What swara yoga says about the breath
Swara yoga is the narrowest of these systems and the most specific. Its whole subject is which nostril you are breathing through and what the tradition says follows from that. The source is the Shiva Svarodaya, a dialogue in which Shiva sets out the knowledge of the breath to Parvati, with a few other texts drawn in around it. Here are eight concepts that lay out its basic claims, each with the verse it comes from.
Swara as the Secret Veda (Svara Jnanam)
The opening claim is a large one: knowledge of the breath is held to be the secret lying underneath the Vedas. Take it as a statement of where this tradition puts its attention rather than as a ranking.
Shiva Svarodaya 1.1-3
The Three Sacred Nadis — Ida, Pingala, Sushumna (Trinadi Vijnana)
Three channels carry the whole account: ida on the left, pingala on the right, sushumna in the centre. Nearly every instruction in swara yoga is about which of the three is running.
Shiva Svarodaya 1.18
The Alternating Nasal Cycle — Rhythm of Creation (Svara Parivartana)
The dominant nostril is said to change roughly every hour or so, through the day and through the night. You can check this now, and the checking is the whole of the beginner's practice.
Shiva Svarodaya 1.25
Prana and Apana — The Dual Engines of Life (Prana-Apana Samyoga)
The in-breath and the out-breath are treated as two forces rather than two halves of one movement, one gathering inward and one settling and releasing. Their balance is what this tradition means by vitality.
Prashna Upanishad 3.5
The 21,600 Daily Breaths — The Ajapa Gayatri (Ajapa Gayatri Hamsa)
The tradition counts the day's breaths and hears a syllable in them, ham going in and sa coming out, a recitation continuing without anyone saying it. The practice is to notice what is already happening.
Dhyanabindu Upanishad 61
The Sandhya Window — The Equalized Breath (Sushumna Sandhya)
At dawn, noon, dusk and midnight both nostrils are said to run equally for a few minutes. These short windows are the ones the tradition values most, and they are easy to miss.
Shiva Svarodaya 1.145
Anuloma Viloma — Alternate Nostril Recalibration (Anuloma Viloma Shodhana)
Alternate-nostril breathing is the method given for evening the two sides out when they will not even out on their own. It is the one technique most readers will already have met.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2.7-10
Continuous Awareness (Swara Smriti) as Daily Sadhana (Nitya Svara Smriti)
The daily discipline is a habit rather than a session: check the breath at every threshold, on waking, before eating, going out, starting something. Nothing else in the system works without it.
Shiva Svarodaya 1.12
Swara yoga asks to be tested more than believed. The observation at its centre, that one nostril is usually more open than the other and that this changes through the day, is one you can check on yourself within a minute. What the tradition builds on top of that is a long chain of advice, and you are free to take the observation first and the chain slowly.