Vedic Metaphysics

It is a common observation that all types of life have some energy right at the time of birth. While a human infant on birth is normally found, crying but many newborn babies of other animals are found even walking along with their mothers. Somewhat similar phenomenon is observed in the other life like, birds, fishes and sea animals.

Is it only the intake of the food by the mothers , the source of energy of all new born babies or is there some thing else which can be termed as the energy principle and operates through the divine Nature ? What had made Dante to say, “man is a divine animal” and Aristotle to say, “man is a social animal”?

If for Socrates, Plato and Dante the soul is the individual's real Self, why the same soul Plato's greatest and the most renowned disciple Aristotle could not find and in lieu found entelechy moving towards perfection both in animate and inanimate life?

What made Oscar Wilde to say, “I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly” ? This “ I ” certainly cannot be the gross body. If due to any unfortunate major accident the eyes become blind, either the legs or hands are badly injured and finally amputated, this “ I ” still remains intact even though gross human body is not complete.

This “ I ” can at best be brain, mind, intellect, will, ego, spirit or soul. The Vedic metaphysics tells us that it is the soul which makes a person separate and distinct individual. The spirit is the cause of his / her social being and along with panch-mahabhuta - five main elements and three gunas of purity, activity and stupor is the cause of good or bad actions of the individuals.

Thus in the Vedas an individual is both divine and social animal, capable of doing both good and bad deeds. Metaphysicists like Sankracharya of India, Lao Tse of China and Imman­uel Kant of Germany had found gross body as part of the phenomenal world of Maya or Phantasmagoria.

They found the real extended “ self “ of the individual in his / her divine soul. However, the Vedic metaphysics describes clearly all these concepts relating to soul (atma), manifested soul (jivatma), spirit (jiva), ego (ahamkar), intellect (buddhi), mind (manas), gross body (sthool sharira) etc.

According to Vedic metaphysics human gross body has an inward looking mind (manas) and an outward looking mind (etani), they both work together as engine of the gross body. Five Koshas (sheaths / coverings - of the body) are the wheels and the path to be covered is not known to the engine (mind).

This path is only known to the manifested soul (jivatma), which is nearest on self-realization and farthest when phenomenal and the material worlds become the closest (A.V. X-8-8). The various hymns in the Vedas as well as most of the 108 Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita (considered by many savants as 109 th Upanishad) explain the concept in details. The essence of the metaphysical concepts of soul as part omniscience principle and spirit as energy and life principle. Both are divine instruments in the human gross body along with ego, intellect and mind.

The various terms are used in the Vedas like Parmatma, Purushuttam and Brahma for Supreme Self - the formless and ineffable God. Jivatma, Purusha and Brahmansh are used for the real higher self in the human body, which is the manifested immaterial soul. For the soul still not manifested in the human body, instead of jivatma, the term atma is mentioned.

For the divine spirit in the gross body the epithets like Jiva, asu, kundalini , - manas, prana etc., have been given. This spirit is found in all parts of the subtle and gross body including nails and hair. Spirit is the one, which makes things move not only in animate but also inanimate life. Kundalini is described as the powerhouse of coiled energy. Asu and Pranas are ten different vital breaths of which, seven are subtle and three are gross.

While making a distinction, Vedas make it clear that God is both the Supreme Soul and Supreme Spirit. In the Vedic metaphysics this is described as Parmatma - the supreme soul and Mahadeva - the supreme spirit. Being subtle in nature, His spirit even pervades in ideas, thoughts, actions, assemblies etc.

Very often we say “the spirit behind” the action, thought, desire or religious or political assembly is XYZ ... Thus the spirit of God pervades not only in animate or inanimate life but also in subtle concepts, ideas, actions etc., and makes the formless and ineffable God as omnipresent. The individuals who know and understand the spirit as the powerhouse of creativity in them create subtle waves of nobility, love, and harmony even if they sit silently in any gathering or assembly.

Patanjali- 's Yog shastra, Manu Smriti, - Puranas, Brahma sutras and other scriptures agree with Vedas that the Spirit of God pervades every where in all animate and inanimate life. However, right from Charvakas days, a large number of Hindus find difficult to accept any energy principle in the inanimate life. For them matter in any form is inert. The acceptance of God's spirit in the inanimate life is more as a faith but not conviction.

The Newtonian classical mechanics made it still more difficult for the masses to accept life in iron, silver or gold, granite and marble stones. Newton held atom as the building block, which could not be further divided into sub-atomic particles and confirmed that atom is inert. The classical mechanics of Newton and Tyndall encouraged the western philosophers and thinkers to decry idealism of Socrates, Plato, Immanuel Kant and many others in the East and West.

The worst controversy arose when the experimental biologist Charles Robert Darwin (1809-82) agreed that the evolution of the present day morphology had been built up by the gradual and opportunistic mechanism of natural selection that he described as “survival of the fittest”. He also held this principle rules this gross universe and there is no such thing as subtle or subtlest of the subtle.

His dis­covery of survival of the fittest in this universe has no relationship to soul, spirit or other metaphysical concepts contained in the Holy Scriptures and various philosophies, particularly those of pure and objective idealists. Vedic metaphysics that had reached its pinnacle of glory during Sankracharya, Ramanajum, Vallabh ‘s periods got a set back.