Hindu Medicine c7.297

c7.297

The moon is the cosmic life-giving principle. Every night, with the cool, milky, nectar-like moon-rays, it nourishes the vegetation over which it rules. The moon is the heavenly cup containing the elixir of immortality, the refreshment of the gods. The moon “makes night,” quenching the devouring heat of daytime, which the sun brings. By means of its mild light, the moon distills the enlivening juice which restores to all living beings their life-fluid after it has been dried up by the relentless fire of the sun. Small wonder, then, that, because of the affliction of the Moon with consumption, the course of the universe and its very life-process became seriously upset. To counteract the danger that the universe and its beings might completely wither away, a compromise was finally reached. The Moon promised to lead a perfectly regular married life, giving to all twenty-seven wives, in turn, their rightful due as he went his way along his nightly course. Though it could not be eradicated altogether, the curse became attenuated to the extent of saving him from utter destruction. Still he remained liable to periodical progressive consumption for the fortnight of the waning moon. Moreover, the demon of consumption, forced to desist from destroying this victim, was compensated by the assignment to him of men and animals for his work of annihilation.