Prana Vidya
Sri Paramahamsa Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Prana is
all the energy that maintains the whole physical body. Prana can be dissipated
through selfish thoughts and activities or it can be brought to one particular
centre, perhaps ajna chakra or mooladhara chakra. Prana has the power of
regeneration, therefore it can be taken to any part of the body which is
suffering, for healing purposes. It rejuvenates the decaying limbs and organs
and restores lost health. This prana is the body and thus it can be distributed
equally throughout all parts of the body or it can be withdrawn to one part of
the body. When aroused by yoga, this prana radiates itself out of the body. To
the naked eye it is not visible, but the most sensitive photographic system,
called Kirlian, enables us to photograph the pranic radiation in each and every
animate and inanimate object, from human beings to leaves.
Prana is an
inherent force in our life and kundalini yoga is the secret of awakening the
super prana shakti. Just as in electricity you have voltage no, then you have
220, then you have 440, go on adding and finally when this ordinary electricity
is at a very big voltage, then it is converted into laser waves. Similarly
prana can be amplified, modified and transformed to any degree. Of course it is
difficult for a normal human being to increase his prana from ordinary voltage
to such a voltage where the degeneration taking place in a particular part of
the body can be checked. This is the science of prana vidya.
'Prana'
means cosmic or vital energy which is inherent in the evolution of human life.
'Vidya' means knowledge. Just as you practice ajapa japa, yoga nidra or antar
mouna, there is also a practical technique of prana vidya. By practising for
oneself every individual can awaken this prana and conduct it with a little
higher voltage to a particular part of the body. The theory and techniques of
prana vidya are ancient but I have revised and made them practical for the
people of today. For this purpose I have printed the book Prana Vidya, which is
now available at Bihar School of Yoga, Monghyr, Bihar, India, and I am
presently preparing a more complete edition, Prana and Prana vidya which will
be available very soon.
Five Keys
of Prana Vidya
Paramahamsa
Niranjanananda Saraswati
There are
five keys by which we can unlock the doors of our bio-plasmic body.
The first
key is the awareness of the psychic breath. The experience of the breath can be
both gross and subtle. The gross experience is the physical process of
inhalation and exhalation! we breathe in, we breathe out, we become aware of
the breath in the nostrils, in the lungs, in the lower abdominal region, and in
the chest. Manipulation of this gross manifestation of breath through
willpower, through concentration and the practices of pranayama is one aspect
of the breath.
The other
aspect of the breath is psychic, the movement of inhalation and exhalation in
the form of ujjayi pranayama. Awareness of the deep sound we make in ujjayi
pranayama during inhalation and exhalation is awareness of the psychic breath.
Awareness of the psychic breath is not an unnatural or unconscious process, but
involves the practice of awareness, concentration and actual physiological
contraction of the throat muscles. When you practise ujjayi breathing, which
you perform with kechari mudra and nasikagra drishti, instead of watching the
normal flow of the breath in the nostrils, you simply become aware of the
breath passing in through the throat and the sound that it makes.
How can
this awareness open up the door of your bio-plasmic body? It is very simple.
When you observe the breath in the throat with total involvement of the senses
then the mind relaxes. The activities of the brain slow down and new forms of
experience shape themselves within the personality. When you practise ujjayi
the actual physiological experience is a feeling of tranquillity, relaxation
and one-pointedness. This is the gross experience of ujjayi pranayama.
Then there
is the psychic experience. With the practice of ujjayi the prana begins to
move. The first manifestation of maha-prana, the prana located in the chest,
begins to move. As you practise this psychic breathing utilising prana moving
within, in the form of a stream of light particles, you experience a sort of
tickling or burning sensation in your throat, in the upper thoracic region,
chest and lungs. That is the first physiological experience that you may have
of pranic awakening. As the concentration becomes deep and intense you will
experience it. In the practice of psychic breathing you try to actually change
the flow of prana.
The second
key of Prana Vidya is psychic sound. According to the science of Nada yoga,
sound manifests within us and we also experience sound outside, subtle and
gross. There is no need to discuss the outside sounds, you are well aware of them.
We will just have a brief look at the inner sound. There are practices of Nada
yoga which involve the withdrawal of auditory perception so that we do not hear
external noise. With the awareness completely withdrawn to the centre of the
head, (at ajna chakra) we become aware of any sounds that may arise
spontaneously from within.
The usual
experiences of this sound are a siren, a whistle, the chirping of birds, bells,
a waterfall or the sound of something rushing inside. They will begin in a very
subtle way and gradually the intensity of the sound will increase. You will
actually hear a piercing whistle even with the ears completely blocked, and if
you try to hear the same thing outside you will hear nothing, but the whistle
goes on inside the head. You will hear the chirping of birds even if there are
no birds outside. That experience is inside you.
