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Hindu Medicine c8: II. The Human Body: Its Forces and Resources

Hindu Medicine c8

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II. The Human Body: Its Forces and Resources

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THE Hindu concept of the human body, throughout the history of Indian thought, is characterized by the belief that the body is a manifestation of divine substance and energy, as is the whole universe. The principal forces and faculties which abide in the organism, giving it life and supporting its processes, are microcosmic counterparts of the powers which pervade the cosmic body and maintain it through their various antagonistic and cooperative activities.

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This idea underlies the latest, classic form of Hindu religion and philosophy, the system of the Tantras. The formulation of this system may be traced to the first centuries of our era; its elements go back to Vedic tradition on the one hand, to primitive pre-Aryan antiquity on the other.¹

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The Hindu devotee who practises Tantric ritual is taught to think of himself not as the ordinary being whose duties he performs and whose rôle he plays in the course of his daily routine, but as a microcosmic sum total of the divine cosmic forces. This he realizes by withdrawing into devotional meditation. As part of his act of daily worship he is enjoined to perceive the presence of the Hindu pantheon in his own body, distributed throughout its organs and limbs. He cultivates an awareness of the ever-present assembly of divine energies within the frame of his mortal existence, awakening them from the dormant state of unconsciousness through a ritual of gestures and invocations. He shapes with his fingers symbolic figures which stand for the essential character of each deity (mudrā), and places these figures, in turn, on the supposed abodes of these deities in various parts of his body (nyāsa). In this way, he is able to evoke before his mind the presence of the gods, accompanying his gestures with corresponding mystic syllables and incantations (mantra). These, again, contain the essential energy of the divinity addressed, guised this time in the subtle form of sound.

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Thus, the devotee of Tantrism conjures up the divine forces which constitute the sum total of his bodily structure and its faculties; in placing the figures of the deities on the parts they inhabit, uttering at the same time the sounds which peculiarly belong to each divine power, he becomes conscious of their beneficent, powerful presence. Through the daily ritual of “nyāsa” he experiences a temporary transmutation of that self of which he is conscious ordinarily, that of the earth-bound common individual, into a secret community of beings, divine in substance and faculties. He visualizes himself as the microcosmic counterpart of the world organism, the manifestation (māyā) of the energy (śakti) of transcendental being. Through the act of devotional magic he transcends, as the Vedic formula puts it, the sphere of purely phenomenal or apparent reality (anṛta), namely his conscious ego-personality, and becomes aware of the essential truth (satya) of his nature.

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The concept of the body as an assemblage of divine powers has its place also in veterinary medicine which reflects popular belief to a higher degree than the more abstract and “scientific” conceptions of classic medicine. The “Wisdom on the Longevity of Elephants” enumerates, in the chapter on conception and formation of the foetus (III, 8), the “virtues of the gods” (devaguṇa) which abide in the organism of the animal:

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Now the detailed description of the virtues of the gods is taught:

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Brahmā abides in the head, Indra in the neck, Viṣṇu in the trunk, the Fire-god in the navel, the Sun in both eyes, Mitra in the hind-legs of the elephants. The First Demiurgic Creator (dhātṛ) and the Secondary Demiurge (vidhātṛ) dwell in both sides of the belly, the Lord-Creator (prajāpati) in the male organ. The Serpents, who support the yoke of all the worlds, dwell in the intestines. For in the elephants abides the cosmic Self which is the primary matter of the material world (pradhānātman) and is beyond age and decay. In the forelegs abide the Twin Horsemen; in the ears the divinities who preside over the directions in space.

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Space or ether, the all-pervading and most subtle of the five elements, is the carrier of sound; it is reflected in the quality of sound which reaches the ear through space, and in the faculty of hearing. “The Moon abides in the mind, the Rain-god Parjanya in the heart of the elephants,” for the elephants are regarded as rain-clouds walking the earth; their presence, through this celestial kinship, attracts the beneficent downpour which quickens vegetation after the summer drought, and provides for the sustenance of men and animals.

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A mystic yoga doctrine, on the other hand, interprets the structure of the human organism as the counterpart of the unfolding of creation and views it as containing the five elements, ether, air, fire, water and earth, in the sequence in which they evolve out of each other in a gradual process of transmutation by condensation, from subtle to solid. A corresponding series of centers, bearing the symbolic names Mūlādhāra, Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇipūra, Anāhata, and Viśuddha, representing the essence of the five elements, earth, water, fire, wind, and ether respectively, is conceived by the adept of Kuṇḍalinī-yoga. These centers are situated along the spinal column and form a sequence of strata of the human organism.

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The breathing technique of Kuṇḍalinī-yoga is intended to establish these mystic centers in consciousness and bring them into play. Each center has the shape of a lotus calix showing different colors and a certain number of petals and certain symbols of its own; it forms the seat of one specific divinity who impersonates and presides over the corresponding sphere of the universe. Again, through this pattern applied to the human body, man is afforded the means by which to experience his own nature as the exact counterpart of the world organism; he visualizes his body as enlivened and ruled by the same divine hierarchy which activates the life-process of the universe.

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Apart from this concept of the human body in Kuṇḍalinī-yoga, which goes back to non-Brahmin antiquity, the idea of the parallel structure of macrocosm and microcosm forms a principal tenet of Brahmin wisdom in Vedic tradition. This parallel serves to clarify the character and the working of the supreme creative principle; in bringing into being and maintaining man and the universe, this principle manifests its energy in the various forms of personalized divinities who cooperate in their respective spheres.

