360 The Law of the Rhythmic BreatK 



shadow of a doubt that these corrective exercises 

 successfully effect a purification and regulation of 

 the Kosmic currents flowing over the nerves which, 

 through restoring the normal balance of the vital- 

 currents, restores harmony and consequently 

 strength where heretofore discord and disease 

 have held high carnival mainly because of the dis- 

 ordered and unnatural breathing which has become 

 the rule among mankind instead of the exception. 



Instances of harm resulting from Yoga exercises 

 can always be traced to injudicious practice, be- 

 cause of ignorance of the forces used the two 

 phases of the vital-current and the Tattvic vibra- 

 tions composing the currents. All wholesale con- 

 demnation and denunciation are based also upon 

 ignorance, but are due to observed results of mal- 

 practice. Unfortunately, this very practice has 

 been sanctioned and directed sometimes by those 

 who command confidence because supposedly hav- 

 ing been trained themselves in the oldest Eastern 

 systems. 



But I would caution you that no one who under- 

 stands the Science of Breath would dream of in- 

 structing students to practice the Held-Breath 

 exercise for long periods of thirty to forty-five min- 

 utes. The conditions thus produced are " unnat- 

 ural " and destroy all normal activity. They are 

 exactly what is described in the picturesque phrase- 

 ology of the Shivagama as the state when " the 



