Feeling Of ‘I’.

Caution: Dear Readers! Please read if you really want to read my nonsensical (bakwaas) thoughts; otherwise please leave it and wait for another post.....

One of the most intriguing questions that make me to think is how I feel it’s my body. I can feel my legs, hands, eyes; in short, every parts of my body. I can think and even watch what I am thinking. One can witness oneself as a third person, standing in the corner of the room. From where, this feeling comes. Is it my mind or is it governed by my soul?

People, who believe in the existence of soul, no doubt, would say this feeling to be governed by soul. More or less, in every religion the concept of soul is accepted. Hinduism believes the soul as an immortal element that changes itself from old body to a new body; every living thing has a definite soul and the ultimate goal of soul is salvation.

“Living things”? How can one discriminate between living thing and non living things are itself a puzzling question? Some centuries ago, trees were not understood as living beings. And today, they are. If we read apocryphal stories like Mahabharata and Ramayana, even the inanimate (Sun, Moon and stars etc) things (which is considered by Science today) are depicted as living things. (Sun, Moon and stars etc). Science is progressive and still trying to reveal the hidden secrets. And it might be possible that we would hear the new definition of ‘Living Things’. Human body is made of billions of cells. Scientist says every cell is living thing as it can grow, reproduce etc. So if we conclude according to science and Hinduism, we had better say that our body consists million of souls. If not, tell me what would you say these cells, bacteria, virus; living or non-living?

 If we follow the concept of soul then it seems logical to assume that number of total soul would be fixed at a certain moment. It is somewhat like the law which says total energy of the universe is constant. So souls change it cloths (as Gita explains) and wear new. But if we observe current increasing population that simply implies that more and more souls are placing themselves in the new body. So from where these souls are coming. Is this increase in human beings being compensated by decrease in the population of other species? I do not think so. What I find, population is increasing in every species and so is soul which itself contradicts the constancy in the number of souls.

Before drawing any conclusion, I asked this question to my younger brother who is currently doing M.B.B.S. What he told me was purely scientific, more suited for doctors to understand. He explained that in our brain there is limbic system which is responsible for making one to feel about his body.

But the next question that I put forward was,” Medical is doing so many miracles as today it is possible to changes one heart, kidney, eyes , would it be possible in future to change one’s brain.”

He said,” Might be.”

Well, then it would not be a way to immortality. Only we would have to find a body and then a Doctor who could transplant our brain to the body. We would get the feeling of “I’, so a new life.

 But intuitively I feel it is not possible, is it?

It is amazing to know that we, who might have soul or mind or both of them, are made of inanimate things, like amino acid and other complex chemical compounds.

Our cells divide (mitosis and meiosis) and hence form new cells. This is the way we grow or any living thing grows. But at every division the size of something(size of chromosomes) get reduced. This reduction leads to oldness. It is quite amazing that at one side something is growing where at other something is reducing too. Hope!  in future Scientist would control this reduction and hence our age.

Specific hormones are responsible for specific actions and again your actions are responsible for secretion of certain hormones. What an amazing cycle this is! Cause and effect are so amazingly interrelated.  

I don’t know how I should conclude this post. So, please excuse me. It is just what came in my mind in random fashion. Thanks a lot for bearing me. Hope, your comments would make it somewhat conclusive.