Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "evolution"
Does God Exist?
I have been asked countless times.
Does God exist?
I'll go straight ahead and tell you I don't know. And you know what! No human being on planet earth knows whether such a Supreme Entity exists. And before the fundamentalist primitives come up with their idiotic argument "have you asked everyone on this planet?" Here the answer would be, the believers believe in an existence of a Supreme Entity. And there is a vast difference between belief and knowledge. Or as most people like to say, It is a matter of faith. Now there is the question, "what is faith?"
"Can we, the modern human beings of the 21st century have faith on an entity, whom we know nothing about!"
And the answer is not so simple as it might seem. The point is, faith, hope, belief all these are born out of a magnificent network of cells, which we call the neurons. And as far as the neurons are concerned, the question "does God exist" is irrational and irrelevant to the existence of an advanced biological creature like the humans.
Science shall never be able to answer this question? Because the very neural basis of the question dwells on the magnificent operation of the human brain from which rises abstract thinking. And the outcome of such abstract thinking is infinite creativity. It is the product of the brain's capacity to imagine things that we cannot comprehend with our logical prefrontal cortex.
After all, being the smartest species on earth has its own existential baggage. Daily struggle of the humans is not as easy. It may seem easy to a financially stable and established atheist. But the reality is different.
To ease the sufferings of the species as a whole, Mother Nature put selective pressure on the neural network of the brain, that eventually led to the arrival of cognitive features of the humankind. And one of those crucial features is spirituality. And this element of Spirituality later led to the development of the formal structure of religions. And these structures further sustained the concept of God in the mind of the masses.
And the concept of God still exists in the human mind, because of its evolutionary advantages. Through various neurochemical processes, the human belief upon God or any kind of divinity, relieves stress and anxiety in daily life. It acts as a natural anti-depressant.
A belief is your brain's self maintenance mechanism. And the most important feature of a human belief is that it is very personal. Each one of you has some kind of belief system. And as for the belief upon the divinity, as long as there is such a thing as weakness in the human heart, as long as the human heart sheds a drop of tear in weakness, there shall be a faith in God and divinity.
Now one might ask, what about all those people or rather saints who experienced God? Were they simply delusional, as the atheists ruthlessly put it?
It is not as simple as saying, they were delusional. What those saints experienced is what we call an altered state of consciousness. People experience these mental states in various circumstances. For example, disturbance in the geomagnetic field often increases the frequency of psychotic episodes in mentally ill patients. And in some cases geomagnetic disturbance can also trigger subtle electrical storm within the temporal lobe of the brain. These storms often lead to ecstatic experiences.
However, till date the most healthy way to experience the divine bliss is through meditation. It is the natural way to trigger an ecstatic sensation in your brain. That's how Buddha experienced Nirvana. While Jesus experienced his blissful state of consciousness through a combination of devotion and meditation.
So, it is not about whether God exists or not. It is all about whether your belief upon him or her makes you a better version of yourself.
Our research in modern Neuroscience has proven that spirituality and divinity possess great health benefits. In order to have a deeper understanding of the biological impact of divinity you may read one of my latest books Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality.
But in short, divinity makes you happier and healthier both mentally and physiologically. It keeps the neurochemical processes of your body in check. It does indeed improve the quality of your life, by improving your biology.
So, your spiritual goals can be as numerous as there are stars in the sky. And so can be your religions, but in all your vivid and diverse paths if practicing religion and spirituality, there is one very common and simple element that knows no bounds, it is the eternal bliss of divinity which evolved in the human mind through millions of years, and this very element enables you to attain unimaginable feats of excellence.
Does God exist?
I'll go straight ahead and tell you I don't know. And you know what! No human being on planet earth knows whether such a Supreme Entity exists. And before the fundamentalist primitives come up with their idiotic argument "have you asked everyone on this planet?" Here the answer would be, the believers believe in an existence of a Supreme Entity. And there is a vast difference between belief and knowledge. Or as most people like to say, It is a matter of faith. Now there is the question, "what is faith?"
"Can we, the modern human beings of the 21st century have faith on an entity, whom we know nothing about!"
And the answer is not so simple as it might seem. The point is, faith, hope, belief all these are born out of a magnificent network of cells, which we call the neurons. And as far as the neurons are concerned, the question "does God exist" is irrational and irrelevant to the existence of an advanced biological creature like the humans.
Science shall never be able to answer this question? Because the very neural basis of the question dwells on the magnificent operation of the human brain from which rises abstract thinking. And the outcome of such abstract thinking is infinite creativity. It is the product of the brain's capacity to imagine things that we cannot comprehend with our logical prefrontal cortex.
After all, being the smartest species on earth has its own existential baggage. Daily struggle of the humans is not as easy. It may seem easy to a financially stable and established atheist. But the reality is different.
To ease the sufferings of the species as a whole, Mother Nature put selective pressure on the neural network of the brain, that eventually led to the arrival of cognitive features of the humankind. And one of those crucial features is spirituality. And this element of Spirituality later led to the development of the formal structure of religions. And these structures further sustained the concept of God in the mind of the masses.
And the concept of God still exists in the human mind, because of its evolutionary advantages. Through various neurochemical processes, the human belief upon God or any kind of divinity, relieves stress and anxiety in daily life. It acts as a natural anti-depressant.
A belief is your brain's self maintenance mechanism. And the most important feature of a human belief is that it is very personal. Each one of you has some kind of belief system. And as for the belief upon the divinity, as long as there is such a thing as weakness in the human heart, as long as the human heart sheds a drop of tear in weakness, there shall be a faith in God and divinity.
Now one might ask, what about all those people or rather saints who experienced God? Were they simply delusional, as the atheists ruthlessly put it?
It is not as simple as saying, they were delusional. What those saints experienced is what we call an altered state of consciousness. People experience these mental states in various circumstances. For example, disturbance in the geomagnetic field often increases the frequency of psychotic episodes in mentally ill patients. And in some cases geomagnetic disturbance can also trigger subtle electrical storm within the temporal lobe of the brain. These storms often lead to ecstatic experiences.
However, till date the most healthy way to experience the divine bliss is through meditation. It is the natural way to trigger an ecstatic sensation in your brain. That's how Buddha experienced Nirvana. While Jesus experienced his blissful state of consciousness through a combination of devotion and meditation.
So, it is not about whether God exists or not. It is all about whether your belief upon him or her makes you a better version of yourself.
Our research in modern Neuroscience has proven that spirituality and divinity possess great health benefits. In order to have a deeper understanding of the biological impact of divinity you may read one of my latest books Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality.
But in short, divinity makes you happier and healthier both mentally and physiologically. It keeps the neurochemical processes of your body in check. It does indeed improve the quality of your life, by improving your biology.
So, your spiritual goals can be as numerous as there are stars in the sky. And so can be your religions, but in all your vivid and diverse paths if practicing religion and spirituality, there is one very common and simple element that knows no bounds, it is the eternal bliss of divinity which evolved in the human mind through millions of years, and this very element enables you to attain unimaginable feats of excellence.
What is Consciousness?
Consciousness is something all of us share, or rather without it, we'd cease to exist. It is what makes us the most advanced species on this planet.
Consciousness is the most simple and common phenomenon on this planet, yet in the hands of hardcore philosophers it has become the most complex one.
So, the question I shall be answering today is - what is consciousness?
In short, consciousness is the basic awareness of being alive in any organism. It is the rudimentary biological phenomenon that enables an organism to respond to its environment. Every single organism on this planet has consciousness. And the higher we climb up the tree of life, the more complex and advanced the consciousness becomes. And the species that possesses the most advanced consciousness on earth is us, the Homo sapiens.
Consciousness has remained an enigmatic mystery for time immemorial, mostly by the exaggeration of the philosophers. However, with the advancement of Neuroscience in the last few decades, we have truly begun our journey to explore the true biological foundation of consciousness. And even though philosophers and mystics throughout the world want you to believe otherwise, the foundation of consciousness lies in the complex interplay of the brain circuits. Or in short, consciousness is born in your brain. You may read my book Homo: A Brief History of Consciousness to catch up with the evolutionary processes that led to the arrival of Human Consciousness.
Human brain is the most complex organized structure in the universe. It is the biological organ with mind boggling capabilities. It is made up of a hundred billion nerve cells or neurons. And the relentless activity of these neurons gives rise to the fascinating phenomenon, which we call human consciousness. All our feelings, emotions, thoughts, ambitions, religious sentiments and even our sense of self are simply born from the activity of these little specks of jelly in our head.
Every living creature on this planet is conscious. It is the most common element of life. Without consciousness life doesn't exist. Because consciousness enables a creature to understand the basic biological needs of survival. It is all in the nervous system. Even the plants have a kind of nervous system. The response of a plant to physical stimuli is a consequence of long range electrical signaling through the entire plant body. This is similar to the basic characteristics of the neurobiology in animals.
We can tell a lot about a creature's level of consciousness by understanding their perception of death. For example, we see a fascinating behavior in crows concerning death. When a crow dies, other crows vigilantly gather around its body. They perceive the death of their fellow crow as murder. And their vigilance over the dead crow serves a significant purpose. By sticking close to the crow that was killed, other crows may improve their chances of learning about the predators that they need to avoid.
Human rituals for dealing with the dead are vivid and varied. While on the other hand, few animals show more than a passing interest in confronting a dead animal of their own species. For example, African elephants hold a funeral while touching and grooming a dead elephant. Similar behavior can be seen in bottlenose dolphins, chimpanzees and certain species of magpies. We are only starting to understand those behaviors and their level of consciousness.
In short, the more complex the neurobiology gets, the more advanced one's consciousness becomes. And in humans this advancement has gone far beyond the primitive concerns of survival. So the bottom line is, your vividly conscious rich mental universe is simply a construct of your neurobiology. It is what makes you you. It is what makes you unique. It is what makes you attain unimaginable feats of excellence.
However, the air of mystery surrounding consciousness has provided the philosophers and mystics means for survival for ages, but as we neuroscientists keep on exploring further the mysterious domain of consciousness the majority of the philosophers feel threatened. Because the very existence of the philosophers and the mystics is predicated on their metaphysical approach towards explaining consciousness. Which means, the longer they keep it a mystery, the more they can manipulate the minds of masses with magical mysticism.
The purpose of a scientist is to understand every single mysterious phenomenon of this universe, while the hardcore philosophers only attempt to sustain the mysteries as long as they can.
Every true scientist is a philosopher, but not every philosopher is a scientist. Philosophy enables us to imagine the infinite, while science helps us get there. As my dear friend and Mathematician Ronald Cicurel says "our brain works on hypothesis". Here a hypothesis is nothing but a plausible future scenario that our brain simulates based on our predominant ideas, fantasies and beliefs. And then we start working on making that hypothesis a reality. You can read more about this in Ronald's book The Relativistic Brain: How it works and why it cannot be simulated by a Turing machine.
The point it, there is a fascinating mechanism behind everything in this universe. And we scientists attempt to understand those mysteries. Here one might say, it is typical materialistic perspective.
While the reality is, there is no such thing as materialism. The very concept itself is an illusion. Our species evolved around 200,000 years ago in Africa. And we have spent most of our lifetime in the fear of the unknown. We have remained ignorant for thousands of years. And now that we have started to become the true master of the planet, and to reveal the secrets of everything that surrounds us, this very venture feels like a dreadful change to the masses. Thus, in order to sustain the mystery of the unknown, the concept of materialism was born in the human mind. Nobody is to blame here. It is plain subconscious behavior.
However, it is the responsibility of us scientists and all those young students of science to share our discoveries with the world in simple tasteful words. It is our responsibility to awaken the people into the new world of science and reasoning. The darkness of ignorance and fear only thrives in the absence of knowledge. Once the flame of knowledge is bright enough, there shall be no more darkness.
Consciousness is the most simple and common phenomenon on this planet, yet in the hands of hardcore philosophers it has become the most complex one.
So, the question I shall be answering today is - what is consciousness?
In short, consciousness is the basic awareness of being alive in any organism. It is the rudimentary biological phenomenon that enables an organism to respond to its environment. Every single organism on this planet has consciousness. And the higher we climb up the tree of life, the more complex and advanced the consciousness becomes. And the species that possesses the most advanced consciousness on earth is us, the Homo sapiens.
Consciousness has remained an enigmatic mystery for time immemorial, mostly by the exaggeration of the philosophers. However, with the advancement of Neuroscience in the last few decades, we have truly begun our journey to explore the true biological foundation of consciousness. And even though philosophers and mystics throughout the world want you to believe otherwise, the foundation of consciousness lies in the complex interplay of the brain circuits. Or in short, consciousness is born in your brain. You may read my book Homo: A Brief History of Consciousness to catch up with the evolutionary processes that led to the arrival of Human Consciousness.
