[Advaita-l] Tattvabodha of Adi Sankaracharya - 17

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Namaste Kartik ji

In the tradition the five aspects of PrANa, viz.,  prANa, apAna, vyAna,
samAna and udAna are sUxma meaning not directly perceptible by the senses
being part of the rajo-amshaH of the five tanmatras which are subtle.

The air we breathe on the other hand is regarded as a sthUla bhUta (gross
element) and is derived by grossification of the tanmatras.

So I understand the five prANa-s to be the five powers which keep the body
physiology ticking in an intelligent, integrated way.

 Such a working of the body cannot be fully explained using the old physics
which imagined atoms etc., to be like billiard balls following
well-understood laws. But unfortunately most doctors and medical
researchers today are still stuck with 19th century physics in their
assumption that simple laws of molecular chemistry can explain away
everything about the body.

The traditional postulate of prANa in sAMkhya and vedAnta darshanas is the
first major divergence that vedic traditions have with modern science. When
it comes to the other still more inner koshas of manas, buddhi etc., they
are even more divergent with modern reductionistic understanding of nature
and the human being.

Since prANa represents that first point of divergence, I was examining the
idea. You may note that the next significant divergence is the denial of
the need to postulate anything like chidAbhAsa. In other words, for
reductionist science there is nothing special about the physical
configuration of the brain and the nerves etc., which make the physical
entity capable of manifesting chidAbhAsa while a chair or a stone cannot do
so. That distinction is denied by science while bhagavatpAda accepts that
while both the human organism and a stone are both (jaDa) matter, still,
just as a mirror/polished surface has a special capacity to reflect light,
the human upAdhi although material, still has something special about it
that allows it to catch the reflection of all-pervading Chit.

Om
Raghav


On Sun, 19 Jul, 2020, 9:06 AM S Jayanarayanan via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>  Raghav Kumar Dwivedula raghavkumar00 at gmail.com wrote:
>
> > Namaste Kartik ji
> >
>
> Namaste.
>
> > What is the contemporary understanding of Prana?
> >
> > The question is valid since prANa as the vital air or life force is
> > accepted by most Indian darshanas like sAMkhya and yoga etc. This implies
> > it was a matter for anumAna pramANa or inference. We do not need to
> invoke
> > shruti to establish the vyAvahArika entity called prANa. If that is
> > accepted, then we have the following matter to ponder.
> >
> > Modern Science too uses various types of inferences and denies the
> > observable existence of anything called prANa. They invoke occams razor
> > (the principle of parsimony, gaurava-doSha-rAhityam) to negate the need
> to
> > postulate prANa.
> >
> > Can we advance arguments to assert the existence of prANa?
> >
>
> Maybe I'm missing something here, because "prANa" is simply the air that
> one
> takes into one's body by breathing in. It is believed that if one can
> control
> the rhythm of this breathing, the control of one's mind becomes easy. This
> is
> something that is "realized" by the practice of prANAyAma.
>
> Hence I don't see any reason to elaborate on the *existence* of prANa.
>



> > I have heard of arguments from 'negative entropy' etc. I do appreciate
> that
> > when we explore the scientific explanations of the life pricess, we
> should
> > not reduce prANa to another physical entity. That would be
> self-defeating.
> > Rather we look for physiological or life processes which cannot be
> > explained away merely with a materialistic paradigm of the universe. That
> > would atleast make some space for postulating prANa.
> >
> > For example some leads might be from photosynthesis being not entirely
> > explainable using simplistic 19th century molecular chemistry based on
> > billiard ball materialism. As in...
> > https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180521131756.htm
> >
> > Om
> > Raghav
> >
> > On Tue, 14 Jul, 2020, 12:51 AM S Jayanarayanan via Advaita-l, <
> > advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >
> > > (Continued from previous post)
> > >
> > >
> > > 2.5.2 The Vital Air Sheath - prANamaya koSa
> > >
> > > prANamayaH kaH ? What is the Vital-Air Sheath ?
> > >
> > > prANAdyAH pa~nchavAyavaH vAgAdIndriyapa~nchakaM
> > > prANamayaH koshaH .
> > >
> > > prANamaya koSa or the Vital Air Sheath
> > > comprises Of the five physiological functions
> > > such as prANa etc. (prANa, apAna, vyAna,
> > > udAna and samAna), along with the five organs
> > > Of action such as speech etc.
> > >
> >
>
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