Wisdom from Swami Nardanand.

SwamiJi identified air as the most important of the five bodily elements. Breathing deeply, one can live over 100 years, cure cancer and become Enlightened, he said. 

SwamiJi:

Our body is made of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, space…. The body needs these five all the time. 

Through breathing, the body detoxifies many impurities. We need a lot of oxygen. In ancient times, and also [currently] many sadhus are breatharian (one who gives up food and water). They can live on breath....

Our body needs much more oxygen than other [elements]. Water you take only three to four times a day, five to six times a day. But you can’t stop breathing, even when you sleep.… With air, with oxygen, the body is detoxifying for 24 hours.

In these five elements, oxygen is very important. That’s why these rishis in yoga developed pranayama. With pranayama you can take your breath very deep. Normally the lower part of our lungs is filled with carbon. Especially these days, people are breathing very shallowly. Modern scientists say our age gets reduced. 

In the scriptures, people could live 100 years very easily because they did hard work. Lungs were bigger before. Lungs are shrinking these days because they aren’t used properly. They start to shrink - this is the law of nature. Before, people did a lot of hard work, exercise. 

The yogis say we need more space in our lungs so we can hold a lot of oxygen in the body. Breathing is more important than anything. You can detoxify many toxins with breathing. Oxygen is the main element the body needs - we breathe [from birth till death]. All the time people are breathing, breathing, breathing. So, the rishis understood that since the breath is 24 hours running, that means it has meaning.

Nowadays, some scientists are working on this subject, and they say many organs become weak because they get less oxygen. Many scientists researched cancer... they say cancer can only happen when you don’t have enough oxygen in your body. If you have enough oxygen in your body, cancer cannot develop…. 

They analyzed tumors and they found a lot of carbon toxins. Modern scientists say if somehow we can get the oxygen to flow more, tumors will dissolve. But how can they do it? It’s not like you can inject oxygen from the outside. It’s not possible. It should come through a process. 

Oxygen always goes through your lungs and spreads everywhere in your body - this is the process. I was in Brazil, and modern medical science developed an oxygen treatment. Some hospital virus happened and they wanted to reduce it, so they gave a lot of oxygen to the patients. But this is not natural oxygen. If oxygen comes through nature it has many nutrients, “nectars” in the air. It’s very beneficial.

Many years ago, one of my devotees was a doctor. He had leukemia - blood cancer. He didn’t want to tell his family. As a doctor, he was thinking to cure himself, but he knew it was not curable. You have to kill white cells or something - they can manage it, but there is no permanent cure. One day he came to the ashram. I was about to leave for the US, I was preparing for my trip. He said:

“SwamiJi, I don't know if I’ll see you again. I have leukemia. I don’t know if I’ll survive.”

I’m not a doctor, but I told him:

“Don’t worry, do pranayama and yoga. Take some organic food. But especially pranayama. As much as you can do.”

Many Shaktipat gurus in our lineage say, “our path is an effortless path,” but they always suggest it is much better if you can do pranayama before you meditate. Pranayama is effort-based… this is not a spiritual process… but… it is very good for health. So, I told him, “you do pranayama.” He captured my words very deeply and did pranayama. 

After six or seven months I came back, and he visited. I saw he was healthier.... He said, “I am absolutely cured.” I was very curious. I asked him which doctor’s treatment cured him. I forgot what I told him!

He said, “You told me to do pranayama.” I asked what kind he did, and he said, “I did kapalabhati, nadi shodhana, bhastrika, anuloma viloma.” I was curious to know, how many hours, how many minutes…? He said, “I did as much as possible - five or six hours.”

“How can you do this much?” I asked. 

“I didn’t do it all at one time,” [he said], “but if I laid down, I did deep breathing, and when I was walking I [would do pranayama], and also when I was working. Whenever I had time, I did deep breathing.”

It was very scientific, but it was also a surprise [to me], through oxygen how much you can detoxify. The body detoxified even a person with blood cancer. He got so much oxygen his lungs were totally clean…. He was very happy - I could see the light in his face.

So, pranayama is very important. Oxygen is very important. When you do anuloma viloma, automatically the sushumna nadi will start. I also had this experience…. Sushumna nadi is very important - it gives a lot of balance to our mind. And when the sushumna nadi starts, automatically a person becomes introverted, automatically a person has inner peace. Pranayama, this breathing process, is very important.

In European countries and America it’s cold in winter time, and people don’t open their windows. So you are circulating carbon. I always suggest in winter, for a few minutes at least, open windows to circulate oxygen, fresh air. It is very good for health.

Through this breathing process of pranayama, you can activate your sushumna nadi and your mind can become balanced. When the mind is balanced, you will experience peace. When a person feels peace, the mind becomes detoxified. 

According to yoga, mind and body have a deep connection. If your sushumna nadi is activated, your mind is affected by that. You activate it through pranayama… People need to understand this breathing process of pranayama. These rishis have been practicing this for a long time and they worked very deeply on this subject. When your sushumna nadi is activated, your [other nadis] will activate, and you can become Enlightened.

SwamiJi:

This is mentioned in Scripture. When you inhale, this is life. Exhaling is death. Dead energy, toxins, are releasing. This is death. When you inhale, this is life. Inhaling gives life. In every breath, both things are there, death and life.

[Speaking of] kumbhaka (suspension or retention of breath) - normally you are inhaling and exhaling. This inhaling and exhaling doesn’t reach the lower part of the lungs. So, inhale a large amount of oxygen and stop - what happens if you stop, it reaches the lower part of your lungs, and then exhale and if there is any carbon, it will go out. If you do that, the lungs become full of oxygen. When they are full of oxygen, you can detoxify the body….

The mind automatically becomes quiet, as I told you, when the sushumna nadi is activated. This is very practical. Anytime. Normally in the morning when you get up, when your mind is at peace, just feel the sushumna nadi start. If you are angry, you can see your pingala nadi is more active. When you are not angry, ida nadi starts. When your mind is introverted, sushumna nadi starts….

Every breath is life and death. The rishis gave this importance to the breath. If you just think, “my breathing process is life and death,” this means it is very important. Sometimes people say, “I was fighting with life and death,” it means this incident was important. The breathing process is very important, especially in Hatha yoga they mention this. We should take this very seriously.

In Ayurveda, many doctors test the breathing process. They say, “okay lie down.” And they ask for a normal breath. If [your navel] goes up and down, it means you are healthy. Also in Ayurveda, they say a person should take deep breaths…

Now, we are always sitting and the breath [is shallow], not from the bottom of the lungs. If you want to live a longer, healthier life, you have to practice deep breathing. In 24 hours, if you take a deep breath every 20 minutes or half hour, you will save money and feel healthy, otherwise you have to invest a lot of money in your health and you won’t feel happy. If the body is healthy, you don’t need to spend anything. 

Air is free! Even water you have to buy. But what is most healthy for the body is free, you don’t need to buy it. Water is not as important as air, so you have to pay or fetch or take it. But oxygen is free. If we get it free, why shouldn’t we enjoy it? We should enjoy life - life is free, we should enjoy it!

Source : https://justenjoy.live/posts/swamiji-on-the-importance-of-breath