What does a fish know of
water in which it swims all its life? What does a man know of nature of
which he is an integral part? The ancient answer is: he knows and he knows
not.
Men through the ages,
through popular wisdom, philosophies, religions, and sciences have tried
to understand their place in nature, their linkage with the universe. The
twenty papers here collected, which are based on the IGNCA seminar on ‘Prakrti’,
held at New Delhi, on 5-12 January 1993, offer some thoughts on this
profound concern. Being the fifth and the final of the series of seminars
concerning the mahabhutas or the five-elements, this volume
culminates in a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary expedient thinking
about ‘Man in Nature’. It can be read independently of the four
preceding volumes which deal with the ‘Oral Tradition’, the ‘Vedic,
Buddhist and Jain Traditions’, the ‘Agamic tradition and the Arts’,
and ‘The Nature of Matter’. IGNCA’s main concern in this project
(see Foreword) is : (i) to explore the fundamental and universal concepts
capable of rejuvenating man’s perception of his primary foundation, and
(ii) to create a harmonic understanding and communication through a
developed multi-disciplinary vision.
The sole aim in these
introductory pages is to present a conceptual overview of technical
matters raised at the seminar.
Modern era, from the
beginning of the seventeenth century, has been dominated by a
scientific-technical worldview where man is regarded as the central
player. With the publication of Isaac Newton’s masterpiece, Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in 1687, the old idea of the universe
faded. The Newtonian view of matter as inert substance struck roots in
Western thought and culture. Industrial Revolution was its logical and
direct consequence. Experimental technological development created a new
confidence in man, and Europe eventually became the light and leaven of a
new world. The shadow side of this turning was the disintegration of a
coherent cosmology and the danger of a catastrophe. With the new machine
age the forces of nature were harnessed, the face of the Earth was
drastically altered, and the ‘new man’ began to look at himself as the
master of nature, the maker of history and the measure of all. By tragic
irony science itself came to be controlled by technology. Much faster than
expected, the pursuit of science and technology became the most
significant of all human affairs, effecting and affecting politics,
economics, religion and social life. The machine-mindedness, accompanied
by the erosion of a unified vision, resulted in complete demoralization
and depersonalization. In this overthrow some men of science see the ‘inadequacies
of the human mind’ (see Narlikar) and the mistake of materialism.
Today scientists describe
man’s place in the universe in terms of the perfect cosmological
principle and the anthropic principle (see Narlikar, also Malik). In
essence these principles present a picture of steadily expanding universe
in which man the observer has attained a certain level of intelligence in
the course of the evolution of life. One important contribution of the
cosmological principle is that it has dethroned man from the ‘centre’
of the universe. According to current ideas, all galaxies in the universe
have the same status and man in his galaxy is just one of them. Some
scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, propose two versions of the anthropic
principle, the weak and the strong. The weak anthropic principle states
that it is only in certain regions of the universe that necessary
condition for the development of intelligent life, a typical human,
exists. According to strong anthropic principle there are other regions of
the universe or universes, each with its own initial configuration and its
own set of laws, where the conditions would not be right for the
development of intelligent beings. However, as Narlikar maintains with
characteristic clarity, "It is not sharp enough for believers in the
principle who would like to demonstrate that physical parameters are
finely tuned to human existence, nor it is convincing enough to persuade
sceptics who might attack its speculative nature, because we still know
too little about the formation of planets, about the origin and
adapatability of life, about the evolution of intelligence, and so
on."
The search for
extraterrestrial intelligent life can advance only if there is a clarity
about what exactly life is. There is no difficulty in recognizing the
various forms of life on Earth. But until today the ontological difference
between the living and the nonliving has remained unsettled. Since Darwin
it is conjectured that origin of life on Earth was simply another step in
general evolutionary sequence. Malville, with a spirited wit and
sophistication, examines the origin of chemical elements which have
biological significance. Giving extraordinary importance to supernova
explosions in the formation of Elements that build planets or life, he
reconstructs the origin: "The iron which reddens the soil of Earth
and Mars and which courses through the veins and arteries of reptiles,
fish and mammals originated in an ancient supernova. Slowly but steadily
most galaxies acquired the ingredients necessary for life. Our galaxy
planets were formed with the stars; other planets also contain mud, fire
and perhaps even alien versions of blood." To corroborate his
findings in astrophysics, Malville presents the cosmogonies of the America’s
intertwined blood, bones and earth which find reference throughout the
ruins of Mesoamerica.
