Prāṇa

Prāṇa · pra-ana, “the life-breath”

Grammar: masculine noun, from the root an (to breathe) with the prefix pra (forth): “the breath that goes forth”.

Meaning: the life-breath, the vāyu that moves in the body and sustains the jīva. Prāṇa is also the first and chief of the five prāṇas: prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna and samāna.

In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa teaches prāṇa in the nāḍī-cakra, in the daily rites and in the knowledge of the ātmā.

The ten vāyus

Agnideva teaches the nāḍī-cakra, by knowing which knowledge of Śrī Mahāvishṇu arises. Of the seventy-two thousand nāḍīs that spread from the navel, ten are chief and carry the prāṇa-vāyu: Iḍā, Piṅgalā, Sushumnā, Gāndhārī, Hastijihvā, Pṛthā, Yaśā, Alambushā, Kuhū and Śaṅkhinī. The ten prāṇa-vāyus are Prāṇa, Apāna, Vyāna, Udāna, Samāna, Nāga, Kūrma, Kṛkara, Devadatta and Dhanañjaya, and Prāṇa is lord of them all.

  • Prāṇa: to fill emptiness, prāṇa urges the other vāyus. Dwelling in the heart of all beings, it daily fills the emptiness left by the voiding of stool and urine done through apāna. Resting in the jīva, it goes and comes through breath, out-breath, cough and the like, so it is called prāṇa.
  • Apāna: carries food, urine, semen and the like downward; because it leads away, it is apāna.
  • Samāna: spreads evenly through all the limbs the food eaten, the water drunk, the things smelled, and blood, pitta, kapha and vāta; so it is samāna.
  • Udāna: makes the mouth and lips throb, increases the redness of the eyes and agitates the marmas (vital points); so it is udāna.
  • Vyāna: afflicts the limbs, rouses disease and obstructs the throat; because it pervades, it is vyāna.
  • The other five: Nāga causes belching and vomiting; Kūrma closes and opens the eyelids; Kṛkara is in eating; Devadatta is in yawning; Dhanañjaya, whose place is sound, does not leave even a dead body.

With these ten the jīva travels, and so the nāḍī-cakra too has ten divisions. Prāṇa moving upward is day; moving downward is night; the one prāṇa-vāyu is divided as the ten vāyus. When the prāṇa-vāyu is restrained within the body, that is the lunar eclipse; when it pervades up to the top of the body, that is the solar eclipse. The breathing in and out is itself the japa “so’haṃ haṃsa”, the Ajapā Gāyatrī, done twenty-one thousand six hundred times a day, and for one who does it there is no rebirth. By knowledge of the going and coming of the breath all pāpas are destroyed, and the siddhis beginning with aṇimā are gained in six months (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 214).

The one prāṇa

In the Yuddhajayārṇava, Parameśvara teaches the Devī that as the Sun is one and the Moon is one, and as the water of rivers receives the name tīrtha by the difference of place, so the one prāṇa in the cage of bones of the body is divided into many maṇḍalas. By yoga with the left and right sides the same vāyu becomes ten kinds, and, hidden in the cloth of the tattva, it drinks the amṛta of the brahmāṇḍa that has the form of the skull (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 125).

The prāṇa-āhutis

Before eating, after ācamana, one takes five āhutis of the food into one’s own mouth for the five prāṇas, with “oṃ prāṇāya svāhā, oṃ apānāya svāhā, oṃ vyānāya svāhā, oṃ udānāya svāhā, oṃ samānāya svāhā”; having kindled the jaṭharāgni (the fire of digestion), one then eats. The upavāyus, the five secondary vāyus, are Nāga, Kūrma, Kṛkala, Devadatta and Dhanañjaya (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 77).

Prāṇa and the ātmā

In dhāraṇā, when prāṇa and apāna have come to rest, one meditates in the space of the heart, in the lotus full of Brahman, on the grace of Vishṇu until anxious thought is destroyed; and one who gives up his prāṇas while practising dhāraṇā uplifts twenty-one generations and reaches svarga, the parama pada (highest state) (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 375).

In the Brahma-vijñāna, Agnideva teaches that prāṇa is not the ātmā. In the waking and dream states the prāṇa and the consciousness seem to be mixed together, so they are not known separately; but in sushupti (deep sleep) the prāṇa is without awareness. Therefore prāṇa is not the ātmā (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 377). In the contemplation “I am the Brahman of the form of light” that follows, the Brahman is without prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna and samāna, and free of body, senses, mind, buddhi, prāṇa and ahaṅkāra (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 378).

Prāṇa as a devatā

In the mantras for the abhisheka of a king, which Pushkara tells Paraśurāma, the king is blessed: “May Ātmā, Āyus, Manas, Daksha, Mada, Prāṇa, Havishmat, Garishṭha, Ṛta and Satya protect you.” Prāṇa and Apāna are also named among the devatās who do good to the world, asked to protect him (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 219).

In the kośa, prāṇa is given with śakti, parākrama, śaurya, sthāman, sahas and bala as words of the same meaning (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 366).

Related terms: Apāna · Vyāna · Udāna · Samāna · Prāṇāyāma · Nāḍī · Vāyu · Ātmā

Other meanings

Prāṇa has more than one meaning in the Purāṇas and Itihāsas. Besides the meaning above, it names those listed here, each with where it is told.

  • Prāṇa, son of Dhara: Prāṇa is one of the sons of the Vasu Dhara by Manoharā. Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 18
  • Prāṇa, son of Dhātā: Prāṇa is the son of Dhātā. Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 20

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 18, 20, 77, 125, 214, 219, 366, 375, 377–378