technical difficulty in doing ajapa. The only difficulty is tapas which means sustained endurance. You must sit in one posture. The body should not shake and the mind should not run here and there. It is not physical mortification. It is sustained endurance. You take the pledge that you will do ajapa for forty-five minutes every day. One day you do it, but the next day you lose patience; the third day you lose interest, and on the fourth day you lose everything. Keep up your resolve and continue your practice with patience for a month or so whether it is for ten minutes or one hour.

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The alternate functioning of ida and pingala keeps one away
from one’s inner consciousness. So long as they work alternately, samdhi cannot be attained. It is only when the two birds — ida and pingala — are tired and they retire to the center, the self, that the sushumna awakens and the process of meditation becomes automatic.
According to swarayoga when both the nostrils flow equally it indicates that the sushumna is flowing. At this time one should give up all worldly work and meditate. It is a common experience that sometimes the meditation is quite successful. This is because there is harmony in the entire system. When the sushumna does not function, one does not achieve concentration even with effort, So it is important that the functioning of ida and pingala should be harmonized by yoga practices and meditation, making it possible for sushumna to function.
In order to stop the chain of thoughts, one has to observe the thoughts, one has to see them consciously. During ajapa you must have a complete and unceasing awareness of what you are doing. Like the oilstrearn which does not break in the middle, let your consciousness also be continuous. Maintain continuous awareness of what you are doing.
The next important point in ajapa is that one should keep the mind fixed on the center of meditation. It may be ajna chakra (the third eye or eyebrow center) or anahata chakra (the heart center) or any other center in the body. This is called ishwara pranidhana. Three things are very important in ajapa: tapasya (sustained endurance), swadhyaya (continuous self-observation) and also ishwarapranidhana (fixing the mind on the center of meditation). Yet three more important points of ajapa practice are deep breathing. relaxation and total awareness. Not a single breath should go unnoticed. There should be no automatic breathing. You must have unceasing awareness of every ingoing and outgoing breath. As soon as the mind wanders, bring it back to the breath.
Thus ajapa is adjusting a man tra to the breathing process. It can be practised anywhere. in a chair. on the floor or in any asana, particularly padmasana, siddhasana, siddha yoni asana or sukhasana.

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MATSYASANA
It is said that one can float in water with the mouth and nose just lifted above the surface in this pose. The opening of the throat and chest has a celebratory feeling.
From Pindasana exhale, release your arms, bring your hands to the floor, palms down, and roll your spine slowly down out of Pindasana using the bandhas to help control your descent. Take hold of your feet with your hands and draw your elbows down toward the floor (but don’t let them touch the floor). Lift your chest, expanding the front of your body and release your head back until the crown is resting on the floor. There should be very little weight on your head due to the up-thrust of your chest. Stay for five breaths. Go straight into the next pose: Uttana Padasana.
This is a long awaited backbend after the sequence of shoulderstands. Stay in it for more than five breaths if you need to.
Q If your legs were crossed in Pindasana, keep them crossed and follow the instructions above. But rather than holding your feet, hold the tops of your thighs. Alternatively, do the pose by releasing your legs, stretching them out straight in front of you, placing your hands palms down underneath your buttocks, and pressing your elbows into the floor to help lift your chest. If this puts too much weight on your head or gives you discomfort in your neck, keep your head just off the floor.

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