The prana is the vitality of the physical body and the vehicle of the soul (jivatman) which enables it to communicate with the world, it's not the soul per-se but the vehicle of the soul/consciousness.
When this vital energy is caught up in the senses/body it is blind to the spiritual worlds, the key to spiritual awareness is the reversal of these vital pranas in the vital/astral body. The vital energies existing in the etheric body are like energies that are in constant motion and their direction is down or towards the senses. Pratyhara is the beginning of the reversal of this direction much like a gradual slowing of a freight train, once the freight train actually *stops* the breath also stops! because the breath is a *bi-product* of prana not the prana itself. Once the pranas start spinning clockwise (hitherto purportedly they are spinning counter-clock wise and outward towards the senses) and *reverse* their direction, awareness in the spiritual worlds commences, not before. Remember the prana is the vehical of soul/consciousness. Like a freight train reversing it's direction, it takes as much 'effort' and dedication to accomplish this task as well. MMY said (in Fuiggi, Italy) it could take a million years to reach CC (or accomplish this task fully) unless you come to these courses .
