“Each and every fractional waves of the vast cosmic mind then takes the form of an individual animate and inanimate structure”. P.R.Sarkar
The human body has about sixty million million cells and every single one of them contains a selection of genetic material. Twenty thousand pairs of genes are arranged on twenty-three pairs of chromosomes in each cell. Some estimates suggest that more than a million genes are unused by humans. These genes carry a complete blueprint for making us again down to the last detail. The genes, which consist of DNA molecules have a limited life of months. They can replicate, however, making exact copies of themselves as often as necessary and can continue to exist for more than five thousand million years. During this long journey, they are shuffled millions of times with other similar genes through breeding and reproduction, like a huge pack of cards. Their combinations and permutations are countless. The same genetic material may have passed through a number of species carrying some of their attributes. Therefore a man may carry a beast, an insect or even a plant in his genes.
Genes do not appear to be conscious of us or of each other. They do not know that they are involved in evolution. They just exist and to maintain their existence they exercise full control on the survival machines. Genes dictate the way in which our biological machines are built and the manner in which they operate. They have ultimate power over our behaviour.
[1]"Genes are the policy-makers, we are their executives. But as evolution progresses, the executive apparatus has become increasingly sophisticated and management has begun to make more and more decisions on its own. Nervous systems have evolved to levels where learning, memory and model-making becomes possible and take over many of the policy decisions. And the logical conclusion to this trend would be for the genes to send out a very elaborate survival machine with only one all-encompassing instruction ~ `do whatever you think best to keep us alive'. But no species on earth has yet reached that level."
It appears that the evolution serves the purpose of "selfish genes". They have to be preserved at any cost. As long as these chemicals can survive, it hardly matters which physical structure happens to carry them. They are even prepared to make adjustments in their sequence to suit their carrier and the environment. This is called mutation. Sometimes they accept foreign genetic material in the form of viruses' and take a giant leap in the development of new species. They are not loyal to any species. Their ultimate purpose is simply to survive.
Genes, however, are like computer software, programmed to direct specific functions. Admittedly, the potential of this software is enormous. It has been discovered that even in the most complex organism, less than three percent of it's DNA in the cells is being used and the parts being used are randomly selected in a way that the genetic engineers do. For a given instruction, little bits of genetic material are cut up from all over the place and pieced together to carry out a specific function. There is, it appears, an editor in action.
It seems improbable, moreover, that the genes with all their chemical potentialities have what it takes to make a man on their own. The evolutionary biologist Lyall Watson says, "DNA is not the Bible of life, not an encyclopaedia of precise instructions." He suggests that instead of being airtight, the DNA system is flexible and dynamic, struggling to survive, like its carrier. Is this struggle being engineered by the Consciousness?
The debut of consciousness is a great controversy of the twentieth century. Its seat and site are an even greater controversy. The neurologist Roger Sperry says, [2]"There seems to be good reason to regard the evolutionary debut of consciousness as very possibly the most critical step in the whole of evolution."
The philosopher Karl Popper says that, [3]"The emergence of consciousness in the animal kingdom is perhaps as great a mystery as the origin of life itself."
The biologist Lyall Watson says[4], "Consciousness exists in man and not in molecules." He believes that it began not with matter, nor with the origin of life, but at some mid-point in evolution.
Current theories of consciousness are goaded by one or the other assumptions, depending on one's perspective. Some assume that consciousness is a product of neural elements like reticular activating system (RAS) of the brain. It is connected with learning and therefore can be quantified by behaviour modifications. Others assume that it is intangible and therefore incapable of investigations. Some assume it a feedback system with survival value. It lets one know how one is doing. Still others assume that it arises when the organism has its own mental model of the world against the dictates of the genes.
In all the above assumptions there is one common denominator. They all assume that there is a beginning and therefore an end of consciousness. This is where the new science of biopsychology differs from the rest. It proposes that consciousness is beginningless and endless. It is all-pervading and all-knowing. It is the primordial stuff that this universe has metamorphosed from under the influence of primordial energy. From the smallest sub-atomic particles to the largest of planets, from the smallest of viruses to the largest of mammals and from moulds to the largest of trees are the outcomes of interactions between these two primordial principles.
Consciousness is therefore inherent in every tangible and intangible entity of the universe. We live is a soup of consciousness, from within and from without. We emerge from this soup and dissolve back into it. When the soup is solidified we are tangible matter and when it is thawed, we are abstract ideas. The soup is infinite but its forms are limited. Thus with the emergence of matter, consciousness is compartmentalised into an infinite entity and numerous forms or units. In Shrii Sarkar’s Bio-psychology the infinite entity is called Supreme Consciousness and its forms Unit Consciousness.
Perhaps the quantum mechanics is right in suggesting that consciousness is a basic property of matter. In the inert matter it is dormant. With the first sign of life, the soup begins to thaw and consciousness begins to evolve. The transition from non-living to living matter occurs due to the development of the famous double-helix of DNA which becomes increasingly complex and newer and newer species evolve. However, the mutations in this genetic material, responsible for new species, cannot produce a single gene.
From development of the first strand of DNA to the final emancipation of man, the development and refinement of the nervous system, hormones and immune system among innumerable other biological changes, have been brought about by the genetic mutations. However, the genes have served one and only one fundamental purpose - liberation of the consciousness, that is frozen into unit form. Due to their enormous capacity to carry information from generation to generation, form species to species, the genes are indispensable for the liberation of consciousness.
[1] Watson, L. (1979), Lifetide, Hodder and Stoughton, London.
[2] Sperry, R. (1964), The Great Cerebral Commissure, Scientific American, Vol 210, p42-52.
[3] Popper, K. (1972), Objective Knowledge, Oxford University Press, Oxford
[4] Watson, L. (1979), Lifetide, Hodder and Stoughton, London.
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