Brahma Sutras Continued.
अतः एव प्राणः ataḥ eva prāṇaḥ
and the direct translation,
Prāna refers to Brahman.
So
let's explore this. Let's forget the
original commentaries
for the moment they're useful.
But let's explore
what this
is saying. Basically, it's saying
is consciousness,
energy is consciousness.
OK. Try this.
Raise your arm.
How did you do that?
OK.
Believe it or not, science doesn't have an answer
because
you started with an intention,
right?
And I said raise your arms.
If you had the intention,
the intention
is not a physical phenomenon, right?
It is
it's a thought
and
it has no
location in space time as a physical entity.
Although you can see it's neural correlate in the brain.
So the intention is a nonmaterial thought
and this
seems to be a very physical activity, right?
So if mind and body are two different things, then
how does
the mind
create the activity of the body?
That's not only the hard problem of consciousness,
but it violates the laws of thermodynamics.
If mind and body are two separate things, then what mediates
this interaction of mind and body?
OK.
Yes, that's one of the hard problems of consciousness
that we cannot explain
mind, body interactions. If we think of mind as non physical
and the body is physical.
Ok. Now, look at an object, look at me, look at your own computer, look at anything.
And
the current scientific explanation is that photons are coming
into your eyes,
they're sending electrical currents to your brain
and there's electro chemistry in your brain, but
you don't experience electro chemistry,
you experience everything that you're experiencing right now.
These words
which are also electro
electrical signals to your brain.
You're seeing, hearing these words, you're thinking your own thoughts,
you're looking at the computer elsewhere, et cetera.
So
very interesting. I asked you to look at something and suddenly
something appeared,
whatever it was, then you look elsewhere
and something else appeared,
then looked at your own body and that appeared. OK.
But in all this, according to current science,
all that was going to your brain was photons.
How did this experience happen?
OK. How did photos
give you the experience of a material world?
That's also a hard problem of consciousness. So
we are stuck as far as science is concerned,
we are stuck trying to explain these mind body interactions.
So the other alternative is the whole thing is physical.
OK.
The the thought is physical, the mind is physical, the body is physical,
the world is physical.
But then explain how does the physical world create ideas, thoughts, feelings,
emotions, desires, imagination
energy
again,
problem.
OK.
Matter only is a problem
and mind that matters two different entities is also a problem.
So we're left with the third entity, possibility,
consciousness-only monism consciousness,
which is
a non material nonphysical
field of possibilities is modifying itself into
an activity that we call thought mind.
And also an activity that we call perception
which we then interpret as the physical body and the physical
world and even the stars and Galaxies in the universe,
it's all consciousness.
And so is energy consciousness. This required energy
prana.
But
what is prana? It's a word or energy is a word
to explain
the movement
of activities that result
in
objects
moving.
In fact,
in fact, the best definition of energies
is something that
is capable of work,
moving,
thinking, feeling,
seeing, perceiving
all requires energy.
But the energy itself is a modified form of consciousness. And YOU ARE THAT.
You as consciousness, modify
yourself as mind, brain body,
energy information
and matter.
And then we create stories around this, how the universe was created black holes,
singularities,
event horizons, big bangs
all excellent models
for explaining our perceptual
and cognitive
activities which in turn are modified forms
of the Self.
The self organizing itself as the universe with everything in between
Tat Tvam Asi, Brahmasi
So Prana
is an activity of the universe.