[Advaita-l] Tattvabodha of Adi Sankaracharya - 17

[S Jayanarayanan]

 Raghav Kumar Dwivedula raghavkumar00 at gmail.com wrote:
 
> Namaste Kartik ji
> 
 
Namaste.
 
> 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 word "PrANAyAma" is undoubtedly derived from the word "prANa", and is an
extremely important practice among those performing Vedic Kriyas. Here's a
detailed explanation of the practice of PrANAyAma by Ramana Maharshi in His
famous book "Self-enquiry":
 
 "Pranayama: According to the measures prescribed in
 the sacred texts, exhaling the vital air is rechaka, inhaling is
 puraka and retaining it in the Heart is kumbhaka. As regards
 ‘measure’, some texts say that rechaka and puraka should be
 equal in measure, and kumbhaka twice that measure, while
 other texts say that if rechaka is one measure, puraka should
 be of two measures, and kumbhaka of four. By ‘measure’ what
 is meant is the time that would be taken for the utterance of
 the Gayatri mantra once. Thus pranayama consisting of
 rechaka, puraka, and kumbhaka, should be practised daily
 according to ability, slowly and gradually. Then, there would
 arise for the mind a desire to rest in happiness without moving.
 After this, one should practise pratyahara."
 
If the word "prANa" in the above passage is taken to be anything other than
the standard meaning of "breathing", then the words like "rechaka" (exhalation),
"kumbhaka" (retention) or "pUraka" (inhalation) don't make any sense.
 
> 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.
> 
 
There could be a secondary meaning of the word "prANa" according to context,
meaning "Life-force". IMHO, it's the same prANa that one inhales imparting
energy to other parts of the body. To give a modern analogy, the oxygen that
is inhaled into the lungs is absorbed by the blood and transferred to other
parts of the body offering nourishment. In this sense, it is a "life-force".
 
> 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.
> 
 
[..]
 
Regards,
Kartik