Vyasa's questions and Darwinism re-visited

ABSTRACT

AUTHOR:DR SUVARNA NALAPAT

Survival of the fittest in Indian sciences of Ayurveda,Music,and yoga is increasing ones own strength and living in balance with nature ,and not by killing microbes.The system is for increasing ones immunological homeostasis so that all jeeva or biodiversities exist together without destroying each other and the name given to this practical way of living was Ahimsa.

Science asks questions and seeks to find out answers.In 3104 BC Vyasa(Ref 1) asked questions.

1.Is there a creator for universe?

2.If so,who and when?

3The cyclical rhythms at mathematical precisions in the universe cannot be manmade.So what force has created them ?

4.We find different types of life(biodiversity)and nonlife,a seed in mothers womb growing up to a adult,and then die,the sky with timespace with several universes created in its womb revolving in everchanging yet endless ways,the earth supporting everything,,the elements,the intelligence,the athma ,mind sensory and extrasensory perceptions in awakened,and sleepy states .Some are vyaktha(seen by sensory organs)and others avyaktha(not perceived by sensory organs).Where and when did all these originate and when all this will come to an end?

5.What is death?Who am I?You?And why does children born of different seeds/parents differ so much in so many features?

6.How do we see the seven colours in a peacock feather or a rainbow?How do we hear and distinguish the panchama of a koil,and how did the emotion of veera(valour)develop in a lion?

He gave answers from Kanaadavaiseshika,Kapilasamkhya,Yoga,Meemaamsaka ,ancient astronomy,medicine ,and philosophy that existed prior to his time. .While questions Darwin asked were only on life and its diversity and evolution(botany,zoology,ecological relations,Mendelian laws of inheritance and probability)these include the molecular and subcellular structures which goes to the paramaanu(subatomic/quantum levels)of physics and chemistry and astrophysics and links the nonliving macrouniverse and microuniverse with the living biodiverse world and oneself as an evolved human mind with a neurosensory mechanism having intelligence to find out answers .The concept of a unchanging universal force or energy (Brahma as God)equivalent to a changing moving revolving Prakrithi(nature)with all the diversities and its evolution and the universal laws for such evolution appeared in India several thousand years before Darwin (and Einstein )ever thought of such questions.

The Kanaada(ref 2 ,3) system of Paramaanu explains evolution by natural selection..He says only a person with intelligence can grasp ,reflect and make sentences in the veda for communication (language and literature and its origin by human race)and thus acknowledges reflective thinking in science (Vaiseshika 6-1-1)Systematic observation,hearing of the sciences/scriptures of ancients,reflection ,discussions among likeminded people,and synthesis of knowledge is called Anweekshiki or enquiry in science of India which Kanaada accepts .Hence he is scientific as well as religious.There is no distinction between science and religion for him..He says that an avyaktha become vyaktha(perceptible by sensory organs)by change in the maathra(maathraaparinaama)and Guna(gunaparinaama).Which is in other words ,change in the quantity of subatomic particle can change the quality of the object and thus by addition or substraction of maathra different objects of different quality are formed and thus the biodiversity in the world is created.

Kanaada’s darsana is different from the postDarwinist evolutionary theories of attributing grades of savagery, Barbarism ,civilization,and enlightenment according to ethnicity and racial supremacy (ref 4)and giving evolutionary space for tribals between man and monkey.(Ref 5).It does not produce a superior race which thinks we can convert people from savages to a monoculture of same religion and in this way destroy biodiversity.Instead it follows a practical method of tolerance,allowing all forms of life and nonlife to survive by natural selection.In human relations it is by matrilinear inheritance from the same tribes that the ethnicity and quality is preserved(monocultures) and by patrilinear inheritance new races are created allowing biodiversity .The cousin marriages of India is in a way based on Mendal’s law of inheritance and probability theory..The agricultural practices and human practices were not different in India because we didn’t distinguish between a plant and human life as different.Both are creations of God ,to be preserved and allowed to diversify .
Kanaada system is a type of quantum Darwinism (ref 6)which allow the observer to use nature as evidence and witness ,leaving the system untouched and its state unperturbed.This untouchability of a particular group of ancestors/plants/animals/birds/forests (as sacred grove) is to preserve the race /biodiversity as well as the monocultures.
I would be presenting this aspect of Kanaada vaiseshika and his paramaanu (subatomic)theory which is the scientific basis of religion and social practices of India .


References
1.Sri Maha Bhaagavatha By Ved Vyasa.Sri Guruvayurappan Sankeerthana trust publication.Based on Sreedhareeyam with commentary Bhakthapriya .Vaisravanath Raman Namboothiri Revised ed 1983.Kerala,India
2.Kanaada doctrine of the padaarthaas .Veena s.Gajendra Gadkar .Sri Sadguru publications New Delhi .India .Sri Garib Dass oriental series no :49 Ed 1988
3.Vaiseshikadarsana ,with vedabhaskara commentary .Pandith Kasinath sharma .Printed by DevaDathasasthri .V.V.R.I Press Sadhu ashram .Hoshiarpur .January 1972 .From Adyar library Chennai.
4.W.J.McGee Head of Anthropology department St Louis world fair ,pp 278 q.Wexler .L.Tender violence Uty of North Carolina press Chapel Hill 2000
5.Jacobson M.Barbarian virtues.The United States encounters foreign people at home and abroad.Hill and whey New york 2000 ch 4.
6Relative states and environment:Einselection,envariance,quantum Darwinism and the existential interpretation .Wojciech Hubert Zurek .Theory division.MS B 213 LANL Los Alamos NM 87545 USA ,Feb 3 .2008