Niranjan Barik, Author at Institute of Philosophy of Nature

Yoga Darshana The Unique Contribution of Ancient Indian Philosophy

Niranjan Barik — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 11:58:21 +0000

Abstract

Broadly speaking, philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom in understanding the fundamental questions concerning of knowledge, values, reality, existence with the purpose and meanings in all of them. It involves a systematic, critical and rational enquiry into the core ideas allowing individuals to examine their believes, to reflect on their experiences and to develop a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them. In such a perennial pursuit, the ancient seekers in India contributed to the world the Vedic wisdom which we call ‘Darshan’ instead of philosophy. There are six systems of this Vedic philosophy called ‘Shada Darshana’ such as Nyaya, Baisheshika, Mimansha, Shankhya, Yoga and Vedanta. Out of these six main school of thoughts it is the Yoga Darshana which is the unique one to practice for perfection in bring the mind body complex into a deep realisation of the fundamental truth, the Unit Source as the divinity within one’s own self. There is a wide verity of methods of techniques at one’s disposal according to individual propensities and stages in life. These Yogic doctrines are such as Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga/Kriya Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Kundalini Yoga etc. All these doctrines fall into the realm of Yoga Darshana a glimpse of which is provided in this article in view of the fact that this has captured the world attention by a UNESCO declaration to celebrate the International Yoga Day every year on June 21st.

Keywords: Ancient Indian philosophy, Vedic wisdom, School of thoughts, Yogic doctrines, Universal supreme consciousness, Cosmic intelligence, Ultimate liberation, Primacy of mind, All round wellness.

Introduction

The Sanskrit word ‘Yoga’ is derived from its generic verb ‘Yuj’ which means to link or to connect. The ancient Vedic text Bhagabat Geeta explains this as a process of connecting the individual consciousness to the Universal supreme consciousness. Vedic philosophy holds that there is definitely an all-pervading energy and consciousness with cosmic intelligence as an absolute potentiality which one may call ‘Brahman’ or God. This is the supreme metaphysical unit source as the possessor and controller of the universal energy, which is un-manifested, undifferentiated potentiality for everything in this phenomenal world including the individual selves. The individual consciousness is a manifestation of this supreme spirit or soul inside the individual body. Shamkshya darsana envisages that on its manifestation in dual form, it is known as Purusha the universal consciousness and ‘Prakriti’ the universal matter or energy. ‘Purusha’ becomes bonded being embedded in ‘Prakritti’ or the material body when it establishes contact with ‘Prakriti. In that sense; the individual soul or conscious being bonded in the material body, needs to be liberated for its realization in its full potentiality as the supreme soul. This can happen when the individual can establish a link with the supreme soul. The purpose of ‘Yoga’ is to effect this link or to put it in another way to connect the individual being to its ultimate the supreme Brahman’. This is considered as the ultimate goal of human life. Hence Yoga’ is a divine union not in the sense of merging and becoming one with the Supreme Being in some physical sense. This oneness is spiritual but not physical, which means that without losing the individuality one becomes united with the Supreme Being residing within one’s own self in a deep loving relationship with eternal bliss. This is called ‘Mokshya’ or ‘Nirvana’, the ultimate liberation from the bondage of the phenomenal world.

In order to understand this so-called bondage and liberation; we may discuss here a holistic perception of the human system and its possible. Subtle evolution according to shamkshya as well as Vedantic traditions. In science, when we talk about human evolution, it refers to morpho-logical changes that occur in a natural process with absolutely no human control. However, it is believed to be possible within human capabilities to accelerate the evolution of certain human attributes like consciousness. This is achievable by adopting some internal technology offered by our ancient saints and seers through spiritual practices including meditative process, what we call ‘Yoga’.

The Metaphysical Basis

As human beings, we are made up of body, mind and soul. The physical body consists of flesh and blood of matter. Besides this gross material body (Sthula Sharira), it is believed that there is a subtle or Astral body (Shukshma Sharira) which is simply energy and vibrations that we identify with heart and mind. Finally, there is a third one called the casual body (Karana Sharira) at the center or the base of our existence which we identify with the individual soul or the Atman. The Sthula Sharira or the physical body does not evolve any more in this life after the homeostasis stage had been perfected in the natural evolutionary path lasting over billions of years since the sprouting of life in the past, culminating ultimately in the emergence of human beings on earth. The Karana Sharira or the causal body or soul is also unchanging. So, what really can evolve or transform is the Sukshma Sharira or the subtle body or the mind. In fact, the subtle body consists of four functional parts such as,

These four works together to make up what we know as mind. Here Chitta or Consciousness is like the canvas of a painter on which the interplay of the other three subtle body components is orchestrated daily. In other words, manasa, buddhi and ahamkara have their existence and action within the field of consciousness. Hence Consciousness does not evolve on its own. It evolves with the help of the other three. If thought evolves into feelings, intellect evolves into wisdom and ego transforms into loving selflessness then only consciousness becomes able to expand from its static narrowness to become dynamic and universal in nature. Such a transformation can be possible, if one can train, control and regulate one’s mind. In fact, our mind in general is always restless and disturbed like an ocean in a storm, pulled by wishes and desires, worries and anxieties, fears and apprehensions. It becomes restless and at times turbulent due to various urges and habits in many different directions being scattered in so many different channels. On the other hand, a balanced and regulated mind is well focused to promote wellbeing. The imbalance or restlessness of the mind in general is due to the fact that the three Gunas (innate tendencies or attributes) such as Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, according to Shamkshya, are present ordinarily in different inhomogeneous proportions in all beings. The fundamental nature and psychological disposition of beings is a consequence of the relative proportion of those three gunas. When ‘Tamas’ overwhelms the other two, it leads to ignorance, delusion, lethargy, destructive behavior. When Rajas predominate, attachment, craving, passion-driven activity and restlessness manifests. But when sattva guna overwhelms the other two, it develops qualities of lucidity, wisdom, constructiveness, harmony and peace of mind. Thus, it is the overwhelming Sattva Guna, if it can be established by some means; which can elevate divinity with purity and perfection. It can make the self no longer confined to the painful limitation of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. This is what is called liberation when one becomes aware of the true self-the ‘Brahman’ or the ‘Purusha’ and realizes Brahman everywhere and in everything. But ordinarily the mind gets scattered under the continuous changing proportions of the Gunas. This Guna theory of Shamkshya in fact underpins the philosophy of mind in Yoga Schools. Accordingly, Yoga Schools of various traditions prescribe various systematic techniques and practices through which one can control and regulate the mind. It is believed that through the systematic techniques of spiritual practices and meditation as well as through the discriminating discernment of correct knowledge and self-awareness, one’s mind can be made purer, simpler and lighter in sattvik influence. Then one’s individual consciousness or ‘Chitta’ can naturally evolve so as to be able to dive deeper and deeper levels of one’s existence. This would open up more of one’s inner potential to become a seer, a divya drusta. This is the divine potential of human existence one can experience to realize the mahavakya ‘Aham Brahmasmi’. This is the ultimate goal of human life which can be attainable through proper Yogic method by persistence and practices.

Based on this metaphysical foundation Yoga can be defined in effect as the inhibition (nirodha) of the fluctuation or modification (vritti) of the mind (chitta) which is often stated as “Yoga as Chitta-Vritti-Nirodha“. Vivekananda says Yoga is restraining the mind stuff (chitta) from taking various forms (vritti). Thus, Yogic practices culminate in attaining a state of consciousness free from all modes of active discursive thought and eventually leading to attain a state where consciousness is unaware of any object external to itself and is only aware of its own nature as pure consciousness which is the self -Ultimate, the ‘Brahman’.

Various Yoga Doctrines

Throughout the centuries following the ancient Vedic era; there have been several Yoga doctrines and schools. Bhagabat Geeta literally meaning song of the divine Absolute, has been written around 3000 BC, as a conversation between Arjuna representing a common individual and Sri-Krishna, the God-incarnate representing the supreme being, which took place in the battle field of Mahabharat. Through Arjuna’s question and Sri Krishna’s Answer; the complete science of Yoga had been revealed in a systematic step-by-step way. It tells one which path of Yoga one should follow and how, depending on one’s own innate temperament and individual disposition. This may be considered as the earliest scripture on Yoga that emphasizes mostly three different paths (marga) called Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Besides this the other important texts available for the medieval Yoga schools were ‘Yoga-Vasistha’ written by Maharshi Valmiki and Yoga Yajnyabalka written by sage Yajnyabalka. However, it was sage Patanjali, who compiled the ‘Yoga-Sutra’ sometimes between 500 BC to 400 BC; synthesizing and organizing all knowledge about Yoga from much older traditions. Yoga – Sutra is held as one of the foundational texts of classical Yoga philosophy and is a condensation of two different traditions namely Kriya Yoga and Astanga Yoga. This is also called ‘Raja Yoga’. Here we would describe mainly these four important Yogas such as (i) Karma Yoga (ii) Bhakti Yoga (iii) Jnana Yoga and (iv) Raja Yoga. There are also several other schools like Mantra Yoga, Trantra Yoga or Kundalini Yoga which would find some mention hereafter.

(i) Karma Yoga:

Karma Yoga is the path of action, performing one’s duty with mindfulness as selfless service to others without any expectation for the fruits of action. It is said in Bhagabat Geeta that

“Karmanyebadhikaraste

Ma phalesu kada-chana

Ma karma-phala-hetur-bhur

Ma te-sango ‘styakarmani”

(Bhagabat Gita 2.47)

which means – “you have a right to perform your duty prescribed, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities and never be attached to not doing your duty.”

“Karma” is both action and the result of this action in the form of its reaction. So, what we experience today is the result of our ‘karma’ – both good or bad, created by our previous actions. This chain of cause and effect that we ourselves have created can be snapped by disengaging our ego from the work process. We must realize that so much of our lives run simply in expectations of future results that we do it unconsciously and automatically. But our expectations and desires are unending and at times unappeasable leading us from disappointment to disappointment. Since our motivation is to enlarge our ego, instead of breaking the bonding of karma, we go on forging fresh chains. Breaking this bond is possible through our work dedicated to the higher power, the supreme soul or to a personal God; renouncing the result of action as a spiritual offering rather than hoarding the results for our own self. Since action is inevitable as it is an integral part of being alive, we need to re-orient it into a path of divine realization and by doing so we can stop this chain reaction of cause and effect. Therefore, Sri Krishna in Bhagabat Geeta says to Arjuna-

“Whatever your action, food or worship,

Whatever the gift you give to another,

Whatever you vow to the work of spirit,

Lay these also as offerings before me.”

Karma Yoga can easily be practiced by any one of any temperament. Just as devotees offer flowers and incense in their loving worship, so can actions and thoughts be offered as divine worship. In fact, karma compels everybody to be active, to work industriously at least for one’s own good or for the good of society. According to Vivekananda, one’s pre-occupation in doing work for the common goods, sacrificing one’s personal interest, is not less important than believing in God or studying philosophy. Vivekananda said – “Although a man has not studied a single system of philosophy, although he does not believe in any God; and never has believed, although he has not prayed even once in his whole life, if the simple power of good actions has brought him to that state where he is ready to give up his life and all else for others, he has arrived the same point to which the religious man will come through his prayers and the philosopher through his knowledge.”

‘Karma’ or action here not only means external physical work, it also includes our thoughts, speech, our words and deeds. Karma Yoga says- like fire in a flint, knowledge also exists in the mind, the impressions received from objects and phenomena of the external world are the strikes producing fire. All that we feel and all that we live for – the smiles, the tears, the joy and the grief, pleasure and suffering everything is brought from within us by so many such blows. The result is what we are; all these blows taken together are also called ‘Karma’. Every mental and physical blow that is given to the soul, by which, as it were, fire is struck from it, and by which its own power and knowledge are discovered, is karma – the world used in the widest sense. Thus, we are all doing karma all the time. Everything we do, physical or mental is karma which leaves its mark on us.

Religious symbols and rituals are also recognized to be part or aspects of Karma-Yoga. This aspect arises from the premise that any religion consists of three principal parts; philosophy, mythology and ritual. Philosophy is regarded as the essence of religion. Mythology is intended to explain and illustrate religion by means of legendary lives of great men, stories and fables of wonderful things and so on. Ritual is supposed to give to that philosophy a still more concrete form, so that everyone may grasp it. Thus, ritual is also ‘Karma’ which is in fact concretized philosophy.

These are the principal aspects of Karma Yoga. Having realized that all that is manifested (the whole material world) is only part of one ‘Brahman’, we have to understand why everything in this world is imperfect. But knowing that everything in this world including ourselves is a derivative of the one, of the integral, of the perfect, we have to understand we are striving towards perfection. The path to perfection lies through our struggles, we call our Karma, which creates fetters for us. Hence the ultimate goal of individual self (soul) is the release, i.e., to become free from the fetters of work. Karma Yoga prescribed to work incessantly, but be not attached to it so as to attain the supreme.

