Biopsychology DJS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEFINITIONS 3
FOREWORD 4
1 CRISIS IN EVOLUTION 8
2 WHAT IS NEW? 13
3 EVOLUTION AND MICROVITA 18
4 GENES AND CONSCIOUSNESS 25
5 FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS OF BIO-PSYCHOLOGY 30
6 MIND - THE FIRST FACTOR
7 SAMSKARAS, PROPENSITIES AND LONGINGS
8 CAKRAS - THE SECOND FACTOR
9 GLANDS - THE THIRD FACTOR
PINEAL GLAND.
HYPOTHALAMUS
PITUITARY GLAND
THE GLANDS OF FIRE
Thyroid and parathyroid
Pancreas
THE GLANDS OF LOVE
THE GLANDS OF WATER
THE GLANDS OF CREATION - SEX GLANDS.
PROSTATE GLAND.
10 HORMONES AND BEHAVIOUR
11 THE CAULIFLOWER THAT THINKS - THE FOURTH FACTOR
CEREBRAL HEMISPHERE
LIMBIC SYSTEM
HYPOTHALAMUS
12 LYMPH - THE FIFTH FACTOR
THE LYMPHOID SYSTEM
13 AGE RELATED BIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL CHANGES
FOETAL LIFE
NEWBORN AND INFANTS
PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN
ADOLESCENCE
TRANSITIONAL AGE
ADULT AGE
14 REASSEMBLING
15 THE FINAL MERGER
16 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
QN. WHAT ARE THE BIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO
GENDERS?
QN. WHAT CHANGES OCCUR IN THE BIO-PSYCHOLOGY, AFTER A SEX-CHANGE
OPERATION?
QN. WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF CONTRACEPTIVE PILLS?
QN. CAN ABORTION BE JUSTIFIED?
QN. CAN WE RECONCILE ASSISTED FERTILISATION?
17 FREUD, JUNG AND P.R. SARKAR
FREUD
JUNG
P. R. SARKAR
18 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND P.R. SARKAR
ORIGIN OF LIFE
ORIGIN OF SPECIES
ORIGIN OF DISEASE
19 FINAL CHAPTER: THE PINNACLED ORDER
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Definitions
Supreme (infinite) consciousness: The all-knowing entity that is the creator and sustainer of everything in this phenomenal world. Religions call it GOD, biologists call it the intelligent force and yogis and spiritual scientists call it Brahma.
Cosmic: Pertaining to the subtle world beyond our perception and conception. It is accessible only by direct experience.
(Unit) consciousness: The portion of infinite consciousness that has transformed into a unit structure and is expressing through the mind of that structure.
Samskaras: A sanskrit word for potential reactions of all our actions, physical as well as mental. The reactions that are coded in the deeper layers of mind, waiting to be expressed like the fire in the fuel. Mind carries them with it as it reincarnates from life to life.
Subjective mind: The portion of mind that keeps us in contact with our inner self. It perceives and conceives and therefore feels and experiences pain and pleasure. Hence it is the reservoir of samskaras.
Objective mind: The portion of mind that keeps us in contact with the world around us. It is extrovertive and analytical, therefore flickering and fragmented. It creates samskaras.
Propensities: The inherent tendencies of mind that justify its existence. They are the driving force of the mind. There are fifty basic propensities of mind such as love, hatred, jealousy, envy etc.

Cakra: A Sanskrit word for centres of psychic energy. If mind can be compared to a power-house, cakras are its substations. They are located along the vertebral column. Mind exerts its control on body through cakras. Each cakra controls and expresses specific number and types of propensities.
Foreword

This book by a medical professional, is a fresh attempt to unfold the mystery of "body-mind" system. The intricacies of mind-brain-body interactions are too complicated for the current state of knowledge. Yet, the ideas put forward by Shrii P.R. Sarkar in his treaties on "Bio-psychology" provides a broad pathway for researchers dealing with this difficult subject.

Without going deeply into Shrii Sarkar's theory of mind and consciousness, Dr. Jitendra Singh prods the reader into the world of propensities, longings, hormones and behaviour. These concepts are a window to the psycho-somatic phenomena or mind-body interactions.

While we have greatly understood the functioning of glands, hormones, nerve cells, lymph, sensory and motor organs, we still know very little about the influence of "mind-system" on the "body-system". Furthermore, the knowledge of the influence of different planets, stars and celestial bodies on the human physiology is even more in the infancy.

Dr. Singh has presented a difficult concept in a very lucid form which can be understood by lay readers. His work is indeed a milestone in the effort to grasp the unknown world of bio-psychology.

(Dr.) Acarya Shambhushivananda Avadhuta
Chancellor
Ananda Marga Gurukul


Introduction

In recent decades there has been a growing trend towards a holistic approach in the health sciences. However, it has been impossible to define the whole person because it is more than the sum of its parts. Whatever may be the origin of our body and mind, one thing is certain, they do not add up to make the whole person that we are. There appear to be other dimensions that the current concepts of human biology and psychology can not account-for. For example, the definitions of life and death are two of the biggest controversies in these sciences today. The origin of the mind is another. The claim that the mind comes out of matter seems entirely logical because our brain appears to be emanating the waves that carry out our mental functions. How did it get there in the first place? Can something come out of matter that was not already contained there-in? Does the mind die with the death of the body? Is human life an isolated event of a few decades or only one loop in a long chain of events?

Answers to the above metaphysical questions are not forthcoming from the current understanding and yet they are crucial to the understanding of our biology and psychology. We need a new science with a much wider and more subtle perspective to explore the world of the metaphysical. We need a science with holographic capabilities to illuminate the obscure dimensions of human existence. We need a science that breaks away from the narrow confines of objectivity and yet remains rational and verifiable by direct experience. The New Science of Bio-psychology is such a science that is truly holistic, that explores all aspects of human existence.

The term Bio-psychology was coined in 1987 by Shrii P.R. Sarkar in one of his discourses to his disciples of Ananda Marga. He stressed that one must explore the metaphysical to properly understand the secrets of the physical world. He also emphasised that one must venture into the spiritual world to understand the secrets of the metaphysical world of mind. Like many of his theories, the New Science of Bio-psychology is also based on the notion that this finite universe that we can perceive and conceive is the outcome of an infinite consciousness that we can not perceive and conceive. The latter is the most subtle and all-knowing entity. Its intelligence, when projected, manifests as the universe that undergoes constant change. Origin of life and evolution of species are a part of this ever-changing universe.

According to the law of nature, all movements are rhythmic and cyclic and not linear. Whatever has been projected, must be retracted. It must return to the base. The infinite consciousness has projected and sustained this universe out of its own intelligence. To be freed from this projection, that is to return to the base, it has to evolve a perfect psychology like it's own. A perfect psychology is what Shrii Sarkar calls the apexed psychology. In this state all mental propensities are goaded towards one and only one goal; that is the final merger with, or return to the infinite consciousness.

A perfect psychology can only be expressed through a perfect biological structure. The ceaseless search for such a biological structure is what is called evolution. Finally, such a structure is found in the human species. It consists of a complex nervous system, a battery of hormones and an extensive lymphoid system to nourish and protect the nerve cells and the glands that secrete these hormones.

Notwithstanding the perfect biology, the human psychology is far from being perfect. Infiniteness is the true nature of human beings. However, because of its evolutionary journey through the finite universe, the human mind has developed a complex of smallness, an illusion of finiteness. The thinking and living style of human beings constantly feeds this illusion. The potentials of their nerve cells and hormones is wasted in nurturing these complexes. Their lymph is diverted to feed the pursuits and propensities that they have carried through their animal evolution. The apexed psychology is denied to them.

The New Science of Bio-psychology deals with the interaction between mental propensities, hormones and nerve cells, and their effects on human behaviour and vice versa. It points out the factors that are detrimental and those that are conducive to the development of apexed psychology. Thus it shows the path to the final merger.

1 Crisis In Evolution

"Thus in the process of evolution, we can see that the crude physicality of creatures is being converted into subtlety." P.R. Sarkar.
There is a global crisis today from which no nation, no race and no society are spared. This is the root of all crises that the whole living world is facing. It relates to the evolution of humankind. While the scientists are still bickering about the trodden path of species over the past millions of years, humans, the most developed of the species, are stagnating, uncertain of their future and oblivious of their goal.
The present situation of humanity is hardly worth clinging to. If it is the evolution of consciousness that has been taking place in nature, then human beings as they are today cannot be the final term of the evolution. They are a too imperfect expression of that consciousness. In them, moreover, the evolutionary urge does not appear to have subsided. This urge however is on a crisis course. Human mind, instead of being a medium of finer and finer expressions of consciousness, has become a source of its limitations and finiteness.
The evolution of consciousness has taken a long and tortuous course. Eight thousand million years ago, this earth was only a blazing ball of fire, like the sun from where it had detached. Today, two-thirds of this earth is under water and a fairly large portion of the remaining one-third is covered under snow for the most part of the year. Around four thousand million years ago, this earth consisted mainly of volcanoes and molten lava, constantly bombarded with electrical storms and thundering lightning. Today, these events are rare and make headline news when they occur. What a drastic change in the physical conditions! The hostile physical conditions of the past, however, were necessary to put life into the inanimate matter. Thus life began with the advent of building blocks as DNA.
Four thousand million years on, the DNA is still present in every living cell that exists. It has retained its fundamental characteristics of replication, by making exact copies, and by programming the functions of the cells. In the beginning, only unicellular life existed performing only simple functions. Therefore, these immortal coils of DNA had to be programmed for simple functions like ingesting, breathing and multiplying. Today, the human body contains about sixty million million cells and each of them contains a selection of DNA. These cells are not all similar. They have organised into a most complex biological machine with a variety of functions, all programmed by the ancient DNA. This process of growing complexity from a unicellular structure to the complex human form, is commonly termed evolution.
Up until three hundred and forty million years ago, life existed only in water as the physical conditions on land were too unkind to sustain life. This was the age of fish, worms, sponges and soft green plants. Their physical structures were too simple to combat the hostile environment on land. However, life could not be contained within the sea. It had to crawl out of the water onto the land. The DNA had to be re-programmed to develop limbs so that animals could move about and face the tune. This was the age of amphibians.
These creatures went through rigorous testing by the tough environmental conditions. It was their innate urge to survive and explore that enabled them to develop more and more rugged and complex physical structures. The demand of the day was physical survival in a physically hostile environment.
The physical strength and endurance climaxed in the giant reptiles of two hundred million years ago when the dinosaurs ruled this earth. These physical giants terrorised the planet. However, their strength was dependant on the environmental temperatures. The weaker reptiles took advantage of their brother's sluggishness in the cold climate and migrated to the colder conditions in the hills. This led to the evolution of two new species; birds and mammals, about seventy million years ago.
The Ice Age that followed removed the physical giants from the face of this earth for good. Their physicality was not the need of evolution any longer. Their primitive mind had to evolve with the changes in their brain, nerves and glandular system. Mammals were the outcome of this evolutionary change that occurred over the following millions of years. Slowly and gradually, the physical structure grew in complexity and specialisation. Mind grew in accordance with the physical structure and new behaviour patterns evolved. Emotions and feelings developed and the true ancestors of human beings, hominids, came into existence about ten million years ago.

All through the process of evolution, growing physical complexities were accompanied by gradual mental expansion. This is associated with a growing number of propensities in the organisms. The unicellular organisms are goaded by a few base propensities of survival, whereas human beings have many desires, hopes and aspirations. Each newly created species has more propensities than its predecessors. Human beings at the top of evolution have the most number of propensities and the most complex mind and body.
About one million years ago, humans arrived on the scene of evolution. For most of this period, their physical evolution has outpaced their psychic progress because of their longing for physical survival. However, in the last fifteen thousand years, the tide has turned. Physical preoccupation has not fulfilled their purpose in life. Meaning of life is being sought in every corner of the globe. Consciously or unconsciously, this search has been the driving force of civilisation. Human beings have become predominantly a psychic being rather than a physical one.
Biological transformations and psychic metamorphosis are elements of a process that started way beyond the origin of matter. It is consciousness that transforms into matter and in this ceaseless process countless species of life arise, undergoing tremendous physical transformation as well as psychic changes. Yet, it is the physical transformation that is in the forefront of scientific thinking although it is not too difficult to see that in the process of evolution there has been a gradual conversion of physical strength of creatures into psychic strength.
Nature has worked out human beings in the living laboratory of animals very carefully step by step. When the species have attained a certain degree of perfection in their order they stagnate and give way to new more evolved species. The species that are detrimental to this evolutionary movement are sometimes removed from this march. In the physical sphere human beings have almost reached the point of stagnation, however in the psychic sphere, the potential is enormous. In the present state of humanity, despite the peak of mental intelligence and aesthetic refinement, there remains a sense of inadequacy. Our mental possibilities appear to be taking us towards a state of stagnation. We are creating more problems than we are solving. For the first time in one million years, human species are in a real danger of stagnation and being superseded by more evolved ones.
Consciousness expresses through the mind, and mind must evolve to let it shine through. Human beings are in the state of mental evolution and there is no reason to believe that this evolution will stop here. A higher state beyond mind must be reached if evolution had any purpose to begin with. Any pause in this journey is self-destructive.

2 What Is New
"In the extroversial phase of expression, the uni-psychic becomes multi-physical, in the introversial phase, multi-physical is transmuted into uni-psychic"- P.R. Sarkar.
One of the greatest dilemmas of modern science has been to find the link between body and mind. The scene for the controversy was set in the seventeenth century by DeCartes, a French scientist and a philosopher. He, and his contemporaries in Galileo and later in Newton, separated the matter from the mind as the "thinking substance" (mind) was not tangible and quantifiable.
The controversy divided and dissected the science of body (biology) from the science of mind (psychology) that we see today. The two resulting branches progressed parallel rather than convergent to each other. Some might argue they have grown apart. Their divergent growth is partly due to the obsession of modern science with quantification. "What cannot be quantified is not science" is a common slogan of material sciences today. Even psychology had to succumb to the pressures and start quantifying the mental functions with IQ- tests, personality inventories and various psychological scales.

The arrival of molecular biology has brought psychologists closer to the biologists and a joint search to find the chemical basis of all human emotions, thoughts, feelings and behaviours, has started. A day might come when the molecules of love, hatred, and anger are detected in our brains.1 However, nothing can grow out of the molecules that is not already contained there-in. If this universe was made up of lifeless inert matter, it would have never become anything but that. It seems there is no reason why life should evolve out of inert matter unless it was already built in it.

Life is certainly built in the matter as consciousness. When the latter finds expression we say that the matter is alive, it has a mind and when it is dormant we call it inert. Consciousness, matter and mind are on a continuum in that order. It is the consciousness that has condensed into matter in the process of creation. Its de-condensation leads to the development of mind. In this ceaseless movement from being to becoming, and back to being, countless species of life develop undergoing numerous biological and psychological evolution. This evolution has been taking place in the nature since the beginning of this universe. Therefore, the most fundamental element of this universe is the consciousness that permeates through everything that exists. It is the link between all things of this universe and therefore, between human body and mind as well.

Human species are gregarious. They thrive and prosper in groups that is why man is called a social animal. Individually and collectively, humans behave differently. The "mob" psychology is different to the individual psychology. The crowd appears to bring out in us some extra potentialities that otherwise would not have manifested. Nations have regained their freedom and races have overthrown slavery and feudalism by collective longings. This collective longing is synergistic, i.e. it is more than the sum of the longings of its individual units. The individuals within a group interact in a variety of ways that unfold the potentialities that would remain otherwise unexpressed. This interaction not only changes the behaviour of the individuals but the biological characteristics as well. Growth and development, reproduction and general resistance are all effected by the size of the group and by the isolation they face.2

The New Science proposes that evolution is also effected by the collective will. It propounds that each member of a particular species of living beings has an inborn, self-controlling faculty that is linked to a collective controlling faculty. The latter must approve the change desired by a species. Thus, a change collectively willed by a species and approved by the collective controlling faculty, brings about the metamorphosis in the physical structure and consequently in its longings. The evolution takes a step ahead and the consciousness evolves further. This is the first novelty of this science.

In humans the physical evolution gradually gave way to the psychic evolution. The refinement of intellect is nothing but a progressive expression of the inherent consciousness. However, as individuals we are standing at different points in this evolutionary march and hence our diversities and differences both in body and mind. As humans we all are similar, as persons we are all different. As persons we are free to act. However, we are accountable for our actions. The ability to act and its accountability lies in the mind. The actions that are not accounted for remain embedded in the mind and create samskaras, which simply means reactions in potential form. The waves created by these reactions are the basis of the existence of our mind. One can be sure that these waves are the mind. The effects of samskaras on our biology are the second unique feature of the New Science.

The psychic evolution of human beings has to continue until the consciousness is fully manifested with all its charm and glory. In this journey numerous changes occur in the human organism involving their nerve cells and hormones to adapt to the newer and newer states of their consciousness. Such biological adaptation is the demand of evolution and in turn perpetuates further psychological evolution, causing greater and greater expression of the inherent consciousness. The role of nerve cells and hormones in progressive biological and psychological evolution, is the third unique feature of the New Science.

The New Science of Bio-psychology propounded by Shrii P.R. Sarkar is a unified concept of biology, psychology and cosmology. It accepts the current scientific notion that body and mind are inextricably interdependent. However, it emphasises that the consciousness is inherently present both in matter and mind. Our biological activities and psychic occupations must allow a ceaseless and progressive expression of this inherent entity. When our physical and mental phenomena are conducive to this progress we enjoy a harmony between our external and internal worlds. The life becomes more subtle and more meaningful. This is the most fundamental characteristic of this science.

The new science embraces some of the current ideas, discards some and suggests a new meaning of others. However, a change of perspective, a bigger and broader one, will be required to comprehend its true meaning. The individuals with a strong adherence to a particular system of thinking, will find it difficult to reconcile, because it is more conducive to experience than learning.

To experience the harmony however, one needs an intuitional science. The founders of material science neither had the training nor the knowledge of this science and hence they excluded the consciousness from the matter.

3 EVOLUTION AND MICROVITA"There are so many celestial bodies and they have direct contact with the glands and sub-glands in the human body by throwing out reflected and refracted light.... Microvita use these inferences as their media"- P.R. Sarkar.
Ever since the development of our unique mental capacities, we have wondered about our origin, our place in nature and our destiny. This inquiry has given rise to a science of evolution and hundreds of evolutionists over many thousands of years. The inherent spirit of the word "evolution" is transformation. For millions of years, transformation has occurred in the organisms both in the physical and intellectual realms and yet the debate on evolution remains confined to physical changes, that are seen from species to species. Human beings came on this earth approximately one million years ago. For most of this time physical evolution has been their dominant feature. It is only in the last fifteen thousand years that they have progressed from being mere physical beings to predominantly intellectual beings and there are signs that this progress is continuing in the psycho-spiritual direction. A day is sure to come when humans will predominantly be spiritual beings.

The evolutionary hypotheses can be classified into two main groups. A descending hypothesis that believes evolution is an act of God and an ascending hypothesis of growing complexity and a state of perfection. According to the descending hypothesis, God created perfect beings called humans, from which less perfect animals descended. Plato in 428 BC was the propounder of this theory. The Platonians believed that the more flawed the soul, the more lowly the incarnate. Aristotle in 382 BC reversed this hypothesis in his "Scale of Nature". He arranged the organisms from the simple to the complex, where simple, imperfect organisms are striving towards accedence to complexity and perfection according to a design and purpose. This came to be known as the ascending hypothesis. In his view, there was no place for the mutability of species. This was followed by a chain of evolutionists modifying and refining the concept.

Buffon, in the mid eighteenth century was the first to suggest that species developed, transformed and became extinct according to environmental conditions, indicating that transmutation may be at play. A century later, Darwin and Wallace developed this suggestion into a plausible hypothesis that came to be known as the "theory of natural selection". This theory implies that nature selects the species according to its fitness for the environment in which it exists. It allows the "fit" to reproduce in greater numbers and transmit their superior qualities to the next generation. The cumulative effects of these qualities over several generations will result in the origin of a new species.

The Darwinians did not understand the basis of inheritance or its variation. During the course of the last two hundred years, this theory has undergone a rigorous transformation in order to explain transformations in the species. All branches of biological sciences have had their say in the development of this neo-Darwinism that incorporated random mutations, genetic variations, genetic drift and genetic flow along with natural selection. They may have revolutionised thinking but in the process, they also rendered evolution very mechanistic. Aristotle's design and purpose disappeared into thin air.

Theories of evolution can be condensed into three mere phrases - natural selection, genetic inheritance and random mutation. Evolution is a fact but what caused it? Why do mutations occur? What is the nature of the force that transforms animals and plants into new shapes? These questions have haunted biologists for more than three hundred years. The search for the answers has led to numerous hypotheses trying to find a driving force of evolution that has been variously named as the vital force, morphogenetic force, force of formative causation and contingent system. In some ways it is a return to the "design and purpose" hypothesis.

Although the vitalists do not believe in an act of creation, they do agree that there is a complex and well-organised intelligence system operating in the background of evolution. However, their search for this intelligent force has been futile. This dilemma of vitalists is due to their inability to break away from the laws of physics from which intelligence was excluded more than three hundred years ago. Their adherence to the physical law that matter and energy are two different forms of the same thing, has made it impossible for them to find room for intelligence in the basic scheme of evolution.
While vitalists were still pondering on the nature and origin of the vital force, another hypothesis emerged that had almost stolen the show. It suggested that from somewhere, small bits of genetic material that were capable of changing the genetic structure of the cells, appeared. They were basic life forms and were called viruses. They merged with the DNA of host cells and passed genetic information onto them that the viruses carried. If the host cell happened to be a germ cell (sperm or ovum), the offspring differed from the parents and a new species was born.

It is now accepted that viruses play a crucial role in the origin and evolution of life. Some biologists believe that we live in a soup of viruses from which life constantly originates and evolves, giving rise to new species and eliminating the forms that are non-productive for evolution. This is quite an intelligent piece of action. Viruses do act as intelligent beings. For example, HIV and flu viruses keep changing their antigenic structure to defy the development of vaccines against them.

These intelligent little freaks can create and destroy life at will, although, the destruction of host is not in their interest. Their very existence depends on the host cells. Such a great sacrifice must have a greater cause and a purpose for which to give their life away. Therefore it appears that there are friendly viruses that help the development of species that are conducive to the evolutionary march and there are those which destroy the individuals that fall out of this march. A detailed analysis of the behaviour of viruses suggests that they are either intelligent beings capable of modifying themselves according to the circumstances or they are just carriers of intelligence from an unknown source that controls and modifies their behaviour. The latter seems more likely.

There are many different varieties of viruses with diverse properties and functions. If they are acting on their own for self-preservation, they can be regarded as "mindless biological vandals". The contrary view is that they form a part of a complex but well-organised system that is taking this universe on a predetermined path. On this path, kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall but life goes on. Integrating their genetic material with those of the host, replicating within the DNA of the host, viruses can hardly be called "mindless". They are a part of an intelligent system with some purpose. They are on a mission to perfect the species.

The origin of viruses is unknown. Opinions abound, but bits of genetic material, escaping the cells to take up an independent existence, is favoured by the biologists. These "vandals from within", don't seem to get a fair go from the mechanistic biologist. No matter what they do, they remain vandals. With the sophistication of technology, smaller and smaller viruses are being discovered. Are we going down the path of sub-atomic physics? Like the smallest particle of matter, are viruses going to disappear into nothingness?

Microvita is a term propounded by P.R. Sarkar for the smallest virus, yet to be discovered. Some are big enough to come within the scope of very sophisticated microscopes while others are so small and subtle that they can only be justified by their actional inferences. They originate from an unknown world of idea, the world of cosmic intelligence. This is the world of absolute and infinite singular entity. The cosmic idea crystallises into microvita and the world of known begins, first perceptible to the mind and later to our senses. Thus microvita form a link between idea and matter, the unknown and the known worlds. Hence they can be as subtle as thought or as crude as viruses.

Shrii P.R. Sarkar proposes a subjective cause of everything that exists in the objective realm. The objective world consists of a physical component comprising of matter and energy and a psycho-spiritual component comprising of thoughts and ideas. The physical world is perceptible to our senses and therefore is the done-world. The psychic and psycho-spiritual world can be conceived of and therefore is the known-world. The cause and control of the done-world rests in the doer principle whereas that of the known-world in the knower principle. The knower and the doer principles are the subjective factors that we can not perceive or conceive. These two factors are self-differentiated from the Supreme Consciousness. The microvita are the emanations from the doer principle like the photons emanate from the sun. When they come in contact with the energy they create and transform physical structures. Very subtle forms of microvita can modify the psychic waves as well.

There are about two hundred and forty different kinds of cells in the human body and an average human cell contains eighty to ninety different kinds of atoms. The atoms in our body are not set in concrete either. They pass in and out of us all the time. Some people believe that atoms consist of billions of smaller parts that drift in and out of it freely. Microvita are these tiny parts that are extremely mobile and move throughout this universe. They are capable of entering the atoms of DNA and changing the structure of genes. They can influence the gene pool and cause genetic drift. They can bring about micro and macro mutations. They can create and destroy bodies and minds. Thus they can control every aspect of the evolution of species. It will be more appropriate to say that through microvita, the cosmic intelligence controls the evolutionary process.

"Evolution is a cosmic plan." This claim can be further supported by the fact that it is not confined to the physical structure. Mental evolution is the continuation of physical evolution. The example can be found in the changes that have occurred in the body and mind of humans since their arrival on this planet. When their bodies were large and their brains proportionately small, their mental propensities were consumed almost exclusively by their physical existence. Their longings were psycho-physical. However, over the last fifteen thousand years, humans have come to realise the smallness of their physical existence. They have realised that their physical achievements have choked their psychic potentialities.

It is the characteristic of all living beings to free themselves of all fetters of smallness. Humans are also transforming their physico-psychic longings into pure psychic ones. The grandeur of their physical existence is being questioned and the meaning of life being sought. A lack of answers to this question is causing a great deal of disillusionment in the inquiring minds. As the inquiries increased, there has been a progressive increase in the size of the human brain in proportion to the body. Thus the mere physical evolution was replaced by bio-psychic evolution. Microvita influenced this phase of evolution by entering the nerve cells and hormone-producing glands.

Evolution does not stop here. In its final phase, the psychic strength of human beings is converted into spiritual consciousness. For this, psycho-spiritual pursuit is necessary. In order to achieve such a state, further biological changes have had to occur that we find today in our complex neural network and a well-developed hormonal system. Microvita are said to facilitate and accelerate these changes

4 Genes and Consciousness
"Each and every fractional wave of the vast cosmic mind then takes the form of an individual animate and inanimate structure" - P.R. Sarkar

The human body has about sixty million million cells and every single one of them contains a selection of genetic material. Twenty thousand pairs of genes are arranged on twenty-three pairs of chromosomes in each cell. Some estimates suggest that more than a million genes are unused by humans. These genes carry a complete blueprint for making us again down to the last detail. The genes, which consist of DNA molecules have a limited life of months. They can replicate, however, making exact copies of themselves as often as necessary and can continue to exist for more than five thousand million years. During this long journey, they are shuffled millions of times with other similar genes through breeding and reproduction, like a huge pack of cards. Their combinations and permutations are countless. The same genetic material may have passed through a number of species carrying some of their attributes. Therefore a man may carry a beast, an insect or even a plant in his genes.

