For a man who hardly ate Ramalinga Adigal started the Satya Dharma Salai at Vadalur to feed the hungry. Sri Jeganatha Swamigal is said to have fed the hungry at his cottage in Tapah. In present times Thavathiru Rengaraja Desigar who has seen intense fasting and hunger feeds the poor and the hungry in the vicinity of his mission Ongarakudil in Turaiyur. Tavayogi and Mataji carried out regular feeding at their Ashram. Agathiyar too is said to love to cook but hardly ate too. He would serve the hungry instead. He explains that he was feeding the elements. Neem Karoli Baba told Ram Dass "Serve people." when he asked him "How do you raise kundalini?"
Food is essential in providing energy. Similarly, prana is essential to keep us alive. Dr. David Frawley writes in https://yogainternational.com/article/view/understanding-prana about the very well-known Vedic story, found in the Upanishads on prana.
"The five main faculties of our nature - the mind, breath (prana), speech, hearing, and sight - were arguing about which was the most important. To resolve the dispute they decided that each would leave the body, in turn, to see whose absence was missed most. First speech left, yet the body continued to flourish though it was mute. Next, the eye departed, yet the body flourished though blind. Then the ear left, yet the body thrived though deaf. Finally, the mind left, yet still, the body lived on, though it was now unconscious. But the moment the prana started to leave, the body began to die. The other faculties were rapidly losing their life force, so they all rushed to prana, admitted its supremacy, and begged it to stay."
This is the reason Agathiyar says the Prana is Uyir. It sustains all living things. The Siddhas ask us to take notice and later take hold of our breath. Eventually, the breath shall take us along on an internal journey of splendor and bliss.
David Frawley continues, "Prana is not only the basic life force, it is the original creative power. It is the master form of all energy working at every level of our being. Indeed the entire universe is a manifestation of prana. Even kundalini shakti, the serpent power or inner energy which transforms our consciousness, develops from awakened prana."
"On a cosmic level, there are two aspects of prana. The first is unmanifest, the energy of pure consciousness, which transcends all creation. The second, or manifest prana, is the force of creation itself."
I became aware of this force only when I undertook the Pranayama exercises that Tavayogi showed us in 2007. In Nadi Sudhi (Nadi Shodhana or alternate nostril breathing), we began to manage the flow of the breath ensuring that it flows in a particular nostril at the start of each day of the week. These exercises brought an immense amount of Prana that otherwise, we take for granted and hardly notice. My body was on the verge of exploding just as a balloon explodes when it expands beyond its limitation to hold air. It was blissful. Many years later I did not need to carry out these exercises as the Prana automatically filled me up. Later I could absorb this Prana from the food I took, from touch, through watching and hearing too. It was so blissful to become packed with energy. During these moments I wished that only I could share this bliss with others.
Soon Pranayama became effortless. The prana that traversed through the body now had to be channeled into the Sushumna. Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal came and gave us further practices for this purpose. After many years only recently did the Prana instead of traveling in the Ida and Pingala, switching every two hours, began to travel in the Sushumna. The result - it touched the chakras and awakened them as it traveled on.
Just as what I believed to be Hanuman came as a stranger priest who we picked up at Uttamar temple in Trichy had us move as swift as the wind and carry out my remedies and prayers at the numerous sannadhis or abodes of the deities at Tiruvanaikaval Temple the Prana swiftly leads us within and brings us to worship the deities at the numerous chakras within.
As David Frawley says that "Without prana, the physical body is no more than a lump of clay. Prana sculpts this gelatinous mass into various limbs and organs by creating various subtle nerve channels, or nadis, through which it can operate and energize gross matter, shaping it into various tissues and organs", Agathiyar too in defining Udal, Uyir and Atma to us says,
உடல் என்பது ஐந்து உலோகங்களின் நுண்ணுயிர்களின் அளவுகளைத் தாங்கிக் கொண்டு பிண்டம் ஒன்றினை உருவ வடிவமாய் கர்ப்பகிரகத்தில் நிலை பெறுகிறது. பஞ்சபூதம் ஆகிய நீர், நிலம், ஆகாயம், காற்று, நெருப்பு அனைத்தும் தாய் தந்தையின் உடலிலிருந்தே எடுக்கப்பட்டு சிசுவின் உடலைப் பிறப்பிக்கின்றது.
உனது உடலைப் பிரதானமாகக் கொண்டு இயங்குவது சுவாசம், அதுவே உயிர். உயிர் என்பது செயல் அற்று இருக்கக்கூடிய உறுப்பைச் செயல் பெறச் செய்வது. The breath that is Uyir takes the body as its vehicle to move and execute its actions. It primarily drives our body moving the limbs that are otherwise motionless.
பிறக்கும் சிசு கருவுற மூலமாக இருப்பது பிராணவாயு. பிராணவாயு ஆணின் அணுக்களிலும் பெண்ணின் அணுக்களிலும் ஊடுருவி ஒன்றெனக் கலந்து பிரதான பொருள் வடிவம் அடையும் தன்மை உண்டானால் அங்கு உயிர் சக்தி உருவேற்ற படுகிறது. The Pranavayu is the primary cause of the conception of an embryo and a fetus. The Pranavayu that flows in with the elements from both the parents move to take a shape that has a potential to become life. Life is hence given to the embryo. Air is breathed into the Pindam.
As Manickavasagar sings that we had taken many forms to be born as a human finally, it is only in human birth that we can correct our past mistakes by living carrying out remedies, doing puja, charity, and service. In all other births, we have to live out our karma as there is no means for salvation. Hence the reason the saints acknowledge that human birth is indeed rare. Agathiyar too says the same.
மனித பிறவி என்பது அபூர்வமானது. இப்பிறவியில் மனிதானாய் பிறந்தவன் மற்றொரு பிறவியில் மனிதனாய் பிறப்பான் என்பது ஊர்ஜிதமல்ல. கோடான கோடி பிறவியில் நீங்கள் செய்த கர்மவினை மனிதபிறவி எடுக்கும்போது மட்டுமே கழிக்க முடியும். அது கிடைத்தது உங்களின் மனித வாழ்க்கையை வாழ்வதற்கு அல்ல. ஆன்ம விடுதலை நோக்கிச் செல்லுங்கள். எடுத்தபோதே அதனை நிறைவேற்றிக் கொள்ளுங்கள்.