Mircea Eliade YOGA IMMORTALITY AND ... - Brihaspati.net

the states of consciousness referred Bhoja, and that was certainly seen and experienced
by yogis since ancient times, this relationship has served as a tool of "unification" of
consciousness. The "unification cion" that talk should be taken in the sense that, ha-cer
your rhythmic breathing, and gradually calm, self-gui can "get inside", ie experimentally
and feel quite certain lucidity states of consciousness which, being one awake, are
inaccessible, and especially the states of consciousness character-ised to sleep. (That's
why very often, the novice of prana-yama has managed to sleep just take common
respiratory rhythm to the rhythm that characterizes the dream.) Indeed, it is true that the
breathing rate of man who sleeps is slower than that of a man awake. In making, thanks
to pranayama, this rhythm of sleep, the yogi can enter without giving up his lucidity,
"states of consciousness" themselves of sleep.
Indian ascetics known four modalities of consciousness (other than the "static state")
daily consciousness, the dreams of sleep, sleep without the sound and the "cataleptic
consciousness. Through pranayama, is increasingly extending the spinnaker-ration and
aspiration (the purpose of this practice is to let the largest possible interval between these
two moments of respiration) the yogi can thus penetrate all forms of consciousness. To
the profane man, there is a discontinuity between these different forms, going from state
"awake" state "asleep" unconsciously. The yogi should instead preserve the continuity of
consciousness, ie that must penetrate, fir-me and bright, each one of those "states" 3
But the experimentation of the four modes of consciousness that corresponds naturally to
a certain breathing rate, and the unification of the "conscience" (which follows from the
fact that the yogi suppresses the gap between these four modalities des) , can only be
made after a long practice. The imme-diately purpose of pranayama is more modest. This
exercise was first acquired a "continuous consciousness", without which there can be no
meditation yogi. The breath of man is generally arrhythmic profane this varies according
to external circumstances or mental tension. This irregularity causes a dangerous psychic
fluidity, and therefore instability and dispersion of attention. Efforts, one can get to
watch. But the effort, for Yoga, is a "externalization". The breath should be rit-mica, so
unless it can be "forgotten" altogether, at least not so bothered by discontinuity. So, this is
through pranayama, to suppress the res-expiratory effort: doing rhythmic breathing must
become automatic, so the yogi can forget it.
3 In the Himalayan asrams of Hardwar, Rishikesh, Svargashram, where we live between
September 1930 and March 1931, numerous sannyasi trusted us that the purpose of
pranayama was to penetrate to the practitioner in the state turiya "cataleptic". We see
some who passed much of the day and night in deep "meditation and breathing barely
percep-ble. Without doubt, the cataleptic state can be voluntarily pro-Dumps by
experienced yogis. The mission of Dr. Teresa Brosse, India (see Ch Laubry and Teresa
Brosse, collected papers on the yogis in India, by simultaneous recording of pulse,
respiration and electronic trocardiogramas, "Presse medicale", No. 83 October 14, 1936)
demonstrated that the reduction of respiration and heart contraction to the degree that
takes place only at the threshold of inevitable death, is a genuine physiological
phenomenon that yogis can be made voluntarily and not at all the effect of
autosuggestion. Needless to add that such yogis can be buried safely. "The restriction of
the respi-ration reaches such a degree, sometimes, that some yogis can, without risk, has
updated infor-mation buried for some time, with an air VOLUME totally inadequate to
ensure their survival. This small reserve of air is , according to them, designed to enable