The Mahabharata conveys deep scientific and spiritual knowledge through enlightening stories and this one is about the five vital airs in our human system. The Brahmin tells his wife yet another story in the Anu Gita about the five sacrificial priests.
The five priests or agni hotris who feed sacred fuel into the fire invoking god are prana – the life breath, apana – the expelling force, samana – the digestive force, udana – the uplifting power and vyana – the circulating power. His wife now asks a question. “I have all this while understood that there are seven priests. Now you mention five. Please explain about them.”
The Brahmana, her husband, replies. The air that brings in the vital force of inhaling prana gives birth to the exhaling apana. The air that is generated by apana gives birth to the circulatory vyana. From this circulatory force of air is born the uplifting fiery force of udana. This udana when it is active generates the digestive samana.
These five forces of air once had a competition among them and went to the creator – Lord Brahma, to ask him as to who was the first among them all. The idea was to appoint that priest as the chief!
Brahma ji replied, “When the individual in whom the five pranas function, merges, all the five pranas cease to function. When the individual becomes alive, active and moving, the five pranas spring up to function. That individual is the foremost among you all. So you may go now and do as you please!”
Not understanding the meaning of this judgment completely, the five Pranas continued the debate. Prana began, “When I step out there is complete death of the body and all other vital forces functioning in it. When I function, everything else too functions.” So saying, Prana just blinked off the scene a while and came back.
Samana and Udana picked up the fight and said, “No you are not the foremost among us. Only Apana is under your control. Nothing happened to us while you blanked out.” Apana now began – “When I dissolve, everything else too dissolves along with me and when I reappear, everything else comes back to life.” While Vyana and Udana joined the fray and asserted that only Prana was under its control and not the others, the fiery debate intensified as each began to assert their greatness.
As had always happened, when they could not solve the debate, Brahma ji replied, “You are all foremost in your own fields of action. Yet, each one of you have a little bit of the potential over the other one. In all of you there is something that is stationary and something that moves. The stationary one is Myself and the movement is your contribution. I am present in all of you equally. So be friendly and leave from here,” he blessed them all.
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