Friday, August 22, 2008
6. Atman and its Adjectives
What is Atman? It is defined as the supreme self, the core of one’s personality. The Atman enlivens the body to perceive and act, through its organs of perception and action. It enlivens the intellect of the individual to THINK when thoughts of the world result. But when the intellect CONTEMPLATES, thoughts of reality dawn on the individual. Thus, the anatomical, physiological, psychological and philosophical functions of a human being are controlled by the functions of the body, mind and intellect. If one has to reach the state of pure untainted consciousness, one has to free oneself from attachment to body, mind and intellect.
This idea is portrayed in the picture of the chariot and horses in the Geetopadesa chapter of the Mahabharata, with Lord Krishna as the charioteer, and Arjuna seated behind him. In the metaphor, the charioteer represents the intellect (who has to hold the reins firmly and not let loose), the reins represent the mind, the horses the senses, the passenger the individual. When the intellect maintains a perfect control over the mind and senses, the Antahkaranas and Bahirkaranas of the Prakriti Tatwas, the individual reaches the ultimate goal.
The three spiritual disciplines recommended to achieve this goal are :
Karma Yoga – path of action for the body
Bhakti Yoga – path of devotion for the mind, and
Gnana Yoga – path of knowledge for the intellect.
6.1.1. In Sahasranama We had discussed earlier the Jeevaatma and Brahman as the 25th and 26th Tatwas and that both are indeed the same. As if to reinstate this, the word Atma, either alone or with different adjectives, appear 26 times in the Naamaavali. Let us look into them a little in detail. They are:
1) Bhutaatmah: Sloka 1 Nama 8 Life to the Lives.
2) Putaatmah: Sloka 2 Nama 10 ¬¬¬¬Absolutely Pure and unattached.
3) Paramaatmah: Sloka 2 Nama 11 One who functions as the spectator, permitter,
Supporter, the Lord and the Supreme Self.
4) Aatmavate: Sloka 9 Nama 84 Standing on one’s own greatness without any other
support or roots.
5) Ameyaatmah: Sloka 11 Nama 102 also Sloka 19 Nama 179 Immeasurable
wisdom.
6) Samaatman: Sloka 12 Nama 107 Embodiment of the ultimate Truth.
7) Chaturaatman: Sloka 15 Nama 137, also Sloka 82 Nama 769 Superficially, chatur
may mean four, but, in the context of the Naamaavali that follow, may more appropriately be understood as clever or intelligent, assuming forms according to need. According to Vishnu purana, Brahma, Prajaapatis like Daksha, Kaala(Time) and Jivaas—these are powers of Vishnu for purposes of creation. Vishnu, the Manus, Kaala (Time) and living beings are the powers of Vishnu for purpose of sustenance. Rudra, Time, Death (Mrithyu) and living beings are Vishnu’s powers for purpose of dissolution.
8) Dhrutaatman: Sloka 17 Nama.160 Stable without birth or death.
9) Visrutaatma: Sloka 22, Nama 207, Worshipped in Srutis for his qualities like
Truth, wisdom etc
10) Vishwaatma: Sloka 24 Nama 225, the jeevaatma of the entire universe.
11) Nivrutaatma: Sloka 25 Nama 229, also Sloka 64 Nama 597 Detached from
the Karmas or their results.
12) Prasannaatman: Sloka 26 Nama 237, Clear, without likes and dislikes; never contaminated by Rajoguna (Passion) or Tamoguna (Inertia).
13) Aprameyaatman: Sloka 27 Nama 248 Beyond the reach of human Knowledge.
14) Prakaasaatman: Sloka 30 Nama 276, Luminous everywhere.
15) Vruddhaatman: Sloka 38 Nama 352, The oldest.
16) Vimuktaatman: Sloka 48 Nama 452, Free from all bondages, by nature.
17) Naikaatman: Sloka 50 Nama 468 Not one body ( Took different forms on
different occasions)
18) Anantaatman: Sloka 55 Nama 518 Beyond comprehension; one who cannot be determined by space, time or causation.
19) Vijitaatman: Sloka 66 Nama 620, One who has conquered the mind.
20) Avideyaatma: Sloka 66 Nama 621 A Rupa or an expression not understood by
anybody.
21) Visuddhaatman: Sloka 68 Nama 636, Crystal clear , beyond the three Gunas.
22) Trilokaatman: Sloka 69 Nama 646 The three worlds are none other than the
Supreme self.
23) Anivrutaatman: Sloka 83 Nama 774 At once, present everywhere and nowhere,
simultaneously, omnipresent.
24) Gabheeraatma: Sloka 100 Nama 937 Of immeasurable depth.
25) Ekaatman: Sloka 103 Nama 965 Only one Atma, and omnipresent. Taitareeya Upanishad says, “ This Atman alone existed in the beginning. The Smriti says,” That is known as Atman, which pervades every being and which remains always the same.”
26) Atmayoni: Sloka 106 Nama 985 Self reproductive. There is no material cause other than Himself for the Universe.
6.1.2. Thus, the five elements, five tanmatras, five organs of perception, five organs of action, mind, intellect, ego and chitta, constituting the 24 Prakriti Tatwas and the Jeevaatama and Brahman, whatever is manifested, is the Supreme Brahman itself. The world of object that we see around, us, is in itself, by itself , nothing but Brahman. BRAHMAN, MISREPRESENTED BY OUR MISCONCEPTION, IS THE WORLD. It is interesting to observe that the different adjectives for Atman from the first sloka to the 106th are so chosen , as to explain first that the Atman or Soul is different from life or body, through different levels of statements like, “ Atman is free from all bondages, beyond the three Gunaas ( Satwa, Rajo and Tama), omnipresent etc to a final statement that there is only one Atma and that there is no material cause other than Himself for the Universe. This is very similar to the Lord’s approach in Bhagwad Gita, to slowly elevate a person from Karma Yoga (Yoga of Action), through different stages to the Yoga of Liberation by renunciation .
6.2. Atman In Viveka Choodamani: Adishankara, in Viveka Choodmani, describes this by beautiful adjectival phrases ( Slokas 237-240 ) and Swami Chinmayananda explains them admirably, further.
6.2.1. These phrases are:
1) Transcendental (Para) the illuminating principle behind Body-Mind-intellect (BMT), Perceiver- Feeler - Thinker (PFT) and Objects-Emotions-Thought. (OET) is the pure self, the Consciousness upon which the myriad names and forms are merely an illusory projection.
2) Real (Sat) – which remains the same, in the past, present and future.
3) One without a second (Adwiteeyam) ultimate eternal reality.
4) Extremely pure (Visuddham) - It has no vasanas on it. Vasanas are the foot prints of past thoughts and actions left upon the personality. Any conscious act – physical, mental or intellectual, create Vasanas. Vasanas create the world and the world around us creates the Vasanas in us.
5) Homogenous mass of knowledge (Vigyaana Ganam) - Absolute knowledge.
6) Without any taint (Niranjanam) The Atman, the Self, is beyond all Vasanas and, therefore, is taintless.
7) Supremely peaceful (Prasaantam) - There are no agitations of mind and intellect, because they have been transcended.
8) Devoid of beginning and end (Adi – anta – viheenam). Eternal, immutable, changeless, limitless.
9) Beyond activity (Akriyam) – There is nothing other than it to serve, no field for it to function.
10) Of the nature of eternal bliss (Nirantar - ananda – rasa – swaroopam) Beyond happiness, it is bliss.
11) Transcending all diversities created by Maya (Nirasta – Maya – krita. Sarva – bhedam – Maya means the non – apprehension of reality (illusion).
12) Eternal (Nityam) - which is not conditioned by space and time.
13) Essence of pleasure (Sukham) – One which illumines sentiments of joy and emotion.
14) Without any part (Nishkalam) - Limitless.
15) Immeasurable (Aprameyam) – Incomparable.
16) Formless (Aroopam) limitless and hence, no form.
17) Un-manifest (Avyaktam) – Can not be sensed by the sense – organs, mind or intellect.
18) Timeless (An – aakhyam) – No name to distinguish, ‘it’ because it has no form or limit or measures.
19) Immutable (Avyayam) – eternal and changeless.
20) Self luminous (Jyoti –swayam) – To know the Atman, no other medium or light is necessary.
6.2.3 In sloka 240, Adisankara further describes Brahman as:
21) That which can neither be thrown away nor taken up.
22) Which lies beyond the limits of mind and speech.
23) Whole and one’s own self.
24) Of outshining glory.
6.2.4. Adisankara says that only great sages see this TRUTH in which there are no distinctions such as the Knower, the knowledge and the known.
6.3 Atman in Bhagwat Geeta.
6.3.1 Practically, every chapter in Bhagwat Geeta talks about Brahman, the Reality and its indestructibility. While talking about Yoga of action (Karma Yoga), the Geeta declares that Atman is beyond action. The chapter of Bhakti Yoga (Devotion) talks about Brahman with and without attributes. The very second chapter of Bhagwat Geeta, is devoted to Samkhya Yoga, or the Yoga of knowledge wherein, the Lord gradually teaches Arjuna, as though to a child, the difference between Real and Unreal, Atman and its indestructibility. He states in unequivocal terms, “The unreal has no existence, the real never ceases to be”. “PRAGYANAM BRAHMA” “Awareness is Reality” is the definition of Absolute Reality.
6.3.2 “ The Atman is neither born nor does IT die. Coming into being and ceasing to be, do not take place in IT. Unborn, eternal, constant and ancient, IT is not killed when the body is slain” Geeta 2.20.
6.3.3 The fact about Atman is that IT indwells in the bodies of all and is ever invulnerable. The Lord induces Arjuna not to be motivated by desire and yet to be intensely active. When duty is discharged untarnished by desire, clarity of understanding ensues and efficiency increases. This is stated by Lord, in the oft-quoted sloka.
“Karmany eve Adhikaras te maa phalesu kadacana maa karma phale Ketur bhur maa te Sango’stu akarmani-seek to perform your duty, but lay not claim to its fruits. Be you not the producer of the fruits of Karma; neither shall you lean towards inaction” 2.47.
6.4.1 Entire chapters in Brhadaranyaka Upanishad are devoted to the understanding of Brahmam. This is not referred to here, since this treatise may then become too much of a spiritual philosophic narration, rendered by some one who has not understood it even peripherally.
