Every human civilization at some stage of its development understood that the material world is not the only and perhaps not the most important part of life. Perhaps there is a more subtle plan of the universe, which is primary and defining. And since this is not an artificial principle, but a universal law, it is reflected in all cultures, but each nation has described it in its own way.
In the ancient text, which is called Satapatha Brahman, it is written: "Prana is the body of I (higher consciousness)." In other words, consciousness cannot exist without energy, and prana is its vehicle and mediator. We know from modern science that matter, in reality, is only a form of expression of energy. Therefore, we can say that prana means energy. Without prana, consciousness would be completely unable to express itself in the material world, and prana without consciousness would be uncontrollable. This is their unity, and for life to exist, both principles must be present.
In tantric texts, energy is symbolized by the powerful mother goddess Shakti. She represents the feminine aspect of being, the fertile soil of the material. God Shiva reflects the masculine aspect, consciousness. When a sprout of consciousness sprouts on the fertile soil of the material world.
In Christian culture, this dualism is framed in the form of symbols of the Holy Communion: bread and wine. Here, bread is daily bread, bread of life, that which gives us strength, energy, that is, prana. And wine symbolizes spiritual enlightenment, the intoxicating bliss of the cognizing consciousness. That is why these two components are eaten during the ceremony: their combination personifies the unity of two aspects of being, namely, the unity of consciousness and energy.
In ancient China, there was also a concept of prana. There life energy was called qi. It has 2 poles: yin and yang. Yin is the female part, slow, flowing, cold. Yang is masculine, fast, impetuous and hot. These beginnings are depicted in the form of two interdependent and mutually intertwined parts of the whole, each of which contains the germ or potential of the other. These beginnings are united or held together by Tao - Consciousness.
This is not just a theory. It is this concept that is used in the acupuncture system that has been used in China for thousands of years and continues to be applied in modern China. The success of this system in treating diseases is based on the concept of yin and yang. If the beginnings of yin and yang did not represent, even approximately, the actual situation with energy in the universe and in the human body, then acupuncture would be unable to achieve the wonderful results that it gives. Even in modern materialistic China, physicians are forced to accept ancient theories in order to explain the practical results they receive in millions of patients with a wide variety of diseases.
Modern science is aware of prana. Information about it was recorded and recorded by various scientists and researchers, however, unfortunately, their discoveries, as a rule, were not recognized and ridiculed, their ideas were not taken seriously. Reichenbach, an eminent industrialist and inventor of creosote, did a lot of research on this issue and called energy an odic force in honor of the Scandinavian god Odin. Paracelsus, Imen, van Helmont - all these people, completely far from mysticism, talked about the existence of prana. However, no one listened to them.
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The famous professor of neuroanatomy at Yale University, Dr. Harold Barr, declared the existence of an energy shell in 1935. He discovered that all organic matter, all living things are surrounded by an energetic or pranic body. He established for certain that this pranic body, which he called the electrodynamic field, regulates the functions of the physical body, controls the growth, shape and destruction of cells, structures and organs. Further research at the same university showed that there is a direct connection between the mind and the electrodynamic field. Any disturbances in mental balance affected the field as well.
But the most amazing and fruitful study of the phenomenon of the energy body was carried out not by universities and scientists, but by a gifted technician from Krasnodar named Kirlian at home with his wife. In his research, Kirlian provided compelling evidence for the existence of an energy body. Many people are not inclined to believe in anything unless they can see it. This is exactly the opportunity that the Kirlian couple gave them: they photographed the energy body.
The experiments used equipment in which organic objects were placed in a high-frequency electric field. For this reason, the method is called "high-frequency photography by the Kirlian method." This system used a generator that produced up to 200,000 electrical impulses per second. This generator was associated with a complex of equipment that included photographic and optical equipment. What happens when a living object is photographed by this complex? The object is seen to be permeated and surrounded by strange, complex light patterns. The object shines with life - waves, flashes and overflows are visible. This is how a phenomenon called bioluminescence was discovered.
Experiments have shown that bioluminescence has a biological nature and, among other things, is a fairly accurate indicator of the health of an object, for example, a damaged or infected living object loses its glow even before the consequences of injury or infection show obvious symptoms. The energy body, as it were, predetermines what happens in the physical. And although this fact is contrary to modern physiology and medicine, it opens up wide opportunities for predicting diseases so that preventive measures can be taken.
