Life and Consciousness in Trees.

 

Life and Consciousness in Trees.

(By Prof. Balkrishna, M.A., F.R.S.S., F.R.E.S., etc.)

Whether trees, plants, creepers, grasses, million and one things of the vegetable world should be counted amongst living or non-living beings is not a question of academic interest only.  People of a low civilization like ours may ignore the importance of this problem, but it is sure to occupy the supreme attention of the generations to come, because they will fully recognize that theirs is not the right to take life which an All-Wise, Merciful and Just God has bestowed upon millions of beings, they would behold the oneness of life from the smallest creeper to the biggest creature, they would realize the existence of soul in all beings and all beings in that Omnipresent Soul and hence they would desist from mercilessly taking life and also would invent methods for chemically producing means of sustaining life. Our ancestors recognized life and consciousness in the countless forms of the vegetable world. Their opinions on this point are scattered throughout the Sanskrit literature from which a few passages can be profitably quoted in this article.

 (i) The Sankhya Darshan supplies us a most convincing proof of the life and consciousness in trees. In Book V. Aph. 121-2 we read :

न बाह्यबुद्धि नियमो वृक्षगुल्मलतौषधि वनस्पतितृणबीरुघादीनामपि भोक्तृभोगायतनत्वं पूर्ववत् ॥ १२१ ॥

स्मृतेश्च ॥ १.२॥

"Knowledge of the external is not indispensable to constitute a Body: trees, shrubs, climbers, annuals, trees with invisible flowers, grasses, creepers, etc., which have internal consciousness are, also, sites of experiencer and experience, as in the former case. From the Legal Institutes the same fact may be inferred, viz., that vegetables have bodies and are conscious though they are not moral agents." Ballantyne.

(ii) In Ishwar Krishna's Sankhya Karika Aph. 53, we meet with the same evidence:

अष्टं विलल्पं दैवं तैर्यग्योनं पंचधा भवति । मानुष्यं त्वेकविधं समासतोऽयं त्रिधा सर्गः ॥ पशु मृग पक्षि सरीसृप स्थावराणं भूतान्येव, पेश्वविधरतरेश्चः ॥

"The divine kinds of eight sorts, the groveling is fivefold ; mankind is single in its class. This, briefly, is the world of Living Beings. Domestic animals, wild animals, birds, reptiles and fish and vegetables are the five groveling kinds of beings or creatures."

(iii) Then Udayana in Prithvi Nirupana remarks that “trees, etc., the whole vegetable kingdom, show the phenomena of life, death, sleep, waking, disease, drugging, transmission of specific characters by means of ova, movement towards what is favorable and away from what is unfavorable like the known living beings.”

वृक्षादयः प्रतिनियत भोक्त्रपुधिष्टिताः जीवनमरण स्वप्नजागरण रोग भेषज प्रयोग वीज सजाहीयानुबन्धानुकूलोपगम प्रतिकूलापममादिभ्यः प्रसिद्धशरीरवत् ।

The same Udayana notes that plants have a latent or dormant consciousness which is extremely dull :-

अति मन्दान्तः संज्ञितया !

(iv) Similarly one Chakrapani observes in the Bhanumati that plants though supplied with consciousness and life enjoy only a darkened consciousness.

वृक्षास्तुचेतनावन्तोगी तमश्छन्नज्ञानतया शास्त्रोपदेश विषया एव |

(v) But the Manu Smriti contains the clearest logical statement of this principle.

 शरीरजः कर्मदोषैर्यातिस्थावरतां नरः । वाचिकै: पक्षिमृगतां  मानसैरन्स्य जातिताम् ॥ ७ ॥

"The soul is born as plant owing to the sins committed by the body; it becomes a bird or a beast for the sins of speech, and an outcast for the mental sins."

Thus it is clear that the soul is actually born as corn, etc., and is not a mere co-tenant with the jivas of the plants as seems to be propounded in some of the aphorism, of the Vedanta Philosophy...

Again in Manu Smriti Chap. L. 49 and 50 we read :

तमसा बहुरूपेण वेष्ठिताः कर्महेतुना | अन्त: संज्ञा भवन्त्येते सुख दुःख समन्विताः ॥ ४९ ॥ '

प्रतदन्तास्तु गतयो ब्रह्माद्याः समुदाहृताः । घोरेस्मिन्भूत संसारे नित्यं सततयायिनि ॥ ५० ॥

"These plants which are surrounded by multiform Darkness, the result of their acts in former existence, possess internal consciousness and experience pleasure and pain. The various conditions in this always terrible and constantly changing circles of births to which created beings are subject, are stated to begin with that of Braliman, and to end with these plants."

(vi) The Chandogya Upanishad supplies another incontrovertible testimony in support of this view : Chap. VI III. 1-2.

