The first student asked a very wide question after the physical structure of the universe; the second student, tried to take what was learned and inquired into applying it to his /one’s own life. In this way the importance of the one Prᾱṇa (life-force, itself ) was brought out. Prᾱṇa was linked to the loving mother, who gives selflessly to all, whatever is needed.
Now the third student; Kausalya, son of Aśvala asks the third question: “Oh Bhagavan, from where does this prᾱṇa come, and where and how does it behave once it has divided itself into diversity? How does it support what is without and within the body.”
In the first question the answer was given, that the Creator (Prajᾱpati) himself became life-force and matter and that these two forces, dance together in the human being, ultimately expressing through the sense organs – which are working by the grace and power of prᾱṇa, life-force.
The third student wants to know why this is so ? This is a fascinating interlude, because we too are conditioned to ask “why?” Our inquiry is based on the Cartesian world view, that everything can be explained with the law of causation. The question “why” seems an inherent preoccupation of the human intellect, an issue any parent can testify, for they had to have tirelessly been answering their child’s question. Why? Why? Why?
However as wisdom and understanding grows, one comes to a point of realizing that the universe, the cosmic laws, life itself is so infinitely complex , everything depending, interacting – with everything else, in so many dimensions, that there is “no answer” (or not one answer) to any question of why? We could say that any question of “why” has trillions of answers. Only when we use our conditioned, linear, limited thinking, which excludes much of the pathways to anything… does it appear as though there is an answer, does it appear as though there is a cause and an effect. This is a simplification of the universe, a narrowness of perception which disappears the wiser one gets.
Ancient and modern wisdom (science) for the moment, seems to agree that ultimately there is intelligent energy which is within and without all existence, beyond time space and causation. Yet our minds are never satisfied ….not even with the highest answers satisfy so the student still asks: why? The teacher answers: ‘You ask a transcendental question, the answer lies in the realm beyond our understanding, call it pure consciousness. But you are a good, diligent student and well prepared…so I will try to explain a bit more: Prᾱṇa life-force is born of pure consciousness. On the cosmic scale, this womb from which all life stems, we call Hirᾱnyagarbha; the total mind field. Within the human being we call this divine force ‘Atman’, the divine spark. So one can say: ”Prᾱṇa is born of Atman as the shadow is born of the man. Prᾱṇa is born of the divine Self, the ultimate mind-field, and by the action of this ‘total mind’ it enters into a body”. Meaning Prᾱṇa is to Atman what the reflection is to a person. When you look into the mirror you see your reflection not yourself. There are two things, you and the reflection yet they appear the same; the reflection has no independent existence.
There are two things to understand here: Atman, the divine spark, pure consciousness is within the being; and Prᾱṇa is the individual life –force born of Atman. And yet, just like the spark of Fire is the same as fire, yet not the same; Prᾱṇa (as Mother of all) within the individual is different, yet not different . This is a conundrum which puzzles our limited minds. The teacher here is extremely skilled in pointing to the highest knowledge and proceeds to explain , that Prᾱṇa (life-force) within the individual is like a king, who orders his officers to do this and that… so the divine Prᾱṇa-absolute (within the individual) divides itself for different functions…into what appears as five different forms, yet they all represent the king (the Prᾱṇa) – indeed they are the king (just as the hand executes the will of the ego-mind/ ahamkara).
Then the rishi describes the different “officers of the king”; different prᾱṇas and their functions within the body. He starts withapᾱna, that life-energy which deals with excretion and procreation (down-wards moving energy, governing the body from Navel to toes).
Secondly there is prᾱṇa (referring to the breath ) related to the area from the heart to the nostrils, including the mouth, nose and upper extremities etc.
Thirdly there is samᾱṇa residing in the region from heart to navel , being the energy that distributes the food and distributes it to the cells and organs of perception. (The latter are described as ‘seven flames’; the seven gates = 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostril, one mouth).
Fourth there is vyana prana, the energy that is said to live and work through the channels (nadis/meridians) that pervade the whole body (much like the Chinese CHI/XI). This life-energy is said to live in the ‘heart’ (here heart does not mean the physical heart in he left side of our chest, but means the centre of consciousness, which reflects in the mind; the subtle domain of consciousness (the Japanese word for it is well known: Hara) and Kashmir Shaivism, talks of it as the triadic heart of Shiva; the essential core of our being; our centre.
