With reference to textual sources, the practice of Pranayama is something first introduced with Patanajali, then Yoga Yajnavalkya and later elaborated upon more extensively in the medieval texts of Hatha Yoga. In the Upanishads there are many references to the superiority of the breath and its connection to the soul (atman), but there are no references to the practice of Pranayama per se. However, due to the specific references of how the life-breath (prana) is distributed in the body we can assume that they knew the science of Pranayama well. The Prashna Upanishad is an interesting text in this matter, because it classifies the life-breath (prana) into five subdivisions in the body and glorifies Prana as the superior tool to transform the mind and gain a more intimate experience of Brahman.[1]
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The Prashna Upanishad features Sage Pippalada’s answers to six questions from six learned Brahmins. They have approached him in order to gain instructions regarding the highest teachings on Brahaman. The Wise Pippalada agrees to teach them, but first after they have spent a year with him performing austerities and chastity in good faith. Prashna, the title, means ‘question’ and each of the six chapters features Pippalada’s answers to the six questions posed by the learned Brahmins. Traditionally the text is ascribed to the Atharva Veda.
The six questions are:
1. What is the root cause of the Universe?
2. What is the most excellent support of our body/mind?
3. What is the source of Prana (life-breath) and how does it divide itself within the body?
4. What is the nature of sleep and dreamless-sleep?
5. What is there to gain from meditating on the syllable OM?
6. What constitutes the sixteen parts of a man?
In this overview I will only focus on the first three questions since they are indirectly referring to yoga and the practice of Pranayama.
1st Question:
After a year spent in austerities Kabandhi Katyayana asks the venerable Pippalada: “From where do these creatures come?” His answer is paraphrased as follows:
The Lord of Creatures (Prajapati) had a yearning for creatures, so he heated himself through exertion (tapas), and thus produced the mating couple substance (rayim) and life-breath (prana), thinking ‘these two will create many different creatures for me’. The essence of the life-breath is sun, while the essence of substance is the moon. This whole world, everything that has form belongs to the later category. When the sun illuminates the whole world, it thereby gathers all the life-breaths in its rays and awakens the fire within man (1.4-6).
The year (Prajapati) has two paths, the southern and the northern.[2] Those that long for wealth follow the southern course, while those that yearn for the self, by means of austerity, chastity, faith, and knowledge, proceed along the northern course and win the sun, the abode of life-breath. “This is the immortal path, free from fear, the superior paths from which people do not return” (1.10).
The implicit meaning here is that substance and life-breath are the two governing parts of all living beings. The earlier belongs to the sphere of form, the later to the sphere of light/spirit. A year, a month and a day has also originated from Prajapati (the lord of creatures) and thus everything that exists has the basic proportions of light and darkness, spirit and matter, luminosity and substance. Seekers of brahman are recommended to embrace the light through sacrifices, chastity, and good faith in order to refine ones receptivity of this luminous essence. As the chapter concludes:
To them belong the world of brahman, who practice chastity and austerity, in whom truth is well established. To them belongs the stainless world of brahman, in whom there is no crookedness, no falsehood or deceit” (1.16).
Thus in order to become more aware of the essence of what is bright and luminous. One may assume a practice of pranayama was recommended since the very essence of Prana belongs to the sun, and all recitations of Gayatri mantras and fire sacrifices have the same purpose of namely awaken what is luminous and bright within a man, so he may evolve in spirit.
2nd Question:
Then Bhargava Vaidarbhi asked:
Lord how many deities are there that support a creature? Which of them become manifest? And which is the most excellent of them?
Here we are instructed about the five elements with their respective deities as well as speech, mind sight and hearing, which are all equally great within their sphere of operation. Then Prana (life-breath) steps forth and says: “I am the greatest”. But none of the them believes him. Then out of pride he sets forth and all the other elements start to shake and beg Prana to come back and be present within them all.
A similar story is reflected in the Chandogya Upanishad Chapter 5, which begins:
When a man knows the best and the greatest, he becomes the best and the greatest. The best and the greatest is breath (ChU 5.1).
In this story the vital functions are arguing among them who is the greatest. All proclaiming, “I am the greatest, I am the greatest”. Thus they have to go and settle the matter with Prajapati, the lord of creatures who declares:
The one, after whose departure the body appears to be in the worst shape, is the greatest among you’ (ChU 5.1.6)
Thus the vital functions set off one after the other. First speech departed. After spending a year away he comes back and exclaims; “How did you manage to live without me?” The other vital senses remain calm saying: “We lived as dumb person would, without speaking, but breathing with the breath, seeing with the eyes, hearing with the ears, and reflecting with the mind. In the same way, when sight, hearing and the mind departed, the other vital functions of the body managed to live without it, but they experienced life as blind, def or a man of low intelligence would, not reflecting too much. Then as the breath eventually was ready to depart is vehemently jerked all the other vital functions, like a horse would jerk all the parts to which it is tied, and the other vital functions exclaimed: “Lord, please stay! You are the greatest among us. Do not depart!” Thus what is said to be the root support of all vital functions is Prana, the life-breath that becomes, speech, hearing, touch, taste, smell and intelligence. In the end of this section, the power of the life-breath is thus what is being venerated as the base of the whole world. The support of heaven and what is being propitiated as the highest, the one that protects and gives prosperity and wisdom.
