Oct 16, 2020
Prana or life-force: what is the universal spirit or energy?
In my last article Is there only one (type of) God? , I pointed out that there were two main purposes of God, historically.
a) To understand and explain phenomena beyond the objective reality (and perception) of the given community.
b) To tap into some kind of universal force or energy beyond our grasp and use it to our advantage.
Quite as expected, it didn’t go well with any secular liberal atheistic or agnostic audience. This question seemed very persistent: what is this universal force or energy?
Now, most people assume that the knowledge they amassed in their years is the limit of knowledge in the Universe. This is especially true when it comes to spirituality. This article is better suited for someone open to the possibility that there are things they don’t know about yet. Therefore, I urge you to keep an open mind, even though it is critical or objective.
Life-force: many names and variations
There were many historic civilizations before modernity, and most of them were based o spirituality.
Universal life-force, spirit, or Universal energy is a quintessential aspect of any spiritual endeavor, just as the concept of Energy is important in quantum physics.
It’s known by many names: Prana in Indian philosophies, Qi or Chi in Chinese traditions, Ki in Japan, Mana in Polynesia, Chu’lel in Mayan, and so on.
What is Life-force or Prana?
Prana, in the simplest term, is the energy that constitutes life. It’s the amalgamation of the five elements that constitute the Universe (Prakriti): space (akasha), air (Vaayu), fire (Agni), water (Jal), and earth (Prithvi). Therefore, it is universal to existence.
When I say five elements that constitute the Universe, it must be understood in this way:
- Space (Akasha) as in any space or oblivion, be it inter-planetary or sub-atomic space.
- Air (Vaayu) is anything that remains in the gaseous state.
- Water (Jal) is anything in the liquid state (and aqua).
- Fire (Agni) is anything that emits heat and light. And,
- Earth (Prithvi) is anything that is in the solid-state or is made up of entities with a fixed mass.
Yes, this is all scientific, but I am not superimposing modern science to spirituality.
But, contrary to the modern self-pride, most civilizations that existed on the surface of Earth were based on science. But, many also realized the vastness of the Universe beyond our ephemeral existence, and revered it, as much as they tried to study it!
Now when it comes to the human body or any living being for that matter, prana is the Universal life-force inherent to it. What on earth is that?!
Let me try to explain it this way:
When we eat food, it gets digested in the digestive system, the nutrients go to every corner of the body through the blood and reach every cell. At the same time, the blood also transports air through the respiratory organs to every cell. And the compounds in the food, water, and air in the blood all combine inside the cell to create what? An energy molecule or ATP.
This energy is used in the functioning of the body, the mind, the intellect, and so on. This energy is also the basic manifestation of prana in the spiritual knowledge systems.
It is a combination of the physical, electrical, chemical, and psychic (mental-emotional-intuitive) elements of our existence. It’s the base unit of life, combining all the sources, processes, and products of the functions in our body.
We could stick with the simplistic definition of an ATP molecule but in Ayurveda and Yoga (and many other traditions too), they have well mapped the production, movement, and manifestations of the prana in the form of Praana-Vaayu, ojas, and so on. In other words, prana is the base unit of energy that dominates our body, mind, and consciousness.
Why is it universal?
Well, because, the processes are universal.
There is pranic energy wherever you turn, it is in all kinds of food you eat. It is the unit of any activity that happens in the Universe, and it is in us too: the pure form of energy.
Why is it necessary to be understood?
When people ask me what the significance and use of prana is, I remember Micheal Faraday’s answer to a similar question.
As the story is usually told, the prime minister or some other senior politician was given a demonstration of induction by Faraday. When asked “What good is it?”
Faraday replied: “What good is a newborn baby?”
Modern science has defined numerous kinds of energies: electric, magnetic, thermodynamic, mechanical, atomic ad so on. Can we become adamant that the energies we define are the only ones that exist?
The energies always exist in multitudinous forms and proportions. The aware and conscious define them in a manner that’s useful to them.
Many ancient traditions have found profound use for the life-force energy or prana, so they define and studied it. And they also found wonderful ways to deploy it in sciences, medicine, and spirituality.
But modern sciences don’t find much use for the energy that dominates life. We are much more interested in fossil fuels, mechanics, robotics, artificial intelligence, and atomic energies. Wonder why that is?!
Can you measure prana?
This is the most smart-aleck question I’ve heard. If a machine can measure something, then it has to be real, right?
And the answer is, prana can be measured. All it takes is a machine that can simultaneously measure the physical, biological, emotional, mental, electrical, chemical, and subtle energies in our body. Once you build a machine that can combine all these kinds of energies into one scale, prana can be measured.
Now, the ancient traditions of Ayurveda, acupuncture, Qi Gong, etc. have ways to measure the pranic energy, and manipulate it. But it takes another human or some spiritual processes to do that. But because modern sciences rely on machines more than humans, we may never convince modernity of this energy!
Prana: body, breath, and consciousness.
Prana is the energy that connects the body, breath, and consciousness.
Let’s understand it with an example.
Everyone who knows about the stimuli-response system in our body knows how the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system work.
Now, say you’re anxious or panicking. Or, angry.
You’ll notice your heart-beat rising, blood pressure shooting up, alertness, increased palpitation, and so on.
If you change your focus to your breathing and gently change the rhythm of the inhalation and exhalation, you can completely change your mood.
This way, breath is the gateway to understanding prana and consciousness.
Through the regulation and study of breathing, the energy of your body can be regulated and used for anything you want with it. This is why yoga, pranayama, and meditation all focus on the breath.
It’s through one’s breath, they can understand the flow of prana, and it’s said that where prana flows, your consciousness follows. This is felt profoundly during meditation and mindfulness.
Through this article, I wanted to introduce the most basic or foundational concept of spirituality: prana. In the last article, I had argued why spirituality and divinity are important for humans. These topics are much greater than the scope of a few articles. So I’ll be writing more on them in the coming ones.
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