The Pulmonary Flows are the Female Characters

 The different (pulmonary) flows of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood represent the various female characters including the goddesses. These are the various forms and roles of prakrti. The pulmonary arterial flow, for instance, may represent the “ghora” (terrible) rupa of prakrti as it is concentrated with the life-negating substance—the poison (visa) of carbon-dioxide—while the pulmonary venous flow stands for prakrti in her “beatific” or “salvific” form; in this form she is the great sustainer and nourisher, the mother, as it were, of the entire universe, as she floods the world with the nectar, the life-sustaining substance (oxygen), drinking which the neural entities rejuvenate and renew themselves.

Ganga is the personification of the pulmonary flow. Seated on the alligator she represents the flow of deoxygenated blood in the pulmonary arterial conduit. "She" travels, as it were, on this conduit. 

The pulmonary flows, together with their conduits, stand for the “bhutas” (basic substances) of the material world. To be specific, the flows themselves would represent the qualities while the conduits would be the bhutas proper. Different portions of the arterial and venous network represent different substances.

While naming these portions (of the pulmonary networks), one gets the feeling that we have also a reference to the systemic network. For example, the relation that a blood vessel has to its target organ or the entity that it nourishes imparts to it the motherly character of the earth. This relationship would not be present in the pulmonary apparatus where the pulmonary veins do not nourish the neural entities. But still the appellation of “prthivi” (earth)—the final basic substance (bhuta)—is applied to them. This is in imitation of the systemic network. Therefore the author is conscious of the systemic role of the oxygenated blood also while describing metaphorically the pulmonary venous flow.

The Metaphorical Language of the Anatomists

The language used by the anatomists and men of science delving into the mysteries of the human body in the ancient and medieval periods, was extremely metaphorical. Below, Willis (Cerebri Anatome) maps several entities onto one organ, namely, the brain. An internal world mirroring the reality of the external is, in this manner, created.

The authors of the Puranas also adopted this strategy of translocation, to weave a (microcosmic) narrative that would appear to the readers as a narrative of the external (historical) world.

The Dik-gajas (Elephants of the Quarters)

The research into the descriptions of the Puranas done by this author coupled with an understanding of respiratory anatomy is indicating that the famous "dik-gajas" (Elephants of the Quarters) could mean either the lobar or the segmental bronchi of the "respiratory lotus" (lung / bronchial tree).

In any case, it is pretty apparent that these elephants are the zoomorphised version of the heavier bronchi, excluding, of course, the primary bronchus. They are regarded as elephants because they are relatively heavy structures. Moreover they are strong because they support the (respiratory) world on their backs (or, trunks). This conception of support has without doubt a physiological underpinning as well.


Now, with regard to direction (dik), the respiratory anatomists of the ancient world seemed to have regarded these bronchi as some sort of compass for determining the "direction" or anatomical location ("superior," "inferior," etc.) within the lung. Therefore, taking into account all these features, these bronchi are the "dik-gajas," the "direction-elephants."


As the bronchi branch in a pattern known as dichotomous branching, in an idealized model, the four lobar bronchi can be said to give rise to eight sub-lobar bronchi and, in that case, it is perhaps these eight that would be referred to as the "asta dik-gajas," the eight elephants of the quarters. Or, it may be the case that only one lung is considered and it is the eight segmental bronchi of the left lung that is taken to mean the eight dik-gajas?

Why is the Cosmic Egg said to Float on Water?

 

The cosmic egg of the ancient esoteric literature is often described as floating in the waters. The bronchial tree touches the realm of the waters (oxygenated blood) only at the level of the alveoli so why is it then that the entire egg (bronchial tree) is said to rest upon the waters? One reason might be that the "waters" in this case refer not to the flow of oxygenated blood in the pulmonary veins but to the pulmonary arterial flow. Normally the arterial flow is, by virtue of being the "poisonous" flow, referred to in the lower reaches of the bronchial tree as "fire" and only after being transformed by the "milk" pouring forth from the udders (alveoli) of the cow-like respiratory bronchioles does it assume the form of water. But there can surely be some flexibility in definition and it could be that in the passages relating to the cosmic egg, it is the arterial flow that is referred to as the waters.     

 

On the Identity of the Sisumara, Dhruva and the Others

 The Sisumara seems to be the entire pulmonary arterial tree, starting with the pulmonary trunk; it is upheld by the heart (hrdi narayana). Dhruva is situated on the tail of the Sisumara i.e. the pulmonary trunk. It is easy to see what the revolution of Dhruva would refer to; it would mean following either the left pulmonary arterial course or the right pulmonary arterial one.  

