Patanjali on Breathing

pracchardana - vidhaaranaabhyaam vaa praanasya

(regulating the inhalation and exhalation of the vital energy)

Irregular breathing is an indication of some disturbance in the mind or the heart. Watching our breathing provides the most accessible test of suggestion that whatever we pay attention to changes in quality. Breathng goes on all the time, we cannot breathe. But if we watch our breathing, its quality changes. And in its turn, a change in the quality of our breathing affects our emotional state. While we live, we breathe. The movement of breath is require for the life of each cell of the bod, yet we do not decide to breathe. Where does the breath come from? Does it belong to the individual? The source of breath is a great mystery and we are filled with this mystery each time we breathe.

"The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being' (Genesis 2:7).

In all ancient languages, the words for 'breath' and 'spirit' are intimately connected, indicating their close relationship. Respiration is the act of receiving the spirit again and again with the air. The Sanskrit term prana is translated as 'breath', but prana is not only breath in the usual sense of that word. Ordinary breath, the most manifest symptom of life, is only the obvious aspect of prana. Like the Chinese equivalent, chi, prana refers to a whole spectrum of subtle energies, manifesting at the coarse material level as ordinary breath in which we take in air through the nostrils. Our while organism, not only the nostrils, participates in receiving finer alchemical substances, impressions, and energies. The substances we can take in from the whole field of prana depend on the depth and quality of our attention. What an accomplished yogi breaths in and utilizes is not the same substances as breathed in by a novice.

Attention to our own breathing in and breathing out, without manipulating it in any way, is one of the simplest and most helpful practices in yoga for reaching a tranquil mind. The Chandayoga Upanishad (VI 8.2) says:

"Just as a bird tied by a string, after flying in various directions without find a place elsewhere settles down at the place where it is bound, so also the mind, my dear after flying in various directions without finding a resting place elsewhere settles down in breath, for the mind, my dear, is bound to breath.'

- Extracted from "The Wisdom of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra" by "Ravi Ravindra"

LISTENING TO GURU IS AN ART

anye tvevamjanantaha shrutvanyebhya upaasatae |

teyopi chathitrartyeva mrutyum shrutiparaynaa: ||

Some men, ignorant of the three main roads, listen to the instructions of the guru. Following the path of worship, regarding the ancient teachings as the Highest Refuge, such men also attain immortality. 

Listening to the Guru is an art that it willl take the disciple to the Supreme Goal. If the devotee knows nothing of scientific yoga and sankhya reasoning, and is unable to dissociate him sufficinetly from his activities to qualify as a karma yogi, still, by following with full faith his guru's teachings he will achieve emancipation.

Sometime students say to me: "Such and such person is making better spiritual progress than I am. why?"

I reply: "He knows how to listen."

All men would be able to transform their lives by hearing with deep attention the simple counsel given in the ethical codes of all religions. It is the stony core of egotism in the hearts of most men that prevents their listening carefully to the wisdom of the ages.

(Extracted from the book "God Talks with Arjuna "The Bhagavad Gita" by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda)

Importance of Guru

Guru-Bhakti is absolutely necessary. Guru-Seva with Atma-Lakshya will take you to God
immediately. People generally complain: “We do not get good Gurus these days.” This is a lame excuse. You can take even the worst possible rogue as your Guru. You will have to change your angle of vision. When you look at a coconut made of sugar, you have a double consciousness. You know pretty well that it is not coconut. In your heart there is Bhava, it is sugar and sugar alone. Even though you see the world, it is really not. This is the Nischaya of the Vedantic student. It is the determination. Even so, the defects of the ‘rogue-Guru’ do not exist for the disciple who has taken him as his Guru with Bhakti. The aspirant should deify and superimpose all the attributes of the Lord on the ‘rogue-Guru’.

You should never look into the defects of the Guru. You must deify the Guru. Guru, Ishvar,
Brahman, Om, Truth are all one. You must strictly obey and carry out his orders. You must think that underneath the name and form of the Guru, there is the all-pervading pure consciousness. In course of time the physical form will vanish and you will realise your own self, the pure Brahmic consciousness that lies at the back of the physical form of your Guru. When once you have taken a man as your Guru, you should never change even if you get a man with greater developments or Siddhis. Then only you will have faith. Through strong faith, you will realise then and there, Brahman, the God in that Guru. You must become the famous Bhakta, Pipa of the well-known Bhaktamala, who took a rogue Nata as his Guru and when he saw his Nata-Guru dancing on the bamboos in the open market, he took him as Guru, the Brahma-incarnate, prostrated before him and thus eventually had his Self-realisation through the form of the rogue-Guru, the Nata.

(Extracted from the "Yoga in Daily Life" by "Swami Sivananda" pg 10)

The Power of Daily Practice

You must cultivate your practice
over an extended period of time;
it must be steady, without gaps,
and it must be done correctly —
for then a firm foundation is laid.

Sa tu dirgha kala nairantarya
satkara-asevito dirdha bhumih.

Changing the mind, the heart, is infinitely more difficult than anything else we do—more demanding than education or work or raising a family. It takes time, and we need to give it that time, for as long as it takes.

And the time must be given daily: our spiritual practice must become a regular part of our day, as important as eating or working or sleeping.

Our minds are infinitely powerful. We can learn to be good at anything, if only we give it an hour of two of practice a day. But every day.

We all know that there are right ways of fixing a car and wrong ways too. If you try to fix your
car but you don’t know what you are doing, you can really make expensive mistakes.

Fixing heart and mind are no different. We need to know what we’re
doing—we need good, clear instructions on what to do, from someone who’s already done it themselves.

(Extracted from "THE ESSENTIAL YOGA SUTRA" - Ancient Wisdom for Your Yoga  by Geshe Michael Roach & Christie McNally)

Hatha Yoga

Atha yoga-anushashanam.

Another meaning of yoga is to become whole. Ultimately we only become whole when we are truly capable of helping others with the things that really matter: when we can help them understand how they came into this world, and what life is for, and whether it has to end with losing everything.

This then, says Master Patanjali, is why I write my short book. He wants us to know, from the very beginning, that his book contains something of ultimate importance, something worth the precious hours of our life.

And I will only review, says the Master, what I have heard from my holy teachers. He attacks his own pride: I have nothing new to tell you, and there is nothing here that I have made up myself. I am only a vessel
for the wisdom of the ages, and I pass it on to you—tried, tested, and unadulterated.

And he says, “I will” write this book, for once a Master promises to do something, they do it—or die trying.
All the great books of India begin with these three noble themes. Their power, their karma, stops all obstacles to the work we now begin.

(Extracted from the "The Essentials of Yoga Sutra" by Geshe Michael Roach & Christie McNally)