Dr. N.L. Kachhara
Living systems are characterized by the presence of a soul. We know that in the development process the soul initially exists in an impure state and takes birth as a one-sensed being. At this stage the soul can take birth anywhere in the universe, making its occurrence highly uncertain. From this point of view, life as a one-sensed being is a highly disordered system. As the soul develops and progresses on its journey, the regions and scope of its birth are subjected to restrictions and uncertainty is reduced while order is increased. Finally, when the soul is liberated after having taken innumerable forms of all types of beings, the soul cannot take birth again and uncertainty is reduced to zero, giving a perfectly-ordered system. Thus, life in the universe proceeds temporally from a highly-disorderedto a perfectly-ordered system.
The above hypothesis is supported by the history of the evolution of species on Earth. The biodiversity found on Earth today is the result of 4 billion years of evolution. Until approximately 600 million years ago; all life consisted of bacteria and similar single-celled organisms. The cell structure was prokaryotic, i.e. cells had no well-defined nucleus. More complex creatures arose sequentially after this prokaryotic beginning, first eukaryotic (nucleus-containing) cells perhaps about two billion years ago, and then multi-cellular organisms about 600 million years ago. These were, within the animal kingdom, followed bythe invertebrates. Then, in sequence, we saw the age in which fishes came into existence and dominated, then the age of reptiles, the age of mammals and finally came humans. The complexity of DNA increased through these sequences, starting from the simple DNA found in a virus to the highly developed DNA in humans. The structure of DNA can be considered representative of the order in the living being, and we find that the evolution of life on Earth has proceeded from disorder to order. Some scientists are of the view that this order in the world must be the result of intelligence (or an intelligent being).
In recent years, scientists have applied information theory to biology, and in particular to the genetic code. The amount of information in the DNA of even the single-celled bacterium E-Coli is vast indeed. It is greater than the information contained in the books in any of world's largest libraries. The discovery that life, in its essence, is information inscribed on DNA has greatly narrowed the question of life's origin. Order with low informational content does arise by natural processes. However, there is no convincing experimental evidence that order with a high informational content can arise by natural processes. Indeed, the only evidence available is that it takes intelligence to produce high informational order.
DNA is an organic superconductor that can work at normal temperatures. Artificial superconductors require verylow temperatures of between 200K and 140K to function. All superconductors are able to store light and thus information. This is a further explanation of how DNA can store information. Another important discovery is that all living systems emit a weak light current of photons, called biophotons. Some scientists believe that this weak bio-photon current may well suffice to take the role of regulating the whole biochemistry and biology of life. This light results in properties like the high efficiency of energy transfer and transformation, which often approaches 100 percent; the ability to communicate at all levels within cells and between cells; the organization of metabolic activities within the cell; the operation of the immune network; and host of other biological functions. The biophotonis trapped and reemitted by DNA, which undergoes physical resonance.
The above scientific information helps us to understand how life proceeds from disorder to order. First, some scientists also find it necessary to believe in the presence of intelligence, which we know is the property of the soul. Second, the amazing structure of DNA, which is like a superconductor and holds large amounts of information, and a weak light that allows DNA to accomplish feats like 100 percent energy transfer and transmission efficiency, the superb organization of metabolic activities in the cell, etc., are all features which minimize the increase of entropy and maintain order in a living being. This kind of performance is not expected of nonliving matter; clearly it is the soul whose powers produce the order in DNA and organization in the cell. As the soul progresses in its journey from a one-sensed microorganism, it creates better order and organization in the higher biological systems, which are also the way evolution proceeds on Earthlike planets. After the stage of human beings, further increase in order has not been explored by science, as this falls in the realm of spiritual progress. According to Jain philosophy, order continues to increase in spiritual souls, hopefully producing improved metabolic and other biological states thatare endowed with many kinds of supernaturalpowers. The journey of progress ends in liberation, the state of perfect order of the soul. Such a state is not possible with a physical body, which has inherent limitations: therefore, the soul drops the body at the last stage, becoming free forever. The total number of liberated souls is infinite, and their number is added to as more souls attain liberation.
All organisms produce order from disorder, as has been rightly recognized by Schrödinger. They take in matter and energy from the environment in various forms and assemble them to produce the body structure. The body is maintained with a minimum increase in entropy. The processes taking place in the body are primarily electrical and chemical, both of which are more energy efficient than thermal processes. Thus, organisms are a means of producing order from disorder.
