Relation of Prana to Coming Changes

The question is the role of prana in the transformations that are taking place upon a global level. Prana is vital force. It exists everywhere. It is a subtle energy force that existed before human beings were on this planet. It will exist when they are no more. It will exist when the planet is no more. Prana simply exists in the universe. It is a type of subtle energy available to beings in this universe. It is not a physical but a subtle energy. It is not as if prana causes anything. Prana is simply an existing energy, a vital subtle quality, a kind of nutrient for the mind. Fire is fed by wood, by substances that burn. Out of those substances, fire releases energy. That energy has a very material quality, is a part of saincara. Likewise, energy is released from life force and that energy has a subtle quality. It is often called prana or chi.

Microvita differs from prana only that it is actually a part of the life force itself. It is the vital living force. Prana feeds it. It is a kind of food that is released from life force and also feeds life force. This chi or prana comes from and feeds life force. It maintains living beings. It is energy in the process of pratisaincara or introversial movement towards the cosmic nucleus. So one cannot say that prana is causing any situation in the world today or in the universe any more than one can say the energy released in fire is causing fire to exist. It simply is. So prana exists.

There are certain situations in which it is created in abundance and situations where it is depleted. Depending on its creation or depletion, it affects living beings. When it is in abundance, living beings thrive. Their vital sentient force thrives and their movement through pratisaincara becomes swift and direct. When prana lags and there is deficiency of prana, there is insufficient vital force to move the beings forward through the evolutionary flow of pratisaincara towards the cosmic nucleus and they become bogged down, they become stuck. Prana is a vital part of the movement of evolution and of living beings towards the cosmic nucleus. It is the energy.

Energy means that which provides momentum and movement for pratisaincara, the movement from crude to subtle, the movement from matter to Parama Purusha. The energy it feeds on is prana. Now we say it is also Shakti. It becomes Shakti when it is the direct energy used by the kulakundalini. Prana transforms into kundalini Shakti.

Prana is also associated in the human body and other living beings with breath. That means the ability to take in air and gain sustenance from it and to release it. The prana vayus regulate these airs in the body. Prana is often associated with the aerial factor just as light and heat are associated with the luminous factor. Prana is often associated with the aerial factor and therefore associated with the breath in the human body.

Regarding the relationship of prana to times that are coming, depending on whether the environment is rich in prana or depleted of prana, there will be more or less vitality for the group of life. When an environment is rich in prana, life grows in abundance and evolves quickly towards the cosmic nucleus. The sentient principle becomes more dominant. Consciousness becomes stronger.

Because prana is associated with the air factor, it is subtle and moves all that is crude towards subtlety. Therefore, it lies in the world of causality. The kosha of the mind is one in which prana exists and operates in the realm of causality. Prana tends to be a causal factor. So being aerial, it affects the distribution and health of the prana vayus. These affect physical and psychic health of the living being and the more crude levels of mind. If prana flows very well, then the physical body will be strong, the mind firm, and the spirit healthy, so that the person may move toward Parama Purusha at maximum speed. When prana is not so strong, the pranic force in the individual is slackened or weakened, then ailments come in the body and/or weaknesses of mind. The person will have poor concentration. They will not be able to accomplish tasks. They may have difficulty focusing their mind. They may have difficulty staying with something. They may have difficulty having vital energy to do things. They are always tiring, wanting to rest. Or else, they may have a nervous mind, anxious and fearful, because it lacks the strength, the vitality, and the dynamism because it lacks energy. Prana is the type of energy that feeds mind.

The energy of the five factors feeds the physical body but prana feeds the mind. It transmutes through the dhatus the physical force of the food into and through all of the different tissues of the body until finally, in twenty-eight days it comes to the sexual fluids. There it produces from that the prana in the body known as ojas. Ojas means prana utilized in the physical form of a human being for the mind of that being. Ojas means that the vital force of prana from the food has been unlocked. It has fed all of the organs of the body and finally it turns into the substance known as ojas to feed the mind. All of this is prana, the inherent subtle energy that comes from life force and feeds life force. If you eat rock, you will not be high in prana. Yogis avoid eating the mushroom growing on the dead vine because it lacks the kind of pranic force that leads to the sunlight. The sun is the producer of physical energy that moves the planet and also produces photosynthesis in cells and other organic processes that convert prana from the vital energy of the sun. The sun produces physical vital energy which then in living beings is transmuted into prana. All of the plant kingdom directly transmutes sun into prana. Then you eat the plant and you experience this vital prana.

