A student of yoga must bear in mind that he must follow yogic practices strictly according to tradition, the way scriptures prescribe if he desires any substantial benefit to be derived from yoga. In the scriptures, it is mentioned that asanas should be performed gradually, not in haste and with full awareness. For example, when you are practising a particular yogasana, the headstand pose or the shoulder stand for instance, you must know at which particular centre you should concentrate and which particular centre is to be relaxed. Supposing you lie on your back and raise your legs gradually until they are erect and vertical, the entire weight is supported now; you are in sarvangasana, but this is only the physical aspect, yoga is not physical. Your awareness must also actively participate in the process, and this awareness must be directed to the centre of the thyroid in the case of sarvangasana.
In other words, yoga is not mere physical exercise, but the psychological aspect must also be united in the venture. We have certain yogic centres in the body and during the time of performing the asanas, we should concentrate on these centres. Every set of asanas has a particular centre where the awareness is to be directed. While performing sarvangasana, awareness must be kept at the thyroid centre and then this centre begins to awaken.
The purpose of yoga is to awaken various psychic centres in the body. If the centres are not awakened, if they are in a potential state, yogasanas will not serve any useful purpose. If you think that without concentration, just by pressing your chin to your chest, you can activate your thyroid it is scientifically impossible. By pressing a particular gland, you cannot make the gland operate. You are pressing the thyroid gland, but it is not flowing because you are not concentrating on it. If you concentrate on the thyroid gland for five minutes, the thyroid gland will start flowing by virtue of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is stimulated by the thought process, and that is how sarvangasana is to be practised.
Fundamentally, there is no difference between the way (physical aspect only) others have been doing sarvangasana and the way scriptures recommended. The fundamental difference is in the psychological effort. Similarly, paschimottanasana is a very important asana for toning the pancreatic glands. This asana is good for so many things, but the main benefit is to revive the pancreas, which is responsible for controlling sugar and removing toxins.
There are different psychic passages in the body, but the main ones are two: one is in the spinal cord and the other one is in the throat. The inhalation and exhalation follow a psychic path. Inhalation taking place through one way and exhalation through another way. If you observe your flow of breath at the nostrils, you will see that sometimes the right nostril is flowing and sometimes the left. When the right one is clear, it means that the solar energy is in abundance and the lunar energy is blocked. To awaken the lunar energy, you will have to give greater emphasis to that system. So what you should do is to practise pranayama with the left nostril, and this is known as blowing. You should do ‘bhastrika’ pranayama through the left side.
It is important that before the breathing exercises, both nostrils should flow freely and equally. If they are not flowing equally you must find out the method and it is the most vital point in pranayama. Next is control of pranas. By this method, you try to expand your prana to the higher body. When the pranas shrink from the body, the body becomes ill and when pranas are properly distributed to all parts of the body the body becomes vigorous.
To ensure proper distribution of prana to all parts of the body, pawanmuktasana is performed which releases prana from wherever it has been blocked, all through the body. This exercise also eliminates unwanted toxins. The prana forces the psychological centre in the system and while these exercises might be known to most people the only thing not known to most is the centre of this exercise.
This is the lotus pose, the famous one, but which is the centre? One has to find out the centre; one should know the centre. This is the bow posture. In all these, you have two things to consider. One is prana and the other is the psychological centre. After you have practised this second group of exercises for some time, comes the third group of exercises, and for the upkeep of health, we need about six exercises, maximum fifteen minutes. It is simply meaningless if you keep on practising all the exercises that are written in the books.
1968, Amsterdam, Holland