Pranayama powerfully opens the dormant centres and channels in the body and the brain, leading to heightened awareness and increased energy vibration. When done with regular asana practice, it can quickly stimulate kundalini shakti. While kundalini awakening has its benefits, it’s not suitable for everyone. So, we should approach its practice with great care and take it slowly. It’s important to regularly assess our lives to make sure our practice fits our situation, goals, commitments, and responsibilities to ourselves and others.

When the dormant channels and centres in the body and brain awaken, many physiological changes occur. Pranayama practices stimulate and enhance agni, the energetic and spiritual fire within. As a result, the functioning of regulatory organs and glands transforms. For example, bhastrika pranayama affects sperm and testosterone production in males and disrupts menstruation in women.

Pranayama impacts the heartbeat and internal temperature, causing a sudden introspective shift in the mind. Advanced pranayamas offer significant benefits for meditation, but their intensity can overwhelm an unprepared student. Hatha yoga recommends practicing shatkarmas and asanas first to properly prepare the body.

Importance of Opening and Strengthening the Body

Overall, pranayama should only be practiced by students who have developed a stable and well-rounded asana practice. It is important to understand that simply performing specific asanas because they are fancy or complex does not constitute a proper practice. True asana practice involves developing the spine and hips through all possible movements—flexion, lateral bends, rotation, extension—and building overall core strength. In modern times, it is common for students to focus on just one or a few asanas and believe they are well-rounded. This is a mistake that should be corrected at once.

When the spine is stimulated in all directions, the deep muscles and nerves awaken, enhancing the nervous system’s ability to draw more energy from the breath. To achieve this higher potential, one must develop the body and its internal systems first before advancing to pranayama. This approach prevents any potential damage to the body.

The Programme

Just like Ujjayi and Plavini, Murcha Pranayama happened to me spontaneously, especially when I practise shambhavi mudra. I later discovered that what I was doing was actually Murcha Pranayama, after many occurrences.

In Murcha Pranayama, we gently tilt our heads upward, gaze between our eyebrows, and breathe through nabho mudra. This quickly magnetises the brain, creating a feeling of detachment from outside distractions, much like drifting into sleep.