तेषां खल्वेषां भूतानां त्ररियेव बीजाति भवन्त्याण्डजं जीवजमुभिज्ज्ञामिति ॥ १ ॥

सेयं देवतेक्षत हन्ताहृमिमास्तिस्त्रो देवता अनेन जीवेनानाऽनुप्रविश्य नामरुपं व्याकरवाणीति ॥ २ ॥

“Verily, of all these living objects, there are three sources, vie, oviparous, viviparous and sprouting objects. These three objects in the form of life (Jivatma) I shall be manifest in various names and forms.".

One other passage from the same Upanishad is remarkable in this respect (Chand. V. 10. 6).

अभ्रं भूत्वा मेघो भवति मेघो भूत्वा प्रवर्षति त इह व्रीहियवा ओषधिवनस्पतयस्तिलमाषा इति जायन्तेऽतो वै खलु दुर्निष्प्रपतरं यो यो ह्यन्नमत्ति यो रेतः सिञ्चति तद्भूय एव भवति ॥

“Having been in the mist, he enters the cloud ; having been in the cloud, he enters the rain (and falls down).

Then he is born as rice or barley, herbs or trees, sesamum or beans, etc. From this point there is constant (tantalizing ) rise and fall. For whoever eats the food and begets offspring (the jiva) is there in that food and that seed.”

(vii) We meet with the same evidence of life in trees in Garuda Purana. At the end of Chapter IV it is said -

तस्य क्षयं फलं भुक्ता तत्रैवोत्पद्यते पुनः । यमाज्ञया महीं प्राप्य भवन्ति स्थावरादयः ॥ ३० ॥

 वृक्षुगुल्म लतावल्ली गिरयश्च तृष्णानि च । स्थावरा इति विख्याता महामोह सगवृता ॥ ६१ ॥

कीटाश्च पशवश्चैतव पक्षिणश्व जलेचव। चतुरशीति लक्षेषु कथिता देवयोनयः ॥ ६२ ॥ 

एताः सर्वाः परिभ्रम्य ततां यान्ति मनुष्यताम् मानुषेऽपि श्वराकेषु जायन्ते नरकांगताः । 

तत्रापि पाप चिन्हैस्ते भवन्ति बहु दुःखिताः ॥ ६३ ॥

Having eaten their un-decaying fruits they are born again. By order of Yama they return to the earth and become unmoving and other creatures: Trees, bushes,. plants, creepers, rocky plants and grasses, these are spoken of as unmoving: they have life but are enveloped in great delusion. Insects, birds, animals and fish-such are eighty four lakhs of births. All these have to be gone through before one attains manhood and even in coming up to the human Kingdom, souls are born amongst low. castes.

Speaking of the fruits of precarious actions in Chap. V. the same Purana says :

कृमिकीट पतङ्गत्वं स्वर्णस्तेयी समाप्नुयात् ।

तृणगुल्म लतात्वं च क्रमशां गुरुतल्पगः ॥ ३६ ॥

‘Who goes with his teacher's wife, goes to the condition of grass, bushes and plants.” The same thought has been expressed in Minu XII, 58 and Yagyvalkya III, 208. "

In Chap. X VI. II the same Purana has again given an order of evolution of a soul which cannot but be admired for its boldness of assertion :

स्थावराः कृमयश्चाजाः पक्षिणः पशतवो नराः ।

धार्मिकास्त्रिदशास्तद्वन् मोक्षिणश्च क्रमम् ॥ ११ ॥

"The unmoving things, worms, goats, birds, animals, men, righteous persons, thirty three deities and also the liberated-according to this order does the evolution of an ascending soul proceed."

(viii) But more than this, the phenomena of life and consciousness in trees have been most aptly described in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata :

All sorts of created things have four kinds of birth. They are viviparous, oviparous, vegetables and those born of filth. 

Trees sicken and dry up. This indicates that they have perception of touch. By sound of wind and fire and thunder, their fruits and flowers fall down. Sound is perceived through the ear. Trees, have, therefore, ears and do hear. A creeper entwines a tree all around. A blind thing cannot see its way. Therefore it is evident, that trees have vision. Again, trees have vigour and put forth flowers for good and bad smell of the sacred incense of all sorts. It is evident that trees have scent. They draw water by their roots and catch all sorts of diseases which can be cured by various operations. From this it is clear that trees have perception of taste. They are subject to pleasure and pain. These facts clearly prove that trees have life. They are not inanimate.' Chap. 184 Shanti Parva. 6

(ix) In the Nyaya Sidhanta Muktavali (न्यायसिद्धांतमुक्तावलि ) which is a well-known book of the New Logical school and which very aptly summarizes the views of many old philosophers, we find one more convincing evidence of life and consciousness in trees. In Pratyaksha Kand we read the following

