Recently a large number of books and magazines have been published concerning investigations into the reality of kundalini. Unfortunately, much of what has been written shows only a very preliminary and partial knowledge of the actual awakening process. In many texts, the pranotthana or release of pranic force within the body has been confused with the actual awakening of kundalini. Pranotthana is the first thing that happens as the individual evolves, and it is this release of energy which triggers off the actual awakening of kundalini. Without pranotthana the kundalini is not awakened.

There are two ways in which pranotthana can take place. The first is by regular practice of asanas, pranayama, concentration and meditation techniques. Through these practices, the prana is gradually released in the body, starting the preliminary process of purification of organs, glands, nervous system, brain and nadis. The complete purification comes only with the kundalini awakening and rising to the brain.

The second way in which pranotthana occurs is by shaktipat, the awakening of energy effected by a guru. Shaktipat does not directly awaken kundalini, it only releases the prana of the disciple. However, it is this prana in movement that awakens the kundalini. The time it takes to do so depends on the mental and physical impurities of the disciple as well as on his attitude towards the guru who gave him shaktipat and towards this new process working in him.

Whether pranotthana occurs by individual efforts or by the activation of one’s prana by a guru, the fact is that this is not kundalini awakening as many people are saying. The confusion perhaps came about because the process which pranotthana affects on the body and mind of the individual is somewhat similar in the beginning to that of kundalini awakening. Some books state that this energy – kundalini – awoke and rose up to the brain, either straight away or after a few times, in many individuals. Nevertheless, these people carried on with their normal lives, apart from an improvement in health and mental clarity. This shows that it was not the kundalini energy that rose to the brain, but the pranic force released by pranotthana. This force follows the same pathways as does kundalini energy. It starts in mooladhara and ascends the spine, purifying the chakras, partially but not completely, until it reaches the brain. This pranic force thus makes it easier for the kundalini purificatory process which will come about at a later time.

As the pranic force purifies, it creates automatic body movements, spontaneous asanas, pranayamas, visions of lights, etc. as it encounters inner physiological and psychological blockages. Once pranotthana has finished its initial work of purification, it normally stabilises itself for a time, before it starts dealing with the kundalini energy,. After a time, kundalini awakens. With the kundalini awakening, spontaneous movements, mudras, bandhas, pranayamas, generation of a lot of heat, psychic visions, etc. start occurring. But these are of a more intense and deeper nature than those caused by pranotthana. It is now that spontaneous natural meditation occurs and not before. It is now that real purification takes place, and the state of consciousness of the individual radically changes. A higher state of awareness automatically dawns on the individual, and his behaviour, relations with his environment, understanding of things, etc. changes completely. He definitely seems to be a different personality. Powerful changes occur in every field of his physiology and psychology. Automatically, the man starts becoming more subtle and spiritual, or on the other hand, starts behaving like a neurotic. If he still has many blockages – not having purified himself by the practice of asanas, pranayamas, mudras, bandhas, concentration, karma yoga, etc. – the awakening can cause temporary insanity. Such people may spend some time in the mental hospital. These extreme cases occur when inexperienced individuals try to awaken their kundalini energy through unscientific methods, without any preparation. However, when properly initiated and guided by an experienced guru, kundalini awakening is a spiritual rebirth for the aspirant.

However, everything does not end here. Awakening of kundalini in itself is not a difficult thing, what is important is the ascending of the energy through the sushumna passage, and this is not easy, truly it isn’t. The awakening can be effected by any guru or by your own efforts in yoga, but what then? The ascent through sushumna is clogged with samskaras, physical and psychic impurities. These great barriers are the obstacles which the kundalini energy itself will have to pull down and burn. This process will affect the aspirant in many ways causing great physical transformation, psychic visions, e.s.p. experiences, strange illnesses, unconsciousness, etc. all this depending on the impurities he has on the different levels of his being. But these are only transitory things, which go away as they came, leaving a purified awareness.

