________________
YOGA AND ITS PRACTICE
109
may be continued for several minutes, until one begins to feel its calming effects. It cannot possibly do any injury, since it does not involve holding the breath excessively or overstimulating the body with too much oxygen.
बाह्याभ्यन्तरविषयाक्षेपी चतुर्थः ॥५१॥ 51. The fourth kind of pranayama is the stoppage of the
breath which is caused by concentration upon external
or internal objects. The two preceding aphorisms have defined three operations of pranayama; inhalation, exhalation and suspension of the breath for a certain fixed number of moments. These operations are all controlled by the conscious will; they are parts of a deliberate exercise. But this fourth operation is involuntary and natural. When a man has gained complete control of the prana through exercises, or when he has reached a certain stage of spiritual development through devotion to God without practising pranayama, then his breathing may cease of its own accord at any time while he is deeply absorbed in concentration. This natural stoppage of the breath may continue for many seconds or minutes; he will not even be aware of it. In the state of samadhi, the breathing ceases altogether for hours at a time. This kind of suspension of the breath is not dangerous, because it can only take place when a man has sufficiently developed and is able to suppport it.
: fedt starta UH 11X211 52. As the result of this, the covering of the Inner Light is
removed. "The Inner Light” is the light of spiritual discrimination between the Real and the unreal. “The covering" is made up of the ignorance produced by our past karmas. As the mind becomes purified through the practice of pranayama, this ignorance is gradually dispelled.
