Sri Aurobindo and Mother on Pranayama

(Mother's Agenda, February 24, 1962)

Mother: I did it (Pranayama) myself for years, using the same system: inhale, hold, exhale, remain empty. Without knowing it, Sri Aurobindo and I did it nearly the same way! This is to tell you that the danger is mainly in what you think. No, the "danger" is MAINLY a thought formation.

You can achieve excellent control of the heart. But I never practiced it violently, never strained myself.

I used to do it simply like this: breath in very slowly to the count of 4, then hold for 4 like this, lifting the diaphragm and lowering the head (Mother bends her neck), closing everything. Then while I held the air, and I would concentrate it wherever there was a physical disorder (a pain or something wrong somewhere). It's very effective. The way I did it was: inhale very slowly to the count of 4, hold for 4, exhale very slowly to the count of 4 and remain empty to the count of 4 - you are completely empty.

I had trouble breathing in slowly enough - that's a bit hard. I began with 4 and eventually managed to do 12. It took me months to reach that, it can't be done quickly. To breathe in very slowly and hold all that air isn't easy. I count: 1-2-3-4 ... no quicker.

And exhale slowly - that's very difficult - being careful to empty the top part of the lungs, because air often stagnates there. This seems to be one of the most frequent causes of coughs and colds. I was familiar with the method: you learn to hold the air and then release it slowly, slowly, so as to keep singing nonstop.

Mother: I advise you to practice it.

Satprem: How much time do you spend on it?

Eight to ten minutes, three times a day before my Japa.

Satprem: Oh, that's very good.

I don't know why, but I got entangled with that traditional formation which says it's dangerous.

Mother: Someone put it on you, mon petit!

Satpream: It troubled me.

Mother: No, it's not at all dangerous, at least if you don't overdo it. If you do it simply.... I think some people practice pranayama with the idea of gaining "powers." That idea of gaining powers fouls it up more than anything. But if you do it simply as a help to your progress, there's no danger.

Ah, it's funny, because just this morning when I went out on the balcony, something suddenly began making me do pranayama! I started doing it and it was funny - I had great fun. It was like the Lord entering into me as air, and when it was held inside like that (I was doing it physically at the same time), all the air began to flow out into everybody and do its work in each one - with such a sensation of ease, of tranquil power, and so sure of itself! So comfortably peaceful.

                           

Evening talks with Sri Aurobindo. 

(There was a discussion between two disciples — one of them was a doctor. The doctor's idea was that in Samadhi the physical mind is still, and if we look only to the physical body, then it seems that the venous blood collects in the brain and brings about a sort of anesthesia of the brain. When the brain is thus completely quieted down then the mind — the mental consciousness — is released from the entanglement of body. It can then experience more freely the other levels of consciousness.)

Disciple: What is the venous blood?

Disciple: Blood having more carbon-dioxide in it than the red blood.

Disciple: So the brain becomes full of carbon-dioxide in Samadhi, does it?

(In between, a letter was read from a Sadhaka complaining about the bad condition of his Sadhana and asking permission to come to Pondicherry.)

Sri Aurobindo: Tell him that all the Sadhakas get difficulties in Sadhana and periods of depression come to each one. That is no reason to run down here. Even those who are here get periods of depression. One should be able to go through such trials. Sadhana never moves in a line — there are always ups and downs. It is not a work of days and months but of years. These periods come generally when something new is going to begin in Sadhana, some opening to a new plane, or some such thing.

The reason why he is not getting knowledge, probably, is that his mind is active. So long as the mind is active higher Knowledge cannot come. He can get mental knowledge, of course.

Ask him to make his mind passive and open to the higher Knowledge. Let him stop the egoistic activity in his mind. When I ask him to be passive I do not mean that he should repress the thoughts that come to his mind; he should rather separate himself as the mental Purusha and watch the thoughts as happening in him, but not as his. He has to watch them and reject those that are to be rejected.

Disciple: Many people mistake passivity for inertia. I mistook it for a long time. I used to remain passive when I got an illness and then I found that I was consenting to it.

Sri Aurobindo: Real passivity is openness to the Higher Force; it is not inertia.

