The Five Great Elements in the Microcosmic Setting

Just as in the gross elemental theory there are the five great elements (maha bhuta) and their respective properties (guna) referred to as “tanmatra,” so also in the microcosmic account of the Bhagavata and the other Puranas, we have the “gross elements” and the “tanmatras.” These are the various conduits of the human cardio-respiratory system and their respective flows and components. 

The elemental account of evolution and involution of the external universe is thus imaginatively applied to the human body by considering the components of the cardio-respiratory apparatus as the (poetic) analogs of the (external) great elements. In this manner is this account of evolution and involution, which forms so important a part of the Samkhya theory of creation and destruction of the world, translocated into the anatomical and physiological setting.

There are two sides to prakrti–the gruesome, destructive aspect and the beneficial, beatific aspect. 

The pulmonary flow represents nature. It is divided up into two parts, located on either side of the alveolar zone: the destructive flow containing the deoxygenated blood is imagined on the left and the life-promoting oxygenated one is on the right of the bronchial tree. The maha bhutas are the arterial and the venous conduits containing these flows. Now, the akasa element is held to be perhaps that portion of the pulmonary artery that is lying outside the hilum of the lung (in the mediastinum). It is the primary portion. Although in this matter it is quite apparent that there is no clear delineation and akasa may well extend into the region of the earth; the boundaries of the maha bhutas are quite shifty in nature. The great elements therefore act as the transport for prakrti. On the left (destructive) side are the gross elements of wind and fire; and on the right (constructive / nutritive) side are water and earth. Each of these elements appear as the polar opposite of its counterpart on the other side: earth provides support and food while wind can destroy and destabilize; the diametrically opposite nature of fire and water needs no elaboration. The fire of deoxygenated blood is immediately transformed into the water of the oxygenated flow by the operation of the alveolar mechanism.

deoxy. blood) also has the character of fire. The deadly halahala resembles fire; fire comes out of Ananta's mouth and burns the worlds at the time of the destruction of the world. This "burning " takes place at the level of the acinus.

Left Atrium Metaphorized (II): The Ocean and the Waters

The left atrium is the ocean[H1] . It contains an enormous quantity of “water” (see below). (The orb of the moon (left atrium) is said to be only “congealed water.”)

Oxygenated blood is the “waters.”

The pulmonary veins are oceans, containing “waters” (oxygenated blood).

The pulmonary vein oceans carry the (nectarine) waters (into the great left atrium ocean).

In the Vayu Purana, in the description of (the oceans surrounding Plaksa and other dvipas), the author clarifies on the increase and decrease in magnitude of the oceans. An ocean encompassing a dvipa is, in size, twice that of the previous one. The oceans are bodies containing copious amounts of water. 

In the Vayu Purana (49.131), we have the ocean being called “udadhi” on account of it being the store-house of waters:

udakasyādhānaṃ yasmāñca tasmādudadhirucyate

There are thus two distinct components: (1) the waters and (2) the ocean (containing that water). There is neither increase nor decrease in the amount of water. It remains the same. What changes is the “size” of the ocean. A simple analogy is applied—that of water being heated in a cooking pot. Just as the same water swells and expands in size with the increase in temperature, so also the (same) water in the ocean swells (49.128):

ukhāmyamagnisaṃyogāt jalamudricyate yathātathā mahodadhigataṃ toyamudricyate tataḥ

We have, also, in the Visnu Purana:

In this manner the seven island continents are encompassed successively by the seven oceans, and each ocean and continent is respectively of twice the extent of that which precedes it. In all the oceans the water remains at all times the same in quantity, and never increases or diminishes, but like the water in a caldron, which, in consequence of its combination with heat, expands, so the waters of the ocean swell with the increase of the moon. The waters, although really neither more nor less, dilate or contract as the moon increases or wanes in the light and dark fortnights.

This “swelling” of the waters comes about through the increase in the size of the water-body, the ocean.[1] The increase (and decrease) in the ocean again is the result of the waxing (and the waning) of the moon (49.129).

kṣayavṛddhirevamudadheḥ somavṛddhikṣayātpunaḥ

As one moves towards the alveolar zone, the “waters” (oxygenated blood) remain the same in volume; however are distributed across multiple, smaller oceans. Or: the same ocean expands in magnitude, as it were, (owing to increase in the number of pulmonary vein conduits) with the water remaining constant. The increase in the number of pulmonary vein conduits also represents the waxing of the moon and therefore, one may say: with the waxing of the moon, the ocean expands (although the volume of water remains constant); and reversely, with the waning of the moon, the ocean contracts (although the volume of water remains constant).