6.4.2 The Vedas speak of the interconnection between the external and internal worlds. It could be the interplay between the galaxy, the stars, the planet and the individual bodies on the earth and / or the interplay between the body, mind and intellect at the terrestrial level. It is now known that it is not merely the gravitational pull of the planet that causes a certain response, but also an internal clock governed by the genes. Contemporary science has begun to examine Vedic theories on the nature of “self”. While a lot has been achieved both at the macro and micro cosmic levels, lots remain still to be understood. For example, in the Mahabharata, there is mention of an embryo conceived in one womb, being transferred to the womb of another woman, where it was born. The transferred embryo is Balarama and that is how he is the brother of Lord Krishna, although he was born to Rohini and not to Devaki. A few decades back, this would have been laughed at by the rationalists, but today, surrogate mothers and surrogate children are almost common place.
6.4.3 Similarly, the concept of space, time and matter of the Vedic ages has been remarkably close to established scientific facts, of a later date. Yoga Vasishta is an ancient text, with over 29,000 verses, traditionally attributed to sage Valmiki, but there are also views that they were compiled at a much later date. Irrespective of date, some of the passages of the treatise on time, space, matter and consciousness are remarkably scientific, as may be seen from a few statements mentioned below (science in ancient India by Subhash C. Kak, 2005):
• Just as space does not have a fixed span, time does not have a fixed span either. Just as the world and its creation are mere appearances, a moment and an epoch are also imaginary.
• The entire universe is contained in a sub atomic particle and the three worlds exist within one strand of hair.
• In every atom, there are worlds within worlds.
• There are countless universes, diverse in composition and space time structure. In every one of them, there are continents and mountains, inhabited by people who have their own time space and life span.
• The entire universe is forever the same as the consciousness that dwells in every atom.
• Consciousness is pure, eternal and infinite. It does not arise nor cease to be. It is ever there in the moving and unmoving, in the sky.
• The Lord who is the infinite consciousness is the silent but alert witness of the cosmic dance. He is not different from the dancer (the cosmic natural order), and the dance (the happenings).
6.4.4 Therefore, one could speculate that the parallels between ancient philosophies and some recent discoveries on physics or biology are a result of the inherent conceptual advances over a period of time. The basic concept is that action is performed without attachment and the pure consciousness stands above it. Let us see further.
6.5 SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS: Let us see scientifically how this apparently dual function of performing action without attachment and how the Atman itself stands above it.
6.5.2 It starts with a single cell. The first cell split to become two and the two became four and so on. After thus splitting 47 times, the human body has 10,000 trillion cells and are ready to spring forth as a human being. (Margulis and sagan 2002). Each cell knows what exactly to do to nurture the human body, mind and intellect from the time of conception till death.
6.5.3 Most living cells seldom last more than a month or so but with some exceptions. Liver cells can survive for years, though the components with in them may be renewed every few days. Brain cells last as long as we do. We have about hundred billion cells at birth and that is all that we will get for the rest of our lives. It is estimated that we loose about five hundred brain cells every hour and that is why the elders say that there is not a moment to waste. However, the individual components of the brain cells are constantly renewed so that, no part of them is likely to be more than a month old. In fact, it is suggested that there is not a single bit of any of us, not even a stray molecule, that was part of us nine years ago. Yes, we all grow old, but at the cellular level we are not more than nine years old at any point of time or part of the body!
6.5.4 There is activity everywhere in the cell and a ceaseless thrum of electrical energy. The food and oxygen combine in the cell to produce electricity. We don’t feel it because it happens on a very tiny scale of about 0.1 volt travelling a few nanometers only. To have a proper idea of this, we have to scale it up. This will translate to 20 million volts per meter, equal to the charge carried by a thunderstorm.
6.5.5 Similarly, if we blow up a cell, to a scale, in which atom would be the size of a pea, the cell itself would be a sphere ¾ th of a Kilometer across with millions of objects whizzing across like bullets. Each strand of DNA is attacked every 8.4 seconds. The proteins spin, pulsate and fly into each other upto a billion times a second. The enzymes perform a thousand tasks every second, building and rebuilding molecules. Some proteins live for less than half an hour; others survive for weeks. Typically, a cell will contain some 20,000 different types of proteins and, of these, about 2000 types will each be represented by at least 50,000 molecules. This means that there will be at least 100 million protein molecules in each cell. This is then the staggering immensity of biochemical activity with in us.
6.5.6 When the cells are no longer needed, they die with great dignity. They take down all the struts and buttresses that hold them together and quietly devour their component parts. Every day, billions of cells die and billions of others clean up the mess.
6.5.7 The wonder of cells is that they manage every thing so smoothly for decades at a stretch (except an occasional aberration, which may cause cancer). All this is random action, directed by nothing more than elemental rules of attraction and repulsion. There is clearly no desire or motivation behind any of the action of the cells. It just happens so smoothly and repeatedly, producing a perfect harmony across the organism. Every living thing is a wonder of atomic engineering.
6.5.8 Which is then, I or self or Atman? the cells, the protein, the enzymes, the DNAs ? No, they are all finite, and Atman is beyond them. They all function in all the 26 adjectival roles mentioned earlier, attached to Atman, but Atma or the Supreme self is beyond all of them; again an instance of the Prakriti-Purusha or Kshetra-Kshetregna relationship. This awareness is the Reality. The work must go on, in an unattached manner. Can there be a better example to illustrate the “Karmany eve Adhikaras te”, propounded by the Lord, than the cells and how they function?
6.5.9 We may be wiser with a sobering note, “ Life wants to be; Life does not always want to be much; Life goes on” and when we are aware of This Reality, we are nearer to understanding ‘Atman’ and the adjectival phrases to it.
What is Atman? It is defined as the supreme self, the core of one’s personality. The Atman enlivens the body to perceive and act, through its organs of perception and action. It enlivens the intellect of the individual to THINK when thoughts of the world result. But when the intellect CONTEMPLATES, thoughts of reality dawn on the individual. Thus, the anatomical, physiological, psychological and philosophical functions of a human being are controlled by the functions of the body, mind and intellect. If one has to reach the state of pure untainted consciousness, one has to free oneself from attachment to body, mind and intellect.
This idea is portrayed in the picture of the chariot and horses in the Geetopadesa chapter of the Mahabharata, with Lord Krishna as the charioteer, and Arjuna seated behind him. In the metaphor, the charioteer represents the intellect (who has to hold the reins firmly and not let loose), the reins represent the mind, the horses the senses, the passenger the individual. When the intellect maintains a perfect control over the mind and senses, the Antahkaranas and Bahirkaranas of the Prakriti Tatwas, the individual reaches the ultimate goal.
The three spiritual disciplines recommended to achieve this goal are :
Karma Yoga – path of action for the body
Bhakti Yoga – path of devotion for the mind, and
Gnana Yoga – path of knowledge for the intellect.
6.1.1. In Sahasranama We had discussed earlier the Jeevaatma and Brahman as the 25th and 26th Tatwas and that both are indeed the same. As if to reinstate this, the word Atma, either alone or with different adjectives, appear 26 times in the Naamaavali. Let us look into them a little in detail. They are:
1) Bhutaatmah: Sloka 1 Nama 8 Life to the Lives.
2) Putaatmah: Sloka 2 Nama 10 ¬¬¬¬Absolutely Pure and unattached.
3) Paramaatmah: Sloka 2 Nama 11 One who functions as the spectator, permitter,
Supporter, the Lord and the Supreme Self.
4) Aatmavate: Sloka 9 Nama 84 Standing on one’s own greatness without any other
support or roots.
5) Ameyaatmah: Sloka 11 Nama 102 also Sloka 19 Nama 179 Immeasurable
wisdom.
6) Samaatman: Sloka 12 Nama 107 Embodiment of the ultimate Truth.
7) Chaturaatman: Sloka 15 Nama 137, also Sloka 82 Nama 769 Superficially, chatur
may mean four, but, in the context of the Naamaavali that follow, may more appropriately be understood as clever or intelligent, assuming forms according to need. According to Vishnu purana, Brahma, Prajaapatis like Daksha, Kaala(Time) and Jivaas—these are powers of Vishnu for purposes of creation. Vishnu, the Manus, Kaala (Time) and living beings are the powers of Vishnu for purpose of sustenance. Rudra, Time, Death (Mrithyu) and living beings are Vishnu’s powers for purpose of dissolution.
8) Dhrutaatman: Sloka 17 Nama.160 Stable without birth or death.
9) Visrutaatma: Sloka 22, Nama 207, Worshipped in Srutis for his qualities like
Truth, wisdom etc
10) Vishwaatma: Sloka 24 Nama 225, the jeevaatma of the entire universe.
11) Nivrutaatma: Sloka 25 Nama 229, also Sloka 64 Nama 597 Detached from
the Karmas or their results.
12) Prasannaatman: Sloka 26 Nama 237, Clear, without likes and dislikes; never contaminated by Rajoguna (Passion) or Tamoguna (Inertia).
13) Aprameyaatman: Sloka 27 Nama 248 Beyond the reach of human Knowledge.
14) Prakaasaatman: Sloka 30 Nama 276, Luminous everywhere.
15) Vruddhaatman: Sloka 38 Nama 352, The oldest.
16) Vimuktaatman: Sloka 48 Nama 452, Free from all bondages, by nature.
17) Naikaatman: Sloka 50 Nama 468 Not one body ( Took different forms on
different occasions)
18) Anantaatman: Sloka 55 Nama 518 Beyond comprehension; one who cannot be determined by space, time or causation.
19) Vijitaatman: Sloka 66 Nama 620, One who has conquered the mind.
20) Avideyaatma: Sloka 66 Nama 621 A Rupa or an expression not understood by
anybody.
21) Visuddhaatman: Sloka 68 Nama 636, Crystal clear , beyond the three Gunas.
22) Trilokaatman: Sloka 69 Nama 646 The three worlds are none other than the
Supreme self.
23) Anivrutaatman: Sloka 83 Nama 774 At once, present everywhere and nowhere,
simultaneously, omnipresent.
24) Gabheeraatma: Sloka 100 Nama 937 Of immeasurable depth.
25) Ekaatman: Sloka 103 Nama 965 Only one Atma, and omnipresent. Taitareeya Upanishad says, “ This Atman alone existed in the beginning. The Smriti says,” That is known as Atman, which pervades every being and which remains always the same.”
26) Atmayoni: Sloka 106 Nama 985 Self reproductive. There is no material cause other than Himself for the Universe.
6.1.2. Thus, the five elements, five tanmatras, five organs of perception, five organs of action, mind, intellect, ego and chitta, constituting the 24 Prakriti Tatwas and the Jeevaatama and Brahman, whatever is manifested, is the Supreme Brahman itself. The world of object that we see around, us, is in itself, by itself , nothing but Brahman. BRAHMAN, MISREPRESENTED BY OUR MISCONCEPTION, IS THE WORLD. It is interesting to observe that the different adjectives for Atman from the first sloka to the 106th are so chosen , as to explain first that the Atman or Soul is different from life or body, through different levels of statements like, “ Atman is free from all bondages, beyond the three Gunaas ( Satwa, Rajo and Tama), omnipresent etc to a final statement that there is only one Atma and that there is no material cause other than Himself for the Universe. This is very similar to the Lord’s approach in Bhagwad Gita, to slowly elevate a person from Karma Yoga (Yoga of Action), through different stages to the Yoga of Liberation by renunciation .
