Saturday, October 30, 2010

Reflections on human creation

"The tamasic (dark, ignorant, inertia) nature is overcome by rajas (passion, action),
The rajasic nature is overcome by sattva (purity),
The sattvic nature is overcome by knowledge of the self".

Therefore, to become nirguna (beyond all qualities), one needs to understand one's self- "Who am I?"- by a synthesis of all possible routes - devotion, action and knowledge. I am, in my essays, trying to explore the knowledge route.

As mentioned earlier, my understanding has four recurring components

 That existence is only energy, waves and frequencies

 That existence is cyclic

 That what is present in the microcosm is present in the macrocosm - what is in atom is in the universe

 That existence is intelligent, designed and purposeful

Humans are energy bodies and as "Energy cannot be created nor destroyed", one needs to understand which energy is converting into living beings and how. There cannot be any outcome without a process.

I rejected the theory of Christianity and Islam about humans dying and going to God or hell, depending on their actions and settling there, and then God would send another soul to take birth and then again send it to heaven or hell. This day-to-day God interference was unacceptable to me. Also, new borns are different from each other and some have defects and limitations- could God be making faulty pieces and discriminating?

Remember I had written earlier that slowing down of frequency changed the state of matter eg. from water vapour(subtle) to water(gross) to ice (grosser)? From a rare or subtle form - slowing down or the involution process made matter more gross or dense. Similarly, the same substance by heating or increasing vibration in ice (solid state) would convert to water (liquid) to water vapour (air). Therefore, this was the involution (or slowing down of vibrations) and evolution (speeding up the vibrations) process resulting in change of forms.

So, my understanding is that

 there is energy that has changed from a physical being (human, animal, plant etc) by virtue of death to a more subtle energy in the form of waves of certain frequency in space.

 at the appropriate time, this energy which is in wave form collapses into the appropriate womb and its energy along with the genes of the womb creates a physical being.

 the energy that has collapsed contains various frequencies (from the highest frequency to the lowest or the subtlest to the densest) that can be divided into five broad divisions

  • the universal consciousness
  • the intellect
  • the emotions
  • the bio energy
  • the body
 therefore all beings contain all the above five frequencies in different ratios

 at the time of death,the body converts back into a waveform and it goes back to space, to come back at the appropriate time in an appropriate form in a cyclic format.

 thus, the cycle of evolution (increase of frequency ) and involution (decrease in frequency ) keeps taking place in time and space to create various forms, sustain them for a specific time period and destroy the form to again create, sustain and destroy and again......

So, I started searching for validation for my thoughts in science and scriptures, as usual.

I checked Ken Wilber's theory of evolution, Meher Baba's and Sri Aurobindo's Evolutionary theory, but was not completely satisfied. I realised that the energy in a human body cannot be destroyed, but will change form. So, which energy is changed? how does this transformation work? Also, what is the process of this transformation? I found my answers in two theories - the Samkhya and the tattva theories (Kashmiri Shaivism is a derivative of this).

Samkhya

Hindu school of thought have been divided into six philosophies which believe in the Vedas and three - Jainism, Buddhism and Carvaka (atheistic), which do not. Within the six branches of enquiry and /or self realization of Reality, namely

  1. Yoga darshan (mental and physical disciplines to unite with Reality) - include Raja Yoga (meditation), Karma Yoga (service, action) Jnana Yoga (knowledge), Bhakti Yoga (devotion) and Hatha Yoga (exercise and breathing)
  2. Nyaya darshan (enquiry based on logical analysis),
  3. Mimamsa darshan (enquiry of truth based on interpretation of the Vedas),
  4. Vedanta darshan (self realization based ritualism and mysticism)
  5. Vaisheshika darshan (enquiry based on elements and atomism)
  6. Samkhya darshan (enquiry based on involution and evolution of energies)
Samkhya darshan, had the seeds of some of the understanding of creation of individual beings. Please find below a graphical representation of Samkhya's philosophy:



While to some extent, it matches my understanding, there is ONE MAJOR DIFFERENCE. Samkhya is dualistic (dvaita) and says that existence / Brahman is divided into Purusha (soul ) and Prakriti. Prakriti is the dynamic part which slows down to form beings. Thus each individual is thought to be separate from others and from the soul.

WHILE MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT THE UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS COLLAPSES TO FORM INDIVIDUALS CARRYING EACH OF THE FIVE CHARACTERISTICS INCLUDING THE UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS. AS EACH BEING HAS THE SAME CONSCIOUSNESS, THERE IS NO SEPARATION BETWEEN ONE BEING AND ANOTHER AT THE MOST SUBTLE LEVEL. THEREFORE THERE IS NON-DUALISM OR ADVAITA.

 Kashmir Shaivism

The tattva school of thought (Kashmir Shaivism is one of its more studied and researched branch), goes beyond Samkhya and defines elements (tattvas) over Purusha and Prakriti, which is more exhaustive and detailed . A graphical representation of the same can be found below:





4 comments:

  1. Hi Mayank,

    My friend Emmanuel Chastang from France gave me your number and also the blog link.

    We are a small NGO based in Goa and are wanting to restore a unique art form (etching on walls) called kaavi.

    Can I have your e mail id so we can send you our appeal for funding? Would you be interested in helping us save this unique art form?

    Heta Pandit

    ReplyDelete
  2. @heta - my email address is mayankgandhi04@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very informative. Made me ponder..

    ReplyDelete