What is 'Prana'?
Prana is a Sanskrit word that literally means 'before (pra)
+ breathe (an)'. In Sanskrit and Hindi, the words for
breath, wind, life-breath, life-essence are same. Prana is
both the physical breath and the subtle life energy of the
body. In different cultures this is referred by different
names: Chi(Qi), Barak, Mana, Logos, Energy, etc.
The living force within all creature is the 'consciousness',
however, this consciousness is unconscious of the complex
and dynamic physiological and psychological process which
result from 'consciousness' and mind dwelling in a physical
body. Most of these processes continue without any conscious
input at all. There is, for example, a gap in consciousness
between mental intention to walk, and actually walking. The
individual consciousness is quite unconscious of the complex
nervous, muscular, chemical, electrical, and may other
biological processes that are involved in 'simply' walking.
All the intermediate process between the conscious decision
to walk and walking itself are unconscious. Even the brain
function associated with original intention happen
automatically and unconsciously. All this is due to the
presence of the life essence, prana, controlling and
activating all bodily processes. Prana is directed by the
mind, and the mind is activated by consciousness. In other
words, the consciousness or Dweller in the body, functions
through mind energy. Prana unites or links the mind to the
form or body so that it can function in it. Mind then
utilizes this form and functions through the senses, and
gains satisfaction, experience and learning through pleasure
and pain.
In physical aspect, prana is also responsible for the forces
that science calls gravity and electromagnetism. These two
force-fields are effects or physical manifestation of the
implicit order supported by prana. In fact, according to
Vedic philosophy, the physical universe is really changing
patterns in space, and that creation manifests into being
through the movement in the stillness that is eternally
existent.
In subtle body, five key pranas are identified (that govern
the major physiological and psychological functions): prana,
apana, samana, udana and vyana.
Siva Samhita explains:
In heart, there is a brilliant lotus with twelve petals
adorned with brilliant markings. It has the (Sanskrit)
letters ka to tha, the twelve, beautiful letters.
The prana live here, adorned with various desires,
accompanied by its past works that have no beginning, and
joined with ahankra (ego).
From the different modification of prana, it receives
various names. The seat of the prana is the heart; of the
apana, the anus; of the samana, the region about the navel;
of the udana, the throat; while the vyana move throughout
the body.
Prana is thus the intelligence or cause lying behind the
tremendous order and organization of all body functions, as
well as the universe at large. It is not visible to the
physical sense organs, and thus can be describes as a subtle
form of energy.
Holistic Healing
Holistic Healing refers to a alternate healthcare movement
which considers health as a dynamic and unified state of the
human being. It is based on the principle that symptoms of a
disease may be found in certain tissues or organs however,
the health and wellness is not a mere removal of such
symptoms by the treatment of the affected tissues or organs,
but a wholeness of multidimensional experience. The body,
mind, spirit and environment are in a state of continuous
interactive balance and the maintenance of this balance in
an optimum state is the definition of 'health'. Sushruta, an
Ayurvedic authority who lived 4,000 years ago, defined a
healthy person as "He (who is) in balance, whose digestion,
assimilation, and metabolism are good, whose tissues and
wastes are created properly, and whose self, mind, and
senses remain full of bliss." It is a sense of unified
well-being as opposed to dis-ease.
Holistic health does not reject the orthodox system of
western medicine but complements it. In the case of
infectious diseases, nutritional and hormonal deficiencies
and bodily defects which need surgical intervention, it
follows the western system. Psychosomatic dis-eases such as
stress, hypertension, peptic ulcer, allergic asthma,
rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, etc., can be
helped by holistic health practices. Holistic health
provides a way of life which prevents the recurrence of some
of these ailments. Holistic health practices gives the
responsibility of health in the hands of patient because
that is where the awareness and control of the key aspects
(diet, stress, exercise, action, emotion and medication)
reside. The one person who knows about the patient more than
anybody else is the patient himself.
In the Holistic Healing, the cause of any disease is
understood in terms of the whole person and not in terms of
a particular organ or tissue. Plato remarked that "the
treatment of the parts should not be attempted without
treatment of the whole". Most of the holistic health
practices are based on the model of unified life, i.e.
unified body, mind, spirit and environment.
Unified-life Views: unifying body, mind, spirit and
environment
Unified life is the aim of Vedic philosophy. The Seers
believed in the fullness of life (materialism and
spirituality). They realized the unity of life before the
unity of consciousness. The complete physical awareness is
as important as spiritual awareness. In other words, we have
to become self-aware before we can develop the cosmic
awareness within us. It is resonates more closely with
modern New Age view where material awareness is perceived
equally important as spiritual awareness.
A more broader view of unified life was developed by Tantras
which arose between the 6th and 9th centuries AD. The
reality is perceived as the manifestations of Chit-Shakti or
Conscious-Mind-Force. Matter, Mind and Self are all regarded
as manifestations of this universal field which is
personified as the Divine Goddess or Adi-Maya. All
activities are carried on by the Conscious-Mind-Force
(universe is the playful dance of Conscious-Mind-Force) and
all we have to do is to open ourselves to this divine power
through self-awareness for the cosmic prana or universal
life-force to flow-in.
The universe displays the beauty of Thy Comeliness!
The goal is Thy Beauty - all else is pretext. -- Rumi.
A far more encompassing unified view of life is developed by
mysticism. Mysticism regards that our consciousness is a
tiny wave of supreme consciousness and all the creation is
created and sustained by the 'Creative Will' (or Word) of
the Supreme Consciousness. Prana is essentially the diffused
power of the Word, the presence of 'Creative Will' in
everything, which holds all the matter and energies
together. In this model everything perceived by our mind and
senses is considered as veils.Only consciousness is real. Rumi says:
Man is a mighty volume; within him all things are written,
but veils and darkness do not allow him
to read that knowledge within himself.
The veils and darkness are these various preoccupations
and diverse worldly plans and desires of every kind.
In all unified-life views the dis-ease is caused by the
blockages in the flow of pranas within the individual or
between the individual and the cosmos. These obstructions
are caused by Samskaras, psychic memories or residual traces
of our past actions and experiences. Samskaras are of two
kinds, those which only produce memories (smriti) of past
experiences and those which produce impulses or drives to
repeat these experiences (vasanas). These two are
interlinked to form complex patterns of love, hate, fear,
doubt, anger, pride, lust, attachment, greed etc. It is
these patterns that obstruct the free flow of pranas in us.
Most of these patterns are formed from traumatic or
unpleasant experiences. When unpleasant or traumatic
experiences take place, our tendency is to suppress them
(using unconscious fight, flight or freeze mechanisms)
instead of accepting and learning from them. Suppression
pushes the energy of psychic memories into the unconscious
mind. The growing person may not be able to recollect those
psychic memories again, but the suppressed samskaras lodged
in the unconscious will manifest as psychological and
psychosomatic disorders or painful experiences and forces
the person to gain the experience and learning. If the
person fails to learn and uses various methods to blunt the
pain and suppress the memory then the nature will
re-manifest the circumstances/experiences until the learning
is complete.
Charaka Samhita, states "The disturbance of the three doshas
are caused by Prajnaparadha, produced by the distortion of
the intellect, will and memory ". In other words, the root
cause of most of the psychosomatic or constitutional
disorders is Prajnaparadha, the misuse of our intellect and
cognitive faculties.
It is our unbalanced way of living, out of harmony with
natural rhythms, that is the cause of dis-ease. Health can
be restored by enhancing the self-awareness and promoting
the the free flow of prana that improves the coordination,
rhythm and balance in working of the whole body.
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