Truly this is the energy of evolution, without which a man will remain ordinary, his latent faculties dormant. Once you have put your foot on this path, you will never want to go back.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, March, 1979)

An apple just from the branch – rosy and firm, with a crisp vibrance that is an almost palpable halo of freshness. An apple in the market – polished but not radiant, a little blurred at the edges; no flaw, but slightly veiled as if the fine dust of decay has already settled. What’s the difference? Prana, vitality, life force

Prana is the energy that creates and constitutes the whole universe. It is present in all that moves and does not move, but is especially powerful in living things from fish to fowl, from plants to man. Clairvoyants see prana as a dynamic interplay of colour hovering around every sentient being like lightning in a storm cloud, and call it the aura. Scientists call it bioplasma and measure its sphere of influence just as they would a force-field.

In the USA, Drs. Burr and Northrop of Yale have mapped and measured the emanations of this energy body using sensitive voltmeters. One of their classic experiments was to connect voltmeters to two trees and record the fluctuations in their L-fields (L for Life) over many years. Investigators working through the medium of Kirlian high-voltage photography have also shown a longstanding interest in ‘auras’ of trees and plants, and quite a body of information has been accumulated on the biological energy of plants.

Dr. Thelma Moss reports that Kirlian photographs of fresh, healthy leaves show a pattern of bubbles and veins in the interior and a radiation flaring beyond the leaf itself. Every species has its own pattern, and the health and vitality of the plant are reflected in the brightness, colour and motion of the light flares.

One famous experiment establishes the connection between emanations captured in Kirlian photographs, L-fields and prana. Investigators cut away one third of a leaf, yet the photo showed the whole leaf intact. The energy pattern of the whole persisted, like the phantom limb experienced by amputees, until more than two-thirds of the leaf were cut away. After this the pattern faded and the leaf died. On the other hand, this ghost pattern was influential in ‘healing’ a damaged leaf, during which process dark areas were suffused with a rose-colored cloud of fresh energy. Thus the bioplasmic body of the plant, like Burr’s L-field, serves as an organising matrix which determines the nature and health of the organism, exactly that function which yogis claim to be the chief characteristic of prana.

There is now no doubt that plants are veritably vibrant with prana, and in The Secret Life of Plants, authors Bird and Tomkins have amassed an enormous body of scientific data that not only supports this contention, but also demonstrates that plants interact with other living organisms, including humans, at the pranic level.

It is the pranic dimension in man, called by yogis pranamaya kosha, that vitalises his physical body. The energy generated within the pranic, or bioplasmlc, body motivates the mind and mobilises its flesh and blood vehicle. Through this subtle body we are sensitive to the play of energy in the cosmos, acting on and reacting to the pranic fields of the living things in our environment.

That plant radiations can also affect mankind is usually overlooked despite the tradition of healing with herbs and flowers that is as old as man himself, and most people are totally blind to the pranic potential of the plants we use as food. It is in this particular connection that Tomkins and Bird give details of the pioneering efforts of biochemist Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer tested the finer dynamic forces in plants, animals and humans by dissolving an extract of living matter in a solution of silver nitrate. This solution produced brightly – coloured concentric patterns (like mandalas) on filter paper, and reflected the flow and the intensity of bioenergy in the plant under study.

Pfeiffer demonstrated how life force pulsates from natural foods, but not from inorganic minerals and synthetic vitamins, which are relatively dead. For instance, testing vitamin C from natural sources such as rose hips, he established that the pattern of vitality was far stronger than for artificial vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Pfeiffer’s work supports the so-called ‘health cranks’ who maintain that the body’s requirements can only be met by organic vitamins and minerals, found in balanced proportions in natural food. Pfeiffer established that synthetics do indeed have a lower biological value. He is quoted by Tomkins and Bird as saying:

“A natural organism or entity contains factors which cannot be recognised or demonstrated if one takes the original organism apart and determines its component parts by way of analysis. One can, for instance, take a seed, analyse it for protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, moisture and vitamins, but this will not tell its genetic background or biological value”.

