Acharya Mahaprajna
Colours make human beings lively. Man cannot live without colours. He cannot remain healthy. Insufficient colours mean poor health. Excessive colours also result in deficiency in health. Balanced colours lead to good health. It is through the medium of breath that colours are absorbed in the body. Deficiency of the red colour in the body brings indigestion, constipation, sleeplessness, etc. With the deficiency of the yellow colour, the digestive system is thrown out of gear and the arteries of the liver and the abdomen are affected. With the deficiency of the green colour, there is no proper outflow of foreign elements from the body. Every colour has its influence on the body. Both the deficiency and the excess of colours affect the body. Balancing of colours is brought about through photo therapy. Diseases are being treated only by working out the balance of colours. If there is emotional imbalance, if one sleeps too much or suffers from sleeplessness, or is afflicted by some physical, mental or emotional illness, he is made to practise the 'colour-breathing'. The process of the colour-breathing is: One is asked to imagine that his body is surrounded on all sides by the yellow, red, orange and other colours. Let me think about one particular colour and that colour would appear before him. Let him imagine that his breath is acquiring a particular colour and the atoms of that particular colour are appearing in larger measure in his breathing. While breathing, that particular colour would be supplemented in the body.
The basis of this colour-breathing is Mahavira's principle of leshya. Just as there is concentration on the colours in leshya-dhyana, there is also concentration on the colours in the colour-breathing. Concentration of taste is also practised along the same lines. Taste can be sweet or bitter, astringent or pungent. It can be light or hard. The same is true about the touch, which can be mild or pronounced. That has all the touches. If all these are developed from the therapeutic point of view, the breath-therapy can become an independent system. Colours affect our physical health. Concentration on colours also affects the fidgety mind or agitated feelings. Depending on the manner in which the individual inhales the colours, it will affect his body system as well as his mental and emotional systems. From this point of view, the breathing is not only life-giving; it is also health-giving.
