Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

Swami! Pranayama, breath control, some say, is important on the

spiritual path. Would you please tell us about it?

 

Sai Baba: Pranayama, breath control, has to be undertaken in an exact

and perfect way under the care and guidance of a Guru. It leads to

danger if it is done imperfectly and irregularly.

 

There are chiefly three steps in pranayama or breathing exercise. The

first one is purakam, inhalation. The second is holding the breath or

the air breathed in. This is called kumbhakam, retention. The third

stage is exhalation or recakam. The important, point here is that,

the time taken during all these three stages must be equal. It means

that the time taken for purakam must be the same as for kumbhakam.

Similarly, the time taken for kumbhakam must be the same as for

recakam.

 

In the human body there are shadcakras, six life sustaining points on

the vertebral column. The lowest is called muladhara cakra,

fundamental, primordial life sustaining point at the bottom. In

pranayama, during the second step, kumbhakam, holding the breath,

kundalini starts moving upward being restless due to the lack of

supply of air across the sadcakras. On the top lies sahasrara cakra,

head region. There exists a jyoti, divine light surrounded by dalas,

petals. The sahasrara cakra is like a thousand petalled lotus flower.

The petals touch the central jyoti when one has asura sampatti,

demonic qualities. If one has daivi sampatti, divine qualities the

jyoti starts touching the petals. Thus, kundalini affects the human

body during this course of sadhana. A living being taking many

breaths per day is short lived. A dog takes many breaths. So, its

life span is short. Snakes and mongooses take a few breaths per day.

They live long. The breathing exercise has an influence on the life

span.