However, as Tomkins and Bird point out, there has been a method developed for establishing the biological or pranic value of food. Andre Simoneton, a French engineer, makes it possible with a simple pendulum on a piece of string, similar to that used by water diviners for dowsing.

Dowsing with a forked stick or pendulum has been practiced for thousands of years in all the great civilisations from China to ancient India, from Egypt to Greece and Rome. In this technological era it has won acceptance from international mining companies who hire dowsers to locate oil drilling sites and ore deposits. Hard-headed scientists in both Russia and America are devoting their time and talents to the serious research of dowsing and why it works. Where it might have been ignored years ago, Simoneton’s work would now get respectable attention.

The subtle radiations emitted by organic matter affect the motion of a pendulum, causing it to swing and spin. By measuring the distance of a pendulum’s arc, and the speed of its spin, Simoneton was able to measure specific wavelengths which indicate the intrinsic vitality and relative freshness of different foods.

On the basis of his findings, Simoneton divided foods into four general classes. On a scale of zero to 10,000 angstroms, he found the basic human wavelength to be about 6.5 thousand. Foods that have wavelengths between this and 10,000 angstroms, he regarded as those of the highest quality. In this first class are fruits, fresh vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, ocean fish and shellfish. In the next class, with radiations 6.5 thousand to 3,000 angstroms, are eggs, peanut oil, wine, boiled vegetables, cane sugar and cooked fish. The third category, with very weak radiations below 3,000 angstroms, is comprised of cooked meats, sausages, coffee, tea, chocolate, jams, processed cheeses and white bread. The fourth category exhibits practically no life force and includes margarine, conserves, alcoholic spirits, refined white sugar and bleached flour.

Simoneton found that food with a vital radiance of 8,000 to 10,000 angstroms also caused the pendulum to rotate at the amazing speed of 4-500 revolutions per minute over a radius of 80 millimetres. Those between 6,000 and 8,000 spin at 3-400 revolutions per minute over a radius of 60 millimetres. However, meats, pasteurised milk and overcooked vegetable, which all have a value of less than 2,000, are too low in energy to cause the pendulum to revolve at all.

Simoneton’s investigations provide strong support for those who advocate a vegetarian diet based on whole grains and fresh vegetables, for these are the foods most abundant in life force. Wheat, for example, has a value of 8.5 thousand angstroms which rises to 9,000 when it’s cooked. Vegetables are most radiant when fresh from the garden, losing about one third of their potency by the time they reach the shops, and another third when cooked. The exception is tubers, which are usually fortified by cooking. The potato, for instance, is measured at only 2,000 when raw, but when boiled this shoots to 7,000 and to 9,000 when baked. The emanations of legumes (dhal) – peas, beans, lentils, etc. – are lessened by drying but register a hearty 7,000 to 8,000 when fresh. Fruits are best eaten just ripe, for they become increasingly valueless as decay sets in.

As far as flesh foods are concerned, Simoneton finds them to be almost valueless. Meat has only second class vibrations at best, and this sinks to low in the third category by the time it is cooked. The exception is freshly cured ham which is enhanced by the process of salting and smoking. Sea foods must be eaten raw to gain their full value, otherwise they drop into the second category.

According to Simoneton’s data, the effects of food processing are disastrous. Milk has a value of 6.5 thousand angstroms when fresh, but loses ninety percent within twenty-four hours. After pasteurisation there are no bioenergy radiations at all. The same is true for pasteurised fruit and vegetable juices, and for canned fruits. The fresh juice of sugar beet is rated at 8.5 thousand, but refined white sugar drops to 1,000 or less, while white, granulated sugar gives a reading of zero. Other processed foods like margarine, alcohol and bleached white flour also give readings similar to dead matter.

Dehydration, on the other hand, causes little loss of vigour. Sun-dried fruit was found to retain its vitality and, if soaked in water for twenty-four hours, would radiate almost as strongly as when freshly picked. Water is not normally radiant, but unlike other liquids is capable of being vitalised by association with minerals, human beings or plants. Some waters, such as the famous healing waters of Lourdes, Simoneton found to radiate as high as 14,000 angstroms.

