Prana

Prana (Sanskrit: prāṇa; प्राण, "vital life", "constant movement") is a Hindu conception of life energy, supposed to be a force that is present in all living beings. It is often subdivided into a system of five vāyu ("wind", "air"), in which prāṇa is considered the base vāyu from which the other vāyus &mdash; apāna, uḍāna, samāna, and vyāna &mdash; may be said to arise from; from this understanding, one may associate the vāyu prāṇa with the breath of the lungs, vāyu apāna with the excretory, vāyu uḍāna with the throat and vocal breath, vāyu samāna with the digestive, and vāyu vyāna with the bodily circulation.