Gita 04.29 – Infuse pranayama with the imagery of yajna

Link: https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/gita-04-29-infuse-pranayama-with-the-imagery-of-yajna/

apāne juhvati prāṇaṁ
prāṇe ’pānaṁ tathāpare
prāṇāpāna-gatī ruddhvā
prāṇāyāma-parāyaṇāḥ
apare niyatāhārāḥ
prāṇān prāṇeṣu juhvati

Word-to-word
apāne — in the air which acts downward; juhvati — offer; prāṇam — the air which acts outward; prāṇe — in the air going outward; apānam — the air going downward; tathā — as also; apare — others; prāṇa — of the air going outward; apāna — and the air going downward; gatī — the movement; ruddhvā — checking; prāṇa-āyāma — trance induced by stopping all breathing; parāyaṇāḥ — so inclined; apare — others; niyata — having controlled; āhārāḥ — eating; prāṇān — the outgoing air; prāṇeṣu — in the outgoing air; juhvati — sacrifice.

Translation
Still others, who are inclined to the process of breath restraint to remain in trance, practice by offering the movement of the outgoing breath into the incoming, and the incoming breath into the outgoing, and thus at last remain in trance, stopping all breathing. Others, curtailing the eating process, offer the outgoing breath into itself as a sacrifice.
Explanation

apāne juhvati prāṇaṁ – they are trying merge outgoing air to incoming air
prāṇe ’pānaṁ tathāpare – after that they offer the other way
prāṇāpāna-gatī ruddhvā – Stopping both the airs
prāṇāyāma-parāyaṇāḥ – people who are inclined to attain trance through paranayam
apare niyatāhārāḥ – Other people try to restrict their food
prāṇān prāṇeṣu juhvati – and offers their senses to prana

The concept of prana, there are different kinds of airs. We can’t arbitrarily or artificially transport or extrapolate or transplant one concept from one system of thought to another system of thought. For example, the prana is a concept within the analysis of the body that is given within the Yogic school of thought. Within the modern scientific way of looking at the body, there is the concept of oxygen, which is vital for breathing and living. The idea is that oxygen is taken in by the air through the respiratory tract, and then, through the process of passing through the lungs and the heart, the oxygenated blood is sent throughout the body. This is a particular vision of how the body operates.
There is another vision which is given, where it is understood that the air is not only something which is drilled in and out just from the respiratory tract. That is definitely there, but beyond that there are different kinds of airs—subtle airs—whose subtlety is not necessarily in terms of they are made of subtle matter, but rather they are not just something which we can perceive so easily with our gross senses. Apana is the word for air that goes downward, and prana is the air that goes outwards. Basically, we breathe through the nose, so the air that goes downwards is air that goes into the body. The air that goes upwards is the air that goes outwards through the nose.

Pranayam is one of the foundational limbs of the path of yoga. There are basically three stages, and we will not go much into the technicalities of things over here because the focus here is not on the exposition of yoga itself. There is an assumption that there is knowledge of yoga, and Krishna is simply talking about how the vision of yajna can be made to pervade the conception of yoga. So we will focus on that principle rather than the specifics of the processes.
There are technical terms like puraka, rechaka, and kumbhaka, and they all have their specific meanings. Srila Prabhupada talked about it. Patanjali Yoga Sutra also talks about these. Essentially, they involve regulating the bodily air in different ways.

We can follow Krishna’s example over here and keep things simple. Krishna does not introduce that terminology over here because his focus is something very clear. His focus is not to give an elaborate or even systematic analysis of the process of yoga. His process is to show how the vision of yajna can pervade even the process of yoga.
The essential point which he is talking about here is, in any sacrifice, there has to be something—some yajna kund or some object where the sacrifice is offered—and there has to be something to be offered, and of course, beyond that, there is someone who has to offer. So, somewhere to offer, something to offer, and someone to offer. In all these activities, the someone to offer is the seeker—it may be Arjuna or whoever it is—the seeker is the person to offer. And how is the offering made? It is made through the process of yoga.

The process of yoga means that normally the yogic shastras will not talk about this in this particular way. That means they will not talk about the process of yoga in the mode of analysis in terms of juhvati, as it is used over here. They will talk about “regulate the breath this way.” So, kumbhaka, rechaka, and puraka are terms which are used not in the sense of yajnic terminology or yajnic imagery. But Krishna is using that imagery over here because there is a particular context, and there is a particular purpose in which this discussion is happening.
That’s why what he says over here, rather than simply saying that “okay, slow down the breathing, regulate the breathing, stop the breathing,” he says apane juhvati pranam—so offer the outgoing air inwards, offer the in-going air outwards, and in this way stop the breathing.