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Such a correlation or correspondence of entities, cosmic and human, can be substantiated in many ways, partly through the pictorial script of the myths, partly through abstract speculation.

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One such example is the myth dealing with the origin of the universe from the body of a primeval being, the First Great Man (puruṣa). According to Ṛgveda X, 90, the gods, in the beginning of time, took this primordial man and sacrificed him; they divided the victim; his head became heaven, his feet earth; his ears became space, his eyes the sun, his breath the Wind-god, and so on.

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Another Vedic source describes the sense-faculties and life-forces of the human body as the divine “guardians of the world spheres” (lokapāla), which, at the dawn of creation, emanate from the organs and parts of the puruṣa, when the supreme Self (ātman) has extracted and condensed the latter from the fluid life substance of the primal waters.² Proceeding from the mouth, nostrils, eyes, ears, and other parts of the puruṣa, the lokapāla fall into the primeval ocean and seek for an abode wherein they may be established and may eat food. They decline to enter the bull and the horse, offered them first, saying, “Verily, this is not sufficient for us”;—whereupon the Supreme Being offers them man, and they say, “Oh, well done.” On His advice, “Enter into your respective abodes,” they proceed to invade the human organism. “Fire became speech, and entered the mouth; wind became breath, and entered the nostrils; the sun became sight, and entered the eyes; the quarters of space became hearing, and entered the ears; plants and trees became hair, and entered the skin; the moon became mind, and entered the heart; death became breathing down (apāna), and entered the navel; waters became semen, and entered the male organ. . .”

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Thus the sense faculties and vital forces, evolved first through the anthropomorphic transformation of the primal waters, the puruṣa, into cosmic entities, upon entering man are retransformed into the components of the organism and take their places in the same seats and organs from which they proceeded when emanating from the model organism of the First Great Man.

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This entry of the divine life-forces into man to make him their home is a familiar theme of Vedic cosmogony. A hymn of Atharva-Veda (XI, 8)⁸ describes this process in a somewhat different way:

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. . . when (in the beginning of time) the Divine Craftsman, who was father and superior to the Divine Craftsman (familiar from subsequent mythical periods and events), drilled the apertures (which are the outlets for the sense-faculties and vital processes of the human body), the gods took the mortal for their house and entered man.

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Sleep, forsooth, Weariness, Bane; the divinities Evil by name; Old-age, Baldness, Hoariness entered the body, one after another.

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Theft, Ill-doing, Wickedness, Truth, Sacrifice, and Great Fame; Strength and Valor and Force entered the body, one after another.

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Luck and Ill-luck; Increase and Waning; Liberalities and Illiberalities whatever there are; and all Hungers and Thirsts entered the body, one after another.

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Blaming and Not-blaming; and what is “Well!” and “No!”; What is Known and Unknown, and What else is to be Taught; . . . entered the body, one after another.

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The hymn goes on to enumerate whatever activities and reactions, faculties and processes constitute man’s life, positive and negative,

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. . . delights, joys, enjoyments, . . . laughing, . . . dancing, . . . addressing and prating . . . ; breathing forward and breathing downward; sight and hearing; the indestructible and destruction; breathing asunder and breathing upward; speech, mind, entered the body, one after another.

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Whatever waters there are and whatever divinities; the Lordly Power (of the Highest Being: Virāj) together with the Brahman (the supreme essence); Brahman entered the body; the Lord-Creator dwells in the body (as the generative principle).

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The Sun took possession of the eye, the Wind of the breath, each one as his own share (while the other forces of nature found their places in the organs and functions of the human body which correspond to them).

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Then the divinities bestowed man’s other (mortal) self (which is consumed on the funeral pyre) upon the Fire-god . . .

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Therefore, indeed, one who knows man thinks “ this is Brahman ” (the divine principle manifesting itself in all forms and activities of the universe); for all divinities have their abode in man, as cows in a cow-pen. . . .

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This divinization of man’s nature is the basic concept of Hindu orthodox monism with regard to the human organism. Man is looked upon as harboring the divine principle (Brahman) from which life in all its forms proceeds; the body in its faculties, activities and reactions reflects all the manifestations of the creative principle which exist on the cosmic plane as guardians and energies of the various spheres.

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The correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm which results from this speculative monistic pattern allows for the interpretation and interrelation of both spheres; through it, man is assigned his place and attitude in relation to the extra-human forces of nature without, and to the extra-personal, subconscious spheres and forces of his own nature, as well. It serves to circumscribe man’s destiny in this life and in the next; it confronts him with the mystery of his existence in a way that makes it acceptable.

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This concept, therefore, looms large in the philosophic speculations of the Upanishads, whenever the nature of man is discussed. The parallelism between the nature of man and the universe is emphasized in the enumeration of carefully coordinated cosmic and human entities. In a series of equations, the various manifestations of the one supreme energy and substance which produces the universal and the human organism are considered now “ with regard to ourselves ” (adhyātman), as faculties of human nature, and now “ with regard to the divine principle ” (adhidaivatam), as personified cosmic powers and principles.⁴

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Thus, the concept of man’s organism as a compound of cosmic powers allows for a converse vision of the universe, in which microcosmic potencies are recognized in those divine forces which animate the world organism.