(ii) Bhakti Yoga:

Bhakti Yoga is the path of devotion with all actions as services in the name of the Divine. This includes prayer with offerings as well as chanting the name of the divine with overwhelming spirit of love and submission. Bhagabat Geeta said;

“Patram Puspam Phalam toyam

Yo me bhaktya prayachati,

Tat aham bhaktyupahritam

Ashnami prayatatmanah.”

(Geeta 9.26)

which means – “Whoever offers me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or a little water; that so offered devotedly by the pure minded, I accept.”

For those individuals more emotional than intellectual, this path of Bhakti Yoga can be the most natural spiritual path to feel oneness with the Divine. Because in loving spirit, one forgets one’s own self devoting one’s whole attention to the object of adoration. The ego loosens its grip when one thinks the welfare of one’s loved one more than of his own self. Love gives concentration against the will. Thus, in an easy and totally effortless manner, love can create the pre-condition necessary for a spiritual life. One can have a loving devotional attitude towards one’s personal God, thinking Him as Father or Mother, Friend or Child or even the beloved; whichever one feels natural to the self to bring him / her closest to God. In fact, from the standpoint of Bhakti Yoga, divinity by any name or form; be it Ishwara or any other personal God, it all refers to the highest possible reading by human mind of ‘Brahman’ the Absolute, which is too much of an abstraction to be loved and worshiped. As written in the Upanishads, Brahman is the clay or substance out of which an infinite variety of articles are fashioned. As clay, they are all one, but form or manifestation differentiates them. They all existed potentially in the clay before every one of them was made. Hence Ishwara or any personal God for worship is precisely a concretization of the idea of Brahman which stands as the eternal inexpressible (sphota), the manifester as logos or world. In other words, sphota is the forefather of all ideas, their common basis and even the essence. Swami Vivekanada in his “The complete works, vol. III, P-36” says like this, “If the peculiarities which distinguish one word from another be removed, then what remains will be the sphota.” Man found the appropriate sound (language) form to express particulars ideas. But what form can express this inexpressible ‘Sphota’? If we express it by giving a definition, a sound form, it would be restricted and will cease to be itself. Bhakti Yoga prescribes a most appropriate sound form for this ‘sphota’ – the sound ‘OM’. Here the word (symbol/sound) ॐ/OM is intended as a generalized symbol of all possible sounds. ‘Sphota’ being the potentiality of all those possibilities is often referred to as ‘Nada Brahman’ or sound – Brahman. Hence ‘OM’ stands as the ‘Bija-Mantra’ in chanting devotional hymns in prayers addressing the divinity in all spiritual activities.

Bhakti-Yoga according to Vivekananda is divided into two stages, the preparatory one (gaunli) and the supreme one (para). The preparatory or the lower form of Bhakti is for those who do not rise above sensuous pleasures of earthly life. They must wait and go through many more births and reincarnations to learn to feel even the faintest necessity for anything higher. But for whom, the eternal interests of the soul are much higher than the fleeting interests of this mundane life, the gratification of the senses is like the thoughtless child-play for them. God and love of God form the highest and the only purpose in human existence. Lower stage of Bhakti at times may lead to fanaticism so that such Bhaktas become incapable of distinguishing between truth and error. Therefore, great significance has been ascribed to mythology and rituals as the auxiliary method in the transition from gaunli-bhakti to para-bhakti. In those systems of religion in which there exist in its spiritual texts rich mythology and ritualism, spiritual masters have been produced to show the light of wisdom. Vivekananda writes that a bhakta must be aware that there are different religions in the world with different methods of worship. Entering upon earthly life, man has to choose an ideal and be loyal to it to the end of his days with a motive to develop a spiritual personality. This requires strict observance of the rules of moral hygiene and purity of mind. Ramanuja said that there are five such rules of moral hygiene such as:

(i) Satya (truthfulness)

(ii) Arjava (sincerity)

(iii) Daya (kindness)

(iv) Ahimas (non-injury to others by thought or word or deed).

(v) Abhidhya (not coveting other’s goods, not thinking vain thoughts, and not brooding over injuries received from others).

Strict observance of these five principles would mean in Vivekananda’s view, renunciation or transition to the higher form of worship called para-bhakti. In fact, preaching of renunciation is found in all types of Yoga in one form or the other, since it is the cornerstone of any spiritual perfection. Karma Yogi’s renunciation is in the form of giving up all the fruits of his actions, all attachment to the results of his labor and all expectations for any reward here or hereafter. However, Bhakti Yogi’s renunciation is quite natural in the sense that it does not require suppression of anything. It is in fact similar to the presence of intensely strong light for which less intense ones appear dimmer and dimmer till they vanish completely. So, in ascending to the summits of para-bhakti, cravings for sensual pleasures including even the obsession of the intellect grows weaker and finally vanishes altogether.

At this summit stage of para-bhakti names and forms vanish, rituals become meaningless, scriptures are superseded, images, temples, places of worship, religion etc. like little limitations and bondages fall off by their own nature. Nothing remains to bind man or fetter his freedom. The soul or the self becomes free of all bondages and becomes released in the sense of attaining Mokshya or Nirvana.

(iii) Jnana Yoga:

Jnana yoga is the mode of release through knowledge (Jnana). As soon as ignorance (avidya) is destroyed, the human soul (Jibatma) becomes free. Jnana Yoga is also known as Shamkshya Yoga. According to Advaita Vedanta the entire phenomenal world including man himself is a derivative of ‘Brahman’, the Absolute. Man consists of the same stuff as the Universe, being a Universe himself in miniature. Hence Jnana Yoga proclaims that- “Know thyself and thou shalt know the basis of all that is.”

Those who are endowed with intensive discriminating intellect motivated by reason could be better suited for the path of Jnana Yoga in striving for perfection through the power of reason. This is the path of knowledge, wisdom, introspection and contemplation. Knowledge here is not in the intellectual sense, but the spiritual knowledge of the Brahman and Atman and the realization of their unity. In Bhakti Yoga, the spiritual aspirant follows the promptings of one’s heart, whereas in Jnana Yoga, one uses the power of one’s mind to discriminate between the real and the unreal, the eternal and the temporal. There is no need to look outside for the divinity. We ourselves are already divine. This is our real nature as well as the nature of the whole world around us. Realization of this truth involves deep exploration of one’s own self by setting aside false identities. We can reasonably set aside those as unreal, which are transitory, imperfect being subjected to change. So also, we can accept those as real in the absolute sense which are eternal, perfect and unchanging. In that sense the universe that we apprehend is unreal. The universe and our perception of it may have only a conditional reality, but not an ultimate one. This is because of our perception through our senses; our mind and intellect, everything has been conditioned inherently by the very nature of our body-mind complex. Brahman being the all-pervading infinitude by nature, normal human mind and intellect cannot apprehend the fullness of Brahman. Upanishads declare that Brahman is beyond the reach of speech and mind. But yet what we perceive can be nothing other than Brahman. This contradiction can be removed by self-assertion, when we continually affirm what is real about ourselves. Actually, we are not limited to a small physical body with an

individual mind. Our existence is spiritual as we were never born, will never die. We are pure, perfect, eternal and free. That is the greatest truth of our being. The philosophy behind this is ‘as you think, so you become’. We have programmed through our several lifetimes to think of ourselves as limited, weak and helpless. These wrong thoughts had gone into our mind again and again to create the wrong impression, we call that ignorance. We must reverse the process by right thought about the true nature of our ‘self’ as the divine pure consciousness. Jnana yoga uses our considerable internal powers to realize that we have always been and we are even now, perfect and immortal, free and infinite as well. In Advaita Vedanta as well as in other Indian Philosophical schools, it is believed that knowledge is not to be acquired from without. Upanishads declare that Brahman Atman holds the key to all knowledge. Therefore, it is the innate nature of the human soul – the Jibatma or the Atman the repository of infinite wisdom. This infinite wisdom potentially remains always the same and is never lost, but man is not ordinarily conscious of this. Swami Vivekananda writes in his ‘The Complete Works’, vol.IV, p-365 that – “when the individual mind, on the one hand favorable time, place and causation on the other, can act and react upon one another, then highly developed consciousness of knowledge is sure to follow”. “Consciousness of knowledge’, as explained further by Vivekananda can be stated as follows. From the standpoint of Jnana Yogis, man does not receive knowledge from objects and phenomena of the external world. Man, always has knowledge as stated earlier through the innate nature of his ‘soul’, but it is covered by a veil or hidden like fire in flint. The objects and phenomena of the external world are absolutely necessary in a way to reveal this knowledge. They bring out knowledge from the soul by raising the veil from over knowledge in the same way as the steel strikes fire from a flint. Thus, it appears that knowledge is realized within, not obtained from without. Vivekananda recognizes three states of consciousness as instinct/unconsciousness, reason/consciousness and the super conscious state; all of them belong to the same consciousness. Each state in fact develops into another. Consciousness itself when develops to super-conscious state that is superior to intellect. One can possess knowledge that is superior to intellectual knowledge. In this supreme state the spiritual knowledge of the divinity, purity and perfection of one’s own self or soul descends in one’s realization. Then one can recognize the same in other beings. No longer feeling confined to the painful limitations of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’, one becomes able to see ‘Brahman’ everywhere and in everything and thus attains liberation or Mokshya.

(iv) Raja Yoga:

This is the royal path of meditation to maintain control over the vast and varied territory of our mind. It can be practiced by people of all temperaments. It helps in achieving balance and harmony on all levels of human existence-physical, mental and spiritual so as to have the full realization of the inner self. The basic premise of Raja Yoga is that our perception of the divine nature of our inner self is obscured by the fluctuating patterns and disturbances of our mind. If the mind can be made still and pure, the self will automatically and instantaneously shine fourth. Bhagabat Geeta proclaims

“When through the practice of Yoga

The mind ceases its restlessness,

Movements, And becomes still,

The aspirant realizes Atman.”

Raja Yoga is also called Astanga Yoga or eight-fold path, since it enjoins eight steps to be practised systematically and methodically. Then in due course one can realize the orderly process of self-transformation beginning on the level of the physical body and eventually involving the most subtle levels of our existence. Raja Yoga is a scientific discipline that does not impose unquestioning faith. It rather encourages healthy self-examination and scientific verification by experimenting with its methods. Thus, Raja yoga can be considered as the most suitable path for the modern world, where scientific skepticism is so prevalent.

The eight steps of Astanga Yoga are:

(i) Yama (abstinences or ethical practices)

(ii) Niyama (Observances)

(iii) Asana (Physical Postures)

(iv) Pranayama (breath control)

(v) Pratyahara (Withdrawal of senses)

(vi) Dharana (Concentration)

(vii) Dhyana (Meditation)

(viii) Samadhi (Absorption)

The first five steps which are the external preparatory stages constitute what is called ‘Hatha Yoga’. The last three stages are internal ones involving mind and consciousness.

The preliminary preparatory stages involving the mind, such as ‘Yama’ and ‘Niyama’ constitute ethical vows as moral imperatives or commitments for practicing virtuous habits, behaviours and observances. The five ‘Yama’ of restraints are;

(i) Ahimsa (non-violence in speech and action.

(ii) Satya (truthfulness)

(iii) Asteya (Non-stealing, honesty)

(iv) Brahmacharya (Chastity, sexual restraints)

(v) Aparigraha (greedless, non-possessiveness)

These five great ethical vows are called ‘Mahabratam’ which lead to the abandonments of enmity, falsehood, lust and greed and hence a perfection of inner and outer amity with everyone and everything. Practicing of these ‘Mahabratas” need not be limited to any class, place, time or circumstances.

Similarly, there are five ‘Niyamas’ or observations for virtuous habits and behaviors. They are:

Saucha (Purity and cleanliness of body mind and speech).
Santosha (Contentment, acceptance of others and circumstances, optimism).
Tapas (Persistence, perseverance, austerity).
Svadhyaya (Self-reflection, introspection and Self-study of scriptures).
Isvara Pranidhana (contemplation of the Brahman, the ultimate Supreme Being reality).

The last three ‘Niyamas’ such as Tapas, Svadhya and Ishwara Pranidhana constitute what is called ‘Kriya-Yoga’. Thus, the ten commitments, through the observances of five ‘Yamas’ and five ‘Niyamas’ in the yogic tradition, lead to the cultivation of the behavior and attitude necessary in a virtuous individual personality.

