WHO IS THE JIVA? – 1. Man is a ‘Superorganism’ (Hiranyagarbha)
As human beings we believe we are superior to all other living things in the world because we are not only conscious but we know that we are conscious. We may feel even a tinge of pride at our fortuitous luck to be the privileged readers of the wisdom that flows through the pages of The Advaita Academy! Our sympathy easily flows towards the poor little creatures – however despicable or adorable they may be — the animals, the insects, the creepy crawly worms, the tiny little microbes that thrive in poops because they have no short cut to Self-Knowledge. We consider them to have no awareness, no ‘self’ to uplift themselves or to seek liberation.
Well, what’s wrong if we feel smug about it? Don’t the scriptures back us up – “to be born as man amongst all living things …. is exceptional by itself” (e.g. Vivekachudamani – verse 2)? Is not the human being the supreme creature God has created in His own form? Can any other being in the nature surpass our skills in survival? Can any of them outsmart us either in intelligence or in artful cunning? Can any other animal species conceive, design, build and bequeath mighty structures that can alter the course of history?
Yes, the argument looks quite impressive. It may even convince quite a few of us about our own supremacy as human beings. But step back a little? Are we caught up in our own anthropocentric view of things? Are we lost in a logic created by our own thought to convince ourselves about our own glory? Is this really our world where we live? Am I a single individual creature (jiva) that I think I am?
Why doubt it? Does not our ancient literature tell us that there are only 8,400,000 living species? For example, Vishnu Purana lists the various creatures as follows:
Further, attesting the superiority of the human race, Padma Purana holds that an individual (jiva) has to undergo birth in every species before being born as a human being.
We have to admit, though, we do not know much about the method or the basis of grouping adopted by our ancients. We do not know whether the large numbers of viral, fungal and bacterial species were taken into account by them or not. Nevertheless, their scientific observation, meticulous classification and attempt at compiling a census of the biosphere (totality of living things) in those times are undoubtedly laudable. We have also to keep in mind the limitations under which the codifiers must have had worked. They did not have the advantage of the modern technological gadgetry that goes to extend our sensory capabilities by several orders of magnitudes to enable them to sieve the biota with a fine comb. They also lacked the means of conducting an actual ground check by sampling extensively the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and the deep space beyond the earth. No GPS. No WIFI, No instant real time communications. Still they did attempt and could arrive at a number 8.4 million, not far off an estimate that a just published research paper arrived at.
But the surprise is every day new animal species is being discovered from all sorts of unimaginable environments which are quite inhospitable for life. It was only a few decades ago that we found animals that breathe hydrogen sulphide and devour iron sulphides. Those creatures do not need the Sun to draw their energy requirements for running their life; they draw the necessary energy from minerals in rocks.
We also find life thriving at temperatures higher than that of boiling water and at pressures equivalent to thirty times the weight the atmospheric air would exert on our head. A human being would have been simply vaporized or crushed to a mush in those environments. It is sheer arrogance on our part that we call all such creatures “Extremophiles”(i.e. those that live under extreme conditions) in an obvious comparison to our environment. In fact it is we who should have been branded Extremophiles by those creatures because they came to the earth much before we appeared here and began to call it our home.
The figure of eight to nine million species of living things given by our ancients and the latest published paper are not agreed to by all. The number seems to be an underestimate of the bacterial and other microscopic life forms. So the actual number of species on the earth could run much higher. Some of the scientists place the number at even 50 or a 100 million. In fact if we take into consideration the microscopic creatures (microbes for short), their total mass (called the microbial biomass) far outweighs all other creatures on the earth. They alone comprise about 80 per cent of the total mass. So it is their world we live in. We are actually a minority. It is not our world!
Not only we are surrounded by the microbes on all sides and everywhere, they also pervade much of our body and manipulate it from our innards. We are home to 500 to 100,000 different species. If you weigh say 60 – 70 KG, about 3 – 4 kilos is not really your weight. It is simply the weight of the bacteria and other creatures that you give shelter to. That may sound quite comforting news if you are overweight! Not only that, some recent studies showed that you could become overweight because of the type of bacteria that live in you. [So it’s not all your mistake, tell the Spousee Dear!]
On an average we have 10 trillion cells of our own in our body. The number of microbial cells that our body is a home to is ten times more! “The bacteria in our gut, mouth, skin, and elsewhere put together harbor three million distinct genes. Our own body cells struggle by on only 18,000 genes or so.” No wonder, some scientists say that the human body should be considered as a Superorgansim rather than one individual supporting many other germs. This concept is proposed not because of only the bacteria. It is also because “billions of years ago certain type of bacteria started living inside other cells, and over generations lost the ability to live anywhere else. We (or rather our ancestors), as their hosts, lost the ability to live without them. Now, they’re simply part of us. They are us indistinguishably in each of our cells whether it is in the skin or bone or brain. Those bacteria’s descendants are the ‘mitochondria’ sitting in the cells. They are the energy-generating engines for the cellular functions in our body. The mitochondria are inherited by us from, who else, our mother. Matrudevo bhava – the energy (food) provider for life!
If I am home to so many millions of creatures and if the fate of us all so inseparably linked, am I an individual or a composite? Am I a jiva or a Hiranyagarbha?
(To continue: WHO IS THE JIVA? – 2. The Jivi-s in us)
