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© Copyright Bernard AURIOL (email : )
DR. NITIN UNKULE, Pune, India
All forces of the Universe, like those of the human mind, from the highest consciousness
to the depths of the subconscious, are modifications of Prana (bio-energy),
and were subject to investigation by our ancient Acharyas (masters) and Munis
(sages), and yogis (yoga practitioners) and rishis (saints) of the ancient India.
I did my own discoveries though I do not fall into any of above categories of
Sadhakas (aspirants). I shall try to give you a peep into the unplumbed secret
caves and treasure-houses of meaning-wealth that lie so beautifully concealed
behind vedantic texts.
Well, the word ‘Prana (Bio-energy)’ can therefore not be equated
with the physical breath, though breathing or respiration Prana (in the narrower
sense) is one of the many functions in which this universal and primordial force
manifests itself. Whenever I practice prana-nayma (pranayama or breathing techniques),
my body too, participates in this gigantic dance. My mind supervises the activity,
my brain records the vibrations, like storing a data in Window-word file of
my brain, and the real me in me, remain at the level of the programmer. Many
a times, either I participate or become a mute observer; I have kept choice
in my hands. Every time, when ever I practice pranayama (breathing techniques),
first I open those files from my brain, I read and go through the file first
which is based on my previous encounters with prana (bio-energy), and then I
edit the file with new experiences and keep a back up in the subconscious mind.
Many a times I found that the mind seemed to act independently of the brain
in the same way a programmer acts independent of his computer, however much
he may depend upon his computer. The ‘functionalism’ school of thinking
considers consciousness as the software or the operator behind hardware of the
entire physical brain complex. Consciousness is an actual phenomenon at whose
dictate the brain works. It is beyond our body but works through it and controls
its voluntary and involuntary functions.
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If Life is lived in its totality, the priest is not needed at all, what is the
need of a mediator between you and existence. You are directly in contact with
existence through Pranayamic breathing and related Meditation, then you are
living in existence, breathing in existence, existence is pulsating in you.
The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment,
it is not in luck or fluke or in any chance, or the help of others, it is at
your disposal all the time. The concept of a biological evolution is “outdated”.
Now the talk is about the “evolution of consciousness”. “Awareness”
is the raw material in this evolutionary process and the Rishis (saints) and
sages of ancient India have already known map lying out the evolutionary journey
of man. In this information age we expect an overthrow of the “superstition”
of materialism. Quantum physics and the Vedas are bringing to the realization
that the material realm is unreal. The senses do not provide an accurate picture
of reality. We are in the throes of a discovery that the essential nature of
the material world is not “material” after all.
The medical story of evolution is the evolution of increasingly complex cerebral
and associated organisms generating even more complex contents of consciousness.
Though, in the highest sense, akasa (space) and prana (bio-energy) cannot be
separated, because they condition each other like ‘above’ and ‘below’,
or ‘right’ and ‘left’, it is possible to observe in
deep meditative states and to distinguish the preponderance of the one or the
other principles in the realm of practical experience.
All dynamic qualities, all that causes movement (may be sometimes at gross body
level), change or transformation (at mind, brain and sense complex level), reveal
the nature of prana (bio-energy) and also the nature of the individual. If this
were not so, the (healthy) interaction of body and mind, of spiritual and material
forces, of matter and consciousness, sense-organs and sense-objects etc. would
be impossible. It is precisely this interaction of which the Yogin or the individual
aspirant like me make use, and upon which the technique of meditation is built
on the edifice of perishable body.
“Pure for Sure”, is the slogan we find in India at almost all petrol
pumps (gas stations). It means consumers will get the product (petrol or gas)
in the purest form. Similarly, those who practice pranayama (breathing techniques)
regularly they get bio-energy (prana-shakti) in its’ purest form, and
the body and the yoga-asana acts as a refinery to convert raw or crude products
in pure form as we get diesel, petrol and gas from the refinery. Pranayama (breathing
techniques) and the yogasanas, together, deal with the subtle functioning of
the breath and of the filtration of the crimson colored fluid—the Life
Force—with unchecked flow through the network of channels (nadis) and
the subtle centers (chakaras). Asana and Pranayama (breathing techniques) induce
cellular quietening, thus inducing a state of hibernation. If the ancient Indian
saying is true, that the body is the instrument provided for the fulfillment
of the right law of our nature, then any final recoil from the physical life
must be turning away from the completeness of Divine Wisdom and a renunciation
of its aim in earthly manifestation. It can, therefore, no integral Yoga which
ignores the body or makes it annulment or its rejection, indispensable to a
perfect spirituality according to Vedanta.
Time has come to think seriously about our efforts at different diseases’
and disorders’ management, now lest our future generation should not club
us with our forefathers who used to brand every conceivable disease with red
hot iron. The future generation might not forgive us for this sin. It is somewhere
between intensive care and the crematorium.
What is true for the prevention of illness is equally true for the art of healing
the sick. We in India, have many such effective methods of cancer and other
diseases’ management where the stress is on strengthening the patient’s
immune system. The leading claimants are Ayurveda and Siddha systems where there
are many immune boosters that could effectively suppress cancer growth aided
and supplemented by the mind tranquility methods of Yoga and Praanaayaama.
The attempt of the ‘Upanishads’, is to express the inexpressible,
to paint the Formless, prana (bio-energy) is one such element, and though we
cannot see it, still we call it an element just because we just feel it. The
finite words are no instruments to reach the roaring silence of the all-full
Spiritual Perfection that comes after the practice of meditation in which the
prana (bio-energy) permeates the entire body from within and I could see (feel)
it with my eyes closed. Here feeling is knowing and in few cases, seeing also,
in other words. From this it should not be concluded that the experience of
the Infinite (including Prana (Bio-energy)) cannot be conveyed and is not available
for the teachers to teach.
Life is from moment to moment; and its perfection depends upon our ability to
maintain such a perfect balance of the vital forces, on which we have just no
control, those harmonious vibrations, without, shall find their affinity within.
When all the motions of the body have become perfectly rhythmic, the body has,
as it were, become a gigantic battery of will.
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© Copyright Bernard AURIOL (email : )
Research paper written by Dr. Nitin Unkule, Chief Co-coordinator, Reversal of
Heart Disease Program, Poona Hospital and Research Center, Pune; India. Director,
Kaivalya Yoga Institute, Pune; India; Bramhavidya Research Foundation.