Genes do not appear to be conscious of us or of each other. They do not know that they are involved in evolution. They just exist and to maintain their existence they exercise full control on the survival machines. Genes dictate the way in which our biological machines are built and the manner in which they operate. They have ultimate power over our behaviour.

3"Genes are the policy-makers, we are their executives. But as evolution progresses, the executive apparatus has become increasingly sophisticated and management has begun to make more and more decisions on its own. Nervous systems have evolved to levels where learning, memory and model-making becomes possible and take over many of the policy decisions. And the logical conclusion to this trend would be for the genes to send out a very elaborate survival machine with only one all-encompassing instruction ~ `do whatever you think best to keep us alive'. But no species on earth has yet reached that level."

It appears that the evolution serves the purpose of "selfish genes". They have to be preserved at any cost. As long as these chemicals can survive, it hardly matters which physical structure happens to carry them. They are even prepared to make adjustments in their sequence to suit their carrier and the environment. This is called mutation. Sometimes they accept foreign genetic material in the form of viruses and take a giant leap in the development of new species. They are not loyal to any species. Their ultimate purpose is simply to survive.

Genes, however, are like computer software, programmed to direct specific functions. Admittedly, the potential of this software is enormous. It has been discovered that even in the most complex organism, less than three percent of it's DNA in the cells is being used and the parts being used are randomly selected in a way that the genetic engineers do. For a given instruction, little bits of genetic material are cut up from all over the place and pieced together to carry out a specific function. There is, it appears, an editor in action.

It seems improbable, moreover, that the genes with all their chemical potentialities have what it takes to make a man on their own. The evolutionary biologist Lyall Watson says, "DNA is not the Bible of life, not an encyclopaedia of precise instructions." He suggests that instead of being airtight, the DNA system is flexible and dynamic, struggling to survive, like it's carrier. Is this struggle being engineered by the consciousness?

The debut of consciousness is a great controversy of the twentieth century. Its seat and site are an even greater controversy. The neurologist Roger Sperry says, 4"There seems to be good reason to regard the evolutionary debut of consciousness as very possibly the most critical step in the whole of evolution."

The philosopher Karl Popper says that, 5"The emergence of consciousness in the animal kingdom is perhaps as great a mystery as the origin of life itself."

The biologist Lyall Watson says6, "Consciousness exists in man and not in molecules." He believes that it began not with matter, nor with the origin of life, but at some mid-point in evolution.

Current theories of consciousness are goaded by one assumption or another, depending on one's perspective. Some assume that consciousness is a product of neural elements like reticular activating system (RAS) of the brain. It is connected with learning and therefore can be quantified by behaviour modifications. Others assume that it is intangible and therefore incapable of investigations. Some assume it is a feedback system with survival value. It lets one know how one is doing. Still others assume that it arises when the organism has its own mental model of the world against the dictates of the genes.

In all the above assumptions there is one common denominator. They all assume that there is a beginning and therefore an end of consciousness. This is where the new science of biopsychology differs from the rest. It proposes that consciousness is beginningless and endless. It is all-pervading and all-knowing. It is the primordial stuff that this universe has metamorphosed from under the influence of primordial energy. From the smallest sub-atomic particles to the largest of planets, from the smallest of viruses to the largest of mammals and from tiny moulds to the largest of trees are the outcomes of interactions between these two primordial principles.

Consciousness is therefore inherent in every tangible and intangible entity of the universe. We live in a soup of consciousness, from within and from without. We emerge from this soup and dissolve back into it. When the soup is solidified we are tangible matter and when it is thawed, we are abstract ideas. The soup is infinite but its forms are limited. Thus with the emergence of matter, consciousness is compartmentalised into an infinite entity and numerous forms or units. In Shrii Sarkar's Bio-psychology the infinite entity is called Supreme Consciousness and each of its forms a Unit Consciousness.

Perhaps the quantum mechanics is right in suggesting that consciousness is a basic property of matter. In the inert matter it is dormant. With the first sign of life, the soup begins to thaw and consciousness begins to evolve. The transition from non-living to living matter occurs due to the development of the famous double-helix of DNA which becomes increasingly complex and newer and newer species evolve. However, the mutations in this genetic material, responsible for new species, cannot produce a single gene.

From the appearance of the first strand of DNA to the final emancipation of man, the development and refinement of the nervous system, hormones and immune system among innumerable other biological changes, have been brought about by the genetic mutations. However, the genes have served one and only one fundamental purpose - liberation of the consciousness, that is frozen into unit form. Due to their enormous capacity to carry information from generation to generation, from species to species, the genes are indispensable for the liberation of consciousness.
5 Fundamental Factors of Bio-psychology

"Human body is a biological machine and is goaded by propensities."
-P.R. Sarkar

Perhaps the greatest attribute of the living world that differentiates it from the inanimate matter, is its capacity to interact and adapt to its environment. After millions of years of interacting and adapting, the living world has evolved its most treasured child, the humans in whom this capacity has been further escalated. One can almost take it for granted that humans will adapt to the unforeseeable threats of the future, an indispensable condition for their survival and biological success. As a result, humans have acquired the most complex mind and a body with an intricate biological system. Such a mind and a biological system are essential for further evolution of humankind.

Such seemingly unlimited capacity for adaptation is possible because of their inherent ability for interaction between body and mind. The environmental changes that affect the body are reflected in the mind and those that affect the mind find expression in the body. For such interaction, a complex medium is required through which mind can translate its ideas, feelings and fantasies to the body; in turn, the body can transmit its pain and pleasures to the mind.

The media through which mind and body interact are nerve cells and hormones. It is through these elements that man meets the molecule, the abstract becomes manifest and the formless takes a form. The capacity for adaptation, moreover, lies in these nerve cells and glands that secrete hormones. The new science depends heavily on these two factors.

A part of our mind is inherited, or rather incarnated carrying the unrealised reactions (samskaras) of past lives. Yet another part is acquired through this life accumulating the reactions of what we do in the present life. A combination of the two makes us the whole person that we are. The samskaras, a term incomprehensible to the materialists, are the driving force of the mind to enable it to express its longings. This mental force(s) or propensities must find conversion into the physical force(s). For further discussion on this conversion please refer to chapter seven. The points at which these psychosomatic conversions occur are called cakras or plexuses. Each of these points or centres of conversion is related to some endocrine glands that secrete hormones. The secretion of these hormones is not autonomous as believed by the materialists. It is rather influenced by our thoughts and emotions. In turn, hormones influence and express our mental functions like thinking, memory and behaviour. Thus they are a two-way control system between mind and body.

Our brain is a collection of nerve cells that depend and thrive on a number of hormones. They regulate and are regulated by hormonal secretions. Several cakras or plexuses are located in our brain for the psychosomatic conversions. Most important endocrine glands with their regulatory powers lay embedded in our brain. Such a proximity is a testimony to their intricate relationship and a common cause. The nerve cells are responsible for all our actions and reactions and modulate our behaviours.

Lymph is an entity that means different things in different cultures. However, they all agree that it is something that is extracted from everything vital and living in our body. The objective knowledge of lymph is very limited because vitality and quality of life cannot be measured. The new science propounds that the lymph is essential for the nerve cells and for the secretion of hormones. Without adequate lymph, the body looses vitality and glamour, and various disorders of the nerve cells and endocrine glands result.

The acquired immune deficiency syndrome or AIDS is primarily a disorder of lymphoid system in which all the energy and vitality of the lymph are sapped by the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). The HIV is especially lethal to the immune system, of which lymph glands are an integral part. The lymph glands add lymphocytes (immune cells or natural killer cells) and antibodies (immune proteins) to the lymph as it passes through these glands. The HIV destroy the cells in the lymph glands that produce these elements, leaving the host defenceless against the infectious intruders. The destruction of the immune system renders the host susceptible to numerous disorders involving almost every system of the human biology. Gradually all the vitality of the organs, such as the brain, heart, lungs, endocrine glands and the gastrointestinal system is drained away. The sufferer has a deathly and dying appearance.

Therefore, mind, plexuses, glands, nerve cells and lymph are the five fundamental factors on which psycho-somatic or mind-body interactions depend. This can be summarised as shown in figure 1.

7Mind and Body Interactions


6 Mind - The First Factor

"Mind exists as long as propensities exist" - P.R. Sarkar

In the play of evolution, consciousness is the theme, body is the stage and mind is the actor. The actor plays the role written by samskaras to the tune prepared by its propensities and choreographed by its longings. Yet it is the actor that is the centre of attraction, playing one role after the other, changing the stage life after life accumulating more and more samskaras. The journey thus continues until it is freed from the clutches of samskaras. Then it ceases to exist and the actor is merged with the theme of the play.

It is impossible to define mind. It can only be defined by its functions. It is an entity that thinks and recalls. It perceives, dreams and sleeps. It experiences and learns new tricks. It can concentrate and rationalise. It is capable of transmutations and diversions. However, the most fundamental of all mental functions are thinking and memory. It is because of these faculties that all other functions are caused. Therefore, these two should be considered in some detail.

Our thinking process is not uniform. Sometimes we think with concentration and other times fragmented, patchy and disjointed. Sometimes we think of subtle and noble ideas and other times very mean and mundane subjects. In other words, our thinking can make us a monk or a monkey. There are two basic characteristics of our thinking process. At any given time, we can think of one and only one idea. When this single idea is subtle and noble with a longer span, we call it a concentrated thinking or meditation. The longer the span, the better the meditation. However, if the object of ideation is mundane, thinking remains fragmented and disjointed. This is the first characteristic of the thinking process.

The second characteristic is that our thoughts are constantly being translated into our biology. Thus they modulate our behaviour, physiology and consequently, even anatomy. The behaviour of every cell in our body is being prompted by our thoughts. Today, few scientists need convincing that the brain and the body talk to each other.

The patterns of our thoughts have effects on our physiology. There are patterns that make us feel tense and stressed out with their classical biological effects. In contrast there are patterns that make us feel very calm and relaxed with their own biological correlates. The capacity to mediate opposite effects lies in our biology. Therefore, we are the results of our thoughts. The phrase "as we think, so we become", is true not only for our psychology and personality but for our biology as well. At molecular level all our cells are constantly being renewed and replaced. Patterns of our thoughts must have significant influence on their reconstitution. It would not be an exaggeration to say that each atom of our body resonates with the vibrations of our mind.

Abnormalities of the mind are associated with abnormalities of the biology. These in fact precede and lead to physical illnesses. Prolonged stress causes numerous psycho-somatic diseases. There is strong evidence now that stress contributes in causing cancer by reducing the natural killer cells. Even psychoses are associated with depressed immune response and susceptibility to various infections. A mentally depressed person exhibits numerous physical symptoms. Conversely many chronic physical illnesses affect the mental faculties of both thinking and memory.

Mind discovers and invents newer methods of thinking. It is this capacity that has led to the development of numerous analytical methods of thinking in modern science, for example, reductionism, inductivism, positivism and falsificationism. It is the same capacity that enables the antisocial elements to orchestrate their crimes in society and the yogis to concentrate and transcend their minds to experience the metaphysical and supernatural secrets of this universe. The difference is in the method of thinking. The analytical thinking has either positive or negative outcomes, whereas synthetic thinking of yogis has only positive effects.

Our thinking is not fixed for life. It is capable of transmutations and diversions. Although most of us remain absorbed in the pursuit of mundane needs all our lives, every now and then we see individuals transforming completely into social reformers or religious saints. Even great scientists of the past, after following the materialistic theories for decades have turned to the spiritual explanations of this universe. Some of Einstein's statements point to such transmutations in his thinking process. The American astronaut, Neil Armstrong, returned from his moon landing mission in a completely different frame of mind.

The process of psychic transmutations and diversions, however, usually occurs gradually. In this, a particular system of thinking is followed with intense concentration until the mind becomes pinpointed or apexed. All the propensities of the mind are goaded into one intensely desired goal. Such an apexed mind comes face to face with our consciousness - the repository of all knowledge. Consequently the mind becomes overwhelmed and humbled by the magnanimity of this experience and transmutation and/or diversion of our mental occupations becomes a necessity. There remains no alternative other than to follow the path of the direct experience. The lives of true scientists, philosophers, great musicians and above all yogis, are testimony to such experiences.

We utilise our thinking process to solve numerous problems we face in our daily lives. This method of thinking is called rationality and rationalisation. However, it does not necessarily solve all our problems because we do not know the proper use of rationality. For problems in the physical realm, in the process of rationalisation, the thought waves must originate from the psychic level. This will enable us to cure the cause of the disease rather than suppress it. Similarly, for problems in the psychic realm the solution must come from the spiritual level.

The second fundamental function of mind is remembering or memorising. The recreation of things already perceived by the mind is called memory. If the event to be recalled belongs to the present life, we need the help of our brain, because the perception of an event or object is registered in the mind through the nerve cells and their vibrations remain embedded in them. To recreate such events, the nerve cells have to be stimulated through sensory organs and the object to be remembered should be associated with similar ideas. This method of association has to be properly learned. The capacity to remember is crucial for our learning process and consequently our behaviour. We learn a behaviour by repetition. The stimulus is associated with a response by repetition of the stimulus. For example, suckling reflexes in babies is a learned behaviour, although the response is instinctual. The baby will suckle a nipple or a finger alike. This is called classical conditioning. Another way of learning is by reward and punishment. A response reinforced by a reward or punishment is called operand conditioning. For example, a pat on the back, a smile or a prize, will reinforce that particular behaviour. We also learn by observing others. This is true for complex responses, such as learning to play a musical instrument. This is called observational learning.

Our memory and learning play an important role in expressing the mental propensities. Our propensities are transformed into our longings by the environment we live in and our longings turn into our behaviour by our learning processes. For example, hunger is a propensity creating a longing for food. How we eat the food will depend on our social and cultural conditioning. Thus memory, learning and behaviours are on the same straight line of a continuum. These functions are mediated through nerve cells involving protein synthesis, hormonal secretions and generation of electrical impulses.

All memories do not require the help of nerve cells. Those that are independent of nerve cells are called extra-cerebral memory. Nerve cells do not help in recalling them because they were present in the mind even before the brain was formed.

Mind has several components. The crude component is active during our wakeful state and links us with our world. The subtle component is like the meeting ground for the other two components and is active during dream state. The causal mind or third component is inherited from our past lives. After the death of the body, the causal mind floats in vast space with its unexpressed samskaras until it finds an appropriate physical base.

The crude and subtle components of mind require nerve cells for their functions. This is why their functions are cerebral in origin, such as thinking and dreaming. They die with the death of the brain. They store the memory of the present life. Conversely the causal mind does not die with the body. It transmigrates from life to life accumulating samskaras and memories of the past lives. This component is responsible for the extra-cerebral memory, through which some of us can remember our distant past.

When the baby is in its mother's womb, even though the brain is fully developed, the crude and subtle minds are relatively inactive and causal mind is active. After the baby is born, the crude mind is made active but is still undeveloped. The causal mind is predominant and is reflected in the subtle mind; this is why babies sleep most of the time. They smile or cry in dream state because of the reflections of their past lives in the subtle mind. As they grow, the interactions with the world make their crude mind more active. As children they become restless and inquisitive of the mundane world. The subtle mind starts reflecting the experiences of their crude mind, rather than the causal mind, in the dream state. The vibrations of the causal mind do not surface in the subtle mind and memories of past lives begin to fade.

In adolescence, the crude mind becomes very active. The mundane world becomes very important. The causal mind is subdued and past lives are completely forgotten. The crude mind starts to settle down around fifteen to seventeen years of age. Rationality grows and independence and rebelliousness replaces obedience and dutyfulness. The causal mind becomes buried under the crude experiences of the present life and there remains no trace of the memories of the past lives. 8This forgetfulness is a providential decree. A single body can not tolerate the clashes in two minds, when the crude and causal minds are battling to control one body. However, one can make the causal mind active and recollect everything of past lives by fully controlling and concentrating the crude mind into a point.

The cerebral memory is not stored in any particular part of our nervous system, although certain parts of the brain help in its recollection and association. Scientists now believe that memory is not stored as a package. It is disassociated into fragments, each of which is allocated to a specialised region of the brain. Some form of memory is present in every cell of our body. For example, every cell has the capacity to recognise the self and non-self. It rejects the non-self. This type of memory can be called cellular memory. Many complex cellular phenomena such as reactions to infections, immune responses, etc., depend on the cellular memory. Various forms of memories, that is cellular, cerebral or extra-cerebral are not independent, but inextricably linked with each other. Changes in one influence the other and vice versa.

In spite of various faculties and components of mind, the actual mind stuff is uniform. However, in the process of knowing, it has to divide itself into two portions. One portion has to play the subjective role that is abstract and is the knowing self. The other portion plays the objective role that is material, howsoever subtle, and is called ectoplasmic stuff. This apportioning of mind into two chambers is crucial to proper acquisition of knowledge and for our mental health. The objective portion brings us in touch with this world, whereas the subjective portion links us to our consciousness.

The objectivated portion of mind must not be allowed to run wild. It should be well controlled to prevent serious psychic problems. Most psychic diseases result from the defective control of the objectivated mind. A lack of such control disturbs the mental balance and the natural growth of mind, and allows it to run constantly after various forms of acquisition instead of advancing on the path of evolution.

The objectivated mind can only be controlled by looking at the subject. The chain of subjectivity is as follows:

OBJECTIVATED MIND

SUBJECTIVATED MIND

UNIT CONSCIOUSNESS


SUPREME CONSCIOUSNESS

Subjectivisation of mind


In summary, the mental function that is mediated through the nerve cells involving protein synthesis, hormonal secretion and electrical impulse conduction are the domain of the objectivated mind. These are called cerebral functions. Most of our conscious activities are controlled by this portion of mind including learning and behaviour. This mind is subject to mental disorders that are commonly found in the materialistic societies. On the other hand, the mental functions that do not require the help of nerve cells are the domain of the subjective mind. These extra-cerebral functions include phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, premonitions and other extra-sensory perceptions (ESP).

A word of caution is necessary here. The learned visualisations of past, present and future by crystal ball-gazing and hypnotism, etc., are not extra-cerebral phenomena. They are nothing but the expansion of the cognitive field caused by the partial absorption of the crude and subtle minds into the causal mind. They have nothing to do with the parapsychological capabilities.

7 Samskaras, Propensities And Longings

"Due to this eternal game of Parama Purusa matter is converted into mind and mind into consciousness"- P.R. Sarkar.
Mind is an ever-changing functional entity and therefore it must have a momentum that drives it to move. From where does it derive this momentum? Every stage results from the previous stages. The effects of actions of the past stages are called samskaras. It means reaction in potential form. That is, an action is done but the reaction is yet to come. They are like the energy in the fuel waiting to be expressed.
As the mind is essentially a stage in the process of movement its momentum or samskaras create many thoughts in it that constantly emerge and dissolve. To find expression of these thoughts the mind adopts certain occupations like love, hatred, fear, etc. These occupations are called propensities or vrttis in Sanskrit. Thus the propensities are formed according to one's reactive momenta or samskaras. When they are expressed we say that the human mind is alive because mind exists as long as propensities exist. When they are destroyed however, the human mind ceases to exist.
Since the mind is in a process of evolution it has two objectives. It should continue to evolve and it should continue to express its propensities. For the latter it has to create external waves, and needs the help of nerve cells and hormones resulting in our multifarious activities called behaviour.

There are fifty main propensities in human mind. The seed of all of them is in the mind, but their expressions and control occur through sub-stations called cakras. That is to say that the waves of the mind find expression by creating waves in cakras, which are the controlling points of regional glands. Therefore their waves cause secretions of hormones. Natural or unnatural expressions of the propensities depend on the degree of normal or abnormal secretions of these hormones. Hormones create their vibrations in the nerves and the blood that modulate our actions and behaviour patterns.

Here it is important to mention a few words about sentiments and instincts. Mental propensities are expressed sentiments. However, they lack rationality and a sense of propriety. They are impulsive in nature and run blindly ahead without discriminating between proper and improper behaviour. When a particular sentiment repeatedly finds expression through a subsidiary or lower gland (from the neck downwards) it becomes fixed in that gland, and it is called instinct. An instinct can be inborn or acquired later in life. The examples of inborn instincts are suckling of a baby, urinating, defecating and crying, etc. Laughing and eating are acquired later in life. An instinct may or may not be guided by the rational faculty. Its aim is to maintain existence.

Although the inherent momentum of mind is provided by the samskaras, the expression of propensities is affected by the environmental factors. The latter create various types of longings in the mind. A longing is the urge that pulls the mind rather than pushing it as the samskaras do. Human longings are many and multifarious. They manifest as our hopes and aspirations and vary tremendously from person to person in number, quantity and quality. However they can be brought within the range of four main categories depending on their object of enjoyment:

1. Those goaded by the urge for physical survival. They are inborn in nature, eg. suckling, urinating etc.

2. The longings for physical enjoyment. They are acquired throughout life, eg. eating, laughing etc.

Within certain limitations these two physical longings are complementary to each other. They can lead to some progress in the physical stratum. For example good food can improve health. Society can develop various means to obtain physical comforts through technological developments. Thus, civilisation can move ahead. However, indulgence in food can lead to ill-health and physical comforts can degenerate our adaptive qualities. Therefore, living organisms have certain fundamental principles of survival. When the physical enjoyment goes ultra vires to these principles it can not maintain its structural solidarity. It starts disintegrating and decomposing. This state is called illness and its finality is death.

3. The longing for psychic objects, that is the object of enjoyment is mental growth and expansion. These longings must keep parallelism with the principles of physical existence.

4. When the object of enjoyment is spiritual in nature, the mind in this state is pinnacled and all faculties are goaded towards a spiritual goal. This can be called spiritual longing.

Our samskaras, our propensities and our longings have enormous effect on the way we conduct ourselves in life. However, they are not infallible. They can be shaped, sublimated and expressed in such a way that we can enjoy a very meaningful life as well as continue to evolve towards our spiritual destiny. That is why it is said "as you think so you become".

8 Cakras - The Second Factor

"If both sides of the pituitary plexus are fully developed one attains an apexed intelligence and becomes self-knowing" - P.R. Sarkar

Human body is a complex biological machine and human mind is a complex psychological force. Mind is the repository of samskaras and propensities. All these propensities do not find expression in the lifetime of a person. Ordinarily the environment determines the transformation of propensities into the longings luring the person to various pursuits of life.

Longings are a pulling force whereas propensities are a driving force. Longings depend on external factors whereas propensities are driven by the momentum of the mind. The transduction of propensities into longings occurs in various sub-stations called cakras or plexuses. They are located along the spinal column, from the vertex of the skull to the bottom of the spine. The site of conversion depends on the subtlety of the propensity to be expressed. The cruder the propensity, the lower the cakra that will express it. For example the longing for the physical world is expressed through the lower most cakra at the bottom of the spine whereas the feeling of universal welfare is expressed through the cakra in the neck.

Cakras and plexuses are not exactly synonymous. Cakras represent an energy current in circular movement whereas plexuses are a network of energy channels. Human body is a complex collection of these channels that move an electrical impulse through a nerve, causes a rhythmic contraction of the heart and enables the lungs to inhale and exhale in an orderly fashion. At the time of conception this dynamic energy is provided by the sperm that causes a rapid multiplication of the zygote (the single cell formed by the union of sperm and ovum). In this early embryo, a disembodied mind enters with its repository of samskaras that has been floating in the vast space. Momentum of the mind causes the differentiation of these rapidly multiplying cells into various organs of the developing foetus.

In the early phase of the development, all cells of an embryo are similar but within a matter of weeks their differentiation starts with a frenzy of movement to take up specific positions. Similar cells start cloning together, some migrating as far as the opposite end of the embryo as if they are addressed to specific locations. The specificity of their location is important for the specific functions they perform. For example the testes develop in the abdomen but by the time the baby is born they must migrate to the scrotum. If they fail to do so by a certain age they will not produce sperm. The nerve cells migrate extensively in the embryo to take up specific positions to form the brain and nervous system. The developing embryo is a complex construction site with its unique scaffolding, plumbing and electrical connections on which bricks, mortar, plaster and tiles are laid in a very systematic fashion.

Who navigates such an orderly migration of cells? Where do the signals come from? Who provides the bricks and the mortars? Scientists are still looking for the answers to these questions. The answers must be found in the momentum of the mind that has entered the new being under formation. The mental energy permeates every atom of the embryo and flows in specific channels that criss-cross, intertwine and weave between each other. It guides the multiplying cells to congregate in specific locations to form the future organs of the embryo. Thus a complex network of energy channels is formed as the foetus gradually continues towards its birth. The parts of this network that express similar mental propensities are called plexuses and their controlling points cakras.

The level of energy in these channels is a reflection of the samskaras that the new mind brings with it. Therefore all plexuses do not have the same level of energy flowing in them. Consequently the propensities expressed by a particular plexus varies from person to person and hence the differences in our personalities.

In the early stages of foetal development neither the plexuses nor the organs are fully formed. At the time of birth plexuses are fully formed, although they are not fully functional. Similar is the case with the foetal organs. The foetus is nourished and sustained through the mother's system. After birth the plexuses of the baby gradually become functional and so do various organs including lungs, liver, heart and endocrine glands to sustain an independent living of the newborn. The maturation process of the plexuses and glands continues throughout the childhood, until the age of twenty to twenty-one years. During this period tremendous psychological and hormonal changes occur as a result of the interactions between the mental propensities, longings and environment.

In a fully formed human body, anatomically there are two almost identical halves. Each half is a mirror image of the other with few exceptions. This semblance in structure is not only external. Internally also there are paired organs like lungs, kidneys, testes, ovaries, adrenal glands, etc. Then there are organs with two identical halves, eg. brain, spinal cord, thyroid and heart. In spite of the anatomical duality, the body functions as a single unit in a perfectly coordinated cooperation. This is possible because of a centralised control of all structures and functions by the nerve cells and hormones.

The major energy channels traverse through the nervous system and the endocrine glands. There are three major energy channels that yogis of the past have identified. A straight central channel that traverses through the spinal cord, from the bottom of the vertebral column, to the vertex of the skull and is meant for the spiritual energy. The other two intertwine around the central channel and are meant for the mental energy. Confluence of all three channels occurs at some specific points in the brain and spinal cord, called cakras.