Human brain is the most complex organized structure in the universe. It is the biological organ with mind boggling capabilities. It is made up of a hundred billion nerve cells or neurons. And the relentless activity of these neurons gives rise to the fascinating phenomenon, which we call human consciousness. All our feelings, emotions, thoughts, ambitions, religious sentiments and even our sense of self are simply born from the activity of these little specks of jelly in our head.
Every living creature on this planet is conscious. It is the most common element of life. Without consciousness life doesn't exist. Because consciousness enables a creature to understand the basic biological needs of survival. It is all in the nervous system. Even the plants have a kind of nervous system. The response of a plant to physical stimuli is a consequence of long range electrical signaling through the entire plant body. This is similar to the basic characteristics of the neurobiology in animals.
We can tell a lot about a creature's level of consciousness by understanding their perception of death. For example, we see a fascinating behavior in crows concerning death. When a crow dies, other crows vigilantly gather around its body. They perceive the death of their fellow crow as murder. And their vigilance over the dead crow serves a significant purpose. By sticking close to the crow that was killed, other crows may improve their chances of learning about the predators that they need to avoid.
Human rituals for dealing with the dead are vivid and varied. While on the other hand, few animals show more than a passing interest in confronting a dead animal of their own species. For example, African elephants hold a funeral while touching and grooming a dead elephant. Similar behavior can be seen in bottlenose dolphins, chimpanzees and certain species of magpies. We are only starting to understand those behaviors and their level of consciousness.
In short, the more complex the neurobiology gets, the more advanced one's consciousness becomes. And in humans this advancement has gone far beyond the primitive concerns of survival. So the bottom line is, your vividly conscious rich mental universe is simply a construct of your neurobiology. It is what makes you you. It is what makes you unique. It is what makes you attain unimaginable feats of excellence.
However, the air of mystery surrounding consciousness has provided the philosophers and mystics means for survival for ages, but as we neuroscientists keep on exploring further the mysterious domain of consciousness the majority of the philosophers feel threatened. Because the very existence of the philosophers and the mystics is predicated on their metaphysical approach towards explaining consciousness. Which means, the longer they keep it a mystery, the more they can manipulate the minds of masses with magical mysticism.
The purpose of a scientist is to understand every single mysterious phenomenon of this universe, while the hardcore philosophers only attempt to sustain the mysteries as long as they can.
Every true scientist is a philosopher, but not every philosopher is a scientist. Philosophy enables us to imagine the infinite, while science helps us get there. As my dear friend and Mathematician Ronald Cicurel says "our brain works on hypothesis". Here a hypothesis is nothing but a plausible future scenario that our brain simulates based on our predominant ideas, fantasies and beliefs. And then we start working on making that hypothesis a reality. You can read more about this in Ronald's book The Relativistic Brain: How it works and why it cannot be simulated by a Turing machine.
The point it, there is a fascinating mechanism behind everything in this universe. And we scientists attempt to understand those mysteries. Here one might say, it is typical materialistic perspective.
While the reality is, there is no such thing as materialism. The very concept itself is an illusion. Our species evolved around 200,000 years ago in Africa. And we have spent most of our lifetime in the fear of the unknown. We have remained ignorant for thousands of years. And now that we have started to become the true master of the planet, and to reveal the secrets of everything that surrounds us, this very venture feels like a dreadful change to the masses. Thus, in order to sustain the mystery of the unknown, the concept of materialism was born in the human mind. Nobody is to blame here. It is plain subconscious behavior.
However, it is the responsibility of us scientists and all those young students of science to share our discoveries with the world in simple tasteful words. It is our responsibility to awaken the people into the new world of science and reasoning. The darkness of ignorance and fear only thrives in the absence of knowledge. Once the flame of knowledge is bright enough, there shall be no more darkness.
Key to Love
Love - the most beautiful word on this planet. This one word has revolutionized the whole planet in an evolutionary way. Without this none of us might have been born. It is mother nature's magical wand by the touch of which everything turns surreal and captivating.
It is the most important ingredient of human life. That's why the tiniest glance at your dearly beloved can make you experience heaven right here on earth. Or as I have said in my book Love Sutra The Neuroscientific Manual of Love, "who wants Jesus when you can have the warm embrace of the person who is the living embodiment of all your desires".
But, despite all the delightful descriptions of love, why is it so hard to maintain a healthy relationship?
If the mental state of love is so soothing then why do people often fail to maintain a healthy relationship?
The answer lies deep within the neural network of the human brain.
In short the cause of failure in relationships is the perceptual difference between the male and female mind. It is all in the fascinating neurobiology of the human brain.
The point is, the male and female brain constructs a vivid and gender oriented mental universe. Thus, the male mind perceives every situation of daily life from a typically male perspective and expects the female to do the same, while the female brain observes everything in a feminine manner and expects the male to do the same. And from this very gender based perceptual conflict rise all the predicaments of a relationship.
Therefore, the only way to sustain a healthy relationship is to have a basic insight of your own as well as your partner's mental universe.
And the very first thing to know about the male and female mental universe is that the female brain is a highly intuitive emotion engine, while the male brain is an analytical powerhouse.
Through millions of years of evolution, Mother Nature has molded the female brain to thrive over emotions, and the male brain to thrive over competition. From a cursory reading, a man and a woman may seem to be members of the same species. But they are neurologically distinct and unique creatures, who see the world from completely different perspectives.
They think differently, feel differently, get mad differently and even handle problems differently. The male brain is a problem solving machine that uses analytical brain structures to find solutions for basic problems of life, unlike the female brain that uses emotional neural structures to solve problems.
Men are born with uniquely masculine neurological circuits while women are born with uniquely feminine circuits. This is what we call sexual dimorphism in clinical terms. And this dimorphism in brain structure leads to distinctive cognitive and behavioral features in men and women. You can read about these fascinating sexually dimorphic features in my book Love Sutra: The Neuroscientific Manual of Love. In this book I have opened up the entire mental universe of men and women while giving a basic guideline for a healthy relationship.
Let me tell you a little more about the fascinating difference between the male and female mind. For example, the male brain is evolutionarily programmed to think about mating far more than women. And this programming has led men to have sexual thoughts more often throughout the day than the women. Women only have such thoughts four or less times in a day.
Another fascinating feature of the female brain is its retention of memories connected to emotional events in the long run. Women are much better at remembering emotional events of life in the long run than men. And off course, the female brain is a great emotion sensor. It is capable of picking up emotional cues from the facial expressions and other body movements of people. Men are not so good at this, for which women often blame the men to be less sensitive. And here's a little tip for all the ladies out there. If you want to make your partner sense your emotions, you can do so by bursting into tears. That's the only way, the male brain can feel there's something wrong. It is plain biology.
And as for men, I'd like to tell you, your neurology may not be as emotionally sensitive as the women's. But that does not mean you cannot grow the virtue of patience. All that women seek in men, is patience with a little tinge of perseverance. And thanks to the amazing neurological feature known as neuroplasticity, the human brain, male and female alike, can learn and adopt new features in the neural network.
It is all about making efforts from both sides of a relationship. Relationships don't fail due to lack of love. Rather they fail because the partners lose touch with each other's inner selves. They get lost in the storm of confusions and meaninglessness. One way or another they start fighting with each other's biological instincts, that ultimately leads to misery.
You must remember, biological instincts are the driving force or rather guiding force of a species. Everything our ancestors learnt throughout their existence is encoded inside our instinctual blueprint. It is the key to understanding how every single human being is wired. The marvelous interplay of various brain circuits creates the instinctual reality of daily life in both men and women.
Regardless of your gender, if you are conscious about the fact that there lies a complex yet vividly beautiful brain circuit mechanism behind every single impulse of your daily emotions, then you can choose how to react upon each of those impulses. You can thus program your behavioral response in a certain situation for the best possible outcome.
It is the most important ingredient of human life. That's why the tiniest glance at your dearly beloved can make you experience heaven right here on earth. Or as I have said in my book Love Sutra The Neuroscientific Manual of Love, "who wants Jesus when you can have the warm embrace of the person who is the living embodiment of all your desires".
But, despite all the delightful descriptions of love, why is it so hard to maintain a healthy relationship?
If the mental state of love is so soothing then why do people often fail to maintain a healthy relationship?
The answer lies deep within the neural network of the human brain.
In short the cause of failure in relationships is the perceptual difference between the male and female mind. It is all in the fascinating neurobiology of the human brain.
The point is, the male and female brain constructs a vivid and gender oriented mental universe. Thus, the male mind perceives every situation of daily life from a typically male perspective and expects the female to do the same, while the female brain observes everything in a feminine manner and expects the male to do the same. And from this very gender based perceptual conflict rise all the predicaments of a relationship.
Therefore, the only way to sustain a healthy relationship is to have a basic insight of your own as well as your partner's mental universe.
And the very first thing to know about the male and female mental universe is that the female brain is a highly intuitive emotion engine, while the male brain is an analytical powerhouse.
Through millions of years of evolution, Mother Nature has molded the female brain to thrive over emotions, and the male brain to thrive over competition. From a cursory reading, a man and a woman may seem to be members of the same species. But they are neurologically distinct and unique creatures, who see the world from completely different perspectives.
They think differently, feel differently, get mad differently and even handle problems differently. The male brain is a problem solving machine that uses analytical brain structures to find solutions for basic problems of life, unlike the female brain that uses emotional neural structures to solve problems.
Men are born with uniquely masculine neurological circuits while women are born with uniquely feminine circuits. This is what we call sexual dimorphism in clinical terms. And this dimorphism in brain structure leads to distinctive cognitive and behavioral features in men and women. You can read about these fascinating sexually dimorphic features in my book Love Sutra: The Neuroscientific Manual of Love. In this book I have opened up the entire mental universe of men and women while giving a basic guideline for a healthy relationship.
Let me tell you a little more about the fascinating difference between the male and female mind. For example, the male brain is evolutionarily programmed to think about mating far more than women. And this programming has led men to have sexual thoughts more often throughout the day than the women. Women only have such thoughts four or less times in a day.
Another fascinating feature of the female brain is its retention of memories connected to emotional events in the long run. Women are much better at remembering emotional events of life in the long run than men. And off course, the female brain is a great emotion sensor. It is capable of picking up emotional cues from the facial expressions and other body movements of people. Men are not so good at this, for which women often blame the men to be less sensitive. And here's a little tip for all the ladies out there. If you want to make your partner sense your emotions, you can do so by bursting into tears. That's the only way, the male brain can feel there's something wrong. It is plain biology.
And as for men, I'd like to tell you, your neurology may not be as emotionally sensitive as the women's. But that does not mean you cannot grow the virtue of patience. All that women seek in men, is patience with a little tinge of perseverance. And thanks to the amazing neurological feature known as neuroplasticity, the human brain, male and female alike, can learn and adopt new features in the neural network.
It is all about making efforts from both sides of a relationship. Relationships don't fail due to lack of love. Rather they fail because the partners lose touch with each other's inner selves. They get lost in the storm of confusions and meaninglessness. One way or another they start fighting with each other's biological instincts, that ultimately leads to misery.
You must remember, biological instincts are the driving force or rather guiding force of a species. Everything our ancestors learnt throughout their existence is encoded inside our instinctual blueprint. It is the key to understanding how every single human being is wired. The marvelous interplay of various brain circuits creates the instinctual reality of daily life in both men and women.
Regardless of your gender, if you are conscious about the fact that there lies a complex yet vividly beautiful brain circuit mechanism behind every single impulse of your daily emotions, then you can choose how to react upon each of those impulses. You can thus program your behavioral response in a certain situation for the best possible outcome.
Cause & Treatment of Misogyny
Apparently we are the smartest species on this planet. We are so civilized and advanced that we have invented cures for countless diseases, stepped foot on the moon and even sent a probe outside our solar system.
But, have all these extraordinary scientific achievements truly improved the quality of life? We the scientists have made life more comfortable, but how much really have we contributed to solving the quintessential problems of life? Modern technology has made life sophisticated, yet the whole human civilization craves for the basic elements of human existence. Civilized humans have the whole world on the palm of their hand, yet they cannot find peace and happiness. With all our scientific achievements have we really discovered any practical means to resolve the ancient conflicts of the human society yet? Have we discovered the path towards happiness?
The answer would be a straight no. But I, Abhijit Naskar, a responsible Neuroscientist of this planet cannot take no for an answer. So, through all my books I have brought the fascinating universe of the human mind into your life. Human mind is the birth place of all our inexplicable scientific achievements as well as the never ending conflicts of human society. These conflicts grab onto the human consciousness like incurable diseases.
And one of those dreadful diseases is misogyny.
Misogyny is the society's common innate prejudice against woman. It has made the whole human civilization crippled. If you truly look, you can find misogyny everywhere in your society. Misogyny runs in the veins of the so called civilized humans. You can find it in the movies, where it is all about objectification of women.
