Phase four · Prāṇāyāma

The breath as instrument

Two practices are on this site, with the sessions that explain them. As the others are written they will appear here in the same form.

what is said before the learning and after it

Śānti

शान्ति

ॐ सह नाववतु ।
सह नौ भुनक्तु ।
सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

May we be protected together, nourished together, and work together, and may we not come to dislike each other.

Why this one

Every verb in it is dual. Not I and not everyone: the two of us. The one who teaches and the one who learns, said by both at once, before anything is taught.

That is why it belongs here rather than at the end of some other page. The sixth phase of this training is a man who has been through it standing in front of a man who is still in it. Neither of them is above the other. This is the sentence for that room, and it was written for exactly that room three thousand years ago.

मा विद्विषावहै is the line to sit with. May we not come to dislike each other. It is not sentimental. It admits that two people working closely on something hard very often do come to dislike each other, and it asks, before beginning, that this time they will not.

वाचिक: Said out loud, at the length of one out-breath. The syllables light as you say them. उपांशु: The lips move, the breath carries it, nobody across the room can hear it. The mantra stays on the screen and stops moving. मानस: Nothing is said and nothing is shown. Only the breath and the count. अन्तर्यात्रा: One mālā that goes inwards by itself. The first third aloud, the second in a whisper, the last in the mind. The voice leaves the room without you deciding when.

How many

Three is the whole of it. It is said once at the beginning and once at the end.

How to say it

The traditional order, and it is a withdrawal inwards rather than a set of levels. Nothing here is locked. Stand on whichever step you are on today.

← All three mantras