Sublime

Apāna gives a visceral sense of impermanence and interconnectedness to forms projected into the sense fields opened by the inhaling prāṇa pattern. When we ignore this grounding, stabilizing aspect of apāna in backbends, a sense of an asymmetrical, manic “hyperprāṇa” arises in which it is difficult to focus the mind, and an underlying sense of

the kriyā-yoga of this sūtra denotes more than the karma-yoga of the Gītā, as it includes bhakti in the form of Īśvara-praṇidhana, and jñāna in the form of svādhyāya, study. Therefore, Patañjali’s kriyā-yoga actually incorporates three of the yogic paths outlined in the Gītā: karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, and bhakti-yoga.