Hi all,
Here is a kriya first taught by my Indian yoga teacher. Later on I saw that in the Discovery Channel. If anyone know the name for this kriya/pranayama, please let me know.
If no one find its name, may be let’s call it “strengthened bhastrika” or “violent bhastrika”(a negative version?) or something like that. Enjoy and share your view in this open-source yoga era!
Techniques:
- Sit in padmasana or Vajrasana. I prefer not to sit in Siddhasana—you will know why soon.
- Keep the spine straight as usual, hold the two hands in loose fists. Keeping the elbows down and close to the two side of the chest(just as they would be when you stand up and relax the arms), raise the forearms. So now your forearms should form a V-shape with your upperarm. The upper arm should be open somewhat so that the forearms actually point somewhat outward to the two sides. So the two “V” should be seen by someone in front of you. The palm, which is in a fist, should face somewhat forward. This is the starting position.
- As you inhale, inhale powerfully and quickily; at the same time shoot your two arms and fingers upward, straight into the sky. So the palm is now opened. And keep it face somewhat forward so that someone in front of you can see both your palms. (don’t be too serious on that, though)
- As you exhale, exhale powerfully and bring you elbows down again besides your chest. Resume the starting position.
- This is one round. Repeat for 20-60 rounds for each set. Start with 20. And do about 2-3 sets.
additional tips on the techniques:
This is similar to bhastrika, with arm movements added. But with the shooting arm, the chest expands. So unlike bhastrika (at least the bhastrika here in AYP), the focus is not just on the abdominen. And both inhale and exhale and active. Also, the kriya is quite strenuous, so unlike bhastrika which can be done with 2 or even 3 breaths per second, this kriya was usually done(as I observed my teacher and the documentary) quite a bit slower. Hardly more than 1 breath per second. Since each exhale and inhale is pretty quick, that means after each inhale/exhale, there is a stopping time for about 0.3-0.5 seconds. Even that is quite strenuous.
My experience is that the powerful shooting up and down of the arms and hands are quite important.
I was taught to face the palm forward(especially when it goes up), but now I think there’s also a reason behind: it opens your chest.
Subjective experience:
Until recently, I didn’t do it much except in the yoga center, when my teacher asked me to. But the overall effects are pretty like bhastrika. The tingling in the body, you know. The kriya gives the feeling much faster.
This morning, I tried it on my own after the yoni mudra, with the attention on the spine going up and down just as in the spinal bhastrika. Besides the expected effects of bhastrika, I got a feeling of coldness going up, pretty much like what I felt during tantra practice with spinal breathing.
Scientific experiments:
In the documentary, a physician in india tried to examine the effects of this kriya on patients. And he found, with some surprises, that the depressed (?) patients got very much the same results as if they take prescription drugs, minus the side-effects, of course.
I don’t know the exact name for this kriya, so I’ve difficulty learning more about this. Everything is based just on my memory.
Tradition/history:
This is my missing part, as I don’t even know the name. Please help here. In the documentary, it is a single most powerful physical practice taught by a famous spiritual leader in india. I doubt if this alone will give you any dramatic effects, but that’s what many followers said, anyway. (cure this and that, almost everything, anyway)
Variations to try
I tried adding the atention moving up and down on my spine, as I’ve mentioned.
There is another way to move the hands which is taught by another indian yoga master here in Hong Kong, but I think the one here is the better one.
Sequence
I’m not an experienced yogi, so someone please help here. But I think that since it’s rather strenuous, so unlike bhastrika it should not be done right before meditation. I tried doing it before spinal breathing, and it seems to enhance the feeling of my spine. May be doing it after meditation (and enough rest) is another choice.
Anyone know anything about this kriya?? Give it a try and tell me what you find!
Alvin
and I can’t possibily do it for very long. I think that’s why in the class my teacher asked us to do only 20 breaths each set, with3 sets.