prāṇo vai jyeṣṭhaśca śreṣṭhaśca
Prāṇa is indeed the oldest and greatest – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 6.1.1

Breath’s relationship with life,  that I shall not forget
जीवन से साँसों का रिश्ता, मैं ना भूलूंगी                           
            – Santosh Anand lyrics from a song in “Roti Kapda Aur Makan”

What exactly is that relationship?
While oxygen is the obvious part, it is the rhythm that is the subtler part. For yogis, prana is everything.  Even gods are born out of prana.

In yogis’ model, everything in this world, including our bodies, work through vibrations, pulsations and such harmonic movements.  Brahman is the universal container of all such vibrations (and beyond). It is also through these vibrations that we interact with each other,  and other entities, both living and non-living.   When such vibrations and pulsations stop within us,  the world around us disappears for us individually!   The perceived reality that includes space-time depends upon those precise vibrations.  Come to think of it, it’s an easy observation- a dead person is one within whom all such vibrations cease,  and that body-mind complex does not experience anything at all, right? Better not – otherwise we would have a lot of  ‘splainin to do to all those who we buried in the past…  Unconscious people are a different case – they don’t consciously experience anything, but the Nadis are still carrying information, albeit incoherently  (see sloka 940 below)…

We can understand life as we call it much better by understanding the state of no-life, i.e., death.  Yogis contemplated a lot on this topic because they surmised that humans will lead a much better life if they did not fear death (and pain).  Actually a lot more ended up coming out of this this line of thinking, but let’s contemplate on the definitions first.  Here’s a summary of the description of state of death from Yoga-Vasistha  (Chapter 2, Section 8.3: The Dying State of a Creature; translation by Samvid, compilation by B. L. Atreya):

Sloka 939: When the “vibrational modes” (vata) do not at all enter nadis of the body, nor do the currents (pavana) go out (niryati), on the account of agitation in the nadis, the body is declared dead (mruta).

Sloka 940: When the flow in the nadis is deprived (vidhure), and when the vata component in the body reaches an improper state, the “consciousness” (chetana) becomes, as it were, extinguished.

Sloka 941: Merely on account of the complete obstruction to all “vibrational modes” (vata), when pulsations (spanda) cease (pra-shamyati), the body is declared dead.  Then, that body is named inert (jada).

Any state other than what’s defined here is a living state (or life), however imbalanced it is.  One thing is clear – when talking about the concept of death, they are focusing on Vata, i.e., the vibrational modes and pulsations, and not breath alone.  Yogis can hold their breath for a long time, and they don’t die; modern record is just under 12 min (freediver Stéphane Mifsud).  In these translations, I have included some key Sasnskrit words so that you can dig deeper if you chose.  Some of these words are difficult to translate.

So, leading a good life requires keeping the nadis well tuned so that the information flow is efficient.  Uninterrupted information flow, up and down, from tip to toe, is what’s required for perfect health.  That’s why there is so much emphasis on the spinal cord in yoga – after all, spinal cord is the information superhighway in our body, which packs a lot of important nerves.  We are born as a fully finely tuned instrument.  The final moment is when all that is out of sync.

What exactly are nadis?  Nerves are the physical equivalent in the body.  However, like chakras, nadis also work in the mental plane.  We will discuss vata, nadis and health further in the next blurb.  Now read the mantra that we use at the end of all our previous blurbs; notice the word “vata” in it.

bhadram no api vata-ya manah_/\_/\_/\_
May we all be blessed with a “questioning and learning” mind_/\_