The next step in Astanga Yoga involves physical postures in Asanas. There are several types of asanas by different names. The first kind of asanas are practiced to perfect the body making it free from disease by stimulating specific muscles and nerve systems promoting ample physical wellness. The second kind are stable comfortable meditative postures to attain serene breath and calm mind. In general asanas are body postures that one can hold for a period of time, staying relaxed, steady, comfortable and motionless. Some of the well-known asanas can be named here as for example are:

(i) Padmasana

(ii) Bajrasana

(iii) Virasana

(iv) Bhadrasana

(v) Svastikasana

(vi) Dandasana

(vii) Dhanurashana

(viii) Nalashana

(ix) Matchhyasana

(x) Mayurashana

(xi) Shirshasana

(xii) Shabasana

The correct postures for the respective asana can be learnt through active instructive demonstrations by yoga gurus and should be practiced regularly as per instructions.

The fourth step of Asatanga yoga is pranayama or breath control. Prana here is symbolized as breath and ‘ayama’ meaning restraining, extending or stretching. In fact, ‘prana’ by some interpretations means the vital energy that sustains the body and the mind and its grossest manifestation is in the form of breath.

After a desired comfortable posture is achieved pranayama is practiced by consciously regulating breath (inhalation and exhalation). This is done in several ways inhaling and then suspending inhalation for a period; slowing the inhalation and exhalation consciously changing time with one nostril at a time or both, length of the breath (deep, short breathing) etc. These breathing exercises are well known by different processes in different names such as (i) Kapalabhati (ii) Anuloma Biloma (iii) Bhramari or sometimes by the general name Sudarshana Kriya etc. This assertion of ‘Prana’ being represented by breath and ‘Pranayam’ as the control of breathing as per many texts on yoga, is considered by several other schools to be an imprecise expression of the category in question. Vivekananda interprets ‘Prana’ the vital force or everything that we call force as a manifestation of energy. It is ‘Prana’ that manifests as actions of the body as nerve currents, as thought-force as well. The knowledge and control of the ‘Prana’ according to Vivekananda is really what is called Pranayama. Pranayama really means controlling the motion of the lungs which is associated with our breath. The Prana in fact moves the lungs and the movement of the lungs draws in the air as breath. So, Pranayama in controlling that muscular power which moves the lungs, that muscular power which goes out through the nerves to the muscles and from them to the lungs, making them move in a certain manner, is the ‘Prana’ according to Videkananda. Taking this conception of ‘Prana’ and of the Pranayam as their basis, Raja Yogis maintains that one can be capable of controlling almost any part of his body, the muscles, the nerves, groups of cells and even individual cells. If that be the case, then all the sickness and misery felt by the body can be eliminated by perfectly controlling the body in this manner. In any case; Pranayama no doubt leads to calmness and concentration, which is essential for the practice of subsequent steps of Astanga Yoga.

Now coming to the fifth step, it is ‘Pratyahara’ or withdrawal and control of senses. Ordinarily the mind constantly gathers sensations from the external world and reacts to them. One needs to develop the ability to voluntarily remove the distractions of the outer world. So ‘Pratyahara’ means not to take any input or any information from the sense organs. It is a process of retracting the sensory experience from external objects. It is a process of self-extraction and abstraction, not by consciously closing one’s eyes to the sensory world but rather consciously closing one’s mind to all that. Pratyahara empowers one to stop being controlled by the external world so as to focus one’s attention in seeking knowledge and experience one’s inner world with its innate freedom. It marks the transition of yoga experience from outside to inside, from outer space of the body to the inner space of spirit. These first five stages of Astanga yoga called the ‘Hatha Yoga’ prepare one for the last three internal practices of ‘Dharana’, ‘Dhyana’ and finally ‘Samadhi’; which focus more directly on the control of the mind and consciousness.

The sixth step ‘Dharana’ means concentration in which the scattered mind is coordinated and focused on any particular thing like an object one wants to observe, a concept or an idea on which one wants to introspect. The mind can also be fixed on one’s breath or navel or the tip of one’s nose or a mantra like the simple ‘OM’. This requires a conscious effort of the will and continued voluntary attention to fix the mind with one pointed focus without drifting or jumping from one topic to another. Then the mind becomes more powerful, calm and serene to go to the next step ‘Dhyana’ or Meditation.

Dhyana means contemplation, reflection or profound abstract meditation. It is an uninterrupted train of thought or current of cognition or a flow of awareness on the topic of ‘Dharana’. Thus, Dhyana is integrally related to Dharana. Dharana is the state of the mind while Dhyana is the process of the mind by which the one-pointed mind expands beyond its conscious and subconscious levels and finally assumes the flow of the super-consciousness Adi Shankara states that ‘Dhyana’ is the Yoga state when there is only the stream of continuous thought about the object, uninterrupted by other thoughts of a different kind for the same object. On the other hand, Dharana is focused on one object with awareness of its many aspects and ideas about the same object. For example, if in Dhyana state one contemplates on the Sun’s orbit alone without being interrupted by its color, brilliance or any other ideas; in ‘Dharana’ on the morning Sun, one may be aware of its color, brilliance and other related ideas.

Deep and intense mediation prolonged in the ‘Dhyana’ state leads to climax, the final stage called ‘Samadhi’, when one experiences oneness with the subject of contemplation. There is then no distinction between the meditator, the act of meditation and the subject of meditation. It is that spiritual state when one’s mind is so absorbed in whatever it is contemplating on, the mind loses the sense of its own identity. The thinker, the thought process and thought fuse together with the subject of thought. There is only oneness of the observer and the object along with the process of observation in one’s mindscape. One experiences oneness with the higher self, transcending all limitations and imperfection. It is the fourth state of consciousness transcending the three normal states of waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep. This super conscious level is our human essence which is universal. In this state where ecstatic awareness develops, deep intuitive knowledge dawns on the mind. One starts the process of becoming aware of one’s true self the ‘Purusha’ or the Super-consciousness as claimed by Shankshya darshana. It further claims that this awareness is eternal and hence once this awareness is achieved, a person cannot ever cease being aware. This leads to one’s ability to discern the difference between Sabda (word) artha (meaning) and pratyaya (understanding), so as to empower one to compassionately comprehend the absolute truth. One masters by that unusual power, intuition, self-knowledge freedom and kaibalya. This is the real goal of Yoga-spiritual emancipation, the mokshya. One must emphasize again that all limbs of Astanga Yoga are necessary foundations to reach this state of self-awareness, freedom and liberation.

(v) Mantra Yoga:

Mantra Yoga can be Said to have its origin in Vedic Science, where all the verses are called mantras. Mantra is defined in Sanskrit as ‘Mananat Trayate’ iti Mantra’, which implies that by chanting or singing of these particular combinations of words in Sanskrit properly, one can achieve the ultimate salvation or union with the supreme consciousness. Hence Mantra Yoga is an easiest way to achieve the difficult states of ‘Dhyana, Dharana and ‘Pratyahara’ in Astanga Yoga, which is required to internalize the sense-oriented mind away from the external world focusing it on the inner consciousness. By chanting mantras in a repetitive manner; one’s awareness can be made to revolve around the sound and vibrations generated by that particular combination of words, syllables or alphabets in the mantra. The repetitive action leads to the awakening of a powerful inner force by which the consciousness or awareness can be made concentrated for the ultimate state of the ‘Samadhi’ for salvation. Hence ‘mantra’ is a tool for the mind designed to help the practitioners access a higher power and its true nature. The sound vibration it produces can carry with it the focused mind with all its thoughts, feelings and intentions. Over the time the vibration sinks deeper and deeper into the consciousness, helping one eventually to feel its presence as ‘Shakti’, a powerful though subtle force working inside each of us that carries into the deeper states of awareness. So, a mantra can generate the creative force and bestow eternal bliss. Each mantra is constructed from a combination of sounds derived from the fifty letters of Sanskrit (Devanagari) alphabets. Sanskrit language is known as the language of consciousness. Sages and seers of ancient India were well aware of the inherent power contained in sound and they utilized proper combination of sounds to set up specific vibrations so that a mantra would function as an encased mystical energy in its specific sound structure. The combined effect of such a sound structure on the physical plane can be observed specifically on the brain via EEG; to find that the brain wave emission patterns get affected by chanting of mantras. The alpha activity of the brain can be observed during mantra chanting. Mantras affect the subconscious mind by influencing the thinking pattern. Negative impressions such as fear, anger, jealousy etc. are removed from the subconscious level while positive impressions are programmed on it. Practice of mantra chanting increases concentration, memory, and logical thinking. Mantra chanting has also soothing effects on the nervous system which helps in relaxing the muscles and reducing stress. Neuro scientists equipped with advanced brain imaging tools are beginning to study and confirm some of the health benefits of this ancient practice such as its ability to free the mind from the background chatter and to calm the nervous system. Researchers have measured the activity of the default mode network region of the brain. This is the region that is active during self-reflection and mind-wandering. An overactive default mode network would mean disturbed mind. However, it has been observed that during mantra meditation, this default mode network activity gets suppressed and the suppression becomes more and more with repetitive mantra chanting and practice.

In Sanskrit texts there are millions of mantras. It is believed that most of these mantras were originally revealed to the sages who achieved self-realization. One of the most universally recited mantras is AUM/OM, considered to be the sound of creation of the universe. This is called the ‘Bija-mantra’, the ‘Nada-Brahman’ or ‘Pranaba’. It is the supreme symbol of Brahman or the Absolute. It consists of A, U, M and ardha matras like ‘nada’, ‘bindu’, kala and shakti. They act directly on Nadis or nerve channels of the subtle body. It is believed to contain every vibration that has ever existed or will exist in future. It has been used as the energetic root of all other mantras like ‘Om Namah Shivaya’, ‘Om Namah Bhagabate Basudevaya’ etc. It has deep roots in every major spiritual tradition. The important mantras triggering the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are the Gayatri Mantra and the Maha-Mruttunjaya Mantra respectively. Quoting explicitly, they are:

Om bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ,
tat savitur vareṇyaṁ,
bhargo devasya dhīmahi,
dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt.’

And

‘Om Trayambakam Jajamahe

Sugandheem Pustibardhanam,

Urbarukamiba bandhanat

Mruttyormukshiya mamrutat.’

There are also puranic or deity mantras which are relatively simple and can be practiced by anybody which help purify emotions of the human mind. These are such as:

‘Om Namah Narayanaya,

‘Om Namah Shivaya’

‘Hare Krrishna Hare Ram’ etc.

In these mantras, a specific form or image with attributes is visualized along with their repetitive chanting or Japa. Hence such mantras aid the conceptualization process in spiritual aspirants just as do visual symbols like images or bigrahas of deities. Japa is one of the most direct ways of self-realization. Constant practice of continuous chanting called Japa produces in the mind the form of the deity connected with the mantra, since this form becomes the center of one’s consciousness to be directly realized. The mantra of the presiding deity is therefore the same as the deity. Japa meditation is therefore a method of channeling one’s consciousness from the lowest to the highest level of pure thought. Regardless of any chosen one a mantra can be enlivened through a regular practice over a period of time. It is like rubbing a flint against a stone to strike fire by friction. The focus of bringing oneself back to the sound structure of the mantra again and again and especially the attention one pays to the resonating mantra in one’s awareness, eventually opens the energy in the mantra. Then it stops being just mere words to become a living energy that one feels in lifting the inner state to the higher level. Repeated verbally or mentally, a mantra lifts one into the telepathic state and beyond to the transcendental when name, form and one’s own self as a witness are indistinguishable. They unite and a state of bliss prevails. This is the true experience of meditation. Japa meditation had been propagated by Shaivaits and Vaishnavits. Sri Chaitanya of the Bhakti movement exemplifies such practice.

Although mantra yoga is generally considered as the innovation of Hinduism, it has also been adopted and developed by Buddhism, Jainism and other religions.

(vi) Kundalini Yoga:

Kundalini Yoga is an ancient practice followed by many systems of yoga through pranayam, asana, meditation and chanting of mantras. It is based on an important concept of Shaiva tantra according to which kundalini is a form of divine feminine energy believed to be passively located at the base of the spine in the human body. The concept of Kundalini has been mentioned in Upanishads during 9th to 7th century BC. In Shaiva tantra tradition, Kundalini is considered as the innate intelligence of the embodied consciousness or the ‘Prana Shakti which is spread over both the macrocosm (entire universe) as well as the microcosm, the human body. This subtle energy in the body, when cultivated through tantric practice is believed to lead to spiritual liberation. Kundalini is associated with the formless aspects of Goddess Parvati or Adishakti, the supreme divinity in Shaktism and also with Goddesses Bhairavi and Kubjika by other names. This feminine spiritual force signifies its strong connection to bliss and pleasures, both mundane physical pleasure and bliss of spiritual liberation or mokhshya, which is identified with the enjoyment of Shiva’s creative activity and ultimate union with the Goddess. Tantra Sadbhava-Tantra of 8th Century mentions visualization of shakti in the central channel of the spine and the upward movement of prana associated with Kundalini. This belief along with the practice of Hatha Yoga was adopted in the 9th century by shaivism and since then been taken up by other forms of Hinduism as well as modern spirituality.

