Why is control of the life force so central to the spiritual path? In Chapter III of The Holy Science, “The Procedure,” Swami Sri Yukteswar answers in a single short passage, revealing the science behind Kriya Yoga: how the yogi can learn to “die” consciously, and so rise above the cycle of birth and death.
The excerpt below is from Chapter III of the new 1920 edition, published by Crystal Clarity Publishers.
Necessity of Pranayama
Man can put his voluntary nerves into action whenever he likes and he can also rest them whenever he feels fatigued. When the entire voluntary nervous system requires rest, he is naturally drawn to sleep. Sleep rests and reinvigorates all these voluntary nerves, and being refreshed, they can resume work with full vigor. Man’s involuntary nerves however, being active regardless of his will, are continuously at work from the time of his birth and, as he has no control over them, he cannot interfere with their action in the least. When these nerves become fatigued, they, too, want rest, and naturally “fall asleep.” This “sleep” of the involuntary nerves is called Mahanidra, the great sleep, or death. When this takes place, the activities of circulation, respiration, etc. cease and the material body naturally begins to decay. After a while, when this great sleep, Mahanidra, is over, man awakes with all his desires still intact. Finding that he no longer has a body that is fit to serve him, he eventually creates a new body* for the appeasement of his desires. In this way man binds himself to the cycle of life and death and thereby fails to attain salvation.
But if man can gain control over these involuntary nerves by the aforesaid Pranayama, he can put them to rest at appropriate times, as he does the voluntary nerves, and thus can prevent the natural decay of the material body. After this rest, these involuntary nerves, too, become refreshed and work once again with a new life.
If man can learn to “die” consciously by Pranayama, that is, put his nervous system to rest and arrest the natural decay of the body, the whole system is refreshed and works with full vigor and the nerves avoid the state of fatigue. There is then no need for Mahanidra (death); in other words, life and death come under one’s control. In this manner, man saves his present body from decay, prolongs life, avoids the terrible suffering of death, and is able to use his prolonged life to work out his desires in the present lifetime. He then has no need to reincarnate in another body to work out his unfinished desires; thus, he is no more required to reincarnate into the world under the influence of darkness, Maya, and to suffer the “second death.”
“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
“He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death” (Revelation 2:10-11 KJV).
* That is, he reincarnates.
Hear Nayaswamis Jaya and Sagar on pranayama
In their conversation on The Holy Science, Nayaswami Jaya and Nayaswami Sagar explore pranayama, longevity, and the “second death.” That segment begins at 32:35.
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