Two lateral channels carry different forms of mental energies. One carries the mental energy that expresses our mundane propensities and is the dominant force in the lower three cakras. This channel enables us to maintain our existence in the mundane objective world. It joins with our respiration through the right nostril. The mental energy in the other lateral channel expresses our more subtle propensities and is a dominant force in the upper cakras. It joins with our respiration through the left nostril. The tributaries of these channels permeate into the regional glands affecting their hormonal output which in turn modulate our behaviour.

Plexuses play a major role in translating our propensities into our chemistry and consequently our behaviour. There are seven major plexuses in humans (Figure 3). They are interdependent with their local hormones. The bottom most plexus is called terranian plexus that is the repository of all kinds of physical, psychic and spiritual longings. It lies at the last bone of the vertebral column. It controls the sex glands and streamlines their secretions to feed one or the other type of longings. The second from the bottom is the fluidal plexus that lies opposite the genitals and has control over the sex glands. When dominant, this plexus exhibits the traits of indifference, insecurity, hopelessness and lack of confidence and common sense in the person.

The next plexus at the nave controls the secretions of pancreas and adrenal glands that are responsible for vitality and our mundane activities. This plexus also uses the hormones of sex glands. When dominant it exhibits shyness, envy, hatred, fear, yearning for acquisition, blind attachment and sadistic tendencies among other personality traits. It compels the individual to indulge in the world of senses. This plexus at the umbilicus is called igneous plexus.

The solar plexus lies in the center of chest and uses the hormones of pituitary, thyroid and parathyroid glands to manifest a mixture of positive and negative qualities. Among the positives are hope, endeavour, love, discrimination and repentance. The negatives are anxiety, argumentativeness and hypocrisy. This plexus controls the thymus and lymph glands in the chest.

The fifth or sidereal plexus lies in the region of the throat and controls the thyroid and parathyroid glands. It uses the remaining pituitary and thyroid hormones after solar plexus has taken its share. When dominant, it can produce a state of spiritual trance or intoxication. Such a person exhibits an attractive personality with more subtle qualities.

The sixth plexus is lunar plexus that is located between the eyebrows and uses pineal and hypothalamic hormones. It controls the pituitary gland. It is responsible for the mundane and spiritual knowledge. Its dominance produces a state of spiritual stance.

The seventh or occult plexus is beyond the scope of biology and psychology. Its functions can only be described in philosophical and spiritual language.

From the above, we can infer that as one descends the body's vertical axis, the respective cakras mediate progressively less refined propensities. The two upper-most cakras mediate pure spiritual functions whereas the lower three mediate physical functions almost exclusively. The middle two carry out the psychic and psycho-spiritual activities. Cakras, thus act as step-down transformers for mental propensities.

Apart from controlling the secretions from the major regional glands, plexuses also regulate the subsidiary glands in their vicinity and their hormones.

When a nerve impulse is transformed into a hormonal secretion, this process is called neuro-endocrine transduction. Such biological processes are well known to occur in the hypothalamus of the brain and the pineal and pituitary glands. Perhaps such a transformation is only a part of a bigger and broader phenomenon where the mental propensities are first converted into neural impulses that are then transduced into hormonal responses. 9The above organs are possibly the sites of these phenomena and cakras possibly play a vital role in it.

Cakras and propensities are not set in concrete. They are mutable by yogic methods. They can be sublimated by lifestyle changes. Yogic lifestyle has a two-pronged approach; an external and internal approach. Cakras utilise the vital energy (prana) for the expression of propensities. This energy is constantly replenished by food, air, sunlight and sleep. The external approach consists of measures that rectify these factors. The internal approach enables a rechannelling of the flow of the mind from crude and mundane objects to subtle and spiritual strata. This consists of following a set of moral disciplines (principles?) and meditating on the Supreme Consciousness.

In the process of sublimation, there is a stepping-up of the transformers where the higher cakras get more and more of the subtle vital energy in order to manifest the most subtle propensities. The individual undergoes transformations from a mere physical being to a psychic being and ultimately to a spiritual being. This is the very design of evolution.

The sublimation process is enhanced by the entry of certain types of microvita into our body. Cakras are also the gateways through which our external world communicates with our internal environment. Microvita can enter our body through the solar and sidereal plexuses (fourth and fifth cakras). Those that enter through the solar plexus mostly take a downward course to the lower cakras. They enhance the expression of mundane and physical propensities and therefore, they are called negative microvita. On the other hand, those entering the sidereal plexus mostly have an upward movement, enhancing psycho-spiritual elevation. Our psychic environment determines the type of microvita that will gain access to our inner world. A mind consumed by self-gratification and self-preservation allows access to negative microvita whereas service-mindedness and spiritual pursuits attract positive microvita.

9 Glands - The Third Factor

"There are, in human physiology, countless glands and sub-glands. Different and variegated are the causes of their actions. By their manifold inter-relations and interactions upon the lymph or the vital fluid, they produce variety of hormones" - P.R. Sarkar.
There are two types of glands from which hormones can be secreted. A well-defined structure that secretes and delivers its hormones directly into the blood stream to be distributed to all parts of the body, is called an endocrine gland. The others that do not have a well-defined structure but consist of scattered clumps of cells in certain organs and secrete hormones for local use, can be called sub-glands.
Endocrine glands are numerous and their anatomical locations are shown in the Figure (which?). They can be divided into two groups, primary and secondary. Primary glands are those which control the secondary glands besides having their own specific functions. Pineal, pituitary and hypothalamus are primary glands. The secondary glands secrete specific hormones under the instructions from the primary glands and these are thyroid, parathyroid, adrenals, pancreatic islets and sex glands. Sub-glands are scattered in stomach, liver, kidneys, pancreas and nerve cells. We will now discuss some important glands individually.

Pineal gland
Pineal is predominantly a spiritual gland and therefore it is commonly called the gland of mystics. Moreover, it has been a mystery to the scientists for nearly three hundred years and considerable controversy still surrounds its functions. The pineal is thus named because it resembles a pine cone.
It is a small white structure situated almost in the centre of the brain surrounded by some very important parts of our conscious and unconscious brain. This is so because the pineal develops as a part of the embryonic brain but looses all nerve connections soon after birth. Thereafter no neural information from the brain is directly delivered to the pineal gland. The interaction between the brain and the pineal from then-on is mediated mainly through hormones and neuro-transmitters. The scarce nerve fibres that it has connect it with the eyes so that it can sense the light and darkness cycle.
Pineal is a tiny structure of about one quarter of an inch in size and one hundred milligrams in weight. It matures by the age of five years and calcifies by the age of puberty. Therefore it was considered non-functional by the early scientists.
The biological functions of the pineal are rather controversial. However, the consensus is that this is our biological clock. That is to say, that our sense of time, our biorhythms and our natural cycles are possible only due the functions of the pineal gland. Our biology is a collection of many rhythms and cycles, all perfectly coordinated, tuned and timed. Our waking, sleeping, eating, digesting, and excreting are all tuned in perfect rhythmic fashion. This is possible because the pineal is a photo-receptor and picks up cues from the environmental lighting. During the day its functions almost come to a standstill whereas at dusk it starts functioning again, climaxing about midnight.

The pineal probably secretes a number of hormones but only one has so far been isolated in a stable form. It is called melatonin and has been attributed with diverse functions. It has been claimed to delay aging and increase longevity, improve body's immune response, sense cosmic phenomena, increase pain threshold, prevent epileptic seizures, reduce sexual drive and aggression, induce sleep and many others. The most stunning of its functions is its ability to translate the environmental cues like light, temperature, humidity and magnetism into a neuro-endocrine response, possibly through the hypothalamus of the brain.

Another striking feature of the pineal activity is that it peaks in the darkest of hours when we are fast asleep. In fact the deeper the sleep the more melatonin it produces. This is in sharp contrast to the activities of other endocrine glands that are more active during the daylight than in the darkness of the night. This is so because the latter have to meet the demands of our daytime activities when our mind is in a wakeful conscious state and we are consumed by our mundane worldly pursuits. This suggests that there is an inverse relationship between the pineal and the other glands as well as between the pineal and our conscious state.

The hormone melatonin is synthesised from a precursor called serotonin that is a neuro-transmitter found in the nerve cells of certain parts of our brain. The enzymes that convert serotonin into melatonin, and possibly into many other hormones, are found exclusively in the pineal gland. Therefore, in the brain tissue serotonin acts as a neuro-transmitter whereas in the pineal it is converted into a hormone. During the daytime our conscious brain is overactive and our mind fragmented. This requires more serotonin to be available to the nerve cells. During the night time in contrast, our conscious activities gradually end till we slip into a slumber. Serotonin is then channelled into the pineal for the synthesis of melatonin.

Apart from wakeful, sleep and dream states there is another state of consciousness that affects melatonin synthesis by the pineal. This is called meditative state with its unique physiological changes. The evidence is rapidly emerging that melatonin synthesis in the meditative state may be higher than that in sleep. Therefore, it appears that active and fragmented mind works against the pineal whereas a calm and concentrated mind facilitates pineal function; whether this occurs regardless of environmental lighting, could be a subject of future research.

The evidence is, however, rapidly emerging that the pineal is possibly sensitive to many forms of subtle vibrations other than the light. For example, that ultrasonic waves influence melatonin secretions, has been reported by some scientists. The universe is full of a variety of waves and sub-waves, some known and others unknown to conventional science. The Omkara sound of yogis has extremely subtle waves. Yogis regard it as the primordial sound that they hear in the transcendental state called samadhi.

Samadhi itself has a number of stages through which a yogi progresses step by step. Each of these stages is characterised by different sounds and represents different states of consciousness. These stages also have their biological correlates. As the state of consciousness ascends, the metabolism becomes slower and slower. The oxygen consumption falls, the respiratory rate decreases, the heart rate and the blood pressure falls and the tension in the nerves decreases. Electroencephalogram (EEG) shows more frequent slow alpha waves and in higher states even theta waves. The degree of these changes depends on the stage of the samadhi. Therefore, it appears, as a yogi ascends from a lower to a higher state of consciousness, his neuro-hormonal activity is withdrawn step by step. The physiological function of the pineal gland appears to be responsible for these changes.

There are two fundamental principles of spiritual meditation in yoga. One - the gradual withdrawal of the mind from the external occupations until it is concentrated in a point. Two - the incantation of a mantra with full ideation. The mental repetition of a mantra creates very subtle waves in the mind and body of the meditator, that are picked up by the pineal. The latter then adjusts its hormonal output that regulates other endocrine glands and consequently the changes in the physiological states.

How many more forms of subtle waves can the pineal sense, is only a matter of speculation at present. It is not unthinkable that mental vibes between persons, a sense of déjà vu and premonitions may be due to the pineal activity. Interplanetary reflections of light, sound and electromagnetic waves from this and other solar systems can also come within the scope of pineal activity. Microvita, however, cannot directly affect the pineal gland. Their influence stops at the pituitary gland.

A physical pressure on certain surface points appears to trigger pineal functions. One such point is located in the sole of the big toe. The acupressure techniques massage these points to achieve relaxation. For this reason, some yogic practices recommend a rhythmic slow dance with chanting called kiirtan. In this dance, the balls of the big toes are gently struck on the ground alternately. With chanting this process helps the practitioner to achieve a total concentration of mind.

In yoga psychology it is well known that a totally concentrated mind in a meditative state strikes at the pineal gland. This enables the pineal to secrete excessive amount of hormones which in turn overwhelms all conscious and subconscious activities producing a state of spiritual trance. The hormonal activity in all the glands is temporarily suspended due to the over-activity of the pineal. Such a concentrated mind that causes these hormonal changes can be called apexed or pinnacled mind. In this state one becomes omniscient through which one can see the past, present and future. It is for this reason that pineal is called Shiva's third eye in yoga.

Thus this gland of the mystics is responsible for restraining and controlling all our biological functions. It can also suspend our mind to produce a state of beatific intoxication and a transcendental consciousness. That is why it is said to belong to the occult plexus.

Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus is predominantly a neural structure. However, its endocrine functions are also important. It produces a number of release hormones that help the release of various hormones from the pituitary gland. It also produces corresponding inhibiting hormones to suspend the secretions from the pituitary. Furthermore, it produces two hormones that have direct actions. These are ADH (anti-diuretic hormone) and oxytocin. The ADH helps maintaining fluid balance in the body and oxytocin helps the contraction of uterus during childbirth as well as ejection of milk in breast feeding women. It is believed that these two hormones are secreted in the hypothalamus but stored in the posterior part of the pituitary gland to be used on demand.

Our brain exercises its control over our body by two routes; a "sea" route and a "land" route. The sea route consists of hormones that ply through the bloodstream and the land route consists of neuro-transmitters that run down the nerves. The hypothalamus is a confluence of these two routes. It can set the sail up in a neural impulse to convert it into a hormonal output and take to the sea. It can also sidetrack the hormone molecules to take to the land. Its land route forms a complex network of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves to reach every part of the body. Its sea route uses the port of the pituitary to exercise control over all other glands. Today, there is tantalising evidence that the pineal influences hypothalamic functions to put a dampener over the rest of the endocrine glands.

The hypothalamus, along with the pituitary gland, belongs to the lunar plexus of the yogis. It is the centre of psycho-spiritual activity. Through it, the physical structure can be activated and the mind takes a physical direction, engaging itself in numerous physical pursuits. On the other hand, the physical body can be restrained and even temporarily suspended through the hypothalamus. In this situation, the mind takes a spiritual direction and experiences the metaphysical and spiritual worlds. Hence, the spiritual meditation consists of withdrawing the mind into the lunar plexus.

Pituitary gland

This is located just behind the bridge of the nose (trikuti in Sanskrit) and hangs by a short stalk under the brain between the two cerebral hemispheres. Biologically it acts like a thermostat. In a central heating system a thermostat is essential to maintain a steady preset temperature inside a building. Similarly, the pituitary is essential to maintain a steady state of our biological environment. It does so by controlling all other glands that are located below it, for example thyroid, adrenals, gonads, etc. For each of these glands the pituitary secretes a trophic (stimulating) hormone. By varying the level of trophic hormones it increases or decreases the hormonal output of these glands. Thus there is a two-way function/control system in the pituitary. Since glands are the gateways for the expression of propensities, pituitary controls these expressions. More simply, the pituitary gland controls the qualities, attribution's and quanta of the mental propensities.

The lower the gland in its location, the cruder the propensities it expresses. However, all the glands have to interact to cause a balanced and coordinated expression of the mental propensities in a person. Pituitary is responsible for the interaction, coordination and fine tuning of all the other glands. Therefore, if the mind is driven by the cruder propensities, through its hormone's, the pituitary will stimulate the secretions of lower glands, for example sex glands, pancreas and adrenals. In this situation the mind is said to move downwards. In contrast, if the mind is driven by more subtle propensities the pituitary stimulates the upper glands, for example thyroid, parathyroid and their sub-glands and the mind is said to move upward.

The pituitary therefore can have degenerating or elevating effects on the mind. It is however, not alone in this function. It is supported by its sub-glands. Biologically every nerve cell is a gland. They are grouped together to form various parts of the brain to perform specific functions. These collections of nerve cells can be regarded as sub-glands of the pituitary of which hypothalamus and limbic system are most prominent. They are discussed elsewhere in this book.

The pituitary gland with its sub-glands forms a network of energy channels called lunar plexus or Ajina cakra in Sanskrit. This plexus can be divided into two halves, right and left. Each controls opposite tendencies, that is the right wing controls leftist tendencies and the left wing controls rightist tendencies. The leftist propensities are cruder, degenerating and depraving whereas the rightist propensities elevate the mind to pave the way for a superconscious state. It is the balanced function of the two halves that is most desirable and leads to an apexed intellect and self-knowledge. Such a person has extra-cerebral memories of the past lives. Spiritual meditation causes a balanced development of both the wings of the pituitary plexus and consequently leads to various para-psychological phenomena.

The glands of fire
The flame of life burns slowly in the internal furnace of the body. The fuel for this flame is constantly supplied by the food we eat and the air we breathe. The vital energy is involuted as solar energy that is used by the living organisms including plants and animals. These plants and animals convert the vital energy into various kinds of chemical substances called protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals that are nothing but the storehouses of energy. The products from these plants and animals when consumed by humans, constantly replenish the eternal flame of life by supplying the needed energy.
An average person eats about fifty tons of food in a lifetime. Most of the nutrients consumed are modified and inter-converted through multitude of chemical pathways known as metabolism. This chemical factory takes in the nutrients, air and water at one end and turns out the desired energy at the other end to be used for various needs of the body. All cells of the body are capable of breaking down the nutrients. For the flame to last the whole life span there has to be a strict control on the supply and consumption of the fuel. What is more important is that the production and utilisation of the energy has to be fully regulated to avoid wastage. Hence, the metabolic process occurs step by step so that the energy of the fire of life is released a little at a time in a way that is most useful.
A stepwise regulation of metabolism is achieved by numerous enzymes and hormones. Therefore indirectly the mental propensities will determine the rate and quantum of metabolic process as well. The glands that need special mention in producing the fire of life are thyroid, parathyroid and pancreas.

Thyroid and parathyroid

The thyroid gland is situated in the neck like a butterfly with its wings abutting on either side of the windpipe or trachea. It is a highly vascular gland meaning that a large amount of blood flows through it. This enables it to trap the iodine circulating in the blood and uses it to produce the hormones thyroxine and tri-iodothyronine. The thyroid gland matures by the age of twenty years.
The parathyroids are four pea-sized glands located at the back of the thyroid, one at each pole of the butterfly. They help in the absorption and the distribution of calcium and phosphate and thus maintain bone thickness and strength.
Both these glands are essential for life - for physical existence and psychic development. Their secretions have to be finely tuned. Any deficiency or excess results in various physical and psychic ailments. Their psychic effects need special mention. Over-secretion of thyroid hormones results in a fragmented and flickering mind that is unable to rationalise and think deeply. The sufferer becomes very irritable and unstable. Not only the cognitive functions but the affect is deranged as well. Mania and psychosis can develop in such persons. On the other hand an under secretion of thyroid hormones can cause apathy, stupidity and depression.
The psychic effects of parathyroid glands are more subtle. They affect rationality and behaviour. Their under secretion can make a person quarrelsome and selfish. These are more marked in women. In men, their under secretion is likely to cause a despotic nature with vanity, flamboyance and self-aggrandisement. Self-reliance and self-confidence develop due to the hormones from the parathyroid. A less developed gland may be a part of the explanation for the lesser degree of these attributes in women. However, they are partly environmental and partly biological.
Thus, the thyroid and parathyroid glands influence the expression of both cognitive and affective faculties of mind. Their proper secretions will take the mind to more subtle spheres of spiritual knowledge, universal welfare and attraction for the supreme subjectivity. In contrast their abnormal secretion goads the mind towards the mundane world making it selfish, despotic and vain.
These glands, as mentioned earlier, are responsible for producing energy for the body to carry out various activities. Some of us use this energy to do something good and others to do something bad depending on our mental propensities. The negative mental propensities can be sublimated into positive ones if they are properly directed by a suitable environment and appropriate mental practices. Such persons can do a lot for the society because their energy for self-preservation is channelled into the universal welfare. Their poisonous mentality is transformed into sanguinity.
Pancreas
The pancreas lies in the upper part of the abdomen behind the stomach, below the liver and gallbladder. It overlies across the backbone from the right to the left. Ninety-nine per cent of its tissue is composed of exocrine elements; that is they secrete digestive juices. Only the remaining one per cent is the endocrine part that secretes the hormone insulin. The endocrine cells are scattered in clumps throughout the pancreas like islands and hence they are called Islets of Langerhans after the name of their discoverer.
The islets consist of two types of cells - alpha and beta. The beta cells secrete the hormone insulin that is responsible for clearing the sugar from the blood and (transferring it?) into the tissues so that they can use it for energy production. The alpha cells produce a hormone called glucagon that has the opposite effect. It prevents the insulin from carrying out its functions. Thus insulin lowers the blood sugar whereas glucagon raises it. In persons with diabetes there is a deficiency of insulin causing a rise in the blood sugar.
If the thyroid hormones burn the metabolic fire in the cells, the insulin supplies the fuel so that it can burn eternally, slowly and economically. However, the intensity of this fire will be determined by the mental propensities. A person with dominant tendencies of fear, hatred, greed, infatuation and envy will require a greater intensity of the metabolic fire. This will put increased demand on these glands, which in turn will fuel these tendencies.

The Glands of Love
The solar plexus of energy channels is located in the middle of the chest and is biologically associated with the thymus gland and lymph nodes in this region. The detailed discussion of these glands is included in the chapter on the lymphoid system. However, a brief description of their hormonal functions is appropriate here.

The thymus gland is located behind the breast bone. It is most active in foetal life when it is laying down the blueprint of our immune response that lasts for life. By the time the baby is born, its function as the heart of the immune system is completed. After birth, it secretes a hormone called thymopoetin that only reinforces the immune system to carry out its programmed functions. However, its presence is not essential in adults for physical survival.

The most fundamental function of the thymus gland is to stamp every cell of the immune system with the recognition power of one's cells. This prevents the immune cells reacting and destroying our cells. Failure to do so results in a group of diseases called auto-immune ("auto"-self, "immune"-destruction) diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis, nephritis, lupus, pernicious anaemia and some thyroid diseases are only a few examples from a long list.

In the developing foetus, all primitive immune cells have to pass through either the thymus gland or some other non-specific immune areas possibly dispersed in the primitive gastrointestinal tract. In these regions they are conditioned to recognise the "self" from the "non-self", that is, their own cells from foreign intruders. These immune cells migrate to the lymph glands after passing through these structures. The cells that have been processed by the thymus gland are called T-lymphocytes and migrate to the outer parts of the lymph glands. Those that are processed by other areas are called B-lymphocytes, which migrate to the central parts of the lymph glands.

The T-lymphocytes multiply and produce the cells that engulf the foreign intruders such as bacteria and viruses. The B-lymphocytes produce antibodies against these intruders. Thus there is a double protection against invasion by unwanted elements. Therefore, our biology has a strong bias of "me and mine". It loves and protects what is it's own and rejects and destroys what is not it's own. The thymus gland is responsible for this bias. Therefore it can be said that the thymus gland establishes our biological relationships with the world around us on the line of "self" and "non-self".

Human mind also has the propensity of self and non-self. This propensity is expressed through the solar plexuses in the chest. This plexus is fully developed in children of four to five years, when they show signs of attachment to their immediate family and friends. This love deepens as they grow and involves many more people and things of this world. As a result, many more propensities find expression as the love for this world grows. It brings out the feelings of hope and aspiration, anxiety and depression, ego and vanity, voracity and hypocrisy, conscience and repentance. Who can deny these experiences? The stronger the love for the world the more intense are these experiences. The thymus is only expressing this worldly love. However, this love is not immutable. It can be sublimated into a universal love.

The glands of Water
Adrenal glands are primarily the glands that maintain the fluid balance in the body by manipulating the salt excretion and preservation by the kidneys. There are two adrenal glands in humans, one on each side, sitting on the upper poles of our kidneys. They are triangular in shape and microscopically they are divided into two distinct regions. The outer few millimetres is called cortex and the inner core medulla. The cortex secretes steroidal hormones of which three are most important; cortisol, androgens and aldosterone. The cortisol is responsible for protein synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism in the cells. The androgens are sex hormones and help in sexual functions. The aldosterone is responsible for salt and water balance in the body.

The medulla secretes two hormones; adrenaline and nor-adrenaline. These hormones are responsible for our day to day activity and stress response.
Therefore adrenal glands have multiple functions. They aid the metabolism and thus sustain the fire of life and on the other hand maintain the fluid balance in the body. Human body is made of seventy per cent water and thirty per cent solid and yet we can not survive water deprivation for more than few days. We can survive food deprivation for several days to weeks. This is because energy can be stored in the body as carbohydrates, proteins and fats that can be called upon to provide the fuel for the fire. In contrast, there is no water tank in the body that can be tapped when needed.

Therefore water conservation and its regulation are more miserly. Moreover, water is needed by every process of the body and its deficiency leads to various physical and mental changes. When dehydrated, a person becomes disoriented and tends to hallucinate. When in excess, a person becomes confused, stuporous and may slip into coma. This state is called water-intoxication. Therefore water balance must be kept under strict control. For such a control two things are necessary, a sensing mechanism that detects the changes in the water content of the body, and a fixing mechanism that restores the balance. Although the sensing mechanism lies in the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, the restoring is carried out by the adrenals and the pituitary hormones.

Hence the adrenal gland performs a triple function. It fuels the fire of metabolism as well as quenching the thirst of the body for water. It also plays a part in the sexual functions.

In yogic language these triple functions of the adrenal glands can be attributed to the lower three plexuses. The sexual function relates to the lowermost terranian plexus, the water regulation to the fluidal plexus above it and the metabolic function to the igneous plexus at the nave. Hence, adrenal glands appear to express the propensities related to the lower three cakras.

The Glands of Creation - Sex Glands.
For the survival of the species, human beings must reproduce and transmit their physical and mental attributes to the future generations. In this journey from generation to generation, humans acquire newer and newer physical characteristics and mental capacities. To save their off-springs time and trouble, they transmit these attributes to them through genetic materials. This is called inheritance. It allows not only the survival of the species but its modification and improvement as well, a prerequisite for progressive evolution. By the blending of inheritable characteristics of both parents, better adaptive and survival features develop in the offspring and the evolution marches ahead.

