Light On Pranayama - The Yogic Art of Breathing

Book Description:

B. K. S. Iyengar has done for the more elusive pranayama, that is the movement of air which is said to determine life on earth, the same service that he has rendered to the physical features of hatha yoga. He has moved into a more ethereal, subtle aspect of our very existence. He has placed in the hands of the layman a book which contains, in some respects, more information, more knowledge and more wisdom in a more integrated way than is available to our most brilliant students of conventional medicine, for it is a medicine of health and not of sickness, it is an understanding of spirit, body and mind that is as healing as it is invigorating. Not only can the individual be restored to wholeness but the whole progress of a lifetime is seen in powerful perspective. He teaches us in line with the ancient Indian philosophy that life is not only dust to dust, but air to air, that, as with the process of fire, matter is transformed into heat, light and radiation from which we may gather strength. But strength is more than the transform- action of matter into other forms of matter, it is the transformation of the whole cycle of air and light into matter and back again. In fact, it completes Einstein's equation of matter and energy and translates it into the human, the living incarnation. It is no longer an atomic bomb, it is no longer the explosion of the atom, the harnessing of matter, it is the irradiation of the human being with light and power, the very sources of energy.
I believe that this treatise, drawn from ancient, classical Indian texts, will provide illuminating guidelines to the reconciliation of various practices of medicine from acupuncture to touch and sound therapy to the mutual and reciprocal benefit of them all. I t will also teach us to respect those element:s which we have treated with such contempt - air, water and light - without which life cannot survive. With this book, Mr Iyengar, my guru in yoga, has added a new and greater dimension to the life of the people of the West, urging us to j oin our brothers of every color and every creed in the celebration of life with due reverence and purpose.