A friend and reader from Kerala messaged me after reading the last post asking, "I couldn't read it without being physically excited 🙈. Was exclaiming oh oh 😄 etc.. how how wonderful...Pls tell me aiyya, how do we follow our breath?"
I replied to her and shared whatever little I knew and was told and put to practice and realized till now.
"Appa wants us to first become aware of our breath. For that, u have to connect with the breath. Hence the reason for all the pranayama practices. When the breath begins to assert itself u will slowly notice n become aware of it plying thru u. Whenever u realize this moment appa asks us to connect with it now silently sitting n observing it without the need of doing the practice further. Slowly he asks us to follow its travels within. Soon prana or pranic energy takes a ride with the breath n comes within. Eventually, the skin pores open up. The taste buds open up. This energy is further absorbed thru the skin, in taking drinks n food, in having a bath, etc. Food tastes like amirtham. The breath that comes within suddenly starts to have a taste that of sweetness. N many more ma. Pranayama leads to all these. That is something that is god-given."
"Prana sustains us keeping us alive. We just need to tap it n bring it within. Not that it is not available to us now. Yes, it is but in some quantities. Pranayama enhances it to the state of achieving the Pranava deham eventually. Looks like pranayama is very essential in all ways. Appa says following the breath itself is dhyanam. First, u need to start with pranayama. Then you observe the breath. This shall take u within. That is meditation."
I shared Acharya Gurudasan's video tutorial on an introduction to Pranayama that the Kriya Yogi adopts with her that would be a good start. Acharya led us on these techniques and enlightened us when he was working in Malaysia for several years some years back. We are grateful to him to spend his time and share his knowledge and guide us personally through this practices.