XII :SITALI
Contract the lips and throw out the tongue. Fold the tongue like a tube and draw in the air through it making a hissing sound. Fill the lungs and stomach slowly with the air drawn in, and retain the same as long as you can do with comfort. Then exhale through both the nostrils. Practise this 10 to 20 times daily, morning and evening.
The practitioner acquires great tenacity of life and the power to repair the effects of injury. He is freed from all fevers, splenitis and several other organic diseases. Like crabs, lobsters, serpents and frogs, he becomes proof against all kinds of inflammations. He acquires the power to cast off his skin and endure the privation of air, food and drink. Poisons of all sorts in the blood are thrown out and the blood is purified. Scorpion-stings and serpent-bites cannot injure him in any way. Whenever you feel thirsty, do this Pranayama a few times. At once your thirst will be quenched.
XIII:BHASTRIKA
Bhastrika means bellows. Quick succession of powerful expulsions of breath is the chief characteristic of this Pranayama. Just as the village smith blows out his bellows quickly and rapidly, so also the practitioner of this exercise blows out the bellows of his lungs in quick and rapid succession.
Sit on Padmasana or Siddhasana with the body, neck and head erect. Close the mouth. Inhale and exhale quickly 6 to 10 times in rapid succession like the bellows of the village-smith. While practicing this Pranayama a hissing sound is loudly heard. If you can expel 10 times like this, the tenth expulsion is followed by a deepest inhalation, retained as long as it can be done with comfort, and another deepest exhalation. This completes one round of Bhastrika. Take rest for a while after one round is over, and do another round, and another round. In the beginning you can have three rounds in the morning and three in the evening. You must be able to expel 120 times at a stretch by cautious and gradual practice.
If you can do Kapalabhati and Ujjayi nicely, you will find this Pranayama quite easy. Some do this exercise till they get quite fatigued. Then you will profusely perspire. Stop the practice even if there is the slightest giddiness. Take a few normal breaths. Then you can resume the practice again after the giddiness is gone.
XIV:PLAVINI
This Pranayama requires some skill on the part of the practitioner. If you can do this perfectly, you can float on water for any length of time, even though you do not know swimming. It enables you to live purely on air for some days. It is done as follows: Drink the air like water through the mouth and fill your stomach with it. The stomach becomes inflated. You will hear a tympanic sound, if you tap it with your fingers. Practise the Pranayama slowly and gradually. The air is then expelled from the stomach by slow belching.
XV:KEVALA KUMBHAKA
Kumbhaka is of two sorts—Sahita and Kevala. The Kumbhaka that is associated with Puraka and Rechaka is called Sahita; that which is devoid of these two is called Kevala (pure and absolute). Kevala Kumbhaka should be practiced when the Sahita Kumbhaka has been completely mastered. In the Vasishtha Samhita you will find: “When after giving up inhalation and exhalation, one holds his breath with ease, it is absolute Kumbhaka (Kevala Kumbhaka).” In this Pranayama the practitioner can retain his breath as long as he likes. He attains the stage of Raja-Yoga. Practise this three times a day, morning, midday and evening. He is a real Yogi who knows this Kumbhaka and Pranayama. Now there is nothing unattainable by him in all the three worlds. This Kumbhaka cures all diseases, bestows longevity of life and awakens the Kundalini-Sakti, which passes through the hollow Sushumna-Nadi to the crown of the head, after piercing one Chakra after another.
BENEFITS OF PRANAYAMA
Perfection in Pranayama gives you the major eight Siddhis viz., Anima, Mahima, Laghima, Garima, Prapti, Prakamya, Vasitvam and Isitvam. Anima is the power to become as minute as you like, whereas Mahima makes you as big as you like. By Laghima you can make your body as light as a feather and fly in the sky thousands of miles in a minute. Garima can make your body as heavy as a mountain. By the power of Prapti you can predict all future events, understand unknown languages, cure any disease, hear distant sounds, see distant objects, smell mystical fragrant odours, touch the sun and the moon with the tip of your fingers from where you stand, and understand the language of birds and beasts. Indeed you can attain all desired objects. By Prakamya you can cast away the old skin and assume a youth-like appearance for an unusual length of time. You can also enter the body of another person. Sri Sankaracharya had this power. He entered the body of the Raja of Benares. Yayati, Tirumulanar and Raja Vikramaditya had also this power. Vasitvam is the power to tame wild beasts and bring them under your control. By the exercise of this power, you can make anybody obey your orders and wishes. You can control the elements and be a master of passions and emotions. Isitvam is the attainment of all divine powers. You now become the Lord of the universe. You can give life to a dead man. Kabirdas, Tulasidas, Akalkot Swami and many others had this power. By possessing this power you can penetrate all secrets of nature, know the events of the past, present and future and become one with the Supreme Soul.
You will also get the thirty-six other minor Siddhis such as freedom from hunger and thirst, heat and cold, pleasure and pain; death at your will, playing with gods, power to transmute baser metals into gold and so on (for further details refer to my book “Science of Pranayama.”).
