Nadis

Nadis — the channels through which prana flows in the human energy body — are the lineage’s map of the subtle circulatory system. The word nadi means a channel, a flow, a pathway. Where the physical body has arteries, veins, and capillaries carrying blood, the pranic body has nadis carrying prana, mental energy, and spiritual flow. They are not physical structures and they do not show up in dissection. But scientific research has been carried out to verify their existence — Dr Hiroshi Motoyama and other researchers have used instruments of electromagnetic-current detection to demonstrate flowing within close proximity to the nervous system. The classical texts speak of 72,000 nadis in the human body — the Goraksha Samhita and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika both give this number, the Prapanchasara Tantra speaks of 300,000, the Shiva Samhita names 350,000 emerging from the navel centre. The exact number is less important than the structural fact: the pranic body is a dense, layered, interconnected network through which prana moves in every direction. Of all these channels, the texts agree on three of supreme importance — ida, the lunar channel on the left; pingala, the solar channel on the right; sushumna, the central channel along the spine that opens fully only when ida and pingala come into balance. These three rivers of the pranic body, like the three rivers of Indian geography that meet underground at Prayag — Ganga, Yamuna, and the lost Saraswati — meet at the eyebrow centre, the ajna chakra. The teaching about nadis is the teaching about how prana actually moves in a living human being. To understand the nadis is to understand the structural basis on which every yogic practice operates.

This page is the foundational anchor for the nadi system across the OMJOOMSUH wiki. Its primary source is Prana and Pranayama by Paramahamsa Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati (Chapter 4). The page is closely paired with Prana (the principle that flows through the nadis), Pranayama (the practice that purifies the nadis), Chakras (the vortices situated along the central channel), and Pancha Kosha (the kosha within which the nadis operate).

---

What a nadi is

A nadi is not a physical structure. It is a channel, a matrix throughout the physical body. The classical texts describe the nadis as carrying energy in every direction. They are not physical, measurable, or discernible structures within the body, but channels of energy which underlie and sustain life and consciousness. The body is sustained by them; consciousness flows along them; the practices of yoga work upon them rather than around them.

The book Prana and Pranayama puts it directly: Nadis are pathways of pranic, mental and spiritual currents, which form a matrix throughout the physical body. They provide energy to every cell, organ and part of the body. Nadis are not physical, measurable or discernible structures within the body, but channels of energy which underlie and sustain life and consciousness. At the psychic level, the nadis can actually be seen as flows of energy. At higher levels of consciousness they appear as flows of light, colour and sound. At the same time, these nadis underlie and are mirrored in all bodily functions and processes.

The most accessible analogy is electromagnetic. Nadis relate to the energy body, and laser beams are subtle flows. Just as electricity, radio waves and laser beams are subtle flows, the nadis relate to the energy body and should not be confused with nerves, which relate to the physical body. Both can be described in similar vocabulary — channels, currents, flow — but they operate on different planes.

Contemporary research that begins to verify the existence of nadis is the work of Dr Hiroshi Motoyama (the Japanese researcher whose Apparatus for Measuring the Functional Conditions of Meridians and Corresponding Internal Organs detects electromagnetic currents close to the nervous system) and parallel work from acupuncture research, which has documented measurable bioelectric properties along the traditional Chinese meridians — channels that map closely onto the Indian nadi system in many cases. The two traditions developed independently across millennia. They converge on the same subtle architecture.

The numbers

The classical sources differ on the precise number of nadis, but agree on the order of magnitude:

• The Goraksha Samhita and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika both name 72,000 nadis emerging from the navel centre
• The Prapanchasara Tantra speaks of 300,000 nadis
• The Shiva Samhita states 350,000 emerging from the navel centre

The variation is less important than the structural fact: the pranic body is vast in its number of channels. The lineage does not pretend to map every one. It maps the channels that matter for the practice — the ones whose purification and balance produces the experience the practitioner is seeking.

The major nadis

Out of the thousands of nadis, the texts identify a smaller set as the major nadis — those most consequential for the pranic and consciousness practice. The Shiva Swarodaya names fourteen major nadis. The lineage tradition the book carries names thirteen. The book gives a working list of eleven named major nadis, each with a specific path through the body:

1. Gandhari (गान्धारी) — flows from the corner of the left eye to the left big toe. Situated on the side of ida nadi and supports it.

