Can there be any influence of apparent motion of Sun on

Breathing Behavior?
Can there be a time structure for breathing?

Can there be any link between the Sun and the vital physical activities of the human
beings?

Answer to this question in all probability shall arise from the chronobiologists who have
identified such rhythms as circadian, circannual etc. which relate to certain bodily functions.
What else? What is the scope of a spectacular, routine activity being governed by Sun and its
features have been already studied by the ancient civilizations?

We have little answers forthcoming, as we have not looked upon the astronomical wisdom of
the ancients with the seriousness it deserves. Have a look at the following notions –
1. Ancient Indian scriptures treat Sun as Breath (prāna in Sanskrit) and accordingly
they divided the apparent solar orbit into 21600 minutes corresponding to 21600
breaths during one diurnal rotation. Can’t biologists verify this count of 21600 during
a diurnal rotation?
Corollary to the above count, is the fact that all our time intervals are a count of the
number of breaths. Perhaps the sexagesimal system arose out of this count of 21600
and its division into 60 parts of 24 minutes – ancient units of time.
2. Further, the ancient wisdom says that the Sun controls the breathing behavior of
humans’ -How?
12 times in a year, there is a noticeable switch over of breaths from one nostril to the
other. As can be identified by the ancient rationale, such moments of the year formed
the basis of the solar calendar. In the vicinity of the solar transits to the sidereal signs,
breaths undergo a shift of path, from one nostril to the other and the breath current
has other distinctive features at these times. Phenomena received the name 'Samkrama'
and marks important times of celebrations in the religio-cultural tradition of the
Hindus. Can’t this be statistically tested and verified over a large scale?
3. Apart from the above critical path shift, there are other interesting aspects of the solar
influence on breathing behavior. These include hourly variation and correlation of
seven patterns to weekdays. Verification of (2) above shall bring the required
motivation for deeper studies.
4. To conclude this brief note – this is not an illusion – when we remember that 21600
are the breaths in a day according to the Yoga texts and therefore we chose to have
21600 minutes in the solar orbit and circle and it is time reckoning in terms of the
number of breaths that led to the evolution of the sexagesimal number system.

22.10.2006 K. Chandra Hari

chandra_hari18@yahoo.com