ABSTRACT
Prâṇೢyâma is not, as many think, something about the breath; breath, indeed, has very little to do with it, if anything. Breathing is only one of the many exercises through which we get to the real Prâṇâyâma. Prâṇâyâma means the control of Prâṇa. According to the philosophers of India, the whole universe is composed of two materials, one of which they call Âkâśa. Its the omnipresent, all penetrating existence. Everything that has form, everything that is the result of compounds, is evolved out of this Âkâśa. It is the Âkâśa that becomes the air, that becomes the liquids, that becomes the solids; it is the Akâśa that becomes the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, the comets; it is the Âkâśa that becomes the body, the animal body, the plants, every form that we see, everything that can be sensed, everything that exists. It itself cannot be perceived; it is so subtle that it is beyond all ordinary perception; it can only be seen when it has become gross, has taken form. At the beginning of creation there is only thisÂkâśa; at the end of the cycle the solids, the liquids, arid the gases all melt into the Âkâśa again, and the next creation similarly proceeds out of this Âkâśa.
