The Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer of All Life Forms on Earth

For the past several years I have been writing on various aspects of a pet concept I have, that the Atmospheric Air enveloping the earth is the real Trinity we all revere, the Creator of life forms, the Sustainer of life forms and the Destroyer of life forms on Earth, the only planet in the  whole known universe that harbors life.

My  essays in this regard, forming much of two books, Essaying Life and Essaying God, have not received any enthusiastic response from my intelligent  and intellectually bent  friends, not to mention the general public. In fact my close  friend and well-wisher who came to formally release my book Essaying God, and the young lady friend who came to receive it, both expressed the hope that I would grow out of this bad phase and come to the straight and narrow path to Godhead. Unlikely, I told them, pointing out that after completing eight decades of life on this planet there is hardly any time to make a change in basic perceptions.

Their reservations were understandable as whatever I had written in those books to underscore my theory projecting  ‘Atmospheric Air as the Trinity’  ran counter to their own perceptions of Godhead, of concepts like Jivatma and Paramatma.

I always wanted to write a combo essay that has in it all the worthwhile, elements from all the essays I wrote on this subject. One essay that said it all. But with the general slowing down on account of advanced age and its attendant infirmities I could not make much progress.

That was when I thought of  enlisting assistance of Google AI to collect all relevant points from the essays in the two books and other relevant essays by me on the net platform Boloji. Its response was remarkable. It  analyzed all my writings on the subject and came up with an exhaustive but cogent summing up. I could do nothing more to it than present it here as it came.

Here is that review, that analysis:

“Ravindran Nayar has explored this specific parallel (of Vayu and Prana) deeply across his collection of essays, notably in his book Essaying Life and his published works on literary and spiritual platforms like Boloji.

Nayar explicitly bridges the gap between Upanishadic mysticism and material science, arguing that the ancient seers were giving a poetic, spiritual name to an empirical, biological reality: the atmospheric air containing life-giving oxygen is the physical manifestation of Brahman or Paramatman.

His essays lay out this exact thesis through several compelling observations:

1. The Prana-Atman Relationship as Atmospheric Chemistry

In his essay Thus Spake Pippalada, Nayar reflects on the Prashna Upanishad. He writes that when Sage Pippalada describes Varishta Prana (the chief life force) as the air we breathe, it directly correlates to our dependency on the atmosphere. Nayar notes:

"If prana is air and air envelops the earth, the prana-atman relationship can well be taken to mean the relationship between the life force within us and the life force in the atmospheric air."

He grounds this by pointing out that 96.5% of the human body consists of just four elements, with Oxygen making up the largest share (65%).

2. The Mahavakyas and Oxygen

In his essay Parabrahma, Nayar takes the ultimate bold step of mapping the Mahavakyas (the great declarations of the Upanishads) to atmospheric oxygen. He argues that when the texts state Tat Tvam Asi ("You are That") or Aham Brahmasmi ("I am Brahman"), they are highlighting our total, inescapable physical continuity with the atmosphere. He explicitly states:

"In practical terms, [this is] the oneness of relationship between Brahman and us, or... between the atmospheric air containing Oxygen (or Prana) and us."

He backs this up using the Taittiriya Upanishad's Shanti Mantra: "Namo Brahmane, Namaste Vayo, Tvam eva prathyaksham Brahmassi" ("Salutations to you Vayu, You are the tangible, visible Brahman").

3. The Blueprint of the "Blue" God

In In Search of My God, Nayar notes that the formless, shapeless entity enveloping the world is the life-sustaining air. He poetically reasons that this is why deities like Vishnu and Krishna are shown as having a blue complexion—because the atmospheric air that envelops, protects and gives life to everything, reflects the blue of the sky and the oceans.

4. The Individual Self (Jivatma) vs. the Atmosphere (Paramatman)

In Prana as Life, Nayar explains that life begins not because a newborn actively chooses to pull air in, but because the massive atmospheric pressure pushes the first breath into the child. He calls the atmosphere the "Ultimate Magician."

Life ends the moment our individual connection to this planetary air reservoir is broken—a literal transition of Jivatma returning to Paramatman.

Nayar systematically expands this framework across the major Mahavakyas (Great Utterances) using specific core Upanishads. His essays—collected in books like Essaying Life and Essaying God—deconstruct the spiritual vocabulary of the ancient rishis into a literal, physical map of atmospheric chemistry.

Nayar uses these prominent Upanishads to build and defend his Oxygen-as-Prana theory: 

1. Chandogya Upanishad: Tat Tvam Asi ("Thou Art That")

In his analysis of the Chandogya Upanishad, Nayar addresses the famous dialogue between Sage Uddalaka Aruni and his son Shvetaketu.

