"Shwas" -- (the breath)



I went to Nashik some time back and the visit proved memorable for more than one thing. This is an attempt to share why.


The whole episode started when my in-laws (FIL & MIL) went for a weeklong sessions on "Pranayama" and they asked their daughter to join them for the last day. I decided to join in too since my Nashik visit was long pending and it looked like a welcome change from the daily grind.

These sessions were imparted by a proclaimed expert in the ancient Indian arts of "Yoga" and "Pranayama". He teaches these arts not for a living; but kind of a knowledge transfer.

I was shocked at the first impression of this 82 year old;for the very simple reason that , he didn't looked 82 or anywhere in the vicinity. He hardly looked 62 and that too a good young 62, with a smile on his face and a spring in his step :-)

I was further impressed by knowing that this guys was not the normal buwa type un-worldly person. He is an highly educated fellow (M.Sc. , Ph. D in chemistry (actually in ultrasonic and when he told me this, we both exclaimed at the same time that is falls in physics !). After that he was a professor, in IIT powai for quite some time. Right now he stays alone in his simple place above a temple and is a portrait of simplicity.

Then we had this session bout Pranayama and he explained various things in that. I am not going to go through that session word by word cause it will be killing boring. But to tell you the gist of it, he was talking bout "Shwas" (the breath) all the time and explain its importance scientifically.
After some exercises, he asked each of us to measure our breath. It so turned out that I was breathing almost 4 times faster than anyone else. On this he was astonished, but he told me that you should try to control the speed of breathing; more precisely, slow it down !!
I was a little surprised and about to ask why, when he said something which made me think.

He said, the human life is not measured by no of years / months that we live. Its measures solely based on the no of breaths. So for every human the no of breaths are fix. The ones who breathe slowly stay out for long and the ones who do it fast enough (like me!!) will move on to another life sooner.

Frankly, at this moment, I do not know the truth involved in this concept, but I am sure he knew better than me.
But I am fascinated by this concept. It does make sense to me in the large scheme of things. If its true,it means that we have a sense of some control over our lives and we are not that helpless after all. Maybe the power that granted us this life, wanted us to be intelligent enough to know how to control it somewhat ! So we can actually give it a shot to extend our own lives!

Give it a thought.. ..!