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There is a hymn in Atharva-Veda (XI, 4)⁵ which is addressed by the devotee as a prayer to his own life-breath to make sure of its continued beneficent presence within himself. It is concerned with the main task of ancient Hindu medical wisdom or “āyurveda,” the prolongation of life (āyus). In this respect it belongs to the medical section of the Veda of magic, though its principal content is a comprehensive description of the functions and potency of life-breath in both macrocosm and microcosm. In literary form, it belongs to the “descriptive eulogies” (arthasūkta) among the hymns and incantations; technically, it is used either with an amulet of rice and barley in a rite for averting evil (mahā-śānti), called “immortality” (amṛta), or in a propitiatory ritual for appeasing the malignant planet Saturn, and on other similar occasions. Its most impressive use occurs during the ceremony of initiation, at the crucial moment in the life-career of a Hindu of one of the three upper castes: when the Brahmin teacher takes the boy pupil out of the custody of his parents, he invests him with the sacred thread and, through the magic power of Brahman vested in him, addresses himself to the accomplishment of the spiritual rebirth of the adept, the transfusion into this new receptacle of the power of sacred wisdom. At this moment, the teacher lays his hand on the navel, the life-center, of the youth and utters the stanzas, which originally were conceived as a solitary incantation which the initiate was to address to his own life-breath:

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1. Adoration to Breath,

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under whose power is this All,
who has become the Lord of All,
in whom All stands grounded.

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2. Adoration, Breath, to thee, the roarer,

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thee, the thunder,
adoration to thee, Breath, the lightning,
adoration, Breath to thee, thou raining one.

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3. When Breath with thunder roars upon the herbs,

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impregnated, they conceive
fruits in their wombs,
then many are they born, and all around.

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4. When Breath, the season having come,

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roars at the herbs,
then, whatever is upon the earth,
all is delighted.

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5. When Breath has rained

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upon the great earth, with rain,
then cattle are delighted,
“ verily greatness will there be for us!”

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6. The herbs being rained on,

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had a talk with Breath,

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“ our life-length (āyus), verily, is by thee made long, and all of us hast thou made fragrant!”

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The devotee, in paying homage to his own life-breath (prāṇa), first celebrates it as the cosmic life-principle, the Lord of All, whose enlivening forces manifest themselves most impressively at the rainy season; hence the references to rain, thunder and lightning that quicken vegetation and cattle and rescue nature from the merciless summer heat. The rain-bearing monsoon wind, thought of as carrying on its wings the refreshing fluid of the life-giving celestial waters, is the most patent and auspicious manifestation of the life-breath of the universe.

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From the macrocosmic aspect of breath the hymn turns to its activity in man. All its movements and expressions are worthy of worship (7, 8) : its flowing in and out; its turning away, and its returning (that it is the same life-bearing, fluid, essential substance that moves downward and forward seems evident). There is a healing force (bheṣaja), a curative element or medicine in breath (9), if it is properly worshipped and attended to. This remark refers to the breathing exercises which, apart from special yoga technique and training, form part of the daily devotional practice of the Hindu at dawn and at dusk. The solemn rhythmical monotony of the incantation suggests that its recital may have been accompanied by a regulated rhythm of breathing, apt to evoke the presence and to propitiate the goodwill of Breath:

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7. Adoration be to thee, who comes,
to thee, who goes away,
adoration, Breath, to thee who stands,
also to thee who sits, be adoration!

8. Breath, adoration to thee, breathing forth,
adoration to thee, breathing down,
adoration to thee, turned away,
adoration be to thee, turned back;
this adoration, to thee, in all forms of thee.

9. Breath, that body dear to thee,
that body even dearer,
thy healing force, as well,
bestow thou it upon us unto life.

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Breath maintains beings as a father does a son. But since it is the paramount principle of nature, Breath incorporates the negative as well as the positive aspects of existence. In this respect it ranks with the highest Hindu divinities (Viṣṇu, Śiva, the Goddess), who, representing the universal source and law of life, incorporate the destructive forces along with the creative and maintaining principle, and display a wrathful and terrifying attitude (ghoramūrti) as well as one that is benign and merciful (sundara-mūrti). Breath can appear as deadly sickness, as destructive fever (takman); nay, it is death incarnate. As such it is the carrier and guide of the soul in the hour of death. The immortal Breath, in abandoning the body, gathers together the sensual and psychic forces of “him who speaks truth,” of the initiate of the secret wisdom, and carries his “soul” to the highest heaven of the gods:

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10. Breath clothes the beings,
as a father a beloved son;
Breath is Lord of All
that breathes and breathes not.

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11. Breath is death, Breath is fever,
Breath the gods do wait upon;
Breath may carry him who speaks truth
into the highest world.

