प्राण (Pran) - Interpreting the misinterpretation

'प्राण' word is grossly misinterpreted by West started with Germans. प्राण is not breathing as most of us misinterpret/understand as we associate with word प्राणायाम because the meaning is interpreted through a very narrow prism of breathe-in and breathe-out, that is incorrect. The reason is, there are exact words for breathe-in (श्वास) and breathe-out (उच़छवास).

The meaning of word 'प्राण' goes beyond breathing-in/breathing-out, because, it consists of 'expression of life' through body and mind or manifestation of life. This is controlled by 5 senses along mind in the form of intellectual and emotional expression.

When we say his प्राण is gone simply means he is dead. His life is gone along with all physiological activities (seeing, hearing, eating, smelling, touching, sleeping, breathing, moving, excreting, grasping) knowingly/unknowingly and expressions in various forms.

प्राणायाम precisely means we exhale and inhale life. When we exhale an old breathe, we do it along with all the expression, perception and thoughts related to the past i.e. we are leaving out the past memories and feelings associated with it.

When we inhale a new breathe, we do it along with new expression, perception and thoughts i.e. welcoming the new life. This is a practice of letting go the past and welcoming new life to reduce stress of past burden and bring in peace and freshness in our life.

Morning - New Beginning (picture taken in Bali, April, 2015 (C) Vedic Gyan)

(Source: interpreted from Chinmayswami's discourse on Gita)