|
Pranayama is control of the prana in the breath. That’s what the word literally means.
Prana is life force energy, subtle/invisble but it is what we live on.
And our gross physical body needs both oxygen from breath as well as prana from breath because it is composed of gross elements but every cell has a soul too and anything that has a soul needs prana.
So basically we are subtle energy beings living in a gross energy body, symbiotic.*
Pratyahara is the practice of detaching from the outer gross energy world (detaching from senses, silencing the mental fluctuations or vrittis etc) in order to meditate (go within and begin to explore deeper layers of being). Whilst experiencing the more subtle energy of our inner or soul being we continue to use pranayama practice for the wellbeing of the body, learning to drive it masterfully from soul being, bringing deeper wellness and healing, even changing the body from a cellular level.
What I assume the OP was referring to was as Patanjali wrote in the yoga sutras about pratyahara as a process or stage in deepening one’s meditation practice. It is not the only goal of pranayama.
*After we transition from the physical body we continue to live on as disembodied soul feeding on prana. So pranayama continues even after “death” but in a different form.
|