According to an esoteric description of the subtle body of human organism; it is believed to consist of energy channels called nadis, psychic centers called chakras, subtle energy called ‘prana’ and drops of essence called ‘bindus’. Kundalini is described as a sleeping dormant potential force coiled up at the base of the spine in the triangular sacrum bone in three and half coils. Hence the name Kundalini resembling a coiled-up serpent (Kundalini in faminine sense coming from the word Kundali which means coil). This is supposed to be the life force of a person, the creative potential of an individual. It travels through the chakras to distribute its energy throughout the body. The main purpose of Kundalini Yoga is to target the nervous system and create harmony in the body. The yoga consists of breathing exercises like pranayam, body postures like asanas, meditation like dhyana dharana and pratyahara mentioned earlier together with chanting of mantras like Satnaam, meaning truth is my identity.

We know that our spinal cord is structured in a peculiar manner. The vertebras of the spinal column are in the shape of figure eight written horizontally as (∞) and are piled up one on top of the other. The left-hand side is called Ida and the right side, the pingala providing channels for nerve current. The hollow canal running through the centre of the spinal cord is called Sushumna nadi. Where the spinal cord ends in some of the lumbar vertebras, a fine fiber issues downwards with the central canal running through this fiber. This finer canal in a coiled-up form is closed at the lower end which is situated near the sacral plexus. According to modern physiology the sacral plexus is triangular in form. The different plexuses such as the coccyreal, sacral, lumbar, dorsal, cervical, medullar, third eye and sahasrara; that have their centres in the spinal canal can very well stand for different lotuses or chakras of the yogis. At the lower most end of the hollow central canal is what the yogis call, the lotus of Kundalini or the Muladhara Chakra.

In fact, according to yogic descriptions chakras are the nerve centers and there are 1,72,000 nadis or channels of metaphysical energy as prana in our body. The nerve centers for these nadis are 109 in number out of which nine centers are important. Again, out of these nine, seven of them have primary significance which are called Chakras. The bottom most chakra located at the base of the spine as mentioned before is called the Muladhara Chakra where the Kundalini energy lies dormant in potential form. Just above the Muladhara behind the genitals is the second Chakra called Svadhistana Chakrra. Manipuram Chakra is the third one situated just above the navel. At the central region of the chest lies the Anahata Chakra. Above this around the neck region is the Visudha Chakra and in between the eyebrows lies the Ajna Chakra, which is called the third-eye. Finally, on the top of the head lies the Sahasrara Chakra.

When Kundalini at the Muladhara Chakra lying dormant is awakened, it tries to force a passage through the central hollow canal, the Sushumna nadi inside or outside the spinal and as it rises step by step through the various chakras; layer after layer of the mind becomes open and all different visions with wonderful power come to the yogi. When it reaches the top at Sahasrara Chakra in the brain the yogi feels perfectly detached from the body and the mind and the soul finds itself free or liberated. Thus, the progress of Kundalini through different chakras is believed to promote different levels of awakening leading to mystical experience until it finally reaches the crown chakra-the Sahasrara producing an extremely profound transformation of consciousness. Swami Sivanananda in his book ‘Kundalini Yoga’ states that-“Super sensual visions appear before the mental eye of the aspirant, new worlds with indiscernible wonder and charms unfold themselves before the yogi. Planes after planes reveal their existence and grandeur to the practitioner and the yogi gets divine knowledge, power and bliss in increasing degrees, when Kundalini passes through chakra after chakra, making them to bloom in all their glory.”

To be a little more explicit, it is said that ordinarily when Kundalini is not activated it promotes dullness and inertia with no interest in anything. However, when it is activated in Muladhara Chakra, one experiences enthusiasm. This activated energy then moves upward to the second chakra-Svadhistana behind the genital region to manifest its procreation impulse as sex drive as well as creative activities. Reaching the Manipuram Chakra, the next above in the naval region; it generates four flavours to the emotions as greed and jealousy as well as joy and generosity. From the naval region, this energy moves upward to the heart region, the Anahata Chakra manifesting thereby love, hatred and fear as well with any one of these three emotions taking precedence at a time. Rising up to visuddha chakra at the throat region it manifests as grief and gratitude. We know that the throat chokes in either of these two emotions. When it moves to the centre of the forehead to the Ajna Chakra it manifests as alertness, awareness, knowledge as well as anger. This region is also said to be the mystical third eye which is described as the seat of divine wisdom as well as the seat of anger. Finally, when Kundalini Shakti moves to the Sahasrara Chakra at the top of the head, one experiences bliss only. No longer one feels any duality, any sense of conflict or separation. One feels totally connected and one with everything. This upward as well as downward flow keeps on happening very naturally and spontaneously in life all the time.

Thus, one has an elaborate series of associations, all conveying the central concept of the cosmos as a manifestation of consciousness of pure subjectivity with Kundalini understood as the force or the energy inseparable from consciousness which animates the creation and in its peculiar form in the body, causes liberation through its illusion-shattering upward movement. In order to integrate this spiritual energy, a period of careful purification and strengthening of the body and one’s nervous system is very much required beforehand. Without a Guru, it is said that the awakening of Kundalini cannot take any one very far on the path. However, for the spiritual transmission by a Guru called the Shaktipata method to be effective, the body and spirit of the disciple must be prepared by yogic austerities such as pranayama, asana, meditation and chanting. The Guru who has already experienced Kundalini can raise Kundalini temporarily in his disciple to give him an experience to use it later as a basis for practice. Kundalini enables one to consciously cross the lower planes to ultimately merge into the universal cosmic power of which it is a part.

Conclusion

In the foregoing sections we have provided a cursory look to the vast literature of ancient Indian Vedic literature with all its ancillaries codifying the Indian Philosophy encompassing all aspects for living a meaningful and righteous life. We have mentioned here the six major schools of Vedic philosophy – Nyaya, Vaisheshika Purva Mimamsa, Shamskhya, Vedanta and Yoga belonging to the so-called orthodox category, which did not question the basic tenets of Vedic Philosophy the hallmark of Indian Spirituality preaching objective idealism. However, since ancient Indian spirit in its maturity of wisdom encouraged free flowing thoughts in all possible angles contributing even to rationalistic philosophy like Nyaya and Vaisheshika as well as materialistic philosophy of Charvak – Lokayat School including the Sramanic Schools like Jaina and Buddhists. These Sramanic Schools and Charvak-Lokayat belong to the un-orthodox schools. But as of now, there would be no denying of the fact that the Ancient Indian Wisdom prescribing a unique mind-body technology through ‘Yoga’ asserting primacy to mind over body for all round wellness in living a life has now captured the attention of the whole world.

Reference

Boorstin. D. J; ‘The Seekers, the story of man’s continuing quest to understand the world’, ECK Diana India, A sacred geography, Harmony Books, New York (2013).
Frawley David; ‘What is Hinduism? A guide for the global mind’, Bloomsbury Publishing, India Pvt Ltd. New Delhi (2018).
Ghose Aurobindo; ‘Thoughts and glimpses in Sri Aurobindo & mental Manifestation and other writings’, Vol. 16. Birth Centenary Library. All India Press, Pondicherry (1971).
May Muller, F. ‘The six systems of Indian Philosophy’. Associated Publishing house, New Delhi (1973).
Ramanchandra Yogi; ‘Hatha Yoga or The Yogic Philosophy of Wellbeing’, L. N. Powers Co. London.
Swamy Vivekananda; The Yogas and other works of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda Center, New York (1953).
The Song Celestial- Bhagabat Geeta, Jaico Publishing House, Bombay (1957).

The post Yoga Darshana The Unique Contribution of Ancient Indian Philosophy appeared first on Institute of Philosophy of Nature.

Nature of Truth and Reality

Niranjan Barik — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 05:27:52 +0000

“While we can know the things we encounter in our experiential interactions with the world’s realities as such, the realm of things in themselves are inherently unknown to us.”

-Emmanuel Kant- Critique of Pure Reason (1781)

“The Truth is what stands the test of experience.”

-Albert Einstein

“Spiritual Truth is a truth of the spirit, not a truth of the intellect, nor a mathematical theorem or a logical formula”.

-Sri Aurobinda

Abstract

Throughout the history of our civilization one can notice that the inquisitive human mind has been struggling to compresence all within himself and outside as well asking very difficult questions about temporal and eternal, about truth and reality, about the source of the all existence, about the origin and the cause behind all occurrences. Man has been continuing his search even till today in every possible way with all different resources or capabilities available to the mind and intellect to find satisfactory answers to all those questions. This perennial pursuit has been addressed in the domain of spiritual traditions as well as in scientific terms. Our purpose here is to give a brief account of the nature of the truth and reality as arrived at in various discussions.

Key words: Spiritual truth, Scientific truth, Source of existence, Origin of occurrence, Layers of reality, Ultimate reality, Quantum field theory, Pure consciousness, Truth Absolute.

Introduction

We have so far been discussing how human curiosity to understand and realize the true nature of Reality and Truth as the essence behind the phenomenal world, has led to the ceaseless pursuits in all possible ways, ever since the human mind woke up to the wondrous world both internally within himself and externally outside. All religions and spiritual traditions in fact represent the human mind’s very first attempt to decipher the universe it awoke to. The contemplative minds of all the ancient religions claimed to have witnessed the cosmos within the inner self to realize and experience, in reverie or meditative state, the Absolute Truth and Reality, which or been verbalized and expressed in various ways. In such experiential realization, the normal subject-object boundaries manifest in waking consciousness are altered completely presenting a feeling. This experiential or inter relationship with the cosmos. This experiential reality of a higher order beyond the space and time refers to an absolute and unchanging, remaining the same for all time for all people as the very ground of existence. With this conviction the seers of Vedic traditions in Mandukya Upanishad had declared that;

“Truth alone wins, not untruth.

By truth is established the path

That leads to the Divine;

by which the seers, who have

fulfilled their desires to reach

the supreme abode of Truth.”

(Mandukya Upanishad III.1.6)

Truth and Reality defined in this absolute term can be called the spiritual Truth. This is an experiential realization of connectedness with a Reality beyond the immediate sense perceptions of objects in space and time. It gives rise to a holistic type of knowing manifesting cognitively, emotionally and motivationally. They call it by various names the all-pervading supreme Consciousness, the embodiment of all potentialities, the ground of existence, the supreme God Divine etc. We would come back to this aspect further in subsequent sections.

Plato also believed in some kind of Truth and Reality belonging to an abstract realm beyond space & time consisting of ideal forms of geometrical nature. Pythagoras believed the ultimate Truth lies in mathematical numbers and propositions based on mathematical logic. Plato believed further that the physical world of our sense perception is only an illusion being a shadow or projection of that abstract mathematical realm. Truth conceived in this manner may be termed as the mathematical truth which is also beyond space and time in the so-called Platonic world.

Such views as above on Truth and Reality are wide spread in many metaphysical systems. Nevertheless, these views are commonly and completely unacceptable in the current scientific world view. Thus, in the scientific quest to understand the cosmos and the very ground of existence; the emerging science after the seventeenth century in Europe implicitly incorporated the Euro-centric perspective of discarding the older Truth-seeking traditions as pre-scientific and thus invalid. Instead it viewed the world to be so obviously material in nature that any suggestion of an underlying Truth as an immaterial prime aspect of the very ground of existence must be rejected having no basis for Reality. Therefore, science ventured to explore the ultimate Truth within the material structure of the cosmos considering space, time, matter and energy to be the most fundamental ingredients with matter as the primal entity. Thus, according to such materialistic scientific paradigm; matter-energy and space-time reside at the foundation of Reality and all other immaterial qualities like mind or consciousness etc. emerged out of it. Therefore, science engaged itself in exploring the ultimate Truth in the form of the immutable laws of nature and the fundamental building blocks of matter applying a reductionist approach. The laws of nature are expressed in abstract mathematical formulations embracing the so-called mathematical Truths for the scientific descriptions of the ways of the world and the Reality explored in the process. These rational findings may be termed as the scientific Truth about which we may draw our critical attention again in the following section.

The Scientific Truth and the nature of Reality

In modern parlance Truth is considered as that which corresponds to Reality. In that sense science; in search of Truth; engages itself in understanding the Reality to its fullest extent. We would highlight again how science has explored the various layers of physical reality in the wake of the revolution brought about by relativity and quantum physics. In fact, the physical reality of the material world is understood as having layered structures, though no neatly stacked layers. These layers may be considered as different levels of description as one proceeds from the gross to the finer and deeper levels unfolding the enchanting and dynamic nature of the physical reality.

