24 SIR MONIER MONIER-WILLIAMS. 
According to Swedenborg,* thought commences and 
corresponds with respiration :— 
«When a man thinks quickly his breath vibrates with rapid 
alternations ; when the tempest of anger shakes his mind his 
breath is tumultuous ; when his soul is deep and tranquil, so 
is his respiration.” And he adds: “It is strange that this 
correspondence between the states of the brain or mind and 
the lungs has not been admitted in science.” 
The Hindi belief certainly is that deep inspirations of 
breath assist in concentrating and abstracting the thoughts 
and preventing external impressions. But, more than this, 
five sorts of air are supposed to permeate the human body 
and play an important part in its vitality. The Hatha-dipika 
says: ‘“ As long as the air remains in the body, so long life 
remains. Death is the exit of the breath. Hence the air 
should be retained in the body.” 
In regulating the breath, the air must first be drawn up 
through one nostril (the other being closed with the finger), 
retained in the lungs, and then expelled through the other 
nostril. This exercise must be practised alternately with the 
right and left nostril. Next, the breath must be drawn 
forcibly up through both nostrils, and the air imprisoned for 
as long a time as possible in the lungs. Thence it must be 
forced by an effort of will towards the internal organs of the 
body, or made to mount to the centre of the brain. 
The Hindus, however, do not identify the breath with the 
soul. They believe that a crevice or suture called the 
Brahma-randhram at the top of the skull serves as an out- 
let for the escape of the soul at death. A Hindi Yogi’s skull 
is sometimes split at death by striking it with a sacred shell. 
The idea is to facilitate the exit of the soul. It is said that 
in Tibet the hair is torn out of the top of the head, with the 
same object. 
In the case of a wicked man the soul is supposed to escape 
through one of the lower openings of the body. 
The imprisonment of the breath in the body by taking in 
more air than is necessary for respiration, is the most im- 
portant of the breath exercises. It is said that Hindu 
ascetics, by constant practice, are able by this means to 
sustain life under water, or to be buried alive for long 
periods of time. Such feats of endurance would be wholly 
impracticable in the case of Huropeans. It seems, however, 
open to question, whether or not it may not be possible for 
human beings of particular constitutions to practise a kind of 
* Quoted in Colonel Olcott’s Yoga Philosophy, p. 282. 
