Dr. N.L. Kachhara
All four kinds of internal faculties are at work in the organization and coordination of organisms' biological and physiological processes. The physical part of an organism's system can be assumed to consist of two major constituents, matter and faculties, and their interactions. Science has studied matter, but it has yet to offer explanations for many of the phenomena which take place intelligently in the body. In this section, I mention some examples for the purpose of illustration and to see how the introduction of this concept of faculty helps to find possible explanations of intelligent biological processes.
There are examples of biologists finding physical forces inadequate to explain physiological processes, leading them to speculate about the presence of some hidden intelligent force that produces biological structures. Some scientific findings corroborate the existence of karma-like forces to explain the processes taking place in cells.
Scientists have long been in search of the rules of the ordered form of morphological structures such as organs. This gave birth to the idea of the morphogenetic field in the 1920s. "This field was defined as a collection of cells that are able to respond to discrete, localized biochemical signals leading to the development of specific morphological structures or organs." These fields have definite boundaries, and the organ will form only from the interactions of cells within the field. The cells within this field could regulate the formation of structures.
Rupert Sheldrake[1] proposed that there is a field within and around a morphic unit that organizes its characteristic structure and patterns of activity. He writes that "we know what DNA does: it codes for the sequence of amino acids, which form proteins. However, there is a big difference between coding for the structure of a protein and programming the development of an entire organism. It is the difference between making bricks and building a house out of the bricks. You need the bricks to build the house. If you have defective bricks, the house will be defective. But the plan of the house is not contained in the bricks, or the wires, or the beams, or the cement. Analogously, DNA only codes for the materials from which the body is constructed: the enzymes, the structural proteins, and so forth. There is no evidence that it also codes for the plan, the cells of the body. DNA alone cannot explain the difference in form; something else is necessary to explain it. "
Sheldrake is of the view that "heredity depends not only on DNA, which enables organisms to build the right chemical building blocks (the proteins), but also on morphic resonance. Heredity thus has two aspects: one a genetic heredity, which accounts for the inheritance of proteins through DNA's control of protein synthesis; the second a form of heredity based on morphic fields (implying the faculty of design and quality) and morphic resonance, which is non-genetic and is inherited directly from the fields of past members of the species. This latter form of heredity deals with the organization of form and behaviour."
The idea of a morphogenetic field is clearly similar to the naama karma of Jainism. The naama karmas contain plans for the form of all organisms, rather than the plan for just one species as stated by the theory of morphogenetic fields. The idea of fields-within-fields to create organs, starting from a single cell, is acceptable to Jainism, as evinced by the various types of naama karma. The scope of naama karma covers all the realms of existence, viz. animals, human beings, infernal beings, heavenly beings, and all species or types of organisms. However, the idea of cosmic morphic fields that contain plans of forms, as proposed by Sheldrake, is not acceptable to Jainism. Jainism holds that the plans are contained in the naama karma carried by each individual organism. In the scheme of naama karma, there is no need for a concept like Sheldrake's morphic fields to derive the forms of organisms from a source outside the body.
Assuming that naama karmas contain plans for all organisms, how is the body of an organism of a particular species formed? The plan selection is perhaps made by ayusya karma or the life force faculty. This means that, from a general pool of morphological plans carried by the organism, the ayusya karma accesses the particular plan needed to form the structure of that particular species to which the organism now belongs. The ayusya karma is bonded for one birth only; that is, the ayusya karma that we bond in this life decides our form in only the next birth and not thereafter. This gives the jiva freedom to have the form of a different species in each birth. Thus, the system of general morphological plans works successfully, and the plan for the selected species, as per the bonded ayusya karma, is applied by the jiva in each birth.
There is a vast difference between making a house and forming a body. To build a house we need many kinds of materials made by different agencies, e.g. bricks, cement, mortar, steel, timber, pipes, wires, and cables. In the formation of a body the only material required from the outside is food and water; all other components are made in the body itself. The body makes components like flesh, blood, bones, and fluids at the right place, in the right size and shape, at the right time and in the right way out of the elements contained in food and water so efficiently and precisely that it can only be called a marvel from the standard of present scientific knowledge. Can this happen without intelligence? Certainly, it is the intelligence of the biological faculties that makes this extraordinary feat possible. It is not possible with present-day scientific knowledge to accomplish a similar task outside of the body.
For another example, let us consider the important scientific discovery of bio-photons. It is now well established that all living systems emit a weak light current of some photons. Scientists have found that the nature of this weak light emitted by living cells is different from sunlight. They called these light photons "bio-photons."
The pioneering work done by Fritz-Albert Popp[2] has given deep insight into the phenomenon of bio-photon emission. According to him, "the purely molecular aspect of life sciences may only be one step toward understanding biology and can never reach a sufficient and complete explanation. Molecules have no intelligence, despite the manifold impressive functions that have been assigned to them. Even enzymes or messenger molecules have to be triggered by some external energy, i.e. photons, which activate the diversion transition state complexes. The non-thermal photons provide the right quantum energies at the right place and right time to trigger the millions of reactions per second per cell." "Thus, one has to stress that (1) it is impossible that thermal photons may trigger the biochemical reactions in a living system, and (2) theoretically, one photon per cell could be sufficient for activating 109 reactions per second, provided that it originates from a coherent photon field. If this field is coherent and non-thermal, it theoretically should be able to borrow the photon energy at the right time, take it to the right location for the reaction, and reabsorb it immediately after the reaction (which, in general, takes no longer than about 10-9 seconds)."