According to ancient Indian thought, prana is a complex aspect of human life. It is very difficult to achieve an accurate understanding of prana, since it is not oxygen, nor is it the air we breathe. We can stop breathing for a while and continue living. If we develop this ability with the help of yoga techniques, then we can prolong this cessation of breathing for up to several hours, since prana is inherent in us and will support our life. However, we cannot live without prana even for a second.
The Upanishads say: "A person can have eyes, ears, all the faculties and parts of the body, but if he does not have a mahaprana, then there can be no consciousness." Prana is both macrocosmic and microcosmic and is the basis of all life. Mahaprana (great prana) is a cosmic, universal, all-encompassing energy from which we extract matter through the breathing process. Various pranas in teleprana vayu, apana vayu, samana vayu, udana vayu and vyana vayu are at the same time part of this mahaprana, and are separate from it.
In the Upanishads, prana vayu is also called "breath". Vyana is all-pervading breath. Prana is inhalation, apana is exhalation, samana is a gap between them, and udana is an increase in this gap. All vayu are interdependent and interconnected. The Chandoghya Upanishad asks: “What sustains your body and senses and yourself (soul)? Prana. What supports prana? Apana. What supports apana? Vyana. What supports vyana? Samana. " These five major movements of prana give rise to the five minor or upa pranas. They are known as kurma, which induces blinking, krikara, which induces hunger, thirst, sneezing and coughing, devadatta, which induces sleep and yawning, naga, which induces hiccups and belching, and dhananjaya, which remains for a short time after death. Together, these ten pranas govern all processes in the human body.
The origin of prana is controversial, because neither mountains, nor oceans, nor living beings, in particular people, create prana. Living beings only consume it, so many consider this energy to be part of the divine plan and believe that prana was created simultaneously with this world. There is another point of view: perhaps prana was introduced into this world by saints and sages who achieved the state of unity - samadhi. Allegedly, after reaching it, they retained an energy channel through which a part of the energy of the higher, more subtle divine worlds flowed into this world, which ennobled this world and was preserved in the form of prana.
The sages of the past said that the pranas do not belong to the physical body, they are located in the subtle human body, called pranamaya kosha or pranic sheath. They described this body as something like a cloud, constantly bubbling inside. Depending on what a person eats, what he thinks, from the state of his consciousness during meditation and from the external environment, the cloud has a different color. According to yoga, pranamaya kosha forms a subtle network through which prana flows. This network is woven from the subtlest energy channels - nadis. The Shiva Samhita text says that there are 350,000 nadis in the body; according to the text of Prapanchasara Tantra, there are 300,000 of them, and 72,000 nadis are mentioned in the text of Goraksha Sartak.
At the intersection of a large number of nadis, there are energy centers, they are located along the spine and are called chakras. These centers are in the subtle body, but in reality they correspond to the nerve plexuses in the gross body. Prana collects in the chakras and forms rotating masses of energy. Each chakra vibrates at its own speed and frequency. The chakras located at the lowest points of the energy circuit operate at a lower frequency and are considered coarser and create coarser states of awareness. The chakras at the top of the circuit work at a higher frequency and are responsible for subtle states of awareness and a higher mind.
According to the text of Swatmarama "Hatha Yoga Pradipika": "A Yogi is able to retain prana only when all the nadis and chakras, which are full of impurities, are purified" (sh. 5, Ch. 2).
When a person's pranic body is polluted, movement and energy storage is difficult. A person begins to weaken, feel constant fatigue and absent-mindedness, sleeps a lot, can start eating a lot to compensate for the lack of prana, is prone to despondency and illness. In order for the prana to begin to circulate correctly, it is necessary to purify the nadis with the help of hatha yoga asanas. Only when prana moves freely is it possible to accumulate it. Prana is accumulated with the help of a set of special breathing exercises - pranayama. The accumulation of prana, especially in the upper centers, greatly influences the entire way of a person's life. A person acquires excellent health, cheerful, calm, focused and purposeful. That is why yoga is not just gymnastics, but a holistic system of techniques that allows you to live your life as efficiently as possible. Do yogafriends.
See you on the rug. Ohm.
The material was prepared by the yoga teacher Smirnov Anton