Introduction:
Each and every activity that we or any living entity perform is driven by identity. The identity is fundamental and it goes beyond the realm which we could directly or indirectly perceive with our physical means. How our activities are driven by our identity is an interesting problem to meditate upon and to investigate? When we analyze the matter we can even find a unique property that defines that particular matter. This in a crude sense can be termed as an identity of that matter. Here, we will discuss the identity of a living entity with respect to its activity and we will find out the activity which a living entity suppose to perform.
Identity leads to activity:
Whether in physics or in any other branch of science we define an object on the basis of fundamental properties that it poses. For example, an electron is defined as a negatively charged particle. What it means is the electron is having negative charge as its fundamental properties. Of course, the science is progressive in nature and we don't know what more fundamental are there to be discovered. The point to be noted here is that the activity of an object is driven by its properties. Our interest is to know such fundamental properties. In science, we search for such properties by the method of scientific investigation in which the observation is the primary. Starting from observation the rest of the things are built up to the extend of experimentation and validation. There are many weird things involved as we move towards the finer aspect of reality. One of the mysteries is subjective nature of phenomena in the realm of quantum mechanics. As we examine, in a similar way, the other branches of science, we find a tight correlation between the properties and activities. This fundamental nature is what we call as an identity of that object. This identity is unique to each and every object. The uniqueness of the identity is another area of scientific investigation, which is yet to be taken up as a scientific research problem.
Though science has progressed much, though much of the progress is in technology, we are yet to discover the fundamental nature of life. We are yet to know the definition of life. Whatever definition we have for the time being is just a working definition for the purpose of research only. This is one of the most essential and difficult problems the science is yet to solve. There have been many research activity currently underway around the world to find out the origin of life. However, so far there is no clue about the origin of life. In this article, we will present a methodology to study the meaning of life on the basis of three systems of knowledge:
1) common man observation,
2) the scientific findings, and
3) the Vedantic system of revealed knowledge.
The identity of a life particle:
When we survey through the scientific research, we find nothing much substantial about the origin of life. However, the effort is underway. We (our group) have also ventured into this research with entirely different approach which is completely based on the Vedantic philosophy. We are yet to make any progress that could be discussed here. However, our theory and experiment are based on the conclusion that are laid out by the sages of Vedantic tradition. Here in this article, I will primarily focus on the identity of life particle and its activity. As I have stated in the last section the theory shall be established based on common man observation, scientific limitation, and the revealed knowledge of Vedanta.
When we introspect upon ourselves and closely examine our activities, we find that each and every activity that we perform is driven by our identity. This is subtle and fundamental at another realm than the gross physical one. The identity itself manifest and spread in various form as it percolates from the substratum of the subtle realm to the perceivable physical realm. At the substratum, we identify ourselves as this physical body which we see, touch, hear, smell, and taste. Once this primary identity is established the secondary one start manifesting itself to take a particular form. Once the secondary identity is established the living entity start to act based on this identity to interact with Nature. After that, the primary identity is almost in the background. Example: at the foundational level I start by identifying myself as this body, then my secondary identity could be I am a researcher or I am a student or I am this or that etc. Now, my secondary identity drives my activity. I start to work as a researcher, I start to meet the people of like-minded, I start to read a lot of literature etc. This is the fact and phenomena that we can observe with our bare senses in our day-to-day social affairs. Essentially, this secondary identity is acting as a bridge between me (my primary identity) and this Nature (we call this material Nature because of the existence of a different kind of nature which the Vedanta calls spiritual Nature). Some of the other interesting features of identity are:
1) It evolves from living entity to entity,
2) It is unique in time and space, and
3) It manifests in multiple layers.
So, from this observation, we conclude that we have the identity as fundamental to us and it drives our actions.
Activity leads to reaction:
When we do further analysis in the sequence, once we perform an activity, we find that our activity does not go way in air. The activity is recorded somewhere in the Nature and in due course of time, for some action it is instant, the action that was performed back in time now comes back in different form which is termed as a reaction. We could express this in a equation as r(t) = a(t-i) + k, where r is reaction, a is action, t is time, i is constant, and k is deviation. However, it is not straight forward to state that each and every action that a living entity performs has an equal and opposite reaction like Newton's third law of motion. Therefore, here we will not make any such effort for the time being. However, our interest is to find out a fundamental way of measuring the reaction. Since we are studying the nature of
living entity we must understand that the measurement of reaction would not necessarily be quantifiable like the physical entity. In the following section we would elaborate on this.
A reaction leads to distress or happiness:
The big question is how do we measure the action and reaction. Again, coming back to the common man observation, lets ask this "What sustains a living entity to continue its action?". It is the happiness that each and every living entities are searching for. Either concentric happiness or distributed, direct happiness or indirected happiness, the observation is we are looking for happiness. We measure our action in terms of happiness as its outcome. As far the current society is concerned, it is the money which we have assumed to be the cause of happiness and we try to quantify our happiness with the money. However, if we look for the fundamental cause, it is the happiness. The happiness could be mapped to the real number line which range from -infinite to +infinite. This means that we could be in the distress of bitter kind as well. Therefore, in other way happiness and distress are the unit to measure our reaction.
Our fundamental nature is to be happy:
How do we study the nature of living entity? We have an abundant amount of wisdom revealed in the Vedic scriptures. In the scripture following three things are made clear:
1) Living entity is atomic
2) Living entity is infinitesimal
3) Living entity is SAT (eternal)
4) Living entity is CHIT (knowledge)
5) Living entity is ANANDA (bliss)
The revealed knowledge that are propounded in scriptures are the knowledge that comes directly from the source of super intelligence or GOD or lord Krishna to be specific. These are realm which are beyond the modern scientific realm that just limit itself in the physical nature. The scriptures also provides a systematic methodology to validate such knowledge. The validation process itself is known as self realization. In the process of self realization the living entity shall be the subject as well as object of experiment simultaneously. Where as in our modern scientific method subject and object are two different entity. In this article, our interest is to understand the ANANDA or bliss property of the living entity. We have to note from here that the bliss or happiness is the fundamental nature of living entity. The happiness and identity interact with each other as happiness is driven by identity.
When a living entity misidentifies itself with the matter its enter into the realm of erroneous identity. In
the following section we discuss about this erroneous identity realm and the remedies to revive our original identity.
Human form of life is for inquiry into absolute truth:
When a living entity misidentifies as matter, the matter takes over and dominate the spiritual nature of the living entity. While the living entity perform various activities in the erroneous identity realm it assumes a different forms of matter. In this prolonged erroneous identity realm, the living entity also get a form what we call as a human form of life. All these enormous process are supervised by the Nature according to the basic laws setup by superintelligence.
The scripture reveals that the human form of life is meant for the inquiry into the absolute truth. From
scripture we learn the following:
[Srimad Bhagavatam: 1.2.10]
"kamasya nendriya-pritir labho jiveta yavata
jivasya tattava-jijnasa nartho yas ceha karmabhih"
Translation:
Life's desires should never be driected toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life,
or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth (Ultimate Reality) Nothing else should be the goal of one's work.
[Vedanta Sutra: 1]
"atatho braham jijnasa"
Translation:
Now, therefore, one should inquire into the nature of Brahaman, the Absolute Truth, or GOD.
There are exemplary personalities who have demonstrated through their life the way of human life as it is revealed in the scriptures. There could be no more further evidence than these examples on the subject presented here. The modern science need to rise above the realm of physical reality to perceive the realm of a different kind.
Human form life is unique and its goal is to inquire about the Absolute Truth.
--
Jaynarayan, Bangalore, India
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