In Part 2 of the conversation with Dr. Sanjeev K. Chaudhry, CEO of Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) in New Delhi, Sadhguru speaks about how to use the breath through yoga, for the human system to function at its highest. He also explains about the five sheaths of the human body, which are described in the yoga system and how they impact one's health.

Full Transcript:

Sanjeev Chaudhary: And Sadhguru, in respect of the importance of breathing?

Sadhguru: Oh, you must breathe, believe me! What can I say? If you turn on your TV, there is ‘Zumba’ and there is ‘Insanity.’ Yes, it is insanity, I can understand. You know this thing, what I am talking about? These are all exercise systems today, going crazy, viral on the televisions and other places.

In the yogic system, we found out in what state of breathing, the cellular rejuvenation happens at its highest. If you breathe in a certain way, your cellular rejuvenation will be highest. I don’t know if I should… this is a quackery, a little bit of quackery, but you know, about two years ago, I happened to be in Germany. This is a qualified doctor who has turned into alternative systems and a… a friend took me there and I just happened to go there and there was a big storm, we couldn’t get away from him. There was a snowstorm, so I had to stay with him for the night and he said he wants to check my cellular age. I walked into his laboratory - all kinds of weird machines and computers and stuff, stacked-up computers. I said, ‘I don’t want anything checked, I am fine.’ But he said, ‘No, no, we have to check you.’ And he checked, I don’t know what it is, he took my blood samples, this, that and everything and he put me on all kinds of machines and he said my cellular age is twenty-five. I said, ‘Well, I feel that way. I don’t know about my cells. At least I feel that way.’

And now, for example, the basic practice we’re teaching as a part of Inner Engineering, the Shambhavi Mahamudra - the University of California did a study, an extensive study, on this and they found, those who are doing Shambhavi for more than three months, the… the neuronal regeneration in the brain, is two hundred and forty-one percent higher than the average. It is the highest recorded ever. Just because of a certain pattern of breathing. So breath is life, isn’t it? If I take away your breath, you’re finished. Something so vital, it is not just about breathing more oxygen. There’s a lot more to it. There’s a whole science attached to it. It is... it’s very unfortunate, these are things we have always known. But, the yoga, even the yoga that you see in the country is rebound from the American coast. Lot of people believe Madonna invented yoga.

Sanjeev Chaudhary: We’ll let them believe that. Sadhguru, you just referred to other dimensions of awareness. We know our gross body a little bit, not a lot, and there are subtle bodies, which probably we also carry. Do the subtle bodies or whatever happens in those bodies impact the health of the physical body as well?

Sadhguru: In the yogic system… I’m saying in the yogic system, not in yoga - in yoga, there are more aspects to it - in the system that’s been written down, we talk about five layers of body, five sheaths of body. These are called Annamaya Kosha, Manomaya Kosha, Pranamaya Kosha, Vignanamaya Kosha, Anandamaya Kosha.

‘Anna’ means the food that you’ve eaten. The physical body that you carry is just a heap of food, what you’ve eaten or it’s a piece of this planet. It is taking on this kind of form, because of a certain software which is already within you. You can call it genetics, you can call it karmic, you can call it so many things but essentially, it’s information. A certain memory shapes this particular body, in a particular way. Why eating the same potato, your nose became like this and somebody’s nose became like that is simply because of the type of information that’s embedded in that person. Fortunately, if you eat a potato, you… your nose will not take that shape, you know, it’s a… it’s a good thing because there’s other information which is giving shape to these things. So physical body is essentially an accumulation of food.

We… we never refer to the mind as ‘mind.’ Yogic system has always looked at it, as a mental body, because there is intelligence in every cell of your body. There is memory in every cell of your body. It is a combination of memory and intelligence which you’re referring to as ‘my mind’, isn’t it? Is there one cell in your body which can function with… without its own intelligence? Is there one cell in your body which can function without memory? We know today, by checking the DNA of a person, it’s absolutely unique; there isn’t another one like that. So there is information, a very specific information concerned with that person.

Now, this information can be altered, can be evolved, can be made use of. Information does not mean - it is a deciding factor. Information means - it is an enabling factor, isn’t it? But because people have lost the ability to enable their information into a new possibility, it has become a deciding factor now. So whatever your genetics are, whatever your karmic information is - this is information. If you know how to use it, it has a phenomenal possibility. If you do not know how to use it, it becomes a static cycle, creating itself in a certain way.

So this is your hardware, that is your software, but these two things cannot do anything by themselves unless you plug it into quality power. So the third layer of the body is ‘Pranamaya Kosha.’ This is the energy body. These three are physical in nature. When I say, ‘physical in nature’, it is very clear, that this light bulb is physical. But the electricity behind it is also physical. The light that is emanating? from it is also physical. It is getting subtle, but still physical. So these three are physical in nature - the physical body, the mental body and the energy body - all three are physical in nature.

The fourth dimension is referred to as ‘Vignanamaya Kosha.’ I know the word ‘Vignan’ is being used very liberally today. ‘Vignan’ essentially comes from ‘vishesh gnan.’ ‘Vishesh’ means - an extraordinary knowledge. Knowledge that you can grasp through five senses, is considered ordinary knowledge. That which you cannot grasp through the five senses, but has been grasped in some other way is referred to as ‘vishesh gnan’, which together becomes ‘Vignan.’ So this is ‘vigyanamayakosha.’ This is a transitory body. Between the physical and the non-physical, it is a body of transition.

The fifth one is a completely non-physical dimension. This we call as ‘Anandamaya Kosha’, which means bliss body. This does not mean a bubble of bliss is sitting inside of you, you know it is not. It is just that it is non-physical in nature. That which is not physical in nature, you can neither define nor describe the nature of what it is, because it’s not physical. So we talk about it in terms of our experience. Whenever we touch it, we become blissful. So we are calling it ‘bliss body.’ It’s like if somebody is sweet to you, you call them ‘Honey.’ This doesn’t mean they’re dripping. Like that, we are calling this non-physical dimension within us as bliss body. That is not the nature of it, but that is our experience of it. Whenever we touch it, we become blissful, so we are calling it ‘bliss body.’

The first three are physical. If you bring sufficient balance into your pranamayakosha or the energy body and keep it in full bi… vibrance - your physical body and psychological body or the mental body, there can be no ill health in it. I can show you hundreds and thousands of people, who walked away from their chronic ailments simply by bringing a certain balance to their inner system. Because, you need to understand this, there are two kind of ailments. One is infectious in nature. Infection means - it’s an invasion from another organism. That has to be battled, shot down, bombed, chemical weapons, whatever… it’s all allowed. But over seventy percent of the ailments that people suffer from are chronic in nature. Chronic ailment means - for some reason, your own body is generating an ailment. For some reason, your body is not happy with you, so bothering you. From inside, an ailment is coming. Every cell in the body is programmed for health but it is creating disease. This means there is a certain fundamental imbalance.

If you bring your energy body to full vibrance and proper balance, you will see your physical body and your mental structure will be perfectly healthy. I can show this to you, in terms of hundreds and thousands of people who walked out of their ailments. This is not a cure, this is not a miracle, this is just a re-alignment of your system. Little… If you set it on a better platform, it functions better.