The inner life
Nadi
Direct answer
Nadi: A nadi is a channel of the yogic subtle body through which prana, the life-breath, is said to flow. The texts count thousands and name three as chief.
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At a glance
- Also called
- ida pingala sushumna, energy channels yoga
- Found in
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Related
- Sushumna, Prana, Chakra, Kundalini Awakening
A nadi is a channel of the yogic subtle body through which prana, the life-breath, is said to flow. The texts count thousands and name three as chief.
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What is a nadi?
Nadi means a tube or channel. Yogic and tantric texts describe the subtle body as a network of such channels carrying prana. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika gives their number as seventy-two thousand, and other texts give other figures; the numbers express abundance and are not a count.
Three matter most. Ida runs on the left and is called lunar and cooling. Pingala runs on the right and is called solar and heating. Between them is the sushumna, the central channel. Much of hatha yoga is described as balancing the two side channels so that the breath can enter the middle one.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Chakras and the breath.
What sets Nadi apart
The nadis turn the breath into a matter of left and right. Ida ends at the left nostril and pingala at the right, and the texts observe, correctly, that one nostril usually flows more freely than the other and that the dominance changes through the day. Whole systems of timing were built on which side is open. The large numbers given for the channels, seventy-two thousand in one text and three hundred and fifty thousand in another, signal fullness and were never a tally.
- Meaning: Sanskrit nadi: a tube, pipe or channel
- Ida: the left channel, called lunar and cooling
- Pingala: the right channel, called solar and heating
- Sushumna: the central channel between the two
- Number: seventy-two thousand in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika
- Oldest mention: a hundred and one channels of the heart, in the Upanishads
Often mistaken for something else: The meridians of Chinese medicine are a separate system of twelve main channels carrying qi; the nadis are Indian, carry prana, and are centred on three channels along the spine.
The story behind Nadi
The Upanishads already speak of channels: the Chandogya and the Katha both say that a hundred and one channels lead from the heart, and that one of them rises to the crown of the head. The fuller system of ida, pingala and sushumna belongs to tantric and hatha texts from the medieval period. Alternate-nostril breathing is called nadi shodhana, the cleansing of the channels.
Why Nadi matters
The nadis are what joins the chakras into one system, and they explain why yogic breath practices work with the two nostrils.
How to read Nadi
Texts and teachers use the word to describe where prana is said to move, and so where to direct attention during breath practice.
Nadi in practice: an example
A yoga teacher who speaks of balancing the left and right sides before meditation is using the language of ida and pingala.
Where readings of Nadi go wrong
Nadis are a traditional picture and not nerves or blood vessels; nothing about them can be examined or cleared by anyone else.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Aliases
- nadis, nadi meaning, ida pingala sushumna, energy channels yoga, 72000 nadis
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
See Nadi in your personal almanac
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Common questions
What is a nadi?
In yoga and tantra it is a channel of the subtle body through which prana is said to flow. The word means a tube or channel.
What are the three main nadis?
Ida on the left, described as lunar and cooling; pingala on the right, described as solar and heating; and sushumna, the central channel between them.
Are the nadis the same as nerves?
No. Some modern writers have compared them to nerves, but the texts describe a visualised network, and no such channels have been found in the body.