6.2. Atman In Viveka Choodamani: Adishankara, in Viveka Choodmani, describes this by beautiful adjectival phrases ( Slokas 237-240 ) and Swami Chinmayananda explains them admirably, further.
6.2.1. These phrases are:
1) Transcendental (Para) the illuminating principle behind Body-Mind-intellect (BMT), Perceiver- Feeler - Thinker (PFT) and Objects-Emotions-Thought. (OET) is the pure self, the Consciousness upon which the myriad names and forms are merely an illusory projection.
2) Real (Sat) – which remains the same, in the past, present and future.
3) One without a second (Adwiteeyam) ultimate eternal reality.
4) Extremely pure (Visuddham) - It has no vasanas on it. Vasanas are the foot prints of past thoughts and actions left upon the personality. Any conscious act – physical, mental or intellectual, create Vasanas. Vasanas create the world and the world around us creates the Vasanas in us.
5) Homogenous mass of knowledge (Vigyaana Ganam) - Absolute knowledge.
6) Without any taint (Niranjanam) The Atman, the Self, is beyond all Vasanas and, therefore, is taintless.
7) Supremely peaceful (Prasaantam) - There are no agitations of mind and intellect, because they have been transcended.
8) Devoid of beginning and end (Adi – anta – viheenam). Eternal, immutable, changeless, limitless.
9) Beyond activity (Akriyam) – There is nothing other than it to serve, no field for it to function.
10) Of the nature of eternal bliss (Nirantar - ananda – rasa – swaroopam) Beyond happiness, it is bliss.
11) Transcending all diversities created by Maya (Nirasta – Maya – krita. Sarva – bhedam – Maya means the non – apprehension of reality (illusion).
12) Eternal (Nityam) - which is not conditioned by space and time.
13) Essence of pleasure (Sukham) – One which illumines sentiments of joy and emotion.
14) Without any part (Nishkalam) - Limitless.
15) Immeasurable (Aprameyam) – Incomparable.
16) Formless (Aroopam) limitless and hence, no form.
17) Un-manifest (Avyaktam) – Can not be sensed by the sense – organs, mind or intellect.
18) Timeless (An – aakhyam) – No name to distinguish, ‘it’ because it has no form or limit or measures.
19) Immutable (Avyayam) – eternal and changeless.
20) Self luminous (Jyoti –swayam) – To know the Atman, no other medium or light is necessary.
6.2.3 In sloka 240, Adisankara further describes Brahman as:
21) That which can neither be thrown away nor taken up.
22) Which lies beyond the limits of mind and speech.
23) Whole and one’s own self.
24) Of outshining glory.
6.2.4. Adisankara says that only great sages see this TRUTH in which there are no distinctions such as the Knower, the knowledge and the known.
6.3 Atman in Bhagwat Geeta.
6.3.1 Practically, every chapter in Bhagwat Geeta talks about Brahman, the Reality and its indestructibility. While talking about Yoga of action (Karma Yoga), the Geeta declares that Atman is beyond action. The chapter of Bhakti Yoga (Devotion) talks about Brahman with and without attributes. The very second chapter of Bhagwat Geeta, is devoted to Samkhya Yoga, or the Yoga of knowledge wherein, the Lord gradually teaches Arjuna, as though to a child, the difference between Real and Unreal, Atman and its indestructibility. He states in unequivocal terms, “The unreal has no existence, the real never ceases to be”. “PRAGYANAM BRAHMA” “Awareness is Reality” is the definition of Absolute Reality.
6.3.2 “ The Atman is neither born nor does IT die. Coming into being and ceasing to be, do not take place in IT. Unborn, eternal, constant and ancient, IT is not killed when the body is slain” Geeta 2.20.
6.3.3 The fact about Atman is that IT indwells in the bodies of all and is ever invulnerable. The Lord induces Arjuna not to be motivated by desire and yet to be intensely active. When duty is discharged untarnished by desire, clarity of understanding ensues and efficiency increases. This is stated by Lord, in the oft-quoted sloka.
“Karmany eve Adhikaras te maa phalesu kadacana maa karma phale Ketur bhur maa te Sango’stu akarmani-seek to perform your duty, but lay not claim to its fruits. Be you not the producer of the fruits of Karma; neither shall you lean towards inaction” 2.47.
6.4.1 Entire chapters in Brhadaranyaka Upanishad are devoted to the understanding of Brahmam. This is not referred to here, since this treatise may then become too much of a spiritual philosophic narration, rendered by some one who has not understood it even peripherally.
6.4.2 The Vedas speak of the interconnection between the external and internal worlds. It could be the interplay between the galaxy, the stars, the planet and the individual bodies on the earth and / or the interplay between the body, mind and intellect at the terrestrial level. It is now known that it is not merely the gravitational pull of the planet that causes a certain response, but also an internal clock governed by the genes. Contemporary science has begun to examine Vedic theories on the nature of “self”. While a lot has been achieved both at the macro and micro cosmic levels, lots remain still to be understood. For example, in the Mahabharata, there is mention of an embryo conceived in one womb, being transferred to the womb of another woman, where it was born. The transferred embryo is Balarama and that is how he is the brother of Lord Krishna, although he was born to Rohini and not to Devaki. A few decades back, this would have been laughed at by the rationalists, but today, surrogate mothers and surrogate children are almost common place.
6.4.3 Similarly, the concept of space, time and matter of the Vedic ages has been remarkably close to established scientific facts, of a later date. Yoga Vasishta is an ancient text, with over 29,000 verses, traditionally attributed to sage Valmiki, but there are also views that they were compiled at a much later date. Irrespective of date, some of the passages of the treatise on time, space, matter and consciousness are remarkably scientific, as may be seen from a few statements mentioned below (science in ancient India by Subhash C. Kak, 2005):
• Just as space does not have a fixed span, time does not have a fixed span either. Just as the world and its creation are mere appearances, a moment and an epoch are also imaginary.
• The entire universe is contained in a sub atomic particle and the three worlds exist within one strand of hair.
• In every atom, there are worlds within worlds.
• There are countless universes, diverse in composition and space time structure. In every one of them, there are continents and mountains, inhabited by people who have their own time space and life span.
• The entire universe is forever the same as the consciousness that dwells in every atom.
• Consciousness is pure, eternal and infinite. It does not arise nor cease to be. It is ever there in the moving and unmoving, in the sky.
• The Lord who is the infinite consciousness is the silent but alert witness of the cosmic dance. He is not different from the dancer (the cosmic natural order), and the dance (the happenings).
6.4.4 Therefore, one could speculate that the parallels between ancient philosophies and some recent discoveries on physics or biology are a result of the inherent conceptual advances over a period of time. The basic concept is that action is performed without attachment and the pure consciousness stands above it. Let us see further.
6.5 SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS: Let us see scientifically how this apparently dual function of performing action without attachment and how the Atman itself stands above it.
6.5.2 It starts with a single cell. The first cell split to become two and the two became four and so on. After thus splitting 47 times, the human body has 10,000 trillion cells and are ready to spring forth as a human being. (Margulis and sagan 2002). Each cell knows what exactly to do to nurture the human body, mind and intellect from the time of conception till death.
6.5.3 Most living cells seldom last more than a month or so but with some exceptions. Liver cells can survive for years, though the components with in them may be renewed every few days. Brain cells last as long as we do. We have about hundred billion cells at birth and that is all that we will get for the rest of our lives. It is estimated that we loose about five hundred brain cells every hour and that is why the elders say that there is not a moment to waste. However, the individual components of the brain cells are constantly renewed so that, no part of them is likely to be more than a month old. In fact, it is suggested that there is not a single bit of any of us, not even a stray molecule, that was part of us nine years ago. Yes, we all grow old, but at the cellular level we are not more than nine years old at any point of time or part of the body!
6.5.4 There is activity everywhere in the cell and a ceaseless thrum of electrical energy. The food and oxygen combine in the cell to produce electricity. We don’t feel it because it happens on a very tiny scale of about 0.1 volt travelling a few nanometers only. To have a proper idea of this, we have to scale it up. This will translate to 20 million volts per meter, equal to the charge carried by a thunderstorm.
6.5.5 Similarly, if we blow up a cell, to a scale, in which atom would be the size of a pea, the cell itself would be a sphere ¾ th of a Kilometer across with millions of objects whizzing across like bullets. Each strand of DNA is attacked every 8.4 seconds. The proteins spin, pulsate and fly into each other upto a billion times a second. The enzymes perform a thousand tasks every second, building and rebuilding molecules. Some proteins live for less than half an hour; others survive for weeks. Typically, a cell will contain some 20,000 different types of proteins and, of these, about 2000 types will each be represented by at least 50,000 molecules. This means that there will be at least 100 million protein molecules in each cell. This is then the staggering immensity of biochemical activity with in us.
6.5.6 When the cells are no longer needed, they die with great dignity. They take down all the struts and buttresses that hold them together and quietly devour their component parts. Every day, billions of cells die and billions of others clean up the mess.
6.5.7 The wonder of cells is that they manage every thing so smoothly for decades at a stretch (except an occasional aberration, which may cause cancer). All this is random action, directed by nothing more than elemental rules of attraction and repulsion. There is clearly no desire or motivation behind any of the action of the cells. It just happens so smoothly and repeatedly, producing a perfect harmony across the organism. Every living thing is a wonder of atomic engineering.
6.5.8 Which is then, I or self or Atman? the cells, the protein, the enzymes, the DNAs ? No, they are all finite, and Atman is beyond them. They all function in all the 26 adjectival roles mentioned earlier, attached to Atman, but Atma or the Supreme self is beyond all of them; again an instance of the Prakriti-Purusha or Kshetra-Kshetregna relationship. This awareness is the Reality. The work must go on, in an unattached manner. Can there be a better example to illustrate the “Karmany eve Adhikaras te”, propounded by the Lord, than the cells and how they function?
6.5.9 We may be wiser with a sobering note, “ Life wants to be; Life does not always want to be much; Life goes on” and when we are aware of This Reality, we are nearer to understanding ‘Atman’ and the adjectival phrases to it.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
5. Scientific Significanc of Some Names Related to the Status of the Universe, its Creation etc.
5.1.1 A number of names that follow describe the primordial nature of the Lord and His linkage with the universe. For eg,
SWAYAMBHU – (Sloka 5, Nama 37) origin without conventional reproduction as we
understand.