"Popp found that a living organism possesses a living aura, a virtual electromagnetic field that pervades the entire organism with a virtual photonic flux. In this field, virtual photons are stored. The field continually receives virtual input from the environment and is continually outputting bio-photons, particularly in the near-ultraviolet wavelengths. This field, in which all cells are bathed and with which they continually intercommunicate, tends to stabilize and cohere the organism. All this has been established by laboratory experiments."
"Bio-photon emission is indicative of an endogenous, innate, electromagnetic field that pervades the entire organism, and which may act as both sender and receiver of the bio-photons that are "electromagnetic bio- information" used in regulating life processes." These observations, among others, suggest that there is a form of control, possibly electromagnetic in nature, within the living state. "From the bio-physical point of view, bio-photons regulate the complex functions of the body."
There is a great similarity between adhyvasaya and bio photons[3]. It is now easy to understand the source of intelligence in bio-photons: it comes from the soul through naama karma, or the faculty of design and creation.
The genes carry all of the instructions for making proteins. Only a part of the total instructions are used at any particular location of the body: a cell suitable to that location is made by the genes. Who selects the set of instructions to be followed? According to Jain doctrine, such decisions must be assigned to the faculty of design and creation. The DNA in every cell is identical, but each cell performs differently and produces a variety of proteins in different parts of the body. This selective functioning of the DNA is possible due to karma. There is laboratory evidence that DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by radio and light frequencies[4]. The karma radiation in each gene is identical but works selectively. It must regulate the non-protein-making part of genes through the process of selection and determine the function of the cell as appropriate for its location in the body. In this manner, the performance of the body at the cellular level must be regulated by the soul's intelligence through the faculty of design and creation.
Guenter Albrecht-Buehler[5] claims that 30 years of his research on the cell has shown that mammalian cells possess intelligence. "An intelligent cell contains a compartment that is capable of collecting and integrating a variety of physically different and unforeseeable signals as the basis of problem-solving decisions." G.de Purucker[6] wrote about life atoms, centrosomes, and centrioles many years ago. He stated, "In each cell there is a central pranic nucleus which is the life-germ of a life-atom, and all the rest of the cell is merely the carpentry of the cell built around it by the forces flowing forth from the heart of this life-atom." A life-atom is a consciousness-point. Intelligence, according to Jain philosophy, means the presence of faculty forces in the cell. The faculties exercise control over the working of the genes and the cell functions. There is a central authority (the soul) that monitors, coordinates and controls the activities of individual cells as well as groups of cells like tissues or organs, so that each cell or group of cells performs according to the plan contained in the karma body in an integrated manner. The intelligence of the soul manifested through the faculties constructs the body according to the blueprints contained in the karma body.
These are some examples of how the intelligence of the soul participates in biological processes through the faculties of design and life-force. The faculty of life-force is also expected to be responsible for the organism's prana, which is considered essential for life. Prana has the property of joining things; it joins atoms together[7]. Manah (mind), prana, and vaka (the force behind speech) exist together, but only prana has the property of joining. We know that when prana leaves the body at the time of death, the body decomposes. This indicates that prana was holding the material atoms together. Prana follows manah. Prana can be transferred from one body to another; it flows from a high potency body to a low potency body. One prana can do only one function at a time; this is why, according to Jainism, there are ten pranas for the ten different functions in the body. The faculty of quality may be associated with the mutation of genes, a process by which a change in the quality of the genes takes place. However, these propositions are only speculation at present; further research is required to confirm them.
The above examples of intelligent biological processes establish the proposition that the constituents of the physical body, though "skilled," are slaves of the intelligent master, the soul. This leads to some important inferences:
- Assuming that they are being directed, the slaves each have an individual existence. This means that the body's components and constituents can be manipulated independently of the soul, to some extent. This, in fact, is the approach of medical science.
- The soul responds intelligently to these changes in the body, including gene manipulation. These changes may or may not be accepted by the soul.
- The response of the (life) system to changes in the body cannot be predicted because of the subjective response from the soul. The success of scientific experiments on the body, particularly pertaining to fundamental changes in its structure, is therefore uncertain.
These inferences have important implications for bio-medical science and research.
Cognitive biology[8] examines biological structures to discern their epistemological functions. "It has grown out of molecular biology with the assumption that the elucidation of molecular recognition, the processing of molecular signals, the organization of the gene network, and protein computations may provide a clue to understanding higher cognitive processes." "This knowledge is supposed to be embodied in the construction of organisms and their structural complexity. Cognitive biology considers biological evolution as a progressive process of the accumulation of knowledge."
Following the work of Barbara McClintok, Shapiro concludes that cognitive intelligence is necessary to properly explain the behavior of cellular and genomic processes. Now that it is being recognized that cellular processes are cognitive, it can be deduced philosophically from the Science of Logic that cognition, consciousness or sentience is the immediate existential concept of life. This confirms that intelligence is a necessary feature of organisms and points to the role of a subject, which is a well-defined concept in Jain philosophy. According to Jain philosophy, biological faculties have an important role in the formation of biological structures. The complexity of these structures depends on the manifested intelligence of the soul, but the structures themselves are not the source of intelligence. Intelligence and consciousness can in no way be reduced to materialistic properties. The subjective role of consciousness is likely to be a defining feature of new biology.