The first layer of this reality, according to scientific views, is the observable universe of material objects and the natural phenomena all around us that we normally perceive through our senses. This is the only reality for a lay person in conformity with our common sense. This is also the reality that seems to exist outside of us, which led Descartes and his followers to believe that there is a distinct separateness or split between matter and mind or between the object and the observer. Classical Science dealt with the physical reality at this level adopting a mechanical world view. We are not outfitted with an X-ray vision to see what is inside this first level of reality appearing as solid, substantial, concrete material bodies. The next level of reality, which our ordinary senses are not equipped to perceive; required a great leap in our imagination as well as necessary tools as mechanical extensions of our senses, which include not only electron microscopes, particle-accelerators etc. but also intricate mathematical constructs and abstract models for visualization. The idea that everything is made of atoms and molecules goes all the way back to the 3rd century BCE with Kanada Kashyap of Vaishika Darshana and the Greek Philosopher Democritus. But what exactly is an atom made of; say the simplest hydrogen atom? As we know now this is simply a proton orbited by an electron. Similarly, other atoms are built with a central nucleus consisting of neutrons and protons surrounded by an appropriate number of orbiting electrons. Again, we know that protons and neutrons are made up of other elementary particles called quarks, while an electron is itself an elementary particle. More than 99.98% of the atom’s mass is due to the heavy nucleus consisting of neutrons and protons. The radius of an atom is about a few angstroms (1 Angstrom = 10-10m). Considering the relative size of the atom and its nucleus; and their corresponding volumes; it follows obviously to reveal that almost 99.99999…% of the atomic volume is empty space. Thus, solidity is not a result of an actual content of matter, but rather a property resulting from the interactions of electrons. What a trick that the reality at this level plays by projecting the illusion of solidity of objects! This tangible aspect of material objects providing the very sensation of the physical, is based astonishingly on nothingness.

All the matter that makes up our everyday world with complicated structures we recognize as stars, planets, with plants, birds, animals and human beings, is primarily composed of two kinds of fundamental particles Palled fundamental fermions and bosons. Quarks and electrons belong to this class of fermions which provide the material contents. The fundamental bosons include another class of particles which provide all types of bindings to these material contents necessary for various structure formations. These are the force-carrying particles called gauge bosons. Besides these fundamental fermions and bosons, science has discovered a zoo of subatomic particles and their mirror world of antiparticles revealing a far greater structure to reality at this level, which is not only quite astonishing but also very bizarre with all the quantum weirdness at its heart. The subatomic particles display contradictory dual behaviors as waves and particles depending on if and how they are observed. At this quantum level of reality any certainty is lost and measurement can only be expressed as probabilities. In other words, the location of such a particle is only probabilistic, so that it could be observed where in the universe however small the probability may be. As a result, it can appear at places ordinarily forbidden for it in a process called quantum tunneling. These quantum particles do not have any definite properties of their own including any definite location or motion at any instant of time before observation. They exist as potentialities only having certain tendencies to be revealed only if and how a measurement is made on them to observe. Thus, the sharp boundary between the object and the observer melts away at this quantum level of reality. It is all the more baffling to know that the marriage of such quantum entities allows them to stay connected in quantum entanglement and be both instantaneously influenced regardless of their spatial separation between them. This clearly violates the classical local realism revealing the non-local nature of the reality at this level. Such instantaneous communication between the two entangled quantum entities is in contradiction with special theory of relativity according to which there is an upper limit to how fast information can travel in the universe and that is the cosmic speed limit as the speed of light.

After coming across all these mind-boggling natures of the quantum entities considered as the constituents of matter at its deeper level; we may now ask what these constituent parts are which are not particles in the real sense of the term having no definite location and motion besides the other aspects. In fact, these constituent parts are in a constant state of flux and the propeller of this flux is energy. In other words, they are nothing but discrete packets of energy. If all things are made of this abstract immaterial substance known as energy; why do we see them as stable and unchanging? Why don’t the fundamental elementary particles simply diffuse or fall apart? Why all the elementary particles belonging to a particular species such as say electrons are all absolutely identical everywhere in the Universe, no matter when or where they are created. This is because they have a fixed confined energy; confined like a genie in a bottle. But here the bottles are not physical; they are known as fields which are real; though abstract. These fermions and bosons are identified as the discrete quantas of their respective fields. We have now entered the third layer of reality, where the matter fields of the fermions and the force fields of the bosons seem to be more primary than matter itself, since these fields behave as the breeding ground for the so-called elementary particles. Therefore, fields are some dynamic manifestation of a charged think of. We are of course quite familiar with the classical think of fields, whose influence is felt locally; like our earth’s field or the electrostatic field of a of gravity body and the magnetic field of a magnet. Considering these cases, one could easily be misled into thinking that field is something that arises from matter retaining the primacy of matter. But in fact, this is not true. The truth is far stranger. Even if one imagines a universe with no material objects leaving an absolute void, still then these un-manifested fields, known as quantum fields would be found to pervade all space and time. These fields are non-local in the sense that they are felt equally in all parts of the universe. Again, unlike our familiar classical fields, the magnitude of energy of a quantum field is not continuous but appears in discrete or quantized lumps, what we called elementary particles. Frank Wilczek, an exponent of quantum field theory and a Nobel laureate sums it up as: –

“In quantum field theory, the primary elements of reality are not individual particles, but underlying fields….”. These quantum fields do possess their usual quantum nature of not being locatable in any geometrical sense although they are everywhere. This is according to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, so that a quantum field cannot have a definite value at any given instant, not even the value zero. As a result, the amplitude as a measure of its size must change all the time resulting in what are known as vacuum fluctuations. The effect of these fluctuations is revealed in several phenomena observed experimentally. Notable amongst all these phenomena is the Casimir Effect, which the Dutch physicist Hendrick Casimir predicted in 1948 in order to demonstrate the effect of vacuum fluctuations of quantum electromagnetic fields. According to this, a measurable force can be seen to act to push together two parallel metal plates even in vacuum. This was conclusively demonstrated in 1996 by Physicist Steven Lamoreaux establishing the existence of electromagnetic ghost force in vacuum and thus validating the notion that all fields at quantum level fluctuate. This provides the strongest evidence for the actuality of the un-manifested quantum fields in vacuum. The wild fluctuations of the un-manifested fields create a quantum frenzy at microscopic dimensions of space creating pairs of virtual particles of matter and antimatter by borrowing energy from space in accordance with the uncertainty principle. The larger the energy debt, the shorter is the time to pay back when these pairs of virtual particles annihilate each other. These virtual particles are like ocean sprays thrown up when turbulent ocean waves crash with each other or against the rocks only to fall back into the ocean from which it came. But only when sufficient energy surplus is made available by any source, stable particles can emerge from the quantum fields to have a real existence in the universe. Without this surplus energy there are only virtual particles. This energy is the zero-point energy of the quantum fields called vacuum energy, which becomes available by a process called spontaneous symmetry breaking. This unseen but ubiquitous quantum fields and their vacuum fluctuations together with the so-called spontaneous breaking of symmetry may seem utterly alien because of its abstractness and the very esoteric mathematics involved in the construction of the standard model of particle physics. The triumph of the standard model in explaining all the observed fundamental particles is a hall mark of twentieth century physics.

Thus, the un-manifested quantum fields interlace throughout the cosmos like multidimensional fabrics woven in such a way that each infinitesimal weave of the fabric contains, so to say, the whole cloth. Regardless of our puzzlements, the omnipresent quantum fields permeate the whole space, definitely as a further layer of the reality of this phantom world in which there is no such thing as empty space. Thus, science seems to have found the most crucial elements of existence in the quantum vacuum by comprehending this intrinsic fundamental reality of our cosmos in support of the concept of the ‘one source’ – the nothingness or sunyata of Buddhism or the ‘Brahman’ of the Vedantic tradition. The analysis of the structure of reality at the macroscopic as well as the microscopic level to find a solid foundation of reality has landed the philosophers of science to wonder whether there is something fundamentally flawed in the idea of a world built up of matter. P. Davies and J. Gribbin in their book ‘The Matter Myth;’ summarize about the current paradigm shift, we are witnessing with the following words:

“It is fitting that physics, the science that gave us materialism, should also signal the demise of materialism. During this century the new physics has blown apart the central tenets of materialist doctrine in a sequence of stunning developments. First came the theory of relativity, which demolished Newton’s assumption about space and time -assumptions that still hold sway in our everyday commonsense view of the world. The very arena in which the clock-work universe acted out its drama was now exposed as subject to shifting and warping. Then came the quantum theory, which totally transformed our image of matter. The old assumption that the microscopic world of atoms was simply as scaled down version of the everyday world had to be abandoned. Newton’s deterministic machine was replaced by a shadowy and paradoxical conjunction of waves and particles governed by the laws of chance rather than the rigid rules of causality. An extension of quantum theory, known as the quantum field theory, goes even beyond this, it paints a picture in which solid matter dissolves away, to be replaced by weird excitations and vibrations of invisible field energy. In this theory, little distinction remains between material substance and apparent empty space which itself seethes with ephemeral quantum activity.”

Han-Peter Durr, a renowned physicist who was the successor of Heisenberg in 1978 as the director of the Max-Planck-Institute for physics in Munich also ended up with a mystical view of reality with a bold claim that “Matter does not exist! Therefore, I have worked fifty years on a notion that is inexistent. This was an extra ordinary experience: Learning that something, whose reality everyone is convinced of, in the end, does not exist.”

Adding further on this, the remark by P. Davies and N.H. Gregersen in their book ‘Information and the Nature of Reality: From physics to Metaphysics (2014), we quote here as: – “One has the sense that, at the end of the day, the speculation of the philosophers and the data from the scientists are pointing in the same surprising direction. At the root of tall physical reality is not primary matter.”

Thus, one comes to realize that the more science moves away from common sense to intellectually visualize and understand the real world using powerful mathematical abstractions, the harder it becomes to decide what constitutes a mere model and what is supposed to be a faithful description of reality. Science has been following the age-old conviction that mathematics represents the blueprint for reality and the deep truths about the workings of the world. And therefore, it ventures into the realms in the abstract world of mathematics in building theoretical models which interrelate with the workings of the physical world from the quantum weirdness comprising reality to the awe-inspiring vastness of the cosmic fabric in the form of the quantum frenzy of the void. This translation aspect of reality into abstract representations with a purpose to decode the deep truths ultimately leads to ever changing descriptions of scientific truths and realities in terms of physical concepts. Albert Einstein had once remarked – “Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, determined by the external world.”

Therefore, such physical concepts, although they are true in the sense of the predictions of the abstract theoretical models based on solid mathematical logic and the support of experimental evidence; they do not describe the true nature of Reality. The concepts describing the truth are model dependent corresponding to a particular level of description. As one proceeds to the deeper and deeper levels in the description, more and more abstract formulations of mathematical models come to the fore with newer concepts describing reality. Therefore, this intellectual enterprise of the human mind may be called scientific realism which is based on the foundation of mathematical truth. For a better assessment and appreciation of this scientific realism, it is worthwhile to understand the scope of mathematical truth encoding the physical reality which is deciphered as the scientific truth.

Conclusion

Thus, we placed here the arguments in favour of the spiritual truth as the Truth Absolute to represent the ultimate Reality as against the scientific truth. This has been described in the widest variety of wisdom traditions referring it variously as attribute-less potentiality-the ‘Brahman’ or as the cosmic consciousness – the ‘Purusha’. This pure consciousness is said to be experienced in an elevated state of awareness. The Yogasutras of Patanjali, for example, explains that at the state of perfection, one’s mind relaxes and settles down so completely within itself that it is no longer aware of any objects, sensations, thoughts, feelings and not even the subjective spatio-temporal manifold in which all our other experiences occur. The complete absence of any empirical content is the characteristic of this experience. When all of the phenomenal objects of one’s conscious awareness disappear and yet one remains awake; it is the consciousness alone by itself that is experienced. This experience is, of course, a very unusual one and is hardly ever found in the absence of the practice of meditative techniques to produce it. The veracity of such claims has been investigated to some extent by modern science to make it clear that the mystic experience talked about so often is associated with a very unusual physiology, where overall metabolic processes settle down to such an extent that even at times breathing almost stops entirely. A considerable body of research has come to be conducted on these meditative techniques including some on the physiological correlates during the experience in question. In the laboratory settings, at least, reports of the experience are often highly correlated not only with significant reduction of metabolic activity, but also with cases of complete cessation of respiration which is in conformity with the ancient texts. There are also other unusual physiological features such as changes in blood chemistry, very high inter-hemispheric EEG-Coherence etc. have been noticed. The significance of such research results shows that it is not a mere belief system that could itself produce the unique physiological state described above relating to the unique experience. It is even less reasonable to think that the different belief systems of Yoga, Vedanta, Taoism, Medieval Christianity etc. should all converge to produce the same unique physiological state leading to the experiential accounts of pure quality less awareness as the common underlying experiences.