2. Hastijihva (हस्तिजिह्वा) — flows from the right eye to the left big toe and carries energy to and from the lower part of the body. Hastijihva and gandhari support ida and together form the left channel.

3. Kuhu (कुहू) — flows from the right big toe to the left ear and supports pingala.

4. Pusha (पूषा) — flows from the left big toe to the right ear. Pusha and yashasvini support pingala and together form the right channel.

5. Yashasvini (यशस्विनी) — flows from the left big toe to the right ear and supports pingala.

6. Alambusha (अलम्बुषा) — begins in the anus and terminates in the mouth. Kuhu begins in the throat and terminates in the genitals. Seminal essence is transformed to ojas by this nadi. Kuhu is awakened by the practice of vajroli.

7. Shankhini (शङ्खिनी) — begins at the throat and terminates in the anus. It flows on the left side of sushumna between saraswati and gandhari. Shankhini is activated by the practice of basti (yogic enema).

8. Saraswati (सरस्वती) — is the nadi situated on the tongue. Those who possess gifted speech have an awakened saraswati.

9. Payaswini (पयस्विनी) — flows on the right side between pusha and saraswati. Payaswini is situated on the right ear and is activated by nadi shodhana and other kriyas. Payaswini is the medium through which yogis awaken their nadis by wearing large karphata yogic earrings.

10. Varuni (वारुणी) — resides in the area of the navel and flows between kuhu and hastijihva. It is related to the adrenal gland and the pancreas, and is activated by nauli kriya. It improves the flow of prana throughout the body, and helps in the rising of prana along sushumna.

11. Vishvodari (विश्वोदरी) — the eleventh named major nadi.

The names matter less than the principle they describe. The pranic body is a structured, interconnected network where channels run from the toes to the eyes, from the navel to the head, from the genitals to the mouth — and where each channel connects to specific physiological regions and is activated by specific yogic practices (mudras, kriyas, asanas, and pranayamas). The system is mappable. The yogis mapped it.

But of all these, three nadis are foundational, and the entire architecture of pranayama and yogic practice rests on them.

The three principal nadis

Ida nadi (इडा) — the lunar channel. On the left side of the body. Cool, calming, mental, parasympathetic. Ida is the channel of consciousness and mental energy. It governs the right hemisphere of the brain.

Pingala nadi (पिङ्गला) — the solar channel. On the right side of the body. Hot, energetic, physical, sympathetic. Pingala is the channel of vital energy and physical activity. It governs the left hemisphere of the brain.

Sushumna nadi (सुषुम्ना) — the central channel. Along the spinal cord, the mystical path of yoga that flows between ida and pingala. Sushumna is the channel of spiritual awakening. It is the path through which kundalini rises in the progressive awakening of higher knowledge.

The book quotes the analogy of the three rivers: Nadis are like the three most important rivers in India, the last being an underground flow. The junction where these three rivers join is called Prayag, located outside of Allahabad in north India. In the pranic body, they converge at ajna chakra. Prayag is also known as the tirya, or solar nadi, and ida as the chandra, or lunar nadi. Ida and pingala indicate time, while sushumna is the devourer of time, since it leads to timelessness and eternity.

The polarity principle — ida and pingala

The entire universe is comprised of two forces, consciousness and energy, which are interdependent and opposite, yet complementary. The universe hangs as a kind of web of interacting energies, suspended and functioning within the framework of tensions developed by this fundamental polarity. Wherever one looks, within nature, within the body and within the mind, this polarity can be seen as light and dark, positive and negative, male and female, and so on. At every level, these two great principles or forces are at work, creating and motivating the universe.

When this cosmic polarity of prana and consciousness manifests in the microcosmic unit of the human body, it takes the form of chitta shakti (mental energy) and prana shakti (vital energy), which correspond to ida nadi and pingala nadi.

