When manas joins praanan in the initial stage of tapah, the bond is carried forward and upwards in the diencephalon region. The praanan is inherently motivated to rejoin the Lord aatman from whence it was seperated in the fetal state to build the organism and to administer it. Praanan, after all, is Uma the female, nurturing an urge to rejoin her Lord, who may be termed Maheswara. In fact, Maheswara is well-known as ardhanaresvara, half-female and half-male. His one half descends as Uma , and he remaining as the other half. After its awakening (asanagatah), praanan, keeping manas as its companion, begin to make sincere efforts to move upwards towards aatman. The efforts of praanan to ascend is called praanaayaama, the aayaamaa of praanan.

For this process to take place, the saadhakaa should be able to sit for a very long period indeed, at one go. He would be entering into the meditative mode, bereft of external consciousness, but fully conscious internally, within himself. It is necessary here to contrast the vaayumathana done at the japah state and the praanaayaama that take place in the tapah state. In vaayumathana the saadhakaa will be exerting his energy to do the gataagati. It is a conscious effort, without which heat is not supplied to praanan, gataagati is a must for these events to take palce.

What happens in the tapah state, is radically different. As noted earlier, a full\96moded sound is produced in gataagati of vaayu. The sound is what the practitioner produces with intent and purpose. Organism gets cleaned; the manas begins to react to the sound while being swayed to the rhythm of the sound. This way, there takes place, disentanglement of manas from its distracting sense-oragns and their stimuli. This ensures concentration of mind without any effort on the saadhakaas part.

In praanayaama something unique takes place. In japah, the saadhakaa stops making the sound and then sits in silence, beginning to meditate. Since manas is still wild and uncontrolled, concentration is not at all possible. Two things are necessary to get concentration: one, the full control of manas by the praanan, and two, the saadhakaa\92s ability into entering the meditative mode. For the later to happen, longer duration of tapah is necessary. When these conditions are met, a saadhakaa will effortlessly be able to be absorbed fully in tapas.

With manas firmly under control, and meditation already started, all the organs and systems of control of the organism are powerfully quietened, and then praaanan readies itself to make its upwards journey towards its lord. This is the begening of praanayaana. By praanayaama we mean the movement of praanan all by itself, without one\92s conscious effort. The movement of praanan is accompished by a sound which is described as pranava. Pranava is the natural sound of praanan produced in its movement towards upwards journey. The sound can be heard by the practitioner clearly, and it resembles the sound of AUM when orally chanted. Since it is heard as AUM, the pranava is known as AUM.

Pranava is held sacred, since it is the natural sound of praanan, the mighty force. It is termed primordial, since praanan emerged at the time of creation with a loud sound resemling AUM. May be,this event strongly resembles the big bang theory of the astronomers.

Very many and varied events, most of them unexplainable, take place in the realm of tapas. The period of tapas can extend to an indefinite period or may be shortened and lost for ever. Much depends on the manastatva, the firm attiude of mind. however, in the normal course of tapas, following events come to one\92s experience.

Secretions of juices: O2 and O3 are gaseous. Then there are innumerable secretions, most of them are chemical and liquid. Take for instance, the secretions of glands. One set of glands \96 salivary, digestive and sweat glands become very active and begin to secret juices to the outside. Salivary secretions, in the form of saliva aid chewing and in the act of maceration. In fact food should be macerated with the help of saliva. Next comes the effective secretion of digestive juices. Indigestion vanishes. Japah brings about sweating. Jesus Christ talks about sweat of the eyebrows brisk and vigorous gataagati induces heavy sweating. Toxic wastes are thrown out from the skin and one feels fresh

Then there are very significant secretions about which much is talked about in the yogic texts. The reference is to three different and distinctive sercetions called soma, madhu and amuruta. They are experienced at different stages of tapas in the same order. All the three owe their secretions to the endocrine glands.