4 Things necessary for Successful Pranayama Practice

GS mentions that by practice of pranayama, a man can become like god.

There are 4 things necessary for the practice of pranayama:

1. Place – it must be favourable and secluded
2. Time – it must be either spring or autumn
3. Food – it must be moderate and easily digestible
4. Purification of Naadis

1. Place

One should select place for pranayama

1. not far from home (his country) – where yoga is not acknowledged.
2. not in forest – where there is no protection and
3. not in a capital city / not in the crowd – where there is distraction
4. in a country where the king is good, food can be easily obtained and there is no distraction.

GS has further described that hut of the yogi must not very low or very high and should be free from insects. It should be plastered with cow-dung. GS requires hut of a yogi to be at hidden place.

2. Time

GS suggests the practitioner not to commence pranayama practice during the following seasons (4):

1. Hemanta (Winter) (November – December)
2. Sisira (Cold) (January – February)
3. Grishma (Hot) (May – June)
4. Varsha (rainy) (July-August)

GS suggests the practitioner to commence pranayama practice during the remaining seasons:

1. Spring (Vasanta) (March – April)
2. Autumn (Sarat) (September – October)

3. Food (Mitahara)

GS suggests for moderation of diet for success in Yogic Practices and rice, barley or wheaten bread alongwith mudga beans, gram, etc, while maintaining food hygiene. Moderation means half of the stomach filled with food and leaving half of the stomach empty.  Under this moderation, half the stomach should be filled with food, one quarter with water and one quarter should be kept empty for practising pranayama.

GS also suggests to eat patola (a kind of cucumber), jack-fruit, kakkola (a kind of berry), fig, unripe plaintain, the small plaintain, stem and roots, brinjal and medicinal roots and fruits.

GS allows to eat cardamom, jaiphal, cloves, aphrodisiacs and stimulants, the rose-apple, haritaki and palm dates while practising Yoga, and easily digestible, agreeable and cooling foods which nourish the humours of the body.

GS has identified 5 vegetables leaves fit food for Yoga – Green, fresh vegetables, black vegetables, leaves of patola.

GS allows to take little milk and ghee daily and food twice daily (1 in the noon and one in evening) before starting Pranayama.

GS has identified the following foods /actions prohibited for practice of pranayama:

• Bitter acid, salt, pungent and roasted things, curd, whey, heavy vegetables, wine, palmouts and over-ripe jack-fruits.
• Kulattha and masur beans, pandu fruit, pumpkins and vegetable stems, gourds, berries, katha bel, kanta-bilva and palasa.
• Kadamba, jambira, bimba, lukucha, onions, lotus, kamaranga, piyala, binga, kemuka.
• Fresh butter, ghee, thickened milk, sugar and date-sugar as well as ripe plaintain, cocoa-nut, pomegranate, dates, lavant fruit, amlaki and everything containing acid juices.
• Hard (not easily digestible), sinful food, or putrid food or very hot or very stale food, as well as very cooling or very much exciting food.
• Much Travelling, company of women, and warming by fire.
• Early morning baths, fasting or anything giving pain to the body, so also is prohibited to him eating only once a day or not eating at all. But he can remain without food for 3 hours.

4. Purification of Naadis

GS suggests to sit on kusa-grass, antelope skin, tiger skin or a blanket or on earth i east ward or north ward direction to practice pranayama, only after purification of his naadis. GS justifies that if the naadis are not purified and are filled with faeces, then air will not enter the naadis.

There are two types of purification : Samanu and Nirmanu

1. Nirmanu is physical cleansings called dhautis (Shat-Karmas).
2. Samanu is done by Bij-Mantra.

Samanu is an advanced method of purifying the body’s energy channels known as the nadis. This practice combines pranayama, japa (a meditative chanting of mantras) and chakra visualization.  Samanu is often practiced using the bija (seed) mantras of the elements: yam (air), ram (fire), tam (water) and lam (earth).

1. In Padmasana, meditate on the Bijakshara of Vayu (Yam) which is of smoke colour. Inhale through the left nostril. Repeat the Bijakshara 16 times. This is Puraka. Retain the breath till you repeat the Bija 64 times. This is Kumbhaka. Then exhale through the right nostril very, very slowly till you repeat the Bijakshara 32 times.

2. The navel is the seat of Agnitattva. Meditate on this Agnitattva. Then draw the breath through the right nostril repeating 16 times the Agni Bija (Ram). Retain the breath till you count the Bija 64 times. Then exhale slowly through the left nostril till you repeat mentally the Bija letter 32 times.

3. Fix the gaze at the tip of the nose. Inhale through the left nostril repeating the Bija  (Tham) 16 times. Retain the breath till you repeat the Bija (Vam) 64 times. Now imagine that the nectar that flows from the moon runs through all the vessels of the body and purifies them. Then exhale slowly through the right nostril till you repeat the Prithvi Bija (Lam) 32 times.

The Nadis are purified nicely by the practice of the above three kinds of Pranayama by sitting firmly in your usual posture.