BREATH, TIME, TIMINGS AND TAMIL

As you know by now that I always harp that in ancient India all things are interrelated with each other and one forms the basis for the other. Let’s look at breath management, time, timings and how Tamil as a language are interrelated.

I am tempted to quote Swami Chinmaya who stated that “Time is the period between two thoughts”. As you know:

·         A day is divided into 24 hours and each hour with 60 minutes. The fundamental unit of time today is a second for day today life.

·         In ancient India a day is divided into 60 units and not 24 hours, and each unit is called as Nazhigai which has 24 minutes. Two Nazhigai is called a Muhurtam which is 48 minutes. Both of them are very significant measures. So each hour has 2.5 Nazhigai.

I hope you noticed both of them (Nazhigai and Muhurtam) are multiples of 8 which is the fundamental resonance numeral.

·         Do you know why any yogic exercise / meditation / Pranayama are given a count that is multiple of 24 (in terms of counts or minutes or days)?

·         Do you know why in Siddha / Ayurveda medical system the treatments are generally prescribed for 24 days or 48 days?

If you don’t know the significance of 24, read on.

·         In ancient India the concept of time and its measurement are sacred, continuous for billions of years and accurate. If you have not read I would encourage you to read my eBOOK Time = Space, Chapter 12: Vedic concept of time & its measurements. (https://www.facebook.com/ThinkingHearts)

·         To my knowledge, we had measurement as small as 1.85 micro second (Tatpara) to linearly 155+ trillion years.

·         When the ancient rishis defined the fundamental period of time (and not unit of time) they wanted that it should correspond to one full cycle. Since earth is always rotating one cycle is 360 degree – it takes 24 hours to rotate around itself and 365 days to revolve around Sun. But both these measures are not fundamental for intra-day measurements. Also how do we equate a spatial measure (rotational distance) with a time value when it comes to Intra-day measurements?

·         Our rishis considered that each breath as one degree and one cycle can be considered as 360 degree or 360 breaths. If it is 15 breaths a minute than 360 breaths takes 24 minutes and hence the fundamental period (not unit of time) of measurement is Nazhigai which has 24 minutes. 60 such units make one day.

·         So the most fundamental period of time where anything completes 1 cycle in Microcosm is 24 minutes or 1 Nazhigai.

·         The other aspect I want to highlight is that the same concept is used to overcome death by stilling the breath and mind. Since you have stilled the breath, you have not moved in the time-space scale and also the breath is not wasted which means you can achieve immortality in the state of Samadhi. Again as Indians, lets us wait for someone to come and tell us this in English with a theory for us to accept it and award them noble prize. Till then let’s ignore the science in our scriptures stating that these are mythology, religious and superstition. Our ability to take pride in our ignorance is really amazing!

Breath and Tamil language:

Just go and ask someone who is fanatic about Tamil as to “Why Tamil was named as Tamil”? & not something else. If I am right, many of them would not know the answer. Because we have become emotional idiots, we are fanatic about our language / culture without understanding the science behind it. When we understand the science then we would not be fanatic but supremely confident and this confidence about the superiority in our language or culture is the contagious aspect that is required today.

As per Tamil scripture Aintiram, the initial universal evolutionary process consisted of 5 stages and they are can be imagined as movements of particles during the Big bang. They are அமிழ்தல், இமிழ்தல், குமிழ்தல், உமிழ்தல், தமிழ்தல்.

·         Withdrawl (Amizhdal)

·         Imizhdal (Overflowing)

·         Kumizhdal (clustering round in an order)

·         Umizhdal (Emitting)

·         Tamizhdal (resulting into a well defined form)

These are the first stages from the Big bang till a well defined shape is formed. Now the last level is called Tamizhdal which results in a well defined form. This state has emanated from the Pranava and was not been created by someone. Hence a language as rich with the sweetness of inherent order, originating from the luminosity of the original particle is called Tamil. Tamil is word based on the final resultant state called Tamizhdal (தமிழ்தல்).

Tamil language has 12 vowels and 18 consonants both combine to form 216 letters (உயிர் எழுத்து - Uyir Ezhuthu (Life / Energy letters – 12 letters) and மெய் எழுத்து - Mei Ezhuthu (Body / Matter letters – 18 letters)

We have already seen that “Yoga states that if you breathe through the right nostril (Solar breath), then it is effectively 12 angulas of breath length and if you breathe through the left nostril (Lunar Breath), then it is effectively 16 angulas of breath length”. I am going to highlight the correlation between this and Tamil language.

·         The 12 vowels correspond to 12 Angula breath of Solar / right breath. This also means all Vowels originate in our navel.

·         The 18 consonants correspond to 16 Angula breath of Chandra / left breath with the addition of Manas – மனஸ் (mind) and உயிர் (life). All consonants originate in our Moooladhara Chakra.

·         The combination of vowels and consonants total up to 216 alphabets in Tamil (216 =18*12) corresponds to one hundredth of 21600 breaths in day. Please note that vowels and consonants create a word with life just as much we would have a living body by the combination of left and right breath.

· This number 18 is what is reflected in பதிணென் சித்தர்கள், (18 different Siddhas) பதினெட்டுப் புராணங்கள், (18 Puranas), யோக சாதன முறைகளி ஏற்படும் தடைகள் (நிலைகளும்) (18 step process of Sidha Yoga) பதினெட்டு, அய்யப்பன் கோவில்படிகள் பதினெட்டு (18 steps in Lord Ayappa temple in Kerala), பகவத்கீதையில் பதினெட்டு அதிகாரங்களை (18 Chapters in Bhagavad Gita). There are more such significances like Mahabharatha war took place for 18 days.

So to sum up:

·         We all are endowed with a rhythmic breath count which corresponds to our life span, and health.

·         There are 2 types of breath – Solar and Lunar which has a specific rhythm and pattern to it.

·         Our whole body is very well aligned with nature – Lunar and Solar cycle based on which the breath rhythm is aligned.

·         Breath rhythm is used to define the fundamental period of time called Nazhigai and this is used for yogic exercises, Siddha medicine and meditative purposes too.

·         Breath has a significant linkage to a language like Tamil and hence Tamil with divine words and a breath like rhythm is a language throbbing with life.

Let us look at some more interesting aspects!

Happy reading!