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Life-breath is to be regarded as the unity of antagonistic principles. In cosmogony it manifests itself as “Virāj” (12), that is, as the “widely ruling power” which is the first female principle to evolve from the supreme being as his daughter, mate or feminine aspect. She, the primal cosmic “Cow,” is maternal nature, bringing forth the universe and representing its substance. At the same time, prāṇa is primeval energy, enlivening all beings, and urging them by her commands on to their respective activities. Moreover, in maintaining the universal life-process, life-breath manifests itself as Moon and Sun, that is, as the moistening, nourishing principle which is “food” and “feeder” for gods and creatures, and as the fierce, devouring power of fire in its celestial form which matures and withers the organisms. Such a union of opposites, in the case of the microcosmic life-breath, is observed in its twofold movement, breathing forth and breathing down; and in the two principal kinds of sustaining foodstuff, rice and barley (13, 14,) ; it is prāṇa that enables man to live while in the womb, and to be reborn as son and *alter ego* once he is expelled from the womb by the pneumatic pressure of the mother’s life-breath:

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12. Breath is She, the Power-Widely-Ruling, Breath is She, the Power-that-Commands;

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Breath all wait upon, Breath is Sun and Moon;
Breath they call the Lord-and-Creator-of-Beings.
13. Breathing forth, breathing down are rice and
barley;
Breath is called the draft-ox, drawing;
Breathing forth is set in barley,
breathing down, called rice.
14. Man breathes down, breathes forth,
within the womb;
when thou quickenest, O Breath,
then he is born again.

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The hymn then dwells again on the macrocosmic aspects of life-breath in the form of the fire of lightning, the divine babe that grows in the watery womb of the motherly clouds (mātariśvan) (15); of wind (15), and rain (17), and the vegetation stirred into existence by the cosmic prāṇa (17). Thus the incantation returns to the idea from which it started; in closing the cycle, it announces the reward which is in store for the initiated who becomes aware of the power of breath and worships all its aspects, revering its very sound as perceived in its ceaseless rhythmical flow, both in his own organism and in the universal body (18, 19):

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15. Breath they call Him-that-Swells-in-the-Womb; Breath is called wind, in Breath, what has been, what will be, in Breath does all stand grounded.

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16. They of the Atharvans, of the Aṅgirases, they of the gods, those born of men, as well, herbs bring forth herbs, when thou, O Breath, doest quicken them.

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17. When Breath has rained on the great earth with rain, herbs are born forth, whatever plants there are, are born.

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18. Who knows this of thee, Breath, he, grounded in whom thou standest, to him shall all bring tribute in yonder highest world.

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19. Breath, as these beings all bring tribute to thee, so shall they bring him tribute who hears thee, thou well-heard-of one!

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In another cycle of seven more stanzas the hymn delves again into the secret nature of prāṇa as the supreme principle in man and the universe, enlarging on its diverse aspects.

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Prāṇa excels over the other divine powers which animate the human body as sense faculties and active agents; for prāṇa alone partaking of the wisdom of Brahman remains unwearied and ceaselessly active, while the others tire and lie down, when man falls asleep (23-25).

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Its paramount strength is extolled in terms of solar symbolism; it is compared in power to the eight-wheeled chariot of the sun, to the wheel of the sun-disk with its single rim; like the solar force, worshipped elsewhere as representing the supreme principle, prāṇa is of a twofold character, being intra-mundane and supra-mundane at once (22); like everything else, it manifests itself with one half of its strength, while the other half of its essence abides beyond, inscrutable, not to be ascertained by any sign, in the transcendent sphere, wherefrom the universe proceeds.

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In this twofold character, prāṇa is comparable to the wild swan (haṃsa), another symbol of the sun (21). The swan is thought of as a miraculous creature. It is superior to other aquatic birds living on lakes and ponds and bound to their natural habitat, in that it can separate itself from the watery realm in which it is at home. Withdrawing both legs from the liquid element, it soars into the upper reaches of the atmosphere to cover wide distances in its wandering flights; it is as much at home in the ethereal realm above as in the waters below. The swan is the homeless, free wanderer between the upper and the lower spheres, the life-giving waters of earthly existence and the ether, the realm of pure formlessness, the infinite.

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Like the swan, prāṇa as the life-giving principle is intra-mundane, dwelling in the universe and its beings, while as the supernal source of universal energy it is supra-mundane. But unlike the bird with which it is compared, the swan-like prāṇa never withdraws both its feet from the “watery” realm of the macrocosm and microcosm which it is animating; should it do so, life would cease to exist.

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The very term for swan, “haṃsa,” in post-Vedic tradition, is supposed to express in its two syllables the activity of inhaling and exhaling; it is onomatopoeic: “haṃ” describes the sound of inhaling, “sa” of exhaling, breath. Prāṇa is the inner swan, which, through the unceasing song of its very name, brings about the twofold activity of the essential breathing down and breathing forth. The outgoing movement, breathing forth, is compared in the hymn to the swan’s withdrawing one foot from the body, the realm below, which evolved from the primal waters. But the virtue of the Breath Swan most worthy of wonder lies in its keeping “one leg” in the “water”; it does not withdraw from the body, though it proceeds out of the body with every exhaling movement. Miraculously, prāṇa abides with man, though, like the wandering swan, it is free to depart at any moment from the human body and to return to the ethereal sphere, its other home. When in “breathing forth” it withdraws one foot for a while, prāṇa seems ready to leave the realm below, and to soar up far away into the vast upper space; then, however, in “breathing downward,” it again drops its foot back into the watery realm of earthly existence.

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Life-breath, man’s inner swan, remains faithful to the abode it has chosen in man’s body; through its incessant twofold movement the swan reestablishes the continuity of its participation in both spheres, the inner and the outer, the higher and the lower. Prāṇa plays the rôle of the life-giving guest of the human body, as it were, deigning to stay on and to bestow its beneficent presence for a full life-time; if properly honored, it never withdraws completely, though free to do so; communing in a ceaseless rhythm with the sphere beyond the organism, it proceeds from its apertures with one of its limbs:

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20. As yet unborn, he moves within divinities,
having come into being, having now become,
so is he born again, so having been,
he enters forcefully what is to be,
what will be, father into son.

