Notes from Babaji’s classes:
Prana connects everything together, outside and inside, outside to inside.
There is a connecting force for everything, and prana is that force, enabling thought, action, mind, and brain in their respective and relative functions.
The healers know a little about the prana in the body; the shamans know about it in accord with life-force; but the yogis know it fully and utilize it. They use it to meditate, to enter samadhi, to leave the body at death, and to assist others in the quest for Enlightenment.
The pranas connect to the fourfold mind in an inward direction and to the tanmatras in the outward trajectory. Having full mastery over the prana then places one in a very advantageous position in spiritual life.
Whether one is in bondage or freedom, this prana is very important to control.
When prana is sluggish, that is tamas; when out of control, it is rajas.
The yogis want us to control the physical prana in order to awaken the psychic prana.
Prana is a lot like our attention span. When we study, we focus for an hour and do not let our attention waver. All those expressions: “pay attention,” “focus!” etc., are ways of saying “get control of your prana.” Once you get the idea it attends you naturally.
First we must say that the ignorant mind is not aware of the psychic prana, or any other prana for that matter. The existence of prana is one of the two major missing links in western knowledge. Not even the healers, shamans, and psychics know much about prana. If they did, those three cross sections of beings would have gained enlightenment long ago instead of dallying around with mere physical and psychic energy for the sake of anything other than Nondual Awareness.
To become aware of one’s thoughts is to become aware of prana.
Spiritual Masters are not frozen in the physical body like ordinary souls. They know the prana, and use it to move inward and outward in their consciousness. Of course, the mind is responsible for the movement of the prana – its thoughts, its intelligence, its ego. So the mind must be under control and in awareness of all knowledge.
The yogic secret is to use the prana (subtle life-force) to charge up the chitta (mind’s thoughts). You have to source this prana. People generally access this via the breath. So, if you are thinking right now to yourself, “Babaji, your speech is too boring and I’m getting sleepy,” then breathe! Awareness will come coursing back.
The yogis do not start with controlling the senses. That is nearly impossible. They seek to control the power of the senses, prana. The senses are alive with prana. This is why they are so addictive. We want to see everything, hear everything, and when we do not we get frustrated. The sense of seeing is not the eyeball. That is only the external apparatus. Meditate, then, on the power of the eye to see, and reach deeper understanding.
Jnana Yoga’s unique way of watching the breath, of doing pranayama, is to seek for its origins. Just to observe is not enough. One has to recognize the prana and trace its path back to the Source.
Consciousness does not depend on the body or the breath. Each of these depends upon and should be found in Consciousness. The yogini or yogi graduates to living in Consciousness.
One needs to connect the prana to the three matras of Om: in-breath is A, held breath is U, and out-breath is M. If these three are left unconnected, then life is left confused, and mind remains scattered.
Much like food is Brahman, sadhana (spiritual disciplines) is also Brahman. Everything you do should be done consciously. Hold high this standard. Then refined prana will flood through your subtle nerves (nadis) and turn into psychic prana. Then resist the occult powers in that arena and course higher, to full realization. In short, don’t live in the world – live in the Word. Live and walk in Wisdom, in inspiration.
Om (the Word), taken through the Trinity, becomes prana. Prana, taken inwardly, is Shakti.
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Note: This final statement should be meditated upon. It sums up all the statements above. Om, AUM, is the gateway between Formlessness and form. Hence, when taken through the Trinity, (Brahma-Vishnu-Siva; waking-dream-deep sleep; sattva-rajas-tamas; projection, preservation, dissolution), It becomes dynamic, becoming more gross as it facilitates the manifestation of causal, subtle, and gross realms, until it manifests as physical prana, lifeforce. But there is also the truth of involution. Taking this physical prana inward by connecting the five elements, senses, tanmatras, and the fourfold mind reveals Shakti, here, representing dynamic Intelligence and AUM. “Godspeed to us in crossing over to the farther shore beyond all darkness.”