Chapter 4 · Verse 29

Path of Knowledge and the Disciplines of Action

अपाने जुह्वति प्राण प्राणेऽपानं तथाऽपरे। प्राणापानगती रुद्ध्वा प्राणायामपरायणाः

apāne juhvati prāṇaṁ prāṇe ’pānaṁ tathāpare prāṇāpāna-gatī ruddhvā prāṇāyāma-parāyaṇāḥ apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣhu juhvati sarve ’pyete yajña-vido yajña-kṣhapita-kalmaṣhāḥ

Word Meanings

apāne juhvati prāṇam prāṇe apānam tathā apare prāṇa apāna gatī ruddhvā prāṇa-āyāma parāyaṇāḥ niyata āhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣhu juhvati sarve api ete yajña-vidaḥ yajña-kṣhapita kalmaṣhāḥ

Translation

Others offer the outgoing breath into the incoming, and the incoming into the outgoing; while some, restraining the movement of both breaths, devote themselves wholly to the control of breath. Still others, regulating their food, offer the life-breaths into the life-energy. All these are knowers of sacrifice, whose sins are cleansed by sacrifice.

Commentary

अपाने in the outgoing breath? जुह्वति sacrifice? प्राणम् incoming breath? प्राणे in the incoming breath? अपानम् outgoing breath? तथा thus? अपरे others? प्राणापानगती courses of the outgoing and incoming breaths? रुद्ध्वा restraining? प्राणायामपरायणाः solely absorbed in the restraint of breath.Commentary Some Yogis practise Puraka (inhalation)? some Yogis practise Rechaka (exhalation)?,and some Yogis practise Kumbhaka (retention of breath).The five subPranas and the other Pranas are merged in the chief Prana (MukhyaPrana) by the practice of Pranayama. When the Prana is controlled? the mind also stops its wanderings and becomes steady the senses are also thinned out and merged in the Prana. It is through the vibration of Prana that the activities of the mind and the senses are kept up. If the Prana is controlled? the mind? the intellect and the senses cease to function.