You can even see it in the very English language, where we gloriously use terms like "Man" and "He" to refer to both genders. That's why I try my best to avoid such stereotypical terms in my scientific works. I cannot accept such nonsensical norms in language just because the society says so. And I urge to you to think before you use such language. Ask your rational mind, and you'll receive the answer.
We have misogyny in our society because throughout our existence as a species we have been male-dominated. It is only recently that women have become equally productive in all aspects of life. But in our primitive days, it was men fighting to protect their mates and progeny, and women nourishing the children and taking care of the home. The men were the providers of the family and the women were caretakers. And this strategy worked well for around 200,000 years. That's why all the religious scriptures were written by men.
It's not because God chose the men to convey the divine message, but because men appointed themselves to be the monitor of the divine domain driven by their subconscious desire masking as God's will to become the authority figures of the society.
In my book Biopsy of Religions Neuroanalysis towards Universal Tolerance, you can read in detail about how the human beings of our history constructed such fascinating organized structure of religions and why most of those religions promote sinister ideas of misogyny and polygamy while despising the common biological phenomenon of homosexuality.
What's the point of so many scriptures and highly venerated figures in philosophy, if they don't possess the simple ability to teach us plain ordinary everyday kindness for both man and woman?
Men are neurologically designed to crave for authority and power over everything around them. It is the product of millions of years of evolution, so it cannot be erased just like that over a few decades or even centuries. It'll take time, till the society starts to perceive men and women to be equal. But for that future to arrive sooner, we must join hands and start making efforts right now. The actions we take now shall define our future. We cannot just leave the primitive biological feature of misogyny untreated just because it's evolution. Evolution is a relentless process of biological life. It never stops. And things we do now, shall prepare a less primitive evolutionary future of the human race.
Now is the time, that you think over this matter seriously. Because if we don't, we'll end up carrying on the monstrous prejudicial tradition of misogyny forever. We'll end up leading our world back to the Stone Age.
As I have said in my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul, "neglect of women is the major cause for the society’s downfall."
The man and the woman are the two wheels of the society. If either one becomes defective, the society cannot make progress. There will be hope for the well-being of the entire world only if the humans, men and women alike, stop deeming the women as some kind of inferior creatures. We, the responsible citizens of the world can build a better future for the entire species, only by improving the condition of the women.
And here I am not advocating for feminism. Even though the advocates of feminism gladly use the term to refer to equality between man and woman, the common human brain is not capable of perceiving such equality beyond the gender bias of the very word. It'll be same as using Man to refer to both genders.
Hence, the only words suitable in this scenario is Humanism and Human, rather than Feminism and Man. The future of the human society is at stake here. Those of you who will one day become parents, remember, it is imperative that you raise your children as modern humans of the advanced human civilization, rather than raising boys or girls.
If only one generation takes action in raising their children as Humans, rather than raising boys and girls, the future human civilization shall get rid of the sinister phenomenon of misogyny sooner than you can imagine.
Dear sisters and brothers, share this article with your freethinking friends and start working together in the pursuit of making this world a better place for the future generations.
But, have all these extraordinary scientific achievements truly improved the quality of life? We the scientists have made life more comfortable, but how much really have we contributed to solving the quintessential problems of life? Modern technology has made life sophisticated, yet the whole human civilization craves for the basic elements of human existence. Civilized humans have the whole world on the palm of their hand, yet they cannot find peace and happiness. With all our scientific achievements have we really discovered any practical means to resolve the ancient conflicts of the human society yet? Have we discovered the path towards happiness?
The answer would be a straight no. But I, Abhijit Naskar, a responsible Neuroscientist of this planet cannot take no for an answer. So, through all my books I have brought the fascinating universe of the human mind into your life. Human mind is the birth place of all our inexplicable scientific achievements as well as the never ending conflicts of human society. These conflicts grab onto the human consciousness like incurable diseases.
And one of those dreadful diseases is misogyny.
Misogyny is the society's common innate prejudice against woman. It has made the whole human civilization crippled. If you truly look, you can find misogyny everywhere in your society. Misogyny runs in the veins of the so called civilized humans. You can find it in the movies, where it is all about objectification of women.
You can even see it in the very English language, where we gloriously use terms like "Man" and "He" to refer to both genders. That's why I try my best to avoid such stereotypical terms in my scientific works. I cannot accept such nonsensical norms in language just because the society says so. And I urge to you to think before you use such language. Ask your rational mind, and you'll receive the answer.
We have misogyny in our society because throughout our existence as a species we have been male-dominated. It is only recently that women have become equally productive in all aspects of life. But in our primitive days, it was men fighting to protect their mates and progeny, and women nourishing the children and taking care of the home. The men were the providers of the family and the women were caretakers. And this strategy worked well for around 200,000 years. That's why all the religious scriptures were written by men.
It's not because God chose the men to convey the divine message, but because men appointed themselves to be the monitor of the divine domain driven by their subconscious desire masking as God's will to become the authority figures of the society.
In my book Biopsy of Religions Neuroanalysis towards Universal Tolerance, you can read in detail about how the human beings of our history constructed such fascinating organized structure of religions and why most of those religions promote sinister ideas of misogyny and polygamy while despising the common biological phenomenon of homosexuality.
What's the point of so many scriptures and highly venerated figures in philosophy, if they don't possess the simple ability to teach us plain ordinary everyday kindness for both man and woman?
Men are neurologically designed to crave for authority and power over everything around them. It is the product of millions of years of evolution, so it cannot be erased just like that over a few decades or even centuries. It'll take time, till the society starts to perceive men and women to be equal. But for that future to arrive sooner, we must join hands and start making efforts right now. The actions we take now shall define our future. We cannot just leave the primitive biological feature of misogyny untreated just because it's evolution. Evolution is a relentless process of biological life. It never stops. And things we do now, shall prepare a less primitive evolutionary future of the human race.
Now is the time, that you think over this matter seriously. Because if we don't, we'll end up carrying on the monstrous prejudicial tradition of misogyny forever. We'll end up leading our world back to the Stone Age.
As I have said in my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul, "neglect of women is the major cause for the society’s downfall."
The man and the woman are the two wheels of the society. If either one becomes defective, the society cannot make progress. There will be hope for the well-being of the entire world only if the humans, men and women alike, stop deeming the women as some kind of inferior creatures. We, the responsible citizens of the world can build a better future for the entire species, only by improving the condition of the women.
And here I am not advocating for feminism. Even though the advocates of feminism gladly use the term to refer to equality between man and woman, the common human brain is not capable of perceiving such equality beyond the gender bias of the very word. It'll be same as using Man to refer to both genders.
Hence, the only words suitable in this scenario is Humanism and Human, rather than Feminism and Man. The future of the human society is at stake here. Those of you who will one day become parents, remember, it is imperative that you raise your children as modern humans of the advanced human civilization, rather than raising boys or girls.
If only one generation takes action in raising their children as Humans, rather than raising boys and girls, the future human civilization shall get rid of the sinister phenomenon of misogyny sooner than you can imagine.
Dear sisters and brothers, share this article with your freethinking friends and start working together in the pursuit of making this world a better place for the future generations.
Belief and Reality
Have you ever wondered, why do we believe what we believe?
Why some of us humans are religious, some spiritual, some extremists, some agnostics and some atheists?
What is it that makes various human beings perceive different things at different moral, logical and spiritual level?
Are we all merely smart biological devices with various operating platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and Blackberry?
What makes us so different in terms of beliefs and disbeliefs? And why is it so hard for humans to embrace each other’s beliefs?
And the ultimate question is, does our belief actually allow us to connect with the reality? Does it have any significance in the human biology?
In this brief article we are about to embark on an enlightening journey of belief, biology and philosophy. And in the end we shall discover how imperative it is to sometimes acknowledge each other’s beliefs and accept people the way they are, because one’s beliefs are not merely a matter of ideology or intuitions, rather it is a rudimentary need of the human mind. And for a truly cheerful and productive human life one’s belief should be in perfect harmony with Science & Philosophy.
So, let’s begin with a simple yet quintessential question of human life – what is belief?
Belief is the brain's natural self maintenance mechanism. It enables a person function properly in daily life, without worrying about the true nature of reality. Belief is exclusively a matter of personal domain. It has nothing to do with reality. And conflict occurs when a person tries to impose his or her beliefs onto others.
The human brain is quite selfish. Its first concern is the satisfaction of its owner. The common human brain of the masses doesn't care about the truth of the universe. It doesn't care about scientific enlightenment. It doesn't care about reasoning. The only thing it cares about is survival. And in order to survive it does everything in its capacity to keep a person bound inside a tiny circle of beliefs and fantasies. And every time another person tries to break that circle by refuting the beliefs and talking about Science, the brain kicks into self defense mode. Now it shall do everything to sustain the beliefs and fight every incoming argument with a blind eye. This is because one's beliefs no matter how magical or mystical or unscientific they sound, help the person get through the daily struggles of life.
In short, belief is a common element of human life the purpose of which is self-preservation. Even we scientists often pursue a hunch based on our beliefs. The only difference is that we cannot call that hunch Science, until we actually prove it through rigorous experimentations. There was a time, when Evolution was a hunch or rather a hypothesis in the minds of a few naturalists. Hence we received the famous book of biology "On the Origin of Species by means of natural selection" by Charles Darwin. Then we started to look for more evidence to back up the theory. And over time we gathered a pile of anthropological and genetic evidence, enough to include the Theory of Evolution as an incontrovertible fact of science.
Now let's talk about supernatural beliefs. The whole world is filled with various unearthly and supernatural beliefs, such as demons, advanced ancient civilization, extraterrestrial intervention in ancient human society etc. All these fantasies are the products of the brain's myth-making mechanism. And in fact, it is very easy for the brain to fall prey to these fantastic illusory ideas and conspiracy theories. This is because your brain has an innate attraction towards everything that by definition belongs to a domain, that is apparently "beyond human understanding". Your brain has an affinity towards all those conspiracy theories and paranormal fantasies. And there is an evolutionary reason behind it. It is because we the humans have remained in the fear of the unknown throughout the most of our 200,000 years long existence. And that innate bond between the human mind and the unknown still exists in the limbic system of the brain.
Now let’s look at some modern life scenarios where this ingrained affinity towards mysticism and the unknown becomes a curse for the society. The innate primordial attraction towards the unknown often makes people fall prey to fraudsters like psychics. However, if we talk about psychic abilities, even you have such abilities. How many times has it happened that you think of a word and suddenly the person in front spits out the very word. These are random incidents that occur in everybody daily life. It cannot be controlled or simulated. It is something that happens when you least expect it.
All these bizarre phenomena fall into the category of Extra Sensory Perception or ESP. Parapsychologists have been studying these phenomena for a long time. And the evidence is too significant to call these phenomena as coincidence. ESP does indeed occur. So far we have developed several possible scientific hypothesis for ESP. The most plausible one is that human brains are capable of sharing information through Earth's geomagnetic field.
But you must remember, despite the fact that we have highly plausible scientific explanations for ESP, it is still all hypothesis. We haven't yet been able to prove it as a fact of Science. Because to prove a phenomenon as Science we must replicate it inside the lab.
And there's the biggest problem with understanding the Science behind ESP. Until now we have no way to replicate an ESP phenomenon. Because they happen naturally in the human mind, and mostly in incidents of crisis. And we cannot take the unscientific risk of triggering an ESP phenomenon in the human mind by putting another human person into a crisis. Such phenomena are unpredictable. And in most cases they occur out of the blue. So it is close to impossible to trigger such phenomena in a controlled environment.
So don't fall prey to all the fraudsters around you claiming to be psychics. In most cases they use what we call in psychology “Barnum statements”. Astrology, tarot card reading, and all those hocus focus stuff around you, use these statements. The special feature of these statements is that they happen to be true for almost any human being. And especially when a person goes to a psychic expecting answers to various confusing questions, his or brain automatically embraces the common statements from the psychic as exclusive remarks about the person. Your brain always keeps anticipating a pattern even in the chaos. So unless you have a truly rational mind filled with scientific curiosity it is very likely for you to become a prey to those predators who are always looking to feed on the sufferings of good and gullible people.
However, if a grieving person visits a psychic with the hope of getting in touch with the departed soul of his or her loved one, in order to have solace, then I really don't have any idea how to convince the person that the so called psychics are frauds. Because to the grieving person, the psychic acts as a ray of hope - the last resort to say good bye to a person whom he or she cared about deeply. But for this very purpose we have the field of psychiatry. We have developed highly advanced anti depressants, mood stabilizers various other medications that can help in easing the grief. Now it is up to a person's own conscience, which one to choose.
