You can control the mind, through Pranayama
Siva said: ‘Man is maintained as an individual through the force of Vasanas which keep the Prana in motion. Vasanas agitate Prana! And Prana maintains the body with its senses. These Vasanas are stored up in the mind from time immemorial. The grossest form of Prana is the breath. Subtler is the elemental Prana. Still more subtle is the Cosmic Prana which is termed Hiranyagarbha. It is from this Cosmic Prana that everything has emanated. ‘Now you have understood the intimate connection between Prana and the mind (Vasanas). One depends for its function on the other.
Therefore, if you learn to control Prana, you can control the mind, through Pranayama.
When you still the Prana and when it ceases to oscillate, Samadhi supervenes. All Vasanas are fried in toto: you achieve Moksha. ‘The Upanishads speak highly about Prana whose subtlest form is Hiranyagarbha. By worshipping Prana as Brahman, they say, you can live a full life of a hundred years. You can do a lot of selfless service and practise much Sadhana if you have thus a long life. The Isavasya Upanishad also exhorts us to live the full span of a hundred years, doing the enjoyed works. OM.’
~Swami Sivananda, 26th June, 1949
~Inspiring Talks of Gurudev Sivananda, Chronicler: Swami Venkatesananda
