THE EVOLUTION OF MATTER

 

THE EVOLUTION OF MATTER

 (By Mr. Chamupati, M.A.)

Published in Vedic Magazine February 1919

The modern theory of evolution reduces animate existence, in its simplest form, to a single primitive cell. Bacilli, bacteria and amoeba are regarded as the first form of animate existence from where by a process of multiplication and differentiation of cells, life has gradually been assuming complexity. Varieties of animals mark the various stages, through which, this self-evolving complexity has  progressed, passed.

The theory, as it stands, is open to serious objections. The primitive type still lingers, and will continue to linger as long as existence lasts. Human beings are the most complex type evolved. Yet since the time of first creation of man, his vital structure does not appear to have undergone any material change. As was pointed out in the Journal of the Victoria Institute (London), Vol. XIX, page 125, 'One of the two oldest skulls, known to us as the Engis skulls, shows no inferiority to an average modern skull. That self-evolving complexity should fail to effect a vast number of cells which are yet in the first stage, and should cease to operate in the case of others, which it has carried to the highest rung, defeats the very idea of progressive evolution. 

Between these two extremes there 'links', the existence of which is a matter of mere assumption, while the cropping up here and there of abnormal types, makes the whole process of evolution unsystematic. 

 The state, prior to the evolution of single cells, is not indicated in this hypothesis. The problem of life, how it got communicated to a protoplasm, which, as scientists tell us, is a collection of insentient substances, remains still unsolved. The fact that living bodies are composed of a number of microscopic cells does not resolve life into those cells. The ultimate entity at which our investigation into animate existence arrives is not one. Over against insentient matter of which the universe is but a gorgeous parade of forms, are sentient souls, which show no sign of evolution from matter. They are related to matter as subject to object, or in the terminology of Sankhya, as purusha to prakrti. Not allied in essence, purusha and prakrti work in unison, each subservient to the purposes of the other.

According to Sankhya, prakrti consists of three gunas, viz, Satva, or the principle of light, Rajas, or the principle of activity, and Tamas the principle of dismal lassitude. Different interpretations are put on the word guna. Some take it to mean qualities, looking on prakrti as their aggregate. According to others, the use of the word is figurative, in the sense of strings, which, twisted together from the rope, called prakrti. The conception of matter, implied in the word prakrti, is essentially of its qualitative aspect, as distinguished from its substance, with which the atomic theory of Vaisheshika immediately deals.

In a state of equipoise, these gunus resolve matter into chaos, while a disturbance of their equilibrium leads to the evolution of order out of chaos. Strife of the gunas is life of the universe, while quietude among them universal inertia. Life, then, is in a potential state, and is to that state that the name prakrti properly belongs. It is the subtlest state of matter, which cosmos, when it comes, makes gross?. Chaos alternates with cosmos in endless cycles. Matter and spirit being co-eternal, their activity cannot be annihilated?. It is simply held in abeyance, for a certain period, which the Vedas aptly call night, the hour of rest.

Every creation or cosmos, begins with awakening on the part of souls, for which the resolution of matter into chaos has been synonymous with a period of peaceful repose. The psychic material for the energy of these souls is to be supplied by prakrti, and it is to this end that the evolution of prakrti has to be in strict correspondence with the unfolding of the powers of purusha. The instruments, which the soul uses for its operations on the physical plane are the external organs of sense. The time for their development will be, when the evolution of insentient nature has proceeded so far as to call for its comprehension by them. At the outset the soul is concerned with self. Consciousness is the essence of spirit, and it is to consciousness that prakrti awakens it. The principle, then evolved, is called mahat, the great one. It is otherwise termed buddhi, or Intellect, and being the finest organ in its mental equipment, is used, in later developments, for the decision of right and wrong by the soul.

First cognizance should be of self. Simultaneously with it, and with a view to bring about the process, ahankar or Ego takes birth. This is the first child of mahat, step forward in definiteness, though as principle, it is grosser. Its function in the psychic life of the spirit is to individualize impressions received by the mind and to refer them to Mahat.

The spirit, self-consciousness, naturally looks up; and in the absence of sense-organs, and their coordinator, Manas, would feel itself at sea, were it not for mother prakrti, which has all the time been busy, forging weapons for the battles of the incipient hero.

The number of aspects, Tatvas, to which an Indian philosopher reduces his universe, is five. The same is the number of sense organs, viz. the organs of touch, taste, hearing, smell and sight. By means of these organs, the spirit is related to the objective world. Each sense has sphere, specially allotted to it, and the world, in so far as it is cognizable through senses, can present as many aspects as they. Matter, in as much as it is audible, is Akasha; in as much as it is tangible, it is Vayu; in as much as it is visible, it is Agni; in as much as it has taste, it is Jala; in as much as it has smell, it is Prthvi.

The affinity between the organs of sense and their objects is not accidental; it points to a unity of origin. Cognizance must be supplemented with activity, for a harmonious working of the powers of the soul, wherefore five more organs; viz. the tongue, hands and feet, and the organs of evacuation and reproduction must necessarily be added. In their potential unalloyed state, the five aspects of nature are evolved with these ten organs, and the mind, from Ego. The word tanmatra is significant, meaning simply that, as distinguished from this, the immediate Ego. It is the first dawn of object on subject. Matter in this state can only dimly be made out as distinct from self. It has not yet been sufficiently differentiated to be the object of senses. This last is a consummation, which the transformation of tanmatras into the gross aspects of nature, termed the five bhutas, eventually accomplishes.

From subtle to gross, the work of evolution proceeds, till a mighty edifice of infinite magnitude is created out of chaos, which in its minuteness baffles the subtlest conception of man. Sankhya sums up this entire process in the following brief formula :-

सत्वरजस्तमसां साम्यावस्था प्रकृतिः प्रकृतेर्महान, महतोऽहंकारः, अहंकारात्पञ्चतन्मात्राणि, उभयमिन्द्रियम्, ततः पञ्चभूतानि पुरुष इति पञ्च विंशतिगण।

The above sutra enumerates the twenty-five entities, which, with the exception of purusha, constitute consecutive rungs in the ladder of evolution.

For the process of resolution into chaos, which sets in, when the forces of evolution have spent themselves, the order of entities is reversed. The beauty of the whole hypothesis is that subject and object proceed in concert; spirit and matter are made hand-maidens; the evolution of one is just the unfolding of the other. The merit of the soul, a fruit of its former lives, is the measure of the potency, which the principles evolved exhibit, as they are utilised by each spirit individually.

Materialism of modern days, which makes no room for spirit, has to stop, as we noticed, at primitive cells, beyond which its investigations cannot go, and the enigma of the origin of life remains as defiant of solution as ever.