ADITYAH - Sloka 5 Nama 39 - Even as the sun illuminates the whole world, so is the Paramatman who gives spiritual luminosity to the entire universe. The various uses to which the intellect puts it, good or bad or indifferent, does not affect the luminosity of the source of that light.
MAHASVANAH Sloka 5 Nama 41 - One with a powerful voice- even as the particular notes of a drum, conch or flute have no separate existence from the general note of these instruments, but, when played in an order of sequence, produces melodious music, so the knowledge of the existing universe in the waking and dream states has no validity of its own, apart from the intelligence (Brahman) which pervades it. As breath comes out of a man without any thought or effort, so too do the externally existing Vedas with their various subdivisions issue spontaneously out of Brahman. This differentiated universe, before its origin, is nothing but Brahman (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, chapter 2.4.7 to 10)
ANAADHI NIDHANA - Sloka 5 Nama 42 without beginning or end.
DHAATAA - Sloka 5 Nama 43 one who supports the world.
APRAMEYA - Sloka 6 Nama 46 beyond logical explanation.
PADMANABHA - Sloka 6 Nama 48 the lotus from the naval. Pushkaram, Pundareekam, Padmam, Chakram are all counts of numbers like ten, hundred, thousand, etc. Padmam is hundred thousand crores or a trillion. The age of the earth is estimated at about 4.5 billion years. Clearly, one is symbolically talking a trillion years before, the universe, the Milky way represented by the stem of the lotus and Brahma at the end of it, as the Solar System.
VISWAKARMA - Sloka 6 Nama 50 one who created this universe.
MANUH - Sloka 6 Nama 51 (literally), one who thinks of everything – He who dwells in all beings but is within them, whom none of the beings knows, where body is all beings, and who controls all beings from within, the inner controller-your own self and immortal. He’s never seen but is the seer, never thought but the thinker, never known but the knower. He is the inner controller (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad chapter 3.7 23).
Prakriti, by itself is inert. Purusha, on its own does not function. But, when the two join life results and function in various forms depending upon the type of prakriti where Purusha has entered. The Purusha functions in the body he has entered as a spectator, permittor, supporter, enjoyer, the Lord and the Supreme self, in that order, depending upon the level of intellect Brahma Gnanam, attained (Bhagwad Geeta, chapter 13,21 and 22).
TWASHTA : Sloka 6 Nama 52 – One who destroys everything at the time of deluge (Pralaya).
5. Some Names Related to the Status of the Universe, its Creation etc and the Scientific Significance.
5.1.1 A number of names that follow describe the primordial nature of the Lord and His linkage with the universe. For eg,
SWAYAMBHU – (Sloka 5, Nama 37) origin without conventional reproduction as we
understand.
ADITYAH - Sloka 5 Nama 39 - Even as the sun illuminates the whole world, so is the Paramatman who gives spiritual luminosity to the entire universe. The various uses to which the intellect puts it, good or bad or indifferent, does not affect the luminosity of the source of that light.
MAHASVANAH Sloka 5 Nama 41 - One with a powerful voice- even as the particular notes of a drum, conch or flute have no separate existence from the general note of these instruments, but, when played in an order of sequence, produces melodious music, so the knowledge of the existing universe in the waking and dream states has no validity of its own, apart from the intelligence (Brahman) which pervades it. As breath comes out of a man without any thought or effort, so too do the externally existing Vedas with their various subdivisions issue spontaneously out of Brahman. This differentiated universe, before its origin, is nothing but Brahman (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, chapter 2.4.7 to 10)
ANAADHI NIDHANA - Sloka 5 Nama 42 without beginning or end.
DHAATAA - Sloka 5 Nama 43 one who supports the world.
APRAMEYA - Sloka 6 Nama 46 beyond logical explanation.
PADMANABHA - Sloka 6 Nama 48 the lotus from the naval. Pushkaram, Pundareekam, Padmam, Chakram are all counts of numbers like ten, hundred, thousand, etc. Padmam is hundred thousand crores or a trillion. The age of the earth is estimated at about 4.5 billion years. Clearly, one is symbolically talking a trillion years before, the universe, the Milky way represented by the stem of the lotus and Brahma at the end of it, as the Solar System.
VISWAKARMA - Sloka 6 Nama 50 one who created this universe.
MANUH - Sloka 6 Nama 51 (literally), one who thinks of everything – He who dwells in all beings but is within them, whom none of the beings knows, where body is all beings, and who controls all beings from within, the inner controller-your own self and immortal. He’s never seen but is the seer, never thought but the thinker, never known but the knower. He is the inner controller (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad chapter 3.7 23).
Prakriti, by itself is inert. Purusha, on its own does not function. But, when the two join life results and function in various forms depending upon the type of prakriti where Purusha has entered. The Purusha functions in the body he has entered as a spectator, permittor, supporter, enjoyer, the Lord and the Supreme self, in that order, depending upon the level of intellect Brahma Gnanam, attained (Bhagwad Geeta, chapter 13,21 and 22).
TWASHTA : Sloka 6 Nama 52 – One who destroys everything at the time of deluge (Pralaya).
5.1.2 And so goes an a number of Naamaavalis that follow. They all speak in general about the origin of the universe from that unique source, the sustenance, the age and its destruction. They also talk about the origin of life from this primordial source. Let us now see how far the modern science has been able to unravel this mystery.
5.2. Scientific Significance
5.2.1. As we have seen earlier, amino acids and protein constitute the elixir of life. Amino acids can be created in a chemical laboratory, but the problem is of protein. Proteins are perhaps a million type in the human body and one needs to assemble the amino acids like the building blocks, to make a protein, in a particular order, in much the same way as one has to assemble the letters in a particular way to get a word. For example, to spell ‘collagen’, a common type of protein, one needs to arrange eight letters of the English alphabets, in a particular order. But to MAKE the same collagen, a protein, one needs to arrange 1,055 amino acids in perfectly the right sequence. And the miracle is that it arranges itself, spontaneously, without direction. Yet, we are talking about several thousand types of protein, each unique and each vital to the sound maintenance of the body. A protein by itself, is no good, if it can not reproduce itself and proteins can’t reproduce by themselves. For this, they need DNA (De oxyribo nucleic acid).
5.2.2 The complete set of human genes comes packaged in twenty three separate pairs of chromosomes. Of these twenty two pairs are numbered in approximate order of size, from the largest (number 1) to the smallest (number 22), while the remaining pair consists of the sex chromosomes, two large X chromosomes in women, one X and one small Y in men. Each chromosome is one pair of very long DNA molecules which are long chains of sugar and phosphate, to which the bases are attached as side rungs.
5.2.3 DNA is adept at replicating. It can make copy of itself in seconds but can do virtually nothing else. So, we have a paradoxical situation. Proteins can not exist without DNA and DNA has no purpose without protein. Did they arise simultaneously with the purpose of supporting each other? (Bill Bryson, 2003) – What an exemplary proof of Purusha and Prakriti or Kshetra and Kshetragna!
5.2.4 There is something more to it. DNA, protein, and other components of life can not prosper without some sort of membrane to contain them. If an atom from a cell of our body is removed, it is no more alive. It is only when they are with in the nurturing cell, there is life. Without the cell, they are just chemicals. But without chemicals, the cell has no purpose. Everything needs everything else. And that is the great mystery of God. This Reality is indeed the Awareness.
5.2.5 Every scenario concerning the conditions necessary for life involves water but, to covert monomers to polymers (that is, to create protein), wet monomers alone are not enough. How and why it happens except when creating life on earth is one of biology’s yet unanswered questions. Yes, the protein and DNAs and their role for creation of life explain the significance of such names as Swayambhu, Aprameya, Anaadhinidhana Vishwakarma and Manuh, just to mention a few of the names.
5.2.6 The ‘Murchison’ meteorite, which crashed in Murchison in Australia in 1969, when analyzed, was found to be 4.5 billion years old and contained 74 types of amino acids, eight of which are involved in the formation of proteins found on earth. In 2001, it was also found that the Murchison meteorites contained some complex strings of sugar, called polyols, unique till then only to the earth. Such findings found supporters for the extra terrestrial origin of life, Padmanabha, the lotus stem symbolically comparable to the Milky way, extending life from extra terrestrial to earth!
5.2.7 There are views expressed both for and against, which organisms lived first on the surface of the earth, the unicellular protozoan or the bacteria. Columns of ‘stromatolites’ (bacterial columns) several meters thick present in very ancient rocks, or the blue-green algae, called cyanobacteria, which have contributed to the formation of ‘Banded-Haematite Quarzite’ of the Pre-Cambrian rocks, so commonly seen in North Karnataka (and commercially mined) are considered much more evolved than the cellular organisms, whose descendants we are. The blue green algae learned to tap into the freely available hydrogen from water molecules and released oxygen as ‘waste’, and in the process, invented ‘Photosynthesis’, which is the single most important metabolic innovation in the history of our planet. Gradually, life became more complex and created two types of organisms, those that expel oxygen (like plant) and those that take it in (like human beings)
5.2.8 Wherever you go in the world, what ever animal, plant, bacteria or virus you look at, if it is alive, it will use the same genetic code. The genetic code (barring a few aberrations) is the same in every creature. This means that there was only one creation, one single event when life was born and that all life is one. As Erasmus Darwin remarked. “one and the same kind of living filaments has been the cause of all organic life”. (Matt Ridley 1999).
5.2.9 V S Ramachandran, the internationally well known neuroscientist concludes his book on ‘Phantoms in the Brain (1998) by stating, “It seems somehow disconcerting to be told that your life, all your hopes, triumphs and aspirations simply arise from the activities of neurons in your brain. But far from humiliating, this idea is ennobling. Cosmology, evolution and the brain science are all telling us that we have no privileged position in the universe and that our sense of having a private non-material soul ‘watching the world’ is really an ILLUSION. Once you realize that far from being a spectator, you are in fact part of the eternal ebb and flow of events in the cosmos, the realization is very liberating”.
5.2.10 (How well this small treatise on the origin, age and evolution of life in this planet, nay, the universe has been so succinctly explained in merely attributing some names to the Lord of this universe is clear if the Naamaavali is again read, in the light of the above scientific facts (admittedly yet limited) known so far and the mystery of biology of life itself is still in the realm of the unknown and, therefore, in His jurisdiction).
5.1.1 A number of names that follow describe the primordial nature of the Lord and His linkage with the universe. For eg,
SWAYAMBHU – (Sloka 5, Nama 37) origin without conventional reproduction as we
understand.