The notion of Elements as
building blocks of life is widely accepted in science. The transmutation
of one form of Element to another is a subject which has illuminated the
imagination of a large number of scholars in various fields. Ranganathan
provides several examples of illustrious scientists, artists and
philoso-phers who have contributed to the fascinating field of interaction
of colour with the Elements. C. V. Raman, for instance, was able to relate
the perception of colour in some areas of physics and astronomy to a
holistic perception which included the application of the quantum theory
of light to physiology and human consciousness in its sweep: "Raman’s
holistic perception of colour has an epic grandeur which is similar to
Niels Bohr’s holistic theory of complementarity and Roger Penrose’s
new theory of physics with the phenomenon of consciousness in the new
areas of psychology and neurophysiology".
Appropriately, Malik traces
the development of this holistic theory from the discipline of science,
but goes beyond it to show that holistic perception is a phenomenon of
universal consciousness: "The universal principle of organization
immanent in all things manifests itself in a cosmic pattern, in which it
is particularized in successive wholes, constituting various scales as
self-enfoldment. In this way the world comes to consciousness of itself
and explicitly realizes its essential nature, in its reflective awareness
and interpretive conceptualization by intelligent human beings."
What overtakes scientific
thinking today is the problem of life. Although it seems clear that there
exists other planets with chemical elements having biological
significance, the possibility of intelligent life existing elsewhere in
the universe is still remote. However, the notions of ‘cosmic
self-organization’, ‘Earth as one living organism’, ‘universal
consciousness’, and ‘holistic theory of complementarity’ have gained
considerable prominence in contemporary thought.
Advances in the new physics
have affirmed that on matters concerning the universe there is no
fundamental difference between the experimental scientists and the
mystical sages. Of the post-mechanistic paradigms, for instance, the
concept of ‘expanding universe’ agrees with the Upanisadic notion of
‘expanding Brahman’, and the cosmologists claim that the
universe has been borrowed from the ‘vacuum’ echoes in the philosophy
of ‘sunya (zero) Brahman’. The other theories built
around the scientists’ conception of the world such as ‘liberation of
matter’, ‘cosmic strings’, ‘galactic seeds’, and the ‘living
universe’ can be traced back to the Vedic sages. Adopting this view of
the nature of scientific truth, Narlikar has pointed out that
"information regarding the origin of the living systems and the
universe may find echoes in ancient wisdom". Malville has produced
striking evidence of how "overriding insight is the same from
astrophysics and the origin myths of cosmogonies".
Taking the thought a little
further one may find that in explaining nature and the universe the
traditional vision offers a richer and more encompassing worldview. The Sankhya
and Vedanta philosphies of purusa-prakrti, for instance,
provide a very clear formulation of the natural phenomena of the universe.
Wood attempts to interpret nature (prakrti) and consciousness (purusa)
in a new way as a philosophical division of experience into objective and
subjective parts: "The objective principle of nature is represented
by conceptions of divine immanence in the changing manifestations of
creation; and the subjective principle of consciousness is represented by
conceptions of a transcendent spirit, both as a transcending God in the
macrocosm of the external universe, and as an inner or spiritual essence
of soul in the microcosm of individual experience".
Given the spiritual
context, one might argue that such intellectual division of experience is
neither right nor wrong. Mind is inseparable from the matter-dominated
body, and nature does not exist independently of the universe. Moreover,
an experience identified with the ultimate reality is nothing but that
reality where the object and the subject remain undifferentiated. At the
level of intellectual awareness of experience (which is not the
experience) there is, of course, a distance between the subject and the
object. It is this integral vision and experience of prakrti which
Khanna tries to present in her paper. To express man’s critical
awareness of cosmological kinship there could be no better imagery than of
the Earth Mother as supporter, as womb, as sacred totality, and so on.
The physical biology of the
universe has been described in the Upanisads in terms of life (jiva)
and the self (atman). As Wood puts it, "Traditionally life is
considered as the vital breath that animates the activities of nature. In
modern terms, life as ‘vital breath’ or ‘breathing spirit’ or ‘aspiration’
or ‘inspiration’ are metaphors for the expression of consciousness in
living behavaiour. This expressive activity of life is described by prana
which is derived from the word ana, meaning ‘breath’, and the
prefix pra meaning ‘prior to’ or ‘continuing on’ or ‘going
forth’. The essential principle of life is consciousness, which is the
supporting basis and the unchanging cause of the living activities of the
body."
