sushil soni
25th October 2013, 06:17
The Indian tradition (Vedic Dharma) compels us to look inward upon the universe and not outward as astronomy or other sciences would have us believe in order to understand creation (matter), life (spirit) and man (transcendence). The basic assumption is that like the rest of the material world, man is made up of elements which at death disintegrate and dissolve into nature. Each of these elements has a form, a location and an ability to depend upon one another in an essentially transcendent relationship.
Form is filled with perishable matter but life is formless and essentially indestructible. And when form and life come together, the process of origination begins. In other words, life activates matter that becomes form, but is not a material substance in itself.
This linking of form and life gives different expressions, which science has termed species. But each is a transcendent substance in that there is a threefold process of origination (formation), preservation (affirmation of the elements/substance) and dissolution (negation) of the elements.
This inter-locking of form and life is not an expression that is confined to this earth or the world. Life is repeated in all the worlds in a similar order. And this self-organising order is also not limited but is always in transcendence because life transcends form, and death transcends all the attributes of elements.
Therefore, nature, essentially, cannot be a machine. It exists only by the existence of life which is transcendent, formless, invisible and knowable only by its effects. A philosopher will see nature made up of elements that are in all material substances, including stars, planets, comets, animals, plants and man. A scientist will perceive nature as an object which is separate from the seer. The underlying factor here is that the existing reality is different from the conceptual reality. But there is no gap between knowledge and existence. All the paradigms come essentially from within man who is the knower and the known as well as the seer, all in one.
Here, there is an essential relation between man and nature, rather, between all the five elements that are co-dependent and inter-locked with each other. The environment is not something alien – man is part of the environment, co-dependent and inter-locked. Thus, everything is an embodiment of elements.
This means that man is not the best, is not the fittest to survive, has not overpowered or conquered nature because he has not, but he is one among the many. And like the elements, man is endowed with the capacity to transcend.
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Form is filled with perishable matter but life is formless and essentially indestructible. And when form and life come together, the process of origination begins. In other words, life activates matter that becomes form, but is not a material substance in itself.
This linking of form and life gives different expressions, which science has termed species. But each is a transcendent substance in that there is a threefold process of origination (formation), preservation (affirmation of the elements/substance) and dissolution (negation) of the elements.
This inter-locking of form and life is not an expression that is confined to this earth or the world. Life is repeated in all the worlds in a similar order. And this self-organising order is also not limited but is always in transcendence because life transcends form, and death transcends all the attributes of elements.
Therefore, nature, essentially, cannot be a machine. It exists only by the existence of life which is transcendent, formless, invisible and knowable only by its effects. A philosopher will see nature made up of elements that are in all material substances, including stars, planets, comets, animals, plants and man. A scientist will perceive nature as an object which is separate from the seer. The underlying factor here is that the existing reality is different from the conceptual reality. But there is no gap between knowledge and existence. All the paradigms come essentially from within man who is the knower and the known as well as the seer, all in one.
Here, there is an essential relation between man and nature, rather, between all the five elements that are co-dependent and inter-locked with each other. The environment is not something alien – man is part of the environment, co-dependent and inter-locked. Thus, everything is an embodiment of elements.
This means that man is not the best, is not the fittest to survive, has not overpowered or conquered nature because he has not, but he is one among the many. And like the elements, man is endowed with the capacity to transcend.
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