This classics together with "Light on Yoga" from the guru need no introduction. Essential guide to anyone studying pranayama and great reference for practitioners of other life-force disciplines (like Taoist Yoga that use the word chi instead of prana).
This book, however, has nothing to do with DIY breathing exercise books (like the popular "The Little Book of Yoga Breathing: Pranayama Made Easy"). The DIY books essentially are books on how to expand and increase the capacity of your lungs so that you are able to breath deeply and calmly (BTW, these are all good side-effect of the real-stuff). These DIY books are certainly useful to promote good lungs, which benefits however can also be have simply by putting on your Rockport (no commercial intended) and to do some fitness walking at your nearby mall. So, if the DIY books are reference books for making toy-cars, the book on hand is a (if not THE) instruction book for making a Ferrari. For folks looking for the real-stuff, below are some guidelines to navigate you through this highly complex book.
Before starting pranayama, one has to learn the asanas, as the guru said, to tamper the body so that prana can flow and be received. More specifically, some essential bandhas in pranayama are learned through the asanas, for example "(jalandhara Banda) is mastered while performing sarvangasana and its cycle, during which the sternum is kept pressed against the chin." (chapter 13). And it is essential to perfect the bandhas for important safety reasons, for example, failure to lock the chin to the sternum in a relaxed manner (hence has to be practiced in sarvangasana), the prana (or chi, to use a Taoist term) will rush to the head causing all sorts of problem, not to mention the famous or infamous side-effect of some folks reaching kundalini awakening.
What is the ultimate objective of practising pranyama? The guru says through pranayama a yogi shall arouse the latent energy of the kundalini and made it ascend the main spinal channel, the susumna piercing the chakras right up to the sahasrara in the head. In short, kundalini awakening in a controlled and safe manner.
Technique-wise this book is exhaustive and with warning and hints in appropriate places to guide a practitioner through. Here, we can also compare this book with the many DIY books. True pranayama is to use outside-breathing (lung breathing) to drive inner-breathing (generation and movement of prana to serve certain objectives). Nose (nostril) blocking is an important technique of pranayama practice, a yogi will use different blocking to facilitate his mind to drive the (inner) prana to certain defined channels (e.g. "In surya bhedana pranayama all inhalations are done through the right nostril and all exhalations through the left. Prana energy in all inhalations is channelled through the pingala or surya nadi and in all exhalations throught the ida or chandra nadi" chapter 27). In DIY books, prana is not activated, it will be quite futile to to inhale or exhale through one nostril because all air goes through the same lungs irrespective of which nostril it comes from!
As the guru said pranayama cannot and should not be learned through reading a book. This book therefore is meant for reference and guidance. It is however an essential buy for any serious practitioner who mostly like will need to refer to the book for further study or enlightenment from time to time in his or her practice.
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