ADITYAH - Sloka 5 Nama 39 - Even as the sun illuminates the whole world, so is the Paramatman who gives spiritual luminosity to the entire universe. The various uses to which the intellect puts it, good or bad or indifferent, does not affect the luminosity of the source of that light.
MAHASVANAH Sloka 5 Nama 41 - One with a powerful voice- even as the particular notes of a drum, conch or flute have no separate existence from the general note of these instruments, but, when played in an order of sequence, produces melodious music, so the knowledge of the existing universe in the waking and dream states has no validity of its own, apart from the intelligence (Brahman) which pervades it. As breath comes out of a man without any thought or effort, so too do the externally existing Vedas with their various subdivisions issue spontaneously out of Brahman. This differentiated universe, before its origin, is nothing but Brahman (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, chapter 2.4.7 to 10)
ANAADHI NIDHANA - Sloka 5 Nama 42 without beginning or end.
DHAATAA - Sloka 5 Nama 43 one who supports the world.
APRAMEYA - Sloka 6 Nama 46 beyond logical explanation.
PADMANABHA - Sloka 6 Nama 48 the lotus from the naval. Pushkaram, Pundareekam, Padmam, Chakram are all counts of numbers like ten, hundred, thousand, etc. Padmam is hundred thousand crores or a trillion. The age of the earth is estimated at about 4.5 billion years. Clearly, one is symbolically talking a trillion years before, the universe, the Milky way represented by the stem of the lotus and Brahma at the end of it, as the Solar System.
VISWAKARMA - Sloka 6 Nama 50 one who created this universe.
MANUH - Sloka 6 Nama 51 (literally), one who thinks of everything – He who dwells in all beings but is within them, whom none of the beings knows, where body is all beings, and who controls all beings from within, the inner controller-your own self and immortal. He’s never seen but is the seer, never thought but the thinker, never known but the knower. He is the inner controller (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad chapter 3.7 23).
Prakriti, by itself is inert. Purusha, on its own does not function. But, when the two join life results and function in various forms depending upon the type of prakriti where Purusha has entered. The Purusha functions in the body he has entered as a spectator, permittor, supporter, enjoyer, the Lord and the Supreme self, in that order, depending upon the level of intellect Brahma Gnanam, attained (Bhagwad Geeta, chapter 13,21 and 22).
TWASHTA : Sloka 6 Nama 52 – One who destroys everything at the time of deluge (Pralaya).
5. Some Names Related to the Status of the Universe, its Creation etc and the Scientific Significance.
5.1.1 A number of names that follow describe the primordial nature of the Lord and His linkage with the universe. For eg,
SWAYAMBHU – (Sloka 5, Nama 37) origin without conventional reproduction as we
understand.
ADITYAH - Sloka 5 Nama 39 - Even as the sun illuminates the whole world, so is the Paramatman who gives spiritual luminosity to the entire universe. The various uses to which the intellect puts it, good or bad or indifferent, does not affect the luminosity of the source of that light.
MAHASVANAH Sloka 5 Nama 41 - One with a powerful voice- even as the particular notes of a drum, conch or flute have no separate existence from the general note of these instruments, but, when played in an order of sequence, produces melodious music, so the knowledge of the existing universe in the waking and dream states has no validity of its own, apart from the intelligence (Brahman) which pervades it. As breath comes out of a man without any thought or effort, so too do the externally existing Vedas with their various subdivisions issue spontaneously out of Brahman. This differentiated universe, before its origin, is nothing but Brahman (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, chapter 2.4.7 to 10)
ANAADHI NIDHANA - Sloka 5 Nama 42 without beginning or end.
DHAATAA - Sloka 5 Nama 43 one who supports the world.
APRAMEYA - Sloka 6 Nama 46 beyond logical explanation.
PADMANABHA - Sloka 6 Nama 48 the lotus from the naval. Pushkaram, Pundareekam, Padmam, Chakram are all counts of numbers like ten, hundred, thousand, etc. Padmam is hundred thousand crores or a trillion. The age of the earth is estimated at about 4.5 billion years. Clearly, one is symbolically talking a trillion years before, the universe, the Milky way represented by the stem of the lotus and Brahma at the end of it, as the Solar System.
VISWAKARMA - Sloka 6 Nama 50 one who created this universe.
MANUH - Sloka 6 Nama 51 (literally), one who thinks of everything – He who dwells in all beings but is within them, whom none of the beings knows, where body is all beings, and who controls all beings from within, the inner controller-your own self and immortal. He’s never seen but is the seer, never thought but the thinker, never known but the knower. He is the inner controller (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad chapter 3.7 23).
Prakriti, by itself is inert. Purusha, on its own does not function. But, when the two join life results and function in various forms depending upon the type of prakriti where Purusha has entered. The Purusha functions in the body he has entered as a spectator, permittor, supporter, enjoyer, the Lord and the Supreme self, in that order, depending upon the level of intellect Brahma Gnanam, attained (Bhagwad Geeta, chapter 13,21 and 22).
TWASHTA : Sloka 6 Nama 52 – One who destroys everything at the time of deluge (Pralaya).
5.1.2 And so goes an a number of Naamaavalis that follow. They all speak in general about the origin of the universe from that unique source, the sustenance, the age and its destruction. They also talk about the origin of life from this primordial source. Let us now see how far the modern science has been able to unravel this mystery.
5.2. Scientific Significance
5.2.1. As we have seen earlier, amino acids and protein constitute the elixir of life. Amino acids can be created in a chemical laboratory, but the problem is of protein. Proteins are perhaps a million type in the human body and one needs to assemble the amino acids like the building blocks, to make a protein, in a particular order, in much the same way as one has to assemble the letters in a particular way to get a word. For example, to spell ‘collagen’, a common type of protein, one needs to arrange eight letters of the English alphabets, in a particular order. But to MAKE the same collagen, a protein, one needs to arrange 1,055 amino acids in perfectly the right sequence. And the miracle is that it arranges itself, spontaneously, without direction. Yet, we are talking about several thousand types of protein, each unique and each vital to the sound maintenance of the body. A protein by itself, is no good, if it can not reproduce itself and proteins can’t reproduce by themselves. For this, they need DNA (De oxyribo nucleic acid).
5.2.2 The complete set of human genes comes packaged in twenty three separate pairs of chromosomes. Of these twenty two pairs are numbered in approximate order of size, from the largest (number 1) to the smallest (number 22), while the remaining pair consists of the sex chromosomes, two large X chromosomes in women, one X and one small Y in men. Each chromosome is one pair of very long DNA molecules which are long chains of sugar and phosphate, to which the bases are attached as side rungs.
5.2.3 DNA is adept at replicating. It can make copy of itself in seconds but can do virtually nothing else. So, we have a paradoxical situation. Proteins can not exist without DNA and DNA has no purpose without protein. Did they arise simultaneously with the purpose of supporting each other? (Bill Bryson, 2003) – What an exemplary proof of Purusha and Prakriti or Kshetra and Kshetragna!
5.2.4 There is something more to it. DNA, protein, and other components of life can not prosper without some sort of membrane to contain them. If an atom from a cell of our body is removed, it is no more alive. It is only when they are with in the nurturing cell, there is life. Without the cell, they are just chemicals. But without chemicals, the cell has no purpose. Everything needs everything else. And that is the great mystery of God. This Reality is indeed the Awareness.
5.2.5 Every scenario concerning the conditions necessary for life involves water but, to covert monomers to polymers (that is, to create protein), wet monomers alone are not enough. How and why it happens except when creating life on earth is one of biology’s yet unanswered questions. Yes, the protein and DNAs and their role for creation of life explain the significance of such names as Swayambhu, Aprameya, Anaadhinidhana Vishwakarma and Manuh, just to mention a few of the names.
5.2.6 The ‘Murchison’ meteorite, which crashed in Murchison in Australia in 1969, when analyzed, was found to be 4.5 billion years old and contained 74 types of amino acids, eight of which are involved in the formation of proteins found on earth. In 2001, it was also found that the Murchison meteorites contained some complex strings of sugar, called polyols, unique till then only to the earth. Such findings found supporters for the extra terrestrial origin of life, Padmanabha, the lotus stem symbolically comparable to the Milky way, extending life from extra terrestrial to earth!
5.2.7 There are views expressed both for and against, which organisms lived first on the surface of the earth, the unicellular protozoan or the bacteria. Columns of ‘stromatolites’ (bacterial columns) several meters thick present in very ancient rocks, or the blue-green algae, called cyanobacteria, which have contributed to the formation of ‘Banded-Haematite Quarzite’ of the Pre-Cambrian rocks, so commonly seen in North Karnataka (and commercially mined) are considered much more evolved than the cellular organisms, whose descendants we are. The blue green algae learned to tap into the freely available hydrogen from water molecules and released oxygen as ‘waste’, and in the process, invented ‘Photosynthesis’, which is the single most important metabolic innovation in the history of our planet. Gradually, life became more complex and created two types of organisms, those that expel oxygen (like plant) and those that take it in (like human beings)
5.2.8 Wherever you go in the world, what ever animal, plant, bacteria or virus you look at, if it is alive, it will use the same genetic code. The genetic code (barring a few aberrations) is the same in every creature. This means that there was only one creation, one single event when life was born and that all life is one. As Erasmus Darwin remarked. “one and the same kind of living filaments has been the cause of all organic life”. (Matt Ridley 1999).
5.2.9 V S Ramachandran, the internationally well known neuroscientist concludes his book on ‘Phantoms in the Brain (1998) by stating, “It seems somehow disconcerting to be told that your life, all your hopes, triumphs and aspirations simply arise from the activities of neurons in your brain. But far from humiliating, this idea is ennobling. Cosmology, evolution and the brain science are all telling us that we have no privileged position in the universe and that our sense of having a private non-material soul ‘watching the world’ is really an ILLUSION. Once you realize that far from being a spectator, you are in fact part of the eternal ebb and flow of events in the cosmos, the realization is very liberating”.
5.2.10 (How well this small treatise on the origin, age and evolution of life in this planet, nay, the universe has been so succinctly explained in merely attributing some names to the Lord of this universe is clear if the Naamaavali is again read, in the light of the above scientific facts (admittedly yet limited) known so far and the mystery of biology of life itself is still in the realm of the unknown and, therefore, in His jurisdiction).
Sunday, August 10, 2008
4.8 Mathematics, Zero, Infinity and Vishnu :
4.8.1 After discussing the macrocosmic and microcosmic phenomena, the immutable, the knower of the field and his endless attributes, it is appropriate that we talk a little about mathematics – how He is described as ‘Shunyah’ (emptiness) and Infinite, and their role in development of mathematics, before we proceed further.
