Transcendental Nectar of Sadhu-Sanga

by

 

Srila Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Maharaja, (T. D. Singh, Ph.D.)

Founding Director of Bhaktivedanta Institute

 

Introduction

Life is a mystery. The best minds in the fields of natural sciences and philosophy have been trying to understand life from the dawn of civilization. However, they have been unable to come up with any clear definition and understanding of life. Even after three centuries of tremendous success which scientists have experienced in their scientific investigation, they still can’t identify on exactly what it is that which separates a living organism from other types of physical objects.

The Vedanta speaks of fivefold tattvas, truths or realities. These are, (1) Isvara or God; (2) Life, Jiva or Soul; (3) Prakrti or Matter; (4) Kala or Time; and (5) Karma or Action. The author will try to briefly focus on the difference between life and matter. Vedantic thesis, in a nutshell, is as follows:

Life and Matter: Vedanta proclaims that life and matter are two distinct categories of reality. Besides the physical bodies shaped by genome, there is a spiritual particle of life or soul or spiriton in every living being. Our conscious experience or consciousness and free will are the properties of spiriton. Matter, however complex it maybe, can never be conscious. Life and matter can interact under the influence of time resulting in what we call embodied or biological life. God, is the origin of both. Matter is the insentient energy whereas life is the sentient or conscious energy of God. He is beyond the perception of the material senses.

Evolution of Consciousness: There are 8.4 x 10⁶ varieties of life (microorganisms, plants, aquatics, birds, reptiles, animals, humanoids and human beings) and conscious self (or soul or spiriton) passes from a form of less conscious state to a form of a higher conscious state according to the subtle laws of karma (cause and effect), until it reaches the human form. In human form of life, consciousness is fully developed and one can inquire about the higher meaning and purpose of life.

What is life?

As indicated earlier, life according to Vedanta can be described in the following representation:

Living Being = Genome + Mind, Intelligence & False Ego + Spiriton

(This means a living being or organism consists of physical matter, subtle matter and the spiritual life particle.)

According to Vedanta, the topmost scientific and philosophical treatise of Indian spiritual and cultural heritage, all living beings are animated by the presence of a non-chemical or non-molecular fundamental spiritual particle—“spiriton” (called atman in Vedantic terminology).

In Vedanta there are two aspects of reality—the spiritual nature and the material nature. It should be noted that the activities of the living beings are not simply physical. Many scientists face great difficulty explaining human behavior only in mechanical or material terms and feel such limitations intuitively. James Watson, the co-discover of double helix model of DNA structure, says, “There are still very major problems to solve on how information is stored and retrieved and used in the brain. It’s a bigger problem than DNA, and more a difficult one. . . . we still don’t know how the brain works. . . .” Recently, Stephen Hawking also expressed in a lecture, “As Dirac remarked, Maxwell’s equations of light, and the relativistic wave equation . . . govern most of physics, and all of chemistry and biology. So in principle, we ought to be able to predict human behavior, though I can’t say I have had much success myself. The trouble is that the human brain contains far too many particles, for us to be able to solve the equations.”

According to Vedanta, the brain in developed living beings is an important organ of the body machinery in which the symptom of consciousness is transmitted. The conscious energy is transmitted from the spiritual soul or ‘spiriton’.

In biology textbooks, life or living beings are generally defined as having potential to grow, reproduce, move, respond to such stimuli as light, heat and sound and are sustained by the processes of nutrition, respiration and excretion. But what makes these living systems grow? Biologically, we explain that growth is due to multiplication of cells through various types of divisions like mitosis or meiosis. But why does any cell start dividing in the first place? Why does a fertilized egg (after the sperm cell unites with egg cell) undergo divisions which result in the formation of the whole body? Vedanta describes that it is due to the presence of ‘spiriton’ that the body is animated and active and undergoes six types of transformations. It takes birth, lives for some time, grows, produces some offspring, gradually dwindles, and at last vanishes into oblivion.

It is just like the analogy of a car and the driver inside. When the driver goes away, the car cannot move. Similarly, when the spirit soul, spiriton, goes away or what we call death, the body can no longer be animated in spite of the fact that all the molecular machineries that make up the body are still intact.

Srimad Bhagavad-Gita mentions about ‘spiriton’ being different from matter as follows:

bhumir apo 'nalo vayuh kham mano buddhir eva ca

ahankara itiyam me bhinna prakrtir astadha

apareyam itas tv anyam prakrtim viddhi me param

jiva-bhutam maha-baho yayedam dharyate jagat

Translation: “Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—all together these eight constitute My (Lord Krishna’s) separated material energies. Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities (spiritons) who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.”

