With prāṇāyāma practiced correctly, all diseases are destroyed. With incorrect practice, all diseases arise.

A balanced warning: prāṇāyāma is powerful medicine that can heal (kṣaya = destruction of diseases) or harm (samudbhava = arising of diseases).

Yukta (correct, appropriate, well-joined) implies precise technique, proper proportion, and competent guidance. Ayukta (incorrect) includes technical errors, excess, and practice without preparation.

Sarva-roga (all diseases) is rhetorical hyperbole indicating the general power of prāṇāyāma over health. Tradition attributes to prāṇāyāma effects on physical, mental, and energetic ailments.

This verse justifies the traditional insistence on:

1. Learning from a qualified teacher
2. Progressing gradually
3. Observing effects on one’s own body
4. Not forcing

For the contemporary practitioner: YouTube videos and books can inform, but advanced prāṇāyāma techniques require personal supervision, at least initially.

Breath is too fundamental for careless experimentation. What touches the breath touches life itself.