The book gives the precise comparative table that lays out the two polarities at every level of being:

Ida	Pingala	Sushumna
chitta	prana	kundalini
mental	vital	supramental
negative	positive	neutral
feminine	masculine	androgynous
yin	yang	tao
cold	hot	temperate
magnetism	logic	wisdom
moon	sun	knowledge
introvert	extrovert	centred
right	day	dawn/dusk
passive	dynamic	balanced
subjectivity	objectivity	awareness
parasympathetic	sympathetic	cerebrospinal
blue	red	white/golden
Ganga	Yamuna	Saraswati
Brahma	Shakti	Rudra
subconscious	conscious	unconscious
tamas	rajas	sattva
Ā	Ū	M

This table is one of the lineage’s most pedagogically clear maps. Every contemporary self-help framework that distinguishes left-brain from right-brain, sympathetic from parasympathetic, masculine from feminine, yin from yang — is naming a partial slice of what the ida-pingala-sushumna teaching named completely millennia earlier.

The flow — checking which nadi is dominant

One of the most practical teachings about the nadis concerns how to read which one is currently dominant in a practitioner’s own body. The book gives the precise method:

The ida force is the lunar energy, which controls the manomaya kosha, vijnanamaya kosha, whereas pingala controls the annamaya and manomaya koshas. In pranamaya kosha, ida and pingala forces reach out in both directions.

Link with the flow of nostrils. The ida force is the subtle energy that controls the breath in the left nostril, and pingala the right nostril. If one checks the flow of breath at any moment, one will easily find that one nostril is more open than the other. When the flow of breath is stronger in the left nostril, it indicates that ida nadi is in dominance. When the flow is stronger in the right nostril, it indicates that pingala is in dominance. When one is sleepy or drowsy, one will notice that the left nostril is flowing. When one is physically active, the right nostril begins to flow predominantly.

The yogis devised a body of practice — the Swara Yoga tradition — entirely from observation of this single phenomenon. The flow shifts roughly every 90 minutes throughout the day, in the ultradian rhythm that contemporary chronobiology has separately identified as the basic rest-activity cycle. The yogis named it earlier; the science named it later; both describe the same fundamental pulse of the human nervous system.

Link with right and left brain. The ida force is the white energy that controls the manomaya, vijnanamaya koshas, whereas pingala controls the annamaya and manomaya koshas. The right hemisphere governs the left side of the body and the left hemisphere governs the right side of the body. Ida is connected to the right hemisphere and pingala to the left. The right hemisphere processes information in a diffuse and holistic manner. It controls orientation in space and is particularly sensitive to the vibrational state of existence and those experiences which are intangible to the external senses. Thus it stimulates creative, artistic and musical abilities and is responsible for mental, psychic and extrasensory perception. Conversely, the left hemisphere — which relates to pingala — processes information in a sequential, linear and logical manner, and is responsible for rational, analytical and mathematical ability.

Link with the koshas. Ida is the white energy that controls the manomaya and vijnanamaya koshas. Pingala controls the annamaya and manomaya koshas. In pranamaya kosha, ida and pingala forces reach out in both directions. Thoughts and mental experiences that remain confined to manomaya kosha, or to the mental dimension, are known as ida activity, until they become physical. Desires, thoughts, emotions and feelings are given form and direction by the force of ida. Vijnanamaya kosha, the body of psychic and intuitive knowledge that may give rise to telepathy, is also an aspect of ida, the mental force. Extrasensory powers, such as clairaudience and clairvoyance or telepathy, are developed within the range of ida. The range of pingala, the vital force, is experienced as physical vitality in annamaya kosha, the awareness which remains even in the deepest state of meditation, after the dissolution of all the samskaras and karmas, is the result of an awakened pingala. The oneness in samadhi is pingala energy; this is the subtlest aspect of prana.

Sushumna — the neutral channel

When the two forces of ida and pingala are balanced, the third channel of sushumna becomes active. It is a fact that when two opposing forces are equal and balanced, a third force arises. By striking a match against a corrosive surface, fire is created. By bringing positive and negative currents together, machinery can be operated. Similarly, when the body and mind are united, a third force arises. This force is called sushumna, the spiritual energy. The working of these three forces can also be understood through the analogy of an electromagnetic circuit with the north pole being ajna and the south pole muladhara. Ida is the negative charge, pingala the positive charge, and sushumna is the neutral charge.

