Breath-Key to Body and mind

The body has no intelligence of its own, except the autonomous nervous system, which does bodily functions like digestion that we have no control over. What do we do after eating? We just put food into our mouth and after that we do nothing. Do we say “Now come on, pull this acid out, put that in, nothing; it happens on its own”.

So something is looking after us. Although we think, we have full control over our lives. 75 to 80 percent of our lives are run by the unconscious part of our brain or mind or whatever you want to call it. We can chew food, that’s it, if the esophagus loses the ability to swallow, we can’t even swallow – that’s also connected to the autonomous nervous system, the peristaltic system.

So what is it that we actually control? Circulation - we have no control. Heart - we have no control, it is beating from the time we are inside the womb till it decides to stop. Breathing – we have no control. Do we get up in the morning and say start breathing? And when it stops, it stops – we can’t say don’t stop – since we are not there. What you will notice is amongst all these things, breath is one thing which has a unique characteristic. It is normally not under our control but we can bring it under our control to some extent. Normally breathing is automatic but if we want, we can exert some control over it. We can start breathing slowly, hold it for some time, and exhale slowly. Breath is the only nutrition of our body which we can bring under our control and it is the most important nutrition. You can live without food, water for many days but not much without breathing. So we have an important key to reach that which controls our whole system – that is the breath.

Breath is a very important link to the inner being, your inner consciousness. If you can become aware of your breath constantly, then slowly you can become aware of That which does all these things in us. It is a very good link. In fact it is the only link.

Keep watching your breath as you breathe, is aware of your breath. Very soon you become the breath that is coming in and going out. Then you may realize that there is this whole Big Breath which is going on in the cosmos which is a part of you or you are a part of that.

Puranas say when the Brahman breathes in, all the cosmos is gone, and when he breathes out, a new creation is born.