Wordsworth on Prana

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Dear Form members,

Do you think in the following verse, Wordsworth was thinking of Prana?

[LEFT] And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
[/LEFT]

William Wordsworth. 1798
Love,
Fin

#2

Perhaps … but what is Prana ? Vital “energy” ?
Living air … I am less comfortable with the idea of vital energy … as it is an explanation, an idea what creates confusion today. When the ancient yogi’s used the term, they were not thinking of electricity, or nervous impulses, they had first hand experience of Prana, the same as practitioners today have. Prana is not nervous impulses or low voltage electricity in the nerves. That’s just the physical manifestation.
I like the term Holy Ghost better, or World Spirit, as it retains the necessary amount of mistery and greater perspective.

I think Wordsworth’s artistic intuition asessed the unity of the Spirit within with the Spirit “without”. Tat twam asi.

#3

[I]Prana is everything. [/I]

[I]I think Iyengar explains prana beautifully:[/I]

[I]From Iyengar’s ‘The Tree of Yoga’~[/I]

[I]Prana means energy. Cosmic energy, individual energy, sexual energy, intellectual energy, are all prana. It is even said that prana causes the sun and rain to come. Prana is universal. It permeates each individual as well as the universe at all levels. All that vibrates is prana-heat, light, gravity, magnetism, vigour, power, vitality, electricity, life, breath, spirit, all are forms of prana. Prana is the hub of the wheel of life. All beings are born through it and live by it. It is potent in all beings and is a prime mover of all activity.[/I]

[I]Prana and consciousness are in constant contact with each other. As long as the breath is still, prana is still, and hence the mind is still. Knowing this connection, the wise yogis of India advocated the practice of pranayama, which is the very heart of yoga.[/I]

#4

I love this poem Fin.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
And yes, I think what Wordsworth is speaking of here is the kundalini, the shakti prana.