Origin of Life

    Ever since Man appeared on the earth, he is bewildered and wondering how all thie multitude of creation is taking shape. Many scientists have devoted their life to find out the secret of life. It seems time has come to decode the secrets and find out the truth. 

   Creation of life on earth is a marvelous work of an unseen divine hand. Unless there is such a divine force, nothing can be said about the creation of the multifarious forms of dazzling beauty in forms and functions. Even small insects, flies, and flowers exhibit intelligence, colour, and mesmerizing beautiful forms. Where do these come from? When exactly an inert gross material turns into a vibrant living organism is a mystery. When exactly a subatomic (energy)particle fermion turns into a boson and gives it a mass is a mystery! When exactly a child in the mother’s womb gets its thinking power (chit-shakti), consciousness (prajnya), intellect (buddhi), and ego (ahankar) is a mystery. How a seven pound mass of flesh and bone becomes a crying child and grows into a 6 ft. tall and 80Kg. person is a mystery. These cannot be explained by science. It is a matter of divine will.

  The Vedanta texts emphatically say, “There was nothing in the beginning and there will be nothing at the end. Everything appear and disappear.”! It is all an illusion, maya. We all know about the life history of a Butterfly. Whatever appears in this objective world is phenomenal, objective, materials that occupy space, and endure over time giving an impression of reality, but actually it is our ignorance that projects these as real. For instance, there is nothing either inside or outside of an electron, protozoa, a paramecium, or a phyto-plankton. However, there is enormous energy that makes the objects vibrant and dazzling. This is chaitanya, energy. 

    As the radiation of energy from the Sun spreads out from the solar disc space is created and Time starts ticking. This ‘beginningless beginning’, ‘nowhere’, suddenly becomes a ‘now’ and ‘here’. However, nothing is visible at this point of time here. Then, Sound emanate first here in space. The ancient sages realized the importance of Sound (Shabda) and its eternality and inseparability. They derived the meaning of the Sound, artha. The sound is expressed in alphabets and word (pada) and its meaning (artha) also means the object referred to (created by?) it. Thus, the Sound is the primordial matter here. Normally, Sound comes from movement. The first sounds are created by movement of air (wind), water, and such other matter. This is one version of creation from the ancient texts of Srividya.

     The scientists’ version is almost similar, but may vary here and there to some extent in language and expression. Virus is a mineral compound and not a living thing. But the moment it gets a host it begins to operate as an organic entity. It is an exceptional creation. It is a chemical compound, or crystals. It begins to feed on cells of a host body, and thus, depends on an external environment to survive and reproduce. This is the first principle. Bacterium, one millionth of a metre in size, is also a simple life form that depends on a host as well as atmosphere for its survival. A bacterium is large enough to hold fifty viruses. These crystal-like viruses entered into bacteria and multiplied much faster than the bacteria and thus the first simple reproducing life-form is created.

   The simple elements that transformed into compounds as physical entity turned into biological entities by this simple way. The first batch of viruses marked the transition from elements to compounds and then to living creatures. Viruses and bacteria needed energy to sustain and multiply. These derived their energy from atmosphere and other existing chemical and physical source. A new type of living cell, like a chromosome with genetic codes and genes evolved from chemicals (almost 500). The chemicals like the amino acids, proteins, vitamins and enzymes formed the basis of DNA and the RNA. A significant development here is that the DNA made a thin membrane of protein to cover the cell in order to preserve the chromosomes, NA and protein molecules from falling apart. Also, this created a barrier to unsolicited entry into the covered cell, called Eukaryota. This marked a significant change in the evolutionary process paving way for higher and higher life forms that ended up with the homo sapiens.

   At first, everything appears, as though, inert, lifeless, and unmoving but gradually life unfolds itself when prana, life-force, manifests itself. In many cases it has been found that life does not manifest and the matter turns out just a tumor. Even invasion of a foreign body is ruled out without divine will. This leads to doubts whether a sperm impregnated takes to form a jiva and prana is already there in the embryo or it is yet to come and join the fleshy substance full of cells- dead or alive, for cells often die quickly. Nothing is certain. There are many a childless couple despite the doctor’s certificate that there is nothing wrong and both couple are healthy and chances of getting children is not ruled out.  

   There are also diverse opinions regarding the manifestation of Mind and ego in the embryo stage. Even after the delivery of the child, the child may not show signs of life and water is splashed and tapped to make the child cry in many cases!

    Nobody, for sure, knows when the mind, intellect, ego and the inner instruments (antahkarana) manifest during its nine- month gestation period. Garbhopanishad gives some idea. The Sushruta samhita, Chakrapani samhita and the Charaka samhita give some more details in this regard. In no other animal the process of walking and talking takes as much time as in the humans. It is all quite a mystery how life originates. Life is just ‘vibrant energy’; the vibration is ‘chit-shakti’’ an aspect of brahmn comes in the form of chaitanya, prana. All that we see is consciousness (chit-shakti) only.