Kumbhaka & Raja Yoga

Kumbhaka ordinarily means "breath retention". However, one must remember that yoga is not mere physical exercise. It is a metaphysical action that restores to the yogi the state of one - ness. Shiva is the masculine or active force. Shakti the feminine or passive force. In the context of breath, Shiva is inhalation, the positively charged breath that energises and Shakti is exhalation, the negatively charged breath that relaxes. The middle, the space where the inhalation and exhalation meet is kumbhaka,  the union of Shiva and Shakti. When the yogi consciously raises the inhalation to the third eye with the mystical mantra of Shiva-Shakti, holds it in that space and releases it,  he is a Raja Yogi. This is the essence of Raja Yoga.

On falling in love

Why is falling in love the most beautiful feeling? Because it is a series of moments that are full of potential, possibilities. A lover looks at life in frames, much like a photographer or film maker does. He strains, effortlessly, every moment, to experience to the fullest the most beautiful essence of the present. There is a sense of shared delight, a sense of oneness with existence through the beloved, because the beloved is more than "just another person". The beloved is a symbol. And it is in this respect that the beloved assumes the qualities of eternity and infinity. In the shade of her hair is the choicest perfume that all the jasmine trees in the world cannot offer. In the sweetness of her kiss is the tenderness that never before was. The experiencer creates, or more appropriately, co-creates his reality with the beloved and all that is available to him at the moment within the frame of his experience. To drink the essence of the moment is indeed the essence of love. The proof is that when a love affair ends, there is even in the ending a sweetness. The ending is to the lover not a full stop, but rather a full stop magnified as it were, infinitely, till it assumes the proportions of an endless, bottomless pit of intense emotion into which one falls, and keeps falling. It is, in a sense, death - the drowning of the self in the ocean of emotion. Therefore, to die to the self, is to love.