History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.322

v7.c94.322

The last chapter in Dr. Behanan's book on 'Yoga, a scientific evaluation' is interesting and important. He makes an appraisal of several aspects of Yoga by means of experiments which he carried out on himself after spending one year under the guidance of Swami Kuvalayānand of Lonavla and after he had three years of experience in Yogic breathing. It is not possible for reasons of space to give here a summary of his appraisal of several aspects of Yoga but reference may be made to a few of his findings. He finds that by yogic practices the mind is turned inward and detached from the external world (p. 232), it seems to him very probable that the prāṇāyāmic breathing induces a state of relaxation, thereby inducing the mind to take an inward course (p. 234), that taking normal breathing as a basis of comparison it was found that oxygen consumption increased 24. 5 per cent in Ujjāyī, 18. 5 per cent in *bhastrikā* and 12 per cent in Kapālabhāti; that the nasal gaze in a meditative posture is an aid to checking the wandering propensities of the mind (p. 242), that Yogic practices lead to an emotional stability and that watching at close range for a year the daily lives of more than half a dozen practitioners of yoga Dr. Behanan concluded that they were the happiest personalities that he had known and that their serenity was contagious (p. 245).