The Spirit Of Spirituality: The Life Principle

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Life Principle

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.

The Spirit Of Spirituality

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The most important concept in understanding Indian spiritual though is the “life principle”. Many of the concepts of spirituality including reincarnation and karma become easily understood if one understands the “life” principle. But I have seen that it is very difficult to visualize and conceptualize. I will try to make this concept as easy to understand as my limited knowledge allows.

Let us start off with what is life? I am writing this article which implies I am alive and there is “life” in me. You are reading this article which means you are alive and “life” is in you. As you are reading this article, you look out and see your pet dog barking. The very fact that is barking means it is alive and has “life” in it. You see the dog is trying to chase a butterfly, which by the very fact that it is flying, implies it has “life”. The butterfly is landing on a flower which has just blossomed implying that the tree has a “life”. Now, is the life in me different from the life in a dog, in a butterfly or in a tree? It is obvious if we think a little bit that the “life” principle is the same in everything. The way life expresses is different in different forms. Life expresses in me through the act of writing, in you through the act of reading, in the dog in the act of running etc.

Now that we agree that the “life” principle is same, is there a limit to the “life” principle? Is it likely that one fine day, no new life of any form will arise? The very thought itself appears ludicrous. So, the life principle is infinite and as can be seen can take a variety of forms in expressing itself. Just as gold expresses itself through a variety of jewelry, just as clay expresses itself as a variety of pots, life expresses itself in a variety of forms. What happens when a jewel is melted? It returns back to its original condition which is pure gold. What happens when a mud pot is broken and crushed? It returns back to the original clay state. Let us think again from a different perspective. When gold is turned into a jewel, did anything happen to the gold itself? Absolutely nothing! The gold was gold and continues to be gold, but now called as a jewel. Clay was clay and was given a new form called a pot. So the base material never changes, only the form changes. In the same way, when a life form is broken which implies death for a form, what happens? As far as the life principle itself is concerned, nothing changed. It was life only and it continues to be life.

The only reality then is the “life” principle. Anything else is just a form and associated name for the same life principle. If life is the same, then why are there so many forms of life? Well, if gold is the only reality, why are there different forms of jewels? It is the desire to meet different needs that creates the need for gold to be transformed into different forms and names. Similarly for each of us, it is inherent desires that propel life to take a form and name to fulfill our desires. So long as there is a desire for expression, life takes that form and expresses itself.

Let us now try and distinguish between life’s expressions in different classes of forms. We will take 3 broad categories: Plants, animals and humans. Animals here include birds, insects etc. A plant has life and does physical activity which proves it is living. It has its own way of procreation and reproduction. It has a limited amount of emotions as proven by various experiments. From what we know currently, the plant kingdom has very little intellect. The animal kingdom has significant physical activity, more emotions than a plant, but less than a human and more rudimentary intellect than a plant, but nothing compared to a human. The human has the most physical activity, well developed emotional capability and the intellect that differentiates humans from other living beings.

Plants and animals are “programmed” as though in their activities in life. They are born and at a particular age, they learn to fly, hunt etc. as their life form permits and then they die. They cannot take on a higher level activity than what has been programmed. A lion cub will grow up to be a ferocious lion only. It cannot by itself become a grass eating animal. A plan by itself will grow, have flowers, give fruits etc. It cannot decide to start moving around. Again, it is only the human form with the ability of the intellect to decide what they want. A human life is not programmed like animals or plants. It has the ability to think and decide what to do and what not to do.

Let us now turn to the causal effect of the various forms of “life”. The cause for taking a particular form of life in a particular environment is due to the impact of the doctrine of karma. The doctrine unequivocally states that you become what you desire or in effect, you reap what you sow. If I have very strong binding desires to taste flesh, I will be born as a carnivore. If I have a desire to be meek always, I will take the form of a cow. In each of these births, life is programmed to do just what is needed to fulfill the desire. It takes a lot of past karma to get the birth in human form. Even in human form, I may be born a leper or to a crook or in a rich family or a pious family, all because of the impact of karma. So, whatever situation I find myself in as a “life” form is due to the impact of my past karma. But what I do now in the circumstance is up to me and that is where the intellect plays a role.

Now, a question arises, if life is universal, infinite and the only reality, why are there a multitude of object filled world with variegated forms and names? Let me ask another question. When I am in a dream and am being attacked by a lion, why do I in real life break into a sweat and wake up shouting? Even though I am asleep in my own bed, why does an illusory dream cause real reaction in me? The answer is it is just the nature of the mind to create its own illusion and be afraid of its own created illusion or to create its own happy situation and revel in its own happy illusion. So also, life through a mysterious power of its own or characteristics of its own creates an illusion of multitude and each unit of that multitude assumes it is separate. It is like me entering into a room filled with thousands of reflective mirrors of every kind producing a fat me, a thin me, an ugly me etc and each of those reflected people assuming they are separate from one another and from me who is the reality.

This apparent separation of the single unified life into several individual components causes this illusory world of separate life forms. It is on us as human beings with a high level of intellect to be able to realize this unified life principle and move on to a blissful existence.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality