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Traditional Yoga masters placed Pranayama at the heart of Yoga. While postures prepare the body, Pranayama maintains health and sustains life
Pranayama is best practised early morning, around sunset, and before meditation. (Patanjalee Institute Of Yoga & Therapy)
Suggest Yoga to someone dealing with health issues, and the response is often that they already exercise—go to the gym, run, or cycle. This shows how Yoga continues to be misunderstood as merely physical exercise, with its postures placed alongside other forms of physical training, as if they were interchangeable.
Today, digital platforms that play a major role in promoting Yoga culture are also focussed on the physical—aesthetics, flexibility, stamina. Yoga has an eightfold path—which, surprisingly, largely goes unnoticed.
As noted by renowned classical Yoga teacher of the last century, TKV Desikachar: “People say they are doing Yoga when in fact doing Asana. Yet they don’t say ‘I am doing Yoga’ when they are doing Pranayama or meditation.”
Yoga’s Other Aspects Slowly Gaining Traction
Pranayama is increasingly recognised as the proper way to breathe and as a tool for mental health. What still remains poorly understood is the extent to which Pranayama by itself can sustain the body, its functions, and overall health.
Classical Yoga writings and teachings, however, repeatedly emphasise Pranayama—not postures—as the more important factor in Yoga for maintaining health.
Why Classical Yoga Places Pranayama Above Asanas
Contemporary Yoga teacher and Founder of ACT Yoga (Authentic, Classical, Traditional Yoga), Dr N Ganesh Rao, explains: “Asanas relate to the physical dimension—the anatomy or structure of the body. After doing Asanas, we stand before a mirror to admire ourselves, because the effect becomes obvious in our form.
“Pranayama brings in the physiological dimension. The human body has the panch pranas (five pranas)—prana, apana, samana, udana and vyana. These pranas put together are responsible for all functions in the human body. Digestion, circulation, excretion, the nervous system—all systems in the body are made healthy by Pranayama practices. That is why Pranayama is at a higher level than Asanas. While Asanas cater to appearance, Pranayama caters to the health of the systems,” he says.
Pranayama Is Not Just Breath, But The Energy Behind It
Noted Yoga and Ayurveda scholar, Padma Bhushan Vamadeva Shastri, explains that it may surprise us how prana means far more than what we think it is.
“Prana is a cosmic force and pervades all of life and nature. Oxygen is merely the carrier of prana at a physical level. Though our first acquaintance with prana is through the breath, prana is actually the energy behind it.
“This life energy or the vital force sustains speech, mind, senses, and our internal organs. Prana, as the basis of Vata dosha in Ayurveda, rules all movements, functions and activities in the body and is closely linked with the nervous system.”
Therefore, Pranayama does not just make us breathe better or exercise our lungs. It helps us establish balance and vitality in both mind and body—finally opening access to inner energy consciousness, as we move onward in Yoga. Nadi Shodhana or alternate nostril breathing is the main practice here.
Pranayama’s Capacity To Prolong Life
Renowned physician and Yoga educator Dr Ramesh Bijlani, recipient of the PM Yoga Award, explains the deeper physiological effects of Pranayama in his YESpirituality YouTube Channel.
“Control of Prana can do several things. A person can direct it to a particular part of the body and heal it. And by making the process of self-healing more efficient, one can come out of illness and potentially prolong life.”
He explains that slow (about 10 times per minute), deep and predominantly abdominal breathing—which Pranayama facilitates—is more beneficial. This is because only that part of the air is useful in delivering oxygen to the body that is in the lungs—not that which is in the airways. When we breathe deeply, a larger fraction of the air participates in gas exchange in the lungs.
Deep Breathing Versus Yogic Breathing
Shri Yogendra, pioneer Yoga guru and Founder of The Yoga Institute Santacruz, states in his book Hatha Yoga Simplified that: “It is a truism that health, tone and vigour of the body depends mostly on the quantity and quality of blood circulating throughout the system.
“In Yoga breathing—due to favourable coordination between the positive and negative pressures in the intrathoracic cavity—general and pulmonary circulation is improved both in quantity and quality, even without the aid of muscular exercise,” he explains. This is why yogic alternate breathing is superior to mere deep breathing.
When Mobility Reduces, Pranayama Alone Suffices
As the body ages or mobility is compromised, Yogasana may no longer be possible. Pranayama, however, remains available even then—seated or lying down—and can suffice to support health and vitality. What’s more, it can be utilised as what Vamadeva Shastri describes as “unitary prana to reach inner energy consciousness”.
Breathing and the higher inner Yoga practices are lifelong companions, supporting health and life—as also life’s quests.
The Right Time To Practise And To Begin
Pranayama is best practised early morning, around sunset, and before meditation.
The timing to begin the practice also matters. Yogi Swami Sivananda, Founder of the Divine Life Society, advised commencing Pranayama in Vasanta Ritu (spring) or Sharad Ritu (autumn). In these seasons, success is attained without difficulty, he said, as recorded in the book The Science of Pranayama.
The author is a journalist, cancer survivor and certified yoga teacher. She can be reached at swatikamal@gmail.com.
February 21, 2026, 10:15 IST