March 23 2020 satsang on line.
Happiness, Health and knowledge requires energy. Lack of prana brings depression, stress and darkness. In this time of pandemic , it is critical to know how to increase prana, how to not loose prana and to prevent infection and diseases and how to heal.
What is Prana?
Prana is life force, vital energy that allows you to be alive and function in this world.
When prana departs from the physical body, death comes.
Prana is necessary to live and to progress in life. It is prana that you are attracted to in a person. Everything is alive at different degrees. There is more prana in a real flower compared to a plastic flower. There is more prana in live food fresh food than in canned food or old food.
It is prana that makes you feel enjoyment and feel fulfilled. Your quality of life improves through improving the quality of prana.
What is important to know is Prana is all-pervading in Nature.
So if prana is everywhere and abundant, then why at times, do you feel dead or deprived? why some people got disease and some did not ? People says that it is age, that some age group people are more subject to disease but may be it is the condition of their immunity and the level of their prana?
May be because they do not know how to plug-in to the universal source of prana and recharge. And may be because there are blockages in the flow of prana through thoughts and lifestyles.
5 things everyone needs to learn to do with prana:
- Increase
- Conserve
- Balance
- Channel
- purify
1 & 2 How to increase and conserve your prana.
You need to know that it is not sufficient to increase prana but also you need to conserve and limit the expenditure or wastage of prana to be healthy happy. It is the same as with money, you can make money but you spend it all and is always with no money or with debts.
Time to look at our lifestyle now more than ever, how do we use our senses and what do we do.
Learn that You can get prana from the senses or deplete prana from the senses .
You can get prana from your actions and deplete prana from your actions.
From the knowledge of Yoga and Ayurveda , please see the table showing the correlations between the elements of nature, the sense organs and their functions and the organs of action and their functions
| Smell Nose EARTH Anus Elimination | Taste Tongue WATER Genitals Reproduction | Sight Eyes FIRE Feet Moving | Touch Skin AIR Grasping Hands | Hearing Ear ETHER Tongue Speaking |
Increase prana through the earth element.
Do: Live in Nature, live in natural houses, respect nature, do gardening.
Walk on earth, touch earth, hug trees, look at mountains, forests.
Make sure that you eat prana food, fresh products from earth.
Limit: Spending too much time in cities, concrete buildings, sidewalks, cars, high rises, plastic materials, environmentally harmful products, trash.
Action to avoid: too much eating . Make sure that you eliminate well.
Increase prana through the water element.
Do: Drink clean pure water. Our body is made of 70% water. Our body is sensitive See research of Dr. Emoto. Eat sweet fruits, honey, pure milk. Avoid dry food.
Wash with clean water; Bathe in oceans, rivers, springs.
Limit: Beverages such as sodas, coffee, alcohol
Know that you spend prana in sexual activities.
Increase prana through the fire element.
Spend time daily outdoors in the sunshine. Open doors and windows to let sunlight in.
Drink warm water.
Eat warm food.
Good digestion requires the fire of digestion being strong.
Avoid cold food, being exposed to cold.
Avoid too much looking at computer screen and get artificial energy from eyes.
Avoid too much moving (quarantine and not travel is actually very good for health)
Increase prana through the air element.
Live in clean fresh air as much as you can.
Ventilate rooms, houses.
Stay away from pollutants like traffic smoke, cigarette smoke.
Breathe deep. Do pranayama breathing exercises daily.
Avoid artificial air like in airplanes, air conditioned rooms.
Touching baby to give prana to baby. Therapeutic touching is giving prana. Careful of sensual touching to conserve prana.
Avoid grasping, hoarding, shopping, as these depletes you from prana. In the contrary, giving gives you prana.
Increase prana through the ether element.
This is the subtlest element and the most powerful .
Yoga taught that Prana is in our subtle body and is connected to thought.
Positive thinking gives prana, negative thinking or emotions drain your prana
Chant kirtan, repeat mantras, exercise positive thinking, indulge in prayers, search company of the wise, visit of temples, places of pilgrimage (of course now in quarantine you might not be able to visit your church, temple, places of worship)
Avoid loud music, bars, clubs, crowds, undesirable company. (Amazing, many countries start first with closing unessential places like bars and clubs.)
Avoid negative thinking, selfish thoughts, base thoughts (try not to blame and have racists thougths in this time)
Pay attention to what you say. Try to say helpful words in writing or verbally.
Repeat mantras is the best action.
IMPORTANT to remember:
Prana deficiency seeks stimulation.
Beware of the spiral downward movement when you are lacking prana. Many diseases, addictions and bad habits start with prana deficiency
Prana debt brings stress.
Stress makes you reach out for instant gratification through self-medication or compensation which lead to Pains.
Stress is the cause of many diseases.
3. Prana needs to be balanced, not just increased
The main focus in Yoga practice either in asanas practice or breathing practice is balance. We can also exercise balance through changing our attitude and our way of functioning. The goal is to attain a state of integration, called equanimity.
