Human history can be divided into two distinct ages - the geocentric
and the heliocentric. In the former age the earth was a flat, static
center of the Universe in popular perception. And man was god’s
deputy on it. In the latter, the sun is the center of our solar
system. In this age science developed at a breakneck speed so much
so that within a span of only four centuries the earth is further
reduced to a global village; man is found to be a descendant of
homo-erectus, the apes who began to walk erect on their hind legs.
It freed their forelegs to be used as hands. Literally by standing
up we have progressed so much, so fast.
Human knowledge, too, can be divided into two distinct fields–the
moral and the material handled by social science (philosophy/
religion) and science respectively. All philosophers, except the
materialists who deny mind, agree that art, intuition and
moral/religious experiences are beyond the scope of reasoning and
science. Unfortunately all established religions are still carrying
the geo-centric deadwood such as appeasement of god and various
myths and allegories about our origin and destination.
Looking closely at this fascinating concept of god we find that
philosophy introduced this term as the first cause of the universe
for the sake of convenience, to avoid infinite regress. Religions
adopted it as a symbol for contemplation and meditation. Its
deification as a personal boon – granting god was a later dilution.
Yet, in spite of their shortcomings, all religions agree on two
vital points. First, god or Brahman is unknown and unknowable;
second, humans are accountable for their actions. In other words a
moral law pervades life. How, when and where we get our reward and
punishment is the essential difference among various religions apart
from language and rituals. These differences are quite natural as
each religion has its origin in a man’s moral experience. How he
interprets this personal experience is limited by his personality
and period. Moreover these interpretations are heavily allegorical
and mythological. God is great, too, is an allegory which defies
literal interpretation.
Indian philosophy gets the credit for discovering the fact that
there can not be a moral law without rebirths or the immortality of
soul; and realizing the importance of experience over speculation.
The western philosophies and religions fail to explain the great
disparities among men. Then the Indian philosophy, or Darsana to be
precise, is neither a speculative philosophy nor a religion based on
individual moral experience. But, much like other great religions,
it is in deep freeze since long before the advent of the
heliocentric age. It needs updating in the light of Darwinism and
new cosmology to provide a comprehensive moral philosophy for this
age. Let us attempt it, trusting the dictum that novices sometimes
succeed where experts fail.
According to science, space is infinite in extension meaning its
center is everywhere and its circumference nowhere. It houses about
ten billion galaxies by present estimate rushing away from each
other, continuously expanding it. Scientists guess that all this
expansion must have begun as Stephen Hawking said in A Brief History
of Time about ten or twenty billion years ago at the big bang
singularity. We are further informed that scientific theories fail
at a singularity which is an event involving infinite mass, density,
pressure and temperature. The Black Hole is another example of a
singularity where everything (matter, light and time) is trapped
till eternity. At the microcosm level, too, science, by its own
admission, can either measure the position of a particle or its
velocity with accuracy. Accuracy in both, position and velocity,
taken together is not possible.
Science can not invoke god, a non-material entity, but helps itself
generously with non-material constants to suit its hypotheses and
leads us to a plethora of dimensions over and above the four
dimensions of space-time we are vaguely familiar with.
In the heliocentric perspective, our dear earth is a mere speck in
this expanding infinite space where a very tenacious life came into
existence in its oceans about two and half billion years ago in a
unicellular body – the Amoebae. Thereafter millions of organisms
arose gradually and perished giving way to more and more complex
species. Life forms further diversified on land acquiring better
skills for survival and reproduction. About a million years ago
something very dramatic happened. Some apes started walking on their
hind legs, employing their forelimbs as hands for holding and
shaping tools. Their descendants, the Homo-sapiens or us humans,
started wearing clothes, making better pots and tools, lording over
other animals and writing poetry and hymns.
