________________
THE SCIENCE OF BREATHING
111
through the right nostril taking a certain time for this, say four seconds, retain the breath for two seconds, and then let it out through the left nostril, taking four seconds for this, then stop breathing for two seconds, and take in the breath through the left nostril, etc., alternately. In this way both the lungs and both sides of the body are equally supplied with what is necessary and here comes in this point, that so far as the physical part of the science is concerned, of the different kinds of breathing we always advocate the kind in which the most air is introduced and that is the deep breathing or full breathing, in which all the parts are expanded to some extent at the same time, while in the chest breathing only one part moves, and the other remains nearly motionless. I had never heard of these different kinds of breathing till I came to this country. When I first came to this country I stopped for a day at Niagara Falls, and there were other Hindus in the party, and we were seen there by a newspaper reporter, who went to the clerk of the hotel and got some information about us, after which he wrote of us as peculiar beings, stating that we had peculiar ways of eating and sleeping, as if Hindus slept with their heads down, or in some such unnatural way as that. The principal rule which is to be observed in breathing is first to breathe deeply and second to breathe rhythmically. Certainly we cannot breathe rhythmically during the whole day; we have many other duties, to perform and cannot always be counting, one, two, three, four; therefore
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