To better understand the
integral biology, the subtle distinction between jiva and prana
has to be made explicit. Filippi does it quite clearly through a
meaningful interpretation of the pancabhuta, the five-elements that
constitute the body, and the pancakosa, the five-envelops worn by
the self. The combination of these two assumes a fundamental significance
that are not apparent when considered separately. The basic assumptions
are as follows: Life (jiva) is complete in its own components. The
body (sthula sarira) , made up of the organic compound of the
five-elements, enables the early stage of life (prana) to develop
human and other forms of life, and the real being (atman) uses the
body as an instrument to modify its own condition or destiny. After death
the constitutive elements of the body (corpse) return to the gross level
of nature. The five-envelops of cosmic construction are schematically
presented: The first, or the highest, in the hierarchy of kosas is anandamayakosa,
the beatific envelop, followed by vijnanmayakosa, the intellectual
envelop, manomayakosa, the mental envelop, pranamayakosa,
the vital envelop, and finally, annamayakosa, the vegetative
envelop. This order is reversed at the death and dissolution of a living
being . What remains at disintegration is the anandamayakosa of the
cosmic person (purusa). This residuum is space (akasa) from
which, as the Upanisadic sages have said, all beings emerge and in which
all are finally absorbed.
Tulpule brings in medieval
Indian mystics concept of ‘spacelessness’ for consideration to
describe the ultimate reality. "Spacelessness", he says,
"is a void, but not of the nature of an abyss or a bottomless pit,
but of the nature of the vast and expansive space itself. The concept of
the ultimate as a state of void, unbound and eternal is submerged in the
mortal’s desire for immortality."
Lidova’s paper on the
Vedic cosomogonic myth of amrtamanthan is significantly linked with
this primeval idea of immortality.
One of the central
intuitions of the traditional vision consists in seeing the cosmos in its
fullness: man as a part of nature, and nature as a substratum of the
universe. Within this worldview, the universe (Brahman) has no
other structure than its own kosas (matter, mind, intellect, vital
breath, and consciousness) which envelop the entire natural world.
Clearly, then, the perfect cosmological principle and the anthropic
principle in modern science are the negative theories.
The views of modern science
are the views of man the ‘observer’, the views of ancient sages are
the views of man the ‘visionary’, and the views of popular wisdom are
the collective views of man the ‘natural being’. But man as species is
one single configuration of the cosmic Elements, which is rooted in the
unknown and yet knowable in terms of its physical, metaphysical,
biological, psychological, material, and spiritual dimensions.
The popular wisdom, to be
evolved through the oral and the textual modes of transmission of Cosmic
Intelligence, affirms that there is a transcendent order of nature which
is inviolable and interlinked with the natural order of culture. Saraswati
suggests a speculative model: "Nature is a set of self-originating,
self-organizing and self-sustaining forms. Life renders matter the binding
abilities, interlocking powers, overlapping characters and a transcendent
state. The transcendent order is that (prakrti) which natures
nature. The Elements of nature are set into a technical order that causes
biosocial types. Like natural forms, the forms of culture are also subject
to the fivefold order of origination, binding, interlocking, etc. The
ecological man of matter is culturally processed and transformed into a
moral person through a transcendental superpsychic process of intellectual
cultivation and ritual purification".
There are in this volume a
series of simple but profound illustrations from the ‘ecological
republic’ where man looks upon nature as a self-existing reality of
which he is an inseparable part at all levels. Pandey, who lived for five
years among the Zuni, the Hopi and the Navajo of the American Southwest,
reflects on the perspective of one such man. He points out the most simple
basics of their worldview: "The Zuni fuse man and nature into one
more or less harmonious medium. It also shows that stability in human life
is derived from the continuity of natural rhythms. Rhythm is implicit in
nature, made explicit by the regular performance of rituals and the annual
production of crops. It is symbolized by the Zuni calander, determined and
maintained by the Sun priest and his associates."
Torress examines the
ancient Mesoamerican cosmic vision which considers Fire and Sun as the
positive energy of the cosmos. She describes with lucidity how "the
personal energy of all the human beings had to be in a constant feeding
back to this cosmic energy, which the Mesoamericans translated into a need
of the human heart and blood to keep the world going."
Reporting on the Eastern
Slavs, particularly the pre-Christian Russians, Kaushal mentions:
"Fire, Water and Earth are the fundamental axes of their pantheon.
The relationship between the three can never be hierarchical, as life can
be generated only when the three come together. The male Fire, or the male
dry Seed/Sun/Fire, soaked in the female Waters enters the womb of the
Mother Earth and keeps the eternal rhythm of life going."
Sanders’ study of Bushman
of Southern Africa shows: "In the worldview of these
hunter-gatherers, man constitutes the beginning and end, or rather the
cycle of life. Man is the immediate carrier of life but over and above man
stand the planets, and then there are rain clouds, water wells, trees,
plants and animals, all of which are considered to be predeceased and
transformed Bushman."
In their description of the
Baka Pygmy in the equatorial Africa, Simo and Nchoji have drawn attention
to the fact that "there is no dividing line in Baka life between the
physical and the spiritual. They adore Kamba, their supreme god, who is
the creator of all things and who exists as an explanation for the Baka’s
presence in the forest and for the order of the world arround them".
