Maybe you and Suhas are correct. Maybe I’m too caught up in the mechanical processes. I have always be interested in understanding and engaging in exercise my whole life. I enjoy feeling the effects on my body. I am taking these traits into my practice of yoga. And on that note here is a picture of the tonsils:
Notice first that they would remain in the throat passageway upon entering kechari. Because they are attached at the bottom, in a pressurized environment with the with air being drawn from above - vacuum coming from down below, I believe that they would hold the tongue’s seal of the mouth really tight. They would also change the airflow dynamics of the vacuum centering it directly on the “spine” of the tongue. As I wrote before, sometimes when I come out of Maha Bandha without inhaling, the pressure created from the vacuum would pull the tongue right out of kechari back into the mouth. I believe that the tonsils would prevent this from happening. I would like to converse with someone who still has their tonsils and has attained kechari stage 2.
This is another example of how ignorant the medical profession is. Oh no, you don’t need your tonsils. They’re not important. Well maybe if you want to commune with the Divine, but who wants to do that?
I believe we’re supposed to create pressure in our breathing passageways. This really helps stretch the tongue out. Some observations that I’ve made since I’ve started creating extreme pressure in my breathing passage is holding my breath during pranayama is far easier. I can do the same amount of cycles when doing Sayananda’s Kriya 10 and 11 when performing Shanmukhi Mudra (sealing off the ears, eyes, nose and mouth with the fingers – Lahiri calls this Yoni Mudra) effortlessly now. I can chant Om much longer than before. When I sing, I can obviously carry a note much longer.
When you raise your torso up coming out of Maha Bandha and don’t let any air in, the vacuum created causes the tissue in the breathing passage to become stretched extremely tight and you can really feel the pressure. And of course the concavity of the nasal passageway contracts. I have entertained the idea that the tonsils are made hold the tongue from the bottom and the ear flaps are suppose to hold the tongue at the roof of the pharynx creating an incredible stretch of the tongue. I don’t know if this is the case but I am sure that the top of the ears press against the bottom of your tongue to create a suction pulling the Amrit from the roof of the nasal pharynx. This is another reason why it is important to create pressure in your breathing passage. IMPORTANT This is obviously something you want to build upon slowly to allow the body time to acclimate.
If you look at this picture again, the tongue looks like it could almost make it to the pituitary gland:
Unfortunately it can’t go straight there because of the bone on top of the nasal pharnynx. It must first go through the holes in the white part (nasal turbinates) that hooks down. I studied many different nerve diagrams to try to understand how pushing on the area above the nasal holes could shut off the eyes, ears, and nose too and couldn’t come up with a plausible way that this could happen. I then studied this diagram again and noticed the bone we are suppose to push on extends out quiet a bit and pressing on it would squeeze the dark red area above the extended bone.
This makes a lot more sense because this is where the signals from the eyes would have to travel. The thought of bone fragments floating around in my nasal area does not sound appealing. I have scoured the net looking for information on kechari stage 4 and there just isn’t much out there. I did come up with this:
Khecari mudra itself begins when the transformed tongue curls back as in nabho mudra, but is now able to slide its way up behind the soft palate. At this point, it locates a juncture of bone on the underside of the skull. This is referred to as the “Gate of Brahma” in the Yogakundali Upanishad, and it is said that “even the Devas (Gods) are unable to open it.” In other texts it is referred to as the “tenth gate.” What now happens is that the elongated and strengthened tongue begins to apply extreme pressure to this juncture, and literally breaks it open. When this occurs, the tongue is then able to slide up into the cranial cavity and actually begin to apply direct pressure upon various parts of the brain. Upon completion of khecari mudra, there follows a process called “melana” or “maithuna” which is one of the most closely kept secrets of Yoga.
I have been asking for guidance in my meditations and today when I was practicing my sadhana during the salutation to the gurus phase, I first recite the Lord’s Prayer and came to “give us this day, our daily bread” and that thought stuck in my mind. Basically the thought, you have all the information that you need right now. You need to purify your nadis and have several more chakras to open.
And so along with stretching my tongue and practicing Nauli, I need to start focusing on becoming proficient at internal Nadi Shodhana. The practice of Nadi Shodhana purifies the nadis. At this point breathing is a burden and an unnecessary act but I’m going to start practicing this everyday. This will help acclimate my body to having my tongue continually entering into the nasal turbinates.
I have also noticed that I am still getting scabs on the underside of my tongue. I can’t help but think that as I stretch my tongue out the Uvala is still burning away tissue. I wonder if there is part of the tongue that holds it together (like all the white sinewy parts in the tongue pictured above) and this tissue is being burnt up so that the tongue can elongate getting thinner to enter the “narrow passageway.” These scabs have characteristics like they are 6 days old and about to fall off so they don’t concern me at all, just rouse my curiosity.
And on that note,
Namaste!