वृक्षा =दीनामपि चेष्टासत्वान्नध्यातिः न वृक्षादीनां शरीत्वे किं मानमिति वाच्यम् । अध्यात्मिकवायुसम्बन्धस्य  प्राणत्वात् । तत्रैवं किं मानमिति चेत्, भग्नक्षतसरोहणादिना तदनुमानात् ॥

"You say that trees, plants, etc., possess desire, experience pleasure and pain, hence your definition of a living being is faulty. What is your evidence for life in trees? Trees breathe in a mystic way-but breathing is a proof of life. But what is the proof of breath in trees? They grow when cut or injured like well-known living creatures, hence they have life." Here we have to go one step further for proving consciousness in trees. Breathing is necessarily connected with the existence of soul in a body, the trees breathe, hence they have soul (Atma), but the characteristics of Atma are affinity, repulsion, effort, pleasure, pain and knowledge or consciousness. Consciousness is the necessary attribute of a soul. This fact has been fully recognized by the word चेष्टा, Desire, that is, repulsion and affinity and आध्यात्मिक वायु, that is, breath having its source in the mystic soul.

(x) But a more scientific statement of the successive stages of the development and evolution of man and the existence of life in vegetables is to be found in the Brihat Vishnu Purana : 

स्थावर विशंतेर्लक्षं जलजं नवलक्षकं |

कूर्म्माश्चनवलक्षञ्च दशलक्षं च पक्षिणः ॥ 

विशलृक्षं पशूनाञ्च चतुर्लक्षं च वानराः |

ततो मनुष्यतां प्राप्य तत्ततकर्म्माणि साधयेत ॥ 

एतेषु भ्रमणं कृत्वा द्विजत्वमुपजायते ।

सर्व्वयोनि परित्यज्य ब्रह्मयोनिमतोऽभ्शगात् ||

"The individual soul before attaining manhood has to go through 20,00,000 forms of vegetables, 9,00,000 kinds of fish, 9,00,000 sorts of reptiles, 10,00,000 species of birds, 30,00,000 varieties of mammals and 4,50.000 kinds of monkeys. 

Having passed through these successive stages of evolution, a soul takes birth among Dwijas- Vaishas, Kshatriyas and Brahmans. Then by merit of specially good works, it leaves off its circle of births and deaths and attains to Brahmanhood." 

This passage is extremely wonderful, because it gives exactly the same order of evolution as has been established by the European evolutionists of to-day, because it separates monkeys from other mammals and names monkeys as the predecessors of man, because it establishes the memorable fact that a race of Darwin's has already existed in India, more than this all because the author has so boldly given the number of species of the various orders of the animal kingdom, but this Herculean task has not been fully performed in this modern civilization.

(xi). Dr. Gananath Sen of Calcutta has supplied one additional evidence of life and consciousness in trees in his paper on the study of medical science in ancient India. He says "In Botany, unfortunately, very scanty records have been left in the writings of Raghava Bhatta and Sarangdhara-an important section of which (Upavanvinoda) the humble writer of this paper had the honor of editing and translating some years ago. The information's contained in these books are numerous. Plants have been called Sthavarjiva or fixed animals, and pleasure and pain have been attributed to them." (Compare in this connection the recent discoveries of Plant Response by the illustrious Dr. J. C. Bose of Calcutta).

(xii). Last but not the least is the incontestable evidence of the VEDA.

In Atharva Veda 1. 6.32 plants have been declared breathing objects :

इदं जनालो विदथ महद्ब्रह्म वदिष्यति ।

न तत् पृथिव्यां नो दिवि येन प्राणन्ति वीरुधः॥

The Great Lord by whose energy the plants breathe, is not in this world nor in the sky."

Then in VIIL 7. 6. Atharva Veda, plants have been described as living objects:

जीवलं नधारिषां जीवन्तीमोषधीमहम् ।

अरुन्धतीमुन्नयन्तीं पुष्पां मधुमतीमिह हुबेस्मा अरिष्टतातये ||

The lively, by no means harming, living herb, the non-obstructing, up-guiding, flourishing one, rich in sweets, do I call hither (do I use) for this man's freedom from harm."

Thus it is more than clear now that plants have life and internal consciousness, that they experience pleasure and pain, that is, show all actions of life like the well known living creatures, though only in a subtle form. These ideas persistently permeate the whole Hindu Literature and have been boldly incorporated in our religious systems. To-day these lost truths are being re-demonstrated before the world by Dr. Bose of international reputation but as yet no practical results have come out of his demonstration, because the oneness of life has not been thoroughly realized by the people. The present generation would no doubt laugh at the idea of Cruelty to Trees, but we are sure it would occupy a prominent place in practical economics in no distant future.