4.8.2 In the Vedic period, records of mathematical activity are mostly found associated with rituals. Arithmetic operations (Ganitam) such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, etc. are enumerated in Narada Vishnu purana, attributed to sage Vyasa. Examples of geometric knowledge (Rekha Ganitam) are found in the Sulva Sutras of Boudhayana (800 BCE) and Apastambha (600 BCE), which describe techniques for construction of the ritual altars.
4.8.3 Space and time were considered limitless in Jain Cosmology. This led to a deep interest in very large numbers and infinite numbers and to develop the notion of logarithms. Buddhist literature also demonstrates awareness of indeterminate and infinite numbers.
4.8.4 Philosophical formulations concerning ‘Shunyah’, that is emptiness or void facilitated in the introduction of the concept of zero (bindu). The importance of zero as an empty place holder in the place value system of numerals is well known from ancient times. The algebraic definitions of zero and its relationship to mathematical functions were developed by Brahmagupta (7th century AD), though opinions are also on record that zero was implied even earlier by Aryabhatta (476 BCE) in his treatise.
4.8.5 Be that, as it may, the recorded reference to shunya and infinity exists in Vishnu sahasranama in the Namaavalis 742 and 743, of shloka 79. The Lord is praised as : ‘Vishamah”: (742) – One to whom there is no equal because nothing is comparable to him. If there is none equal to him, how can anything be greater? – the concept of infinite.
‘Shunyah’ : (743) – One who, being without any attributes, appears as ‘Shunyah’ (emptiness).
Closely follow three other names :
‘Dhritaasih’; - One whose blessings are unfailing, but how can emptiness confer unfailing bliss?
‘Achalah’ : - One who cannot be deprived of His real nature as Truth, Intelligence and Infinity.
‘Chalah’ : - One who moves.
4.8.6 Let us see these in the context of zero. Zero before an integer has no value but after a number, assumes any value depending upon its place. We all know that the smaller the value of the divisor in the division function, the value of the quotient becomes bigger. If the divisor is zero, then the quotient is infinite and that is ‘Vishamah’. Thus, we see the concept of zero, infinity and its place value in numerals, have all been already expressed in a small list of five names of Lord Vishnu.
4.8.7 This simple notational system conceived in Indian scriptures and its significance have been appreciated and integrated later in the Western system. In the words of the great French mathematician of Napoleon’s time, Laplace (of Laplace transformations fame) , ‘ the ingenious method of expressing every possible number using a set of ten symbols, each symbol having a place value and an absolute value, emerged in India. The idea seems so simple nowadays, that its significance and profound importance is no longer appreciated. Its simplicity lies in the way it facilitated calculation and placed arithmetic foremost amongst useful inventions’.
4.9 Purushottamah: Sloka 3, Nama 24
4.9.1 We discussed Purusha above and saw his attributes and his relationship with Akshara. Why call him again as “Purushottamah’ by the superlative form of Purusha, just after a few Naamaavalis? Let us see.
.
4.9.2 Again, a whole chapter 15 of Bhagwat Geeta is devoted to ‘Purushottama Yoga’. Sloka 15.18 says “As I transcend the perishable and am even above the imperishable, therefore, am I known in the world and in the Veda as “Purushottama” the highest Purusha.
4.9.3. We saw earlier that the atoms are quite durable and that the electrons appear at the same time to be present everywhere and no where, to explain one of His names. Lets us see further.
4.9.4 Breaking up atoms is easy. We do it each time we switch on a fluorescent light. But it is the breaking up of the atomic nucleii which cracks up the physicist. When they tried to accelerate a proton or other charged particles at an extremely high speed and banged it to another particle, they began to find or postulate smaller particles called Muons, Pions, Hyperons, Mesons, Bosons and so on. They found that these transient particles can come into being and gone again in as little as 10-24 second. “Every second, the earth is visited by ten thousand trillion trillion massless neutrinos shot out by the nuclear reaction of the sun, while converting its Hydrogen to Helium, and virtually all of them pass through the planet and every thing that is on it, including you and me”.
4.9.5 In an attempt to draw things together, the physicists have come up with a ‘Superstring’ theory. They postulate “ that all these ‘small particles’ are actually ‘strings’, vibrating strings of energy that oscillate in eleven dimensions, three we know already and seven others, yet unknown to us”.
4.9.6 The upshot of all this is that we live in a universe whose age one can not quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distances from us and between each other, we do not know, filled with matter we can not identify operating in conformity with physical laws, whose properties we don’t truly understand (Quoted from Bryson 2003).
If this is not “Purushottama”, what else is?
4.10 Sivah Sloka 4 Nama 27
4.10.1 Meaning absolutely pure, pure because of the absence of the three inappropriate, though logically correct, Gunas or characters:-
1. Avyaapti- a statement incorrectly considered as universal; eg all cows are white.
2. Ativyaapti– Unique observation justified as universal; eg, crows are black, crows are birds, therefore, birds are black
.
3. Asambhavam– Totally impossible; eg taking bath in a mirage.
This nama represents the Lord who is rid of these three myths.
4.11 Prabhavah, Prabhuh Sloke 4, Namas 34, 35.
Prabhavah : Source
Prabhuh : Lord
4.11.1 The goal of life may vary from person to person, but they can all be grouped into three classes.
(i) Striving for long, efficient life (Sat).
(ii) Seeking after wider knowledge (Chit).
(iii) Searching for more happiness (Ananda).
They can be summarized as sat-chit-ananda or more famously the 3 L’s, Life, Light and Love.
4.11.2 Even as the sea is the origin for the waves, the Lord is for the entire creation. Electricity manifests itself in different forms- heat, cold, light, breeze etc but the source of energy for all these manifestations is the same (Prabhavah and Prabhuh).
4.8.1 After discussing the macrocosmic and microcosmic phenomena, the immutable, the knower of the field and his endless attributes, it is appropriate that we talk a little about mathematics – how He is described as ‘Shunyah’ (emptiness) and Infinite, and their role in development of mathematics, before we proceed further.
4.8.2 In the Vedic period, records of mathematical activity are mostly found associated with rituals. Arithmetic operations (Ganitam) such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, etc. are enumerated in Narada Vishnu purana, attributed to sage Vyasa. Examples of geometric knowledge (Rekha Ganitam) are found in the Sulva Sutras of Boudhayana (800 BCE) and Apastambha (600 BCE), which describe techniques for construction of the ritual altars.
4.8.3 Space and time were considered limitless in Jain Cosmology. This led to a deep interest in very large numbers and infinite numbers and to develop the notion of logarithms. Buddhist literature also demonstrates awareness of indeterminate and infinite numbers.
4.8.4 Philosophical formulations concerning ‘Shunyah’, that is emptiness or void facilitated in the introduction of the concept of zero (bindu). The importance of zero as an empty place holder in the place value system of numerals is well known from ancient times. The algebraic definitions of zero and its relationship to mathematical functions were developed by Brahmagupta (7th century AD), though opinions are also on record that zero was implied even earlier by Aryabhatta (476 BCE) in his treatise.
4.8.5 Be that, as it may, the recorded reference to shunya and infinity exists in Vishnu sahasranama in the Namaavalis 742 and 743, of shloka 79. The Lord is praised as : ‘Vishamah”: (742) – One to whom there is no equal because nothing is comparable to him. If there is none equal to him, how can anything be greater? – the concept of infinite.
‘Shunyah’ : (743) – One who, being without any attributes, appears as ‘Shunyah’ (emptiness).
Closely follow three other names :
‘Dhritaasih’; - One whose blessings are unfailing, but how can emptiness confer unfailing bliss?
‘Achalah’ : - One who cannot be deprived of His real nature as Truth, Intelligence and Infinity.
‘Chalah’ : - One who moves.
4.8.6 Let us see these in the context of zero. Zero before an integer has no value but after a number, assumes any value depending upon its place. We all know that the smaller the value of the divisor in the division function, the value of the quotient becomes bigger. If the divisor is zero, then the quotient is infinite and that is ‘Vishamah’. Thus, we see the concept of zero, infinity and its place value in numerals, have all been already expressed in a small list of five names of Lord Vishnu.
4.8.7 This simple notational system conceived in Indian scriptures and its significance have been appreciated and integrated later in the Western system. In the words of the great French mathematician of Napoleon’s time, Laplace (of Laplace transformations fame) , ‘ the ingenious method of expressing every possible number using a set of ten symbols, each symbol having a place value and an absolute value, emerged in India. The idea seems so simple nowadays, that its significance and profound importance is no longer appreciated. Its simplicity lies in the way it facilitated calculation and placed arithmetic foremost amongst useful inventions’.
4.9 Purushottamah: Sloka 3, Nama 24
4.9.1 We discussed Purusha above and saw his attributes and his relationship with Akshara. Why call him again as “Purushottamah’ by the superlative form of Purusha, just after a few Naamaavalis? Let us see.
.
4.9.2 Again, a whole chapter 15 of Bhagwat Geeta is devoted to ‘Purushottama Yoga’. Sloka 15.18 says “As I transcend the perishable and am even above the imperishable, therefore, am I known in the world and in the Veda as “Purushottama” the highest Purusha.
4.9.3. We saw earlier that the atoms are quite durable and that the electrons appear at the same time to be present everywhere and no where, to explain one of His names. Lets us see further.
4.9.4 Breaking up atoms is easy. We do it each time we switch on a fluorescent light. But it is the breaking up of the atomic nucleii which cracks up the physicist. When they tried to accelerate a proton or other charged particles at an extremely high speed and banged it to another particle, they began to find or postulate smaller particles called Muons, Pions, Hyperons, Mesons, Bosons and so on. They found that these transient particles can come into being and gone again in as little as 10-24 second. “Every second, the earth is visited by ten thousand trillion trillion massless neutrinos shot out by the nuclear reaction of the sun, while converting its Hydrogen to Helium, and virtually all of them pass through the planet and every thing that is on it, including you and me”.
4.9.5 In an attempt to draw things together, the physicists have come up with a ‘Superstring’ theory. They postulate “ that all these ‘small particles’ are actually ‘strings’, vibrating strings of energy that oscillate in eleven dimensions, three we know already and seven others, yet unknown to us”.
4.9.6 The upshot of all this is that we live in a universe whose age one can not quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distances from us and between each other, we do not know, filled with matter we can not identify operating in conformity with physical laws, whose properties we don’t truly understand (Quoted from Bryson 2003).
If this is not “Purushottama”, what else is?