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21. The Swan in rising draws not one foot from the
waters.
Verily, if he should draw that out,
there would be no today, no morrow,
night, nor day, not ever would it dawn.

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22. On eight wheels it rolls, with single rim,
with thousand syllables, forth forward, down
behind.
With this half has it brought forth all existence—
what that half is, what is the sign of it?

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23. Who lords it over all, all this that stirs,
born of all births,
with a quick bow among the inexhaustible ones,
as such be adoration, Breath, to thee.

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24. Who lords it over this, all this that stirs,
of every kind of birth,

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unwearying and wise by Brahman may Breath stand by me.

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25. Upright among the sleeping, wakeful, never lies he prone, no one soever has heard of his sleeping among the sleeping.

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26. O Breath, turn not away from me, never another shalt thou be than I, like the Babe-of-the-Waters I bind thee to me unto life, O Breath!

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This elaborate specimen of Vedic speculative poetry should serve to elucidate the unchanging Brahmin orthodox tradition regarding the human body, its origin and nature, and its kinship with the powers of the universe.

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The powers within man and without, in Hinduism retain the archaic religious character of personalized divinities to whom the Vedic hymns are addressed, whenever man approaches them with prayer and propitiation. For the Hindu mind, there is no doubt whatever that no crucial antagonism exists between the personal and impersonal concept of one and the same suprahuman entity. Personalization is a matter of purpose and convenience in ritual and practice; it is an approach intrinsic in the magic-working and devotional attitude of priest and worshipper, and one appropriate to its ends. The divine powers, however, lose nothing of their dignity through being treated as impersonal entities or energies, whenever this aspect of their essence suits abstract thought and speculative contemplation. This twofold aspect of the suprahuman powers in man and the universe is fully developed in Vedic philosophy.

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Nor is there a break, in this respect, between the attitude of Vedic antiquity and that of classic Hindu medicine, though in the latter the main constituents of the human body are treated primarily as elements instead of being addressed as divinities. Here, too, they are personified whenever it suits the purpose and situation of healing, that is, wherever medicine resorts to the irrational forms of suggestive treatment through magic as an indispensable supplement of rational procedures.

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Generally speaking, medical thinking, in analyzing man and his environment, in diagnosing diseases and prescribing therapies, sticks to a scientific non-theological view of the entities and energies concerned. Yet such a view is not at variance with the traditional habit of personification suitable for magic purposes; it has merely tended to become the most appropriate means of representing an enormous amount of factual knowledge with its theoretical superstructure. Through a uniform interpretation of experience it permits strict systematization. The heritage of antiquity, however, persisting in the atmosphere of daily devotional practice, is easily traced in the sacred epithets and characterizations of the principal forces which animate the human body.

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The doctrine of the human body, as well as the greater part of diagnosis and therapy, in classic Hindu medicine, are based on the concept of certain principal constituents or elementary substances (dhātu, doṣa) which pervade the organism and maintain its functioning. In nature and function these are akin to the "humors" in Greek medicine.

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The three humors, wind, bile, and phlegm are the basis of the existence of the human body (Su. I, 21).

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They are understood as the three microcosmic representatives of the three divine universal forces, wind, sun and moon, respectively:

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The moon pours down renewal of the sap of life;

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the sun by its draining rays withdraws this sap from the creatures; the wind moves to and fro in various directions. Thus they support the body of the universe. In like fashion, the antagonistic activity of phlegm, bile and wind supports the microcosm.

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Residing and functioning in the body, these three manifestations of the cosmic life-force share in it in the following way:

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The main abodes of the humor wind are the hips and the abdomen. Above the hips and the abdomen is the "receptacle of digested food" (pakvāśaya: the upper intestines). In the middle of this receptacle is the abode of the humor bile. Situated higher up is the "receptacle of undigested food" (āmāśaya: the stomach), which is the main abode of phlegm.

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When the three humors reside undisturbed in their three proper abiding places, the organism is supported by them, as a hut is supported by three pillars. Hence, some call the body the "three-pillared one." When they are disturbed, they bring about the destruction of the body.

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The blood (rakta, śoṇita) is reckoned as the fourth among the humors. These four are indispensable constituents of the body in its coming into being, maintenance, and decay. There is no organism destitute of phlegm, bile, wind, or blood; the body is constantly supported by these four.

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Actually the concept of the three humors, wind, bile, and phlegm, implies much more than a formulation explaining the presence of the airy, bilious, and mucous matter found in certain parts of the body. The three humors represent the aerial, fiery and liquid forms of life-energy, wherever these may manifest themselves in the organism.

