Teaching Hatha Yoga: Prana and Pranayama

Prana, which is also known as vital energy, is in the air,further on this point, you can see Prana is a power
our bodies, and objects around us. One of mythat is everywhere, is not an object, and apparently is
students remarked that Prana could not be in his Yogadifficult for the human mind to define.
mat, since it was an inanimate object.We are smug and take our ability to learn for granted.
After all, his Yoga mat was not a living being, so howAt the touch of our finger tips, the Internet gives us
could it contain Prana? How could ancient Yogis knowmuch more access to knowledge than ancient Yogis
of the existence of Prana about 5,000 years ago?had in all of their scriptures, and in any other scriptures
We cannot visibly see vital energy? None of us canthat existed, on earth, at that time.
see the mind create ideas either. Yet the mind createsHowever, the ancient Yogis took the time to observe
ideas, and we put them into action, with our voice andnature and the cosmos. They were in tune with their
hands. So, Prana is not an object.surroundings and the natural laws of the universe. The
We cannot see a Yoga mat move, but it is moving allancient Yogis did not have to waste their time with
the time - at the atomic level. In fact, your Yoga mat isspam and disinformation. Achievements and mistakes
full of open space at the atomic level. Electrons areare always made, but they documented them, so we
flying around in many open spaces within your Yogacould learn from them.
mat.Without tools, computers, or machines, Pranayama is a
On the other hand, we are born, live, and die, on planetmethod to alter Prana at a level, in which the human
Earth, a moving object, which does not appear to bemind can easily comprehend. Pranayama is Yoga's
moving at all. The universe is infinitely vast and infinitelyanswer to regulating Prana, with the breath.
small, at the same time. Prana is the power behind theIn Yoga, Pranayama can be used to heal in times of
perpetual movement of the universe. We now knowneed. Pranayama is useful for stress, grief, anxiety,
that the universe is moving at every level.nervousness, and many more ailments, which plague
Within Prasna Upinshad, Chapter 2, Verse 5, Prana ismankind, but Pranayama should be learned with the
described in this way: "It burns as fire. It is the sun, rain,guidance of a competent Yoga teacher.
Indra, wind, earth, and it is food. It is the luminous god. ItFor physical health, Pranayama is the most important
is being and non-being. It is immortality." To go a bitof Hatha Yoga's many methods.