Om Namo Bhagavate Dakshinamurtaye
When doing pranayama properly, we find that the mind gets very very quiet. Breathing is very slow and mind is totally silent. At that time it is very easy to appreciate, that atma's svarupa is shanti – silence. Shanto'ham. Aham Shanta. I am of the very nature of shanti.
In the presence of atma-caitanyam the slow breathing takes place, the silent mind is appreciated. It is easy to appreciate that the chanting of Om arises from silence and resolves into silence – that silence is the very nature of atma. Shantam- shivam-advaitam-prapanchopashamam that is atma's svarupa.
Here we might mistake that only after mind becomes silent atma gets back to its svarupa. Meaning we think that atma lost its svarupa and became ashanta and so we have to get back to our svarupa. This would be like wave thinking that I have to get back to becoming water.
Hey did the wave ever lose its nature of being water? The wave only has to understand that I AM WATER – this wave form is a temporary incidental happening that does not in any way make me less or more water. I am water period.
So too svarupa-shanti is the truth of oneself no matter what the state of the mind. No frame of mind can make me lose my svarupa of shanti, because svarupa shanti is satyam and every frame of mind is mithya. Self-evident, self-existent atma – I –consciousness is ever shanta.
Pranayama, prana-kriyas are very useful for enjoying very quiet mind in which we can recognize that what is "I" is svarupatah shanta. When I understand this I am with Bhagavan all the way because there is no seperation from Bhagavan whatsoever.
Om Tat Sat