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Suśruta describes their activities as follows:

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The wind, by moving along its own vessels, effects the unobstructed functioning of all kinds of processes, provides for the working of the intellect unharmed by confusion and delusion, and produces various other wholesome conditions. The bile, by creeping along its own vessels, brings about radiance, appetite, brilliance of the digestive fire, sense of well-being, freedom from illness, and various other wholesome conditions. The phlegm, by moving along its own vessels, effects the lubricating of the limbs and the firmness of the joints; it is the source of strength and elation and of various other wholesome conditions. The blood, by moving along its own vessels, cleanses the humors and ingredients of the body, bestows color, effects the sensations of touch, and produces other wholesome conditions. When the humors grow upset and incensed, there arise various diseases out of their very substance, while the humors keep to their own respective vessels. Moreover, some vessels carry not only

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one of the humors but a mixture of all of them. When the humors become agitated and increased and run along, they overflow their channels and intermingle (Su. III, 7).

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The three humors are, as it were, three rich individualities with markedly antagonistic characters. They are full of personality and behave like human or divine beings. When they grow “incensed” or “infuriated” (prakupita), they cause havoc in the body by invading the domain of the others. It needs much skill to appease them again, to reduce them in their excess, to quiet them down in their violence.

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Such concepts are the offspring of a pre-critical period of thought when observation and imagination combined for the purpose of unveiling nature’s secret ways. They sprang from the same source which brought forth the impressive symbolical figures of astrology in the West, for instance the idea of the essence of Venus or Mercury which manifests itself in the spheres of the universe, and, simultaneously, in man’s organism, character and destiny. Western alchemy and kindred esoteric teachings in European tradition up to the end of the 18th century are formed along the same pattern of thought which engendered the Hindu concept of the humors.

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Gustave Flaubert, in his satirical novel *Bouvard et Pécuchet*, enjoying a jest at the expense of contemporary medicine, points out: "la physiologie c'est le roman de la médecine." Hindu physiology unfolds like a spectacular romance of the three humors, with their quarrels and appeasements, aggressions and defeats. This triad is able to collaborate, thanks to the dissimilar nature of its members. 'The wind is dry, light, cool and possessed of motion; the bile is hot, sharp and liquid; the phlegm is mild, cool, heavy and slow; each has its own share and its proper task in the maintenance of the body. As long as they hold one another in check through a proper balance, all is well; the life-process and all the activities of the metabolism go on smoothly'.

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'Phlegm (śleṣman, kapha, balāsa), according to Suśruta (I, 21), has its origin and principal abode in the stomach. It is mild and cool, white and heavy, sticky and slippery. It imparts moisture. Its taste is sweet, when not burnt by the internal heat of the digestive fire; when subjected to excessive heat, it turns salty. It is of watery consistency and the food in the stomach is thoroughly moistened by its action, split up into particles, and prepared for the cooking-process of digestion in the upper intestines.¹

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Originating in the stomach, phlegm spreads throughout the body and maintains it through its moistening effect. Its energy is particularly active at five minor centers, supplied from the main center in the stomach. Phlegm, residing in the chest, "holds together the trunk between the shoulders (trika)"; phlegm supports the heart, the central organ of mental, emotional and vital processes, through the energy contained in chyle, proceeding from food; phlegm has its place also in the tip of the tongue and in the throat and makes possible the perception of tastes; residing in the head, phlegm lubricates and refreshes the sense-organs, activating them with its energy. In the joints all over the body, phlegm serves through its adhesive quality to hold them together. "As a wheel, when its axle is lubricated with oil, turns smoothly, so the sinews work smoothly when combined with phlegm" (Su. III, 4).

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Bile is hot and fiery, wet and fetid (pūti). Its color is dark blue and yellow, it has an acrid flavor. Bile is the only substance in the body which contains heat (Su. I, 21). All parts of the organism showing warmth are pervaded with bile. Its main abode is the “receptacle of ‘cooked,’ that is digested, food” (pakvāśaya), the upper intestines. There, bile cooks or matures the food, as the kitchen fire cooks food, and the sun matures crops and fruits. “Food and drink which have reached the belly are dried up and drained by the glowing heat of the humor bile and are digested in due time” (Su. III, 4).

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This process of internal cooking is “imperceptible”: bile extracts the energies of food in the form of chyle (rasa) and humors, and causes these energies to be irradiated throughout the body; while the refuse, urine and faeces, pass to the lower intestines, to be expelled by the motor-force of the wind.

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The intestinal fire residing in the belly, the “cooking fire,” and the humor bile, are one and the same force. There are five minor centers, wherein the humor bile is especially active, all fed from its main abode in the abdomen. Bile resides in the liver and spleen. There it imparts the characteristic red, fiery color to the substance of chyle, which is at first colorless when extracted by the cooking process. Hence, bile in both these organs is called the “reddening” fire (rañjaka); and chyle, reaching its first stage of transformation, is in this way turned into blood.

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Bile, moreover, abides in the heart as the fire which effects desires and longings; hence it is called in this case the “effective” fire (sādhaka). Furthermore, bile resides in the eyes, as the fiery energy which seizes upon the colors and shapes of the sense-objects. In this function it is called the “beholding” fire (ālocaka). Finally, pervading the skin, bile acts as the “irradiating” fire (bhrājaka). Its heat manifests itself in the warmth of the body, it anoints and lubricates the skin, producing its luster and complexion.

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Acting as the digestive fire, the flame of bile is regular or fair, when the three humors are properly balanced. An excess of wind renders its flame uneven or irregular. It subsides when inundated by an excess of phlegm; through an abnormal increase of bile its action is unduly heightened. All these deviations are apt to produce diseases involving the various humors (Su. I, 35).

