In Western concepts of person, ‘spirit’ can mean a mediating force
between a person’s body and soul. In physiological terms, breath is sub-
ject to both voluntary and involuntary control. Breathing prevails in our
waking, sleeping, and even unconscious states, yet it may be controlled in
its depth, timing, and quality. Yoga identifies breath as an effective
psychophysiological bridge to gaining control of the movement of the
subtle energy, pra ̄Óna—the energy funding the mind’s activities—and thus
to achievement of Yoga’s goal, citta-vÓrtti-nirodha:calming the vÓrttis, or
‘turnings’ of the mind.
To illustrate the function of pr ̄aÓnay ̄ ̄ama, Swami Vivekananda tells a
parable about a king’s minister whom the king imprisoned in a high
tower. The minister asked his wife to bring to the tower a beetle, some
honey, and some silk thread, pack thread or string, twine, and rope.
The husband ordered her to attach the silken thread firmly to the beetle,
then to smear its horns with a drop of honey, and to set it free on the
wall of the tower, with its head pointing upwards. She obeyed all these
instructions, and the beetle started on its long journey. Smelling the
honey ahead it crept slowly onwards, in the hope of reaching the honey,
until at last it reached the top of the tower, when the minister grabbed
the beetle and got possession of the silken thread. He told his wife to tie
the other end to the pack thread, and after he had drawn up the pack
thread, he repeated the process with the stout twine, and lastly with the
rope. The rest was easy. The minister descended from the tower by
means of the rope, and made his escape. In this body of ours the breath
motion is the “silken thread”; by laying hold of and learning to control
it we grasp the pack thread of the nerve currents, and from those the
stout twine of our thoughts, and lastly the rope of pra ̄Óna, controlling
which we reach freedom.^59In the most basic terms, pra ̄Ónay ̄ ama ̄ involves stopping the breath for some
amount of time between inhalation and exhalation. Ordinary breathing
is erratic, varying with an individual’s mental and physical states.
Pr ̄aÓn ̄ayama ̄ serves to steady the mind and nerve currents by controlling
the breath, thus controlling the energy of the body/mind system.
To bring under the influence of the will both the physical and mental
conditions by introducing rhythm into them is the method of the exer-
cise of pra ̄Ónay ̄ ̄ama.^60Iyengar explains: “Normally the breath is unrestrained and irregular. Ob-
serving these variations, and conditioning the mind to control the inflow,
outflow, and retention of the breath in a regular, rhythmic pattern, is
pra ̄Ónay ̄ ̄ama.”^61 The technique of stilling the breath is called kumbhaka.
Kumbhameans ‘jar,’ ‘vessel,’ or ‘receptacle’: the body and particularly
one line long
118 religious therapeutics