Chapter 5 Preparation
5-6 Prasna Upanishad
5-6-1 Prasna 2.1 to 2.8
The subtle body is the most important of the three types of body. In the subtle body, PrAna is the most important. There is no gradation in it. All prAnAs are equally sacred, whether of a human or lower living beings. Meditation on Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic subtle body, is a powerful sAdhanA. There is respect for life which purifies the mind.
The second student, Bhargava asks a set of questions. How many divine principles sustain a living being? How many of them talk about their glory? Which one is the greatest? The teacher Pippalada replies that the divine principles are space, air, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, eye, and ear.
Each one considers itself great and that it supports others. They argue among themselves to establish their respective superiority. PrAna, who has been so far silent, says in a manner of fact that he by dividing himself into five parts supports all of them. Other organs are not ready to accept the supremacy of prAna. Being insulted, it decides to leave the body. As it is about to leave the body by withdrawing itself from various organs, the organs begin to lose power. It is an eye opener to the organs and they realise their wrong notions. Having broken their delusion, prAna comes back into the body. Then the organs regain their powers.
The Upanishad compares prAna with a queen bee and organs are other bees who always follow the queen bee. The organs pay obeisance to prAna. The moral is that the organs do not have original power. They draw power from prAna. In the same way, various deities, e.g., the Sun, Moon, Fire, and Varun do not have original powers. They borrow power from the cosmic subtle body called Hiranyagarbha. It lends power to the Sun, the fire principle, and Indra and they are worshipped by everybody. Indra is the leader of all deities and is compared with the mind since it controls all sense organs. But the mental power is sustained by prAna. It sustains everything at the micro level and Hiranyagarbha is the sustainer of all visible and invisible things at the cosmic level.
Life is compared to a wheel. It moves due to the rim at the periphery supported by several spokes. The spokes may claim the glory but are supported by the hub at the centre of the wheel. Thus, the real power is in the hub. Every organ is like a spoke that supports the wheel of life. But they are supported by prAna.
Hiranyagarbha alone is the creative power in the mother’s womb and is responsible for another life. This generative power is uniformly in all living beings. In this sense, Hiranyagarbha is Prajapati, the creator, and is worthy of salutation. He is all that is visible and invisible. We fail to appreciate that all worldly activities are possible because of prAna. Hiranyagarbha is glorified as the fire god, the most sacred god among the celestials. Fire is a frontrunner because it only delivers the oblations for different deities in a sacrifice to the respective deities.
5-6-2 Prasna 2.9 to 2.13
PraAa is ‘unpurifiable’ because it is firstborn and does not require purification. It is Ekrishi fire which is a special Vedic fire. In this fire, oblations are poured which are food for the deities. PrAna is the lord of all that exists and the father of all the universe. It is lodged in five sensory organs and the mind so that they discharge their functions. It divides itself into five parts discharging various physiological functions like breathing, digestion, and circulation. PrAna is prayed not to rise from where it is lodged in the body, and be a protector like a mother. It protects all that is enjoyable in the human world and even in the higher worlds of gods. It is adored and praised as an all-pervasive entity. . The second question is answered and the second student withdraws and takes a seat in a corner.
5-6-3 Prana 3.1 to 3.9
The third disciple, Kausalaya, son of Asvala, wants to know the following about prAna.
1 How does it come into existence at the cosmic level?
2 How does the life principle originate?
3 How does it enter the physical body?
4 How does it get divided into 5-fold faculties?
5 How does it leave the very body which it has supported?
6 Through what path, does it leave the body?
The Guru says that life principle is a mysterious topic and Veda alone has the unique answer to the origin of life. He agrees to answer the questions because the student is a sincere seeker.
Self is the source of prAna. It is like a shadow fixed on the Self. Brahman has mAyA power due to which 5 elements come into being. The rajas guna of the five elements give rise to the inert prAna. It is subtle. It is like a mirror and reflects the consciousness principle. Prana enlivened by reflected consciousness is life. The enlivened prAna goes to sense organs etc. Thus, the life originates in the creation. Just as a man is associated with a shadow, likewise from Self, shadow like prAna originates. How does it come into the gross body? The co-existence of gross and subtle bodies is caused by the laws of karma as any other event in the creation is determined by karma present and past.
Even though prAna enters as one unit in the body, it divides itself into 5 different powers or faculties and occupies five strategic places, They are prAna (breathing), apana (excretion), vyAna(circulation), udanA (reverse and quitting mechanism) and samana (digestion). It is like a king of the country. Once installed as the king, he selects various ministers according to their skills and appoints each minister to do a particular job.
