Breath, Mind, and Consciousness

Harish Johari

• Publisher: Destiny Books
• Year: 1989
• Print ISBN: 9780892812523
• eBook ISBN: 9781620550816
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy
• Index: Biological Sciences

Modern scientists are just now beginning to understand what yogis have known for centuries--that the life force animating our physical bodies is regulated by breath, and that the breath energy is controlled by the mind. The esoteric and practical science of Swar Yoga--presented in this book for the first time in English--teaches conscious observation and control of breathing patterns to maximize energy and vitality.

Tantric Scholar and author of Tools for Tantra, Chakras, and The Healing Power of Gemstones, Harish Johari brings an in-depth knowledge of ancient Hindu sciences to this discussion of breath and the yoga of balanced living. His is the first guidebook for Westerners to offer a comprehensive treatment of the subject, providing information from Sanskrit texts otherwise unavailable in the English Language. He explains the sensory network of the nose and its effect on the subtle channels of energy throughout the body, showing the direct link between the practice of conscious breathing and the electrochemical balance of the brain and nervous system. He also shows how the breath, alternating between left and right nostrils, is influenced by solar and lunar forces and how one can attune to these natural rhythms and universal laws for greater health and well-being.

Johari's mastery of Swar Yoga techniques is apparent in the broad scope of Breath, Mind and Consciousness: included are a discussion of the phases of the five elements in the breathing cycle, exercises for physical and psychic healing, the means for determining which nostril is active, and instructions for conceiving a son or a daughter.

CHAPTER 1

The Science of Swara Yoga

OUR HUMAN ORGANISM works through a specialized network of channels known to physical science as nerves, veins, and arteries. Those conduits that enable us to act and react to our environment are known as nerves. We will use the term nodi to refer to the subtle nerves of the body. The autonomic nervous system runs the inner machinery of the organism via the sympathic and parasympathetic branches. All nerves and nadis form a network around each cell, fiber, tissue, bone, etc., to keep the organism conscious of its environment and itself. As long as the flow of energy in each nadi and nerve is working in proper rhythmic order in a particular area, life exists. When the nadis are blocked, the organ connected with them becomes lifeless, and as a result the organism develops many diseases.

Our internal organs function much like a factory, producing energy that gets converted into consciousness. The cerebral cortex receives neuromotor signals from the internal organs in the form of electrical impulses which are then interpreted and converted into consciousness. These neuromotor signals themselves take the form of electromagnetic and electrochemical energy. The “manufacturing” process continues as long as one is breathing, except during yogic breathing when the process is sustained in the absence of ordinary breathing. When breath stops altogether the organism dies. Breath is the very key to life. It connects the organism with consciousness, matter with mind. Its presence is life and absence, death.

Breath is prana, but the breathing process itself is a neuromotor action since inhalation and exhalation are done with the help of the nerves. This action is produced by the pulsation of life. Action is needed for all cell division. According to Indian philosophy, this action exists in the very seed of the organism as a function of the Wind element. Pulsation, contraction, expansion, and breathing are actions inherent to the sperm and ovum. It is this inherent throbbing or pulsation that sustains the organism before its first breath occurs. Even when the nostrils are not operative and the lungs are dormant, amniotic fluid, charged with pranic ions from the mother, flows into the lungs and through the umbilical cord; thus prana functions inside the womb. After fertilization, growth starts; the pranic force needed for this growth is provided inside the womb where the organism is perfectly sealed and nourished by the fluids of life. After birth, the first thing that regulates all bodily activity is breath—the expansion of the lungs and opening of the nostrils. The lungs begin to operate with the first cry of the baby. This is the starting point of individual life, and of the nasal cycle.

Proper Breathing and Its Effects on Life Span

The nose is the only bodily organ in continuous interplay with the external environment. The rate of our breathing quickly responds to changes in our physical or mental condition. In anger, for example, breathing becomes fast, and during deep sleep it becomes slow and regular. An average human organism breathes (one inhale and one exhale) thirteen to fifteen times a minute, which means that our body breathes 21,000 to 21,600 times in a twenty-four-hour cycle. With an increase in the rhythm of breathing comes an increase in the flow of blood and other vital life fluids. These increases in turn stimulate neuromotor activity that causes the body to utilize more energy. The organism then must convert more oxygen and glucose into energy through internal cellular respiration. These demands do not affect the organism in its growing cycle, but in maturity the organism reacts to wear and tear, the repair mechanism slows down, and the energy level is reduced. The result is increased stress and strain. By maintaining a normal breathing rate of not more than fifteen breaths per minute, or by slowing down the breathing rate, we can conserve energy, increase our level of vitality, and live longer.

