Pran and Pranayam

Author(s): Niranjananand Saraswati Swami
Publisher: Yoga Publication Trust

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Introduction
The classical yogic practices of pranayama have been
known in India for over 4,000 years. In the Bhagavad Gita, a text dated to the Mahabharata period, the reference to pranayama (4:29) indicates that the practices were as commonly known during that period as was yajna, fire sacrifice. Many Upanishads written in the pre-Buddhist period also refer to techniques of pranayama (to attain higher states of consciousness). However, it is in the hatha yoga texts such as Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Gheranda Samhita and Hatharatnavali, written between the sixth and fifteenth centuries AD, that we find a detailed description of the practices. It would seem that a need was felt at that time to revive and codify the practices that were until then handed down through the oral tradition. The vedic culture had declined with the advent of Buddhism and many yogic practices were being lost or misapplied by their practitioners. Thus the authors of the texts sought to restore the purity and authenticity of the practices.
A need is felt yet again in the twenty-first century to reinstate the original intent and experience of the practices.
The yogic renaissance witnessed in the last few decades has made asana and pranayama into household terms, but the essence and depth of the practices remain unexplored for most practitioners.