The breathing prAna issuing out of nostrils and mouth resides in the eyes and ears, apana resides in two lower apertures, and samana, responsible for digestion resides in the middle space. The food that is eaten is oblation in the digestive fire. It is the source of energy. Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and one mouth are like seven flames that derive their power from the food oblation in the digestive fire. VyAna travels to all parts through capillaries (nerves) with a hub in the heart. There are 101 main nerves, each divided into medium nerves which are divided into minor nerves (capillaries). There is a network of 72,72,00,000 capillaries facilitating vyAna. UdAna has an upward thrust. At the time of death, it drags out entire subtle bodies along with causal bodies and brings them to the heart from where through sushmA nAdi, subtle and causal bodies leave through a special aperture in the crown of the head called Brahmanandra in the case of an upAsaka and go to Brahm Loka through shukla marg. For other people subtle and causal bodies leave differently to assume the next body according to karmic laws.
PrAna sustains the external and the internal worlds. At the cosmic level, it expresses as 5 natural principles space, air, sun, fire, and earth. The five prAnas sustain the internal organs at the individual level. The sun is well known as the source of energy. It is the presiding deity of the eye where prAna resides. Earth exerts pulling power otherwise we will fly. It is present as apana in the body. Air in the inter-space is similar to samana. Air in general is similar to vyAna. The 5th and final expression of macro-prAna is the fire that sustains the external universe. It is like the udAna which provides warmth to the body. When a person dies it withdraws all the faculties and the body becomes cold. The subtle and causal bodies withdraw from the body and assume a new body on rebirth.
Contd Part 11
Dear Bimal,
A provocative question for you!
I have to say that I have always tended to ignore passages such as these. I wonder if it would be possible to indicate what relevance they have to the essential teaching of Advaita. What is the process by which they help a seeker move from a position of Self-ignorance to one of realizing identity with Brahman? Is it rather the case that they were once of relevance to the typical religiously-oriented, scientifically-ignorant, Indian of the BCE centuries but they are no longer? In fact, should the modern (especially Western) seeker just ignore them altogether?
Best wishes,
Dennis
Dear Dennis,
The post is under Preparation and admittedly does not directly ‘convert’ Self-ignorance into Self-knowledge. PrAnamaya kosha is one of the five koshAs. In the method of Pancha kosha Viveka, prAnamaya kosha is considered the Self and then is negated. A seeker would be curious to know about prAnamaya kosha. The scripture addresses it otherwise, the mind is likely to be unrest. PrAnAyAma is one of the limbs of astAnga yoga and it is useful for dhyAna limb which is later. ShankarAchArya talks about prAnAyAma in verse 30 of Bhaja-Govindam. 21st June is observed as International YogA Day. The UN/WHO has not found it unscientific.
I have chanced upon the following.
“Scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita give more specific guidance such as sitting with the back straight and the closed eyes cast down ‘pointing towards the end of the nose’. (It is generally agreed that this should not be interpreted literally!) The reasoning behind this relates to the movement of energies (vital forces or prANa ) in the body. Energy is said to concentrate at the base of the spine and can, through practice, be caused to move through chakra-s corresponding to various points in the body, up to the top chakra located in the brain, possibly associated with the pineal gland. The specific theory and practice of this is the subject of kuNDalinI yoga and it is not relevant to Advaita. For all practical purposes, you should find the most comfortable position for the body, in which it intrudes as little as possible upon your attention.”
Waite, Dennis. The Book of One (pp. 171-172). Collective Ink. Kindle Edition.
“The kauShItaka upaniShad explains how we become one with brahman (referred to here as prANa, the vital breath) when we sleep and the world etc. springs forth on awakening: When a person is so asleep that he sees no dream whatever, then he becomes one with that vital breath. Then speech together with all names goes to it; the eye together with all forms goes to it; the ear together with all sounds goes to it; the mind together with all thoughts goes to it. When he awakes, as from a blazing fire sparks would fly in all directions, even so from this self the vital breaths proceed to their respective stations; from the vital breaths, the gods (the senses); from the gods, the worlds. This same vital breath, the self of intelligence, seizes hold of the body and raises it up. This therefore one should worship as the uktha [verses recited in praise]. This is the all-obtaining in the vital breath.”
Waite, Dennis. Back To The Truth: 5000 Years Of Advaita (p. 303). Kindle Edition.
Best wishes,
Bimal
Dear Bimal,
Good response! Although I am a bit skeptical about your just ‘chancing’ upon those quotations! 😉
I guess that what it comes down to is that we are relying upon prasthAna traya and Shankara as the only sources of Self-knowledge, so we are obliged to take them in the form in which they were presented. Accordingly, we have to make of it what we can, with the help of more knowledgeable commentators, and only then drop those aspects which reason tells us will not contribute positively to our understanding.
Of course, this response is also supported by the fact that we know that ALL of the teaching is ultimately mithyA anyway and has to be dropped in the final analysis.
Best wishes,
Dennis