At each node of ida and pingala there is a concentration of energy which forms pulsating patterns in the horizontal plane. These nodes are the chakras. Force fields that expand or contract depending on physical and mental activities. When there is an intensity of energy between ida and pingala, the chakras manifest as the force of light and sound. This manifestation occurs to a minor extent in normal everyday life, but much more during pranayama practices such as nadi shodhana and meditation. While ida and pingala conduct mental and physical energy, sushumna conducts a higher form of cosmic and divine energy, whereas the energy of sushumna is dormant in most people.

When sushumna is active, the breath flows through both nostrils equally. Normally this happens only for a few minutes throughout the day, between major shifts in nostril dominance. When sushumna flows, the whole brain operates, but only half of the brain is active during the flow of ida or pingala. At the time of sushumna, both annamaya and pranamaya, physical organs and mental organs, function simultaneously and one becomes very powerful. Feelings of equanimity and steadiness arise, because sushumna is the conductor of mahaprana, the kundalini energy. Meditative states arise spontaneously, even in the middle of a traffic jam. The flow of sushumna is considered to be the most favourable for any type of sadhana.

Sushumna represents the integration and harmony of opposites at all levels. It indicates the balance and fusion of the opposite principles of ida and pingala. The following chart shows the expression of these three forces at various levels.

Purification of the nadis

All yogic practices purify the pranas, but pranayama is considered the principal among these. Maharshi Patanjali states: Thence the covering of the light is destroyed, with reference to the effects of pranayama. This covering is the residue of tamas and rajas — and through pranayama the sattvic nature of the chitta shines forth. In Tamas and rajas exist in the form of blockages in the nadis. These blockages may be caused by disease, tension, accumulation of impurities, negative thoughts or emotions, mental patterns helped in the subconscious and unconscious. Just as the nadis are not physical but pranic entities, the blockages too are not physical and may be experienced, but not quantified.

The thoughts and entire mental formations and modifications, also in the mind and consciousness as energy waves. Therefore, they influence the energy patterns in the nadis directly and indirectly. Depending on the nature of a thought or vritti, the respective nadis as well as the chakras, elements and doshas are affected, creating a spiralling effect throughout the energy network. If the thoughts are felt unchecked, the energy system will be depleted over time. In this way the negative thought patterns and vrittis are reinforced and the prana is weakened. For this reason it is difficult to free oneself of obsessions and samskaras.

Indulging in an experience of arrogance, for example, will create a block in the manipura/anahata region and the network of nadis there. Every further wave of arrogance will fortify the block in the anahata/vishuddhi region. Such blockages in the nadis often manifest as disease in the annamaya kosha. On the other hand, even if a disease has been caused by purely physical circumstances, it will be transmitted to the pranic and psychic realm as well. The nadis in that region of the body become weak and the network of flows will become weaker and weaker.

The full discipline of nadi shuddhi — the purification of the nadis — has many limbs: shatkarmas, asanas, pranayamas (particularly Nadi Shodhana), and meditation. The whole brain is benefitted by influencing the alpha-wave behaviour of the brain. Pranayama is also practised to bring the mind under control, and for this purpose the round is usually begun from the left nostril, which represents ida nadi or the mental energy. In contrast, the rotation of awareness in yoga nidra is begun from the right side to first subdue pingala, the vital energy and heat in the body. By practising pranayama systematically for a few years, a gradual transformation is brought about in the structure of the nervous system. Ultimately, there comes a moment when one closes the eyes, goes in, and achieves meditation.

Awakening of prana along sushumna

When the nadis flow regularly, rhythmically and continuously, and no blockages or physiological discomfort is encountered in the breathing process, this stage is known as prasuddhata, awakening of the pranas, more specifically of ida and pingala. When the awakening of ida and pingala occurs, sushumna initiates. The awakening of this third force is considered the most important event in pranayama, kriya yoga and kundalini yoga. Pranayama actually begins with the awakening of sushumna, because then the pranic field expands. Until this awakening occurs, the purification of ida and pingala continues throughout the journey.