The evolution of life has thrown up a great number of skills in the
organisms and a number of pairs of emotions such as love-hate,
pleasure-pain etc. It’s most remarkable achievement is the
development of the mind which explores and appreciates now the
beauty and intricacy of the cosmos. Yet it is very doubtful that our
mind is the only mind in the universe. Considering the fact that
given sufficient time and appropriate conditions the earth produced
butterflies from the ball of fire it had been for two billion years,
the universe must be teeming with life, intelligence and mind. In
summary, the earth is a natural spaceship where evolution of life
and mind is in progress. To what purpose, science can not tell.
Western philosophy deals with this subject as constructive
metaphysics which is, by definition, the study of reality in
contra-distinction to the common-sense world of appearance. This
distinction between appearance and reality is the central theme of
all religions and every philosophy. All agree that the common-sense
world of appearance hides some deeper reality conforming to the
majesty of the universe. It is a logically valid and empirically
sound conclusion as our senses and mind are nowhere near perfect. We
are still living on the ocean-floor of the bio-sphere.
If reality is so elusive that nobody has been able to grasp it
fully, why should one bother about it? At least two good reasons can
be advanced to support the inquiry into reality. Man’s innate
curiosity is the first, and the influence of our knowledge on our
conduct is the second.
According to Prof. A.N.Whitehead, the eminent mathematician and
philosopher of the twentieth century, western philosophy after Plato
is merely a footnote to Plato. This greatest of great philosophers
believed in reincarnation of human souls and an aim guiding the
behavior of living and nonliving things. Prof. Whitehead concurs
with Plato and adds that the universe is an organic flux where
everything feels everything else in the universe and an event is the
sum total of all these feelings at a particular place in space at a
particular point in time. But, in spite of their good intentions,
these followers of Plato do not arrive at definite conclusions.
Before we enter Indian philosophy proper, let us acquaint ourselves
with revelation and enlightenment. Revelation is intuitive knowledge
and wisdom about some aspect of nature through divine inspiration.
It is a poetic expression signifying nature revealing some secret to
an inquirer without his conscious effort. Enlightenment is sudden
intuitive insight into a problem. It also denotes a moral experience
where the inquirer makes a brief contact with reality or the hidden
aspect of nature, destroying all doubts about it.
Indian Philosophy is an elaborate ancient science for the personal
enlightenment of an inquirer through Yoga, study, contemplation and
meditation. While speculative metaphysics leads one into an
intellectual maze, enlightenment or the personal experience of
reality also frees one from the cycle of births and unites the atman
( soul ) with the Brahman ( or the form of the good for Plato ).
Although we share many instincts and bodily functions with animals,
our ancient sages and philosophers just could not comprehend the
source of the great gap between human and animal minds. There is yet
another difficulty with animals. They are amoral whereas we have a
choice to be moral or immoral. So we put ourselves on a pedestal in
the animal kingdom. Once our divine origin was fixed, human miseries
were explained as the punishment for some original sin committed by
our first ancestors. Religions adopted this line. Other systems are
not very clear as to why the immortal soul should begin to dwell in
the perishable body.
Indian philosophy describes the soul in greater detail. “That Atman
is universal, all pervading reality is seen from the fact that it
pervades as a whole; therefore is infinite in scope, without parts,
un-produced, incapable of destruction and, therefore, eternal. The
consciousness inheres in atman. The principle of atman reconciles
the dogma that every man will reap according to what he sows, even
beyond the grave”
The Indian philosophy, much before Plato, accepted the evolution of
the soul to be the purpose behind the life and universe. It makes
sense if we include all lives and every soul, differing by the level
of consciousness alone. And contact with reality enables a soul to
enter a higher level of consciousness without body or mate. This
world of super conscious souls may be the reality alluded to by
philosophers and mystics.
The twenty-first century science is now capable of shedding some
light on the operation of a moral law through rebirths. The soul is
supposed to animate the body while modern biology is in the dark
about how cell-differentiation takes place. Could it be the
handiwork of the soul? Science can now search for the genetic
signature of the soul and herald the era of moral science.
