"In Ayurveda a concept of agni (fire) has been given. Agni here refers not just to the digestive fire, but various kinds of agnis corresponding to myriad life processes. In fact, it is the agni which is the sub-stratum of a cell, not the nucleus. It is the play of agni that leads to symptoms of ageing in the body, that is, dulling of the senses - vision deteriorates, hearing ability decreases, sense of touch becomes weak, etc.
What do these agnis do? When you inhale there is an exchange of gases in the lungs, energy is produced at the cellular level and in turn, toxins are also produced. These toxins are called as ama in Ayurveda. Because of their production, cell exhibits symptoms of weakening. Cells die and are reborn, each subsequent cell being weaker than the previous one. There is a limit to how many times a cell can multiply; this has been recognized as the Hayflick Limit in western science. In 1912, an experiment was conducted by Alexis Carrel where chicken cells were maintained in a saline solution. They survived for 20 years, which is much more than the average lifespan of chicken. The same concept of saline water or life giving water is used in jal neti, laghu shankh prakshalan and kunjal since ages…While the West raises doubts on their safety, nevertheless they too are adopting Vedic ways- neti kits are available all over US, hydro-colon therapy is essentially laghu shankh prakshalan.
From the above we may conclude that breath rate of a person is indicative of his/her state of health. The faster you breathe, the faster you age. But agni is not just activated by breath alone, it is also activated by the food you eat. Because when you eat something, the dhatus have to be ‘cooked’ and when you ‘cook’ them, energy is produced and again it draws on the same vital reserves of the body, leading to ageing. So, when you are breathing you are ageing, when you are eating you are ageing and also, when you are thinking you are ageing. People who are very intense, who want to go to the root of every issue, all the time their mind is at work. The thinking process is also consuming that vital prana and this vital prana is limited in quantity in each cell. Your batteries (prana) are neither unlimited, nor are they rechargeable. Once it is consumed, the body perishes. For example, Bruce Lee was a fine martial artist but he had a lot of aggression (martial arts are not a technique of showing aggression, rather they are meant for defence). Due to this aggression he died at 33 even though all his systems were working like that of an 18 year old. Aggression killed him - it consumed all the energy of the cell and once that happens, it all over. By some reason or the other the body dies, thus the extreme symptom of ageing is death. Death lies in each and every cell and Yoga is means to stall it – breath that you take in, the food that you eat, thoughts and memories. In yoga we say live in the present moment, i.e. only now exists, there is no past or future. When you are in the present moment, eye muscles become still and the thoughts cease. It is the movement of eye muscles that creates thoughts in the body. When you still yourself, you still the eye muscles, thoughts cease and thus the process of ageing is stalled. That is why in Yoga, stillness is the key. When you think about something that happened to you in the past, this thought "cooks" up the cells as energy is being produced. You can test it for yourself. You will observe that whenever you are thinking hard, automatically your breath rate and pulse rate shoots up. This is owing to the play of agnis which consume the vital prana and causes ageing.
Do not forget, once the body ages to a certain degree, you cannot reverse that process as that much energy has been spent from the body. It is not possible to reverse the process of ageing!"
-Yogi Ashwini
Know more on the process of ageing and anti-ageing - 'Sanatan Kriya, The Ageless Dimension' acclaimed as a thesis on anti-ageing by the media and top doctors of the country
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