As far as the human mind is concerned, when it is in distress, all it cares about is finding hope. And it doesn't matter to the mind where that hope comes from. It is all about self preservation. That’s why your brain is always trying to make sense out of nonsense in order to give you a sense of calmness. It is always looking for pattern in the unknown. In fact, it quite successfully makes you see things even in the nothingness. This psychological phenomenon is known as Pareidolia. It is why your mind often perceives a figure in the cloud, or a face on a random rock formation. It is your mind that always plays tricks on you. And in every situation of your daily life you see what you really want to see, rather than what really is.
Believe it or not, none of us is able to see the reality as it is. Your brain has a very limited field of vision, when it comes to conscious perception. Everything outside that field is cut out as background noise, so that you can focus on the task at hand. No matter how much we pride ourselves to be the smartest species on earth, the reality is we are partially blind, and shall remain that way forever. And this partial cognitive blindness often leads to superstitions, especially in times of weakness. When the mind is weak, it is easy to succumb to all kinds of fantasies and superstitions. But when such fantasies and superstitions become barriers in the path of humanity’s progress, then it is imperative that we the modern human beings do our best to shake them off.
Every human being is neurologically predisposed to be superstitious. However, to counteract such superstitions the brain has also developed the feature of reasoning in the neural network of the frontal lobes. But in times of distress, that feature gets highly suppressed by the overwhelming feeling of sadness and anxiety. Hence, lack of reasoning leads the mind to seek absolution in the supernatural domain of the society.
However, those who practice reasoning and rational thinking in daily circumstances, are much more likely to avoid the hocus focus stuff in times of distress, than those who don't. It is all about realization of the self.
The point is, human mind cannot function properly without some kind of belief system. So, for the sake a truly cheerful future we must work together to align our beliefs in the line of Science and Philosophy, as much as possible if we truly want to advance as a species, keeping in mind, that it is not possible for a human to be completely free from beliefs, because beliefs are crucial cognitive mechanism of the brain. However, one's personal beliefs should not stop him or her from embracing the practicality of Science and the fragrance of Philosophy. There should be a healthy balance between the personal domain of beliefs and the rational realm of scientific & philosophical thinking.
Why some of us humans are religious, some spiritual, some extremists, some agnostics and some atheists?
What is it that makes various human beings perceive different things at different moral, logical and spiritual level?
Are we all merely smart biological devices with various operating platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and Blackberry?
What makes us so different in terms of beliefs and disbeliefs? And why is it so hard for humans to embrace each other’s beliefs?
And the ultimate question is, does our belief actually allow us to connect with the reality? Does it have any significance in the human biology?
In this brief article we are about to embark on an enlightening journey of belief, biology and philosophy. And in the end we shall discover how imperative it is to sometimes acknowledge each other’s beliefs and accept people the way they are, because one’s beliefs are not merely a matter of ideology or intuitions, rather it is a rudimentary need of the human mind. And for a truly cheerful and productive human life one’s belief should be in perfect harmony with Science & Philosophy.
So, let’s begin with a simple yet quintessential question of human life – what is belief?
Belief is the brain's natural self maintenance mechanism. It enables a person function properly in daily life, without worrying about the true nature of reality. Belief is exclusively a matter of personal domain. It has nothing to do with reality. And conflict occurs when a person tries to impose his or her beliefs onto others.
The human brain is quite selfish. Its first concern is the satisfaction of its owner. The common human brain of the masses doesn't care about the truth of the universe. It doesn't care about scientific enlightenment. It doesn't care about reasoning. The only thing it cares about is survival. And in order to survive it does everything in its capacity to keep a person bound inside a tiny circle of beliefs and fantasies. And every time another person tries to break that circle by refuting the beliefs and talking about Science, the brain kicks into self defense mode. Now it shall do everything to sustain the beliefs and fight every incoming argument with a blind eye. This is because one's beliefs no matter how magical or mystical or unscientific they sound, help the person get through the daily struggles of life.
In short, belief is a common element of human life the purpose of which is self-preservation. Even we scientists often pursue a hunch based on our beliefs. The only difference is that we cannot call that hunch Science, until we actually prove it through rigorous experimentations. There was a time, when Evolution was a hunch or rather a hypothesis in the minds of a few naturalists. Hence we received the famous book of biology "On the Origin of Species by means of natural selection" by Charles Darwin. Then we started to look for more evidence to back up the theory. And over time we gathered a pile of anthropological and genetic evidence, enough to include the Theory of Evolution as an incontrovertible fact of science.
Now let's talk about supernatural beliefs. The whole world is filled with various unearthly and supernatural beliefs, such as demons, advanced ancient civilization, extraterrestrial intervention in ancient human society etc. All these fantasies are the products of the brain's myth-making mechanism. And in fact, it is very easy for the brain to fall prey to these fantastic illusory ideas and conspiracy theories. This is because your brain has an innate attraction towards everything that by definition belongs to a domain, that is apparently "beyond human understanding". Your brain has an affinity towards all those conspiracy theories and paranormal fantasies. And there is an evolutionary reason behind it. It is because we the humans have remained in the fear of the unknown throughout the most of our 200,000 years long existence. And that innate bond between the human mind and the unknown still exists in the limbic system of the brain.
Now let’s look at some modern life scenarios where this ingrained affinity towards mysticism and the unknown becomes a curse for the society. The innate primordial attraction towards the unknown often makes people fall prey to fraudsters like psychics. However, if we talk about psychic abilities, even you have such abilities. How many times has it happened that you think of a word and suddenly the person in front spits out the very word. These are random incidents that occur in everybody daily life. It cannot be controlled or simulated. It is something that happens when you least expect it.
All these bizarre phenomena fall into the category of Extra Sensory Perception or ESP. Parapsychologists have been studying these phenomena for a long time. And the evidence is too significant to call these phenomena as coincidence. ESP does indeed occur. So far we have developed several possible scientific hypothesis for ESP. The most plausible one is that human brains are capable of sharing information through Earth's geomagnetic field.
But you must remember, despite the fact that we have highly plausible scientific explanations for ESP, it is still all hypothesis. We haven't yet been able to prove it as a fact of Science. Because to prove a phenomenon as Science we must replicate it inside the lab.
And there's the biggest problem with understanding the Science behind ESP. Until now we have no way to replicate an ESP phenomenon. Because they happen naturally in the human mind, and mostly in incidents of crisis. And we cannot take the unscientific risk of triggering an ESP phenomenon in the human mind by putting another human person into a crisis. Such phenomena are unpredictable. And in most cases they occur out of the blue. So it is close to impossible to trigger such phenomena in a controlled environment.
So don't fall prey to all the fraudsters around you claiming to be psychics. In most cases they use what we call in psychology “Barnum statements”. Astrology, tarot card reading, and all those hocus focus stuff around you, use these statements. The special feature of these statements is that they happen to be true for almost any human being. And especially when a person goes to a psychic expecting answers to various confusing questions, his or brain automatically embraces the common statements from the psychic as exclusive remarks about the person. Your brain always keeps anticipating a pattern even in the chaos. So unless you have a truly rational mind filled with scientific curiosity it is very likely for you to become a prey to those predators who are always looking to feed on the sufferings of good and gullible people.
However, if a grieving person visits a psychic with the hope of getting in touch with the departed soul of his or her loved one, in order to have solace, then I really don't have any idea how to convince the person that the so called psychics are frauds. Because to the grieving person, the psychic acts as a ray of hope - the last resort to say good bye to a person whom he or she cared about deeply. But for this very purpose we have the field of psychiatry. We have developed highly advanced anti depressants, mood stabilizers various other medications that can help in easing the grief. Now it is up to a person's own conscience, which one to choose.
As far as the human mind is concerned, when it is in distress, all it cares about is finding hope. And it doesn't matter to the mind where that hope comes from. It is all about self preservation. That’s why your brain is always trying to make sense out of nonsense in order to give you a sense of calmness. It is always looking for pattern in the unknown. In fact, it quite successfully makes you see things even in the nothingness. This psychological phenomenon is known as Pareidolia. It is why your mind often perceives a figure in the cloud, or a face on a random rock formation. It is your mind that always plays tricks on you. And in every situation of your daily life you see what you really want to see, rather than what really is.
Believe it or not, none of us is able to see the reality as it is. Your brain has a very limited field of vision, when it comes to conscious perception. Everything outside that field is cut out as background noise, so that you can focus on the task at hand. No matter how much we pride ourselves to be the smartest species on earth, the reality is we are partially blind, and shall remain that way forever. And this partial cognitive blindness often leads to superstitions, especially in times of weakness. When the mind is weak, it is easy to succumb to all kinds of fantasies and superstitions. But when such fantasies and superstitions become barriers in the path of humanity’s progress, then it is imperative that we the modern human beings do our best to shake them off.
Every human being is neurologically predisposed to be superstitious. However, to counteract such superstitions the brain has also developed the feature of reasoning in the neural network of the frontal lobes. But in times of distress, that feature gets highly suppressed by the overwhelming feeling of sadness and anxiety. Hence, lack of reasoning leads the mind to seek absolution in the supernatural domain of the society.
However, those who practice reasoning and rational thinking in daily circumstances, are much more likely to avoid the hocus focus stuff in times of distress, than those who don't. It is all about realization of the self.
The point is, human mind cannot function properly without some kind of belief system. So, for the sake a truly cheerful future we must work together to align our beliefs in the line of Science and Philosophy, as much as possible if we truly want to advance as a species, keeping in mind, that it is not possible for a human to be completely free from beliefs, because beliefs are crucial cognitive mechanism of the brain. However, one's personal beliefs should not stop him or her from embracing the practicality of Science and the fragrance of Philosophy. There should be a healthy balance between the personal domain of beliefs and the rational realm of scientific & philosophical thinking.
Reformation of Religion and Natural Selection
Perfection is not a feature of our world. On this planet nothing is perfect. Yet we crave for perfection. Especially biological life on this planet is definitely far from perfect. We are not perfect. That's where the process of evolution comes in. Biological life including us the sapiens, keeps evolving from an imperfect species to a less imperfect species. So, we keep going in the path of getting less and less imperfect. The process of evolution is a relentless journey from imperfection towards perfection. This perfection is defined by its survival value. And those who can't keep up with the process, get extinct. That's how natural selection works. Either you are a winner, or you lose your license to survive on this planet. It is the very basis of biology. And biology is the bedrock of life.
And when a biological species evolves, in order to adapt to its environment, it adopts some new biological features and gets rid of the unnecessary ones. And this process of adoption and exclusion of biological features is a crucial element in the path of survival. And it has been going on since the birth of the very first life form on this planet, and shall go on in the future.
Human life is a hodge-podge of various biological features. However, the features that distinguish humanity from the rest of the species on this planet are those of our uniquely advanced neurobiology. Our very pride on being the smartest species on earth is predicated on a highly complex and magnificent neurobiology. Our fascinating neurobiology puts us apart from the entire animal kingdom. Without our advanced neural network of a hundred billion nerve cells, we are nothing compared to the brawn of the wild animals.
And this very neurobiology has endowed us with a beautiful psychological system, called the human consciousness. It has endowed us with uniquely majestic cognitive features. The 3 pound lump of jelly, which we call the human brain, is the birthplace of all our extraordinary achievements. Human Brain is the most complex organized structure in this entire universe. It is made up of a hundred billion nerve cells or neurons. The relentless activity of these neurons gives rise to all the richness of our conscious experience. All our feelings, emotions, thoughts, ambitions, love lives, our sense of self, and even our religious sentiments are simply born from the activity of these little specks of jelly in our head.
All our sentiments, whether they are religious, romantic or any other, are born in the neurons. In fact, religion itself is a natural biological feature of the human brain. And as I said earlier, any biological life-form must evolve in order to survive, while modifying its basic biological features. And one of the most significant features of human life, is its religious sentiments. Hence, when Mother Nature decides that some of those religious sentiments are not working properly, she puts selective pressure on the human brain in order to modify those sentiments, and if needed, terminate some and develop new ones. And in this process of religious evolution, two of the most glaring specimens, are Jesus of Nazareth and Siddhartha Gautama, whom you know as Buddha.
In the process of biological evolution, change in a biological feature takes a long time to become noticeable. However, the first step towards that change, leads to a big leap for the whole species.
For example, around 1.89 million years ago something extraordinary happened, that changed the course of mankind history forever. At that point of time your ancestral lineage reached the crossroads of evolution. Henceforth, evolved one of the most advanced early humans. They were the Homo erectus. You really owe a lot of your brilliance to them, because they did something that was and still is beyond the wildest dreams of the entire animal kingdom on planet earth. They solved one of the most important pieces of your evolutionary puzzle -the mystery of fire.
