Q: Guruji, you said there are different types of prana, could you please talk a little bit more about that?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are ten types of Prana (the subtle life force energy). Of these,
there are five major and five minor kinds of Prana. Today let me just
talk about the five major types of Prana. The first major type of Prana
is called Prana which arises from your navel upwards to the top of the
head. Then there is another type of Prana that goes downwards from the
navel, and it is called Apana. When the Prana level is too high, you
cannot sleep; you can get insomnia and you feel very jittery. However,
if the Apana level is too high, you feel so dull that you do not even
want to get off the bed. Have you had this experience? Sometimes you
feel so heavy, gross, and dull. This is due to the imbalance of Apana.
The third type of Prana is Samana which is present as the digestive fire
in the digestive system, i.e., in the stomach. It is the agni or the
fire that helps digest the food. 'Samana' is that which helps
indigestion, and it also helps other bodily systems. It helps in
balancing the system. Then there is Udana Vayu or Udana Prana which is
somewhere near the heart region and is responsible for emotions. In
Sudarshan Kriya, people cry or they laugh, and you find that all these
emotions well up. This is due to the Udana Vayu. So this Udana Vayu is
responsible for all the emotions. Then the fifth type of Prana called
Vyana which is responsible for all the movement in the body. It is
spread all over the body. In Sudarshan Kriya, you feel some tingling,
some energy all over the body. Have you all experienced this? What
happens in Sudarshan Kriya is, all the five Pranas get balanced, and
that is why you cry, or you laugh, and you feel a tingling all over the
body. That is the specialty of Sudarshan Kriya. You also tend to feel
very hungry after the Kriya, is it not so? So, these five Prana in the
body run our lives. If Samana is imbalanced, then it gives rise to
digestive problems, and you cannot digest the food properly, or you may
experience nausea. All this happens because of an imbalance of the
Samana Prana. When Udana Prana is stuck, you feel an emotional block
that also affects your thinking and your mind. When the Vyana which is
all over the body is imbalanced, then you have joint pain, or movement
trouble, and either you become too jittery and restless, or you may feel
like you do not want to do anything. Moving around anywhere in such a
state gives discomfort and creates restlessness in the body. All this is
caused by theVyana imbalance. After Sudarshan Kriya, you would have
noticed that all these imbalances go away. Has this not happened to all
of you? All earlier discomfort in the movements of the body, or its
circulation, or some pains due to Vyana imbalance, all disappeared after
Sudarshan Kriya. So these are the five different Pranas. There are five
other sub-ordinate Pranas as well, but that we will discuss that
another time.
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