In Indian Yoga therapy, Pranayama holds a place of special significance. To understand the nitty-gritty of this Yoga, one first needs to decipher the meaning of the Pranayama. The whole word Pranayama can be dissected into two separate words, both originated from Sanskrit language - "Prana" means breathe while "Ayama" denotes a pause, the meaning of pranayama therefore stands as a pause and then breath. Some have denoted the meaning of Pranayama, as a `subtle psychic force or subtle cosmic element`.

The word Prana had its origin in Yoga Sutra, the Sanskrit literature propounded by Bhagavan Patanjali. However, the meaning of Pranayama, as a whole, was not found in this Sanskrit text. In his book, Patanjali, the great Indian Yogist and sage has mentioned about various actions like how to exhale, inhale and take pause etc with no proper names being given to them. The words Recaka means exhalation, kumbhaka means pause and puraka means inhalation and are definitely the important role players in the whole yogic system of pranayama.

Patajanli`s Yoga narrated that inhaling can also control one`s mind and expelling breathe. The term, "Pracchardana" that he has used, means expulsion thereby refers to breath and not to any insidious psychical force or `cosmic element`. The word Vidharana emphasizes `retention`. There is no doubt about the fact that all these words used by Patanjali, taken together, naturally lead one to conclude that Prana of the word Pranayama denote to breath only. Vyasa and other commentators too interpreted Prana as passing of air from the chest

To be specific, in first of the two Yogic Sutras of Patanjali, eight successive items have been described and the esteemed Pranayama stands fourth in the list. The second sutra defines the word Pranayama in details. Pran is associated with Ayama. Here the words Svasa and Prasvasa, which mean air flowing in and flowing out simultaneously, actually make the meaning of Pranayama clearer. Thus Pranayama means nothing but a pause occurs in the movement. Apart from Patanjali, other commentators too have accepted this meaning of Pranayama.