---

[1] As one can observe from the actual situation below, this “increase in size” of the ocean is a rather figurative use of the term as it refers not to a literal increase but to an increase in the number of distribution channels (conduits).

---

 [H1]Alternatively, the moon may not be represented as a ocean; it may simply be referred to as an orb of congealed water (oxygenated blood). Only the PV conduits may be referred to as oceans.

Left Atrium Metaphorized (I): The Moon and its Rays

The left atrium is the moon.

Oxygenated blood is amrta / soma.

The pulmonary veins are the rays / parts (kala) of the moon.

The moon’s rays are the carrier of nectar (into the moon). Or, the moon is the receptacle of nectar.

The moon waxes as one moves towards the alveolar zone; the number of its rays increases. (There are 10 rays / kalas at the segmental level.)

The moon wanes as one moves from the alveolar region towards the left atrium.

The left atrium could be represented as “moon with no ray” (amavasya); then, at the alveolar level, we would have “moon with all its rays” (purnima).

As the moon’s rays increase / the moon waxes, the total amount (volume) of amrta does not increase; the same amount is distributed across the rays / parts.

On the Identity of the “Moon” of the Puranas

The “moon” in the Puranas is the left atrium of the heart.[1]  It is the receptacle of “nectar” (oxygenated blood). The pulmonary venous conduits are its various “portions” or “rays.”

http://www.pvsnetwork.org/uploads/8/8/7/6/88764776/published/vanderlaan-1heartreference-rev-01.jpg?1485549219

The oxygenated blood contained in the “moon” (left atrium) is the nectar, the famous amrta of the Puranas, also known by the name of the rasa of Soma. This nectar sustains all the entities (cells) of the universe (microcosm). In the Bhagavata (5. 22.10), we have:

ya eṣa ṣoḍaśa-kalaḥ puruṣo bhagavān manomayo 'nnamayo 'mṛtamayo deva-pitṛ-manuṣya-bhūta-paśu-pakṣi-sarīsṛpa-vīrudhāṃ prāṇāpy āyana-śīlatvāt sarvamaya iti varṇayanti

And this glorious person comprising of sixteen digits (in his fullness) viz. the Moon, is the presiding deity over the mind, the ruler (and giver) of food and an embodiment of nectar. The sages describe him as one with all, as he is, by nature, the nourisher of the life of all gods, manes, men, goblins, beasts, birds, reptiles, plants and creepers.

The chariot of the moon is said to be drawn by horses that are born of the waters. These without doubt refer to the pulmonary venous conduits. And, like the horses of the sun, these too travel till the end of the kalpa which is the Puranic code for the alveolar zone of the lung.

---

[1] In the Puranas, the moon’s orb is said to be only “congealed water” (oxygenated blood). The term “congealed” is perhaps applied to imply storage rather than transmission.

Meru and its Dimensions

Meru, without doubt, refers to the primary portion of the tracheo-bronchial tree. Determining its limits and boundaries requires careful consideration of several key passages describing this central mountain.

The Puranas speak of the city of Brahma on the summit of Meru or on the “top” of Meru. This city has been identified by this author as the deep cardiac plexus on the carina surrounding which there are the “cities” of Indra (the Vagus nerve?) and the other “guardians of the world” (lokapalas).
According to the Brahma Purana, the city of Brahma (the deep cardiac plexus) is not situated on the summit of this great mountain but only at an elevation of 14,000 yojanas. This factoid regarding the location of “Brahma’s city” does not seem to exist in the other Puranas.
After careful observation, it is found that the trachea represents the “top” of Meru and the two principal bronchi the “base” or “root” (mula) of Meru[H1] . The top is of diameter 32,000 y. all throughout and the root is 16,000.
Sridhara Svami, in his commentary on the verses in the Visnu Purana, remarks that it is because of this characteristic—the extensiveness (vistrtatvan) at the top (murdhni) and constriction (sankucitatvad) at the bottom (mule)—that Meru is referred to as the pericarp (karnika) of the lotus of the earth.[1]
After due consideration of the relevant passages, it appears that it is purely the trachea, denominated as the “top” of Meru, that is said to be 1 lac yojanas in height. “Meru” is therefore only the “top of Meru” (the trachea) and in such a reckoning, the primary bronchi which are designated as the “base” of this grand mountain are not taken into consideration. They are not taken to be “Meru.”
16,000, out of this 1 lac yojanas, is said to be situated “below the earth.” The remaining 84,000 of the height of the trachea is said to constitute its visible portion. The Brahma Purana’s statement that the city of Brahma is situated at a height of 14,000 yojanas on the “summit” of Meru is therefore the same distance measured from the inferior boundary of the trachea—the carina—upwards[H1]  and does not include the primary bronchi.