Fifth, the teacher talks of udᾱna prᾱṇa; the upward moving energy. The region in the body linked to it is conventionally thought of as from the neck to the crown; but here the teacher implies that the udana prana is the special upward moving energy through the ‘central nerve’ (sushumna). Swami Chinmayananda explains: udana provides the fuel, the motive force that drives us to something higher, even the higher plains of evolutionary status /existence. It is that power by which we leave behind the animalistic instincts and tendencies and rise to higher mastery and higher duties.
Now comes an interesting interlude (for those readers who have already studied the “Five Elements”), the teacher points out that these forces/ life energies have their parallels in the universe without. We can see the same pranic forces in the universe at large, as within the body. Hence the same prᾱṇa is in the sun, is our mother, our earth, our home (as indicated in the beginning); because of earth’s gravity, the energy of earth and watercontrol the downward movement in our bodies; the space between our planet and the sun, is the world of permanent transformation, of sacrifice, of food being turned into energy – samana the energy- fire.The wind energy (also often called currents) distributes everything everywhere, acting like the permanent movement in the currents ofair. Finally udana prana, is seen as working as the highest point of our head, even above it. This is associated with space, but not that simple geographical space, (or the space within us) but the subtle space through which “ life-force travels from one body to the next after one body has dissolved , and thus is referred to as external fire/life-force.
With this last contemplation, space within and without the body carrying life force, being the field of interaction between lives, the teachers enters a very subtle point: according to our thoughts at the time of death, the life-force (prᾱṇa , as mother of all; non-individuated) and the prana from this individual life combine. Udana- prana together with the jivatman (conditioned soul) move to the ‘world thought of’ (by ones last thoughts).
It means: The departing thoughts on the deathbed determine the future field of ‘incarnation’. (See Vashista’s story of the sage and the deer). The last thought however, is not engineered by our ego-will (jivatman) but it’s the udana- prana which carries both aspects : the sum total of our thought-life (my Tibetan teacher talked about it as ‘the bank-balance), and the prᾱṇa (as life-force of all)- together shape the jivatma which is led to its next ‘field of action’. The teacher concludes: the wise man who knows and understand prᾱṇa will not suffer; he knowing origin, place and nature of prᾱṇa and its five-fold forms and their continuous eternal states through physical existence, realizes immortality.
Knowing here of course is not limited to intellect, but refers to a full realization. Realizing that we are the five prᾱṇas, the five elemental energies, one combination in permanent weaving existence . As such we root in Hiranyagarbha, meaning we too are the ‘Total- Mind’ – Hiranyagarbha. And so the teacher led the students to see the core of existence, the Reality behind individual and cosmos.
So far the questions remained in the waking state of existence, but as we know, a large part of our life is spent in the dream state and in deep sleep. The next question inquires into the nature of the experiencer of all the above, be it the one awake, the dreamer or the one in deep sleep. So the fourth question is asked by Gᾱrgya grandson of Sῡrya. “What is the state of sleep, and what again is being awake? What devata sees the dream, whose is the happiness? On what do all these depend?” It is clear that the student understood that we are energies, working through various centres and ‘streams’ or fields of energy; now the question is…when asleep or when dreaming are there more centres? Although asleep or dreaming the body functions, so there must be active forces? Are they different? We seem to experience things different in dream…than in the waking? However, we remember the dream – so we must be the same entity in waking and dreaming? And we remember that in deep sleep we were happy (in bliss), so the experiencer in all three must be the same? What or who is the one that shares the three different experiences? They seem the same- yet they seem different? To the dreamer the wake-full –one does not exist, neither does the deep-sleep experiencer be aware of the dreamer etc. There is common and there is difference. Who is aware of these states?
