Prana – The Spiritual Power

Prana – The Spiritual Power
by Jagadamba Porter

Sat Chit Ananda Guruy Ki Jay

Take My Breath Away

As usual, I was working very hard with my physical therapist. He was helping me strengthen my leg after an injury. After 10 minutes, I felt myself getting warmer. That was to be expected. I continued to push myself. I did not want to be a wimp; I wanted the physical therapist’s approval. I continued with the exercise. My breath became faster, and I could feel my heart beating faster.

Focus, I kept telling myself, focus. You can do this. Then I became very hot and was breathing so fast; my breathing felt out of my control. I started to feel faint. I finally called it quits. My physical therapist helped me to the massage table so I could put my legs higher than my heart. Why did that happen?

The Fight/Flight Response

The top of the lungs is lined with sympathetic nerve endings. Short, shallow, fast breaths stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, preparing the body for flight or flight. A Google AI search revealed: “During the ‘fight or flight’ response, your heart rate increases as your body prepares for action, often reaching 100 beats per minute or more, and sometimes even exceeding 120-130 bpm.”

A rapid heart rate reduces blood flow, resulting in less oxygen to the brain. This can lead to light-headedness, headache, and even fainting. That was me.

Uneven Breathing

We breathe around 17,280 – 28,800 times a day.  Unlike our heartbeat, our breathing can be either automatic or voluntary. What is the advantage of being able to control our breathing? Controlling our breathing allows us to influence autonomic functions such as our heartbeat. In Swami Muktananda’s powerful book, ‘I Am That,’ he explains that when the breath is uneven, the mind becomes disturbed, and the sense of duality arises, as in the fight or flight response.

Breathe Deeper

When we become upset or angry, my spiritual leader, Kedarji, instructs us to visualize his form and to take three deep breaths, breathing in as long as possible and exhaling as far as we can go. Because the bottoms of the lungs are lined with parasympathetic nerve endings, taking those long, deep breaths stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, producing relaxation and restoration.

Swami Muktananda says the mind automatically becomes still as the breath becomes even. It is the rest and restoration response. It is common knowledge that taking a few deep breaths will reduce anxiety and slow the heart rate. We know this works. We see athletes, performers, and others taking deep breaths before moving ahead. But no, that was not me.

How Do I Breathe?

In his book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art (2020), best-selling author James Nestor uses a cruise ship metaphor to explain what happens when we breathe. Air is drawn down the throat into the lungs and into 500 million tiny air sacs with thin walls surrounded by blood vessels. When red blood cells flow by, the oxygen slips out of the air sacs and jumps onto the iron-rich hemoglobin in the red blood cell. If you were oxygen, you would walk on the dock to meet your cruise ship. As the cruise ship goes by, you jump on the ship and go to your stateroom (hemoglobin).

What causes oxygen to disembark? It is carbon dioxide that attracts oxygen and separates it from the hemoglobin. It kicks oxygen out of its stateroom so it can occupy it. Oxygen goes on to promote cellular respiration, releasing carbon dioxide. Although carbon dioxide is a waste product and is exhaled, it is not a useless waste product. Carbon dioxide dilates blood vessels so they can carry more oxygen.

Every Breath You Take

Paradoxically, breathing less increases energy because more carbon dioxide can accumulate. The more accumulated carbon dioxide in the bloodstream and exhaled, the more oxygen can be on board. But there I was, taking fast, tiny breaths. Very little oxygen was available for exchange with carbon dioxide, and not much oxygen was available for energy. More oxygen intake and pausing the breath would have allowed for more carbon dioxide exchange.

Just Breathe – The Epic Journey to Health

Nestor’s book is about his epic journey for better health. He found research documenting that in many religions, ritualist sayings such as prayers or mantras increase blood flow to the brain when repeated over time. The systems in the body enter a state of coherence, and the functions of heart circulation and the nervous system are coordinated to peak efficiency. Common to all was the breathing rate of around 5.5 breaths per minute. The average adult breathes about 12-20 times a minute. During sleep, I usually breathe 14.4 times a minute. How does one breath for 5.5 times a minute?

Prana – The Spiritual Power

Besides good health, there is another reason to pay attention to the breath. In his book How to Live Strong and Be Happy, Kedarji explains that science has proved that all living beings are energetic beings. Energy is the substratum of everything and everyone, including our bodies. It is the first pillar of Kedarji’s 4 Pillars of Joy In Daily Living –  called The Spiritual Power.