Unlike animals, human beings do not have a breeding and a mating season during which they are instinctively attracted to the opposite sex. They are free to mate anytime according to their learning, convention and culture. For this they need two things, an urge to mate and a rationality to judge and discriminate who to mate with and when to mate. These two factors determine the total sexual behaviour of human beings.
Although all human beings have similar sexual biology, their sexual behaviour differs widely. Celibates, swingers?, prostitutes, rapists and homosexuals all have similar biology. The difference in their psycho-sexual orientation is due to their motives, which may be religious, social or economic. In the matter of sex, the psychology is more dominant than the biology. Psychology is driven by the sexual urge whereas biology by evolutionary forces. However, it must be remembered that both biology and psychology are meant to serve the purpose of evolution. Hence sexual urge is secondary to procreation.
Our sex glands have to serve dual functions; reproduction and psycho-sexual orientation. These functions are closely interconnected. However, in the twentieth century, science has split it into two independent functions by the invention of contraception. This has allowed millions of people to plan the size of their family. On the other hand, it has removed the creative elements from the sexual functions. Sexuality has become a mere source of sense-gratification. Like other drive-states, sexual urge is also driven by motivation. The appetite for sex is recurrent and unsatiable. With the surge of materialist biologists and psychologists in the middle of this century, the mass attention focused on the psycho-sexual functions and reproduction took a back seat. This has allowed the imagination to run wild.
Every relationship was suggested to have been powered by the sex drive. Freud suggested that even mother and child relationship were eroticised. Buoyed with these scientific thoughts, the mass psychology on matters of sex diversified and justifications have been found for all diverse and perverse sexual behaviours. One cannot help feeling that splitting the two functions of sex, may not have been a great achievement after all.
Sexuality permeates deep into every aspect of individual and social life of human beings. Wars have been fought and empires have fallen because of sexual motives. Criminals have developed due to sexual dysfunction and saints and holy persons have exercised complete sexual constraints. Relationships succeed and fail because of sexual compatibility or a lack of it.
Why is sexuality so important for human life? The answer lies in its origin. The sexual urge is a part of a more fundamental urge that drives us to create something. Each one of us has this basic urge. Out of this creative urge, we engage in various goals of life. Perhaps Freud was not totally wrong in saying that "sex drive is a fundamental source of energy which man has drawn upon to create his civilisation and his culture." He erred in calling it the "fundamental source of energy" rather than a diversion of a more fundamental creative energy.
The creative aspect of sexual functions is reflected not only in our reproduction but in many other aspects of our biology as well as our psychology. We will now elaborate upon these.
Sex glands are the first endocrine glands to develop in the foetus. When the embryo is only seven weeks old in the womb, the primitive sex glands develop as a ridge on it's under surface and start secreting male or female hormones. Later in pregnancy, this ridge differentiates into a complete reproductive system. Why is there such a hurry to secrete hormones, when the testes and ovaries are not even differentiated? Right at the same time, the nerve cells are congregating to form the future brain of the foetus. These cells have to be treated with either male or female hormones to lay down the blueprint for the future male or female behaviours. This masculinisation or feminisation of the primitive brain is essential and the period during which it occurs is critical. This period must fall between twelve and twenty-two weeks of pregnancy so that the individual can behave as a male or a female in their adulthood. This is the first creative activity of the sex glands.
After birth, sex glands are partly active. There are two testes in males and two ovaries in females. Their double representation is a testimony to their importance. If one is lost due to disease or injury, the remaining gland takes over the functions. There are two types of cells in the testes and ovaries, one that creates the reproductive cells or gametes (sperm in males and ovum in females) and the other that produce hormones that nourish the gametes. These hormones regulate the production of sperms and eggs along with many other functions around the body. In fact they reduce the production of gametes by suspending the secretions of trophic hormones from the pituitary.
In children, the cells that produce gametes are not active and therefore no sperms or eggs are produced. However, there is a low level of activity in the hormone producing cells and the small amount of hormones they secrete causes a number of physical and psychological changes. At around four to six years of age, the skin of the child thickens. In males, it becomes somewhat rugged and in females, soft and smooth. The children develop anger and avarice but remain obedient. The love for the family members begins finding expression and they start making friends. These traits are essential for the development of social skills in a child, another creative aspect of the sex glands. It is important to note that at this stage children have no sensual feeling of their sex.
At puberty there is a surge of sex hormones resulting in number of physical changes. The skin becomes more rugged with deep hue in males. Acne develops in both sexes. Hair grows in armpits and around the pubic area. In males hairs also start growing on face, chest and abdomen. In females breasts develop. Testes in males begin to produce sperms and ovaries in females produce eggs. Voice in males starts cracking. The high levels of sex hormones affect the nerve cells and as a result sensual thoughts and genital sensations develop.
The psychic changes of puberty are more profound but more subtle than the physical changes. A sense of dutifulness and responsibility develops. Obedience gives way to independent thinking and rationality. Hence rebelliousness develops. Young boys and girls in this age develop the urge to do something great with a feeling of universalism.
A number of hormones come into play around fifteen years of age. Pineal gland becomes fully functional. Thyroid and parathyroid glands mature and readjust their hormonal output. Sex glands become active and solar plexus matures. All these glands and their hormones interact with each other to cause a joint effect on the psychic development of the young people.

The quantity and timing of the sex hormones secretions is crucial to the development of certain forms of behaviour. If it develops between thirteen and fifteen years in adequate quantity, the youngsters become kind and compassionate. They are full of vitality and courage and are receptive to new ideas. On the other hand a delayed and deficient development leads to cruelty and cowardice. Such people support dogmas and orthodox beliefs.

Rationality is primarily a function of brain. It may be appropriate to say that it is a function of mind but finds expression through the brain. When the nerve cells are immature, that is below twenty years of age, rationality is not fully developed. Hormones from the thyroid and sex glands cause the maturation of the nerve cells between fifteen and twenty years and thus assist in the development of rational behaviour. However, there is a time lag between the development of sexual urge and rationality. Therefore sexual behaviour in the early teens is not fully rational. It is likely to break the bounds of social conventions and moral constrains. Such a sexuality without rationality has far-reaching implications.

Sexual urge is inherent but sexual behaviour is learned. The urge can be properly utilised by learning appropriate behaviour. In the early stage the learning should be appropriate to the neural and hormonal maturation. Inappropriate learning will lead to wastage of the urge and a loss of creativity. Once sexual activity is established as a source of enjoyment, its intrinsic rewards make it largely independent of hormonal status and intellectual elevation. The part of brain that controls the sexual urge is called limbic system. It has a pleasure centre. Repeated stimulation of this centre leads to a rather sexual automation and addiction. The signal that was initially motivational and environmental is replaced by the tissue needs of the limbic brain. The latter is no more dependent on the hormones and rationality. It relies on the pleasure principle.

Since learning is largely environmental, sexual behaviour also depends on the environmental factors. An environment of sensuality will make the youngsters promiscuous and indiscriminate in sexual matters. Much of their sex hormones will be consumed by the sensual functions at the cost of creative functions. On the other hand an environment of spirituality will result in sexual constraints or rational sex. This will spare the sex hormones for the creative purposes. On this point Shrii P.R. Sarkar appears to agree with Freud.

Freud said that there is a limited amount of psychic energy for which id, ego and superego compete. Id is the impulsive, pleasure-seeking principle that is largely sexual. Ego is the realistic, rational component and superego is the moralistic, judgmental part. Shrii P.R. Sarkar says that the urge that drives the creative attributes also drives the sexuality and reproduction. Much of this urge is wasted on sexuality. Perhaps for this reason most creative people prefer solitude to social occasions. They are introverted and intuitive. Many of them have practiced complete chastity.

The sexual urge is fuelled by a number of propensities like physical longing, yearning, infatuation and voracity. However, the fuel can be sublimated so that it can transform the sexual urge into a creative urge. For example, physical longing (karma) can be transformed into psycho-spiritual longing (dharma), yearning (trsna) into attraction for the supreme consciousness (amrta), infatuation (moha) into love (mamata), and voracity (lolatah) into universal welfare (svaha). For this sublimation a spiritual and ideological environment is necessary.

We all are different persons and we have our own unique mental model of the world that we can call our own panorama. This panorama may be confined to our small world of `me and mine' or expand to the whole universe. When confined to the small world it is usually of physical and static nature. We interpret this world in terms of physicality. We do not have the capacity to comprehend anything beyond physicality. In this situation we may be said to suffer from static physical panoramic minimitis. Our mind is minimised to the physical existence alone. This condition is found when igneous plexus is dominant. Excessive sexual urge and indulgent sexual behaviour is associated with a high level of activity in the igneous plexus. This perhaps explains the practice of chastity and celibacy by those who wanted to transcend physicality and set out to journey into oneself.

Prostate Gland.
Although the prostate is a gland, it is not regarded as a hormone producing gland in biology. It is an accessory gland to the sex glands and facilitates sexual functions. Its psychic effects, unknown to biology are many and interesting. Since this gland is found only in males they are relevant only to male psychology.

In early childhood boys do not have much shame and shyness. They can walk naked in the street without any inhibitions. As they grow, the feeling of shyness and shame grows due to the development of prostate functions. The inappropriate development of prostate gland causes melancholia in children and adults where a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness develops. If the gland is underdeveloped it leads to a schizoid personality with paranoia and hallucinations.

There is no equivalent gland in females. It is possible that some uterine glands serve these functions in women.

10 Hormones And Behaviour

"Due to biological change the psychological reaction or reflection will change" - P.R. Sarkar

Cakras transform our propensities into neural impulses as well as hormonal secretions. In other words the mind is converted into chemicals that cause the regulation of our physiological functions. Whether our thoughts are self-generated or imposed by the environment, they have to be processed by the cakras and translated into our bodily functions. This processing culminates in the secretions from the endocrine glands and the nerve cells.

There are numerous glands secreting a variety of hormones scattered throughout the body. However, there are some hormones that are not secreted by any specific glands. They are released locally to regulate the functions of the local organs, for example stomach, pancreas and kidneys. Some are secreted in the nerve cells and their interconnections. These hormones help in the transmission of electrical impulses through the nerve fibres and hence called neuro-transmitters. All the hormones together help to maintain a state of equilibrium in our internal environment; a phenomenon termed homeostasis. Any deviation from such a state will cause an adjustment in the secretion of hormones, to return to the harmonious state. This implies that there must be a sensing mechanism that detects the fluctuations in the inner state and adjusts it accordingly.

For too long, the endocrine glands were believed to be self-regulatory. That is to say that they adjust their hormonal output by directly sensing the need of the body like a thermostat. However, now we know that it is not the glands themselves, but a part of our brain called hypothalamus that contains the sensing as well as regulatory devices. Interestingly enough, the hypothalamus has both components, neural as well as glandular and hence it is the centre of neuro-endocrine activities. The glandular component controls all other glands through various releasing and inhibiting hormones. Once upon a time, the pituitary gland was called the master of the endocrine orchestra. The pituitary may still be the conductor of the orchestra, but the hypothalamus appears to be the composer of the music that the orchestra plays. Notes, beats and rhythms are provided by the samskaras and the propensities of the mind.

Hormones have an enormous influence on our physical and mental functions. Without them life is unsustainable. There is ample medical knowledge of their physical effects. However, their mental effects need to be properly investigated. There are three critical stages in human life that are largely dependent on hormonal changes. When the foetus is six weeks old in the womb, its brain is being formed. The blueprint of male or female behaviour has to be laid down at this early stage. For this, the primitive brain of the foetus must be exposed to the male or female sex hormones. Therefore our gender specific behaviour is determined by the hormonal secretions at that early stage of our life.

The second crisis occurs around puberty, when various hormonal secretions come into play, leading to a number of physical, psychological and behavioural changes. The final hormonal crisis occurs around the time of menopause, more marked in women, when some hormones are being withdrawn. This again is associated with many changes in body, mind and behaviour.

Besides the critical periods, there occur constant adjustments and readjustments in the hormonal secretions throughout our lives. At birth all glands are fully formed but all are not functional. They undergo a process of maturation. By the age of three to five years, adrenal glands become functional and secrete adrenaline. This causes increased activity and vitality in the child. Around this age the sex glands start secreting tiny amounts of hormones and as a result, the child exhibits traits of anger, avarice, obedience, love and friendship. The prostate in males becomes functional also and may lead to melancholy and depression if overactive. Its under-secretion causes fear complex and hallucinations. Shyness and shamefulness at this age are due to the prostate functions. These changes occur according to the lower plexuses that develop at this age due to the interactions with their environment. They learn new behaviours and their nerve cells develop more interconnections.

In adolescents, lower plexuses undergo maturation and simultaneously upper plexuses begin to develop. As a result the pineal gland and the pituitary increase its activity. The sex glands increase their functions. Consequently, rationality develops and attachment to this earth strengthens. Love and compassion also find expression in the behaviour of adolescents. On the other hand, by improper development of the plexuses due to a defective environment, some undesirable behaviours occur, for example cruelty, melancholy and paranoia that lead to antisocial behaviours. Therefore, the persons company and their peer groups has the most influence at this age and many new behaviours are learned. An environment of spiritual purity and initiation leads to a balanced glandular secretion and proper development of the personality.

In mid-teens a number of physical and psychic changes are associated with the hormonal secretions. Development of the solar plexuses at this age is associated with the maturation of the thyroid and parathyroid glands. As a result of this the voice deepens and facial hair begins to grow in boys and breasts develop in girls. Feelings of love and self-reliance develop in both sexes. An under-secretion of these hormones leads to the vanity of self-aggrandisement and a quarrelsome and despotic nature. By the age of twenty-one years, the plexuses and glandular system are fully mature and become fixed as one's unique internal environment. However they are not immutable.

What are hormones? Hormones are chemical compounds that have the capacity to modify and alter the cell functions and thus our thinking and behaviour. Considering their chemical structures, they can be classified in two types:

1) Those that are derived from protein molecules and are called peptide hormones.

2) Those that are formed from fat (cholesterol) molecules and are called steroids.

The characteristics of peptide hormones are due to their ability to bind themselves to the covering of the cells called the cell membrane. The cell membranes have receptor sites that bind with these molecules. This binding is only the first stage in a series of chain reactions that follow inside the cell resulting in a new protein synthesis and cellular functions. Thyroid hormones are examples of peptide hormones.

On the other hand, steroidal hormones penetrate the cell membranes and enter the cells to merge with the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or the genetic material in the nucleus of the cells. Thus they have the capacity to modify the genetic coding in the cells and consequently their functions. Sex hormones are steroidal hormones.

According to their scope of actions, hormones can be either local with actions limited to the vicinity of their secretions, or general with a widespread area of action. Acetylcholine is a local hormone secreted at the nerve endings and its action is limited to the nerve fibres and muscles. Secretin is a pancreatic hormone concerned with the digestive enzymes. Gastrin is secreted from the lining of the stomach to regulate the acid secretion in the stomach. These are examples of local hormones. The hormones of the endocrine glands are general hormones with the capacity to influence every cell of the body.

As humans we are similar, but as persons we are different. This truth is not limited to our personalities; it is reflected in our chemistry also. Like our personalities, our body chemistry is unique in spite of some fundamental similarities. A blood pressure reading of 150/90 may be normal for one person but too high for another. One person performs best when relaxed whereas another when they are pumped up with adrenaline. This individuality in our chemistry is reflected in the normal range values that are used in modern medicine.

The individuality of our chemistry is a reflection of the individuality of our minds and the hormones are the intermediate phase in the psychosomatic conversion. They undergo structural changes as the plexuses develop. Hormones are in turn, used by the plexuses for the expression of mental propensities. Thus the plexuses and hormones are interdependent. Increased glandular secretions generally make the propensities more active and vice versa. Hence, hormones have profound effects on human behaviour.

11 The Cauliflower That Thinks - The Fourth Factor

"The Physical body should be sanctified by good thoughts, good actions and good food as well, and also by various physical practices that affect the nerve fibres of the body; because through the nerve fibres, through the afferent and efferent nerves, the first phase of realisation occurs"- P.R. Sarkar
There is a cauliflower in our head that thinks. Our brain with its ridges and grooves, looks like a cauliflower. It consists of more than one hundred billion nerve cells, several kilometres of nerve fibres and some supporting tissues to form a very complex network of electrical circuits.

Our nerve cells and nerve fibres enable us to think, feel, rationalise and execute an act. They are the medium through which our mind actualises its existence. They are the units of our nervous system. A nerve cell with its fibres is called a neuron. The location of the neurones is crucial to the type of function they perform. Broadly, they are located in two closely interconnected groups. The neurones in the brain and the spinal cord form what is called the central nervous system. The neurones that come out of the brain and the spinal cord as nerves and link the central nervous system to every part of the body constitute the peripheral nervous system. Within these two systems as well, the neurones are grouped in different locations and perform different functions.

The peripheral nervous system has somatic nerves consisting of sensory and motor neurones. It also has sympathetic nerves with neurones that activate and parasympathetic neurones that deactivate our body. Similarly the central nervous system has these and many more groups of neurones performing specific functions. In spite of the diversity of their groupings, the whole nervous system acts as one integrated unit.

The network of neurones in our nervous system is immensely complex, involving billions of nerve cells. Each neuron may be linked to fifty thousand other neurones. The complexity of the network is brought about by the great migration of early nerve cells in the nervous system of the developing foetus. When the foetus is only six weeks old in the mother's womb, the brain starts to form. At this stage, there are only a few cells in the brain and they do not even stay at the place where they are formed. They must get themselves to approximately the right place to carry out their functions. Therefore, they undergo a great deal of multiplication and migration and send out long fibres to make contact with appropriate target cells.

By the time human babies are born, their full complement of neurones is complete and they have taken their respective positions. Not a single neuron will be added after birth and if any of them is damaged by disease or injury, they will not be replaced. However, their interconnections and networking will continue after birth and probably for the rest of their lives. This allows them to connect with the other neurones in their vicinity as well as the distant ones enabling the hundred billion neurones in our nervous system to form the most complex and sensitive network known to humankind.

Our nerve cells are indispensable. All of them have a fundamentally similar structure. They produce similar electrical impulses. It appears we are stuck with a pre-programmed, inflexible and unmodifiable brain. On the contrary, our nervous system is very flexible, both structurally and functionally. Even though the nerve cells are fairly stereotyped, their interconnections are modifiable throughout our lives. Even though they all produce similar electrical impulses, their neuro-transmitters are numerous and variable. Neuro-transmitters are the chemicals that nerve cells and nerve fibres produce at their endings to transmit the neural impulse.

The ability to modify the neural network along with the diversity of neuro-transmitters provides our nervous system with an enormous capacity to form new memories and learn new skills, forget irrelevant information and unlearn outdated harmful behaviours. Therefore, no one should ever think that his or her life has become useless. There is an inherent provision in our nervous system for becoming whatever we want to be.

The center of all activity in the neural network lies in the cell body. The nerve cell is a star-shaped structure designed to receive messages from
other neurones through short filaments called dendrites. There are a number of dendrites on a nerve cell so that it can receive messages from a number of neurones simultaneously, possibly for clearer perception. In addition to these antennas, each nerve cell has a single long transmitting filament which links it with only one cell. These filaments are called axons.

The axon of one neuron connects with the dendrites of the next neuron, forming micro-junctions called synapses. A synapse is a micro-space in which the terminal part of the preceding axon releases a message as chemicals called neuro-transmitters. These chemical messages travel across the micro-space and attach to a number of dendrites of the next nerve cell. Thus a number of messages come through at the same time. These messages are integrated in the cell body and the resultant output is electrically transmitted through the axons to the next nerve cell. Thus the transmission of the nerve impulse continues.

The complex network of neurones provides our nervous system with innumerable neural circuits and combinations thereof, to call upon in the time of need. Only a small portion of these circuits is in use at any particular time. This arrangement provides great flexibility to our nervous system to modify a nerve impulse at any stage after it has left the nerve cell. At the synapse an impulse can be inhibited if it is deemed irrelevant. This phenomenon is called synaptic inhibition. On the other hand if the message is appraised as urgent and important, the impulse is accelerated at the synapse. This is called synaptic facilitation.

New circuits can be formed by developing more dendrites on the nerve cells or sometimes by branching of the axons. Some pre-existing but unused circuits can be activated if needed, as occurs during rehabilitation after stroke or head injuries. Some undesirable circuits can be closed for good.

The flexibility of our nervous system allows us to modify our behaviour. We can learn new behaviours and unlearn the old ones. However, for behaviour modification, the motivation should be overwhelming so that the new circuits can be established. Repeated use of a neural circuit forms a learned habit. All habits, good or bad, can use their own neural circuits.

The differences in the actions of neurones are not solely due to the way they are wired-up, but also due to their locations in the nervous system. Depending on where they are situated, they produce different neuro-transmitters. There are more than forty neuro-transmitters already detected in our brain and the list grows by the year. These chemicals enable the brain to function in a variety of ways. For example, adrenaline makes one alert whereas serotonin produces sleep.

The neuro-transmitters are synthesised in the cell body of neurones and are transported along the axons to their endings where they are further modified chemically before being released into the synapses. Neuro-transmitters are hormones themselves and are synthesised under the influence of hormones from the endocrine glands.

Human behaviour is remarkable for its flexibility. New behaviours are constantly learned. A new behaviour changes the balance of activity in the neural network. Consequently modifications occur in the synaptic connections and neuro-transmitter secretions to accommodate the new impulse and new circumstances. When these modifications become fully established, the new behaviour becomes incorporated in one's personality.

The electrical activity in our neural circuits can be measured through the surface electrodes applied on the head. The recording of the brain waves obtained in this way is called an electro-encephalogram (EEG). The greater the activity in the neural circuits, the faster the waves recorded in the EEG. Their pattern in the EEG graph relates well to the state of our consciousness. They are summarised in the figure.

It is important to point out that an EEG measures the electrical activity only in the cerebral cortex, which forms the outer few millimetres of the brain. The cortex is thickly populated with neurones. The activity in the deeper structures of the brain can not be recorded by an EEG. The cortical neurones mediate our conscious functions whereas the deeper parts of our brain carry out subconscious and unconscious activities.

The nerve cells are not uniformly distributed in our nervous system. They are grouped at some places to form substructures and perform specific functions. Thus they form various parts of our brain. We will now consider some of them that are relevant to our subject.

Cerebral Hemisphere

The cauliflower in our head is divided into two halves; the left and right hemispheres. Although identical in structure, they differ in their functions. Some functions are bilaterally represented. That is to say that both hemispheres contribute in their performance. For example, special senses like hearing, sight, smell, touch and taste. Functions like speech and writing are executed by one or the other hemisphere. Even in the functions that are executed by both hemispheres, each half plays a different role. These functions have two components namely cognitive and emotional. For example when we see a form, the cognitive component of seeing creates a replica of the object in our mind and the emotional component helps us to determine whether the form is pleasant or unpleasant.

The left hemisphere is responsible for the cognitive aspects of cerebral functions. It is the rational, analytical, logical, sequential and verbal part of the brain. The right hemisphere is more metaphysical, synthetic, artistic and intuitional. They both control the opposite sides of the body. The left hemispheric propensities have a degenerative and depraving effect whereas rightist propensities pave the way for a superconscious state, yet in modern techno-society there is an emphasis on the cognitive functions. This has resulted in the destruction of the synthetic spiritual science by the analytical material science. Intuition has been suppressed by logic and rationality.

Both hemispheres are further demarcated into functional zones called frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes. The frontal lobes are located in the forehead of our skull. They execute intelligence and rational analysis. The occipital lobes are located exactly at the opposite end of our skull, at the back of the head. They are concerned with vision. The parietal lobes are situated just above the ears and are responsible for the sensory perceptions from the skin, joints and muscles. They also execute the motor response.

The temporal lobes, which lie behind the eyeballs inside the temple of the skull deserve special mention. Apart from executing the sense of taste and smell, they have some very subtle functions. They help in the formation and retrieval of memory. Along with the limbic system they are responsible for the expression of emotions like fear, anger, pain and pleasure. They also play an important role in the manifestation of certain personality traits. Various studies have shown that they are responsible for moralistic and religious traits. They inculcate insight and power of scrutiny in a person. Establishments of personal identity, deep thinking and contemplation are some of the other functions of temporal lobes. They enable a person to seek philosophical explanations and make them assertive.

Limbic System

Broadly speaking, the human brain has two components; the conscious and the instinctive. Cerebral hemispheres mediate the conscious functions whereas the instinctive functions are the domain of hypothalamus.

The giant reptiles of the past had a very developed instinctive brain called diencephalon but almost no conscious brain or neo-cortex. As the evolution progressed, the neo-cortex became more and more specialised. There arose a need for some specialised nerve cells, which could integrate the two components of the brain. In humans these transitional cells are called the limbic system, which literally means margin.

The limbic system has been dubbed "the inner world". It lies deep in the cerebral hemispheres, between the cortex and hypothalamus. This location is perfectly suited for integrating the functions of these two parts of the brain. It has an inherent property of classifying the sensory input into rewarding and punitive sensations and thus it is responsible for the feeling of pain and pleasure. This property makes it an important player in learning and memory. It receives sensory impulses including our thoughts and emotions from all parts of the cerebral hemispheres and interprets them in the light of past experiences and memory. It, then, modulates them into appropriate motor and emotional responses called our behaviour.

It must be stressed that the limbic system is not capable of perceiving and rationalising. It is only an interpreter and feeler, hence it is sometimes called the feeling brain. It is perhaps the ground where emotions meet rationality, instinct meets conscience and feelings meet logic. In it join various forces to form a whole. Here, the demarcation between emotions and rationality falls away blending them into a unified personality.

Hypothalamus

It is a mid-line singular structure of the brain that lies behind the bridge of the nose. Our emotions after they have been evaluated by the limbic system, are translated by the hypothalamus into bodily responses. Modern psychologists recognise five basic emotions; happiness, sadness, anger, fear and disgust. The emotions urge the body to act which requires physiological support by adjusting heart rate, breathing, digestion, etc. This support is provided by the hypothalamus. Through sympathetic nerves it brings about the required physiological changes.

However, after the emotional event has passed and the involuntary urge has subsided, the hypothalamus also causes the return to the normal state, called homeostasis, through the parasympathetic nerves. Thus it is an organ of contrasts and contradictions parallel to the world outside. It translates emotions into physiological responses as well as exercises constraints on them. It allows variability in behaviour with ability to limit them. Neural as well as hormonal mechanisms are involved in hypothalamic functions.

12 Lymph - The Fifth Factor
"Human qualities grow along with the growth of lymph"- P.R. Sarkar

The Lymphoid System

Lymph can be called white blood, because it has no red pigments, otherwise it contains most ingredients of the blood. It is extracted from the blood, refined, processed and modified by the regional lymph glands before returning to the blood stream. It has its complex methods of circulatory system to collect lymph from all the regions of the body called the lymphatics. The lymph glands are scattered all around the body but are grouped in certain areas. There is a concentration of them around the joints, such as the arm pits, groins, elbows and knees. Three other important groups are situated in the neck, chest and abdomen. In addition, lymphoid tissues are present in various other organs. For example, in the liver, spleen, gut, tonsils, adenoids, etc.

This whole system of lymph with lymph glands, lymphatics and scattered lymphoid tissues are called the lymphoid system. In modern medicine generally, the lymphoid system is not regarded as a part of the glandular system, even though the heart of this system is the thymus gland. There are three major functions of this system:

1. Transport of lymph from all parts of the body to the blood for circulation.

2. Defence of the body against foreign intruders like viruses, bacteria, etc.
3. Recognition of Self and non-self.

Lymph is formed from blood in the peripheral tissues. From small blood capillaries in the tissues, about twenty litres of fluid is filtered per day in the intercellular spaces. Seventeen litres of this fluid with all its electrolytes are soon reabsorbed back into the venous blood of the tissues.

The remaining three litres, along with all the filtered proteins remain in the intercellular spaces. Protein molecules are too large to be reabsorbed through the small pores in the walls of the venous capillaries.

The remaining three litres of fluids in the tissue, with its protein content, must be continuously removed. Otherwise, within a matter of hours, the dynamics of the fluid exchange would become so abnormal that life could no longer continue. This fluid remains there because of the excess of the protein content and there is no other route besides the lymph channels called lymphatics, through which the excess of protein can return to the circulatory system. Proteins are one of the most essential ingredients of human chemistry and the body conserves them at all costs. Thus, by recouping the lost proteins from the tissues, the lymph plays a crucial role in maintaining the tissue structure.

