 The word prana, there is no equivalent word in English, but we can say it's the vital energy. That which we call as the life energy is prana. Prana has ten different manifestations in the body, but for the sake of understanding we'll bring it down to five. These five are referred to as five vayus or pancha vayus. This is pranavayu, samanavayu, udhanavayu, apana and vayana. They're in charge of different dimensions of what happens in this human mechanism. This is an endless subject if I speak like this, I'm just trying to abridge it in a sensible manner. Taking charge of this, yama means to control or to take charge. Pranayam means a method with which you want to take charge this, pancha vayus. Because how your body functions, how your mind functions, how the whole physiological framework, this human mechanism, how it functions is determined by this energy. There's an energy, it is an intelligent energy in the sense it carries a certain amount of memory. The karmic memory of the individual person is imprinted on this energy. So in each person, the prana functions in a different manner. It is unique to each individual. It is not like electricity, electricity is not spot. It can light up the, you know, the light bulb, it can run the camera, it can, you know, run the air conditioning, it can do million things but not because of its intelligence. It does the same thing always. Because of a particular device, a certain thing happens. But now I'm talking about, this will happen in future that you may have smart electricity. It is not far away. In the next fifty years you may have smart energy that the energy behaves in a particular way. You can make it behave in a certain way because you can imprint certain memory upon it. So this is an intelligent energy where a certain amount of imprint is there. Because of that it functions in a specific manner in an individual person. That is going into an extremely refined form of pranayama where we particularly design something for an individual person because he's in a certain way. For that to come to that level, it will need a general level of pranayama where it takes care of these five vayus. If one has a certain mastery over these five vayus, there is no such thing as physical ailment or particularly psychological ailment is out of question. If somebody takes charge of their pranam, whatever may be the external atmosphere, whatever influences in terms of reverberations, waves, emotions, other kinds of pressures, doesn't matter what, psychological balance is one hundred percent guaranteed for a person who takes charge of his pranam always. When I say balance, maybe most of you won't be medically considered imbalanced but a whole lot of people are psychologically imbalanced. Suppose you have a hand, suppose this hand simply pops up right now, it pokes into eyes and it scratches you and beats you. If your hand starts doing this, there is a sickness, isn't it? At least your hand is sick. Let me not blame the whole person. At least your hand is sick for sure, isn't it? Well, this is what most people's minds are doing. Every day it scratches you from inside, makes you cry, make you bawl, make you worry. In so many varieties of suffering it pokes your eyeballs out many times. Is it not doing? It is sick, maybe in a socially accepted manner but it is sick. So one who takes charge of his pranam can be one hundred percent assured his psychological balance is there, you cannot shake it. Physiological balance also is there but physiological ailments may happen due to various reasons. One thing is there are infections and other, you know, organisms who want to live, yes they want to live. Another thing is variety of chemicals and poisons and stuff we may swallow knowingly and knowingly and it can cause things. So physiological ailment is I would say ninety percent guaranteed that it won't happen but psychological well-being is one hundred percent guaranteed. If you psychologically in an extremely good place ten percent of physiological problems are not even a problem, you know, it's not even a problem. After the time what little things that may happen to the body that's not the thing. What reaction that happens in your mind is the big thing, isn't it? Yes or no? So pranayam means you want to take charge of the vital forces. As I said they have an intelligence of their own, each one of them. Either during birth, after conception, how they enter the newborn and how they leave the dead. In this it clearly displays it has an intelligence of its own. One may not notice this unless they become very conscious about these things. It's a world by itself if you ask me. It takes a certain level of attention. The word attention may not go deep enough. I'm using the word attention because the other words are horribly corrupted, awareness and this and that are barely, barely corrupted. So I'm using the word attention but the word attention is not suggesting what is needed. Just mental alertness is not enough. It has to become really attentive. If you make yourself like that you know how these five are functioning.