Thus this ‘pure consciousness’-experience is extraordinarily abstract, having no concrete phenomenological objects like colors, sounds, tastes, smells, shapes or even thoughts in it at all. However, it does have some contents, namely, pure abstract bliss, joy, happiness or fulfillment unbounded in intensity and independent of all the things we ordinarily associate it with. Bhagabat-Gita puts it (verses 6.18. to 6.28) as;

“Having established the mind in the Self (i.e. pure consciousness), let him not think at all, for supreme happiness comes to the yogi whose mind is deep in peace. Thus, collecting himself the yogi…. with ease attains contact with … infinite joy, free from craving for any pleasure. Having gained (that) which he counts no other gain as higher.”

Having said all that; the question no doubt arises; ‘what is it like, if it is not like ‘anything’? Can science stretch its limits beyond quantum physics and its implications to come to terms with this abstract concept of ‘consciousness’ vouched as the spiritual truth and the Ultimate Reality?

Reference

“Glatter felder, J. B.; -What is Reality? George and the Blue Moon, Random House, London (2016b).
Maudlin, T.; – The Metaphysics Within Physics, Oxford University Press (2007).
Bhaumik, M.; -Code Name God. Penguin Books, Random House India Pvt. Ltd. (2006)
Young, A. M.; – Mathematics, Physics and Reality. Robert Biggs Associates, Portland, Oregon (1990).
Barik, N., & Das, G.; – Mysticism and Science – An Indian Context. Notion Press, New Delhi (2022).

The post Nature of Truth and Reality appeared first on Institute of Philosophy of Nature.

Physical reality as perceived in science

Niranjan Barik — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 08:59:21 +0000

Abstract

‘What is Truth’, ‘What is Reality’ – This has been the perennial question which keeps the human mind engaged at all ages. Do they correspond to facts, phenomena, sense perceptions, objective existence or do they belong to the category of eternal, unchanging entities transcending space and time existing in their absoluteness? Prior to the advent of science, wise men and seers in all religious traditions searched for this Absolute Truth as the ultimate Reality within their own self; through deep contemplative modes and came up with a realization of it as the unit source, the ground of all beings and things in this whole creation. However, this revelatory knowledge belonging to the metaphysical or spiritual domain could not stand the scrutiny of the rational mind as it gradually raised its head with the emergence of science. Science on the other hand considered Truth as that which corresponds to Reality and to the scientific view, reality consists of the observable universe of material objects and natural phenomena all perceptible to our senses. This is the only Reality for a lay person in conformity with our common sense. However, science in search of Truth and Reality to its fullest extent, has gone farther in its understanding revealing various layers of this Reality. The Reality addressed by science in fact is the Physical Reality, which in the wake of the revolutions brought about by the theory of relativity and quantum physics, is understood as having layered structures, though no neatly stacked layers. These layers may be considered as different levels of description as one proceeds from the gross to the finer and deeper levels unfolding the enchanting and dynamic nature of the physical reality. We would like to give a brief account of this nature of the physical reality which would reveal such a sublime order in the design of the physical world that it often seems to suggest the divine hands of a single architect. Could this be the higher order Reality playing the role of some kind of a governing force as the ground of beings as apprehended by the ancient seers of all religious traditions!

Keywords: Absolute truth, Ultimate reality, Layers of reality, Ceaseless motion, Black body radiation.

Introduction

Let us start with the first layer of the physical reality, which is the only reality for most people. This is the observable universe of material objects including the natural phenomena surrounding us with which we interact through our five primary senses. This is the reality that seems to exist outside of us which brings forth a distinction between the mind and matter, between the perceiver and the perceived. This led the French philosopher Rene Descartes and his followers to believe that there is a distinct separateness or split between matter and mind or between object and the observer. Science proceeded in observing nature with all its material bodies and all the phenomena happening in nature. Scientists like Galileo, Kepler, Newton and many more analysed the observed data and could see some underlying pattern or regularity in the structure or happenings in nature. They realized that instead of any divine hand propelling all this in the physical world, it is the physical forces like mechanical, gravitational, electrical or magnetic forces, which cause all the changes in rest, motion or structural configuration of material bodies. The regularities they found were encoded in precise mathematical expressions representing those causes as laws of nature. In this context we may remind Galileo’s laws of falling bodies, Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, Newton’s laws of motion; besides several other laws deciphered from nature from other areas of study like gas laws in heat and thermodynamics, coulomb’s Law in static electricity, Ampere’s law, Boisvert’s law, Faraday’s law, and Lenz’s law etc. in current electricity, Newton’s laws of gravitation for planetary motion and many more. Also notable was the work of Maxwell on Electromagnetism who combined the earlier works in this field to arrive at the conclusion that light is an electromagnetic radiation always propagating as a wave with a constant velocity in vacuum. Such understanding of the physical reality at its most commonly perceptible level was prevalent almost for two centuries following Maxwell and Newton’s work, which is known as classical science. Classical science dealt with the physical reality at this level adopting a mechanical world view. Matter as inert bodies exists as solid, static and separate bodies, which do not change their state of rest or motion unless impressed by external forces. This first level of reality, which appears as separate solid substantial concrete material bodies, does not reveal to our ordinary senses what lies inside. This is because our ordinary senses are not well equipped such as we are not outfitted with an x-ray vision to perceive what is inside this first level of reality. Therefore, it would require a great leap in our imagination as well as necessary tools as mechanical extensions of our senses, which include not only electron microscopes, particle accelerators etc. but also intricate mathematical constructs and abstract models for visualization.

Second layer of reality

As we have pointed out earlier, the second layer of reality requires a great leap in our imaginations since our ordinary senses are not equipped adequately to perceive it because of the conditioning we have gone through over millions of years of evolutionary process. Such a great leap in imagination happened for the first time all the way back in 3th century BCE with the Indian Rishi Kanada Kashyap in his Vaishika Darshana and subsequently by the Greek Philosopher Democritus, who proposed the ‘atomic’ structure of matter. Dalton used this concept to explain the chemical reactions through his laws of mass-action. Avogadro formulated the fundamental law for the quantity of the material constituents existing in a fixed amount of a material substance which is well known as Avogadro’s law. Assuming atomic and molecular structure of gaseous matter, Boltzmann formulated the statistical theory for explaining the gas laws and the laws of thermodynamics. Maxwell, following Boltzmann, developed kinetic theory of gasses and came up with the concept of equipartition theorem. Nevertheless, the atomic concept as the discreteness of material substance was not acceptable to a larger section of the populace who believed in the Aristotelian dictum that ‘Nature does not take any abrupt jumps’. Boltzmann’s work could not be acceptable without any skepticism. Finally, in the beginning of the twentieth century in 1905; Albert Einstein’s mathematical formulation explaining the Brownian motion of Pollen grains on the surface of a liquid could provide means for empirical evidence for atomic or molecular structure of matter. Today of course with the sophisticated technology providing electron-microscope, atomic force microscope etc. one can observe and manipulate these atomic constituents of matter.

The question however remains what is an atom of a substance? Nature had been kind to the queries of the inquisitive human mind in constantly sending signals and hints in various forms of natural phenomena. These are the emissions of electromagnetic spectra when matter is heated (such as Black body radiation spectrum), discrete and continuous incandescent spectra etc.; the emission of cathode ray by electrically heated filament as a cathode in a vacuum tube; the radio-active emissions as α, β and γ-rays by radio-active substances. When the human mind was sufficiently awake to listen to these signals coming from the inner layers of matter; J.J. Thompson in 1897 identified tiny electrically charged material particles called subsequently as electrons in the cathode ray. He concluded that these electrons must have emerged from the atomic constituents of the cathode, suggesting thereby a further structure of atoms. Matter consisting of atoms being ordinarily neutral, electrons must have been embedded in a positively charged thick soup like resins in a pudding. This was called Thompson’s plum-pudding model of atoms. However, this idea could not be stretched to all extents to explain everything. In 1911, Rutherford’s experiments of alpha particle scattering from a thin gold foil target established that the positive charge within the atom neutralizing the negative charges of the constituent electrons is not distributed continuously within the atomic volume as proposed by J.J. Thompson. Instead it was found to be concentrated at the central location in a tiny volume called the nucleus of the atom and the electrons must be revolving around this nucleus like planets around the sun due to the electrostatic force of attraction between the positively charged nucleus and the electrons. Thus, Rutherford proposed the planetary model of atoms. But there was a snag in this model. The electrons moving in their orbits around the nucleus would get accelerated to lose energy continuously since it was already known by that time that an accelerated charge particle continuously emits radiations losing thereby its energy at a specific rate. In that case the orbital electron in an atom would spiral down continuously by losing energy to fall to the nucleus in no time and therefore the atomic structure could not be stable to form bulk matter as we see. To resolve this difficulty. Niels Bohr in 1919 proposed the idea of discrete orbits for electrons in a nuclear atom. Although for centuries it was believed that “Nature does not take any abrupt jumps” and therefore all changes and all phenomena must happen in a continuous manner; nature however was revealing its discrete action at this deeper level through black body radiation, photo-electric effect and Compton effects like phenomena. Max Planck in 1900 could explain the black body spectrum by proposing that matter in the black body emits radiation in discrete packets of energy proportional to the frequency of radiation. These packets of energy (ε=hν, where h is called Planck’s constant and v is the frequency of radiation) were called energy quanta which were subsequently named as photons. In 1905; Einstein could establish further this idea by showing that matter not only emits radiation in discrete quanta but also absorbs it in like manners; explaining the phenomenon of photo-electric effect which fetched him Nobel prize in 1921. Finally, through the explanations of Compton scattering of high frequency x-ray or y-ray radiation by the free charge particles mostly electrons in a graphite target, it was further understood that radiation consists of energy quanta called photons which behave as particles exchanging energy and momentum during collision with targets. Thus, it was known that radiation, like matter, also has discrete structure with its constituents as photons of varying frequencies. On this background of understanding, the human mind was not rebelling anymore to conceive of any physical quantity at this level to take any discrete variations. Hence Bohr assumed that electrons around the nucleus of an atom do not take any arbitrary orbit except for those in which their angular momenta would be some integral multiples of Planck’s constant divided by 2 (Angular momentum L=nh/2π, where L=mvr; m=mass of the electron, v=orbital speed, r=orbital radius). However, an atom can radiate energy only when the electron takes a jump from the higher orbit to the lower as a result of which the differential amount of energy ΔE (E-E), n>m; would be emitted as a photon. With these ideas Bohr developed a simple model for the simplest atom of hydrogen which consists of a positively charged proton as the nucleus and a single electron. By this model it was possible to estimate the size of the atom, the discrete spectra emitted by hydrogen that was observed and measured and recorded meticulously by Balmer and many other spectroscopists by that time. Following the success of Bohr’s model of atom, many other new discoveries followed suggesting further structure of the nucleus which was found in general as a very strongly bound system of two kinds of particles called protons and neutrons. While protons are positively charged particles, each having a mass almost two thousand times more than the mass of an electron; the neutrons are neutral particles, each with slightly more mass than that of a proton. The force that binds a proton to a neutron or a proton and also a neutron to a neutron is not the already known electrostatic force. It was found to be almost hundred times stronger than the electrostatic or electromagnetic force. Unlike electromagnetic force which is a long-range force; the nuclear force is a short-range force confined within the nuclear dimensions. This force is called the strong nuclear force as a result of which the mass density of a nucleus is immensely high. As a hydrogen atom is simply a proton at its nucleus orbited by an electron, other atoms are similarly built with a central nucleus consisting of neutrons and protons surrounded by an appropriate number of orbiting electrons. Electrons possess a quantum property called spin. Spin is the tendency of an electron in aligning itself parallel (called spin up) or anti-parallel (called spin-down) with respect to a chosen direction. Then the spin measure of an electron is given as half in the units of reduced Planck’s constant (ħ=h/2) and hence the electron spin S=1/2 ħ. Such particles possessing odd-half integral spin (which is an intrinsic angular momentum of subatomic particles) belong to a specific class of particles called fermions, which are in a way quite anti-social. In a particular energy state with other quantum state parameters remaining the same, no two electrons would remain with similar spin orientation. This is called Pauli’s exclusion principle. Electrons around the nucleus of an atom are therefore distributed accordingly in various orbits viewed in the form of shells. Protons and neutrons inside the nucleus also follow a similar pattern since they are also spin (-½) particles belonging to the fermion class. Within the space of the nuclear volume, these particles called nucleons move very rapidly under the influence of the strong nuclear force and they are distributed in appropriate shells satisfying Pauli-exclusion principle. Such nucleonic configurations inside the nucleus determine the stability or instability of the nuclei of different atoms. Heavier nuclei with more number of neutrons than the protons or even lighter nuclei with odd-even protons, neutron numbers are quite unstable. They are called radio-active nuclei inside the respective atoms which undergo radio-active decays. Neutrons and protons inside a stable nucleus are stable particles. But in a radio-active nucleus they can decay as well. As for example a neutron can decay to a proton, an electron together with another tiny neutral particle having very negligible mass called the antiparticle of electron-neutrino. A free neutron decay like this. The average time of such decay is around 900 seconds. This process of decay is called Beta-decay which is a very weak process governed by another kind of fundamental force called weak nuclear force. This force has strength which is almost one thousandth of the strength of electromagnetic force and about one by one lakh times (10-5) weaker than the strong nuclear force. Compared to these three forces, the gravitational force is the weakest of all which is almost 10-39 times weaker than the strong nuclear force. Nuclei were bombarded with very energetic particles like electrons or neutrons or nuclei accelerated in particle accelerators. From the deep inelastic scattering of electrons, it was inferred that protons and neutrons inside the nuclei do have further structure. They are made up of other elementary particles called quarks, which are also spin (-½) particles like electrons belonging to the group of fermions. Besides this, a host of new particles had been discovered and identified. We would not go into the details of these subatomic particles grouped into several categories as mesons, baryons or bosons and fermions etc. But we must mention here about the class of particles called bosons, which possess integral spin. Out of all the bosons, there is a specific group called messenger bosons which were found to mediate different types of fundamental forces of interaction between subatomic material particles. For example, photons, the energy quantum of electromagnetic radiation we have heard earlier, are responsible for electromagnetic interaction between two charged objects. The interaction proceeds via the exchange of photons between the charged particles. Thus, photons which are spin-1 particles mediate electromagnetic force. The strong nuclear force that we talked about at the level of protons and neutrons is in fact a residual force due to the primary one that operates at the level of quarks, which apart from their spin and electric charge, carry another kind of charge called colour-charge. Unlike electric charge that is realized in positive and negative varieties: there are three colour-charge states called Red (R) Green (G) and Blue (B). The strong interaction between the quarks is a colour-charge interaction mediated via the exchange of another kind of bosons, called gluons, which are eight in number carrying eight different combinations of colour charges each with spin-1. Similarly, the weak nuclear interaction is mediated by three kinds of bosons W. W and Zº. Unlike photons and gluons which are massless bosons, W+, W- and Zo are very massive. W± are almost eighty times as heavy as protons, while Zº, which is a charge neutral particle like photon, is more than 90 times heavier than protons. Similar insight predicts gravitational interaction to be mediated by another kind of boson called graviton having spin-2.

