Can yoga extend life span?

Can yoga extend the life span?

Questioner : Can a person live thousands of years through yoga?

Dadashri: Not thousands of years but one can live up to one or two thousand years. What is this yoga? Actually, the soul is spread throughout the whole body, but through this yoga, it is pulled upwards towards the crown of the head (brahmarandhra). The heart and the pulse will stop when the soul is pulled all the way into the brahmarandhra. The heart, the pulse etc., function only when the soul is up to the waist, but if it goes any higher, then all the internal machinery will stop running. If a person performs such yoga at the age of 15 years, three months, three days, three hours and three minutes, and if that yoga lasts for one thousand years, then at the end of the thousand years, his life span will begin again at the age of 15 years, three months, three days, three hours and three minutes. His life span is proportionately used up in accordance with the number of heartbeats that were expended up to that point in time. A person's duration of life is dependant upon the number of his or her heartbeats. In doing this yoga, for whatever duration of time the heart stops beating, his life span is spared for that duration of time. Ordinarily people cannot save it, only those who perform this kind of yoga can do so. The body will not rot or shrivel and it will not smell. It will remain the same as long as there is a presence of the soul in it. It does not matter even if the body becomes like a stone because of this yoga.

Questioner : What is the state of the soul during this time?

Dadashri : It is as if the soul is tied up in a sack. Now what good does that do to the soul? The only thing about this practice is that the yogi can have the ego of claiming to live a thousand years in that yoga. His worldly suffering and misery will stop for that duration; however there is no bliss in it. Bliss can only arise if one remains as the Self. When can he make use of the soul? He can only do so when the heart is working. Nothing can be achieved otherwise.

Many Yogis tell their disciples to break a coconut on their heads after they have pulled their soul to the brahmarandhra! As if one can go to moksha by doing this! They believe that if 'life' (soul) leaves through the crown of the head, it is headed for moksha, which is why they practice this yoga. But is that likely just because they believe so? It is only when the soul leaves naturally through the crown. Just because someone says moksha is attained if life departs through the eyes, does that mean you have to remove it from the eyes by putting chili pepper in the eyes? No, things should happen naturally.