Kumbhaka is the retention of the breath in the yoga practice of pranayama. It has two types, accompanied (by breathing) whether after inhalation or after exhalation, and, the ultimate aim, unaccompanied. That state is kevala kumbhaka, the complete suspension of the breath for as long as the practitioner wishes.
The name kumbhaka is from Sanskrit कुम्भ kumbha , a pot, comparing the torso to a vessel full of air. [2]
Kumbhaka is the retention of the breath in pranayama, either after inhalation, the inner or Antara Kumbhaka, or after exhalation, the outer or Bahya Kumbhaka (also called Bahir Kumbhaka [3] ). [1] [4] [3] According to B.K.S. Iyengar in Light on Yoga , kumbhaka is the "retention or holding the breath, a state where there is no inhalation or exhalation". [1] [2]
Sahit or Sahaja Kumbhaka is an intermediate state, when breath retention becomes natural, at the stage of withdrawal of the senses, Pratyahara, the fifth of the eight limbs of yoga. [5]
Kevala Kumbhaka, when inhalation and exhalation can be suspended at will, is the extreme stage of Kumbhaka "parallel with the state of Samadhi", [3] or union with the divine, the last of the eight limbs of yoga, attained only by continuous long term pranayama and kumbhaka exercises. The 18th century Joga Pradipika states that the highest breath control, which it defines as inhaling to a count (mātrā) of 8, holding to a count of 19, and exhaling to a count of 9, confers liberation and Samadhi. [6] [7]
The Yoga Institute recommends sitting in a meditative posture such as Sukhasana for Kumbhaka practice. After a full inhalation for 5 seconds, it suggests retaining the air for 10 seconds, exhaling smoothly, and then taking several ordinary breaths. It recommends five such rounds per pranayama session, increasing the time of retention as far as is comfortable by one second each week of practice. [4]
The yoga scholar Andrea Jain states that while pranayama in modern yoga as exercise consists of synchronising the breath with movements (between asanas), in ancient texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali , pranayama meant "complete cessation of breathing", for which she cites Bronkhorst 2007. [9] [10] The Yoga Sutras state:
[D]istractions ... act as barriers to stillness. ... One can subdue these distractions by ... pausing after breath flows in or out.
— Yoga Sutras, 1:30-34, translated by Chip Hartranft [11]
With effort relaxing, the flow of inhalation and exhalation can be brought to a standstill; this is called breath regulation.
— Yoga Sutras, 2:49, translated by Chip Hartranft [12]
According to the scholar-practitioner of yoga Theos Bernard, the ultimate aim of pranayama is the suspension of breathing, "causing the mind to swoon". [13] Swami Yogananda writes, "The real meaning of Pranayama, according to Patanjali, the founder of Yoga philosophy, is the gradual cessation of breathing, the discontinuance of inhalation and exhalation". [14]
The yoga scholars James Mallinson and Mark Singleton write that "pure breath-retention" [15] (without inhalation or exhalation) is the ultimate pranayama practice in later hatha yoga texts. They give as an example the account in The 15th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika states that the kumbhakas force the breath into the central sushumna channel (allowing kundalini to rise and cause liberation). [16]
The 18th century Gheranda Samhita states that death is impossible when the breath is held in the body. [17]
Mallinson and Singleton note that sahita kumbhaka, the intermediate state which is still accompanied (the meaning of sahita) by breathing, was described in detail. They write that the yoga describes four sahita kumbhakas, and that the Hatha Yoga Pradipika describes another four. They point out, however, that these supposed kumbhakas differ in their styles of breathing, giving the example of the buzzing noise made while breathing in bhramari . [15]
In yoga, Ayurveda, and Indian martial arts, prana permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is sometimes described as originating from the Sun and connecting the elements.
Hatha yoga is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some hatha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon. The oldest dated text so far found to describe hatha yoga, the 11th-century Amṛtasiddhi, comes from a tantric Buddhist milieu. The oldest texts to use the terminology of hatha are also Vajrayana Buddhist. Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onward.
Ashtanga vinyasa yoga is a style of yoga as exercise popularised by K. Pattabhi Jois during the twentieth century, often promoted as a dynamic form of classical Indian (hatha) yoga. Jois claimed to have learnt the system from his teacher Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. The style is energetic, synchronising breath with movements. The individual poses (asanas) are linked by flowing movements (vinyasas).
An āsana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose, and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali define "asana" as "[a position that] is steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system. Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English.
In Sanskrit texts, Rāja yoga was both the goal of yoga and a method to attain it. The term also became a modern name for the practice of yoga in the 19th-century when Swami Vivekananda gave his interpretation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali in his book Raja Yoga. Since then, Rāja yoga has variously been called aṣṭāṅga yoga, royal yoga, royal union, sahaja marg, and classical yoga.
Pranayama is the yogic practice of focusing on breath. In yoga, breath is associated with prana, thus, pranayama is a means to elevate the prana-shakti, or life energies. Pranayama is described in Hindu texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Later in Hatha yoga texts, it meant the complete suspension of breathing. The pranayama practices in modern yoga as exercise are unlike those of the Hatha yoga tradition.
