Life-Force
Birth, Life, and Death
Revised on
A.C.Sekhar
Philosophically
all things ‘BORN’ are said to be active for a period of ‘LIFE” at the end of
which they meet ‘DEATH”. The complete negation of all living activity in such
things is said to constitute
or termed as ‘DEATH” .From the normal scientific point of view, ‘Death’ is an irreversible chemical reaction
of living cells in any biological material or object. Naturally it is the end
of all living activity. So the question is
should all living things end in ‘Death’ It seems so as otherwise a
continuing life force would become unsuitable to changing environments with
time. It seems inherent in the nature if things that all dynamic activity
should at one point of time become static. . They say there can be no perpetual motion; so also, there
can be no permanent dynamic state of anything and at some time or other it has
to become static., Therefore all things which have a beginning and have a life,
short or long, must have an end
Only those which have no beginning
or no end, like Time, Space, (from minus infinity to plus infinity
in mathematics jargon) and which are
called “Eternal” require a special state of ‘Transcendental mind’ to develop a
complete concept and understanding, but
which is unattainable in normal physical
existence of human beings or perhaps even unsuitable for the same
Even
events, legendary, historical etc. have faded away with time sooner or later. So also technological developments fade away with time. By
the time one reaches its perfection in value and use, another takes birth . Similarly some civilizations died and new civilizations emerged Sea
beds became mountains and vice-versa. Rivers dried up giving rise to new rivers
in course of time. Why all this is happening
is a big
question or is any change required in
our understanding of what is happening
around us? One answer seems to be that
‘Time’ plays a great role in changing objects in ‘Space’, animate or
inanimate, and so any associated events also change, where ‘Time’ and ‘Space’ are two of the five fundamental elements of
all Creation, the other three being, Matter, Energy, and Cosmos(Maya). Another
way of thinking is , like night is opposite of day,
darkness is opposite of light, so also
death is opposite of birth and they are one and the same with common
factors in these opposites as conceived in
the Advita
philosophy of Hinduism. Just as one man’s food is
another man’s poison so also death of
something is birth of something else and
vice-versa
Lifer itself looks
like a river flowing with a force depending on the terrain. it
flows. It is born in a small way in a remote place, gradually becomes big and
ultimately reaches the sea - the great expanse of water from different sources,
the main sustaining power of the earth, the Universal Self, or Brahman, the basic
source of sustaining power of Creation, or Adi Shakti ! If in the course of the river there is a man-made or natural
dam, water of the river gets collected
there itself in large quantity and
renders several benefits to
various people. So also in life , at one point of
time, its course can be controlled and
directed in a particular way for the benefit of several others. A man becomes a
teacher, or a
scientist, or a doctor, or an engineer, or a politician and
statesman etc. according to his potentialities and render benefits to many others. In the example of
the river, beyond the dam, the water again continues to flow in the river and finally
reaches the expansion of the sea water; so also in life. Some rivers get
completely dry before they reach the end,; so also
life. They have to
be rejuvenated freshly. Some rivers collect lot of tributaries and take them
along with the main river; so also life. Many small lives depend upon one big life to reach their ends.
The great Sangams
(Congruencies) are formed with two or more major rivers joining together at one
place. So also life unions are formed through marriages, or other associations
like Guru-Sishya associations, political groups, and
even criminal comradeships. A river is continuously fed through rains at
various catchments areas. So also life is continuously fed through its physical
senses. Thus life is like a river which must have its birth and death – the
ultimate end of all , the union with infinity. Thus it
also seems apt to define birth as non-identifiable conversion of one part of
Creation to another part of the same, and death can be defined as
non-reversible conversion of one part of Creation to another part of the same.
Both are chemical reactions in nature in scientific
jargon.