Discouraging pranayama? Shreya Asks

19/08/2008 shreya (http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Profile?uid=9921229793659283483)
Yoga and pranayama

From your words, I think, that you seem to be discouraging pranayama and yoga.
Am I right? Can I call you Master? Sir,
If yes, why? what are the alternatives? which is the true path?


19/08/2008 Krishnan Kartha
Welcome to the forum.
I am not discouraging any body. If courage is there, one cannot be discouraged! Faith in one's own practises takes him the goal. So a steadfast seeker never swerves from the path he has chosen.

And now here comes the question of choice. Find out the best for you;the convenient one.And be firm on that. It can be devotion, meditation, wisdom or anything else, even Yoga and Pranayama..

Regarding pranayama, I observe like this; man breathes 21600 times a day, says upanishads.With this much count one can very well become enlightened. By reducing the number you can have short cuts. But it is against the nature. There is a violence. Any violent methods will have its own backfire. When you hold breathe there is sudden change in chemistry of the brain and other parts of the body.This may produce some by-products. This can give you a "high" for sometime, but soon to fall back in to hyper sensuality.So be cautious. That is why Upanishads say, playing with prana is as adventorous and dangerous like trying to tether a mad elephant with a lotus stem.

That is all. I am not discouraging. Be courageous to go ahead in that path.Hence it is called the Raja Yoga, the Royal Path.Fit for kshatriyas, the warriors. It is really a war against mind. The whole meditation is a war against mind. And great warriors have become great contemplatives...

And the Yoga which we see around us as physical exercise.. it is just an exercise.Spirituality is away from it.It calms down the mind and prepares the body fit for spiritual journey.That is not spirituality itself.That is the difference. If you have succeded in any psoture, (asana jaya) you may go ahead and find out new pastures. Good luck.

About calling me names..I am not master. You can call me Krishnan. Master is known by his desciples as a tree is known by its fruits.So desciples are important than the master, I feel. Sri ramakrishna has many desciples.Only one among them became Vivekananda.Through Vivekananda we came to know about Sri Ramakrishna.

ok?