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Five Keys of Prana Vidya

Paramahamsa Niranjanananda

Search There are five keys by which we can unlock the doors of our bio-plasmic body.

Browse the Archives The first key is the awareness of the psychic breath The experience of the breath can
be both gross and subtle. The gross experience is the physical process of inhalation
Choose a year... and exhalation! we breathe in, we breathe out, we become aware of the breath in the
nostrils, in the lungs, in the lower abdominal region, and in the chest. Manipulation of
this gross manifestation of breath through willpower, through concentration and the
November 1994 practices of pranayama is one aspect of the breath.

The other aspect of the breath is psychic, the movement of inhalation and exhalation in
the form of ujjayi pranayama. Awareness of the deep sound we make in ujjayi
pranayama during inhalation and exhalation is awareness of the psychic breath.
Awareness of the psychic breath is not an unnatural or unconscious process, but
involves the practice of awareness, concentration and actual physiological contraction
of the throat muscles. When you practise ujjayi breathing, which you perform with
kechari mudra and nasikagra drishti, instead of watching the normal flow of the breath
in the nostrils, you simply become aware of the breath passing in through the throat
On High Waves and the sound that it makes.

Years Ago - in 1984 How can this awareness open up the door of your bio-plasmic body? It is very simple.
Paramahamsa Satyananda
When you observe the breath in the throat with total involvement of the senses then
Sayings of a Paramahamsa the mind relaxes. The activities of the brain slow down and new forms of experience
Paramahamsa Satyananda shape themselves within the personality. When you practise ujjayi the actual
physiological experience is a feeling of tranquillity, relaxation and one-pointedness. This
Five Keys of Prana Vidya
is the gross experience of ujjayi pranayama.
Paramahamsa
Niranjanananda
Then there is the psychic experience. With the practice of ujjayi the prana begins to
The Role of Bhramari in move. The first manifestation of maha-prana, the prana located in the chest, begins to
Surgery move. As you practise this psychic breathing utilising prana moving within, in the form
Dr. U. P. Singh
of a stream of light particles, you experience a sort of tickling or burning sensation in
I am a Sannyasin your throat, in the upper thoracic region, chest and lungs. That is the first physiological
Paramahamsa experience that you may have of pranic awakening. As the concentration becomes
Niranjanananda
deep and intense you will experience it. In the practice of psychic breathing you try to
The Will of God actually change the flow of prana.
Paramahamsa
Niranjanananda The second key of Prana Vidya is psychic sound. According to the science of Nada yoga,
sound manifests within us and we also experience sound outside, subtle and gross.
Experiences of Prana
There is no need to discuss the outside sounds, you are well aware of them. We will
Paramahamsa
Niranjanananda just have a brief look at the inner sound. There are practices of Nada yoga which
involve the withdrawal of auditory perception so that we do not hear external noise.
The Ashram Environment With the awareness completely withdrawn to the centre of the head, (at ajna chakra)
Paramahamsa
Niranjanananda
we become aware of any sounds that may arise spontaneously from within.

Yoga Experience with The usual experiences of this sound are a siren, a whistle, the chirping of birds, bells, a
Mentally-Handicapped waterfall or the sound of something rushing inside. They will begin in a very subtle way
People and gradually the intensity of the sound will increase. You will actually hear a piercing
Marisa Cavalluzzi, Italy
whistle even with the ears completely blocked, and if you try to hear the same thing
The Moment of Dedication outside you will hear nothing, but the whistle goes on inside the head. You will hear the
Paramahamsa chirping of birds even if there are no birds outside. That experience is inside you.
Niranjanananda
After you are able to bring all the auditory sounds to the surface, then a deep
throbbing sound will take place as if you are in a deep cavern or cave with a tunnel. At
the other end of the tunnel someone is playing music, drums, a flute or many other
sounds, so you will feel the vibrations. They will begin on a very low key but the pitch
will gradually increase, and after some time it will gradually begin to decrease. At the
end you become aware of the nada. Nada is the inner sensation, the inner movement
of physical atoms.