After the pranas have awakened, the practitioner is ready to undertake the practice of prana vidya. The practitioner must be able to direct prana in any direction, to use his own body, but also the unrepresent, manifest power from which all energies originate. The adept yogi can withdraw prana from any area of the body, so that it becomes impervious to heat, cold or any other sensation. He can send prana to any area and make it sensitive. He can learn to use the cosmic energy, which is freely available to all, to create further changes in the patterns of the body, mind and consciousness. Such an awakening of prana energy indicates the evolution of pranamaya kosha, whereby one is able to drop into and become established in the higher meditative states.

A closing distinction

The contemporary wellness culture has begun to speak of energy in vague and generalised terms. Low energy. High energy. Good vibes. Bad vibes. The vocabulary is loose. The nadi teaching is the precise opposite — a structured, mapped, measurable, and practice-responsive system that names exactly where energy moves and how to influence it.

To understand the nadi system is to understand that yoga is not metaphor. It is a working model of the subtle physiology of a human being, developed across centuries by people who watched themselves and others with extraordinary care. The contemporary research on the autonomic nervous system, on the bioelectric field, on the meridian system in acupuncture, on the ultradian rhythm of nostril dominance — is in our own decade beginning to confirm, in its own vocabulary, what the rishis named in theirs.

The practice — pranayama, the kriyas, the mudras, the bandhas — is the discipline by which a practitioner takes the nadi map and uses it. The map without the practice is geography. The practice without the map is wandering. The two together are the path.

---

Related Concepts

• Prana — the principle that flows through the nadis
• Pranayama — the practice that purifies the nadis
• Pancha Prana — the five force-fields that operate within the nadi system
• Pancha Kosha — the koshas within which the nadis operate (particularly pranamaya)
• Chakras — the vortices situated along sushumna where ida and pingala cross
• Vagus Nerve — the contemporary mapping for the autonomic side of nadi flow
• Cortisol Awakening Response — the dawn shift in pranic activation
• Sandhya — the times of day when ida and pingala are most likely to balance
• Sadhana — the daily practice through which the nadis are progressively cleared
• Surya Namaskara — the morning movement practice that activates pingala and balances ida
• Pratyahara — the limb of yoga that conserves the prana in the nadis
• Yoga Nidra — the practice that traces the body from right side to subdue pingala
• Mantra Diksha — the initiation that activates a current along specific nadis
• Bihar School of Yoga — the lineage institution within which the teaching is held
• Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati — the author of the primary source text
• Swami Satyananda Saraswati — the guru in whose lineage the text was written

---

Sources

Primary lineage source. Prana and Pranayama by Paramahamsa Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, published by Yoga Publications Trust, Bihar School of Yoga, Munger. Chapter 4 (Nadis: Channels of Prana) is the structural basis for the page.

Foundational classical references.

• Hatha Yoga Pradipika (on the 72,000 nadis and the centrality of ida, pingala, sushumna)
• Gheranda Samhita (on nadi purification)
• Shiva Samhita (on the 350,000 nadis emerging from the navel)
• Prapanchasara Tantra (on the 300,000 nadis)
• Goraksha Samhita (on the 72,000 nadis and the major channels)
• Shiva Swarodaya (on the fourteen major nadis and the science of swara)

Contemporary research convergences.

• Motoyama H., Theories of the Chakras: Bridge to Higher Consciousness (Theosophical Publishing House, 1981). On the electromagnetic detection of nadi activity.
• Langevin H. M. and Yandow J. A., “Relationship of acupuncture points and meridians to connective tissue planes.” The Anatomical Record 269, no. 6 (2002): 257–265. (On the meridian-fascia convergence relevant to the parallel nadi-meridian question)
• Werntz D. A. et al., “Alternating cerebral hemispheric activity and the lateralization of autonomic nervous function.” Human Neurobiology 2, no. 1 (1983): 39–43. (On the nostril-dominance and brain-hemisphere correlation that confirms the swara teaching)
• Shannahoff-Khalsa D. S., “The ultradian rhythm of alternating cerebral hemispheric activity.” International Journal of Neuroscience 70, no. 3-4 (1993): 285–298.

Cross-reference for the underlying principle: Prana. For the practice that works directly with the nadis: Pranayama.