There are fundamental intuitions that penetrate minds, elect in them a permanent residence, magnify their substance, and invigorate their dreams.
Some of them transcend ages, lands, cultures, languages, religions.
So, the breath.
This word brings together the air and wind, the breath of life, but also the soul and the spirit.
These three areas of meaning, meteorological, biological, spiritual, combined in a word, create a space of echoes.
They link nature, mankind and the divine with a tight knot.
The Veda and the Bible, separated by more than a thousand years of age and several thousand kilometers, are tied from this knot, too.
The Veda says:
« Tribute to the Breath! Under its watch is this universe.
It is the master of all things.
Everything has its foundations in it.
Tribute, O Breath, to your clamour,
Tribute to your thunder!
Tribute, O Breath, to your lightning bolt,
Tribute to you, Breathe, when you rain! (…)
Tribute to you, Breathe, when you breathe,
Tribute to you when you inspire,
to you when you walk away,
Tribute to you when you approach!
The Breath covers the beings,
like the father his beloved son.
The Breath is master of all things
of what breathes and what doesn’t….
Man inhales, exhales,
being in the womb.
As soon as you animate it, O Breath,
he is born again. »i
Wind, rain, thunder, lightning are only signs, they denote the Master of the universe.
Signs also — the spirit and soul of man, and the love of the Breath for the creature.
The Book of Genesis says:
« And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים ( Ruah Elohim) moved upon the face of the waters. »ii
« And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (neshmah); and man became a living soul. (נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה nephesh hayah).»iii
The Hebrew text uses three different words to mean the « wind » (ruah) of God, the « breath » (neshmah) of life, and the living « soul » (nephesh).
If we open dictionaries, we notice that the meanings of these words circulate fluidly between them.
Ruah: « Breath; wind, air; soul, spirit ».
Neshmah: « Breath of life, soul, spirit. »
Nephesh: « Breath, smell, perfume; life, principle of life; soul, heart, desire; person ».
It is important to underline the intimate union of their meanings. These three Hebrew words come together in a symphony.
Philo of Alexandria writes in his commentary on Genesis:
« The expression (« He breathed ») has an even deeper meaning. Indeed, three things are required: what blows, what receives, what is blown. What blows is God; what receives is intelligence; what is blown is the soul. What is being done with these elements? There is a union of all three. » iv
Usually the wind blows and disperses the dust. Here, the wind gathers the dust, gives it breath and makes it live.
The Veda and the Bible breathe the same breath, the same wind blows, the same spirit shapes the same knot of life.
i AV. 40.4.1-2;8;10;14
ii Gen. 1,2
iii Gen. 2,7
iv Legum Allegoriae, 2, 37
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