The voice of popular wisdom
is ‘heard’ and ‘seen’ in the artistic manifestations. Shah,
himself an artist of repute, presents a case study of tribal Gujarat in
western India, making several significant statements: "The theme of
the tribal creative expression mostly deals with ‘life’, known and
unknown forces. Form evolves automatically through intuition. Almost all
their creative manifestations evolve out of their own environment. Their
respect for prakrti is like a part of their own selves. Thus art
form becomes a living identity, a part of their tribal self, family,
village, and that way, the universe-cosmos."
Zekrgoo emphasizes the
opposition between the Islamic and the modern views of art: "Central
to the Islamic and traditional view is a belief in the oneness of nature
and man. Nature and man are of the same origin, and like man, nature is
alive and intelligent. One of the many names of Allah is ‘Musawwer’ or
the ‘Artist’. Man is considered the greatest work of art created by
Allah. Art, in the Islamic tradition, extends beyond nature into the
wisdom contained in its depths, depths which can only be reached by the
pure in mind and spirit."
What characterizes the
popular wisdom is the originality, that is, the faithfulness of the first
order. Nature is divinized, even humanized (as in the case of Bushman).
The distinction between man and nature is superficial at the behavioural
level. At the ideational level a symbolic structure of the universe
emerges in terms of male/female polarities (as in the case of
Mesoamerica). The transcendent order (implicit in the rhythm of nature) is
expressed in the ultimate externalization of life (seen as cosmic energy
of the Sun and Fire) and internalization of nature in culture (art and
ritual).
While the ‘modern’ man
may find the traditional vision quaint or amusing on the one hand and
smelling superstitious on the other, it is taken seriously by those who
have cared to realize the catastrophic implications of technology and the
mistake of materialism. The quest for a coherent meaning in natural
philosophy, a new paradigm of the universe, and a re-appraisal of
traditional thoughts (in which ‘spirit’ is central to the nature of
physical reality and matter relegated to mind) has become a greater
imperative.
Kumar, explores the new
paradigms of the universe to spot that these are not new as they may
appear: "The traditional Indian concept of vasudhaivakutumbakam
(the whole Earth is one family) came first and then the Gaia hypothesis of
the Earth as one interconnected entity. The ideas of Permaculture echo in
the American Indian belief that whatever one does is going to affect the
seventh generation. The concept of Bioregionalism as decentralized,
logically-based economy is what Mahatma Gandhi called swadesi.
Creation spirituality (in the sense of the sacred as an essential part of
an ecological worldview) has been present in ancient beliefs and practices
of the people of India holding all rivers and mountains sacred."
To develop her idea of the
sacred as common roots in traditional cultures, Vannucci turns to the
relevant concepts of the Vedic ecology: "Rta as the law and
order of nature that varies in the space-time continuum; Hiranyagarbha as
the golden embryo that makes the auspicious beginning of all; the Vedic
hymns dedicated to the frogs revealing a mature concept of the five basic
environmental Elements, their mutual interrelationships and their
interaction with other Elements, and so on." She brings comparative
views of several other traditions to broaden the spectrum of Indian
examples.
Man’s second environment
is his culture. Wolanski thinks in new ways to explain the interface
between nature and culture: "Culture, which sustains the ‘animal’
nature of the humans, is subjected to evolution. Paradoxically it inhibits
the biological evolution of the human beings. Many scientists argue that
biological evolution of the humans is finished. Adjustment of society to
environment is problematic. Over five billion brains of the contemporary
humans conceive ideas and transform the world, whereas their bodies
require food, clothes, apartments, and still need new products of
civilization for a comfortable life. Modernization is a new kind of
adaptation. But its values change from positive to negative, and the real
values of the same changes can be different, depending on the situation,
e.g. environmental conditions and habits."
The ultimate issue in the
value of nature is this: Is nature ‘useful’ to man the observer?
Scientific theories of Gaia, Permaculture, Biosphere, etc. seem to have
originated in fear, caused by such events as ecological disaster,
holocaust, depression, and so on. Traditional theories of rta, purusa-prakrti,
pancabhuta, and pancakosa have originated in faith, firmed
by the claiming and celebration of man’s kinship with nature the vessel
of divine power, the ordering principle of culture. For modern man, of
course, nature is important in survival and hence the human adaptability
to nature has been given a positive value and a practical necessity.
This picture of Prakrti
leaves unresolved one sobering difference that concerns human attitude.
Modernity is based on the logos of experimental empirical science;
tradition, on the contrary, takes a position of faith not for a strategy
but as fruit of divine descent. Yet so long as both are abstractions of
the ever-inexhaustible mystery, the difference in the appearance and the
reality would hardly matter in the pursuit of the ultimate.
Baidyanath Saraswati
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