After you
are able to bring all the auditory sounds to the surface, then a deep throbbing
sound will take place as if you are in a deep cavern or cave with a tunnel. At
the other end of the tunnel someone is playing music, drums, a flute or many
other sounds, so you will feel the vibrations. They will begin on a very low
key but the pitch will gradually increase, and after some time it will
gradually begin to decrease. At the end you become aware of the nada. Nada is
the inner sensation, the inner movement of physical atoms.
Although
the practice sounds complicated you can have these experiences very quickly, in
a few sessions, depending on the intensity of your concentration and awareness,
and on your ability to remain awake. In order to withdraw the mind, we utilise
the practice of bhramari pranayama, where we make the humming sound of a bee.
The third
key is awareness of the psychic passage. There are two passages which we become
aware of in the practice of Prana Vidya. The chakras are located along the
spine and we experience their awakening along the spine, but we can also
experience them along the front of the body. The frontal passage and the frontal
experiences of chakra awakening take place in what we call the chakra kshetra,
the trigger-point of the chakra. The location of the experience we have along
the spine itself is known as the chakra sharira, the body of the chakras.
Chakra sharira within the spine; chakra kshetram, in front of the body. When we
begin to move the prana, awareness of these passages is very helpful.
According
to the concept of Prana Vidya, energy is stored in mooladhara, revitalised or
energised in manipura, distributed to the body from ajna and purified in
vishuddhi. These are the four chakras that we use in the practice of Prana
Vidya: awakening, generation and revitalisation in manipura, the navel centre;
purification in vishuddhi, the throat centre; distribution from ajna, the
eyebrow centre; storage at the end of the practice, at mooladhara in the
perineum.
The
awareness of the passage in the chakra kshetram is between the navel and the
eyebrow centre. When we breathe in, the breath follows this passage up the
front of the body from the navel to the throat. "When we breathe out,
breath awareness continues to go up from the throat to the eyebrow centre, then
again the awareness jumps back to manipura. This is one process of frontal
passage awareness.
In the
actual practice of Prana Vidya, the energy which is generated in manipura is
brought to ajna with inhalation and distributed with exhalation. When we are
becoming aware of the psychic passage, inhalation and exhalation both happen
with the ascending awareness. We breathe in from the navel to the throat and
out from the throat to ajna. We visualise the passage in the form of a
transparent tube inside the body which stretches from the navel all the way up
to ajna.
The second
psychic passage is along the spine. Inhalation begins from mooladhara at the
base of the spine, the tip of the coccyx bone, and follows the contour of the
spinal cord. The visualisation of the psychic passage itself takes the form of
a transparent tube. We inhale from mooladhara all the way up to ajna inside the
head where the spinal cord enters the brain, the area of the midbrain. With
exhalation we simply follow the breath along the frontal passage back to
mooladhara. So, in the second passage there is only ascending awareness. There
is only inhalation, while the exhalation is back down the front of the body and
then again, there is awareness of the passage with inhalation up the back, and
exhalation down the front of the body.
The fourth
key is the psychic symbol and it involves the practice of concentration. The
symbol can be anything on which you can fix your mind. It can be an abstract
symbol, an image of scenery, something that you enjoy, something that agrees
with you. It can even be a psychic abstract symbol in the form of a yantra or
mandala. It can be the experience of seeing the sun, the moon, a flame, fire, a
cloud, or anything. Of course, here we are dealing with psychic symbols, not
just any symbol and psychic symbols are usually yantras.
If you look
closely at the chakras you will find that they are composed of various symbols
circles, triangles, squares, hexagons, pentagons, etc. These are the symbols
which we use in Prana Vidya. Depending on your personality or astrological
sign, a symbol is given to enable you to concentrate and go deeper into your
own personality. This symbol is usually given by the Guru at the time of mantra
diksha. If you have a symbol then you can concentrate on it. If you do not have
a symbol there are two symbols best suited for Prana Vidya. One is fire and the
other is a downward flowing stream or column of light.
The fifth
key is the awakening of the chakras. Now, believe me, you will find this quite
hard, but with the practice of Prana Vidya the chakras are awakened quite
quickly. Of course, you will have to make the effort, it will not just happen
spontaneously. You will have to try through the practices of concentration,
visualisation, willpower and having a purpose in your mind. All the chakras are
centres of pranic energy and you are stimulating and controlling the prana. In
order to do this you have to awaken the chakras.
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