QUESTIONS ON THE PRACTICE OF ASANAS AND PRANAYAMA
Q: Is it advisable to practise asanas and pranayama without a proper guide?
A: Beginners can practise a few easy but important asanas with the help of books. Simple asanas such as sarvangasana (shoulderstand), matsyasana (fish pose), are prescribed for all and can certainly be practised without the help of a teacher. As a matter of fact, we are often doing these asanas, though not to the same degree of perfection, during our daily life. When you bend down to pick up your handkerchief from the floor, you are also doing padahasthasana (standing hands to feet pose)! However, for the more difficult asanas you must get training from an adept.
Q: In the case of those who practice intense body-building for example, when they abandon the practice, they can fall prey to certain diseases of the heart and lungs. Will the practitioner of pranayama not develop some disease of the lungs if he or she later gives it up?
A: No, and I can say so from my own experience. I was vigorously practising pranayama, of course under guidance, spending over twelve hours a day in pranayama alone. Soon after I did not have the opportunity to do even one round of pranayama for several months. I suffered absolutely no ill-effects. On the contrary, I reaped the fruits of my period of pranayama, in that I had a light body, great power of endurance, resistance to disease, absence of fatigue and wonderful vitality. This is due to the fact that asanas and pranayama do not create any artificial condition of muscular development, but strengthen the very root of health. There is absolutely no danger of an untoward reaction at any period in our life. It is so even in the case of asanas. The good effects achieved by even one day’s practice are there forever. However, if one leaves off the practice for a long time one may feel some difficulty in recommencing, and take some time before one re-attains perfection.
Q: Is it absolutely necessary to practice asana and pranayama if one aspires for God-realisation?
A: Asanas and pranayama are not an end in themselves. They are only steps which help aspirants to ascend the spiritual ladder and remove the tamasic (lethargic) and rajasic (restless) nature of the body and mind. They make the body very light and remove physical and mental ailments so that the practitioner is able to sit for meditation for a longer time without any difficulty. Through pranayama the nadis (energy channels) are purified and concentration of mind is achieved to a very high degree. If the nadis are purified the prana (vital force) moves in the sushumna. Then the mind is stilled and the senses brought under control. When the mind and its vrittis (thought waves) are stilled the real divine nature is seen clearly in the mind-lake. Mere pranayama itself will not help the aspirant unless he combines selfless service and worship to remove the impurities of the mind.
Q: Can asanas and other physical exercise be combined?
A: If you practise asanas for over an hour, then avoid too much other physical exercise straight afterwards. You can take a little exercise like walking or gentle running. If you want to take more vigorous physical exercise, then do asanas in the morning and the other physical exercise in the evening or at least after a two-hour interval. But you can get excellent benefits by practising asanas alone.
Q: Can I take a bath or shower before asanas and pranayama?
A: Asana practitioners can be divided into two main groups:
a) those who are spiritually inclined who practise asanas and pranayama to gain control over body and mind, for spiritual development. This group can be divided again:
(i) those who practice hatha yoga as their main path of yoga, or
(ii) those who practice asanas and pranayama only as an auxiliary to their main path of yoga
b) those who practise asanas and pranayama only as physical exercise, to stay fit.
Those who take hatha yoga as their main spiritual practice, should not take a cold bath or shower early in the morning. A cold bath in the morning is completely prohibited by the author of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, one of the great treatises on the practices of hatha yoga. There are many strict rules for these practitioners regarding diet, etc. They must follow strictly all these rules to gain quick progress in the spiritual path. They are allowed only to take a bath or shower in warm water and even that not in the early hours of the day. Others need not be so rigid as they are practising asanas and pranayama only as an auxiliary or as a way of staying fit. They can take a bath/shower half an hour before or after the asanas.
Q: Do asanas help to improve eyesight?
A: In the beginning stages, sirshasana (headstand) and eye exercises may help. The main cause of not getting the desired effect is not doing the asanas regularly. Many people practise for some days and then leave the practice and then start again after some time. You must take only sattvic (healthy, vegetarian) food to get the benefit. You must avoid all kinds of non-vegetarian food. You may include a few eye exercises and tratak also along with your daily asana practice. Do twelve Surya Namaskar (Sun Salute) repeating the mantras of Surya. Swami Sivananda always said: “Be regular in your practice. You will get wonderful eyesight.”
Q: How to get rid of too much sleep?
A: Regular practice of asanas and pranayama removes the tamasic (lethargic) nature of the body and the mind. Too much sleep is due to this tamasic quality which can predominate in certain persons. By asana practice, the tamasic quality of the body is removed and through pranayama the tamasic and rajasic (restless) nature of the mind is also removed. Also dietetic regulation helps much in reducing sleep. Your night meals must be light and the food must be taken early so that it is digested before going to bed. People generally sleep for eight hours out of which they may get hardly one hour of sound deep sleep. Actually they are refreshed by this one hour of sleep and not by the remaining seven hours wasted in bed. You must know how to relax the muscles and nerves to get sound sleep, then you can reduce sleep to a minimum number of hours.
Q: How to get good sleep?
A: The main cause for not getting good sleep is spending long hours in bed. People go to bed late at night and get up late. Usually they get sleep only between 3:00 and 6:00 am. If they changed their habits they would have good sound sleep. They must give exercise to their nerves and muscles through asanas. This way they can have good sleep without any difficulty.
Q: Is it harmful to leave the practice of asanas and then practise again after some months?
A: It is not at all harmful to leave the practice and then restart, but you will not derive the maximum benefit if you discontinue the practice. For example, it is harmful to take heavy meals after a long fast. If you take a heavy meal immediately after breaking the fast you will get indigestion. You must take first a liquid diet and then slowly come to the normal diet. Similarly after discontinuing asana practice for a long period you must take up the practice again very slowly and gradually. Then there will be no trouble at all.
Q: How long can sirshasana (headstand) be practiced?
A: For the ordinary person up to ten to fifteen minutes will do. You should not attempt to increase it beyond fifteen minutes. You can start with half a minute and then increase the period slowly to ten minutes or so within two or three months. There are people practising sirshasana for an hour or more. But they keep strict control over their diet (sattvic) and brahmacharya (control over the senses). Those who have high blood pressure should not attempt sirshasana.
Q: Is it necessary to be a vegetarian? Is there any harm if one takes non-vegetarian food and practises asanas?
A: Asanas are meant for developing sattvic (pure, harmonious, balanced) qualities. By the regular practice of asanas, rajasic (restless) and tamasic (lethargic) qualities are removed and the mind is purified. Sattvic qualities are created by asanas and rajasic and tamasic qualities are created by a non-vegetarian diet. So one cannot get the real benefit from asanas without taking a sattvic (vegetarian) diet. There is no harm if one takes a wrong diet occasionally, but a regular non-vegetarian diet will bring undesirable results. Then if there is little progress, don’t blame the asanas and pranayama!! Even a person who is not on the path of yoga should not take a non-vegetarian diet, as it is harmful to our system. To get maximum benefits spiritually and physically one must be a pure vegetarian.
Q: Is it necessary to combine both asanas and pranayama?
A: You can derive maximum benefit if you combine pranayama along with asanas. Asanas will help to remove all impurities from the internal and external organs. Pranayama gives fresh energy to the organs of the body including the nerves and the cells. You can have unfading youth by combining asanas and pranayama. Pranayama creates fresh energy which is distributed to the different parts of the body through asanas.