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Prasna Upanishad

The sun is Prana, the life of this universe, and he rises giving joy to the life in human eyes.  The divinity of the earth rules the lower regions of Apana.  Between the sun and the earth there is space or Samana.  Air is Vyana.

Fire is Udana.  When that fire of life is gone, senses are absorbed in mind, and man comes to life again.  His last thoughts lead him to Prana and accompanied by the living fire of Udana and led by Atman, the Spirit himself, he goes to the regions deserved and desired in imagination.

He who thus knows the meaning of life, his offspring never dies and attains life everlasting.  There is a verse that says:

‘He who knows the rising of life and how it comes to the body, how it abides there in its fivefold division and knows its relation to the inner Spirit, enjoys eternal life, in truth enjoys eternal life’

But in the city of the body, the fires of life are burning; they sleep not.  Apana is like the sacred home-fire for ever kept burning from father to son.  Vyana is like the fire of the South for offerings to the ancestors.  Prana is like the fire of the East lit up by the home fire.  Samana is like the Hotri priest evenly distributing the two offerings of expiration and inspiration.  The mind is the performer of the sacrifice; and Udana is its fruit, since every day it takes the mind in sleep to Brahman, the Almighty