23/06/2023
If we keep thinking what about ourselves all the time, we will get depressed. You should see what you can do, and how you can contribute to the world. We all have to work towards having a stress free, violence-free, drug and alcohol free, and healthy society. Violence-free society, disease-free body, confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory and sorrow-free soul is the birthright of every individual, and that’s what I have been saying all around the world. We are all one family.
Q. How does the breath contribute to healthy living – both of the body and the mind?
Sri Sri: It is very interesting to notice the relationship between the breath and the three Doshas in the body. These Doshas affect certain parts of the body more than the others.
For example, Vata Dosha is predominant in the lower part of the body - the stomach, intestine etc. Diseases like gastric problems and joint aches are caused due to this.
Kapha Dosha is predominant in the middle part of the body. Cough is mainly a result of Kapha imbalance.
Pitta affects the upper part of the body i.e., the head. Short temper is sign of pitta.
“In the breathing techniques, the three-stage pranayama has an effect on these three Doshas. Among different breathing techniques, there are specific breathing exercises for the lower, middle and upper parts of the body. After the three-stage pranayama, you feel that the Doshas in your body have altered. Something in the body has changed. You no longer feel the same. You feel more balanced. The pranayama brings that balance in the system. Once you get in its rhythm, you will find the balance setting in. Making it a habit is difficult, but not the practice itself. Definite rhythms or breathing patterns correct these Doshas and bring the balance to the connected parts of the body.
You can also find the three Doshas in the fingers and the nerve endings. For example, the index finger is connected to Kapha; the middle finger to Vata, and the ring finger to Pitta. You can discern the Doshas running in the body by the shape of someone’s fingers. Practice of Mudra pranayamas, i.e. gently pressing the nerve endings in the fingertips in a subtle way and breathing with the Ujjayi breath also balances the Doshas in the body. “There can be good health in a system if the following is practised - first, attend to the ether element - that is the mind element. If your mind is clogged with too many impressions and thoughts, it is“draining you of your resistance power and preparing your body for some illness. If the mind is clear, calm, meditative and pleasant, the resistance in the body increases. It will not allow an illness to affect the body. Thus, the first remedy is to calm the mind down.
Then come to the air element - the breathing. Aromatherapy depends on this element.
And then there is the light and colour therapy. You can see an illness in the aura of a person before it manifests in the body. Some physicians have done research on the aura photography, especially in cases of ulcers, cancer and diabetes. They took photographs six months before these diseases could manifest in the body and found some indications of future affliction. By energising your system with the prana and life energy or breath, you can clear the aura and prevent the illness before it surfaces. That is what yoga does. Patanjali, in the Yoga Sutras, says that the purpose of yoga is, “Stopping the sorrow before it arises.”
Next is the water element. Fasting with water and purifying the system with water can bring a balance in the system.
“And the final recourse, of course, is to different medicinal herbs, medicines and surgery. All these come when everything “else fails or when we neglect the other steps; then it becomes inevitable.
Our breath has a lot of secrets to offer us because for every emotion in the mind, there is a corresponding rhythm in the breath. And each rhythm affects certain parts of the body physically. Observing the correlation between these sensations, the level of the body and the moods of the mind is meditation. You feel an expansion of the mind; of the consciousness when someone praises you or when you feel happy looking at a sunset or are meeting someone very close and dear to you. Though, we do feel happy, we fail to notice the connection. It is because our attention is on that object and not on the sensation.
When you are miserable, there is a sensation of contraction. Somewhere inside, you feel tight and tense. There is a contraction of the consciousness - that’s misery and sorrow. Knowledge is knowing that which expands. The knowledge of what is that something in the body which is expanding and contracting, which is feeling happy or feeling miserable, which is expressing and which is experiencing, which is evolving and which is moving through the events “is the study of consciousness, of life, of prana, of Ayurveda. Breathing is the first act of life and it is also the last act of life. In between, though you are breathing in and out forever, you“do not attend to the breath. If you attend to the breath, you’ll find that in one minute you breathe nearly sixteen to seventeen times. If you are upset you may go up to twenty. If you are extremely tense and angry, you will breathe, maybe, twenty-five breaths per minute. But if you are calm, pleasant and happy, you will breathe ten times; and if you are in deep meditation, then only two or three times. If you observe an infant and its breathing pattern, you will be amazed how balanced its breathing is. Infants breathe from all the three sections of the body. Their breath goes very deep, and as they breathe in, their belly comes out as they breathe out their belly moves in. But the more nervous and tense you are you will do the reverse. If your mind is very keen and observant, then you will learn a lot by just observing people, children and the nature around. But the mind is preoccupied with so many things, judgements, opinions and impressions that you are unable to observe and perceive the refined things.