There was not a single species on your entire planet, that could thwart its instinctual fear of fire, until the arrival of Homo erectus. These early members of your evolutionary tree achieved the unthinkable. They conquered their primeval fear of fire and reached into the fascinating blaze like a true brave-heart. But for this to actually happen, there had to be one or a couple of brave Homo erectus, filled with vigor, who took the first step toward achieving their own fear of fire. And as soon as they conquered their own fear, following them came all the fellow erectus. As a result, for the first time in the history of life, a biological species harnessed fire. Naturally, they became superior to all other contemporary species, including the wildest ones. Suddenly everything changed. It was absolutely mesmerizing. As if your evolutionary timeline witnessed the captivating dawn of human excellence.
Similar extraordinary events of evolution in the human religious sentiments occurred when two brave men, took the first step outside their circle of orthodox system of beliefs. They took the first step towards shaking off the unnecessary and quite harmful elements of religious dogma, that were bestowed upon them by the environment. Their minds wanted to evolve into better versions of themselves, with new and refreshed religious sentiments.
Those two were Christ and Buddha. They were ordinary humans who, upon the attainment of Absolute Unitary Qualia (transcendence/nirvana/god – see What is Mind? to learn in detail) wanted to adorn humanity with better and less wild religious sentiments. They wanted to adorn humanity with true humanism. And above all they wanted to adorn humanity with plain ordinary everyday kindness and empathy.
Their attempt to reform the contemporary system of religious sentiments was hailed as blasphemy by the orthodox believers, however, as it always happens in nature, if a change is beneficial to a species, then that change eventually sinks into the psychology of that species. Naturally, two new systems of religious sentiments were born upon the foundation of the teachings of Christ and Buddha. These were Christianity and Buddhism. But, like all of their predecessors these systems are also man-made, hence are prone to orthodoxy and authoritarianism. And when such orthodoxy gets intense, an urge for a new system appears in the mind of thinking humanity.
As long as the teachings of great minds remain as a kind of philosophical literature, which you can read and analyze, and then embrace the parts that appeal to you while discarding the rest, they shall flow pure and strong in the hearts of many, but the moment, representatives of those teachings start making the peculiar claim of their exclusive textual possession of divinity while defying all other philosophies, the world will imminently plunge into chaos.
Thus, whenever fundamentalism, be it religious, political or educational becomes an impediment in the progress of thinking humanity, it becomes a sociological responsibility of the children of Mother Earth to break free from the bonds of textual orthodoxy, and if necessary build a new system aligned with rational thinking and universal acceptance.
Belief is indeed psychologically important for the human mind of general population, but that belief should be nicely compatible with scientific reasoning, otherwise that belief turns into prejudice, which is never beneficial to the human life.
Above all, it is the quality of life that matters. While, Science plays the most influential role in improving the quality of life as a whole, Religion on the other hand, plays the major role in strengthening life from within. In some occasions, both science and religion become expendable. But in no circumstances, the quality of life can be compromised. Religion and Science both must help a person wherever he or she stands, or else, they are of no use.
And when a biological species evolves, in order to adapt to its environment, it adopts some new biological features and gets rid of the unnecessary ones. And this process of adoption and exclusion of biological features is a crucial element in the path of survival. And it has been going on since the birth of the very first life form on this planet, and shall go on in the future.
Human life is a hodge-podge of various biological features. However, the features that distinguish humanity from the rest of the species on this planet are those of our uniquely advanced neurobiology. Our very pride on being the smartest species on earth is predicated on a highly complex and magnificent neurobiology. Our fascinating neurobiology puts us apart from the entire animal kingdom. Without our advanced neural network of a hundred billion nerve cells, we are nothing compared to the brawn of the wild animals.
And this very neurobiology has endowed us with a beautiful psychological system, called the human consciousness. It has endowed us with uniquely majestic cognitive features. The 3 pound lump of jelly, which we call the human brain, is the birthplace of all our extraordinary achievements. Human Brain is the most complex organized structure in this entire universe. It is made up of a hundred billion nerve cells or neurons. The relentless activity of these neurons gives rise to all the richness of our conscious experience. All our feelings, emotions, thoughts, ambitions, love lives, our sense of self, and even our religious sentiments are simply born from the activity of these little specks of jelly in our head.
All our sentiments, whether they are religious, romantic or any other, are born in the neurons. In fact, religion itself is a natural biological feature of the human brain. And as I said earlier, any biological life-form must evolve in order to survive, while modifying its basic biological features. And one of the most significant features of human life, is its religious sentiments. Hence, when Mother Nature decides that some of those religious sentiments are not working properly, she puts selective pressure on the human brain in order to modify those sentiments, and if needed, terminate some and develop new ones. And in this process of religious evolution, two of the most glaring specimens, are Jesus of Nazareth and Siddhartha Gautama, whom you know as Buddha.
In the process of biological evolution, change in a biological feature takes a long time to become noticeable. However, the first step towards that change, leads to a big leap for the whole species.
For example, around 1.89 million years ago something extraordinary happened, that changed the course of mankind history forever. At that point of time your ancestral lineage reached the crossroads of evolution. Henceforth, evolved one of the most advanced early humans. They were the Homo erectus. You really owe a lot of your brilliance to them, because they did something that was and still is beyond the wildest dreams of the entire animal kingdom on planet earth. They solved one of the most important pieces of your evolutionary puzzle -the mystery of fire.
There was not a single species on your entire planet, that could thwart its instinctual fear of fire, until the arrival of Homo erectus. These early members of your evolutionary tree achieved the unthinkable. They conquered their primeval fear of fire and reached into the fascinating blaze like a true brave-heart. But for this to actually happen, there had to be one or a couple of brave Homo erectus, filled with vigor, who took the first step toward achieving their own fear of fire. And as soon as they conquered their own fear, following them came all the fellow erectus. As a result, for the first time in the history of life, a biological species harnessed fire. Naturally, they became superior to all other contemporary species, including the wildest ones. Suddenly everything changed. It was absolutely mesmerizing. As if your evolutionary timeline witnessed the captivating dawn of human excellence.
Similar extraordinary events of evolution in the human religious sentiments occurred when two brave men, took the first step outside their circle of orthodox system of beliefs. They took the first step towards shaking off the unnecessary and quite harmful elements of religious dogma, that were bestowed upon them by the environment. Their minds wanted to evolve into better versions of themselves, with new and refreshed religious sentiments.
Those two were Christ and Buddha. They were ordinary humans who, upon the attainment of Absolute Unitary Qualia (transcendence/nirvana/god – see What is Mind? to learn in detail) wanted to adorn humanity with better and less wild religious sentiments. They wanted to adorn humanity with true humanism. And above all they wanted to adorn humanity with plain ordinary everyday kindness and empathy.
Their attempt to reform the contemporary system of religious sentiments was hailed as blasphemy by the orthodox believers, however, as it always happens in nature, if a change is beneficial to a species, then that change eventually sinks into the psychology of that species. Naturally, two new systems of religious sentiments were born upon the foundation of the teachings of Christ and Buddha. These were Christianity and Buddhism. But, like all of their predecessors these systems are also man-made, hence are prone to orthodoxy and authoritarianism. And when such orthodoxy gets intense, an urge for a new system appears in the mind of thinking humanity.
As long as the teachings of great minds remain as a kind of philosophical literature, which you can read and analyze, and then embrace the parts that appeal to you while discarding the rest, they shall flow pure and strong in the hearts of many, but the moment, representatives of those teachings start making the peculiar claim of their exclusive textual possession of divinity while defying all other philosophies, the world will imminently plunge into chaos.
Thus, whenever fundamentalism, be it religious, political or educational becomes an impediment in the progress of thinking humanity, it becomes a sociological responsibility of the children of Mother Earth to break free from the bonds of textual orthodoxy, and if necessary build a new system aligned with rational thinking and universal acceptance.
Belief is indeed psychologically important for the human mind of general population, but that belief should be nicely compatible with scientific reasoning, otherwise that belief turns into prejudice, which is never beneficial to the human life.
Above all, it is the quality of life that matters. While, Science plays the most influential role in improving the quality of life as a whole, Religion on the other hand, plays the major role in strengthening life from within. In some occasions, both science and religion become expendable. But in no circumstances, the quality of life can be compromised. Religion and Science both must help a person wherever he or she stands, or else, they are of no use.
Man's Invention of God
The mystics of modern world who thrive on humanity's primitive knack for mysticism often proclaim with utter glory that spirituality is what distinguishes us humans from the animals. But the biological reality of life is, the element of spirituality does not distinguish us from the animal kingdom. Rather it is the extraordinarily unique blend of emotions, creativity and intellect, that sets us apart from the rest of the animal society. This fusion of vivid and varied elements of mental features makes us humans. It makes us a species unlike any other.
There is nothing extraordinary about the mental trait of spirituality. It evolved as a counter-mechanism for the fear of the unknown while we were living in the wild. If we look closely, we can discover the existence of this apparently supernatural element in various species other than humans, such as dogs. Dogs are spiritual in their own instinctive knack for sensing life in even inanimate objects. And in this aspect, the humans are not much different.
However, due to the extraordinary advancement of our brain circuits, unlike any other species, the humans quite unconsciously learnt to incorporate spirituality in their daily lives beyond the wildest instincts of all the lifeforms in the world.
Now let's go back in time. Think about the distant past, when our primitive ancestors were surrounded by the permeating darkness of absolute ignorance. In every walk of life, they encountered something incomprehensible. But irony of Mother Nature was that they had no modern means to satisfy their curious yet childishly immature mind in the face of those enigmatic natural phenomena. Thunderstorm, Earthquake, Volcanoes - all these events sparked nothing but fear in their instinctively driven mind. They were the slaves of Mother Nature, and as such they were tormented in every walk of life by the surrounding harsh environment.
Unlike now, instinct used to get the best of them, back in those days of incessant hardship for survival. Instincts drove their scared mind to forge explanations of paranormal nature our of their fear, anxiety and ignorance. Their mind was immersed in the sea of ignorance, where there was neither a single shred of data available to them, nor they had the brain capacity to comprehend such data. All they could sense with their instinctive mind was the overwhelming abundance of power-play by some sort of force, stronger than them.
Hence, they felt the growing urge to appease that supposed supernatural force with rituals of worship. And they began worshiping all the natural elements of nature, such as stones, hills, trees, lakes, animals and many more, driven by their craving for a sense of security. As such practice grew more prevalent, the brain circuits for such mental trait, began evolving. And slowly their worship of natural elements acquired stronger roots of spirit origin in their mind. Thus they learnt to impose the primordially concocted idea of spirits on various elements of nature. Thus in the mind of early humans, a whole new world of nature spirits was born. In this world, the lakes were home for lake spirits, the trees were home for tree spirits, the rivers were home for river spirits and so on.
Thus evolved the early neurological ground for spirituality, which would later pave the way for the arrival of the modern structure of religion in the human mind. Since then the human brain has evolved a lot, especially in the intellectual domain. However, despite the intellectual development, the early instinctively spiritual sense of a Supernatural Force driving the universe, still prevails in the psyche of the general population. This primitive idea got even more reinforced when a few individuals in the history of humanity proclaimed their mental union with their preconceived notion of that Almighty Force or Entity. Thus, through misinterpretation of individual experiences of the mental state of transcendence, the primitive sense of spirituality got psychologically molded into the modern humanized conception of God and Gods.
There is nothing extraordinary about the mental trait of spirituality. It evolved as a counter-mechanism for the fear of the unknown while we were living in the wild. If we look closely, we can discover the existence of this apparently supernatural element in various species other than humans, such as dogs. Dogs are spiritual in their own instinctive knack for sensing life in even inanimate objects. And in this aspect, the humans are not much different.
However, due to the extraordinary advancement of our brain circuits, unlike any other species, the humans quite unconsciously learnt to incorporate spirituality in their daily lives beyond the wildest instincts of all the lifeforms in the world.
Now let's go back in time. Think about the distant past, when our primitive ancestors were surrounded by the permeating darkness of absolute ignorance. In every walk of life, they encountered something incomprehensible. But irony of Mother Nature was that they had no modern means to satisfy their curious yet childishly immature mind in the face of those enigmatic natural phenomena. Thunderstorm, Earthquake, Volcanoes - all these events sparked nothing but fear in their instinctively driven mind. They were the slaves of Mother Nature, and as such they were tormented in every walk of life by the surrounding harsh environment.
Unlike now, instinct used to get the best of them, back in those days of incessant hardship for survival. Instincts drove their scared mind to forge explanations of paranormal nature our of their fear, anxiety and ignorance. Their mind was immersed in the sea of ignorance, where there was neither a single shred of data available to them, nor they had the brain capacity to comprehend such data. All they could sense with their instinctive mind was the overwhelming abundance of power-play by some sort of force, stronger than them.
