Mahakaal : Secerts of Panchakshri sadhana - Part I

Pranayam is a critical step that comes at fourth step in Ashtang (eight step) yoga. A yogi starts his yatra with awareness of his engagements with the outside world using a set of qualities. This set of qualities is called Yam. Yogi goes further deeper and turns inside. He uses another set of rules for self control while being inside. This set of rules is called Niyam. 

Yogi goes deeper and gets into next stage. He stills his body to get out of bodily limitations. This step is called Asana. Further on this yogic path one reaches a state where after leaving the body in a comfortable rest posture, the awareness starts exploring breath. Breath starts taking different dimensions of flow in space and time. 

These Ayaamas or dimensions of Pran or vitality is called Pranayama. 

Blowing of flute is the step at this fourth level of Ashtang yoga. Once we know how to blow the flute, flute is ready to produce music.

One of the simplest way of blowing the flute is called Ujjayi but the caution here is that it has to be managed from naval. Naval movements should guide ujjayi. Pressure at naval pushes vitality to get into the entire body. Second level of playing flute starts after being able to accumulate vital energy and then learning to direct this flow.

 

                                                                                                                                                                            .....to be continued in part 6