Effect of Pranic Agriculture Treatment on Growth of Cluster Beans (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba L.)

Pranic agriculture (PA) can be applied to plants to produce faster growth, to increase yield and improve the physical, nutritional, sensory and storage qualities of fruits (Rainer, 2015). This can be done by treating the plants with pranic agriculture techniques for a few minutes which is complementary in nature. PA can be implemented by anybody who are familiar with basic knowledge of Pranic Healing.  It is an ancient science and art which uses prana or vital energy to enhance the health of the body. Sui (2015) specifies that basically, there are three major sources of prana namely, solar prana (from sunlight), air prana (from the air) and ground prana (from the soil).  Prana is also referred as Chi or bioplasmic energy. Every object including human beings, plants and trees are surrounded by an energy field. We can feel, interact with this energy, heal, transfer energy to people, plants, fruits and vegetables.

By adopting PA, numerous advantages were reported by many authors. Studies on keeping qualities of brinjal during storage were reported to be significantly higher in the pranic treated group when compared to control (Jois et al., 2019). Similarly, there was an increase in seed germination, shoot length, root length, of drumstick (Prasad and Jois, 2019), increase in the fruit yield of tomatoes (Jois et al., 2016), pole beans (Yathindra et al., 2017a) and European cucumber (Yathindra et al., 2017b). Moreover, PA offers a wide range of economic benefits to farmers and under the current scenario of agrarian crisis, there is a need to adopt green and eco-friendly techniques to enhance the productivity of the crop.

Cyamopsis tetragonoloba L. belonging to the family Leguminosae. It is commonly known as cluster beans and known for its drought tolerant. It is tall and bushy annual legume mostly grown on sandy soils of arid and semi-arid regions of India, Pakistan and the United States (Bhatt et al., 2015).  It is grown as a vegetable for human consumption, as a cover crop, green manure and as forage for cattle. It can abridge the gap between forage supply and demand in drought prone areas for its deeper root system and reduced transpiration rate. Young pods are eaten like string beans or maybe dried, salted or fried in oil until crisp. Mature pods cooked as a vegetable and rich in protein, fat, fiber, carbohydrate, cadmium (Ca), phosphorus (P), iron (Fe), vitamin A and vitamin C.Besides this, cluster beans have multipurpose uses in cosmetics, gum, textile, explosive, papers and food processing industries (Meena and Jat, 2016). In view of the importance of cluster beans, there is a need to enhance its productivity. The main objectives were to appraise the cluster beans by PA treatment and to study its effect on growth characteristics.

Cluster beans (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba L.) seeds were procured from the local market, Mysore, India. The seeds free from any deformity and disease were used for this study. The seeds were divided into pranic and control groups. This study was conducted at Acharya Farms, Kudanahalli, Mysore in the year August, 2018.
 
Sowing and growing conditions
 
Two experimental plots of 50 ft × 25 ft each was selected in the farm. It was named pranic and control plot. In the pranic plot, pranic group seeds were sown and in control plot, control seeds were sown. Seeds were sown in the soil at a depth of 2 cm. Organic cultivation practice using farmyard manure (FYM) was adopted. Both the plots were watered thrice a week. The temperature, humidity and watering for both the plots were uniform through the experiment. The temperature was in the rage of 26-35°C and with a relative humidity of 70-85%. The plants were harvested at intervals of 15, 30, 45 and 60 days and growth parameters of individual plants were estimated. Both treatments (control and pranic) consisted of ten plants during each harvest and data were averaged and recorded.
 
Pranic treatment
 
Pranic Healer applied the protocols on the pranic group seeds and soil. The treatment consists of removing the contaminated energies from the seed and soil using green prana. After removing the contaminated energies, the seeds and soil were then energizing with electric violet prana. The treatment was given once a week, for three weeks and each treatment lasting for five minutes. Pranic treatment was given to the soil three weeks before sowing (Sui, 2015).
 
Growth parameters
 
The plant length, shoot and root length were measured using measuring scale. The number of leaves per plant, leaf length and leaf breadth of biggest leaf in the plant was taken. The number of nodes, internode length, number of flowers and fruits was also measured.
 
Statistical analysis
 
All data are presented as the mean value ± standard error (SE) of ten replicates. Analyses were performed using SPSS 20 and the mean variance of the data was analyzed using a t-test at the 1% probability level (P<.001) of significance.

The present research was conducted to investigate the effect of PA on cluster bean and the results revealed a significant difference in growth of the plants as shown in Fig 1. For the appraisal of plant growth, it was observed that PA treatment enhanced plant length. At 15, 30 45 and 60 days, pranic treated plant growth was increased when compared to control but, the results were found to be insignificant (p>0.001). At 60 days of plant growth, pranic treated plant length was 92±6.3 cm, whereas the control plant length was 82.7±3.6 cm (Table 1). Hence, an increase of 10.64% was noticed in the pranic group at 60 days, when compared with control. Our results were in good agreement with that of Deka et al., (2015), who have reported a cluster bean plant length of 83.63 cm at 60 days.  





The shoot length was observed to be enhanced on all the days (15, 30, 45 and 60 days) by PA treatment when compared to control and the results were found to be significant (p<0.001). The shoot length at 60 days was found to be 89.1±0.2cm, while for control it was 80.3±4.1cm (Table 2). An increase of 10.38% in shoot length was noticed in treated plants when compared with control.

