Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Team
THE HINDU-YOGI Science of Breath
A Complete Manual of THE ORIENTAL BREATHING PHILOSOPHY of Physical,
Mental, Psychic and Spiritual Development.
By YOGI RAMACHARAKA
I. Salaam 1
II. "Breath Is Life" 3
III. The Exoteric Theory of Breath 11
IV. The Esoteric Theory of Breath 16
V. The Nervous System 20
VI. Nostril Breathing vs. Mouth Breathing 23
VII. The Four Methods of Respiration 27
VIII. How to Acquire the Yogi Complete Breath 33
IX. Physiological Effect of the Complete Breath 36
X. A Few Bits of Yogi Lore 40
XI. The Seven Yogi Developing Exercises 43
XII. Seven Minor Yogi Exercises 48
XIII. Vibration and Yogi Rhythmic Breathing 51
XIV. Phenomena of Yogi Psychic Breathing 55
XV. More Phenomena of Yogi Psychic Breathing 61
XVI. Yogi Spiritual Breathing 69
The Western student is apt to be somewhat confused in his ideasregarding the Yogis and their philosophy and practice. Travelers toIndia have written great tales about the hordes of fakirs, mendicantsand mountebanks who infest the great roads of India and the streets ofits cities, and who impudently claim the title "Yogi." The Westernstudent is scarcely to be blamed for thinking of the typical Yogi asan emaciated, fanatical, dirty, ignorant Hindu, who either sits in afixed posture until his body becomes ossified, or else holds his armup in the air until it becomes stiff and withered and forever afterremains in that position, or perhaps clenches his fist and holds ittight until his fingernails grow through the palms of his hands. Thatthese people exist is true, but their claim to the title "Yogi" seemsas absurd to the true Yogi as does the claim to the title "Doctor" onthe part of the man who pares one's corns seem to the eminent surgeon,or as does the title of "Professor," as assumed by the street cornervendor of worm medicine, seem to the President of Harvard or Yale.
There have been for ages past in India and other Oriental countriesmen who devoted their time and attention to the development of Man,physically, mentally and spiritually. The experience of generations ofearnest seekers has been handed down for centuries from teacher topupil, and gradually a definite Yogi science was built up. To theseinvestigations and teachings was finally applied the term "Yogi," fromthe Sanscrit word "Yug," meaning "to join." From the same source comesthe English word "yoke," with a similar meaning. Its use in connectionwith these teachings is difficult to trace, different authoritiesgiving different explanations, but probably the most ingenious is thatwhich holds that it is intended as the Hindu equivalent for the ideaconveyed by the English phrase, "getting into har