---

 [H1]By this definition, therefore, Brahma’s city would be below the level of the earth and not above it. It seems to be therefore very much confined to the terrestrial (thoracic) realm.

Conventionally, Brahma’s seat is in the top of the pericarp (karnika) of the divine lotus, the tracheo-bronchial tree. This pericarp, as we see, is the trachea and the two primary bronchi taken together. The trachea represents the top of this pericarp (which is also Meru). The deep cardiac plexus is found at the level of the carina which, being of the trachea, is  definitely on the top portion of the pericarp of the lotus of the earth. Brahma’s seat therefore is on the summit of Meru, the trachea, the top of the pericarp of the lotus of the earth. 

---

[1] ataeva murdhni vistrtatvan mule sankucitatvat bhumadhyavasthanacca bhurupasya padmasya karnikakarena samsthitah // 9 //

---

 [H1]Meru thus follows an inverted tree structure. It is the great asvattha tree of samsara referred to by Krsna in the Bhagavad Gita (vv. 15.2-3). The principal bronchi are, like the (central) tree, also inverted (sub) trees. They resemble Meru.

The Trachea: the Sun in the Puranas

The “sun” is the code for “trachea” in the Puranas. Strictly speaking, it must be the respiratory epithelium contained within the wall of hyaline cartilage that must be so called; the sun, the respiratory conduit, divides itself up into several parts in the form of bronchi; these constitute the rays of the sun. The respiratory epithelium rides, as it were, the “chariot” of the trachea and the bronchi. The walls of the tracheal and the bronchial airways constitute the chariot of the sun; however, for convenience’s sake, we may simply refer to the sun as “trachea” (and his rays as “bronchi”).

Figure 1 "Surya in chariot." https://www.rarebooksocietyofindia.org/postDetail.php?id=196174216674_10152421277051675

The two halves of the lungs may be considered to be the two portions of the earth-globe. The trachea (sun) is stationed right between these two halves in the mediastinum—the antariksa—which, apart from being the “solar sphere,” is also the realm of the “moon” (the left atrium of the heart) and the other “celestial luminaries!”

The symmetry of the lungs coupled with the central position of the heart provides the philosopher-scientists of the Puranas with a great opportunity to translocate astronomical concepts into the microcosm, the body of man.

On the Identity of the Matsya Avatara of Visnu

pātālādutpatiṣṇormakaravasatayo yasya pucchābhighātā-
dūrdhvaṃ brahmāṇḍakhaṇḍavyatikaravihitavyatyayenāpatanti |
viṣṇormatsyāvatāre sakalavasumatīmaṇḍalaṃ vyaśnuvānā-
stasyāsyodīritānāṃ dhvanirapaharatādakṣriyaṃ vaḥ kṣrutīnām 1

The mention of Matsya jumping up (utpatisnu) from Patala in this opening verse of the Matsya Purana provides a great clue with regard to the identity of Matsya.

The impression one gets from these opening verses of the Matsya Purana is that Matsya, the primeval piscis, is the zoomorphic representation of the respiratory diaphragm. It is easy to understand why the diaphragm would be regarded as the very first descent of the Lord into the microcosm. Being the primary muscle of inspiration, the diaphragm is without doubt one of the most important entities of the cardio-respiratory framework. It supports the heart and the lungs and it is the inferior-superior movement of the diaphragm that provides the chief mechanism, from the point of view of respiratory mechanics, for breathing—inspiration as well as expiration—of the jiva. The respiratory diaphragm is thus, in this perspective, the very support of the jiva. It is Ananta; the jiva is Visnu. Ananta resides below Patala, the subterranean region; this is the region below the heart and the lungs.