Before we conclude the description of this second layer of the physical reality. We would like to point out a few important aspects of the nature of reality at this second layer. First of all, we may remind ourselves once again the relative size of the atom and its nucleus and their corresponding volumes. This would obviously reveal that almost 99.99999…% of the atomic volume is empty space. Atom’s solidity is not a result of an actual content of matter, but rather a property resulting from the interactions of electrons which are anti-social entities refusing to buzz from their predetermined configurational states under any kind of squeezing or compressing actions. What a trick that the reality at this level plays by projecting the illusion of solidity of objects! This tangible aspect of material objects providing the very sensation of the physical is based astonishingly on nothingness. Secondly the gross material bodies which appear from outside as inert and static needing external impetus to be dynamic, its inner finer constituents at the molecular, atomic or nuclear level are ceaselessly moving quite vigorously. The molecules within a gas or a liquid, the atoms in the crystalline structure of a solid, undergo vibrations or other types of motions depending on their thermal state. Electrons inside atoms revolve around the nucleus or else jump from one orbit to another emitting or absorbing radiant energy. The protons and neutrons inside the nucleus also do possess orbital motion of some kind. Again, the force carrying boson particles mentioned earlier are ceaselessly exchanged back and forth between two particles at these levels to generate the impetus for all these dynamisms. Nature at its finer level displays its utmost restlessness as if with everything in a constant state of flux everywhere. One more thing we find that not only is there discreteness at structural levels of matter as well as radiation, all interactions between material bodies at all levels are also generated by discrete impulses inflicted on two interacting bodies due to ceaseless exchange of appropriate messenger particles between them.

Ultimate layer of reality

Finally, we come to the most important aspect of the nature of reality at this level which is quite surprising and mystical as well. This is called dual nature. So far, we have been highlighting the particulate nature of matter as well as radiation. Coming back first to the nature of radiation; we must remind ourselves of the fact that light as radiation had remained most elusive in its nature through its various interplay with matter in phenomena such as reflection, refraction scattering, polarization, interference and diffraction. It was once thought to be corpuscular in nature by Descartes and Newton in order to explain reflection and refraction by its rectilinear propagation. Then it was found to be wave-like by Huygens, Young and Fresnel in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century to explain interference, diffraction and polarization. Later in the mid nineteenth century Maxwell showed that light is an electromagnetic wave capable of propagating in vacuum like X-ray, microwave, radio-wave, ultraviolet and infrared radiations. Finally, in the beginning of twentieth century, it was again found by Plank and Einstein that radiation behaves as particles in the form of packets of energy called photons in order to explain emission from a hot body (Black-body radiation) and absorption by a metal surface giving rise to photo-emission of electrons (Photo-electric effect) respectively. Then what is radiation, a wave or a particle? In fact, it is neither a wave nor a particle. In its quantum nature it is a collection of energy quanta called photons which has its dual nature both as wave as well as particle? depending on how and when it is observed or measured. Since radiation and matter are the two most important modes of manifestation of the physical nature, then it is very likely that like radiation, matter at its quantum level must possess such dual nature. This was the conviction of the young French scholar de-Broglie who envisaged in his 1924 Ph.D. thesis that a free electron should have the wave nature with its wavelength ‘λ’ inversely proportional to its momentum p = mv. This concept is known as the de-Broglie hypothesis as an example of wave-particle duality of matter which formed the central part of the theory of quantum mechanics. After its due verification in 1927 by Davission and Germer in the electron diffraction experiment through a crystal lattice, de-Broglie was awarded the Nobel prize in the year 1929. Erwin Schrodinger in his formulation of wave mechanics in 1925 used this concept and subsequently this wave associated with a material particle was interpreted as a probability wave serving as the cornerstone of quantum physics. Now of course we know that not only electrons but also all subatomic particles including atoms and molecules have demonstrated this quantum property of simultaneously possessing the wave attributes like wavelength and frequency together with their particle attributes like energy and momentum etc. in the same way as that of photons.

As we have discussed earlier, all the matter that makes up our everyday world is composed of two kinds of fundamental particles: quarks and electrons. But through relativity (E=mc²) and quantum Physics (wave-particle duality), we now know that quarks and other elementary particles are nothing but discrete packets of energy. Although the objects in our mind appear as solid and substantial as the rock, their constituent parts are in a constant state of flux characterized by a ceaseless interplay of energy at a microscopic scale at an unimaginably fast rate – a level that our senses are not equipped to perceive. Energy is an abstract and chimerical substance which reveals itself through the forms it takes in its manifestations. Then how is energy stabilized into quarks and electrons or other subatomic particles, let alone the complex structures like other gross bodies living as well non-living. Why don’t the fundamental particles in the form of energy quanta simply fall apart? This may be because they are packaged forms of energy where energy is confined like a genie in a bottle. The bottles here are called quantum fields which are really abstract. This brings us to the brink of the third layer of reality. The fields at this level are as real as the particles we encountered in the second layer of reality. The fields are ordinarily known to us by way of the forces associated with them. We are familiar through our daily existence with the gravitational field, electric or magnetic fields. Einstein showed us that space, time and field cannot exist separately, they are always intertwined magnificently in their existence. A field is a physical state of space itself and space does not exist without a field. But these are the classical manifestation of fields, which arise from their respective sources and whose influences are felt only locally (we know that the gravitational as well as the electrostatic or magnetostatic forces decrease as the inverse square of the distance from the source). But the field we are referring to here is still stranger than the truth. Even if we take away the source; an unmanifest field having the blueprint for all its qualities will still remain in empty space, which would pervade all space and time, whose influence can be felt equally in all parts of the universe. Such fields are called quantum fields which are nonlocal in nature. Unlike classical fields, the magnitude of energy of a quantum field is not continuous but discrete or quantized. They are not in any geometrical sense locatable – yet they are everywhere.

This is because of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Hence a quantum field cannot have a fixed value at any given times; not even a value of zero. As a result, the magnitude or size of the field must change all the time producing what is known as vacuum fluctuation (in the sense-now we see it, now we do not). But its effects can be observed as has now been validated providing strongest evidence of the actuality of the unmanifest quantum fields.

This fluctuation implies constant creation and annihilation of virtual packets of energy called virtual particles. This behaviour gets increasingly more energetic at smaller distances and smaller time scales. Thus, empty space is not empty at all. The unmanifest quantum fields interlace throughout the cosmos like multidimensional fabrics woven on a celestial loom and each infinitesimal weave of the fabric contains, so to speak, the whole cloth. These underlying quantum fields give birth to the elementary particles. Thus, according to quantum field theory; the primary elements of reality are not individual particles, but the underlying fields. For example, all electrons are but excitations of an underlying field called the electron field which fills all space and time. The same holds true for all fundamental particles of which matter is made. In addition to quarks and electrons there are a host of other fundamental matter particles like neutrinos, but they are either unstable or interact very weakly. These matter particles are the products of various other respective matter fields. Similarly, all the known force fields also have their respective elementary force particles such as photons associated with the electromagnetic force field and gravitons for the gravitational force field etc. We have already mentioned about all the various types of force carrying messenger particles corresponding to the four fundamental forces. Both these forces carrying messenger particles as well as the elementary matter particles are merely excitations of their underlying quantum fields. Thus, science has revealed that the world around us is one in which there is no such thing as empty space and the most crucial elements of our existence are the things which we cannot see.

Conclusion

Now a pertinent question to ask is that if everything is ultimately made of one substance called ‘energy’, why should nature provide so many different types of fields for energy to work its magic? Einstein envisioned that the known force fields that control all-natural phenomena ought to have a common foundation describable by tenets of a unified theory. Most physicists are now quite convinced that these diverse matter fields including all the force fields are nothing but different aspects of a single field. In that case the realization of a successful unification scheme would be the common key, the subtlest of all existence – the common source. It seems, as if in the pursuit of the nature of reality, science is approaching to realize the common ground at the most subtle level of the physical reality as the ultimate reality, the unit source. Ancient Vedic seers used to call it the all-embracing ‘Brahman’ – the cosmic consciousness the supreme self. As stated in Chhandogya Upanishad 6.10.3,

‘That which is the subtlest of all is the Self of all this.

It is the Truth. It is the Self. You are that (Tat tvam asi)

References

Boorstin, D.J.; The Seekers; the story of Man’s Continuing Quest to understand his world. Eck, Dina’ India, A Sacred Geography. Harmony Books, New York (2013)
Bohm, David; Wholeness and Implicate Order, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London (1980).
Bhaumik; M.; Code Name God, Penguin Books, Random House, India Pvt. Ltd. (2006).
Glattfelder, J.B.; What is Reality? George and the Blue Moon, Random House, London (2016b).
Glattfelder J.B.; Information – Consciousness – Reality – How a New Understanding of the Universe can Help Answer Age-Old Questions of Existence. Springer Open Nature, Switzerland (2018).
Horgan, J.; Rational Mysticism; Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality. Houghton Miffin, New York (2003 b).
Penrose, R.; The Road to Reality – A complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, Janathan Cape, London (2004). "Boisvert’s law"

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Understanding The Living Matter -The Physical Basis of Life

Niranjan Barik — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 15:25:09 +0000

Abstract

Everybody understands matter in its various forms and names such as in solid, liquid or gas stages or as in organic or inorganic forms. But living matter is somewhat different and unique in the sense that it is an active form of matter capable of executing various life processes within itself. Biologists claim that the physical basic of living matter is protoplasm. But we would like here to unfold the fundamental physical principles in the form of a cosmic plan or a blueprint that has been followed sequentially by nature all over the billions of years of its cosmic evolution in physical, chemical and biological level ultimately to arrive at this unique phase of matter, the living matter.

Key Words– Living matter, Chemical and Biological level in living matter, Cosmic Evolution.

Introduction

“At first concealed in darkness, all in discriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and formless; By the great power of warmth was born that unit. There were begetters; there were mighty forces; free action here and energy up yonder” – Thus said the scriptures in Rig Veda regarding the origin of matter, energy and forces starting from an initial formless void. Modern Science also believes in the creation of this Universe in similar way with a so called ‘Big Bang’, nearly 14 billion years ago. Space, time, matter and forces have gradually appeared in due course through several epochs of cosmic evolution. As it appears today; billions of years of the cosmic evolution has culminated in the creation of living matter; a unique phase of matter where-in merrily dwells life with consciousness and varying degrees of instincts and intellects. The living matter, that we see in our terrestrial models of various organisms or life- forms is a very intricately designed complex system with well-coordinated interacting internal parts. Its biological aspects are well studied in Bio-sciences. But looking into the physical aspects of living matters one can realize that it has evolved spontaneously on a cosmic scale from the non- living matter, through natural selection processes at every stage, intimately based on certain physical principles. Then rising above the mundane terrestrial level; one can realize the universal character in its structure. occurrence and sustenance through a basic common plan. The purpose of this article is to address and elaborate on these points.