"Sisumara:" The pulmonary arterial tree

The Vayu Purana (Ch. 52, v. 99, p. 362) leaves no room for any doubt that Dhruva is identified with the pulmonary artery. It says:

"Among Dhruva, Agni and Kasyapa Dhruva is the most excellent. It alone whirls round at the top of the mountain Meru."

This would mean that Dhruva is identified with the primary pulmonary artery ("most excellent" in the hierarchy) since it is this entity that "whirls" at the top of Meru (principal bronchus). 

The pulmonary arterial flow of deoxygenated blood is the Ganga; therefore Ganga which divides into four streams on the summit of Meru would have an association with Dhruva.  And so it has for it is written (in the chapter on descent of the Ganga) that in the region called Visnupadi, the Ganga's waters are held on the head by Dhruva.  

The Goldmine of Metaphor

 The imaginative power of the ancient philosopher-scientists investigating into the nature of reality knew no bounds. They viewed the cardio-respiratory apparatus which they had adopted as a miniature model of the universe as a goldmine of metaphor. The various conduits and structures within this system were compared to different entities of the external world on the basis of similarity of some attribute or feature. The entities that were so mapped were numerous and very diverse, ranging from celestial bodies to topographical entities to man-made objects. The bronchial tree, for instance, was referred to very famously in the Puranas as a great lotus or as an inverted asvattha tree (as by Krsna in the Gita). Its different components were often zoomorphised. It is not possible here to provide an exhaustive list of all the metaphors that were applied; nor is it necessary to do so. It will suffice for our purpose to simply reveal some of the more important and famous ones which are often detectable in manuscript paintings and other visual representations. 

The Goldmine of Metaphor. The bronchial tree and its various components was compared to a tree, a lotus, the sun (and its rays), mountains, an egg, a chariot (with horses), a cow and a collection of islands.

The Respiratory Lotus

Motifs and Metaphors of the Puranas: the Respiratory Lotus. The authors of the Puranas translocated the entire world into the respiratory system of man. The bronchial tree was compared to a lotus.

The bronchial tree is represented through a variety of depictions. One of the most famous among these, ever-present in painting and sculpture, is the lotus. According to the Bhagavata, the earth is like a lotus and its islands (dvipas) are regarded as its different compartments (kosas). Jambudvipa is said to be the innermost compartment of this earth-lotus.

The different portions of the bronchial tree are compared to  the different parts of a lotus.

A lotus has an innermost compartment consisting of the pericarp (karnika) and the filaments and in the bronchial lotus this central part corresponds to the primary bronchus and the bronchi “surrounding” it. This portion probably extends to the zone of the segmental bronchi. After this come the layers of petals. Each level of branching of the airways following the central portion would indicate a kosa and the individual bronchi within a level would stand for the petals.

Now as the bronchi are also imagined as mountains in the metaphorical world of the Puranas, the primary bronchus, the pericarp of this earth-lotus, is also a (great) mountain. It is Mt. Meru, the most exalted among mountains. The abode of Brahma, the primary neural controller of the respiratory tree, is on the top of this mountain. But as the bronchial tree is also a lotus, the connoisseurs of Puranic art would at the same time find Brahma seated on the pericarp of a lotus, due to this simultaneity of metaphor.

In Puranic paintings Brahma is seen seated atop the pericarp of a lotus. This lotus is the bronchial tree and its pericarp is the primary bronchus.

One other observation is that, although Jambudvipa is said to be the innermost compartment, the four zones (varsas) of Bharata, Uttara Kuru, Bhadrasva and Ketumala included in this dvipa do not really fall into this compartment.

These four are said to be (Vayu Purana) the four petals of the earth-lotus, lying outside the mountains of boundary. But as we have seen, the innermost kosa would not contain any petal.Therefore we may have a slightly expanded definition of Jambudvipa in which it consists of two compartments, the innermost (petal-less) one and the layer of (four) petals immediately surrounding it.

The General Meaning of the "lila" of Krsna

Situated within the cardio-respiratory universe, the "lila" of Krsna may be understood as the (teleological) effort expended by the Lord or the great sequence of operations and interventions executed by him, the supremely intelligent mind, on prakrti (matter, nature, primordial material substance), in the course of its unfolding or evolution, in order to engineer/ forge the mind-organ, the organs of sense and action and the other (material) supporting structures and apparatuses necessary for the jiva or the embodied conscious personality (purusa) to lead life as a learning, doing organism to "regain," retrain and ultimately sublimate his consciousness and free himself from nescience and its devastating consequences.

Needless to say these interventions are innumerable and innumerable are therefore the "lilas" of the Lord.