Raja-Yoga

CHAPTER III.
PRANA.
PRANAYAMA 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 Prdndydma.
Prdndydma means the control of Prdna. According
to the philosophers of India, the whole universe is com
posed of two materials, one of which they call Akdia
It is the omnipresent, all penetrating existence. Every
thing that has form, everything that is the result of
compounds,
is evolved out of this Akdsa. It is the
AkdSa that becomes the air, that becomes the liquids,
that becomes the solids ;
it is the Akdsa that becomes
the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, the comets; it
is the AkdSa 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 this Akdfa; at the end of the the
cycle^
solids, the liquids, and the gases all melt into the AkdSa
again, and the next creation similarly proceeds out of
this Akdfa.
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