Now, this may seem to be very difficult to imagine. First of all, what exactly do we mean by outgoing and in-going air? We know that air goes in and air goes out, definitely. We take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide. But the idea is that there is some discrete outgoing air and there is some discrete incoming air, and both of them can be checked and then offered inwards. That is something which is a little difficult to understand—that conception of yajna, that conception of how the air is offered.
We should understand that the focus here is on the yajnic imagery—that Krishna is utilizing the yajnic imagery for his purposes of expounding the glory of yajna, for the pervasiveness of the principle of yajna. Essentially, it is regulating the breath.
This is a six-line verse, as contrasted with the normal four lines of the Gita. So we will see that later on, there will be a verse, which will be the 31st verse, which will actually be two lines itself. Now, Prabhupada brings these six lines together because they are one unit of thought. Rather than sticking to strict poetic divisions, Prabhupada is focusing more on keeping thematic divisions of the verses. Poetic divisions are based on length or number of lines, whereas thematic divisions are based on the content of what is spoken.

The six lines stand together as one unit of thought, and you’ll see two lines in the 31st verse also stand as one unit of thought. Actually, the 29th verse itself, if we consider four lines, then it is talking about the process of pranaya and re-envisioning the process of pranaya as a sacrifice. And then, in the next two lines, there is another sacrifice just talked about. Some other people become regulated in their food. They offer the life-air into the life-air.
Here, Krishna is using the word prana. Prana can mean two different things. Prana can refer generically to the principle of life-air, and within that, there are five different kinds of life-airs. They are prana, apana, vyana, samana, and udana.

When Krishna uses the word prana prana in the first four lines, then he is using the word prana as a subcategory among these five types of airs, and that’s why he says, “Offer the outgoing air to the incoming air.” There, prana refers to one subcategory within the five different kinds of life-airs. Whereas, in the last two lines, prana refers to the general concept of life.
At a very advanced stage of yoga, the person who is practicing pranayama can even stop the breathing almost nearly completely. There have been some cases of yogis whose all body symptoms had been stopped, but still they remained. They remained alive and came out of samadhi later.
Of course, the point of this verse is not to try to prove any miracles. To authenticate the concept of miracles from an empirical perspective is an entirely different ball game. Here, the point is that the principle of regulation of breath can also be re-envisioned as a form of sacrifice.

Others take a regular diet. They offer the life-air into itself. The idea of fasting was talked about earlier—not in a specific but in a generic sense—as tapo yajna. Tapo yajna is not necessarily just fasting. There can be different kinds of austerities—surrounding oneself with fire, or sitting under the blazing sun, or standing in water, or raising one hand and standing like that for a long, long time. These are all tapa. One specific kind of tapa is fasting.
So, apare—some other people—niyatāhārāḥ—they regulate their diet. There are different kinds of and different levels of fasting. We, at our level, usually think that avoiding grains on ekadasi is itself fasting. It is described in the Ramayan that Vishwamitra, in his earlier life as a king, went to meet Valmiki Rishi. There were some sages who used to live only on breath, and there were some others who, less austere, would live in water, and some others would live on fallen leaves.

Those who live only on air, they basically give out air and take in air. That’s how they sustain themselves. Now, we may feel it’s impossible, but there have been documented cases of some saintly people who have lived for 60–70 years without taking any food. No doubt they are exceptional, but the exception also demonstrates the rule to some extent. Rather, the exception demonstrates not the rule but the underlying principle.
Normally, we need bodily sustenance, but if a person is getting a higher sustenance, then that person doesn’t need bodily sustenance so much. The important point here is not again to prove something miraculous, but the important point is to recognize that the body can be seen as a receptacle, and the life-air is offered into itself—the receptacle through which air comes in, that is the nose. The outgoing air is offered into the ingoing air, and in this way, the person lives in a form of austerity.
The most extremely austere people may just take only air, but others, they take some regulated food, and whenever other pious people feel hungry, they satisfy themselves by offering the outgoing air into the ingoing air. Essentially, the principle of sacrifice can be applied—or yajna—to the act of fasting also.

Thank you.