​

The root length was observed to be increased for 15, 30, 45 and 60 days by PA treatment when compared to control and the results were found to be significant (p<0.001). The root length at 60 days was found to be 14.2±0.4cm, while for control it was 11.4±0.7 cm (Table 3). An increase of 21.87% in the root length was noticed in treated plants, against the control. A root length of 10.4±0.85 cm was reported by Ragavan et al., (2017) from 60 days old cluster bean plants, which were in parallel to our current findings. Saritha et al., (2013) reported a root length of 13.46±4.2 cm from 60-day old cluster bean plants, which again is in good agreement with our results. 

​

The numbers of leaves at 60 day were more in treated plants (27±9.4) when compared to control (22.2±6.6) and the results were found to be significant (P<0.001) (Table 4). Thus, pranic had 19.51% more leaves, against the control. Deka et al., (2015) reported 7.89 number of leaves in cluster beans from 30 days old plant, which is in good agreement with our current findings of 8 leaves.

​

A similar trend was also observed in leaf length (Table 5) and leaf width (Table 6) of pranic, which showed higher values, when compared with control and the results were significant (P<0.001) and the percentage increase in pranic for leaf length was1.14%, while for leaf width it was 22.22%, when compared with control. 

​

​

It was observed that the number of nodes was considerably higher in pranic treatment when compared to control and the results were found to be insignificant (p>0.001). The number of nodes at 60 days in pranic was 11.5±4.4, while in control it was 9.4±2.8 (Table 7). Thus an increase of 20% in the number of nodes in pranic plants was noticed. Similarly, the internodal length was also higher in pranic plants, when compared with control and the results were found to be significant (p<0.001). Pranic plants had 14% more internodal length (9.9±3.5 cm) than control (8.6±2.0 cm) at day 60 (Table 8).

​

​

The number of flowers on day 45 in treated was found to be 6.3±1.8, while for control it was 4.3±2.0 and the results were found to be significant (p<0.001). Thus, pranic had 37.7% more flowers than control. Karthikeyan et al., (2014) reported 7.2±4.7 number of flowers in cluster bean, which is in good agreement with our current findings. Fruiting in pranic was found to be enhanced when compared with control and the results were significant (p<0.001). At 60 days, pranic had 10.2±3.5 number of fruits, while the control had only 4±1.3 (Table 9). Thus, an increase of 87% in fruiting in pranic is noticed, against the control.

​

Various biofield treatments including Pranic Agriculture (Prasad and Jois, 2020), meditation (Pandey et al., 2015), biofield (Lee and Wu, 2019), chi energy (Bai et al., 2000) involves interaction with energy fields of the plants, which are performed by trained healers. These healing energies when, applied on plants, has been proven to enhance growth and improve yield. For instance, Lee and Wu (2019) using biofield treatment on lettuce and bok choy plants obtained higher vegetative growth, increase in chlorophyll and carotenoids in treated plants, when compared with control.

Bean plants grown under pyramid-shaped structure have been reported to have larger leaves and a longer stem when compared to control. Also, the pyramid group had 19% more plant biomass than control. (Rubik, 2016). Pea and wheat seeds when treated with chi energy, germinated faster, against the control (Bai et al., 2000). Groundnut and wheat seedlings, when treated with Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga Meditation, revealed enhanced germination, increase in shoot and root length, improved vigor when compared to non-treated seeds (Pandey et al., 2015). 

Earlier reports on Pranic agriculture studies have noticed an increase in shoot length, stem diameter, root length and number of leaves. Prasad and Jois (2020) reported an increase in shoot length by 30%, root length by 40% and number of leaves by 49% in pranic treated papaya against the control. In pranic treated drumstick, an increase in shoot length by 31%, root length by 29% and number of leaflets by 40% was observed (Prasad and Jois, 2019). Increase in plant height by 18.5%, stem diameter by 12% and yield by 31% was reported in pranic treated tomatoes when compared with control (Jois et al., 2016).

Healers have been shown to produce large magnetic fields from their hands (Beseme et al., 2018). Magnetic fields have been shown to alter enzyme activity and will exert an effect by altering the pH of the enzyme solution (Strickland and Boylan, 2010). Seeds of beans when treated with distant intent healing along with pyramid, germinated faster since pyramidal structures may act as psychotronic generators that work together with consciousness and a form of energy
to produce advantageous effects on plants (Rubik, 2016).

Healing energy may influence the structure of a germination correlated gene, alter the structure of cellular organs like mitochondria and influence the metabolism of the cell, altering the molecular structure of treated cells, affect nucleotide polymerization, gene expression and enzyme activity. When pranic agriculture protocol was applied to seeds, the Pranic energy level in seeds would be increased thereby resulting in a greater germination percentage. It should also be noted that the application of qi energy would help in the increased rate of cellular growth and division. It also increases ATPase activity during seed germination of the dividing cells. This results in more energy supply to the cells during cell division, growth and differentiation probably resulting in enhanced growth of pranic treated papaya. However, the exact mechanism needs to be investigated in the future.

Cluster bean seeds treated with PA has shown enhanced vegetative growth and increased flowering and fruit yield. Overall, it could be concluded that PA treatment could be practiced by farmers to enhance plant growth. Further studies are needed to explore the mechanism behind the improved growth in the pranic group and also to compare the nutritional composition.

Master Choa Kok Sui, the founder of Modern Pranic Healing for imparting the precise knowledge of Pranic Healing and Pranic Agriculture. World Pranic Healing Foundation, India for funding the study, Dr. Lancy Dsouza for statistical analysis, Ms. Netra for data collection and Mr. Papanna NS for application of Pranic healing techniques on plants. We would also like to thank Harish Acharya of Acharya Farms for allowing us to conduct the study in his farm.