 Let us look at certain guidelines about pranayama. These are given in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. It says that parana mein yukten sarvarok kastiyo bhaved ayokta bhyas yogin sarvarok samudgamah, when the pranayama is practiced as per the prescription, we can get rid of all diseases. But all diseases can arise if we follow improper practice. So, every practice must be treated with respect and caution. There should be no violent respiration, no extended kumbhak meaning upholding the breath beyond a comfortable measure and no forcing of breath body or mind should be done. That is a basic, that is a ground rule of pranayama. Next is taken from this Yog Churamani Upanishad. It says that yatha siho gajo vyagdhro bhaved desha shanay shanay tathay sevito vayuranta hanthi sadhakam. Just as the loin, elephant, tiger are brought under control slowly and steadily, similarly prana should be controlled otherwise it becomes destructive to the practitioner. In order to qualify for the pranayama, must under grow the process of shatkarmas. Process of shatkarmas help us in controlling the prana, the movement of breath. We are going to look at the shatkarma in a short while from now. Another guideline is given in the Gheram Samhita which says that metaharam vina yasthu yoga rambham tu kariyeet nana rogo bhaved taschik kanchid yogo nasiddhati. Nana rogo, many diseases can happen. Kinchid yogo, not a ayota of yoga can be realized, can be experienced can be experienced without what? Without metaharam, without control in ahar. So, control of diet is very important for pranayama to give result. So, practitioner of pranayama should choose the balanced diet. We have had a previous session on ahar. You can refer that and that is a kind of a initial condition, a prerequisite for ah for us to be able to perform pranayama and get the benefit of that. Guidelines about place and timing. So, the pranayama should be practiced in the clean environment to minimize the effects of pollution. Ideally the place of pranayama should be somewhat isolated away from the crowd, away from the interruptions and noise. Avoid practicing in the direct sun or wind. Race of early morning suns are beneficial, but after that we should avoid practicing in the direct sun under the direct sunlight. Timing is equally important. Early morning is the best time for the practice at the time of the brahmamuhurtha. Brahmamuhurtha is approximately to us before sunrise. It should not be practiced after meals. If you are doing kapalabhati or brahmari or sheetili, we must wait for 3 hours after meal before practicing the pranayama. As we looked at the preparation is very important for pranayama. Shatakarma 6 practices prepares our body for the pranayama and the higher practices like pratyahar, dharana and dhyana. These practices are neti, dhauti, nauli, basthi, kapalabhati and prattak. Neti is the nasal cleansing. It is a process intended to purify the nasal passage and bathe the sinuses. It can be done with the pot, specially designed pot and using the saline water and it can also be done with the thread of rubber band. It comes specially for this practice, dhauti. That is a cleaning process for the elementary canal including the esophagus, the mouth and stomach and intestine and rectum. There are couple of methods by using cloth or by using the saline water. These are the different methods through which dhauti can be performed. Nauli is the cleansing practice for the abdomen which uses abdominal muscle itself to massage and stimulate the digestive organs. The picture and the videos of Swami Ramdevji performing nauli are very popular. You can watch that in video. I am not describing these practices in detail in this lecture because this lecture is not meant to guide for the practices and particularly little more complicated practices. The purpose is to make ourselves familiar to the practices and connect all these things with the positive psychology and many more benefits which are beyond positive psychology. Another method is basthi. This method is purifying the large intestine either with or without water. That is also a very important process. Kapalabhati, many people think that it is pranayama but in the classical sense kapalabhati is not pranayama. It is a cleansing process and probably the easiest cleansing process which can be performed by all of us in the beginning before we practice pranayama. So, it is a breathing technique. That means shining forehead. Kapal is the forehead. Bhati means shining or cleansing. In this practice, breath is forcefully exhaled through nostrils by strongly drawing the abdominal muscles after which the inhalation happens naturally and it is repeated 20 times in a quick rhythmic succession. In the literature it is suggested that 48 per minute is the ideal speed for the kapalabhati but if you are doing it first time and if you are doing it after long time, the speed can vary. The important thing is that you should not exert the system and you should not try to go beyond your limits when you start the practice. The essence of yogic practice is that you gradually in a non-violent way in enhance your capacity. Thratak is again a preparation practice for pranayama and it can be very useful for students because the additional benefit of Thratak is enhancing concentration. Our ability to focus on one thought. Swami Vivekananda said that a sense of education lies in ability to focus and pursue valued goals. If I am able to focus on something, I can make it happen. Thratak is a practice of using different objects. So, most popular way of performing Thratak is keeping the lamp at the level of your eyes. Keep watching it, focusing on that and there are some other steps. As I told you, I am not going to describe the whole technique because I want you to go to the videos put up by the masters and Swami Ramdev Ji has put up lot of detailed videos about the Thratak process as well. You can follow that. The sense of the practice is that you focus your attention on a lamp, on the light of the lamp which is at the level of your eyes and when you continue to observe that and keep your attention to that something happens. That is very good for not only building our capacity for the pranayama, but also builds our capacity for dharana, for dhyan and enhance our ability to focus on one thought or one object or one problem which is the essence of academic success and career success as well. Few more guidelines for pranayama. This is probably a complicated process. So, we must be aware of the guidelines sequence. So, pranayama should be performed after asana, should not be performed before asanas and should be performed before meditation practice. Natural fibers such as cotton or wool are the best to sit on for the practice of pranayama and all breathing should be through the nose except where otherwise specified and we will see there are few practices of pranayama where you can breathe and you are supposed to breathe through mouth, but for all other practices nasal breathing must be done. The nasal cavity should be regularly cleansed by Jalaniti for efficient of operation of the nostrils. Posture is extremely important. This is asana ability to sit comfortably in a meditation asana is a kind of a requisite for successful practice of pranayama. Both concentration and technique are hampered by the poor posture. So, we must identify that posture that asana in which we are comfortable and that posture is well identified in the classical yogic literature. The chest, neck, head must be in the one vertical line during the practice. So, that the spinal cord remain straight should not allow to become crooked or collapse at the when we are sitting. The best posture for practice are padmasan, siddhasan, siddha yogi asana or as in the inner engineering program it is taught asana, ardasiddhasan and also swastikasana. These are some of the postures which are most commonly adapted, most commonly held for performing pranayama.