On breath depends the capability and efficiency with which one does one's work thoroughly. Shortness of breath causes impatience in man, and lack of endurance and irregularity of the rhythm of the breath cause confusion in man and incline him to be easily upset. Breath being the life power, it is the same life power which gives man strength to endure all things.

One will always find that those who easily get cross, who quickly get upset and get annoyed. instantly, have something wrong with the breath. People not knowing their difficulty are annoyed with them; they are put aside and are considered disagreeable people. What they need is the training of the breathing. When their body and mind have been so repaired one will find no more disagreeableness in their nature. Then, the artist who gets tired of his work and feels a lack of enthusiasm to complete his work, and feels a lack of interest and absence of inspiration, often it is all caused by some disorder in the breath.

Regular and rhythmic breathing gives health to both body and mind. Inspiration comes from above, but it comes as light. It is the work of the mind to receive it; if the mind is not ready to receive it the inspiration will come but it will not be realized. This is like the difference between the metal gong and the wooden gong: the former will resound, the latter will not resound. It is not the fault of the one who strikes the gong, it is the gong itself which does not resound. So it is with the mind which receives the inspiration and the mind which cannot conceive it. Yet to every mind inspiration comes. The only difference is that one receives it, the other rejects it.

Right breathing makes the mind vibrate, and vibration is the sign of life. All that vibrates more is more living; what vibrates less is less living. So it is with trees and animals; they show their life in their vibration.

The greatest man of science in India, Jagadish Chandra, spoke the other day in an English university on the subject of the breathing of trees.

The horse one chooses as the best is that horse whose nostrils are fully open and whose breath is full, which it shows by the expression of the eyes. A good horse shows vibrations by the quivering of its skin when its back is patted. It is not like a stone-like horse, which takes one step after ten lashes have been laid on its back. In man, the life can be seen in the same way. It is termed in Hindustani pani, which means "water."

They say that a horse, or a man, has a "watery nature", which means a fluid nature, living, pliable. And this life, breath gives to body and mind.