Kundalini.Tantra.by.Satyananda.Saraswati

We have always known that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the
body, and vice versa. Sperry's findings, though still in the initial stages and requiring
more research, show us that each side of the brain handles a completely opposite but
complementary mode of consciousness. This finding is extremely important as it verifies
the yogic viewpoint.
Yogis and scientists, using different terminology and different approaches, have come
up with the same conclusions, that man is divided into two main modes of functioning.
The circuits of the brain are based on ida and pingala, consciousness or knowledge, and
action or physical energy. We see ida and pingaia at all three major levels of the nervous
system :
1. Sensory-motor nervous system (SMS) : all electrical activity in the body moves in
one of two directions, into the brain (afferent), ida, and out of the brain (efferent),
pingala. Yogis called the sensory nerves which are governed by ida, gyanendriyas, and
motor nerves, governed by pingala, karmendriyas. These nerves are concerned with
perception of and activity in the world.
2. Autonomic nervous system (ANS) : the autonomic nervous system is divided into
the outward directed, stress handling, energy utilizing, pingala dominant, sympathetic
nervous system, or the inwardly directed, rest handling, energy conserving, ida dominant,
parasympathetic nervous system. These two systems control and regulate all the
automatic body processes: heart, blood pressure, respiration, digestion, liver and kidney
and so on.
3. Central nervous system (CNS) : this consists of the brain and spinal cord and
contains the controls for the SMS and ANS. The brain contains much more than this
though, for it is a huge, ultimately complex computer, which stores and integrates
information and puts our decisions into action in a superbly synchronized and
orchestrated performance. Its functioning is definitely much more than its parts. Within
the infinite circuitry of the brain resides more potential than we can realize in one
lifetime, however, the techniques of yoga systematically clear and strengthen these
circuits with regular practice.
This is what yogis have been telling us, that the circuitry for nadis and chakras exist
within the CNS, along the spine and in the brain. If we can tap, purify, strengthen and
reconnect these circuits via the various yogic techniques, we can totally transform our
mind/ body complex. The basis for yogic techniques lies in the fact that there is a
nadi/chakra system which can be seen, at the physical level, as being the sum total of the
input and output of the various sections of the nervous system and the parts of the body
which connect to it. This total body/mind complex functions on the power of the three
basic types of energy- ida, pingala and sushumna. We can therefore begin to understand
why so many yogic techniques are specifically aimed at balancing the ida/pingala flow
and increasing our awareness of its fluctuations.