Kriya Yoga is a yoga system which consists of a number of levels of pranayama, mantra, and mudra, intended to rapidly accelerate spiritual development and engender a profound state of tranquility and God-communion. It is described by its practitioners as an ancient yoga system revived in modern times by Lahiri Mahasaya, who claimed to be initiated by a guru, Mahavatar Babaji, circa 1861 in the Himalayas. Kriya Yoga was brought to international awareness by Paramahansa Yogananda's book Autobiography of a Yogi and through Yogananda's introductions of the practice to the West from 1920.
The Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā is a classic fifteenth-century Sanskrit manual on haṭha yoga, written by Svātmārāma, who connects the teaching's lineage to Matsyendranath of the Nathas. It is among the most influential surviving texts on haṭha yoga, being one of the three classic texts alongside the Gheranda Samhita and the Shiva Samhita.
The shatkarmas, also known as shatkriyas, are a set of Hatha yoga purifications of the body, to prepare for the main work of yoga towards moksha (liberation). These practices, outlined by Svatmarama in the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā as kriya, are Netī, Dhautī, Naulī, Basti, Kapālabhātī, and Trāṭaka. The Haṭha Ratnavali mentions two additional purifications, Cakri and Gajakarani, criticising the Hatha Yoga Pradipika for only describing the other six.
Siddhasana or Accomplished Pose is an ancient seated asana in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise suitable for meditation. The names Muktasana and Burmese position are sometimes given to the same pose, sometimes to an easier variant, Ardha Siddhasana. Svastikasana has each foot tucked as snugly as possible into the fold of the opposite knee.
Anuloma Pranayama is one of several Pranayama or breath exercises used in the practice of Hatha yoga. Anu roughly translates as with and Loma means hair implying "with the grain" or "natural". It is the opposite of Viloma Prāṇāyāma which means against the grain.
The Joga Pradīpikā is a hatha yoga text by Ramanandi Jayatarama written in 1737 in a mixture of Hindi, Braj Bhasa, Khari Boli and forms close to Sanskrit. It presents 6 cleansing methods, 84 asanas, 24 mudras and 8 kumbhakas. The text is illustrated in an 1830 manuscript with 84 paintings of asanas, prepared about a hundred years after the text.
Vajroli mudra, the Vajroli Seal, is a practice in Hatha yoga which requires the yogi to preserve his semen, either by learning not to release it, or if released by drawing it up through his urethra from the vagina of "a woman devoted to the practice of yoga".
Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience is a 1943 book by Theos Casimir Bernard describing what he learnt of hatha yoga, ostensibly in India. It is one of the first books in English to describe and illustrate a substantial number of yoga poses (asanas); it describes the yoga purifications (shatkarmas), yoga breathing (pranayama), yogic seals (mudras), and meditative union (samadhi) at a comparable level of detail.
Ashtanga yoga is Patanjali's classification of classical yoga, as set out in his Yoga Sutras. He defined the eight limbs as yamas (abstinences), niyama (observances), asana (posture), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption).
The Vivekamārtaṇḍa is an early Hatha yoga text, the first to combine tantric and ascetic yoga. Attributed to Goraknath, it was probably written in the 13th century. It emphasises mudras as the most important practice. The name means "Sun of Discernment". It teaches khecarīmudrā, mahāmudrā, viparītakaraṇī and the three bandhas. It teaches six chakras and the raising of Kundalinī by means of "fire yoga" (vahniyogena).
The Amaraugha and the Amaraugha Prabodha are recensions of a 12th century Sanskrit text on haṭha yoga, attributed to Gorakṣanātha. The Amaraugha Prabodha is the later recension, with the addition of verses from other texts and assorted other materials. The text's physical practices imply a Buddhist origin for haṭha yoga.
The Dattātreyayogaśāstra, a Vaisnava text probably composed in the 13th century CE, is the earliest text which provides a systematized form of Haṭha yoga under that name, and the earliest to place its yoga techniques under the name Haṭha.
The Yogabīja is an early Haṭha yoga text, from around the 14th century. It was the first text to propose the derivation of haṭha from the Sanskrit words for sun and moon, with multiple esoteric interpretations.
The Gorakṣaśataka is an early text on Haṭha yoga text from the 11th-12th century, attributed to the sage Gorakṣa. It was the first to teach a technique for raising Kundalini called "the stimulation of Sarasvati", along with elaborate pranayama, breath control. It was written for an audience of ascetics.
In April, 1851, Sophie Charlotte Belnos, originally an amateur artist, later a lithographer, published a catalogue containing thoroughly researched and finely executed lithographs with accompanying texts documenting the daily rituals of Brahmins. Wife of the French miniature artist Jean-Jacques Belnos, who introduced lithographic printing in India in 1822, Belnos set up her studio in 1847 in Calcutta.
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