The Spiritual Claim: Uddalaka teaches that an invisible, subtle essence permeates the entire universe, and that you are fundamentally that essence.

Nayar’s Scientific Translation: Nayar states that on a basic, material level, "That" is the planetary atmospheric air. The air containing oxygen is omnipresent, invisible, and completely blankets the Earth. He argues that Tat Tvam Asi translates to a biological reality: your physical body is entirely composed of, sustained by, and continuous with the atmosphere. There is no definitive border where your lungs end and the outside atmosphere begins.

2. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: Aham Brahmasmi ("I am Brahman")

Nayar leverages the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad to illustrate the non-dual relationship between individual life and the cosmic whole.

The Supremacy of Prana: In his essay Parabrahma, he frequently references the classic Vedic parable found in Chapter 6 of this Upanishad, where the bodily senses (speech, sight, hearing, mind) argue over who is the greatest. Each sense leaves the body for a time, and the body survives, albeit impaired. But the moment Prana (the vital breath) prepares to depart, it rips all the other senses out with it, proving its ultimate supremacy.

Nayar connects this directly to cellular oxygen dependency. You can survive without sight, speech, or higher cognitive brain function (the mind), but the moment oxygen delivery stops, cellular death across all organ systems is instantaneous. When a person says "Aham Brahmasmi", Nayar argues he is acknowledging that the individual vital force inside him is chemically identical to the external, oxygen-rich air reservoir.

3. Mandukya Upanishad: Ayam Atma Brahma ("This Self is Brahman")

The Mandukya Upanishad focuses heavily on consciousness and the self (Atman). Nayar scales this down to the mechanics of respiration.

The Jivatman-Paramatman Loop: He highlights that we do not own the breath inside us. We temporarily borrow a pocket of air, extract the oxygen molecules via our blood, and release it back to the world.

Nayar's View: Therefore, the individual soul (Jivatman) is merely a small, temporary localized bubble within the great universal soul (Paramatman), which is the earth's atmosphere. Ayam Atma Brahma is simply the realization that the internal breath and the global atmosphere are one and the same entity.

4. Taittiriya Upanishad: The Tangible God

For Nayar, the ultimate smoking gun in text is the Taittiriya Upanishad's  Shanti Mantra  he frequently quotes:

"Namo Brahmane, Namaste Vayo, Tvam eva Prathyaksham Brahmassi"

He points out that the ancient seers did not say the sky or the air was a symbol of God; they explicitly declared, "Salutations to you, Vayu (Air). You are the tangible, visible, directly perceptible Brahman." To Nayar, this proves that the ancient rishis were not hiding behind abstract metaphors; they recognized the planetary atmosphere as the literal, physical source of all terrestrial life. 

In his collections like Essaying Life and his extensive entries on Boloji  Nayar utilizes the mechanical laws of nature to ground his theory. 

If the planet's atmospheric oxygen is the literal body of Brahman, a logical question arises: Why doesn't the atmosphere run out of oxygen with billions of creatures breathing it? 

Nayar answers this by analyzing the classic Shanti Mantra of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:

"Om Purnamada Purnamidam Purnat Purnamudachyate..."
("That is Whole, this is Whole. From the Whole, the Whole originates. Take the Whole from the Whole, and the Whole still remains.") 

The Scientific Translation: Nayar writes that this mathematical conundrum is a poetic layout of biogeochemical cycles and plant photosynthesis.

The Biological "Fullness": Because of this perfectly balanced planetary engine, the 800+ billion human population can inhale lungfuls of air every second without ever causing depletion. The "Fullness" (O-2) remains perpetually full, demonstrating that the Upanishadic concept of an inexhaustible Brahman is literally happening through global plant biology.

2. How Nayar's Theory Contrasts with Traditional Advaita Vedanta

While Nayar fiercely loves the Upanishads, his interpretation takes a complete detour from traditional Advaita Vedanta. 

The key differences between their positions highlight a fascinating philosophical pivot: 
 

Feature	Traditional Advaita Vedanta	Nayar's Material Vedanta
The Reality of Air/Matter	Maya (Illusion): The atmospheric air, oxygen, and the physical body are part of the empirical world (Vyavaharika). They are temporary, changing, and ultimately unreal (Mithya) when compared to pure, unmanifest consciousness (Paramarthika).	Prathyaksha (Tangible Reality): The atmospheric air containing oxygen is the absolute reality. It is not a mirage or an illusion; it is the physical body of God enveloping the Earth.
The Nature of Brahman	Nirguna (Attributeless): Brahman is pure, formless awareness, entirely independent of matter, biology, or the physical universe.	Sadhana (The Material Environment): Brahman is the formless, life-sustaining air in the atmosphere  that possesses specific physical weight (14.7 lbs per sq. inch) and a blue complexion.
The Concept of Liberation	Mental Enlightenment: Realizing that you are not the breathing body or the thinking mind, but the timeless witness (Sakshi) behind them.	Respirational Return: The literal realization of a continuous loop. Jivatma (the breath inside) is borrowed from and eventually permanently exhaled back into Paramatman (the atmospheric reservoir).