Now you wonder about the future and coming changes in the earth, so many calamities. This earth has been through many changes. It is the nature of the universe that things are always in flux and change. In the small life of a single living being the flux and change is the ebb and flow. What may mean very little on the larger scale can be truly devastating to an individual. Changes from cold to hot weather and hot weather to ice age may seem very drastic to you but it is not such a great change in the larger scheme of the universe. If prana remains abundant, life thrives. If the planet is cut off from the sun for a ten-day time, life would die. It requires its vital source of energy and of prana.

It is possible to create conditions through the actions of men that can block the sun. This could be most devastating. It is possible to create situations through the actions of men that can alter the course of this planet and this can be most devastating. It is possible through the actions of men to make many things very difficult, to kill many species of animals but without extreme drastic action, it is not very possible to reduce the pranic force upon the planet. Yes, species are dying but human population is growing and growing. The type of form life is taking on the planet is altering.

When the balance is disturbed from one system of homeostasis, what happens? It settles into another system of homeostasis, isn’t it? There have been and will continue to be some disturbances in the balance of homeostasis but they will settle to a different balance and life goes on. It is possible to eradicate life. It is possible to poison and destroy life but it is very difficult because the force of desire to survive is very great.

I have said that life comes from the vital workings in the core of the planet because matter has only so much energy within it. When matter becomes dense, the energy within grows in magnitude. It becomes more dense and so the energy in the concentrated core of the planet is very, very great. Its life force is very intense. It holds the life force of all beings. All are a part of the whole.

Prana comes from the sun, from the vital energy of the sun but it also comes from the vital force within the earth, from the core because it is highly concentrated matter. When matter becomes more concentrated, the density of energy contained in that matter is more. When it releases as energy flows in the earth, it becomes vital force that feeds the living beings of the planet. Thus, the planet sustains them. They are literally as the moving parts of the planetary entity, a part and parcel of the planet where they abide or originate. The planetary entity is composed of the heavenly body but also of all the children of that heavenly body. Even if they enter into space travel, they are still a part of the earth from which they came because there is a link, a pranic link, a mind link.

As evolution progresses, the living vital earth entity begins to evolve. From a large concentration of pranic force, the mechanisms of nature and evolution are put into place. The pranic force moves through forms and keeps on moving and sustaining more and more complex life forms that hold greater and greater magnitude of mind, utilizing more and more prana, and developing more and more sophistication.

The growing mental capacity is the shining result of the evolution of the planetary entity. As mind grows in magnitude and evolution continues, there are certain critical junctures in the evolutionary flow. Several have been passed already on this planet but one is now in throes and is coming up shortly. This critical juncture means a turning point, a phase of distinctive change. As it has been coming on, one will notice species shifting. The evolutionary vital force is putting its trajectory in new ways and not working as it did before.

Q. My question is regarding the abundance or lessening of prana upon the planet today and the statement that it appears to be important to have more prana so as to enhance this evolutionary change.

A. How fast do you want it to go? Faster can be more destructive to the unit entity. Yes, vitality in all spheres is very important and comes from good health practice, meditation, asana, and yogic practices, and maintenance of good health and a balanced life. These things will increase the individual’s stamina, vitality, and ability to cope with change.