Proteins are present in every cell of the body. They provide the cells with the skeleton, which maintains the shape and structure of the cells. In the blood proteins help to transport minerals, like iron, calcium, and magnesium, by forming a complex with them. Proteins are made of amino acid molecules, which are used by some endocrine glands, such as the thyroid, parathyroid and pituitary glands, to manufacture their hormones. If the proteins filtered in the tissues are not removed readily by the lymphatics, the tissues swell up causing a condition called oedema.

Apart from transporting the proteins from the tissues to the circulation, lymph also transports fat, particularly from the regions of the gastrointestinal tract where it is absorbed from the diet. Fat is another important ingredient of the human body. The cell wall is made up of fat, through which exchanges of various nutrients and minerals occur. Some cells have a special fat component for specialised functions. For example, brain cells have the fat, which has a special conducting property for the propagation of the nerve impulses.

Some endocrine glands utilise fat to synthesise their hormones. These are the adrenals and sex glands. Such hormones are called steroid hormones. Thus, we can infer that lymph plays a very important role in the transport of the two most important nutrients in human biology.

The flow of lymph is extremely important for human health. This requires an efficient and competent system of channels. There is a network of such channels present in all tissues, which ultimately opens into one of the two main channels in the chest, running along either side of the spine. These are called thoracic duct and lymphatic duct, which open into big veins at the root of the neck pouring their content back into the blood.

All tissues have lymphatic channels except the brain, spinal cord, bones, deeper parts of the nerves and some parts of the skin and muscles. These tissues also have minute channels called perilymphatics. Circulation of lymph is of paramount importance for recycling of the important nutrients as well as for the dynamics of the fluid exchange.

However, lymph flows at only a fraction of the rate of the blood flow. Total estimated lymph flow is 120 millilitres per hour. This can be increased about five to fifteen fold by exercise and decreased by rest.

The lymphatic pump is enhanced by muscle contraction, movements of the parts of the body, compression and by arterial pulsation. Respiratory movements of chest and lungs also enhance this pumping effect. Some organs are located in remote nooks and corners of the body from which lymph drainage is not easy under ordinary conditions. The flow of lymph is minimal from these organs. For example, kidneys, adrenal glands and the pancreas are adhered to the back wall of the abdomen. Normal day to day living does not produce a significant movement or compression of these organs. Therefore, the lymph flow from these organs is further reduced in people leading sedentary life styles. To reach every nook and corner of the body one needs special postures, which may not be vigorous, nevertheless, very effective in enhancing the lymph flow from these remote placed organs. When these postures are coupled with coordinated breathing which squeezes the main lymphatic channels in the chest, the lymph flow can be greatly increased. These are the special qualities of asanas or yogic exercises, to reach the most remote corners of the body so that they can compress and massage the organs to increase the lymph flow from them.

When the lymph flow is decreased in the face of normal lymph formation, the tissue looses its lustre and becomes swollen or oedematous. This is associated with the loss of energy. Proper lymph flow maintains a flow of energy and glamour in the body. On the other hand when lymph formation is decreased as occurs in dehydration and debilitating conditions, the energy is sapped and glamour is lost. The tissues shrivel.

Thus far we have been discussing the role of lymph in the transport and conservation of some precious nutrients of the body. Now we come to a more important function of the lymphoid system. During lymph transport from the tissues, various foreign materials such as dust particles inhaled in lungs, viruses and bacteria, which have invaded the tissues, are washed away. These have to be removed before they reach the blood circulation. Lymphatics have to traverse through a number of lymph glands in the region before they join the main lymph channels. In the lymph glands, lymph is exposed to many kinds of defensive cells. Some large cells called macroplages engulf the foreign intruders (dust, viruses, bacteria) and digest them out of existence. These scavenger cells are well programmed to recognise what is foreign to the body and what is its own so that they do not start eating their own cells.

In the lymph glands, many cells and proteins are added to the lymph, which plays a very important role in the immune reactions of the body; and hence they are called immuno-lymphocytes and immuno-proteins, respectively. These two immune materials are produced by two different regions of the lymph nodes.

These two regions are conditioned from early foetal life to perform different and complimentary functions. Such conditioning is caused by and maintained from two important organs. The region of the lymph node, which produces lymphocytes is dependent upon the thymus gland. Thymus conditions this region to keep producing lymphocytes called T- lymphocytes, which pass into the lymph and then into the blood circulation.

The region of the lymph glands, which have cells that produce immuno-proteins, or immuno-globulins as they are called, are dependent on the signals from the bone marrow. These cells are called B-lymphocytes and produce various classes of immuno-globulus (IgG, IgM, IgA, IgE). These proteins immobilise and inactivate the intruders while the T- lymphocytes engulf them. Thus we see that after passing through the lymph nodes, the lymph has gained and lost something. The undesirable and harmful intruders, plus the tissue breakdown products, are removed from the lymph, whereas vital immune cells and proteins are added to it.

The thymus is regarded as the heart of the lymphoid system because whatever happens in the lymph glands, and in the lymphoid tissues scattered all over the body, is pre-planned, pre-programmed and predetermined in the thymus gland. In the foetus, the thymus gland is very active in sorting out its affairs and laying down the rules for the behaviour of future immune cells. In fact thymus is so choosy in this early stage that ninety per cent of its own cells that multiply are rejected and killed. Only the very "fit" and "competent" ones are allowed to leave the gland to migrate to the lymph glands. These migrating cells are "stamped" and primed to recognise between self and non-self. This message stays with them as long as they live and when they multiply in the lymph glands, their off-spring carry this message from generation to generation.

Some very interesting changes occur in the thymus gland with age. At birth, the thymus has almost finished all of its functions. It weighs about 10-15 grams and at puberty it more than doubles its birth weight to about 30-40 grams. However, the growth of the gland after five to six years of age is due to the increase in its supporting tissue rather than in the cell mass. In fact, the lymphocytes in the gland, progressively decrease after this age.

There are some other changes occurring simultaneously in the body at this age. The androgen hormones start being secreted by the adrenals and sex glands indicating an antagonistic relationship between these glands and the thymus. In fact it has been shown experimentally that the removal of sex glands and adrenal glands delays the normal involution of the thymus gland whereas injection of cortisone (an adrenal hormone) or androgen sex hormones, causes shrinking or atrophy of the thymus.

By mid adult life the thymus shrinks to about 10 grams in weight. The remaining cells in the thymus continue to secrete a hormone called thymopoetin or thymosin whose main function is to keep reminding the migrated lymphocytes in the lymph glands what they have been programmed for. It is because of this hormone that the thymus is classed as an endocrine gland despite being the centre of the lymphoid system. This dual role of the thymus is perhaps suggestive of the close relationship between the lymph and the hormones.

Knowledge of the lymph and lymphoid system in modern science is relatively recent and primitive. It is only since the advent of cancer and auto-immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) that the lymphoid system has attracted the attention of medical researchers. Even now the focus of attention is the lymphocytes and the immune response. The relationship between hormones and lymph is not recognised as yet by medical science and it is in this area that Shrii P.R. Sarkar has given numerous clues for future research.

"Lymph is the cream of all you eat and drink" says Shrii P.R. Sarkar. All the vital energy derived from the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breath and electromagnetic radiation we are exposed to, combine to form lymph. He regards lymph as the mother of all hormones, which comes in contact with the activated endocrine glands and is converted into respective hormones. Thus it provides the raw material for the synthesis of hormones. For example, at puberty the sex glands are activated which utilises the lymph to form sperm and testosterone in males and ovum, oestrogen and progesterone in females. Interestingly enough, the thymus gland starts involuting because the lymphoid system is fully developed by this age.

Another interesting coincidence is the finding of high concentration of AIDS virus in the lymph glands and the seminal fluid even though the virus enters the body through the blood stream. Both, lymph glands and testes, probably have tissues, which the AIDS virus has an affinity for. On the other hand, it is possible that the lymph is concentrated in the testes making it more vulnerable to the virus. Whatever the mechanism, there is apparently a close relationship between the lymph and the testes.

The contention of Shrii P.R. Sarkar that lymph is a hormone seems entirely logical. The components of the lymphoid system have a structure of glands. Their contents, the lymph, is poured directly into the bloodstream. This is the requirement for being an endocrine gland, even though transport channels are involved in this function. Lymph contains the precursor of all hormones in the form of proteins and fats, including its own hormones in the form of immuno-globulius and thymosin. Apart from the above facts, the lymph is as essential for life as the hormones. However, the difference is that hormones are secreted in minuscule quantities whereas lymph is formed in copious amounts. After all, a lot of raw material is required to produce small amounts of quality products.

Shrii P.R. Sarkar also advocates other factors, which enhance lymph production and circulation. He particularly emphasises that a vegetarian diet containing abundant green leafy vegetables and fruits enhances lymph production. This is because of the presence of chlorophyll in them, which he says is essential for lymph production. According to him, the vegetarians and their children have higher intellectual standard than non-vegetarians. This is because brain cells utilise lymph. Of course the intellect he refers to is the spiritually guided intellect or pinnacled psychology rather than the high IQ.

The relationship between the brain and the immune system has been the subject of intense interest for scientists in recent years. Researchers now believe that they "talk" to one another. The brain can communicate with the immune system in two ways; through hormones and through nerves. In response to an emotion, the hypothalamus of the brain responds by releasing a chemical called corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH). The CRH quickly travels to the pituitary gland and triggers a release of another chemical called adreno-corticotrophic hormone (ACTH). The ACTH washes down through the bloodstream to reach the adrenal glands where it triggers the release of cortisol and adrenaline. These latter hormones bind to the receptor sites in the T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes in the lymphoid tissue, changing their proteins and genes. These intracellular changes suppress the immune response.

The CRH can also trigger an electrical impulse through sympathetic nerves to the lymph glands, spleen, bone marrow and other lymphoid tissues. The result is release of another hormone called noradrenaline at the nerve endings in these organs. The noradrenaline binds to the immune cells and thus suppresses the immune response. The list of chemicals that can transmit messages between the brain, adrenal glands and the immune system, grows by the year. As a result, a new branch of medical science has emerged to bring it all together. The psycho-neuro-immunology is trying to work out this incredibly complex phenomenon.

One of the most remarkable assertions Shrii P.R. Sarkar makes is the influence of physical and psychic environments on lymph formation. He states that the physical environment such as the cinema halls, brothels, commercial sports-gatherings and crowded shopping centres have negative effects on lymph formation. Similarly the negative psychic environment such as those created by pornographic materials, sexual fantasies and sexual indulgence act as a negative catalyst for lymph formation. On the other hand, spiritual company, spiritual discourses and discussions on spiritual topics, creates a kind of positive environment facilitating the lymph formation.

It is now widely believed by scientists that the immune system is modulated by the brain. Alleviating stress and depression improves the outcome of therapy for skin and breast cancers and for leukemias. Self-expression and control over the world around us promotes a healthy immune system. It has been shown in actors that when they play out an emotional role, they release natural killer cells (T-lymphocytes), in their blood, a sign of a good immune system. The lymphoid system returns the favour by defending the brain against harmful intruders and by conserving the essential nutrients that the nerve cells can use.

Shrii P.R. Sarkar's novel concept of bio-psychology comes to the fore when he says that "human qualities grow along with the growth of the lymphatic system". This sounds entirely logical when one considers the biological and psychological changes that occur from the age of five years right through to puberty. Thus in the new science of biopsychology, lymph plays a pivotal role in the development of the human body and behaviour.

13 Age Related Bio-Psychological Changes
"All higher human wonts have got their base in the solar plexus"
-P.R. Sarkar
It is needless to say that we go through enormous biological and psychological changes from the time we are conceived in our mother's womb to the time of our death. These changes have shaped us in the persons that we are. Although these have already been elaborated in the text, it is appropriate to summarise them here.

Foetal life

The foetus has no direct interactions with the world outside. Therefore the crude and subtle minds are relatively inactive. The causal mind is active and the memories of the past life is present.

The plexuses are developing and the foetus depends on mother's plexuses. Therefore its propensities remain unexpressed. Mother's propensities influence the foetus.

Among the endocrine glands, the sex glands are the first to develop around the seventh week of the pregnancy, to lay down the blueprint of the gender-specific adult behaviour. Other glands develop between the eighth and the twenty second week of the pregnancy. During this period mother's hormones nourish the foetus.

The brain starts forming after about six weeks. It must be exposed to sex hormones for the reasons mentioned above. The nerve cells are still immature and are incapable of expressing the crude and subtle minds.

The lymphoid system is underdeveloped and the foetus depends on its mother's lymph. Therefore, whatever the mother eats, drinks or breaths affects the foetus.

Newborn and Infants

Mind starts interacting with the environment and crude mind gets activated. Since the latter is still underdeveloped, subtle mind reflects the dominant causal mind. As a result babies sleep most of the time. Their smiles, giggles and cries in sleep are due to the extra-cerebral memories of the past lives reflected in their dream state.

All plexuses become functional with the first inspiration after birth. Only base propensities find expressions through the sensory and motor organs. The longings of babies are only physical and emotional.

All glands are fully formed but all are not functional as yet. They have to undergo a maturation process and therefore the hormonal system undergoes rapid change.

The brain has a full complement of nerve cells but their inter-connections and neuro-transmitters continue to develop. The infants start interacting with the physical environment through their sense organs. They become inquisitive of their surroundings. The cognitive functions start developing as they learn new behaviours.

They form their own lymph because they eat, drink and breath independently. The lymphoid system is still immature. Therefore they have poor immunity and are susceptible to recurrent infections. The vaccinations enhance the development of immunity.

Pre-school Children

The mind of children between three and five years is restless and hyperactive because of the increased activity of the crude mind. In the dream state the subtle mind starts reflecting the experiences of the crude mind. The vibrations of the causal mind do not surface in it and the memories of the past lives begin to fade.

The lower plexuses begin to develop in accordance with the mundane environment. In males the prostate becomes functional expressing the propensities of shyness and shamefulness. Physical and psychic longings increase and as a result children become very inquisitive.

Among the glands the adrenals become functional. Prostate function is important in this age group. Its over-secretion causes melancholy and depression, a condition increasingly being recognised as a cause of many behavioural problems in children. On the other hand, an under-active prostate in this age group can cause a fear complex and hallucinations. The sex glands increase their activities, resulting in the development of certain traits such as anger, avarice, obedience, love and friendship.

The brain, although it gets no further increase in nerve cells, develops new interconnections and neuro-transmitters to accommodate the learning of new behaviours.

The lymph increases in quantity and quality. Its immune component rises.

Adolescence

The age between thirteen and fifteen years is crucial to the adult personality. Many changes occur in the biology and psychology of young people in this age group.

The crude mind is very active in this age group. The world becomes very important. The subtle mind is flooded with the reflections of crude experiences. The causal mind is subdued and past lives are completely forgotten. In rare instances where it persists, either death occurs or the person becomes a hermit or spiritual missionary.

The lower plexuses mature and upper plexuses begin to develop further. Rationality develops and youngsters become receptive to reasoning. Attachment to this earth becomes stronger. The proper development of upper plexuses leads to a feeling of love for others whereas the lack of it results in the development of cruelty, melancholy and fear complex.

Many glandular changes occur in this age group. The lymphoid system matures and as a result, the thymus gland starts involuting because its functions have finally completed. Three important glands become active almost at the same time. They are the pineal, pituitary and sex glands. Testes and ovaries start converting the lymph into sex hormones and sexual fluids. The pineal and pituitary help in this conversion. As a result, pubic and axillary hairs develop and genital sensations occur. Simultaneous activity in these glands is critical as it will determine the future behaviour of the individual. The environment has an impact on these glandular activities.

The brain continues to spread its network as the young people continue to experience and learn more and more of this world. Newer forms of behaviours develop, which may be constructive or destructive.

The lymphoid system is fully developed with all its lymph glands, lymphatics and immune cells.

Transitional Age

Transition to the adult age occurs gradually after fifteen years. The crude mind starts settling from years of hyperactivity. Rationality grows. Independence and rebelliousness replaces obedience and dutifulness. Causal mind gets buried deep under the experiences of this mundane world.

The most important plexus to develop at this age is the solar plexus. This is associated with certain physical and psychic changes. The beard grows in males and the breast grows in females. The capacity to produce milk and maternal qualities also develop in girls. The feeling of love grows in both sexes, which could potentially expand to a universal love.

The endocrine glands that become active in this age are the thyroid and parathyroid. They are concerned with psychic development and intellectual elevation. As a result young people become self-reliant. These glands are relatively less developed in females. Their under-secretion leads to certain undesirable personality traits such as vanity, selfishness, a quarrelsome and despotic nature, and a lack of self-reliance.

Now the brain is fully developed but fine-tuning and refinement continues. The lymphoid system is fully mature.

Adult Age

Human psychology continues to grow through the adult age. The hormonal secretions become established by the age of twenty-one years although the biological functions continue to grow until we have reached forty years. After this age degenerative processes begin to take root. Mental degeneration usually starts after fifty years.

14 Reassembling
"By spiritual cult, spiritual sadhana, you may bring certain changes in your nervous system; nerve cells and nerve fibres, control the secretions of the hormones from different glands and subglands and get yourself elevated"
-P.R. Sarkar
Until now we have reduced the New Science of Biopsychology into its various components. Let us now reassemble it into a whole.

Humans are the most adaptable of all the organisms. This unique adaptability is primarily due to its well developed nervous system and a complex combination of hormones. The nervous system is full of contrasts and contradictions. On one hand it has nerve cells that mediate rationality and objectivity and on the other those that conduct the human feelings and emotions. The same nerve cells can carry out two opposite functions at different times. For example, heating and cooling, hunger and satiation and many others. Therefore it appears that two opposite but parallel forces are running through our nervous system.

These parallel forces are nothing but the reflections of similar forces in the mind. Human mind as well, is full of contrasts and contradictions. Two opposite sets of propensities exist in it. One that is degenerating and depraving and the other elevating and enlightening. The degenerating ones are extroversial, sensual and pleasure seeking whereas enlightening ones are introversial, spiritual and bliss-seeking. Those, which will find expression in one's behaviour, will depend on the samskaras and the environmental factors. Thus, what we are in the present partly reflects our past.

The nerve cells cannot function without hormones. Some hormones they derive from the bloodstream and others they secrete themselves. Hormones, although few in number, have a multitude of effects on our biology. Like the nerve cells, the hormones are the vehicles for the forces of the mind. These factors allow an innumerable number of permutations and combinations of our body chemistry and consequently behaviours. Hence, as persons, we are individuals with a unique mind, chemistry and behaviour.

Since hormonal secretions are affected by the mental propensities, their combinations (or balance) may be conducive to either degenerative or elevating behaviours. This state of balance can be modified by rechannelling the propensities, thus altering the behaviour. The mental currents created by the propensities, flow in two intertwining channels. When the degenerative tendencies dominate, the mind flows downward in one of the channels. When the opposite tendencies are dominant the flow is upward in the other channel. The intersections of these channels are cakras or plexuses, which control the regional hormones. When the flow is downward, the lower cakras and glands are active. When the flow is upward, the upper cakras and glands are dominant. Thus, in hormones as well, we find two opposite forces that are active.

The way in, which we act and react tells the story of our samskaras, propensities, dominant cakras and hormonal balance. If our chemistry is the cause of our behaviour, our mind is the cause of the unique chemical laboratory that we carry around. The mind operates this chemical lab through the nerve centres or cakras that in turn regulate the nerve cells and hormones. However, it will be erroneous to think that our chemistry is a fait accompli. The chemistry can be changed or modified by regulating our propensities and exhausting the store of our accumulated potential reactions. It only needs a change in the perspective of life accompanied by the sublimation of propensities in such a way that the mind moves upwards and grows in magnitude. For this, one needs specific intuitional practices.

The intuitional practices require a certain degree of sophistication of the neural network as well as a complex battery of hormones. Biologically, humans have both and hence they are perfectly suited to carry out these practices. This will bring about their final merger with the infinite consciousness. Perhaps for the achievement of this goal, nature has devised the master plan called evolution. It is, for accommodating an adequate amount of nerve cells and neural network, that the human skull has proportionately increased in size over the last one million years even though the body size has decreased. The spinal column has gradually straightened from four-legged animals to two-legged humans. This allows the cakras to line up straight and the mental energy to flow up and down expressing the propensities. The simpler hormonal system of animals has gradually evolved to that of humans, providing them a perfect body chemistry for the final merger.

Biological perfection doesn't guarantee psychological perfection. Biologically, humans may be the final term of evolution but their psychic imperfections make them vulnerable to stagnation and extinction. For psychic evolution to continue, we need a totally new culture that has a profound effect on our psychology as well as biology. Such a culture should teach us from alpha to omega of living. It should inculcate in us the skills that goad the mind upwards to more subtle levels. Only the mind flowing upward can transcend to the infinite consciousness. Such a culture should teach us as mundane things as eating and bathing and as subtle practices as spiritual meditation.

Our mundane activities have profound effect on our psychic growth. The food we eat, the drinks we consume and the air we breath, all affect the lymph formation in our body. The exercises that we do determines the lymph circulation in the body. Lymph is the food of nerve cells. It is also the raw material from, which hormones are synthesised in different glands. Therefore, mundane factors like these can change our body chemistry making it conducive to one or the other sets of mental propensities. Similarly, whatever enters our body through our sense organs has a profound effect on our chemistry and consequently on the expression of our mental urges. The social impact of violent films and pornographic materials, is a testimony to this fact.

Therefore, the root of all evils and all goodness appear to be our samskaras. We appear to be slaves in the hands of these reactions in potential form. Good or bad, both reactions are bondages that go on milling us in the merry-go-round of life and death and deprive us of our final destiny. As a result we acquire a body and a mind that goes on enduring and enjoying the pains and pleasures of life and in the process create more samskaras. Thus the vicious and self-perpetuating cycle continues forever, so much so that it creates an illusion of imperfection. As humans we have come to accept our imperfect destiny with no hope of perfection. We are content with our lot of despondency and disillusionment.

What then is the purpose of this biological perfection? It is said that psychic evolution follows biological evolution. Moreover, biological perfection can only be sustained if psychic evolution continues. But alas! We are tangled in the mesh of our samskaras. Isn't there a way out of this mesh? Sure there is. We have to exhaust these accumulated reactions, slowly but surely, by gradually expressing them in a way that they have minimal effects on our body, mind and society. For this expression we have to have a well integrated discipline to prepare our body, mind and behaviour.

Before they are expressed, samskaras have to ripen, not unlike the fruit from the trees before falling. Unfortunately, this ripening does not occur as long as our mind is preoccupied with the pains and pleasures of the body. The mind must withdraw from this sensual world if we want our samskaras to ripen. This usually occurs after death when there is no body, and mind with its samskaras floats in the vast space until they ripen. In this state, it takes a new life and therefore many of our happiness and sufferings have no explanations from this life.

We do not have to die to ripen our samskaras. Withdrawal of mind from the body can be artificially achieved by absorbing the conscious mind into the causal mind. This process is called spiritual meditation. The absorption of conscious mind allows the causal mind to come to the surface. This hastens the ripening process of samskaras as well as its expression. Therefore, we find that there is a sudden surge in the happiness or sufferings in the life of a beginner of spiritual meditation. To handle them properly and appropriately, our body, mind and behaviour must be primed otherwise the effects may be detrimental to our purpose. This priming requires a set of disciplines including food, drinks, exercises, social codes and lifestyle. Our perfect biology and evolved rationality allows us to pursue these disciplines so that we can minimise or even diffuse the impact of samskaras as they are expressed.

The constant endeavour to follow the physical, mental and social discipline allows us the soft landing as we gradually free ourselves from the clutches of samskaras by regular spiritual meditation. Other than spiritual elevation, there is no purpose of our biological perfection and psychic evolution. For this reason Shrii P.R. Sarkar stresses the importance of spiritual practices in human life. May I dare to say that his teachings can be condensed into two mere sentences:

1. One infinite consciousness has manifested into many and many will eventually merge into one infinite consciousness.

2. The purpose of human life is to perform sadhana (spiritual practices) to bring about this merger.

15 THE FINAL MERGER
"Now the element of physicality is predominant, but in future, the psychic element will become predominant......and that day, when the entire living world, dashing through a transitory phase of psychic, will become spiritual, will not be in the distant future." - P.R. Sarkar

So close and yet so far. We have a perfect nervous system, a complex battery of hormones and an exclusive biology. We live in a soup of consciousness from which we have originated. We are surrounded by the tiny microvita waiting to help us. We have this evolutionary force or cosmic wish to push us forward. Yet the final merger of our unit consciousness with its infinite source is so remote. This painful separation is due to our primitive psychology. Our mind is so crude and mundane that it constantly and incessantly embarks upon the spiralling, slippery-slide of merry-making. We are reduced to animals that are engineered by their physical urges.

It is our animal samskaras that have imprisoned our unit consciousness in this spiral. As we stand at different points in the evolutionary cycle, feeling helpless, waiting to be set free from the noose of samskaras, personalities appear from time to time to show us the direction, path and destination of the final merger. The science of yoga is the outcome of the thoughts, words and actions of such personalities. To bring about the merger, yoga recommends an unending fight on two fronts; an objective or external front and a subjective of internal front. The objective front consists of a lifestyle of discipline, purity and service to all living creatures. The subjective front constitutes a regular and sincere practice of meditation. Let us see how the mind unfolds through these practices, until it is set free.

Before our spiritual awakening, we are nothing more than animals. We are driven by our physical urges of which the sexual urge is the most dominant one. Almost all our thoughts and action have an element of sensuality. Our terranean plexus is in full control and our sex glands are very active. All passion is consumed by physical achievements. The pineal gland is suppressed and hypothalamus and pituitary are consumed in the control of gonads. Self-preservation is our most important mental occupation. Nothing other than the physical world exists for us. We snarl at the suggestion that something more exists beyond our sense-perceptions. We are unable to hear our own inner sounds.

Various degenerating propensities dictate our thoughts and actions. There is a constant fear of losing what we have. As a result, we run around accumulating more and more objects of comfort and security. In the process, we become so indulgent and selfish that we become indifferent to other's needs for security. However, when we find others have what we don't have, we become envious of them. Jealousy can reach to the heights of hatred and we don't hesitate to hurt them. We become cruel and sadistic. We lose confidence in others and then in ourselves. We feel helpless and become melancholic. Nevertheless, our yearning for acquisition compounds so that we can prove ourselves better than others.

