THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM OF THE IMPERISHABLE BODY

Like the human body, the imperishable body also has a circulatory system. It is pervaded by flowing streams of the imperishable substance of pure consciousness, which constitutes the amrita rasa, the immortal blood of God.

Fig. 12.2. The thirteen symmetry axes of the superlattice

These streams are organized not in a random manner, but in terms of the rotational symmetry axes of the superlattice, which correspond to the thirteen rotational symmetry axes of a cube. According to modern crystallography, these axes are organized into three groups: the cubic, rhombic, and octahedral axes.

The terms cubic, rhombic, and octahedral come from the fact that the three sets of axes may be viewed as connecting the six faces of a cube, the twelve faces of a rhombic dodecahedron, and the eight faces of a regular octahedron, respectively. From the perspective of the cosmic soul located at the center of the cube, these thirteen axes appear as twenty-six rays serving to connect the central egg to the twenty-six other eggs on the surface. Each such ray upholds a circulatory stream of immortal blood, which circulates around the ray as it flows between the cosmic eggs.

The circulatory streams of immortal blood may be compared to cosmic whirlpools or cosmic vortices within the imperishable fluid of pure consciousness. These vortices have a biconical form: As they diverge from one cosmic egg, they expand in radius, and as they converge onto another, they contract in radius, as illustrated from the side.

Because of their biconical forms, the Vedic seers referred to the whirlpools of consciousness using the technical term parna, which means “petal,” “leaf,” or “feather.” In accordance to these meanings, the whirlpools were compared variously to the petals of a cosmic lotus, the leaves of a cosmic tree, and the feathers of a cosmic bird.

Fig. 12.3. A biconical whirlpool of consciousness