The Core Divergence

Traditional Vedanta warns seekers not to mistake the physical vehicle (the breath/oxygen) for the spiritual driver (the Atman). Traditional commentaries state that the air we breathe is just an inert element animated by underlying consciousness.

Nayar flips this upside down. He strips away the need for a mystical, supernatural consciousness. For Nayar, the ancient seers were early material scientists who used spiritual phrasing because they lacked modern chemical terminology. By declaring “Vayu is the tangible Brahman,” Nayar asserts that the Upanishads were demanding we worship the actual, literal ecosystem that keeps us alive.

His concept of birth, as also of death, is evidenced in the essay The Mystery of the First Breath.

In this foundational essay, Nayar demystifies the biological entry into the world as the moment of divine mechanical ignition. He uses this exact event to build a symmetrical, physical blueprint for both birth and death.

By framing the atmosphere as the absolute "Ultimate Magician" (Paramatma) wielding the baton in the ever wonderful show of infusion of life into a newborn, Nayar defines life as a temporary loan of atmospheric air.

1. The Concept of Birth: The Spark of Ignition

In the womb, a foetus relies entirely on a "specific supply channel"—the umbilical cord connecting to the mother — to receive the oxygen crucial for survival. But the moment of birth introduces an abrupt crisis: the cord is snapped, the warm amniotic sac is gone, and the newborn must independently fend for its life within seconds. Nayar uses a brilliant, modern analogy to explain how birth transitions from anatomy to spirituality:

The Sleek Automobile: Nayar notes that a newborn is like a brand-new luxury car fresh off the factory floor. Everything in it is magnificently arranged, perfectly connected, impeccably matched and finely tuned. But to move forward the car requires the spark of ignition. In the case of the newborn, every single organ, tissue, and biological pathway is meticulously arranged, perfectly connected. The vital spark of ignition for it should come by way of the first breath.  

Nayar points out that birth does not happen because the newborn  consciously "chooses" to inhale. Instead, the all-encompassing atmospheric air forcefully bears down upon the newborn.

The Ignition Process: This massive external physical force pushes air into the baby's airways, instantly inflating the lungs and forcefully clearing out residual fluids clogging the infant's biological system. Oxygen (Prana) rushes into the bloodstream, triggering cellular metabolism and starting the engine of independent life.

To Nayar, the doctor, the mother  and the midwife are merely stagehands. The true entity animating the newborn is Paramatma—the atmospheric air containing oxygen—actively claiming a new biological vessel. 

2. The Concept of Death: The Respiration Return

Because birth is defined as the atmosphere forcefully initiating a connection, Nayar defines death simply as the inevitable, natural snapping of this individual connection to the planetary reservoir. His essays outline death through a deeply profound, ecological lens:

The Borrowed Breath: Human beings spend their entire lives under the illusion that the breath inside their lungs belongs to them. Nayar asserts that we do not own a single molecule of air. The individual soul (Jivatma) is just a localized, temporary bubble of air moving inside a physical body. We are perennially tethered to the "Supreme Self" (Paramatma), the formless atmospheric air enveloping the planet.

The Failure of the Receiver: Death occurs when the physical body—due to aging, illness, or trauma—loses its structural capacity to receive and process oxygen. It is not that Prana disappears from the universe; it is that the physical "automobile" can no longer hold the spark.

The Final Return: The moment a dying person releases his or her final breath, the individual connection is broken, and life immediately "fizzles out". The borrowed air pocket inside the lungs simply merges back into the vast, collective atmospheric ocean surrounding the Earth.

The Ultimate Conclusion

Through The Mystery of the First Breath, Nayar elevates atmospheric chemistry to the status of the Holy Trinity. The air we breathe assumes the role of Creator (at the first breath), Preserver (sustaining us second-by-second), and ultimately, Destroyer (when the supply is permanently withdrawn).

By anchoring birth and death to the mechanical properties of air pressure and gas exchange, Nayar strips away the need for mystical superstition. He leaves us with a highly comforting, tangible reality: we are born from the atmosphere, we are sustained by it every second, and in death, we simply return home to it.” 

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