It is clear even to those who do not know medical science
that the whole mechanism of the body stops when the breath has
departed. That means that however perfect the mechanism of the
body may be, in the absence of breath the body is a corpse.
In other words, what is living in the body, or what makes it
living, is breath. And how few of us realize this fact. We go
on day after day, working, busy with everyday life, absorbed
in the thoughts we have, occupied with business, pursuing motives,
and yet ignoring the principle upon which the whole of life
is based. If someone says, 'Prayer is a very important thing,'
people may think, 'Yes, perhaps.' If one says, 'Meditation is
a great thing,' people may say: ' Yes, it is something.' But
when one says, 'Breathing is a great secret,' the reaction is:
'Why, I have never thought about it. What is it really?'
As far as science goes, breathing is known to be air breathed
in and breathed out. When it is breathed in one gets oxygen
from space, and when it is breathed out one throws carbonic
acid into space. When one goes still further one knows that
breathing keeps the lungs and the organs of breath going, that
digestive gases are drawn in, and that one gets a greater digestive
power. On the basis of that principle people are beginning to
use breathing in physical exercises to make the body healthier.
For some years now voice-producers have given greater importance
to breath. In reality the breathing itself is voice, and the
whole voice-construction depends upon breathing. Then again
some physicians are beginning to see that many illnesses of
the nerves, of the lungs, or of different nervous centers, can
often be helped by breathing. There seems to be a general awakening
to the science of breath. And those who have practiced breathing
in connection with physical culture or for the improvement of
their particular condition, illness, or weakness, have found
wonderful results. It is thus far that the science of breath
But when we come to the mystery of breath, it is another
domain altogether. The perceptible breath, which the nostrils
can feel as air drawn in and air going out, is only an effect
of breathing. It is not breath. For the mystic breath is that
current, which carries the air out and brings the air in. The
air is perceptible, not the current; the current is imperceptible.
It is a kind of ethereal magnetism, a finer kind of electricity,
the current of which goes in and comes out, putting the air
into action. This is what the mystic calls Nafs, which
means the self. Breath is the self, the very self of man. Also
Atman means the soul, and in German the same word is
used for breath. This shows that if there is any trace of the
soul, it is to be found in breath.
Naturally, breath, being the self, it is not only the air
which one exhales, but it is a current, which, according to
mystics, runs from the physical plane into the innermost plane.
It is a current, which runs through the body, mind, and soul,
touching the innermost part of life and also coming back, a
continual current perpetually moving in and out. This gives
quite a different explanation of the breath. It shows the importance
of something which very few people consider important; and it
makes one understand that the most important part of being is
breath, which reaches the innermost part of life and also reaches
outwards to the surface, which means touching the physical plane.
But the direction of breath is in a dimension which the science
of today does not recognize, a dimension that is recognized
by mystics as being the dimension 'within.'
One day I was lecturing in England and among the audience
was a well-known scientist. After the lecture he came to me
and said, 'I am very interested, but there is one thing that
puzzles me. I cannot understand the word 'within.' What do you
mean? Within the body? We can only understand inside the body.'
This shows the difficulty of reaching a common understanding
between science and mysticism. One day it will be overcome.
It is only a temporary difficulty.
To give a philosophical explanation of this dimension, one
can take as an example the simile of the eyes: what is it in
these eyes of ours that can accommodate a horizon of so many
miles? The size of the eyes is so small, and they can accommodate
such a large horizon. Where is it accommodated? It is accommodated
within. That is the only example one can give. It is a dimension,
which cannot be measured, but which is accommodating, which
is an accommodation. The accommodation of the eye is not a recognized
dimension, yet it is a dimension. In the same way there is a
dimension of mind. One can think deeply and feel profoundly;
one can be conscious of life and be more deeply conscious still;
but one cannot point to it, because this dimension is abstract.
If there is any word, it can only be called 'within'. And through
that dimension a current runs from the innermost plane to the
physical plane and there it keeps life living. That is why one
can say that breath is the soul and soul is the breath. It is
important to understand that one does not inhale like a straight
line going in and coming out the same way, as one imagines it
to be. The real action is that of a wheel, a circle; from the
nostrils it makes a circle and the end of the circle is again
in the nostrils.
The third point to understand about breath is that: just
like an electric wire, it shows a glow. As the heat and light
are not confined to that glow, but are around it too, in the
same way the radiance of this circle of breath which goes on
through the body, touches every part of the body.
