Hindu Medicine c8.49

c8.49

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: