HOW TO INCREASE PRANA LEVEL

Atma Namaste all the divine soul, Hope you have read my previous article of Prana and its path of flow, now here is next article in this series how to increase the pran or universal life force energy of body.

Vivek

Increasing prana

You should not think that just by practising a little pranayama you are sending a lot of prana to the brain. The process of supply and assimilation of prana into the brain is very complicated. The brain is a subtle instrument and it can only be enriched by the subtle form of prana and not the gross form. Therefore, when you practise pranayama, you will have to convert the prana into a subtle force.

Deep breathing alone is not enough to stimulate prana. By breathing deeply, you stimulate your respiratory system and the blood circulation, but if you could examine the brain at that time, you would see that it is least affected. However, when you practise pranayama with concentration, as shown by scientific studies, the brainwaves undergo a significant change and the limbic system is also positively influenced.

Conscious and unconscious breathing

The brain can be split into two parts- the frontal brain and the posterior brain. The posterior brain is the instinctive brain which we have inherited through animal incarnations. The frontal brain is the seat of total consciousness. When you breathe without awareness, the breath is registered in the posterior brain, but when you are aware that you are breathing and you are consciously witnessing the whole process, then it is registered by the conscious brain, the frontal brain.

This difference seems to be very simple, but its effect is very great. Throughout life, you breathe unconsciously, just like animals, children and most other people do, excepting for the few who have started practising yoga. Now, in every case, the pranic flow is being registered in the posterior brain as if in a computer. The moment you become aware of your breathing and you begin to conduct and control the breath in a particular fashion, immediately the frontal brain registers the influence. This fact has been revealed by scientific experiments and has led us to the following conclusion. Conscious breathing has an entirely different effect on the brain than unconscious breathing. Through unconscious breathing we are definitely able to feed the whole body with prana, but we cannot supply the brain with sufficient prana for its evolution and growth.

Conducting prana to the brain

In order to alleviate sicknesses of the brain, in order to develop the latent capacities of the, brain or to initiate evolution of the brain, we cannot just depend on the way we have been breathing in the past. This is precisely the reason why the different forms of pranayama are practised.

When you practise pranayama, the pranas are stimulated in the lower region of the body, but you must have a means of forcing the pranic energy up. Somehow, you have to create a negative force which will push the pranic energy up through the spinal cord. For this reason pranayama should be practised in coordination with specific bandhas. The three bandhas which are incorporated into the practice of pranayama are jalandhara bandha, uddiyana bandha and moola bandha. They create a negative force like the ejecting force used to extract water from a well. There are two forces used for pumping water- the sucking force and the ejecti

ng force. When we practise pranayama with the bandhas, we put an ejecting force into action.

So, through pranayama you generate prana in the lower region of the body, then in order to conduct it up to the brain you must first practise moola bandha, then uddiyana bandha and finally jalandhara bandha. Moola bandha is contraction of the perineum, uddiyana bandha is contraction of the abdominal muscles and jalandhara bandha is the locking of the chin against the sternum. Prana is then conducted to the brain with the help of the subtle circulatory system.

The network of vessels through which the blood circulates is not just an arrangement of hollow tubes. It is a generator and distributor of prana as well. These vessels become charged and polarized as the bloodstream circulates throughout the body. It is as though the the whole arterial and venous circulatory trees become magnetized. The flow of blood through the vessels generates a bio-magnetic force just as a forceful flow of water is used to generate hydro electricity. This is how prana shakti is able to permeate and enliven even the most distant cells and tissues of the body.

Under normal conditions a certain quantum of prana is circulating, and this is responsible for our present level of health. However, the importance of pranayama is to enable us to consciously generate a higher voltage of prana and this greater quantum of prana can then be directed into the higher centres of the brain, via the cerebral blood vessels and the cerebrospinal fluid circulating and irrigating the brain's sleeping centres. In this way, pranayama brings a higher reality, experience and dimension to its practitioner. It boosts the level of consciousness by activating and awakening the dormant centres and capacities of the left and right hemispheres of the evolving brain.

Now, another means of conducting prana to the frontal portion of the brain is by the practice of shambhavi mudra. Shambhavi mudra is centralizing the pupils of the eyes at the point between the two eyebrows. This practice is also known as mid-eyebrow centre gazing. When you practise shambhavi mudra, the pranas are sucked up by force to irrigate the frontal area of the brain.

Vivek

Infinite love

Infinite wisdom