The Manasottara mountain is a key entity appearing in the astronomical depictions of the Puranas. The sun is said to revolve round Manasottara. Because of this fact pointing to its central location, we hold it to be the heart.
Manasottara is said to go like a ring across all the five continents starting with Plaksa. The heart has a ring-like outline and it goes across the regions of the lung.
The chariot of the son of the Moon Mercury is composed of the fiery and windy material. [Therefore Mercury is associated with the p. artery. It is clear.]
Mercury moves on drawn by its eight horses [branches of p. artery]. [The chariots of the different planets are to be understood in the light of the hierarchical model. Thus the chariot of each succeeding planet would be a substructure of the chariot of the preceding (upper level) planet.]
In the Visnu Purana we have the pitrs partaking of the nectar of the moon in the "afternoon," when the moon consisting of just two digits, is said to be reduced to a fifteenth part of its original form. This can only be at the level of either the primary or the secondary bronchi. So it must be these generations of the bronchial tree that are designated as the "afternoon." This also makes perfect sense in the light of the statement that it is always mid-day over Mt Meru.
The primary and secondary parts of the bronchial tree (or the pulmonary arterial and venous trees) may be compared to the carriage of a chariot and the various parts of a chariot like the yoke and the axle. These parts connect the carriage with the parts that do the job of "moving" and "transporting," viz. the wheels and the horses.
The "horses," which are the conduits really coming after the "wheels," do the actual job of extending the higher-level bronchi, the carriage, as it were, into the deepest and the farthest realms of the lung. The hierarchy inherent in this metaphor of the chariot, therefore, is as given below:
This is the general conception. However, in the case of the chariot of the sun, the wheel and the horses seem to occupy the same position.
By the orb of the moon, the pulmonary venous conduit is meant. So when it is said that the Ganga overfloods the orb of the moon emerging from the foot of Visnu, it means the flow of oxygenated blood through the pulmonary venous conduit. The origin of the Ganga, standing for the origin of the entire circulatory flow, is (rightly) taken to be the flow of oxygen emanating from the alveoli (the "feet dust" of Visnu) mixing with the "water" in the capillary networks.
The Soma plant should be the pulmonary arteriole at the level of the acinus. When it is pressed by stones, the alveoli, the soma juice (oxygenated blood) oozes out of the crushed portions (the capillaries).
The consumption of soma by human beings is well attested in Vedic ritual. The Soma Mandala of the Rigveda is completely dedicated to Soma Pavamana, and is focused on a moment in the ritual when the soma is pressed, strained, mixed with water and milk, and poured into containers. These actions are described as a representation of a variety of things, including a king conquering territory, the Sun's journey through the cosmos, or a bull running to mate with cows (represented by the milk).
It is the bronchial arteries that are referred to as "gold" in the puranic texts. Meru is golden because its four "sides," the secondary bronchi, alongwith the summit, the primary bronchus, are "decorated" with the bronchial arteries. It is this "golden" flow (of oxygenated blood) that makes the entire Meru resplendent.
Note: The four flows that are said to course through and irrigate the four regions of Ilavrta, that have their origin in the four trees mounted on the four buttress mountains of Mt. Meru seem to be the flow of the bronchial arteries. If that is the case then this must mean that the four regions of Ilavrta, Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western, stand for the four secondary bronchi (as the bronchial arteries course along these bronchi).