This energetic substratum threads through everyone and everything. It is the power source. It is called Prana when in the body. Prana is a Sanskrit word meaning life force or life-sustaining force of all living things, and it is linked to the breath. Some sources say it refers to inhalation, while others say it is exhalation. Prana can refer to inhalation and exhalation.

The cycle of prana happens simultaneously with the cycle of oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange. In I Am That, Swami Muktananda states, “The mind and the breath are intimately connected, for it is the movement of the prana that creates the countless universes that arise and subside in the mind” (I Am That – P. 43)

Sound of My Breath – Hamsa

During Kedarji’s recent excellent mini-course, The Science of Hamsa, he explained that the sound of the breath going in and out is the sound of the repetition of Hamsa found in all living creatures. It happens 21,600 times a day. It occurs spontaneously, whether we are conscious of it or not. When we meditate, Kedarji instructs us to repeat Hamsa inwardly—Ham on the in-breath and Sa on the out-breath.

Even if I listen to the sound of my breath, it sounds like Ham on the in-breath and Sa on the out-breath. When I first tried this, I quickly became a little panicked. I felt I was running out of breath. I would stop, gulp some air, and begin again. After several false starts, I pushed through the initial feeling of no air and found that my breathing had its rhythm. “Inhalation and exhalation are the dance of Shiva and Shakti, of God and his creative energy” (I Am That, P. 33). Experiencing this creative energy, the Divine Consciousness, is the goal. How can this happen?

The Epic Journey to Spiritual Awareness

When Bhairavi, Guru Bhairava’s consort, asks him for a simple means to attain the state of Divine Consciousness, he provides her with 112 easy techniques for attaining the Truth. The methods are called Dharnas, “an awareness through which you hold God within” (I Am That, p.27). In that book, Muktananda provides a commentary on the first Dharana, which he calls the most sublime of the 112 and is as profound as the Dharana.

“The supreme Goddess, whose nature is to create, ceaselessly expresses herself upward from the center of the body in the form of exhalation and downward in the form of inhalation.” (p. 27)

Divine Consciousness causes the mantra Ham to arise as we inhale and the mantra Sa to arise on our exhale. At the end of the inhale and exhale, there is a slight pause called the space between the breaths. It is a portal to the inner pulsation of Divine Consciousness. In this space, the mind becomes still and thought-free, which is the goal of the mantra. When I reach this space, I feel joy and contentment. Time disappears.

During my exercise, I failed to repeat my mantra. Repeating my mantra keeps my breathing even and in line with my exercise so that my in-breath does not happen upon exertion. I focused not on my mantra but only on pleasing my physical therapist. This was an ego expression, and I allowed it to contract my awareness.

By contrast, during one of Kedarji’s evening programs, I sat listening, fascinated by what Kedarji told us about what happened during his surgical procedure. He had refused all anesthetics!  During the procedure, he calmly explained to the astonished medical staff how he was keeping his heart rate and blood pressure in the normal range.  It was all about harnessing The Spiritual Power through the space between the breaths and being immersed in the constant state of Divine Consciousness, the inner Self.

The mind becomes restless or disturbed when our breath is uneven. Breathing rapidly and allowing my outgoing breath to be expelled for a long distance affects my mind, and I focus outward instead of inward. This gives rise to a sense of duality.

Breathing in an even fashion will still the mind. I found that counting my breaths, five on the in-breath and 5 – 6 on the out-breath, helps me stay focused and creates a habit so that Hamsa can happen automatically, and my mind becomes still. As my breathing slows, the mantra goes deeper, and my outgoing breath becomes shorter. My mind and senses turn inward toward the Self as my breath becomes even.

Kedarji writes, “Simply put, increasing your ability to harness the vast ocean of spiritual power in your being will quiet your restless mind and make it sharper while giving you access to an inner peace and strength that no emotion can shake.” (How to Live Strong and Be Happy – P 153).

Jagadamba Porter, PhD MS MPH RN CHTP/I is a certified healing touch instructor, teaching in Hawaii and Japan. She has over 15 years of Healing Touch practice and 30 years of practice as a psychiatric mental health nurse and clinical specialist with a holistic perspective. She is the co-author of the book, “Women’s Health and Human Wholeness”, emphasizing the necessity of bringing wholeness back into the health care system. She also serves on the Board of Directors for our school