4.10 Sivah Sloka 4 Nama 27
4.10.1 Meaning absolutely pure, pure because of the absence of the three inappropriate, though logically correct, Gunas or characters:-
1. Avyaapti- a statement incorrectly considered as universal; eg all cows are white.
2. Ativyaapti– Unique observation justified as universal; eg, crows are black, crows are birds, therefore, birds are black
.
3. Asambhavam– Totally impossible; eg taking bath in a mirage.
This nama represents the Lord who is rid of these three myths.
4.11 Prabhavah, Prabhuh Sloke 4, Namas 34, 35.
Prabhavah : Source
Prabhuh : Lord
4.11.1 The goal of life may vary from person to person, but they can all be grouped into three classes.
(i) Striving for long, efficient life (Sat).
(ii) Seeking after wider knowledge (Chit).
(iii) Searching for more happiness (Ananda).
They can be summarized as sat-chit-ananda or more famously the 3 L’s, Life, Light and Love.
4.11.2 Even as the sea is the origin for the waves, the Lord is for the entire creation. Electricity manifests itself in different forms- heat, cold, light, breeze etc but the source of energy for all these manifestations is the same (Prabhavah and Prabhuh).
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Significance to Some of the Namas
4.5.1 Ploughing these scientific ideas back to the Naamaavali of the first sloka,
He is the universe (Viswam).
He is spread everywhere, like the electron in an atom (Vishnu).
He makes things happen, by the vast amount of energy stored and released (Vashat karah).
He is the Lord of the past, the origin of the universe, the present, its evolution and creation of life and its sustenance and of the future of what is going to happen to this nebulae (Bhuta Bhavya Bhavat Prabhuh).
He created everything conceivable (Bhutakrit).
He bears them all (Bhutabrit) but does not form part of them.
Like the blades of a spinning fan appearing to be present everywhere simultaneously, as electrons, He is present at once everywhere and no where (Bhavah).
He who dwells in all beings but is with in them, whom none of the beings knows, whose body is all beings and who controls all beings from within your own self (Bhutaatmaa). No where else this concept is better explained than in chapter 3, section 7 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. At sea level, at a temperature of O0 C, one cubic centimeter of air (size of a sugar cube, contains 45 billion billion molecules and they are in every cubic centimeter of air. Atoms are tiny. Half a million of them lined up from shoulder to shoulder, could hide behind the thickness of a human hair. The atoms are also long lived and durable. Every atom in our body had been earlier, parts of millions of organisms before becoming part of us. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms, it has been suggested, probably once belonged to a Prahlada, a Ravana and a Vikramaditya. And that is how, we have a mix of the Satwa, Tamo and Rajoguna, all in one, albeit in different proportions. This is also perhaps the reason as to why the ashes of a departed soul are immersed in various holy rivers, seas etc so that some of the atoms of the great people could be recycled! Can the concept of ‘Bhutaatmaa’ be more scientifically explained?
Significance to the names of Vishnu in first sloka.
Vashatkaarah – make things happen.
Bhuta Bhavya Bhavat Prabhuh.
Bhutakrit Bhutabrit bhavah.
Bhutatma- atoms are long –lived and vigorously recycled.
Bhuta bhavanah-Sustains all that has been created.
.
4.5.2 If the very first sloka itself can have so much of spiritual and scientific import as now understood, one can visualize the importance and implications of Vishnu Sahasranama as a whole. It is, therefore, proposed to dwelve further only on a few more namas, at random.
4.6. AVYAYAH 2nd Sloka, 13th Nama.
Avyayam-Changeless.
Quote from Viveka Choodamani.
Thermodynamics is applicable at the atomic level of chemical reaction also.
Entropy in physics and mutation of genes.
Change is the only permanent thing in physics or biology.
But God, who makes these happen is himself Changeless –Avyayam.
4.6.1 The word, in a literal sense, means changeless. This is an important word in Sanskrit grammar as well, not subjected to any gender, number or voice but yet of great usage in many contexts and is immutable.
4.6.2. In Viveka Choodamani, in slokas 254 to 266, while dealing on aids to Meditation, Adisankara defines Brahman as that which has no caste, creed, family or lineage, which is without name or form, merit and demerit which is beyond space, time and sense objects which is untouched by the six waves of sorrow, namely hunger and thirst, grief and delusion, decay and death , which never reduces, hence immutable and changeless (Avyayah) and hence free from the six modifications namely birth, growth, change, decay, disease and death. We saw in the first sloka that He is the creator and sustainer of these very objects and senses but, He himself is beyond all these and “ You are that Brahman, meditate on this in your mind “, says Adisankara.
4.6.3. In 1875-78, Willard Gibbs of Yale University produced a series of papers elucidating the thermodynamic principles of gases, mixtures, solids, phase behaviour, chemical reaction, sedimentation and osmosis and showed that thermodynamics did not apply simply to heat and energy on a large scale like a steam engine, but is also applicable at the atomic level of chemical reactions. At the heart of thermodynamics, is a process, known as Entropy. Entropy is a way of measuring just how disordered a pack of card is, when shuffled, and of determining the likelihood of particular outcomes with further shuffles. Rutherford discovered that atomic elements were transmutable and indeed that the Greek word ‘Atom’ which means ‘uncuttable’, was no longer so and, therefore, inappropriate. Henry Joe Muller, a Jewish scientist discovered what was applicable in physics is also applicable in biology and proved that genes are artificially mutable. This laid the foundation of a whole science of molecular biology and the eventual identification of the structure of DNA and how it is unique to each individual.
4.6.4. The short story is that, while change is the only permanent thing in both physics and biology, the Lord, who makes all these things happen all the time, is himself beyond change, and is changeless, Avyayah.
4.7. Kshetragna and Akshara (Yeva Cha) (Sloka 2, Namas 16 and 17)
4.7.1. Kshetragna is translated as ‘knower of the field (Purusha). The whole of chapter 13 of Bhagwat Geeta is called Kshetra Kshetragna Vibhaga yoga or the yoga of the discrimination of the Prakriti and Purusha. Lord Krishna says “ the body is called Kshetra (Prakriti), the field and he who knows it is called Kshetragna, by the sages”. Prakriti by itself is inert; Purusha on its own does not function. But, when the two join, life results and functions in different ways depending upon the type of Prakriti (body) where the Purusha (Kshetragna) has entered. The Purusha functions, as ‘Upadrshta’ (spectator), ‘Anumanta’ (permitter), ‘Bharta’ (supporter), Bhokta (enjoyer) ‘Maheswara’ (the Great Lord) and ‘Paramatma’ (Supreme Self), in that order, depending upon the level of intellect of this relationship.
Kshetragna and Akshara – Knower of the field and eternal.
Examples of the field and Knower of the field.
Akshara as alphabets , conjugation, pronunciation change and decay over time in intonation.
Alphabets themselves are eternal.
51 Sakthi peetas referred to as 51 Aksharas.
4.7.2 We may further illustrate this by two examples. Electricity by itself, cannot manifest as light. But, when it passes through a bulb it is manifested as light. Similarly, a good seed is only a potential tree and can germinate only in a good nutrient soil. At the other extreme, virus is a strange entity, a piece of nucleic acid. In isolation they are inert and harmless. But, introduced into a suitable host, they burst into life, afflicting us with hundreds of diseases from flu through Small Pox to Polio and AIDS. Electricity, seeds, virus are different ‘Kshetragna’ (Purusha), inactive and inert by themselves but they know how and when to get active, and so is the Lord.
4.7.3 ‘AKSHARA’ is defined as ‘eternal’ or ‘without end’. God could have been simply defined as ‘eternal’ but, why add ‘Yeva Cha’ (and also) by bringing in a symbiotic relationship between ‘Kshetragna’ and ‘Aksharah’. Let us see a little more in detail.
4.7.4 ‘Akshara’ in common parlance reflects the alphabets. All beings are perishable and the ‘Kutastha’ (the immutable) is called the imperishable (Akshara). As the screen is the background for motion pictures in a Cinema hall, Brahman is the substratum, basis and background of the panorama of this universe. The changes that take place in the world do not affect the Brahman, even as the various scenes in a picture do not affect the screen. It is, therefore, called Aksharam, the imperishable. The five elements, on the other hand, are Ksharam or perishable. The physical structure of the Reality is made up of the elements. It is with the aid of the element that the sentient is revealing itself. Beings require the elements for their embodiment. For example, a nut is identified by its embodiment by the shell, both for its existence and preservation. Similarly, in articulation, the part that the consonants play clinging to the vowels is analogous to the function of the elements.
4.7.5.An important development in the history of Indian Science was the pioneering work of Panini ( 6th century BCE) in the field of Sanskrit grammar. It had a profound impact on all mathematical treatises that followed. He provided formal definitions and rules of Sanskrit grammar (Vyakaranam) in his treatise called Ashtaadyaayi. Basic elements such as vowels and consonants, parts of speech like nouns and verbs, and the construction of compound words and sentences were all laid down. Ingermann, in his paper titled ‘Panini Backus Form” finds Panini’s notation to be equivalent in its power to that of Backus Form used to describe the syntax of modern computer languages. ( Source: Website tripod- South Asian History, History of Mathematics in India “)
4.7.6 The conjugation of letters or the scripts in the form of words and its pronunciation is very important in Vedas. The process is known as ‘Siksha’, the most important of the six ‘Angas’ of the Vedas. The very first chapter of the popular Taitareeya Upanishad deals with the pronunciation of these words and the meaning each of these conjugations convey and is called “Sikshavalli”. There are elaborate guidelines like Padam, Kramam etc laid down for pronunciation and intonation of each one of the words. When correctly done, they produce the appropriate vibrations, in the different nerves which , in turn, produce the desired effect in the overall health and personality of the individual.
4.7.7 Not withstanding this, each one of the Vedas and their practices got concentrated in certain areas, over a period of time. They also got subjected to the local pronunciation, intonation and nondifferentiation between certain letters in different places and also evolved into a number of branches. For instance, Va and Ba are pronounced synonymously in Bengal Ja and Ya in North and La and LLa in South. The Brahmi script , which is considered oldest in India and in which many of the ancient eddicts are found, is totally different from the current Devanagari script of Sanskrit. Similarly, the Grantha script, which is the mother of the scripts of Dravidian languages like Tamil and Malayalam is more or less disappearing. Thus, while the pronunciation, script and intonation over a period of time, got corrupted by local influence, the Akshara remained the same. From the Vedic times till now, this Kutasta or the cosmic Purusha, has undergone changes only of names, forms and attributes according to the attitudes and attainments of the worshippers but Akshara remains eternal. Comparative Philology of the different languages is an ocean by itself in this regard.
