April 16, 2024
Prana is not just merely that which makes us breathe, but that which makes us live. How is our lifespan fixed? Some yogis feel this is calculated in terms of breathing. The theory is that if you can slow down the rate of breath you can live longer and that prana can be conserved. From where do we get the prana? In water there is some prana, so drinking water gives you a little bit of energy, and even walking near a river or sea or lake gives you tremendous energy. Breathing gives energy, but even in breathing there is some expenditure of energy. Prana is really derived from sleep. That is where the 'battery' is charged with prana.
All forms of activity are expenditure of energy, but sages mention two or three very specifically. Eating is one. They say strangely enough food does not give you prana, so that when you eat you feel heavy — it is more expenditure of energy than income. The food that we eat merely produces cells for the body, it is necessary for the replacement of the cells. But when it comes to prana, it is more an expenditure of energy. Sex is another expenditure of energy, talking is also a colossal waste of energy. All these may be essential or necessary for life, but the master says "minimize them, make them moderate!" If one is moderate in all that one does, then the practice of yoga becomes fruitful.
How strange that:
Health-conscious man insist for the sake of hygiene that sweets, fruits and chocolates must be well wrapped. The wrapper-litter becomes a health hazard.
Public health authorities save the roads from excrement, but pollute the rivers and the sea.
Drugs cure people of minor illnesses, but the factories that make them create major ones.
Planes and cars speed the healing medicines to distant parts of the world, but the at the same time leave a trail of poisonous gas.
The agronomist’s pesticide dutifully kills the only real pest on earth — Man.