Another rule to be observed is that with every direction
in which the current of breath goes, it causes a different action
and a different result. For instance, contracting, stretching,
blinking, all these actions are the play of the breath going
in different directions. So it is with every natural action
one does during the day. Also coughing, yawning, heaving a deep
sigh, all these are different actions of breath. Besides, the
ability to eat and drink, the ability to expel all that one
has in the body, are all results of different directions through
which breath works. And if the breath does not work in one direction,
then that particular activity of the body is stopped. It is
a science that has yet to be explored by scientists and physicians.
And the more it is explored the less necessity there will be
for operations and many other dreadful things that doctors have
to do or to give to their patients. Also the tendency to lung
diseases, the pain of child-birth, and early death, all these
will be avoided when the science of breath is well understood
by the scientists of the day, and practiced by the generality.
The picture of God and of souls is that of the sun and its
rays. The rays are not different from the sun; the sun is not
different from the rays. Yet there is one sun and many rays.
The rays have no existence of their own; they are only an action
of the sun. They are not separate from the sun, and yet the
rays appear to be many different rays. The one sun gives the
idea of one center. So it is with God and man. What is God?
The Spirit which projects different rays; each ray is a soul.
Therefore the breath is that current which is a ray, a ray which
comes from that Sun which is the spirit of God. And this ray
is the sign of life. What is the body? The body is only a cover
over this ray. When this ray has withdrawn itself from this
cover, the body becomes a corpse.
Then there is another cover, which is the mind. The difference
between mind and heart is like the surface and the bottom. It
is the surface of the heart which is mind, and it is the depth
of the mind which is heart. The mind expresses the faculty of
thinking, the heart of feeling. This is an inner garb; a garb
worn by the same thing which is called breath. Therefore, if
the ray which is the breath has withdrawn itself from the body,
it still exists, for it has another garb, it has a garb within.
The outer garb was the body; the inner garb is the mind. The
breath continues to exist, and if it is lost in that garb which
is called mind, then there is another garb finer still, called
the soul. Because breath runs through all three: body, mind,
Seen from this point of view one will realize that man has
never been separated from God; that with every breath man touches
God. He is linked with God by the current of breath. Just like
people drawing water from a well, the rope in their hands and
the jug of water in the well. The jug has the water, but the
rope is in the hand. In so far as our soul is in the spirit
of God, it is the ray of the divine sun, while the other end
of it is what we call breath. We only see it reaching so far
and no further, because it is only the higher part of the physical
body that touches different planes. The breath goes there, but
we do not see the action of breath. The action of breath in
our body is limited; but in reality this current, this breath,
connects the body with the divine Spirit, connecting God and
man in one current.
The central current of our mind is also breath. That is why
we do not only breathe through the body, but also through the
mind, and through the soul too. Furthermore, death is only the
departing of the body from this main current which we call breath.
But when the body has departed the mind still adheres to it,
and if the mind is living, the person is living also. This is
what gives us the proof of the hereafter. Many will say, 'How
uninteresting to live after death not as an individual, a body;
but as a mind!' But it is the mind, which has made this body;
the mind is more self-sufficient than we can imagine. The mind
is in a sphere in which it has its own body, just as this physical
body belongs to the physical sphere. The body of the mind is
as sufficient and even more concrete than the body we have in
the physical world, for the reason that the physical body is
very limited and subject to death and decay. The body of the
mind, which is ethereal, lasts long, being less dependent upon
food and water; it is maintained more by breath than by anything
else. We are maintained even in this physical world chiefly
by breath, although we recognize bread and water and other food
as our sustenance. If we only knew that bread and water are
not even a hundredth part of our sustenance compared with what
breath does in our life! We cannot exist five minutes without
breath; we can be without food for some days.
Since breath has such great importance, the greatest possible
importance, it is clear that the way to bring order and harmony
to our body, to bring order and harmony to our mind, to harmonize
mind with body, and to harmonize body and mind with soul, is
by the breath. It is the development of breath, knowledge of
breath, practice of breath which help us to get ourselves straightened
out, to put ourselves in tune, to bring order into our being.
There are many who without proper guidance and knowledge practice
breath. Year after year they go on and very little result is
achieved. Many go out of their minds, and very often the little
veins of the brain and chest are ruptured by wrong breathing.
There are many who have experienced this by not knowing how
to breathe. One has to be extremely careful; one must do breathing
practices rightly or not do them at all.
One cannot speak fully of all that can be accomplished with
the help of breath. If there are men living in the world today
who while standing on the earth witness the inner planes of
existence, if there are any who really can communicate with
the higher spheres, if there are any who can convince themselves
of the life in the hereafter and of what it will be like, it
is the masters of breath. It is not the students of intellectual
The Yogis have learnt very much about the secret of breath
from the serpent; that is why they regard the serpent as the
symbol of wisdom. Shiva, the Lord of Yogis, has a serpent around
his neck as a necklace. It is the sign of mystery, of wisdom.
