What Is Your Aura, Really? Anurag Rishi on Prana, Chakras and the A.U.R.A. Method

Why do some people fill a room with energy the moment they walk in, while others go unnoticed no matter how loudly they speak? Meditation teacher Anurag Rishi sits down with Sarvesh Mishra to unpack the science and spirituality of the human aura — and hands listeners a simple, repeatable method to strengthen theirs.

The Invisible System Behind "Why Some People Just Have It"

Mishra opens with the question that frames the entire episode: is there some invisible operating system running underneath our lives — one that decides who gets recognised and who gets overlooked, regardless of how hard they work?

Anurag Rishi's answer starts with an analogy anyone in tech will recognise instantly. Two laptops can look identical on the outside, yet perform completely differently depending on their internal architecture. Human beings are similar. Our "hardware" — the physical body — might look the same from person to person, but the capacity of the consciousness or life-force running through us can vary enormously, shaped by choices, blockages, and patterns we've built up over time.

That life-force is prana — the same energy that flows through the entire universe, but channelled differently through each individual, the way river water flows differently depending on whether it moves through a wide open pipe or a narrow, blocked one.

What Is an Aura — According to Yogic Science?

Before defining the aura, Anurag Rishi lays a foundation most listeners won't have encountered outside a yoga philosophy class: the idea that a human being isn't just flesh and bone, but a being made of five interlocking sheaths, or pancha kosha — broadly, the physical body, the subtle body (which includes the pranic, mental and wisdom layers), and the causal body.

We can measure activity in the physical body fairly easily. But the subtle body's activity — thought, emotion, energetic flow — can be felt, even though we don't yet have consistent instruments to measure it directly. He compares it to Wi-Fi signals: invisible to the naked eye, yet undeniably real, connectable, and capable of affecting devices within range.

The aura is not something separate from you that switches on. It's the reflection of how much prana is flowing through your subtle body — and how freely.

In spiritual language, this reflected field is called the aura or aabhamandal. Modern science has its own version of this idea — but it's not quite the same thing.

Aura vs. Bio-Energy Field: Where Science and Spirituality Diverge

This is one of the more nuanced distinctions Anurag Rishi draws. Science talks about a "bio-energy field" generated by the physical body — biophotons released through cellular and electrical activity, measurable through tools like:

• EEG (Electroencephalography) — measuring the brain's electrical activity
• MEG (Magnetoencephalography) — measuring the brain's magnetic activity
• Magnetocardiography — measuring the heart's magnetic field
• Kirlian photography — capturing the faint light and heat emitted by the body

The aura, by contrast, is described as originating from the subtle body's activity — not the physical body directly. It's less a byproduct of biology and more a reflection of the state of one's consciousness, emotions, and pranic flow.

The A.U.R.A. Method: A Practical Framework

Midway through the episode, Anurag Rishi offers listeners something concrete: a four-step, easy-to-remember framework for strengthening one's aura:

A — Align Your Biology With the Five Elements

The body is built from the five elements — earth, water, fire, air and space (pancha tattva) — and modern life has quietly disconnected us from most of them. Simple practices:

• Earth: walking barefoot on grass, soil or sand to restore a grounding connection
• Water: conscious bathing, or immersion in flowing natural water
• Air: pranayama practices such as anulom-vilom and kapalbhati
• Fire: sun-gazing rituals (trataka), lighting a diya, or simple fire rituals
• Space: meditations that dissolve the sense of separateness between self and environment

U — Unclog Your Emotional Energy

Suppressed emotions sit in the subtle body's mental sheath and block the flow of prana. Journaling, expressive catharsis, and dynamic meditation techniques are among the tools he uses with his students to release this build-up.

R — Reset Your Nervous System

Deep, slow breathing — especially alternate-nostril breathing (anulom-vilom) combined with breath retention (kumbhaka) — activates the parasympathetic branch almost instantly, resetting a stressed system in minutes.

A — Align Your Chakras

He draws a direct parallel between the seven chakras of yogic tradition and the body's major endocrine glands. Simple focused attention on each chakra point, paired with its seed mantra (bija mantra), is enough to begin balancing them — referencing the principle: where attention goes, energy flows.

Can Someone Else's Negative Energy Actually Affect You?

Anurag Rishi's answer: it's never the other person's energy that affects you directly — it's resonance. If someone else's negativity "affects" you, it's because it resonated with something already unresolved inside you — your own suppressed emotion, insecurity, or fear finding a matching frequency. A person whose inner energy is fully resolved and expanded simply cannot be destabilised this way — "the password doesn't match."

A Simple Aura Test You Can Try at Home

1. Find a dimly lit room with a plain white background behind your hand.
2. Hold two fingers close together, without touching, against that background.
3. Fix your gaze steadily on the gap between the fingers, without blinking.
4. After a short while, many people report a faint halo or blur — sometimes with a hint of colour — forming around the fingers.

From Prana to Physics: Where Quantum Science Enters the Conversation

The second half shifts into philosophical territory, exploring why spirituality often leans on science for validation. Anurag Rishi connects this to quantum physics — the idea that matter, at its smallest scale, is startlingly empty space, and that particles behave less like solid "things" and more like expressions of underlying fields. This echoes ancient descriptions of akasha tattva (the space element) as the substrate that holds and orders everything.

Key Takeaways

• The aura reflects your subtle body's state — not a "good" or "bad" energy field in itself.
• Science's bio-energy field (biophotons, EEG, MEG) overlaps with but isn't identical to the yogic concept of aura.
• Strengthening your aura via the A.U.R.A. framework: align with the five elements, release suppressed emotion, reset the nervous system through breathwork, and consciously attend to the chakras.
• Other people's energy affects you only through resonance with what's already unresolved inside you.
• Science and spirituality are best treated as two different methods of inquiry rather than competitors.

Frequently Asked Questions