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Phlegm, functioning within the microcosm of the human body, represents the mild and cool, milky and nourishing substance of the moon which feeds the vegetable and animal realms of the macrocosm. Bile, on the other hand, is the microcosmic form of the Fire-god, which manifests itself as the sun in the firmament and, at the same time, as the sacred domestic fire on the house-altar. Suśruta states (I, 35):

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The Divine Lord Fire (bhagavān Agnir īśvaraḥ) abides in the belly, cooks the food and extracts its essence. Owing to the extreme subtleness of his nature, he cannot be watched while at work. He is guarded and blown upon by three winds, “blowing forward” (prāṇa), “blowing downward” (apāna), and “blowing together” (samāna), each of which abides in its own place.

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Wind as a constituent (dhātu) of the body is described as follows (Su. II, 1):

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The Supreme Divine Being who is self-existent (svayambhū bhagavant; the divine essence of the universe which becomes manifest in the trinity Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva), is called the “Wind.” Because he is sovereignly self-dependent, ever-lasting and all-pervading, he is the Universal Self of all beings (sarvātman), worshipped by all spheres of the world. He is the cause which produces the origin, existence and destruction of the transitory living beings. He is imperceptible and undetermined, perceptible however through his actions.

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He is rough and cool, light and sharp. He moves horizontally and is endowed with two of the three primeval qualities (guṇa) of the universal substance, namely with perfect purity (sattva) and violent motion (rajas). The quality of violent motion prevails with him.

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His strength is inconceivable. He leads the constituents of the body and is the king of the host of diseases. His actions are swift. He moves incessantly.

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His main abodes are the abdomen and anus (guda) and the upper intestines (pakvādhāna, the “receptacle of ‘cooked’ food”).

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Now attend to his features as he moves about the body in various directions:

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The wind, as long as he is not irritated or incensed (prakupita), effects evenness and balance (samatā) among the constituents of the body and an even-burning process of the bodily fire. It effects the attainment of the sense-objects through the sense-organs, and starts the processes of the organism in their proper directions.

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As the fire in the universe is divided fivefold with respect to its names, locations and functions,⁸ so the wind also, being one, is divided with regard to names, locations and functions.

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The five winds (māruta) abiding in particular locations keep the living being going. They are:

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1. the " prāṇa "—" breathing forward "
2. the " udāna "—" breathing upward "
3. the " samāna "—" breathing together," concentrating breath
4. the " vyāna "—" breathing asunder," diffusing, distributing breath
5. the " apāna "—" breathing downward."

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The wind moving in the mouth or face (vaktra) is called " prāṇa," " breathing forward." It upholds the body. It causes the food to enter and supports the other forces of the life-breath (prāṇa) of the body. When upset it causes hiccough, asthma, and similar afflictions.

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The excellent wind which is called " udāna," " breathing upward," moves upward. Its effects are speaking, singing and similar actions. It causes especially the diseases which affect the body above the collar bone.

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The two winds, residing in the head and the throat, are the only breath-forces ruling the upper part of the body. It is of especial interest that neither is in any way related to the respiratory process. It is not their function to provide the lungs with air or oxygen. The striking insignificance of the lungs in the Hindu concept of the organism will become apparent later.

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The wind “samāna,” “breathing together,” the concentrating breath, is closely associated with the central fire of the body. It moves in the “receptacle of raw food.” There, in the stomach, it assists in the cooking of the food and separates its various ingredients. When irritated, it causes morbid swellings in the belly (gulma), accumulation of fiery heat, dysentery and similar diseases.

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The wind “vyāna,” “breathing asunder,” the diffusing breath, moves along the entire body. Its work is to carry the chyle (rasa) and to distribute it to all parts of the organism. It causes the sweat and the blood to flow. Thus it moves along five courses, the trunk and the four extremities. When it grows angry, it causes diseases affecting the whole body.

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The wind “apāna,” “breathing downward,” resides in the abdomen (pakvādhāna, the “receptacle of ‘cooked’ food”). In due time it effects the relief of the bowels. It expels downward faeces, urine, semen, the foetus and menstrual discharge. When incensed, it causes dreaded diseases, affecting the bladder (vasti) and the anus (or abdomen: guda). Affections of the semen, however, and urinary diseases originate, when both vyāna and apāna become incensed. If both grow infuriated simultaneously, they will certainly rend the body asunder.

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The power of the wind is paramount, in so far as it effects all sorts of movement in the organism, voluntary and involuntary. The wind pervades the whole body; in the manner of a pneumatic dispatch system, spreading throughout a town, it delivers all kinds of messages, materials and impulses from one part to another. By and large, its widely ramified network compares to the nervous system. Hindu authors frequently render "diseases of the wind" as "nervous diseases." When a person is wounded and bleeds to death, he is supposed to suffer a fatal loss of the vital air of his body. Conversely, the umbilical cord of the new-born baby is most carefully tied, lest the wind get into the child's belly, causing it to swell.⁷

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However, and this is one of the most interesting features of the Hindu doctrine of the body, the wind is in no way related to the lungs, nor are the lungs specifically related to the process of breathing. Instead, the lungs are considered the principal residing place of the watery substance in the body. It is in the chest, containing the lungs, that the humor phlegm stays, issuing, when disturbed, in the form of expectoration.