General Characteristics

First of all; let us understand precisely what is meant by living matter and what are its significant characteristics as it appears to be from the terrestrial samples. Then we can analyse them in general terms to search for an underlying basic plan in its formation.

Living matter as we know; can be broadly defined as a form of the complex bio-matter intricately organised in various appropriate configurations surcharged with life and consciousness as well as instinct and intelligence in varying degrees.
It has well-coordinated interacting internal parts with self-regulatory internal control mechanism. It can establish contact with its environment through the exchange of matter/energy and quite well respond as well as adapt to the changing conditions of the environment.
It requires steady in-take of appropriate energy for its sustenance. Living matter does not have a very stable configuration, since it can decay and disintegrate to non-living bio-matter when it becomes un-sustainable.
Living matter once formed is capable of replicating itself through self-reproduction. Thus, it is capable of multiplying itself by transmitting its characters to the replica editions.

On the basis of these general characteristics let us ask ourselves the questions (a) how exactly living matter is formed out of non-living bio-matter? and (b) can it be possible to transform ordinary matter to its living phase in the laboratory? The signature of the earliest living matter left behind in the so far oldest fossil organism-‘Stromatolite carbonates’. dates back to about 3.5 billion years. If we consider it as one of the foremost appearances of living matter; then taking into account the age of our earth and the Universe respectively as 4.5 billion and 14 billion years; we may observe that living matter must have taken billions of years for its formation from non-living matter. Thus, the transition from non-living to the living phase of matter must have taken several evolutionary epochs. This cosmic time scale involved in its formation makes it impossible to be prepared in the laboratory. However, bio-matter like amino- acids which form one of the basic ingredients of terrestrial living matter can be spontaneously produced in the laboratory by passing an electric discharge in a gas mixture of ammonia, methane, carbon-dioxide and water vapour. This was the famous experiment by Stanley Miller demonstrating the spontaneous formation of glycine, the amino acid that forms an integral part of the living matter. Therefore, one may presume that all the various components of complex bio-matter which constitute the living matter must have been formed similarly at certain stages of the prebiotic evolution. In the long run living matter could have been spontaneously evolved in a cosmic scale from the bio-matter in a similar manner deriving appropriate free energy from local cosmic events.

Be that as it may; it is certainly a fact that the formation of living matter from non-living ones has taken place in a cosmic time scale. This implies that the probability of such a transition from non-living matter to its living phase is infinitesimally small. In physics; we have many examples of processes with very low transition probability, which results basically due to the local violation of some basic physical principle. Then what could be this basic physical principle which living matter could possibly violate locally during its formation? We know that the living matter requires a steady intake of appropriate energy from its environment for its sustenance, which otherwise would decay and disintegrate to non-living matter. But decay and disintegration are infact synonyms of chaos and disorder. In that case we can say that the unsustainable living matter naturally decays and disintegrates to a more chaotic or disordered phase of matter in its non-living form. Then living matter has to be in a phase of very high degree of order.

We know that transition from order to disorder or vice versa is associated with increase or decrease of a physical quantity called entropy in thermodynamics. Consider an example of a gas whose molecules move about randomly in a chaotic manner filling the entire available space. When its temperature is reduced appropriately the gas condenses and the molecules get into some ordered state. As a result, the entropy decreases during liquification of a gas. Further cooling results in solidification realizing more order in the crystalline arrangement with further decrease in entropy. It follows that with larger entropy there is more disorder and vice versa. According to statistical physics a more ordered state is less probable. In other words, less ordered states have greater probability to exist for which nature favours mostly the irreversible processes where the entropy tends to increase to a maximum value. This universal principle is well known as the second law of thermodynamics. So, we can say that those processes which locally violate this thermodynamic principle are statistically less probable.

Now if we believe that living matter is a state of matter with very high degree of order; then in its formation from non-living matter entropy must decrease locally violating the second law of thermodynamics. This should therefore render its probability of formation almost infinitesimal. Decrease of entropy in the living matter makes it capable of transforming free energy to more useful stored energy. Erwin Schrodinger of Quantum mechanics fame had rightly remarked that “life feeds on entropy.” This is therefore the reason for which living matter requires steady flux of free energy to combat otherwise continuous increase of disorder. It requires continuous efforts to sustain it, failing which it decays and disintegrates.

The Driving Force

Now let us ask the question about force that should be responsible in producing a very high degree of order with very less entropy in the living phase of matter. The same force should also drive all the life processes. In fact, unlike the inert non-living matter; the living matter is internally as well as externally very active being capable of transforming free energy to the stored energy. Therefore, inside the living matter physical, chemical and biological processes go on incessantly for which some fundamental interaction as the driving force is necessary. In fact, all the processes occurring in nature are governed by any of the four fundamental interactions; namely ‘the strong, weak; electromagnetic and gravitational. Which particular force out of these available ones might have been selected by nature as suitable driving force for the living matter? ‘With purely attractive type force like strong, weak or gravitational, the most probable shape of matter in its organized form would naturally be spherical. But a spherical arrangement of matter having perfect rotational symmetry does not correspond to a state with very high degree of order. Therefore, the driving force for living matter must have to be both attractive and repulsive in nature in order to realize very high configurational order. Then nature’s-choice is obviously restricted to the electromagnetic force; which is the only fundamental force of this kind.

The Fundamental Building Blocks

If the living matter in the universe has to be the way we analysed and understood it so far; what kind of fundamental building blocks would be necessarily preferable? When electromagnetic force was made available and effective towards the later part of the cold era in cosmic evolution; the Universe was roughly a million years old and the cosmic matter at that time existed in a plasma state with leptons (electron e’ and neutrino), photons (particle of light) and light nuclei of hydrogen (H) helium (He) built out of neutron (n) and proton (p). But if nature had an ultimate aim in creating living matter; it would have certainly selected at this stage the fundamental particles like neutron (n), proton (p), photon (y) and electron (e) as the basic constituents leaving aside the weakly interacting neutral neutrinos for other purposes. Photon being the mediator of electromagnetic interaction and proton, electron, neutron being electrically/magnetically charged; they all participate in electromagnetic interaction. These particles give rise to various nuclei and atoms which are stable to the cosmic time scale. During cold and very cold era of the cosmic evolution lighter elements like hydrogen (H) and helium (He) were copiously produced in the cosmic matter. Heavier elements like oxygen(O), Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and others which were subsequently cooked in the stellar furnace through the fusion processes were available with lesser degree of their abundances.

Out of all these varieties of chemical elements, only those which are chemically more active and are of high cosmic abundance can be selected as suitable constituents of living matter. They are as follows. Hydrogen (H) is the most abundant cosmic element (96 atoms per 100) which is chemically very active exhibiting the weak chemical bond. Oxygen (O) comes second. Then comes the third most abundant element, Carbon (C) which is a constituent of many molecules due to its high valency and small radius. Carbon containing molecules are also highly organised and form macro-molecules. Nitrogen (N); the fourth most abundant element can be involved with H, O and C in numerous compounds and can form a large number of macro-molecules. Besides (H, O, C, N), some other trace elements (S, P, Na, K, Fe and Mg…) are also necessary for some specific functions. Phosphorus of this category is probably a component of those macro-molecules which are carriers of genetic information in the first phase of chemical evolution. Molecular synthesis would have taken place on the basis of the largest difference in the electro-negativity of the participating atoms determining the mutual chemical bonding and their cosmic abundance determining their likelihood of mutual collisions. Local cosmic events might have supplied the necessary free energy. Out of the compounds most likely to have been formed at this stage; chemically very active ones are water (H₂O), methane (CH), ammonia (NH); hydrogen sulphide (HS) and CO₂ Monomers like Carbohydrates and analogues (H₁₂OCs), amino-acids (HOC₂N) and nucleotides (HO, CNP) are some examples of larger molecules which could have been spontaneously synthesized during the pre-biotic evolution from the basic reactive compounds like H₂O, CH, NH, and CO₂ etc. Macro-molecules like Proteins, RNA and DNA etc. would have been realized in the complex spontaneous process of polymer synthesis. Thus, nature would have prepared matter in various forms, shapes and sizes through sequential steps during the long ‘period of chemical and pre-biotic evolution by way of collecting all the necessary ingredients to build the very complex and highly organized living matter. Since we are not concerned here with the biological aspects; the details of macro-molecular- ingredients are not relevant to our discussion.

A medium of transport

We know that living matter, for its sustenance, needs to exchange matter and energy with its environment. It also needs internal transportation of energy and matter and co-ordination with various internal parts. Therefore, a basic ingredient of the living matter has to be some suitable medium which can provide a moderate to high speed of transport. Being an integral part of the living system; it should preferably be crystalline or semi-crystalline structure to hold and sustain the ordered structure.

So, nature would have selected a suitable medium to meet this requirement from out of all the molecular forms of matter. Such a medium could only be water, which is the most abundant cosmic compound. Water is chemically active and carries an internal order being semi-crystalline in nature. It is an excellent solvent and is stable over a wide range of temperature variation. In fact, the chemical composition of terrestrial life forms (which is very similar to the chemical composition of the universe) shows that 66% of the living biomass is water. Thus, water plays the role of chief actor on the cosmic chemical stage producing and supporting living matter.

Steady source of free energy

Living matter requires a steady flux of free energy to combat natural increase of disorder. Having very low entropy content living matter is capable of transforming free energy to more useful stored energy. This acquired energy is transported to all internal parts to drive the chemical processes. Therefore, a suitable source of free energy is very essential for the formation and sustenance of living matter.

Since more than 60% of the living matter consists of water; the source of free energy should be in commensurate with the limitations of energy storage in H₂O molecule which is 237 KJ/molecule. Such an amount of energy would correspond to photon of wave length 600 nm emitted from a black body at a surface temperature T-103 K. Such a steady source in the cosmic scale with surface temperature of several thousand Kelvin could be a star. But any star may not be suitable. The star must be a long lived one to a time scale of several billion years appropriate for chemical and biotic evolution of matter. A living organism requires a steady flux of energy with intensity several watts/m². The star should provide the energy flux with such appropriate intensity. A middle-mass main-sequence star like our Sun is in fact an appropriate life-giving source of energy. Although Sun is not the only one of its kind in this vast universe; it is not known exactly why should the planet earth be unique in providing a happy harbour to living matter.

Early Living structure

Before we end our discussion, let us have a cursory look at the very early living structures. Of course, from polymer synthesis to spontaneous formation of life, it is no doubt a very long and complex path. Nevertheless, life did originate.

It is believed that proto-bionts; the first living structures formed spontaneously in the primordial soup, consumed high energy content molecules called ATP. ATP depletion

in the primordial soup must have led to the first starvation. But the adaptability character of these living structures would have generated spontaneous changes in the carriers of genetic information, enabling some proto-bionts to synthesize ATP by fermentation process. These Proto- bionts would have evolved to the next stage; the ‘eobionts’; which consumed the carbon containing molecules of the primordial soup. Depletion of the carbon-containing molecules might have forced eobionts consuming other eobionts thus generating a line of typical hetero-tropic organisms. Further depletion of the primordial soup might have resulted in the second large starvation. At this stage of crisis; the living matter must have discovered and mastered the very sophisticated bio-physical mechanism ‘photo-synthesis’. After this stage, evolution of living matter would have proceeded smoothly over a period of say billion years ultimately evolving into a highly thinking intelligent being-the human being.

Conclusion

Thus, we find that formation of living matter is based on the chemical interaction of light elements in the neighbourhood of middle-mass main-sequence stars. Had there been no galaxies in the Universe; there would not have been any stars. planets and hence no living matter. But it is believed that galaxy formation is possible only in an isotropic, homogeneous Universe with appropriate expansion velocity. Whatever may be the cause and mechanism for galaxy formation; they do exist in our Universe. Therefore, we can conclude that life is only possible in our type Universe. Could we then say that this Universe was created from the very beginning with an aim to produce ultimately life and intelligence? This reminds us the prophetic words of Isaac Newton; where he said:

“It seems probable to me that God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles of such sizes and figures and with such other properties and in such proportion to space; as most conducive to the end for which he formed them”.

Reference

Erwin Schrodinger;What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living cell; Cambridge University Press, (1944).
Fritjof Capra; The web of life; A new scientific understanding of living system. (1998) https/www.amazone.in.
Fritjof Capra and, Pier Luigi Luisi; The systems view of life: A unifying vision. (2014), Google books.
The physical nature of life by “kalmijn AJ et al., j physiol Paris (2002).
The physical basic of life by “E.B.Wilson, Science (1923).
Huxley on the physical basic of life. Pall Mall Gazette, (1869).

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