In this state, our lower glands (gonads, adrenals and pancreatic islets) are overactive to cope with the high physical demands we put upon ourselves. Our metabolic rate, oxygen consumption, heart rate, respiratory rate and nerve tensions run high to meet the demands of an overactive mind, constantly running after physicality. Most of the lymph is consumed by the lower glands in the synthesis of their hormones. In cases of meat-eating people, there is already decreased formation of lymph. This leads to a relative deficiency of lymph. The brain cells are deprived of an adequate supply and the mind dwells on a physical plane. In summary, all our creative urge is expended in sexuality, creation of physical wealth and acquisition of mundane knowledge.

An initiation in spiritual meditation and its sincere practice gradually and slowly leads to a series of biological and psychological changes that bring about a change in one's thinking. The indifference is directed towards the vices rather than the virtues. The helplessness is replaced by hope, hatred by attachment and physical yearning by endeavour. The person becomes repentant of all wrong-doings and a conscience develops. However, these qualities bring with them some undesirable tendencies. For example, vanity, ego, avarice, altercation and hypocrisy.
The lower cakras and glands are somewhat restrained due to the inhibitions imposed by the hypothalamus and the pituitary. The pineal gland finds more expression. The nerve tension decreases. The metabolic rate, oxygen consumption, heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate fall. Lesser lymph is required by the lower glands and it is channelled to the upper glands and nerve cells.

There are three main steps in the process of meditation; sense-withdrawal, concentration of the mind on a point and rhythmic chanting of a mantra. During sense-withdrawal, the mind is withdrawn from external occupations step by step. This reduces the sensory input into the reticular activity system (RAS) of the brain stem that is necessary to keep our cerebral cortex in an awakened state so that we can maintain our contact with the external world. The reduced RAS input during meditation alters our state of consciousness that helps the concentration of the mind on an internal point in one of our cakras. In this state, an internal repetition of a mantra vibrates the mind. The subtle waves of these vibrations are picked up as cues by the pineal to secrete its hormones.

The altered states of consciousness thus achieved are associated with a sensation of some inner sound and feelings mediated through the temporal lobes and limbic system of the brain. In the first stage, one hears during meditation, the sound of crickets. The deeper second stage produces a sound of ankle bells and as the concentration gets deeper and deeper, sounds of temple bells, the ocean, flute and ultimately "OM" is heard. These sounds represent various stages of samadhi or absorption of the mind into one's unit consciousness. As the mind gradually becomes absorbed, the level of one's consciousness expands, raising one's awareness of this universe. The initial perception of the exclusively physical universe gradually transforms into feeling, contact and finally direct experience of the cosmic entity. In this state, one is finally unified with the cosmic entity. This process is called yoga and the meditator is a yogi.

The final merger, however, does not come easy. It requires an intense motivation, discipline and practice to eliminate and sublimate the lower propensities by step-wise control of the cakras and glands. In the process, behavioural changes are bound to occur. One becomes a practical person and avoids intellectual extravaganza. One develops the spirit of welfare and performs noble deeds. One's expression becomes sweet. There develops an intense urge for spiritual knowledge. Ultimately, one surrenders to the supreme being and finally one is set free.

16 Questions and Answers
There are a number of questions that I have been asked from time to time during the seminars I have conducted on this topic. I will endeavour to answer them in this chapter. They involve some compelling social issues that need to be commented upon from the point of view of biopsychology. It is fully realised that some comments may create considerable controversy. Ignoring or shirking them, however, will not be responsible. A note of caution is necessary here. The spiritual ideology is an integral part of the new science of biopsychology. Therefore, all opinions expressed here will include this perspective and must be taken in this context. Moreover, the opinions are personal and they are deductive.

Qn. What is the relationship between sexual activity and spiritual growth?

Ans. In every religion of the world, celibacy is regarded as the forebear of spiritual enlightenment. However, a rational explanation has been lacking. Sexuality is necessary for the survival of the species and for its evolution. No sex and no reproduction will lead to the end of the species from this earth. To encourage the reproduction sexuality has been flavoured with sensual gratification. As the demand for sexual gratification increased in this century, science has been able to disassociate it from the reproductive function by inventing various methods of contraception.

The freedom to enjoy sex without producing children has had its own social consequences including indulgence, promiscuity and perverted sexual practices. There appears to be an inverse relationship between these sexual aberrations and one's capacity to appreciate spiritual truths. Collectively also, the decline in spirituality corresponds with the increase in sexual permissiveness in the society. The societies with epidemics of sexual freedom, pornography and indulgent sexual behaviour produce negligible numbers of spiritually enlightened personalities.
How does sexuality influence our mind? Why does the perverted sex prevent spiritual growth? The answer lies in the psychology and biology of sex. Sexuality is a base propensity and requires the mind to flow in the objective chamber. When the reward of sexual gratification is so great that all the mental stuff is channelled into the objective chamber, the subjective qualities such as rationality and reasons subside. The subject becomes subservient to the object of enjoyment. If the need for gratification becomes repetitive, frequent and automated, the mind remains permanently objectified. It remains tied to this mundane world. Its subjectivisation becomes extremely difficult and its elevation to the spiritual realm an impossibility. Such a mind can lose control of itself resulting in mental diseases and psychopathic behaviour.
An objectivated mind flows downwards to excite lower cakras or plexuses - igneous, fluidal and terranian. These plexuses cause an increase in the activities of the lower endocrine glands, For example,. adrenals, prostate and sex glands. Consequently there is an over consumption of lymph by these glands and a relative deficiency in the upper glands. For example, thyroid, parathyroid, pituitary and pineal as well as in the nerve cells of the brain. This results in psycho-spiritual backwardness and it defeats the purpose of human life.

Spiritual development is most effectively enhanced by re-routing the sexual urge through a celibate lifestyle. This is borne out by some biological facts. The pineal, which is the seat of spiritual activity, is antagonistic to the sex glands. Its hormone, melatonin, has an anti-gonadotrophic effect. At puberty, melatonin secretion is at its lowest. Human sexual activity declines in winter months when pineal secretion is at its highest. It may be inferred that sexual indulgence and sexual perversion act against pineal functions.

Now a question may be asked; what is a normal sexual activity? According to the new science of Bio-psychology a normal sexual activity has the following qualifications:

1. It should not be an obstacle in the achievement of a pinnacled psychology. After all, that is the very purpose of human existence.
2. It should be conducive to the general scheme of evolution. It implies that reproduction is the primary purpose of evolution and sexual gratification is only a flavouring.
When the frequency, enactment and orientation of sex are detrimental to the achievement of psychological perfection and biological evolution, it can be called a perverted sex. According to this definition, only a heterosexual sex with a controlled frequency can be called a normal sex. However, it must be stressed that many perverted practices currently exist among heterosexual relationships that are conducive neither to the evolution nor to the psychological perfection. Shrii P.R. Sarkar says that sexual coitus more than four times a month on an average, will deprive the brain of the chemistry that is required to do spiritual meditation. He recommends this for the householders. For monks he prescribes complete celibacy. A householder is defined by him as men and women in a marital relationship.

Where does homosexuality fit in all this? Homosexual practices do not have the evolutionary component. They are devoid of reproduction. They only consist of the secondary component of sensual gratification. Hence it cannot be called normal in spiritual context.
It is hard to defend homosexuality on the grounds of a biological predetermination. There have been claims in recent times that sexual orientation is inherent. On closer analysis, these claims are superfluous and defy the mind-body concept of the "New Science of Bio-psychology". Moreover, the evidence that homosexuality is caused by "gay genes" is not conclusive. Dr Peter Little, a molecular geneticist at London's Imperial College, said, "to say this new research proves that there is a genetic basis for gayness is premature. We really don't know enough about chromosomes and how they are inherited."

Genes are only part of the overall story about sexual orientation. Genetic traits can be graded on a heritability score of one hundred. For comparison, the eye colour has a score of one hundred per cent. Genes have total control over the trait. The heritability score of homosexuality has been given a low score of thirty-one per cent. This infers that environmental factors are still strong influences on the emergence of such behaviour. Therefore, the geneticists warn that the evidence for "gay genes" is tentative. Like many other human behaviours, the genetic basis of homosexuality is now thought to be at best questionable and at worst wrong.

No part of our biology is immutable. Even our genes can undergo mutations naturally or artificially. A deep longing and a strong motivation can alter any part or whole of our biology. This is the demand of adaptation. Sex drive, like other drive states, feeds on our motivation to seek pleasure. This is mediated through neural and hormonal changes in the body. The sexual urge however, is repetitive and self-perpetuating, which eventually brings about changes in the hypothalamus and the limbic system. Any biological differences found in homosexuals may be the result, rather than the cause, of their sexual orientation.

It must be stressed however, that the above argument must be taken in a spiritual context and should not be used for the social oppression or deprivation of homosexuals.

Qn. What are the bio-psychological differences between the two genders?

Ans. The rivalry between men and women has become pathological in modern societies. Although there are no doubts about the social and spiritual equalities of the sexes, there remain biological and psychological differences between the two genders of this species.
Women have a relatively smaller cranium with a lower number of nerve cells in the brain than men. There are some differences in the intracellular structures of the nerve cells as well. Some propensities are strongly developed in women as compared to men. In particular women have much more love for their children than men. When this love is excessive they fail to provide their step-children with the same care as to their own.

The number of sentiment oriented nerve cells are more in women than in men. Therefore, in spheres which need sentimentality women progress fast. For example, art and music. On the other hand in the areas that require rationality men progress rapidly.

Apart from the pineal and the pituitary all other glands differ in men and women. The parathyroid gland is less developed in women. These differences do not suggest superiority or inferiority of any gender. They are rather an appropriate inner environment for the psycho-spiritual growth of both sexes.

Qn. What changes occur in the bio-psychology, after a sex-change operation?

Ans. The determination of our sex is by a process of natural selection. This process is driven by our samskaras. As described elsewhere, the causal mind with its repository of samskaras floats in the vast space until it finds an appropriate physical structure that has just been conceived. After it enters the newly formed embryo, its momentum differentiates the latter into a male or a female baby. It is through this structure that the samskaras are best expressed to lead the individual towards perfection.

Any apparent need for change in the naturally selected sex is due to samskaras acquired later in life. They are acquired through the objectivated mind. The latter cannot lead to spiritual elevation. It is like changing the rules half way through the game. Biologically also, a sex change can bring about the transformations only in the sensual and not in the reproductive aspect of sex.

Many hormones can be artificially replaced but the size of the cranium cannot be altered. Therefore, women changing to male sex will suffer from headaches as the number of nerve cells in the brain try to increase within the smaller cranium. Therefore sex change is not desirable on ideological as well as biological grounds.


Qn. What are the effects of contraceptive pills?

Ans. It cannot be denied that human beings have their destiny in their own hands and they should retain this power. However, the methods of use of this power can be questioned. We should all have the total control on how many children we have but the choice of the methods of limiting our family should be an informed one. There is an enormous amount of material available in the field of contraception, however, all are within the narrow confines of modern medicine. No doubt the popular methods are simple and effective in preventing pregnancies and there is other information that needs to be taken into consideration before making the choice.

Contraception with hormones or by sterilisation operations do disturb the delicate hormonal balance in the body. Physical and psychic effects of these methods are well known to medical science and many of them are undesirable. These methods are primarily suppressing the gonads and have secondary effects on the pituitary gland. This much is known to medicine but its effects on the cakras and the mind is beyond its jurisdiction.

Qn. Can abortion be justified?

Ans. Abortion for medical reasons to protect the life of the mother, will not find much opposition from any corner. The abortion on demand however, will not enjoy the same level of acceptance. The controversy centres around the question of when the foetus becomes a person.

At the onset of pregnancy a causal mind enters the embryo to start its journey of life. It will not be appropriate to say that its life has no meaning. A premature termination of this life is neither moral nor ideological. However, the expression of consciousness at this stage is very little and no plexuses have yet developed. Only the lower plexuses of the mother are able to sustain its existence. As the pregnancy progresses the consciousness expresses more and more, organs and plexuses develop and physical and psychic bonding occur between the mother and the foetus. The termination of pregnancy at this stage will be detrimental to the physical and psychic health of the mother, in addition to the deprivation of life to the foetus.

Women undergoing abortion need time to recover, not solely due to the physical effects of the procedure. Their whole glandular system, hormones and plexuses undergo a severe shock, from which they recover very slowly. Some show its mental effects for a considerable period of time and some never recover.

The choice however, is personal and it should be based on proper information with full knowledge of physical, mental and spiritual consequences of the procedure. In no case should abortion be used as an alternative to contraception.
Qn. Can we reconcile assisted fertilisation?

Ans. Artificial insemination (AI), in-vitro-fertilisation (IVF), gamete intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT) and embryo transplantation (ET) are some of the commonly used techniques for bringing light in the lives of childless couples. Although the motives in these cases are benevolent, the end does not always justify the means and hence the emergence of various social repercussions of these practices. These include surrogacy, hire-a-womb, commercial interests, incest, cloning, old age pregnancies, homosexual pregnancies and many more. Maybe our civilisation is not yet ready for these technological developments. Maybe science has overstepped civilisation.

The evidence, moreover, is emerging that the artificially conceived babies are at a greater risk of disabilities or even death. These babies are usually born pre-term and require neonatal intensive care. There is a higher incidence of multiple babies, low birth weight and prenatal deaths. Scientists are reporting an increased rate of hospital admissions in their first year of life. Some reports indicate a higher incidence of blood disorders and even cancer in women with aided conception. They require fertility drugs which are usually hormones that stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs for conception. This may cause immediate adverse effects such as stroke and other serious vascular disorders. This ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome, as it is called, can be life-threatening.

Women with assisted conception require delivery by caesarean operation more often than the normal population. Some reports put it to forty percent and this involves an additional risk to the mother. An increased risk of breast cancer has been reported from some centres. Therefore, the assisted fertilisation is not a risk-free process after all. The psychological consequences of the process are not properly understood as yet. The couples opting for these procedures need to be fully informed of the total effects of this technology.

The artificial insemination with the donor sperm however, is a different matter. A biological offspring of a couple must derive its genetic material from both its parents. No amount of legislative changes can mask this fact, howsoever convenient they may be. AI in this sense is hardly different to adoption or fostering of a child. It is open to more abuses than any other method of assisted fertilisation, by the consumers as well as by the providers (I have deliberately used the word assisted fertilisation because it is only the fertilisation process that is assisted by the technology). Embryo formation depends solely on the entrance of a causal mind into it. Thousands of eggs from hundreds of women are helped to fertilisation everyday in test tubes or fallopian tubes, but only a minuscule of them develop into embryos because technology can only provide the medium for the incarnation of causal mind, it cannot create one.

Laboratory babies are a reality. They are here not only to stay but to prosper in future. It is our responsibility to ensure that this technology is appropriately used and no abuse occurs whatsoever. These babies must have a congenial environment for the expression of their samskaras. Both, internal as well as external factors contribute to this environment. Although the external factors can be provided by any kind of parents, such as heterosexual, homosexual, donor sperm-inseminated, defacto, surrogate and foster parents; the internal environment however, can only be provided by the biological parents.

17 FREUD, JUNG AND P.R. SARKAR

"In my picture of the world there is a vast outer realm and an equally vast inner realm; between these two stands man, fanow one and now the other, and, according to his mood or disposition, taking one for the absolute truth by denying or sacrificing the other." - Carl Jung.
the West, philosophy, religion and science have grown divergent and in many aspects rivalled each other. In contrast, in the East, they are largely complementary and are synthesised into a unified and comprehensive concept what can be called intuitional science. Sigmund Freud had almost exclusively a Western background whereas Carl Jung came in close contact with Eastern thinkers. Shrii P.R. Sarkar, in contrast, was more of a universalist. His universalism permeated in each and everyone of his discourses and writings.

In Europe the religious thoughts prevailed in the pre-scientific era. The philosophy was an outcome of the clashes and cohesion of theologian thoughts. With the decline of the religions and the advent of the modern science in the seventeenth century, the philosophy took a back seat. Science prevailed and philosophy only served the purpose of science. With this change in master, the philosophy could not provide the basis of understanding of human mind. Psychology developed under the shelter of science where it remains today, restricted and truncated in scope, devoid of metaphysics and spiritual cult. The knowledge of human mind is chained in the materialistic paradigms of physics and chemistry. It must be unchained if its full potential is to be realised.

FREUD

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia and lived in Vienna, Austria until 1937 when he moved to London after the Nazis took over Austria where he died in 1939. This period was the peak of scientific thinking that transformed the life of every human being on this planet and revolutionised man's conception of man. When Freud was three years old his parents moved to Vienna. The same year Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" was being published. Darwin stripped the man of the virtue of his soul and reduced him to an animal in the forefront of evolution. When Freud was four years old, in 1860 a German scientist, Gustav Fechner founded the science of psychology and brought the human mind within the confines of scientific study. Freud's intellectual development was greatly influenced by these two men.

During the second half of the nineteenth century when Freud was vulnerable, many other scientific discoveries occurred in Europe. Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch established the "germ theory" of diseases giving rise to the science of bacteriology. Gregor Mendel's experiments on the garden peas gave rise to the science of genetics. One that influenced Freud's thinking most was the principle of conservation of energy. A German physicist Herman von Helmholtz proposed that energy is a quantity as the mass is a quantity. It can change forms but it cannot be destroyed and when it disappears from one part of a system it will appear elsewhere in the system. This started "the golden age of energy" that saw the discoveries of thermodynamics, radioactivity, electromagnetic fields, subatomic physics and quantum theory among many others. As these theories were emerging Freud had become a young scientist engaged in biological research. Like other science laboratories, his was also influenced by the new theory of energy and dynamics.

Freud, by preference a scientist, was forced by the pressure of circumstances to take up a medical carrier. As a medical student in the University of Vienna he met his mentor in Ernst Brucke who was a physiologist reputed for his radical view that the living organism is a dynamic system to which the laws of physics and chemistry apply. Influenced by the laws of energy dynamics and by his physiologist mentor, Freud proceeded to create a dynamic psychology, twenty years later, that studied the transformations and exchanges of energy within the human personality. For this he earned tremendous accolade then and continues to do so even today.

Freudian concept colours almost everything that exists in the psychology of the West today. His admirers call him a genius and his critics a pervert. Some regard him a philosopher, psychologist, psychoanalyst and much more, all rolled into one. His concept of the development, organisation and dynamics of personality underlines almost every social institution in the West.

Freud believed that there is a limited amount of psychic energy that human beings possess. This energy is channelled into three major systems that form the personality of the individual. When these three systems are in harmony with appropriate amounts of psychic energy in them, the person is mentally healthy with well-adjusted personality. Such a person can carry out an efficient and satisfying transaction with his environment to fulfil his basic desires and needs. When the three systems are in conflict with each other, there develops a tension in the psychic energy, resulting in maladjusted personality and mental disease. For mental health, this tension must be released. Freud also believed that the psychic energy is largely sexual in nature and man has drawn upon this energy to create his culture and his civilisation. Therefore, he eroticised almost all human relationships. It is this aspect that took the West by storm in the Post-First World War era. His, "Three Essays on Sexuality," is regarded by many in the West as his most important work. Psychoanalysis was associated with sex and it was considered fashionable to be psychoanalysed.

The three systems that the personality consists of, Freud called Id, Ego and Superego. The Id, he described as the pleasure principle in which the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain are the sole motives. Its aim is to rid the person of tension by sense-gratification or "wish-fulfilment." Reason and logic are not its domain. It is the seat of instincts. The energy of Id is utilised solely in meeting the instinctual needs of the organism such as food, sleep, shelter and sex. Id does not have the ability to discriminate between objects. It can not discriminate between a finger and a nipple. It is infantile in character and remains so throughout one's life. Like a baby, it wants immediate gratification. It is impulsive and demanding, irrational and selfish. It distorts the thinking process. Freud called such thinking as predicate thinking and suggesting that racial prejudices, dreams and waking symbolism and fantasies are forms of predicate thinking.

Freud regarded Id as the primary source of psychic energy, as well as the primary subjective reality. He acknowledges that it is obscure and inaccessible and yet the foundation upon which the personality is built. It is the repository of repressed experiences. It resorts to anything; imagination, fantasy, dreams and even hallucinations to fulfil its wishes. It wishes and acts without thinking. Therefore, the subjective mind for him is animal and evil, and yet necessary for the basic evolutionary functions of survival and reproduction.

The Ego on the other hand is the reality principle that performs the executive function. This is constant contact with the environment, engaged in thinking and problem-solving. It controls and governs Id as well as Superego. As long as it remains in control, harmony and adjustment prevail in the personality. However, it has no energy of its own. Although it has such potentialities as memory, judgement, discrimination and rationality, they remain latent until psychic energy is channelled into this ego from the Id. When the tension in the Id fails to be relieved, the psychic energy is channelled into the ego system that enables the person to discriminate between the subjective and objective worlds. The logical thinking replaces the wish-fulfilment and reality replaces the images. Freud called it the "secondary process," the primary process being the image-formation and the wish-fulfilment. When the Ego fails to satisfy the demands of the Id, the energy is diverted back into the Id system and the primary process reigns again.

The Superego is the moral, judgmental and perfecting principle of the personality. It strives neither for pleasure nor reality. It is a person's moral code that develops out of the Ego, under the influence of parental and environmental factors in one's childhood. It has two components; Ego-Ideals and Ego-Conscience. The former relates to what is considered morally good and the latter to what is morally bad. The Superego controls the Ego and therefore, the thoughts and actions of the person, by the reward and punishment mechanism. If the Ego has been "good" for a long time it allows him a short period of pride and indulgence; physical, emotional or sexual. However, if the Ego has transgressed the moral codes, it may punish him with a curse or guilt of an illness or accident.

Freud explained illness and accident on the basis of the psychology of self-punishment for having done something wrong. In his view pride, guilt and inferiority are the tools that the superego uses to reward and punish the ego. They represent parental love and parental rejection. He believed that traditional values and ideals of the society are handed down from parents to children through the formation of the superego. All figures of authority in the society can play the role of parents. All authorities, parental or otherwise primarily use the dynamics of superego to control and regulate the society by placing inner restraint on its members so that they can become law-abiding citizens.

The id, ego and superego can be well summarised in the words of Calvin S. Hall. "If the id is regarded as the product of evolution and the psychological representative of one's biological endowment, and ego is the resultant of one's interaction with objective reality and the province of the higher mental process, then the superego may be said to be the product of socialisation and the vehicle of cultural tradition."10

The id, ego and superego are not separate entities but a blended system where they interact to form the total personality. The transformations and exchanges of energy in these systems are the fundamental feature of Freudian psychology, hardly surprising when one considers the "golden age of energy" that he lived and worked-through. Freud revised and modified his concept several times because of the interactions he had with his patients. Psychoanalysis of his patients was his forte. Throughout his work it is obvious that Freud's is the psychology of a morbid mind. Even Jung commented "Freud's is not a psychology of a healthy mind".11 It is true that "his philosophy of life was based on science rather than on metaphysics or religion".12 However, his science was not based on love for the truth or for that matter love for true knowledge but on the love for measurements, a legacy of the nineteenth century science. He always followed the path of knowledge through measurements and tried to confine human mind in quantities so that the scientists of the day were compelled to accept and open the door of science to the psyche.

Freud was so overwhelmed with what he saw in his patients that he could only see the animal and evil in human nature. This made him very critical and pessimistic of mankind. He has focused this view in his book The Nature of an Illusion. He felt that rational forces in man's nature have little chance to overcome the dominance of irrationality. Masses are comfortable with their delusions. This turned him into a social critic who believed that society has been fashioned by irrational people and in turn corrupts the new generations.
Freud may have been a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a psychoanalyst, a philosopher or a scientist, he was however, certainly not a seeker of the truth. Darwin gave man an animal body and Freud put in it an animal mind. Truth is not all evil and negative as his theory of unconscious promulgates. The evil is perhaps a mere shadow of the truth. Freud neither had association nor inclination to break out of this shadow.

JUNG

Carl Gustav Jung, like Freud, was also a man of medicine. He was born in 1875 in Switzerland and died in 1961 in Zurich. During this period of eighty five years he passed through a childhood of physical and emotional deprivation, a turbulent student life, a mystery illness which disappeared mysteriously, and a few close brushes with death. His mother suffered from a mental illness and his father was difficult to get along with, at least for the young man. From his very childhood he had strange dreams and paranormal experiences. His early conflicts with religions had important influence on his subsequent thinking.

His grandfather was a professor of medicine but he never thought of studying medicine because of his unconscious determination not to imitate anyone. However, due to a sudden burst of inspiration he chose to become a doctor. Various occult experiences, dreams and parapsychological phenomena influenced him to become a psychiatrist. In December 1900 he took up his first appointment in a mental hospital in Zurich. His major mentor was none other than Sigmund Freud who called him his adopted son, his crown prince and his successor. However, Jung could not be anyone's disciple. He was too independent for it and later terminated this association.

Notwithstanding his conflict with Western religions and theology, Jung always had a keen interest in Eastern religions which precipitated his trip to India and Ceylon. He wrote extensively about the differences in the personalities of Western and Eastern people and pointed out that Eastern people are predominantly introverted, whereas the Western mind is predominantly extroverted. He took keen interest in the subjects of astrology, telepathy, clairvoyance, yoga, spiritualism, alchemy and many others that were not generally accepted as a part of scientific study. He also travelled to Africa, Egypt and New Mexico. His African trip gave him the experience of collective consciousness that became a major part of his psychological concept.

Jung was one of the pioneers of psychoanalysis. At the time psychiatry was trying to establish itself as a branch of medicine. The scientific psychology did not provide the psychoanalysts with the kind of knowledge of human mind that they needed for founding the practice of psychiatry. The laboratory experiments on human behaviour and personality did not provide them the necessary information. Hence, they turned to their patients to formulate the concepts of human psyche. Freud, Jung and many others obtained their knowledge of human psychology from the study of their patients.

Therefore the epistemology of psychoanalysis is from the study of pathological mental states, although they derived their sustenance from other sources. Jung was no exception to this. His extensive travel and knowledge of other cultures, religions, occultism and mythology helped him to modify, from time to time, his psychological concepts that he primarily formed by the study of abnormal mind.

Jung called the whole personality as psyche. In his view this wholeness of the psyche is inherent in every human being. As long as this wholeness is maintained, the man is well-adjusted and is in harmony with his environment. When the wholeness gets fragmented, the personality becomes dissociated and deformed. The Jungian psychology could be condensed into three major headings; structure of psyche, psychic energy and psychodynamics.

The structure of psyche, according to Jung consists of various levels and sub-levels. He distinguished three main levels; conscious, personal unconscious and collective unconscious. The conscious is present since birth but grows through thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting. The predominance of one or the other of these four functions will determine the basic character of the child as a thinking type, feeling type and so on. The orientation of the conscious psyche is determined by the attitudes of extroversion and introversion. The extroversion propels the mind to the objective world whereas the introversion towards the subjective world. Thus the consciousness of the person becomes individualised. Jung called this process individuation "to denote the process by which a person becomes a psychological individual".13

The individuation organises the consciousness into an ego to feel, think and remember. It is because of the ego that the identity and continuity of the personality is maintained. The day to day experiences are processed by the ego before they reach the consciousness. The ego selects what feelings, thoughts or memory will be brought into awareness. Thus ego plays a gate-keeping role.