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The wind is centered in the lower part of the body. The two winds which reside in the upper part, prāṇa and udāna, effect functions belonging to their sphere: the swallowing of food, the uttering of speech, singing, and so forth. Not a particle of either kind of wind is thought to go into the region of the lungs, supplying the body with fresh air from without. The very terms, “blowing forward” and “blowing upward,” denote that the inhaling function, in both cases, is considered of minor significance or none at all, compared to the outgoing and exhaling function. Inhaling seems to be regarded somehow as an indispensable, rhythmical movement of contraction which allows for the subsequent effective activity of these breath forces in expanding.

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The prāṇa, blowing forward, is said to support all the other life-breath forces of the organism. It is “at the head” of the others (mukhya). With a person about to die, its outflow, while it lasts, indicates that some life-force is still left in the body. Man’s last breath, in India as elsewhere, is considered to be an expiration with which the force of life-breath departs from the body, leaving it inanimate.

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According to the Hindu concept, the wind, “blowing forward,” may be visualized as a sort of invisible tongue or column of a subtle airy substance. Attached to the inside of the mouth, it rhythmically slips through the lips, a ribbon alternately coiling and uncoiling, or protruding and withdrawing, curling in upon itself like the tongue of a chameleon.

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The tradition of Haṭha-yoga furnishes exact measurements of the various lengths of the protruding air-column of prāṇa during the various activities of the organism. Its normal extent is twelve fingers’ breadth (aṅgula: the twelfth part of a span or vitasti) ; in sleep, the outgoing breath extends sixteen fingers’ breadth; while eating, twenty; and while walking, twenty-four. In deep sleep its length increases to thirty, and during sexual intercourse, to thirty-six fingers’ breadth.

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This rather fanciful speculation on the varying intensity of the exhaling breath is based upon the prevalent conception of the vital element of wind as a subtle substance essential for the body. In so far as it is centered in the mouth and throat, it is normally in constant motion, flowing out and back alternately. One of the special accomplishments of yoga training is to gain control over the natural rhythm of this spontaneous process of extruding and withdrawing the vital substance of wind. To reach the point where the tidal flux of exhaling and inhaling is put to rest is thought to be the final achievement in yoga breathing technique; then the breath is definitely withdrawn to its inner source and is retained there for a prolonged period of quietude. The benefit derived from this proficiency, according to Haṭha-yoga teaching, is the achievement of complete quietude and the unruffled clarity of the mirror-like mind, which is only possible when the breath is wholly at rest, a stillness which allows for unbroken, perfect concentration on the object of inner realization.⁸

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Moreover, there is yet another archaic idea underlying the effort to master and stem the tidal flux of breath by conquering the natural compulsion to exhale. Command of the secret of keeping the vital breath within the organism, indefinitely and at will, would imply the power to prolong life as well. The master-adept of yoga, who has overcome the need to exhale, would be free to postpone the hour of breathing his last. The “supreme divine being,” the vital force, might never leave his organism.

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It is against the background of the archaic ideas of yoga, which are fully alive in all periods of Hindu thought and form a principal element of spiritual pursuit, that the ideas of Hindu medicine on the character of the humor wind must be viewed. Only in this way may their strange, particular meaning be ascertained, the meaning consistent with Hindu tradition.

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The prāṇa is noticeable in its flow and warmth. Only the way in which it acts can be observed; but it does not palpably effect any exchange between the air within the body and outside. The neglect of the lungs in Hindu physiology is the more striking, if one considers the traditional fame of breathing technique in yoga tradition, this fascinating bequest of Mother India to modern man that urges him on in new directions of psychic experience, if not toward a revolution of his outlook on the meaning of life and man’s essential nature.

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Yoga is centered in the control of breath (prāṇāyāma). Breathing exercises are instrumental in increasing health and longevity; in practising concentration by focussing on inner visions; in putting the mind to rest through absorption of thought into the object of deep meditation (samādhi); in reaching a state of trance, and various stages of introspective, subconscious experience. A proper technique of inhaling (pūraka, “filling up”), exhaling (recaka, “emptying, leaving”) and storing the breath (kumbhaka, “keeping it in the body as in a pot”), along with a system of gymnastics and postures suitable for meditation (āsana, mudrā), is the indispensable requirement for classic achievements on the spiritual plane. These breathing techniques are, on the physiological level, the foundations of the highest, time-hallowed experiences on the path to fulfilment: the mystic union with the divine and the realization of what is taught to be the transcendental Self, forming the innermost core of man’s existence.

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However, the treatises of Haṭha-yoga, though emphasizing the physiological side of yoga technique, contain no reference to the lungs and their activity. The very term for the lungs, “kloman,” is absent from the terminology of these texts.

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The “Summary of the Essence of Yoga” (“Yogasārasaṅgraha”) by Vijñānabhikṣu (second half of the 16th century) describes the space for inhaling (pūraka) as extending “from the skull above down to the soles of the feet.” Here, the sensation one may have in practising deep breathing, namely that the body gets filled with air to the very extremes of the limbs, is taken for a fact; it is believed that this is what actually happens when one inhales deeply: that the vital force of deeply drawn breath is not confined to the trunk, but permeates every particle of the organism from the cranium to the soles. That the breath-force enters the remotest corners of the body, to the Eastern mind, seems to be indicated by the tickling sensation it produces, “ants running over one’s limbs.” The ancient Chinese teachings on the breathing of Taoist saints and ascetics hold a similar view, advising that one should “breathe with one’s toes.”

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