Q: In some religions and different books also they talk about the heart being the seat of the soul. The soul is in the heart. What is your comment on that?
Sh: Yes. Prana lives in the heart. The heart is its center but it is spread all over the body.
The heart is supplying blood to every part of your body. It is the seat of the prana. And here I will mention while passing that prana is one of the names of Shiva also.
Even the brain depends on the supply from your heart. It simply cannot survive on its own. It always needs the support of the heart.
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Q: It is written in the books when Shiva and Shakti connect together, then Prana appears and world starts.
Sh: Prana and Matter appears.
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In India prana is conceived as an air body made with the air only, which is the exact replica of your physical body. It will reside in the void.
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Sh: In your body there is the abode of prana. Prana continues, it is immortal also. ‘Prana’ is the name of the soul and spirit also. It keeps on collecting all the experience which you go through life and in many many lives.
Prana is spirit. Also it is one of the names of Shiva. So when you are practicing pranayama so many things are connected with that. Your life force, Shiva himself as a Guru, all your past experience, memory – everything. You are actually regulating them as well as regulating your breathe. That is supposed to be a gross carrier of prana and that carries the memories of your karmas with all the experiences which you went through.
Q: So if prana is a record of all the experiences, when the person passes away it goes away with him.
Sh: But it is immortal. It is recorded in the breath also. Do you know the phenomena of Caesar’s breathe? Some of the Physics books say that. At the moment Brutus stabbed Julius Caesar, he said: “And you too, Brutus” – and breathed for the last time. The last breathe contained so many air molecules that all the years they envelope the whole earth and now when everybody is taking a breathe one molecule of Caesar’s breathe is going in and going out. And all the molecules retain some sort of memory and energy and the vibration of that particular person. That is in India where Avatars have done their major work: you see, when Krishna lifted the Govardhan hill, he must have breathed a little bit heavily. So we are living here and a lot of air molecules which Krishna himself breathed are going in and out. So air molecules, water – all these are carriers of prana. All the five elements – mind it – contain the memory also. Your particular memory is in your prana which is replicated in the breathe. As long as there is life, you will have all the record available at your command. And life is eternal, it continues even if the body is no longer there.
Q: And if there is no body still karma is recording.
Sh: Of course. The body is just a carrier, no more than that. And also in India we talk about the air body, the Vayu Shareer. How is it developed? The more you practice pranayama, the more retention of breath you will master in many certain ways. So air will become condensed and concentrated in the shape of your body. That’s why the finishing of ‘Nadi’ is so important so the air, the breath will reach every corner of your body and so a perfect air body will form.
You will be able to enter any body also аfter leaving your body through the breath. It is everywhere and it is individual like that. So Hridaya or the heart is a very complicated term. You simply cannot imagine: this is my heart. It is the heart and it is the carrier of your prana also. When yogis go to samadhi, their heart stops, their breath stops, everything stops but even then their Hridaya remains alert. The heart will always remain in you, even without your physical body.
Q: So the center of the prana goes into the brain with the practice of yoga.
Sh: Yes, when sushumna is opened then your brain will wake up and will be your heart also.
Q: Is it so that the air body can be used as a matrix to assign molecules of the physical world to build a new body?
Sh: Why not? If somebody needs that they can do that. Always remember the air body is much more powerful than the physical body. If it has been formed by the continuous practice of yoga, it can do any miracles. Air is everywhere all over. And air means not only oxygen, every gas is a part of air.
During our short life we are able to regulate our breathe to a little or a certain extent only. But even that much is enough to realize so many things with that. It is the basis of our knowledge. No breathe – no life, our very life depends on that.
When three elements: the earth element, the water element and the fire drop up, only air and the ether remain. It is like a super body, you can be anywhere simultaneously.
Q: But karma must also be absorbed and accumulated with that body.
Sh: What you are practicing is an art which will take you beyond every result of your karmas. It is such a strong karma itself that all the ways of karma will be washed away with that. As long as the tongue is in khechari mudra position, no karma will touch you. That’s why higher practices are given only after khechari mudra when you are beyond your karma. If you remain under the influence of your karma no matter what you practice, it will always remain incomplete and very high sidely experience or physical experience which evade you, they will never be there. You have already gone beyond your karmas from yogic point of view.
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Sh: You will understand the importance of pranayama then. ‘Vaayu Shareer’ (?) is the body made of air. So the more pranayamas you will do, the more condense it will become. And it will gain force after that. The person who is not doing pranayama appears distorted, horrible looking ghost. Because he has never done any pranayama in his life, so his air body is not perfect. But when you are practicing yoga, practicing Kumbhak, different types of pranayamas that air body become very solid, condensed and powerful.
Q: But does it have also its resource, can it die out of other age overtime?
Sh: As long as there will be element air on earth, it will not die.
Q: And can it take birth once more?
Sh: Yes, why not?
Q: But then it will lose its identity, it will erase the memory.
Sh: If it is a Yogi’s body then it will not lose its identity.
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I saw some spirits doing meditation and chanting their certain mantras; it was a surprise to me because I never knew it before. Even in my premises three or four spirits were just doing their penance continuously. My lawyer — I saw his uncle sitting there and he was dead already. So, if you have a confident guru and you are very much into that practice in your physical life then even if you pass on, you continue with that. And there it is much better on the other side because you don’t have to get a break, you don’t have to eat anything so you can continue. In the real body we have to adjust to so many things.
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Q: You have told us about а spirit being frustrated on a grave if the body is not cremated properly and the rituals are not there. What can be done with it apart from cremation? Does the practice help in this?
Sh: You see, if you are practicing and even reach a certain level when you are able to leave your body then yogically you have released permanently. No connection remains with your physical body.