You mean the bandha, the locks. You are talking about the locks. I guess you are talking about the locks. So did I explain how to do Bhastrika in the session, on the Physics of Pranayama session? Have I explained the Bhastrika process? How many have learnt how to do Bhastrika? I mean I know you have learnt Bhastrika because you did Happiness Program, but learnt properly, another way of learning. Did I talk about this on your Physics of Pranayama session or no? You have got to say yes or no like that. If I haven't talked then oh no. No.
Ok, so let's do Bhastrika. It's good. So to do Bhastrika, you sit at the edge of the chair. If you are sitting on a chair, you sit at… So Bhastrika is done with the back straight. How do you keep the back straight? The physics of keeping the back straight is to drop the knees below the level of your hip. So if you are sitting on the chair, sit at the edge of the chair and let the knees fall below the level of your hip, automatically you will see the back becomes straight.
Then in Bhastrika, it is the most effortless process. Palms are in a loose fist in front of the shoulders. How loose is the fist? The fist is as loose as the tips of the fingers gently touching the palm. That's it. It is only gently touching. It is this loose. It is not like you are getting into a boxing match. It is not that one. If the tips of the fingers are gently touching the palm, that much loose. If they are not touching, then it is not a fist. They have to be gently touching. And since the fingers are touching the palm, the thumb cannot be inside. Otherwise, the fingers don't touch the palm. Tips of the fingers. Tips. Do you understand the meaning of tips? Tips means this part, not this. This is the face of the finger. Tips means the top of the finger. If the top of the finger has to touch the palm, the thumb cannot be inside. So the thumb by default has to be outside. There is no confusion there.
So we start like this. Then in normal breath, you breathe in and as you breathe in, the hands go up and the palms open. Palms open like this. How do you know whether the palms have to be open? I will tell you. When the palms go up, there is a pot of gold. You have to catch the gold. Now the palm has to open. Otherwise, you are not catching the gold. So that's how you remember that the palms have to open. And then the next one, effortlessly, with no effort, the gravity will simply pull the hands down and the hands will fall. And as they fall, they will hit the side of your ribcage. And to aid the process of falling, you close the palm. Do it like this. Let the hands fall without closing the palms. And now do it with closing the palms. You see, it's easier. When the palms close, the hands fall more naturally. The muscles are contracting, hands fall. This impact with the ribcage that forces out the breath through the nostril. There is no effort here. It's happening just effortlessly.
What people do is they do drama. They do Bhastrika like this. This is all useless. This is all drama. There is nothing to be gained by doing it like this. Nothing. Effortlessly. Bhastrika is done effortlessly.
Ok, let's all do. We'll do two rounds of Bhastrika. Palms in a loose fist in front of the shoulders, elbows tucked in close to the body, neck is relaxed, eyes closed, face forward, normal breath in and breathe out. And following my count, begin up, down, up, down, up, down. And relax. Palms in the lap, facing the sky, body still, attention inward.
Hands in position for second round of Bhastrika. Palms in a loose fist in front of the shoulders, elbows tucked in close to the body, neck is relaxed, face forward, normal breath in and breathe out. And following my count, begin up, down, up, down, up, down. And relax. Palms on the lap facing the sky, body still, attention inward, body still. Take a normal breath in and breathe out. And you may gently open the eyes.
This is Bhastrika, effortless process. Now, what is happening in Bhastrika? See, I explained in the Physics of Pranayama. So you can come back and refresh it. But there are these structures in the lungs called the alveoli. These are tiny nodular structures, and there is a lot of branching that happens. There is a windpipe that comes, and it branches, branches, branches, and then it reaches the alveoli. These tiny branches sometimes get pinched shut. They get closed.
So, what it does is when you have this rapid pressure release like this during Bhastrika, those pinched sections, they open up. Now more of the lungs can be used. In technical parlance, it is called dead volume of the lung or something like that. More of the lungs are used. Then, you don't want those things to crimp back because the pressure has dilated it a little bit.
Then, what you do is, you take a breath in, then you close the anal sphincter muscle, put your hands in Adi Mudra, fists interlock, press down on the groin, shoulders don’t go up, shoulders go back, and you expand the chest. You lock the chin and pull in the navel. When you do that, it creates pressure in the lung. It's like pressurizing that crimped point, and whatever is downstream of the crimped point, prana goes and sits there. It keeps that crimped point open. You hold it for some time and then release. This is the bandha.
These locks are done after Bhastrika because Bhastrika has opened up those crimped points, and then the locks are forcing the tiny increase in pressure. They force that crimped point to open. What I see people doing locks for a long time, they become blue in the face. There is no need. Locks are done for maybe 5-10 seconds. That’s it. Not as a long practice. Then you go... That is not the way to do locks, boss. Locks are to be done very effortlessly like this, and you release. That’s it. Got it. That's the advantage of locks.