You might know the story of Chung Tzu, he got very disturbed because he dreamed of being a butterfly. Was he, Chung Tzu dreaming of a butterfly, or was he a butterfly dreaming of Chung Tzu? How do we know, who knows? On what do the different states (waking, dreaming, deep sleep) depend? The teacher replies: “The different states are like the rays of the sun, they appear to go out to shine and when the sun sets they appear to return; again they are part of the sun, ready to rise the next morning; (the sun is often referred as a deva, a God) so the text says: such a deva is the mind. So when” man no more hears, sees, smells, tastes or feels; nor speaks, nor takes, nor enjoys, nor evacuates, nor moves… they say ‘he sleeps’.” So sleep is, a state of mind where the mind does not “go out” ; there is no awareness of activity of the mind though these functions are performed. This is reminiscent of Patanjali, from whom we know sleep is ‘a thought –wave without contents!’ Awareness is there…but no contents! All the indriyas retire into their very source, the mind”. Sleep is when mind is there, but it does not go out to collect impressions . When the cattle of the senses do not go far afield to graze; when they stay in the stable and digest the fodder eaten earlier – (“when what has been seen, is seen again; what has been heard, is heard again….etc”; – like the cows chewing the fodder over and over until it is digested. ) this is called dreaming.
When sleeping or dreaming, the “prᾱṇas alone are awake in the city of the body” .The excellent teacher now draws an analogy of the prᾱṇa to the havan (the fire offering) ; linking the explanation to something the student of those times would have been very familiar with. He says: Apana prᾱṇa is like theGᾱrhapatya fire. In the ancient household, a small fire (Deepak/ oillamp/eternal flame) was kept permanently burning, from which the flame/fire would be taken for the main ritually used fire-place. Apana prᾱṇa is considered that fire from which other fires are “taken out”/ignited. The prᾱṇa (breath) is likened to the ᾱhavanīya-fire, (the fire that burns in the central fir-pit used for the daily ritual into which offerings are made. It is separate from the original fire it is now “fattened” by the offerings in the ritual fire (fattend by breath/oxygen to do its job; nourishing/building cells and working in interaction with the senses etc.…). Theanvᾱhᾱrya-pacana-fire, to the south of the main fire-pit , it is compared to vyana-prᾱṇa, as the south wind whistles through the house, so does vyana prᾱṇa move through the entire body. Samana prᾱṇa, distributing the oblations is likened to the priest (hotri). The mind is the sacrificer, and the udana prᾱṇa is the fruit of the sacrifice. The point of the sacrifice is to lead to Brahman (every night in deep sleep !)
In modern times and different cultures, these similies are not very helpful, we lack the experience of such events/life-style. However the principle is interesting, that the teacher is not just giving theory, but making the insights real for students by using experience, their experience!
The ultimate point is, that the ‘mind’ the udanan prᾱṇa is the one who conducts the sacrifice, (sacrificer) for the purpose of leading to Brahman, the benefit of this ultimate upward movement is a state of deep peace and happiness which exists “when with Brahman”; so the state of deep sleep is considered to be “with Brahman”. Now this notion is quiet common in many traditions, sacred sleep/healing sleep is well known in antiquity and amongst indigenous people today. In deep sleep we go to God…but, a shame we are not aware of it. (Being aware of it –is Yoga Nidra! )
“Being with Brahman” in deep sleep is described in this Upanishad, as the mind being overpowered by light and feeling bliss. Now in the Mundukya Upanished, this state is actually treated as a fourth state of consciousness, Tureeya.
In this text it says: Just as birds retire to their nest, “all these” retire into the bliss-sheet (anandamaya kosha), the abode of the supreme Self or, in the words used in this text: ”the supreme Atman”. “All these” meaning: “the earth and its subtle elements, the water and its subtle energies, the space and its subtle elements… the eyes, and what can see, the ears and what can hear….the hands and what can be grasped, the feet and what can be walked…the mind, the intellect, the prᾱṇas – all these rest in the state of sleep, like the birds in their nest.” All that can be bound together as the ego-mind and its tools, all that we identify with, in body, mind and intellect – goes to sleep, retires under “the blanket of ignorance”. Who remains…? The Atman, the Self.
Normally we identify with a shadow of this Atman, “know the Being that is without shadow; without colour, pure…. ! The One who knows this indweller that stays awake, the Supreme Being, becomes omniscient, attains all.
“ O Beloved One, he who knows the imperishable Atman, in whom rests the knowing self, with all the devas, with all the prᾱṇa and the five elements – becomes omniscient and indeed enters all, to become all.”
Thus ends the fourth Praśna
