The Yoga of Patanjali

104 Lessons on The Yoga of Patanjalirespiration is re-established. The poise was long lost but nowfound. It was there in our childhood. In an averagely healthychild, born to healthy parents, the respiration is bound to be inequilibrium. Such a child breathes in accordance with the beatof the music that is intended by nature. Then the respiration iscalled natural. As we grow in age, it is disturbed again andagain. Whenever there is a psychological shock or an emotionaljerk, there is a disturbanc; there is a jolt. When you are angryyour respiration is disturbed. When you feel jealous it is disturbed,when you fear something, it is disturbed. When you anticipatesomething, it is disturbed, when you expect someone it isdisturbed, when there is the news of sickness it is disturbed, ofdeath it is disturbed. Whenever you are anxious of somethingthen the rhythm of respiration is disturbed. Many hundreds oftimes in the day we manage to get it disturbed.Then there is the power of habit waiting to establishwhatever is repeated. The disturbance is established and wehave a continuous discord in respiration, the rate of which goeson increasing in the form of quick breath, short breath, out ofbreath until we breathe out the last, It has become natural forus to make the breath unnatural as we grow in age. Disturbancebecomes a habit. Even though we do not want it, the respirationcontinues to be disturbed. Habit is more powerful than anyoneof the layers of the consciousness. It is produced by nature tomake our span by establishing the repetition of respiration andcirculation. Hence habit is more powerful than any vital orpsychological faculty. As we succeed in establishing the habitof irregularity in our respiration, as we grow in age, we succeedin killing ourselves before our span is completed. This provesthat we can break an older habit, break the chain and establishor engraft a new habit. Now we have to do the same thingagain by practising Pranayama. We have to break the chain ofthe discord and engraft the elder habit of respiration.