According to Vedanta, the science of the soul or spiriton (atman) is the sublime essence of spirituality. The Bhagavad-Gita refers to this science as—raja-vidya raja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam pratyaksavagamam dharmyam su-sukham kartum avyayam, meaning, “This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.” According to Vedanta, the ultimate purpose of human life is to find our real spiritual identity and our relationship with the Supreme. Thus, Vedanta strictly deals with life from a spiritual perspective and gives it preeminence over non-sentient matter.

Inquiry into the Prime Duty of the Human Soul

The first aphorism of Vedanta states: athato brahma jijnasa, meaning in the human form of life, one must inquire about the Ultimate Reality. In the human form of life, the consciousness (cetana), intelligence (buddhi), mind (manas), senses (indriyas) are fully developed. Thus, human being is totally equipped to make the deepest jijnasa (inquiry), the spiritual inquiry. A similar message echoes in the statement of Albert Einstein who states that knowing the plan of God is most important and the rest are details. By this inquiry, sambandha, the relationship between the self and God will be established and the pure spiritual knowledge of the self will be understood. Isa Upanisad further declares, isavasyamidam sarvam, everything belongs to the Supreme Lord. Therefore, everything should be used, including the works of the scientists and all the leaders of the world in the service of the Supreme Lord. In a nutshell, this is the view of Vedanta regarding the prime duty of humanity.

Inquiry, jijnasa, is the fundamental quality of life. Everyone inquires about something or the other. In the course of life, one experiences different phases like old age, disease and many kinds of sufferings. Therefore, we want to find out the solution to these problems. Every research work is a kind of inquiry. Unless a person is awakened to the position of questioning his sufferings, he is not to be considered a perfect human being. Humanity begins when this sort of inquiry is awakened in one’s mind. Therefore, inquiry forms the most important process of acquiring knowledge. We want to know about things that are beyond what we can see conventionally. We invent electron microscope, telescope, etc., to satisfy our curiosity. But this is not enough. Our senses and extended senses are still very limited.

Can a bird inquire about the meaning of its existence? Innocent and ordinary living beings like birds and animals inquire only of bodily needs. They inquire, ‘where is water?, where is food?, where is shelter?’, and so on. However, they do not have the capacity to inquire about the deeper purpose and meaning of life. But in the human form of life, one is endowed with the unique ability to inquire beyond these bodily needs. This is the special and unique qualification of the human form of life. When a child is growing up, he inquires from his parents about many things around him, such as ‘What is this?’, ‘What is that?’, etc. In this way, the child gathers knowledge from his parents. Since the conscious intelligence is fully developed, human beings can make different levels of inquiry including the deeper questions about life. The most important inquiry of human life should be to find out about the Absolute Truth, jivasya tattvajijnasa. Srimad Bhagavatam (1.2.10) states:

kamasya nendriyapritirlabho jiveta yavata

jivasya tattvajijnasa nartho yasceha karmabhih

Translation: “Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal for one’s works.”

The ability to inquire about the ultimate truth of life makes the human being uniquely different from all other forms of life.

The Beginning of Life

Biological issues arise when interaction between life and matter begins. It is very interesting to note that there is a significant description about the science of embryology in Vedantic literatures. Srimad Bhagavatam, Third Canto mentions a brief description of human embryology. Garbhopanishad, one of the ancient Upanishads, also serves as a brief treatise on embryology. These are very relevant to modern science and technology.

According to Vedanta the manifestation of life begins from the moment of conception. Life first enters the semen of the male and is injected into the womb of a woman. Dr. Jerome Lejeune, known as "The Father of Modern Genetics," also echoed, “Life is present from the moment of conception” before the Louisiana Legislature's House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice on June 7, 1990. He explained that within three to seven days after fertilization we can determine if the new human being is a boy or a girl. "At no time," Dr. Lejeune said, "is the human being a blob of protoplasm. As far as your nature is concerned, I see no difference between the early person that you were at conception and the late person which you are now. You were, and are, a human being." He pointed out that each human being is unique – different from the mother – from the moment of conception. A detailed description of the beginning of life and embryology is available in the ancient literature called Srimad Bhagvatam, the cream of Vedanta.

Thus, since according to Vedanta, material life begins at the moment of conception, and life is sacred and human life is very rarely obtained, discarding the embryos at any stage after the moment of conception, in whatever form, is prohibited. The absence of bone, skin, heart, liver etc., in zygote does not imply that it is lifeless. Life is a divine gift and it should be protected and guarded under all circumstances.