Hence, they felt the growing urge to appease that supposed supernatural force with rituals of worship. And they began worshiping all the natural elements of nature, such as stones, hills, trees, lakes, animals and many more, driven by their craving for a sense of security. As such practice grew more prevalent, the brain circuits for such mental trait, began evolving. And slowly their worship of natural elements acquired stronger roots of spirit origin in their mind. Thus they learnt to impose the primordially concocted idea of spirits on various elements of nature. Thus in the mind of early humans, a whole new world of nature spirits was born. In this world, the lakes were home for lake spirits, the trees were home for tree spirits, the rivers were home for river spirits and so on.
Thus evolved the early neurological ground for spirituality, which would later pave the way for the arrival of the modern structure of religion in the human mind. Since then the human brain has evolved a lot, especially in the intellectual domain. However, despite the intellectual development, the early instinctively spiritual sense of a Supernatural Force driving the universe, still prevails in the psyche of the general population. This primitive idea got even more reinforced when a few individuals in the history of humanity proclaimed their mental union with their preconceived notion of that Almighty Force or Entity. Thus, through misinterpretation of individual experiences of the mental state of transcendence, the primitive sense of spirituality got psychologically molded into the modern humanized conception of God and Gods.
The Invention of Vedas and Ayurveda
No knowledge comes from the outside world or an imaginary supernatural paradise. No knowledge comes from some sort of divine entity, regardless of how effective they are. All knowledge, scientific or philosophical, ancient or modern, rises from the human mind. These minds are by all means just as human any other person on earth. But rigorous training on the self puts them at a higher level of intellect than the general population. However, this height of excellence has its own peculiar purpose. At this level, we thinkers hail ourselves to be the servant of humanity. And this trend of servitude goes back not decades or even centuries, rather a few thousand years. In every age, there are these individuals upon the shoulders of whom the entire human civilization progresses.
But like any other person, we the scientists and philosophers, are ordinary human beings. Today you have Ramachandran, Dawkins, Hawking, myself and many others - and all of them are humans, not gods. And all the work we do - all the scientific and philosophical literature we create, we do so by the use of our very natural human faculties, which have evolved in us, that is all the humanity, through the natural process of evolution. All the knowledge and wisdom that we give to the species are constructed by the biological circuits of our brain, and not by some sort of God. And the same goes to the knowledge that the ancient thinkers of India and some other civilizations came up with. All their knowledge that later constructed the organized textual scriptures of early humanity, were their creation, and not God's.
However, think about this. If I say that my insight of the human mind came not from my own brain through rigorous nourishment and utilization of my intellectual faculties, rather from the Lord Almighty - say Brahma, it is more likely for the vulnerable masses with no scientific awareness whatsoever to embrace my knowledge as divine will. They would embrace the texts created by me as irrefutable gospel. They would submit to every single word at an innate emotional level and hail those words as eternal knowledge, even if I intentionally put some negative elements in those texts to serve my own personal interest and not the interest of the society or the pursuit of truth. And this is exactly what happened to the ancient texts of the Vedas. They say the Vedas are eternal - the knowledge within it came not from the mind of man, but from Brahma himself.
Now imagine the ancient society of India, and in fact all over the world a few thousand years ago. In those days, rational thinking was quite scarce. Ignorance was the default mode of thinking. Only a handful of individuals were capable of higher intellectual thinking. Among them were Vyasa, Susruta, Charaka, Aryabhatta, Vatsayana, Patanjali, Brahmagupta and a few others. These people were the real scientists and philosophers of the ancient Indian society. They were neither gods, nor angels, or any sort of divine beings. They were just ordinary flesh and blood human beings, who happened to be exceptionally intelligent for people of their time.
These great minds despite being born in a superstitious society, were able to break free from their own shackles of prejudices and ignorance. Unfortunately, over time, their scientific contribution started to get hugely overlooked by their own people. Later generations of their motherland began to hail them as some sort of divine beings with supernatural powers, and thus emerged the term “sage” or “rishi”. Even though the term technically means a profoundly wise man, today people abuse it in the worst manner possible.
Sages or Rishis are present in all times. The term itself refers to any ordinary human being who possesses extraordinary expertise in his or her field of work. There is no supernatural element involved in it. In the ancient times, India was full with such brilliant human minds. And in the hands of some of those individuals, we received the most effective and glorious natural means to maintain a healthy anatomy - we received the Knowledge about Healthy Life - the Veda of Ayu - the Ayurveda.
The term "Veda" means knowledge, and even though the innate, primordial, superstitious part of the human mind that has a knack for paranormal stuff, would very much like to believe that what we call the Vedas, came from the mouth of Brahma - that, they are "Apauruseya" (meaning 'not of man' or 'authorless') - in reality, they came from the mind of some ancient Indians, just like "Republic" came from Plato, "The Art of War" came for Sun Tzu, "On the Origin of Species" came from Charles Darwin, "A Brief History of Time” came from Stephen Hawking, "The Selfish Gene" came from Richard Dawkins, "What is Mind?" came from Naskar, "Capital" came from Karl Marx, "Sapiens" came from Yuval Noah Harari and so on. Greed of hierarchically higher people always drives them to incorporate imaginary divine intervention into human creations, so that through these creations, they can have authority over the people in their national society as well as the global society. Hence from the primordial urge for authority rises the need to attach the term "Apauruseya" to the Vedas.
The Vedic Hymns were skillfully crafted by the sages of ancient India through rigorous mental exercise. The sanskrit word Veda is derived from the root "Vid" which means "to know". The Vedic literature was among the earliest written texts in human history, and indeed they are of great scientific and philosophical significance. The Vedas are divided into four folds, namely - Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "trayi vidya", that is, "the triple science" of reciting hymns (Rigveda), performing sacrifices (Yajurveda), and chanting songs (Samaveda). The Rigveda is the oldest of all the Vedic texts, which is approximately from the period of 1900 to 1100 BC.
And what you today know as Ayurveda is a sub-section of the fourth Veda - the Atharva Veda. Like it happens to all the ancient scriptures, the Atharva Veda is an amazing mixture of wonderful scientific truth and mystical and prejudicial non-sense such as metaphorical magic spells. The scientific part of this text is what we call Ayurveda, which deals with various physical and mental ailments. And when we talk about Ayurveda, the three most important minds that you need to get acquainted with are Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata. All the knowledge of Ayurveda rise from the scientific compositions of the first two of these scientists and detailed elaboration of the third one.
Charaka (1st century A.D.) wrote Charaka Samhita (samhita- meaning collection of verses written in Sanskrit). Susruta (4th century A.D.) wrote his Samhita i.e Susruta Samhita. Vaghbata (5th century A.D.) compiled the third set of major texts called Ashtanga Hridaya and Ashtanga Sangraha. Charaka’s School of Physicians and Susruta’s School of Surgeons became the basis of Ayurveda and helped organize and systematically classify into branches of medicine and surgery.
In the ensuing years sixteen major supplementary texts or Nighantus were composed by a few other brilliant minds, such as Dhanvantari Bahavaprakasha, Raja and Shaligrama to name a few – that helped refine the practice of Ayurveda. New drugs were added and ineffective ones were discarded. Expansion of application, identification of new illnesses and finding substitute treatments seemed to have been an evolving process. Close to 2000 plants that were used in healing diseases and abating symptoms were identified in these supplements. Dridhabala in the 4th century revised the Charaka Samhita. The texts of Susruta Samhita were revised and supplemented by Nagarjuna in the 6th century.
Thus, several scientific minds of a society which was at large mostly ignorant, gave rise to a fantastically effective natural system of maintaining health, comprising eight major branches, that later became known as Ayurveda. The eight branches of this system were:
1. Kaya-chikitsa (Internal Medicine)
2. Shalakya Tantra (surgery and treatment of head and neck, Ophthalmology and ear, nose, throat)
3. Shalya Tantra (Surgery)
4. Agada Tantra (Toxicology)
5. Bhuta Vidya (Psychiatry)
6. Kaumara bhritya (Pediatrics)
7. Rasayana (science of rejuvenation or anti-ageing)
8. Vajikarana (the science of fertility and aphrodisiac)
All the advancement in Ayurveda was based upon the core scientific compositions of Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata – mainly the compositions of Charaka and Susruta. Charaka, a 1st century man of medicine is perceived as the father of ancient Indian medicine. He was the Raj Vaidya (royal doctor) in the court of Kanishka. He is most celebrated for his scientific work known as Charak Samhita. It is a remarkable book on medicine. It has the description of a large number of diseases and gives methods of identifying their causes as well as the method of treating them. He was one of the early scientists in the world to talk about digestion, metabolism and immunity as important for health and so for medicinal sciences.
Susruta on the other hand was a brilliant surgeon who lived around 1500 years ago. His work Susruta Samhita is literally the earliest scientific work on the methodology of surgery. Let me bring up an excerpt from my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul in this context:
"He (Susruta) considered surgery as “the highest division of the healing arts and least liable to fallacy”. He studied human anatomy with the help of a dead body. In Susruta Samhita, over 1100 diseases are mentioned including fevers of twenty-six kinds, jaundice of eight kinds and urinary complaints of twenty kinds. Over 760 plants are described. All roots, bark, juice, resin, flowers etc. are mentioned as useful in health purposes. Cinnamon, sesame, peppers, cardamom, ginger are household remedies even today.
In Susruta Samhita, the method of selecting and preserving a dead body for the purpose of its detailed study has also been described. The dead body of an old man or a person who died of a severe disease was generally not considered for studies. The body needed to be perfectly cleaned and then preserved in the bark of a tree. It was then kept in a cage and hidden carefully in a spot in the river. There the current of the river softened it. After seven days it was removed from the river. It was then cleaned with a brush made of grass roots, hair and bamboo. When this was done, every inner or outer part of the body could be seen clearly.
Susruta’s greatest contribution was in the fields of Rhinoplasty (plastic surgery) and Ophthalmic surgery (removal of cataracts). In those days, cutting of nose and ears was a common punishment. Restoration of these, or limbs lost in wars was a great blessing. In Susruta Samhita, there is a very accurate step-by-step description of these operation procedures. Surprisingly, the steps followed by Susruta are strikingly similar to those followed by modern surgeons while doing plastic surgery. Susruta Samhita also gives a description of 101 instruments used in surgery. Some serious operations performed by him included taking foetus out of the womb, repairing the damaged rectum, removing stone from the bladder, etc."
Another important name behind Ayurveda was Vaghbata. Even though his work was not as original as the two major founders of Ayurveda - Charaka and Susruta, he made the works of these two scientists more lucid. Vaghbata in the 5th century compiled two sets of texts called Ashtanga Sangraha and Ashtanga Hridaya. In his work, he shed light on the Internal Medicine of Charaka Samhita and the various surgical procedures of Susruta Samhita.
Now the most important feature of these scientific works is that in all of them, their composers emphasized on the physiological aspects of human life, unlike the contemporary abundance of spiritual perspective in the society. They talked about science and rationality in a society, where everyone else was talking about demons, gods, ghosts and witches. Even when they were surrounded by ignorance, going quite against their society, they nourished their intellect and made it so strong and pure that it gave rise to some of the most glorious works in human history.
Today, the Ayurveda that they created, falls under the category of Alternative Medicine with all its natural remedies. As I have said in Prescription - "Ayurvedic remedies actually introduce active natural ingredients to the body. Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention of illness and promotion of wellness. And that’s precisely what many of the Ayurvedic remedies do. Ingredients like ginger, honey, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, garlic etc. have in fact proven to have significant influence in promoting health and preventing illness."
However, you must remember that Ayurveda is no substitute for modern medicine. Modern Medicine has evolved through rigorous efforts of thousands of scientists through centuries. And I must admit that Modern Medicine as it is today, is predicated on the core principle of treating ailments, while the ancient system of Ayurveda is mostly predicated on the prevention of ailments. Therefore, utilizing various natural substances recorded in the Ayurvedic literature, in your daily life can help you maintain a healthy body as well as deal with minor bodily issues, and can greatly prevent major ailments, but if a major disease does rise, remember that Modern Medicine is the most effective tool that you can have, not any ancient system, be it Ayurveda or anything else. Hence, use Ayurveda - it will keep you healthy, but sometimes the body needs more advance treatment than Ayurveda can provide, and that need can only be met by Modern Medicine can provide.
Nevertheless, quite similar to us modern day scientists, all those scientists of ancient India were ordinary humans with excellent minds. There was nothing supernatural about their intelligence. So, start seeing them the way they actually were. Stop the paranormal fanaticism right now if you want your society to grow. Grow a brilliant and rational mind within yourself just as the scientists of ancient India did. Use your ability of reasoning to distinguish the genuine scientific works from the hodge-podge of fantasies.
