The verse and its meaning · Yoga in Practice · Yoga in Practice — Pranayama

Seed Sound or Silence

Gheranda Samhita 5.47

सहितो द्विविधः पोक्तः सगर्भश्चनिगर्भकः। सगर्भो बूजनुच्चार्य निगर्भो बीजवर्जितः ॥

Meaning · English

Sahita is spoken of as twofold: sagarbha and nigarbha. Sagarbha is practised with the seed sound uttered. Nigarbha is practised without the seed sound, free of it.

Sahita is the first of the eight kumbhakas Gheranda listed in 5.46. Kumbhaka means a pot, and in breathwork it means the held pause, the breath kept still like water in a jar. Sahita means accompanied. It is the breath practised along with something else. This verse says what that something is by splitting sahita into two. Sagarbha is made of sa (with) and garbha (womb, or something carried inside), so it is the breath that carries something within it. That something is the bija, the seed sound. In sagarbha the seed sound is uttered, and the breath is joined to it. Nigarbha is the same practice with the garbha taken out. Nir means without, and the text says it is bijavarjita, free of the seed sound. The breath is done in silence. The text does not name the seed sound here, and it gives no reason for the split. It only sorts the practice by whether a sound rides on the breath. The verse asks the practitioner to know which of the two is being done. Gheranda's own order of teaching follows. He takes sagarbha first, and the verses after this one describe it.

The text gives no mechanics in this line, so what follows is the general shape of such a practice. In sahita the breath has three parts: the in-breath, the held pause, and the out-breath. The seed sound gives the mind a task to do during them. In sagarbha the sound is spoken, so it sets the length of the breath. The sound is repeated and the breath is stretched to fit it. In nigarbha there is no sound, so the breath alone holds the attention, and a wandering mind has less to catch hold of. The body is mostly still. The spine is upright and the belly and ribs move gently with each breath. The throat stays soft. The tradition's account is that the seed sound steadies prana, its word for the breath-linked life force, and so steadies the mind. That is the tradition's account, not a description of muscles. In plain terms, the practice moves from sound to silence, or the reverse. Any pause is held only as long as it stays easy. Stop at once if there is dizziness or strain. A beginner can leave the pause out entirely and practise only the smooth in-breath and out-breath. A teacher should guide any lengthened hold.

This verse names no benefit. It only separates the two forms of sahita. The tradition behind it claims that breath joined to a seed sound gives the mind something to rest on, and that the silent form is for the practitioner who no longer needs the sound. These are the tradition's claims, offered as its own account of the practice. Gheranda lists sahita first among the eight kumbhakas, and the text treats it as the base from which the others are learnt.

A woman sits beside her father's hospital bed at night, breathing slowly and silently counting to keep her thoughts from racing. That is close to the choice this verse names, sound or silence. Today's mainstream understanding agrees that slow, even breathing with a longer out-breath tends to settle the body, and that repeating a word or a count gives a restless mind something to hold. That is well established as general attention training. Whether the sounded or the silent form works better is a matter of personal preference, and no evidence ranks them. There is also no evidence that any particular seed sound has an effect of its own. The old idea that a sound steadies prana has no modern match. Prana is not a measured thing. Holding the breath has no shown extra benefit over simple slow breathing, and long holds can cause lightheadedness. The safe core of the practice is the slow breath and the steady attention.

This is not medical advice, and a page cannot correct a practice the way a teacher can. Pranayama with a held breath is learnt with a teacher, not from a page. Stop at once if there is dizziness, strain, chest tightness or pain. Take particular care with high blood pressure, heart or lung conditions, pregnancy, recent surgery, anxiety or panic that breathwork stirs up, and any history of fainting. In these cases leave out the hold and keep to easy, unforced breathing, or leave the practice out. Never stretch a pause to match a count or a sound. Never chase a longer breath. Shorten the breath until it feels easy, then stay with that.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Eight Named Breath Holds · Gheranda Samhita 5.46
• Next: Bhramari at night: the sounds heard within · Gheranda Samhita 5.78
• All of Yoga in Practice · Ask Krishna about it

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