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Guruji's Colum

Pranayama is a process through which you expand your consciousness, be in touch with the divinity, and be in harmony with the universal energy. This energy has all the powers. It can heal and grace you. Doing pranayama means, developing an intimate relationship with that energy. How to begin? We have to begin with acknowledging that energy. Accept that energy, and receive that energy with love. Before understanding and practising nadi shodhana pranayama or nerve purification pranayama, let us understand our constitution, the structure that God has designed.

In the human brain, there are two hemispheres—the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere has important centres—logic, analysis, inquiry, argumentation, exploration etc. The right hemisphere contains spiritual centres, intuitive centers, creative centers and emotional centers in it. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body.

If you see carefully the life patterns or the moods in a day, you experience that your moods keep on changing every two or three hours. The mood changes from negative to positive, from extrovert to introvert, from outgoing to withdrawn. When the moods change, the working pattern in the mind changes from left hemisphere to right, or right to left. At that time, the breathing pattern also changes from the left nostril to the right nostril or the right to the left. Whenever you experience a change in your mind, you can feel the shift of your breathing. This is creating a series of problems for all of us.

Of the 72,000 nerve channels that work in our body, three are very important. These are called ida, pingala and sushumna. They are also called chandra nadi, surya nadi and amruta nadi. If you see from the physiological point of view, to the left side of the spine, there is a set of nervous system travelling and it is called ida nadi. The pingala is running along the right side of the spinal column. The sushumna is at the centre of the spinal column. These are in the sookshma shareera, the subtle body, and not in the sthoola shareera, the physical body. You can roughly equate these three channels in the sthoola shareera with the para-sympathetic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system and the central nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system inhibits or controls an action. The sympathetic nervous system accelerates an action. The heart too is controlled by the two nervous systems, the sympathetic and para-sympathetic.

Let us understand it by an example. You are walking and a dog chases you. What happens? The sympathetic nervous system becomes very active and the walking pace is accelerated. It makes your heart work more and more. The heart-beat increases. By chance, if the activity of increasing the heartbeat goes on, what will happen? The heart will burst out like the tube of a vehicle. So, up to some point, the sympathetic nervous system should work. After some time, that activity should be controlled by the para-sympathetic nervous system, which starts inhibiting or controlling the accelerated activity. This system is working in the physical body.

The chandra nadi stimulates the mind to become introvert. It makes the mind philosophical, or suspends a personality in a state of “not-feeling-like¬-doing-anything.” The surya nadi does just the opposite. It influences the mind to go out, to indulge in activity, to logically argue. The chandra nadi takes you inside and the surya nadi brings you outside. This pattern is going on continuously in us.

When you inhale through the left nostril, you activate the right hemisphere. When you exhale through the right, you relax the left hemisphere. When you inhale through the right nostril, you activate the left hemisphere, and when you exhale through the left, you relax the right hemisphere. It means, you are activating and relaxing each hemisphere by turns. In that way you activate both of your hemispheres, you activate both the parts of your personality and you relax both the hemispheres and both sides of the body. Thus one activates both intellect and intuition. Bhavana and vichara are being developed equally, side by side. When they are developed together, there is harmony and joy.

By doing nadi shodhana pranayama you can stay in the right mood. It creates a rhythm in the mind. Before doing pranayama, it is desirable to have a smooth and free pranic flow, in both the nostrils; then you can enjoy the pranayama in a better way. It is possible only when you do it consciously.

Before and after pranayama, feel the quality of breathing and the mental state. After doing pranayama, just be with yourself for sometime. Don’t do anything. When the body, mind and intellect become calm, serene, steady and still, feel your true nature. It is only when you sit still without doing anything with yourself, you will be able to find out who you are and what your nature is.

My sincere request to all of you is to learn the practice of this pranayama through an expert, or attend our programs, experience the benefits and teach this pranayama to as many as possible.

In the service of Parampara,
Sri Pattabhiram