Ayurveda if embraced properly can become a great promoter of heath in your life. In fact, all the Vedic texts can become a great tool in the path of humanity's progress, if their adjacent primordial fanaticism, such as they being written by a mystical figure called "Ganesha", is torn apart. Today you know that “Rahu” and “Ketu” were imaginations of the ignorant mind in an unqualified attempt to explain the phenomenon of eclipse - you know how positions of the sun, earth and moon occasionally give rise to solar and lunar eclipses. Likewise, one after another you need to get to rid of all the prejudicial concepts in your society and only then the good and beneficial ideas of the ancient texts shall rise to aid humanity. It is only through rational investigation of the ancient texts that they can become a true help to human life.
But like any other person, we the scientists and philosophers, are ordinary human beings. Today you have Ramachandran, Dawkins, Hawking, myself and many others - and all of them are humans, not gods. And all the work we do - all the scientific and philosophical literature we create, we do so by the use of our very natural human faculties, which have evolved in us, that is all the humanity, through the natural process of evolution. All the knowledge and wisdom that we give to the species are constructed by the biological circuits of our brain, and not by some sort of God. And the same goes to the knowledge that the ancient thinkers of India and some other civilizations came up with. All their knowledge that later constructed the organized textual scriptures of early humanity, were their creation, and not God's.
However, think about this. If I say that my insight of the human mind came not from my own brain through rigorous nourishment and utilization of my intellectual faculties, rather from the Lord Almighty - say Brahma, it is more likely for the vulnerable masses with no scientific awareness whatsoever to embrace my knowledge as divine will. They would embrace the texts created by me as irrefutable gospel. They would submit to every single word at an innate emotional level and hail those words as eternal knowledge, even if I intentionally put some negative elements in those texts to serve my own personal interest and not the interest of the society or the pursuit of truth. And this is exactly what happened to the ancient texts of the Vedas. They say the Vedas are eternal - the knowledge within it came not from the mind of man, but from Brahma himself.
Now imagine the ancient society of India, and in fact all over the world a few thousand years ago. In those days, rational thinking was quite scarce. Ignorance was the default mode of thinking. Only a handful of individuals were capable of higher intellectual thinking. Among them were Vyasa, Susruta, Charaka, Aryabhatta, Vatsayana, Patanjali, Brahmagupta and a few others. These people were the real scientists and philosophers of the ancient Indian society. They were neither gods, nor angels, or any sort of divine beings. They were just ordinary flesh and blood human beings, who happened to be exceptionally intelligent for people of their time.
These great minds despite being born in a superstitious society, were able to break free from their own shackles of prejudices and ignorance. Unfortunately, over time, their scientific contribution started to get hugely overlooked by their own people. Later generations of their motherland began to hail them as some sort of divine beings with supernatural powers, and thus emerged the term “sage” or “rishi”. Even though the term technically means a profoundly wise man, today people abuse it in the worst manner possible.
Sages or Rishis are present in all times. The term itself refers to any ordinary human being who possesses extraordinary expertise in his or her field of work. There is no supernatural element involved in it. In the ancient times, India was full with such brilliant human minds. And in the hands of some of those individuals, we received the most effective and glorious natural means to maintain a healthy anatomy - we received the Knowledge about Healthy Life - the Veda of Ayu - the Ayurveda.
The term "Veda" means knowledge, and even though the innate, primordial, superstitious part of the human mind that has a knack for paranormal stuff, would very much like to believe that what we call the Vedas, came from the mouth of Brahma - that, they are "Apauruseya" (meaning 'not of man' or 'authorless') - in reality, they came from the mind of some ancient Indians, just like "Republic" came from Plato, "The Art of War" came for Sun Tzu, "On the Origin of Species" came from Charles Darwin, "A Brief History of Time” came from Stephen Hawking, "The Selfish Gene" came from Richard Dawkins, "What is Mind?" came from Naskar, "Capital" came from Karl Marx, "Sapiens" came from Yuval Noah Harari and so on. Greed of hierarchically higher people always drives them to incorporate imaginary divine intervention into human creations, so that through these creations, they can have authority over the people in their national society as well as the global society. Hence from the primordial urge for authority rises the need to attach the term "Apauruseya" to the Vedas.
The Vedic Hymns were skillfully crafted by the sages of ancient India through rigorous mental exercise. The sanskrit word Veda is derived from the root "Vid" which means "to know". The Vedic literature was among the earliest written texts in human history, and indeed they are of great scientific and philosophical significance. The Vedas are divided into four folds, namely - Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "trayi vidya", that is, "the triple science" of reciting hymns (Rigveda), performing sacrifices (Yajurveda), and chanting songs (Samaveda). The Rigveda is the oldest of all the Vedic texts, which is approximately from the period of 1900 to 1100 BC.
And what you today know as Ayurveda is a sub-section of the fourth Veda - the Atharva Veda. Like it happens to all the ancient scriptures, the Atharva Veda is an amazing mixture of wonderful scientific truth and mystical and prejudicial non-sense such as metaphorical magic spells. The scientific part of this text is what we call Ayurveda, which deals with various physical and mental ailments. And when we talk about Ayurveda, the three most important minds that you need to get acquainted with are Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata. All the knowledge of Ayurveda rise from the scientific compositions of the first two of these scientists and detailed elaboration of the third one.
Charaka (1st century A.D.) wrote Charaka Samhita (samhita- meaning collection of verses written in Sanskrit). Susruta (4th century A.D.) wrote his Samhita i.e Susruta Samhita. Vaghbata (5th century A.D.) compiled the third set of major texts called Ashtanga Hridaya and Ashtanga Sangraha. Charaka’s School of Physicians and Susruta’s School of Surgeons became the basis of Ayurveda and helped organize and systematically classify into branches of medicine and surgery.
In the ensuing years sixteen major supplementary texts or Nighantus were composed by a few other brilliant minds, such as Dhanvantari Bahavaprakasha, Raja and Shaligrama to name a few – that helped refine the practice of Ayurveda. New drugs were added and ineffective ones were discarded. Expansion of application, identification of new illnesses and finding substitute treatments seemed to have been an evolving process. Close to 2000 plants that were used in healing diseases and abating symptoms were identified in these supplements. Dridhabala in the 4th century revised the Charaka Samhita. The texts of Susruta Samhita were revised and supplemented by Nagarjuna in the 6th century.
Thus, several scientific minds of a society which was at large mostly ignorant, gave rise to a fantastically effective natural system of maintaining health, comprising eight major branches, that later became known as Ayurveda. The eight branches of this system were:
1. Kaya-chikitsa (Internal Medicine)
2. Shalakya Tantra (surgery and treatment of head and neck, Ophthalmology and ear, nose, throat)
3. Shalya Tantra (Surgery)
4. Agada Tantra (Toxicology)
5. Bhuta Vidya (Psychiatry)
6. Kaumara bhritya (Pediatrics)
7. Rasayana (science of rejuvenation or anti-ageing)
8. Vajikarana (the science of fertility and aphrodisiac)
All the advancement in Ayurveda was based upon the core scientific compositions of Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata – mainly the compositions of Charaka and Susruta. Charaka, a 1st century man of medicine is perceived as the father of ancient Indian medicine. He was the Raj Vaidya (royal doctor) in the court of Kanishka. He is most celebrated for his scientific work known as Charak Samhita. It is a remarkable book on medicine. It has the description of a large number of diseases and gives methods of identifying their causes as well as the method of treating them. He was one of the early scientists in the world to talk about digestion, metabolism and immunity as important for health and so for medicinal sciences.
Susruta on the other hand was a brilliant surgeon who lived around 1500 years ago. His work Susruta Samhita is literally the earliest scientific work on the methodology of surgery. Let me bring up an excerpt from my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul in this context:
"He (Susruta) considered surgery as “the highest division of the healing arts and least liable to fallacy”. He studied human anatomy with the help of a dead body. In Susruta Samhita, over 1100 diseases are mentioned including fevers of twenty-six kinds, jaundice of eight kinds and urinary complaints of twenty kinds. Over 760 plants are described. All roots, bark, juice, resin, flowers etc. are mentioned as useful in health purposes. Cinnamon, sesame, peppers, cardamom, ginger are household remedies even today.
In Susruta Samhita, the method of selecting and preserving a dead body for the purpose of its detailed study has also been described. The dead body of an old man or a person who died of a severe disease was generally not considered for studies. The body needed to be perfectly cleaned and then preserved in the bark of a tree. It was then kept in a cage and hidden carefully in a spot in the river. There the current of the river softened it. After seven days it was removed from the river. It was then cleaned with a brush made of grass roots, hair and bamboo. When this was done, every inner or outer part of the body could be seen clearly.
Susruta’s greatest contribution was in the fields of Rhinoplasty (plastic surgery) and Ophthalmic surgery (removal of cataracts). In those days, cutting of nose and ears was a common punishment. Restoration of these, or limbs lost in wars was a great blessing. In Susruta Samhita, there is a very accurate step-by-step description of these operation procedures. Surprisingly, the steps followed by Susruta are strikingly similar to those followed by modern surgeons while doing plastic surgery. Susruta Samhita also gives a description of 101 instruments used in surgery. Some serious operations performed by him included taking foetus out of the womb, repairing the damaged rectum, removing stone from the bladder, etc."
Another important name behind Ayurveda was Vaghbata. Even though his work was not as original as the two major founders of Ayurveda - Charaka and Susruta, he made the works of these two scientists more lucid. Vaghbata in the 5th century compiled two sets of texts called Ashtanga Sangraha and Ashtanga Hridaya. In his work, he shed light on the Internal Medicine of Charaka Samhita and the various surgical procedures of Susruta Samhita.
Now the most important feature of these scientific works is that in all of them, their composers emphasized on the physiological aspects of human life, unlike the contemporary abundance of spiritual perspective in the society. They talked about science and rationality in a society, where everyone else was talking about demons, gods, ghosts and witches. Even when they were surrounded by ignorance, going quite against their society, they nourished their intellect and made it so strong and pure that it gave rise to some of the most glorious works in human history.
Today, the Ayurveda that they created, falls under the category of Alternative Medicine with all its natural remedies. As I have said in Prescription - "Ayurvedic remedies actually introduce active natural ingredients to the body. Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention of illness and promotion of wellness. And that’s precisely what many of the Ayurvedic remedies do. Ingredients like ginger, honey, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, garlic etc. have in fact proven to have significant influence in promoting health and preventing illness."
However, you must remember that Ayurveda is no substitute for modern medicine. Modern Medicine has evolved through rigorous efforts of thousands of scientists through centuries. And I must admit that Modern Medicine as it is today, is predicated on the core principle of treating ailments, while the ancient system of Ayurveda is mostly predicated on the prevention of ailments. Therefore, utilizing various natural substances recorded in the Ayurvedic literature, in your daily life can help you maintain a healthy body as well as deal with minor bodily issues, and can greatly prevent major ailments, but if a major disease does rise, remember that Modern Medicine is the most effective tool that you can have, not any ancient system, be it Ayurveda or anything else. Hence, use Ayurveda - it will keep you healthy, but sometimes the body needs more advance treatment than Ayurveda can provide, and that need can only be met by Modern Medicine can provide.
Nevertheless, quite similar to us modern day scientists, all those scientists of ancient India were ordinary humans with excellent minds. There was nothing supernatural about their intelligence. So, start seeing them the way they actually were. Stop the paranormal fanaticism right now if you want your society to grow. Grow a brilliant and rational mind within yourself just as the scientists of ancient India did. Use your ability of reasoning to distinguish the genuine scientific works from the hodge-podge of fantasies.
Ayurveda if embraced properly can become a great promoter of heath in your life. In fact, all the Vedic texts can become a great tool in the path of humanity's progress, if their adjacent primordial fanaticism, such as they being written by a mystical figure called "Ganesha", is torn apart. Today you know that “Rahu” and “Ketu” were imaginations of the ignorant mind in an unqualified attempt to explain the phenomenon of eclipse - you know how positions of the sun, earth and moon occasionally give rise to solar and lunar eclipses. Likewise, one after another you need to get to rid of all the prejudicial concepts in your society and only then the good and beneficial ideas of the ancient texts shall rise to aid humanity. It is only through rational investigation of the ancient texts that they can become a true help to human life.
Surgery on Society
How can we treat a nation? How can we solve its issues? This article is for every single person who wants to do something for his or her nation - who hails himself or herself as a patriot. In this article I am going to show you the biological procedure of treating the issues that torment a nation's soul.
The first step towards treating a nation, is that you must accept that you can't treat a nation, because it is not the nation that requires treatment. Rather it is the people. It is you, the modern human being of the civilized world who needs to work on treating your own conscience and perception. Perhaps I am sounding a bit complicated. So let me simplify.