Simoneton’s researches would suggest that for optimum health we eat vegetables, grain, fruit, nuts and other foods which emit a radiance higher than the human norm. This is in complete accord with the recommendations of ancient yogic texts and the scriptures of most religions. The traditional diets that have sustained mankind for centuries, although supplemented very occasionally by meat or fish, have their basis in grains and vegetables. Witness, for instance, the whole bread and cheese of the European peasantry, the olives, bread and grapes of the Mediterranean, the potatoes of the Irish, African millet and groundnuts, Chinese rice and vegetables, the soybeans of Japan, dhal and chapatti in India.

This is the age of super space fuels and atomic power, yet people still suffer an energy crisis – they are constantly fatigued, prey to tension and anxiety, disease and depression. Despite his fascination with fad diets and ‘energy foods’, modern man has lost the formula for fundamental physical vitality. People seem to vary between complete disregard for what they eat and a fanatical obsession with proteins, vitamins, minerals and calories. We have forgotten the age-old wisdom which recognised that the energy from physical metabolism must be supplemented by the more subtle, dynamic energy of the pranic body.

In yoga, the physical body is known to be the most gross aspect of man’s existence, and it is maintained by the most gross form of energy – the chemical energy contained in foods. For this reason it is known as annamaya kosha, the ‘food sheath’. Yet, unless it is vivified by the pranic body it is a mere shell. What we consider to be the nutrients in food are not our actual nourishment. Our true sustenance is the life force of the food itself, and the foods with the most intense life-enhancing energy are those that come from plants and trees. The true alchemy of digestion is not the combustion of chemical substances but the absorption by the pranic body of the vital spark that is life itself. Of course, we obtain prana with every breath of fresh air, but when we sit down to eat we should bear in mind that we have the opportunity to feed not only the physical body but the pranic body as well. It is this Christ was emphasising when he said:

Man does not live by bread alone

(Courtesy: Yoga Magazine December 1977)

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Prana is all the energy that maintains the whole physical body.. Prana can be dissipated through selfish thoughts and activities or it can be brought to one particular centre, perhaps ajna chakra or mooladhara chakra. Prana has the power of regeneration, therefore it can be taken to any part of the body which is suffering, for healing purposes. It rejuvenates the decaying limbs and organs and restores lost health. This prana is the body and thus it can be distributed equally throughout all parts of the body or it can be withdrawn to one part of the body. When aroused by yoga, this prana radiates itself out of the body. To the naked eye it is not visible, but the most sensitive photographic system, called Kirlian, enables us to photograph the pranic radiation in each and every animate and inanimate object, from human beings to leaves.

Prana is an inherent force in our life and kundalini yoga is the secret of awakening the super prana shakti. Just as in electricity you have voltage no, then you have 220, then you have 440, go on adding and finally when this ordinary electricity is at a very big voltage, then it is converted into laser waves. Similarly prana can be amplified, modified and transformed to any degree. Of course it is difficult for a normal human being to increase his prana from ordinary voltage to such a voltage where the degeneration taking place in a particular part of the body can be checked. This is the science of prana vidya.

‘Prana’ means cosmic or vital energy which is inherent in the evolution of human life. ‘Vidya’ means knowledge. Just as you practice ajapa japa, yoga nidra or antar mouna, there is also a practical technique of prana vidya. By practicing for oneself every individual can awaken this prana and conduct it with a little higher voltage to a particular part of the body. The theory and techniques of prana vidya are ancient but I have revised and made them practical for the people of today. For this purpose I have printed the book Prana Vidya, which is now available at Bihar School of Yoga, Monghyr, Bihar, India, and I am presently preparing a more complete edition, Prana and Prana vidya which will be available very soon.

Courtesy : Yoga Magazine, February – 1977

Swami Satyamurti Saraswati

Prana has now become one of the most important phenomena to all those concerned with yoga, parapsychology, and other related sciences, such as acupuncture, psychotronics, electrobiology, psychometrics and psi-plasmic studies, e.g. telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis and Kirlian photography.

