The Bhagavad Gita is India's most important religious text. It contains Lord Krishna's teachings and defines pranayama in two ways:
- To begin, it is said that some people practice pranayama by giving apana (vital down-current) into prana (vital up-current) and prana into apana, thus stopping the breath.
- The word prana apana gati is used in the Gita.
- The inner down movement, which is included in the rising inhale, is known as Frana gati.
- The inner rising, or apana gati, is included in the falling exhale.
- This suggests the deep lesson that every force in the cosmos has an equal and opposite force.
- Focusing on the gati, which is the inner opposite of the apparent outside force, stops the pranic movement.
- One of the primary motors that propels Kundalini (the coiled life energy that propels spiritual emancipation) upward is Apana gati, the inner upward movement inherent in the exhale.
- The sacrifice of the senses into prana is the second definition of pranayama given in the Gita.
- The senses stretch out and attach themselves to different objects of desire or aversion throughout the movement of prana, i.e. inhalation and expiration.
- The senses are naturally pulled inwards during kumbhaka, and the yogi encourages this by concentrating on the Divine throughout kumbhaka.
- The yogi abandons and surrenders the senses' usual outward activity, 'offering' it to the prana suspended and stopped in kumbhaka.
As a result, the Gita, like the Yoga Sutra, views pranayama as both refining the process of inhalation and expiration as well as mental processes done during kumbhaka (breath retention).
You may also want to read more about Pranayama and Holistic Healing here.
