I remember when I was a child, the word Prana was used very frequently. My mother would call us her prana, or say my prana left me when she was concerned. The saying in English would be my heart was in my mouth. Also another saying was my prana dried like the desert. It means that I was so hungry or thirsty, and that I had no energy left.

We took it for granted the word prana and we would be laughing ourselves silly over the usage. It is only when I became an adult I realized and understood how omnipotent the meaning is and the way prana was used in our vocabulary was self-explanatory. There was a very famous Bollywood actor named Pran and he always acted as a villain. It is amazing how we can trivialize such an elemental force.

Now I come to the end of 2021 and how has this year affected us? We look into the mirror and what do we see? Do we see a faded lotus or a fragrant lotus? How do we want to perceive ourselves? We all have had a great deal of time for self-introspection. How have we treated ourselves, with respect or disrespect? Have we cherished ourselves and treated our body and mind as a temple? Have we been iconoclastic and self–destructive? Have we allowed our anger and spite overtake us? Our prana is responsible for all our emotions, feelings and thoughts. Our prana enables us to accept or obliterate our trauma and use it auspiciously. Our prana is in our breath and without prana we are no more. Every deed, conviction, concept, aspiration is governed by Prana.

The practice for your prana

Take stock of yourself, practice the Samvrit Pranayama (Balancing Pranayama), inhale to the count of 5, hold to the count of 5, exhale to the count of 5, pause outside to the count of 5. Visualise the prana in your breath. Concentrate on the counting, backwards from 54 to 0, without making any errors. Repeat if you have forgotten where you were Use a mantra if you have one, or the mantra So Ham. So, when you inhale and Ham when you exhale. You have recharged your prana and reduced your karmas. Look once more into the mirror and what do you see?

A fragrant lotus with green leaves ready to embrace 2022.

Aim Hrim Klim