Pranayama & The Nervous System
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
The nervous system contains the central and autonomic nervous system. The central nervous system consists of the brain, twelve pairs of cranial nerves, the spinal cord, and thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves. The cranial and spinal nerves spread throughout the body. These nerves send out and send in to the brain pain and motor impulses. Prana flows throughout these pathways. It also flows through all the nadis, or energetic pathways, which have been studied by ancient yogis and correlate with many of the meridian paths described in literature about acupuncture techniques.
Nadis means channels or vehicles. Some texts describe 72,000 nadis in the body, other texts mention as many as 350,000 of them, but fourteen are considered important, and only six of them are the most important of all. They are called the ida, pingala, sushumna, brahmani, chitrana, and the vijnana. Among these six, three are even more important than any others. These are centered on the spinal cord, wrapping upward. We learned about these in the UMS Chakras & Auras course while exploring kundalini. Here we will look at how they relate to the nostrils and breathing.
Pingala (surya) flows through the right nostril. Ida (chandra) flows through the left nostril. Both criss-cross back and forth across the spine. Sushumna is the central pathway moving straight down the middle of the spine and is the moment when both nostrils are open and operating equally. The meditative expansion of that moment is called sandhya, a state in which the meditator cannot be disturbed by sounds, thoughts, or any other disturbance from within or without. It is a “magic moment” or “magic zone.” All three of these nadis begin in the base of the spine, in the root chakra, or mudladhara.
When the ida and pingala criss-cross back and forth across the spine, intersecting with the sushumna, these intersections are the chakras. Five of them are on the spine and the uppermost two are in the head. The ones in the head do not have the criss-cross action from the nadis. The ones on the spine do. The ida, pingala, and sushumna are the three main nadis, but multitudes of other nadis radiate out from the chakras as well.
Scientists have attempted to compare the nadis to what we know about modern anatomy, but they do not correlate as exactly as scientists would like. Even though nadis bear a terrific resemblance to the nervous system, they cannot be detected through dissection. They are part of the energy body, which supports the physical body. The physical body is built around the energy system of the nadis. The nerves belong to the physical body and the nadis belong to the subtle body, two different systems indeed.
The techniques of pranayama are designed to bring the central nadi, the sushumna, into primary function, rather than the ida or pingala dominating the functions of prana flow. With activation of the sushumna as the primary flow for prana, the yogi experiences freedom from the human condition, and joy. By opening up flow of the sushumna, the yogi raises kundalini, the sleeping serpent, from the root chakra, the mudladhara. This kundalini energy, which is very powerful, passes through and blows open each chakra. The resulting states of consciousness, represented by the thousand petalled lotus, the crown chakra at the top of the head, is considered the highest state a person can reach in the human form. It is union with cosmic consciousness, beyond time and space, and also called shakti. The person merges his individual self, soul, or atman, with the cosmic soul, or Brahman.
Pranayama is one of the pieces of raja yoga (royal yoga). The first four pieces are yama (restraints), niyama (observances), asana (postures), and pranayama. The next four pieces of raja yoga are pratyahara (sense withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (superconscious state, freedom from reincarnational cycles).
Controlling breath and nerves results in controlling the mind, and controlling the mind results in freedom. According to yoga, disease is the result of imbalance and blockage in the flow of prana. Psychologists have discovered that there is a connection between personality types and breathing patterns. The yogi believes that by changing the pattern of breathing, one can transform the personality. When the mind is disturbed, the breath is disturbed and vice versa. By making the breath deep, even, and smooth, the mind relaxes and thus the personality changes, or the physical disease goes away.
One of the aims of yogic breathing, the practice of pranayama, is to regulate this unequal flow of breath through the nostrils, bringing balance between them, and having both nostrils equalized in their flow. This equalization devitalizes the ida and pingala and opens up the blocked sushumna nadi. Equalizing the flow of breath in the left and right nostrils brings health, balance and harmony to the mind and body. This is not done on a 24 hour per day basis, however, for this would actually cause an imbalance. It is simply useful for determining which side is dominant at any given time if a particular activity is coming up that would be served better by using one side or the other as the dominant affector.
The nadis, also known as energetic pathways or meridian channels, are the pathways of the subtle body through which prana flow. Through yogic breathing or pranayama breathing, kundalini energy or shakti can travel more efficiently through the energy body. Pingala and ida are the subtle energy which enter through the nostrils and bring the mind into the state of sandhya or samadhi yoga. The most important nadi in the practice of yogic breathing is the sushumna. Through this central channel cosmic consciousness or shakti can bring the yogi into the superconscious state.