There are cobras in the forests of tropical countries, especially
in India, which sleep for six weeks; and then one day the cobra
wakens, and it breathes because it is hungry; it wants to eat.
And its thoughts attract food from wherever it may be; food
is attracted from miles away by its thoughts. The breath of
the cobra is so magnetic that the food is helplessly drawn;
a fowl, or a deer or some other animal is drawn closer. It is
so strongly drawn that it even comes down from the air, and
falls into its mouth. The snake makes no effort. It just breathes;
it opens its mouth, and its food comes into its mouth. And then
it rests again for six weeks.
The serpent, too, is so strongly built that without wings
it flies and without feet it walks. Also if there is any animal
which can be called the healthiest animal of all, it is the
serpent. It is never ill. Before it becomes ill it dies, yet
it lives a very long time. It is said by those living in tropical
countries that the cobras can take revenge after as much as
twelve years. If you once hit a cobra, it will always remember.
That shows its memory, its mind. Music also appeals to the cobra
as music appeals to intelligent men. The more unintelligent
the man, the less music appeals to him; music is closely related
to intelligence. This shows that every sign of intelligence,
of wisdom, and of power is to be seen in the cobra.
The mystics have studied the life of the cobra and they have
found two wonderful things. One is that it does not waste energy.
Birds fly until they are tired; animals run here and there.
The cobra does not do so. It makes a hole where it lives and
rests. It knows the best way of repose, a repose which it can
continue as long as it wishes. We cannot do this. We human beings,
of all creatures, know least about repose. We only know about
work, not about repose. We attach every importance to work,
but never to rest; this is because we do not find anything in
rest but everything in work. The work of rest we do not see.
Besides, the natural breathing capacity of the cobra is such
as no other creature shows. That capacity goes as a straight
line throughout its body. The current which it gets from space
and which runs through it, gives it lightness and energy and
radiance and power. Compared with the cobra all other creatures
are awkwardly built. The skin of the cobra is so very soft and
of such silky texture, and in a moment's time it can shed its
skin and be new, just as if born anew. The mystics have learnt
from it. They say, 'We must go out of our body just as the cobra
goes out of its skin; we must go out of our thoughts, ideas,
feelings, just as the cobra does with its skin.' They say, '
We must be able to breathe as rhythmically, to control our breath
as the cobra does. We must be able to repose and relax in the
same way as the cobra can. And then it will be possible to attain
all we desire.' As Christ has said, 'Seek ye first the Kingdom
of God... and all things shall be added unto you.' The same
things that are added to the cobra, all that it needs, could
be added to man also if only he did not worry about them. As
Sadi has said, 'My self, you worry so much over things that
you need, but know that the One who works for your needs is
continually working for them. Yet you worry over them because
it is your disease, your passion that makes you worry all the
When we look at life more keenly, we see it is the same.
Our worry about things seems to be our nature, our character;
we cannot help it. It becomes such a part of our nature to worry
that if we had no worry we would doubt if we were really living!
Mystics, therefore, for thousands of years have practiced control
of the breath, its balance, its rhythm, the expanding, lengthening,
broadening, and centralizing of the breath By this great phenomena
have been accomplished. All the Sufis in Persia, in Egypt, in
India, have been great masters of breathing. And there are some
masters who are conscious of their spiritual realization with
every breath they inhale and exhale. With every breath comes
the consciousness of their plane of realization.
For a person who really knows how to work with breath, if
he is not lazy, there is nothing he cannot accomplish; he cannot
say of anything that it is impossible. Only it requires work;
it is not only a matter of knowing the theory, but it requires
the understanding of it. That is why the adepts, the mystics,
do not consider breathing only as a science or as an exercise;
they consider it as the most sacred thing, as sacred as religion.
And in order to accomplish this breathing a discipline is given
by a teacher.
But there is a great difficulty. I have found sometimes in
my travels, when I have been speaking about these things, that
people come with preconceived ideas. They are willing to learn,
but they do not want discipline. But in the army there is discipline;
in the factory, in the office there is a certain discipline;
in study at the university, everywhere there is discipline;
yet in spiritual things people do not want it; when it comes
to spiritual things they make difficulties. They think so little
of it that they do not want to make any sacrifice. Because they
do not know where it leads to, they have no belief. Besides
there are false methods which are taught here and there, and
people are commercializing that which is most sacred. In that
way the highest ideal is brought down to the lowest depth; and
it is time that the real thing should be introduced, seriously
studied, experienced, and realized by practice.