Pranayama means breath control. Patanjali who wrote the traditional and illuminating yoga sutras mentions the word pranayama as one of the five components of yoga. Pranayama means to extend and overcome one’s normal limitations by mastery over the breath. It provides the method whereby one is able to attain higher states of vibratory energy. In other words one is able to activate and to regulate the prana comprising the human framework and thereby make oneself more sensitive to vibrations in the cosmos and within. Pranayama is a method of refining the makeup of one’s pranic body, one’s physical body and also one’s mind. Pranayama brings new levels of awareness by stopping or restraining distractions of the mind. Pranayama practices reduce thoughts, conflicts, etc. in the mind to a minimum and can even stop the mind processes completely. This restraint of mental activities allows one to know higher levels of existence.
Pranayama cleans the mind and allows the consciousness to come through unobstructed. Pranayama is an important part of yoga practices and as such is mentioned in almost all traditional texts on yoga. When the pranic body is not functioning properly then the mind is simultaneously disturbed, when the flow of prana is harmonized then the mind is also brought into equanimity. The practices of pranayama are intended to bring about calmness in the mind by harmonizing the pranic flow in the body. In pranayama regulation of the mind and body is accomplished through manipulation of the pranic body by means of the breath. There are four important modes in pranayama practices, they are Pooraka(inhalation), Rechaka(exhalation), Antar or antaranga kumbhaka(retention of breath after inhalation, Bahir or bahiranga kumbhaka(retention of the breath of exhalation).
Patanjali explains four types of pranayama in three sutras. The first three are
- Rhythmic deep inhalation and exhalation without retention
- Inhalation retention and exhalation retention and
- Pranayama that is regulated and measured with minute precision, with long-in breaths and out-breaths, bringing them to exquisite fitness.
The fourth type of pranayama mentioned by Patanjali is when the mind automatically and non-deliberately remains still, breath does not move. In this fourth state, the feel of the seer and of the seen both fade, and awareness arises. It transcends the regulation of in-breath, out-breath and retention, as well as place, duration and minute precision. This retention has no reference, sphere or realm but transcends the above three types of pranayama, which follows a certain methodology. That is why it is called non-deliberate pranayama.