3rd Question:
Then Kaushalya Ashvalayana asked sage Pippalada:
Lord from what does this life-breath arise? How does it enter this body? How does it divide itself and settle down? By what path does it set off? How is it designated outside the body and how within the body?
Pippalada’s immediate response is: “You ask too many questions!” He then eventually give the single answer:
The life-breath here arises from the self (atman).
As this shadow here, upon a man, so this mind is stretched upon the life-breath; and it enters a path created by the mind (Ch 3.3).
The inmost support of breath is thus the soul of man; the breath supports the mind and it continues to operate in the body according to a man’s actions and behaviors. And like a superior king appoints administrators, to govern other villagers and places, in a similar way prana (life-breath) here appoints breath to respective places and functions in the body. The five-fold division is as follows:
Apana (in-breath) - In the anus and the sexual organs.
Prana (life-breath) - In the heart, in sight, hearing, mouth and nostrils.
Samana (link-breath) - In the middle region, digest food, from it arises the seven flames.
Vyana (circulatory-breath) - Travels in all the nerve patterns.
Udana (up-breath) - Rises up among the main spine (sushumna) and leads a person to a good world if he has done good deeds, to a bad world if he has done bad deeds, and to the world of men if he has done both.
The coming and the going of breath is something most people take for granted. We breathe an average of ten times per minute, six hundred times per hour and 14,400 times per day! Despite this recurrent event, the breath is normally first recognized when we become short of it or when we struggle with some activity that overwhelms us. In this Upanishad the breath is linked to the self, and it is the sub-division of the life-breath that governs digestion and the circulation of energy in the body. When all the five breaths function properly, the machinery of the body and mind works more optimally. When modern proponents of yoga, like Krishnamacharya therefore stress ‘the importance of an equal distribution of energy in the body for the optimal functioning of the body’,[3] we may assume it is based on practical experience and perhaps the science of how breath operates within the body? Caraka, the principal father of Ayur Veda says the same. The optimal health, ‘Swastha’ in the body is said to be ‘when the doshas, agnis, dhatus and elimination organs are in balance. And further more, when the mind and senses delights in the self’.[4] Here the root of that well being depends on how the five breaths move within the body. We thus have all reasons to believe there was an underlying science supporting this, that perhaps also developed exercises for man to implement a better health and well being.
If we were to follow the metaphor in this Upanishad, it would mean that the soul is linked to the life-breath, who supports all other functions of the body. Thus we may be able to live with certain defects in our vital organs, but once our life-breath departs, the base of our existence is exhausted. In later texts this life-breath is also associated with the inner agni, the (transformative) fire that awakens intelligence and the optimum function of the body.
What is further worth noticing is that the five-fold division of Prana is not merely limited to the body, but also has its exterior allocation and place of reference. They are as follows:
Prana - The sun, confirms to the life-breath residing within sight.
Apana - The deity within the earth, the gravitational force that cause people to breath in.
Samana - The space that is in between.
Vyana - The wind, the inter-breath.
Udana - Fire.
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The operations of Prana are thus everywhere, its essence is the same, but depending on the substance in which it operates and its further qualities the governing life force of the universe keep manifesting in numerous ways. In the end of this chapter, we are given an explanation on what happens to the body once this inmost fire of man is exhausted:
Therefore when ones fire is extinguished, one eventually re-incarnates in a mind/body with sense organs. That mind is then suffused with life-breath. Once the soul (atman) is united with Prana (life-breath) and fire, it leads him to the world that corresponds to his actions/conceptions[5] (PU 3.9-10).
Considering the above. The self (atman) supports the breath, the breath supports the mind, and the mind supports all the senses. A gradual refinement of the senses, mind and breath may lead to the discovery of the luminous self from within. This is the ultimate teaching of the Upanishads. Some proclaim that knowledge is enough, but to practically experience this inmost absorption, one would assume techniques and practices was necessary. The practice of Pranayama is certainly such a technique, but unfortunately, the specific practices and disciplines of the ancient sages and seers is still a mystery to us. What we are left with is their penetrating wisdom and understanding. Let that continue to inspire our search for clarity and integration.
[1] Shankaracharya in his work “Yoga Taravalli”, glorifies the state of Kevala Kumbhaka, although no specific practices neither is mentioned.
[2] Here reference to when the earth moves into the southern and northern hemisphere while encircling the sun.
[3] In Yoga Makarandam, when he explains the functioning of the cakras. Here he also refers to ten cakras rather than the standard seven we are familiar with!
[4]Samadosha, samågnis ca samadhåtu malåkriyah, prasannåtmendriya mana˙ swastha ityåbhidhîate.
[5] Here the word Sankalpa is used.