If Prana and soul are different, what is the connection between the prana and soul? Does the prana help the soul to manifest in a body? Which comes first?In the mother's womb, how does the soul and prana work together to create the body?
—Nathan, USA
Dear Friend, distinctions between such concepts as soul and prana are not necessarily going to bring us “salvation,” realization, or true joy.
In some respects there is little difference between soul and prana from the standpoint of actual inner experience of the meditating yogi.
As concepts go, one might say that “prana” is the intelligent energy of the universe that pervades all things and which is a manifestation of divine or super-consciousness.
The soul exists, it could be said, on the higest manifested sphere known as the causal plane: a realm of pure thought or ideation.
Prana, by contrast, is energy and, as such, is a manifestation of the next lower plane, the astral realm.
In our bodies or our own inner conscious awareness, the experience of prana can be said to be the vital manifestation of the soul’s presence. Prana emits sound and light. Pranava is the sound of AUM, the Divine Mother, the Comforter. It has both universal and indivdual aspects, therefore, insofar as the soul is itself a manifestation of universal realities even if uniquely so.
Therefore the distinction between soul and prana is not particularly helpful. The all-knowing, ever-watchful soul uses or manifests prana in order to manifest itself first in the astral body and then to take on physical form. Both prana and soul are individual and at the same time universal. Particular as manifested; universal as created.
As a yogi, meditate upon and commune with Prana as a divine manifestation. Merging into the blissful stream of Prana (which can manifest as peace, wisdom, vitality, love, calmness, Aum, Jyoti or bliss), prana will take you to the Kutastha state of Christ consciousness (causal realm of the soul).
Blessings, Hriman
