Pranayama Holding the Breath

There is a breath holding method in pranayama breath practice. This process trains the body to tolerate oxygen deprivation. One famous example of a person who mastered this practice was Duryodhana, the villain of the Mahabharata. When he realized that he lost the battle of Kurukshetra, he went into a lake, where he was submerged for some days. In that practice the physical body remains still but alive. It does not exhibit any signs of lack of access to fresh air.

However, when practicing kapalabhati or bhastrika pranayama, that practice is not done. In fact, the opposite feature is being cultivated. This means that the body becomes more and more intolerant of carbon dioxide and more and more sensitive to receive an amply supply of fresh air.

There is this question.

Why do you instruct students not to hold the breath but you also instruct them to cease rapid breathing and to hold locks in which the body ceases to breathe?

This instruction is given so that the student focuses on the distribution of the accumulated breath. But as soon as the accumulated breath energy is distributed, the student is instructed to begin the rapid charging breathing again. As soon as enough of that charging breath is stored in the lung, the student should again cease breathing, apply the locks and again manage the distribution of the accumulated breath. In this practice the breath is held for the time it takes for the lungs to infused the excess fresh air into the blood stream.

This is done repeatedly until the student is assured that the body is fully saturated with fresh air. The idea is to expel all carbon dioxide, or used air, in the cells and blood stream. The body expels that on the exhales. It does so rapidly because kapalabhati/bhastrika causes that to happen.

When doing rapid breath infusion, the lungs will hold much fresh air, because the rapidity of the storage is such that the lungs cannot hold and distribute that air. It will hold the fresh air in its alveoli cells. It will store the majority of the air but it will not have sufficient time to distribute it. Hence as soon as the rapid breathing stops, the yogi should assist the distribution process by holding the locks and focusing on the distribution channels.

As soon as the yogi notices that the excess stored oxygen is distributed, he should begin the rapid breathing again. He should not hold the breath process just to hold it. Hold it only for as long as there is some stored air to be distributed. Then begin breathing rapidly again.

At the end of a session, the yogi sits in an easy pose with the regular involuntary breathing happening, with no attention to the breathing process. The yogi becomes absorbed mentally in meditation, either in pratyahar, dharana, dhyana or samadhi objectives.

In this method, pranayama refreshes the energy in the physical and subtle bodies. Once the refreshing is completed, the yogi switches focus to the meditation (samyama) objective. Each yogi should have a particular objective which he/she becomes absorbed in during meditation.