The scientists are now looking at the physical world through the eye of the metaphysician. They are realising the truth of the age-old maxim, ‘As above, so below’, the macrocosm in the microcosm. They are now, more than ever before, recognising the possibility of new forms of energy which are not explicable by the use of the orthodox parameters of mathematical or physical sciences.

These new forces or forms of energy have long ago been recognised and researched by the great yogis and saints of the east and west. However we have more information about them from the Indian subcontinent where they have been preserved in a more or less intact form.

The energy which is talked about by the scientists of today, this new psi-plasmic energy, which can be photographed by means of a special Kirlian photographic apparatus, is none other than the energy known to the saints and realised men for many thousands of years as prana.

In yoga, the science of pranayama is consequently receiving much attention because, as its name tells us, it is the method for controlling, maintaining and harmonising the force of prana, and is not simply breathing practice.

At this point, we may briefly define the yogic and scientific idea of prana, as the two are in great agreement. Prana is a form of energy which is cloudlike in appearance. It emits light of different wave lengths, frequencies and amplitudes. Prana can expand and contract. It is subject to internal and external influences, and is in constant flowing motion throughout every part of the body.

The yogis say that prana is located in a subtle body, within the physical body. This body is called the pranamaya kosha and is intrinsically linked to the physical body, the mental body and two other bodies also. This viewpoint is not in conflict with any of the recent discoveries in the para-psychological sciences. Thus, by the law of mutual interdependence it follows that prana, being in intimate contact with the different mental faculties, is influenced by thought, feelings, emotions; and they are also influenced by prana.

First of all let us consider the references to prana made both directly and indirectly in the Bible. An example of an allegorical reference to prana is the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. In understanding this we will also learn something about the psychic physiology of yoga. In kundalini yoga, man’s dormant psychic and spiritual energies are portrayed as a serpent, because they are lying coiled up, unused or un-awakened as does a sleeping serpent. Now when these psychic and other abilities begin to manifest, they are supposed to do so according to a systematic and scientific method. The impulses should travel along a particular pathway called the sushumna nadi, which is inside the spinal cord. Now, circling the sushumna nadi, there are two other nadis of lesser importance, they are ida and pingala. Ida may be thought of as the negative wire of an electric circuit and pingala as the positive. Ida may also be thought of symbolically as the cool or the feminine nadi, therefore, we here equate it with Eve. The pingala nadi is warm and masculine; we equate it here with Adam. The serpent represents the dormant potential energy or kundalini. The tree of knowledge represents the sushumna nadi, the nadi along which the true awakening should take place. Eve partaking of the fruit of the tree symbolically meant that the awakening of kundalini took place in ida, and similarly when Adam took the fruit, the awakening was transferred to pingala. This is one type of pranic awakening which takes place in kundalini yoga, but it is not the true or the highest awakening, for it was only along ida and pingala, rather than up sushumna which alone leads to the final awakening. When the kundalini rises through either ida or pingala various mental conditions similar to those experienced by Adam and Eve inevitably follow.

Other references to prana are many, such as Christ healing the sick by the laying on of hands. This concerns the technique of prana vidya and the expansion of the pranic energy equivalent to the expansion of the psi-plasmic field. Similarly the raising of Lazarus is another example. Walking on water another, because in pranayama, one gains the ability to vary the density of his body according to the environment. The transformation of water into wine is another example. The feeding of 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and two small fishes is still another example of the great reservoir of pranic energy which Christ had. No doubt he was a great yogi.

In all the great books and oracular literature of the world there are references given often allegorically and often lucidly which all point to the one unmistakable fact that there is a tremendous and effulgent source of energy within us which has only to be correctly awakened, developed and channelled. Through the correct application of this energy we will be able to achieve the heights of spiritual, psychic and physical existence. It is for these reasons that the scientists, doctors, researchers and all sincere seekers after truth are turning towards a fuller and more encompassing view of prana.

Courtesy : Yoga Magazine, February – 1977