The experiences that are not acknowledged by the ego are not lost to the personality. They are stored in another level of the psyche which Jung called the personal unconscious. Repressed memory, complexes and dreams are some of the examples of this storage. He wrote extensively on complexes and devised the word association test to elicit them. He pointed out that complexes can have an overpowering effects on our thoughts and behaviour. Like Freud, Jung in the beginning believed that the complexes originate from traumatic childhood experiences. However, he realised later that they must originate from something deeper. This something deeper he called collective unconscious. He proposed that this collective unconscious is inherited in the same way as the physical characteristics are inherited. Thus Jung brought psychology within the folds of evolution and heredity.

Biologists have put forward two views of mechanism of evolution. The one called Lamarkism suggests that all learned experiences are inherited by future generations so that they do not have to learn them all over again. The other view proposes a mutation in the germ cell to adapt to the environment. The fit are naturally selected and unfit are eliminated. Jung belonged to the Lamarkist school. He believed that our predisposition to think, feel or react in certain ways is due to the latent images that are formed from the experiences of our ancestors and passed down from generation to generation. However, it is only the current individual experiences that will manifest them. He believed that the form of the world in which one is born is already inborn in him as a virtual image. Therefore the collective unconscious that we inherit contains pre-formed images in latent forms. The latent of the unconscious becomes manifest in the conscious when exposed to corresponding experiences, for instance the fear of dark and the fear of snake. Jung appears to have suggested that something cannot come out of nothing unless it is already built there-in.

Jung tried to explain the evolution of collective unconscious in the same way as the biological evolution, by mutation and natural selection. Because the brain is the principal medium through which mind acts, its evolution will determine what contents of the collective unconscious will manifest. The contents of the collective unconscious he called archetypes. Archetypes are original models capable of replicating. He suggested there are as many archetypes as there are typical situations in life. They are forms without content like the negative of a photograph. It has to be developed by the experience of the conscious mind into a real photograph. Jungian archetypes interact with each other to produce differences among individual personalities. He identified four basic archetypes common to all personalities:
1. The Persona. The word persona is derived from a mask worn by an actor to play a specific role. The persona archetype allows one to play a socially desirable role different to his real character. It enables one to conform to others and to the society without really meaning it. Thus it allows him to lead a dual life and in some cases multiple lives. A persona-ridden person becomes alienated from his nature. Jung called persona as the "outward face" of a person.
2. The Anima and Animus. The "inward face" of a male he called as anima and that of a female as animus. Every person has some qualities of the opposite sex. The feminine side of male psyche is anima and the male side of female psyche is animus. He wrote "Every man carries with him the eternal images of the woman, not the image of this or that particular woman, but a definite female image."14
3. The Shadow. This represents all that is best and worst in a person. On one hand it contains man's basic animal nature and on the other his creativity and deep insight. Therefore, a genius is also mad. By inspiring the person it can turn a beast into a holy man. It is equally effective in promoting evil as well as good. It is responsible for vitality and vigour in the personality.
4. The Self. It is the unifying principle of personality rendering it a sense of "oneness". If it fails the man goes to pieces. If it succeeds it gives direction to life. Jung concluded that "the self is our life's goal, for it is the most complete expression of that fateful combination we call individuality."15

Like Freud, Jung was also born and bred in the golden age of energy. In order to make it palatable to scientists he had to formulate his concepts with the flavour of the time. He suggested that like the physical energy that drives the body, the psychic energy carries out the functions of personality. He called it libido. However, unlike Freud, Jung's libido did not mean sexual energy. The libido enables the person to think, will, desire, remember, feel, strive and so on. This is always active even during sleep. Jung pointed out that the psychic energy and the physical energy are inter-convertible. The sources of psychic energy are experiences just as the source of physical energy is food. The libido has enabled man to create his culture and his civilisation.

Jung's psyche is a relatively closed energy system. It derives energy from two sources; from sensory experiences and from instincts. The system is constantly evaluating the various psychological needs and commits energy accordingly. The amount of energy committed to a particular psychic function he called its value. The value of a psychic element varies from time to time. Today we may give more importance to reading and tomorrow to playing. The distribution of energy to various levels of psyche is determined by the laws of thermodynamics; equivalence and entropy. The principle of equivalence states that when energy is lost from one psychic component an equivalent amount will appear in other parts of the psyche. Therefore, loss of interest in something is always associated with a new interest in something else. That is to say that the energy can be rechannelled.

The principle of entropy states that the rechannelling of psychic energy tends to occur from a component of high value to one of low value until the gradient is zero. This is essential to balance the system and avoid tensions and conflicts. Of course, a perfect balance is never achieved because energy is constantly being added to the system from external sources. The flow of energy can occur in two directions; external and internal. When it flows outward to adapt to the external situation, Jung called it progression and when it is diverted inward to activate the contents of unconscious, he called it a regression.
In Jungian psychology the source of natural energy is the instinct that flows in all directions but can not perform any work. To work, is to be rechannelled, transformed or converted. This process he called canalisation. Without canalisation there would have been no developments of the society and culture. Schools, churches, technology, art and science are all outcomes of canalisation. Jung also pointed out that only a small part of instinctual energy can be canalised, most of it remains in its natural flow for sustaining life. When one identifies a strong symbol then only a part of the energy will be converted by the "act of will". Calvin Hall et al. described this conversion as follows: " Excess libido has enabled man to advance from being a creature of natural instincts, through the stage of superstition and magic, to the modern era of science, technology and art. Sometimes, of course, excess energy is used for destructive and even diabolical ends. ' Act of will ' can be used to destroy as well as create."16

Freud believed that the psychic energy is largely sexual. Jung believed that sexuality is only one of the psychological functions, although an important and far-reaching one. Freud made sexuality rampant and Jung tried to put it in its proper place.

Jung found that the instincts are continually colliding with something. He was prepared to accept this "something" as the spirit. However, he admitted not knowing what this spirit is in itself. On this point he distanced himself from Freud who rejected the idea of spirit. Unlike Freud, he did not turn his back on philosophy. He wrote "In my picture of the world there is a vast outer realm and an equally vast inner realm; between these two stands man, facing now one and now the other, and, according to his mood or disposition, taking one for the absolute truth by denying or sacrificing the other."17

Jung defined a 'modern man' as one who is fully conscious of the present rather than one who exists in present time. One who is detached from the traditions and becomes 'unhistorical' is modern. For Jung, much of the evil in this world is because the man is 'hopelessly unconscious'. The purpose of all social institutions including religions, science, art and education has been to make the man more conscious. However, he could find only failure on the part of these institutions, and sometimes even obstruction in the development of psychic life. He expressed these in the following words: "While man still lives as a herd-being he has no 'things of spirit' of his own; nor does he need any, save the usual belief in the immortality of the soul. But as soon as he has outgrown whatever local form of religion he was born to - as soon as this religion can no longer embrace his life in all its fullness - then the psyche becomes something in its own right which cannot be dealt with by the measures of the church alone."18 He further wrote; "The various forms of religion no longer appear to the modern man to come from within - to be expressions of his own psychic life; for him they are to be classed with the things of the outer world".

Through his psycho-analysis Jung helped many sick persons and brought hope to thousands. However, like Freud, he turned into a pessimist himself, a legacy of the First World War that terrorised his imagination. The tragedy shook the very foundation of his thinking and he held the Christian nations responsible for it. He wrote thus; ".... I realise only too well that I am loosing my faith in the possibility of a rational organisation of the world, that old dream of millennium, in which peace and harmony should rule, has gone pale."19

Jung's writings clearly suggest that he oscillated between great optimism and pessimism. He was a man of science and always believed in scientific methods and yet after living through the First World War he lost faith in the ability of science to make the man more conscious. He expressed this loss of faith thus - "Science has destroyed even the refuge of the inner life. What was once a sheltering haven has become a place of terror."20 He could recognise the problems of science but not of the scientific methods and physical laws he so passionately used for explaining the psyche. He blamed the West for everything from wars to the economic ruins of the world. He made stinging remarks on religions for being a thing of the 'outer world'. I am not going to even try to argue his assertions right or wrong. However, I hasten to point out that if the science and the religions of the West are on (in?) the wrong, he has contributed to it along with Freud, Adler, Darwin, Newton and many more scientists who were driven by two main forces; reaction to the irrational religions and fascination with physical laws. This repulsion and attraction are the two opposites of which Jung so extensively wrote.

If the principles of equivalence and entropy are applied to the collective consciousness of the scientist community, it becomes easier to see why science has been more destructive than constructive in the past three centuries. Instead of rationalising the religions the energy was displaced to work out the physical laws. As a result, religions, philosophy and science grew apart in the West. In this outward movement outer life prospered and inner life became derelict of which Jung so bitterly complained. Religions remained irrational and science became heartless. In the West scientists, philosophers and religions have consistently failed to recognise that it is only in the synthesis of the three that the welfare of the humankind rests. Jung was no exception to this fact.

P. R. SARKAR

Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, unlike Freud and Jung, was not a man of medicine, or for that matter not even a man of material science. He was born on a full moon night in the year 1921 in Jamalpur, India, a small town about three hundred kilometres south (north?) west of Calcutta. He was the fourth child in a family of eight that saw premature death of its three youngsters. His parents were religious and socially well adjusted. His father was known to be a selfless social worker, a compassionate physician and an accountant. He passed away when Prabhat was only fifteen years old.

The young man continued his secondary education with his usual brilliance and also shared the responsibilities of the family of which he was the eldest male member. After passing year twelve in science with distinction, he left his formal education in Calcutta for better things and returned to his native town of Jamalpur. He joined the Indian Railways during British Raj as an accounts clerk in the year 1941. The next fifteen years of his life was a period of consolidation and planning. He was not a scholar and did not own or read books of great scholars and learned people. However, he had deep penetrating intellect to expose the true spirit of any writing and Scriptures. His immaculate personal discipline and sweet behaviour earned him the respect of all his colleagues and contacts.

From his childhood Sarkar had strange dreams and visions. At the age of fourteen years he lived through a devastating earthquake that demolished his home. At school he had a small circle of friends to whom he carefully listened and instructed. He liked solitude and yet he was not a loner. He was vocal but not talkative. He appeared to have struck a perfect balance between extroversion and introversion. As a young man he wrote stories and essays and composed poems and music. Later in his life he composed more than five thousand songs with complete notations that came to be known as Prabhat Samgeet or songs of the crimson dawn.

In the early part of this century the clouds of European culture, religion and politics were slowly spreading all over the globe with the help of science and technology that Europe had developed. Jung argued that these were the black clouds of deluge and destruction. Nevertheless, different cultures, religions and philosophies came face to face and in many cases resulted in most horrific conflicts. However, when one rakes through the dead bodies, one finds that the death and destruction have not been all futile. It has brought mankind in direct conflict with his inner self, with his conscience. It has delivered the message, loud and clear that outer growth without inner development can only be catastrophic and the expansion of the empire destroys the kingdom within. The objective reality has no meaning without its subjective counterpart. Quantum physics and the theory of Relativity have delivered the same message.

History testifies that whenever science oversteps civilisation, destruction is inevitable. Yet, in the twentieth century the same has happened repeatedly and continues to happen even today. Science, in spite of its tremendous achievements, has left the inner life hollow and empty. It has confined itself to the exploration of matter. It has replaced its most fundamental inquiry, "Is it true?", with the question, "Does it work?" It has become a thing of the relative world. Jung wrote of it thus; "Whenever relativism is taken as a fundamental and final principle, it has destructive effect"21, although he was a man of science himself. Every thinking mind is asking the questions that science is unable to answer. What is our true nature? What is our subjective self? What is the relationship of our inner and outer worlds? How can we have a subjective approach without neglecting the objective? Answers to these questions have not been forthcoming from any corner of the globe and yet they are crucial to our existence.

Sarkar gave not only philosophical but practical and comprehensive answers to these questions. He was not a social critic and yet propounded a comprehensive social philosophy. He was not a psychologist and yet gave a soul searching account of human psychology. Above all, he gave a most elaborate philosophy and practice of spirituality; the science of inner life. He did all this because of his intense love for the humankind. He never criticised anything of the world to demean and derogate it. His criticisms always contained in-built solutions. He was never a pessimist. He always held the view that the future of mankind is glorious. To bring about this glorious change, he founded Ananda Marga, an organisation which reflects the collection of his works and everything he stood for. From 1955 when he formed this organisation, until his death in October 1990, he spent every moment of his life to build in it the total solutions to the problems of the day and of the future. He had no mentor, however, he was a mentor to thousands.

Sarkarian psychology provides a unique concept of psychic structure, psychic energy and psycho-dynamics. Like Freud and Jung, he also held the view that the human psyche operates from different levels. However, Sarkar's concept differs from the rest not only in the terminology but in the methodology of their operation. At the lowest level stands what Sarkar called the protozoic mind. Every living cell has its own little mind that enables it to imbibe nutrition, metabolise and multiply. Collectively the minds of all the cells, called protozoic microcosm, reflect the animal aspect of human nature. It has a strong motive power but lacks rationality. Therefore, like the id of Freud, it is instinctive and spontaneous. It draws the higher levels of mind to be consumed in the survival game. However, it represents the physical aspect of human nature and succumbs only to physical disciplines. Food, drink and lifestyle can influence it to be creative or destructive. "In the protozoic minds there is a dominance of instinct", says Sarkar. "An animal does not understand discrimination, but the stick", he adds.

The second level is called metazoic mind. All cells are not similar in a human structure. They are organised in a most complex machinery with a variety of parts. During evolution a growing complexity of the structure led to the development of the metazoic mind. This level of mind is also principally consumed in physical survival and base gratification. However, it has also developed some intellect to feel and learn. Because it can feel pain and pleasure, it looks for enjoyment of pleasure and avoidance of pain. It learns by experience and acquaintance therefore it can be trained by repetitive stimulus. Reflex activities are the domain of the metazoic mind. The more complex the structure, the more developed the metazoic mind. Like the protozoic mind, it also influences the higher levels to be consumed by its occupations. It can be tamed by a combination of physical and mental disciplines.

The third level is what he called the personal mind that controls and executes both protozoic and metazoic minds. It has a capacity to think, rationalise and remember. It can also discriminate between proper and improper. It is a unique and exclusive feature of human beings whereas protozoic and metazoic minds are common to animals. It differentiates humans from other species. Shrii Sarkar stresses that only those who are driven by this level are human beings in the true spirit of the word. He also called it the unit mind.

The unit mind consists of three sub-levels; crude or conscious, subtle or subconscious and causal or unconscious. The crude mind is objective, fragmented and extroversive. It links us with the outer world of which it is constantly inquisitive and enjoys pleasures and feels pains arising from it. It is most active in the wakeful state and is therefore driven by the sensory organs. Its contents belong to the crude material world. Its knowledge is objective knowledge acquired in three stages; sensory perception, inference and authority. Whatever is perceived by sense organs goes through a process of thinking and association with past experiences and finally it is reinforced by some authority.

The subtle mind contains the faculty of thinking and memory. It has the capacity of recollection and contemplation. Dreams are the creation of subtle mind. Both crude and subtle minds require nerve cells to execute their programmes. The memories they contain are called cerebral memory. Therefore, they cease to exist when the brain dies.

Shrii Sarkar strongly held the view that nothing in this universe is lost or destroyed. Like the energy, ideas are never lost. The hopes, aspirations and frustration of people has remained stored in the deepest levels of mind that he called the causal mind. Unlike the unconscious mind of Freud and Jung, the causal mind of Sarkar is not the source of all evils. It is the repository of infinite knowledge and creativity. It is common and archetypal to all human beings. Nevertheless, it contains the effects of all our past deeds, both noble and evil, in the form of potential reactions. These potential reactions, that he called samskaras, are created by our crude and subtle minds in the wakeful and dream states.

The causal mind never sleeps. In fact it is most active during sleep. In the wakeful and dream states it is masked by the restlessness of the crude and subtle minds. The causal mind does not require nerve cells for its functions. Therefore, its contents; memory, samskaras and intuition are extracerebral. They manifest only by special intuitional rather than rational events or practices. Many great discoveries of the past testify to this fact. When causal mind sleeps death occurs. However, causal mind does not die with the body, as long as it contains samskaras. For the expression and annihilation of these potential reactions, it has to return again in a physical structure. Therefore, the theory of birth and rebirth is an essential feature of Sarkar's psychological concepts. According to him the entire past history of a human being is stored in a sequential order in his causal mind, just like a colourful panorama, one layer representing one life followed by a gap, then another layer representing another life and so on and so forth. One's personality is the resultant of these layers and hence its individuality and uniqueness. In other words this level of mind is the cause of everything that the crude and subtle minds perform. Hence it is called causal mind.

In the depths of causal mind lies the unit consciousness, the witness to the actions of all the layers of mind. It is like the stage- light in which actors perform their acts without being aware of it. Without this light their acts are non-events. Similarly, without the unit consciousness, unit mind is non-existent. The relationship between these two is very intricate and needs elaboration. When the body awareness is dominant the mind is objectivated and sensory and motor organs are very active. The sense of "I work", "I enjoy", "I suffer", "I win", "I loose" regulates our mind. However, this sense of "I feel" is dependent upon the sense of "I exist in this world". This is the domain of crude and subtle minds.


When the mind detaches itself from the outer world to become a pure feeling of "I exist" without the sense of "this world", the causal mind is dominant. However, the sense of "I exist" is not self-limiting. It is dependent upon the pure feeling of "I" without existence. This pure " I" is the witness to all the levels of mind. It is the base of all layers. This is our unit consciousness, our spirit, soul or Atman with whose light unit mind functions. It is what Jung found the instincts are continually colliding with, because it is all-knowing and all-pervading.

Unit consciousness is inherently judgmental. It knows right from wrong, proper from improper. Logic and rationality cannot reach it. It does not argue a point, it knows the point. It does not act and yet controls all actions. It does not think and yet controls all thoughts. More precisely, it controls the forces that control all physical and mental actions. It oversees them. Since it does not directly perform any action, it neither enjoys nor suffers the consequences of any actions. It merely witnesses the reactions although it appears to be in the bondage of these reactions. The stronger this apparent bondage, more maladjusted is the personality and more the complexes and conflicts in this personality. The person feels they are falling apart, going to pieces or out of sorts. The unit consciousness can be compared to "the self" of Jungian psychology, the central archetype of order, organisation and unification that renders "oneness" and "firmness" to the personality.

Sarkar agrees with Jung's conclusion that "....the self is our life's goal, for it is the most complete expression of that fateful combination we call individuality...".22 However, his concept of unit consciousness differs from that of Jung's "self" on two counts. The unit consciousness, unlike the self, does not, and need not, undergo a process of maturation and development. It is already pure and absolute. The apparent maturation is merely a process of releasing it from the bondage of samskaras. The cleansing process makes the mind more transparent and allows the unit consciousness to shine through it. Such a mind becomes perceptive, increasingly aware and sharpens understanding. The goal of life becomes clearer. Therefore, the changeable and relative element of our psyche is the mind and the unchangeable and absolute component is the unit consciousness.

When the maturation process has been completed and the samskaras have been totally annihilated, there is no difference in the "self" from one person to the other. This is the second point of difference between the concepts of Jung and Sarkar. The identical nature of these "selves" is due to the fact that they all are the reflections of one and the same entity which Sarkar calls cosmic or supreme consciousness. It is like one moon reflecting in many vessels of water. The clarity and quality of reflections depend on the impurities in the water. Similarly, one cosmic consciousness is being reflected in many unit minds. These reflections are distorted by the samskaras contained there-in giving rise to that person's psyche.

The differences in the psyches and personalities are due to the differences in the samskaras of the individuals. The unit consciousness constantly draws these differences to itself so that they can be harmonised and absorbed. The unit consciousness itself is drawn towards the cosmic consciousness. The force of attraction that permeates through the unit mind and unit consciousness is generated and centred in the cosmic consciousness. It is because of this force that the mind is subjectivated or should we say internalised. When one becomes aware of this attraction, the movement on the path of self-realisation and the search for self-knowledge begins. Such persons experience lesser frustration and mental aberrations. They develop balanced and harmonious personality. They recognise the source of all their troubles in their own samskaras. They never loose control of their lives. On the other hand, those who choose to tread the path of objectivisation, or externalisation of mind, fail to appreciate this cosmic attraction. They are vulnerable to disharmonies and discontent.

The psychic energy that was largely sexual for Freud, the libido that was more than sexual for Jung, is fundamentally creative for Sarkar. "There is an urge in every human being to create something. Out of this urge some engage in new discoveries, inventions and research while others waste it in creating children" he said. By creating children he obviously meant sexual functions.

To be creative one needs the faculty of cognition. However, Sarkar insists that energy by nature is a blind force without cognition. But the psychic energy has dual characteristics of cognition as well as energy. Therefore, it can not be explained away by the laws of thermodynamics alone, as Freud and Jung tried to do. Without the cognitive power how is the "value" of a psychological function, that Jungian psychology so heavily depends on, determined? How could Jung even comprehend the concept of "canalisation" without the cognition? Perhaps he considered cognition as an integral part of this energy.

By the very nature of its development psyche has two components; cognition and operation. According to Sarkar, mind has developed in the matter as a result of clashes between two sets of forces. One is trying to maintain the structure and the other annihilate it. In this clash a part of the matter is powdered down to an extremely subtle form which he called ectoplasm. The ectoplasm is matter, much finer and more subtle than the subatomic particles. It forms the crudest portion of mind called the objective mind. Further grinding and refining leads to the formation of what he called the subjective mind. At all stages of its development energy is operational and continues to do so in all psychic functions. When mind chooses to journey into the external world, the energy helps it to flow in the objective chamber and the psyche is said to be objectivated. On the other hand when it chooses to be detached from the outer world energy helps it to be subjectivated and intuitive.

The above concept of Sarkarian psychology is in sharp contrast to the modern theories of physics. In classical physics matter and energy are two distinct entities. Matter is made up of independently existing, indestructible material stuff of which all things were thought to be made. Energy regulated the matter according to its own laws of dynamics. Freud's and Jung's psycho-dynamics followed these laws. However, relativity theory showed that matter and energy are relative forms of one and the same thing. Matter is nothing but energy in dynamic quantity. But the laws governing them differ because the energy is in wave form and the matter is particulate. Therefore, the laws of energy do not explain matter. Quantum physics shows that at subatomic level solid material objects are a complex matrix of wave-like patterns from which particles keep emerging as electrons and nucleons. Depending on how we look at them, they appear sometimes as particles and other times as waves. These particles have no meaning as isolated entities. They can be understood only as a part of the whole. "Thus quantum theory reveals a basic oneness of the universe".23

Shrii Sarkar says that matter and energy are not the relative forms of the same thing. Sure, immense energy is released by splitting the atom. When a particle dissolves, waves of energy are released. Nevertheless, it does not prove that matter and energy are interchangeable. It only proves that they are closely interrelated. In Sarkarian physics, matter is only a container of energy. Energy always requires a material shelter, a container. When released from one container, it finds another. Hence, matter and energy appear inextricably interrelated. However, Sarkar agrees with the quantum physics in that matter appears to be emerging from a web of something in the background. This something he called cosmic consciousness.

Thus in Sarkarian psychology mind is matter as distinct from energy. Cognition is the function of this very subtle matter. The cognitive functions consist of perception, thinking and association with past experiences. These functions are influenced by samskaras. Therefore we perceive the world tainted in our own colour. We analyse the world according to our own mental model.

The energy that mind harbours is derived from the vital energy or pranah that operates all other functions of the body. The vital energy is replenished constantly by the food, water and mental intake. The portion of vital energy that finds shelter in the mind is called psychic energy. Therefore, environmental factors strongly influence the psychic energy. This energy has three fundamental principles; static, mutative and sentient. Any one of them can be dominant in a mind at the cost of the other two, depending on one's lifestyle. A static personality exhibits inertia, apathy and indifference. Self-preservation remains the goal of life and they fail to perceive the subtle truths and noble ideas. A mutative personality is overactive, talkative and sociable. It is restless and excitable and therefore impulsive. Their perception of the world is clouded and limited. A sentient personality is calm and controlled. It is even-tempered and reliable. Its thinking is deep and coherent and perception clear. Its mind constantly flows towards subtle and noble ideas.

The psycho-dynamics' of Shrii Sarkar is based on the philosophical as well as the scientific facts that everything in this universe is in a constant state of motion. There is expressed dynamicity all around, nothing is static. This is true not only in the physical realm but in the psychic realm as well. The psychic movement takes place through mental propensities which are of two types; extroversial and introversial. As a result of extroversial propensities mind moves in the outer world of senses and consequently human beings maintain their relationship with this earth. Without them no living being can live properly on this earth. However, constant preoccupation with this earth renders the mind too earthly and crude. Finer senses and refinement are gradually eroded to fragments and oblivion. One looses one's mental faculties. The objectivated mind becomes the object itself. The introversial propensities propel the mind to the most subtle inner world. The psychic flow is towards the more subtle levels of existence. A preoccupation with this world however, makes it difficult to maintain a proper relationship with this earth, one's relationship with one's family and society.

Both the above states are undesirable. The ideal situation will be a state of equilibrium and equipoise where, although the mind moves towards a more subtle existence, it maintains an adjustment with the extroversial propensities. There is a great deal of difference in the concepts of extroversion and introversion in the modern psychology and that in Sarkarian psychology. In the psychology of Freud and Jung the mode of expression of one's thoughts and emotions determines whether one is an extrovert or an introvert. Depending on their behaviour Jung further classified them into thinking, feeling, sensation and intuitive types of extroverts or introverts. However, mental occupations in all these groups are related to the things of the outer world and one's relationship with them, only the direction of their movement is different.

The Sarkarian psychology fundamentally differs from the above concept. It recognises the ever-mobile nature of human mind. It also recognises that this mobility is due to a constant search of a base or a pabulum. Shrii Sarkar stressed that it is the pabulum rather than the behaviour, that determines whether the mind is extroverted or introverted. When the pabulum is a thing of the outer world, an object of sense-gratification, the mind is said to be extroverted. Sarkar prefers to call it an objectivated mind. Conversely, when the pabulum is from the inner world of self-knowledge and self-realisation, mind is said to be introverted or subjectivated. Therefore, objectivated mind of Sarkar constitutes both extroverted and introverted mind of Jung. It is crude and fragmented, fleeting and running after physical goals. The subjectivated mind is intuitive and directed towards the 'Self'.

