Q. Can the constant japa of Narayana Naam rescue from hell millions of ancestors?

A. Yes

Q. What is the need of many mantras, what is the need of many types of vratas?

A. Namah Narayana mantra alone is capable of fulfilling the entire requirement. This mantra will bestow Dharma, Artha (wealth), Kama (desired objects) and Moksha (liberation) — whatever one prays for.

Q. Will you please tell me more about the Prāṇa.

A. There is nothing except prāṇa. Whatever I say, it amounts to speaking about prāṇa. One cannot correctly estimate in how many ways the srutis have spoken about prāṇa. It has been said in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad – “Whoever knows the calf along with the cowshed, place where she rests at the moment, the peg and the rope with which she is tied, destroys seven of his relatives who are inimically disposed towards him. Prāṇa, which is in this body, is the calf. This body is its abode, the cow-house, this head is where it rests, strength is its peg and food is the rope with which prāṇa is held in the body.”

Q. Why have you referred to Prāṇa as the ‘calf’?

A. Unlike the indriyas, by itself it cannot enjoy any material objects; so, it is like an infant dependent on others.

Q. Why have you called its place of rest to be the head?

A. Because it stays near the head, it is called Pratyādhāna, the seat where it abides, in proximity to the highest centre.

Q. Who are the seven enemies?

A. A person gets attracted to material objects through the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth. This attachment has been called the enemy of the Jiva.

Q. Anna (food) is called the rope, strength the peg, body the abode, and Pratyādhāna the head. What does this indicate?

A. When through regular intake of sāttvika food the purity of prāṇa increases, the prāṇa enters the suṣumṇā and the nine openings are purified. When the prāṇa becomes steady and establishes itself in the sahasrāra, the seven enemies fall away and lose their hold.

Q. Then the root of everything is the taking of sattvika food?

A. Yes. From taking pure food comes the purification of one’s self, and from the purification of self comes steady intellect. Bhagwan Sri Ramanujacharya has identified this intellect with bhakti. When one gains bhakti, all his bonds fall away.

Q. Why has the Prāṇa been compared to a calf?

A. Prāṇa is compared not only to a calf but also to a thread and a bull, for it nourishes, binds, and sustains all existence.

स होवाच — वायुरेव सूत्रम्। अनेन हि लोकाः परे च लोकाः सर्वाणि भूतानि सूत्रेण प्रोता इव॥
sa hovāca — vāyur eva sūtram, anena hi lokāḥ pare ca lokāḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni sūtreṇa protā iva

Vāyu, the vital force, is the thread upon which this world and the other worlds, and all beings, are strung like pearls, and when this prāṇa departs, the body becomes inert, lifeless, and without awareness.

Prāṇa is the foundation of the subtle body, from which arise the five prāṇas, the mind (manas), the intellect (buddhi), and the ten senses, and that which thinks is called mind while that which determines is called intellect, both rooted in prāṇa.

Q. Where is Prāṇa called a bull?

A. वाचं धेनुमुपासीत। तस्याश्चत्वारः स्तनाः—
स्वाहाकारो वषट्कारो हन्तकारः स्वधाकारः।
तस्यै द्वौ स्तनौ देवा उपजीवन्ति,
हन्तकारं मनुष्याः, स्वधाकारं पितरः।
तस्याः प्राण ऋषभो मनो वत्सः॥
vācaṃ dhenum upāsīta, tasyāś catvāraḥ stanāḥ—
svāhākāro vaṣaṭkāro hantakāraḥ svadhākāraḥ;
tasyai dvau stanau devā upajīvanti,
hantakāraṃ manuṣyāḥ, svadhākāraṃ pitaraḥ;
tasyāḥ prāṇa ṛṣabho mano vatsaḥ

Speech is to be contemplated as a sacred cow whose four streams nourish the gods, human beings, and the ancestors, while prāṇa stands as its bull and the mind as its calf, dependent upon and sustained by it.