Although the practice sounds complicated you can have these experiences very quickly,
in a few sessions, depending on the intensity of your concentration and awareness, and
on your ability to remain awake. In order to withdraw the mind, we utilise the practice
of bhramari pranayama, where we make the humming sound of a bee.

The third key is awareness of the psychic passage. There are two passages which we
become aware of in the practice of Prana Vidya. The chakras are located along the
spine and we experience their awakening along the spine, but we can also experience
them along the front of the body. The frontal passage and the frontal experiences of
chakra awakening take place in what we call the chakra kshetra, the trigger-point of
the chakra. The location of the experience we have along the spine itself is known as
the chakra sharira, the body of the chakras. Chakra sharira within the spine; chakra
kshetram, in front of the body. When we begin to move the prana, awareness of these
passages is very helpful.

According to the concept of Prana Vidya, energy is stored in mooladhara, revitalised or

energised in manipura, distributed to the body from ajna and purified in vishuddhi.
These are the four chakras that we use in the practice of Prana Vidya: awakening,
generation and revitalisation in manipura, the navel centre; purification in vishuddhi,
the throat centre; distribution from ajna, the eyebrow centre; storage at the end of the
practice, at mooladhara in the perineum.

The awareness of the passage in the chakra kshetram is between the navel and the
eyebrow centre. When we breathe in, the breath follows this passage up the front of
the body from the navel to the throat. When we breathe out, breath awareness
continues to go up from the throat to the eyebrow centre, then again the awareness
jumps back to manipura. This is one process of frontal passage awareness.

In the actual practice of Prana Vidya, the energy which is generated in manipura is
brought to ajna with inhalation and distributed with exhalation. When we are becoming
aware of the psychic passage, inhalation and exhalation both happen with the
ascending awareness. We breathe in from the navel to the throat and out from the
throat to ajna. We visualise the passage in the form of a transparent tube inside the
body which stretches from the navel all the way up to ajna.

The second psychic passage is along the spine. Inhalation begins from mooladhara at
the base of the spine, the tip of the coccyx bone, and follows the contour of the spinal
cord. The visualisation of the psychic passage itself takes the form of a transparent
tube. We inhale from mooladhara all the way up to ajna inside the head where the
spinal cord enters the brain, the area of the mid-brain. With exhalation we simply
follow the breath along the frontal passage back to mooladhara. So, in the second
passage there is only ascending awareness. There is only inhalation, while the
exhalation is back down the front of the body and then again, there is awareness of the
passage with inhalation up the back, and exhalation down the front of the body.

The fourth key is the psychic symbol and it involves the practice of concentration. The
symbol can be anything on which you can fix your mind. It can be an abstract symbol,
an image of scenery, something that you enjoy, something that agrees with you. It can
even be a psychic abstract symbol in the form of a yantra or mandala. It can be the
experience of seeing the sun, the moon, a flame, fire, a cloud, or anything. Of course,
here we are dealing with psychic symbols, not just any symbol and psychic symbols are
usually yantras.

If you look closely at the chakras you will find that they are composed of various
symbols circles, triangles, squares, hexagons, pentagons, etc. These are the symbols
which we use in Prana Vidya. Depending on your personality or astrological sign, a
symbol is given to enable you to concentrate and go deeper into your own personality.
This symbol is usually given by the Guru at the time of mantra diksha. If you have a
symbol then you can concentrate on it. If you do not have a symbol there are two
symbols best suited for Prana Vidya. One is fire and the other is a downward flowing
stream or column of light.
 The fifth key is the awakening of the chakras. Now, believe me, you will find this quite
hard, but with the practice of Prana Vidya the chakras are awakened quite quickly. Of
course, you will have to make the effort, it will not just happen spontaneously. You will
have to try through the practices of concentration, visualisation, willpower and having a
purpose in your mind. All the chakras are centres of pranic energy and you are
stimulating and controlling the prana. In order to do this you have to awaken the
chakras.

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