Continuing on from the previous blurb on Vāyu, there are probably thousands of signal pathways, or Vāyus, in the body, but yogis emphasize top 5, followed by the minor 5.  The first two are there in all the accounts, but the mention of the other three major vayus is not consistent in vedic brahmanas.  Anyways, here is the list, and their functions:

1. Prāṇa: Centered at the heart; powered by inhales.  The nerve currents flow upwards from above the diaphragm.  However, the physical-air is moving downwards from the bridge of the nose into the lungs, but we visualize energy moving upwards through the spine. (for some reason, there’s some confusion about whether this current is upwards or downwards!   We need to experience it ourselves directly and verify.)  When you need energy, it is recommended that you a take deep inhale and hold the breath for a few seconds before exhaling.  Prana vayu pumps up the energy – the more energy pulsates through the body, the more it charges up the body, including internal organs.
2. Apāna: This is centered in the rectal region.  This component gets activated during exhalation, which eliminates the gaseous waste products of metabolism (CO2).  When elimination is weak, exhale for a longer period, hold, and then inhale a short breath in.  This strengthens the apana vayu.  Note that these vayus have a huge impact in the psychic world too.  When one wants to recede into inner quarters, apana is the way, and vice versa.  Rishis place a lot importance to this current.  The better we can get rid of toxins, the healthier we will be.
3. Samāna:  This is active around the third chakra – navel.  It’s also the enteric nervous system in the modern biology.  It’s also related to the digestive power – by controlling this activity, we can control food requirements and processing.  Remember that yogis’ goal is to transition to low food consumption-low metabolic rate regime.  We discussed the advantages of this mode during Sivarātri blurbs.  We want the Prāna and Apāna to meet at the navel, which results in a balanced states.
4. Udāna:  This resides in the throat (Visuddhi) region, and when active, conducts upwards.  Remember the Kundalini awakening part of Brahmacarya blurb?  Kundalini rising is facilitated by the Udāna vāyu.  Also critical in communication functions – speech, crying, laughing, etc.
5. Vyāna – this is the expanding, circulating component, which is present all over the body.

The above five are called the inner vāyus, and in addition there are five minor or outer vāyus, signal currents, which function in the external body.  They are naga, kūrma, krīkara, dēvadutta, and dhananjaya.  Nāga is responsible for belching/vomiting,  Kūrma moves the eyelids, krīkara for sneezing, and dēvadatta for yawning.  Interestingly, according to some texts, the last one, dhananjaya, does not leave us even after death, and actually helps in dissolving the body!  Interesting…   How did they measure this? Don’t know, but very intriguing!

If you are curious about the sources, Yogachudamani Upanishad, Thirumandiram  and GorakShashatakam are a few good sources.

But the bottom line is that all this theory has to be useful in our daily life.  Here are some useful tips:

1. When we are disturbed, agitated and/or confused, the vāyus are totally fragmented and all over the place.  So, before responding, check breath, even out the breath with a couple of long breaths, re-collect thoughts, and then move forward with your response.
2. Already discussed about how to increase the physical energy, and elimination/ cleansing currents…
3. As we turn inwards, balance them to reach calmer realms, and eventually leading to different states of consciousness (lokas).  Rishis travel through these lokas at will, not necessarily on the physical plane, even though entry level stories  and later texts such as purānās portrayed them that way  probably to connect with beginners, and eventually take them to a guru in quest of understanding the true purport.

The kriya and the meditation sets  we did for the past few weeks progressed in the following sequence:  slowly activate prāna, then apāna, to balance them at the navel, and then returned to heart-centered prāna kriyas to balance them at the heart center.   At the beginner levels, those are the hangout-spots, and that’s where we wanna be:-)

Prāna – Apāna Balance

As propitiators of Vāyu, if we understand the following verse from Gita completely, including it’s practice, we are done!  Several paths, but all taking us to the same place.

Apāne juhvati prāṇaṁ prāṇe’pānaṁ tathāpare|
Prāṇāpānagatī ruddhvā prāṇāyāmaparāyaṇāḥ||4. 29||

… like that, others who study/practice Prāṇāyāma , having arrested (ruddhvā) the movements (gatīḥ) of Prāṇa –, offer as oblation, prāṇa into apāna,  apāna into prāṇa.

Something for us to contemplate, and experience.  Prāṇa with the uppercase “P”, is the super set, and the one with the lowercase “p” is the sub-vayu.  The suggested practices are very simple, but take a while to take effect.  The breath, which directly controls the nerve currents need to be understood and controlled.  As we speak, these nerve currents  in our bodies are traveling uncontrolled, in their own random ways.

When you offer up upward moving prana into the downward moving apana, or the other way, neutral state could arise  That’s the main point of that sloka

The prana, apana, and all the other sub-vayu and minor vayu elements get accentuated with food intake too. Back to the Sivaratri blurbs – all our daily activities are connected to this. That is why, at the end of the day, yoga is a lifestyle choice.

The fundamental elements of this practice are: puraka (complete inhale), rechaka (complete exhale), and kumbhaka (holding – inside and outside).  That’s it!  We have to practice the x-x-x (1 min) breath until the goal is attained. Churn the mind with the breath…