The interdependence of various appendages of Asthang Yoga of Patanjali

               The ashtang yoga of Patanjali is broadly divided in to two parts i.e Bahiranga Yoga and Antarang Yoga. The Bahirang Yoga consists of yama, niyama, asanas, pranayam and pratyahar whereas Antarang Yoga is  dharana, dhyan and Samadhi.

            Here a question arises that whether various appendages of bahirang yoga are inter-connected to each other or have no connection of any kind. Can we over step any stage and reach up to Samadhi i.e. final objective of yoga.

            As Patanjali described yamas are satya, ahinsa, asteya, aparigrh and brahmacharya whereas niyama are shauch, santosh, swadhyay, tapa and ishwar pran nidhana. A sadhak of yoga is supposed to begin with yama and niyama. The observance of principles of yama and niyama clean our psycho i.e. they have direct bearings on mental process of an individual. Our behavior is basically controlled by various psycho factors like sex, enmity, anger, love, greed, delusions, malice, partiality, pride, passions, jealousy, hate, sorrow, repentance, etc. Our mind and consequently body, both sharply react according to intensity of these manovikara and persistence of the manovikar ultimately leads to psycho-somatic disorders. If these negative emotions continue in our mind the dhyana is impossible.  Therefore before proceeding to higher stages of yoga one has to detach oneself from these baser emotions otherwise he will gain nothing.

            The asanas are the sitting poses. Their number equates with the animal categories living on the earth. However 84 asanas are important and 32 asanas are to be practiced daily. When we sit at asanas or a particular pose, the stress rests on specific part, organ, and tissue of the body. Thus every asana is linked with particular part of body where stress occurs.

Pranayam is the fourth appendage of Patanjali’s ‘ Ashtang Yoga.’  The shlok 49 of Sadhana Pad describes Pranayam as under:-

  II.49 tasmin sati svasa prasvasayoh gativicchedah pranayamah

            The pranayam is made up from the word prana and ayama. The ayama literally means dimension. Thus dimension to prana is pranayam. It is not mere breathing, inhaling, exhaling, or stops breathing, but systematic patterns of breathing where various dimensions are given to prana. The yoga shastra described eight types of pranayam i.e. suryabhedi, ujjayi, seetkari, sheetali, bhastrika, bhramari, moorchha, and plawini.

The ‘Prana’ means a type of universal-cosmic energy present in us. Our existence depends on certain definite level of energy-‘Prana’ in the body. In the Vedic literature term Prana is referred to the cosmic force. In fact Prana  is the oldest of all the terms used in the field of Yoga, e.g. in Kathopanisad we get the reference to the term ‘Prana’ as:

“Yadidam kin cha jagat sarvam Prana ejati nihsrtam.”

In this reference it is pointed out that the whole world owes its existence to the       vibrations of the ‘Prana’. Another term carrying the same meaning is ‘Spandana’. It also carries the same meaning as that of ‘Ejana’ i.e. vibrating, pulsating or radiating type of energy. So, in the word ‘Prana’ there is a concept of vibration, pulsation or radiation.

 It is the requirement of every cell, every organ, and every part of the body. Therefore it is mandatory that certain quantum of ‘Prana’ should reach to every corner of a cell. It is said that ‘Prana’ flows in the body through the intricate net of ‘Nadi’. ‘Nadi’system is very peculiar in human beings and all ‘Nadis’ originates from ‘Ida’, ‘Pingala’ and ‘Sushumna’. The ‘Prana’ flows within these ‘Nadi’ system and reaches to the most interior parts of a cell where it liberates energy in the presence of ‘Pran Vayu’. Without ‘Prana’ we are no more alive. We are declared dead as soon as ‘Prana’ leaves our body.

The Prana Vayu is not mere oxygen but all components of the universe which we inhale constitute Prana Vayu.

The ‘Prana’ is classified in two categories i.e. main prana and sub main prana. The ‘Pran’, ‘Apan’, ‘Udan’, ‘Vyan’, and ‘Saman’ are main ‘Pranas’ while ‘Devdatt’,  ‘Koormi’, ‘Kookar’ ‘Nrachi’ and ‘kripa’ come under sub main category.

  The prana and chitta are in constant contact with each other. They are like twins. The prana becomes focused where chitta is, and chitta where prana is. It is said that as long as the breath is still, prana is still, and hence the chitta is still. All types of vibrations and fluctuations come to a standstill when prana and chitta are steady and silent.

Our emotions control the breathing pattern. For instance if we are angry, we breath fast, long and ferociously. When we are cool, the breath is also cool and calm. The vice versa the breath control our emotions. For instance, if we do surya bhedi pranayam warmness comes in our body and very soon we start swatting. The sheetalee pranayam has the reverse reaction and it cools down us. The Swaroday Vigyaan further explains the phenomena that how breathing pattern control physiological, psychological and metabolical processes of our body and in turn our activities.

Now what happens when we sit on an asana. The particular part of our body gets stretched and the breathing pattern automatically changes accordingly. This can be witnessed if we stretch our right hand in front of us parallel to earth, we start inhaling from the pingala swar immediately and the ida swar start as soon as we stretch our left hand. Likewise when we sit on a particular asana our breathing pattern adjust accordingly.

Secondly when strain or stress comes in a particular part of body our dhyana is immediately diverted to that part and after sometimes stress or pain go away. Suppose we concentrate our dhyana on our fore hand for a few minutes initially we will feel some irritations and later on the feelings of lightness and weightlessness start appearing. This is because flow of prana start taking place in the direction of the hand and the portion of the body is specially energized and ultimately pain, stress, strains are over.

  The sitting on aasana, the particular part of the body is stretched and our dhyana reaches there immediately. The intensity and concentration of dhyana will in the proportion of observance of yama and niyama. If yama and niyama are not observed our mind will waver and flicker and we will fail in concentrating on a particular part of the body. Therefore flow of pranas in that particular direction could not be possible and stress or strain will continue.

  Thus it is evident that all steps of yoga ranging from pranayam to dhyana are compulsory for Samadhi and no step can be ignored or over stepped. By practicing asana daily the parana reaches and rejuvenate in all parts of the body and it remains perfect and healthy. Only a healthy body can withstand energy released during the process of Samadhi.