(After a pause Sir Aurobindo turned to the doctor disciple): Do you know of a Japanese healer, Dr. Kobay-eshi, a famous surgeon, who is a Yogi following the Amitabha Buddha school of Sadhana? During his medical practice, he found that the method he was following was not correct. So he followed an inner process. He makes the patients sit in meditation with him and asks them to concentrate on the navel and to aspire that the Light may come down and set right the affected organ. By now he has cured thousands of patients; of course, his personal influence is indispensable in bringing down the Light.

He has cured tumors and many uterine complaints, he has even cured cancer. He is especially successful in curing diseases of women. His theory is that the disease is due to a passive congestion in the affected part. That is to say, the nerves there get congested and the vital force is not able to reach that part. What the Light does is that it brings about a subtle and quick vibration in the affected part, thereby restoring normal circulation. But whatever the theory, this is a method of curing diseases by pure, subtle force. Something from the occult plane comes down and removes the obstacle from the physical plane.

Disciple: It seems like the method of "auto-suggestion" given by Dr. Coue.

Sri Aurobindo: No, it is not Coue's method. Coue gives the suggestion which works out in the patient; while this is a direct, occult method.

Disciple: Is his theory correct?

Sri Aurobindo: I can't say. What I think is that some occult force comes down and works out the disease. But it is very difficult to say what exactly happens on the physical plane.

Probably, the Hatha Yogins used to do what this Japanese doctor is doing, with their knowledge of the "vital-physical" currents. For instance, they could set right all the disorders below the navel by controlling the Vyana — , the vital current that works in the whole system. They would find out which Prana — vital current — is less, send the required current of vital energy which would work the disease out of the system.

(After a pause) I was thinking of the "carbon-dioxide" explanation of Samadhi. It may be perfectly true so for as a particular kind of concentration — Samadhi — is concerned. For example, there is a state in which a complete withdrawal into a certain aspect of the Infinite takes place. It is attained by stilling the mind — even the physical mind — altogether. But there are other kinds of concentrations — Samadhis — where that explanation would not apply at all. In such concentrations the mind is quite clear, in fact, ihe mind can be very active and there is no carbon-dioxide in the brain.

Disciple: What part does breathing exercise — Pranayama — play in bringing about the higher consciousness?

Sri Aurobindo: It sets the Pranic vital-currents free and removes dullness of the brain so that the higher consciousness can come down. Pranayama — does not bring dullness in the brain. My own experience, on the contrary, is that brain becomes illumined. When I was practising Pranayama at Baroda, I used to do it for about five hours in the day, — three hours in the morning and two in the evening. I found that the mind began to work with great illumination and power. I used to write poetry in those days. Before the Pranayama practice, usually I wrote five to eight lines per day; and about two hundred lines in a month. After the practice I could write 200 lines within half an hour. That was not the only result. Formerly my memory was dull. But after this practice I found that when the inspiration came I could remember all the lines in their order and write them down correctly at any time. Along with this enhanced functioning, I could see an electrical activity all around the brain, and I could feel that it was made up of a subtle substance. I could feel everything as the working of that substance. That was far from your carbon-dioxide!
                             

CWSA

Early Cultural writings

Rajayoga p 508

The real reason why Patanjali laid so much stress on Asana
was that he thought Pranayam essential to samadhi and Asana
essential to Pranayam. It is difficult, though not impossible, to
do the practice of Pranayam according to Patanjali’s system
without perfect bodily stillness. It can be done and has been
done even while walking about, but this is not so easy or usual.
Now Pranayam in its proper sense, the mastery of the vital
force in oneself and Nature, is essential to every Rajayogin, but
it can be brought about by much simpler methods. The only
physical process that the Rajayogin finds helpful enough to be
worth doing, is nadishuddhi or purification of the nerve system
by regular breathing and this can be done while lying, sitting,
reading, writing, walking. This process has great virtues. It has
a wonderfully calming effect on the whole mind & body, drives
out every lurking disease in the system, awakens the yogic force
accumulated in former lives and, even where no such latent
force exists, removes the physical obstacles to the wakening of
the Kundalini shakti.

Sri Aurobindo