Acharya Mahaprajna
Kayotsarga is simulation of death.
Two conditions are essential:
- total cessation of voluntary movements, that is, relaxed condition of all skeletal muscles, and
- extremely slow rate of respiration as if the system has stopped working.
Total relaxation is when there is an acute perception of this state which is neither imagination nor autosuggestion but a real experience. The body is forgotten and cast away. It is further characterized by an actual experience of floating outside one's body and this is 'death' while living. Everybody has to leave his body when death occurs but the real experience of casting away one's body and be alive is a good achievement.
Our real existence is neither body nor respiration. It is far beyond them. When the body is virtually lifeless and the respiration is all but stopped, it is the 'death' of the body, which can be cast off.
The essence of the exercise is the actual awareness of the truth that the conscious element is not identical with the inert body. The self-awareness is so real that the material shell of the body is forgotten.