To be healthy and happy, we need to learn to balance our energies individually and also collectively. The world is imbalanced and stressed.
When we are imbalanced, it is like we see reality lopsided because we have a lopsided vision. The imbalance is often times between the emotions and the intellect, that means a person would be left brain dominant or right brain dominant. Our modern western dominant societies are left brain dominant.
What to do?
First we need to recognize that our unhappiness comes from our imbalanced state or split state and not coming from anyone else. Grief and blame come from our lack of recognition that this difficulty comes from our own outlook . Classical holistic Yoga practice gives you a little bit of reprieve because it balances the two hemispheres of the brain and awakens the Self Knowledge . Yoga practice by helping you to recognize your strength and weakness, by regulating your energy , acts as a pain preventative measure and a self renewal tonic. Start to practice balance trying to reinforce your weakness .
- Hatha is balance between Sun energy and Moon energy.
- Right brain functioning /Left brain functionning
- Yin energy/Yang energy
- Female energy/ Male energy
- passive, receptive/active controlling side of our personality
- emotional, intuitive feeling /intellectual rational thinking
- Cooling (left nostril) / Heating (right nostril)
- Para sympathetic nervous system and Sympathetic nervous system
- Relaxation response and defensive Fight and flight response to stress
- Decrease heart rate/ increase heart rate
- Imbalance of prana creates personality problems and stress.
4. Prana needs to be channeled.
In the same manner with your choice to waste money or investing money in order to give you more money , You can gain more prana by using it wisely and you can also deplete yourself from prana by being fearful to use it or by wrong investment. Right use : Use prana for meditation and Selfless service. The more you apply your energy correctly, the more prana you will get.
Wrong use: You waste energy through selfish endeavors, sensual pursuits and laziness. Gossips, blaming, back biting are waste of energy.
5. Prana needs to be purified.
Prana moves through the subtle channels (nadis) in the subtle energetic body.
Yoga science knows the art of purification of nadis to allow higher energy to flow and induces higher wavelengths of thought and feeling.
Proper diet and lifestyle purify nadis
To get prana and be able to retain it in the system, it is important, not only to keep pure thought and a pure environment, but also make sure to take proper food. Avoid substances like drugs, intoxicants which clog the nadis and create damage to the pranic system.
Conclusion: Now is the time to Re-charge your battery.
When you spend time in retreat, limit your outgoing senses and your worldly activities, do regular Yoga practices, you recharge your battery. You can re-charge your prana like re-charging a battery. Excess Prana is stored in the solar plexus of the body.
What to do:
1. Join a Yoga class daily, if you can not go out, join a class online. Practice of Yoga Asanas unblocks harmful blocked energy and moves prana.
To do so, the sequence of the asanas needs to be respected and proper concentration, and relaxation in between postures be observed.
2. Do daily Pranayama:
Pranayama is controlling prana through breathing exercises. There are many types of pranayama or control of prana through breathing exercises. You need to join a class with a teacher. It is better not to smoke and take drugs if you intend to do pranayama.
The regular pranayamas to be done daily recommended by the Sivananda organization are: Kapalabhati and Anuloma Viloma.
3. Concentration gathers prana and changes wavelength
A distracted mind is weak and has low prana. Practice of concentration of mind helps gather the dispersed prana and brings health, vitality and peace of mind. A concentrated mind feels stronger and is more effective and gives satisfaction and contentment. Keep yourself busy on doing positive things.
4. Meditation is merging your personal prana and universal prana
Meditation is like a pranic tonic, it recharges powerfully the whole system. A meditator is shining with new prana. Join a satsang or a meditation course on line to know what to do.
5. Pranic Healing. Become a healer !
Yoga heals through holistic practice integrating Mind-Body-Spirit and includes the 5 points of health (asanas, breathing, relaxation, vegetarianism, positive thinking and meditation). It is the most important system of preventative medicine.
Many modalities such as therapeutic massage, acupressure, acupuncture, energy medicine are working on restoring the helpful flow of energy. However, Yogis go to the cause of disease and impart prana with their consciousness, thoughts and prayers. They connect to the Supreme Healer.
You can do it too, by recognizing that the primary cause of disease, according to ancient yogic and ayurvedic scriptures, is the forgetting of our true nature as Spirit, thus bringing blockages of energy, mistakes in lifestyle choices, indulgences in the senses and feelings of being lost.
When a person regains their sense of purpose they feel stronger and the life force flows. When a person is forgetting one’s Self and when the ego propensities become uncontrollable, the disease process happens.
By remembering the Inner Healer, you will radiate helpful prana around and bringing comfort, joy, solace and peace to all. May you become great healers in this time and send your healing energy to the whole world.
OM TAT SAT.
“The laws of health are the laws of Nature” Sivananda
“ Health is Wealth, Peace of Mind is Happiness, Yoga shows the way “ Swami Vishnudevananda.
Swami Sitaramananda, Acharya ISYVC