Q. Can culture and good values play a role in vitalizing people and increasing prana?

A. Yes, yes, of course. Let us say there is a group of twenty people working in a factory. If those twenty people are very cheerless, unhappy to be with each other, always backbiting and criticizing each other and not having any happiness in their mood, and their work is too hard, and they are exhausted with their work, and their diets are very poor, and their lives are very unhappy, then what will happen to those twenty people? They will create a negative atmosphere with much negative microvita attracted. Because of this, prana levels will go down and then more negative microvita will come, more disease will be there, more death will be there, more unhappiness and depression, and a different flow of energies because they have not kept their spirits up, their prana high; they have not done those things which are life-affirming. It is of course the choice of every individual and the collective to move towards that which is life-affirming or to live in such a way to move away. So one must maintain good practices of health, good practices of joyousness in life and following yama and niyama to maintain good vital force in one’s life.

You know there are those who go around saying, "Woe is me, the world is such a bad place, so many people are doing so many wrong things. They are destroying it. It is no good now. It was good in the old days but today it’s no good." What does this type of thinking do? Do you know? It reduces life force and vitality, does it not? It makes the mind dull. It creates anger in the mind. It creates a feeling of helplessness in the mind. It creates a poor spirit, a somber attitude, and there is no joy of living. If rather than this one says, "Today is a bright new day. Every day is a bright and fresh new day and I will live life to its fullest, enjoy it thoroughly, and be thankful for all that Parama Purusha has given and look at the rays of sun coming through, how beautiful." Then, even the one who living in the worst conditions where the environment is dusty, dirty, polluted, and has hardly any natural vitality but who has great appreciation that the sun has come out for a little while and they see the rays of sun even through the nasty smoke creating a beautiful pattern, they will have vital force. The one who lives in the great beauty of nature and bemoans the condition of the world, and moans and groans about how bad it all is, and is critical and negative, and is always bemoaning, what have they? They are bringing down their vital energy. I am not saying you cannot recognize the problems in the world. They exist. They must be addressed in a rational, concrete way. It is not to blind yourself and close your eyes but also not to let it affect your spirit or make you feel pessimism. It is not to spread pessimism nor to bemoan the good old days.

The world is a beautiful place, always changing, ever-changing, colors ever-moving, forming, dissolving form and changing. Yes, species are dying. In one way, that is a tragedy. In another way, it is the evolution of Gaia. Those forms were no longer relevant to the evolution of Gaia. It is a tragedy and a loss on one level. On another level, there is no tragedy and no loss. Gaia is ever moving and changing. She will move and change. When millions of people die, will it be a tragedy? To those who have lost their loved ones, it is a great tragedy. Perhaps in the larger picture, it is no tragedy at all, but merely the movement of life force, merely the movement of where the pranic energies want to be stored and utilized by the evolving being of Gaia. So you see, it all depends upon one’s perspective.

Forms all come and go. Species die. Planets die. Suns die. Individuals definitely die. Is your time span to think of one year’s time, a human year? Is your perspective to think of is one million human years or a hundred million years? Perspectives change depending upon one’s outlook. The same situation may look good or bad. For you are a part of a larger whole and sometimes the individual only thinks in the momentum of their situation. For example, imagine you lived in the heart of Europe, in France, during World War II with so many armies invading. People you have known all your life are being killed and are hiding. It is desperate and you think the world has gone to Hell. It has turned to Hell, "What will become of me? God has forsaken me! Everything is terrible." In the larger perspective, it was a war like many other wars that come and go and it came, played out, went away and life went on. From the larger perspective, the tragedies are less but for the individual losing loved ones the tragedy is very great.

I would suggest to those who want to be leaders to gain a perspective and see situations from multiple layers, multiple perspectives, both more microcosmic and larger, more macrocosmic. To realize life is change; nothing stands still, and change is often violent, destroying what has been in order to create anew. In that process, if one wants to keep vitality and prana, one will have to take a little larger look as well at the microcosm and do everything to keep one’s spirits bright and associated with the look of Parama Purusha in all of this. He loves each and every one of his children individually and he sees the larger collective. For him, it is an ever-woven and changing tapestry that the Lady Prakrti has painted, weaving and moving. She paints one scene then she shifts it and changes it into another. I do not think there is any cause for trouble. Evolution is going on very nicely but who has ever said evolution occurs without violence? The forces of nature are violent. They destroy what has been in order to build afresh. All right? All right.

