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

Kevali — the breath that says hamsa, so'ham, by itself

Gheranda Samhita 5.84

हंकारेण बहिर्याति सःकारेण विशेत् पुनः। षट्शतानि दिवारात्रौ सहस्राण्येकविंशतिः। अजपां नाम गायत्रीं जीवो जपति सर्वदा ॥

Meaning · English

With the sound ham the breath goes out, and with the sound sa it comes in again. In one day and night this happens twenty-one thousand six hundred times. The living being recites this mantra, called the unrecited Gayatri, at every moment, without pause.

The heading names kevali kumbhaka. Kumbhaka is the pot, the pause or holding of the breath. Kevala means alone, by itself: a pause that comes without the practitioner doing it. The lines under that heading, though, speak about the breath's own sound rather than a hold. Take the terms one at a time. Ham is the sound of the breath going out. Sa is the sound of it coming in. Together they make hamsa, and the title gives the pair in both orders, hamsa and so'ham. Japa is quiet repetition of a mantra, and ajapa is the repetition nobody performs. Gayatri is the name of a revered mantra, and Gheranda lends it to the breath. Jiva is the living being. The text adds a count: twenty-one thousand six hundred breaths, out and in, across a day and a night. So the claim is plain. Every living being already recites a mantra, ham going out and sa coming in, all day and all night, with no lips and no choice. The text states no further reason in this line. Its lesson is that the recitation is already running. What it asks of a practitioner is only to notice a repetition that has never stopped.

1. Sit upright and easy, on the floor or a chair, and close the eyes. 2. Let the breath go on as it already does, through the nose, without changing it. 3. On the out-breath, listen for ham. On the in-breath, listen for sa. 4. When the mind wanders, notice it and return on the next out-breath. 5. Hold nothing. Any pause between breaths is only the one that comes by itself. 6. When the time is done, let the listening go, breathe normally for a few breaths, and open the eyes.

The text gives no counts, no ratio and no hold for this practice. It describes the breath as it already moves, so nothing here is forced. 1. Sit on the floor or a chair with the back upright and easy, the hands resting in the lap. 2. Close the eyes, or let them rest half open on the floor a little way ahead. 3. Breathe through the nose in your ordinary way. Do not lengthen it or shape it. 4. As the breath goes out, listen for the soft sound the text calls ham. 5. As the breath comes in, listen for the soft sound the text calls sa. 6. When the mind wanders, notice that it has, and return to ham on the next out-breath. 7. Stay for a few minutes. A beginner can begin with three to five, taking no fixed number of rounds. 8. To come out, let the listening go, breathe normally for a few breaths, and open the eyes. There is no side or nostril to choose. Both nostrils breathe as they like. A beginner holds no breath at all, and any pause between breaths should be the natural one that arrives by itself. The sounds are heard faintly, not spoken and not pushed. Keep the face and shoulders soft. Stop if you feel dizziness, tightness in the chest, or strain, and return to plain breathing.

The body: at rest, the breath is carried by the diaphragm, the dome of muscle under the lungs, with the small muscles between the ribs. The in-breath is a gentle effort. The out-breath at rest is mostly a release, the chest and belly settling back. Nothing needs to be stretched or held, which is why the practice asks so little of the joints and spine beyond an upright seat. The breath: no pattern is imposed, so the breath is free to find its own pace. Listening for two sounds only gives attention a small, steady task that follows the real breath. The mind: with one object that has two phases, out and in, the mind has somewhere to rest and a clear signal when it has left, because the sounds are missed. The tradition's own account is different in kind. It says the breath carries prana, and that its natural sound is the mantra the jiva recites without knowing. That is the tradition's reading of the breath, and it is not a description of the lungs. Where the heading names a spontaneous kumbhaka, a pause that comes alone, the practice does not make it. It is only left unforced when it appears.

The line itself names no reward. Its only claim is that the living being recites this mantra at every moment, twenty-one thousand six hundred times in a day and night. The text offers that fact as the teaching. Whatever a reader gains from attending to it is not promised here, and no other claim in the surrounding verses is attached to this one.

A grandmother sits on the veranda shelling peas. Without meaning to, she hears her own breath settle as her hands slow, and she notices how often it goes unheard. Today's account agrees with a good part of this. Breathing runs on its own from the brainstem, and a person can also take it over by will, which makes breath unusual among body functions. A resting adult breathes about twelve to twenty times a minute. At fifteen a minute, the text's count of twenty-one thousand six hundred in a day and night is simple arithmetic and is close to what happens. It is a round number, not a measurement. Attending to the ordinary breath is a familiar part of many calming and attention-training methods, and most people find it settles them. Beyond that, medicine has no evidence that the breath says ham and sa, or that a jiva recites a mantra. The sounds are the tradition's way of hearing the breath. The idea of the jiva has no match in medicine or psychology.

This is not medical advice, and a teacher can correct what a page cannot. Stop at any pain. The practice asks for no holding, and the spontaneous pause named in the heading is never to be made by force. Anyone with a lung or heart condition, high blood pressure, or pregnancy should keep the breath wholly natural and ask a doctor before trying any breath practice. If watching the breath brings anxiety, a sense of breathlessness, or light-headedness, open the eyes and look at something else. People with a history of panic or trauma may find a teacher's guidance helpful, because attending to the breath can bring fear. The old text's count of breaths is a description, never a target.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

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• Before: Bhramari at night: the sounds heard within · Gheranda Samhita 5.78
• All of Yoga in Practice · Ask Krishna about it

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