IX. The Prashna Upanishad: The Breath of Life
Six seekers approach the sage Pippalada and ask him about Reality. This question began his answers, the process of unfolding emanations. He discussed the primary polarity: “prana” and “rayi”. Prana is energy and consciousness, while rayi is form and name, time and space. As in the “Dao De Jing”, chapter 40, where “wu” (无) (Being-Without-Form) gives rise to “you” (有) (Being-Within-Form). Here in this Upanishad, prana gives rise to rayi. He told these seekers, “Live with me for one year, practicing sense-restraint and complete trust. Ask me questions at the end of the year, and I will answer them if I can.”
Question #1:
“Master who created the universe?
“The Lord meditated and brought forth prana with rayi, the giver of name and form, male and female. Prana is the sun; rayi is the moon.”
“Those who observe outward forms of worship…travel after death by the southern path…to the lunar world, and are born again.”
“Those who seek the Self through meditation, self-discipline, wisdom, and faith in God travel after death by the northern path, the path of prana, to the solar world…and are free from the cycle of birth and death”.
Question #2:
“Master, what powers support this body?
Which of them are manifested in it?
And among them all, which is the greatest?”
“The powers are space, air, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, vision and hearing.” They all support the body, “But prana, vital energy, is supreme above them all”.
When prana leaves the body, all the powers leave as well. When prana returns to the body, they too go back. “As when the queen bee goes out, all the bees go out, and when she returns all return”…
“Then the powers understood and sang this song:
You are the creator and destroyer
And our protector. You shine as the sun
In the sky; you are the source of all light.
When you pour yourself down as rain on earth
Every living creature is filled with joy
And knows food will be abundant for all.
You are pure and master of everything.
As fire you receive our oblations;
It is you who gives us the breath of life.”
Question #3:
“Master, from what source does this prana come?
“Prana is born of the Self. As a man casts a shadow,
The Self casts prana in to the body at the time of birth
So that the mind’s desires may be fulfilled.”
Question #4:
“Sir, when a man is sleeping, who is it that sleeps with him?
Who sees the dream he sees?
When he wakes up, who in him is awake?
When he enjoys, who is enjoying?
In whom do all these faculties rest?”
“As the rays of the sun when night comes, becomes all one in his disk
Until they spread out again at sunrise,
Even so the senses are gathered up
In the mind, which is master of all.
Therefore when a person neither, hears, sees, smells, tastes, touches, speaks, nor enjoys, we say he sleeps.”
“The dreaming mind recalls past impressions.
It sees again what has been seen;
It hears again what has been heard
Enjoys again what has been enjoyed in many places…
The mind sees all.
“When the mind is stilled in dreamless sleep
It brings rest and repose to the body.
Just as birds fly to the tree for rest
All things in life find their rest in the Self.”
“It is the Self who sees, hears, smells, touches,
And tastes, who thinks, acts, and is pure consciousness.
The Self is Brahmin, changeless and supreme.”
“Those who know the supreme Self as formless
Without shadow, without impurity
Know all, gentle friend, and live in all.”
Question #5:
“Those who have become established in AUM,
What happens to them after death?”
“AUM is both immanent and transcendent.
Through it one can attain the personal and the impersonal.”
“These three sounds when they are separated
Cannot lead one beyond mortality;
But when the whole matram, a–u–m
Indivisible and interdependent
Goes on reverberating in the mind
One is freed from fear, awake or asleep.”