The five fundamental factors are in saincara. Prana is in pratisaincara so there is a difference. From the five fundamental factors, from their influence on the physical, on the mind, from them comes the development through the physical form of prana, the food of the mind. Mind will not be sharp and alert if it does not have prana. It eats prana. Bodies eat food. Mind eats prana. Not only human mind but all mind. Prana can be regulated from the aerial plane and that is why breath regulates prana in the physical structure. In saincara the five fundamental factors make heat, light, energy force. The energy force exists. It is of a different quality, related to the physical universe. That is why food is stored. Any physical cell, physical object, physical molecule, stores energy. When you split the atom, so much energy comes out because it is a concentration of energy but the wavelength of that energy is crude whereas the wavelength of prana is subtle. The wavelength of the energy, the wavelength of that vital force stored in the atom that releases when the atom is broken, is dominated by rajas. Prana is likewise concentrated energy dominated by sattva. So when food is eaten, stored up energy in the food is transmuted and creates energy for the cells that is rajasic, but it creates vital force for the mind which is dominated by sattvic factor. That is the difference, you see?

Q. I understand that. You said aid that the prana exists even if the planets disappear.

A. It may not exist in that physical location but it will exist in this universe. It exists throughout space. You see, I will explain. What is this universe composed of?

Q. Consciousness.

A. Consciousness. Also, consciousness formed into what?

Q. Into matter.

A. Before matter into what?

Q. Fundamental factors. Mind. Cosmic mind. Yes.

A. Mind. Cosmic mind. So you see. Purusha is formed, awareness is formed into mind meaning it is merged with rajasic factor to have movement. But mind must be fed by prana. Within mind develops more rajas-dominated energies and then tamas-dominated molecular structure but prana feeds the mind and from this condensed mind in the form of matter and energy, prana is released, you see? So prana does not exist in saincara, but it exists as a result of saincara. It is the food.

Q. Yes, but it has to exist in saincara because that is cosmic mind is created and fed by prana.

A. No. Cosmic mind is composed not fed. With the gunas themselves, cosmic mind unfolds in a kind of milieu of prana. It is like a plasma field in which it exists and then crudifies.

Q. Okay. Basically, the whole universe is composed of prana.

A. It is like a plasma field in which mind forms, a pabulum for the mind, it is like a pabulum. So it is not existing per se in the extraversial flow. It is existing, formed as the gunas form, as a pabulum of mind and then in it saincara takes place. Then from saincara, when there is release of energy, the subtle release of energy in living beings forms the prana for the introversial phase.

Q. So is it in the very end of saincara process where prana starts emerging? And is prana the carrier, effector, for starting the pratisaincara?

A. Yes. But you see microvita forms the smallest particles of life, the smallest essence of life. When matter condenses itself to a very intense state, it does one of two things. It either continues to condense and bind consciousness tighter and tighter with more and more tamas until jadasphota takes place and, like the dark star that explodes, it explodes and goes back into saincara. Or, when matter comes and tamas wants to bind and bind, the normal process is that sattva will be released. Sattva has to break free of tamas in order to maintain equilibrium because the material substance is becoming too heavy. Otherwise you get this heavy matter but if not, sattva breaks free. When sattva breaks free, it forms automatically a pranic field in which the tiniest forms of life begin to emerge. They feed on prana. They live in prana. It is a pabulum made by sattvaguna and they are kind of synonymous. You cannot really separate microvita from prana at that stage.

Then as mind evolves, it maintains a link, the unit mind, with material objects because it has evolved out of matter. It maintains material links and forms again to maintain material links but what is gets from that material body is the development of ojas, prana on which it feeds and grows. When the body is not healthy and does not produce prana, the mind will be dull, slack. It will not develop properly. When prana is very high; mind is sharp, keen. Mind becomes healthy, strong; develops and evolves. Sadhana becomes possible. As I have said, this energy created in the universe is more dominated by rajas but in the prana stage, it is more dominated by sattva. That is the difference.