Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis c19.36

c19.36

Prāṇa and apāna ‘situated above and below’³ the diaphragm, are the most important and receive the most attention in the system. They are ‘joined’ in the navel.⁴ To the Yogī the navel is the centre of the body. Apāna is drawn up to the navel, by the prāṇa; and is there united with it (the prāṇa). Prāṇa and apāna alternately draw each other. In pronouncing ‘*ha*’ apāna expels prāṇa; and in pronouncing ‘*sa*’ prāṇa drives down apāna. Thus is described the breathing process and it is conceived of as an expelling and inhaling of the jīva, or soul, which, because of lack of clear insight, identifies itself with the process.⁵ It is said that the final going out of prāṇa is the exit of jīva in death. The word, ‘haṃsa’, derived from the process of breathing (*ha* + *sa*) becomes a mantra, called the ajapa gāyatrī, the unmuttered gāyatrī. So the Yogī ‘repeats’ this mantra, of incalculable power, continually, twenty-one thousand six hundred times in a day and a night.⁶