Q. Who is the Antaryāmin (Inner Controller)?

A. पृथिव्यां तिष्ठन् पृथिव्या अन्तरः यं पृथिवी न वेद, यस्य पृथिवी शरीरं, यः पृथिवीं अन्तरः यमयति, स आत्मान्तर्याम्यमृतः॥
yaḥ pṛthivyāṃ tiṣṭhan pṛthivyā antaraḥ, yaṃ pṛthivī na veda, yasya pṛthivī śarīram, yaḥ pṛthivīm antaraḥ yamayati, sa ātmā antaryāmy amṛtaḥ

He who dwells within the earth, yet remains unknown to it, whose body is the earth and who governs it from within, is the inner controller, the immortal Self present in all.

प्राणस्य प्राणः स एव अन्तार्यामी।
prāṇasya prāṇaḥ sa eva antaryāmī

He who is the prāṇa of prāṇa, the source and controller of prāṇa itself, is that inner indwelling reality.

The Upaniṣhads thus speak of prāṇa as the thread, the calf, the bull, and even as Brahman itself.

Q. Where is Prāṇa called Brahman?

A. कतम एको देव इति? प्राण इति। स ब्रह्मेत्याचक्षते॥

Katama eko deva iti? prāṇa iti; sa brahmety ācakṣate
When asked who the one God is, the seers declare that it is prāṇa, and they proclaim that prāṇa itself is Brahman.

The dialogue of Yājñavalkya and Śākalya unfolds the gradation of divinities, from the many manifestations to the thirty-three, then to six, three, two, one and a half, and finally to the One, revealing that all multiplicity resolves into prāṇa, the single underlying reality.

Q. Explain Prāṇa further.

A. एतद् ह्येवाक्षरं ब्रह्म एतद् ह्येवाक्षरं परम्।
एतद् ह्येवाक्षरं ज्ञात्वा यो यदिच्छति तस्य तत्॥

etad hyevākṣaraṃ brahma etad hyevākṣaraṃ param;
etad hyevākṣaraṃ jñātvā yo yad icchati tasya tat

This imperishable syllable, Om, is both the lower and the higher Brahman, and one who realizes it, attains whatever is truly sought.

एतद्वै सत्यकाम परं चापरं च ब्रह्म यदोङ्कारः।
तस्माद् विद्वान् एतेनायतनेनैकतरमन्वेति॥

etadvai satyakāma paraṃ cāparaṃ ca brahma yad oṃkāraḥ;
tasmād vidvān etena āyatanenaikataram anv eti

Om, is both the transcendent and the immanent Brahman, and through steadfast contemplation upon it, the knower attains the desired realization, whether of the manifest or the supreme beyond.

Q. Can you explain prāṇa to me a little better.

A. Yama told Nachiketa :

This Omkar is Apara Brahma and Para Brahma. He who knows Him and worships Him as such gets what he desires.

“Oh Satyakam, this Omkar is Para Brahma and prāṇa is Apara Brahma. By remaining steady on Omkar, the learned attains the Apara Brahma, i.e. prāṇa, and the true, beyond all, Akshara Para Brahma.”

Q. How does prāṇa become the God of prāṇa?

A. Because prāṇa has created this universe, so the existence of the God of prāṇa can be known. Again, because there is God of prāṇa so prāṇa exists. Like the sea and its waves, in one there are two and the two constitute one. One does not stay without the other. Sometimes it is apparent, sometimes it is not.

Q. Do Narayana, Vishnu all form the Para Brahma?

A. What else can there be? When you talk about a Shalagram, you do not refer to only a round piece of stone; similarly, when you talk of Narayana, you do not refer to prāṇa only. However, those who worship Him as prāṇa get from Him their desired objects in the form of prāṇa. But there are those who worship Him as Para Brahma. He takes such persons unto Himself and carries them to His own abode.

Q. Then, all this play or interplay is of Omkar?

A. Yes, it is so. Say only Narayana, Narayana; you do not have to worry; you will reach the domain of sound.

Narayana, Narayana, Narayana,
Narayana, Narayana, Narayana.