4.7.8 The 51 Aksharas or letters in Sanskrit came from the Vedas. They are called ‘Matruka’. The Saakta Philosophy believes that these 51 Aksharas indeed depict the 51 parts of the Goddess Paraasakti and the 51 Sakti peetas in our country depict these 51 Aksharas represented by 51 parts of Her body.
4.7.9 Thus, the immutable ‘Purusha’ called ‘Akshara’ or the alphabets and the ‘Kshetregna Purusha’ are verily the same and represent Lord Vishnu. The reconfirmation by ‘Yeva Cha- and also’ has become necessary by the subsequent corruption in pronunciation intonation and script of the immutable Aksharas”.
4.5.1 Ploughing these scientific ideas back to the Naamaavali of the first sloka,
He is the universe (Viswam).
He is spread everywhere, like the electron in an atom (Vishnu).
He makes things happen, by the vast amount of energy stored and released (Vashat karah).
He is the Lord of the past, the origin of the universe, the present, its evolution and creation of life and its sustenance and of the future of what is going to happen to this nebulae (Bhuta Bhavya Bhavat Prabhuh).
He created everything conceivable (Bhutakrit).
He bears them all (Bhutabrit) but does not form part of them.
Like the blades of a spinning fan appearing to be present everywhere simultaneously, as electrons, He is present at once everywhere and no where (Bhavah).
He who dwells in all beings but is with in them, whom none of the beings knows, whose body is all beings and who controls all beings from within your own self (Bhutaatmaa). No where else this concept is better explained than in chapter 3, section 7 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. At sea level, at a temperature of O0 C, one cubic centimeter of air (size of a sugar cube, contains 45 billion billion molecules and they are in every cubic centimeter of air. Atoms are tiny. Half a million of them lined up from shoulder to shoulder, could hide behind the thickness of a human hair. The atoms are also long lived and durable. Every atom in our body had been earlier, parts of millions of organisms before becoming part of us. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms, it has been suggested, probably once belonged to a Prahlada, a Ravana and a Vikramaditya. And that is how, we have a mix of the Satwa, Tamo and Rajoguna, all in one, albeit in different proportions. This is also perhaps the reason as to why the ashes of a departed soul are immersed in various holy rivers, seas etc so that some of the atoms of the great people could be recycled! Can the concept of ‘Bhutaatmaa’ be more scientifically explained?
Significance to the names of Vishnu in first sloka.
Vashatkaarah – make things happen.
Bhuta Bhavya Bhavat Prabhuh.
Bhutakrit Bhutabrit bhavah.
Bhutatma- atoms are long –lived and vigorously recycled.
Bhuta bhavanah-Sustains all that has been created.
.
4.5.2 If the very first sloka itself can have so much of spiritual and scientific import as now understood, one can visualize the importance and implications of Vishnu Sahasranama as a whole. It is, therefore, proposed to dwelve further only on a few more namas, at random.
4.6. AVYAYAH 2nd Sloka, 13th Nama.
Avyayam-Changeless.
Quote from Viveka Choodamani.
Thermodynamics is applicable at the atomic level of chemical reaction also.
Entropy in physics and mutation of genes.
Change is the only permanent thing in physics or biology.
But God, who makes these happen is himself Changeless –Avyayam.
4.6.1 The word, in a literal sense, means changeless. This is an important word in Sanskrit grammar as well, not subjected to any gender, number or voice but yet of great usage in many contexts and is immutable.
4.6.2. In Viveka Choodamani, in slokas 254 to 266, while dealing on aids to Meditation, Adisankara defines Brahman as that which has no caste, creed, family or lineage, which is without name or form, merit and demerit which is beyond space, time and sense objects which is untouched by the six waves of sorrow, namely hunger and thirst, grief and delusion, decay and death , which never reduces, hence immutable and changeless (Avyayah) and hence free from the six modifications namely birth, growth, change, decay, disease and death. We saw in the first sloka that He is the creator and sustainer of these very objects and senses but, He himself is beyond all these and “ You are that Brahman, meditate on this in your mind “, says Adisankara.
4.6.3. In 1875-78, Willard Gibbs of Yale University produced a series of papers elucidating the thermodynamic principles of gases, mixtures, solids, phase behaviour, chemical reaction, sedimentation and osmosis and showed that thermodynamics did not apply simply to heat and energy on a large scale like a steam engine, but is also applicable at the atomic level of chemical reactions. At the heart of thermodynamics, is a process, known as Entropy. Entropy is a way of measuring just how disordered a pack of card is, when shuffled, and of determining the likelihood of particular outcomes with further shuffles. Rutherford discovered that atomic elements were transmutable and indeed that the Greek word ‘Atom’ which means ‘uncuttable’, was no longer so and, therefore, inappropriate. Henry Joe Muller, a Jewish scientist discovered what was applicable in physics is also applicable in biology and proved that genes are artificially mutable. This laid the foundation of a whole science of molecular biology and the eventual identification of the structure of DNA and how it is unique to each individual.
4.6.4. The short story is that, while change is the only permanent thing in both physics and biology, the Lord, who makes all these things happen all the time, is himself beyond change, and is changeless, Avyayah.
4.7. Kshetragna and Akshara (Yeva Cha) (Sloka 2, Namas 16 and 17)
4.7.1. Kshetragna is translated as ‘knower of the field (Purusha). The whole of chapter 13 of Bhagwat Geeta is called Kshetra Kshetragna Vibhaga yoga or the yoga of the discrimination of the Prakriti and Purusha. Lord Krishna says “ the body is called Kshetra (Prakriti), the field and he who knows it is called Kshetragna, by the sages”. Prakriti by itself is inert; Purusha on its own does not function. But, when the two join, life results and functions in different ways depending upon the type of Prakriti (body) where the Purusha (Kshetragna) has entered. The Purusha functions, as ‘Upadrshta’ (spectator), ‘Anumanta’ (permitter), ‘Bharta’ (supporter), Bhokta (enjoyer) ‘Maheswara’ (the Great Lord) and ‘Paramatma’ (Supreme Self), in that order, depending upon the level of intellect of this relationship.
Kshetragna and Akshara – Knower of the field and eternal.
Examples of the field and Knower of the field.
Akshara as alphabets , conjugation, pronunciation change and decay over time in intonation.
Alphabets themselves are eternal.
51 Sakthi peetas referred to as 51 Aksharas.
4.7.2 We may further illustrate this by two examples. Electricity by itself, cannot manifest as light. But, when it passes through a bulb it is manifested as light. Similarly, a good seed is only a potential tree and can germinate only in a good nutrient soil. At the other extreme, virus is a strange entity, a piece of nucleic acid. In isolation they are inert and harmless. But, introduced into a suitable host, they burst into life, afflicting us with hundreds of diseases from flu through Small Pox to Polio and AIDS. Electricity, seeds, virus are different ‘Kshetragna’ (Purusha), inactive and inert by themselves but they know how and when to get active, and so is the Lord.
4.7.3 ‘AKSHARA’ is defined as ‘eternal’ or ‘without end’. God could have been simply defined as ‘eternal’ but, why add ‘Yeva Cha’ (and also) by bringing in a symbiotic relationship between ‘Kshetragna’ and ‘Aksharah’. Let us see a little more in detail.
4.7.4 ‘Akshara’ in common parlance reflects the alphabets. All beings are perishable and the ‘Kutastha’ (the immutable) is called the imperishable (Akshara). As the screen is the background for motion pictures in a Cinema hall, Brahman is the substratum, basis and background of the panorama of this universe. The changes that take place in the world do not affect the Brahman, even as the various scenes in a picture do not affect the screen. It is, therefore, called Aksharam, the imperishable. The five elements, on the other hand, are Ksharam or perishable. The physical structure of the Reality is made up of the elements. It is with the aid of the element that the sentient is revealing itself. Beings require the elements for their embodiment. For example, a nut is identified by its embodiment by the shell, both for its existence and preservation. Similarly, in articulation, the part that the consonants play clinging to the vowels is analogous to the function of the elements.
4.7.5.An important development in the history of Indian Science was the pioneering work of Panini ( 6th century BCE) in the field of Sanskrit grammar. It had a profound impact on all mathematical treatises that followed. He provided formal definitions and rules of Sanskrit grammar (Vyakaranam) in his treatise called Ashtaadyaayi. Basic elements such as vowels and consonants, parts of speech like nouns and verbs, and the construction of compound words and sentences were all laid down. Ingermann, in his paper titled ‘Panini Backus Form” finds Panini’s notation to be equivalent in its power to that of Backus Form used to describe the syntax of modern computer languages. ( Source: Website tripod- South Asian History, History of Mathematics in India “)
4.7.6 The conjugation of letters or the scripts in the form of words and its pronunciation is very important in Vedas. The process is known as ‘Siksha’, the most important of the six ‘Angas’ of the Vedas. The very first chapter of the popular Taitareeya Upanishad deals with the pronunciation of these words and the meaning each of these conjugations convey and is called “Sikshavalli”. There are elaborate guidelines like Padam, Kramam etc laid down for pronunciation and intonation of each one of the words. When correctly done, they produce the appropriate vibrations, in the different nerves which , in turn, produce the desired effect in the overall health and personality of the individual.
4.7.7 Not withstanding this, each one of the Vedas and their practices got concentrated in certain areas, over a period of time. They also got subjected to the local pronunciation, intonation and nondifferentiation between certain letters in different places and also evolved into a number of branches. For instance, Va and Ba are pronounced synonymously in Bengal Ja and Ya in North and La and LLa in South. The Brahmi script , which is considered oldest in India and in which many of the ancient eddicts are found, is totally different from the current Devanagari script of Sanskrit. Similarly, the Grantha script, which is the mother of the scripts of Dravidian languages like Tamil and Malayalam is more or less disappearing. Thus, while the pronunciation, script and intonation over a period of time, got corrupted by local influence, the Akshara remained the same. From the Vedic times till now, this Kutasta or the cosmic Purusha, has undergone changes only of names, forms and attributes according to the attitudes and attainments of the worshippers but Akshara remains eternal. Comparative Philology of the different languages is an ocean by itself in this regard.
4.7.8 The 51 Aksharas or letters in Sanskrit came from the Vedas. They are called ‘Matruka’. The Saakta Philosophy believes that these 51 Aksharas indeed depict the 51 parts of the Goddess Paraasakti and the 51 Sakti peetas in our country depict these 51 Aksharas represented by 51 parts of Her body.
4.7.9 Thus, the immutable ‘Purusha’ called ‘Akshara’ or the alphabets and the ‘Kshetregna Purusha’ are verily the same and represent Lord Vishnu. The reconfirmation by ‘Yeva Cha- and also’ has become necessary by the subsequent corruption in pronunciation intonation and script of the immutable Aksharas”.
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