prana

Prana

Prana – as life current energy

Prana is the name in Sanskrit given to the life or vital energy. We experience prana everywhere, as it is in all living things and sustains life. From our atmosphere, to nature, to the cells in our body, prana is everywhere.

There can be more or less prana. We feel more prana in the vital air by the seaside or in the depths of a tropical forest. We feel less prana in an urban concrete jungle.

Prana is a subtle energy that is not visible to the naked eye, but felt and visible in the manifestation of all life.

Prana is not the same as the breath, or breathing (taking in oxygen and letting out carbon dioxide).

Prana travels through the breath but is also in the food we eat, in sunlight absorbed through the skin, and so on. Some food can have more prana, such as fresh vegetables and sun-soaked fruits. Some food can have less prana, such as stale, old or heavily processed food items.

Prana – as the upward moving air element

In yogic spiritual and physical anatomy, the body being formed of the elements, prana is part of the air element.

Prana is one of five distinct characteristic aspects of the air element, each with its own purpose in the functioning of the body. Of these five, prana is the name given to the upward moving air element that regulates activity from the heart centre and lungs.

It is the air element aspect of the body that regulates inhalation, cardio activity and immune defence.

Prana in pranayama

Pranayama is the conscious direction and mastery of the flow of prana, or vital life current, and is also the collective name given to all breathing techniques in the practices of Yoga.

Some are beginner practices and some are advanced practices.

Ultimately, in deep states of meditation, the yogi master can sustain life without breath and the body is sustained on prana and by the power of God consciousness — the breath of God — alone.

This prolonged breathless state is considered one of the highest levels of yogic mastery.

Further readings in scrolls:

Breath

Breath-Work

PranaYama,

YM Breath-Work

Other definitions

Merriam-Webster

prana noun
pra·na | \ ˈprä-nə \
plural pranas

Definition of prana

Hinduism

: a life breath or vital principle in Vedic and later Hindu religion

“It’s glorious to be in this newbie micro farm, with everything so green and lush and bursting with prana.”
— Valerie Reiss

“Eastern philosophy holds that yoga heals by releasing prana, the body’s vital energy. When prana is blocked, illness can result. Western practitioners believe yoga’s deeply relaxing breath work allows the body’s healing abilities to take over.”
— Norine Dworkin

First known use

1785, in the meaning defined above.

History and etymology for prana

Borrowed from Sanskrit prāṇa — “breath, exhalation, breath of life”, derived from the base of prāṇiti (“she/he breathes, draws in breath”), from pra- (“before, forward”) + aniti (“she/he breathes”).