The Mystery of Origin of Life

   The mystery of origin of Life still remains unsolved. Where exactly this Life-force, Vital-airs, Prana and consciousness come from and how do these work in an elemental/ physical entity called animals or human body? It is alright to explain the structure and composition of the DNA, RNA, chromosomes and genes, but how does it sustain the jiva with that little amount of energy, and is that enough to work for a hundred years even though the physical body is starved of food, dilapidated, and withering down. We see people living on ventilators in ICU with all the organs damaged and not functioning, but the person still breathes on and does not die!

   There are umpteen forms of energy derived from a number of sources such as the distant stars, the Sun, the fire, wind, water, geothermal, ocean waves, oil and natural gas, coal, atomic radiation, plasma, etc. and only one of them, i.e., the pranic energy, sustains the living beings. What is that energy that sustains jiva and what is its specialty? What transforms a cell into life since all cells need not be living cells? We do not get the answer from physical, biological, or material sciences. But, Vedanta holds the key.

   Nobel Prize winning physicists have proven beyond doubt that the physical world is one large sea of energy that flashes into and out of being in millionth of a second, over and over again.

Nothing is solid.

    This is the world of Quantum Physics. It has been proved that ‘thoughts’ are what ‘put together’ and ‘hold together’ this ‘ever-changing energy field’ into the ‘objects’ that we see. So why do we see a person instead of a flashing cluster of energy? Let’s think of a movie. A movie is a reel of film in a projector wheel running at a speed of twenty-four frames per second. Each frame is separated by a gap. However, because of the speed at which one frame replaces another, our eyes get cheated into thinking that we see a continuous and moving picture. Let’s think of television. A TV tube is simply a tube with heaps of electrons hitting the screen in a certain way, creating the illusion of form and motion. Of course, there is a plasma TV too. The simplest illusion is that of a fan where the fan blades appear as if stationary while turning fast. This is what all objects are anyway. The five jnyanendriyas (physical senses) experience the five tanmatra- sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Each of these senses has a specific spectrum and, some animals and birds have extra sensorial power of any one or two of these; for example, a dog can smell and hears a different range of sound, a snake or an eagle can see (even in dark) a spectrum of light that ordinarily a human being cannot see. In other words, our jnyanendriyas (five senses) have limited power and can perceive the sea of waves of vibrant energy and create a certain image on the mindscreen. It is neither complete, nor is it accurate in the real sense; hence our experiences are deceptive. It is just an impression of image on the mind and buddhi has to interpret it. Its interpretation is thus subject to intelligence, ability to understand and make some idea of it.

    All our understandings, based on the interpretations of budhhi, are solely due to the impressions on the mind screen. These is the ‘internal map’ of reality that one gets, and not the real truth. Sri Shankaracharys made this fact very clear in a simple statement – “jagat mythya”. The Upanishats say, “it is not that, not that”. Most of the time we superimpose images and facts of information retrieved fro memory on what we see and understand and thereby do not get the truth. Hence, ‘what appears to be is far removed from ‘what really is’. Our understanding, the image, the ‘mental map’, is thus the result of one’s life’s collective experiences. Our thoughts are linked to this invisible mental energy and they determine what the energy forms that take later, for rupa is tanmatra of agni.  

   Our thoughts literally shift the universe on a particle-by-particle basis to create your physical life. If we look around the physical world, everything that we see start as an idea, an idea that grew as it was shared and expressed, until it grew enough into a physical object through a number of steps. The brain cells work to create what the mind desires! We literally become what we contemplate on. Yad bhavam tad bhavati | Our life becomes what we dream, what we imagine and believe firmly. The world is literally our mirror, enabling us to experience on the physical plane what we hold dear to us and believe as truth …of course, until we change it.

     Quantum physics shows us that the world is not really the hard and unchangeable thing it may appear to be. Instead, it is a very fluid place continuously built up using our individual and collective thoughts. What we think as true is really an illusion, almost like a magic trick. Fortunately, we have begun to uncover the illusion and most importantly, how to change it.

   What is our body made of? Nine systems comprise the human body such as the circulatory, digestive, endocrine, muscular, nervous, reproductive, respiratory, skeletal, and the urinary. These are made up of tissues and organs made of Cells. The cells are made of molecules, and the molecules are made of Atoms. The atoms are made of Sub-atomic particles full of energy. Thus everything is pure energy-light in its most beautiful and intelligent configuration. Energy that is constantly changing beneath the surface and the mind as energy controls itself thereby making the human a powerful thinking machine as good as a mini stellar particle with a gross human body. When seen under a powerful electron microscope we are made up of a bundle of dynamic energy particles like electrons, neutrons, photons and so on.

   This structure and composition is replicated in all that we see. So everything around us is a bundle of dynamic energy. Quantum physics tells us that it is the act of observing an object that causes it to be there where and how we observe it. An object does not exist independently of its observer! So, as we can see, our observation, or attention to something, and our intention, literally creates that thing. It is like our own mental image reflected on our mind through the external apertures of the eyes! This is scientific and proven version of what Sri Shankaracharya called what we see (external world of objects) is not true. The external world is made of Energy, spirit, mind, nerves and neuronal vibrations and body’s responses.

Each of these, particularly, the spirit, mind and body, has a function that is unique to it and not shared with the other. What we see with our eyes and experience with our body is the physical world, which we shall call Body. Body is an effect, created by a cause. This cause is at the root of ‘thought’ as desire and the physical body, as such, cannot create anything. It can only experience and be experienced … that is its unique function.

     Thought cannot experience … it can only make up, create and interpret. It needs a world of relativity (the physical world, Body) to experience itself. Spirit is All That Is, that which gives Life to Thought and Body. Body has no power to create, although it gives the illusion of power to do so. This illusion is the cause of much frustration. Body is purely an effect and has no power (as a cause) to create. The key, with all of this information, is how we learn to see the universe differently than we do now, so that we can manifest everything we truly desire. Desire is brahmn. [Ref.: Acknowledge with thanks LiveScience received by e-mail, 18 Nov., 2014].

  Swami Krishnananda adds, “if we are squeezed, devoid of all that we are made of, we will be just a cubic millimeter of a bundle of condensed, pin-pointed energy particles or waves!”

   Thus, it is fairly clear that what all we see are not actually what they are! It requires an extraordinary insight into the invisible forces involved in creation. The Rk Veda brings out this secret in the following way:

   Who really knows? Who can presume to tell it? Whence was it born? Whence issued this creation? Even the Gods came after its emergence. Then who can tell from whence it came to be?

That out of which creation has arisen, whether it held it firm or it did not, He who surveys it in the highest heaven, He surely knows or maybe He does not! [Rk Veda, X, 129, 6-7].

    From blazing Ardor Cosmic Order came and Truth; from thence was born the obscure night; from thence the Ocean with its billowing waves. From Ocean with its waves was born the year which marshals the succession of nights and days, controlling everything that blinks the eye. Then, as before, did the creator fashion the Sun and Moon, the Heaven and the Earth, the atmosphere and the domain of light [Rig Veda X, 190, 1-3].