It is not possible however, to suppress the extroversial movement of mind because the propensities that drive it are generated by one's samskaras. Shrii Sarkar explains samskaras as follows; " According to both science and philosophy, every action has reaction and is co-existing with the original action, whether the action be a physical one or only a psychic vibration...........This potentiality of reaction or samskara that you beget through physical or mental action, has to be endured by some other act inevitably. Thus you see that the consequence of all actions has to be reaped by some other actions. But when you do another act for reaping the consequence of the previous one, you are not an independent agent of yours. At that time you act mechanically propelled by the reaction of the previous act and you are obliged to some undesirable acts that bring to you disgrace, accusation and affliction. You become incapable to avoid it as if your hands and feet are fettered."24

Samskaras differ from Freud's id in that they are not instincts. Instincts according to Sarkar are survival principles whereas id is a pleasure principle. They have been passed down from preceding stages of evolution.

The Sarkarian psychology is a combination of philosophy, science and metaphysics. Shrii Sarkar has rationalised science and put spirituality in perspective. He recognised the problems of modern science and provided solutions to them. He identified the problems of religions but did not criticise them. He created a spiritual culture that included philosophy, psychology and science and has enriched the inner life of millions around the world. There is no reason to believe that it will not continue to do so in the future.

18 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
AND
P.R. SARKAR

"Many are the investigators who descend from man to molecules, but few are those who ever try the more difficult tasks of using molecular knowledge to deal with the problems of real life". -Rene Dubos
The success and achievement of the biological sciences are undeniable. The great heights that they have reached in explaining the structure and function of the living organisms, is mind boggling. Each cell has been explained, right down to its sub-cellular structures, in great detail. The physiological functions have been explained by the intricate molecular reactions, electro-physiology and ionic exchanges in the minutest detail. Nevertheless, some fundamental questions go begging for answers. These relate to the origin of life, origin of species and origin of disease. In spite of a great knowledge about the mechanism of life, how life came into being, what is its nature and what causes its decline, remains the greatest mystery for the human race and biggest challenge for the biological sciences. Shrii P.R. Sarkar throws new light on some of these basic questions and opens up new areas of research and empirical verification.

Origin of Life

The current biological theories suggest that life originated in space filled with primeval broth. Physico-chemical reactions in this broth led to the development of organic molecules which settled on this planet to develop into DNA and thus began the march of life. A variant of this theory is the origin of life from interstellar dust. The interstellar space is filled with gas and dust. The dust grains are about the same size as the wave length of visible light. The gas is largely made up of the molecules of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen in inorganic form. This gave rise to the theory of the "dusty universe". In early 1970's astronomers reported that their spectroscopic analysis had indicated a loss of the inorganic gas molecules from the interstellar space. This was believed to be due to a binding of these molecules on the surface of the dust grains giving rise to what was called "dirty ice".

The radio-astronomers have since produced electronic spectrum of the interstellar dust using microwaves. These spectra indicate that the simple inorganic atoms are developing connections with each other to form simple organic molecules. This bonding continues between the molecules to form more and more complex organic compounds. Something like a hundred tons of such interstellar dust comes pouring into earth's atmosphere every day. Biologists believe that these "cosmic cocoons" contain the seeds of life. Theories differ in transportation of these cocoons from interstellar space to the earth. Some believe in condensation and showering while others think that the periodic visits of comets bring them into the atmosphere of the earth. However, all believe in the mechanistic origin of life through physico-chemical reactions.

None of these theories, however, actually answer the question of the origin of life. If the non-living chemical aggregates transformed into the living organisms just by chemical reactions, something more than bonding must have happened because the characteristics of these aggregates and the reactions involved do not add up to explain life. There was either something built-in in these "hypercycles" that was unknown and started to unfold as a result of chemical processes or something extra entered these chemical aggregates. The materialists believe that this mysterious factor was already built there-in that was activated by physico-chemical reactions. However, they can powder down the matter to its finality and all that comes of it , is some form of energy without the "life" qualities. Conversely, all forms of energies could be made to interact with the "smallest particles" and yet there is no emergence of any sign of life.

The vitalists believe that something extra enters into the matter to render it alive. They called it the vital factor, a non-material factor that does not follow physical laws. It is non-energy in nature. It is the "hidden variable". It is the causal factor in living things. Henry Bergson called it élan vital and Driesch called it entlechy. This non-physical factor controls the physico-chemical processes of life whereas DNA only supplies the protein needed for them. It determines the organisation of cells, tissues and organs and co-ordinates the development of the organism as a whole. Therefore, the vital factor is neither matter nor energy. Vitalists, however, neither know the nature of this third factor nor the laws that regulate it.

Life, nevertheless, is present only in matter inextricably bound. Where and how did this binding occur? How did life manifest in matter? For explanation of these phenomena one will have to enter into the noumenal world. Shrii Sarkar stresses that there is a noumenal cause of everything in this phenomenal world, including life. The Universe is finite and phenomenal. It is under constant change. All its phenomena are subject to physical laws. DNA and atoms, as well as the stars and planets, must follow these laws. The noumenal cause of these phenomena however, is infinite and eternal. This causal entity maintains a close proximity with every particle of this universe so that it can guide and goad them to a predetermined goal. Origin of life, evolution of species, genetic programming, physico-chemical reactions, human thinking, learning and behaviour are parts of this process.

The infinite and eternal entity that is the cause of this universe, Shrii Sarkar called Supreme Consciousness. It is transcendental and complete. All systems, all organisms at all levels of complexity and all physical phenomena are derived from and dependent upon this absolute entity. The transition from the transcendental to this physical universe occurs in many stages. The early stages of this transition that he explained in great detail, are governed by spiritual laws and therefore out of bounds for the present discussion. However, it may be ostensibly summarised here. The Supreme Consciousness is a singular, undifferentiated and intelligent entity that is a composite of primordial cognitive and creative principles. In this state there is no universe and there are no laws. Subsequently the two principles start differentiating and spiritual laws come into existence that regulate the emerging spiritual factors. From the spiritual factors emerges the physical universe and from the spiritual laws the physical laws.

In the Sarkarian concept, the physical universe is a continuation of the spiritual world in that the primordial cognitive principle metamorphoses into matter and primordial creative principle into various forms of energy. Thus, the cognition is inherent in the matter. The spiritual laws metamorphose into the physical laws. Matter and energy interact according to these physical laws and create everything from atoms and DNA to galaxies. However, the ultimate control of both spiritual and physical worlds rests in the Supreme Consciousness.

The transition from the spiritual to the physical world is characterised by the appearance of the basic building blocks of this physical universe. The thought waves of the noumenal cognitive faculty metamorphoses into the first particulate matter that Sarkar called microvita. These tiny entities are conscious but smaller than viruses. In fact they are smaller than electrons and nucleons. They are the fundamental seed of life. Millions of them bond together to form one carbon atom. This illustrates their tiny size. Since they are derived from the primordial cognitive factor they carry the mind of the matter. Thus mind is inherent in the matter.

Qualitatively microvita are of two types; positive and negative. The negative microvita have a tendency to form denser and denser matter that bond together to form inorganic matter. Conversely, the positive microvita rarefy the matter to allow the expression of cognition. In this process of rarefication the inorganic bonding transforms into organic bonding and the scene is set for the development of life. The surging cognition in the organic matter provides the impetus for the development of DNA and thus starts the march of life. Therefore, the origin of life is nothing but the onset of cognitive expression.

The microvita move with a speed faster than light. They know no barriers of time and space. However, they use inferential waves such as light and sound to travel the interstellar space where they may condense into interstellar gases and dust that astronomers have detected. Therefore, it is the microvita rather than the interstellar condensations that are the fundamental cause of life. Hence, the Universe in Sarkarian concept is regarded as a thought projection of the Supreme Consciousness.

Mind is inherent in matter but remains dormant. Its awakening is the real cause of life. Shrii Sarkar agrees that this physical universe is a great big organism but it is alive and ever-changing unlike the fixed organism of the organicists. The physical laws and phenomena in it are consciously predetermined. They have changed in the past and will change in the future. He also agrees that there is a vital factor in all organic forms but unlike the vitalists he suggests that this factor did not enter from outside. It was already built there-in. Life exists not in DNA but in the basic stuff of which all things are made. However, it first manifests in the nucleic acid. Thus Shrii Sarkar defies the chance and probability theories of mechanistic sciences.

Origin of Species

Evolution has been discussed in the earlier chapters. Here a brief account is presented of the mechanism of the formation of a new species. The current biological theories in this regard are similar to those already discussed in the preceding segment on the origin of life.

The most popular mechanistic theory suggests a process of chance and probability called random mutation. The mechanism of this mutation has always been controversial. The Darwinians proposed that the nature selects the "fittest" to reproduce and transmit their superior qualities to their offspring. Micro-mutations occur as a result of biological and environmental interactions between species. A series of such micro-mutations results in the development of a new species. Some have called it "genetic revolution". Others believe that macro-mutations occur in chromosomes leading to a significant departure from parents almost immediately. The resulting new species have been called "hopeful monsters". Yet others believe that somehow genes are transferred across the species by a non-reproductive mechanism resulting in a completely new species. Still others propose that viruses transfer genetic material between remotely related species to bring about random mutations. Nevertheless, all mechanists believe in the randomness of the mutations, without any design and purpose.

The vitalists believe that the non-matter, non-energy vital factor is responsible for the development of a new species. Therefore, they must accept a design and purpose for this act of evolution. Similarly, morphogenetic fields and morphic resonance of organicists that create new forms, must have a design and a purpose. Thus it appears that the battle line is drawn between those who believe in the "design and purpose" hypothesis and those who do not. Perhaps Aristotle is reincarnating.

Shrii Sarkar says that the genetic mutations must precede physical transformations because biological processes are controlled by the genetic coding. However, genetic coding is not a fait accompli. Genes are not set in concrete. They are transmutable by psychic metamorphosis, and not by a chance act. An intense longing can change the genetic coding. If a species collectively desires strongly for a morphological change, it will surely happen. He goes on to say that if human beings collectively desire to sweat through their genitals rather than their skin, it will happen as well. However, there is a proviso, that such a longing must be evolutionary. It must goad the species towards perfection. This perfection he defines as a spiritual state and movement towards it as a conversion from crude to subtle.

The collective longings of a species must, therefore, find approval from the Supreme Cognitive entity whose "design and purpose" is the driving force of this evolution. This approval has been granted millions of times in the past resulting in an innumerable number of species. The approvals have also been withdrawn when a species has served its purpose in this great design, leading to its extinction. Environments have changed drastically to allow the extinction process that we call natural selection.
The cosmic approval, in Sarkarian theory, is due to macro-psychic connation or a constant thought process of supreme cognitive entity about its own creation. It is granted as adaptability, variability in gene pool, genetic drift and gene flow and many other biological processes that are responsible for the development of a new species. On the other hand, the disapproval comes as drastic and rapid environmental changes like ice ages, epidemics and death of the species. The genetic changes are carried out by the positive microvita that emanate from the supreme cognitive faculty and merge with the genetic material of the germ cells thus changing the genetic constitution of the offspring. The negative microvita act as deadly viruses and are capable of destroying a species. Thus evolution is propelled on a predetermined path with the help of positive and negative microvita allowing only for a limited flexibility in the collective longing of the species.
Origin of Disease

"The very process of living is a complex interplay between the organism and the environment, at times resulting in injury and disease." Rene Dubos.25

Medical theories have emerged in every era to answer the question "what causes disease" only to be proven wrong or incomplete by the subsequent ones. They have oscillated between a specific etiologic agent and a failure of general adaptation of the organism. At times these two concepts have developed parallel to each other. In the pre-scientific era the etiologic factors were regarded to be the ghosts and evil spirits that invaded the body because of the transgressions from social and moral codes. This led to the development of sorcery, witchcraft and exorcism as the therapeutic modalities. In the scientific medicine ghosts and spirits were replaced by external noxious agents like bacteria and viruses that enter the body and cause disease. This germ theory was propounded by an astute French clinician Pierre-Fedele Bretonneau who claimed that each specific disease is caused by "a miasmic organism which is incorporated in morbid secretions". This organism is transmissible. The germ theory was reinforced and set in concrete by leading medical personalities like Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch.

The germ theory however, extended to the search of a specific cause of disease where a germ could not be demonstrated or identified. This search led to the classification of diseases based on specific etiologic factors such as nutritional, congenital, genetic, biochemical, metabolic, degenerative, neoplastic so on and so forth. Disease became a specific entity in itself and both physicians and patients found it convenient to look for a specific cause for it.

A parallel concept of disease as a failure of general adaptation of organism due to a multi-factorial aetiology developed and evolved both in Indo-Chinese and Greco-Roman cultures in the pre-scientific as well as the scientific eras. According to this concept disease is a state rather an entity. These cultures devised life styles that were regarded as healthy and holistic. This is well reflected in the Hippocratic Corpus -- "Health is the expression of a harmonious balance between the various components of man's nature (the four humours that control all human activities) and the environment and ways of life." Thus the disease is determined by the total environment and by the ways of life.

In spite of an allegiance to the Hippocratic Corpus however, modern medicine is heavily loaded in favour of the doctrine of specific aetiology. This is due to the natural evolution of the Cartesian approach. Rene Descartes reduced the human body to mechanical models from which mind was removed. This simplified the study of complex human biology and encouraged the scientists to reduce the body into smaller and smaller fragments and simpler and simpler functions. Consequently, the man is reduced to molecules and the study of man to the study of molecules. In 1965 Rene Dubos wrote "Many are the investigators who descend from man to molecules, but few are those who ever try the more difficult tasks of using molecular knowledge to deal with the problems of real life".26

In recent decades there has been a growing emphasis on attempts to explain all human phenomena including physical and mental diseases by molecular reactions. However, the awareness of the limitations of reductionist approach has also consistently grown. There is now growing appreciation that "disease is the resultant of countless independent forces impinging simultaneously on the total organism and setting in motion a multitude of inter-related responses" - Rene Dubos. The pendulum is now swinging in favour of host response including the bodily constitution, lifestyle and psychological factors that impair the general adaptation of the organism to its environment.

A synthesis of the above two doctrines namely specific aetiology and multi-factorial aetiology, has begun. However, a lot of rethinking and introspection are required by medical researchers before a major break through results. This is particularly required in relation to the role of psychological factors and life style in causing disease. The damage inflicted by the Cartesian approach has to be undone before the disorder of the "wholeness" of the human organism can be adequately defined.

Here, a new model of health and disease is presented that is based on the information from various discourses of Shrii P.R. Sarkar. The key feature of this model is the adjustment among three kinds of waves; physical, mental and energy waves. Like any other object, human body and mind emanate waves. A parallelism between the physical and mental waves is essential for life to continue. As long as this parallelism is maintained, the energy waves or pranah is able to maintain their proper functioning. A loss of parallelism leads to a weakening of the pranah and consequently disease and death. Therefore, in this model health is a resultant of interaction between these three fundamental factors. As discussed earlier, physical and mental waves are derived from the cognitive principle whereas the pranah is derived from the operative principle.

The physico-psychic parallelism is constantly challenged by external and internal influences. The external influences are mainly environmental consisting of lifestyle, food, water, air, microbes, electromagnetic radiation, climatic conditions, microvita ,etc.. The internal influences include samskaras, personality constitution and genetic factors. Thus an interplay between a variety of factors determines the body-mind parallelism and consequently the state of our health. Better the state of this parallelism, more effective pranah is in maintaining a healthy state.

Pranah is a collective name of ten sub-currents of energy called vayus, divided into two groups of five vayus each. One group maintains the internal physiological functions and the other helps the performance of external bodily activities. The internal group carries out general as well as local functions. The circulation of blood and lymph and the conduction of nerve impulse are generalised functions that pervade every corner of the human structure. They are carried out by a vayu called vyana. A weakening of this vayu will result in the disorder of blood pressure, lymph circulation and nervous system. Heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, spleen and pancreas as well as the upper part of the gastrointestinal system lie between the naval and the neck. If any one of them are affected by a disease process the others are affected as a consequence. This suggests a close co-ordination of their physiological functions. A vayu called prana is responsible for this co-ordination. Similarly, the bowel, bladder and sexual functions are co-ordinated by the vayu apana. Since the functions of the upper and lower halves of the body are not independent of each other a balancing vayu called samana resides at the naval to co-ordinate the functions of prana and apana. The fifth internal vayu is located in the neck for the functions of vocal cords.

In a healthy state the internal vayus and their functions are
clearly defined. For the maintenance of a healthy state they must
maintain their separate identity. In disease this identity is gradually lost and they merge into a composite wave that moves throughout the body to find an exit. When it leaves the body, the mind cannot be tied to the body and death occurs. In a disease process one or more of these vayus are affected. In advanced stages of a disease, a decreasing volume of voice and rapid naval breathing are signs of weakening prana and apana vayus that results in loss of vitality of samana vayu.

Vayus are constantly replenished by food, water and air that we take-in. Eating and drinking disorders as well as air pollutants weaken the vayus resulting in corresponding physiological changes. Vayus can be strengthened and balanced by lifestyle changes, vegetarian diet and yogic exercise. A more important factor however, in maintaining the separate identity of vayus is the parallelism between the physical and mental waves. Where the body awareness is dominant, vayus are weakened and degenerative processes are accelerated. Spiritual awareness strengthens vayus and slows the disease processes. The environmental factors predominantly affect the physical waves whereas samskaras, personality constitution and genetic factors primarily affect the mental-waves.

19 FINAL CHAPTER
THE PINNACLED ORDER

"The highest realisation however, does not depend upon the nerve cells and nerve fibres." - P.R. Sarkar





There could be no better way of finishing this book than narrating a relevant discourse of Shrii P.R. Sarkar whose concept is the sole inspiration of and part manifestation in the preceding pages. However, a full discourse that is relevant to our subject in its entirety could not be found. Therefore, an edited and a truncated version of one of his discourses is given below. The subject of this discourse was "The cult of spirituality- the cult of pinnacled order" and it was delivered on the third of June 1990, the last such discourse before his departure from this world. Some parts of it have been omitted and others have been rephrased only where it was deemed essential for clarity. I apologise for these distortions.

For all human endeavours, be they intellectual, intuitional or purely psychic, there must be a base or starting point. And there must also be a goal, a supreme desideratum. The movement from the base to the goal in the realm of spirituality is called spiritual cult. For this cult of spirituality the base is morality. Without morality nothing can be done. Morality concerns two types of waves; psycho-physical and physico-psychic. The former is emanations whereas the latter is a movement. In the case of the psycho-physical emanations, one should have proper control, proper regulation over those emanative flows. In Sanskrit it is called Yama. In the case of physico-psychic movement, one should maintain a proper adjustment between the external world and the internal world, between the external physicality and the internal subjectivity. This is called Niyama. The goal is the attainment of that supreme stance where there will be justice and fair play for all inanimate and animate beings.

By the dint of their moral force, the spiritual aspirants move towards their goal. At the same time their goal, the supreme desideratum attracts them as well. Because of these sources of impetus, human beings arrive at their destination.
Then the physical body should be sanctified by good thoughts, good actions and good food as well as by various physical practices that affect the nerve fibres because through the nerve fibres, through the afferent and efferent nerves, the first phase of realisation comes. The highest realisation however, does not depend upon the nerve cells and nerve fibres, although for this good food and self- restraints are necessary. It is not proper for one to eat whatever one gets. You should eat only that sort of food which will have a beneficial influence on your body, mind and spirit.

The sanctification and purification of the body through proper food, proper behaviour and various practices should be complimented by certain other practices to create a perfect adjustment in the body by regulating the hormonal secretions from the glands and sub-glands. The propensities of living structures are both directly and indirectly controlled by the secretions of these hormones.

Now, everywhere, in cent per cent of the cases, there is a wastage of human psychic potentiality. The psychic potentialities of human beings are immense but people mis-utilise them in undesirable thoughts and in psychic extravaganza. This should be checked either by physical or psychic approach or by spirituo-psychic approach. The physical approach consists of breath control. The waves of respiration control the waves of thinking. Whenever you are doing something crude, your respiration becomes very active and when you are thinking of something subtle, it becomes slow, extremely slow. And finally, when this respiration coincides or becomes one with one's thought waves, one attains a state of samadhi or trans. That is, the physical exertions, the physical emanations become one with the psychic emanations. So, some degree of control over respiration is an essentially

The psychic approach consists of rationality and rationalisation that needs to be progressively increased. For this, unnecessary waves
from the plane of physicality should be removed. From the psychic sphere also, unnecessary eaves are to be removed. This will remove many burdens from the mind. "I must not bother about petty things, because that will waste my time" - people should remember this. This removal or rather withdrawal of unnecessary and undesirable thoughts emanated from the mind, will help you in rationalising the major portion of your mental faculty. This must also be practised. The cult of spirituality is a cult of pinnacled order.

The spirituo-psychic approach consists of ideation and meditation. Although ideation depends upon the healthy state ad proper functioning of glands and sub-glands, a clear cut and subtle idea is essential. The ideas are mainly of three types; intellectual-cum-intuitional, actional and devotional-cum-emotional. In most cases, human intellect and intuition are wasted extravaganza, in useless pursuits. They are not at all utilised for constructive or worthwhile endeavours. Some waste their intuitional power in exhibiting occult powers. For others, action is everything. They want to achieve their goal through action.

In the third type of ideation, people get propensive propulsion form devotion or emotion. When the mind moves along a particular discipline in a methodical way, this is called devotion or bhakti. But when it does not follow a particular method, when it moves haphazardly, swept away by whim, it is called emotion. This is the fundamental difference between devotion and emotion. You must know this clear cut silver line of demarcation between devotion and emotion.

Those who adhere to this cult of pinnacled order, know that there must be a happy blending of intellectual-cum-intuitional faculty, actional faculty and devotional-cum-emotional faculty. None of these is unimportant. All are of equal importance. However, the finality come in devotion. That is why it has been said tat the devotion is service unto the Supreme, devotion is love personified. Devotion is the embodiment of bliss. Devotion is the life of a devotee. Therefore, human beings should take the ideation of the Supreme. Thus we see that ideation is associated with one or the other idea; knowledge, action or devotion.

Now, there is another apexed or pinnacled order of the mind called meditation. It means concentrated thinking. It is associated with several more subtle and important cells of the human brain. Each and every nerve cell has got its own controlling point and for all nerve cells, there is a supreme controlling point. The latter, in Sanskrit, is called Guru Cakra or the plexus of Guru. All the glands are controlled by this point in the brain. One's meditation must be properly connected with this point. Meditation must be done in a methodical way, utilising these important nerve cells and nerve centres in the brain.

Thus we see that the psycho-spiritual approach, consisting of ideation and meditation propels the spiritual aspirant towards the singular Supreme Entity, the pinnacled goal. Together, the goad the thought waves unto a single idea whose culminating point is the Supreme Self. This is the highest state of devotion.

So, in the path of spiritual progress, all the three; knowledge, action and devotion are necessary. Devotion provides the sustenance, action provides the stamina of movement, and knowledge shows why and how the spiritual aspirant should move. So all the three are important. But ultimately knowledge and action are merged in devotion and thus devotion is devoid of knowledge or action. It is not blind devotion but an ideal blending of knowledge, action and devotion. This blended devotion enables spiritual aspirants to attain the pinnacled goal of their lives. It is this devotion that the human beings have been seeking since time immemorial. When they finally attain the GURU and get initiation, they begin to walk on the path of devotion. They are sure to reach their destination. This is the sole reason for their birth in human structure.
Acknowledgment
I am immensely grateful to a number of people who have selflessly and most sincerely contributed to this book by their invaluable suggestions and insights without which this book would not have materialised. It is not possible to name them all here except Jayanta whose contribution will never be forgotten. I specially want to thank my daughter, Sarita whose computing and typing along with her patience strengthened my determination to write this book.
Author's Note
The material used in this book is largely taken from the discourses of Shrii P.R. Sarkar and prominent medical literature. My own mind has contributed little to this production. However, the interpretation and synthesis of the two are purely mine. Therefore any discrepancies and inconsistencies are solely my responsibility.
The synthesis of spiritual and medical information has been occurring in my mind for a number of years. However, it was my Guru's compelling inspiration that put these ideas to pen. Therefore, I offer this effort of mine to my Gurudeva.

When I set out to write this book, I had two options. First, to examine everything Shrii P.R. Sarkar said about bio-psychology through the eyes of a medical scientist. This would have been an intellectual approach and probably more appropriate for me because of my medical background. However, a number of things Shrii P.R. Sarkar said, although entirely logical and rational, needed empirical verifications. These claims are a way ahead of the science in its present state. The relationship between lymph production and diet, social environment and hormones are just few examples.

The second option I faced was to keep the perspective spiritual and draw the information from the biological sciences that support the ideas put forward. I opted for this approach. However, from time to time I have pointed out the claims that cannot be biologically reconciled at present. I make no apology for attributing this to the inadequacies of modern science.

Therefore, I appeal to the readers that they keep their perspective spiritual to get the best value out of this presentation.

Dr. Jitendra Singh


1 Every mood might have its own concoction of chemicals that move from the brain into the body.- Mestel, R. (1994), Let mind talk unto body, New Scientist, 23 July, p26.
2 "The sense of belonging and of togetherness engenders a feeling of security which usually increases the chances for biological success and also for happiness."Dubos, R. (1980), Man Adapting, Yale University Publication, New Haven and London.
3 Watson, L. (1979), Lifetide, Hodder and Stoughton, London.
4 Sperry, R. (1964), The Great Cerebral Commissure, Scientific American, Vol 210, p42-52.
5 Popper, K. (1972), Objective Knowledge, Oxford University Press, Oxford
6 Watson, L. (1979), Lifetide, Hodder and Stoughton, London.
7 "The whole subject of mind over body once languished on the far fringes of scientific respectibility. Now it has come in from the cold." - Mestel, R. (1994), Let mind talk unto body, New Scientist, 23 July, p26.
8 Long repressed memory is a cerebral memory and can be recovered by certain psyco-therapy techniques.
9 Scientists have discovered a complex chemical system that can transmit messages between the brain and endocrine glands.
10 Calvin S. Hall, A Primer of Freudian Psychology, Mentor Book 1954:34
11 C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of Soul, HBJ Book 1933:117
12 Calvin S. Hall, A Primer of Freudian Psychology, Mentor Book 1954:20
13 Calvin S. Hall & Vernon J. Nordby, A Primer of Jungian Psychology, Mentor Book 1973:34
14 Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol.17:198
15 Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol.7:238
16 Calvin S. Hall & Vernon J. Nordby, A Primer of Jungian Psychology.
17 C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of Soul, HBJ Book 1933:120
18 C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of Soul, HBJ Book 1933:202
19 C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of Soul, HBJ Book 1933:203
20 C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of Soul, HBJ Book 1933:205
21 C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of Soul, HBJ Book 1933:215
22 Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol.17:238
23 Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, Fontana/Collins 1981:71
24 P.R. Sarkar, Subhasita Samgraha Part1:30
25 Rene Dubos, Man Adapting, Yale University Press 1980
26 Rene Dubos, Man Adapting, Yale University Press 1965:332
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