The world consists of nations. A nation consists of people. A people consists of human beings. A human consists of fascinating psychological elements, collectively called the mind. And a mind is a product of a hundred billion nerve cells working relentlessly in proper harmony. Thus, a little change at the very rudimentary level of the neural network inside one human brain, has the potential to essentially influence a whole nation, and even a whole world. We have countless examples of such individual human minds inspiring the entire planet. Tolstoy, Gandhi, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Mandela, Subhas Chandra Bose, Vasil Levsky and so on. These are individual human beings who first worked on their own minds, and then embarked on an unforgettable journey to put their wisdom into practice.
So, in order to really do something for your nation, you must first stop trying to do something for your nation, and turn your focus on yourself in order to make a better version of that self. Reformed and rejuvenated selves are what we need to reform the conscience of a whole nation.
Changes in the neurochemistry of one human being have the potential to inspire the entire national organism. After all, a nation is nothing without its people. When you start understanding the biology behind every single emotion and behavioral response of that people, including your own, you can learn to program them on your side in a way that will lead to the best possible outcome. And this very self-control is the key to a better nation. Also, such human action is contagious. When you start being a better version of yourself, people around you would start to feel the need to nourish their virtue of self-control as well. Your awakening will initiate the awakening of others. Remember, a nation with a thousand awakened citizens and a corrupt leader, is much more alive than a nation with an awakened leader and a thousand corrupt citizens.
So how can one learn to become in control of his or her emotions and behavioral responses. The first step is to accept yourself, the way you are. You need to accept your biology, as well as the biology of others. For example, a man's biology is designed by Mother Nature in such a way that it is impossible for him to not get turned on when he sees a hot lady with big boobs and butt in front of him. Now, of course, due to social norms, in most cases, men feel ashamed of those sexual impulses, and pretend as much as possible to act as if they are the most decent gentleman on earth. And there lies a crucial element that acts as a stimulant for the common social issue of sexual assaults. I have discussed this matter in minute detail in my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul.
The point is, if you don't learn to accept your basic biological instincts as normal human elements, then you can never be able to make your country a better place for your children. You cannot fight your biology. Things go nuts, when you try to. Your biology makes you who you are. Without biology you don't exist. And accepting your basic biological instincts does not mean letting them get hold of your behavior. With the help of the frontal lobes of your brain, you can learn how to manipulate your basic instincts in a healthy way. And this is what you need to do, to reform a nation.
Understanding and accepting the biology is the first step towards transforming a nation, or rather a nation's conscience. Let me tell you some of those basic neurobiological facts of human life. First, we humans are born selfish. Without the element of selfishness we would have never survived this long. And this biological element of selfishness makes each one of us corrupt at a genetic level. So, yes, corruption is biological, it cannot be avoided, but only manipulated.
Second, men think about sex way more than women. And a hot figure of a lady always turns them on, whether they are in a relationship or not. Hence, either consciously or subconsciously they end up having an innate desire to have sex with her. That's the reality of the male psychology. Accept it. Because all men from the civilized world may pretend that they are decent and that they only think about sex with their romantic partner, but the neurological reality is that there is a beast inside all of them, who subconsciously wants to mate with every single woman it encounters. However, sexual repression itself is not the cause of sexual assaults in various nations, especially the developing ones, but it does play a crucial role in the society's ability to deal with such issues. We see this mostly in developing countries like India. How can the Indians expect to solve the issue of women's safety when they are not even mature enough to talk about sex. To quote from Prescription: Treating India's Soul
"Stop talking about “rape” and start talking about “sex”, and within a few decades India will attain the true mindset to prevent sexual assaults."
Another crucial biological reality is, religion is a neurological phenomenon. It is born in the human brain and dies with it. It does not come from any Supreme Entity, up in the sky. It has nothing to do with any Lord Almighty running the universe. It all comes from the human mind, including the very notion of God. God is a human creation, and so is religion.
Hence, nobody is qualified enough to teach you how to be spiritual or religious. Get rid of all those religious preachers from your society. Nourish the neurological phenomenon of divinity within your own mind. Do not let this natural human element to be the tool of exploitation in the hands of countless bloodsucking preachers and religious fanatics.
These are only a few among the rudimentary biological elements that influence the true progress of a nation. And as I have said in Prescription, "It is you who needs to transform into a modern human being of the 21st century, not your nation. Your nation shall be defined by the character of each one of you. So, be the change you want to see in your nation. But the change has to come through the methods of Science for an actual ever-lasting impact."
The general human mind has a common affection for philosophy. But philosophy is useless if it is not directed by science. Science and philosophy are the two wheels of development of a nation. If either one fails, the development of a nation gets stuck. And this has been the problem with many nations throughout the ages. Useless philosophy has overwhelmed the vulnerable minds of many nations. Their heads have become filled with metaphysical garbage which does not have any practical application whatsoever in this modern age. To have an actual impact on the development of a nation, you must incorporate the methods of Science in daily life, only then you will become truly civilized, not before that.
Be aware of the science of the human mind. Be aware of yourself. Be aware of your weakness and your strength. Weakness and darkness are common elements of life on planet earth. You cannot avoid them. They are essential part of our evolutionary history. Fear, weakness, rage, lust all are basic features of every biological lifeform, and they serve only one purpose, that is survival of the species. But for obvious reasons we hate these elements and love the good ones, like happiness, peace, strength and love. And there is the biggest psychological impediment in the progress of human civilization. Every time humans try to fight the elements they don't like, their biology reinforces those elements even more and leads the humans to misery. Misery rises in human life, when a human doesn't accept his or her true biological self.
I urge to you in the name of human progress, embrace your biology. Be brave and upright. And have the courage to face your inner self, and emerge as a civilized and liberated being. Liberate yourself from the tyranny of your hatred against your own biological reality, and you shall automatically liberate your nation from all its misery.
Further Reading
Neurosutra: The Abhijit Naskar Collection
Prescription: Treating India's Soul
What is Mind?
The Krishna Cancer
The first step towards treating a nation, is that you must accept that you can't treat a nation, because it is not the nation that requires treatment. Rather it is the people. It is you, the modern human being of the civilized world who needs to work on treating your own conscience and perception. Perhaps I am sounding a bit complicated. So let me simplify.
The world consists of nations. A nation consists of people. A people consists of human beings. A human consists of fascinating psychological elements, collectively called the mind. And a mind is a product of a hundred billion nerve cells working relentlessly in proper harmony. Thus, a little change at the very rudimentary level of the neural network inside one human brain, has the potential to essentially influence a whole nation, and even a whole world. We have countless examples of such individual human minds inspiring the entire planet. Tolstoy, Gandhi, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Mandela, Subhas Chandra Bose, Vasil Levsky and so on. These are individual human beings who first worked on their own minds, and then embarked on an unforgettable journey to put their wisdom into practice.
So, in order to really do something for your nation, you must first stop trying to do something for your nation, and turn your focus on yourself in order to make a better version of that self. Reformed and rejuvenated selves are what we need to reform the conscience of a whole nation.
Changes in the neurochemistry of one human being have the potential to inspire the entire national organism. After all, a nation is nothing without its people. When you start understanding the biology behind every single emotion and behavioral response of that people, including your own, you can learn to program them on your side in a way that will lead to the best possible outcome. And this very self-control is the key to a better nation. Also, such human action is contagious. When you start being a better version of yourself, people around you would start to feel the need to nourish their virtue of self-control as well. Your awakening will initiate the awakening of others. Remember, a nation with a thousand awakened citizens and a corrupt leader, is much more alive than a nation with an awakened leader and a thousand corrupt citizens.
So how can one learn to become in control of his or her emotions and behavioral responses. The first step is to accept yourself, the way you are. You need to accept your biology, as well as the biology of others. For example, a man's biology is designed by Mother Nature in such a way that it is impossible for him to not get turned on when he sees a hot lady with big boobs and butt in front of him. Now, of course, due to social norms, in most cases, men feel ashamed of those sexual impulses, and pretend as much as possible to act as if they are the most decent gentleman on earth. And there lies a crucial element that acts as a stimulant for the common social issue of sexual assaults. I have discussed this matter in minute detail in my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul.
The point is, if you don't learn to accept your basic biological instincts as normal human elements, then you can never be able to make your country a better place for your children. You cannot fight your biology. Things go nuts, when you try to. Your biology makes you who you are. Without biology you don't exist. And accepting your basic biological instincts does not mean letting them get hold of your behavior. With the help of the frontal lobes of your brain, you can learn how to manipulate your basic instincts in a healthy way. And this is what you need to do, to reform a nation.
Understanding and accepting the biology is the first step towards transforming a nation, or rather a nation's conscience. Let me tell you some of those basic neurobiological facts of human life. First, we humans are born selfish. Without the element of selfishness we would have never survived this long. And this biological element of selfishness makes each one of us corrupt at a genetic level. So, yes, corruption is biological, it cannot be avoided, but only manipulated.
Second, men think about sex way more than women. And a hot figure of a lady always turns them on, whether they are in a relationship or not. Hence, either consciously or subconsciously they end up having an innate desire to have sex with her. That's the reality of the male psychology. Accept it. Because all men from the civilized world may pretend that they are decent and that they only think about sex with their romantic partner, but the neurological reality is that there is a beast inside all of them, who subconsciously wants to mate with every single woman it encounters. However, sexual repression itself is not the cause of sexual assaults in various nations, especially the developing ones, but it does play a crucial role in the society's ability to deal with such issues. We see this mostly in developing countries like India. How can the Indians expect to solve the issue of women's safety when they are not even mature enough to talk about sex. To quote from Prescription: Treating India's Soul
"Stop talking about “rape” and start talking about “sex”, and within a few decades India will attain the true mindset to prevent sexual assaults."
Another crucial biological reality is, religion is a neurological phenomenon. It is born in the human brain and dies with it. It does not come from any Supreme Entity, up in the sky. It has nothing to do with any Lord Almighty running the universe. It all comes from the human mind, including the very notion of God. God is a human creation, and so is religion.
Hence, nobody is qualified enough to teach you how to be spiritual or religious. Get rid of all those religious preachers from your society. Nourish the neurological phenomenon of divinity within your own mind. Do not let this natural human element to be the tool of exploitation in the hands of countless bloodsucking preachers and religious fanatics.
These are only a few among the rudimentary biological elements that influence the true progress of a nation. And as I have said in Prescription, "It is you who needs to transform into a modern human being of the 21st century, not your nation. Your nation shall be defined by the character of each one of you. So, be the change you want to see in your nation. But the change has to come through the methods of Science for an actual ever-lasting impact."
The general human mind has a common affection for philosophy. But philosophy is useless if it is not directed by science. Science and philosophy are the two wheels of development of a nation. If either one fails, the development of a nation gets stuck. And this has been the problem with many nations throughout the ages. Useless philosophy has overwhelmed the vulnerable minds of many nations. Their heads have become filled with metaphysical garbage which does not have any practical application whatsoever in this modern age. To have an actual impact on the development of a nation, you must incorporate the methods of Science in daily life, only then you will become truly civilized, not before that.
Be aware of the science of the human mind. Be aware of yourself. Be aware of your weakness and your strength. Weakness and darkness are common elements of life on planet earth. You cannot avoid them. They are essential part of our evolutionary history. Fear, weakness, rage, lust all are basic features of every biological lifeform, and they serve only one purpose, that is survival of the species. But for obvious reasons we hate these elements and love the good ones, like happiness, peace, strength and love. And there is the biggest psychological impediment in the progress of human civilization. Every time humans try to fight the elements they don't like, their biology reinforces those elements even more and leads the humans to misery. Misery rises in human life, when a human doesn't accept his or her true biological self.
I urge to you in the name of human progress, embrace your biology. Be brave and upright. And have the courage to face your inner self, and emerge as a civilized and liberated being. Liberate yourself from the tyranny of your hatred against your own biological reality, and you shall automatically liberate your nation from all its misery.
Further Reading
Neurosutra: The Abhijit Naskar Collection
Prescription: Treating India's Soul
What is Mind?
The Krishna Cancer
Sonnet of Traditions
Society must shed its dead traditions,
Like one sheds dead skin.
Anything that lives must evolve,
For stagnation is death's twin.
The difference between life and death,
Lies in the desire for evolution.
Fancy rags on a prehistoric mind,
Makes way for a horrific extinction.
Other animals lack brain power,
To overcome shortcomings and be better.
But the jelly inside the human skull,
Can take us on an endless adventure.
All that is old is not necessarily gold.
Accepting yesterday’s good move ahead bold.
Like one sheds dead skin.
Anything that lives must evolve,
For stagnation is death's twin.
The difference between life and death,
Lies in the desire for evolution.
Fancy rags on a prehistoric mind,
Makes way for a horrific extinction.
Other animals lack brain power,
To overcome shortcomings and be better.
But the jelly inside the human skull,
Can take us on an endless adventure.
All that is old is not necessarily gold.
Accepting yesterday’s good move ahead bold.