According to the scriptures of Swara Yoga, Shiva Swarodaya and Gyana Swarodaya,⁴ the life span of a man is measured not in years but in number of breaths. At the rate of fifteen breaths per minute, a human life is comprised of a total of 946,080,000 breaths—a full 120 years. To maintain the normal breathing rate, i.e., fifteen breaths per minute, does not call for special effort or training. Slowing down the breathing rate, however, requires control over the breathing process and diligent practice of pranayama. Swara Yoga also prescribes methods of controlling breath by the power of will. One practice, for example, involves slowing down the breathing rate by concentration on the sound of the inhaling breath and the exhaling breath. In normal breathing there is no audible sound, but when one breathes fast the sound becomes more and more pronounced. When this happens, one should try to overcome the fast breathing by concentrating on the sound of the breath and slowing down the activity in the body. During normal breathing, one complete breath takes four seconds and the exhaled breath extends the distance of twelve finger widths. As one reduces the rate of breathing, one automatically reduces the length (in distance) of breath. By reducing the length of the breath and simultaneously the breath rate, one’s life span increases.

Nostrils and the Brain

Each nostril, when it operates independently, influences the body chemistry in a different way. When both nostrils operate simultaneously, the body chemistry alters so as to make meditation rather than worldly activity appropriate to engage in. The right nostril, being solar or heating in character, increases acidic secretions, whereas the left nostril, being lunar or cooling, increases alkaline secretions. Both right and left nostrils are connected with the opposite sides of the cerebral hemispheres and the olfactory lobe. Since the alternation of breath from one nostril to the other is regulated directly by opposing sympathetic and parasympathetic commands,⁵ it is possible that the hypothalamus is the center of the mental processes and behavior in humans. The nose is in direct contact with the hypothalamus by its link with the olfactory lobe of the brain. The hypothalamus regulates body temperature, which influences the mental processes that are interpreted by the brain as emotional states. The hypothalamus is a part of the limbic system—that part of the brain associated with emotions and motivation.

Nostrils, by means of the process of respiration, are connected with neuromotor responses and thus with the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic). These neuromotor responses influence the hemispheres of the brain and the primary activity of the brain, which is chemical. Neurotransmitters are the brain’s chemical messengers; they influence all body functions, including temperature, blood pressure, hormone levels, and regular circadian rhythms.

NATURE OF THE NOSTRILS

Through a network of sensory nerves in the nose, the nostrils are connected to subtle nerves, or nadis. These nadis are of two kinds:

1. Conduits of pranic force—pranavaha nadi
2. Conduits of psychic energy—manovaha nadi

Some of the most important nadis carry both pranic energy (flowing as electromagnetic currents) and psychic energy (flowing as feeling, vibrations, frequencies, etc.) at the same time.

Yogic texts mention fourteen important nadis that carry both kinds of energy. Three of these fourteen are of vital importance. These three nadis, Ida, Pingala and Sushumna, are connected with the limbic system. Activating Ida influences the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, and thus the growth hormones and anabolic processes; activating Pingala influences the thalamus and hypothalamus but not the pituitary. The Sushumna is connected with the corpus callosum and the cerebellum. When it bifurcates in the brain stem, one branch of the Sushumna goes to the corpus callosum, while the other, known as the posterior Sushumna, passes through the cerebellum to the cerebral cortex and terminates in the corpus callosum. Here it joins the other branch, known as the anterior Sushumna. This point of termination is called the fontanella (the “soft spot” in an infant’s skull that hardens after three to six months). (See Figures 2 and 3 for a further look at the human brain.) Through their connection with the endocrine glands, these three nadis influence body chemistry and the chemical nature of the human organism. The Sushumna nadi is the only nadi that directly pierces all the chakras or psychic centers of the subtle body. These centers are connected with internal organs through sympathet...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Science of Swara Yoga
• Chapter 2. Swara Yoga and the Five Elements
• Chapter 3. Healing and Other Applications of Swara Yoga
• Chapter 4. Overview of Swara Yoga
• Appendix
• Footnotes
• About the Author
• About Inner Traditions
• Books of Related Interest
• Copyright